I'm writing this article on the day before I get married. Of course I have a lot of thoughts swirling around my head! This is perhaps the biggest moment of my 30 year life so far.
I've faced some opposition to getting where I am at, and if I mentally catalogue some of the negative thoughts I experience, they sound like accusations.
- "You aren't worthy to get married"
- "You don't deserve to get married"
- "Marriage is a bad idea for you"
- "Your wife won't love you"
- "Your love will fail"
- "You'll be miserable in marriage"
As a Christian, I believe in the supernatural realm. I believe in the Most High God, Yahweh. And I believe in addition to creating humans as his image bearers, he also created divine beings in the supernatural realm. Some of these beings rebelled and chose to oppose the most high God, and the world as we know today is where we see some of this divine conflict playing out.
The enemies of God want to kill, steal, and destroy. They want to hurt God by hurting his creation. And in my life, I believe The Accuser is trying to kill my desire for marriage, steal my joy about the blessed event, and destroy family units so important for healthy human society. The Accuser is powerful, but thanks be to God through Jesus Christ he has overcome even this enemy.
I love Redemption. Even though I haven't gotten to play much of it these last few months, my appreciation and passion for the game haven't waned. I love how it takes spiritual realities and reminds us of their truths. I love how each card has a reference to scripture, and how each scripture verse sits like an anchor below the card. And I especially love when the ability of a card reflects some of the context about the card. I believe the Elder team has done a really great job about being aware of the scripture and context behind each card they are working on. I pay attention to that an am grateful for the level of thought and consideration that goes into each card.
Let's break down "The Accuser" with that in mind.
Negate Heroes
The Accuser has the ability to severely weaken heroes by stripping them of their God-given abilities. If heroes listen to the lies of the Accuser, their ability to function as servants of Yahweh are greatly diminished. The lies of the Accuser can also isolate heroes. If a giant banding chain of heroes marches into battle, the Accuser can block and negate all the banding and just leave one hero in battle. This reflects the reality how lies from the Accuser tend to isolate us in real life as well.
You may draw 1 from bottom of deck or underdeck an evil N.T. Enhancement from discard pile.
Each time the Accuser blocks he's recycling some effective tactic that he already used. All his accusations aren't new. He's been using them since the beginning of human history. This "flavor" is captured by his ability to get an evil N.T. enhancement from discard pile.
Cannot be negated.
The Accuser is relentless. Nothing seems to dissuade him from hurling accusations at God's people. Morning, noon, and night. Nothing I've found in my life can make these accusations magically go away. But I do get to decide on what I do with the accusations. We can still play good enhancements on heroes despite our doubts, despite our weakness in the face of accusation. We can choose to not let the accusations "nest" in our minds.
That's why can attack and play his and The Accuser can't do a whole lot about that now, can he? I think there is something beautiful in that.
Overall thoughts
The Accuser is a needed defensive card that can help address the giant banding chains so prevalent in modern Redemption. Its important to have a card that "shuts down" a lot of the value of banding chains and encourage more enhancement gameplay. Its CBN modifier means FBTN banding chains won't be able to stop it either.
It could be a valuable counter to the Four Living Creatures band, Daniel Band, David's Mighty Men band, and Joshua Band.
If I'm running demons in my deck, I for sure am interested in playing The Accuser, especially if I'm running Revelation demons.
Artwork
The art from this card comes from a comic strip called ArchAngels: the Saga Issue #9. Avid fans of Redemption will recognize many images from this comic.
You can read the comic for yourself here.
Bonus
For those that have made it this far, here's a song that was recorded by my future wife and myself. She's singing and playing the keys while I'm adding the guitar parts. We will be playing it during Communion at our wedding and it is our central prayer for what our attitudes during our marriage will be. I hope it blesses you.
