Baboony’s Type 1 Tier List

Disclaimer: I am not pretending to be the sole authority or expert on this topic. There are a lot of talented deckbuilders out there with decks that may be flying under the radar and I’m happy to be proven wrong! The following is an opinion piece based off my own (admittedly limited) perspectives.

Tier List (February 2025)

Explanation

S-Tier

Decks in S tier are the “strongest” ones and probably the ones most likely to win tournaments due to their resilient strength and metagame presence. They usually have strong characters with great modifiers, can draw lots of cards, and are consistent. They represent the bar to beat.

Nativity

In my experience, Nativity is one tough deck. It has a strong, proactive gameplan than can be explosive and generate card advantage and soft-lock defenses (via 20 Shekels and Mary) and neutrals (via Resurrection Revealer) out of the game. It is resilient to disruption (unless the disruption is in the form of a Joshua deck) and is able to have great attacks against most defenses out there. It does have weaknesses, and it can be beaten. But it isn’t going to be easy. Some ideas: stop 20 shekels, destroy its fortresses, use soul-hide, or play a large defense with evil battle dominants.

Joshua

Joshua decks can generate huge tempo swings on their attacks. They get to play two of the best good enhancements in the game (in the form of Teaching in Parables and Amazing Faith) and have access to a unique effect in Joshua’s Sword that no other offense has access to. Destroying any non-character card in play is a very strong effect. It can also play some of the strongest hand-control cards in the game (namely Promised Land). However, this deck will struggle to keep up if it doesn’t get to Captain of the Host early. Some ideas to help stop Joshua decks: play lots of hand protection, run accusers lost soul, and run Glory of the Lord + Husham to blow up greedy banding chains.

Matthew-based decks

The boogeyman of the last few years, clay based decks running Matthew are still good. Matthew drawing 5-8 cards on turn one can be done for little investment and with great consistency. It also has access to great attacks in the late game thanks to Simon, the Zealous. They can throw Achim in there to negate neutrals and use Book of the Covenant to generate card advantage and protect their lone attackers. The offense lacks “Cannot Be Prevented” modifiers, but the power of their heroes more than makes up for the fact. This offense usually outperforms every other offense in the categories of speed, consistency, and card quality. Ride On is a great Redemption card. Ideas to help stop clay: stop Book of the Covenant, play defensive battle dominants like Christian Martyr or Falling Away, play Confusion of Mind or Holy of Holies, and try out Wall of Protection to stop Simon’s CTB effects. Oh, and playing less brigades in your main deck always helps…

Herods

Herods have a suite of some of the best single evil characters in the game with amazing modifiers. Each one covers a different angle of attack. Archelaus can stop lone heroes. Agrippa and Herod the Great can go toe-to-toe with large banding chains. And Antipas can chump. In the late game, they have access to Herod’s Executioner playing Futile Inquisition or Contagious Fear (a really strong block). Outsiders + Herod’s Temple is always scary to run into. Herodias can be brutal for restricting the reserve. Gold brigade also has access to 2 CBN ways to punish large banding chains (No Straw! and Abandonment). Did I mention they can also play Golgotha to make their enhancement CBP? If you want more speed you can even put Denarius + Claudius in the deck. Advice on how to beat: play 7 strength good enhancements that can toss down large evil characters, destroy Herod’s Temple, and try to disrupt the evil cards in their reserve.

Black/Gray

Black/Gray decks are defenses running Stricken, Scattered Sheep, Tenants Kill the Son, and a smattering of good black and gray evil characters (Priest of Zeus, Denarius + Claudius, Nicodemus, Entrapping Pharisees, Herdsmen of Gerar, Goliath, etc.) All of the evil characters have fantastic modifiers, and the defense can speed up churning through your deck thanks to Herdsmen, Nicodemus, and Denarius. Goliath is still a very strong evil character! And folks have been sleeping on herdsmen! Woman of Thebez would probably slot nicely into the deck as well. Ideas to help beat: adjust your play style to be conservative with the amount of cards your draw, toss multicolor evil enhancements, or choose the weak link in their chain to block.

Thieves

I have some caveats with this ranking. There are a couple builds running around right now: a light thief defense with around 8 evil characters and a couple evil enhancements, a heavier defense with around 10 evil characters and 1-2 more evil enhancements (and playing den of thieves), and then a demon-thief defense that splashes orange.

I would put the light thief and demon-thief defense in C tier due to the fact they don’t have the critical mass of resources to have good blocks against the top decks. I’d rate the defensive-heavy one in B or A tier because more defense means you are able to have better critical blocks where you can swing the tempo of the game (which is what thieves are great at). But for the S-Tier defense, I’m referring to a heavy thief defense paired with a Joshua deck playing Satan’s Seat. Joshua’s aggressive fortress-destroying, hand controlling game plan pairs perfectly with thieves. Taking an Unsuccessful off a Promised Land and then playing it with Barabbas is the definition of gross.

If you’ve been following my Gauntlet series, Joshua/Thieves was the deck that went undefeated and took down the whole thing. Ideas to beat them: Have hand protection & and plan for dealing with Satan’s Seat. Negate their evil characters. Play choose the blocker effects and Angel of the Lord. Authority of Christ (or similar) effects to destroy their entire defense if they are over-extended. Play mono-brigades to stop big draws from the Highwayman.

A-Tier

Decks in the A tier are not as strong as S-tier decks, but are still great. They might have a few weaknesses, are not super consistent, or are lacking some modifiers, and as a result are a notch below the “top dogs” of S tier.

Patriarchs

There are a lot of ways to build a patriarchs deck. I feel like there are only a few that make the archetype A tier. Specifically, this build is focused on drawing a lot of cards with Jacob, the Wrestler & Eliezer of Damascus and topping the banding chain with Melchizideck banded to Jared banded to a cloud hero. Add some battle doms and you’ve got a really great offense! Having built in soul protection with Benjamin is really great too. Its fast, its consistent, its great! But perhaps a bit vulnerable to Scattered, Husham the Temanite, Goliath, and Herods for my tastes…

Black Soul Hide

Soul Hide is an underrated archetype. It requires other offenses to adjust their play style to play around the Sheol effects that punish searching by underdecking souls. It also forces people to play a slower game. You might think that since Lost Souls like Harvest and Hopper are running around this strategy might seem ineffective. But if you pair this defense with an offense that uses a territory class negate neutral card (like Moses), then I believe you’ve got a solid deck. Sure this deck is weak to some things (soul protection cough cough). But it has the tools it needs to get around it. It pairs nicely with slower offenses that aren’t trying to draw a lot of cards.

Moabites

Subdued lost soul is a card that demands an immediate answer. I love it because it shuffles lost souls into your deck and you don’t have to really do anything (besides sacrificing one of your moabites, but that is a small price to pay). These guys can fit in a really compact shell thanks to King Balak, Moab, and Balaam.

B-Tier

These archetypes are serviceable. They will get the job done and can win but if thoroughly compared to S and A tier strategies, they will be lacking in speed, consistency, or power. They have strong core strategies but don’t execute them as well as A and S tier. I also don’t have decklists for each of these archetypes, sorry!

Green Prophets

(something like this, with Vow for Samuel + some battle winners in the reserve)

I like prophets a lot more than I used to. The new cards from Israel’s Inheritance deepen the card quality green has to work with. I like Book of the Covenant with Vow of Samuel as a nice little protection engine. They aren’t explosive by any means. Victorious being is also another buff for the archetype. Green prophets are scrappy and can work well if you don’t draw a lot of cards thanks to Deborah, Dreamers, and Jeremiah. These guys pair nicely with soul hide (especially with Samuel, Born of Prayer). I don’t really like green’s battle winners all that much.

Mono Silver

This offense can push big angels into battle turn after turn. It can be fast thanks to Legion of Angels, but its weak to chumpy defenses. I know Jayden and Jay Chambers like this defense, so as much as I’m tempted to put this in C-tier, I’ll be optimistic and put it in B tier. Its got speed and negate neutrals and that’s servicable in my book! I’m not a silver expert however, so I could be missing something with this offense.

Pale Green

Queen Tahpenes is both better and worse than people think she is. Yes, she can mill an absurd amount of cards from your opponents deck. But is it worth it to splash her into every deck? I don’t think so. I think she’s best within a pale green shell. Pale green can become quite the “chumpy” defense between Death of Unrighteous and Pharoah’s dream and Confusion. This is great vs some offenses, but really depressing vs offenses pushing lone heroes with the option to toss enhancements via Herod’s Temple. Pale Green lacks a depth of great evil characters and their modifiers also are pretty lackluster overall. I like how they have access to Tubal-cain and the Rabshakeh that let’s them get a nasty play first with Foreign Horses. I think Pale Green is underrated! Can try to get cute with Egyptian Magiciants and Shepherds/Grumbled to play DOU or Pharoah’s Dream, but that seems pretty inconsistent.

Philistines

Philistines have 3 really great evil characters: Goliath, Herdsmen, and Armor Bearer. And after that, they start dropping off. But between Armor Bearer and Philistine Outpost, these Philistines can sure stick around. I think there’s a tricky build of Philistines running Temple Guard + Tenants Kill the Son for a repeatable auto-block (Band in Goliath to negate the play ability of Temple Guard so Tenants goes back to your hand and the discard is basically un-negatablable). Achim can do it too if you decide to sleeve up Wickedness of Jezebel. If everyone is running clay or blue decks, then Philistines look like an appealing counter. I’m curious to see what a d-heavy version of Philistines would look like when paired with Martyr, Falling Away, and Warrior Overtaken!

Canaanites

Canaanites have a lot of potential! But they are missing a few “cannot be prevented” characters to my liking. Concealed Thief has really grown on me as a card, and I like Jabin if you can pair him with Overtaken or Glory of the Lord. Also, getting to play Gibeonite Treaty in your black-based deck is quite strong. Not Among You + King of Tyrus makes for another good block as well. They have a lot of redundancy pieces (Crafty Gibeonites, Amalekite Slave, Deceiver, Adoni-bezek the Thumbless) so you are able to get to the Canaanites you want to get to. Woman of Thebez absolutely shines in this deck.

C-Tier

Strategies in the C tier are missing a critical component or have a crucial weakness that are hard to overcome. They might show promise or potential but don’t deliver consistently. These might play well on paper, but in tournaments, they will usually be under-represented or place lower.

Daniel

Daniel decks sing one note, and that note is “Can you block the Daniel band?” Sometimes this is a nice song to sing, but I feel its a little slow compared to the other S tier decks. Its a strong attack, don’t get me wrong. But other decks can get just as good attacks or better at twice the speed. Husham, the Temanite is a huge problem for this deck. Herod Agrippa I is also still a large problem for this deck. Sure you have answers to those characters. But you don’t have a lot of ways to get to those answers and have to hope you have them at the right time.

Tabernacle Clay

I want to like this offense more. I know its somewhat fast, but I don’t think the core strategy behind them is that powerful. Reserving your own cards for value is cute, and the types of attacks you set up are also cute. But cute and powerful are different things. I’m not impressed with the current suite of priests, but hey Priest lovers, change my mind! I’m looking at you Frosty!

HoneyPot

I think Joshua decks represent an existential threat to HoneyPot as an archetype. The deck doesn’t really work if Joshua the Commander attacks you with Joshua’s Sword and blows up your Tabernacle. And yes, that still can happen if you have Holy of Holies out and are Protecting your Tabernacle with the bad “Glory of the Lord.” Joshua has a “regardless of protect” ability that makes Joshua’s Sword able to discard cards regardless of protection (and that regardless of protect can’t be negated since its a modifier).

Also, offenses and defense seemed to have adopted to playing a lot of CBP, CBN characters. If you take HoneyPot into a field of Nativity, Herod, Joshua, and black gray decks, good luck! Jay Chambers probably ranks this deck a lot higher than I do, but I think this deck is facing a lot of headwinds and I don’t think it can consistently win. Prove me wrong Jay!

Brown

Hamaan + Hamaan’s Plot and Reap the Whirlwind are probably the best brown has going for them. I think they are a serviceable defense, but they lack the powerful defensive characters that make me want to sit up in my chair and be excited about them. I know Tyler likes these guys and I know they can form a defense, I just don’t know how powerful that defense is. I need more experience playing with and against brown.

Chumps

Between Moths, Fire Foxes, and Woman of Thebez you can assemble quite the chump block team! If an opponent isn’t prepared against these, they will walk right into them. But a great opponent will be able to sniff out these chumps and play around them, or other decks might be running soul protection and your blocks just crumble. High upside with this deck, and also a high downside.

D-Tier

Strategies in the D tier need some help. These are ones I would not recommend for tournament play unless a new build is found for them or if new cards are printed for them. I won’t be commenting in depth about why I think they deserve this placing but you are free to disagree!

Mono Purple Warriors

Lack of speed, modifiers, powerful plays. Weak to soul hide, herods, and scattered effects. Another version of this deck that runs large banding chains with Jehu in it are probably more B or C Tier.

Red

Sorry red players, attacking with Red Beneniah is just worse than the Daniel band and probably worse than what a Purple Beneniah + Snatched Spear can do. I don’t think Red has the card pool necessary to generate a deck that can consistently compete with S & A tier strategies.

Ruth & Music Leader

White based decks with music leader seem good on paper, but in my experience they don’t perform well at all. The ruth characters outside of David, Jesse, and Elimelich just aren’t that good! Music Leader is still a good card though.

Flood

I do like Noah, but I don’t like anything else about this archetype right now.

White Wilderness

Sure these guys are resilient. But I don’t think milling people and attacking for chip damage each turn is a viable strategy.

Postees

I’ll need to see more Redemption with Jayden videos to help me understand what he sees in the postees that I’m missing!

Mono Orange

I want to like orange, I really do. But whenever I’ve tried to play it, its felt clunky and awkward. It needs more cards that play well with each other. It just doesn’t work as a cohesive defense, in my opinion. A demon that could go exchange itself for any other demon would help a lot! Red Dragon and King Of Tyrus in my mind are just worse versions of Herods because of how powerful the Toss option on Herod’s Temple is.

Edomites

It takes a while to get cards into the opponent’s banished pile. And you have to do it while they have protection up (Storehouse, Stable, etc.) Good luck Edomite pilots! I wish you the best in your endeavors to try and make this defense work.

Brown Wilderness

The lack of modifiers really hurts this defense. I like the cute things you can do with Curses in the deck, and you can surprise people with Israel’s Rebellion and Forty Years. But I don’t think the defense has great blocks in the current metagame.

Babylonians

Babylonian Merchants does a lot better in Teams. Hopefully these guys will get some new cards in the next set!

Wildcards

Decks in the wildcard tier could be S tier, D tier, or anywhere in between! They are the wildcards, the glass cannons, and other decks looking to attack the metagame

Impartial Judgement

This deck aims to setup a bunch of tokens and then play Impartial Judgement via Ride On on a meek character in battle, forcing the opponent to discard a bunch of evil cards from their hand.

Choose the Blocker Clay

This deck looks to abuse Simon the Zealous and Covenant with Adam plus a bunch of placed orange cards.

Turbo-Nazareth

This deck tries to get a huge start on turn one + Nazareth, making it very hard for the opponent to do anything.

100 Card Lists

These lists try to leverage the advantage of getting to play 2 copies of certain cards in their decklists. They also have added resiliency and can outlast other lists. But it remains to be seen if one can be played competitively in tournaments. Not being able to dig to your Son of God card quickly is a huge deal, but can be mitigated with Send the Helper and Woman with Child. I wouldn’t write off these lists as a joke, especially if they are packing matthew speed under the hood.

Ashkelon

This deck is like Impartial Judgement, where its trying to setup a crazy combo to discard 4 cards from the opponent’s hand each turn. Can either try to assemble the combo on turn 1, or use Concealed Riches to try and go for it on turn 2. You have to have a captured O.T. human, philistine human unity, Ashkelon, and a card like Raider’s Camp or Fortress of Antonia to make it work. Lot’s of pieces, but high payoff!


Well, that’s my tier-list! Sorry if I put your pet deck in a tier you think it didn’t belong in! Well, signing off for now.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

New Articles Weekly

Check out the latest Articles!

Land of Redemption is an unofficial fansite. All images are © Cactus Game Design Inc.