Hey everyone! This will be my first time doing a set review, and I wanted to preface this with these are just my opinions and are intended to facilitate discussion about the cards. Instead of doing a full set review, I wanted to talk about some of the cards that stood out to me that promise to be interesting or competitively compelling.
Woman of Thebez
Let’s start off with a hot take: once the Israel’s Inheritance meta shakes out, I think Woman of Thebez will be the most played evil character across all defenses (besides The Deceiver, of course).
I normally don’t like to make grand assertions, but I am convinced about the sneaky power of this card and how well it matches up with the current “best” offenses in Redemption. Most N.T. offenses are currently running little to no Lost Soul protection, and if they don’t have their Three Woes ready to play to negate Woman of Thebez, this card becomes a free block.
For some context, I believe this card gives you better blocks than Uzzah, Moths, and Fire Foxes because of the fact you have the option to give Woman of Thebez to your opponent, removing your last evil character from the battle and denying your opponent the chance to play any Good Enhancements during the battle. I’m a big fan (strategically) of any type of card that will prevent the opponents from getting to play the game, and Woman of Thebez can just bypass a bunch of crazy Good Enhancement shenanigans. Uzzah, Moths, and Fire Foxes all sit in battle after they block and if they are matched up against a low initiative Hero, the opponent could just play a Good Enhancement to negate their special ability.
Secondly, she threatens to become another block later on in the game if you give it to your opponent. If you have the new “Relatives” Lost Soul, you can bounce your Woman of Thebez that’s sitting in the opponent’s territory, and then just block with her again:
Not only can the Relatives Lost Soul threaten to reset her, Lot’s Wife can choose to band to a Woman of Thebez and give herself in order to block (you have to give Lot’s Wife because Woman of Thebez specifies the Canaanite you give away must be one you both own AND control). I see lots of Canaanite decks running Lot’s Wife in their reserve moving forward because of how easy it is to get Black Canaanites out of the reserve.
On top of all this, Woman of Thebez nets you an O.T. Black card from your reserve! Lot’s Wife is an easy candidate for being fetched out of the reserve because of how well she sets up for the next turn’s block. If the opponent is running Soul Protection, the fact that Woman of Thebez can go grab a Black battle winner still makes your blocking options strong. For example, if the opponent attacks you with a large banding chain that protects Lost Souls from evil cards, you can block with Woman of Thebez, grab Scattered Sheep from your reserve, and blow their entire banding chain out of the water.
Or let’s say they are attacking with a lone hero. Assuming you’ll have initiative, block with Woman of Thebez, give your opponent one of your other Canaanites, and then get Gibeonite Trickery out of your reserve. Then play Gibeonite Trickery for an easy stall block:
Woman of Thebez reminds me of the power of the old Uzzah + the power of Saul of Tarsus. Both cards are proven to be staples, and its crazy to me that Woman of Thebez can function as both. Decks will need to adapt to this card if they want to blitz through defenses at the pace they are used to.
Here are some answers I anticipate being incorporated into decks to try and counter Woman of Thebez:
Preventing Woman of Thebez’s special ability will be the best way to stop her, in my opinion. N.T. decks will want to run Accusers as an easy way to do exactly this (in addition to helping their O.T. matchups across the board). The problem is, if they run this Lost Soul, they themselves will probably be unable to run their own Woman of Thebez. I could see a world where N.T. decks running Accusers just put a single copy of her in the reserve so they can leave their blocking options open.
Orphans Lost Soul comes and goes out of popularity, but it might be time for it to be included in main decks once again. But don’t bank too hard on it giving you good attacks against Woman of Thebez! A single Son of God to rescue your Orphans before blocks or Woman of Thebez reaching into her bag of battle winning tricks in the reserve can still stop you.
Between Adoni-bezek, the Thumbless, Amalekite Slave, The Deceiver, and The Crafty Gibeonites, defenses will have no problem getting to Woman of Thebez when they need to. But if you are running Nazareth you can turn the opponent’s “search” blockers into a liability. You just have to hope they don’t naturally draw Woman of Thebez though…
Twenty Shekels continues to prove its usefulness. It can scout out the opponent’s hand before you attack so you can try to craft the perfect attack. And if you see a Woman of Thebez in the opponent’s hand, you can play it down and then attack with a Hero that negates Woman of Thebez’s ability (like Gabriel, Mouth of God) or removes her entirely (like Jephthah). Twenty Shekels also is a way to reset your own Woman of Thebez!
Ok, that’s enough said about Woman of Thebez for now. Moving on to other cards!
The Long Day
The Long Day reminds me of Ride On Victoriously, but is more powerful in the sense it can add any Joshua hero to battle at Dominant speed (as opposed to a meek hero). This opens up some powerful options: opponent just used a battle winner? Play Long Day, add Captain of the Hosts to battle to negate their battle winner. Did they just remove all your Heroes from battle with a CBN battle winner? No problem, add your backup Hero into battle and keep it going.
I believe this card would have been very strong without the additional text of being able to take an O.T. Enhancement from your discard pile, so its just icing on the cake. There is a weird part of my brain that just wants to run this to recycle powerful O.T. Good Enhancements (First Sacrifice again, anyone?). If Joshua decks figure out a way to play First Sacrifice in their decks, then the O.T. enhancement recursion could be very scary. I could see a version of the Joshua decks that try to splash for The First Sacrifice instead of trying to attack the opponent’s hand via Promised Land (which we will talk about next).
Between Glory of the Lord, Angel of the Lord, Angel of God, and The Long Day, Joshua decks have a bounty of great battle Dominants to choose from. I’m not a big fan of Angel of God, but in a world where Woman of Thebez is top dog, an argument could be made to slot Angel of God in instead of one of the other battle Dominants because it can negate Woman of Thebez mid-battle.
Promised Land
If you thought First Sacrifice was a good card, take a look at this! It can target any-alignment card in the opponent’s hand and can net you even more cards each time you are blocked. Hand Control remains one of the best strategies in the game, and Joshua decks are going to have access to two of the most powerful cards that can attack the opponents hand.
What’s especially brutal about Promised Land and Teaching in Parables is that they can be played on the same turn. Good luck blocking if your two best non-dominant evil cards are snatched out of your hand!
There are some ways to reset Promised Land by either bouncing it or shuffling it back into your deck with Shrine to Artemis, but my gut intuition is that would be a little slow to justify the inclusion of a card like Shrine to Artemis that does nothing by itself.
Personally, I’m concerned that Joshua decks will run over most defenses out there. Joshua has all the tools it needs between fantastic heroes, solid good enhancements, hand control, and great battle Dominants to prevent the opponent from playing any coherent defense.
Joshua’s Covenant
This card enables Joshua decks to be consistent. It can grab their best heroes, and even a battle Dominant (The Long Day)! Its a solid, flexible card that I’m confident will see play in Joshua decks. Also, fun fact: you can shuffle away a copy of Stricken you’ve drawn to “recycle” it! Now that’s a cute combo…
“Disoriented” Lost Soul
From a strategic standpoint, I love this card! It adds another layer of depth and strategy to each game you draw this soul. If its drawn in your opening hand, it can be used to negate the opponent’s Lost Souls during the pre-game phase (a unique effect!)
During the middle of the game, it can be used to turn off critical protection that fortresses may be providing, and if you happen to draw it during the middle of a battle, it can even be used to negate a battle winner (if you draw it off a Dominant that draws cards, for example)!
Some immediate winners I think of: Nazareth decks (they will appreciate another way to “turn off” their own Nazareth), decks Star of Bethlehem + Lost Child Found (can be used to play it out of your deck at Dominant speed), and decks trying to attack the opponent’s hand (can negate Storehouses). Overall, I’m not sure if this strengthens or hurts Nazareth decks more. This is another maindeck way to break the stranglehold that Nazareth can put on the game, so maybe Nazareth decks will try to have to play more negate Neutrals or even run “Covet” Lost Soul to try and smuggle it out of the opponents deck before slamming down a Nazareth.
From an artistic standpoint, the art for “Disoriented” also knocks it out of the park! Good old Pieter Bruegel the Elder coming in strong with wild chaos and I’m here for it!
“Subdued” Lost Soul
This Lost Soul is very good and could start pushing people towards O.T. unity Lost Soul packages. This is a telegraphed but powerful effect that gets around your typical “protect lost souls from evil cards” effects.
Not only is it great in a dedicated Moabite defense, but it could even be great if you have a Moabite you are trying to splash. If you are already running Foreign Wives in your reserve, maybe add this Lost Soul into your deck and hope you can chump with your Wives if they attack with a character that won’t get initiative against Wives!
My search for other splashable Moabites with low initiative didn’t yield promising results, meaning this Lost Soul might be regulated to gray based defenses.
Victorious Being
Angel of the Winds is a great card, but what if it also said “draw 1” on it? Well that’s what we almost have here. If you build your deck correctly, this can be just as flexible as Angel of the Winds and the draw 1 is really nice. However I’m waiting for the day when I attack with The Victorious Being and I draw the Hero I wanted to exchange for! That will be awkward.
This card is a slam dunk in judge and green prophet decks, but it can also be slotted into some shells you wouldn’t normally suspect. Nativity, anyone? Take a look at these prophets N.T. this card can go get:
Notably, this card can exchange to single-brigade silver angels! This will help enable N.T. decks to get to an early Resurrection Revealer more consistently. I believe this card will become a staple in Nativity decks moving forward and also open up a build trying to turbo out the Resurrection + Nazareth.
I’m expecting to see this card everywhere in any deck that can feasibly play it.
Joshua’s Sword
First off, let’s be real: this isn’t a sword, its a spear! You can’t fool me! And see, I’m not crazy:
When I first read Joshua’s Sword card I dismissed it, but after playing with and against it, I’ve been forced to change my mind. At worst, this card can cycle itself (put it on your early warrior, and maybe you can bounce that character to your hand later) and at best it provides a unique effect like we’ve never seen before.
If my victory at Nationals has proven anything, its the power of “defensive” good fortresses like Storehouse, Bethlehem Stable, Herod’s Temple, and Wall of Protection. Good Fortresses that help your defense are normally pretty tricky to attack, because historically all the good cards have only been able to target evil cards, making it more likely these fortresses will stick around to help out on defense. I’m a big fan of Good Fortresses, but not a big fan of Evil Fortresses. To see what I mean, try playing a couple games against a deck running Mary, Holy Virgin and Gabriel, Mouth of God while hoping your evil fortress will stick around long enough to do anything.
But Joshua’s Sword and Joshua’s Officiators (we’ll get to them next) are some cards that break the subtle advantage these good fortresses had. It allows offenses to attack good fortresses and gives the meta a way to keep up against a deck looking to sit back and ride a bunch of fortresses to victory.
Cards that destroy fortresses (and artifacts) as easily as this card can are cards players should take note of. Goliath’s Curse is a great card. But think about this card as a Goliath’s Curse you can use every turn that draws you a card and doesn’t take up your artifact slot…
Joshua’s Officiators
Most of what I have said also applies to this card. Sometimes taking a fortress is even better than discarding it (but watch out for Lost Child Found that can bounce it back to its rightful owner’s hand!). This is a new effect we haven’t seen before on a hero and my gut says its extremely powerful.
Think about if your opponent goes first and plays a Storehouse. Then on your turn, you attack with Joshua’s Officiators and take their Storehouse. Not only have you denied them valuable access to their reserve, you also took away their hand protection (clearing the way for Promised Land to erode their good blocks) AND have given yourself an extra card each turn AND protected your hand. Shoutout to Spies at Ai who can do the same thing if they snag the opponent’s Storehouse from their deck (note how they can take a good O.T. Fortress from any deck):
Joshua, the Commander
When you are building a Joshua deck and are trying to decide on which Joshua you want to use, I’m going to say you are probably wrong if you don’t choose this one. Not only is he the only Joshua who works with Joshua’s Sword, he is a solid form of card advantage that fits nicely into a large banding chain of Joshua Heroes. If I’ve learned anything about playing Nativity, its how powerful cards that can band AND generate card advantage at the same time are.
Consider this attack that Joshua decks will consistently have access to:
Attack with Captain of the Host (draws 3 cards)
[+3 cards]
band to Joshua the Commander, take a Joshua card from reserve (probably a good battle winning enhancement)
[+1 card]
Joshua is equipped with Joshua’s Sword. Draw a card and destroy one of your opponents key pieces of infrastructure
[+1 card, opponent down -1 card]
Use Joshua to band to Joshua’s Officiators. Steal a fortress.
[+1 card, opponent down -1 card]
Finish the band off by banding to any of the Joshua heroes that draw you more cards.
[+ 2 cards]
So if I’ve done my math correctly, in far of resources, that banding chain will have generated a net profit of 10 cards for you (I’m including the ones you are taking or destroying from the opponent). In my games with Joshua decks, I’ve found myself regularly drawing up to hand size and cycling through my deck very quickly.
Out of all the offenses in Israel’s Rebellion, I’m guessing Joshua will be the most competitive and have the most tools to challenge Gospel of Christ based decks. (I’m sorry purple warriors and prophets! But compared to Joshua, I don’t think you can come close to what they offer)
Bonus Section: Cards that Don’t Stand Out
Here are my two cents about Purple Warriors that I’m hesitant to share because I don’t want to rain on anyone’s parade and I want to encourage the archetype to develop and see play. And I’d also like to say I think the purple warrior cards are very cool and have great design. I’d just like to address the strategic challenges they will be facing.
I have a hard time fundamentally having to invest an additional card into making a Hero good.
Lots of these purple Heroes don’t really do anything by themselves, they require a weapon to become decent. Not only does this make it less likely you’ll end up with a decent attack on turn 1, you are also making yourself more vulnerable to 2-for-1’s if they happen to remove your character.
Also, those weapons are taking up deck slots. What’s getting cut for them? Your battle winners? Your other heroes? I’m already very hesitant to put non TC good enhancements in my deck already due to how games play out.
When looking at these purple cards, I’ve been asking myself “why play purple warriors when I can do the same thing or better with GOC or Joshua decks”?
I could go down the list and compare each of the purple heroes to an existing GOC hero that arguably does a similar thing but for less investment.
I’ll only do a couple of examples (cherry picked, I will admit):
Ira, the Tekoite vs Mary, Holy Virgin: Mary does this effect but way better and has better stats and modifiers.
Joab, the General vs Zechariah the Silent: Zechariah draws twice as many cards and is CBN and also prevents the next without being equipped.
Eleazar, the Ahohite vs Lazarus: Lazarus draws a card AND negates all evil cards, not just enhancements etc.
The supporting utility cards also don’t give me enough reason to play them vs GOC.
For example, David’s Stronghold is good, don’t get me wrong, but Herod’s Temple is still better and also helps on defense.
In my opinion, you can just run a bunch of battle doms + GOC characters and be better off than purple warrior decks trying to do their thing. Also, the idea of stripping enhancements out of opponents deck folds to deck protection and evil characters that don’t need EE’s to block.
Anyways, thanks for listening and considering what I have to say! I am interested to hear other takes and happy to be proved wrong about some of these things. I don’t mean to be dismissive of purple, but I wanted to point out some of the uphill struggles the archetype will face as long as GOC exists.
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