We are pleased to present a revision of an LoR classic: the Brigade Basics series by Zac Cornell! This series now includes cards from Prophecies of Christ and Lineage of Christ. We are starting with the good brigades. This week good gold and red will be covered.
Editor’s Note: We encourage you to use the Redemption Card Viewer as you read this article: https://thejambi.github.io/RedemptionCCGViewer/. Enter N: followed by the card name into the search to view the cards Zac is talking about.
Introduction:
These articles are meant for beginner players looking for a good place to start deck building or intermediate players looking to broaden their Redemption knowledge. This series of articles is a jumping off point to give less experienced players a manageable list of cards for each brigade and theme out there so they can have a place to start in their own research and experimentation.
There are many powerful cards in Redemption that are staples in most every deck that you won’t see mentioned here. They weren’t forgotten, but are only mentioned in decks that have specific synergy with them, otherwise every article would need to include most every dominant and useful site, artifact, and fortress in the game.
If I missed something, please let me know in the comments below! This article will be updated with each new set, so your comments could very well make it into the next update.
Good Gold:
Gold took a big hit with the banning of Samuel, but they are still alive and kicking as a support brigade. Judges have some of the best fight by the numbers characters in the game with Moses, Joshua son of Nun banded to Captain of the Host (Warriors version), and Shamgar (just make sure you can make his Unity work), as well as having great initiative characters in Othniel son of Kenaz, Jair, and Gideon. The new Joshua, the Conqueror is a powerhouse as well, giving you great territory control and a link to a red banding chain. A lot of what makes judges great is The Angel under the Oak, with his cannot be negated draw 2, exchanging with a judge basically anywhere, and cannot be negated protection of Gideon. Angel with the Secret Name gives you another exchange and cannot be negated on your Judges’ cards. Rounding out Judges we have are Jephthah (J) with Jephthah’s Daughter and Ehud for some choose the blocker shenanigans. As for enhancements, the only super notable one is Samuel’s Edict, one of the best negate and kill cards in the game. Other top enhancements include Ehud’s Dagger (RoA), Feast of Booths (for speed), Deborah’s Directive, Eli’s Sound Advice (when used with tabernacle priests), Avenged!, Daughter’s Grief, Righteous Judge, Capturing Canaan, Sword against Sword, and Faith of Gideon. The only real support card for Judges is Judges seat, which is great for picking off your opponent’s defense, especially in slower Judges builds. You could try using Coliseum to help your fight by the numbers heroes, but you will be losing out on using a few of your best enhancements. Judges pairs well with a Canaanite defense, as that defense tends to give your opponent evil characters that you can use you choose the blocker abilities on, but other than that it can work with most anything.
Another theme for Gold is NT Gold, which has had a hard time of it over the years, especially with the huge nerf to ignore, making Watchful Servant very very hard to use. In many sets they would get a few cards that would kind of help them, but never enough to make them a top tier deck. The whole idea of NT Gold is to force your opponent to go through their entire deck by forcing them to draw cards and discarding their deck, and then walking through with Watchful Servant (hopefully) at the end. Most NT Gold cards force your opponents to draw cards. This is a risky strategy, as you are helping your opponent in the short term by letting them draw. Using Gifts of the Magi can help mitigate this however, along with Burial Shroud to give you 2 turns to set up and let them draw down their deck. NT Gold is also known for their powerful convert abilities, such as Meeting the Messiah and Repentance and Restitution. Most of these decks will pair with either a Greek defense, as they also force your opponent to draw and benefit from it, or an Egyptian deck discard deck, to discard down their deck. Either way, the defense will need to be large to survive running down your opponent’s deck, and if Watchful Servant dies, it can be very hard to win. The correct build could possibly be viable, but not close to top tier and only effective because no one would see it coming.
Finally we have the newest theme for Gold: Postexilic heroes. This strategy revolves around your opponent’s banish pile, giving you more perks the bigger you can make it. The new Zerubbabel’s Temple allows you to reserve feasts and offering enhancements to generate lost souls in your opponents territory/banish evil enhancements and topdeck good cards from reserve. Along with this Jeshua, the Restorer allows you to draw 1 whenever you topdeck your good card, giving you some decent speed and great recursion. Like most of the other Meek offenses, they focus around setting up a banding chain and stacking abilities. Something to note about these heroes is that some of them have NT references, but they are actually OT due to their identifier and not NT. Notable heroes in this offense include (but are not limited to) Jeshua, the Restorer, Ezra, Favored by God, Eliud, the Revolutionary, Matthan, the Defender, Achim, the Compiler, Eleazar, the Potentate, Nehemiah, the Vigilant, and Zerubbabel, the Builder.
Another key to realize with postexilics is that some cards from the older sets are considered postexilic cards in the rule book even though their identifier does not mention “postexilic”. Notable cards along these lines are Zechariah, the Renewer, Joiada, Son of Eliashib (Pi), Haggai (PoC), Joshua the High Priest, and Malachi (PoC). Theme specific enhancements include: Builder’s Spear, Builder’s Sword, By My Spirit, Feast of Atonement, Feast of Booths, Feast of Trumpets, Feast of Unleavened Bread, and Zerubbabel’s Plumb Line.
Postexilics carry some mechanics not really found elsewhere in the game, making them very unique in Redemption. The principal strategy with postexilics is to get Jeshua, the Restorer out quickly and use cards like Zerubbabel’s Plumb Line, Triumphal Entry, and Balaam’s Prophecy that topdeck good cards to draw through your deck quickly with Jeshua. Solomon’s Dream and A Soldier’s Prayer also pair well with all the meek heroes in the postexilic build for speed. The key cards to grab are Zerubbabel the Builder, Zerubbabel’s Temple, Feast of Booths, Joiada, Son of Eliashib, Ezra, Favored by God, and Zechariah, the Renewer. The goal is to play Feast of Booths in territory, then rescue with Zerubbabel, and end the banding chain with Joiada. Joiada then recurs Feast of Booths which grabs an enhancement from reserve and adds it to battle on Zerubbabel. This leads to some really strong plays pre-block such as Impartial Judgment which has the potential to wipe out most if not all of an opponents evil cards in hand if you have enough meek heroes in play. This is not hard to do with all the meek postexilic heroes available. The other option is instead of ending the banding chain with Joiada you can end the chain with Zechariah, the Renewer for some nice fight by the numbers action. Naturally cards like Ezra, Favored by God and Oath of Purity are important for bouncing Zerubbabel so his ability can be reused. Postexilics are really unique so give them a whirl!
One last thing to note is that many of the plagues also work with gold. Notable ones include: Plague of Boils (LoC), Plague of Darkness, Plague of Disease, and Plague of Flies (LoC).
Red
Banding is the name of the game for Red brigade. No other brigade can band like red. Between Asahel, Abishai, Heldai, Ishmaiah the Gibeonite, Caleb, Hananiah, Mighty Men, Phinehas, Son of Eleazar (FoM), Jehoshaphat, the Seeker, David, Outcasts’ Refuge, Manasseh, the Humbled, and Joab, you can easily get 20+/20+ numbers into every battle. Don’t forget to add Joshua, the Conqueror at the start of the banding chain as well! At the end of the chain you can add on Benaiah or Adino holding a spear, or with a little work any of the Warriors set fight by the numbers heroes. There is also a good assortment of weapons for your heroes to hold, such as Shields, Spears, Sling Stones, Foreign Sword, Warrior’s Spear, and Joshua’s Spear. Lineage of Christ introduced some great support for the mono-red offense in the form of Judean Garrison which protects O.T. red warriors and weapons in territory from opponents. Mono-red also pairs well with Coliseum since it does not rely on cannot be negated enhancements for the most part but is heavily hurt by cannot be negated enhancements such as Scattered and Abandonment due to the band heavy nature of the offense. Coliseum tosses these so they do not take out your mega-band.
Often you will see red as the backbone of a banding chain style deck, most famously with Purple in a Throne deck, which even after the Samuel ban is proving to be one of the best decks in the game. David the Shepherd can pull out Throne and your Red heroes, and King Jehu lets you exchange them into battle while taking out your opponent’s royalty. And don’t forget about banding in Ahimelek the Hittite as a cannot be negated battle winner using the many banding enhancements between Red and Purple. Also the new David, Outcasts Refuge is a great addition to the throne deck grabbing needed heroes from reserve along with Jehoshaphat, the Seeker being able to create some unique bands. Other notable Heroes would include Jael (Wo) for her choose the blocker ability, The Mighty Warrior for toss and drawing, and Joseph, the Righteous and Mary, Faithful Servant for Meek support. Also Uriah the Hittite is notable for being able to made enhancements with a discard ability CBN. He does not fit well with David though. Some powerful enhancements would include: A Soldier’s Prayer, Bravery of David, Counsel of Abigail, Spears, Solomon’s Dream, Shields, Sling Stones, Builder’s Spear, Hailstones, and Builder’s Sword. Basically everything in Lineage of Christ is part Red, so go wild! You can put Red with just about any defense, but there is some synergy with Philistines and Canaanites, as there are tons of Red/Black enhancements such as Gibeonite Treaty, Foreign Sword, Goliath’s Sword, and The Lord Delivers!/Am I A Dog?
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