Join Chad (CtheTree) for a deck build centered on a Blue offense with a hint of Green. Neither of these brigade colors have seen much play as of late but this build can hold its own.
Introduction:
I had mentioned some details about this deck build on episode 54 of The Threshing Floor Podcast. It is called “Blues Clues”. This deck is an attempt to make Blue/Green viable in the meta and the deck build I have come up with offers some unique options many other builds do not have. This article had last been updated in February 2024. It is now updated as of December 2024.
The Deck:
Blues Clues (50 cards):
1 Chariot of Fire
1 The Second Coming
1 Angel of the Lord (J)
1 Crowd's Choice (GoC)
1 Chronicles of the Kings (LoC)
1 Three Woes (RoJ)
1 Falling Away (CoW)
1 Lost Soul "Darkness" [Job 30:26]
1 Lost Soul "Hunter" [Exodus 11:5 - FoM]
1 Lost Soul "Outcry" [I Samuel 5:12 - L]
1 Lost Soul "Humble" [James 4:6 / Proverbs 3:34 - RoJ]
1 Lost Soul "Orphans" [Jeremiah 22:3]
1 Lost Soul "Lost Souls" [Proverbs 2:16-17]
1 Lost Soul "Awake" [Ephesians 5:14 - TPC]
1 The Cross (GoC)
1 Denarius (I/J+)
1 Covenant with Noah (PoC)
1 Covenant with Adam (PoC)
1 Goliath's Curse [L]
1 Storehouse [IR]
1 Coliseum
1 The Angel of the Winds
1 The Three Visitors
1 Abraham (CoW)
1 Jacob, Follower of God / Israel, Retainer of God (LoC)
1 Benjamin, the Young
1 Joseph, the Dreamer
1 Judah, the Leader / Judah, the Substitute (LoC)
1 Noah, the Righteous / Noah (Rest and Comfort) (LoC)
1 Elijah (PoC)
1 David, Heart After God / David, the Contrite (LoC)
1 Virgin Birth
1 Solomon's Dream (LoC)
1 Faith of Abraham (CoW)
1 The Emmaus Road
1 Abraham's Servant to Ur (LoC)
1 Reserved for Famine
1 Retribution for Sin
1 Plague of Frogs (GoC)
1 Delivered
1 The Deceiver (RoJ)
1 Balaam Son of Beor
1 The Herdsmen of Gerar (LoC)
1 Goliath (LoC)
1 High Priest Ananias (RoJ)
1 Outsiders (Black/Gold) (RoJ)
1 Emperor Nero (Promo)
1 Stricken
1 Tenants Kill the Son (GoC)
1 Foreign Spears (LoC)
Reserve:
1 Jehoshaphat, the Seeker / Jehoshaphat, the Meek (LoC)
1 Elisha (PoC)
1 Numerous as the Stars (PoC)
1 The First Sacrifice
1 Out of Bethlehem
1 Royal Parade (LoC)
1 Foreign Wives
1 Saul of Tarsus [2022 - Seasonal]
1 Lurking (Promo)
1 Unsuccessful (PoC)
Summary:
Objective 1- Strong Individual Character Value:
One drum I have been beating ever since the 1 TCE per turn rule took effect is the importance of strong individual character value. What I mean by this is characters on offense who create their own rescue potential and on defense who create their own blocking potential. Characters can do this by creating a potential battle winning environment through their ability or by directly tutoring for a battle winner through their ability. My “Soul Surfer” deck prioritizes characters like this.
Well “Blues Clues” prioritizes characters like this as well. Abraham (CoW) generates massive value by searching for The Three Visitors and banding to them who then can exchange to Jacob, Follower of God to search out a Genesis enhancement to back up the band (Covenant with Adam and Abraham’s Servant to Ur are typical targets) or Joseph the Dreamer to search out Joseph Before Pharaoh or if I have Jacob or Joseph already I can go to Judah the Leader for the strong negate he has. Interestingly enough solo Joseph and solo Jacob create their own rescue potential since they can search out a battle winner to back themselves up solo. The Three Visitors has strong individual character value due to being able to go to Jacob or Joseph. Beyond this Elijah creates his own rescue potential through his choose the blocker ability. Noah creates his own rescue potential by preventing cards. Benjamin the Young creates his own rescue potential by going to Joseph who can snag a battle winner. And then last but not least David creates his own rescue potential by being able to grab Angel of the Lord, Plague of Frogs, Chronicles of the Kings (remember he can band to a meek peep), and one other cute little motif. David can grab all the aforementioned battle winners but also he can grab Chariot of Fire (which has been in this build all along as I will explain later) to in turn rescue himself and add Elisha from Reserve to battle to shuffle evil dominants in the opponent’s hand and make green enhancements CBN. Elisha backed by Retribution for Sin, Plague of Frogs, or Out of Bethlehem is really good. This rescue can be a great way to close out the game and is also good against defenses running fat characters or protected characters. The fact David is able to band to a meek hero means he can band to meek Jacob or Judah which is quite feasible due to Jehoshaphat being in reserve to bounce them so I can band to them as meek and have blue/green battle winners to back up the band.
The defense of course runs characters who create their own blocking potential with Saul of Tarsus, High Priest Ananias, Goliath, The Herdsmen of Gerar, Emperor Nero, Foreign Wives, and Outsiders (B/G).
Objective 2- Meta Interaction:
In my personal valuation two dangerous threats in the game are Matthew (GoC) due to the massive card advantage he can generate and the soul hide defense which can make it very difficult to rescue souls due to how consistently it can keep lost souls off the board.
“Blues Clues” has seven ways (Crowd’s Choice, Awake LS, Darkness LS, Hunter LS, Outcry LS, The Deceiver, and the card itself) to The Herdsmen of Gerar, and the star ability on Stricken for a total of eight ways to deal with Matthew turn 0. Also if I go first then Storehouse is an additional way to deal with Matthew.
For dealing with Soul Hide “Blues Clues” utilizes Awake LS, Orphans LS, “Lost Souls” LS, Benjamin the Young, and then the real showstopper: Chariot of Fire. As I surveyed cards that potentially interact with the soul hide defense Chariot of Fire really stood out since it means all you need to rescue to win the game is three lost souls. However, Chariot of Fire objectively is weaker than Son of God since it cannot negate annoying lost souls the opponent has. Also it has the added issue of needing a significant number of O.T. human prophets in a deck to truly be of use. Well this deck build I believe is one that can run Chariot of Fire in a manner that is not significantly worse than a deck running Son of God. First of all Abraham (CoW) negates opponent’s neutral cards meaning that their lost souls get negated. Judah also can negate a lost soul. This makes this deck build far less susceptible to annoying lost souls in contrast with a typical green prophets deck running Chariot of Fire. Chariot of Fire helps immensely against the soul hide defense since as I already mentioned it means all you need to keep on the board is a total of three lost souls to win the game. Also remember: Chariot of Fire can rescue any O.T. human prophet not just green ones. This deck build runs seven total O.T. human prophets. Benjamin the Young is such an important card since Abraham’s search is mandatory and can trigger annoyances like Sheol, Annas the Elder, and Plotting Priests. Abraham to Three Visitors to Bejamin to Joseph or Judah helps mitigate this.
Beyond this Nazareth and Holy of Holies/Pot of Manna decks are problems. This deck has 7 ways turn 0 to deal with Nazareth (Crowd’s Choice to Three Woes, Three Woes, Noah, the Righteous, Goliath’s Curse, Foreign Spears, Darkness LS to Outsiders (B/G), and Outsiders (B/G).
The deck has 9 potential ways to interact with Holy of Holies/Pot of Manna (Crowd’s Choice to Chronicles of the Kings, Chronicles of the Kings, Three Woes, Hunter LS to Humble LS, Humble LS, Abraham (CoW), Solomon’s Dream to Chronicles of the Kings, David, HAG to Chronicles of the KIngs, and The Emmaus Road to David, HAG to Chronicles of the Kings). I should also note many of the characters on both offense and defense have natural resiliency against Holy of Holies being CBN or CBP. On offense Abraham (CoW), Joseph the Dreamer, Benjamin the Young, David, HAG, Elijah, and Jehoshaphat all work through Holy of Holies. On defense Goliath, Emperor Nero, High Priest Ananias, Foreign Wives, The Deceiver, and Saul of Tarsus all work through Holy of Holies.
Offense:
This offense took a lot of hard work to assemble and is a really strong Genesis/Prophets offense. This offense arose out of a positive realization that Genesis offers some of the strongest characters in terms of creating their own rescue potential in the game who also happen to be O.T. human prophets but also a negative realization that Genesis currently lacks potent battle winners. I did however notice that both Jacob and Joseph the Dreamer are Green brigade and since most of the time I will always be wanting to rescue with them solo or with Abraham to The Three Visitors to one of them to grab a battle winner means that Green battle winners are a legitimate option to pair with this take on the Genesis offense. This adds potency to the Genesis offense through Out of Bethlehem which supports solo Jacob or Joseph quite well as well as Abraham banded to one of them through The Three Visitors exchange. Also Retribution for Sin and Plague of Frogs pair well with the Blue/Green Genesis peeps. Noah the Righteous is a useful tool in this meta for dealing with counters. Most builds seek to convert him to meek to prevent cards but in this build with all of the Blue/Green battle winners keeping Noah on his regular side is an option and he is great for obtaining initiative due to his very low strength. Royal Parade though offers an option for converting Noah to meek to prevent cards and is also a good card with David, HAG.
Elijah fits well with Angel of the Lord, Covenant with Adam (artifact side), Covenant with Noah, The Emmaus Road, Plague of Frogs, Retribution for Sin, and Out of Bethlehem. Falling Away (CoW) paired with Elijah is a classic cheesy rescue and provides further potency to this offense. Overall Elijah supplements the Genesis characters well and has surprising synergy with the cards that support them. Elisha rounds out the rescue potential characters fitting well by making green enhancements CBN if he shuffles an evil dominant in opponent’s hand and being nifty paired with Chariot of Fire.
Overall it really is remarkable how well the Blue and Green brigades fit together in this deck build. There is really good synergy between the two. The name “Blues Clues” comes from the blue base of the offense with the “clue” of green found on a couple of the blue characters.
For the Genesis band my favorite option is Faith of Abraham on Abraham to Three Visitors to Jacob to grab Abraham’s Servant to Ur which can then be played post block off Faith of Abraham and it will negate the play ability on Faith of Abe sending it back to hand but maintaining the FBTN effect in battle. Really strong play. Beyond this it is so nice being able to get battle winners at the end of the band with Jacob (best are Covenant with Adam and Abe’s Servant to Ur) or grabbing Reserved for Famine with Joseph the Dreamer. If I have plenty of battle winners I like using Joseph the Dreamer to get Storehouse. This banding offense is so consistent and easy to set up in this deck build.
David, Heart After God adds great support. He creates so many unique rescue potential options being able to grab Angel of the Lord, Plague of Frogs, and Chronicles of the Kings. Also the aforementioned David to Chariot of Fire to rescue himself and add Elisha to battle is a really nifty option. Beyond this the fact David can search for a battle winner and band to a meek Genesis peep is another strong rescue option. Who would have thought a white brigade hero could fit so well in a Blue/Green offense… He is a beast and probably my favorite hero in the game currently.
The Cross and Coliseum are important cards to back up this offense due to the Genesis band being vulnerable to CBN enhancements like Scattered. Covenant with Adam artifact side is handy for dealing with annoyances like Saul of Tarsus. I really like being able to a blocker with toughness */3 or less with Elijah with Covenant with Adam active.
In terms of further support to the offense The First Sacrifice is of course fantastic and Solomon’s Dream is a good way to get TSC or Chariot of Fire to close out the game. Jehoshaphat fits so well in this deck. He is easy to grab with Virgin Birth, The Emmaus Road, and Numerous as the Stars. He can band to Abraham, Jacob, and David. I really like using him then to help prepare the way for a Solomon’s Dream play, reuse David, and set up a meek Genesis hero for David to band to if need be. Judah is such good support for the offense dealing with annoyances like Sheol with ease. Chronicles of the Kings is also great with this offense across the board.
Overall this offense is potent and consistent.
Defense:
I feel black is a necessary defense in builds that run a significant number of brigades on offense due to access to The Herdsmen of Gerar to deal with Matthew. In deck builds like N.T. Gold for instance that are fairly mono-brigade colored on offense then Black is not so necessary since brigade count is low in those deck builds. Due to the splashing of Blue/Green in this deck build and the tri-colored enhancements used to make that possible this deck build has a fairly high brigade count overall on offense.
A fair portion of this Black/Gray defense is standard with Stricken, Tenants Kill the Son, Denarius, Emperor Nero, Saul of Tarsus (to Unsuccessful), and High Priest Ananias.
The defense is nothing flashy but is enough to get the job done. Goliath, HPA, and Outsiders (B/G) all offer nice main deck block options. In Reserve Foreign Wives and Saul of Tarsus are both fantastic. Lurking is a great interrupt to back up the Fatties in this deck (HPA, Emperor Nero, Outsiders (B/G), and Goliath) and going Lurking to Foreign Wives is strong. Storehouse, Saul of Tarsus, and The Herdsmen of Gerar all can grab Lurking.
Also note Emperor Nero can tutor for Coliseum adding good support to both the offense and defense.
Falling Away (CoW) and Chronicles of the Kings provide further backup to the defense.
Balaam, Son of Beor is a strong block when paired with Falling Away and Chronicles of the Kings. He can also tutor for Crowd’s Choice to go to an evil battle winner.
Consistency:
This deck is very consistent. Who would have thought a deck running The Emmaus Road, Solomon’s Dream, and Delivered would be viable in 1 TCE. However, in this deck build each are viable since they get to key pieces and do not need to chain with another TCE to be of utility. Delivered can be played on six characters in the deck and can net four cards through Denarius, get to The Cross, tutor for any Genesis character in deck (including The Herdsmen of Gerar) through Covenant with Noah, and set up Covenant with Adam for dealing with cards like Saul of Tarsus or setting up Elijah shenanigans. The Emmaus Road can get to Joseph, Jacob, Jeremiah, or David to set up a strong rescue and also can get to Out of Bethlehem for battle support. Not to mention it is a battle winner on its own and can be used to search for and add any of the aforementioned star heroes to battle. So strong in this deck build. With With four meek heroes and a fifth easy way to one in Covenant with Noah Solomon’s Dream is a viable main deck tutor in this build. Faith of Abraham is also a great tutor for getting to Abe who is the main hero I want early. The Angel of the Winds is stellar in this build. I have seven ways (Covenant with Noah, Delivered (to Covenant with Noah), Crowd’s Choice (almost always to Faith of Abe to Abe), Solomon’s Dream, Faith of Abe, The Angel of the Winds, and Abe himself) to Abe main deck (I exclude the Three Visitors as a way since then I can’t band to them with Abe) and even if I don’t get Abe I have as has been discussed already plenty of other characters with strong rescue potential.
In terms of speed the deck does not draw a lot with the only sources of draw being Denarius, Balaam, The Herdsmen of Gerar, Outsiders (B/G), and Saul of Tarsus. That being said the deck is built for consistency not speed and I find the deck does not need a lot of draw power due to the consistency it has with search abilities.
Thankfully David, HAG (to Chariot of Fire) and Solomon’s Dream help to ensure getting to the Big 2 (TSC and Chariot of Fire) to close out the game.
Lost Souls:
This Lost Soul package is built to deal with annoyances in the meta like Matthew (Darkness LS to Herdsmen, Outcry LS to Herdsmen, Hunter LS to Outcry, Awake LS to Outcry) and soul hide (Orphans, “Lost Souls” LS, and Hunter LS to “Lost Souls” LS). Beyond this Humble LS helps deal with Holy of Holies.
Maybe Board:
Cards that I have considered for this deck build are Crowds LS package (Escape LS and Crowds LS), Hopper LS, Harvest LS, Faith of Samuel, The Amalekite’s Slave, Joseph Before Pharaoh, Twenty Shekels, Two Bears, Called to Prophesy, Vow for Samuel, The Victorious Being, Do Not Be Afraid, Foreseen by Samuel, Split Altar, Swords to Plowshares, Behemoth, Eve’s Descendant (fits with the Blue/Green offense so well), Out of Their Hands, Oath of Purity (instead of Jehoshaphat), Betrayal, Bless the Nations, Abraham’s Descendant, Spirit of Elijah, Stone Pillar at Bethel, Faith of Sarah, Distressed LS, Blind LS, Judah’s Intervention, You Will Be Well, Broken Covenant, Offering Your Son, Gathered Together, The Coming Prince, Feast of Atonement, Noah’s Ark (Ark of Salvation), You Will Remain (reserve), Imprisoned Prophet, Harvest Time, Shipwreck, Mayhem, Faith, The Lying Prophet, Emperor Claudius, Blood Avenger, King of Tyrus, Plot to Kill, Adam (LoC), Jeremiah, Hope Bringer, Golgotha/Supercilious Scribes instead of Saul of Tarsus, Enosh, Malakh the Nameless, Peace, The Suffering Servant, Light in the Darkness, Trumpet in Zion, and Day of the Lord.
Conclusion:
Overall I am proud of this deck build because it is creative, involves outside the box thinking, interacts with the meta well, is consistent, and presents a very strong offense with unique features. I believe this deck can contend with top tier decks in the meta and in fact is a counter deck toward Matthew decks and decks running a soul hide defense. One thing I want to challenge deck builders in is this: don’t just stick to the standard most prevalent offenses/defenses seeing play in your deck building. Think outside the box. Both Blue and Green have been seeing very little play as of late but this deck build really is solid. Had I not thought outside the box and explored brigade colors that are seeing less play this deck build never would have come to fruition.
If you have any thoughts or ideas for this deck build please feel free to send them my way and as always happy deck building!
Change Log:
(12-18-24):
Deck-
Cut Faith of Samuel and added Retribution for Sin.
Cut The Amalekite’s Slave and added Balaam, Son of Beor.
(02-13-24)
Deck-
Cut Harvest LS and added “Lost Souls” LS
Cut Escape LS and added “Hunter” LS
Cut Crowds LS and added Outcry LS
Cut Distressed LS and added Humble LS
Cut Hopper LS and added Goliath’s Curse [L]
Cut Foreign Wives and added Benjamin, the Young
Cut Jeremiah, Hope Bringer and added Noah the Righteous
Cut Numerous as the Stars and added Solomon’s Dream
Cut Joseph Before Pharaoh and added Reserved for Famine
Cut Saul of Tarsus and added Outsiders (B/G)
Cut King of Tyrus (PoC) and added Goliath (LR)
Cut Plot to Kill and added Foreign Spears
Reserve-
Cut Solomon’s Dream and added Numerous as the Stars
Cut Two Bears and added Royal Parade
Cut Strict Sabbath and added Foreign Wives
Cut Emperor Claudius and added Saul of Tarsus
Explanation:
These changes are mainly centered around adjusting to the meta presence of Nazareth and Holy of Holies/Pot of Manna decks. Hopper and Plot to Kill got axed for tools to deal with Nazareth in Goliath’s Curse and Foreign Spears. Saul of Tarsus got moved to Reserve giving Emperor Claudius the boot from Reserve to make room for Outsiders (B/G) which can deal with Nazareth. Jeremiah, Hope Bringer got cut for Noah, the Righteous who can deal with Nazareth. Also this new version goes with Hunter/Outcry lost souls over Awake LS and Crowds LS as ways to deal with Matthew by going directly to Herdsmen of Gerar. These are also nice for getting to Goliath for blocking power. Goliath is added for KoT with the rules being fixed regarding Goliath. Humble LS is in to deal with Holy of Holies over Distressed LS. With Hopper LS being gone “Lost Souls” LS is in over Escape LS for extra soul gen. This is one less way to a way to stop Matthew but the deck overall feels like it has enough with 8 total ways to deal with Matthew turn 0. Strict Sabbath is bad in a meta with “Lost Souls” LS running around so it was cut and Foreign Wives was moved to Reserve in its spot to make room main deck for Benjamin the Young. Benjamin the young is fantastic against Soul Hide decks since he mitigates the mandatory search on Abraham and can go to Joseph the Dreamer if he goes in solo to set up a strong rescue turn 1. With Noah increasing my meek count Solomon’s Dream is viable as a main deck tutor and is preferable early too Numerous as the Stars being more consistent and being able to grab cards like Chronicles of the Kings to deal with counters. Numerous is still good though and belongs in Reserve where Solomon’s Dream was. Reserved from Famine is a nice upgrade to Joseph Before Pharaoh being more versatile since it can hit evil bands. Royal Parade has great synergy with Noah, the Righteous and David, HAG and is a slightly more powerful battle winner than Two Bears.
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Agurthewise
thank you for the article, was a good listen!