Join Chad for an article summarizing his thoughts on the meta and two revamped versions of his previously shared Old School “Salty” decks that are poised to interact with Territory Class speedy decks.
Introduction:
Sortie- “Come out from a defensive position to make an attack.” Oxford Languages.
Much talk has happened as of late about the sheer consistency of TC heavy decks especially those centered on Numerous as the Stars and there is no doubt these decks are formidable. Some folks have been calling for changes to the game to help combat the power of TC enhancements. In particular I think Numerous Nativity (Lockdown) decks utilizing Numerous and Star of Bethlehem abuse for speed and Numerous Circus (a hand control offense centered on things like King Jehu) with counters decks are top tier.
I am the type of deck builder where if something is dominating (and I was not the one to discover the dominant deck build) I try to find a way to build a deck that will win against that which is dominating. After much thought and deck building I actually believe the only deck builds capable of not losing to them consistently if they go first are Old School Salty deck builds. You can check out an article I wrote about my Old School Salty deck builds here.
I realized recently though I think the Old School Salty deck builds really need to be running more than just Salty. I realized that Blind LS is rather accessible for Numerous decks as a way to combat Salty and I almost decided that the meta was hopeless for any deck not running Numerous as a consistency engine since the major counter that provided a chance (Salty) could be combatted with Blind and stuff like Three Woes and SoG. I still think Numerous as the stars needs to be banned since the power level of the card is absurd. No other card in the game can grab more than one hero outside battle and Numerous easily grabs 2+ and can be recurred now as well multiple ways for multiple uses. It is bonkers and I really believe that the deck I have below is one of the only non-Numerous decks that has a chance if it goes second. A non-Numerous deck that goes first and manages to get something like Golden Calf active of course has a good chance. But I really believe most decks that go second will have very little chance at winning if they go second against a Numerous deck.
I call these two deck builds in this article today Old School’s Sortie since in reality these decks come out from a defensive position and make a strong attack to win the game. They are by nature counter decks but definitely pack a punch with a feisty offense.
Interestingly enough I have played a Salty deck every round of the current Lackey Grand Prix. I ended up 2-2 after facing John Earley, Jeremy Chambers, Josh Potratz, and Seth Morlan.
The version I ran against John Earley in round 1 of the current Lackey Grand Prix and also in round 2 against Jeremy has a strong blocking defense (Herods) and a synergistically strong offense. It is my Old School 2.0 deck featured in my previous article here. I won 5-4 against John and lost 5-4 against Jeremy. I only had one real winning chance which I messed up against Jeremy involving playing Golgotha to get a block. He played very, very well.
After the game with Jeremy I realized how both of my Salty decks can still win if Salty gets dealt with due to the strong individual card value of the characters in the deck but it is hard against Numerous lockdown decks that set up so many counters to win once they get set up. This led to me really evaluating how I could gain the upper hand with these decks and so I did an extensive survey of all potential turn 0 interaction options with Numerous decks that exist. Here is what I found:
I scoured every star ability, evil TC ability (due to Darkness), every Dominant, and Lost Soul in the game. I realized the following cards offer decent interaction potential with Numeorus: Tier 1 (very strong counters): Vain Philosophy, Crowd’s Choice, The Second Coming, Harvest Time (to Salty), “Play a lost soul from a deck/each deck” star abilities, Awake LS (to Salty), Escape LS (to Salty), Three Nails, A New Beginning, and Darkness to Babylonian Merchants. Tier 2 (potentially strong counters): Christian Martyr, Falling Away (CoW), The Afflicted (makes opponent think twice about placing heroes down but easy enough to work around with bounce), and CotK. Tier 3: Mayhem, Moses (PoC, Star), Voice from Heaven (stops recursion of Star of Bethlehem and Numerous), Distressing People (helps mitigate the Numerous lockdown decks), and Distressed LS (same notion as Distressing People).
This study led to the current deck build I have below. Basically this version I am on now incorporates just as many ways to Salty as my other build that I used against John and Jeremy but runs Darkness to Bab Merchants and runs a Three Nails non-TC enhancement package (The Deceiver, The Amalekite’s Slave, to Tubal-Cain to Nails). I actually feel this non-TC enhancement package for getting to Nails is superior to using TC enhancements to get to it since the savvy Numerous player will normally have something like Calf up to stop enhancements from getting to Delivered to Nails if they go first. So I feel my package actually gives me greater odds of getting to Nails if the Numerous deck goes first than other Nails decks I have seen.
The Deck:
Old School’s Sortie (50 cards):
1 Son of God “Manger” (Promo)
1 The Second Coming (CoW AB)
1 Angel of the Lord (2016 Promo)
1 Harvest Time (GoC)
1 Crowd’s Choice (GoC)
1 Three Woes (RoJ)
1 Mayhem (FoM)
1 Lost Soul (Awake)
1 Lost Soul (Escape)
1 Lost Soul (Lawless)
1 Lost Soul (Darkness)
1 Lost Soul “Salty” (Matthew 5:13) (GoC)
1 Lost Soul (Crowds)
1 Lost Soul (Distressed)
1 The New Covenant (I/J+)
1 Book of the Covenant (PoC)
1 The Manger (GoC)
1 The Cross (GoC)
1 Three Nails (GoC)
1 Broken Covenant
1 Herod’s Temple (GoC)
1 Patmos (RoJ)
1 Land of Moab (LoC)
1 Golgotha (GoC)
1 The Angel of the Winds
1 Angel from the Sun (RoJ)
1 Reassuring Angel (EC)
1 Matthew the Publican / Matthew (Levi) (GoC)
1 Simon Peter / Peter, the Rock (GoC)
1 Simon the Zealous / Saint Simon (GoC)
1 David, Heart After God / David, the Contrite (LoC)
1 Adam, the Exile / Adam (Man) (LoC)
1 Noah, the Righteous / Noah (Rest and Comfort) (LoC)
1 Authority of Christ (GoC)
1 Royal Parade (LoC)
1 Day of Judgment (GoC)
1 Love One Another (GoC)
1 Word of Christ
1 Anthropophobia
1 Fire Foxes
1 The Deceiver (RoJ)
1 The Amalekites’ Slave (FoM)
1 Tubal-cain
1 The Babylonian Merchants
1 Nebuchadnezzar (PoC)
1 Babylonian Siege Army
1 Conjurers
1 Seized by Babylon
1 Hypocrisy (EC)
1 Dissension in Antioch
Reserve:
1 Send the Helper (GoC)
1 Covenant of Prayer (RoJ)
1 You Will Remain
1 Spirit as a Dove (GoC)
1 Untouchable (GoC)
1 The Great Commission (GoC)
1 Eternal Inheritance
1 Mounted Forces
1 Scattered (Promo)
1 Confusion (CoW)
Summary:
The greatest struggle in arriving at my current build was getting a meek based offense for Nails that can rescue reliably in a Salty environment limiting garnering resources and a Babylonian defense for Merchants that do not suck. I have two other Salty builds that prioritize having heroes and evil characters who create their own rescue and blocking potential. Both of those builds have solid defenses and offenses but the offenses run some non-meek peeps who create their own rescue potential like The Woman with Child and Justin Martyr package. I was really struggling going with finding a balanced offense with just meek heroes who create their own rescue potential. Well I found the way… The three exchanger angels and Patmos to Matthew/Simon is great. AoC/Simon is killer and I have some other nifty Simon tricks in the deck like Simon/Herod’s Temple OR The Cross to choose a blocker with toughness 7 or less and kill them by tossing Untouchable. Also I found a really cool rescue with Simon of choosing a blocker where I will still have initiative after using Spirit as a Dove to grab Love One Another, Untouchable, or The Great Commission, or Day of Judgment and then use that chosen enhancement which will be CBN off of Spirit as a Dove. This is quite strong with Simon and it and the Untouchable/Cross/Herod’s Temple Simon rescues really compliment each other since one works against low number characters and the other works against bigger characters… Lastly I run Eternal Inheritance for use with Simon for my final rescue of the game in reserve. Next, David, HAG to AotL or Royal Parade is fantastic and was a winner in one of my other Salty builds. Land of Moab is good as another way to David. Adam to Noah being able to search for and band to him I used in one other deck well. I run Royal Parade and Word of Christ main deck which are great with Noah. Then the final meek hero I have who creates his own rescue potential is Simon Peter to Herod’s Temple. This is actually pretty strong and fits well with my other disciples. I run Day of Judgment (for the star but also solid battle winner), Authority of Christ, Love One Another, Word of Christ, and Royal Parade as my enhancement package main deck to support these meek heroes. It is important to note Royal Parade works with the Disciples interestingly enough. I really like this direction overall and honestly feel it is close to just as strong as the offenses in my other two Salty builds that run both meek/regular heroes.
One key thing with this offense is aside from Adam every other hero converts to meek when rescuing. This means whoever I rescue with turn 1 creating their own rescue potential other than Adam ends up meek allowing for Nails to work turn 2. There are other meek heroes who create their own rescue potential like Jacob, Follower of God to Abraham’ Servant to Ur and Boaz the Redeemer to Ruth’s Vow. However, neither of these convert to meek when they rescue so they would ruin a turn 2 nails play if I rescue with them turn 1.
The defense has to be unity Babylonians for The Babylonian Merchants to work. This is not the strongest defense in the game but actually blocks fairly well. I realized Babylonian Siege Army is amazing creating their own blocking potential and just being an overall boss especially backed by Seized by Babylon or Anthropophobia. Nebuchadnezzar backed by Seized by Babylon or Anthropophobia is great too. Conjurers and Mounted Forces create their own blocking potential turn 2 and following by being able to get to Confusion or Scattered for solid blocks. Fire Foxes and Tubal-Cain do not interfere with unity since Fire Foxes dies when they block and Tubal-Cain is just there for the big Three Nails block (which may just be the strongest block in the entire game).
This deck overall has 13 reliable ways to interact with turbo TC class decks (The Second Coming, Crowd’s Choice, Harvest Time, The Manger (star), Day of Judgment (star), Awake LS (to Salty), Escape LS (to Salty), Salty LS, Darkness to Bab Merchants, Three Nails, The Deceiver (to Tubal), The Amalekites Slave (to Tubal), and Tubal-Cain (to Three Nails). I also have two less reliable cards providing potential interaction in Mayhem and Lawless LS increasing my odds of getting to some of my other ways to interact. This gives me really good chances overall of having a way to interact with the turbo TC decks in the meta and actually gives me more ways than any other deck I have seen yet.
Lastly I should also note Broken Covenant is good in a reset deck since it can be used more than once for draw and does not fizzle like Denarius and Four-Drachma Coin after they draw.
Considering:
For Dominants Vain Philosophy would be the one Dominant I absolutely want to run. I feel the offense needs Angel of the Lord though and Harvest Time is great for Salty, Distressed, and Crowds LS. But I definitely wish I could fit Vain Philosophy. Falling Away and Chronicles of the Kings are other Dominants I have considered.
For the offense I have considered Humble Seeker, The Ascension (the star would be nice to have), Elimelech, Oath of Purity (reserve for bouncing David), Expelled from Heaven (reserve), and The Lord Goes Before You (reserve for David). Overall though I feel what I have for the offense is better than these options though.
For the defense I have considered Death of Unrighteous, Hurling Insults (I don’t like that it underdecks the card it interrupts allowing for that card to be reused hence why I am going with Anthropophobia but it may be better since it can hit angels and Anthro cannot), and Herod Antipas/Contagious Fear (reserve since Golgotha can grab it and The Deceiver and amazingly it does not ruin Bab Merchant’s unity since this block reserves Antipas), Carcasses, and Stolen Blessing (Anthropophobia feels a bit better since it negates and discards rather than just a negate). Great Image I have also considered in reserve as another way to hit turbo TC decks that have set up.
Other cards I have considered are: The Fall of Man/Jericho (it can hold The Fall of Man) over The Cross and Golgotha since I do run some CBN enhancements but honestly not too many and The Cross is so much better in general; Four-Drachma Coin for extra draw main deck; and Damascus as another way to get to a way to Tubal-Cain or Bab Merchants. I originally had Hunter Lost Soul to get to Distressed but since that is the only target for Hunter I feel Lawless is better giving me better odds at getting to salty and my Tubal-Cain/Nails package. Lastly Hopper LS was in here but was cut for The Manger since it serves as soul gen too and is more versatile.
Thoughts:
This deck is better than my other two Salty decks in my mind since if the opponent has a way to deal with Salty I have plenty of other ways to interact. My other two builds found here only really had Salty, Distressed, and Crowds as ways to interact and if Salty got dealt with my opponent can do all their speed stuff. Having Nails package and Darkness/Bab Merchants package adds other ways to interact. This I feel gives the deck a better shot overall. The first two decks could still win even if the opponent deals with Salty and gets set up with all their TC madness as they have heroes and evil characters that create their own rescue/blocking potential for the most part. In fact against John Earley in the first round of the Lackey Grand Prix he dealt with my Salty with Woes right away and I still managed to win because my approach of having characters with strong individual value in creating rescue and blocking potential fared quite well.
That being said I do believe that having more ways to stop the opponent from storming off while still running a competent offense and defense is probably better than just relying on Salty for interaction. I actually feel this offense is pretty close to being just as good as the offense in my other two decks having similar rescue options overall with some innovations compared to the other two. The defense is weaker than the other two defenses in my mind but I do think it can get the job done.
I ran this deck against Redemption National Champion Josh Potratz in round 3 of the current Lackey Grand Prix and won 5-4. He was running a TC heavy Numerous Nativity deck and he went first. I got Salty out early. He managed to deal with it later and combo’d. After that though I had Three Nails and reset the game. My deck was able to pull out the win after this. The game confirmed running the Three Nails package along with the “Salty” package is likely the way to go.
This deck was complex and difficult to build and I spent quite a few hours refining it. I felt it could be better though and wondered if Darkness to Bab Merchants really made running unity Babylonians worthwhile. With that in mind after playing and tinkering with this deck build I decided I wanted to see what a version without a unity Babylonian defense would look like. From my last two Old School “Salty” decks I realized I really liked the Herod based defense that I ran in one of those decks. In my opinion this type of Herod defense might just be the best defense in the game currently.
Due to that I decided to flesh out a version with them and this is what I came up with:
Old School’s Sortie Goldilocks (50 cards):
1 Son of God “Manger” (Promo)
1 The Second Coming (CoW AB)
1 Angel of the Lord (2016 Promo)
1 Harvest Time (GoC)
1 Crowd’s Choice (GoC)
1 Three Woes (RoJ)
1 Mayhem (FoM)
1 Lost Soul (Awake)
1 Lost Soul (Escape)
1 Lost Soul (Hunter)
1 Lost Soul “Salty” (Matthew 5:13) (GoC)
1 Lost Soul (Distressed)
1 Lost Soul (Crowds)
1 Lost Soul (Wanderer) (FoM) [Could be Lost Soul (Orphans)]
1 The New Covenant (I/J+)
1 Book of the Covenant (PoC)
1 The Manger (GoC)
1 The Cross (GoC)
1 Three Nails (GoC)
1 Broken Covenant
1 Herod’s Temple (GoC)
1 Patmos (RoJ)
1 Land of Moab (LoC)
1 Golgotha (GoC)
1 The Angel of the Winds
1 Angel from the Sun (RoJ)
1 Reassuring Angel (EC)
1 Matthew the Publican / Matthew (Levi) (GoC)
1 Simon Peter / Peter, the Rock (GoC)
1 Simon the Zealous / Saint Simon (GoC)
1 David, Heart After God / David, the Contrite (LoC)
1 Adam, the Exile / Adam (Man) (LoC)
1 Noah, the Righteous / Noah (Rest and Comfort) (LoC)
1 Authority of Christ (GoC)
1 Royal Parade (LoC)
1 Word of Christ
1 Day of Judgment (GoC)
1 Love One Another (GoC)
1 The Ascension (GoC)
1 Fire Foxes [Could be Outsiders (Black/Gold)]
1 Reprimand / Repercussion (GoC)
1 The Deceiver (RoJ)
1 The Amalekites’ Slave (FoM)
1 Tubal-cain
1 Herod’s Guard (GoC)
1 Herod Agrippa I (GoC)
1 Herod Archelaus (GoC)
1 Herod the Great (GoC)
1 Revolt
1 Executioner’s Sword (GoC)
Reserve:
1 Send the Helper (GoC)
1 Covenant of Prayer (RoJ)
1 Untouchable (GoC)
1 Eternal Inheritance
1 The Great Commission (GoC)
1 Spirit as a Dove (GoC)
1 Herod Antipas (GoC)
1 Futile Inquisition (GoC)
1 Contagious Fear (GoC) [Could be Foreign Wives]
1 Possessing Spirit (GoC) [Could be You Will Remain]
Summary:
This deck is what I view as being the best of both worlds deck. It takes the best offensive elements I have found for a “Salty” deck build (which are also featured in the first deck in this article) and pairs that with the strongest general defensive build in Herods that I have found this season. The package to Salty is the same aside from having The Ascension’s Star ability as a bonus way to get to Salty. The package to Three Nails is identical aside from not having Darkness to Tubal-Cain as another way to Nails. This deck of course does not have Darkness to Bab Merchants as an option.
Sadly the only game I played with this version thus far I lost to bingaling (aka thecoolguy) aka Seth. Seth won against me in the fourth (and for me) final round of the current Lackey Grand Prix 5-2 with his balanced 100 card deck. I noticed in the two games I lost in this Grand Prix to Jeremy/Seth these counter decks struggle against balanced decks that run battle winning Dominants. That being said these decks work very well against TC offensive heavy decks as I managed to beat John Early and Josh Potratz running such decks and they are two of the very best players in the game. This meta is somewhat matchup dependent in terms of deck matchups but I do feel that these “Salty” decks especially these two paired with ways outside of Salty to reliably interact with the opponent are solid and can win against balanced decks if played properly.
This deck overall has 13 reliable ways to interact with turbo TC class decks (The Second Coming, Crowd’s Choice, Harvest Time, The Manger (star), Day of Judgment (star), The Ascension (Star), Awake LS (to Salty), Escape LS (to Salty), Salty LS, Three Nails, The Deceiver (to Tubal), The Amalekites Slave (to Tubal), and Tubal-Cain (to Three Nails). I also have a less reliable cards providing potential interaction in Mayhem. This gives me really good chances overall of having a way to interact with the turbo TC decks in the meta and actually gives me more ways than any other deck I have seen yet. This deck has the same number of ways as my other one above to interact with turbo TC class decks it is just I run The Acension (Star) instead of Darkness to Bab Merchants as the thirteenth way. I do not run The Ascension in the other build since I feel I ned the extra EE to support the unity Babylonian defense. This Herod’s defense can get by with three negate EE’s due to Herod’s Guard being an extra one realistically so in Anthropophobia’s slot I put The Ascension in here. I like Darkness to Bad Merchants but quite honestly The Ascension to Salty is probably just as reliable in terms of being Turn 0 interaction and maybe is even better.
Overall this build in contrast with my other one does not have Darkness to Bab Merchants but due to being able to run one less EE I get to run The Ascension which due to its star means this deck interacts pretty close to as reliably as the other one turn 0. Other perks of this deck is I get to run Wanderer LS/Hunter LS in place of Darkness/Lawless increasing my odds of being able to dispatch an opponents Crowds LS or Undesirables LS which are problematic for my deck. Additionally I get to run Possessing Spirit which is so good due to my unity Gospel defense.
The offense is practically identical in this deck as to the one in my other deck above aside from the fact I am running The Ascension main deck and the reserve does not have You Will Remain due to Possessing Spirit taking its Reserve slot. Also Reprimand can work with David and be extra support there in this deck.
Cards I am considering for this deck are the following: Oath of Purity (reserve), You Will Remain (reserve), Damascus (main deck for an extra way to Tubal-Cain), Vain Philosophy, Chronicles of the Kings, Falling Away (CoW), Four-Drachma Coin, Darkness LS/Lawless LS instead of Hunter/Wanderer (to have an extra way to Tubal-Cain), and an extra EE negate (main deck).
One concept I am considering is shifting from Futile Inquisition and Fire Foxes and running Orphans LS. In my game with Seth he got a block with Burial that really was the turning point of the game. I had a succesful rescue option that turn and he just got rid of all his meek LSs. Had that not happened I likely would have won the game we both agreed afterward. Cards like Burial (with meek LSs), Suicidal Swine Stampede, Just a Hireling (with meek LSs), and Death of Unrighteous offer a significant tempo shift and depending on how much of them are being run in the meta Orphans could be the right play here and cutting LS protection blocks from my defense.
Another concept I am considering is moving away from Angel of the Lord and running Complacent LS. In battle doms present a threat to my offense if I do not manage to get The Cross up. That being said David to AotL and the synergy with AotL/Simon and Matthew drawing into Angel of the Lord feels really good overall.
***EDIT (POST THRESHING FLOOR RELEASE):*** In recording the latest episode of The Threshing Floor podcast with John Hendrix he mentioned last tournament season when he ran Resetti he used The Herdsmen of Gerar for a turn 1 block to increase his odds of drawing into Three Nails for a manual activation the next turn. He mentioned that Jared Strauss (Hymn) has been using The Highwayman in his recent Resetti builds in a similar fashion. I realized through this the best way to help get to Three Nails is running BOTH Tubal-Cain and an evil character that draws a lot. I also realized the best drawing evil character in the game is probably Outsiders (Black/Gold). There are a few reasons for this: Outsiders is CBP by good cards, Outsiders not only can draw but it can get rid of opponents annoying counters along with drawing cards, and Outsiders can be a block in and of itself. And guess what? Outsiders is Evil Gold and fits perfectly with my Herod’s defense above. Due to this as you can see in the deck list I cut Fire Foxes for Outsiders (B/G) and then I removed Possessing Spirit from reserve since Outsiders ruins my unity. I put You Will Remain in that Reserve slot since my offense is quite susceptible to Christian Martyr and Falling Away (CoW) and I have found myself wanting a way other than The Cross to deal with these annoyances. Also Outsiders deals with counters like Possessing Spirit does. Then I actually decided to get rid of Contagious Fear in Reserve and put Foreign Wives there as a block option instead. The reasoning behind this is so I can run Orphans LS since the Burial block Seth did against me that won the game for him left a bad taste in my mouth. My defense now runs no Lost Soul protection/shuffle/underdeck blocks so Orphans fits great and really helps my offense. I cut Wanderer LS for it. I do wonder if I need Wanderer LS to deal with things like Undesirables and Crowds LS and could see an argument for potentially cutting Hunter LS for Wanderer. I like Hunter LS though as it helps me get to Distressed quicker.
Conclusion:
Overall I think both of these decks are in a good spot to fare well against turbo TC class decks. Which one is better? Well each has their advantages. The unity Babylonians version is able to run Darkness to Bab Merchants which is an extra unique way to interact turn 0. Also it has an extra way to Tubal-Cain to Three Nails through Darkness LS. However, the Herod defense version (in my opinion) is slightly better at blocking and due to that can run The Ascension instead of an extra EE enabling just as many ways to interact turn 0 due to the star ability on The Ascension being able to get to Salty LS. Which avenue is better? Getting to Salty is arguably stronger than Darkness to Bab Merchants but if Blind LS sees a lot of play having Darkness to Bab Merchants may be better. Also the Herod’s block better overall and having access to Possessing Spirit is fantastic. Beyond this being able to run Wanderer really helps my offense in being able to deal with annoying souls like Crowds LS, Punisher LS, and Undesirables LS. However, running Darkness LS in the unity Babs deck gives an extra way to Three Nails through Tubal-Cain. Please test these decks out and let me know which build you think is better!
I would appreciate any feedback you have on how to make these decks better. Happy deck building!
To buy singles, sealed product, and other gaming supplies mentioned, please visit our sponsors!
Agurthewise
Enjoyed listening, will listen again.