Some strong cards can get forgotten over time. Check out this deck build which resurrects some older treasures paired with a newer defense that has fantastic synergy.
Introduction:
One of the things I enjoy the most about running a local play group is helping play group members refine their decks/building decks for newer play group members. Some of these decks naturally are not very competitive since they are crafted out of the cards a local play group member has in their collection. That being said some of the members of my play group have been playing for a couple years now and have amassed a collection that is able to be used to build a competitive deck. Leading up to Nationals this year three of my play group members were getting ready to go to Nationals for the first time. I helped craft/refine decks for them to use at Nationals. We kept these decks secret to try and give my young play group members the best chance at success going into Nationals. I already shared one of these deck builds “Black Widow” here.
Now I am going to share the second deck build. This deck was piloted by Daniel M. from my group. The inspiration for this deck was not an original concept from my brain but actually came from a deck built/piloted by Redemption National Champion Zac Cornell two seasons ago at the 2022 Iowa State to a 1st place finish in a very strong field. You can check out that deck build here. This deck was built prior to the 1 Territory Class Enhancement per turn rule but I realized with some tweaks of my own to the offense and a more fitting GoC Herod based defense to pair with the offense the deck build is quite solid in the 1 TCE format.
This deck is called Valley Girls due to the four female heroes included in the offense and their “bling” the Gold defense.
The Deck:
Valley Girls (50 cards):
1 Son of God [K]
1 The Second Coming
1 Angel of the Lord (J)
1 Three Woes (RoJ)
1 Chronicles of the Kings (LoC)
1 Crowd's Choice (GoC)
1 Mayhem (FoM)
1 Lost Soul (Distressed)
1 Lost Soul (Darkness)
1 Lost Soul "Harvest" (John 4:35) (GoC)
1 Lost Soul (Jeremiah 22:3) (Orphans)
1 Lost Soul (Prosperity)
1 Lost Soul "Lost Souls" [Proverbs 2:16-17] (Roots)
1 Lost Soul (Humble)
1 Lost Soul (Hopper) (FoM)
1 David's Harp (Promo)
1 Book of the Covenant (PoC)
1 The Cross (GoC)
1 Goliath's Curse [L]
1 The New Covenant (I/J+)
1 Overtaken
1 Covenant with Moses [L]
1 Golgotha (GoC)
1 Herod's Temple (GoC)
1 The Angel of the Winds
1 Naaman's Servant Girl
1 Hannah
1 The Woman with Child (RoJ)
1 Esther, the Courageous (PoC)
1 The Twenty-Four Elders (RoJ)
1 David, Heart After God / David, the Contrite (LoC Plus)
1 Mordecai (PoC)
1 Music Leader
1 Moses, the Servant
1 Love Righteousness
1 Virgin Birth
1 Life Through Christ
1 Royal Parade (LoC)
1 Faith Unbowed (LoC)
1 Lost Child Found (GoC)
1 Reprimand / Repercussion (GoC)
1 The Deceiver (RoJ)
1 Herod's Guard (GoC)
1 Herod Agrippa I (GoC)
1 Herod the Great (GoC)
1 Herod Archelaus (GoC)
1 Herodias' Daughter (GoC)
1 Outsiders (Black/Gold) (RoJ)
1 Revolt
1 Foreign Spears (LoC)
Reserve:
1 Oath of Purity (LoC)
1 You Will Remain
1 No Need for Spices (GoC)
1 Temple Dedication
1 The Lord Goes Before You
1 Herod's Executioner
1 Foreign Wives
1 Herod Antipas (GoC)
1 Futile Inquisition (GoC)
1 Contagious Fear (GoC)
Objective #1- Low Brigade Count:
Matthew and Soul Hide I felt were the biggest threats going into Nationals this season. To deal with Matthew you really have three options: 1) Run plenty of ways to Herdsmen of Gerar 2) Run plenty of ways to Crowds LS turn 0 and 3) Run a low brigade count in the deck. This deck takes the low brigade count approach. Zac’s original deck was low brigade count overall due to the close to mono-Orange defense aside from Divining Damsel, Did God Really Say?, and The Wages of Sin.
This updated version for 1 TCE has an overall low brigade count with The Deceiver, Outsiders (B/G), and Foreign Spears on defense main deck being the only evil cards with a brigade other than Gold on them. In terms of support cards Goliath’s Curse and Overtaken add brigades.
In the offense main deck the only high brigade count cards are Life Through Christ and Royal Parade. Golgotha is also high brigade count as a neutral card. Overall then this deck helps to limit how much Matthew draws by limiting the overall brigade count.
Objective #2- Individual Rescue/Blocking Potential:
One realization I had back with the Soul Surfer deck I shared months ago that I won the 2023 Oregon State Tournament and the 2023 Northwest Regional Tournament with as well as a RobM Zoom Series tournament is that cards with individual rescue and blocking potential are quite strong in the 1 TCE meta.
With strong cards against demons in GoC including The Expatriator and His Sacrifice I felt departing from the demon defense Zac had in his original version of this deck build would be best. Also Herod’s pair incredibly well with this White offense due to Reprimand/Repercussion. Typically in my take on the Herod defense I run Foreign Wives main deck and Herod Antipas in Reserve (this is the way I run the defense in Soul Surfer) but in this deck which is seeking to limit brigade count Foreign Wives is better to have in Reserve. Every character in the defense creates their own blocking potential but either tutoring for a battle winner, protection, CtA/Herod’s Temple (Herod the Great), or even straight up removal (Outsiders).
The offense also contains all characters who create their own rescue potential aside from Naaman’s Servant Girl who is here for soul gen and Music Leader who is here for resource generation. Both David and The Woman with Child can tutor for Angel of the Lord or Chronicles of the Kings. WwC can tutor for Crowd’s Choice as well to go to any battle winner in deck or to Mayhem to draw a bunch of cards. Moses, the Servant can tutor for Royal Parade, Faith Unbowed, or Covenant with Moses. David can also tutor for all of these. The Twenty-Four Elders is so strong with FBTN backed by a battle winner (of which there are plenty in this deck). Mordecai backed by Covenant with Moses, Royal Parade, or Faith Unbowed is great with the CBN and also his ability to shut down cards like Saul of Tarsus is so good while he can also go to Esther who is really good against soul hide and creates her own rescue potential as well. Hannah can draw cards but also she is great against soul hide and almost always gets initiative. Overall I am happy with any of the heroes in deck turn 1 since even though Music Leader does not create its own rescue potential Music Leader turn 1 is a huge boon for resource generation.
Objective #3- Resiliency against Soul Hide:
As was mentioned earlier going into Nationals 2023 I felt Matthew and Soul Hide were the biggest threats in the meta. Esther and Hannah are very good against soul hide providing solid rescue options with protection of souls. Orphans LS helps against Soul Hide as well and Harvest LS/Naaman’s Servant Girl/”Lost Souls” LS, and Hopper LS provide soul gen that does not require a search avoiding triggering Annas.
Objective #4- Resiliency against Nazareth:
This deck has 8 ways main deck to deal with Nazareth (Crowd’s Choice to Three Woes, Three Woes, Darkness LS to Outsiders (B/G), Outsiders (B/G), Herodias’ Daughter, Goliath’s Curse, Foreign Spears, and Lost Child Found). This provides the deck with great overall resiliency against the problematic Nazareth.
Objective #5- Resiliency against Holy of Holies:
The deck has 10 ways main deck to deal with Holy of Holies (Crowd’s Choice to Chronicles of the Kings, Chronicles of the Kings, Three Woes, Humble LS, Lost Child Found, David, HAG to Chronicles of the Kings and 4 additional ways to David beyond Crowd’s Choice including Love Righteousness, David’s Harp to Love Righteousness, and Virgin Birth to David).
Offense:
This offense is quite strong. The number one rescue this deck looks for is 24 Elders particularly protected 24 Elders through Life Through Christ or Temple Dedication. This deck runs seven artifacts providing plenty for 24 Elders to shuffle to get the FBTN effect. The deck has 7 ways to get to 24 Elders main deck (Crowd’s Choice, David’s Harp (to Love Righteousness), The Angel of the Winds, Love Righteousness, Life Through Christ, 24 Elders itself, and Virgin Birth). It is important to note since this deck runs four female heroes there is a solid chance that Virgin Birth will be able to tutor for 24 Elders from deck. Also this version of the deck runs Herod’s Temple instead of Solomon’s Temple as Herod the Great and the defense overall want Herod’s Temple support. Herod’s Temple paired with 24 Elders is solid. Also Woman with Child works well with Herod’s Temple as well.
The deck is super consistent since those 7 ways to 24 Elders can also be used to get to The Woman with Child which is a fantastic turn 1 rescue as well being able to search for Crowd’s Choice to go to Mayhem to draw a bunch of cards if the hand count is low.
There are 6 ways to David, HAG in the deck.
There are also 7 ways to Esther since Mordecai can go to Esther.
The deck has 6 ways to all other heroes (Crowd’s Choice, David’s Harp (to Love Righteousness), The Angel of the Winds, Love Righteousness, Virgin Birth, and the hero itself). This is solid consistency overall and then Music Leader (and having 6 total ways to it main deck) means the deck has further consistency with Music Leader being able to search for so many heroes in the deck as well as battle winners.
As was mentioned earlier this offense is all about rescue potential with the characters creating their own. This is a key area I adjusted the deck from the version Zac built. I cut both Jesse and Obed and put Esther in and an extra evil character. I feel in the 1 TCE environment getting to Jesse and Obed is less reliable and Esther is a far better rescuer than either of them while also making Virgin Birth more likely to be able to tutor for a hero main deck. I cut Elimelech for The Angel of the Winds which seems very good with Fifth Seal to Love Righteousness no longer being a good option for going to any hero in the deck in the 1 TCE world.
This offense also has two extra good battle-winners in comparison with Zac’s version since he ran 4 EE’s and I only run 3 EE’s and run Lost Child Found in the slot of the extra EE. Also one EE is Reprimand/Repercussion which can be a good battle winner as well. I feel I can get away with one less battle winner on defense due to the prevent on Herod’s Guard. Overall I feel this offense then packs more of a punch with these two extra battle winners that this defense with greater synergy allows for.
Covenant with Moses is run instead of Overcome! since “negate and discard” is stronger than “negate or discard”, it fits better with Mordecai, David, HAG, and Moses, the Servant being O.T., and it is another artifact for 24 Elders to shuffle.
Outside of the aforementioned 24 Elders and Woman with Child rescues there are other key rescues the deck looks for. David, HAG to Angel of the Lord, Chronicles of the Kings, or any of the O.T. battle winners is great. Moses, the Servant to an O.T. battle winner is great. Mordecai backed by an O.T. battle winner is great and the gals Esther and Hannah are great backed by a battle winner. The Lord Goes Before You works with so many characters in this offense (including Esther) and is a fantastic way to win a battle being practically CBN aside from if the opponent has something like Three Woes or Chronicles since it does not create special initiative. It is also worth noting Temple Dedication is not only strong with The Twenty Four Elders but also any of the other Musicians in the deck.
Defense:
Herod’s are the best defense to pair with this White offense due to Reprimand/Repercussion plain and simple. Beyond this they are one of the very best defenses in the game. Every single character creates its own blocking potential in this defense. Darkness LS, Golgotha, The Deceiver, and Herod’s Guard mean that I am getting to Herod the Great, Herod Archelaus, or Herod Agrippa I or Outsiders (B/G) with incredible consistency on turn 1 to get an ideal block turn one. The value in this cannot be underestimated. This defense reminds me a bit of the Demon defense ran by Zac in his deck similar to this one with Fallen Star, KoT, Red Dragon, Judean Mediums, Foreign Wives, Messenger of Satan, and Divining Damsel but I like the Herod defense better since I get to the character that is ideal for the block with far more consistency due to all the evil character tutors that I run. Herod’s Guard is just incredible plain and simple and is such a resource for this defense. Herod the Great, Archelaus, and Herod Agrippa I are all pretty self explanatory regarding their value. Foreign Wives is good in Reserve as an extra block option. Also Mayhem/Foreign Wives is so good. Outsiders (B/G) is fantastic for draw and also since it can deal with counters and can even be a block on its own. Also Outsiders (B/G) paired with Herod’s Temple is absurd allowing for Outsiders to be almost CBN other than by something like Three Woes due to the toss on Herod’s Temple.
A key boost to this defense is Overtaken. Overtaken fits very well in this deck build for the following reasons: 1) The deck has four heroes in it with “negated” in the special ability who can trigger Overtaken (24 Elders, Moses, the Servant, Mordecai, and Esther). This means that it is quite easy to trigger Overtaken while also making an optimal rescue. 2) This deck wants a mass of artifacts for 24 Elders to have for shuffling and so having an additional artifact is just fine. 3) Evil Gold is one of the very best defenses with Overtaken. Herod Archelaus, Herod Agrippa I, Herod’s Execution (with Overtaken up he can provide CBN protection to a Herod, NASTY), and Outsiders (B/G) all thrive with Overtaken support.
Herod Antipas is famous for a reason and creates to blocks potentially on his own due to Contagious Fear and Futile Inquisition. Also it is important to note Antipas/Contagious Fear work through Orphans LS due to Antipas’ Regardless of Protection clause. Also Antipas enjoys The Cross since then the opponent does not just Angel him or Woes him.
Herodias’ Daughter is really strong for clearing the board of annoyances and can go to any of my big Herods or Antipas.
In terms of main deck battle winner support Repercussion, Revolt, and Foreign Spears provide negates for if Herod’s Temple or Overtaken are not active. It is important to note the support of Herod’s Guard means that less negates are necessary to back up the big Herods. Beyond this Chronicles of the Kings offers an additional battle winner for the defense.
Golgotha works so well with this defense and makes it quite resilient against FBTN heroes.
Utility Cards:
BotC [with YWR and Oath of Purity in Reserve], The Cross, Goliath’s Curse, David’s Harp, Herod’s Temple, Golgotha, and Overtaken all provide good support.
Book offers good support for the offense with battle extension through YWR as well as of course a way to deal with cards like Unusccessful. Oath of Purity is important for being able to reuse David, HAG as well as clearing Music Leader or 24 Elders if an opponent places Three Woes on them. Also if Life Through Christ is in hand and 24 Elders is already in play and there is another strong rescue option available Oath can be used to bounce 24 Elders which can then be discarded and resurrected with protection the next turn by Life Through Christ.
The Cross works very, very well here in this deck. There is not a single CBN enhancement in the entire deck or Reserve. Also being able to activate it on Golgotha is great.
Goliath’s Curse is great for dealing with threats like Nazareth and Herod’s Temple.
David’s Harp is an MVP in this deck build being able to tutor for Love Righteousness, Royal Parade, The Lord Goes Before You, Temple Dedication, and YWR. Beyond this with all the lone musicians in the deck the in battle negate ability on David’s Harp is quite strong.
The merits of Overtaken have already been discussed in the defense section.
Beyond this I run New Covenant. The reason for this is being able to tutor for No Need for Spices, Reprimand, and Lost Child Found is really helpful in consistently having a battle winner as well as for dealing with counters through LCF.
Golgotha and Herod’s Temple assist the defense and Herod’s Temple also helps the offense.
Dominants:
The Dominant package is fairly straightforward. Mayhem is run to help with speed and assist with blocking by pairing well with Foreign Wives. The O.T. Son of God works great with David, HAG meaning both WwC and David, HAG can tutor for SoG. Also naturally the Angel of the Lord is O.T. so David can tutor for it.
Lost Souls:
It is refreshing with this deck build to not have to run a lost soul package that provides ways to deal with Matthew. This meant I can run Prosperity for extra consistency. Distressed/Humble/Orphans/”Lost Souls”/Harvest all feel quite important in the meta. Darkness is of course a staple.
Maybe Board:
Cards I have considered for this deck or have been in the list at one point or another include: Hind’s Feet, Philosophy, Overcome!, Grumbled LS, Complacent LS, Lawless LS, Foreign Horses, Covenant with David, Golden Cherubim, Rain Becomes Dust, The Amalekite’s Slave, Reclaimed by Egypt, “Today”, Blood Avenger, Righteous Seeker, Good Seed (Reserve), Sprinkled Blood, The Great White Throne, Covenant Keepers, Asaph, Jesse, Obed, Shipwreck, Sin and Justice (Reserve), Joy, Plague of Frogs, Shared Meal/Swept into the Sea (Reserve for both), Flight into Egypt, Christian Martyr, Angel from the Sun/Justin Martyr/Blood of the Lamb, Sheol, Kinsmen’s Agreement, Good Seed, Covenant of Prayer (Reserve), Storehouse, The Child is Born, Fearless Traveler, Elimelech, Zechariah, the Silent, Naomi’s Blessing, Golden Calf, Rain Becomes Dust, and Land of Moab.
Conclusion:
Overall this deck build is super solid and can hold its own in the current meta. I spent many hours refining this deck build to its current state and feel it is quite close to being optimized. Once again the deck features some cards that have overall been forgotten by some and is not a standard type of list but somewhat novel in this meta. I hope you enjoy this deck list!
Change Log:
(02-16-2024)
Deck-
Cut Lawless LS and added “Lost Souls” LS
Cut Golden Cherubim and added Goliath’s Curse [L]
Cut Covenant with David and added Overtaken
Cut The Amalekite’s Slave and added Moses, the Servant
Cut No Need for Spices and added Lost Child Found
Cut Herod Antipas and added Herodias’ Daughter
Cut Reclaimed by Egypt and added Foreign Spears
Reserve-
Cut “Today” and added Herod’s Executioner
Cut Lost Child Found and added No Need for Spices
Cut Herodias’ Daughter and added Herod Antipas
Explanation-
Most of these changes are centered around making the deck build more resilient against Nazareth decks. Goliath’s Curse is great for dealing with Nazareth and other annoyances like Moses (CoW) and Herod’s Temple. Golden Cherubim is great but Goliath’s Curse is more important. Covenant with David is a typical card in deck builds seeking to abuse 24 Elders since Music Leader can recur it to give 24 Elders an artifact to shuffle. Also in this build the artifact side can tutor for David, HAG as well as most of the defense. That being said its high brigade count is not great and Overtaken is fantastic with the defense while also being an artifact and maintaining artifact mass for 24 Elders. This deck has 4 heroes with “negated” in the special ability meaning triggering Overtaken is quite easy to do. “Lost Souls” is just fantastic and makes soul gen a distant worry and helps account for The Amalekite’s Slave being gone losing some soul gen. Since the deck runs Darkness LS I think 7 main deck EC’s is enough and Moses, the Servant is a great boost to the offense. No Need for Spices is a great card with 24 Elders but contingency is key in a meta with annoyances like Nazareth, Overtaken, and Holy of Holies running around and Lost Child Found can deal with all of those. Herodias’ Daughter provides another way to deal with Nazareth and Antipas does just fine in Reserve. Lastly Foreign Spears is preferable over Reclaimed by Egypt since it can deal with Nazareth.
As far as changes to the Reserve No Need for Spices practically swapped spots with Lost Child Found and Antipas swapped spots with Herodias’ Daughter. Now with the rule changes since Three Woes and 24 Elders can deal with Sheol “Today” is not as necessary and Herod’s Executioner is a great add providing potential CBN protection with Overtaken active.
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