Aiden Reisenbigler

Introduction:

I have been working on this deck build since spring 2023 and it is my take on a Soul Hide deck build. The build had some success in TEAMS where I used an earlier version of it and my teammate and I placed 2nd in TEAMS at Nationals 2024.

I have updated the build post Times to Come which gave it some nice new cards that help the build out significantly.

Summary:

Soul Hide:

Achieve It: I have long been a fan of turbo Moses decks. You might recall an article series I posted on the forums with turbo Moses decks a while back. Well I realized that soul hide pairs perfectly with Moses since he negates lost souls anyway and he shuts down threats to the soul hide strategy like Orphans/Thorns Lost Souls. Overall this deck runs a pretty standard soul hide defense with a couple unique innovations. The Amalekite’s Slave gives an additional way to Annas the Elder and can be tutored for by Egypt.

Turbo Moses:

The deck has 9 ways to Moses including himself (Crowd’s Choice, David’s Harp (to Covenant with David), Covenant with David, Egypt, Pharaoh’s Daughter, The Angel of the Winds, Moses himself, Faith, and Surreptitious Scheme (to Crowd’s Choice). Overall the deck is very consistent at achieving turn 1 Moses especially considering meek lost souls are run for the soul hide strategy meaning Darkness LS is not another way to Moses (through Pharaoh’s Daughter).

Powerful Offense:

This offense is built around the premise of using FBTN effects (Moses and Jairus), choose the blocker effects (Zaccheus and Elijah), and toss effects (Jairus/Jairus Daughter) all within the color palette of Green/Gold which share key enhancements together that also work with Moses (CoW). The synergy is strong in this offense and you will notice the FBTN characters have plenty of enhancements between deck/reserve to back them up. This build also seeks to utilize banding in Amos of Tekoa for a CBI battle winner via Faith of Samuel and Gathered Together. The gold heroes or Jeremiah, the Weeper can also use Oath of Purity in Reserve to band to Amos. David, Heart after God is the one character who is not Green or Gold but he has amazing synergy in this build being able to grab Plague of Frogs, Plague of Darkness, Angel of the Lord, Chronicles of the Kings, or Son of God (K). One play I really like is with initiative in battle playing The Emmaus Road on one of my Green or Gold heroes and tutoring for David, HAG with Emmaus Road and adding him to battle with Emmaus Road to tutor for Angel of the Lord or Chronicles of the Kings or Son of God or a OT GE battle winner. Nifty!

In terms of support pieces for the offense, The Cross works well with the offense and defense providing good support to both. Tossing Amazing Faith off The Cross is a cool effect. Oath of Purity is great for rescuing and then banding in Moses with it since it is CBI. Wastelands is important for getting rid of Golgotha which can really be a damper on the FBTN rescues in this build

Contingency:

Faith helps me to recur Moses if he is discarded. Oath of Purity allows for me to bounce Moses if he gets negated. Goliath’s Curse, The Brood of Vipers, and Prince of the Air all help with dealing with annoyances like Herod's Temple. Imprisoned Prophet and Chronicles of the Kings help with dealing with problematic artifacts.

Maybe board:

Cards that have been considered and could work with this deck include: The New Covenant, Tested By Fire, The Expert Lawyer, Outsiders (B/G), Samuel, Born of Prayer, Jeremiah, Hope Bringer, Noah (LoC), Obadiah's Hidden 100, The Lord Goes Before You, Stricken, The Herdsmen of Gerar, Glory of the Lord (winner promo), Scattered Sheep or Gibeonite Trickery in Reserve for The Woman of Thebez to tutor for, Vow for Samuel (Reserve), Scarlet Line, Noah’s Ark (Ark of Salvation), Damascus (Moses tutor through Pharaoh’s Daughter), Elisha, Jephthah’s Daughter/Jephthah, Goliath, Chariot of Fire, Herod’s Temple, High Priest Ananias, Two Bears (reserve), Medad, Captive Priest, Steady till Sunset (reserve), Rain Becomes Dust, Spirit of Elijah (reserve), Mount Sinai, Aaron (IR), Abandonment, Falling Away (CoW), High Priest’s Plot, Captive Priest, Wall of Protection, All the Curses, Out of Bethlehem (reserve), Foreign Wives, Golgotha, The Wages of Sin, The Ends of the Earth, The Mighty Warrior, Moses’ Staff, Confusion of Mind, Word of Their Testimony, Search, New Covenant (Ezekiel) (reserve), and Sign of Jonah (reserve).

Conclusion:

Overall this deck is fun to play and I am pleased with the deck due to the creative thinking that went into to piecing it all together. I think the deck build is strong and personally due to it getting to Moses (CoW) so consistently turn 1 to deal with counters to the soul hide strategy it is probably among the better soul hide builds.

I hope you enjoy this deck build and if you have any insights for me on the build feel free to share. Happy deck building!

Change Log:

(03-05-2026):

Deck-

Cut The New Covenant and added Plague of Darkness.

Cut Outsiders (B/G) and added Prince of the Air.

Cut Samuel, Born of Prayer and added Twenty Shekels.

Cut Jeremiah, Hope Bringer and added Jeremiah, the Weeper.

Cut Noah (LoC) and added Amos of Tekoa.

Reserve-

Cut The Expert Lawyer and added The Brood of Vipers.

Cut Tested by Fire and added Gathered Together.

Explanation:

These changes are focused on making the deck build better against Prince of the Air. Getting rid of Jeremiah, Hope Bringer and Noah (LoC) cuts down on the brigade count of the offense and also opens up strong alternate rescue approaches via Jeremiah, the Weeper to Oath of Purity or Gathered Together in Reserve and using those to band to Amos for instance. Having Amos paired with Faith of Samuel and Gathered Together is a strong rescue to back up the FBTN and CtB rescues in this deck build.

I went back to Plague of Darkness over The New Covenant since it works with every hero in the deck and is therefore valuable in my mind. Also with Tested by Fire gone having a battle winner that removes all the ECs in battle is needed.

Prince of the Air is a natural fit in this build for soul hide. Twenty Shekels should have been in here long ago since paired with the CtB of Elijah/Zaccheus and also paired with the removal of Zaccheus and now Amos being able to play an opponent's only viable EC from hand and then remove it from play is quite strong. Twenty Shekels also helps against Prince of the Air with being able to play Prince of the Air out and then shuffle it with Zaccheus or Amos.

In terms of changes to the Reserve The Brood of Vipers was needed a while ago due to being able to get around Guardian of Your Souls. Gathered Together slots in over Tested by Fire due to the synergy with Jeremiah and Amos.

(01-30-2025):

Deck-

Cut The Herdsmen of Gerar and added Samuel, Born of Prayer.

Cut Abimilech, King of Gerar and added The Woman of Thebez.

Cut Philistine Armor Bearer and added The Chief Priests.

Cut Plague of Darkness and added The New Covenant (I/J+).

Cut Stricken and added Tenants Kill the Son.

Reserve-

Cut The Lord Goes Before You and added Holy Ground.

Cut Tenants Kill the Son and added Wastelands.

Explanation:

This revision is post Israel’s Inheritance and is based upon things I learned piloting the former version of the build in TEAMS at Nationals 2024. I did make one change from the former version (02-06-2024) to the version I ran at Nats which was I swapped out Plague of Darkness for The New Covenant (I/J+). The New Covenant is better in my mind since it gets me to Amazing Faith faster which is far preferable to Plague of Darkness as a battle winner. Also being able to tutor for The Emmaus Road before Moses (CoW) is in play is nice for getting to Jairus. This change performed well at Nats in TEAMS. Beyond this as a result of piloting the deck in TEAMS at Nats, I realized that the Herdsmen of Gerar package is nice against Matthew decks but really fits badly overall with what the build is trying to do. The build does not want to draw cards as drawing cards goes against the hiding souls strategy. Due to this most of the changes in this update involve getting rid of The Herdsmen of Gerar package for cards which fit with the soul hide strategy better. Fitting with this, The Herdsmen of Gerar is cut for Samuel, Born of Prayer who is a great new tool from the new set for Soul Hide builds as he can potentially underdeck souls with his ability. The Woman of Thebez is a great block and fits very well in this defense offering more blocking power to the defense. So much better than Abimelech here. Philistine Armor Bearer was only in as a way to Herdsmen and The Chief Priests is vastly superior for the Soul Hide approach giving another way to Annas the Elder, Plotting Priests, Malchus, as well as Dubious Doubters/Supercilious Scribes in Reserve. Tenants Kill the Son is a much stronger blocking tool than Stricken and gets the nod main deck due to that.

In Reserve Wastelands takes the spot Tenants filled and is important for getting rid of Golgotha which is significant annoyance for the FBTN based offense in this build and is another way around an opponent’s Cross that might be stopping Burial. Holy Ground works great with Moses, Noah, and Jairus and is a better option than The Lord Goes Before You due to this.

(02-06-2024):

Deck-

Cut Chariot of Fire and added Son of God (K).

Cut Herod’s Temple and added The Cross (GoC).

Cut Storehouse (Promo) and added Storehouse (IR).

Cut Elisha (PoC) and added Noah (LoC).

Cut Steady till Sunset and added Ehud’s Dagger (ROOTS).

Cut The Chief Priests and added Outsiders (B/G).

Cut Tenants Kill the Son and added Goliath’s Curse (L).

Reserve-

Cut Goliath and added Tenants Kill the Son.

Cut The Brood of Vipers and added You Will Remain.

Explanation:

This set of changes is all about providing resiliency against Nazareth and Honey Pot decks and making the deck better when it comes to rescuing. Son of God (K) is slotted in instead of Chariot of Fire since soul hide decks are not as prevalent and Humble LS is very common. With all the FBTN on the offense SoG is necessary to get rid of Humble LS. The Cross pairs really well with the offense and defense since the only CBN enhancement in the deck is Amazing Faith which has synergy with Zaccheus choosing a blocker with toughness 7 or less and tossing Amazing Faith off The Cross. Storehouse (IR) is the preferable option to Storehouse (Promo) in this build since the defense likes to recur Just a Hireling and potentially Tenants Kill the Son with The Expert Lawyer. Noah (LoC) is great for dealing with Nazareth and without Chariot of Fire is a stronger rescuer than Elisha (LoC). With the strong concentration of Green GE’s Noah does not even have to commit to meek to be effective. Ehud’s Dagger is a stronger battle winner than Steady Till Sunset and pairs better with The Cross. I hate cutting The Chief Priest’s but Outsiders (B/G) is necessary to have another way around Nazareth. With The Deceiver and Malchus I do feel I have enough ways to the EC’s in Reserve. Tenants Kill the Son is fantastic here but the other EE’s are more vital to have main deck and Goliath’s Curse is great against both Nazareth and Holy of Holies/Pot of Manna/Glory of the Lord decks.

Regarding the Reserve changes Tenants feels more vital than Goliath and with all the ways around Nazareth main deck Brood of Vipers can be cut for You Will Remain to help bolster the offense.

(10-10-2023):

Deck-

Cut High Priest Ananias and added Philistine Armor Bearer.

Cut Jephthah’s Daughter and added Steady till Sunset.

Reserve:

Cut Jephthah (J) and added Goliath (Promo).

Explanation: This update is centered on making the deck more resilient against Matthew by adding Philistine Armor Bearer and cleaning out “win more” in Jephthah’s Daughter/Jephthah. Having Steady till Sunset makes Moses a more reliable rescue as well as David, HAG. Beyond this now I have space for Goliath in reserve which makes Philistine Armor Bearer a nice option both turn 1 to get to Herdsmen of Gerar and later turns for getting to Goliath. I prefer Goliath in this meta over High Priest Ananias since with IR/Roots single brigade enhancements are going to see more play. The rule loophole regarding Goliath where the opponent can present your own heroes has been fixed.