War & Mayhem! V2

This is a new version of my War & Mayhem deck that brings in Herods on defense to give me access to Herod's Treachery to accomplish the same goal as what the original version was getting from Surreptitious Scheme, but with more straightforward lines of play. Many of the changes in this build came from conversations with Emmanuel and Mitch at the Kentucky State Tournament and features some additional lines of play I have been wanting to test out for a while now.

One of those changes I had been contemplating was adding The Restored Land to the main deck. This gives the option for sniping 3 ECs on your ideal rescue attempts, but more importantly (and more realistically), this boosts the consistency of sniping at least 2 ECs. At Kentucky State, with my original version of the deck, I threw The Restored Land in the deck as a 51st card and suprisingly, in 3 of 4 games, I had all the peices to sequence my attack to hit 3 ECs. Against Mitch in the first game, I misplayed as I sequenced my attack in my head while carrying out other prep phase actions and equipped a weapon to Abishai that I intended to equip to David. I believe Mitch was willing to let me take it back, but I wouldn't do that because hard lessons make better players in the end. Because David was not able to get into battle, I did not get to trigger The Restored Land in that game for the 3rd EC hit or get Joab in the battle to discard an additional EE from the opponent's deck as I lost David's band ability. Mitch ended up using an EC ability to grab Reap the Whrilwind and shuffled away all my heroes. That was all he needed to coast the rest of that game. But across my other 3 games, I saw the impact of The Restored Land on this build and play strategy, so it is a lock in the deck moving forward.

This version also features a Concealed Riches play that allows me to repurpose the Reserve for a few new things. Building on the lockdown strategy of Nazareth, this version also features The Cross since I will have Golgotha in play most of the time. I also have the option to grab Possessing Spirit and Simon to set up a potential limited interaction rescue attempt by using Jehu's exchange ability to bring Simon in after my warriors have gained their abilities. But by far, the biggest impact from the Reserve could be the Devouring Philistines line of play. Love can convert him and make him a purple warrior which would protect him in territory and make him CBP. This gives the potential option to force the opponent to discard up to 9 cards in territory, and with Eleazar's Sword in the battle, this will sidestep most protect abilities. The Devouring Philistines and Love play to make him a purple warrior is something I have been sitting on since the warriors first debuted at Michigan Nationals in 2024.

This version of the deck changes quite a few things and streamlines a lot of others. To make all of these new lines of play fit, I did have to lose Helmet which I valued pretty high for the versatility of being a 1st turn hand look and then Reserve access, but more importantly, it shifts the ratio of weapons in the deck which could be impactful if you are not able to equip your Jehu and/or David on that first turn. I also ended up dropping Joshua from the hero lineup as I found him to be less impactful in the games I played versus the impact I expected him to have. I think he could potentially come back in at some point, but for now, he is out. One benefit that gives me is all my heroes are now purple brigade. This allows me to actually use Bearing Our Sin to heal and add to battle in those fringe cases where I can actually take advantage of that.

This version will definitely need some testing to gauge the impact of the changes and ensure that the deck still functions as well as it did previously. From initial goldfishing, it appears enough elements remain to combo off with a turn 1 Mayhem, so the odds of getting that play are still very, very high. However, the Mayhem play is only the means to an end with that end being the ability to ambush the opponent's deck and remove defensive resources before the opponent can leverage them against you in battle. Testing will prove if this lineup can adequately accomplish that.