The Showstopper

Introduction:

I built this deck back in 2024 and have revised it a bit from the version I posted on Land of Redemption. It is a counter deck that is fun to play and seeks to turbo out Pact with Death/Holy of Holies. It seeks to turbo into one of these counters turn 1.

Summary:

Objective #1- Stop the Show:

The primary objective of this deck is to get Pact with Death or Holy of Holies active first turn through a tutor outside of battle to significantly hamper the opponent. Pact with Death is the preferred counter to tutor for as it negates all characters including OT Priests and prevents enhancements unless a character is opposed in battle. However, in a 1 TCE world and a world with the Reserve rule it is harder to guarantee a Turn 1 Pact with Death on its own. If you look at my old Covenant with Death decks you will notice it was easier to tutor for CwD since cards like Exiles LS (and Hunter LS with it) and Accursed of God could be used to tutor for CwD turn 1. Due to this in this build Holy of Holies is included since it is a slightly weaker version of Covenant with Death but still very good. I have not seen anyone build a deck featuring Pact with Death yet but have seen the notorious Holy of Holies/Pot of Manna builds. Those builds though rely on tutoring for a way to Holy of Holies in battle on the first turn. In my mind it is far better to get to one of these counters in prep phase on the first turn so they are in effect for the first rescue and you can go for a more optimal first turn rescue. With that in mind this deck build has 8 ways to tutor for Pact with Death and/or Holy of Holies on turn 1 outside of battle: Crowd’s Choice (to Pact with Death), Endless Treasures (to PwD), Delivered (to PwD or HoH), Offering Your Son (to PwD or HoH), The Annunciation (to Crowd’s Choice to PwD), Temple Dedication (to HoH), PwD itself, and HoH itself. Also of course if one of these 8 ways to one of these counters pre-battle turn 1 do not show up then Moses, the Servant, The Magi, and David, HAG all can tutor for Delivered to tutor for Pact with Death in discard phase on turn 1. This provides an additional five ways to PwD or HoH turn 1 since Aimless LS and Land of Moab all can get to Moses and David respectively. Technically Gabriel and Joseph the Betrothed can tutor for Annunciation in battle to tutor for Crowd’s Choice in battle to go to Delivered to play in discard phase to get one of the counters up if all else fails so that gives 7 total addtional ways to get one of the counters live turn 1. In total then there are 8 (and on occasion 9 ways) to get PwD or HoH live pre-battle on turn 1 and an additional 5 ways to get PwD (7 if you include Gabriel and Joseph) live by the end of turn 1 that require fetching a tutor in battle.

This deck therefore is immensely consistent at getting PwD or HoH set up to stop the opponent’s show.

Objective #2- Maintain My Show:

There is only one character in the deck that is hurt by PwD or HoH and that is The Herdsmen of Gerar. Every other Hero and Evil Character in deck/reserve is CBP or CBN. Herdsmen is included to deal with the threat of Matthew if an opponent goes first. There are some high brigade count cards main deck that are necessary tutors (Delivered, Offering Your Son, and Temple Dedication) making this deck vulnerable to Matthew.

Since Herdsmen is the only character impacted by PwD and HoH this deck functions quite well with characters being negated. Overall I far prefer this offense to the one in HoH/Pot of Manna builds I have seen with the rescuing characters generating their own rescue value quite well.

To maintain my show the deck has 5 ways to deal with good fortresses like Herod's Temple (Crowd’s Choice (to Three Woes), Three Woes, Goliath’s Curse, Foreign Spears, and Lost Child Found) providing the deck build with resiliency against that card that is problematic for it. The deck has 9 ways turn 0 to deal with Matthew (Crowd’s Choice to Herdsmen, Stricken (star), Lost Child Found (star to Outcry LS), Hunter LS (to Outcry LS), Outcry LS (to Herdsmen), Philistine Armor Bearer (to Herdsmen), The Deceiver (to Herdsmen), and Herdsmen itself. Dealing with these threats gives the deck resiliency.

Offense:

The offense in this deck is all about having characters who generate their own rescue potential. Gabriel, Moses, David, The Magi, and Joseph the Betrothed all can tutor directly for a battle winner from deck. Mary, Holy Virgin creates her own rescue potential via tutoring for Magnificat. Zechariah creates his own rescue potential by preventing the next enhancement played by opponent. Simeon creates his own rescue potential through hand control. Daniel is sneaky in Reserve by providing CTB support and connected with Glory of the Lord, the cheesy Falling Away with CTB rescue Daniel can be quite good here. Twenty Shekels paired with Mary and Daniel is great too enabling removal of the only good blocking option or CtB against a weak EC played from the opponent's hand. Twenty Shekels is key for maintaining unity for Mary, Holy Virgin if I do use a non-Gospel hero.

The offense is able to run The First Sacrifice and if I want to use TFS I just switch from PwD to Holy of Holies for that turn. There is great synergy with battle winners with every main deck hero having a minimum of three GE battle winners it can use. Every main deck hero has four GE battle winners it can use. I should not the three Nativity battle winners have very nice synergy with Annunciation negating non-nativity cards. In testing having LCF or Flight into Egypt backed by The Annunciation is great. Temple Dedication is also great with David and Moses offering essentially CBN protection.

Herod’s Temple is good with the Nativity humans to deal with stuff like Saul of Tarsus since if the opponent has init you can just create the toss environment. Overall the offense while not the flashiest offense out there has enough power particularly when the opponent’s characters are negate to punch through for the win.

Defense:

HoH/Pot of Manna decks tend to run a gray defense which pairs quite well with HoH having many CBN and CBP characters. While this is an option for sure I felt when going second being able to still go to Herdsmen of Gerar is important. Also black has more options for dealing with good fortresses such as Herod's Temple than Gray. Overall the defense is a pretty standard Black/Gray splash defense. The biggest EC I miss is Outsiders (B/G) but sadly it is negated by both HoH and PwD. Overall this defense is straightforward enough and does not need much explanation. Every character is unhindered by PwD and HoH other than Herdsmen giving good overall blocking potential.

I do like KoT and Emperor Claudius together providing coverage of protected blocks against OT and NT heroes all together.

Utility:

Captured Ark is run to deal with annoying artifacts like The Cross and Overtaken. Endless Treasures can tutor for it. Herod’s Temple not only supports some of the offense/defense by providing toss potential when numbers are favoring my character in battle but also Holy of Holies can be activated on HT which is huge if I need my artifact slot freed up for something like Captured Ark or Goliath’s Curse to deal with opponent’s counters. Also having both HoH and PwD up at the same time is great so if the opponent negates one with something like Three Woes the other will still be active. Land of Moab helps with consistency in being able to get David and Foreign Wives. You Will Remain helps the offense with resiliency and can be active alongside HoH if it is on HT.

For speed Denarius and Mayhem are included. Virgin Birth is great for its star ability but also for tutoring for Daniel.

Lost Souls:

Hunter/Outrcy are here for getting to Herdsmen or Goliath depending on the matchup. Aimless is in here for getting to Moses. Orphans is important since the offense is often liable to getting chump blocked by Fire Foxes, Moths, and Uzzah. Complacent fits well here with not a lot of battle winning doms being used that need to be played in battle.

Harvest and "Lost Souls" are needed for soul gen.

Maybe Board:

Cards I have considered for this deck build are Angel of the Lord, Prosperity LS, Darkness LS, Emperor Nero, False Prophecy (Reserve), arrest in Philipi (Reserve), Philistine Armor Bearer, Philistine Chariots, Assyrian Affliction, Magnifying Multitude, David's Harp, Prosperity LS, Good Seed, Hopper LS, Awake LS (to Outcry), Coliseum, The Cross, The Child is Born, Star of Bethlehem, Wastelands, The Coming Prince (Reserve), Shipwreck, The Lying Prophet, an additional way to bounce David (Jehoshaphat (reserve), Love Righteousness, Eleazar, Son of Aaron, Confusion of Mind, Philosophy (ROOTS), Life Through Christ, Simon Peter, Plague of Darkness, Two Bears (Reserve), Out of Bethlehem (Reserve), Not Alone (Reserve), Crowds LS package (Crowds, Escape, Awake), Live Coal, Fifth Bowl of Wrath, Martha/Mary, Holy Virgin instead of David/Moses, Betrayal, Idol Worship with a Canaanite defense as an extra tutor for PwD, False Peace with a false prophet defense as an extra PwD tutor, Worldly Wisdom with appropriate defense as a PwD tutor, and Wall of Protection.

Conclusion:

This deck was a lot of work but I am pleased with where it is at. The offense in particular came together really well and is strong in an environment with PwD/HoH active. Also the consistency of the deck in being able to get to the counters is great. I do wish the deck had space for some cards like Good Coliseum, Wall of Protection and Hopper LS. But in a deck seeking to be so consistent at accomplishing a certain objective it is hard to fit everything wanted.

This deck is strong and can hold its own that much I am sure of. Hope you enjoyed this article and happy deck building!

Change Log:

(03-06-2026):

Deck-

Cut Darkness LS and added Harvest LS.

Reserve-

Cut False Prophecy and added Lurking.

Explanation:

I realized this build doe not have enough soul gen hence the shift to Harvest LS. Also Lurking has better synergy with the main deck offense than False Prophecy working with all of those characters and being strong to band in Saul or Foreign Wives from Reserve.

(03-05-2026):

Deck-

Cut Angel of the Lord and added Glory of the Lord (winner promo).

Cut Harvest LS and added Darkness LS.

Cut Prosperity LS and added Complacent LS.

Cut David's Harp and added Twenty Shekels.

Cut House of Prayer and added Storehouse.

Cut Magnifying Multitude and added Mary, Holy Virgin.

Cut Philistine Armor Bearer and added Herod the Great.

Cut Foreign Wives and added King of Tyrus.

Cut Emperor Nero and added Emperor Claudius,

Reserve-

Cut Assyrian Affliction and added Captured Ark.

Cut Arrest in Philippi and added False Prophecy.

Cut Philistine Chariots and added Foreign Wives.

Cut Faith of Samuel and added Magnificat.

Cut Elijah and added Daniel, the Treasured.

Explanation of changes:

These changes are meant to provide better blocking power with HtG, KoT, and Claudius. Furthermore, Daniel the Treasured is a clear upgrade over Elijah in this build.

The dom change is meant to make Complacent LS work better in the build. Storehouse is much better than House of Prayer for hand protection and with moving off of Faith of Samuel I no longer need the dual testament tutor of HoP.

The Reserve changes also provide better blocking power. Twenty Shekels is needed to make Mary, Holy Virgin work and is just all around helpful with her strategy and the CtB of Daniel, the Treasured.

Darkness LS helps me have a block turn 1 more often.