Big Draw v5

This is the deck I played at my California local on 2/21/2026! It came 1st in a pool of 4 players.

Its looking to see how far we can push battle doms by playing the best ones in the game, and lots of them. The idea is to maximize draw power in a 100 card shell. The more cards we draw, the more battle dominants we can draw into. It is a variation of the deck I played at Nationals 2025, except that instead of Herod's, its using black. It's also playing a lot more good enhancements and less banding than the previous version of the deck.

Offense

Plan is to do T1 matthew things and get the ball rolling with clay cards that draw and 4 drachma coin. This deck is capable of some of the best attacks in the game in my opinion, between Root of Jesse, 2x I Am He, 5 great offensive battle doms, Book of the Law, Lazarus, Simon the Zealous choose the blocker. People have instinctively learned to not play their evil characters down against clay decks b/c of Simon the Zealous, and that's where my phase 2 comes in. The cherry on top of the offense is the Impartial Judgement combo in the reserve that can wipe out all of the evil cards in the opponent's hand. The idea is if you have Ride On in your hand, you can use Ashael to get Jotham, Jotham get Impartial Judgement, then nuke their hand of evil cards without the option for them to do anything about it. If you don't have Ride on Yet, pop your Concealed Riches to grab David + Jotham + Impartial Judgement, attack with David, grab Ride On, band to meek Jotham, then play Ride On to land the Impartial Judgement. If they have hand protection, bounce it with Lost Child Found before going for the kill. I could see a version of this deck that plays the Church of Christ and goes more all in on the combo. Its my opinion that this package is one of the scariest in the games if pulled off properly. Time will tell if its better than the traditional Book of the Covenant + Eternal Inheritance late game clay piles have historically ran. The downside of this combo is it is risky. One Second Coming -> Three Woes -> negate impartial judgement is a blowout for you and you probably would have been better off saving Ride On for Simon + Choose the blocker + Authority of Christ.

Holy Priesthood is for the problem that is Abomination of Desolation. If you try to push lone disciples into battle against a deck that can activate this card on a whim, traditionally you'd be in trouble. It's my opinion each offense in redemption will need to figure out an answer to this if they plan to push lone heroes into battle. The reason I choose Holy Priesthood instead of the other GoC negate netural card is that Holy Priesthood gets around Plunders -> Highwayman -> Crimson/Brown Outsiders -> Abom. I lost to that combo at TCJ last year, and I'm trying to learn my lessons.

In the tournament, the deck had to fight through a T1 Guardian of Your Souls. If that card didn't exist, there is no doubt in my mind this deck would be the strongest deck in the format. Guardian handicaps your offensive and defensive plans, and was the reason I chose to try out Nativity (to not much success) late 2025. I hate being so disrupted by one card. If I expect Guardian to be more widely played, then I could add more Goliath's Curses and other ways to pop it in territory before attacks.

Defense

I love Goliath right now as the #1 answer against Daniel the Apocalyptist banding chain. They come in, you block with Goliath and push the chain out. Herod's can't really block Daniel in my opinion. If you want to block Daniel as a Herod's player, you are going to need a lot of No Straw and not have to rely on Herod's Temple + Herod Agrippa I. The other reason I chose black was to maximize card draw. Herod's aren't known for drawing cards, but black certainly is. I can threaten herdsmen consistently T1 as a counter to early explosive draws. And if you are going meek souls, then Surreptitious Scheme is a great draw engine + way to get to your best battle doms.

Overall I don't feel great about the defense but I'm just trying things out at this point. Maybe there's a version that tries to splash Prince of the Air + Judean Mediums, but not sure what I'd cut. I know the deck is weak to Jaddua and Meshac, but what 100 card defense isn't weak to them?

Souls

Its a big sacrifice to not play a soul lockdown deck and play meeks. I still don't know if its the right approach. But I wanted to continue pursuing the "draw at all cost" strategy and get some battle doms that actually do something against Daniel. The dream is to get an early Herod's Temple down and then play a Harvest Time and put the 1st on top of your deck, then activate Herod's Temple 4 times on offense and defense for a +4 draw each battle phase. I would say the biggest sacrifice here is loosing the Humble and Crowds lost souls. Confusion of Mind/Holy of Holies is a concern for this offense to work through without Humble. Would also be nice to get Herdsmen under a Humble, but this is the price I'm paying to get to be able to play Led Astray and Burial.

If people are playing cards that restrict evil doms, my plan is to negate them in battle and then play my doms. For example, if The Lord's Army attacks at the end of a Daniel band, I can prince of Greece negate it, then play Burial/Led Astray. Or Armor Bearer -> equip Foreign Spears negate that. If there is a Complacent or Cross down, I can add a Goliath's Sword to the reserve and use Philistine armor bearer to equip it in battle. Goliath's Sword can negate neutral cards for a phase, which is all the time I need!