Starstruck

Introduction:

This build is the hyper version of my work on the Starstuck consistency engine that seeks to topdeck a good Dominant and get it to hand via Star abilties and soul abilities. This is a powerful consistency engine very consistently getting a desired good Dominant to hand turn 1.

This build seeks to utilize this by getting to Numerous as the Stars via Crowd's Choice and setting up a bunch of territory class heroes who serve as counters.

Explanation:

This build features the usual Starstuck consistency package that has been developed further with the realization that Transfiguration has a star ability that can topdeck a Good Dominant from deck. I have 6 different star abilities that get me to Numerous as the Stars turn 0 in this build (Fishing Boat, both Johns, Saint Patrick, and Transfiguration) supported by 8 cards that can get that topdecked Dominant to hand (Grumbled LS, Shepherds LS, Prosperity LS, Lawless LS (can’t get Saint Patty topdeck Numerous), Sign of Jonah (star), Offering Your Son (star), Virgin Birth (star), and Bearing Our Sin (star). This provides remarkable consistency at getting to Numerous as the Stars turn 1 paired with Crowd’s Choice offering another way. Bless the Nations and Moses star abilities add further consistency.

This build as you can see runs so many star cards so when I do get Numerous I am able to tutor for an abundance of heroes. I mainly want to tutor for Nicanor/Parmenas, Jonah, Matthew, and John. If I can I go for Enosh and Mary, Faithful Servant as well. I realized Nicanor/Jonah are a great counter pairing as they really limit the opponent heavily making drawing and searching not a real possibility without great cost. Add in Enosh to negate neutrals and an oppressive board state is established. The counters in this build only hurt my opponent not me.

I realized Parmenas is far better than Widow’s Tables to activate Nicanor’s ability and in fact Parmenas is a great offensive tool being a stronger option than Matthias or Zaccheus when banded in with John, the Fisherman off The Resurrection, The Ascension, or the like since he can negate and remove an evil character from battle backed by John’s toss ability. There is a cost of course to activating Paremenas ability but I have plenty of Clay enhancements to spare. I have three different ways to band him/John in together due to The Resurrection, The Ascension, and Bless the Nations.

In light of this I seek to get the counter characters down, draw with Matthew, and then pound the opponent with rescues backed by John, the Fisherman and Parmenas banding tactics.

The Defense is small but I have found it is enough to block the opponent especially with the Saul of Tarsus support in Reserve.

Why have I not run this build in more games? This leads too…

THE RULING REVELATION:

Well you see in one of those games in fact the first game I ever used the build in my opponent wondered if he had Storehouse in play if that stopped Nicanor from working. I asked RedemptionAggie the question and he realized that indeed if the opponent has deck protection that stops Nicanor from working according to how the rules are currently written. This makes Nicanor slightly weaker as a counter than we initially thought as a community. You might recall Jeremy Chambers and Jay Chambers both ran a deck build this past Nationals using Nicanor and this was not caught at Nationals and likely would have impacted their results somewhat if it was. In light of this RedemptionAggie asked me to wait to publish my Starstruck (Numerous Nicanor) version until the Elders released an updated rules document and they could comment on this ruling. Recently though RedemptionAggie gave me permission to share this list.

Concluding Thoughts:

How strong is this build? Well it is a glass cannon. I think it can compete but if it goes second and the opponent goes first it will struggle. If this build goes first and combos it should do well. If it does not combo when going first it will struggle.

Overall this quest to craft a deck build using the Starstruck consistency engine to turbo to Numerous as the Stars to set up a fast start along with an oppressive board state has been fun. The builds can win quite a bit going first but struggle going 2nd.

Any feedback you have on the build would be much appreciated!

Maybe board:

Melchizedek (PoC), Bethlehem Stable, Satan’s Seat, Noah’s Ark (Ark of Salvation), Wall of Protection, Untouchable (Reserve), Good Seed (Reserve), Faith of Samuel (Reserve), Faith of Barak (Reserve), Awake LS, Scattered (Reserve), Jesse, Goliath, The New Covenant, Angel of the Lord, and Twenty Shekels.

Change Log:

(03-05-2026):

Deck-

Cut Manna and added Noah's Ark (Ark of Salvation).

Cut Blood Avenger and added Goliath.

Cut Melchizedek and added Mary, Faithful Servant.

Cut Crowds LS and added Orphans LS.

Cut OT Hopper and added NT Hopper.

Reserve-

Cut Elijah in Glory and added I Am He.

Explanation:

These changes are meant to help the build against Prince of the Air. Mary, Faithful Servant helps the rescuing heroes to not be destroyed by PotA and Noah's Ark (Ark of Salvation) helps protect the counter heroes.

I Am He helps offset the loss of Melchizedek's protection of lost souls from evil cards. Overall Goliath feels like the better blocker than Blood Avenger.