Blues Clues

Introduction:

I had mentioned some details about this deck build on episode 54 of The Threshing Floor Podcast. It is called “Blues Clues”. This deck is an attempt to make Blue/Green viable in the meta and the deck build I have come up with offers some unique options many other builds do not have. This article had last been updated as of December 2024. I had been tinkering with it since then and have made significant revisions for the current meta. Times to Come certainly gave it a new tool in Amos.

I believe this deck build has decent overall utility in this meta dealing well with some of the major threats especially due to Abraham (CoW) dealing with the opponent's neutral cards.

Summary:

Objective 1- Strong Individual Character Value:

One drum I have been beating ever since the 1 TCE per turn rule took effect is the importance of strong individual character value. What I mean by this is characters on offense who create their own rescue potential and on defense who create their own blocking potential. Characters can do this by creating a potential battle winning environment through their ability or by directly tutoring for a battle winner through their ability. My “Soul Surfer” deck prioritizes characters like this.

Well “Blues Clues” prioritizes characters like this as well. Abraham (CoW) generates massive value by searching for The Three Visitors and banding to them who then can exchange to Jacob, Follower of God to search out a Genesis enhancement to back up the band (Bless the Nations and Abraham’s Servant to Ur are typical targets) or Joseph the Dreamer to search out Reserved for Famine or if I have Jacob or Joseph already I can go to Judah the Leader for the strong negate he has. Interestingly enough solo Joseph and solo Jacob create their own rescue potential since they can search out a battle winner to back themselves up solo. Abraham (CoW) is quite useful for negating the opponent’s neutral cards in a 100 card deck meta that seeks to power out a ton of annoying lost souls via Harvest Time. Abraham is also quite good against Abomination of Desolation centered blocks.

The Three Visitors has strong individual character value due to being able to go to Jacob or Joseph. Beyond this Elijah creates his own rescue potential through his choose the blocker ability. Benjamin the Young creates his own rescue potential by going to Joseph who can snag a battle winner. Chariot of Fire can add Elisha from Reserve to battle to shuffle evil dominants in the opponent’s hand and make green enhancements CBN. Elisha backed by Faith of Samuel, Gathered Together, Foreseen by Samuel, or Out of Bethlehem is strong. This rescue can be a great way to close out the game and is also good against defenses running fat characters or protected characters. Amos is a strong rescuer solo paired with Twenty Shekels by playing out an opponents lone EC if they only have on in hand and none in territory and then shuffling it away leaving them with no blocker. This does happen on occasion.

The defense of course runs characters who create their own blocking potential with Saul of Tarsus, High Priest Ananias, Goliath, The Herdsmen of Gerar, King of Tyrus, Emperor Claudius, Foreign Wives, and Outsiders (B/G).

Objective 2- Meta Interaction:

As was already mentioned this offense is well positioned in a 100 card deck meta that seeks to use tons of annoying lost souls due to Abraham’s negating of the opponent’s neutrals.

In my personal valuation two dangerous threats in the game are Matthew (GoC) due to the massive card advantage he can generate and the soul hide defense which can make it very difficult to rescue souls due to how consistently it can keep lost souls off the board.

“Blues Clues” has seven ways (Crowd’s Choice, Awake LS, Darkness LS, Hunter LS, Outcry LS, The Deceiver, and the card itself) to The Herdsmen of Gerar, and the star ability on Stricken for a total of eight ways to deal with Matthew turn 0. Also if I go first then Storehouse is an additional way to deal with Matthew.

For dealing with Soul Hide “Blues Clues” utilizes Awake LS, Orphans LS, “Lost Souls” LS, Benjamin the Young, and then the real showstopper: Chariot of Fire. As I surveyed cards that potentially interact with the soul hide defense Chariot of Fire really stood out since it means all you need to rescue to win the game is three lost souls. However, Chariot of Fire objectively is weaker than Son of God since it cannot negate annoying lost souls the opponent has. Also it has the added issue of needing a significant number of O.T. human prophets in a deck to truly be of use. Well this deck build I believe is one that can run Chariot of Fire in a manner that is not significantly worse than a deck running Son of God. First of all Abraham (CoW) negates opponent’s neutral cards meaning that their lost souls get negated. Judah also can negate a lost soul. This makes this deck build far less susceptible to annoying lost souls in contrast with a typical green prophets deck running Chariot of Fire. Chariot of Fire helps immensely against the soul hide defense since as I already mentioned it means all you need to keep on the board is a total of three lost souls to win the game. Also remember: Chariot of Fire can rescue any O.T. human prophet not just green ones. This deck build runs seven total O.T. human prophets. Benjamin the Young is such an important card since Abraham’s search is mandatory and can trigger annoyances like Sheol, Annas the Elder, and Plotting Priests. Abraham to Three Visitors to Bejamin to Joseph or Judah helps mitigate this.

Beyond this Good Fortresses such as Herod's Temple and artifact counters are problems. This deck has 6 ways turn 0 to deal with good fortresses (Crowd’s Choice to Three Woes, Three Woes, Noah, the Righteous, Goliath’s Curse, Darkness LS to Outsiders (B/G), and Outsiders (B/G).

The deck has 5 potential ways to interact with artifact counters main deck (Crowd’s Choice to Chronicles of the Kings, Chronicles of the Kings, Three Woes, Hunter LS to Humble LS, Humble LS, and Abraham (CoW).

Coliseum is also good in this meta for dealing with Jaddua and Meshach’s annoying protect abilities.

Offense:

This offense took a lot of hard work to assemble and is a really strong Genesis/Prophets offense. This offense arose out of a positive realization that Genesis offers some of the strongest characters in terms of creating their own rescue potential in the game who also happen to be O.T. human prophets but also a negative realization that Genesis currently lacks potent battle winners. I did however notice that both Jacob and Joseph the Dreamer are Green brigade and since most of the time I will always be wanting to rescue with them solo or with Abraham to The Three Visitors to one of them to grab a battle winner means that Green battle winners are a legitimate option to pair with this take on the Genesis offense. This adds potency to the Genesis offense through Gathered Together, Out of Bethlehem, and Foreseen by Samuel which support solo Jacob or Joseph quite well as well as Abraham banded to one of them through The Three Visitors exchange. Also Faith of Samuel paired with Amos of Tekoa is a an excellent rescue. Amos slots in well in this build since I can use both Faith of Samuel, Gathered Together, and Bless the Nations to band him in and shuffle away my opponent's lone Evil Character CBI. Noah the Righteous is a useful tool in this meta for dealing with counters. Most builds seek to convert him to meek to prevent cards but in this build with all of the Blue/Green battle winners keeping Noah on his regular side is an option and he is great for obtaining initiative due to his very low strength.

Elijah fits well with Glory of the Lord, Faith of Samuel, Gathered Together, Covenant with Noah, Foreseen by Samuel, and Out of Bethlehem. Falling Away (CoW) paired with Elijah is a classic cheesy rescue and provides further potency to this offense. Additionally using Twenty Shekels to play out a weak evil character for Elijah to choose to block is strong as well. Overall Elijah supplements the Genesis characters well and has surprising synergy with the cards that support them. Elisha rounds out the rescue potential characters fitting well by making green enhancements CBN if he shuffles an evil dominant in opponent’s hand and being nifty paired with Chariot of Fire.

Overall it really is remarkable how well the Blue and Green brigades fit together in this deck build. There is really good synergy between the two. The name “Blues Clues” comes from the blue base of the offense with the “clue” of green found on a couple of the blue characters.

For the Genesis band my favorite option is Faith of Abraham on Abraham to Three Visitors to Jacob to grab Abraham’s Servant to Ur which can then be played post block off Faith of Abraham and it will negate the play ability on Faith of Abe sending it back to hand but maintaining the FBTN effect in battle. Really strong play. Beyond this it is so nice being able to get battle winners at the end of the band with Jacob (best are Bless the Nations and Abe’s Servant to Ur) or grabbing Reserved for Famine with Joseph the Dreamer. If I have plenty of battle winners I like using Joseph the Dreamer to get Storehouse. This banding offense is so consistent and easy to set up in this deck build.

The Cross and Coliseum are important cards to back up this offense due to the Genesis band being vulnerable to CBN enhancements like Scattered.

In terms of further support to the offense The First Sacrifice is of course fantastic and Solomon’s Dream is a good way to get TSC or Chariot of Fire to close out the game. Judah is such good support for the offense dealing with annoyances like Sheol with ease. Chronicles of the Kings is also great with this offense across the board.

Overall this offense is potent and consistent.

Defense:

I feel black is a necessary defense in builds that run a significant number of brigades on offense due to access to The Herdsmen of Gerar to deal with Matthew. In deck builds like N.T. Gold for instance that are fairly mono-brigade colored on offense then Black is not so necessary since brigade count is low in those deck builds. Due to the splashing of Blue/Green in this deck build and the tri-colored enhancements used to make that possible this deck build has a fairly high brigade count overall on offense. Noah and Faith are the kickers that really bring the brigade count up.

A fair portion of this Black/Gray defense is standard with Stricken, Tenants Kill the Son, Plot to Kill, Denarius, Emperor Claudius, Saul of Tarsus (to Unsuccessful), and High Priest Ananias.

The defense is nothing flashy but is enough to get the job done. Goliath, HPA, and Outsiders (B/G) all offer nice main deck block options. In Reserve Foreign Wives and Saul of Tarsus are both fantastic. Lurking is a great interrupt to back up the Fatties in this deck (HPA, Emperor Claudius, KoT, Outsiders (B/G), and Goliath) and going Lurking to Foreign Wives is strong. Storehouse, Saul of Tarsus, and The Herdsmen of Gerar all can grab Lurking.

Falling Away (CoW) and Chronicles of the Kings provide further backup to the defense.

I do really like how between King of Tyrus and Emperor Claudius this defense offers protection against both lone heroes and bands from both the O.T and N.T. Testaments.

I do believe this is one of the fastest defenses due to not only having The Herdsmen of Gerar as well as Outsiders (B/G). These two together provide significant draw power on defense.

Consistency:

This deck is very consistent. Numerous as the Stars, Faith, and Delivered help with this. Delivered can be played on five characters in the deck and can net four cards through Denarius, get to The Cross, tutor for any Genesis character in deck (including The Herdsmen of Gerar) through Covenant with Noah, and set up Twenty Shekels. Faith of Abraham is also a great tutor for getting to Abe who is the main hero I want early. The Angel of the Winds is stellar in this build. I have seven ways (Covenant with Noah, Delivered (to Covenant with Noah), Crowd’s Choice (almost always to Faith of Abe to Abe), Solomon’s Dream, Faith of Abe, The Angel of the Winds, and Abe himself) to Abe main deck (I exclude the Three Visitors as a way since then I can’t band to them with Abe) and even if I don’t get Abe I have as has been discussed already plenty of other characters with strong rescue potential. Numerous as the Stars works well in this build due to enough mass of star abilities. Faith also has quite a few targets with 7 cloud cards between deck/reserve.

In terms of speed the deck does not draw a lot with the only sources of draw being Denarius, Faith of Samuel, The Herdsmen of Gerar, Outsiders (B/G), and Saul of Tarsus. That being said the deck is built for consistency not speed and I find the deck does not need a lot of draw power due to the consistency it has with search abilities.

Lost Souls:

This Lost Soul package is built to deal with annoyances in the meta like Matthew (Darkness LS to Herdsmen, Outcry LS to Herdsmen, Hunter LS to Outcry, Awake LS to Outcry) and soul hide (Orphans, “Lost Souls” LS, and Hunter LS to “Lost Souls” LS). Beyond this Humble LS helps deal with effects such as Confusion of Mind.

Maybe Board:

Cards that I have considered for this deck build are Covenant with Adam, Retribution for Sin, Virgin Birth, The Lying Prophet, Emperor Nero, Root of Jesse, David, HAG, Angel of the Lord, The Emmaus Road, Plague of Frogs, Foreign Spears, Royal Parade, Balaam, Son of Beor, Crowds LS package (Escape LS and Crowds LS), Hopper LS, Harvest LS, The Amalekite’s Slave, Joseph Before Pharaoh, Two Bears, Called to Prophesy, The Victorious Being, Do Not Be Afraid, Split Altar, Swords to Plowshares, Behemoth, Eve’s Descendant (fits with the Blue/Green offense so well), Out of Their Hands, Oath of Purity (instead of Jehoshaphat), Betrayal, Abraham’s Descendant, Spirit of Elijah, Stone Pillar at Bethel, Faith of Sarah, Distressed LS, Blind LS, Judah’s Intervention, You Will Be Well, Broken Covenant, Offering Your Son, The Coming Prince, Feast of Atonement, Noah’s Ark (Ark of Salvation), You Will Remain (reserve), Imprisoned Prophet, Harvest Time, Shipwreck, Mayhem, Blood Avenger, Adam (LoC), Jeremiah, Hope Bringer, Golgotha/Supercilious Scribes instead of Saul of Tarsus, Enosh, Malakh the Nameless, Peace, The Suffering Servant, Light in the Darkness, Trumpet in Zion, and Day of the Lord.

Conclusion:

Overall I am proud of this deck build because it is creative, involves outside the box thinking, interacts with the meta well, is consistent, and presents a very strong offense with unique features. I believe this deck can contend with top tier decks in the meta and in fact is a counter deck toward Matthew decks and decks running a soul hide defense. One thing I want to challenge deck builders in is this: don’t just stick to the standard most prevalent offenses/defenses seeing play in your deck building. Think outside the box. Both Blue and Green have been seeing very little play as of late but this deck build really is solid. Had I not thought outside the box and explored brigade colors that are seeing less play this deck build never would have come to fruition.

If you have any thoughts or ideas for this deck build please feel free to send them my way and as always happy deck building!

Change Log:

(03-06-26):

Deck-

Cut The Lying Prophet and added King of Tyrus.

Cut Emperor Nero and added Emperor Claudius.

Reserve-

Cut Root of Jesse and added Vow for Samuel.

Explanation:

I felt the defense lacked blocking power outside Goliath against banding offenses. I do lose draw power with The Lying Prophet but King of Tyrus is excellent against the Daniel offense and this defense is weak against Daniel I feel. Additionally shifting to Emperor Claudius from Emperor Nero feels better against NT offenses. I now have total coverage between these two ECs against both NT and OT lone heroes/bands.

I felt in hindsight Root of Jesse while useful against PotA is not something I will often want to use since i rarely will want to go in with a meek hero. Vow for Samuel feels much better due to all the Green Prophets in this build.

(03-03-26):

Deck-

Cut Angel of the Lord and added Glory of the Lord (Winner Promo).

Cut Foreign Spears and added Plot to Kill.

Cut Balaam, Son of Beor and added The Lying Prophet.

Cut Covenant with Adam and added Out of Bethlehem.

Cut Solomon's Dream and added Numerous as the Stars.

Cut The Emmaus Road and added Faith of Samuel.

Cut Plague of Frogs and added Bless the Nations.

Cut Virgin Birth and added Twenty Shekels.

Cut Elijah and added Faith.

Cut David, Heart after God and added Amos of Tekoa.

Cut Retribution for Sin and added Gathered Together.

Reserve-

Cut Jehoshaphat and added Elijah.

Cut Royal Parade and added Foreseen by Samuel.

Cut Numerous as the Stars and added Solomon's Dream.

Cut Out of Bethlehem and added Root of Jesse.

Explanation of Changes:

The goal of these changes is to make the build more resilient against Prince of the Air and to enable strong rescues with Amos who pairs well with the Blue/Green offense. Twenty Shekels/Root of Jesse provide options against Prince of the Air with Noah and Amos both being able to shuffle PotA once Twenty Shekels play him from the opponent's hand. Root of Jesse can pair well with one of the meek Genesis heroes for a rescue against PotA as well. Root of Jesse slots into the Reserve slot occupied by Out of Bethlehem which was moved to the main deck. Twenty Shekels takes the spot main deck occupied by Virgin Birth. This change will be explained later on.

In an attempt to minimize brigades I moved away from David, HAG and Jehoshaphat. David, HAG was nice for grabbing a Dominant like AotL and banding to a meek Genesis hero so I could still use Blue or Green battle winners. Jehoshaphat was used to band to David or Abraham or Jacob and bounce whoever I needed. Amos works well in this deck since I can run Bless the Nations and Faith of Samuel to band to him and so I cut David for Amos. I cut The Emmaus Road, Plague of Frogs, and Retribution for Sin to add in Faith of Samuel, Gathered Together, and Bless the Nations which feels right with now having Amos. I also cut Angel of the Lord for Glory of the Lord (winner promo) due to it being a better option for offense/defense now that I am no longer running David, HAG who liked to tutor for AotL. I moved Elijah to Reserve in place of Jehoshaphat and added Faith in main deck since it makes me getting to Abraham and my other three cloud heroes as well as Faith of Samuel main deck more consistent. I can also get Elijah from Reserve with it.

Tied with these changes I moved Numerous as the Stars main deck in place of Solmon's Dream due to having less meek heroes main deck. I shifted to Out of Bethlehem over Covenant with Adam to aim to have more star cards for Numerous as the Stars. I also cut Virgin Birth for Twenty Shekels as I wanted bounce support with losing Jehoshaphat and also due to strong synergy with Amos/Elijah that Twenty Shekels provides. I can afford to lose Virgin Birth's tutor to Reserve with adding in Faith and Numerous as the Stars main deck both of which can snag Elijah from Reserve. The last change on offense I made is I cut Royal Parade from Reserve and added in Foreseen by Samuel to offset the loss of Plague of Frogs Regardless of Protection battle winning effect.

On defense I shifted to The Lying Prophet over Balaam, Son of Beor due to the greater speed offered by The Lying Prophet. I also swapped out Foreign Spears for Plot to Kill to provide an additional battle winner that can be used by The Lying Prophet.

Overall I feel these changes bring this deck into a better place for the current meta.

(12-18-24):

Deck-

Cut Faith of Samuel and added Retribution for Sin.

Cut The Amalekite’s Slave and added Balaam, Son of Beor.

(02-13-24)

Deck-

Cut Harvest LS and added “Lost Souls” LS

Cut Escape LS and added “Hunter” LS

Cut Crowds LS and added Outcry LS

Cut Distressed LS and added Humble LS

Cut Hopper LS and added Goliath’s Curse [L]

Cut Foreign Wives and added Benjamin, the Young

Cut Jeremiah, Hope Bringer and added Noah the Righteous

Cut Numerous as the Stars and added Solomon’s Dream

Cut Joseph Before Pharaoh and added Reserved for Famine

Cut Saul of Tarsus and added Outsiders (B/G)

Cut King of Tyrus (PoC) and added Goliath (LR)

Cut Plot to Kill and added Foreign Spears

Reserve-

Cut Solomon’s Dream and added Numerous as the Stars

Cut Two Bears and added Royal Parade

Cut Strict Sabbath and added Foreign Wives

Cut Emperor Claudius and added Saul of Tarsus

Explanation:

These changes are mainly centered around adjusting to the meta presence of Nazareth and Holy of Holies/Pot of Manna decks. Hopper and Plot to Kill got axed for tools to deal with Nazareth in Goliath’s Curse and Foreign Spears. Saul of Tarsus got moved to Reserve giving Emperor Claudius the boot from Reserve to make room for Outsiders (B/G) which can deal with Nazareth. Jeremiah, Hope Bringer got cut for Noah, the Righteous who can deal with Nazareth. Also this new version goes with Hunter/Outcry lost souls over Awake LS and Crowds LS as ways to deal with Matthew by going directly to Herdsmen of Gerar. These are also nice for getting to Goliath for blocking power. Goliath is added for KoT with the rules being fixed regarding Goliath. Humble LS is in to deal with Holy of Holies over Distressed LS. With Hopper LS being gone “Lost Souls” LS is in over Escape LS for extra soul gen. This is one less way to a way to stop Matthew but the deck overall feels like it has enough with 8 total ways to deal with Matthew turn 0. Strict Sabbath is bad in a meta with “Lost Souls” LS running around so it was cut and Foreign Wives was moved to Reserve in its spot to make room main deck for Benjamin the Young. Benjamin the young is fantastic against Soul Hide decks since he mitigates the mandatory search on Abraham and can go to Joseph the Dreamer if he goes in solo to set up a strong rescue turn 1. With Noah increasing my meek count Solomon’s Dream is viable as a main deck tutor and is preferable early too Numerous as the Stars being more consistent and being able to grab cards like Chronicles of the Kings to deal with counters. Numerous is still good though and belongs in Reserve where Solomon’s Dream was. Reserved from Famine is a nice upgrade to Joseph Before Pharaoh being more versatile since it can hit evil bands. Royal Parade has great synergy with Noah, the Righteous and David, HAG and is a slightly more powerful battle winner than Two Bears.