The bulk of Redemption cards are broken down into 9 good brigades and 7 evil brigades. Each brigade is the home of themes that have their own strengths and weaknesses. Today we will take a look at the good brigades.
At Redemption’s origin, blue was chosen to represent heavenly character. In the modern era, blue is the home of Genesis cards, their sub-themes, and cards from the book of Job.
Blue’s strengths are discarding evil cards from hand and territory, ignoring evil characters, and punishing opponents for capturing its Heroes. Some of blue’s Heroes are able to benefit from having a small hand size. More recently blue has been chosen to represent peace as seen by the cards Peace and Shoes of Peace.
Blue’s inherently weak to hand protection and anti-ignore abilities. Many of blue’s Heroes are vulnerable to capture abilities as well. Since some of blue’s Heroes work best as the only human (Job) or with only other Heroes from the same book of the Bible blue is also vulnerable to abilities that convert human Evil Characters to Heroes.
Originally the good gold brigade was representative of the material of the New Jerusalem. In the modern era, good gold is for the O.T. judges theme and the N.T. Luke and John theme.
Gold’s strengths in the O.T. judges theme are territory destruction and benefiting from no special ability Heroes. The N.T. theme’s strengths are conversion, Lost Soul generation, and deck depletion, often through forced draw. That can make it a good combination with Greek Evil Characters to take advantage of Abom.
Both good gold themes are inherently weak against non-human Evil Characters. Judges can be hampered by territory protection and evil banding that cannot be interrupted. The Luke/John theme can struggle against characters that are protected from conversion and anti-draw cards. Because of exchange/search angels that are often paired with judges, anti-search cards often inhibit a judges offense.
The green brigade was chosen to represent spiritual life. Today it’s the home of characters whose primary role in scripture is that of a prophet.
Green has the game’s strongest shuffle abilities as well as some powerful search abilities. It excels at taking advantage of side battles that cause Evil Characters to fight one another. Prophets also have access to one of the best play abilities in the game in the form of Hidden Treasures.
Many of green’s characters have abilities that cannot be interrupted/negated/prevented. O.T. green sometimes benefits from having an evil civilization in play that was used in scripture to execute God’s judgment. Some N.T. green cards offer benefits based on the Son of God card. Green also has some strong search cards.
By nature, green can be hampered by anti-shuffle and anti-search abilities. If a green offense is relying on Hidden Treasures, cards like Darius’ Decree and Covenant with Death will be a problem. Because several of green’s strong characters have more than one brigade, cards that benefit from an opponent using multiple brigades can be good against a primarily green offense.
The purple brigade was chosen to represent royalty which still holds true today for purple’s O.T. theme. Purple also represents authority which we see in the O.T. kings and in the N.T. theme of Jesus’ 12 disciples.
If you like to draw extra cards, purple has some of the best options in the game between it’s Heroes, Enhancements, and Fortresses that work directly with purple Heroes. O.T. purple has some very powerful ignore options and strong banding abilities. Purple kings also have one of the games best play abilities in The Throne of David. N.T. purple excels at two Hero banding and discarding evil cards.
Purple tends to be weak against anti-draw abilities that can slow down it’s strategy. Most purple Heroes are also vulnerable to capture abilities. O.T. purple is hurt by anti-ignore abilities. Both O.T. and N.T. purple are hampered by Household Idols. With so many powerful Hero abilities, purple is hurt by cards that negate its Heroes.
The red brigade represents military might. That was true when the brigade was chosen and still accurately represents the brigade’s main focus in the game today.
Red’s strength lies in it’s warrior class Heroes who have some of the best banding abilities in the game. It’s good against warrior class Evil Characters, especially Philistines. Since David is one of the Bible’s most famous military leaders, red has some cards that become very powerful if he is in play. It also has Asahel and Jael who can choose the blocker from an opponent’s territory. Red has some of the most powerful weapon class Enhancements and Heroes that work directly with weapons.
N.T. red has mostly consisted of centurions who all have site access and negate evil in some form. More recently the underdeveloped “spiritual warrior” theme was expanded for red giving it a number of Heroes who work well with the Armor of God Enhancements.
With so much banding red is inherently weak to anti-banding cards. Cards that negate Heroes or that can remove David from play are also a problem for red. Darius’ Decree and Covenant with Death will keep weapons from activating when a Hero enters battle. Wall of Protection will not only keep red from banding to your Heroes but will also keep you from being a victim of choose the blocker.
White was chosen to represent glory and majesty. It’s home to a variety of themes most of which can also be tied back to purity.
Despite it’s variety of themes, white has long been the primary home of the ignore ability both on it’s characters and Enhancements. It also touts the core of the formerly dominant Garden Tomb theme. N.T. white is the home of people who encountered Jesus, mostly females, and sometimes works well with angels. O.T. white boasts a small group of Heroes who chose to remain pure in the book of Daniel. They have strong banding and anti-crimson abilities, since crimson is the brigade of the Babylonians.
Musicians are white’s largest and ever growing theme. They boast a toolbox of abilities including banding, searching, recursion, and protection. They also include strong characters from other brigades.
All of white’s themes are vulnerable to anti-banding cards such as Household Idols, Scattered, and Goliath. It’s also often going to easily give up initiative. N.T. is most likely going to be hurt by anti-ignore cards. Anti-search abilities are also going to be good against a white offense.
The silver brigade was chosen to be descriptive of God’s word. It specifically represents angelic beings and events tied with angelic beings. Silver was added to the original six brigades with the Warriors set.
Silver’s strength lies in supporting human Heroes in their mission. There are several angels that bring human Heroes into battle through banding, exchanging, and add to battle abilities. It excels at searching the deck for a variety of card types. It has several Heroes with built in access to Sites. Since convert and capture abilities often cannot target non-human characters, angels can be more difficult to beat. Silver has 4 of the game’s strongest Heroes in Michael, Gabriel, Captain of the Host and Strong Angel.
With so many strong search abilities silver is slowed down by anti-search cards. Negating Heroes is also hard on silver since it relies heavily on its powerful Heroes. Many times it’s not hard to get initiative against silver’s angels, it’s just a matter of having something effective to play when you do.
The teal brigade was taken from the jewels on the ephod and chosen to represent the priestly order. Teal was added to the offensive spectrum with the Priests set.
Teals strength lies in offering forms of protection to Heroes and in discarding evil cards from play. It sometimes works best when paired with Heroes of a similar era from other brigades. Teal’s themes often rely on a Temple or Tabernacle Fortress. Solomon’s Temple priests pair well with kings of Judah. Zerubbabel’s Temple priests are protected from several common battle winners and have decent banding options. Teal has access to some of the game’s best set-aside Enhancements.
Preventing or negating protection is one way to deter a teal offense. Evil cards that discard a Temple or Tabernacle can also be strong but beware of Glory of the Lord. If you can stop set-aside cards and territory-class Enhancements, you’re likely going to slow down a teal deck.
With the release of the Early Church set Redemption was given the clay brigade. Clay is representative of people who have received the Holy Spirit. The color was chosen based on 2 Corinthians 4:7.
Clay is the home of Redemption’s churches, some large and some small. As was typical of the New Testament, clay’s primary themes are conversion, banding together, and church growth. Similar to real life, sub-strengths vary from one church to the next.
Missionaries excel at helping the churches through their abilities and by the nature that they can count as a member of the largest church you control.
As the hub from which all churches spread, the Jerusalem church supports not only it’s own church but offers benefits to other churches as well. It’s also the home of the deacons who offer strong banding and work well with Widows’ Tables.
The Joppa church is small but offers some unique protection, conversion and resurrection.
The church in Corinth excels at temporarily setting aside its Heroes to purge evil cards.
The Thessalonica church works with cards in the discard pile, often removing evil cards from the game.
The Colossi church is good against heretics and works with cards that have “Christ” or “Jesus” in the title or scripture verse.
The church in Ephesus is strong against greeks and magicians. It also excels at conversion beyond most other clay themes.
The Philippi church excels at building one another up in the form of increasing its Heroes. They also work well with missionaries.
With so many strengths spread throughout the clay themes there are a lot of viable counters. Anti-banding and anti-search abilities are going to be strong due to the large number of cards that they stop. With clay’s strong conversion, it’s naturally going to be weak against non-human Evil Characters because they can’t be converted. Romans are a strong play against clay because they offer some very powerful cards against N.T. Heroes.
I hope you’ve found these brigade overviews insightful. Please check back next week as we go through the game’s evil brigades together.
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