In today’s article, I’ll explore the good Gold brigade and discuss some enhancements that I consider “hidden gems.” My goal is not to say “These cards are ones you have to use.” Rather, I want to bring into the light a few cards that don’t see play as often and some players may have forgotten about (or newer players might not be aware of). Redemption’s history goes back over 20 years now; the tendency of Redemption players is often to focus more heavily on the new cards each year. But sometimes old cards can find new niches. Finding these “hidden gems” is one of many things that makes this game exciting!

The good Gold brigade has been one of the most popular brigades ever since the 2011 release of the powerful Judges tin containing The Angel Under the Oak. I will admit that a lot of my Type 1 offenses have included at least a portion of a good Gold Judges offense over the past 4.5 years. Usually these offenses, both mine and the high-ranking decks at large tournaments, have been “splash” offenses with just a few good Gold enhancements for their Judges: Samuel’s Edict is a staple and you might see a few others like Eli’s Sound Advice, Sword against Sword, Gideon’s Call, Ehud’s Dagger, or Deborah’s Directive. Judges’ synergy with other themes, such as Tabernacle Priests, OT Red WC heroes, Fight By The Number Banding, Prophets, and Angels makes it easy to just add a few of the most powerful Judges’ cards to the theme you are mixing them with.

While the NT Gold theme centered around the books of Luke and John is not nearly as popular as Judges, there are some common enhancements usually found in these offenses. Meeting the Messiah, Repentance and Restitution, and Kindness are probably the most common 3.

What if you wanted to build a straight Judges offense, where all your heroes were Judges except for The Angel Under the Oak and Angel with the Secret Name? Or what if you wanted to build a full NT Gold offense to pair with the new Greeks and Abomination of Desolation? Would you be able to find enough good Gold enhancements to round out a competitive offense? I think so! Let’s look at some of the less-obvious options that might be overlooked.

Battle Prayer (Warriors) – “Search through your draw pile or discard pile and select one Gold Enhancement Card. Shuffle card pile.”
This card lets you search your deck or discard pile for any Gold enhancement. Note: This includes evil Gold enhancements! This card would be most potent in a good Gold/evil Gold deck, but even without an evil Gold defense, it can still be quite useful. You can use it to search out that crucial GE you need from deck, or recur it from discard instead. The enhancement is also 3/3, which I actually think is a weakness; often, initiative passes back to your opponent to play something nasty.

The Acts of Solomon – “Search your draw pile and exchange this card with another good enhancement. Place new card in hand. Shuffle draw pile.”
Similar to Battle Prayer, this card also lets you search your deck for a good Gold enhancement. It can’t recur from discard, and it can’t target evil Gold enhancements. However, it shuffles itself back into deck for future use! So you might get to use it a few times instead of once. If you ever wanted to build a deck where a certain good Gold enhancement was crucial to get early, you could use both Battle Prayer and The Acts of Solomon to increase your chances of getting that Gold GE quicker.

Taking Egypt’s Wealth – “Look at opponent’s hand and take one enhancement there into your hand.”
This card allows you to look at your opponent’s hand (which is always powerful) and take any enhancement. That includes good and evil! You might be able to win the battle by taking the one evil enhancement that can stop you. If you can find a way to play the card, even better! Characters like Foreign Wives, Silly Women, and User of Curious Arts could all let you play a stolen EE. You might even find a way to benefit yourself without playing the enhancement – maybe you discard it when attacking with The Generous Widow or a character with Roman Citizenship placed on it, for example. This is a powerful ability if not negated. I’d try to fit this in a deck with side battles (King Rehoboam, Christian Suing Another, and Idle Gossip are good choices), classic hand-control elements (I Am Holy, Genesis offense, Gray defense, etc.), and Darius’ Decree (to restrict your opponent from playing GEs during hero side battles) if possible.

Ambush the City – “If making a rescue attempt, set all cards in battle aside (regardless of immunity). Holder may begin a new rescue attempt against same player. Once new rescue attempt is completed, the original battle resumes as a battle challenge. Cannot be negated.”
This card allows you to make a new rescue attempt, no matter how futile your current one is. The best example I can think of would be The Angel Under the Oak exchanging with Jair to draw 4, and if you get blocked by Foreign Wives, play Ambush the City to get around her. FW wouldn’t be set aside, but you still get to make a new attack anyways. Attacking with two heroes in one turn that force your opponent to draw cards would also be good in a NT Gold/Abom deck. Actually, attacking twice in one turn to use more of your heroes’ abilities is almost always good! And best of all, Ambush the City is CBN; you can even play it on Moses without it being negated.

Convincing Miracle – “Search discard pile for a N.T. human Hero and place it in territory. Convert a human Evil Character to a white brigade Hero. Cannot be negated if opponent has less than ten cards in deck.”
This card is often, and usually only, found in NT Gold offenses. Nevertheless, I include it on my list because it actually doesn’t have any hero requirements to use it. Couple this with the potential to be a CBN battlewinner if your opponent has a small deck, and this could find a place in a full Judges offense. If you do add this to a Judges deck, don’t add a NT human hero just to take advantage of the first part of Convincing Miracle’s ability. Judges have enough heroes with strong abilities, and Jair (one of the best Judges) doesn’t work if you have a NT hero.

I’ll stop the list with these 5 enhancements. Hopefully, these have you thinking about different routes to take your more traditional Judges or Luke/John offenses! Hidden gems are always waiting to be found and used in this game!

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By JoshH

Josh has collected Redemption cards since the original unlimited booster packs, but has only been playing Redemption competitively since 2010. He has fallen in love with pretty much every strategy game ever introduced to him. When Josh plays Redemption, he tries to find and build creative decks that are outside the mold of the current popular decks.