Abraham was the father of Isaac, who was the father of Jacob, who…
Wait, I lost you already, didn’t I? Most people don’t consider genealogies the most interesting part of the Bible. In fact, I bet a lot of you skip through those lists of names when you’re reading. They may not be exciting to read but God put them there for a reason!
Hopefully you’re familiar with “Mathew’s Begats”. Maybe from a Christmas tradition during the time of year we focus on the birth of Christ, or from a Bible study or a Sunday School lesson. My favorite encounter with that passage of scripture is a fun song by Andrew Peterson. Now that you too have a fun way to think of that genealogy I’ll share a secret with you – our new set this year is based off of the Lineage of Christ!
The Lineage of Christ
A couple years ago The Fall of Man reminded us that something is terribly wrong with the world. Last year The Prophecies of Christ showed us that God has a plan for redemption that has been unfolding throughout all of history. This year we’re focusing on the people God used to get from the “fall of man” to the “Prophesied Redeemer”. You’ll find He used a wide variety of people! Some He called “friend” or “a man after my own heart”. Others were liars, thieves, harlots and murders. The Lineage of Christ (LoC) is what we’ve name the set that represents our exploration of this diverse group of people.
Beginning with Genesis, then the lineage in Ruth 4, through the kings of Judah and culminating with the Israelites that lived after the exile, you’ll see many new characters that have never been printed in Redemption before. You’ll also see many new versions of familiar faces.
Meek Heroes
Most of the characters who are part of the LoC have a “star” ability so they offer a nice bonus when drawn by game rule. A majority of the Heroes are represented with a 2-sided card. The first side has a special ability and brigade(s) that are appropriate for that Hero’s theme(s). The opposite side introduces our first new term this year – meek, meaning it has no special ability. The meek side uses one of the character’s primary brigades and the red brigade to represent the bloodline of Christ. You can choose which way to play your Hero – as meek or with a special ability, the same way you can choose which way to play dual alignment cards.
David is easily one of the most notable people in the lineage of Jesus so it’s no surprise we see yet another new version of David this year. To keep things fresh this David fills a role never before covered by past versions the popular Hero.
With so many meek Heroes appearing in the LoC, you’d better believe there will be strong support to encourage players to use the meek side. One such card stems from a term Isaiah used to reference the lineage of the coming Messiah.
Right away you probably noticed the second new keyword we’re using in LoC – bounce. This is just a shorter way of saying “return to hand”, something we’ve done in Redemption since the game’s inception. You’ll see quite a few bounce abilities in LoC because they allow for fun opportunities to switch character between their special ability and meek side to make optimal use of your cards.
Meek Lost Souls
Not everyone in the lineage can boast good credentials. In fact, there are quite a few that failed miserably at following God. The sad part is that many times those people were in charge of leading the nation of Israel. Their wayward leadership also led much of the nation astray. To represent this interaction, you’ll find a number of cards that encourage you to play with meek Lost Souls.
Lost Soul cards have so many great abilities these days that it’s quite the sacrifice to play with meek souls. Will the cards that support them make up for difference in power? We’ll have to wait and see!
Trying New Things
There are a number of new things the play test team is attempting to accomplish with LoC. Our first goal out of the gate is to make this set an amazing booster draft experience.
Booster Draft
We’d like players to be able to booster draft with all LoC card boxes and have an amazing booster draft experience!
One of the ways we’ve tried to set LoC up for booster is by limiting the number of brigades we’re supporting this year. As we continue to reveal cards from LoC you’ll find 5 main good brigades and 5 main evil brigades represented. With a smaller distribution of brigades players are more likely to be able to build a cohesive deck while drafting.
We’re taking extra care to ensure that the cards in LoC function well with one another. We’ve limited how special abilities reference the cards (like things that you won’t find in LoC) so that abilities will always have something to interact with. And strong abilities have built in counters through other cards in LoC.
LoC Constructed?
With 5 main brigades represented for both good and evil, players will have all the tools they need to construct full decks from LoC cards. This allows players to create decks that could be used as “advanced starter decks” for teaching the game, T1 decks that are fairly competitive with very few non-LoC cards needed and players might even find themselves enjoying a format of LoC constructed play!
Intermediate Set
In the past Redemption has released starter decks which are considered a “basic” product and expansion sets which are considered an “advanced” product. We’ve heard a number of players point out that there needs to be something to bridge the gap between starter decks and advanced constructed tournament play.
LoC will be our first attempt at releasing an “intermediate” set. We’re taking a long hard look at things to help ensure we’re making things as easy to understand as possible. We’re taking steps to eliminate some complicated abilities from LoC. We’re simplifying interactions on cards that were overly nuanced for thematic purposes. If players choose to embrace LoC constructed decks, they could serve as a bridge between starter decks and T1 constructed.
But please don’t hear me say that we think we’re solving all of the challenges players face when jumping from a starter deck to tournament play. We’re not so naïve to think that making one “intermediate” set is the all-in-one solution. This is our first attempt at an “intermediate” set. There will hopefully be some successes and probably some failures too. We’ll try to learn from both. This is the first step in what I hope will be many yet to come!
When Can We Expect LoC?
Our plan at the start was to release this 222 card set (plus 18 Legacy cards) in two phases, broken down the same as PoC was last year. We wanted to have phase 1 release this fall. But since the set development is running behind, LoC will be released all at once as a complete set.
The new things we’re attempting to accomplish with LoC have led to the development taking longer than we anticipated. But we’re continuing to move forward at a steady pace. Lord willing we will have it ready to go to during the first quarter of 2020.
So while I can’t say exactly when we’ll get to experience ripping open LoC card boxes and our first all LoC booster draft, I am confident that when we do we will get to experience some awesome things!
To buy singles, sealed product, and other gaming supplies mentioned, please visit Three Lions Gaming!
Kyle (SilencedMatrix)
Very exciting post. I like the direction for sure.
Reth
Yes! Really great! Thanks a lot to all involved. I also really like and appreciate the directions and approaches that have been started with this set! Keep on doing such a great work on developing Redemption!
Michael Leung
Thanks for the introduction, definitely helps a lot. Quick question though. I noticed some of the cards with ability said to switch to Meek and gain ability. Is that permanent or only for that battle when the character changed?
Thank you
John Hendrix
Those style cards with a character having an ability side and a meek side were introduced in our latest set, Lineage of Christ, and those cards convert to meek to gain the ability for the current battle only. From that point forward they are in play as “Meek” characters with no abilities. The strategies to recur those abilities are to bounce (a term we use that means return to owner’s hand) them back to your hand to play them as their ability side to convert them and gain the ability for another battle. From Lineage of Christ, a few cards that you can use to bounce characters would be Book of the Law, Jehoshaphat and Oath of Purity. These cards also have plenty of outside support that triggers off of them being meek in battle, such as Mary, Faithful Servant, Root of Jesse and the previously mentioned Book of the Law. The best strategies to utilize the new meek character cards will combine both of these elements to round out a strong offensive approach. Hope this helps and gives you an idea on how they can be utilized most effectively.