Are you excited for the new Israel’s Deliverance starter decks that are now listed on the Cactus Game Design Website as being released this summer? Well join Redemption Elder and card designer Tyler Stevens for a sneak peak at Israel’s Deliverance!
Flashback to Nationals 2013 when the 4th edition starter decks debuted and here we are, a decade later and Israel’s Deliverance has been sent to print! Israel’s Deliverance brought in a lot of “firsts”. Israel’s Deliverance is the first starter deck to have an official title, the first-time players got to participate in a live playtesting event, new borders were showcased, each card of one deck mirrored a card in the opposite deck, and now the first ever Redemption QR code will be printed on the deck box!
When playtesting was done at Nationals, we had a lot of feedback about the opponent getting their good Fortresses out, and when they did, they had a huge advantage. The good Fortresses allow you to take a Hero from your deck and then, if their lone Hero rescues, they get to draw 1. This quickly gave an unfair advantage to the player who got out their Fortress, so we wanted to provide another resource to offset the draw, or any drawing in general. These cards allow a way to keep up with the opponent while also providing opportunities for the opponent to learn about ongoing and triggered abilities. Although this mechanic can be difficult to remember, I felt the core reason that people forget triggered and ongoing abilities is because these mechanics were never ingrained and taught to them when they were learning the game. We want to teach players how to play the game, but also hope to teach core fundamentals. The plan is to teach players fundamentals that will correlate to successful game play in the future, while also giving players using these decks ways to keep up with the opponent and not fall behind and feel discouraged. The previous ability allowed the owner to underdeck an Exodus or I Samuel hero (depending on which Artifact you were using) from discard pile or Reserve. This ability could be helpful, but ultimately it took too long to get your Hero back, and the Artifact was not being utilized much.
A lot of firsts were mentioned at the beginning of the article, one being each card is a mirrored ability of the other. The Elder team is making a dedicated effort to simplify the game which will allow Redemption to be easier to play, but more importantly, easier to teach. One evening the Elder team had a call where the new decks were displayed to the rest of the team. One member of the Elder team, John Earley, asked a question about if the decks were mirrored or not, and at the time, they were not. Gabe Isbell called Chris Fachman and I the next day and he brought up the question John asked about whether the decks mirrored each other. Initially, I thought that was a boring idea and I was not excited about it. Once the three of us talked, we quickly realized who the target audience of the starter decks are for, why we are making this product, and what is the product being used for. We decided that new players might feel discouraged to learn the game if one deck is stronger than the other. We also knew it is impossible to have two balanced decks when they do not mirror one another. Both points could be an inhibiting factor to learn the game, we also want players to have fun while learning. Thank you, John Earley, for bringing up this point, and thank you Gabe Isbell for calling Chris and I and discussing the decks mirroring one another!
Another key area the Elder team focused on was simplifying the game. The previous versions of Abigail and Joshua, the Faithful both were able to choose the blocker. I think teaching new players the choose the blocker mechanic is a great thing, but when new players are already trying to grasp a new game and learn rules, the choose the blocker mechanic became a little confusing for players at first. Since this mechanic is relatively intuitive, we decided to change the ability on the corresponding Heroes. The other reasoning was that choosing the blocker is a very strong ability, and we want to use these abilities sparingly moving forward.
The spoiler from above has a minor change in the identifier portion. We retroactively added the wilderness identifier to all applicable Heroes. Another “first” for Israel’s Deliverance is that this starter deck kicks off the Israel block which includes Israel’s Deliverance, Israel’s Rebellion and another set to be named. I won’t dive in too much into the wilderness, as that will be discussed in future spoiler articles, but I did want to highlight how Israel’s Deliverance will be incorporated into the next set(s), and that there is a plan in place for the starters.
When originally designing Israel’s Deliverance, Chris Fachman and I wanted to showcase some of the most iconic and well known characters in the Bible fighting against one another. The “K” deck has David and other Heroes from I Samuel, and the “L” deck has Goliath and Philistines. Meanwhile, the “K” deck defense has Pharaoh and Exodus Egyptians, and the “L” deck has Moses and Heroes found in Exodus. We strategically picked Exodus and I Samuel as our books of the Bible and you will notice that every card in the starter decks comes from Exodus or I Samuel!
The Elder team also leaned on past experiences, learning from previous starters and trying to ensure some previous areas of opportunity were addressed. These starters have more Lost Soul generation, more ways to grab resources, and we decided it would be best to have 1 brigade on defense, and 2 brigades on offense. This should help out with ratios, being able to block, and also not encountering soul drought as often, while still teaching players about brigades and matching good Enhancements with their proper Heroes.
Conclusion:
Overall, I am stoked that Israel’s Deliverance is coming out officially and I think everyone will be extremely excited about not just playing and teaching with the new starter decks, but the future of Redemption in general. I believe Israel’s Deliverance is the start of something amazing and I can personally vouch for the dedication and quality of work that the Elder team put into making Israel’s Deliverance a reality. I hope you enjoy playing with these starter decks as much as I enjoyed making them!
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