Hey guys, in preparation for the coming release of Revelation of John, I wanted to share a couple playtest decks and strategies that I used during the playtest process.

Today’s deck is probably my favorite that I used. It is a combination of Musicians and some of the new White Revelation Heroes to create a White offense and paired with one of my favorite defenses from last season—Brown. I’m going to mostly discuss the offense because that’s where more of the new cards are, but there’s also a few nice tricks with the defense as well. If you haven’t seen them already, all cards (old and new) can be found under the Resources tab here on Land of Redemption.

Heroes:
Music Leader
Asaph
Chenaniah
David the Psalmist
The Angel of the Winds
The Woman with Child
Ethan
The Twenty-Four Elders
Justin Martyr

Good Enhancements/Covenants:
Word of Christ
Words of Encouragement (Ki)
Not Alone
Cymbals of the Levites
Hate Wickedness
Word of Their Testimony
Magnificat
Covenant of Prayer
You Will Remain

Evil Characters:
Foul Spirit (E)
Lions
Gomer (TxP)
King Ahaziah (PC)
Medium in Endor
King Saul (CoW)
King Zedekiah
Complainers
Outsiders (Brown/Crimson)
The Deceiver

Evil Enhancements/Curses:
Scattered
Wickedness of the Tenants
Gibeonite Trickery (Pa)
Dungeon of Malchiah
Provoked
Treasures of War (CoW)
Captured Ark

Lost Souls:
Lost Soul (Dull)
Lost Soul (Lawless)
Lost Soul (Awake)
Lost Soul “Imitate”
Lost Soul “Gain”
Lost Soul “Humble”
Lost Soul “Darkness”

Dominants:
Son of God (J)
The Second Coming
Angel of the Lord (Greek)
Grapes of Wrath
Three Woes
Christian Martyr (E)
Falling Away (CoW)

Artifacts:
Golden Censer
Chariot of Fire (Promo)

Sites:
The Ends of the Earth

Reserve:
Haman’s Plot
Uzzah
Blood of the Lamb
A Child is Born
The Amalekites’ Slave
Foreign Wives
Three Nails
Kinsmen’s Agreement
Image of the Beast
Shrine to Artemis

For new Heroes I used The Twenty-Four Elders, The Woman with Child and Justin Martyr. All three of these are amazing Heroes for various reasons. The Woman with Child is an awesome Hero to open the game with. Getting to your dominants fast can give you a quick lead and also reduces the chance your dominants get discarded or banished before you use them. However, keep in mind that always going for your Angel of the Lord on turn one (and then using it on whatever Evil Character your opponent blocks with) can cost you—if your opponent ends up having a powerful EC that gives you trouble later in the game you may wish you had saved your AotL. I recall one playtest game where my opponent played Son of God, The Second Coming and Angel of the Lord on his first turn to take a 3-0 lead before I had even taken a turn. However, I was able to draw a couple strong ECs that held him off the rest of the game and I ended up winning 5-3. Because of all the support that Orange receives in this new set, A Child is Born is a card that should always be put in the Reserve if you are running a White Hero or two—especially The Woman with Child.

Justin Martyr is another great Hero to open with because he allows you to grab a negate/draw in Blood of the Lamb or a battle-winner in Word of Their Testimony. While he is probably best in a martyr deck that can take advantage of his recursion as well, having a great first turn attack option is awesome and Justin can give you that.

The Twenty-Four Elders are going to be a boss. While their negate ability does have a pretty high cost (shuffling an Artifact), if you plan right, you can actually use this to your advantage. Activate an Artifact like Captured Ark and then shuffle it with Elders to reset it or an Artifact like Golden Censer which cannot be interrupted so its effect remains for the duration of the battle phase. Meanwhile this gives you a crazy strong “negate all evil” ability. I didn’t even feel like I needed to run Heavenly Temple to get the CBN bonus because of how strong the negate was, and this deck didn’t even take advantage of their band to Four Living Creatures.

Next we’ll look at good enhancements and covenants. I mentioned how strong Blood of the Lamb and Word of Their Testimony can be with Justin Martyr. In this deck and others where I used Justin, I liked to put WotT in the main deck and BotL in the Reserve. Since Justin was my only martyr, I usually wanted to play BotL on him anyway to get the draw bonus. This allowed me to keep my deck streamlined but I never had trouble getting BotL if I needed it. Not Alone is going to be a great choice for any deck that isn’t straight silver. I talked about that more in my winner card article, but using Not Alone to bring in The Woman with Child or The Twenty-Four Elders is a really strong play. The same is true for Covenant of Prayer as Gabe talked about in his winner card article so I won’t go into much on that one.

For Evil Characters, I used The Deceiver and the Brown/Crimson Outsiders from the new set. The Deceiver allows me to put several “situationally” strong Evil Characters in my reserve that aren’t going to be useful in every game. One strategy I really like using was exchanging The Deceiver for The Amalekite’s Slave to generate a Lost Soul and get the Evil Character I needed out of my deck. Foreign Wives and Silly Women are also good ECs to put in Reserve since in some match-ups (like against Throne decks) you don’t want to have those evil brigades in play unless you absolutely have to. Outsiders allowed me to put a couple idols in my Reserve that could be situationally useful. Blocking with Outsiders, pulling out Image of the Beast and then activating it was a great way to negate a Hero ability. It will also be a great counter to the aforementioned Throne offense.

This deck used all four of the new Lost Souls though it was definitely hard to cut some of the other great souls like Punisher, CBP and Forsaken. The Gain LS is going to be important for decks that won’t have much Reserve access this season. Pairing that with the Imitate LS could help you get an extra card or two out of your Reserve that doesn’t have a specific card that gets it out. Obviously we plan to create future cards in all themes to give them some “Reserve love” but that will happen gradually in the next few sets.

I think it’s going to be very interesting to see how much people use the new Guardian of Your Souls and Three Woes. Dominant selection is becoming harder and harder, and more than ever it will depend on the meta you expect to face at the tournaments you attend. The Ends of the Earth is an amazing Site and probably belongs in any deck that doesn’t have two or three LS gen options already.

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Last but not least, I would like to announce the first winner of the drawing for those who helped us with tweaks and suggestions during the preview process. Each winner will receive a pack of Revelation of John when they become available. And the winner is…

Nathan L. a.k.a GreatGray!

Thanks for stopping by Land of Redemption and be sure to check back for more playtest/strategy articles from myself and others who helped in the playtest process!

To buy singles, sealed product, and other gaming supplies mentioned, please visit Three Lions Gaming!

By Justin

Justin began playing Redemption in 1997 with his brothers and a few other friends from his church though it was not until 2002 that he discovered and became a part of the wider Redemption community. While his involvement in the game includes being a tournament host, a playtester and a national champion player, the aspect he finds most rewarding is the amazing friends he has met through the game. "I am simply amazed at what God has done through the game of Redemption, both in my life and in the lives of others, and I am excited for the ways in which He will continue to use it."