Is the “Because of Moses” (BoM) deck really that good or is it all just hype? I’m sure plenty of people have asked this question. I know I was wondering the same thing just a few short months ago. Now that the State, Regional and National tournaments are behind us, I think we have our answer. BoM is for real!

While I’ve dropped the names of some cards and alluded to others, the deck list wasn’t published in my State, Regional or even National reports. The time has come. First I’ll share the list, then give a detailed explanation of card choices below. Without further ado, here it is:

BoM (Because of Moses) 51 cards

Dominants 7

Angel of the Lord
Grapes of Wrath
Son of God
The Second Coming
Christian Martyr
Falling Away (Wo)
Mayhem

Support Cards 4

Holy Grail
You Will Remain
Captured Ark
Coliseum

Lost Souls 7

Lost Souls (Proverbs 22:14) (2-line)
Lost Soul (Jeremiah 11:8) (CBP)
Lost Soul (Romans 3:23) (revealer)
Lost Soul (Ephesians 5:14) (awake)
Lost Soul (Hebrews 4:13) (open hand)
Lost Soul (Hebrews 5:11) (dull)
Lost Soul (Hebrews 12:8) (lawless)

Heroes 11

Joshua, Son of Nun
Moses (CW)
David, the Psalmist
Barnabas
Samuel (FF)
Gideon (CW)
Captain of the Host (Ki)
The Strong Angel (Wa)
The Angel Under the Oak
Angel with the Secret Name
Moses’ Parents

Good Enhancements 7

Sword of the Spirit
Live Coal
Faith of Samuel
Word of Their Testimony
Faith of Moses’ Parents
Faith of Gideon
Faith of Abel

Dual Alignment Cards 1

King Saul (CW)

Evil Characters 8

Foreign Wives
Silly Women (PC)
Damsel with Spirit of Divination (TP)
Lions
The Serpent (P)
Gomer (TP)
King of Tyrus (Ps)
Messenger of Satan (EC)

Evil Enhancements 6

Invoking Terror
Confusion (CW)
Haman’s Plot
Hypocrisy
Suicidal Swine Stampede
Death of Unrighteous

I find the deck very enjoyable because it can take a variety of approaches. If your opponent is drawing a lot, you can slow roll them and take advantage of Lost Soul drought, natural or artificial. If you have card drawing you can out race your opponent. The deck does well at being both either the momentum player or the responsive player.

Card Choices

Dominants

The core Dominants have remained the same through every version of the deck, those being Angel of the Lord, Son of God, The Second Coming, Christian Martyr, Falling Away and Mayhem. I don’t think the first three need an explanation for most players but I’ll elaborate on the remaining 4.

It wasn’t until after Regionals that I began to question the use of Christian Martyr. With so much banding in the meta it is not a guaranteed block anymore. It’s still extremely useful in a number of situations so it’s stayed.

One of the goals of the deck is “liner” abuse. Falling Away is one of many cards that help accomplish that. It’s a must have for this defense.

Mayhem is extremely versatile and game changing when timed correctly. Since the defense incorporates Hypocrisy and the two of those combined can be game winning, Mayhem is a must have.

The final spot has rotated between three Dominants, all of which I’d like to have. It started as Vain Philosophy for the purpose of hiding Son of God until I can Confusion it. While that’s very good I found early versions of the deck sorely lacking against Artifacts so I changed it out for Destruction of Nehushtan for a while. Finally, to maximize the options for The Second Coming and to have more options against the banding meta Grapes of Wrath won this spot in the version I used at Nationals.

Support Cards

The first version of BoM used Eternal Covenant, Broken Covenant, Cloud of Witnesses and Coliseum. Of those you’ll notice that only one remains. At times the deck also contained Unholy Writ and Magic Charms.

Eternal Covenant is great for getting back crucial Heroes. But with 11 Heroes I’ve found that I can win without getting any specific character back, meaning it’s not crucial to my strategy.

Broken Covenant is a fun card that was mainly in the deck for speed. It was cut before the prominence of You Will Remain in the meta. It might be a good candidate to return to the deck now.

Cloud of Witnesses faces the same problem as Eternal Covenant – there’s nothing I need to get back in order for the offense to accomplish its goal.

After Regionals I realized that Unholy Writ wasn’t working for me the way I wanted. All the banding offenses makes it far less useful than it would otherwise be. As the defense transitioned away from using magicians Magic Charms had to go.

Holy Grail has been absolutely amazing at clearing a path for my rescuers! It’s especially good against Philistines. My favorite use is on an Armor Bearer who was just brought out using Philistine Outpost.

You’ll find that You Will Remain is in a lot of top decks. The ability to extend the battle against certain battle winners and Dominants is amazing! If you haven’t tried this card yet you should.

Captured Ark is the newest addition and a very welcome one at that! When Destruction of Nehushtan was cut for Grapes of Wrath I knew that I had to add another way to deal with Signet Ring and other annoying anti-meta cards. I never regretted having it.

Coliseum is another great card in this deck. While I have nothing I want to toss, it works great against my opponents when I have a FBTN Hero, if they’re still using CBN Enhancements or if they rely on in battle protection to stop my Death of Unrighteous or Suicidal Swine Stampede.

Lost Souls

The deck has attempted to make good use of Lost Soul (Luke 5:15) (crowds), Lost Soul (Luke 19:10) (FBTN) and Lost Soul (II Timothy 2:26) (escape). All are excellent but in the end there are most Lost Soul abilities that I’d like to include than a 50-56 card deck has room to use.

The “liner” Lost Soul is part of the defensive core. Since its ability cannot be negated it was an easy choice when I decided to build around Moses. The ability to give people a rescue, then reset it with Death of Unrighteous / Suicidal Swine Stampede or use Falling Away to take it back are super abusive. Add to that the ability to play Confusion on an opponent’s Son of God and your opponent is fighting a very tough uphill battle.

The “CBP” Lost Soul is the only other Lost Soul that cannot be negated since it grants “cannot be prevented” to other cards. It was also an easy choice to include. With a decent amount of FBTN running around it’s a crucial addition that allows Confusion, Death of Unrighteous and Suicidal Swine Stampede to work.

The “dull” Lost Soul is extremely strong when it works. Moses often negates it but when it works you get exactly what you need.

With Lost Souls resetting multiple times in a game the “open hand” Lost Soul has several chances to fire off while Moses isn’t in play, giving me knowledge of exactly what I need to do to win in any given situation.

The “awake”, “lawless” and “revealer” Lost Souls all provide potential Lost Soul generation. While none work under Moses, he’s not always in play. As mentioned above, multiple Lost Soul resets give several chances for these to fire off.

The Heroes

I’ve tried out other excellent Heroes such as Daniel (CW), Aaron (Di), The Angel of the Winds and Simeon (Wa). They’re all good additions but didn’t feel like the best choice with the limited space available.

Daniel suffered from the same problem as Eternal Covenant and Cloud of Witnesses. While it’s nice to get things back, nothing is that crucial to the offense.

Aaron works great with Moses and provided a way to make Eli’s Sound Advice work. In the end he doesn’t stand on his own like most other Heroes in this deck can. Eli’s Sound Advice is great, but not at the expense of weakening the Hero base.

The Angel of the Winds ended up being overkill since the deck already uses The Angel Under the Oak and Angel with the Secret Name.

Simeon has excellent synergy with a lot of the offense and was probably the hardest choice to cut. It came down to his band being negatable in a meta full of the “Forsaken” Lost Soul when the deck already contains a couple strong CBN bands.

Speaking of CBN bands, Joshua, Son of Nun banded to Captain of the Host easily rescued the most Lost Souls for me. They are here for no other purpose than to power through an opposing defense. It’s immensely helpful that Joshua can be brought out by The Angel Under the Oak and Angel with the Secret Name.

Moses, the decks namesake Hero, was also an extremely strong part of the offense. He’s just as good sitting in territory as he is in battle. But sometimes you don’t want him active, like when you want your Lost Soul abilities to work. The deck contains 5 battle winners that can be played on him and the two angels that can get him from deck or discard pile.

David, the Psalmist is an underrated Hero. It might be because he’s overshadowed by the use of David, the Shepherd in “Throne” decks. I really came to appreciate his ability at Iowa States when I found he’s not just great at digging for the card you need, but an amazing tool to hide Lost Souls! When combined with a defense like this one he’s super useful. He can also use 6 of the 7 Enhancements in the offense.

Barnabas is the latest addition to the offense. He’s not the guy you want to rescue with every turn, but when you need him he’s amazing! Earlier versions of the deck suffered from lack of soul generation. He’s helped solve that problem. He can also use all 7 of the good Enhancements.

Samuel ranks among the top Heroes of the offense with Joshua and Moses. Early in the game he’s often the go to Hero with The Angel Under the Oak or Angel with the Secret Name. His ability to speed things up, get David in motion or pull a blocker via King Saul are all super helpful. His CBN band to David makes for a strong rescue. He can band to several Heroes from a “Throne” offense. He can also use all 6 of the 7 good Enhancements in the deck.

Gideon is a situational Hero that has been crucial in so many situations. He’s searchable with The Angel Under the Oak and Angel with the Secret Name, gets his own battle winner and obtains CBN protection from opponents via The Angel Under the Oak! He sets up a virtually unstoppable rescue attempt.

Captain of the Host and The Strong Angel by themselves are able to power through for second tier rescues. Being big, FBTN and not human all have their benefits.

Moses’ Parents offer a layer of protection that’s hard to measure since you don’t always know what your opponent could have done had they not been in play. They’re primarily here to sit in territory benefit the cloud Heroes.

Good Enhancements

Earlier versions of the BoM contained Eli’s Sound Advice, Faith of Moses, Family Bond and Transfiguration.

The deck really needs negates to back up the strong rescue attempts. While Eli’s Sound Advice works great with all the gold Heroes, it requires weakening the offense with Tabernacle Priests to function.

Since Family Bond works on several Heroes in the deck I tried it for a while but found it was never getting played so it got cut.

Faith of Moses is the one card that could potentially still be in the deck. It functions as a negate against an EE or as Artifact removal making it extremely versatile. It’s probably the 8th best Enhancement for this version of the offense. Unfortunately, I only have room for 7 GEs.

Transfiguration was in early versions of the offense, when it contained more white. It’s good in theory, but in practice I didn’t find it very useful.

Sword of the Spirit has been an amazing addition to the offense. It’s numbers for the FBTN Heroes. It’s a negate that works (although situationally) with the Joshua to Captain of the Host band. It’s removal of multi-brigade Evil Characters when held by my warrior class Hero.

Live Coal was added around the same time as Family Bond. It’s better all around. It has better numbers which can be used on The Strong Angel and Captain of the Host. It’s a negate for all of the green Heroes in the deck. Occasionally the territory class negate and discard even came into play. Overall people didn’t expect me to have things to play on The Strong Angel or Captain of the Host when they rescued alone. They were taken by surprise.

I’ve found Faith of Samuel harder to pull off than you might expect. I can’t count how many times I wanted to band just for the draw 3 but couldn’t get special initiative to use it. When it works, it’s amazing.

Word of Their Testimony is a solid battle winner than works on about half of my Heroes, including Moses. I really like that the deck includes all three of the “winner created promos” from CoW.

Faith of Moses’ Parents is an interrupt and win on several of my Heroes, including Moses. Yes, please!

Faith of Gideon is one of my favorite GEs in the offense. Usually played on a protected Gideon, it can withdraw multiple ECs. However, it is typically used to create a side battle resulting in an almost unstoppable win for Gideon. During that side battle I can play Grapes, Death of Unrighteous, Suicidal Swine Stampede, Haman’s Plot or simply use Lions to eat an opposing human Evil Character.

Faith of Abel wins the award for most versatile GE. It serves as a battle winner, Artifact removal, Site removal or can remove a problematic Lost Soul.

Evil Characters

Originally the defense took a very different approach to accomplishing the same goal. It contained characters like Nimrod, the Mighty, The False Prophet, Simon the Magician, and Astrologers. Those were all solid choice which allowed for the use of Magic Charms and easy recursion of Invoking Terror, but the defense didn’t have the staying power I wanted.

Moving in a direction that allowed for a brown splash with Haman’s Plot led to trying Doeg and Medium in Endor, but ultimately they didn’t make the final cut either.

King Saul is here to be an Evil Character that can sometimes double as a Hero. He nets a draw 2 with Samuel, a draw 1 when he blocks and he can use Haman’s Plot.

Foreign Wives is a late addition and a double edged sword. With the amount of drawing in the meta she’s an auto block often enough to warrant inclusion. It’s great that she can use every EE in the deck as well. But she’s a huge liability when The Throne of David is in play.

Similarly, Silly Women can use any of my EEs and generates a Lost Soul to rescue which has won me a few games. Since she typically only stays around for one battle she’s less of a liability against a “Throne” deck.

Damsel with Spirit of Divination is the only multi-brigade magician left in the deck to trigger Invoking Terror. Her ability to use 4 of my EEs, look at the opponent’s hand, and draw some cards makes her a really strong EC.

Lions is a late addition that replaced Doeg after the brown splash was added. It’s turn out to be one of my favorite Evil Characters. The versatility of being an auto block, EC removal, or discard my own paralyzed Hero is amazing! Oh, and it can use 4 of the 6 EEs in the deck.

Gomer is another late addition that has been really good. CBN banding against a potential AotL is very nice. With a smattering of evil brigades from some of the top brigades in the game my opponent often has someone in a brigade I can use with my EEs.

The Serpent is one of the best ECs in the deck. Paralyze a Hero to buy time for Confusion to show up? Yes please! Use 5 of the 6 EEs in the defense? Sure! Almost always have initiative to play Confusion followed by Death of Unrighteous / Suicidal Swine Stampede? Amazing!

King of Tyrus is another late addition that came along after the switch to brown. With the decrease of CBN battle winners in the meta, this big blocker has regained some of his old glory.

Messenger of Satan has been another of the top ECs since the deck’s inception. He’s primarily here to band, draw and use Suicidal Swine Stampede, all of which are really good.

Evil Enhancements

This portion of the deck has not changed a lot. Initially the deck used Deceitful Sin which rarely worked for me. I swapped that out for the versatile Every Man’s Sword, which was good but not completely reliable. Ultimately Haman’s Plot seemed far better than either choice.

Invoking Terror works as territory class while Moses is out. That alone makes it pretty strong. The versatility of removing a problematic Hero from territory (including underdecking my own Moses or paralyzed Hero at times) or winning a battle make this card awesome! There were games in which I used it several times due to its self-recursion too.

The new version of Confusion created by John Early is a game changing card. Taking out a card that’s a guaranteed rescue (be it Son of God, The Second Coming, or Angel of the Lord) is super powerful. This card played a crucial role in several of my victories.

While Haman’s Plot is the latest addition to the compliment of EEs, it’s also going to be the next cut. It’s an extremely powerful card, but in all my games at Regionals, Nationals, and in between, I haven’t encountered a situation where I needed it to win. I’ve ripped it three times, mostly for fun and because I can. Never because it was necessary. That begs the question, should the deck run at 50 cards with only 5 EEs? Or is there a 6th that should be added?

Hypocrisy is another of the original cards that was included because it works under Moses. It works against FBTN characters. It can take out a banding chain. It can return your converted or paralyzed Hero to hand. Add to the fact that when combined with Mayhem it’s game winning and it’s a must have card for any defense that runs enough crimson.

Suicidal Swine Stampede and Death of Unrighteous serve the same purpose in this defense – shuffle Lost Souls and get an auto block. These create artificial Lost Soul drought and allow for abuse of the “2-line” Lost Soul. Simply put, they are amazing.

Play it, Learn it, Beat it

I thought about including a section about cards that are good counters to the BoM deck but I’ve already gone extremely long! Maybe some brilliant player like Mitch, Josh, etc will write that article for us.

Now that you have a deck list and a general idea of the strategy behind the deck, put it together and play it! Learn how to use it. Learn how to beat it. Most importantly, have fun!

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

By Gabe

Gabe has been playing Redemption since early in 2006. While life has changed a lot since that time, his love for Redemption has not. He hosts a playgroup and assists with the design and development of upcoming set releases and even plays competitively on occasion.