Join CtheTree for a unique deck build he worked on leading up to Redemption Nationals 2024 and which he piloted to mixed results there.
Introduction:
Starstruck is a deck build I came up with that has two versions. The second version is the better and faster list. The name is due to the combination of Star abilities that are used to set up a remarkable consistency engine turn 1 that when executed can leave the opponent “Starstruck”.
To understand the second (better) list it is important to consider the first list I made. These write ups I sent over to Gabe Isbell and Tyler Stevens for insights on the builds. I edited them slightly for the sake of this article. I know it is a lot of information and if you have any feedback on either build especially the 2.0 build since it is the more refined and better list let me know.
Starstruck 1.0 (50 cards):
1 Son of God [K]
1 The Second Coming
1 The Resurrection [UR+] (GoC)
1 Angel of the Lord (J)
1 Ride on Victoriously / Awesome Things (LoC)
1 Crowd's Choice (GoC)
1 Three Woes (RoJ)
1 Lost Soul "Awake" [Ephesians 5:14 - TPC]
1 Lost Soul "Crowds" [Luke 5:15] [2016 - Local]
1 Lost Soul "Lost Souls" [Proverbs 2:16-17]
1 Lost Soul "Prosperity" [Deuteronomy 30:15]
1 Lost Soul "Lawless" [Hebrews 12:8]
1 Lost Soul "Grumbled" [Exodus 15:24 - K]
1 Lost Soul "Shepherds" [I Samuel 25:7 - L]
1 Lost Soul "Hopper" [II Chronicles 28:13 - LR]
1 Twenty Shekels
1 The New Covenant (I/J+)
1 Land of Moab (LoC)
1 Fishing Boat (GoC)
1 Bethlehem Stable (GoC)
1 Herod's Temple (GoC)
1 The Angel of the Winds
1 Elimelech (LoC)
1 David, Heart After God / David, the Contrite (LoC Plus)
1 John the Forerunner (GoC)
1 John, the Fisherman / John, Son of Thunder (GoC)
1 Gabriel, Mouth of God [UR+] (GoC)
1 The Magi (GoC)
1 Zechariah, the Silent (GoC)
1 Mary, Holy Virgin / Mary, Willing Servant (GoC)
1 Covenant with David (PoC)
1 Virgin Birth
1 Bearing Our Sin
1 Offering Your Son
1 Sign of Jonah
1 Love at First Sight (LoC)
1 No Need for Spices (GoC)
1 Lost Child Found (GoC)
1 The Annunciation (GoC)
1 Faith Unbowed (LoC)
1 Reprimand / Repercussion (GoC)
1 The Deceiver (RoJ)
1 Repudiating Rulers (GoC)
1 Outsiders (Black/Gold) (RoJ)
1 Herod's Guard (GoC)
1 Herod the Great (GoC)
1 Herod Archelaus (GoC)
1 Herod Agrippa I (GoC)
1 Revolt
1 Foreign Spears (LoC)
Reserve:
1 His Sacrifice (GoC)
1 The Child is Born (GoC)
1 Magnificat (GoC)
1 Reassurance of Jesus (GoC)
1 The First Sacrifice
1 Zaccheus, the Repentant / Zaccheus, Tax Collector (GoC)
1 Herod Antipas (GoC)
1 Futile Inquisition (GoC)
1 Duplicity (GoC)
1 Unsuccessful (PoC)
Starstruck 1.0 Write Up:
This deck build began as an attempt to offer surefire turn 0 interaction to stop Matthew and to turbo to the new Guardian of Your Souls Nats Promo. I called that deck build “The Last Stand”. This build was not optimal really as I realized it was just as effective to go to The Resurrection to Beth Stable and use the dom slot occupied by Guardian of Your Souls with a more useful Dominant. The basic concept of Starstruck is using turn 0 effects that top deck a Dominant/N.T. Star card along with a multitude effects that can draw or take that top decked card turn 0. In theory it is potentially powerful with the right targets.
This deck offers the ability to stop Matthew but also offers a more compelling reason to run all of these turn 0 interaction cards outside of that: if I am going first I use this turn 0 consistency engine to set up an optimal turn 1 rescue that is generally leading to generating on average 6-9 cards in the battle phase that is difficult to counter for someone going 2nd. This quite possibly could be a more reliable early card advantage engine than even Matthew with all the counters that exist to Matthew in the meta and the fact his draw is dependent on brigade count in the opponent’s hand.
Explanation:
Countering Matthew:
As I considered how to counter Matthew turn 0 outside of The Herdsmen of Gerar and Stricken (star ability) Crowds LS remains a viable counter if you have Son of God or Three Woes or Crowd’s Choice (to get to SoG or Three Woes) turn 0 to negate the opponent’s Wanderer LS if they play it out and seek to swap it out with Crowds LS so they can use Matthew still.
I realized that if Crowds LS does show up I have 7 ways to get to Son of God and Three Woes including themselves in this deck build.
Beyond this The Resurrection paired with Bethlehem Stable turn 0 is another way around Matthew since The Resurrection can play Bethlehem Stable from deck during the opponents first turn.
This deck build features the following turn 0 interaction package that helps counter Matthew: there are four cards with the star ability that can top deck a good Dominant from a deck in the deck: Fishing Boat, No Need for Spices, John, the Forerunner, and John, the Fisherman. The following eight cards provide a way turn 0 to get the Dominant that is top decked: Prosperity LS, Lawless LS (only works if Crowd’s Choice is topdecked), Grumbled LS, Shepherds LS, Virgin Birth (star), Bearing Our Sin (star), Offering Your Son (star), and Sign of Jonah (star). That is very consistent and through the pairing of these effects essentially provides 4 additional ways around Matthew turn 0 by top decking The Resurrection which can be played on opponents turn to play Bethlehem Stable from deck to counter Matthew. Side note: The Magi star ability also pairs well with 6 of these effects (all except Lawless LS and Sign of Jonah’s star ability) for top decking a card like The Annunciation and getting it into hand.
This deck build therefore has 10 ways turn 0 around Matthew: Crowds LS (with 7 potential ways to back it up if they have Wanderer LS via Crowd’s Choice, 4 dominant abilities that can top deck SoG or Woes from deck, SoG itself, and Woes itself), Awake LS to Crowds LS, Lost Child Found (star) to Crowds LS, Repudiating Rulers (star) to Crowds LS, The Resurrection to Beth Stable, Crowd’s Choice (to The Resurrection to Beth Stable),[paired with the 8 abilities that can get the top decked Dominant]: John the Forerunner (star) to The Resurrection to Beth Stable, John the Fisherman (star) to The Resurrection to Beth Stable, No Need for Spices (star) to The Resurrection to Beth Stable, and Fishing Boat (star) to The Resurrection to Beth Stable. This deck build therefore is the most consistent deck build I have found that can counter Matthew.
Starstruck:
While The Last Stand certainly uses the turn 0 package of the four cards that top deck a good Dominant from deck and the 8 cards that can either draw or take that card to counter Matthew when going second it does not have a truly compelling approach when going first aside from to-decking The Resurrection for a turn 1 Resurrection rescue.
Starstruck uses this turn 0 package to consistently set up one of the very best combos to gain significant card advantage going first that exists in the game. A while back I noticed Josh Portatz use David, Heart after God in a game to tutor for Love at First Sight. His hand was low and when I blocked he played it to draw a significant number of cards. This led me to thinking how cool it would be if you had David, HAG tutor for Love at First Sight but also had Awesome Things to guarantee you get to play it since David tutoring for LAFS is quite telegraphed and an opponent could just decline to block or do a Dominant block like Christian Martyr if they see your hand is low and you are about to draw a significant number of cards with LAFS. I learned this the hard way years ago when I was using Joseph the Dreamer turn 1 to tutor for Coat of Many Colors (this was pre-reserve rule) to tutor for Creation of the World via Coat and when I would tutor for Creation of the World via Joseph/Coat my opponent if they were savvy would just decline to block and then the next turn would find a way around that play generally. This led to me discovering The Widow at Zarephath to Elijah to Creation of the World with Hidden Treasures up where I would play Creation pre-block off Hidden Treasures when Joe Schaefer and I were considering how to guarantee the turn 1 Creation/LAFS combo play years ago.
All that to say as I was considering what would be a compelling turn 1 option to take advantage of the turn 0 Dominant tutor package this deck build has offering four ways via star abilities to tutor a Dominant to the top of deck turn 0 and 8 ways to get that card right away I realized the David, HAG/Awesome Things/LAFS combo would be a remarkable fit. When I am going first with this deck build I try to get David, HAG/Awesome Things/LAFS turn 1.
I call this deck build Starstruck in part due to the nature of the deck using a multitude of star abilities to create dazzling consistency and also due to the combination of the “star” (David) and the effect of some “Awesome Things” you are likely to be left dazzled and maybe even it will be “Love at First Sight” in seeing what the combo does. Maybe those that behold the star abilities and the combo they set up will be a little bit “Starstruck”.
The goal is to get my hand down as much as possible before I rescue to maximize the draw off of LAFS. Generally I find most of the time when gold fishing I can get my hand down to 1-2 cards that I cannot play down from hand meaning I end up drawing 6-8 cards off LAFS which is fantastic. There is nothing as consistent at drawing this many cards in one swoop turn 1 in the game other than Matthew and Mayhem. I would argue this combo might draws more cards more consistently turn 1 than Matthew due to Matthew being brigade count dependent and if the opponent does not have many brigades in hand then Matthew does not draw much as well as Matthew being a little easier to counter. Another advantage of this combo as a draw engine vs. Matthew is resiliency against Holy of Holies since David is CBP. This combo is able to draw more than Mayhem most of the time since Mayhem just involves 6 cards and LAFS involves 8 cards.
I will note that Grumbled LS/Shepherds LS paired with Lost Child Found (star), Repudiating Rulers (star), and Awake LS star really help with putting cards I cannot play down from hand before doing the Awesome Things/LAFS combo is helpful. Also Prosperity LS can aid with this as well as Offering Your Son (star). Lastly the star ability on Herod Archelaus can assist on sending a Dominant to the bottom of deck that I do not want to use yet to get my hand down to maximize the draw off of LAFS. Another good technique to thin the deck is using Covenant with David to tutor for Land of Moab and then grabbing Elimelech and using him to go to David. Unless if you are needing to draw Awesome Things that was top decked by a star ability with Elimelech it is generally best not to draw with Elimelech and just to go straight to David to keep the hand count down to maximize the draw off of LAFS. Also if you have Angel of the Winds it is best to go to Elimelech and then to go to David to thin the deck. Bottom line a competent pilot is going to aim to get their hand as low as possible to maximize the draw off of LAFS. There are exceptions to this such as if you have strong battle winning options in hand which is addressed in the section of this write up on timing the Starstruck play.
This deck is able to set this combo up turn 1 so consistently due to the turn 0 consistency package of the 4 star abilities that can top deck a good Dominant from deck paired with the 8 cards that can get that card turn 0. I think anyone would be hard pressed to assemble the Starstruck combo of David, HAG/Awesome Things/LAFS combo as consistently in any other deck build.
There are 14 ways to David, HAG turn 1 in this deck build: David, HAG himself, The Angel of the Winds, Elimelech, Land of Moab, Covenant with David (via tutoring for Land of Moab or the artifact side can tutor for David itself as long as another king is not in play), Offering Your Son to Covenant with David, Crowd’s Choice, The Annunciation (to Crowd’s Choice), The New Covenant (to The Annunciation to Crowd’s Choice), the four abilities that can top deck Crowd’s Choice (John the Forerunner (star), John the Fisherman (star), No Need for Spices (star), and Fishing Boat (star) paired with the eight cards that can get it from the top, and The Magi (star) to top deck The Annunciation (to Crowd’s Choice) along with the six cards that can get it from the top.
There are 10 ways to Awesome Things/LAFS turn 1 in this deck build. Which card I get does not matter since David, HAG can tutor for whichever one I do not get: Awesome Things itself, LAFS itself, Crowd’s Choice to either card, The Annunciation to Awesome Things, The New Covenant (to The Annunciation to Awesome Things), the four abilities that can top deck Crowd’s Choice/Awesome Things (John the Forerunner (star), John the Fisherman (star), No Need for Spices (star), and Fishing Boat (star) paired with the NINE cards that can get Crowd’s Choice from the top as Elimelech interestingly enough is an extra way in addition to the 8 aforementioned ways since he can draw Awesome Things or Crowd’s Choice from the top before tutoring for David, HAG (note 7 of these aforementioned things can get Awesome Things directly but Lawless LS can only get Crowd’s Choice), and The Magi (star) to top deck The Annunciation (to Awesome Things) along with the six cards that can get it from the top.
This is a very fun combo to attain and to execute. Drawing this many cards is a blast! It is important to note David, HAG fits quite well in this deck build since White brigade is the main brigade of the offense. There is plenty of battle winner support in here for him after he draws a bunch of cards through Angel of the Lord, Faith Unbowed, Reprimand, No Need for Spices, and Lost Child Found.
Another key thing to note is lets say turn 1 you are not able to get both David, HAG along with one of Awesome Things or LAFS then you can just tutor for LAFS with David and worst case scenario the opponent declines to block and you still get a soul or they do block and then you most likely get initiative and play LAFS with that initiative.
Timing the Starstruck Play:
One key thing to know is when to play Awesome Things and then LAFS after it. One really nice thing about this combo is the versatility of when you can play it. With Matthew you are locked into drawing cards right away. With David, HAG/Awesome Things/LAFS you can draw pre-block, immediately post-block, or even after you have defeated the evil characters in battle right before battle resolution.
This is significant in several scenarios and here are some to note: 1) If you know your opponent is running Herdsmen of Gerar it is better to play Awesome Things/LAFS post block so they do not draw a bunch off Herdsmen. 2) If opponent is running Herod’s it is best to play Awesome Things/LAFS pre block in case they were to go to Herod the Great/Herod’s Temple. 3) If you happen to in your opening 8 get a hand full of battle winning cards like Angel of the Lord, Reprimand, Faith Unbowed etc. then it is sometimes worth using those to try and win the battle before you play Awesome Things/LAFS. This gets your hand down to maximize the draw off of LAFS. Once you have defeated the opponents evil characters before battle resolution happens then you can play Awesome Things/LAFS to draw a bunch right before they surrender the Lost Soul. As you can see then there is a lot of versatility to when you can choose to use these two cards and draw a bunch of cards.
Another important thing to note when facing a deck using The Herdsmen of Gerar is when The Angel of the Winds exchanges to David, HAG AotW negates evil characters. In a Herdsmen matchup if Crowd’s Choice is the avenue being used to get to David then tutoring for AotW is often the right approach and then going straight to David to negate evil characters and therefore negate The Herdsmen of Gerar.
Offense:
This is the same offense as in The Last Stand for the most part. One thing to note is on the surface David, HAG seems to clash with Mary, Holy Virgin and John the Forerunner. While this is true Twenty Shekels and Reassurance of Jesus offer two reliable ways to bounce David to allow Mary and John the Forerunner to work. Also David himself is often a great rescue choice due to getting initiative most of the time and being able to tutor for Faith Unbowed/Angel of the Lord. As was mentioned earlier he fits great with the offense being White brigade and being able to use the battle winners in the deck/reserve quite well.
Generally the goal is to turn 1 rescue with David who grabs whichever combo piece is missing out of Awesome Things and LAFS and then playing LAFS at the desired time off of Awesome Things. As was mentioned earlier this typically leads to drawing between 6-8 cards. Then turn 2 the goal is to ideally have enough resources to set up using The Resurrection/The Child is Born to band in John, the Fisherman/Zechariah along with Zaccheus which is a strong rescue that is hard for the opponent to interact with that also continues the speed by drawing 4 cards. Gabriel can recur The Child is Born infinitely to allow for doing this over and over again. Zaccheus can be tutored for from Reserve with Crowd’s Choice, Virgin Birth, No Need for Spices, and Reassurance of Jesus. You can also use The Child is Born/The Resurrection to band in both Zaccheus and Mary, Holy Virgin to wreck the opponents territory if you know they do not have an EC in hand. I also like using The Resurrection to band Mary, Zaccheus, and John the Forerunner in if you are needing to clear out annoying ECs that can get around John the Forerunner in order for him to lock the opponent out from blocking.
Another strong rescue option is that Twenty Shekels offers fantastic support for Mary, Holy Virgin/Zaccheus allowing for the ability to pick apart the opponents defense. John the Forerunner paired with Twenty Shekels/The First Sacrifice is also very good getting rid of opponents blocking options in hand to enter battle with John the Forerunner to paralyze ECs in opponents territory.
Zaccheus is a strong rescuer being able to choose an EC with toughness of 7 or less to block when Herod’s Temple is out and tossing the opponents EC down to 0 with His Sacrifice. Zaccheus/Twenty Shekels also have some natural synergy together as well whether to reserve their only EC or only viable blocker with Zaccheus like you would with Mary or to play someone from hand who is not ideal for the opponent to block with.
This Herod’s Temple rescue idea works well with someone like Mary, Holy Virgin as well and The Child is Born since it has strength of 7 as well as His Sacrifice to toss an opponents EC down to 0 with Herod’s Temple active.
A Nativity battle winner backed by The Annunciation negating everything except Nativity cards is another strong rescue. Also in a similar sense any battle winner backed by Reassurance of Jesus is strong since it negates all evil cards.
David, The Magi, Gabriel, and Mary all create their own rescue potential by tutoring for battle winners.
Overall this offense packs enough firepower to get the job done.
Remarkable Consistency/Honey Pot Countering:
Another huge benefit of this deck build is the four star abilities which top deck a good Dominant from deck paired with the 8 ways turn 0 that can draw or take that Dominant means the deck has four additional ways to a hero turn 0 via Crowd’s Choice as well as four additional ways to The Resurrection for a strong turn 1 rescue if the David/Awesome Things/LAFS rescue is not optimal (which is rare). This still generates 4 cards typically turn 1 by playing John the Fisherman and either Beth Stable or Herod’s Temple and then banding in John to draw 2. Beyond this, not only is this deck build good against Matthew/Nazareth decks but it also works well against Honey Pot decks when going second too since you have four additional ways turn 0 to go to Crowd’s Choice to get to Mary, Holy Virgin when going second to dispatch their Holy of Holies or Pot of Manna. Overall I view this as a potentially revolutionary consistency tactic turn 0.
Nazareth/Honey Pot Resiliency:
The deck has 7 ways around Nazareth (Crowd’s Choice, The Resurrection to Beth Stable, Three Woes, Foreign Spears, Outsiders (B/G), Darkness LS to Outsiders (B/G), and Lost Child Found) outside of the 4 ways to Crowds LS for a total of 10 ways. Also of course before Nazareth enters play the 4 top deck a Good Dominant abilities can tutor for Three Woes or The Resurrection (to Beth Stable) to interact with Nazareth making in reality 14 ways around Nazareth turn 0 in the deck build. The Last Stand had 19 total ways and I might miss a couple of those ways (namely Possessing Spirit and Herodias’ Daughter) but time will tell.
The deck has 9 solid ways to deal with Honey Pot turn 0 (Mary, Holy Virgin, Crowd’s Choice to Mary, Holy Virgin, The Annunciation to Crowd’s Choice to Mary, Holy Virgin, New Covenant to Annunciation to Crowd’s Choice to Mary, Holy Virgin, the 4 top deck a good Dominant star abilities paired with the 8 ways to draw or take that Dominant, The Magi star to The Annunciation paired with 6 ways to draw or take that card). Beyond this Three Woes offers a less strong way around Honey Pot.
Awkwardness/Downsides:
This deck build has less cards that are awkward/weaker cards. Sign of Jonah/Fishing Boat/Bearing Our Sin really are the two that outside of their star ability have the least utility but Sign of Jonah can be good for dealing with Sheol/Hero Recursion while Bearing Our Sin can be good in particular turn 1 to back David up. Fishing Boat is necessary in this build for the star ability but other than potential add to battle stuff with John, the Fisherman serves little purpose.
In terms of weaknesses I think the following are potential ones:
1) With Harvest Time/The Manger (star) being cut I feel the deck build is a bit light on soul gen. Yes Hopper LS as well as Awake LS, Repudiating Rulers (star), and Lost Child Found (star) provide soul gen but it does feel like the deck needs one more soul gen option at least.
2) I do feel the deck is a bit weaker to Nazareth since a lot of the ways around Nazareth are dependent on turn 0 stuff. I think there are enough ways though still around Nazareth though since going second turn 0 The Resurrection to Beth Stable is a good stop as well as turn 0 Crowds LS. and if I am going first the LAFS draw is quite likely to get to Beth Stable, Woes, or Crowds LS. Time will tell though.
3) The deck is a bit weak to Soul Surfer deck builds in terms of if I am going first and wanting to combo. For one Complacent LS is a nuisance toward the Awesome Things play and Salty can impede The Annunciation as a tutor for David. Against Soul Surfer often the play will need to be David to LAFS without Awesome Things support which is not the worst but it isn’t optimal of course.
4) The Cross is a pain but thankfully Mary provides a consistent way to get around it.
5) The deck is weak against battle winning dominants such as Christian Martyr, Murderous Command, Grapes of Wrath, and Warrior Overtaken. These tend to get around the John the Forerunner rescues. The rescues using the banding cards to band in John/Zechariah/Zaccheus to remove the lone EC in battle are vulnerable to Murderous Command/Warrior Overtaken in particular. Sadly to counter these Complacent LS is not a good option in this build since if it shows up turn 1 that is bad for the David/Awesome Things/LAFS rescue and also it is bad for rescues involving The Resurrection and Angel of the Lord. I would like to possibly run The Cross or even Ark of the Covenant (winner promo, I like this option since my good battle winning Doms still work through it) but am not sure where to fit one of them in.
There maybe other things this deck build is weak against but those are the main areas I can think of.
Defense:
This is a trimmed down version of the defense I run in Soul Surfer and I feel it fits well enough here. The notable differences are I don’t have Herodias Daughter main deck and Contagious fear in Reserve. Possessing Spirit is not here either but that was more of a tech card than blocking card.
Maybeboard:
The Cross, Ark of the Covenant (Winner Promo), More soul gen (Naaman’s Servant Girl or “Lost Souls” LS or TAS), The Great White Throne, Herodias’ Daughter, Possessing Spirit, Flight into Egypt
Good Seed, Star of Bethlehem, Hospitality in Bethany, Contagious Fear (Reserve), Joseph, the Betrothed/Son of God (Manger), Polycarp, Magnifying Multitude (nice for extra draw when banded in off The Child is Born), Rez Revealer, Color Guard LS, Moshe, Boaz’ Sandal, Boaz’ Offspring, Love Righteousness, David’s Harp, The Emmaus Road, Delivered, The Throne of David (for star ability), I Am Redemption, Gifts of the Magi, Dragon Raid, Blood Avenger, Joy, Teaching in Parables (Reserve), Put more of Crowds LS package back (Harvest Time, Escape LS, Manger), Jordan Interrupted (for draw power with David), Saint Patrick (for star), Guardian of Your Souls, Foreign Wives (Reserve), Reassurance of Jesus (main deck), Cards that draw on my turn to help set up turn 1 speed combo that do not require searching (Star of Bethlehem, Kindness of Boaz, Faith of Joseph, Idol of Poor, Manna, I Am Creator, Go Into Captivity, Loaves and Fishes, Boaz (J), Cards that tutor for LAFS, Angelic News (nice in Reserve with Gabe synergy), Temple Veil, Book of the Law, Galileans LS, Bethlehem, The Coming Prince, Emptying the Tombs, Live Coal, Scapegoat, Spirit of Elijah (Reserve), Royal Parade, Plague of Frogs, Naomi’s Blessing, Elizabeth, Magnificat (main deck), Ways around Salty LS (Blind LS)
Conclusion:
Overall I feel this deck build takes the promising idea of having numerous ways to top deck a good Dominant turn 0 and numerous ways to get that card from the top of the deck turn 0 and provides a compelling use for those abilities not only when going 2nd to counter Matthew/Nazareth but also a compelling use for those abilities in setting up the David/Awesome Things/LAFS combo to generate significant card advantage on turn 1. I do not think the deck build is a glass cannon and is probably one of the faster deck builds in the meta. The draw power of the Starstruck combo is even possibly more consistent than that of Matthew who has been considered to be the best way in the meta to generate consistent card advantage turn 1.
Overall though I realized there is a better Starstruck build which is the one I checked in at Nationals.
Starstruck 2.0 “Nationals Version” (50 cards):
1 Son of God "Manger" (Promo)
1 The Second Coming
1 The Resurrection [UR+] (GoC)
1 Star of Bethlehem (GoC)
1 Crowd's Choice (GoC)
1 Three Woes (RoJ)
1 Mayhem (FoM)
1 Lost Soul "Awake" [Ephesians 5:14 - TPC]
1 Lost Soul "Crowds" [Luke 5:15] [2016 - Local]
1 Lost Soul "Lost Souls" [Proverbs 2:16-17]
1 Lost Soul "Prosperity" [Deuteronomy 30:15]
1 Lost Soul "Lawless" [Hebrews 12:8]
1 Lost Soul "Grumbled" [Exodus 15:24 - K]
1 Lost Soul "Shepherds" [I Samuel 25:7 - L]
1 Lost Soul "Hopper" [II Chronicles 28:13 - LR]
1 The Great White Throne (RoJ)
1 The Cross (GoC)
1 Twenty Shekels
1 The Manger (GoC)
1 The New Covenant (I/J+)
1 Golgotha (GoC)
1 Fishing Boat (GoC)
1 Bethlehem Stable (GoC)
1 Herod's Temple (GoC)
1 Resurrection Revealer (GoC)
1 The Messianic Messenger (GoC)
1 Gabriel, Mouth of God [UR+] (GoC)
1 Joseph, the Betrothed (GoC)
1 John the Forerunner (GoC)
1 John, the Fisherman / John, Son of Thunder (GoC)
1 The Magi (GoC)
1 Zechariah, the Silent (GoC)
1 Mary, Holy Virgin / Mary, Willing Servant (GoC)
1 Virgin Birth
1 Bearing Our Sin
1 Offering Your Son
1 Sign of Jonah
1 No Need for Spices (GoC)
1 Lost Child Found (GoC)
1 The Annunciation (GoC)
1 Reprimand / Repercussion (GoC)
1 The Deceiver (RoJ)
1 Herodias' Daughter (GoC)
1 Outsiders (Black/Gold) (RoJ)
1 Herod's Guard (GoC)
1 Herod the Great (GoC)
1 Herod Archelaus (GoC)
1 Herod Agrippa I (GoC)
1 Revolt
1 Foreign Spears (LoC)
Reserve:
1 His Sacrifice (GoC)
1 The Child is Born (GoC)
1 Magnificat (GoC)
1 Hospitality in Bethany (GoC)
1 Good Seed (GoC)
1 Zaccheus, the Repentant / Zaccheus, Tax Collector (GoC)
1 Possessing Spirit (GoC)
1 Herod Antipas (GoC)
1 Futile Inquisition (GoC)
1 Contagious Fear (GoC)
Change Log from 1.0 version
In:
Deck- Son of God (Manger), Star of Bethlehem, Mayhem, Joseph, the Betrothed, Messianic Messenger, Resurrection Revealer, The Cross, Golgotha, The Great White Throne, The Manger, and Herodias’ Daughter.
Reserve- Hospitality in Bethany, Contagious Fear, Possessing Spirit, and Good Seed.
Out:
Deck- Son of God (Daniel) for (Son of God (Manger)), Angel of the Lord (for Star of Bethlehem), Ride on Victoriously/Awesome Things (for Mayhem), David, HAG (for Joseph, the Betrothed), The Angel of the Winds (for Messianic Messenger), Elimelech (for Resurrection Revealer), Love at First Sight (for Herodias’ Daughter), Covenant with David (for The Cross), Land of Moab (for Golgotha), Faith Unbowed (for The Great White Throne), Repudiating Rulers (for The Manger).
Reserve- Reassurance of Jesus (for Hospitality in Bethany), The First Sacrifice (for Good Seed), Duplicity (for Possessing Spirit), and Unsuccessful (for Contagious Fear).
Summary:
Much of what I wrote before about Starstruck to you applies to this build. As you can see above there are just several different cards main deck and three different cards in Reserve. In this summary I seek to explain the differences. Please reference my original write up for more in depth details on the deck build.
This build is similar to the original Starstruck build yet it seeks a different speed engine target for the star based consistency package that top decks a good Dominant from deck and either draws or takes that Dominant via a star ability or a lost soul ability. The 1.0 version seeks to get Crowd’s Choice or Awesome Things for a combo with David, Heart after God/Love at First Sight/Awesome Things to draw a bunch of cards.
I had used the original Starstruck build in 6 games and it has a 6-0 record. Four of those games were at the Oregon State tournament and the other two were against players online who are not going to Nationals this year. I have not faced any top level competition with the deck build other than one player. The deck has done well but I realized I think it will falter against top tier competition since it has to dedicate so many cards toward getting to David, HAG to establish the combo. Against deck builds that run a lot of defensive battle winning dominants I could see the deck struggling. Also against FBTN offenses I could see the defense struggling. I found myself wanting cards like The Cross/Golgotha but just not having space for them. I also found myself wanting one additional way to deal with Nazareth. I just did not have space for any of these types of cards to add resiliency to the deck build and I really felt against top tier deck builds it could win but if they had a good enough start and especially against battle dominant heavy decks it could falter.
Then I realized that there might be a better speed route than going for turn 1 David, HAG/Love at First Sight/Awesome Things. That is by tutoring for Crowd’s Choice via the four top deck a good dominant star abilities or The Annunciation and then going to Mayhem from Crowd’s Choice. Turn 1 Mayhem offers a little less draw power than the David, HAG/LAFS/Awesome Things combo but it requires far less card slots to set up and is harder to counter. One downside is it is weaker to The Herdsmen of Gerar if you play Mayhem pre-block whereas with David/LAFS/Awesome Things you can wait till they block if they are running Herdsmen to play LAFS to draw. With the Mayhem play it is best to play it pre-block generally. It is important to note The Resurrection Revealer can tutor for Crowd’s Choice and go to Mayhem as well. There are 9 ways to Mayhem turn 1 in this deck build. This reminds me a bit of John Earley’s Mayhem deck from years ago. I think this gets Turn 1 Mayhem faster than just about any deck ever before due to the star abilities that top deck a good dominant from deck being able to tutor for Crowd’s Choice which can tutor for Mayhem.
Then once Mayhem is played this deck build seeks to play The Resurrection turn 1 to band to John the Fisherman and (if he is available) Zechariah to draw more cards and/or to get generate a sizable number of cards off of Star of Bethlehem. Mayhem generates quite a few cards toward getting to one of or often even both of these turn 1. To get to The Resurrection you have Resurrection Revealer as an option. Also New Cov/The Annunciation work. Great White Throne to Rez Revealer or to Joseph to Zechariah in battle to further the ramp if I already have The Resurrection. Great White Throne often works turn 1 due to having Mayhem in discard pile or an evil card sac’d to Prosperity LS or Offering Your Son (star). Further, it is really easy to get The Resurrection after using Star of Bethlehem since Star of Bethlehem is often going to top deck The Resurrection in this build due to the 4 star abilities that can do so.
Star of Bethlehem can be tutored for by The Magi, Joseph the Betrothed, and Messianic Messenger. I seek to play The Resurrection before playing Star of Bethlehem if possible especially if after Mayhem I only have 2-3 Nativity heroes. However, if I don’t have The Resurrection after Mayhem then I will go for Star of Bethlehem even with only 3 Nativity heroes to get The Resurrection. It is worth it many times due to the sheer amount of cards that get generated. Basically this build draws more cards most of the time turn 1 than the original version of Starstruck since Mayhem draws close to as many cards as David/LAFS/Awesome Things and then after that there is far more draw available via The Resurrection and Star of Bethlehem.
Furthermore: due to the card slots freed up by not running a bunch of ways to David, HAG the deck build is far more balanced being able to run The Cross/Golgotha, Resurrection Revealer, and The Great White Throne. The Cross deals with battle winning dominants which threaten the offense especially. Warrior Overtaken/Murderous Command are tough against this offense. Golgotha allows me to have both The Cross and another artifact like Twenty Shekels active which is huge. It also makes the defense better against FBTN heroes. Herodias is great against Nazareth and other threats like an opponents Herod’s Temple. The Great White Throne is better in my mind than Faith Unbowed as it is an amazing consistency piece in this build since I often have an evil card in discard pile turn 1 via Prosperity, Offering Your Son (star), and turn 1 Mayhem. Beyond this it is arguably the best counter in the game against CtB cheese strategies with Orange and fools. The Manger is better than Repudiating Rulers since I would rather have Contagious Fear with Antipas than the Duplicity/Unsuccessful deal and it frees up space for Possessing Spirit in Reserve who is good for dealing with annoying good cards but also is a nice cheese rescue with Zaccheus. I especially like banding to Zaccheus with Gabriel who negates Possessing Spirit so it cannot band if the opponent has Gospel unity if they are running Thieves or Herod’s. The Manger can be activated on Beth Stable and offers nice value. In Reserve Reassurance of Jesus is no longer needed to bounce David, HAG to create unity for Mary/John, the Forerunner so Hospitality of Bethany can be run to have another card to do the strong banding rescue with John, the Fisherman/Zaccheus.
Other changes I made are 1) cutting The First Sacrifice in Reserve for Good Seed. I really like The First Sacrifice as it is a great card for setting up a rescue and pairs especially well with John the Forerunner. That being said I only have two ways to get it from Reserve: Crowd’s Choice and Mary, Holy Virgin (in battle). I rarely was able to get it as often I was wanting to snag a battle winner when rescuing with Mary. I figured Good Seed is a more accessible card and really good as an add to battle tool.
Maybeboard:
Shepherds of Bethlehem (Reserve), Wall of Protection, Idol of Poor over Offering Your Son (deck, this would serve a similar purpose of getting a topdecked Dom from one of the stars that does so. Not as strong though since it cannot due it turn 0 but has to be on my first turn during prep phase. The other downside is it requires an artifact activation which slows down the ramp since I often activate GWT or New Covenant to ramp further turn 1), Flight into Egypt (deck or reserve), Magnifying Multitude (main deck), bounce support for if opponent uses Mary such as Temple Veil, Coliseum (deck), Faith Unbowed (deck), The First Sacrifice (Reserve), The Coming Prince (Reserve), An Angel Appears (deck), Accusers LS (deck), Darkness LS (deck), Humble LS (deck), Distressed LS (deck), and Color Guard LS.
Out of this list the cards I really am contemplating putting in the most are Shepherds of Bethlehem, Wall of Protection, Idol of Poor over Offering Your Son, Flight into Egypt, The First Sacrifice (reserve), The Coming Prince (reserve), and Contagious Fear (reserve). Cutting Offering Your Son for Idol of Peor is the main thing I am contemplating. The upside to this is that I can draw the dom I topdeck with a star with Idol of Peor during prep phase. The downside is this uses my artifact activation which I often like to use New Covenant in or Great White Throne (which most of the time can tutor for a hero turn 1 as I often have an evil card in discard pile turn 1 before battle) to help with my turn 1 ramp. Also Offering Your Son is better going 2nd since I can get Crowd’s Choice or The Resurrection with it going 2nd to interact with the opponent. Over the course of the game Idol of Peor is better but turn 1 or going 2nd turn 0 Offering Your Son is better. Right now I am leaning toward Offering Your Son after tests.Flight into Egypt pairs so well with Star of Bethlehem but turn 1 I find it is often a dead card since by the time I would use its regular ability I have had advantage. The First Sacrifice I wish I could fit in Reserve and access better. It is great with John the Forerunner. The Coming Prince is neat to recur Star of Bethlehem but honestly it feels kind of win more to me as by the time I would use it much of my deck would be gone anyway. It also top decks Star of Bethlehem meaning I don’t have it right away and need to tutor for it with a hero in battle. At that point I often feel I would rather have Hospitality in Bethany which can band to John, the Fisherman/Zechariah to draw 4 and win the battle many times by bringing Zaccheus in. I would like to have Contagious Fear in Reserve but I just don’t have the space.
Shepherds of Bethlehem is needed after I had a game at Nats where I was up 4-0 at the end of the 3rd turn with 3 cards left in my deck and SoG in my hand but no way to generate a soul. I lost 4-5 after being droughted 4-5 turns after that which was brutal.
Magnifying Multitude is another card I would like to fit main deck since it offers more card draw off The Child is Born/Hospitality in Bethany bands and is also a smart rescue turn 1 after drawing a bunch with Mayhem/Star of Bethlehem before battle as it can negate The Herdsmen of Gerar.
Conclusion:
Overall this deck build is a unique one and very fast. It went 3-2 in the games I used this list in at Nationals having mixed results. My other two games I used Souls Surfer and it went 1-1 with the loss being 4-5. I finished 19th at Nats in T1-2P which is decent but not a great result. Both losses with Starstruck were 4-5. One was a winnable game where I misplayed my second rescue botching a John the Forerunner rescue by not getting my hand count down low enough. The second was the soul gen issue mentioned above. I do think the list is viable though despite some of the struggles I had and I think it is my second best deck build to Soul Surfer. I intend to refine it further and value any feedback any of you have on this deck build.
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