Join CtheTree for his favorite iteration of the Starstruck deck build. This is his second (and original) Starstruck deck build that seeks to utilize Numerous as the Stars as the target for the Starstruck consistency engine. This build was crafted back in August 2024 but could not be shared till now due to a ruling revelation the build led to.
Introduction:
Starstruck deck builds have consumed much of my deck building efforts for close to a year now. All of these builds are centered on using a multitude of Star abilities which top deck a Good Dominant from deck paired with abilities that can get that card into hand turn 0. The various versions I have built have different cards they target through this consistency engine. You can read about the 1.0 and 2.0 versions of the Starstruck deck build here. The 2.0 version of Starstruck which is the Nativity version sought to topdeck Crowd’s Choice with the various Star abilities to play Crowd’s Choice to tutor for a turn 1 Mayhem to make the already speedy Nativity build even speedier. I ran this deck build with mixed results in 6 out of 8 rounds at Nationals. Through that experience though I realized the build had a significant weakness which was it failed to counter the opponent enough. It is a lightning fast build but does not mitigate the opponent’s game plan enough so they can manage to get back into the game easily enough.
This led me to reconsidering the build as a whole and I realized a really powerful use of the Starstruck consistency engine would be to get Crowd’s Choice turn 0 and use it to tutor for Numerous as the Stars to set up a powerful board state. I shared one iteration of this Starstruck Numerous build here. That build seeks to use Numerous as the Stars to set up a turn 1 Resurrection play banding to Matthew and getting Nazareth/Judas in play to hamper the opponent.
Yet one thing many do not know is the Starstruck Numerous Nazareth build is not my original Starstruck Numerous build. All along I have had a Starstruck Numerous build that is the main one I have worked on but due to a ruling revelation that came up in one of the games I used it in RedemptionAggie asked me to not share the build.
Now though he has given me permission to share this build and the ruling revelation that arose as a result of me piloting this build.
Without further ado I present to you the deck…
Starstruck 4.0 (Numerous Nicanor Version):
Deck (50 cards)-
1 Son of God "Manger" (Promo)
1 The Second Coming
1 The Resurrection (GoC)
1 Three Woes [Fundraiser]
1 Crowd's Choice (GoC)
1 Mayhem (FoM)
1 Shipwreck (EC)
1 Lost Soul "Prosperity" [Deuteronomy 30:15]
1 Lost Soul "Grumbled" [Exodus 15:24 - K]
1 Lost Soul "Shepherds" [I Samuel 25:7 - L]
1 Lost Soul "Lawless" [Hebrews 12:8]
1 Lost Soul "Complacent" [Zephaniah 1:12]
1 Lost Soul "Crowds" [Luke 5:15] [2016 - Local]
1 Lost Soul "Lost Souls" [Proverbs 2:16-17]
1 Lost Soul "Hopper" [II Chronicles 28:13 - RR]
1 Manna (PoC)
1 Four-Drachma Coin (GoC)
1 Denarius (I/J+)
1 Book of the Covenant (PoC)
1 Fishing Boat (GoC)
1 Herod's Temple (GoC)
1 John the Forerunner (GoC)
1 John, the Fisherman / John, Son of Thunder (GoC)
1 Moses, Friend of God
1 Saint Patrick (GoC)
1 Matthew the Publican / Matthew (Levi) (GoC)
1 Simon Peter / Peter, the Rock (GoC)
1 Parmenas (EC)
1 Nicanor (EC)
1 Jonah (PoC)
1 Enosh, the Worshiper / Enosh (Mortal) (LoC)
1 Melchizedek
1 Numerous as the Stars (PoC)
1 No Need for Spices (GoC)
1 Transfiguration (GoC)
1 Virgin Birth
1 Bearing Our Sin
1 Offering Your Son
1 Sign of Jonah
1 The Ascension (GoC)
1 Love One Another (GoC)
1 Authority of Christ (GoC)
1 Bless the Nations
1 The Deceiver (RoJ)
1 Emperor Claudius (PC)
1 Foreign Wives
1 Blood Avenger
1 Herod the Great (GoC)
1 Stricken
1 Scattered Sheep
Reserve:
1 Simon the Zealous / Saint Simon (GoC)
1 Send the Helper (GoC)
1 You Will Remain
1 Covenant of Prayer (RoJ)
1 Spirit as a Dove (GoC)
1 Eternal Inheritance
1 Elijah in Glory (GoC)
1 Saul of Tarsus [2022 - Seasonal]
1 False Prophecy (PoC)
1 Unsuccessful (PoC)Explanation:
This build features the usual Starstuck consistency package that has been developed further with the realization that Transfiguration has a star ability that can topdeck a Good Dominant from deck. I have 6 different star abilities that get me to Numerous as the Stars turn 0 in this build (Fishing Boat, both Johns, Saint Patrick, and Transfiguration) supported by 9 cards that can get that topdecked Dominant to hand (Grumbled LS, Shepherds LS, Prosperity LS, Lawless LS (can’t get Saint Patty topdeck Numerous), Manna, Sign of Jonah (star), Offering Your Son (star), Virgin Birth (star), and Bearing Our Sin (star). This provides remarkable consistency at getting to Numerous as the Stars turn 1 paired with Crowd’s Choice offering another way. Bless the Nations and Moses star abilities add further consistency.
This build as you can see runs so many star cards so when I do get Numerous I am able to tutor for an abundance of heroes. I mainly want to tutor for Nicanor/Parmenas, Jonah, Matthew, and John. If I can I go for Enosh and Melchizedek as well. I realized Nicanor/Jonah are a great counter pairing as they really limit the opponent heavily making drawing and searching not a real possibility without great cost. Add in Enosh to negate neutrals and an oppressive board state is established. Unlike using Nazareth like I do in my other Starstruck Numerous build which I previously shared the counters in this build only hurt my opponent not me.
I realized Parmenas is far better than Widow’s Tables to activate Nicanor’s ability and in fact Parmenas is a great offensive tool being a stronger option than Matthias or Zaccheus when banded in with John, the Fisherman off The Resurrection, The Ascension, or the like since he can negate and remove an evil character from battle backed by John’s toss ability. There is a cost of course to activating Paremenas ability but I have plenty of Clay enhancements to spare. I have three different ways to band him/John in together due to The Resurrection, The Ascension, and Bless the Nations.
In light of this I seek to get the counter characters down, draw with Matthew, and then pound the opponent with rescues backed by John, the Fisherman and Parmenas banding tactics.
The Defense is small and is built to operate effectively with Melchizedek active. I have found it is enough to block the opponent especially with the Saul of Tarsus support in Reserve.
Overall I have never lost a game with this deck build. It is 4-0 as I only used it in 4 games. The version I used in most of those games had Bethlehem Stable instead of Transfiguration, Satan’s Seat instead of Melchizedek, and Noah’s Ark (Ark of Salvation) instead of Manna. Also in Reserve it had Untouchable instead of Elijah in Glory and Good Seed instead of Covenant of Prayer. I realized that these deck builds are combo decks and if you do not combo they are very likely to lose. Due to this I went all in with the combo enhancing the consistency of it with Manna/Transfiguration when I discovered Transfiguration has a star ability which can topdeck a good Dominant from deck (Lackey does not show this which is why I missed it previously). I also lost a game brutally with the Numerous Nazareth version to a soul hide deck so I realized Melchizedek would be a good add in this version (there is not space for him in the Numerous Nazzy version).
Why have I not run this build in more games? This leads too…
THE RULING REVELATION:
Well you see in one of those games in fact the first game I ever used the build in my opponent wondered if he had Storehouse in play if that stopped Nicanor from working. I asked RedemptionAggie the question and he realized that indeed if the opponent has deck protection that stops Nicanor from working according to how the rules are currently written. This makes Nicanor slightly weaker as a counter than we initially thought as a community. You might recall Jeremy Chambers and Jay Chambers both ran a deck build this past Nationals using Nicanor and this was not caught at Nationals and likely would have impacted their results somewhat if it was. In light of this RedemptionAggie asked me to wait to publish my Starstruck (Numerous Nicanor) version until the Elders released an updated rules document and they could comment on this ruling. Recently though RedemptionAggie gave me permission to share this list.
I ran the list in three more games after the initial game where the ruling revelation was discovered on Nicanor/deck protection. I added Shipwreck in as a tool to deal with the opponent’s deck protection as well as Satan’s Seat and they helped for sure. After that though I felt I really out of respect for the Elders should not use the list to avoid publicizing the ruling that was found out till they were ready. I was 3-0 with the list and crafted the Starstruck Numerous Nazareth version to use in the RobM Zoom Series final round instead of this list I had been running. I lost with it to BaboonyTim and shared that list but have kept this one under wraps.
How good is this deck build really though?
Concluding Thoughts:
I like both Starstruck Numerous builds I have developed but I do think this is the better of the two. The Starstruck Numerous Nazzy build is more explosive speed wise but it really is not a great deck to run Nazzy in since there are so many suboptimal cards in the build that are there just for the star ability. Since Nazzy impacts me as well as the opponent the build can struggle having enough resources in a Nazzy environment. Yes it draws a ton but is often drawing useless cards.
This build is a better overall deck since yes there is the same issue of many suboptimal cards only in the build for their star ability but since the counters only hit my opponent I can search to get the resources I need to block and rescue easily enough.
But what about Nicanor being able to be stopped with deck protection? And why did I cut Satan’s Seat for Melchizedek? Well in reality I realized that Shipwreck/Three Woes are enough to deal with an opponent’s Bethlehem Stable or Storehouse. Satan’s Seat is a bit overkill. This might be wrong but I feel having Melchizedek to help me against Soul Hide/Soul protection defenses is more important than Satan’s Seat as Satan’s Seat is overkill with me running Shipwreck. Also Nicanor being stopped by deck protection is a bother but looking at the other build I designed if an opponent gets deck protection out before I get Nazareth in play then Nazareth is stopped by that. Also Judas who is my draw counter in that build is stopped by deck protection as well. So in reality the other counters similar to Nicanor in power level are also impacted by deck protection.
How strong is this build? Well it too is a glass cannon but is a bit more resilient than the Starstruck Numerous Nazzy build. I think it can compete but if it goes second and the opponent goes first it will struggle. If this build goes first and combos it should do well. If it does not combo when going first it will struggle.
Overall this quest to craft a deck build using the Starstruck consistency engine to turbo to Numerous as the Stars to set up a fast start along with an oppressive board state has been fun. The builds can win quite a bit going first but struggle going 2nd. I actually think despite all these efforts the Starstruck 2.0 (Nativity version) I ran at Nationals that turbos to Mayhem via the Starstruck consistency engine might be my best Starstruck build because it is not as much of a glass cannon. It runs a more well rounded defense. Its weakness though is despite the speed it does not do enough to limit the opponent through counters. You can check that Starstruck Nativity build out here. All in all I probably did not make much headway then from that build to these but I sure have had fun crafting them!
Any feedback you have on the build would be much appreciated!
Maybe board:
Bethlehem Stable, Satan’s Seat, Noah’s Ark (Ark of Salvation), Wall of Protection, Untouchable (Reserve), Good Seed (Reserve), Faith of Samuel (Reserve), Faith of Barak (Reserve), Awake LS, Scattered (Reserve), Jesse, Goliath, The New Covenant, Angel of the Lord, and Twenty Shekels.
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