Join CtheTree for the deck build he managed to win the 2025 Northwest Regional tournament with.
Introduction:
Leading up to the 2025 Northwest Redemption Regional Tournament I was using the time I have for Redemption trying to figure out the best deck build to use. The past while I have primarily been using two deck builds. I have used one mostly for in person play and one mostly for online play. For in person play I have been using Soul Surfer which I won the 2025 Oregon State tournament with. For online play I had been using Purple Heart which I top cut in the most recent Lackey Grand Prix with. Both builds I feel are viable in the meta so I wanted to test both out to see which one was the better choice for 2025 NW Regionals. I had determined after testing that I felt Soul Surfer would be the better choice and so I was planning to run it.
Then something troubling happened: Prince of the Air became a card in the meta that Big Clay could utilize. You see I had a feeling BaboonyTim who would be at our tournament would be running Big Clay. He won the 2025 Kentucky State tournament against a formidable field with Big Clay. I was testing both Soul Surfer and Purple Heart in practice games against his Big Clay build and found both could win against Big Clay but Soul Surfer had more consistent chances of winning. However, once I factored in two copies of Prince of the Air being run in Big Clay I felt the matchup became too close for comfort between Soul Surfer and Big Clay. Prince of the Air enables the build to get rid of my Dom restrict artifact in Lacking Prophecy or Peter’s Curse with ease and then since Big Clay runs so many negate neutral effects I found the souls in Soul Surfer struggling stopping Big Clay from gaining the advantage in the matchup due to the firepower of all the battle winning Dominants in that deck. I think Soul Surfer can still win against Big Clay as can Purple Heart but it became a bit too close for comfort in terms of the matchup.
When I realized this it was around a week and a half till Regionals and I was unsure what to do since the main two deck builds I had been refining and testing for several months in preparation for the tournament I was not fully confident in for the matchup with Tim and his Big Clay deck build. One thing I noticed is in practice games when I got Guardian of Your Souls out in Purple Heart that really made things hard for Big Clay but if Big Clay managed to get around it and played Burial Purple Heart struggled. I tried modifying Purple Heart to run Harvest Time in addition to Guardian of Your Souls but realized the build would not hold up in non-Big Clay matchups as well since Angel of the Lord really is needed in that Dom slot as battle winning power.
Then I remembered something on the day that marked exactly 1 week till the start of NW Regionals…
A little over a year ago after the new Guardian of Your Souls (Nats promo) was spoiled I was wrestling with how that card could negatively impact things for Clay offenses but realized the issue with it was that you could not reliably get to GoYS turn 0 so then I would not have it when it woyld be most important to hamper a Clay offense when it goes first. This led me to seek out a way to get GoYS consistently on turn 0. After much study of the rotation card pool I discovered what is now known as the “Starstuck” consistency suite as a means for seeking to get a Good Dominant of my choice to my hand via star abilities that top deck a Good Dominant and then other star abilities/lost soul abilities that get that card to hand. Back at this time I built a deck build which was actually the original Starstruck deck build called The Last Stand. I called it this because I viewed it as an ultimate attempt to stop Clay deck builds which I viewed as the primary threat in the meta. The Last Stand sought to combine this new star based consistency package I had found to get Guardian of Your Souls turn 0 along with the Soul Surfer consistency package to get Crowds LS out turn 0 to give the build as much of a shot as any build to hamper Clay deck builds. This build naturally ran Harvest Time as well to get to Crowds LS more consistently. I sent The Last Stand deck list along with an article about the build to Gabe for his insights back in May 2024.
Gabe sent the following critique back of The Last Stand, “Soul Surfer is a very clever deck, making good use of a saturation of star abilities to achieve a specific goal. Sacrificing card quality to get those star abilities hurts, but it’s a minimal number of cards so it works. The Last Stand seems to be taking that concept to the next level by attempting to achieve two goals using the same strategy. The end result is that you are surprisingly consistent at accomplishing those goals but have to make a greater sacrifice to do it. At a certain point I feel like the card quality you gain by playing optimal cards outweighs the benefit you receive from playing suboptimal cards for their star ability. But it’s not just the cards with star abilities that are taking up “suboptimal spots”, I see a couple Dominants and souls that feel suboptimal as well. Without having played this, my initial reaction is that it looks like too much of a sacrifice for what you gain … I hope that doesn’t discourage you from giving it an honest try because I could be completely wrong.”
At the time I agreed completely with Gabe and so I moved on from The Last Stand back in May 2024. I ended up using the consistency engine I found to try and get to Crowd’s Choice turn 0 to set up getting Love at First Sight. I had a very consistent route to getting David, HAG in that build to get Awesome Things and play LAFS for a speedy turn 1 card advantage tool. This was the Starstruck 1.0 deck build as at that point I had thought of that name. Eventually I moved on from that back to the Nativity Offense/Defense I was running in the Last Stand and instead of going to GoYS turn 0 I went to Crowd’s Choice to Mayhem turn 0 to set up an incredibly fast Nativity offense. This was the Starstruck 2.0 deck build and ended up being the deck build I ran in all but two rounds at 2024 Redemption Nationals. The deck build did ok at Nationals but not as well as I hoped.
You can read about Starstruck 1.0 and Starstruck 2.0 here. You may notice in the write up on Starstruck 1.0 I actually mentioned “The Last Stand” there and said this about it, “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.”
You can see from that how I viewed The Last Stand quite lowly and viewed as nothing more as helpful due to the consistency engine I discovered in building it. I largely forgot about The Last Stand to be honest.
But then a week before NW Regionals I remembered the build due to my efforts to try and fit Harvest Time into Purple Heart along with GoYS which has been a key card in the build since I created it early on. As I found that pairing didn’t work well in Purple Heart I remembered The Last Stand, found the list in my Lackey back files, and booted it up. For a week leading up to NW Regionals I refined the list, tested it, and realized it gave me the best chance out of any of my builds against Big Clay. I was hesitant to pick up a new list to run since usually that is ill advised due to lack of piloting experience but then I realized this list is quite similar to Starstuck 2.0 (Nativity version) which I ran in all but two rounds in Type 1 at 2024 Nationals having just a few card slots different so I realized I already knew how to pilot the offense/defense competently. I ran the list at the 2025 NW Regional and won Type 1 with a 4-0 record and managed to win 5-2 against BaboonyTim who was running Big Clay. I was thrilled to win the tournament and felt I definitely made the right deck choice.
Gabe’s insights on The Last Stand are correct I must note. It does have issues as a list with card quality yet I think I found some ways to improve those weaknesses from the version I sent Gabe. The current list by no means completely solves the issues Gabe brought up but it makes enough improvements that I think the build is viable. In the list below I will reflect what modifications I made from the version I sent to Gabe close to a year ago that he gave me feedback on.
With that back ground information in mind here is the list.
The Last Stand (50 cards):
1 Son of God “Manger” (Promo)
1 The Second Coming
1 The Resurrection [UR+] (GoC)
1 Guardian of Your Souls [2024 – National]
1 Harvest Time (GoC)
1 Crowd’s Choice (GoC)
1 Three Woes (RoJ)
1 Lost Soul “Prosperity” [Deuteronomy 30:15]
1 Lost Soul “Shepherds” [I Samuel 25:7 – L]
1 Lost Soul “Grumbled” [Exodus 15:24 – K]
1 Lost Soul “Lawless” [Hebrews 12:8]
1 Lost Soul “Crowds” [Luke 5:15] [2016 – Local]
1 Lost Soul “Complacent” [Zephaniah 1:12] *Was Awake LS in original*
1 Lost Soul “Orphans” [Jeremiah 22:3] *Was Escape LS in original*
1 The Cross (GoC UR+) *Was Good Seed in original*
1 The Manger (GoC)
1 Twenty Shekels
1 The New Covenant (I/J+)
1 Golgotha (GoC) *Was Hopper LS in original*
1 Fishing Boat (GoC)
1 Bethlehem Stable (GoC)
1 Herod’s Temple (GoC)
1 The Angel of the Winds
1 John, the Fisherman / John, Son of Thunder (GoC)
1 John the Forerunner (GoC)
1 Mary of Bethany / Mary, the Attentive (GoC) *Was Flight into Egypt in original*
1 The Magi (GoC)
1 Gabriel, Mouth of God [UR+] (GoC)
1 Zechariah, the Silent (GoC)
1 Joseph, the Betrothed (GoC)
1 Mary, Holy Virgin / Mary, Willing Servant (GoC)
1 No Need for Spices (GoC)
1 Virgin Birth
1 Bearing Our Sin
1 Sign of Jonah
1 The Annunciation (GoC)
1 Wheat and Tares (GoC) *Was Offering Your Son in original*
1 Lost Child Found (GoC)
1 Reprimand / Repercussion (GoC)
1 The Deceiver (RoJ)
1 Possessing Spirit (GoC)
1 Repudiating Rulers (GoC)
1 Herod’s Guard (GoC)
1 Herodias’ Daughter (GoC)
1 Herod the Great (GoC)
1 Herod Archelaus (GoC)
1 Herod Agrippa I (GoC)
1 Outsiders (Black/Gold) (RoJ)
1 Futile Inquisition (GoC) *Was Revolt in original*
1 Foreign Spears (LoC)
Reserve:
1 Shepherds of Bethlehem (GoC) *Was The First Sacrifice in original*
1 Zaccheus, the Repentant / Zaccheus, Tax Collector (GoC)
1 His Sacrifice (GoC UR+)
1 The Child is Born (GoC)
1 Hospitality in Bethany (GoC) *Was Futile Inquisition in original*
1 Magnificat (GoC)
1 Herod Antipas (GoC)
1 Contagious Fear (GoC)
1 Duplicity (GoC)
1 Unsuccessful (PoC)
Explanation:
Key Feature #1- Soul Surfer/Starstruck Combined:
This deck build is rather unique in that it takes the Soul Surfer consistency package for trying to get a lost soul that counters an opponents strategy in play turn 0 as well as the Starstruck consistency engine that tries to get a desired Good Dominant into hand turn 0 into one deck list. The original version I sent Gabe sought to do this but the only counter Lost Soul in that version I tried to get into play was Crowds LS. This version runs Complacent LS and Orphans LS as other souls that the Soul Surfer package can tutor for.
In total I have 7 total ways to each of the three counter lost souls: the lost soul itself, Harvest Time, Crowd’s Choice to Harvest Time, The Manger (star), Repudiating Rulers (star), Lost Child Found (star), and Wheat and Tares (star). This is one less way to each lost soul than my Soul Surfer deck build has which is pretty remarkable considering that The Last Stand has a whole other turn 0 consistency suite in the starstruck engine. Overall I use the Soul Surfer consistency engine to get to Crowds, Complacent, or Orphans turn 0 or turn 1 based on what is best against my opponent’s build. One nice thing about the Soul Surfer engine is that Hopper LS is not requisite due to all the soul Gen in the build. This frees up a card slot. I realized this earlier this season with my Soul Surfer build and it applies here too.
This Soul Surfer consistency engine is paired with the Starstruck consistency engine I discovered. This consistency engine uses the star cards that top deck a Good Dominant from a deck paired with an effect that can draw/take that Dominant turn 0 to one of the many Good Dominants in the deck. This build runs four cards with the star ability that can top deck a good card from a deck: Fishing Boat, No Need for Spices, John, the Forerunner, and John, the Fisherman. To get this top decked Good Dominant to hand I have the following: Prosperity LS, Lawless LS (only works if Crowd’s Choice is topdecked), Grumbled LS, Shepherds LS, Virgin Birth (star), Bearing Our Sin (star), and Sign of Jonah (star). This provides 7 total ways turn 0 to either draw or take the Dominant that is top decked by the 4 star abilities in deck that can top deck it. Tied in with this The Magi and Mary of Bethany both have star abilities that pair well with this consistency engine since there are 5 ways to get the card they top deck to hand.
In this build depending on the matchup with the Starstruck consistency engine I will either go for Harvest Time to play our Crowds LS, Complacent LS, Orphans LS, and maybe Grumbled/Shepherds LS, or I will go for Guardian of Your Souls, or I will go for Crowd’s Choice to get whatever card I want.
Also it is good to notice The Annunciation and The New Covenant to The Annunciation provide two additional ways when I go first to a desired Dominant. Also when I go first Zechariah and The Manger (if the opponent blocks one of my rescuing Nativity heroes) provide two additional ways to get a top decked card to hand.
Overall then this build is the most consistent build I have ever crafted for interacting with the opponent turn 0. This creates some great resiliency against certain deck builds.
Key Feature #-2- Resiliency against Matthew:
This deck build there has 13 ways turn 0 to hamper Matthew: Harvest Time to Crowd’s LS, Crowd’s Choice to Harvest Time to Crowds LS, LCF to Crowds LS, Manger to Crowds LS, Repudiating Rulers to Crowds LS, Wheat and Tares to Crowd’s LS, Crowds LS itself, The Resurrection to Beth Stable, Guardian of Your Souls, [paired with the 7 abilities that can get the topdecked Dominant]: John the Forerunner (star), John the Fisherman (star), No Need for Spices (star), Fishing Boat (star).
Key Feature #-3- Resiliency against Prominent Meta Strategies of Clay Offense, Soul Hide, Battle Winning Dominants, and Negate Neutral Effects:
As you can see this build is very good at limiting Clay builds due to how quickly I can get to hand protection to interfere with Matthew. The build is also good against Clay builds in general due to how quickly it gets to Guardian of Your Souls which really hampers clay builds beyond just Matthew since the cannot then convert their heroes to meek really hampering the game plan of the Clay offense.
Having 7 ways to Orphans LS including itself turn 0 as well as having all the ways to Guardian of Your Souls turn 0 is quite good against Soul Hide. Harvest Time in the soul hide matchup is great since if they play Burial I can just follow up with Harvest Time and be ok. This is helpful if the opponent does get around GoYS at some point. Shepherds of Bethlehem in Reserve is an additional means of soul gen which is helpful so I can save Harvest Time for when Burial is played.
The Dominant restriction that Complacent LS and The Cross offer is quite good against all the battle winning Dominants prevalent in the meta and the fact I have 7 ways in the deck to Complacent gives good consistency with getting to a Dom restrict effect active as well. I should note Mary of Bethany is a strong solo rescuer as well to restrict the evil Dominants in battle which there are plenty of in the meta.
This build also is good at getting around negate neutral effects which are annoying against the lost soul counters/The Cross. The meta has plenty of negate neutral effects which need to be dealt with. I have 10 ways around negate neutral characters in this build: Three Woes, Crowd’s Choice to an answer, Possessing Spirit, Mary of Bethany, The Angel of the Winds to Mary of Bethany, The Annunciation to Crowd’s Choice to Mary of Bethany, Foreign Spears, Herodias’ Daughter, Lost Child Found, and Outsiders (B/G).
Key Feature #-4- Nazareth/Honey Pot Resiliency:
The deck has 9 ways turn 0 around Nazareth (Crowd’s Choice, The Resurrection to Beth Stable, Three Woes, Foreign Spears, Outsiders (B/G), Herodias’ Daughter, Possessing Spirit, Lost Child Found, and Crowds LS) outside of the 7 ways to Crowds LS for a total of 16 ways.
The deck has 8 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, and the 4 top deck a good Dominant star abilities paired with the 7 ways to draw or take that Dominant). Beyond this The Manger and Three Woes offer two less strong ways around Honey Pot.
Offense:
One difficult part with this deck build was finding an offensive build that is powerful enough to win the game and functions well with No Need for Spices, John, the Forerunner, and John, the Fisherman while not needing much battle winning support from Dominants to win the game. I do believe this offense has enough firepower to win the game.
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 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.
Using The Resurrection/The Child is Born/Hospitality in Bethany to band in John, the Fisherman/Zechariah along with Zaccheus is a strong rescue that is hard for the opponent to interact with. 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, and No Need for Spices.
Zaccheus is a strong rescuer being able to choose Possessing Spirit to block when the opponent does not have unity as well as 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.
This Herod’s Temple rescue idea works well with someone like Mary, Holy Virgin or Magi who are low numbers as well to get initiative and toss 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.
I also like to enter battle with big number human heroes like Joseph, the Betrothed, Zechariah, and Mary of Bethany if I feel the opponent wants to block with a low number EC to play something like Unsuccessful and then trigger Herod’s Temple.
As I mentioned earlier I really like Mary of Bethany as a solo rescuer due to her restriction of evil Dominants which is handy if I do not have The Cross or Complacent LS active.
A Nativity battle winner such as Lost Child Found or Magnificat backed by The Annunciation negating everything except Nativity cards is another strong rescue.
Joseph, The Magi, Gabriel, and Mary all create their own rescue potential by tutoring for battle winners which is significant.
Overall this offense packs enough firepower to get the job done I believe and this has proven true so far in the games I have used it in.
Defense:
The natural candidates for defense for this deck build are Evil Gold and Gray due to Reprimand/Repercussion and Philosophy. Gray is nice since it has Distort the Truth as an extra star ability to play a lost soul from a deck meaning Harvest Time can be cut for a different Dominant. However, the Gray defense to have enough blocking power takes up a decent amount of space needing at least 8 ECs as well as 4-5 battle winners.
Herod’s require less space and have the added benefit of pairing well with Possessing Spirit for a cheesy rescue with Zaccheus. I also prefer Reprimand/Repercussion as a battle winner with the offense over Philosophy. The Gold defense has more ways to interact with Nazareth as well making it a better fit. The Gold defense is also very consistent at getting Herod’s Temple into play due to Herod the Great and the fact I have so many ways to him in The Deceiver, Herod’s Guard, and Golgotha. This is great support for the Offense since the offense really likes having Herod’s Temple around.
The defense is fairly straightforward. Nothing too glamorous to point out. It is a solid defense that gets the job done.
Awkwardness/Downsides:
Of course one downside of this build is having to clog up slots with cards like Bearing Our Sin, Wheat and Tares, Sign of Jonah, and Fishing Boat. Some of the cards that are part of the Soul Surfer and Starstruck consistency engines fit seamlessly though like Lost Child Found, The Manger, No Need for Spices, Virgin Birth, and Repudiating Rulers.
However even those that seem awkward do have some utility. Bearing Our Sin for add to battle can actually work at times due to brigade consistency and the number of prophets on the offense. Wheat and Tares while it may look like it exists only for the star ability is actually quite good with Gabriel since Gabriel can tutor for it and use it as a battle winner that he can also recur from Discard pile. The fact it clears all the ECs in battle makes it a nice battle winner for Gabe to tutor for from deck and recur. Wheat and Tares is also handy for clearing out the board for Possessing Spirit if I had to block with Outsiders (B/G) or Herod Agrippa I which ruin unity for Possessing Spirit.
Sign of Jonah has utility beyond its star ability as well. It is pretty good here as a battle winner since it works with Zechariah, John, the Forerunner, and Gabriel as a negate. I also like it for recurring a hero from discard pile or for getting around Sheol or The Gates of Hell. Fishing Boat fits the worst in this build (aside from its star ability) but holding John the Fisherman there and being able to add him to battle is one use for it outside of the star ability.
Another weakness is the deck build is quite consistent at achieving its objectives but is not fast. Outside of John the Fisherman, Zechariah, Outsiders (B/G), and Prosperity LS the deck lacks ways to draw.
One other weakness is that while the build is good against Clay builds and Soul Hide builds it is not as good against countering other builds such as OT offenses. That said, the consistent Dominant restriction the build offers is good against so many decks in the meta OT/NT alike. Also the consistency with getting to deck/hand protection is quite good against many builds in the meta.
Maybe board:
Accusers LS (would be nice against OT offenses), Forsaken LS (good against several offenses and Thieves defense), Offering Your Son (another way to get a top decked Dom to hand), Magnifying Multitude (would be good for additional draw power when banded in), Star of Bethlehem, Hopper LS, Good Seed, Awake LS, Judas, Wall of Protection, Crown of Thorns, Herod Philip II, The Great White Throne, The Messianic Messenger, Humble LS, Glory of the Lord (Winner Promo), Angel of the Lord, Chronicles of the Kings, Plague of Frogs, Faith Unbowed, Royal Parade, Revolt, Flight into Egypt, The First Sacrifice, You Will Remain, Overtaken, Mayhem, and Distressed LS.
Conclusion:
Naturally this deck build is not the fastest or the most explosive but in a meta where Clay offenses, soul hide, and battle winning Dominants are powerful forces to reckon with it seems like a viable deck build that can still win against other non-Clay deck builds having a functional offense and defense. It was the right deck choice for 2025 NW Regionals to deal with Big Clay and also because the NW meta has quite a bit of Soul Hide in it.
One thing I learned from this is to remember that even a deck build that seemed like a lost cause might be useful down the road. Who knows how the meta will shift. I had totally written The Last Stand off around a year ago and now with some key revisions it is relevant. Something to keep in mind for the future.
I will continue testing the deck build and it has earned at least a spot in my rotation of deck builds I will be testing and considering for Nationals this year. What are your thoughts on this deck build? Any ideas for improvement?
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