Join Chad for a brand new novel deck build centered around the new card Pact with Death.
Introduction:
When I was a teenager and did not know how to play the game properly but was into it nonetheless somewhere around 2008-2011 or so the concept of deck building appealed to me even back then. I remember my buddy who introduced me to the game always beat me and then one day I took the G/H starter deck gift set I had and tried to build the best possible deck I could out of the cards I had from those starter decks and few booster packs. The result was me winning against my friend and boy did that feel good. Shortly after that I was done with the game and forgot about it for close to a decade.
When I first learned how to play Redemption correctly in spring 2020 after returning to collecting the game in 2019 I embarked on building decks as I had as a teenager. Now having access to the entire card pool through Lackey meant I had so many more options. The decks I built at first were not very good but one of the main people who taught me to play the game on Lackey (Justin Alstad aka The Guardian) was willing to review deck lists I emailed to him and he gave me pointers in return. As I built decks further during spring/summer 2020 one deck builder in particular amazed me with the brilliance of their deck builds and that individual was John Earley aka RedDragonThorn. Newcomers to the game may not realize fully the brilliant mind of RedDragonThorn but he won T1-2P at Nationals back to back in 2018-2019 and then previously in 2015 he won T1-2P at Nationals with a deck that did not run Son of God! Remarkable! My favorite deck build of John Earley’s was his Covenant with Death deck that read the meta so well and won T1-2P at Nationals in 2019. You can read about that list here. John’s deck sought to run an offense and defense that were not hampered by Covenant with Death and could win in an environment where the opponent was heavily hampered by Covenant with Death.
Having been inspired by John’s list during my early days of deck building I crafted several Covenant with Death decks two of which I shared. One was a teal offense paired with Covenant with Death which can be found here. One was a blue/silver offense paired with CwD which can be found here. These decks were built in a different era pre several rule changes/rotation. Even back then they were not that great since Joshua the Conqueror was all over the place in Throne decks and dispatched Covenant with Death with ease. I greatly enjoyed crafting Covenant with Death decks back in 2020 though and the experience of brewing them had a significant impact on me as a deck builder. It is hard to build a deck around a counter that hits both players and is a good challenge to navigate.
Fast forward to fall 2023 and a new version of Covenant with Death is printed in the ROOTS set: Pact with Death. Naturally I could not resist taking a crack at making a deck build centered around Pact with Death and the result is the below list. Enjoy!
The Deck:
The Showstopper (50 cards):
1 Son of God "Manger" (Promo)
1 Angel of the Lord (J)
1 The Second Coming [Fundraiser]
1 Crowd's Choice (GoC)
1 Three Woes [Fundraiser]
1 Falling Away (CoW)
1 Mayhem (FoM)
1 Lost Soul (Prosperity)
1 Lost Soul "Aimless" [Exodus 14:3]
1 Lost Soul (Hunter)
1 Lost Soul "Outcry" [I Samuel 5:12 - L]
1 Lost Soul (Jeremiah 22:3) (Orphans)
1 Lost Soul "Harvest" (John 4:35) (GoC)
1 Lost Soul "Lost Souls" [Proverbs 2:16-17] (Roots)
1 Denarius (I/J+)
1 David's Harp (Promo)
1 Endless Treasures (Errata)
1 Holy of Holies (Roots)
1 Pact with Death (Roots)
1 Goliath's Curse [L]
1 Land of Moab (LoC)
1 Herod's Temple (GoC)
1 House of Prayer
1 Gabriel, Mouth of God [UR+] (GoC)
1 The Magi (GoC)
1 Joseph, the Betrothed (GoC)
1 Magnifying Multitude (GoC)
1 Zechariah, the Silent (GoC)
1 Simeon, the Devout (GoC)
1 Moses, the Servant
1 David, Heart After God / David, the Contrite (LoC Plus)
1 Virgin Birth
1 The Annunciation (GoC)
1 Delivered
1 Offering Your Son
1 Temple Dedication
1 Lost Child Found (GoC)
1 Flight into Egypt (GoC)
1 Faith Unbowed (LoC)
1 Plague of Frogs (GoC)
1 The Deceiver (RoJ)
1 Philistine Armor Bearer (LoC)
1 The Herdsmen of Gerar (LoC)
1 Goliath (FoM Promo)
1 High Priest Ananias (RoJ)
1 Emperor Nero (Promo)
1 Foreign Wives
1 Stricken
1 Tenants Kill the Son (GoC)
1 Foreign Spears (LoC)
Reserve:
1 You Will Remain
1 Elijah (PoC)
1 The First Sacrifice
1 Royal Parade (LoC)
1 Faith of Samuel
1 Assyrian Affliction (LoC)
1 Philistine Chariots [L]
1 Saul of Tarsus [2022 - Seasonal]
1 Arrest in Philippi
1 Unsuccessful (PoC)
Summary:
Objective #1- Stop the Show:
The primary objective of this deck is to get Pact with Death or Holy of Holies active first turn through a tutor outside of battle to significantly hamper the opponent. Pact with Death is the preferred counter to tutor for as it negates all characters including OT Priests and prevents enhancements unless a character is opposed in battle. However, in a 1 TCE world and a world with the Reserve rule it is harder to guarantee a Turn 1 Pact with Death on its own. If you look at my old Covenant with Death decks you will notice it was easier to tutor for CwD since cards like Exiles LS (and Hunter LS with it) and Accursed of God could be used to tutor for CwD turn 1. Due to this in this build Holy of Holies is included since it is a slightly weaker version of Covenant with Death but still very good. I have not seen anyone build a deck featuring Pact with Death yet but have seen the notorious Holy of Holies/Pot of Manna builds. Those builds though rely on tutoring for a way to Holy of Holies in battle on the first turn. In my mind it is far better to get to one of these counters in prep phase on the first turn so they are in effect for the first rescue and you can go for a more optimal first turn rescue. With that in mind this deck build has 8 ways to tutor for Pact with Death and/or Holy of Holies on turn 1 outside of battle: Crowd’s Choice (to Pact with Death), Endless Treasures (to PwD), Delivered (to PwD or HoH), Offering Your Son (to PwD or HoH), The Annunciation (to Crowd’s Choice to PwD), Temple Dedication (to HoH), PwD itself, and HoH itself. Also if I happen to have David, HAG on turn 1 then David’s Harp can be activated on him and be an additional way to Holy of Holies turn 1 outside of battle by tutoring for Temple Dedication which can go to Holy of Holies. Also of course if one of these 8 (and on occasion 9) ways to one of these counters pre-battle turn 1 do not show up then Moses, the Servant, The Magi, and David, HAG all can tutor for Delivered to tutor for Pact with Death in discard phase on turn 1. This provides an additional five ways to PwD or HoH turn 1 since Aimless LS and Land of Moab all can get to Moses and David respectively. Technically Gabriel and Joseph the Betrothed can tutor for Annunciation in battle to tutor for Crowd’s Choice in battle to go to Delivered to play in discard phase to get one of the counters up if all else fails so that gives 7 total addtional ways to get one of the counters live turn 1. In total then there are 8 (and on occasion 9 ways) to get PwD or HoH live pre-battle on turn 1 and an additional 5 ways to get PwD (7 if you include Gabriel and Joseph) live by the end of turn 1 that require fetching a tutor in battle.
This deck therefore is immensely consistent at getting PwD or HoH set up to stop the opponent’s show.
Objective #2- Maintain My Show:
There is only one character in the deck that is hurt by PwD or HoH and that is The Herdsmen of Gerar. Every other Hero and Evil Character in deck/reserve is CBP or CBN. Herdsmen is included to deal with the threat of Matthew if an opponent goes first. There are some high brigade count cards main deck that are necessary tutors (Delivered, Offering Your Son, and Temple Dedication) making this deck vulnerable to Matthew.
Since Herdsmen is the only character impacted by PwD and HoH this deck functions quite well with characters being negated. Overall I far prefer this offense to the one in HoH/Pot of Manna builds I have seen with the rescuing characters generating their own rescue value quite well.
To maintain my show the deck has 5 ways to deal with Nazareth (Crowd’s Choice (to Three Woes), Three Woes, Goliath’s Curse, Foreign Spears, and Lost Child Found) providing the deck build with resiliency against that card that is problematic for it. The deck has 9 ways turn 0 to deal with Matthew (Crowd’s Choice to Herdsmen, Stricken (star), Lost Child Found (star to Outcry LS), Hunter LS (to Outcry LS), Outcry LS (to Herdsmen), Philistine Armor Bearer (to Herdsmen), The Deceiver (to Herdsmen), and Herdsmen itself. Dealing with these threats gives the deck resiliency.
Offense:
The offense in this deck is all about having characters who generate their own rescue potential. Gabriel, Moses, David, The Magi, and Joseph the Betrothed all can tutor directly for a battle winner from deck. Magnifying Multitude creates its own rescue potential by creating a FBTN environment. Zechariah creates his own rescue potential by preventing the next enhancement played by opponent. Simeon creates his own rescue potential through hand control. Elijah is sneaky in Reserve by providing CTB support and connected with Angel of the Lord, the cheesy Falling Away with CTB rescue, Plague of Frogs, and Faith of Samuel Elijah can be quite good here.
The offense is able to run The First Sacrifice and if I want to use TFS I just switch from PwD to Holy of Holies for that turn. There is great synergy with battle winners with every main deck hero having a minimum of three GE battle winners it can use. Other than Magnifying Multitude every main deck hero has four GE battle winners it can use. I should not the three Nativity battle winners have very nice synergy with Annunciation negating non-nativity cards. In testing having LCF or Flight into Egypt backed by The Annunciation is great. Royal Parade fits well as a target for David’s Harp. David’s Harp is great with David, HAG and Moses. Temple Dedication is also great with David and Moses offering essentially CBN protection.
Herod’s Temple is good with the Nativity humans to deal with stuff like Saul of Tarsus since if the opponent has init you can just create the toss environment. Overall the offense while not the flashiest offense out there has enough power particularly when the opponent’s characters are negate to punch through for the win.
Defense:
HoH/Pot of Manna decks tend to run a gray defense which pairs quite well with HoH having many CBN and CBP characters. While this is an option for sure I felt when going second being able to still go to Herdsmen of Gerar is important. Also black has more options for dealing with Nazareth than Gray. Overall the defense is a pretty standard Black/Gray splash defense. The biggest EC I miss is Outsiders (B/G) but sadly it is negated by both HoH and PwD. Overall this defense is straightforward enough and does not need much explanation. Every character is unhindered by PwD and HoH other than Herdsmen giving good overall blocking potential.
Utility:
Assyrian Affliction is run to deal with annoying artifacts like The Cross and Overtaken. Endless Treasures can tutor for it. Herod’s Temple not only supports some of the offense/defense by providing toss potential when numbers are favoring my character in battle but also Holy of Holies can be activated on HT which is huge if I need my artifact slot freed up for something like Assyrian Affliction or Goliath’s Curse to deal with opponent’s counters. Also having both HoH and PwD up at the same time is great so if the opponent negates one with something like Three Woes the other will still be active. Land of Moab helps with consistency in being able to get David and Foreign Wives. David’s Harp is solid giving support to David and Moses while also generating battle winning help with Royal Parade and tutoring potential with Temple Dedication. You Will Remain helps the offense with resiliency and can be active alongside HoH if it is on HT. House of Prayer is here since I am wanting to get both OT/NT cards from Reserve and I also am wary of hand protection with the Gray defense featuring guys like The Entrapping Pharisee being so prevalent.
For speed Denarius, Mayhem, Faith of Samuel, and Philistine Chariots are included. Virgin Birth is great for its star ability but also for tutoring for Elijah.
Lost Souls:
Hunter/Outrcy are here for getting to Herdsmen or Goliath depending on the matchup. Aimless is in here for getting to Moses. Orphans is important since the offense is often liable to getting chump blocked by Fire Foxes, Moths, and Uzzah. Also I realized PwD/HoH negate a lot of common soul generation pieces that are a character based so having soul gen is important from the LS package hence why both Harvest and “Lost Souls” LS are run here. Prosperity helps with speed and getting to the counters faster early on.
Maybe Board:
Cards I have considered for this deck build are Good Seed (Had this in Reserve but cut it for Assyrian Affliction), Hopper LS, Darkness LS, Awake LS (to Outcry), Complacent LS, Storehouse (IR), Magnificat (Reserve), Coliseum, The Cross, The Child is Born, Star of Bethlehem, Wastelands over Assyrian Affliction, The Coming Prince (Reserve), Shipwreck, King of Tyrus (PoC), The Lying Prophet, an additional way to bounce David (Jehoshaphat (rserve) or Twenty Shekels), Love Righteousness, Eleazar, Son of Aaron, Confusion of Mind, Philosophy (ROOTS), Life Through Christ, Simon Peter, Plague of Darkness, Two Bears (Reserve), Out of Bethlehem (Reserve), Not Alone (Reserve), Crowds LS package (Crowds, Escape, Awake), Live Coal, Fifth Bowl of Wrath, Martha/Mary, Holy Virgin instead of David/Moses, Betrayal, Idol Worship with a Canaanite defense as an extra tutor for PwD, False Peace with a false prophet defense as an extra PwD tutor, Worldly Wisdom with appropriate defense as a PwD tutor, and Wall of Protection.
Conclusion:
This deck was a lot of work but I am pleased with where it is at. The offense in particular came together really well and is strong in an environment with PwD/HoH active. Also the consistency of the deck in being able to get to the counters is great. I do wish the deck had more ways around Nazareth and space for some cards like Good Seed, Coliseum, Wall of Protection and Hopper LS. But in a deck seeking to be so consistent at accomplishing a certain objective it is hard to fit everything wanted.
This deck is strong and can hold its own that much I am sure of. Hope you enjoyed this article and happy deck building!
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