As a full-time student, I don’t often have the time or funds to keep up with the latest sets, so I play and build decks with a limited and aging collection. A few weeks ago I was building a new deck in my spare time when I realized I had used all my decent cards in my first few decks and all I had remaining in my collection were cards that made the I & J starter decks look like national tournament winners. I paused my deck construction and hopped on my computer to view card images of the last few sets to try to catch up and familiarize myself with them, when I stumbled across the Prophecies of Christ dominant “Chariot of Fire”. Immediately my eyes lit up at the foreign sight of a good dominant that wasn’t SoG, AoTL or GoyS, and I started thinking about the fun I could have with this card. 

Since the card mentioned that it synergizes with Elisha, I pulled up a picture of Elisha from the same set, and I’m pretty sure my jaw dropped. Every time he enters battle, I get to discard an evil enhancement from my enemy’s deck? If that wasn’t great enough, I get to reveal his hand for the possibility to shuffle evil doms and make my enhancements CBN? 

The best comparison I knew of at the time was that it felt like a good version of the Vain Philosophy dominant…that was jacked up on steroids. Less than 24 hours later, I had placed an order for those 2 cards and a handful of supporting cards for the deck.

Before I built this deck, I had never run a prophets offense. I also had never used musicians before, and noticed that I had a couple musicians in my collection, including The Persecuted Church’s “Music Leader”. Since I had been waiting for an excuse to play him, I decided to create the deck around both green prophets and white musicians. For the defense, I decided to run full Assyrians due to their synergy with Prophecies of Christ’s “Jonah”, and let me just say I am very happy with how the defense turned out. While I was skeptical at first to abandon my usual two-brigade defense and run just a single evil brigade, I quickly realized how much easier it is to manage and am now thankful that I made the switch.

I present to you my (budget) deck, “The Musical Chariot”.

Total Cards: 56

–Lost Souls (7):

Meek Lost Soul (Psalm 68:6) (I)

Meek Lost Soul (Luke 13:25)

Meek Lost Soul (Luke 15:15-16) (J)

Meek Lost Soul (Jeremiah 50:6) (H)

Meek Lost Soul (Proverbs 14:10) (I)

Meek Lost Soul (1 Kings 17:12)

Meek Lost Soul (Proverbs 21:24) (I)

—Dominants (3):

Chariot of Fire (PoC #71)

Angel of the Lord (J)

Christian Martyr (I)

—Artifacts (2):

Golden Cherubim (RoA #26)

Hidden Treasures (FooF #3)

—Sites/Fortresses (5):

The Ends of the Earth (RoJ #18)

City of Refuge (PoC #41)

Zerubbabel’s Temple (FooF #8)

Assyrian Camp (Priests)

Fortress of Antonia (Warriors)

—Dual-Alignment Cards (2):

Siegeworks (FooF #21)

Razor (FooF #21)

—Heroes (8):

Haggai (FooF #8)

Micah (PoC #195)

Jonah (PoC #185)

Joel (FooF #3)

Music Leader (TPC #18)

Asaph (Priests)

Ethan (Priests)

Heman (Priests)

—Good Enhancements (11):

Visions (FooF #3)

Devotion of Ruth (J)

Temple Dedication (RoA #26)

Hate Wickedness (CoW #88)

Search (FooF #3)

Family Bond (J)

By His Wounds (PoC #114)

Bronze Cymbals (Priests)

Triumphal Entry (PoC #211)

Plague of Frogs (G)

Plunder and Pillage (PoC #211)

—Evil Characters (7):

Assyrian Laborers (PoC #113)

Sorcerers (RoJ #129)

Assyrian Siege Army (FooF #21)

Messenger of Satan (Apostles)

Assyrian Survivor (FooF #21)

The Assyrian Spoilers (RoA #11)

King Sargon II (Priests)

—Evil Enhancements (8):

Misuse of Talents (F)

Assyria Conquers Israel (RoA #11)

Captured by Assyria (FooF #7)

Sin in the Camp (Priests)

Death of Unrighteous (Patriarchs)

The Rabshakeh’s Threats (Disciples #99)

Two Thousand Horses (Kings)

Did God Really Say? (FoM #3)

—Reserve (3):

Elisha (PoC #70)

Sign of Jonah (PoC #188)

Confusion of Mind (Priests)

The basic gameplan with this deck is to draw Chariot of Fire as early as possible, and use it to rescue Joel or Haggai and pull Elisha from reserve. After Elisha is put in play, continually enter battle with him to harass the opponent by whittling their deck down by eliminating their evil enhancements, while Music Leader and Jonah get comfortable in your territory setting up major retaliation for when the opponent uses a draw or search ability. Once the opponent uses one, Jonah throws the opponent behind while Music Leader slams on the gas to get the cards you want out of your deck. If the unlikely case occurs where they don’t use any draws or searches, cards such as Triumphal Entry, The Ends of the Earth, Search, and Micah still allow you to pull out additional cards.

Even though I did not build this deck with competitive play in mind, the deck has proven to be quite successful in casual play.

In Part 2 I break down the cards in the deck and their combos even further, in what I call the “Synergy Breakdown”. Stay tuned!

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

By Jesse S

Jesse still remembers when he first started collecting strategy games at just 8 years old. When he was 12, he stumbled upon Redemption when browsing the web. Immediately intrigued at the idea of a faith-based card game, he ordered a 10th Anniversary Starter tin to share with his brother. After playing the game totally wrong for 3 years without realizing, (no land of bondage and games took 6-8 hours) Jesse ACTUALLY read the rules and went on to place in 4th for T1-2P and 1st for a T1-Multi side event at his first district tournament in 2015. Today, he enjoys playing casually with family and friends and is planning to launch a playgroup at his church in Indianapolis.