Join top Redemption player Luke Marshall for his thoughts on what decks rose to the top from the fray of competition in Redemption throughout the various eras of Redemption.
Introduction:
This will be the first of a series of articles that will show the general meta progression of Redemption over its lifetime. Using the message boards, I have charted the winning decks from 2003 forwards. I believe that there are three major eras of Redemption.
You can reference the chart below as you read through this article (Click the plus sign below or the percentage to zoom in):
From 2003-2008, “Fight by the Numbers” offenses dominated the meta usually with the addition of Authority of Christ, the defense was primarily stand-alone evil characters sometimes including Haman’s Plot.
The second era of Redemption spanning from 2009 – 2014 was defined by the Garden Tomb strategy. The defenses were primarily gray Pharisees and Emperors.
2014 – 2021 was the era of Samuel and Throne of David decks, with splashy chump block defenses defining the defensive meta.
First Era:
Consistency was based on deck-building ratios and redundant character abilities. For example, the “Fight by the Numbers” deck employed five heroes that effectively had the same special ability. Evil characters could all block many attacks with just the single ability on their card. Game play was focused on card efficiency and sheer numerical value.
Fight by The Numbers Era:
The first era is certainly my favorite to reflect back upon as this was the freest time I’ve ever had to dedicate to this game. I believe I had most cards in existence memorized during this time and absolutely loved figuring out the best character to attack with to get around the possible counter evil character the opponent might have. As a side note, I believe this play style will be coming back with the creation of rotation format. In fact, if you look at deck-lists during this era you will notice decks full of two card combos. One evil character plus one evil enhancement represented a ‘sure’ block. King Zedekiah + Dungeon of Malchiah for example. This type of logic in deck building will be important to understand in rotation as there are some great two card combos like Awesome Things + Impartial Judgement and Naaman + Birthing Pains. There are many more, but those are some immediate examples. I must also note two pillars of competitive play during this time where the two Cannot Be Negated battle winners, Authority of Christ promo and Haman’s Plot.
Second Era:
Decks achieved consistency through searching and drawing power on characters.
Game play was focused around ensuring that you had sure blocks and rescues. The Garden Tomb often created situations where battles didn’t even take place.
Garden Tomb Era:
This second era of redemption is the one that I know the least about as I was in college and too busy to play competitively. While I did attend some tournaments casually, I did not understand the change in game state enough to be very competitive. In fact, most of my games were played against my brother Nic Marshall and his friend Matt Townsend when I would come home for a visit. My main memories during this era were just how much the game began to shift. I remember the first time I was informed by my brother that I was not allowed to block his Garden Tomb character, and he just walked through to get a redeemed soul. I remember how empty it felt as Matt would draw his entire deck against me in a fashion that felt like cheating. The game became so much faster in this time period that it is difficult to explain unless you had played the game pre-2009. This is when I believe sure blocks and sure rescues became much more abundant, and it seemed you did not have to leave as much to chance as in the previous era.
Third Era:
Consistency became more defined during this era, with territory class search enhancements becoming dominant. Character abilities also became increasingly more consistent. The focus was to execute your specific unstoppable strategy every game as consistently as possible.
The Samuel Throne Era (2015-2021):
While Samuel seemed to have a large place in the meta from its printing it seems to have often been overshadowed by the speed and consistency of Garden Tomb variants. It was just so easy to splash a Garden Tomb strategy into most decks, so the speed that NT decks gave you out-shined Samuel during the previous period. However, it is important to note that there was a Samuel Deck that finished top three in both 2012, 2013, and 2014. The consistency, even in the deck’s infancy, let it compete with one of the most broken strategies the game ever saw (so broken in fact that rule changes were needed to fix the game … good bye ignore). While Samuel was not found in the top three during 2015, another important player did have a breakout year. The Throne of David deck finally made an appearance, taking a top finish in 3rd place. 2015 seemed to be the building year for what was to come because with 2016 came both the Cloud of Witnesses set and finally the tools to blend together my favorite strategy: Samuel Throne was born with the introduction of David the Psalmist and David the Shepherd. Suddenly Samuel could give you almost perfect set up for your musical prophet/judge set up or your Throne of David set up. This strategy would take root and eventually lead to the banning of Samuel from competitive play.
We will try and dive deeper into why this truly broke the game in a future article. Samuel Throne would take second in 2016 while a Samuel deck without Throne would take first. I believe the deck would have won the following year as well if a combo deck had not emerged to unseat throne. Apparently 2017 was full of Coney Combo, and I am so thankful I missed that particular year of play. In 2018, Samuel Throne would get its first official title asserting its powerhouse status over the field. I believe after that year no one could argue with the power and consistency a Throne deck provided for the player. 2019 would not see Samuel Throne win, but it would see a Samuel deck still take home another title. At this point some of you might say, “Well, it just seems that Samuel is the real MVP here, and how good is Throne in reality?” Luckily, you get your answer in 2020. Samuel was banned with the plan to shake up the meta, but Throne still takes first, second, and third without the former MVP—Samuel. I believe this could have begun the next era in strategy with Throne taking over for the next few years, but we will never know. With the discovery of an amazing combo deck, the meta shifted away from throne to a counter deck to fight off the LAFS combo deck closing out the last year of competitive play for what is now the classic format.
Side note: Some of you will point out that Throne did not win in 2021, so it should not be included in this era; however, while I can only speculate, I believe if throne would have been played 2021 it would have finished in the top.
Now, I can only speculate what the next few years would have held if the classic format remained as the official format for Nationals…
Conclusion:
Was Throne as good as I believe it was? Which era of Redemption was the best to play? Did I get an era wrong? Did I have a glaring oversight I should have mentioned? Comment here, send me a message on the boards or Discord. I would love to hear your opinion about my favorite game.
