Throwback Thursday is a common theme on sites and blogs where you hearken back to something interesting or random from the past. On Land of Redemption, we’ve started our Throwback Thursday trend with re-posts of preview articles from years past.

Enjoy another nostalgic trip back through time!

Originally Posted By: Bryon | Date: 2003

As one of the oldest civilizations of the world, Egypt’s greatness was evident for thousands of years.  We all know that Israel was enslaved by Egypt, but even after the exodus Egypt occasionally attempted to assert its control over the people of Israel and Judah.  God’s people temporarily submitted to Egypt more than once – including during the period of the kings.

In The Kings, four new Egyptian evil characters join the existing Egyptians in the gold brigade.  Egyptian Archer is already on the preview page.  We will look at two others here.

King So (9/7) is gold’s answer to the numbers/Widow dilemma: How do we fight “by-the-numbers” heroes, while still being able to block Widow?  King So’s first strike ability cannot be negated while you have an Egypt site in your territory.  That means he wins against an 8/8 or 10/8 by-the-numbers without having to play a single enhancement.  Since King So can hold a weapon-class enhancement (which typically has abilities 3/2), he can easily be a permanent 12/9 evil character with first strike, even while fighting a character like Benaiah or Strong Angel.  Against Captain of the Host, you can block with Egyptian Wise Men banded to Egyptian Archer (holding a weapon) banded to King So (holding a weapon) for a total of 19/19 and all Egyptian evil characters have first strike.  Add a few more weapon-carrying Egyptian Archers in a Type 2 deck, and you have a powerful little army that can make pincushions out of the heroes in an opponent’s territory if needed.  Set those characters aside for one turn with The gods of Egypt, and you’ll have great blockers against numbers or initiative heroes.

King Shishak (8/7) continues the gold tradition begun by Evil Spawn: discarding the top card of a draw pile.  King Shishak’s ability disables Jerusalem Tower, but he only gets to discard the top card if the block is successful.  Shishak’s ability to disable Jerusalem Tower for a turn creates a couple interesting combos.
1. Block with Shishak and play Den of Robbers to band Evil Spawn into battle.  This discards one card from any draw pile.  Then, if your block is successful, you get to discard another.
2. Block with Messenger of Satan banded to Shishak.  If you gain initiative, play Confusion.

Gold already has quite a few enhancements with an Egyptian theme, and they get one more in The Kings.  Hadad Arises (2/4) cannot be negated while you have an Egypt site in play, and is very useful against King David and all the other good kings.  Even if your opponent is not using any good kings, the high stats are useful on King of Tyrus or in conjunction with Mask of Fear, or against a by-the numbers hero.  Most interesting is its result: the good king is placed on top of its owner’s draw pile.  This can be used to slow your opponent’s card drawing.  You could even use this on your own hero to slow your own drawing of Lost Souls, or to reset one of your good kings to face value who has been poisoned or paralyzed, or to get a hero into your hand to use with River Flowing from the Temple on your next turn.  Hadad Arises also makes a fun combo with King Shishak.  If an opponent makes a rescue attempt with a good king, you block with King Shishak and play Hadad Arises.  You return the king to the top of your opponent’s draw pile, and then use King Shishak’s ability to discard him.

Gold still has a few weaknesses, but it may see some use on the tournament scene.  Most good brigades have a card or two that can help against Egyptians, but it will be interesting to see if players use those cards.  If players don’t prepare, the Egyptians might be able to make subjects of Israelites once again.

Here’s a deck with a heavy Egyptian theme.  The artifacts at the bottom are meant to deal with characters such as Miriam or one enhanced by Journey to Egypt, which would otherwise be very difficult to stop.

Egypt x3
Pharaoh’s Prison

*Egyptian Archer
*King Shishak
*King So
Egyptian Wise Men
Pharaoh’s Magicians
Potiphar’s Wife
Taskmaster
Evil Spawn
King of Tyrus

*Hadad Arises
*Mace (weapon)
*Sword of Vengeance (weapon)
Abusive Taskmasters
Moses Kills Egyptian
Mask of Fear
Swift Horses
The gods of Egypt
Temptation
Den of Robbers
Rizpah’s Sackcloth
Take as a Slave

Unholy Writ
Thirty Pieces of Silver

This evil side has zero New Testament evil characters.  If you combine this with silver brigade, you can play both of their enhancements that discard all NT evil characters, and will never have to worry about discarding one of your own evil characters.  Gabriel (Warriors) would be helpful in getting rid of enhancements that could give this defense some trouble: Journey to Egypt, Drowning of Pharaoh’s Army, Adino’s Spear (weapon – Kings), and others.  Also of use would be silver heroes that band to white, green, and blue.  If an opponent is playing pesky heroes from one of those brigades (particularly Jochebed, Miriam, or a hero enhanced by Journey to Egypt), you can band to those heroes and let them die in battle before your opponent can use them against you.

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

By Scott

Scott was a bit of a latecomer to the Redemption scene, starting after the Angel Wars expansion released. Having a passion for games of all kinds, but especially card games, Redemption has been of special interest to him. While Genesis and Prophets are his favorite themes, his most enjoyed aspect of Redemption is theoretical card design. Coming up with new card ideas and mechanics has always been exciting for him (having thought up ideas for other TCGs as well)