It’s a little over due, but our Cards and Rules resource page has been updated! I’d also like to take a moment to share with you what did well at the Iowa State Tournament I recently hosted.

Resources

The complete Redemption Card List has been updated with all of the Revelation of John cards and the new promos. We’ve also added the individual RoJ card spreadsheet and updated the two promo documents. I know at least a few of you have been waiting patiently for this.

Top T1 Decks

It’s super exciting to see all the deck ideas floating around that utilize Revelation of John cards! There are three main offenses I’m seeing a LOT of, but with so many variations that no two are alike – Angels, Martyrs and N.T. white.

If you’re familiar at all with Revelation of John then seeing angels is no surprise, but the way people are playing them is intriguing. I don’t recall seeing a lot of mono-silver offenses. Most contain at least a splash of humans as a supplement. At least a few of the seven bowls of wrath are making an appearance in almost every deck. The versatility they offer is amazing!

Martyrs is an extremely strong offense with a variety of different ways to build it. I’m seeing Martyrs with a splash of silver, clay/white Martyr almost exclusively using Revelation of John martyrs and the variant that won Iowa State T1-2P which used a decent number of clay martyrs from previous sets, like Peter, Stephen and the new Paul promo.

The N.T. white offense also utilizes some of the martyrs but with more of a Garden Tomb Hero focus and N.T. females. Powered by the amazing Woman with Child and Overcome, this offense is really fast and strong!

The defenses I’m seeing are packed with Revelation of John stuff too. Black, gray and orange are all over the place!

Surprisingly I’m not seeing many all orange defenses. Maybe the very possibility of cards like Three Nails and A Child is Born are a big enough deterrent. There’s still a lot of orange splash defenses running around though. It pairs really well with magicians or with black.

Speaking of black, Sadducees are for real! I’ve seen them effectively played in an all black defense that splashes Philistines. They also work really well when combined with some gray pharisees.

The all gray defenses I’m seeing can put a serious hurting on a players hand. The combination of pharisees and Emperors is really strong!

I’m really surprised by the lack of brown I’ve seen. The evil Job theme provides some really strong options. Maybe players are holding out until they get their hands on the sweet new Job promo from Regional tournaments before experimenting with it.

My States Experience

The Iowa State tournament this year was the largest one I’ve hosted, and I’ve been doing this for a number of years. Coupled with the fact that I hear Cactus Game Design is now on their 3rd print run of Revelation of John, I feel there’s a decent amount of evidence that points to the game being on the rise. That makes me really happy!

As one of the hosts I didn’t plan to play any of the constructed events. Judging events with a large number of people and keeping things running smoothly can take a good deal of time so I was only going to play Booster Draft if the numbers allowed for it.

When we were about to begin our first round of events we were going to have either an odd number of players in Sealed Deck or a Teams player without a partner. I did the honorable thing and partnered with my daughter for Teams. But the only T1 deck I had together that doesn’t have a bunch of paper play test cards in it is BoM. It helped that we had multiple elders and experienced players across all categories to help judge in events they weren’t playing. Without any RoJ cards in my deck, my daughter and I went 2-1 with a time out loss to take 2nd place in Teams.

The next morning we paired up T1-2P and T2-2P. When all the counts were in there was an odd number in T2. I asked the participants if they wanted a bye or if they’d like me to play to keep the numbers even. They opted to have me play with, once again, my pre-RoJ deck containing zero RoJ cards and no Reserve. It’s a pretty solid deck really, running a Throne offense and mostly Assyrian defense. I had the displeasure of running into the black/gold Outsiders a couple times. He’s for real! In each game I was able to get out to a sizable lead, my opponent picked apart my offense and I squeaked out the last 2-3 Redeemed Souls for the win. Without any RoJ I finished 1st in a field that contained some high quality T2 players!

How About You?

What decks are you seeing played in your area? What did well at your State and/or Regional tournament? Take a moment to send us a report and share with the community!

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By Gabe

Gabe has been playing Redemption since early in 2006. While life has changed a lot since that time, his love for Redemption has not. He hosts a playgroup and assists with the design and development of upcoming set releases and even plays competitively on occasion.