Here are our dominant rankings for Type-1 format!

This is the ranking list Jerome and I compiled awhile back. If you’re up for an explanation of why we rated each Dominant where we did, keep reading.

Combined rankings

1. Son of God (I/J)
2. Son of God
3. New Jerusalem
4. Angel of the Lord
5. Christian Martyr
6. Grapes of Wrath
7. Vain Philosophy
8. Falling Away
9. Mayhem
10. The Holy Spirit
11. Shipwreck
12. Destruction of Nehushtan
13. Guardian of Your Souls
14. Strife
15. Burial
16. Blind Light
17. Glory of the Lord (promo)
18. Harvest Time
19. Doubt

Good Dominants

1. Son of God (I/J) – Negate and redeem a soul, obviously you win by redeeming souls so this gets a clear first in every category. Negating the soul is a huge lift for SoG which was already the top dog.

2. Son of God – again redeeming souls to win is the key. The older versions are not generally as good as the I/J versions but using the old SoG has some interesting combos with the “shuffler” Lost Soul.

3. New Jerusalem – redeem an additional Lost Soul when played with SoG. Two souls out of 5 are 40% of the way to a win. The obvious drawback is that it requires you to play SoG simultaneously leading to slight hand clog, and potential for your opponent to underdeck one of the pieces before you get them together.

4. Angel of the Lord – I really debated moving this to 5 and Grapes up to 4. But being able to discard a pesky EC, possibly with a weapon or Magic Charms, pushed it over the top for me. The drawback is that protection from discard is probably the most common form of protection on Evil Characters and many decks are using ways to “instead” discard these days. However, getting to drop the hammer on an Evil Character to win a battle is really solid and again redeeming souls wins games.

5. Grapes of Wrath – Has the same draw backs as Angel of the Lord in that protection from discard and instead abilities have hurt Grapes. However it is extremely versatile.  The ability to create a chump block while you’re behind is awesome value in balanced decks.  It also allows you to possibly clear a large band of Evil Characters or Hero’s that are giving you trouble.

6. The Holy Spirit – this can be vital in some deck types and gives a bonus to several Enhancements.  Of all the fruits, Peace and Love seem like the strongest right now. Being able to recur them is solid.

7. Guardian of Your Souls – protecting from Falling Away is not a great ability and it can be replaced with Lampstand of the Sanctuary. It also requires you to beat your opponent to Falling Away (if they are even playing it)

8. Blind Light – this is mostly a Dominant used for converting Saul to Paul and might have a place in Hero-lite/less decks but there are so many ways to convert an Evil Character in territory that it’s usually not worth the slot.

9. Glory of the Lord (promo) – this is another Dom which requires a particular deck type to be viable.  Yes it protects the Artifact and the temple but how often is that necessary? There are so many other ways to get Solomon’s Temple in play and even back from discard. This seems like a Type 2 card and isn’t very viable in Type 1.

10. Harvest Time – Nazareth and Hezekiah’s Signet Ring both counter this Dominant and it requires you to be in a situation where you are being [Lost Soul] droughted to even play it. Sure being able to drop HT after your opponent uses a Suicidal Swine Stampede or Death of Unrighteous is awesome, but how often are you going to have HT when they play one of those and don’t have Naz out?  Honestly I find it just sits in your hand most games and eats both a deck and Dom spot.

Evil Dominants

1. Christian Martyr – I’m sure this can be debated as the top evil Dominant, with protection, heals and insteads this Dominant can be worked around with offenses but, most of the time you can find a use for it even it if is just to take out a Hero you don’t want deal with in territory. Used correctly it can become a block in 85-95% of games.

2. Vain Philosophy – yes the retribution Lost Soul hurts this Dominant, but looking at an opponent’s hand prior to a rescue is huge. Using it to underdeck the one battle winner you can’t stop on defense is also great.  The ability to underdeck Son of God or New Jerusalem to stall for another couple turns can be the difference in many games.

3. Falling Away – stopped by Lampstand yes, but who plays Guardian?  The truth is most games it will force your opponent to have to get 6 rescues to win.

4. Mayhem – this can be a game changer or it can be worthless.  It’s a high risk high reward card.  There are so many counters to Mayhem now that it’s not the juggernaut it once was. Rain Becomes Dust, Nicanor, Golden Cherubim, Nazareth, The god of this World and other cards hinder its uses greatly.  That said it can set your opponent back in card count, accelerate the speed of your deck, be combined with some nasty little tricks to leave your opponent handless and to create auto blocks with Foreign Wives or King Abijam. Another plus is that it isn’t neutered by Lampstand.

5. Shipwreck – being able to knock out a Site or Fortress is a strong ability, however several top decks don’t include any Sites or Fortresses making Shipwreck a dead card.  The potential to knock out a Temple, Nazareth, stop Site lock, take out a bunch of disciples in Fishing Boat or even hammer a The Gates of Hell is there but again Lampstand puts a huge hindrance on Shipwreck.

6. Destruction of Nehushtan – taking out an Artifact can be the difference in a game however there are many other ways to do that without needing DoN.  Again stopped by Lampstand.

7. Strife – this can be a strong Dom in the right types of decks.  When pair with Herod Agrippa II, King Rehoboam and some side battle cards it can become a block. I’ve also seen it used in red banding chains to get initiative to play a CBN Bravery of David.  It’s limited in that it doesn’t win battles by itself, and requires specific card types to be played with it to become optimal.

8. Burial – discarding a soul is strong in Site-lock, soul depletion, and with the 2/3 liner.  It is however stopped by Lampstand.

9. Doubt – has a potential to be better in multi-player games but for T1-2p there are better options 99% of the time.

Here are each of our core 7 Dominants that we feel we can plug and play in most decks.

Josiah

1. Son of God I/J
2. New Jerusalem
3. Angel of the Lord
4. Christian Martyr
5. Mayhem
6. Grapes of Wrath
7. Vain Philosophy

Jerome

1. Son of God I/J
2. New Jerusalem
3. Christian Martyr
4. Grapes of Wrath
5. Angel of the Lord
6. Mayhem
7. Falling Away

We will be looking at Lost Soul rankings in our next article, so keep your eyes open for it.  Lost Souls have become a huge part of setting apart average, good and great players.

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

By Josiah

Josiah and Jerome are brothers from Pennsylvania. Jerome started playing Redemption in 2010 and Josiah in 2011. Thanks to Jerome's ability to analyze cards and with help from other players and leaders like Jon M. and Chad Z., the brothers quickly became competitive players on the national circuit. Both have enjoyed getting connected with the nation wide Redemption community and greatly appreciate the friendships which have been cultivated through Redemption. Josiah and Jerome both have a love for Redemption and are excited to forward the game in any way possible.