Join top tier Redemption player Rob Smith for the reveal of a BIG combo that he found!
Introduction:
Hello everyone. I am so blessed to back on Land of Redemption with another article for you all. As we enter the next season of Redemption, we are all most likely building some decks that we would love to test out. It also helps us that GOC phase 2 is now legal for play and we have the complete GOC set to use now. There are multiple themes that get some boosts and even some new themes that are probably peaking your interest right now. I am sure everyone is also excited to see how this will all lead up to Nationals 2023! I am definitely one of those as I am very excited and going hard in the deck concept stages of a couple of decks. They will most likely in the future be nothing like they are now as the months pass and the meta begins to take shape. But we all have to start somewhere in this process. As I was working on one of my decks I happened to come across something that I would love to share to the community at this time. I do not believe after play testing this that it is extremely broken. We are not talking something as extreme as the Widow combo or the LAFS combo. Nonetheless it is still pretty cool and could lead to some awesome things! What was that line from Jurassic Park by Samuel L. Jackson….”Hold on to your bucks!”
Background:
So as most of you know I may have a thing for the disciples. I love reading about them in the Bible, studying them, listening to podcasts about them, and watching “The Chosen”. If you don’t know what that show is check it out! I was not in the game around the time of the O.G. Disciples and their brokenness. And we did get some in the I and J starter decks but nothing too extreme. I guess this is where I should publicly say I was wrong about Simon Peter being an Ultra Rare. I can take the “L” on that. Phew! Now that I got that out of the way. The disciples got 8 (9 counting Matthias) in phase 1 and the last 4 of them in phase 2. Phase 1 also showed us the Widow combo and Matthew and his amazing draw ability. This led the disciples to be fast and draw a lot of resources early on. We see now after Nationals that the Widow combo helped not just Disciples but a variety of decks. But for this article I am focusing on the Disciples. All that draw power and to be honest some subpar rescues. There was always the Simon choose the blocker into something like Authority of Christ but nothing that was like “WOW!” The Disciples were just fast and could set up quick. They also needed some help with some Angels as the support cast. They also proved to be one of the best decks against “Resetti” as they can quickly set up again after a reset. Then phase 2 was released…..
As I mentioned before phase 2 gave us the last of the disciples. Andrew, Peter, John and James. The last four to be released from GOC and the first of the Disciples called by Jesus himself. Andrew gave us the FBTN hero for the Disciples. John was similar to Jeremiah with the toss but added a draw 2. Peter plays a fortress and bands to another disciple CBN. And James also banded to another disciple but gave us our negate neutral disciple but this time it was a blanket negate instead of just negating your opponents’ neutrals. These seem to be some strong abilities for these Disciples. And also a lot of banding and revealing Dominants going on. Peter and John stood out to me the most at first glance. The toss next evil enhancement and a CBN band looked really good. I had a feeling that Widow was going to be dealt with so they would lose some of the speed. They would however also get Four Drachma Coin as a draw 4 for Peter. That led me to look into Denarius and Drachma coin as a draw 7 without Matthew. OK some of the speed is coming back now. Activating both outside of drawing can be done if you run delivered. This was a lot easier now that two of the disciples had green as part of their brigades. Add Saint Patrick and you are getting some green with the clay. Then I started looking into the Numerous as the Stars variants. Chad is absolutely right in the fact this card is broken. I’ve seen it do so much damage and so fast. Having some of the Disciples have star abilities helped this. This led me to build my numerous disciple build. It was fast and could set up counters really well as most Numerous builds do. But I was struggling on some of the attacks. Authority of Christ is always a good one. Angel of the Lord can be a soul if played at the right moment. I went back to John and his toss. I had seen some good things with toss being very effective. We all know Infinidab as an effective rescue with bouncing the blocking evil character and tossing the next enhancement so basically the bounce is CBI because of the toss. Then it hit me. Matthias has a bounce ability. So disciples have the same tools in that rescue. And you can add them in by fishing boat or good seed. Still that seemed too out there for me. Then I remembered I added The Resurrection into my deck. This card is busted as well. I can rescue with any disciple and after they block I can play The Resurrection. Add in John and Matthias and you have the bounce and toss next rescue. Works even better if you lead with Simon to choose the blocker and make sure it was one evil character. The only thing was you can’t shuffle it like you could with Noah in the Infinidab version…….Or can you?
The Combo:
I looked hard and went over countless cards. Was there a way to band in Noah Rest and Comfort to shuffle The Resurrection? He would have to come in off the band of a hero because The Resurrection would still be in play. John Hendrix this one is for you brother. Not long into looking I found the card that would make this all possible. That’s right, you can play The Resurrection and band in Noah Rest and Comfort and shuffle The Resurrection. I stumbled across New Covenant (Jeremiah). This artifact lets you have a human hero gain “may band to a human”. It has unity of your heroes having the same brigade. Unity is not hard in disciples. You can activate New Covenant to give one of your Disciples the ability to band to a human. Rescue with another hero. Once your opponent blocks you have Dominant initiative. Play The Resurrection. Band in John, Matthias, and the hero with the band ability. John will toss their next, (You should be able to reveal with resurrection in hand) Matthias will bounce their Evil Character, and your last Hero will come in and band to Noah who will convert to prevent cards and shuffle The Resurrection! This was insane. In the Numerous build I was able to get this band first turn almost every game. Even if I didn’t get the shuffle first turn I would still use The Resurrection because The Second Coming can grab it back later. With some consistency cards in Send the Helper, Oath of Purity, Life in the Son, and Go Away! I was able to keep my unity for the New Covenant. The Coming Prince in Reserve grabs my Delivered again to reuse for New Covenant. Denarius and Four-Drachma Coin as a draw engine help set up as well. Mayhem and Crowds Choice to help with consistency. It is still not the main focus as there are viable counters to this. I still ran the Simon choose the blocker and Authority of Christ. I still ran Angel of the Lord. This deck can’t fully rely on this Dominant reshuffle but when it does go off its nuts. In the chance that I go second I added in Three Nails. If I can get to that I can reset the board and punch through any counters they may have laid down and hopefully set myself up instead. New Covenant also has a New Testament reference meaning it can be grabbed by Fifth Seal and Spirit as a Dove. Spirit as a Dove can be grabbed by The Lord’s Prayer. The Emmaus Road can grab Delivered and Numerous and also Emmaus can be grabbed by Spirit as a Dove and The Lord’s Prayer. Crowds Choice can also grab it. Having all the right tutor cards helps the deck do what it is designed to do. I also found out you can reshuffle Grapes of Wrath as well. If you are behind in souls and rescue you can play Grapes of Wrath to discard their evil character then present Noah to convert and shuffle Grapes before it leaves the field. Also just saying, being able to use Dominants and then reshuffle those back after getting their abilities probably shouldn’t be a thing! Good thing Star of Bethlehem has the limit of twos uses on it! Another thing for this interaction I found is in the new Israel’s Deliverance starter decks. It offers another cool piece. There is a clay Tabernacle priest in it. That allows for Book of the Covenant to search out New Covenant from deck each turn without breaking your clay unity. Thanks Tyler!! We will just have to wait for those to be legal to incorporate him.
I had to play Rob M for my first round of the Zoom invitational. This article is accompanied by the video of that for you to see the deck in action.
Conclusion:
Once again I do not feel this is overly broken and wanted to share this find with the community. I do know there is more to this than what I have shown and talked about. I spoke with someone and showed them this find and they in turn showed me something else about it. I know they are planning to share what they found involving this interaction soon. Keep your eyes peeled for a video to drop for this. I hope you all are able to find more things to add to this and make it even better. Building and brainstorming are what come up with these neat interactions. That is what is so awesome about playing card games. The ability to use your mind and find different ways to play. I encourage all of you to dig deep and use your imagination in that process. Happy hunting.
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