Monday, December 16, 2013
Lock Decks
Post Nationals Depression continues, and I’m still fiddling with random ideas, but for the most part not even touching Redemption. I’ll work a bit more on some YouTube videos, but if you haven’t seen any of my Aug/Sept ROOT adventures, you can check them out here, where I use a rough Gates of Samaria deck to go a mediocre 3-3 in ROOT. The key here is that I had a lot of fun, and that’s what Redemption is all about. Some of the most fun decks I’ve ever played were lock decks, and I spent most of my early career of Redemption trying to make them work.
Lock decks are a fairly common and powerful archetype in other TCGs, and a lock deck even won the Pokemon US National Tournament this past summer. Lock decks come in a variety of forms, but they all share one goal: to make it impossible for your opponent to win. Lock decks tend to be challenging to play, as one mistake can cost you the game, and make for extremely strategic games on both sides. Many people claim that it’s not fun to play against these sorts of decks, but I find that with correct deck building and smart play, they lead to some of the most fun games I’ve ever played.
Site Lock: Probably the first deck archetype that comes to mind when I mention lock decks are Site Lock decks, which were fairly well known up until the Disciples expansion. Site Lock decks seek to use Sites to prevent heroes from rescuing, and contain cards that attempt to remove any site access cards the opponent may have. The reason these decks completely died out with the release of the Disciples expansion was Fishing Boat, a set-aside fortress that grants site access. At the time, there were no cards that could discard it, and it was played in ~30% of top decks. However, this is no longer the case; Assyrian Siege Army is the premier set-aside fortress discarder, and can also take out artifacts and sites that may grant site access. Additionally, Fishing Boat is no longer guaranteed to be seen in the top decks. With Site Lock being dead for years, many people have dropped extra site access, and rely on 1-2 cards and a multitude of heroes, allowing you to take the competition by surprise and come out on top. Unfortunately, Lost Soul generation is a very common strategy in aggressive decks, and while you may be able to keep all of your lost souls safe in sites, your opponent can pull out another one of your souls or create one of their own to rescue. You need both sites and a substantial defense to fend these rescues off. Pale Green, Brown, and Black tend to be the best Site Lock defenses, and offensive choice depends heavily on the defense, but Genesis can use Jacob’s Dream to steal a Site from your opponent. Many people have said Site Lock is dead, but that sort of thinking will only aid in its rise to victory.
Soul Control: While this is technically a lock deck, and not a control deck, Soul Control just sounds so cool, and John Earley threatened to steal all my Bucklers if I didn’t use his name for it. Soul Control seeks to remove all lost souls from your deck or land of bondage, making it impossible for your opponent rescue 5 lost souls. This is accomplished several different ways. Burial, is of course the obvious card to use, but you can also discard lost souls from the top of your deck using cards like Jephthah in combination with Washing Hands. Discarding isn’t the only way to rid your deck of souls though. If you use cards like the Wanderer Lost Soul or Nebushashban to exchange lost souls with your opponent, you can then shuffle their souls back into their deck with a card like Death of Unrighteous, leaving yours in their land of bondage. Alternatively, you can put those lost souls to the bottom of their deck with Hormah, or exchange for a Captured Hero and then use I am Redemption to return it to territory. The deck has received a lot of help from a shifting metagame due to the I/J starters, as previously Soul Generation was primarily done by using the Hopper lost soul, or evil characters like The Amalekite’s Slave or Assyrian Survivor. Although these cards still see play, the more common soul generation are cards like Samaritan Water Jar, Fishers of Men, and Gideon’s Call, which merely accelerate the drawing of your lost souls, and don’t actually help in the long run against a Soul Control deck. Gray and Pale Green work best for Soul Control, and a Hormah is a pretty key addition as well. The offense can be a few different things, but Judges are the ideal choice because of Jephthah. There are many creative ways to get rid of these souls, but be careful, because a simple Death of Unrighteous can shuffle all the lost souls you gave to your opponent back to you.
Hand Lock: Currently, this deck does not exist, but it has won a National tournament before. I am, of course, referring to the Sin in the Camp deck, originally built by Clift Crysel back in 2007, but piloted by Gabe Isbell to a T2-2P first place finish at California Nats in 2009. This deck seeks to rid your opponent of having any cards in his hand, ever. A similar breed of deck would be Hand Control, which has won Nationals in T1-2P in both 2008 and 2013, but the decks are distinctly different because Hand Control still gives your opponent a chance to play cards. Because of the Sin in the Camp deck, its unlikely Hand Lock will ever return, as SitC was given an errata to one per territory, and I doubt the playtesters will print another card like it, but you can perhaps do a soft lock by ridding their hand of cards and then setting up SitC, limiting them to 2 cards per turn, and then using The Generous Widow or other cards to discard them every turn, but they still have the opportunity to use draw cards to gain a hand back. I really don’t mind that this deck will never return, but I also don’t think the Sin in the Camp errata is necessary anymore when Covenant With Death currently shuts it down cold, and many other cards can be added to help beat it. I only had the displeasure of playing against it once, all the way back in 2007, and I just sat there and passed the entire game. This is the one lock deck that I think creates negative player experience.
These are the three types of lock decks in Redemption. There are other types of locks, but they really don’t function like a standard lock deck. Examples of this would be Hero Lock (ridding your opponents of heroes) and Deck Lock (running your opponent completely out of resources). The reason I say they don’t function like standard decks is because these goals are very late game and depend in part on your opponent, whereas the others set up the lock as soon as possible all on their own. In future, we may have some sort of Hero lock, where you put a good multicolor card in your opponent’s territory, play Broken Cisterns, and have Plagued with Diseases active, but currently this is very difficult to accomplish. Currently the only way would be to use Seven Wicked Spirits to exchange with one of their characters, band to SWS, exchange with Saul, convert Saul to Paul, paralyze Paul with Palsy, place Broken Cisterns in territory, which will then decrease any hero they put in their territory by */8, and they can’t even attack with Paul. The main issue with this is that they can still put heroes directly into battle (Goliath helps solve that problem), and of course */9 and greater would be fine, as you can’t activate Plagued with Diseases without killing Paul. However this is still a soft lock and is completely unreasonable to pull off. In future, however, decrease could do something along these lines, and is something to keep an eye out for.
Again, I think the metagame is ripe for a Lock deck to come out on top, just like Hand Control accomplished last year. People are moving more and more towards balanced lists, accelerating souls instead of generating them, and are dropping cards that are used solely for those matchups. With a good deck build and skillful playing, you can come on top at your next tournament with these decks. -Andrew
Sunday, September 8, 2013
Treating Post-National's Depression
Ahh, September. National’s was a month ago and the forums are quieting down. Normally we have a new set to look at and start testing, but we received the 2013 set early, and have already had the biggest tournament of the year to settle the 2013-2014 metagame. We just saw all our friends at Nationals, and we have to wait an entire year to see some of them again. This begins what I (and the Pokémon community) like to call Post-National’s Depression. It’s times like these when I honestly don’t even feel like playing Redemption, and it’s why there’s been very little activity on RMG recently. However, there are ways to combat PND if you get creative.
1. Invent new ways to play the game. Although Gameplay Variations is among the least popular forums, there have been a lot of types (such as Type Ban or Type 3) that have gotten enough attention as to be played online. I would like to suggest you be a bit more creative than just changing how decks are built, but actually change the gameplay. Make players discard two cards in order to play a dominant, or perhaps players draw a card every time an evil character gets a block. There are tons of things you can do to experiment with gameplay that will results in hours of fun. Sometimes a change of pace is all you need.
2. Create new cards. This is really just another way to reinvent the game. The main issue with this is most of the community is online, but Gabe recently showed me that RTS actually has a Card Expansion Creator built by GamerX. Additionally, with Lambo’s card creator, it’s easier than ever to think of new and exciting ideas that you can print out and test on your own. It was amazing the crowd that gathered to see Reanimation (a zombie version of Redemption, where the evil characters attack to eat brains) get played at nats. If you really want to make the game new and exciting, you’ll really have to be creative and shake up the way we think about the game.
3. Start a Redemption project. This can be as simple as my 32 person Hamachi network, or it can be more complex, like Lambo’s card creator. This often brings excitement, and improves Redemption as a whole, potentially for the rest of its existence. You can combine this with #1 and host an online gameplay-variation tournament. Chris had a great way to draw people to his tournament by offering monetary incentives. March Madness and April Fools and how it kept people involved in Redemption for 2 months, and I hope for its return in 2014. However, the best Redemption project you can start is a playgroup. This expands the player-base, lets you meet new people, and ultimately increases the chance that we’ll get an expansion every year. It’s even possible to make money, albeit difficult.
4. Build rogue decks. This is currently what I’ve been experimenting with. Redemption has a very large card pool, and there are a lot of untapped potential for decks. Many people wrote off hand-control as being a thing of the past, but it just won Nationals. The metagame has shifted and really opened up the possibilities to fun new decks.
5. Post controversial threads about improving the game. Yes, this is a joke, but only partially. The Top Cut thread was very interesting and had me thinking about the possibilities. Last year I posted a thread about changing the structure of the Elder system, and it brought about a lot of good discussion. Unfortunately, a lot of these threads end up being just that—discussion. However, I was thrilled with Top Cut being implemented this year, and it’s great to see that Rob is willing to listen to the player-base. RMG has a few ideas of its own that we will propose throughout the year.
1. Invent new ways to play the game. Although Gameplay Variations is among the least popular forums, there have been a lot of types (such as Type Ban or Type 3) that have gotten enough attention as to be played online. I would like to suggest you be a bit more creative than just changing how decks are built, but actually change the gameplay. Make players discard two cards in order to play a dominant, or perhaps players draw a card every time an evil character gets a block. There are tons of things you can do to experiment with gameplay that will results in hours of fun. Sometimes a change of pace is all you need.
2. Create new cards. This is really just another way to reinvent the game. The main issue with this is most of the community is online, but Gabe recently showed me that RTS actually has a Card Expansion Creator built by GamerX. Additionally, with Lambo’s card creator, it’s easier than ever to think of new and exciting ideas that you can print out and test on your own. It was amazing the crowd that gathered to see Reanimation (a zombie version of Redemption, where the evil characters attack to eat brains) get played at nats. If you really want to make the game new and exciting, you’ll really have to be creative and shake up the way we think about the game.
3. Start a Redemption project. This can be as simple as my 32 person Hamachi network, or it can be more complex, like Lambo’s card creator. This often brings excitement, and improves Redemption as a whole, potentially for the rest of its existence. You can combine this with #1 and host an online gameplay-variation tournament. Chris had a great way to draw people to his tournament by offering monetary incentives. March Madness and April Fools and how it kept people involved in Redemption for 2 months, and I hope for its return in 2014. However, the best Redemption project you can start is a playgroup. This expands the player-base, lets you meet new people, and ultimately increases the chance that we’ll get an expansion every year. It’s even possible to make money, albeit difficult.
4. Build rogue decks. This is currently what I’ve been experimenting with. Redemption has a very large card pool, and there are a lot of untapped potential for decks. Many people wrote off hand-control as being a thing of the past, but it just won Nationals. The metagame has shifted and really opened up the possibilities to fun new decks.
5. Post controversial threads about improving the game. Yes, this is a joke, but only partially. The Top Cut thread was very interesting and had me thinking about the possibilities. Last year I posted a thread about changing the structure of the Elder system, and it brought about a lot of good discussion. Unfortunately, a lot of these threads end up being just that—discussion. However, I was thrilled with Top Cut being implemented this year, and it’s great to see that Rob is willing to listen to the player-base. RMG has a few ideas of its own that we will propose throughout the year.
There are also things that Cactus could do to help beat PND; as previously mentioned, in past this has been combated by releasing a new set, but this only delays the issue. While it’s fun to test the new cards, it really isn’t that hard to catch up on things towards the summer, and we saw that this year (though there was a bit of a time crunch with the 2013 Set only being legal a month before nationals).
1. Have large tournaments throughout the year. The simplest solution I can see would be Fall/Spring States, Winter Regionals, and Summer Nationals. This means that you have to playtest throughout the year, and it brings excitement while spreading your card game costs throughout the year. As far as I know, there is no date restriction on tournaments, and yet we only see the big tournaments in the summer. Yes, I’m proposing having State Tournaments twice a year, but this is chiefly due to needing something each season. It could be that each State gets 2 tournaments, or each state may choose only one. I understand that school will be in session during this time, but Bill Voigt’s T2 Only Tournament is hosted in March, and has been very successful. The main issue would be a set metagame after Regionals, but that’s where #2 comes in.
2. Release sets throughout the year. This is what many other TCGs do, and it works fairly well. I know what you’re thinking, “But Cactus doesn’t have the money for that, Westy!” Yes, that’s true, we can’t release 4 full size boosters per year, but that doesn’t mean we can’t divide the sets. The 2013 set, for example, could have released the starter deck and then the tin after nationals (or even January 2014), and FooF could have released 5 tins at a time. This allows Cactus to release a subset and then generate revenue for the next subset, while still allowing for the same size card-pool at nationals. It also gives the Elders the opportunity to let the metagame settle just enough to shake it up with cards like Scattered and Foreign Wives. However, this ultimately succumbs to the same delaying issue that any new set has without #1.
1. Have large tournaments throughout the year. The simplest solution I can see would be Fall/Spring States, Winter Regionals, and Summer Nationals. This means that you have to playtest throughout the year, and it brings excitement while spreading your card game costs throughout the year. As far as I know, there is no date restriction on tournaments, and yet we only see the big tournaments in the summer. Yes, I’m proposing having State Tournaments twice a year, but this is chiefly due to needing something each season. It could be that each State gets 2 tournaments, or each state may choose only one. I understand that school will be in session during this time, but Bill Voigt’s T2 Only Tournament is hosted in March, and has been very successful. The main issue would be a set metagame after Regionals, but that’s where #2 comes in.
2. Release sets throughout the year. This is what many other TCGs do, and it works fairly well. I know what you’re thinking, “But Cactus doesn’t have the money for that, Westy!” Yes, that’s true, we can’t release 4 full size boosters per year, but that doesn’t mean we can’t divide the sets. The 2013 set, for example, could have released the starter deck and then the tin after nationals (or even January 2014), and FooF could have released 5 tins at a time. This allows Cactus to release a subset and then generate revenue for the next subset, while still allowing for the same size card-pool at nationals. It also gives the Elders the opportunity to let the metagame settle just enough to shake it up with cards like Scattered and Foreign Wives. However, this ultimately succumbs to the same delaying issue that any new set has without #1.
Post Nationals Depression is probably one of the greatest enemies of Redemption. It’s very easy to end the summer off on a high note at Nationals, and then shelf your cards while you adjust back to a fall school/work schedule—and then never pull those cards back off the shelf. I love Redemption, and I honestly don’t ever see myself quitting the game while it still lives, but I hate to see people leave from a natural lull in the game. Redemption needs to grow, but it also needs to keep the current players interested throughout the entire year. With a bit of creativity and some help from Cactus, we can beat PND.
-Westy
-Westy
Sunday, August 4, 2013
Tips for a Successful National Tournament
Nationals is just over one week away, and there’s precious
little time for all of the final preparations. I constantly find myself caught off-guard by how close
Nationals sneaks up on me, and this summer has gone particularly quickly due to
work and having two previous Redemption tournaments within a month of
nationals. In addition, the latest
set has been tournament legal for about a month, and there are a lot of
things that have changed that time hasn’t sorted out yet. Maybe this is your first Nationals, and
you aren’t quite sure what to expect, or how to make the best of it. I’ve been to seven National
Tournaments, and developed a quick checklist so you can be fully prepared for
Nationals.
1. Have your deck(s) ready. By ready, I mean built, tested, sleeved, and if you have to transfer any cards between decks for different categories, write it down. I may be the biggest offender of this, as I’ve gone to the last two tournaments with a completely untested and unbuilt deck, as well as convincing at least two people to switch their decks right before the 2012 National tournament, but I can’t stress this enough. At MN States, I forgot to add Moses to my Judges/TGT deck. It may not have made a huge difference at that tournament, but it could have been detrimental with just a few more rounds. It can be silly mistakes like this that can cost you at the top tables.
1. Have your deck(s) ready. By ready, I mean built, tested, sleeved, and if you have to transfer any cards between decks for different categories, write it down. I may be the biggest offender of this, as I’ve gone to the last two tournaments with a completely untested and unbuilt deck, as well as convincing at least two people to switch their decks right before the 2012 National tournament, but I can’t stress this enough. At MN States, I forgot to add Moses to my Judges/TGT deck. It may not have made a huge difference at that tournament, but it could have been detrimental with just a few more rounds. It can be silly mistakes like this that can cost you at the top tables.
2. Be confident. Never count yourself out of the
running. I can’t tell you how many
times I’ve gone up against a great player and been extremely nervous about it,
and end up making misplays because of it.
With a good deck, a strategic mind, and a bit of luck, you can beat
anybody—I guarantee it. Just last
week at MW Regionals, a relatively new player dealt me my only loss of the
tournament in the first round. Now
don’t go to the complete opposite end and be arrogant either. Just have fun and take each round as it
comes.
3. Be social. My first National Tournament in 2005 is
probably the least favorite of all of them because I did nothing but hangout
with my local playgroup. It’s
natural to want to stay with the people you know, and nerds are often more
introverted than most, but I guarantee you that being more outgoing is the way
to go. That said, also be
respectful to others and don’t cling to people. 2006 was a much different year, as I knew very few people
who traveled all the way to New York.
I was forced to meet new people who I had previously only encountered
online, and people like Kirk Dennison and Ben Arp graciously put up with my
middle school behavior. I later
reconnected with them in 2008 and Kirk to this day is one of my favorite people
to see at a tournament. So don’t
be afraid to introduce yourself to people, ask their forum names, and get some
of the legends to sign your Que card.
I’m not saying to complete ditch those you know, but do go out of your
way to meet new people.
4. Take care of
yourself. Eat, sleep, and Once
again, I break this rule all the time, and only got two and a half hours the
night before MW Regionals. The
difference with Nationals is that it takes place over several days, and by the
end of it you will be completely exhausted and it won’t be fun. This past week I slept 13 hours the
night after MW Regionals, and at 2011 I carried around a quilt and pillow and
slept between rounds due to lack of sleep. You need to take care of your body, and sleep and Perkins
are a few necessary ways to do this.
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
Deck Architect: Abomination of an Abomination Deck
It's time for another post, and today I'm going to step back a bit form the abstractions I've been posting lately. Rather than discuss theory, let's look at a deck I've been using recently. It's 10-4, but probably should be 11-3 except that I can't play it right! I used it to a 3-1 record at PA states.
You will quickly notice it's a heavy defensive deck, but it's built a little bit more complex than that. The goal is for the deck to set up as quickly as possible - specifically to begin taking souls as soon as I possibly can. You'll notice some unique choices because of that.
Cards in deck: 56
Lost Souls: 7
Lost Soul (can't be prevented)
Lost Soul (deck discard)
Lost Soul (female only)
Lost Soul (N.T. only)
Lost Soul (Site Discard)
Lost Soul (site doubler)
Lost Soul (Wanderer)
Dominants: 7
Angel of the Lord
Grapes of Wrath
Son of God
Christian Martyr
Destruction of Nehushtan
Mayhem
Vain Philosophy
Fortresses: 3
Herod's Temple
High Places
The Garden Tomb
Sites: 4
Golgotha
Caesarea Philippi
Lystra
Chorazin
Artifacts: 6
Chariot of Fire
Darius' Decree
Gifts of the Magi
Holy Grail
Lampstand of the Sanctuary
Magic Charms
Heroes: 7
Jephthah
The Generous Widow
Watchful Servant
Hur
Ethiopian Treasurer
John
The Magi
Hero Enhancements: 3
Feast of Trumpets
Meeting the Messiah
Authority of Christ
Evil Characters: 12
User of Curious Arts
Lot's Wife
Simon the Magician
Emperor Galba
Emperor Tiberius
Emperor Vitellius
Foreign Wives
Scribe
Antiochus Epiphanes IV
The Winged Leopard
The Goat with Horn
Evil Enhancements: 8
Ashtaroth Worship
Abomination of Desolation
Joseph in Prison
Stone of Thebez
Wrath of Satan
Balaam's Disobedience
Heavy Taxes
Namaan's Chariot and Horses
Let's start with my offense. Obviously in this style of deck, Watchful Servant is the main hero and champion of soul rescuing, but if you look deeply, he's actually not even my best hero. That distinction lies with The Generous Widow. If she rescues with Abomination of Desolation active, I get to discard 3 resources of my opponent at the cost of 2 of my own (which are usually recurable with Chariots of Fire in my case), plus some times I get to draw 4 resources with Gifts of the Magi. She also helps my opponent deck out faster so I can use the glory of the Watchful Servant.
Another interesting choice is The Magi. My thoughts are simple - I need to keep up, and Gifts of the Magi does that for me, and The Magi give me a second out to Gifts. Playing AoC for an early rescue isn't bad either. Hur acts as a way to draw with Gifts and triggers Abomination, so that seems like a good add too. Feast of Trumpets is more nuanced though - it's the only way to discard a Nazareth if my opponent has decked, which matters in some strange circumstances if my opponent has some rare cards that could ruin my win conditions.
Jepthah, Holy Grail, Meeting the Messiah, Ethiopian Treasurer, and John are simple - I want souls fast, and The Garden Tomb is usually good at that.
This doesn't really fit in any category, but the overall focus of the defense is a lockout. This can occur several ways. I have a soft hand lock out (Galba, Heavy Taxes, Generous Widow), a soft Abomination lock via discarding everything, a soft site lock out (4 sites, 2 in neverused Red + limiting souls), and a harder hero lock (tons of discard/removal + Asheroth Worship). The many options I have let me react accordingly to the game and offer both long and short term solutions.
I'll just address some of the uniqueness of the defense. If you have questions about a general Greek subset for Abomination, comment and I can explain that more. I chose Romans as the primary subset of the defense because of several factors 1) they are protected by Caesarea Philippi/Chorazin/Golgotha 2) Heavy Taxes is absurdly good 3) they let me play NHC (which is primary super broke on Antiochus). The rest of the defense is primarily just the best characters that fit in the NT theme in my brigades. Scribe can play every enhancement, Simon can hold a Charms protected from discard as well as mess with Disciples/TGT, and Users is Simon 2.0 and can play any enhancement in the deck. If I play this deck again, I would try to fit in a Proud Pharisee, but I'm not quite sure what I'd cut. Disbelieving Sadducees isn't bad either but I'd never be able to find space for him.
Enhancement choices were simple. Effectively destroy all my opponents heroes. There isn't really a ton to say here. I don't feel like I was missing anything. Scattered is ok but I'd rather kill heroes than underdeck them, so it wasn't worth a slot.
The last area of substantive discussion is the dominant selection. I would love to have New Jerusalem in here, but I couldn't figure out what to take out. Angel and Grapes are too clutch with TGT, Mayhem and CM help me lock players out, Vain helps me block super well, and Destruction of Nehushtan solves too many problems. I just couldn't figure out where the NJ belonged.
You will quickly notice it's a heavy defensive deck, but it's built a little bit more complex than that. The goal is for the deck to set up as quickly as possible - specifically to begin taking souls as soon as I possibly can. You'll notice some unique choices because of that.
Cards in deck: 56
Lost Souls: 7
Lost Soul (can't be prevented)
Lost Soul (deck discard)
Lost Soul (female only)
Lost Soul (N.T. only)
Lost Soul (Site Discard)
Lost Soul (site doubler)
Lost Soul (Wanderer)
Dominants: 7
Angel of the Lord
Grapes of Wrath
Son of God
Christian Martyr
Destruction of Nehushtan
Mayhem
Vain Philosophy
Fortresses: 3
Herod's Temple
High Places
The Garden Tomb
Sites: 4
Golgotha
Caesarea Philippi
Lystra
Chorazin
Artifacts: 6
Chariot of Fire
Darius' Decree
Gifts of the Magi
Holy Grail
Lampstand of the Sanctuary
Magic Charms
Heroes: 7
Jephthah
The Generous Widow
Watchful Servant
Hur
Ethiopian Treasurer
John
The Magi
Hero Enhancements: 3
Feast of Trumpets
Meeting the Messiah
Authority of Christ
Evil Characters: 12
User of Curious Arts
Lot's Wife
Simon the Magician
Emperor Galba
Emperor Tiberius
Emperor Vitellius
Foreign Wives
Scribe
Antiochus Epiphanes IV
The Winged Leopard
The Goat with Horn
Evil Enhancements: 8
Ashtaroth Worship
Abomination of Desolation
Joseph in Prison
Stone of Thebez
Wrath of Satan
Balaam's Disobedience
Heavy Taxes
Namaan's Chariot and Horses
Let's start with my offense. Obviously in this style of deck, Watchful Servant is the main hero and champion of soul rescuing, but if you look deeply, he's actually not even my best hero. That distinction lies with The Generous Widow. If she rescues with Abomination of Desolation active, I get to discard 3 resources of my opponent at the cost of 2 of my own (which are usually recurable with Chariots of Fire in my case), plus some times I get to draw 4 resources with Gifts of the Magi. She also helps my opponent deck out faster so I can use the glory of the Watchful Servant.
Another interesting choice is The Magi. My thoughts are simple - I need to keep up, and Gifts of the Magi does that for me, and The Magi give me a second out to Gifts. Playing AoC for an early rescue isn't bad either. Hur acts as a way to draw with Gifts and triggers Abomination, so that seems like a good add too. Feast of Trumpets is more nuanced though - it's the only way to discard a Nazareth if my opponent has decked, which matters in some strange circumstances if my opponent has some rare cards that could ruin my win conditions.
Jepthah, Holy Grail, Meeting the Messiah, Ethiopian Treasurer, and John are simple - I want souls fast, and The Garden Tomb is usually good at that.
This doesn't really fit in any category, but the overall focus of the defense is a lockout. This can occur several ways. I have a soft hand lock out (Galba, Heavy Taxes, Generous Widow), a soft Abomination lock via discarding everything, a soft site lock out (4 sites, 2 in neverused Red + limiting souls), and a harder hero lock (tons of discard/removal + Asheroth Worship). The many options I have let me react accordingly to the game and offer both long and short term solutions.
I'll just address some of the uniqueness of the defense. If you have questions about a general Greek subset for Abomination, comment and I can explain that more. I chose Romans as the primary subset of the defense because of several factors 1) they are protected by Caesarea Philippi/Chorazin/Golgotha 2) Heavy Taxes is absurdly good 3) they let me play NHC (which is primary super broke on Antiochus). The rest of the defense is primarily just the best characters that fit in the NT theme in my brigades. Scribe can play every enhancement, Simon can hold a Charms protected from discard as well as mess with Disciples/TGT, and Users is Simon 2.0 and can play any enhancement in the deck. If I play this deck again, I would try to fit in a Proud Pharisee, but I'm not quite sure what I'd cut. Disbelieving Sadducees isn't bad either but I'd never be able to find space for him.
Enhancement choices were simple. Effectively destroy all my opponents heroes. There isn't really a ton to say here. I don't feel like I was missing anything. Scattered is ok but I'd rather kill heroes than underdeck them, so it wasn't worth a slot.
The last area of substantive discussion is the dominant selection. I would love to have New Jerusalem in here, but I couldn't figure out what to take out. Angel and Grapes are too clutch with TGT, Mayhem and CM help me lock players out, Vain helps me block super well, and Destruction of Nehushtan solves too many problems. I just couldn't figure out where the NJ belonged.
Thursday, July 18, 2013
Deck Ratios: Offensive-Heavy, Balanced, and Defensive-Heavy
To be honest, I didn’t really know how to start this article off, so I guess I’ll just come right out and say it: Offensive-heavy is the best. Now when I say offensive-heavy, I’m really breaking my rule from my previous article about Complimentary Deck Building because I’m actually referring to the good alignment. The fact of the matter is, while the term is misleading, it’s still the current term for describing heavy good. But before I get to the conclusion, I’ll overview the three types of balance (or lack thereof).
So first I’m going to debut the oft talked about offensive-heavy, which relies on a powerful good-alignment to overwhelm any defense. If you’ve been around for any amount of time, you’ve certainly seen these types of decks at the top tables. They are consistently good, and don’t depend on the local metagame. Most of the best offensive-heavy decks are ones that are also hero heavy, boasting of upwards of 10 heroes. My current offensive heavy deck uses 12-13 heroes. The deck’s goal is to rescue five lost souls as quickly as possible.
Now for balanced, which won 2012 Nationals. Now wait, how can I say offensive-heavy is the best when balanced won nationals? I’ll get there, don’t worry, but I’d first like to explain the focus of balanced. So you’re probably going to have about 1:1 ratio of good to evil, although many balanced decks are more like 18 good and 16 evil (including fortresses, not including dominants). However, the definition pretty much ends there. Balanced decks are among the most versatile, as you can pretty much just mix and match the aggro, speed, turtle, and standard styles of play. While the national winning deck was definitely aggro style, I found a lot of success towards the end of the 2011-2013 format with a turtle style balanced deck. Balanced is probably the most common deck, but that’s mostly because most people start out with balanced decks. Among top tier players, it’s probably the second most common. This deck tries to fend off the opponent while also rescuing souls.
Finally we have defensive-heavy, the undeniable least popular deck. These decks may be rare, but every now and then one pops up at the top. They are largely a meta call, which we generally call “rogue” decks. They focus on using a massive defense to immobilize your opponent’s offense, allowing yours to go in for the win. The difficulty with defensive heavy, however, is that it’s difficult to win with such a small offense, especially with a time limit, which is why they are played less.
That’s the basic overview of all three, but why is offensive-heavy the best? It’s really surprisingly simple: the point of the game is to rescue 5 lost souls, and offensive-heavy does this best. “But wait!” you say, “Don’t you have more opportunities to rescue lost souls if your defense blocks?” Yes, that’s true, but it’s a matter of consistency. In a real game, you’re going to be drawing a bit of everything, so while your defense may hold off a turn, it also may prevent you from rescuing a soul because you didn’t draw into your offense. A streamlined deck will be more consistent, and a deck that is streamlined to rescue lost souls is a deck that will win.
Now, that’s not to say that offensive-heavy is the only deck you should play. While it is, on the whole, the best type of deck, there’s also another side of things, and many balanced decks and defensive-heavy decks successfully counter offensive-heavy decks. My last two games I was beaten by (to put it simply) Judges/Prophets/Babylonian decks. Part of that was because my deck is bad, but another part of it was that it was able to provide my opponents with enough heroes to rescue against my extremely weak defense (I only got a couple blocks between the two games), and still fend me off. In the same way, defensive-heavy can hard counter both offensive-heavy and balanced decks. However, despite offensive-heavy’s disadvantage, they always have a better shot at winning because it’s more focused on winning. Defensive-heavy struggles to fend off offensive heavy early game, and often times you can outspeed a balanced deck. After all, most games you only need to rescue 3 lost souls (plus Son of God and New Jerualem).
I do want to say that this is not a “rock, paper, scissors” type thing. Balanced doesn’t necessarily beat offensive-heavy, offensive-heavy doesn’t necessarily beat defensive-heavy, etc. It’s very dependent on what type of good/evil is being played in the decks. Matchups play a big part, but so does drawing. A well built offensive-heavy is the only deck that can reliably make rescue attempts even if it draws poorly.
Now, armed with this knowledge, you can study your local metagame and decide what kind of deck you want to play. There is no right choice, but if you’re unsure, I will always recommend offensive-heavy. It is, after all, the best.
So first I’m going to debut the oft talked about offensive-heavy, which relies on a powerful good-alignment to overwhelm any defense. If you’ve been around for any amount of time, you’ve certainly seen these types of decks at the top tables. They are consistently good, and don’t depend on the local metagame. Most of the best offensive-heavy decks are ones that are also hero heavy, boasting of upwards of 10 heroes. My current offensive heavy deck uses 12-13 heroes. The deck’s goal is to rescue five lost souls as quickly as possible.
Now for balanced, which won 2012 Nationals. Now wait, how can I say offensive-heavy is the best when balanced won nationals? I’ll get there, don’t worry, but I’d first like to explain the focus of balanced. So you’re probably going to have about 1:1 ratio of good to evil, although many balanced decks are more like 18 good and 16 evil (including fortresses, not including dominants). However, the definition pretty much ends there. Balanced decks are among the most versatile, as you can pretty much just mix and match the aggro, speed, turtle, and standard styles of play. While the national winning deck was definitely aggro style, I found a lot of success towards the end of the 2011-2013 format with a turtle style balanced deck. Balanced is probably the most common deck, but that’s mostly because most people start out with balanced decks. Among top tier players, it’s probably the second most common. This deck tries to fend off the opponent while also rescuing souls.
Finally we have defensive-heavy, the undeniable least popular deck. These decks may be rare, but every now and then one pops up at the top. They are largely a meta call, which we generally call “rogue” decks. They focus on using a massive defense to immobilize your opponent’s offense, allowing yours to go in for the win. The difficulty with defensive heavy, however, is that it’s difficult to win with such a small offense, especially with a time limit, which is why they are played less.
That’s the basic overview of all three, but why is offensive-heavy the best? It’s really surprisingly simple: the point of the game is to rescue 5 lost souls, and offensive-heavy does this best. “But wait!” you say, “Don’t you have more opportunities to rescue lost souls if your defense blocks?” Yes, that’s true, but it’s a matter of consistency. In a real game, you’re going to be drawing a bit of everything, so while your defense may hold off a turn, it also may prevent you from rescuing a soul because you didn’t draw into your offense. A streamlined deck will be more consistent, and a deck that is streamlined to rescue lost souls is a deck that will win.
Now, that’s not to say that offensive-heavy is the only deck you should play. While it is, on the whole, the best type of deck, there’s also another side of things, and many balanced decks and defensive-heavy decks successfully counter offensive-heavy decks. My last two games I was beaten by (to put it simply) Judges/Prophets/Babylonian decks. Part of that was because my deck is bad, but another part of it was that it was able to provide my opponents with enough heroes to rescue against my extremely weak defense (I only got a couple blocks between the two games), and still fend me off. In the same way, defensive-heavy can hard counter both offensive-heavy and balanced decks. However, despite offensive-heavy’s disadvantage, they always have a better shot at winning because it’s more focused on winning. Defensive-heavy struggles to fend off offensive heavy early game, and often times you can outspeed a balanced deck. After all, most games you only need to rescue 3 lost souls (plus Son of God and New Jerualem).
I do want to say that this is not a “rock, paper, scissors” type thing. Balanced doesn’t necessarily beat offensive-heavy, offensive-heavy doesn’t necessarily beat defensive-heavy, etc. It’s very dependent on what type of good/evil is being played in the decks. Matchups play a big part, but so does drawing. A well built offensive-heavy is the only deck that can reliably make rescue attempts even if it draws poorly.
Now, armed with this knowledge, you can study your local metagame and decide what kind of deck you want to play. There is no right choice, but if you’re unsure, I will always recommend offensive-heavy. It is, after all, the best.
-Westy
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
Deck Math
It’s been awhile since I've written an article! Sorry guys. I took a nice holiday vacation to the beach, and it was fabulous. But I’m back now, and ready to go. This article is going to be a bit more calculus than most, so be warned. There may be some math errors, but the information will be generally accurate, I promise!
One of the biggest choices made in Redemption deck building is the size of the deck you use. For years, small decks (53 or less cards) have been considered the best (with some people strongly holding that 56 is the way to go). Today I am going to show you the math behind why I always try to play at 50 or 51 cards (if I am using Haman’s Plot) if I am playing a conventional offense heavy or balanced deck.
Let’s examine some proportions in a 50 card deck. Since almost every deck should be playing the Hopper lost soul, that means there are 8 lost souls in this 50 card deck. They don’t really count for deck size, because if you draw them, they get replaced. While I should technically account for the chance of drawing a soul and distribute that across and proportional math I do, I’m lazy, and it’s much easier to simply ignore lost souls and treat this deck as 42 card deck, so that’s what I am going to do.
With the 42 card deck, your chance of drawing any one card in your opening hand looks like this:
1/42 + 1/41 + 1/40 + 1/39 + 1/38 + 1/37 + 1/36 + 1/35 = .2085328
That means that any one card has a chance of appearing in your hand about 20.85% of the time, or slightly more than 1 in 5 games. Let’s look at the same math for anyone card in a 56 card deck, which would have 48 non-lost soul cards:
(1/41) + (1/42) + (1/43) + (1/44) + (1/45) + (1/46) + (1/47) + (1/48)=.18025413
In this 56 card deck, your odds of drawing any one card in your deck have dropped to 18.03%, or slightly less than 1 in 5 games. The change equates to a 2.82% greater chance of drawing a single card in a 50 card deck rather than a 56 card deck. While this might not seem like much, let’s look at this size difference in terms of turns to deck out.
Since Son of God is often a card needed to win the game, suppose it is on the bottom of both decks in this scenario. How many turns will be needed to draw it out? The equation to find out is ((X-(LS+8))/3) where X is size of the deck. I will be assuming no drawing occurs via abilities for the purpose of this math.
In a 50 card deck: ((50-16)/3)=11.3
In a 56 card deck: ((56-16/3)=13.3
That’s a two turn difference! That’s a huge deal. That means the 56 card deck is going to need to outdraw the 50 card deck by a full two turns via abilities on cards in order to get to Son of God.
While the odds are not incredibly high that Son of God will be your bottom card, the principle of it remains. All other things equal, a 50 card deck is 2 turns faster than a 56 card deck. Often 56 card decks are said to have more endurance than a 50 card deck – that they have an advantage simply by having more cards. In reality, this couldn't be further from the truth. I would estimate that the average Redemption game takes 10 turns or less, which means each player will have access to, at most (assuming no draw abilities), 38 cards (8 for opening hand, drawing 3 every turn if you went second). Both a 50 and 56 card deck have more than 38 non-LS cards in their deck – which means the 56 card deck has received no advantage of the 50 card deck in terms of number of cards played. The difference is that 50 card deck has between 4-12 cards left in deck, while the 56 card deck has between 10-18 cards in deck. The 56 card deck receives absolutely no advantage to playing with a bigger deck until he draws the 43rd through 48th playable card in his deck. While this seems good in theory, in practicality, most games are over by this point, and rather than reaping this advantage, you have spent all game lowering your odds of drawing that one card you need to counter a certain hero or win a rescue attempt.
Math is why I play with a 50 card deck. I realize this won’t be applicable for all decks – some defensive heavy decks need more space and want more resources. But I’d be willing to bet that 90%+ of the time, 50 is better.
-Olijar
EDIT: The draw math is wrong, but the percentages play out relatively similarly and I'm slightly lazy. Sorry guys!
One of the biggest choices made in Redemption deck building is the size of the deck you use. For years, small decks (53 or less cards) have been considered the best (with some people strongly holding that 56 is the way to go). Today I am going to show you the math behind why I always try to play at 50 or 51 cards (if I am using Haman’s Plot) if I am playing a conventional offense heavy or balanced deck.
Let’s examine some proportions in a 50 card deck. Since almost every deck should be playing the Hopper lost soul, that means there are 8 lost souls in this 50 card deck. They don’t really count for deck size, because if you draw them, they get replaced. While I should technically account for the chance of drawing a soul and distribute that across and proportional math I do, I’m lazy, and it’s much easier to simply ignore lost souls and treat this deck as 42 card deck, so that’s what I am going to do.
With the 42 card deck, your chance of drawing any one card in your opening hand looks like this:
1/42 + 1/41 + 1/40 + 1/39 + 1/38 + 1/37 + 1/36 + 1/35 = .2085328
That means that any one card has a chance of appearing in your hand about 20.85% of the time, or slightly more than 1 in 5 games. Let’s look at the same math for anyone card in a 56 card deck, which would have 48 non-lost soul cards:
(1/41) + (1/42) + (1/43) + (1/44) + (1/45) + (1/46) + (1/47) + (1/48)=.18025413
In this 56 card deck, your odds of drawing any one card in your deck have dropped to 18.03%, or slightly less than 1 in 5 games. The change equates to a 2.82% greater chance of drawing a single card in a 50 card deck rather than a 56 card deck. While this might not seem like much, let’s look at this size difference in terms of turns to deck out.
Since Son of God is often a card needed to win the game, suppose it is on the bottom of both decks in this scenario. How many turns will be needed to draw it out? The equation to find out is ((X-(LS+8))/3) where X is size of the deck. I will be assuming no drawing occurs via abilities for the purpose of this math.
In a 50 card deck: ((50-16)/3)=11.3
In a 56 card deck: ((56-16/3)=13.3
That’s a two turn difference! That’s a huge deal. That means the 56 card deck is going to need to outdraw the 50 card deck by a full two turns via abilities on cards in order to get to Son of God.
While the odds are not incredibly high that Son of God will be your bottom card, the principle of it remains. All other things equal, a 50 card deck is 2 turns faster than a 56 card deck. Often 56 card decks are said to have more endurance than a 50 card deck – that they have an advantage simply by having more cards. In reality, this couldn't be further from the truth. I would estimate that the average Redemption game takes 10 turns or less, which means each player will have access to, at most (assuming no draw abilities), 38 cards (8 for opening hand, drawing 3 every turn if you went second). Both a 50 and 56 card deck have more than 38 non-LS cards in their deck – which means the 56 card deck has received no advantage of the 50 card deck in terms of number of cards played. The difference is that 50 card deck has between 4-12 cards left in deck, while the 56 card deck has between 10-18 cards in deck. The 56 card deck receives absolutely no advantage to playing with a bigger deck until he draws the 43rd through 48th playable card in his deck. While this seems good in theory, in practicality, most games are over by this point, and rather than reaping this advantage, you have spent all game lowering your odds of drawing that one card you need to counter a certain hero or win a rescue attempt.
Math is why I play with a 50 card deck. I realize this won’t be applicable for all decks – some defensive heavy decks need more space and want more resources. But I’d be willing to bet that 90%+ of the time, 50 is better.
-Olijar
EDIT: The draw math is wrong, but the percentages play out relatively similarly and I'm slightly lazy. Sorry guys!
Saturday, June 29, 2013
Spread vs. Theme
Many of the best decks today are mix and match offenses and
defenses with no clear thematic direction other than playing good cards. But
why is this? For years, Redemption has been clearly strengthening thematic
play. One could easily argue that the intention by the makers of the game is
that each player plays one theme on defense and one on offense may the best
theme win. So why haven’t players succumbed to this strategy?
As usual, economics can answer the question for us.
Today, we are going to examine the concept of diminishing returns. Diminishing
returns is the idea that as you buy more of one item or do more of one action,
you receive less and less satisfaction from it. Think about eating a Pizza. Do
you enjoy the first slice or the fifth slice more? As you eat more of the
pizza, you lose the ability to enjoy it quite as much as you used to (because
you aren't as hungry anymore). That’s diminishing returns.
But how does this apply to Redemption? Let’s look at two
different deck lists. If you open a new tab and check out the deck section of
this website, currently I have two decks posted. One is a spread offense
similar to “The Deck” that was great last format, and one is a basic Disciples
offense, focused on thematic elements of the Disciple offense.
Both have some really powerful cards. In fact, if you list
the top 5-7 offensive cards of each deck, they are probably pretty similar in power
level. But then, around cards 8-10, something happens. Suddenly, the spread
offense is still playing relatively powerful cards, but the Disciples deck is
forced to play relatively less powerful cards in order to stick with the heavy
Disciple theme. The Disciples offense is now experiencing harsher diminishing
returns on each additional card of offense it chooses to add.
The reason for this is simple. As Redemption has developed,
care has been taken to attempt to give each brigade somewhat of a balance of
power – while it is certainly not true that each brigade is equal, it is true
that each brigade has some very powerful cards to use. When you play
thematically, you are making the decision to only use one of
these brigades. For a while, this is a really good decision, as you have
presumably picked one of the stronger brigades, like purple. But at some point,
there aren't enough powerful cards in purple anymore, and because you have
chosen to structure your deck to take advantage of that theme and brigade, you
don’t really have a ton of options to branch out from that theme. Because of
this, many disciples offenses play bad cards in the overall scheme of the game,
such as Fall like Lightning or Sons of Thunder, or play cards such as Simon the
Zealot who, ideally, is never going to do anything but sit in a territory and
be a disciple.
Meanwhile, an offense with no specific theme designed to
blend several brigades together gets to the end of the best cards in a brigade,
and then simply moves to a different brigade to capitalize on the good cards in
that brigade. While some diminishing returns exist within a spread offense,
they are not as drastic, and rather than having to do with the power level of
the cards, the diminishing returns in a spread offense are typically due to the
structure of the deck – because not every hero can play every enhancement, your
deck is somewhat less efficient, but because each enhancement and hero is
somewhat more powerful, you tend to gain in the long run of the game by playing
a spread offense.
When you are building your decks, how do you combat the
diminishing returns of continuing to use the same brigade? Even small splashes
into decks can make a huge difference in the effectiveness of the deck. When combined with my prior discussion on synergy, you should be able to find many different combinations that work. Make
sure to venture outside the norm - you never know what is good if you don't try
it out!
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Complimentary Deck Building: Speed, Aggro, Turtle, and Standard.
Redemption is unique among popular TCGs because it’s a two-sided
game. There is good, and there is evil. This has been a big issue
with rating decks, as two decks may have the same good, but the evil makes them
vastly different. For example, the 2012 Redemption National Tournament
winning deck utilized FBTNB good alignment with a Pharisee evil
alignment. I often simply say an FBTNB deck won nationals, but in
actuality it was FBTNB/Pharisees deck, which is a significant difference from,
say, an FBTNB/Babylonian deck. You’ll
notice I’ve avoided the use of terms like “offense” or “defense”, because those
terms generally bring a sense of “rescuing” and “blocking”, respectively,
simply because that is their forced role. However, that’s not actually
the case. It’s here that the terms “speed”, “aggro”, “turtle”, and
“standard” come into the picture and help us more clearly define the good and
evil counterparts.
Speed is by far the most common term Redemption players tend
to use, and it’s for good reason.
Justin Alstad quickly discovered that a deck that is extremely fast is
the most consistent deck. This is
done through both searching and drawing, and can be done on both offense and
defense. Going back to the
original FBTNB/Pharisees example, Pharisees are a speed defense: it uses Proud
Pharisee, Pretension, Sabbath Breaker, and Emperor Vitellius, to draw lots of
cards.
This next term is a bit more complicated than speed. Simply defined, an aggro style is an offensive, or aggressive, orientated style. This has often been referred to as “speed”, but that’s not necessarily the case, as you can have a powerhouse offense that doesn’t draw a lot of cards. Going back to my original example once again, FBTNB is not really a speed offense. They have a total of two draw cards and one search: Ishmaiah the Gibeonite, A Soldier’s Prayer, and Mustering for War. It is a mix-and-match (no, this is not an official term) offense though, so it is often seen as one since it gets going quickly, but it certainly doesn’t help you get to your Son of God and New Jerusalem, so I wouldn’t define it as speed. However, it is definitely aggro, as it hits hard and fast. Speed also has a notion of good-heavy, whereas aggro can also be a balanced deck, as it is in the case of Martin’s aforementioned deck. However, these two terms do go side-by-side in Redemption, so it’s not wrong to mix up the terms, but don’t be surprised when aggro pops up in conversation.
Next on the list is turtle, a term which is often used to describe defensive-heavy. This is actually pretty accurate, but again doesn’t fully express a deck. A turtle is slow, just as it sounds, but even more prominent in the term is that it relies on an endgame strategy. This isn’t necessarily defensive heavy, as you can have a balanced (as far as alignment goes) Abomination of Desolation deck that relies on your offense to trigger A-Bomb, but the strategy of it is to wait out your opponent until you’ve discarded all of their characters. A turtle style more of a deck style than an individual alignment, as you can’t have a aggro offense and a turtle defense—the defense will never set up before the game is over! A speed defense and turtle offense wouldn’t work either, as you would quickly lose before you can get your offense set up. Now, every deck needs a little bit of speed, but these terms describe the main focus of the deck, not all of their individual elements.
Standard is for the players who want their decks to follow Rob’s divine purpose for it—good is used to rescue souls and evil is used to defend souls. I use the term standard, but the fact of the matter is there’s no technical term that defines this style, but it is pretty clearly a style, so I included it in the list. Babylonians are a pretty good example of this. Iron Pan may aid the offense, but the best help they offer is time by blocking the opponent. Standard is very good if your offense can support itself.
At this point, you’re probably just saying “too long; didn’t
read; doesn’t apply”, but the fact of the matter is knowing these styles inside
and out is crucial to deck building.
Because Redemption is a two-sided game, selecting an offense and defense
that goes together is crucial. One
of the reasons I love Canaanites is because of how aggro it is: it uses
Gibeonite Delegates to generate lost souls and Fortify Site to get rid of any
pesky artifacts, such as Darius’ Decree.
However, in some of my decks I need a faster defense, so I use gray or
pale green. Examine the good or evil you want to use, identify it's weak points, and for the counterpart choose a style that compliments it. This is why Martin’s
2012 Nationals Winning deck was so perfect. He used the full deck for one purpose: to redeem lost
souls. Follow his example by
streamlining your deck, and I can almost guarantee your success.
-Westy
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Seven: A treatise on dominant selection
In Redemption, even if two players play the same offensive and defensive themes and/or concepts, there's few areas of card selection that can create vast differences in deck performance. One of the most crucial areas this occurs in dominant selection. There are 15 playable dominants in Redemption. You may play as many of them in your deck as you'd like, but you can't play more dominants than lost souls in your deck. For most decks, that means you get to play 7 dominants.
The question then hearkens back to the last article I wrote - what costs and benefits does each dominant bring? That's what this article is here to discuss! I'm going to assume you are playing a 50-56 card (which most people will. I will discuss each dominant starting with the weakest (spoiler alert: It's Doubt). The rating number is somewhat subjective, except that 10 is good and means you should play it in every deck.
Doubt
Doubt is pretty terrible. It's designed to be able to give you an EC to block with that has big numbers (0/12) aka good against fight by the numbers, and that's hard to target (it doesn't have any identifiers). Unfortunately, the card is too balanced, and it got printed to have a terrible brigade (orange) to play enhancements with. Additionally, it's never even going to get initiative. It's pretty terrible and should never be played.
Rating: 1/10
Glory of the Lord
Glory of the Lord is probably the most situational dominant. It only works at protecting one card (Solomon's Temple) that's only recently become playable (with a reprint), but is still probably outclassed by other variants (specifically Herod's Temple). Probably the best thing it can do is protect your Lampstand of the Sanctuary from Fortify Site. Essentially, it's a terrible Guardian of Your Souls (spoiler: that's a dominant).
Rating: 1/10
Strife
One of the two new dominants got the short end of the stick as far as power creep goes. It can withdraw all but one hero from battle, so it's pretty good against banding decks (which is pretty much every deck these days), but if you have that much of an issue with multiple heroes, it seems like Household Idols would be a better counter. Strife can occasionally capture some stuff when comboed with Herod Agrippa II, but that's really reaching for playability.
Rating: 2/10
Guardian of Your Souls
Finally we are getting into dominants that get played! Unfortunately, Guardian probably shouldn't get played - contrary to populat belief, it's actually pretty bad. It counters exactly one card: Falling Away. It's entirely predicated are being drawn first. Overall, that's a recipe for bad things. Additionally, it's use is entirely replicated (but done better) by Lampstand of the Sanctuary. It's really lost its luster with time.
Rating: 3/10
Falling Away
Guardian's partner is in the same boat. It can do one thing, and it can't do that if your opponent has drawn the two commonly played counters. You can't afford that kind of inefficiency at your dominant slots. It's slightly better than Guardian of Your Souls simply because it actually helps you win - Guardian just theoretically helps you win. If you guarantee yourself to draw one of the two in the first hand, I'd want Falling Away every time.
Rating: 3/10
Harvest Time
This is going to be a little bit controversial of a choice. Harvest Time just got replicated by two huge enhancements, Fishers of Men and Gideon's Call, and it was already a cusp dominant. However, it can do something those two can't - counter a Death of Unrighteous. That alone gives it average playability. Harvest Time is basically an insurance policy. You don't need it, but when things go wrong, it can save you a lot of time getting back what you lost immediately.
Rating:4/10
Mayhem
Another controversial rating incoming: Mayhem just isn't actually that good. Without the ability to "first turn Mayhem", it turns out hand refresh is actually really lackluster in general in Redemption. Ironically enough, one of the things that should make it really good in Redemption (1 ofs for every card) actually makes it really bad - it's incredibly inconsistent at giving you what you want. Also, it's completely shut down offensively by Nazareth. It's going to get played a lot, but I'm not totally sure why.
Rating: 5/10
Burial
I actually like Burial a lot. I won't pretend it's super powerful - but it enables some really interesting lock out scenarios. It takes the 2/3-liner from average to great. But, not matter how many cool tricks you do, it's still just not overly powerful, and there's quite a few dominants still to go that are. Burial is basically the definition of a 50-50 playstyle/deckstyle choice (even though I gave it a 6 technically).
Rating: 6/10
Destruction of Nehushtan'
Artifacts are arguably the best card type in the game in terms of power, and Destruction of Nehushtan directly counters (and negates) them. In a meta filled with Magic Charms, Darius' Decree, Holy Grail, or even just a pesky Gifts of the Magi, that can be priceless. There's a few other effective artifact counters, but none of them are as effective as Destruction of Nehushtan.
Rating:7/10
Christian Martyr
While last meta, the super banding in the world made this card dead more often than not, the new set has brought this former staple back to prominence. It really helps a lot of defenses function by being that extra battle winner that isn't conditional and can't be negated. I'd probably play it in every deck, even though power wise, it can't keep up with the next 5 dominants.
Rating: 8/10
Grapes of Wrath
Grapes of Wrath is a really cool toolbox dominant. It can discard evil characters. It can get you blocks. It can do both at once if you banded to an opponent's character. It can delay that huge banding chain. All around, it's super versatile, and that makes it a lot more functional and better than it actually should be.
Rating: 9/10
Angel of the Lord
Hate your opponent's evil character? Ok, its discarded. Angel of the Lord is simply as that. Since less evil characters usually means more redeemed souls for you, you should probably be playing it.
Rating: 9/10
Vain Philosophy
I was really wrong on this card. It's incredibly. It wins games. It has two main functions in my experience. IT can underdeck a Son of God or New Jerusalem to stop your opponent for a long time (super dirty with a Nazareth around) or it can underdeck a battle winning enhancement to get a block. Both directly help you win a game. Oh, and it also looks at your opponent's hand - the most broken ability in the game (in my opinion). I was so wrong.
Rating: 10/10
New Jerusalem
This dominant mainstay's power is simple: get closer to winning. While there are some decks in the world (even at 56 cards) that might not play it, you can't deny that power wise, it's the second best, purely because it can get your 20% closer to winning. That seems really broken.
Rating: 10/10
Son of God
Son of God can rescue any soul your opponent has in play (and now that it can negate it too, it really can!). I don't think that requires much explaining. It should be in your deck.
Rating: 10/10
To sum up, that means, in general, that I think the best 7 dominants in the game are:
Son of God
New Jerusalem
Vain Philosophy
Angel of the Lord
Grapes of Wrath
Christian Martyr
Destruction of Nehushtan
Realistically, almost any dominant is playable in a deck style suited for it - except Doubt. Don't be that guy playing Doubt.
-Alex
The question then hearkens back to the last article I wrote - what costs and benefits does each dominant bring? That's what this article is here to discuss! I'm going to assume you are playing a 50-56 card (which most people will. I will discuss each dominant starting with the weakest (spoiler alert: It's Doubt). The rating number is somewhat subjective, except that 10 is good and means you should play it in every deck.
Doubt
Doubt is pretty terrible. It's designed to be able to give you an EC to block with that has big numbers (0/12) aka good against fight by the numbers, and that's hard to target (it doesn't have any identifiers). Unfortunately, the card is too balanced, and it got printed to have a terrible brigade (orange) to play enhancements with. Additionally, it's never even going to get initiative. It's pretty terrible and should never be played.
Rating: 1/10
Glory of the Lord
Glory of the Lord is probably the most situational dominant. It only works at protecting one card (Solomon's Temple) that's only recently become playable (with a reprint), but is still probably outclassed by other variants (specifically Herod's Temple). Probably the best thing it can do is protect your Lampstand of the Sanctuary from Fortify Site. Essentially, it's a terrible Guardian of Your Souls (spoiler: that's a dominant).
Rating: 1/10
Strife
One of the two new dominants got the short end of the stick as far as power creep goes. It can withdraw all but one hero from battle, so it's pretty good against banding decks (which is pretty much every deck these days), but if you have that much of an issue with multiple heroes, it seems like Household Idols would be a better counter. Strife can occasionally capture some stuff when comboed with Herod Agrippa II, but that's really reaching for playability.
Rating: 2/10
Guardian of Your Souls
Finally we are getting into dominants that get played! Unfortunately, Guardian probably shouldn't get played - contrary to populat belief, it's actually pretty bad. It counters exactly one card: Falling Away. It's entirely predicated are being drawn first. Overall, that's a recipe for bad things. Additionally, it's use is entirely replicated (but done better) by Lampstand of the Sanctuary. It's really lost its luster with time.
Rating: 3/10
Falling Away
Guardian's partner is in the same boat. It can do one thing, and it can't do that if your opponent has drawn the two commonly played counters. You can't afford that kind of inefficiency at your dominant slots. It's slightly better than Guardian of Your Souls simply because it actually helps you win - Guardian just theoretically helps you win. If you guarantee yourself to draw one of the two in the first hand, I'd want Falling Away every time.
Rating: 3/10
Harvest Time
This is going to be a little bit controversial of a choice. Harvest Time just got replicated by two huge enhancements, Fishers of Men and Gideon's Call, and it was already a cusp dominant. However, it can do something those two can't - counter a Death of Unrighteous. That alone gives it average playability. Harvest Time is basically an insurance policy. You don't need it, but when things go wrong, it can save you a lot of time getting back what you lost immediately.
Rating:4/10
Mayhem
Another controversial rating incoming: Mayhem just isn't actually that good. Without the ability to "first turn Mayhem", it turns out hand refresh is actually really lackluster in general in Redemption. Ironically enough, one of the things that should make it really good in Redemption (1 ofs for every card) actually makes it really bad - it's incredibly inconsistent at giving you what you want. Also, it's completely shut down offensively by Nazareth. It's going to get played a lot, but I'm not totally sure why.
Rating: 5/10
Burial
I actually like Burial a lot. I won't pretend it's super powerful - but it enables some really interesting lock out scenarios. It takes the 2/3-liner from average to great. But, not matter how many cool tricks you do, it's still just not overly powerful, and there's quite a few dominants still to go that are. Burial is basically the definition of a 50-50 playstyle/deckstyle choice (even though I gave it a 6 technically).
Rating: 6/10
Destruction of Nehushtan'
Artifacts are arguably the best card type in the game in terms of power, and Destruction of Nehushtan directly counters (and negates) them. In a meta filled with Magic Charms, Darius' Decree, Holy Grail, or even just a pesky Gifts of the Magi, that can be priceless. There's a few other effective artifact counters, but none of them are as effective as Destruction of Nehushtan.
Rating:7/10
Christian Martyr
While last meta, the super banding in the world made this card dead more often than not, the new set has brought this former staple back to prominence. It really helps a lot of defenses function by being that extra battle winner that isn't conditional and can't be negated. I'd probably play it in every deck, even though power wise, it can't keep up with the next 5 dominants.
Rating: 8/10
Grapes of Wrath
Grapes of Wrath is a really cool toolbox dominant. It can discard evil characters. It can get you blocks. It can do both at once if you banded to an opponent's character. It can delay that huge banding chain. All around, it's super versatile, and that makes it a lot more functional and better than it actually should be.
Rating: 9/10
Angel of the Lord
Hate your opponent's evil character? Ok, its discarded. Angel of the Lord is simply as that. Since less evil characters usually means more redeemed souls for you, you should probably be playing it.
Rating: 9/10
Vain Philosophy
I was really wrong on this card. It's incredibly. It wins games. It has two main functions in my experience. IT can underdeck a Son of God or New Jerusalem to stop your opponent for a long time (super dirty with a Nazareth around) or it can underdeck a battle winning enhancement to get a block. Both directly help you win a game. Oh, and it also looks at your opponent's hand - the most broken ability in the game (in my opinion). I was so wrong.
Rating: 10/10
New Jerusalem
This dominant mainstay's power is simple: get closer to winning. While there are some decks in the world (even at 56 cards) that might not play it, you can't deny that power wise, it's the second best, purely because it can get your 20% closer to winning. That seems really broken.
Rating: 10/10
Son of God
Son of God can rescue any soul your opponent has in play (and now that it can negate it too, it really can!). I don't think that requires much explaining. It should be in your deck.
Rating: 10/10
To sum up, that means, in general, that I think the best 7 dominants in the game are:
Son of God
New Jerusalem
Vain Philosophy
Angel of the Lord
Grapes of Wrath
Christian Martyr
Destruction of Nehushtan
Realistically, almost any dominant is playable in a deck style suited for it - except Doubt. Don't be that guy playing Doubt.
-Alex
Thursday, June 13, 2013
The Economics of deck building
When you sit down to build a deck, what do you think about? Do you think about that cool combo you just found out about? Or that power banding chain that beats blockers into submission? Or maybe you think about how to use that lesser used card to its maximum potential? All of these thoughts are valid deck building options! That's the great thing about deck building - there's no "right" way to do it! (But there are "better" ways)
Today, I'm going to explore something that is not always explicitly though of when building a deck, but is often considered: the economics of deck building. To explain what I mean, I will first note where the name I chose for this concept came from.
Economics is the study of human behavior in the marketplace. It has two central assumptions that power its analysis; the idea that humans are rational and self-interested (which means they don't hurt themselves intentionally, and they tend to be most kind to those nearest to them). Moving from this baseline, Economists basically study the system of costs and benefits that people choose. Every choice you make has a cost (sometimes the "cost" is actually positive!) and a benefit (which is usually why you chose to do the action). Deck building is no different - there's lots of choice to make, and they all have costs and benefits. Here's some examples:
Covenant of Death can negate opponent's heroes at the cost of negating yours.
Iron Pan can do all kinds of stuff, but it forces you to use one (or more) Babylonian character.
The Garden Tomb can ignore many things, but only six characters can use it, so you have to use them (like I said, sometimes the "cost" is a benefit in some ways!).
Whenever you are building your deck, these sorts of cost-benefit relationships are things you should consider. They can form the basis for many different symbiotic relationships between your cards that will help enhance your deck. Using one of my examples above, when you put Covenant of Death into your deck, rather than simply paying the cost of negating your hero abilities most of the time when you activate it, what if you stuffed your deck full of heroes that can not be negated or don't have an ability at all? Suddenly only your opponent is paying the cost of Covenant of Death, making it work twice as well for you! This sort of relationship within a deck is commonly exploited and termed "synergy". For example, in general, its thought that a Judges offense has a lot of synergy with Covenant of Death because of its use of heroes like The Angel under the Oak, Angel with a Secret Name, and Gideon. There's tons of different synergistic combinations out there when you look hard enough. Often times, synergy can help to pull average themes (like Assyrians) into competitive relevance (in Isaiah-Assyrians).
An even more basic cost (albeit a more abstract cost) of each card in your deck is the next best card you could have put in your deck. In Economics, this concept is known as opportunity cost - the idea that for each choice you make, you give up the next best option. In deck building terms, maybe that Covenant with Death cost you playing Darius' Decree. This more abstract costing builds the basis for why some cards and themes are simply unplayable in "competitive decks". There's many cards that, in a vacuum, have a really good ability. For example, Assyrian Siege Army has a great ability if you can activate it a lot - but to activate it a lot, you have to play Assyrians. When you play Assyrians, you give up the ability to play your next best option (perhaps its Canaanites). This might not sound too bad, but not all themes and cards are created equally, and some card and themes are simply better than other cards and themes. By choosing to use Assyrian Siege Army, you've made your deck inefficient because instead of Canaanites, the best option, you have to play Assyrians. Gross!
I hope this has got you thinking about what you give up to play the cards you play in your deck. I realize that you might not agree with some my thoughts about certain cards (like Assyrians), but the concepts remain. Choosing to play one theme or card costs you the ability to play other themes and cards - the question you must answer if the trade off you made is worth it!
-Alex
Today, I'm going to explore something that is not always explicitly though of when building a deck, but is often considered: the economics of deck building. To explain what I mean, I will first note where the name I chose for this concept came from.
Economics is the study of human behavior in the marketplace. It has two central assumptions that power its analysis; the idea that humans are rational and self-interested (which means they don't hurt themselves intentionally, and they tend to be most kind to those nearest to them). Moving from this baseline, Economists basically study the system of costs and benefits that people choose. Every choice you make has a cost (sometimes the "cost" is actually positive!) and a benefit (which is usually why you chose to do the action). Deck building is no different - there's lots of choice to make, and they all have costs and benefits. Here's some examples:
Covenant of Death can negate opponent's heroes at the cost of negating yours.
Iron Pan can do all kinds of stuff, but it forces you to use one (or more) Babylonian character.
The Garden Tomb can ignore many things, but only six characters can use it, so you have to use them (like I said, sometimes the "cost" is a benefit in some ways!).
Whenever you are building your deck, these sorts of cost-benefit relationships are things you should consider. They can form the basis for many different symbiotic relationships between your cards that will help enhance your deck. Using one of my examples above, when you put Covenant of Death into your deck, rather than simply paying the cost of negating your hero abilities most of the time when you activate it, what if you stuffed your deck full of heroes that can not be negated or don't have an ability at all? Suddenly only your opponent is paying the cost of Covenant of Death, making it work twice as well for you! This sort of relationship within a deck is commonly exploited and termed "synergy". For example, in general, its thought that a Judges offense has a lot of synergy with Covenant of Death because of its use of heroes like The Angel under the Oak, Angel with a Secret Name, and Gideon. There's tons of different synergistic combinations out there when you look hard enough. Often times, synergy can help to pull average themes (like Assyrians) into competitive relevance (in Isaiah-Assyrians).
An even more basic cost (albeit a more abstract cost) of each card in your deck is the next best card you could have put in your deck. In Economics, this concept is known as opportunity cost - the idea that for each choice you make, you give up the next best option. In deck building terms, maybe that Covenant with Death cost you playing Darius' Decree. This more abstract costing builds the basis for why some cards and themes are simply unplayable in "competitive decks". There's many cards that, in a vacuum, have a really good ability. For example, Assyrian Siege Army has a great ability if you can activate it a lot - but to activate it a lot, you have to play Assyrians. When you play Assyrians, you give up the ability to play your next best option (perhaps its Canaanites). This might not sound too bad, but not all themes and cards are created equally, and some card and themes are simply better than other cards and themes. By choosing to use Assyrian Siege Army, you've made your deck inefficient because instead of Canaanites, the best option, you have to play Assyrians. Gross!
I hope this has got you thinking about what you give up to play the cards you play in your deck. I realize that you might not agree with some my thoughts about certain cards (like Assyrians), but the concepts remain. Choosing to play one theme or card costs you the ability to play other themes and cards - the question you must answer if the trade off you made is worth it!
-Alex
The Right Tech for your Deck
I was talking with Chris Ericson today, and he asked me what the four best tech cards in the game are. The answer to such a broad question got me thinking about all of the different possibilities for techs and I thought it'd be a perfect subject for my first blog post.
To begin, I'd like to explain what I mean by a tech card. Simply defined, techs are key cards that cripple certain strategies that are dominant in the metagame. Having a problem with Fight By The Numbers (such as Moses)? Tech a Holy of Holies into your deck. It may not compliment the rest of your deck specifically, but it shuts down your opponent. Generally, the best tech cards hit a large portion of the metagame. In this example, Holy of Holies is great against Fight By The Numbers decks, but is a completely useless card (or dead card) against a deck based around The Garden Tomb, which prefers pre-block ignore to negation.
So what sort of abilities are in a large portion of the metagame? As you may know, speed decks tend to overrun other decks, and as such they are very popular at the top tables. Speed comes in a two different forms: drawing and searching. However, speed doesn't win games, and so there also has to be a main strategy for rescuing souls in every deck. There are of course the basic four ways to get rid of evil characters: discard, capture, conversion, and removal from the game. Of these four, we primarily see discard and conversion, with a touch of capture. These are most powerful when your evil is taken out before you can even block, through cards such as Jephthah. Perhaps even more prevalent than getting rid of evil characters is ignore and protection, which uses cards like The Garden Tomb or Birth Foretold and Samson. It's hard to block a rescue attempt when you can't harm your opponent, and in the case of ignore you can't even put an evil character into battle! There is of course the aforementioned Fight By The Numbers, which uses characters that negate all characters and enhancements so you can't use your abilities. Finally, there's also banding, which overwhelms you with too many characters to defend against. Okay, so the abilities we're primarily concerned with here are: draw, search, discard, convert, ignore, protect, negate, and band. Quite the list, and it's hard to prepare against so many different abilities, but with the right techs you'll be able to prepare for what you need.
Nazareth is really growing in popularity lately, and it's no wonder why. With the popularity of "The Deck" at last year's national tournament, it was clear that search was extremely powerful, and Nazareth is just the right card to shut search down. In addition to that, it protects your hand from your opponent's Mayhem, which can be really key when you have Son of God in your hand and you're just waiting on New Jerusalem. Finally, Nazareth is a site, and can not only be used to block a soul, but it's also really difficult to discard. The only drawback is that it protects ALL decks from search, so you have to be careful about which deck you use it in. If you use less than two search cards, I highly recommend using Nazareth.
Golden Cherubim isn't really what most people consider a tech card, but I certainly think it deserves to make this list. The reason for that is it generally stops your opponent generally doesn't want to let you search for any card, and so they're not going to want to draw at all. This not only slows your opponent down, but if they do decide to go ahead and draw, you benefit! It's a win-win situation. Unfortunately, this does use up an artifact slot, and it's good to run a temple beside it so you can use other artifacts as well. Furthermore, it's rendered completely useless by the first card I mentioned, Nazareth. Still, you can search it out with Temple Dedication for early game, and it can give you the boost you need in the first couple turns of the game.
Darius' Decree is a card that I first used at nationals last year, and this new set has made it really valuable. It can slow your opponent down by not letting him play set aside or territory enhancements out of battle, but even better is the second ability. I've been able to discard up to 8 heroes when my opponent thought he was safe playing Pentecost. I think this card will see an increase in popularity, especially because it doesn't need to be always active like Golden Cherubim. Flip it up once and you can nuke your opponent's entire offense. If your opponent knows you use Darius' Decree, you can laugh as your opponent discards Pentecost from hand in fear of the Decree.
Covenant with Death is a card I considered a staple up until the release of this new set. The number of things it counters is incredible. Negating heroes is key to allowing your defense to work, whether stopping banding, negation, playing first, discard, Covenant with Death is sure to hurt your opponent. It also stops territory class and set aside enhancements outside of battle, which can really slow your opponent down.
Household Idols is a card I would equate with Nazareth in some ways--it would have been incredible last year, if only there was an offense that it didn't cripple that you could play it with. It hits The Deck and Fight By The Numbers Banding really hard. Unfortunately, this year they aren't as popular, and we're seeing things like Disciples and Judges become mainstream, and while they have banding cards, they aren't built around banding. However, Household Idols did gain Foreign Wives in the new set, so you shouldn't have much fear of it being discarded anymore because you can get it right back!
Hezekiah's Signet Ring is a really underrated card. While it seems redundant to Nazareth, and even worse because it takes up an artifact slot and doesn't protect from Mayhem. However, Hezekiah's Signet Ring allows you to use whatever search cards you like, and also stops recursion from the discard pile. This can be extremely important in a more balanced to defensive heavy deck, as it stops your opponent from recycling resources. It's not easy to find room for, but it is well worth it.
Seven Years of Famine is truly an incredible card. It can really slow your opponent down, get rid of his resources, and potentially completely shut down his offense, even hitting The Garden Tomb. Unfortunately, it's often overlooked by it's brother, Seven Years of Plenty, but I prefer Seven Years of Famine because you don't have to keep a Genesis character in play - you just have to play it. Unfortunately, it does have a brigade and so you can't play it in any deck, but if you play just a couple Genesis characters, it's a very solid addition.
Iron Pan is somewhat like Seven Years of Famine in that it needs a specific deck to be used in. Whenever you should build a deck, you should keep in mind what techs can be used in it, and Iron Pan is such a powerful tech that it might actually make the vastly overlooked Babylonians playable. It is, however, difficult to find an offense that goes well with it, but only because it's such a powerful tech. It shuts down all of the best ways to win battles other than fight by the numbers banding--which Babylonians shouldn't have too much of a problem with anyway, seeing as they can also pack a Leviathan.
Burial Shroud is often forgotten these days. Too many ways to get around it. However, with dominant cap we've seen a massive decline in using Destruction of Nehushtan, and nobody plays Covenant with Moses anymore. Burial Shroud can buy you the time to get exactly what you need. While some don't consider it a tech, it does stop your opponent from attacking, which can really hurt decks that rely on things like Angel Under the Oak drawing.
Rain Becomes Dust was a very popular card last year, as it hits drawing really hard, particularly in the case of First Fruits. It started to see a decline in play due to the popularity of cards like Live Coal, but it is definitely still worth the add.
Now, all cards have counters, and even techs have counter-techs to cause problems. While you should consider how difficult a tech is to discard, you shouldn't forgo using them just because you know many decks play counters. Often times they come too late in the game and your tech has already done it's damage.
There is also teching for specific matchups, which is generally done through picking evil characters or enhancements. I did this at 2011 nationals when I used Goliath's Armor due to so many Disciples decks running around. Other tech enhancements are Image of Jealousy and Destructive Sin to stop The Garden Tomb.
I'm sure I haven't yet exhausted the list of tech cards, but if I missed any of your favorites, be sure to leave a comment and let everybody know!
-Westy
To begin, I'd like to explain what I mean by a tech card. Simply defined, techs are key cards that cripple certain strategies that are dominant in the metagame. Having a problem with Fight By The Numbers (such as Moses)? Tech a Holy of Holies into your deck. It may not compliment the rest of your deck specifically, but it shuts down your opponent. Generally, the best tech cards hit a large portion of the metagame. In this example, Holy of Holies is great against Fight By The Numbers decks, but is a completely useless card (or dead card) against a deck based around The Garden Tomb, which prefers pre-block ignore to negation.
So what sort of abilities are in a large portion of the metagame? As you may know, speed decks tend to overrun other decks, and as such they are very popular at the top tables. Speed comes in a two different forms: drawing and searching. However, speed doesn't win games, and so there also has to be a main strategy for rescuing souls in every deck. There are of course the basic four ways to get rid of evil characters: discard, capture, conversion, and removal from the game. Of these four, we primarily see discard and conversion, with a touch of capture. These are most powerful when your evil is taken out before you can even block, through cards such as Jephthah. Perhaps even more prevalent than getting rid of evil characters is ignore and protection, which uses cards like The Garden Tomb or Birth Foretold and Samson. It's hard to block a rescue attempt when you can't harm your opponent, and in the case of ignore you can't even put an evil character into battle! There is of course the aforementioned Fight By The Numbers, which uses characters that negate all characters and enhancements so you can't use your abilities. Finally, there's also banding, which overwhelms you with too many characters to defend against. Okay, so the abilities we're primarily concerned with here are: draw, search, discard, convert, ignore, protect, negate, and band. Quite the list, and it's hard to prepare against so many different abilities, but with the right techs you'll be able to prepare for what you need.
Nazareth is really growing in popularity lately, and it's no wonder why. With the popularity of "The Deck" at last year's national tournament, it was clear that search was extremely powerful, and Nazareth is just the right card to shut search down. In addition to that, it protects your hand from your opponent's Mayhem, which can be really key when you have Son of God in your hand and you're just waiting on New Jerusalem. Finally, Nazareth is a site, and can not only be used to block a soul, but it's also really difficult to discard. The only drawback is that it protects ALL decks from search, so you have to be careful about which deck you use it in. If you use less than two search cards, I highly recommend using Nazareth.
Golden Cherubim isn't really what most people consider a tech card, but I certainly think it deserves to make this list. The reason for that is it generally stops your opponent generally doesn't want to let you search for any card, and so they're not going to want to draw at all. This not only slows your opponent down, but if they do decide to go ahead and draw, you benefit! It's a win-win situation. Unfortunately, this does use up an artifact slot, and it's good to run a temple beside it so you can use other artifacts as well. Furthermore, it's rendered completely useless by the first card I mentioned, Nazareth. Still, you can search it out with Temple Dedication for early game, and it can give you the boost you need in the first couple turns of the game.
Darius' Decree is a card that I first used at nationals last year, and this new set has made it really valuable. It can slow your opponent down by not letting him play set aside or territory enhancements out of battle, but even better is the second ability. I've been able to discard up to 8 heroes when my opponent thought he was safe playing Pentecost. I think this card will see an increase in popularity, especially because it doesn't need to be always active like Golden Cherubim. Flip it up once and you can nuke your opponent's entire offense. If your opponent knows you use Darius' Decree, you can laugh as your opponent discards Pentecost from hand in fear of the Decree.
Covenant with Death is a card I considered a staple up until the release of this new set. The number of things it counters is incredible. Negating heroes is key to allowing your defense to work, whether stopping banding, negation, playing first, discard, Covenant with Death is sure to hurt your opponent. It also stops territory class and set aside enhancements outside of battle, which can really slow your opponent down.
Household Idols is a card I would equate with Nazareth in some ways--it would have been incredible last year, if only there was an offense that it didn't cripple that you could play it with. It hits The Deck and Fight By The Numbers Banding really hard. Unfortunately, this year they aren't as popular, and we're seeing things like Disciples and Judges become mainstream, and while they have banding cards, they aren't built around banding. However, Household Idols did gain Foreign Wives in the new set, so you shouldn't have much fear of it being discarded anymore because you can get it right back!
Hezekiah's Signet Ring is a really underrated card. While it seems redundant to Nazareth, and even worse because it takes up an artifact slot and doesn't protect from Mayhem. However, Hezekiah's Signet Ring allows you to use whatever search cards you like, and also stops recursion from the discard pile. This can be extremely important in a more balanced to defensive heavy deck, as it stops your opponent from recycling resources. It's not easy to find room for, but it is well worth it.
Seven Years of Famine is truly an incredible card. It can really slow your opponent down, get rid of his resources, and potentially completely shut down his offense, even hitting The Garden Tomb. Unfortunately, it's often overlooked by it's brother, Seven Years of Plenty, but I prefer Seven Years of Famine because you don't have to keep a Genesis character in play - you just have to play it. Unfortunately, it does have a brigade and so you can't play it in any deck, but if you play just a couple Genesis characters, it's a very solid addition.
Iron Pan is somewhat like Seven Years of Famine in that it needs a specific deck to be used in. Whenever you should build a deck, you should keep in mind what techs can be used in it, and Iron Pan is such a powerful tech that it might actually make the vastly overlooked Babylonians playable. It is, however, difficult to find an offense that goes well with it, but only because it's such a powerful tech. It shuts down all of the best ways to win battles other than fight by the numbers banding--which Babylonians shouldn't have too much of a problem with anyway, seeing as they can also pack a Leviathan.
Burial Shroud is often forgotten these days. Too many ways to get around it. However, with dominant cap we've seen a massive decline in using Destruction of Nehushtan, and nobody plays Covenant with Moses anymore. Burial Shroud can buy you the time to get exactly what you need. While some don't consider it a tech, it does stop your opponent from attacking, which can really hurt decks that rely on things like Angel Under the Oak drawing.
Rain Becomes Dust was a very popular card last year, as it hits drawing really hard, particularly in the case of First Fruits. It started to see a decline in play due to the popularity of cards like Live Coal, but it is definitely still worth the add.
Now, all cards have counters, and even techs have counter-techs to cause problems. While you should consider how difficult a tech is to discard, you shouldn't forgo using them just because you know many decks play counters. Often times they come too late in the game and your tech has already done it's damage.
There is also teching for specific matchups, which is generally done through picking evil characters or enhancements. I did this at 2011 nationals when I used Goliath's Armor due to so many Disciples decks running around. Other tech enhancements are Image of Jealousy and Destructive Sin to stop The Garden Tomb.
I'm sure I haven't yet exhausted the list of tech cards, but if I missed any of your favorites, be sure to leave a comment and let everybody know!
-Westy
Sunday, June 9, 2013
Welcome
Welcome to the home of Redemption MetaGaming. Because of the increasing difficulty with creating video content, Westy and I have decided to create a blog in order to better facilitate producing content. With a blog, we can write in our spare time, rather than trying to schedule times we both have free to do videos. With myself starting an internship at the National Treasury tomorrow and taking six credits of coursework and Westy working nights, it will be tough for us to match schedules, but we don't want to stop producing quality Redemption discussion. This blog is the next stop in the evolution of Redemption MetaGaming. In addition to writing, this blog will hopefully begin to evolve in a central website to go in order to find all kinds of Redemption content as well as Redemption MetaGaming news. We will continue using the forum topic to announce streams and articles for now, but at some point, I'd hope for this blog to take over that function. As we continue to evolve and adapt to the needs of the community, feel free to email us with any suggestions at redemptionmetagaming@gmail.com.
Thanks for your support!
-Alex
Thanks for your support!
-Alex
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