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