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
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