All hail the king! This Challenger Deck features purple kings, royal heroes, and meek heroes, all of which synergize into a formidable spearhead that punches through your opponent's defense. Frustrate your opponent even more with nasty Assyrian defenders that have strong banding and powerful character abilities that can potentially win the battle straightaway! Be a "royal pain" to your opponent by playing against him with this powerful deck! Check out the Contender Deck version here!
Dominants
Son of God (I/J)
New Jerusalem (I/J+)
Angel of the Lord (I/J)
Grapes of Wrath (GoC LR)
Christian Martyr (I/J)
Lost Souls
Defiled (GoC)
Revealer (GoC)
Harvest (GoC)
Shut Door (GoC LR)
(3) N.T. Meek (no special ability) (I/J)
Artifacts/Covenants/Curses
Book of the Law (LoC)
King’s Signet Ring (LoC)
Covenant with David (PoC)
Fortresses/Sites/Cities
The Throne of David (LoC)
Zion (FoM)
Dual-Alignment Cards
King Saul (CoW)
Manasseh, the Humbled (LoC)
Captive Princes (FoM)
King’s Weakness (LoC)
King Saul's Spear (CoW)
Heroes
Hezekiah, the Devout (LoC)
Jehoshaphat, the Seeker (LoC)
Asa, the Upright (LoC)
Josiah, the Restorer (LoC)
Jotham, the Mighty (LoC)
David, the Shepherd (CoW)
Prince Jonathan (PoC)
Bathsheba, the Helper (LoC)
Good Enhancements
Builder's Sword (LoC)
Walking on Water (GoC)
The Lord's Charge (LoC)
Temple Spears & Shields (LoC)
Purging Evil (FoM)
Israel's Bow (LoC)
Faith of David (CoW)
Feast of Booths (LoC)
Evil Characters
King Sennacherib (LoC)
The Rabshakeh (LoC)
The Tartan (LoC)
Assyrian Invaders (LoC)
Assyrian Forces (LoC)
Assyrian Officer (LoC)
Mounted Forces (PoC)
Evil Enhancements
The Rabshakeh's Threats (LoC)
Distortion (PoC)
Hired Sword (LoC)
Hooked and Shackled (LoC)
Worship of Nisroch (LoC)
Reserve
Impartial Judgment (LoC)
Out of Bethlehem (PoC)
Israel's Sword (LoC)
King Shalmanesser III (PoC)
Assyrian Camp (LoC)
Scattered (RoA)
Assyrian Affliction (LoC)
Offer of Exile (LoC)
Plunder and Pillage (PoC)
Foreign Horses (LoC)
Deck strategy and tips:
- The offense utilizes royal heroes and meek hero strategies to rescue souls, backed up by powerful enhancements. It has a lot of speed via draws and searches, which will greatly benefit you and allow you to gain many resources for your attacks (and defense).
- The defensive strategy is mainly powerful Assyrians whose abilities tend to put your opponent on the defense right away, while also being backed up by strong negates and battle-winning enhancements and band abilities.
- A strong band is to use King Saul banded to Prince Jonathan to David. Make the band even strong by beginning it with Manasseh who can band to King Saul. Add a protection to the band by equipping Temple Spears and Shields to Manasseh or King Saul (whoever begins the band).
- If you need to generate a lost soul in your opponent's Land of Bondage (soul-gen), then various characters to do this, or use Hooked and Shackled in territory to capture one of your Kings of Judah to your opponent's Land of Bondage.
- King Sennacherib is a great way to steal an opponent's O.T. Site or evil O.T. fortress from his reserve, if you have knowledge that there's one there. Also, with his exchange ability, he cannot exchange with the Assyrian warrior that he can take from deck, since that warrior is not in play (and the exchange defaults to an Assyrian warrior in play).
- If you're in a pinch and need a blocker, but don't have one of your Assyrian's available but you do have King Saul and/or Manasseh, you can use one (or both) of them and have Hired Sword (a negate) to back them up.
YTG recommends the below cards as other viable options for this deck’s theme. You can view and purchase them by clicking on each one, or search for them here!