See bottom for recommended cards you can purchase separately to help boost this deck’s theme!
Dominants
Christian Martyr (J Deck)
Vain Philosophy (J Deck)
New Jerusalem (I & J+)
Buckler (Roots)
Harvest Time (GoC)
Son of God (J Deck)
Angel of the Lord (J Deck)
Lost Souls
Lost Soul (Exodus 11:5) “Hunter” (FoM)
Lost Soul "Subdued" (Judges 3:30) (II)
Lost Soul "Hormah" (Judges 1:17) (Roots)
Lost Soul "Unfaithful" (II Chronicles 28:19) (LoC)
Lost Soul (Ezekiel 34:12) "Lost Boy" (PoC)
Lost Soul “Remiss” (II Chronicles 24:19) (LoC)
Lost Soul (Psalm 78:22) “O.T. Only” (FoM)
Artifacts/Covenants/Curses
The Great White Throne (RoJ)
Well for David (II)
I Am Refuge (II)
Overtaken (FoM)
Summoned Curse (II)
Fortresses/Sites/Cities
Land of Chemosh (II)
David's Stronghold (II)
Dual-Alignment
Joab, the General (II)
Heroes
Eleazar, the Ahohite (II)
Adino, the Eznite (II)
Helez, the Paltite (II)
Naharai, the Beerothite (II)
Asahel, Swift-Footed (II)
Shammah, the Hararite (II)
Ira, the Tekoite (II)
Abiezer, the Anathothite (II)
Armor Bearer (Roots)
Good Enhancements
Great Plunder (II)
David's Chariots (II)
Adino's Spear (II)
Eleazar's Sword (II)
Valley of Salt (Roots)
Walking on Water (GoC)
Evil Characters
Balaam Son of Beor (IR)
Moab (FoM)
The Unconsenting King (II)
The Protecting King (II)
The Subdued Moabites (II)
King Balak (FoM)
David’s Servants (FoM)
Evil Enhancements
Clinging to Power (GoC)
Great Dread (II)
Famine in the Land (LoC)
Struggle Against Saul (II)
Mask of Pride (Roots)
Slaves to Eglon (II)
Reserve
Unsuccessful (PoC)
Foreign Wives (RoA)
Enemies to the East (II)
Refusal of Entry (II)
Return of the King (II)
Swallowed by the Forest (II)
Snatched Spear (II)
Joab's Spears (II)
Zelek, the Ammonite (II)
Spears (LoC)
Deck strategy and tips:
- OVERVIEW:
- The offense is geared toward utility. If one of the Heroes isn't the right man for the job, then certainly one or more of the others will make for a strong attack. Sequencing with this offense can be tricky because the banding or exchanging and the weapons can often be activated in multiple different orders, some of them better than others. Practice makes perfect!
- The main defensive strategy is Lost Soul manipulation. If you can't defeat the Heroes in battle, then odds are good that you can at least hide or protect the Lost Souls you're defending.
- THE OFFENSE:
- The Great White Throne, Ira, and Buckler will help you get the right Heroes out early. Asahel is always a great target because he can become whichever Hero you need to fit the situation.
- This offense is somewhat vulnerable to slow starts so prioritize fetching Heroes, weapons, and Artifacts with draw abilities to start gaining momentum early.
- As you plan out each attack, you might find yourself wanting to move weapons around to different Heroes. Naharai is a great way to do this during battle, but otherwise you can use the "Remiss" Lost Soul and Famine in the Land to reset equipped weapons back to your hand. The defense should be able to shuffle back "Remiss" at least a couple times to give you additional triggers.
- Since banding is a large part of the offensive strategy, use Joab and Eleazar's Sword to take out key Evil Enhancements early, such as Scattered and others with a similar effect.
- Adino, Eleazar, and Shammah can only band to each other, so you will want to learn who bands to who and who has what other paired effects to be able to plan out your attack with Asahel to exchange to one of them.
- As the game goes on, you can begin to control battles more easily by taking Snatched Spear from Reserve and turning any of your lone warriors into "Choose the blocker" Heroes. Because of the wide range of abilities, you will have the flexibility based on characters available. Opponent has The Amalekites' Slave sitting in territory? Equip Shammah to negate characters and choose it to block. Opponent only has preventable battlewinners in hand? Suit up Joab or Eleazar and make them play the Enhancements for numbers.
- Eleazar allows your weapons to still work, but you also have Great Plunder as one of the strongest Good Enhancements in the deck that works on him too. If you can save Great Plunder for an attack with equipped Eleazar then you have the best odds of maximizing its value.
- Similarly, the best value for Valley of Salt will be later in the game played on an equipped Helez.
- Use I Am Refuge as an Artifact early on to tutor Well for David or David's Chariots for early acceleration, or David's Stronghold to get the protection online early if you anticipate your opponent having ways to band to or target your warriors. Then get I Am Refuge back out of Reserve later in the game with Well for David or Ira.
- THE DEFENSE:
- While it can't be relied on solely, one of the biggest elements of the defense that is difficult to interact with is the "Subdued" Lost Soul. Because it is a neutral card, your opponents Lost Soul protection abilities often won't protect from it. The "Hunter" Lost Soul, Harvest Time, and the star ability on Walking on Water can all help to get it back out as needed.
- One of the main ways to deal with Subdued is Son of God to take it off the table. Once your opponent does that, you can start relying a little more on the protect abilities of the individual Lost Souls and the other ways to hide them.
- One way to help speed up your offense is to get defensive cards out of your deck more quickly. One of the fastest ways to start the thinning process is to use Moab to search for King Balak to search for Balaam. Summoned Curse can pull out Moab if you don't find him otherwise. Even though Moab can only trigger once per turn, he can be triggered on your opponent's turn if you block from hand, so it's usually a good idea to keep a Moabite in hand. The Subdued Moabites is a great follow-up target for Moab because he puts it right into play.
- The protect abilities on your Evil Characters are strong as long as your opponent doesn't have a way to negate them. Often that will happen with cards like Three Woes and Angel of God so that they don't need initiative. That's where Overtaken comes in. Activate Overtaken on your turn and if you don't expect your opponent to attack with a Hero with "negated" in the ability, you can trigger Overtaken for the round with your own "negated" Hero. Armor Bearer, Asahel, and Helez can all serve the purpose of triggering Overtaken.
- While Overtaken is very good for characters like The Protecting King and The Unconsenting King in battle, it is also phenomenal on territory class characters. If you trigger Overtaken with one of your "negated" Heroes during battle, then in your discard phase you can play Moab, King Balak, and Balaam and they will all be "Cannot be negated" for as long as they remain in territory, even over the course of multiple turns. King Balak is especially strong because you can then block with Balaam to protect Lost Souls and your opponent cannot negate it.
- King Balak also has another ability that often gets overlooked, which is that when a curse is active he negates O.T. Heroes. This can backfire if you don't have David's Stronghold out yet to give your Heroes "Cannot be prevented", but once you have that set up, Balak can put in a lot of work against an O.T. offense, especially if he cannot be negated because of Overtaken.
- While you may initially want to use Moab's exchange ability to get Evil Enhancements to use in battle, you can also use his exchange ability to get the dual-alignment weapons from Reserve to help set up your offense if your defense doesn't need the help.
- Clinging to Power and Famine in the Land are the only territory class enhancements in the deck, which means that you can use Clinging to Power just about as often as you redraw into it in order to find particular cards. It can find more than half of your Evil Characters as well as a handful from Evil Enhancements. Remember that it also can take your Evil Characters from Reserve.
- Land of Chemosh will be key in stopping your opponent from protecting Lost Souls with cards like "Orphans" Lost Soul, Guardians from Glory, and Builder's Spear, to name a few. And don't forget, even if your Moabite is discarded by the numbers during Battle Resolution, you can still trigger the underdeck ability for each Moabite discarded.
YTG recommends the below cards as other viable options for this deck’s theme for Type 1 constructed play. You can view and purchase them by searching for them here!
Lost Soul "Darkness"
Lost Soul "Humble"
Lost Soul "Lost Souls"
Lost Soul "Wanderer"
Three Woes
The Second Coming
Coliseum
Sheol
The Cross
Twenty Shekels
Jehoshaphat, the Seeker
Abishai, Chief of Thirty
The Deceiver
Stricken
Tenants Kill the Son
Balaam's Disobedience