See bottom for recommended cards you can purchase separately to help boost this deck’s theme!
Dominants
Burial (GoC)
Christian Martyr (J Deck)
Called to Prophesy (II)
New Jerusalem (I & J+)
Harvest Time (GoC)
Chariot of Fire (PoC)
Angel of the Lord (J Deck)
Lost Souls
I/J Deck Meek Lost Souls x7
Artifacts/Covenants/Curses
Hidden Treasures (Roots)
Vow for Samuel (II)
Fortresses/Sites/Cities
Jerusalem Tower (Roots)
Mount Sinai (IR)
House of Samuel (II)
Dual-Alignment
Fifth Bowl of Wrath (RoJ)
Heroes
Moses (CoW)
Elijah (PoC)
Jeremiah, Hope Bringer (PoC)
The Victorious Being (II)
Jacob (Israel) (CoW)
Deborah, the Victorious (II)
Samuel, Born of Prayer (II)
Ahijah, Cloak Tearer (II)
Jehu, Message Bringer (II)
Obadiah's Hidden 100 (II)
The Watchman (Roots)
Good Enhancements
His Name (PoC)
Faith (PoC)
Search (Legacy Rare) (PoC)
Do Not be Afraid (II)
Retribution for Sin (II)
Sins Forgotten (CoW)
Swords to Plowshares (Roots)
Evil Characters
High Priest Ananias (RoJ)
Annas the Elder (GoC)
Dubious Doubters (GoC)
Malchus (GoC)
Plotting Priests (GoC)
Sisera, the Commander (Roots)
The Chief Priests (RoJ)
Evil Enhancements
Tenants Kill the Son (GoC)
Inhabiting the Land (II)
Scattered Sheep (PoC)
Surreptitious Scheme (GoC)
Just a Hireling (GoC)
Reserve
The Brood of Vipers (GoC)
Supercilious Scribes (GoC)
False Accusations (GoC)
Faith of Samuel (CoW)
Two Bears (Legacy Rare) (PoC)
Foreseen by Samuel (II)
Gathered Together (PoC)
Inherit Canaan (II)
Elisha (PoC)
Dreamers (II)
Deck strategy and tips:
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OVERVIEW:
· The offense seeks to protect your deck from any tricks your opponent might have to pull out Lost Souls as well as stop some of the most common Soul drought prevention strategies your opponents might have, such as the "Hopper", "Lost Souls", and "Harvest" Lost Souls. Then the offense will find ways to generate value while keeping your Lost Souls safely hidden.
· The defense is all about getting your Lost Souls off the table and back into your deck, but it does have a few alternative defensive strategies for when the Soul-hiding goes awry.
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THE OFFENSE:
· Getting Moses out as early as possible will greatly help your defense stop the opponent from generating Lost Souls with their Lost Souls or territory-class Enhancements, and you also can maximize the potential of Mount Sinai. You can get Moses out early with Faith, Search, and potentially even Jerusalem Tower combined with Sins Forgotten or Swords to Plowshares.
· Once Moses is out, you can still use Faith to tutor up your Jacob for additional protection, Elijah or Jeremiah for a stronger attack, or a card from Reserve. Faith and The Watchman are the two ways to get Moses back from the discard if Vow for Samuel doesn't work to keep him safe. If they do manage to get rid of Moses though, don't miss your House of Samuel trigger!
· Since the offensive battlewinners in this deck don't have any modifiers, you can use other means to make them difficult to answer, such as Jeremiah's toss ability, Jehu's negate of N.T. Enhancements, Elisha's ability to grant "cannot be negated", and even Sisera's ability if you manage to give him to your opponent and choose him to block.
· Vow for Samuel often forces your opponent to have two battlewinners. Against a Hero like Jeremiah, you can make that three. Ahijah can help you find Vow for Samuel early and Deborah can help you get it back each turn. Upgrading the deck with Book of the Covenant and/or Storehouse makes this even easier to repeat.
· Use Samuel to help filter Lost Souls to the bottom of the deck so that you don't risk drawing them with Ahijah, Deborah, or The Watchman if you're low on resources. Mount Sinai can also help you determine if drawing is safe to do during battle without risking drawing Lost Souls.
· Use Hidden Treasures combined with Elisha to put even more pressure on your opponent's defense. Between tossing, negating, and insteading, the opponent should run out of Evil Enhancements in no time.
· One thing to pay attention to and learn as you play this deck is realizing when you can afford to be patient and when you need to apply pressure. If you think their defense will be able to generate a lot of value on a block, you might be able to wait to attack until a later turn if you're successfully hiding Lost Souls.
· His Name's star ability can help the overall strategy by putting an extra card between you and the Lost Souls in your deck, but the Enhancement ability will often be best used when you're tossing the next or against a chosen Sisera because otherwise your opponent will have Special Initiative to negate His Name before you get to reserve a card from their hand.
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THE DEFENSE:
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The strongest play for this defense once you have Moses and protection set up, is to use Harvest Time to play all of your Lost Souls and then Burial to tuck them away. As long as you don't search or otherwise shuffle your deck, you can hide those Lost Souls for quite some time. Search can help you find either Dominant and Surreptitious Scheme can help you find Burial as long as you play it in battle or before Moses is in territory.
· There will be a little bit of tension in your defense between Moses and Plotting Priests. Getting Plotting Priests in play early can help to slow your opponent down while you wait for Moses and it can certainly buy you some time to get Moses back out if the opponent finds a way to remove him. And don't forget that you can block with Plotting Priests as well. The Enhancement tutor is great and the anti-search works against cards the opponent might play during battle, like Crowd's Choice or The Resurrection.
· Annas the Elder is likely the strongest Evil Character overall for this strategy since he can tuck Lost Souls away consistently as long as you only draw a couple of them at a time. Searching is so common that it will be tough for your opponent to stop him from becoming "Cannot be negated".
· Later in the game, Malchus or The Chief Priests to pull The Brood of Vipers from Reserve and start picking away at problematic Heroes, good Fortresses, or even a good Three Woes if you don't mind giving your opponent the opportunity to replay it eventually.
· Dubious Doubters is especially dubious in this deck because your opponent might be tempted to play their Son of God early to rescue a Lost Soul while they have the chance, knowing that you probably won't have any Lost Souls they will want to negate later. If they do this without Second Coming, you may be able to catch them by surprise and banish Son of God from their discard pile. Annas the Elder can even make it "Cannot be negated" if you can bring Dubious in by banding to The Chief Priests or The Brood of Vipers first.
· When you use Ahijah or Hidden Treasures to look at your opponent's hand, pay attention to how many multi-brigade Good Enhancements your opponent is using. Some offenses can be completely shut down by the restrict ability on High Priest Ananias.
· The easiest way to give Sisera to your opponent to set up a "cheese" rescue is by playing Inhabiting the Land on him during battle and giving him directly from there. Not only does that often stop your opponent from using "add to battle" abilities because no Evil Character is left in battle, but it also makes it "Cannot be negated" and allows you to hit up to two Heroes. The other way to give Sisera is Inherit Canaan from Reserve, but remember that the territory-class side will not work with Moses in play unless you can play it in battle.
· Once in a while it might make sense to use the shuffle trigger on House of Samuel to shuffle a Sisera you gave away or a Malchus in your territory back into deck. Malchus' star ability is most powerful in the opening hand, but it can be strong if he comes up at the right time later in the game. Usually you'll only want to do that if your opponent doesn't have any good targets for you.
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!
Three Woes
Glory of the Lord (Winner Promo)
Grapes of Wrath
The Second Coming
Storehouse (II)/(Promo)
Sheol
Book of the Covenant
Four-Drachma Coin (with Peter)
The Great White Throne
Twenty Shekels
Covenant with David (PoC)
Unsuccessful (Reserve)
Noah, the Righteous
Simon Peter (with Four-Drachma Coin)
The Angel of the Winds
Virgin Birth
The Priest of Zeus
The Deceiver
The Wages of Sin
Betrayal
Stricken
High Priest's Plot