Royal Heroes / Assyrian Warriors

All hail the king!  This Contender Deck features purple kings, royal heroes, meek heroes, and priests, 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!

See bottom for recommended cards you can purchase separately to help boost this deck’s theme, some of which are Classic cards to modify this deck to that format! 

Deck strategy and tips:

• OVERVIEW
• The offense is mainly comprised of purple kings that can either band or attack alone, and are supported by powerful Enhancements. Choose for these kings to either be meek or normal, depending on the circumstances…or use a combination of both. Some of the purple heroes are also priests that tend to support the king theme, or can be used as rescuers by themselves as many of your Enhancements have teal represented. 
• The defense has strong warriors that tend to do a lot of damage by their own special abilities, but are also backed up by strong battle winning enhancements. They also have strong band abilities that make it difficult for your opponent to overcome. The banded evil characters are supported by several interrupt Enhancements so you can help deflect your opponent’s Enhancements from harming yourself blockers. 
• THE OFFENSE
• Try and play The Throne of David (TToD) as soon as you can as it is a tutoring engine that is able to get your purple kings from deck. Also, once you have a good amount out, the ability to look at the top X of deck and take a card is really good as you can snag any card you may need for the battle or one to come. There are several cards in the deck that can tutor TToD so try and use them ASAP. 
• Speaking of tutoring, there are a few Heroes that can snag other Heroes for the right time, such as Bathsheba and Captive Priest. 
• Another powerful good Fortress is Gates of Jerusalem. This fort will help not only protect your Heroes in territory from harm, but it is also a battle extender for your offense and allows you to add a meek king to battle. This greatly helps if someone wipes out your banded Heroes, or discards your lone hero. 
• There are several protection cards for the offense (Jehoiada, Temple Spears, etc), so use these as often as you can to help keep your Heroes in battle. 
• Manasseh is a strong bander who can fit in well with your offense or defense, so use him when the time is right. But be careful when using him with your defense as he will disrupt King Tiglath’s unity. If you need to reset him to a hero or evil character, use your several bounce abilities to do so. 
• Covenant with David is a very versatile card. The enhancement side can take either of your two good fortresses or Nineveh (targeted as a site, but can be played as an evil fortress, which is the best way to use it) from deck. The artifact side can snag any of your kings (good or evil) from deck!  
• Every Tribe is a great card as it functions similar to TToD regarding the look ability, and he can also band to an opponent’s character. Just make sure you control a priest and/or a good king to take advantage of one or both of those abilities. 
• THE DEFENSE
• One of the most powerful defensive plays for the Assyrian defense is The Rab-saris’ CBN band to The Rabshakeh and/or The Tartan as it forms a powerful, high-numbered wall against your opponent’s heroes. And, if your opponent’s hand is protected, this is even stronger when The Rabshakeh is in the band as his underdecking of a good card is modified to be CBN. 
• Mounted Forces is a powerful blocker that can begin a band, or take a pale green Enhancement from Reserve, so his ability for for the right time/use. 
• King Tiglath is a powerful CBN blocker as he can force an opponent to do one of three things (capture his human hero, reserve an active artifact, or give you his City), but the most powerful of these is to force your opponent to capture his human hero. This is most effective when your opponent doesn’t have an artifact to reserve or a City to give, and no other hero in territory to capture, thereby causing your opponent to capture his sole hero in battle!
• Assyrian Officer’s and Assyrian Ambassador’s draw abilities are a great way to speed up your deck and potentially get resources you need for battle (such as an evil Enhancement). The Tartan can also band to them.  
• Use King Sennacherib to either take Assyrian Camp from your Reserve, or if you know your opponent has an OT Site or evil Fortress you can take it from his Reserve instead!  If you don’t need to do this then you can search your deck for any Assyrian Warrior and exchange Sennacherib with your Assyrian Warrior (just not the same one you took as the exchange has to be with your Assyrian Warrior in play). 

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!

Classic cards

Assyrian Siege Army

Assyrian Survivor

Two Thousand Horses

Assyrian Camp

Valley of Salt

A Soldier’s Prayer

The Throne of David

Bravery of David

Forgotten History

Rotation cards

Joshua, the Conqueror

David, Outcasts’ Refuge

David, Heart After God

Assyrian Laborers 

Nimrod

Assyrian Invaders

Ninevites

Zion

Impartial Judgment

Ride on Victoriously

David’s Proclamation

Marriage Covenant

Wall of Protection

Faith of David

Classic and/or Rotation cards

Assyrian Archer

Captured by Assyria

Death of Unrighteous

Invoking Terror

Pentecost