N.T. Gold Heroes / Pharisees & Sadducees

Designed by Jayden Alstad, a multi-National tournament winner of several categories, this Contender Deck dives into the redefined N.T. gold offense, and a combination of the best Pharisees and Sadducees with their new meek Lost Soul synergy!  Speed through the deck with multiple draw abilities, all while chipping away at your opponent's resources by sending them to their Reserve.  Hide Lost Souls and present big banding blockers to keep your opponent on their toes, while you make surgical rescues with a variety of attacking options, from "fight by the numbers", tossing, choosing the blocker, and/or setting up an alternative rescue!

Deck strategy and tips:

• OVERVIEW
• The offense combines selective and random "reserve" abilities to send cards from your opponent's hand, deck, or in play to their Reserve to make it difficult, though not impossible, for them to get back.  By reserving cards from the opponent's deck, the offense thrives in the long game by having more total resources available and benefitting along the way with cards like Sychar.  
• The defense compliments the long game by hiding Lost Souls for potential multi-turn blocks and having plenty of Reserve access for additional resource advantage.
• THE OFFENSE
• The offense wants to set up Sychar quickly and start making value plays by reserving your opponent's cards and drawing, potentially also doubling the draws with "The First" Lost Soul. The deck includes a couple ways to search for it with Reverence and Awe and Citizens of Sychar and some ways to compliment the drawing, such as Bethlehem (LoC) and High Places. 
• Use Zaccheus to reserve pesky Evil Characters or Fortresses, or just choose them to block and use one of the variety of battle winning Good Enhancements, including Lost Sheep for the late-game rescue and Submission to Christ if you can spare your Evil Characters.
• Play Teaching in Parables before going for a rescue attempt to get a draw from Sychar and take out their best battle winner so you know the best attack strategy for that turn.
• Don't be afraid to lose a Hero or two early for the sake of getting some value because Restoring the Afflicted and Talitha Kum! can both be used to resurrect them later on and the latter bands in up to five Heroes that can hit more and more cards from your opponent's deck, or draw a few from your own with Watchful Servant and The Persistent Widow.
• Use The Woman at the Well, Lost Coin Found, and Roman Centurion to keep using Samaritan Water Jar as often as possible as it will be the main way to take multiple cards from your opponent's at once... Or twice... Or thrice.
• Use Amazing Faith to grab Harvest Time and play it while you have High Places in play to draw up to 13 cards just by putting all of your Lost Souls in play.
• Hang on to your other Good Dominants to make sure you can keep using Jairus to negate cards in battle and use him in combination with Jairus' Daughter to toss their Evil Enhancements and keep reusing her star ability. She's also a great Hero to reserve with Bethlehem since Jairus can band to her from Reserve.
• THE DEFENSE
• Between Burial, Just a Hireling, Annas the Elder, and Plotting Priests, one of the main ways to block with this defense is to hide Lost Souls. This also means that there will be strategy involved in deciding when to draw cards and when not to, or when to avoid searching and shuffling your deck after playing Burial, in order to take away some opportunities for your opponent to rescue.
• Maximize the value of cards like Pretension and High Priest's Plot by using them while you have Sychar in play for the added draw.
• Utilize big banding chains and practice the order of adding Evil Characters to battle, such as using Annas the Elder to band to The Brood of Vipers or The Chief Priests in order to be able to add a generic Pharisee or Sadducee to battle.
• Prioritize valuing your unique Evil Characters over generic ones since the generic ones can be brought back with High Priest's Palace, and don't forget to utilize the ability of High Priest's Palace to hold Unholy Writ.
• Keep good cards with star abilities you want to use again in hand to underdeck them with The Plotting Pharisees so you can potentially use their star abilities again.

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

Wash Basin

The Thankful Leper

Mary's Prophetic Act

Meeting the Messiah

Washing Hands

Rotation cards

Voice from Heaven

The Second Coming (CoW or Borderless)

Falling Away

Shipwreck (EC or Borderless)

Damascus (Promo or LoC)

Sheol

Temple Veil

Peter's Curse

The Repentant Thief

Seeker of the Lost

Day of Judgment

Lurking

The Wages of Sin

Classic and/or Rotation cards

Urim and Thummim

The Entrapping Pharisees