HOLDER'S HEROES

Basic Principles: Draw all of your cards as fast as possible; win the game before your opponent.

Have you ever gotten a really bad draw that completely threw off your groove for a tournament? It happens to all of us, but some players can’t stand bad draws. One of these players is Justin Alstad. In 2005, he created a masterpiece of a deck that was named the Speed Freak*.

Not only was this deck great, but it also got him first place in T1 Multi-player at the 2005 Nationals. Justin devised a way that he could almost completely eliminate bad draws and win games consistently.

Follow up:

The basics are simple, draw your deck and do it fast. However, this deck requires much more thought than it seems. “Defenseless” decks became very popular in multi-player. These decks include a few defensive Dominants as their only defense. The Speed Freak does the same.

So, to win a game you need a total of two successful rescue attempts that don’t involve Dominants correct? 2 rescues + Angel of the Lord + Son Of God + New Jerusalem = 5 Lost Souls for the win. Those two rescue attempts are easily stopped if a good defense is in place. In order to eliminate defense on the field and keep winning rescues on the following turns, a player must use Authority of Christ promo and some catchy thinking.

Ok, so we all know it’s bad to base a deck around one card. This is because it’s hard to draw. However, what if there was a way that you could make sure that you drew the cards you needed every game? The Speed Freak accomplished this. Ever think about drawing your deck in one turn? It’s possible but takes some work. If you want, you can do it with a blue offense. You better hope you have initiative, though, because playing The Long Day, Book of Hozai, Jubilee before playing Stillness almost always gives your opponent the initiative to play an Enhancement to kill you.

So, now you know that you need to be able to play The Long Day. Blue’s drawing is far from great so you turn to other brigades. There are some cards that allow you to search and replace (Great Faith, Acts of Solomon), and these come in handy when you need one or two cards. Many of the cards that say, “draw three” also include an "interrupt" and "play the next Enhancement" ability. These come in handy if played right, although their numbers are very large. So, if you have Coat of Many Colors in your deck, you can utilize all of these cards at once. A simple way to draw your whole deck in one turn is Coat of Many Colors, Moses and Elders (to get back a withdraw from battle card), search and replace cards, draw cards, and then a withdraw card such as Stillness or Highway.

For all of you out there that are thinking, “there’s no way I’d ever get all of those cards at once,” think again. If you base a whole deck around drawing, then you’ll most definitely get cards you need to draw, or the cards you need to win.

Another way that is commonly used to draw cards in the speed freak deck is King Rehoboam. King Rehoboam doesn’t directly draw cards, but he is much more effective than having to make an RA to draw your whole hand. King Rehoboam can make a side battle between two of your characters, one of which you get to control, which can play draw cards on. After your side battle is done, you get to keep all of those cards until your next discard phase.

There are other ways to draw cards that don’t involve a string of Enhancements and are much more effective. Hur and Gifts of the Magi are very important in a speed deck. Love at First Sight also works in this scenario. Because of Hur/LaFS’s ability, your opponent shuffles his hand and draws new cards. As many cards as he draws, you also get to draw using Gifts of the Magi. Combine these all into one, in a combo as follows, and you can be more than halfway through your deck in one turn:

• Hur makes a rescue, opponent shuffles/draws and you draw.
• Opponent blocks with a high numbered EC.
• You play Coat of Many Colors, Love at First Sight, (opponent shuffles and draws, you draw), and then play Book of Jashar (opponent shuffles and draws, you draw). This nets you a total of 23 cards. You already had drawn at least eight cards at the beginning of the game so you’re at 31 cards drawn.
• Toss in The Long Day and a withdraw card and you’ve got your whole deck drawn in two goes.

Watch out for Destruction of Nehusthan though, your opponent isn’t going to want you to have such a large advantage.

Now that you’ve drawn a lot of cards from your deck, you come to your discard phase. Hopefully in your drawing slew, you got your Storehouse. Throw all the Enhancements you need to into Storehouse. Put all of your characters into play, they won’t be harmed if you play your next turns correctly. Keep the following in your hand if they haven’t already been used:

• Son of God
• New Jerusalem
• Angel of the Lord
• Christian Martyr
• Burial
• Destruction of Nehushtan
• Authority of Christ (promo)

and whatever else fits your fancy. Play Falling Away as soon as you get it because you never know when your opponent will throw down Guardian of Your Souls.

Now is where the real fun begins. Up to this point you probably haven’t rescued any Lost Souls because you’re always withdrawing from battle. Withdraw no more and your opponent will be crushed. First, pick up Reach of Desperation from your Storehouse. Next, make a rescue with any of your purple characters. If they defend and play an Enhancement, play Reach, then AOC for an easy win. Not only does this win you the battle, but it also destroys their defense. Next turn you get to make another rescue attempt. Rescue with a banding chain that ends with Captain of the Host so that their Christian Martyr can’t hurt you. If they defend with some person from their hand, play Angel of the Lord on it. Now your rescued count is up to two. You only need one more. How you get it is your choice. You could wait a couple of turns to pick up Coat of Many Colors and Moses and Elders from Storehouse, get AOC back and win another battle. You could rescue with Lydia and play Scarlet Line. You could try to win another rescue with that banding chain of yours. You could even set somebody aside with Provisions if you wanted to. After you get that third lost soul, it’s game over after you play Son of God and New Jerusalem.

As far as building your deck goes, make sure you have plenty of Heroes for each of the brigades you’re playing. Today, many people will say that if your deck is 63 cards it is too big. However, I believe that a 63-card speed freak can win because the original version of the deck was 63 cards and won a district tournament in Minnesota. 5 games in a row, 22 Lost Soul differential. The national-winning version of this deck was 50 cards and didn’t include The Long Day because the Hur/Gifts combo would get all the cards it needed quickly. Go ahead, build a speed deck, and after you’ve tested it (played at least five games) you’ll see how powerful it is. It isn’t unbeatable, but when played correctly it is super effective.

*Speed Freak is an original deck name that was created by Justin Alstad and he wishes that nobody would use the name unless they give him credit.