HOLDER'S HEROES

Lost Souls are what make Redemption interesting. Without them, it would be just another card game with people battling for no reason. However, ever since the Warrior's expansion came out, Lost Soul cards have had special abilities (Ed - the Jeremiah 7:18 Lost Soul actually appeared in the Women expansion -Schaef). It used to be, the more special ability Lost Souls you have in your deck, the better off you are. Since there are more than enough to have seven Lost Souls with special abilities in your deck now, which ones will you use? Also, how do they benefit you? Today, I'm going to answer those questions.

Follow up:

"Lost Souls" (Proverbs 22:14), a card that has to be rescued twice but counts as two points when fully rescued, is a Lost Soul card that has been around forever. More commonly known as 3-line or 2-line (because of the number of lines of text on the card), each of these has their respective place. Neither belong in a Type 2 deck. The 2-Line should be used in Type 1 2-player because not only does it give you the benefit of making your opponent have to rescue it twice, but it also lets you play Son of God or New Jerusalem on it in a clinch. Even if your opponent has it half-rescued. If you have the 3-line in a T1 2-player game and your opponent has 1/2, then you won't be able to rescue it w/ SoG or NJ. This can be bad.

The "Shuffler" (Ezekiel 31:14) Lost Soul was introduced in the Warriors expansion. It shuffles all Lost Souls in play back into their owners' decks when rescued. This Lost Soul is useful in many situations. It can shuffle a half-rescued "Lost Souls" card, your captured Heroes, and all the Lost Souls you have in play. Also, it can be rescued by SoG/NJ.

The "N.T. Only" (Acts 11:18) Lost soul is a very interesting Lost Soul that came out in the Apostles set. It can only be rescued by a New Testament Hero; Son of God and New Jerusalem CANNOT rescue it. This could be bad for you, but it's just as bad for your opponent because if they have only Old Testament Heroes they can't rescue it at all. The protect ability on this guy makes him worthwhile.

The "Female-Only" (Jeremiah 7:18) Lost Soul is another "protect ability" lost soul. However, instead of protecting from non-N.T. Heros, it is protected from being rescued except by female Heroes or Son of God. NJ cannot be played on this Lost Soul, but SoG can, so it shouldn't hinder you too much. Since females aren't the most extremely useful characters in Redemption, this Lost Soul will help you a lot.

Next up is the "First Round Protect" (FRP) (Matthew 19:26) Lost Soul. The FRP can only be rescued by angels or Dominants for the first round it's in play. So SoG/NJ can rescue this one even during that first round. That may not seem good, but in today's game of Redemption, games are over quickly and every turn counts. If you can make it so your opponent can't rescue because they have no angels, even for one turn, that's great.

The "Anti-Burial" (Galatians 3:13) Lost Soul is the next one on my top 7 Lost Souls. For a while, I didn't use this and used the */4 lost soul. However, most Heroes in Redemption are more than */4 so that Lost Soul didn't help me, and I couldn't play SoG/NJ on it. So Anti-Burial gets the nod. Anti-burial Lost Soul prevents your opponent that rescues it from using Burial on any lost souls in their territory. However, don't use this in multi-player, because it can lose you the game.

The "Revealer" (Romans 3:23) Lost Soul is the last on my list of top 7. Not because it's the least useful, far from it. The Revealer is another Lost Soul that SoG/NJ can be played on, and its ability comes in handy a lot. Sometimes it won't help, but sometimes it gets Lost Souls off the top, great card.

Now that we've seen some of the things that Lost Soul cards can do, let's look at Lost Soul Management. These are some tips I'd recommend trying to stick to if at all possible:

• Use Falling Away on the Shuffler Lost Soul to pull the Shuffler + "Lost Souls" combo 2-3 times. Or, if you can't pull that combo off, then use Shuffler on a "protect ability" Lost Soul that your opponent won't have access to next turn.
• Use SoG/NJ on your own Lost Souls if at all possible. SoG/NJ/Burial reduces your total Lost Soul count to 4. There are lots of ways to get a 5th Lost Soul, but still, it's a great concept that will put you ahead of the game.
• Play Burial on the only Lost Soul in your territory, or play it on a "Lost Souls" card after it's 1/2 rescued.
• When you're playing a Site deck, it's a good idea to replace 3 of your Lost Souls with the "Hand-Discarder" (1 Corinthians 1:27) Lost Soul, the "Site-Remover" (Mathew 8:34) Lost Soul, and the "Site-Doubler" (Psalm 1:4) Lost Soul.
• In some cases, like multi-player games, it's a good idea to use the Lost Soul that you shuffle in when somebody withdraws from battle against you (Acts 23:27). I say that this is good in multi-player because of the abundance of speed decks currently used in multi-player.