HOLDER'S HEROES

The Priests, Redemption's new expansion for 2006, features a number of new wrinkles to spice up old gameplay, and this series of articles will highlight some of those wrinkles. Nowhere is this change more apparent than in the addition of two brand new brigades. The only other brigade introduced since the beginning of Redemption was the silver brigade in the 1999 Warriors expansion. And just as the silver brigade focused exclusively on angels, the new teal brigade is comprised entirely of priests and the new orange brigade is comprised entirely of demons. Though there have been both priests and demons in other brigades prior to this release, all priests from now on will be printed in teal, and all demons will be printed in orange. The focus for this article will be the expansion's namesake, the priests in the teal brigade.

Follow up:

Let's start with some basic facts about the priests. A large chunk of the new expansion was dedicated to making teal competitive right away, and it is. There are a whopping 26 teal Heroes, 18 teal Enhancements, 6 two-color Enhancements (teal plus each of the other brigades, except silver), and 2 pure multi-color Enhancements, for a total of 26 Enhancements that these new Heroes can use (plus all multi-color Enhancements from previous sets). Some of these Heroes, such as Aaron, Melchizedek, Eli the Priest, and Ahimaaz, are cards from other brigades that have been reprinted in teal, with stats and special abilities very similar to their prior versions, but enhanced for play with Priests cards. Some, like Jeremiah, Zechariah and Ezekiel, have been reprinted in teal and had special abilities added. Over half of them are brand new characters. Their offense ranges from 1 to 12, and their defense ranges from 1 to 10; nearly all of them have different numbers from all the other teal Heroes. They are not without their drawbacks, however. All the teal Heroes are male, and nearly all of them are Old Testament characters, leaving (by design) a couple glaring loopholes for opponents to exploit.

Like most good brigades, teal is not especially strong in any one area, but is very good in a lot of different areas. Some Heroes pull Fortresses and Artifacts out of your draw or discard pile. Some protect your cards on the table. Some cannot be negated. Some utilize a new feature in this expansion: placing an Enhancement on a Hero that activates when they enter battle, similar to weapon-class Enhancements. One major ability lacking in teal's first appearance is fight-by numbers; red, purple and pale green are the only other brigades that don't have at least one fight-by-numbers card. Also, teal is the only good brigade without at least one conversion card (other than the multi-color Preaching the Truth from 10th Anniversary starters).

Teal Enhancements also have several unique properties that set them apart from other brigades. The two-color and multi-color Enhancements (except Faith in Our High Priest) are known as Feasts, and each of them sets aside all your human Heroes for one turn to produce various results. Some draw cards, some recur cards from the discard pile, some give a bonus to one of those set-aside Heroes the next time one of them enters battle after coming back. There are also several teal Enhancements that are Offerings. By themselves, Offerings are no more or less special than most other Enhancements; most of them are designed to get rid of Curses in various ways. But the new Artifact, Altar of Burnt Offering, actually allows you to play and activate them during your preparation phase, before you even begin your next battle. There are also several cards which get rid of Curses, a new card type which will be covered in a future article.

Some of teal's other Enhancements are also real attention-grabbers. Covering the Sacred Things is an Enhancement you can place on certain Artifacts and protect them from discard or negate as long as that Artifact is up and you have a Priest in play, and when you turn that Artifact down, you get to pick up the Enhancement and use it again later! Perpetual Priesthood is an Enhancement that exchanges itself for a Priest in your draw pile. So not only can you use it over and over again to get your Heroes out quickly, but because it is an exchange card, it allows you to bring additional Heroes into battle in situations where banding is not allowed!

Teal also has four monstrous battle-winners! Burning Incense allows all Heroes to ignore an entire brigade, which is almost always a battle-winner since few decks have more than one or two evil brigades. Moreover, since ALL Heroes ignore the brigade, they are also protected from cards that opponents would normally play while they are being ignored, that would try to target Heroes in your territory. AND it cannot be negated if you have Altar of Incense active! Holy Unto the Lord shuffles all Evil Characters into owners' draw piles, but you have to show your hand and discard all the evil cards in your hand, including any Evil Characters or Dominants you might be holding. The good news is, if you have no evil cards in your hand, you get to shuffle for free. AND it cannot be interrupted. Zeal for the Lord interrupts the battle and discards not just one, but two Evil Characters, if they're from different brigades. AND it cannot be negated if used by Phinehas, Son of Eleazar. But the 800-pound gorilla is Trumpet Blast, which says to discard an evil Fortress or occupied Site to discard all Evil Characters in battle. Now you might think to yourself that you don't play with those cards in your deck, or maybe you think it's too high a price to pay, sacrificing a crucial Fortress or compromising your Site lockout defense. But the crazy thing about Trumpet Blast, it doesn't say it has to be your Fortress or Site. So if your opponent has an evil Fortress parked in his territory, you can get rid of all his Evil Characters in battle, AND make him pay the cost for your special ability. Double whammy!

There are a few other gems in the teal brigade as well. Phinehas plus his Spear gives you an 18/12 Hero protected from capture and conversion and a weapon against your opponent's Evil Characters if he blocks with a banding combination. The priests that can use other Enhancements with certain Scripture references may seem a bit tame, until you look a little more closely at what combinations are opened up. Ezekiel, for example, can use Furnace of God's Wrath, Valley of Dry Bones, or Baggage. Zechariah can use Search or Wall of Fire. Jeremiah can use Cup of Wrath, Hammer of Heaven, and several healing cards. Shelemiah's ability to play Enhancements directly out of Storehouse should not be overlooked, either.

While teal is the newest brigade of Heroes to join the world of Redemption, it has come storming out of the gate with powerful characters and a lot of great combinations. Expect to see teal in a lot of tournament decks right away.