HOLDER'S HEROES

The black brigade has traditionally been a strong defense, but can be difficult to manage at times. Black doesn’t have amazing “standalone” characters like King of Tyrus, Emperor Nero or Leviathan. What it does have is the ability to completely deplete your opponent’s offense and prevent them from rescuing any Lost Souls. Since Priests was released, black brigade Sadducees has been one of my favorite defenses to play.

Follow up:

The Priests set gave Sadducees a huge boost. High Priests Palace protects all of the Sadducees (and Pharisees) in your territory from discard abilities. Considering Authority of Christ promo is one of the most powerful offensive cards that’s commonly played, that ability is very useful. Additionally, the Palace can hold one of two powerful Artifacts, Unholy Writ and Thirty Pieces of Silver. High Priest Caiaphas can be used to search for the Palace and put it into play. Unknown Nation can search for High Priest Caiaphas and add him to battle. That gives you three ways to get your High Priests Palace into play pretty early in the game.

Priests also added High Priest Ananias to the Sadducees. He’s got numbers large enough to block The Strong Angel and he can fetch Sanhedrin from your deck or discard pile. High Priest Annas is my least favorite of the new Sadducees but he’s still useful because he can band all Sadducees and Pharisees into battle once per game. At 5/10 his numbers can also stand up to most FBTN characters.

The fourth and final Sadducee the Priests set added is Captain of the Temple Guard, who says “Evil capture abilities cannot be negated if you have Jerusalem or Herod's Temple Site in play”. Sadducees have access to two capture cards, Net and False Witnesses. Captain of the Temple Guard and Temple Guard, a Sadducee from the G starter deck, are both warrior-class Evil Characters. They work well with the black curse Carcasses, which makes discard special abilities on evil Enhancements un-negatable for two rounds if you have a warrior-class Evil Character in battle. There are several powerful black Enhancements that have discard special abilities: Intent to Kill, High Priests Plot, Devourer, Mask of Self-glorification, Lying Unto God and Wrath of Satan are some of my favorites. I’ll talk more about those in a moment.

You can also include four copies of the 1/3 character Sadducees. There were three different versions included in the Apostles set and a fourth version in the G starter deck. All four of them have the ability to band to all Sadducees which can give you very large numbers if you have even a few of the Sadducee evil characters in play. With numbers as low as 1/3 they also give you great initiative to play any of your Enhancements.

Although Sadducees are very powerful on their own, I like to compliment them with a few non-Sadducee Evil Characters as well. In black, Lot’s Wife can be a good addition because she can band to any other Evil Character. I like to use her to bring one of my opponent’s characters into battle and then use Joseph in Prison to remove all cards in battle from the game. This works even better if your opponent has an evil banding chain in play, so you can band in more than one of their characters. The Kings version of Fallen Warrior can be a good addition if you choose to use Carcasses with the warrior-class Sadducees. Simon the Magician is a must have for a black defense. The ability to play Enhancements that cannot be negated against New Testament characters, such as the commonly used Strong Angel, is very powerful. You can also splash in your favorite “stand alone” evil characters from other brigades.

Black has access to a large selection of powerful Enhancements. I’ve already mentioned Sanhedrin, Joseph in Prison and the two capture cards, Net and False Witnesses. With Lampstand of the Sanctuary becoming more popular, it’s important to have an Enhancement that can destroy an Artifact. Mask of Self-glorification and Lying Unto God are both good options. Some decks might even want to include both, especially if you don’t own Destruction of Nehushtan or play with the Lampstand yourself. Under ideal circumstances, High Priests Plot will let you discard your opponent's Son of God. Even if they aren’t holding Son of God when you play it, you will often get the Enhancement they planned to use to win the current battle. Intent to Kill will cost you two cards to use, but it’s a powerful tool against a FBTN (Fight By The Numbers) character. Black has two good options to negate your opponent’s cards. Foolish Advice will make the battle FBTN and works well on any of your characters with a high toughness. Devourer will not only interrupt, but also discard all good Enhancements. Potentially the most devastating card to any offense is Wrath of Satan. If it’s not negated it will leave no Heroes in play. You’ll need to plan your offense around this card so that it doesn’t destroy you as well. Cards like Chamber of Angels, Chariot of Fire and Goshen are a few that can help preserve your supply of Heroes. Hunger can also have a one-sided “wrath” type effect, but is much more situational. Lastly, Pride of Simon will let you use any one of your black Enhancements a second time.

As powerful as the characters and Enhancements are, the support cards can make or break your deck. I’ve already mentioned High Priests Palace as one of your top choices, as well as the two Artifacts that it can hold. Unknown Nation is really good in a deck filled with human evil characters. Even though Black has a few good options against FBTN characters, they can still be tough to stop, especially a Captain [of the Host] band. Asherah Pole combines very nicely with Simon to make your evil Enhancements unstoppable unless Peter or Philip the Evangelist is in play. Holy of Holies and Carcasses are also great additions to help against FBTN. Confusion of Mind is good against a number of offensive strategies. It helps against FBTN, but also against banding decks and a number of other miscellaneous abilities that would otherwise be annoying.

Black is really a thinking person's brigade. There are a lot of tough choices to make, not only in choosing which cards to include in your deck, but also when to play them. One card that can really help with the decisions you need to make, and has even been called “overpowered”, is Urim and Thummim. With three of the Sadducees being High Priests it would be foolish not to include this card in your deck.

If you’re looking for an easy to play defense that is only good for a few blocks and is able to buy you a little time, then the black brigade is not for you. If you want a defense packed with strategy, and capable of denying your opponent a single rescue at the end of the game, go build yourself a Sadducees defense and give the black brigade a try.