HOLDER'S HEROES

Dominants are indisputably the most powerful cards in Redemption. Misusing your Dominants can make the difference between winning and losing a game. Not having some of the staple Dominants in your deck can put you at a disadvantage before the match even begins. I’m going to help you understand which Dominants are necessary and how to get the most out of them in Type 1.

Follow up:

Son of God is found in any starter deck. It is without a doubt the most powerful card in Redemption and should be included in every deck you build. Most of the time you will use Son of God to rescue one of your own Lost Souls. It is usually best used during a battle to deny your opponent access to a Lost Soul, thus turning their rescue attempt into a battle challenge. This can be done by rescuing the only Lost Soul in your Land of Bondage that they have access to, or by rescuing the “shuffler” (Ezekiel 31:14) Lost Soul which will leave no other Lost Souls in your Land of Bondage (assuming you aren’t using Sites).

There are times when you may want to use Son of God to rescue one of your opponents Lost Souls. If you’ve drawn several of your Lost Souls and your opponent has drawn their “shuffler” it may be to your advantage to rescue your opponents “shuffler” during a battle to deny them access to a Lost Soul. If you’ve gotten one rescue on the “Lost Souls” (Proverbs 22:14) card it can be hard to get the second rescue through a rescue attempt. It would be to your advantage to save Son of God to play on your opponents half rescued “Lost Souls” card. Of course it’s irrelevant which Lost Soul you play your Son of God on if the rescue will give you enough redeemed souls to win the game.

Cards to watch for: Your opponent’s strategy might be designed to hinder you from playing your Son of God. Cards such as Confusion or High Priests Plot can discard Son of God from your deck or hand. Altar of Ahaz will protect all Lost Souls from rescue by Dominants until a human Hero rescues a Lost Soul from its owner's territory.

New Jerusalem can be found in the new Gift Set tins. It was also previously released as a promo and in the retired Warriors set. It should be included in most of the decks you build because when combined with Son of God you get two free rescues. Since this card must be played simultaneously with the Son of God to rescue a Lost Soul, the same strategy for choosing the Soul(s) to rescue that I mentioned for Son of God apply to New Jerusalem.

You’ll usually want to save your Son of God until you’ve drawn New Jerusalem. The rules of the game allow you to play your New Jerusalem with only your own Son of God. If you draw Son of God early in the game before drawing New Jerusalem sometimes circumstances will warrant playing Son of God before you’ve drawn New Jerusalem. If you do this, your New Jerusalem will no longer be able to rescue a Lost Soul.

Cards to watch for: The same cards that stop Son of God, stop New Jerusalem since they are used together.

Angel of the Lord is found in any starter deck. It should be included in every deck you build because it can eliminate almost any Evil Character. Angel of the Lord is most effectively used during a rescue attempt. If it’s used on a lone defender and your opponent doesn’t have a way to remove your Hero or the Lost Soul, you’ll win the rescue attempt. I’ve found it’s best to save the Angel of the Lord for hard-to-discard Evil Characters such as King of Tyrus, Prince of this World, Emperor Nero, Red Dragon or any of the Philistine giants. It can also be a good idea to use your Angel of the Lord to keep your opponent from gaining initiative to play their nasty Enhancements. If your opponent blocks you with a 1/1 king, you might want to discard him immediately with your Angel of the Lord.

If your opponent has an Evil Character with a special ability that really hurts your strategy, it might be necessary to use Angel of the Lord to discard the Evil Character before they enter battle. Examples of this are banding characters (like Lot’s Wife), Women as Snares (if you have a lot of male Evil Characters in your territory) King Zimri, Emperor Otho or any warrior class Evil Character that’s equipped with a “horses” weapon class Enhancement that allows them to draw 2 cards and play the first Enhancement when they enter battle. Keep in mind that using your Angel of the Lord before your opponent blocks isn’t as likely to guarantee that you’ll rescue a Lost Soul, but it might keep your opponent from stopping you as easily.

Cards to watch for: Judas Iscariot (from Priests) cannot be discarded once his ability has been activated in battle. Angel of the Lord will have no effect on him.

Harvest Time is available as a tournament winner promo and an ultra-rare from the retired Warriors set. It’s not a staple for every deck but I’ve found that many of the top decks use it. When you face an opponent who just refuses to draw their Lost Souls, you’ll be glad to have it. Harvest Time can also be used to turn a battle challenge into a rescue attempt when your opponent uses their Burial to deny your rescue. The first two Lost Souls I search for with Harvest time are the “hopper” (II Chronicles 28:13) and the “revealer” (Romans 3:23). Since they are put into the Land of Bondage by Harvest Time and not drawn, their special abilities don’t take effect. Another good Lost Soul to search for is your opponents “shuffler”. This works well if you have several Lost Souls in play that you want to shuffle back into your deck. If you don’t find any of those you’ll want to pick a Lost Soul that one of your Heroes have access to. Try to pick one that will hurt your opponent’s strategy if they don’t get to draw it (such as the “Site Doubler” when playing against a Site lock out deck). Another time you’ll be glad to have drawn Harvest Time is right after any player has rescued the “shuffler” Lost Soul.

A lot of players overlook the secondary benefit of Harvest Time – you get to look through your opponent’s deck. Be sure to make note of which Dominants, characters and artifacts they have left to draw. By knowing what they haven’t drawn and what they’ve played you can often deduce what they have in their hand. You can use the information you gather to adjust your strategy once you know what to expect.

Cards to watch for: None. The key cards that guard your draw pile, Jerusalem Tower and Hezekiah's Signet Ring, are "prevent" type abilities, and Dominants cannot be prevented.

Guardian of Your Souls is an ultra-rare from the Apostles set. It can be hard to find and relatively expensive. Guardian of Your Souls is not always necessary in a two-player game but I highly recommend having one for multi-player games. You’ll usually want to play this card as soon as it’s drawn.

In a two player game, the odds of drawing Guardian of Your Souls before your opponent draws Falling Away are 50%. If your opponent gets their Falling Away first, your Guardian of Your Souls will be of little importance. Certain strategies increase your odds of getting Guardian of Your Souls earlier in the game, such as “draw decks” and playing with search cards.

In a multi-player game the chance of drawing your Guardian of Your Souls before all of your opponents use their Falling Away are much greater. With three other possible Falling Aways at the table, you’ll regret not having a Guardian of Your Souls.

There’s an “advanced strategy” with Guardian of Your Souls that’s rather risky but can pay off with a free Redeemed Soul. I first heard about this idea from Justin Alstad. Most players will automatically put their Guardian of Your Souls in play if they draw it in their starting hand of eight cards. If you don’t play it they will assume you don’t have it. If you make a rescue attempt on your first turn your opponent might be inclined to give you a “free” Lost Soul with intentions of playing their Falling Away to get it back. As soon as they do, slap down your Guardian of Your Souls to protect it. You have to be quick, because if they have Falling Away and play it first you’re out of luck. Believe it or not, this has worked for me a few times.

Cards to watch for: Falling Away, if your opponent plays it first.

Glory of the Lord is an ultra-rare from the Kings set. It can be hard to find but it’s not as expensive as the other ultra-rare Dominants. Glory of the Lord should be included in any deck designed to take advantage of Solomon’s Temple or The Tabernacle. If you are not playing with one of those two Fortresses there’s no reason to include Glory of the Lord in your deck. Play this card as soon as it’s drawn.

Cards to watch for: Chariots of the Sun, although rarely played, can discard Glory of the Lord from play.

If one or more of your good Dominants are no longer good for their primary use during a game don’t be so quick to discard them. Maybe you needed to play your Son of God before you drew New Jerusalem, or you’ve drawn Guardian of Your Souls and your opponent already played Falling Away, or you have Harvest Time but your opponent has plenty of Lost Souls in play already. There are a few cards that still might make these valuable. Confusion of Mind and Sin in the Camp from the Priests set can be discarded by discarding a good Dominant from your hand. You can also include cards like I am Holy or Presented Before the Lord to take advantage of otherwise useless Dominants.

Christian Martyr is found in any starter deck. It should be included in every deck you build. Christian Martyr is best used during a battle to discard a lone Hero that would otherwise make a successful rescue attempt. If used after your opponent plays their Angel of the Lord or Authority of Christ you can take a rescue from them by discarding the Hero from battle.

You may also want to use your Christian Martyr to eliminate a Hero that would otherwise be difficult for your deck to stop, such as King David, The Strong Angel, Captain of the Host or Phinehas, son of Eleazar.

Some characters you don’t want to even enter battle because of their special abilities, like Hur, Heroes that cannot be discarded or any Heroes that start a banding chain. Using Christian Martyr on one of these characters while they are still in your opponent’s territory can sometimes be worth while.

Cards to watch for: Some Heroes cannot be discarded once they’ve entered battle, including Elijah, Job and Abiathar

Burial is found in any starter deck. It should be included in most decks that you build. Burial is best used during a battle to deny your opponent access to a Lost Soul by discarding the only Lost Soul in your Land of Bondage that they have access to.

One of the most popular targets for Burial is the “Lost Souls” card, after it has one successful rescue attempt on it. By discarding the “Lost Souls” card you effectively take away one of your opponents rescues because they never get the chance to make a second rescue and send the “Lost Souls” to their land of redemption. If you plan to use this trick and you opponent hasn’t played their Son of God you’ll want to play Burial quickly. If they play their Son of God first, they get both halves of the “Lost Souls”.

Sometimes you might want to play Burial on your opponents Lost Souls. Most of the time that might not sound like the best idea but there are situations where it can be a great benefit. When you only need one more rescue and your opponent has the “Lost Souls” card in play you can use Burial to discard the “Lost Souls” card (before you get a successful rescue on it) so your opponent has to give you a Lost Soul that can be placed in your Land of Redemption immediately. If your opponent only has one Lost Soul and your Heroes don’t have access to it, like the “Female only” (Jeremiah 7:18) or “N.T. only” (Acts 11:18) Lost Souls, you can play Burial to discard the Lost Soul so that you can play Harvest Time for a Lost Soul your Hero can rescue. In a multi-player game you can use Burial to stop one opponent from rescuing a Lost Soul from another player too

Cards to watch for: If you rescue the “anti-burial” (Galatians 3:13) Lost Soul you won’t be able to play Burial on any Lost Souls in your own land of bondage. Lampstand of the Sanctuary protects all cards not in battle from evil Dominants, including Burial.

Falling Away is found in the retired Women boosters. All cards in the Women set are common so it’s fairly easy to find. It should be included in every deck you build. If you think your opponent is playing with Guardian of Your Souls it’s best to play your Falling Away as soon as you draw it. You’ll always want to play Falling Away before your opponent gets three Redeemed Souls if they haven’t played Son of God/New Jerusalem yet.

If you have time to be selective about the Lost Soul you “fall away” there are a few good choices. If your opponent has rescued the “Lost Souls” card it should be your first choice, but only if you can ensure your opponent won’t rescue it again right away. It works well if you have Burial or can rescue a “shuffler” right away to remove the “Lost Souls” from your land of Bondage. Speaking of the “shuffler”, that’s one of my favorite targets to “fall away” when I have other Lost Souls in my land of bondage. Any Lost Soul that is hard to rescue (like the Female only or N.T. only Lost Souls) can be a good choice. So is the “Site discard” (I Corinthians 1:27) Lost Soul if you can place it in a Site right away and force your opponent to discard.

If your opponent plays their Guardian of Your Souls, your Falling Away is pretty much worthless the rest of the game. An advanced player might want to “fall away” one of their own Redeemed Souls, such as the “shuffler” or the “anti-burial”. You would only want to do this to deny your opponent their 5th Redeemed Soul and only if you have Son of God/New Jerusalem and Burial to deny them access to a rescue.

Cards to watch for: Guardian of Your Souls and Lampstand of the Sanctuary will both prevent you from using your Falling Away.

Destruction of Nehushtan is an ultra-rare from the Patriarchs set. It can be hard to find and relatively expensive. Of the ultra-rare, hard-to-find Dominants, this is the first one I would recommend investing in. It should be included in almost every deck you build. Every decent Redemption deck will have Artifacts, many of which you’ll want to discard. Deciding which one to use your Destruction of Nehushtan on can be a tough choice. I also recommend including the Evil Enhancement Lying Unto God in most decks for additional Artifact discard because it can be played on any Evil Character. It’s also a relatively cheap substitute for Destruction of Nehushtan if you can’t afford one.

There is no hard and fast rule as to which Artifact is the most important to destroy. I’m only going to mention a few of the most popular strategies. If you’re playing with “Fight by the Numbers” characters you’ll almost always want to use Destruction of Nehushtan on Holy of Holies. Golden Calf and Ashera Pole can also be annoying to “Fight by the Numbers” but they can be discarded by other means. If you have very many demons in your deck you might want to use Destruction of Nehushtan on Three Nails. If your opponent has Hur or Love at First Sight you’ll want to discard Gifts of the Magi as soon as possible. If you’re playing a Site lock out deck you’ll want to get rid of Priestly Crown or Temple Veil. The best advice is to try to figure out which Artifact helps your opponent the most and hurts your strategy the most.

Cards to watch for: Lampstand of the Sanctuary protects all cards not in battle from evil Dominants, including Destruction of Nehushtan.

Doubt is an ultra-rare from the Priests set. Because it’s so new it can be difficult to find and kind of expensive. If you’re making an orange brigade deck you’ll usually want to include Doubt if you have access to it. Although it’s an orange brigade character once it’s in play, it doesn’t count as a human or demon, male or female, so it’s not vulnerable to many of the battle winning enhancements people normally use. Doubt isn’t kept from entering battle by Three Nails, unlike most orange brigade cards. With a defense of 12 there aren’t many Heroes that have stats high enough to defeat Doubt by the numbers. With an attack of 0 you’ll usually enter a stalemate with Doubt so you’ll get the opportunity to play any of your nasty orange brigade enhancements.

Doubt can also play a crucial role in a non-orange brigade deck. It makes for a decent “stand alone” blocker for a deck that’s light on defense. In a multi-player game you can give Doubt to an opponent to allow them to block with it. This can be a great move if it keeps a Lost Soul in play for you to rescue on your turn.

Cards to watch for: None

Dominants can be played even if you don’t have any legal targets (they won’t have any effect). Most of the time you wouldn’t want to play a Dominant without a legal target but there are situations where you simply need to get cards out of your hand. A few examples of why you might want to “waste” on of your Dominants. If your opponent has the “speed bump” (Matthew 19:23) Lost Soul in play and you have over 10 cards in your hand you could “waste” a Dominant to get down to 10 cards. The new Hero Zebulun ignores Evil Characters with toughness greater than the number of cards in your hand. There could be times when you want to “waste” a Dominant to decrease your hand size.

You’ve probably noticed the trend that most Dominants are best used during a battle. The scenarios I’ve described are the most optimal times and ways to play your Dominants. There will always be exceptions to every situation. The key is to know when to hold your Dominants and when to play them and that comes with practice. Most importantly, make sure you and your opponent have a good time and enjoy this great game.