HOLDER'S HEROES

What I’m about to share with you is a completely different approach at Site lockout than anything you’ve probably seen before. This deck doesn’t use any Evil Characters or evil Enhancements, yet it frequently denies your opponent access to any Lost Souls. How is that possible without using Evil Characters, you ask? By taking advantage of cards very few people actually play with: offensive Site killers.

Follow up:

I played this deck the last half of the 2007 tournament season with quite a bit of success. At one district tournament I had a +18 Lost Soul differential after three rounds of play. That’s three straight 6-0 wins (two were against solid players). The deck was very forgiving of my poor play at the Wisconsin state tournament, netting me 3rd place with only one loss. I didn’t get the chance to play it in a Regional tournament. At Nationals I registered two versions of this deck. One used Lion’s Den (red Sites) and the other used Tree of Knowledge (gold Sites). The deck put up an unimpressive 1-2 record, but that’s not a good indicator of its capability.

After Priests came out I tried to find a way to use teal, but I wasn’t impressed by anything I tried. After looking at cards like Trumpet Blast and Holy Unto the Lord, I realized that teal would work very well with a Site defense. When using Sites for defense, the first question you should ask is, “how will I remove my opponent’s access Site(s)?” To take full advantage of Holy Unto the Lord, I decided to try to use as few evil cards as possible. I found that there were good Enhancements that I could use to destroy or steal access Sites. Jacob’s Dream will take an access Site, Edge of the Sword (Warriors) will discard any Site and Vengeance of Eternal Fire will discard up to two access Sites (thanks to Kevin Shride and Jim Woolcott for pointing this card out). The problem with using those cards is that they’re in three different brigades. With teal, that makes four colors on offense.

One way to execute multi-color Site denial is to use cards like Seeker of the Lost and Faithful Servant promo. Seeker of the Lost can use two of the three “access denial” Enhancements. Faithful Servant can use Edge of the Sword, but he can also use purple Enhancements. Without having any Evil Characters of my own to discard, Authority of Christ (Promo) is a must have. For each brigade that you have a good Enhancement for, I recommend using at least two characters you can play the Enhancement on. To round out the blue and purple I used Claudia and Ethiopian Treasurer. That two-card combo allows you to play Jacob’s Dream and take an opponent’s access Site without ever needing initiative. This can come in really handy if your opponent figures out your plan and refuses to block in hopes of outracing you.

I tend to like characters that are protected from capture so Elisabeth and Tekoan Woman were two of my top choices to round out the gold and green brigades. Rhoda, Hur and Zaccheus are also good choices. The blue, gold and green brigade characters may be Heroes, but they’re more for defense than for winning Lost Souls. You want to get initiative, play one of your access Site denial Enhancements and lose the battle so your opponent doesn’t get initiative to negate your Enhancement. A “Fight by the Numbers” defense makes it hard to play your Site denial cards without having them negated, so Holy of Holies must be included in your deck. You’ll want to save your Destruction of Nehushtan in case your opponent has an Artifact that grants their Heroes access.

The offense I used was mostly teal with a couple non-teal ways to win Lost Souls. There are the purple characters I mentioned previously, combined with Reach of Desperation and AoCp. You can add a battle winner for each good brigade if you want. I tried using Plague of Frogs, Furnace of Gods Wrath and Abraham’s Servant to Ur. I ended up using the multi-colored Enhancement, Preaching the Truth because it works on most of my “access Site denial” Heroes. Teal has a lot of good choices for Heroes. Some of my favorites are Phinehas, son of Eleazar and Joshua the High Priest. Abiathar is good because he can’t be discarded or removed from the game. Ahimaaz is protected from capture.

Zecharias, Father of John can band to Elisabeth, and he’s N.T. so he can use Preaching the Truth. Seraiah the High Priest gives you the initiative every time. If you thought it was difficult to choose which Heroes to use for teal, wait until you see the list of Enhancements you have to choose from. There are the obvious inclusions I mentioned earlier, Trumpet Blast and Holy Unto the Lord. You’ll also have to choose between Burning Incense, Zeal for the Lord, Scapegoat, Jordan Interrupted and Jehoiada's Strength. As you can see, there’s plenty of power here to get you the three successful rescues you need so you can win the game with Son of God and New Jerusalem.

Just because this deck doesn’t use Evil Characters doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have a defense. It’s important to choose the right color Sites to use. In my area, very few people play with red so I chose Lion’s Den (the only red characters I’m likely to see are Seeker of the Lost and Jephthah). I like to include six Sites to ensure I have one for every Lost Soul that I draw. You’ll need to have a way to get rid of a Hero in case your opponent has splashed in a character that’s the same color as your Sites. Christian Martyr is an obvious choice. Unholy Writ is another good option. Most of the time, it’s a bad idea to use a capture card like Unholy Writ when you’re trying to deny an opponent access. By capturing a character you’re creating another Lost Soul that you have to hide in a Site. In this case, the benefit is worth the risk because you must remove a Hero that has access to your Sites. I’ve never had a problem giving up a Lost Soul I created with Unholy Writ, partially because I use six Sites. Even so, it’s better to give up one free Lost Soul (assuming the captured Hero isn’t in a Site) than several, which will happen if a Hero has access every turn.

Golden Calf plays an important role on defense by keeping characters with built-in Site access (like Angel in the Path) from entering battle. It will negate the access special ability of most Heroes but it also affects your Priests. Burial Shroud can buy you time if you have Lost Souls but no Sites to put them in, or if your opponent has Site access and you haven’t drawn a way to stop them. Your Dominants also serve as defense. Burial, Falling Away and Son of God plus New Jerusalem can all deny your opponent a rescue.

Choosing the correct Lost Souls to include can make a huge difference. The Female Only Lost Soul and the N.T. Only Lost Soul don’t necessarily have to be placed in a Site to deny a player access. I like to include the “Thorns” Lost Soul to prevent players from shuffling their Lost Souls into their deck. There are also the obvious Lost Souls that interact with Sites, such as the “Site doubler” and “Site discard” Lost Souls.

The remainder of the deck is mostly cards that work with my personal play style. I used cards such as Urim and Thummim so I’d know which Hero to rescue with and which Enhancement to play. I’m very fond of teal’s set asides that let you draw extra cards, such as Pentecost. When Hur is in the deck you’d be crazy not to include Gifts of the Magi.

This is a sample 50 card deck list of what the deck might have looked like prior to Faith of Our Fathers.

Dominants: 9

• Angel of the Lord
• Guardian of Your Souls
• Harvest Time
• New Jerusalem
• Son of God
• Burial
• Christian Martyr
• Destruction of Nehushtan
• Falling Away

Artifacts: 5

• Burial Shroud
• Every Man's Sword
• Holy of Holies
• Unholy Writ
• Urim and Thummim

Sites: 6

• Lion's Den x 6

Lost Souls: 8

• Lost Soul (anti-burial)
• Lost Soul (female only)
• Lost Soul (hopper)
• Lost Soul (N.T. only)
• Lost Soul (site discard)
• Lost Soul (site doubler)
• Lost Soul (thorns)
• Lost Soul (wanderer)

Heroes: 9

• Faitful Servant
• Seeker of the Lost
• Claudia
• Elisabeth
• Rhoda
• Ethiopian Treasurer
• Phinehas, son of Eleazar
• Joshua the High Priest
• Zecharias, Father of John

Good Enhancements: 13

• Preaching the Truth
• First Fruits
• Pentectost
• Jacob's Dream
• Vengeance of Eternal Fire
• Edge of the Sword
• Plague of Frogs
• Reach of Desperation
• Authority of Christ
• Trumpet Blast
• Jordan Interrupted
• Holy unto the Lord
• Zeal for the Lord

This deck will definitely change with the release of Faith of Our Fathers. Several new tools are available that may find a home here. A card I’m really excited about is Wastelands, because it allows you to remove an access Site from play without ever needing initiative in battle. Satan’s Seat provides another way to discard a Hero that has access to your Sites, and it serves as “fodder” for Trumpet Blast. The new Jacob eliminates the need for the Claudia and Ethiopian Treasurer combo in order to play Jacob’s Dream. It also gives you the option to add a Captain of the Host banding chain to the deck. With a green prophet and Hidden Treasures you can play Edge of the Sword without needing initiative. If you didn’t have a problem choosing your teal cards before, you will now. Faith of Our Fathers gave us Zerubbabel's Temple, two new Zerubbabel’s temple priests and another teal battle winner. That doesn’t even take into account the new National promo, Priests of Christ.

Faith of Our Fathers introduced some powerful new Sites that should at least be considered. When occupied by a Lost Soul, the purple Site, Pergamum, will keep Dragon Raid from entering battle. A new green Site called Babylonian Banquet Hall can hold as many Lost Souls as the number of Babylonian Sites in play. If you were to use a few of the red Site Babylon and a Babylonian Banquet Hall you would have two colors of Sites to choose from when trying to keep an opponent from having access. The down side is that these Sites are spread across three different colors, which could make it easier for an opponent to gain access if you use them all. It’s still up for debate which Faith of Our Fathers cards should be included this deck.

You’ll almost always have an advantage over your opponent in card quantity. Every good Enhancement they draw, and every Artifact meant to harm evil Characters (like Three Nails and Wool Fleece) will be a useless card for them. Playing Site lockout without any evil Characters does involve a certain amount of risk. If you run into someone using the same color offense as your Sites, you’re in for a rough game. If you choose your Sites wisely you could go several games without ever giving your opponent a Lost Soul.