HOLDER'S HEROES

We’ve had several months now to explore Faith of Our Fathers (FoOF) and the impact it will have on Redemption. Players have found all kinds of fun ways to use and abuse the cards from this new set. With the big, season end tournaments right around the corner, I’d like to take time to go over the Faith of Our Fathers tins to share some of my favorite uses for FoOF cards. I’ll inevitably miss many great uses, so please feel free to comment and add your own favorites.

Follow up:

Tin III

Hidden Treasures – How many times have you been annoyed by an opponent who pillaged your deck with Gabriel? Hidden Treasures continues the legacy by letting a lone green prophet discard an evil enhancement each time they enter battle. But as good as that is, that’s not even the best that Hidden Treasures has to offer.

Have you ever had an opponent make a rescue attempt with Ethiopian Treasurer and play Authority of Christ before you even had a chance to block? Hidden Treasures is kind of like that. Green brigade prophets everywhere are playing enhancements as soon as they enter battle. They’re ignoring your humans with Spiritual Warfare. They’re resetting the game with A New Begging. They’re removing evil Characters with Sword of the Lord, Blessings for Obedience, David’s Music, Plague of Frogs and Repentance. They’re “Searching” for Son of God. And that’s still not even the best that Hidden Treasures has to offer.

Some have dug deep into the combo vault to find ways to play enhancements from other brigades with Hidden Treasures. When Saul is converted to Paul he’s a multicolor Hero, which includes green. Paul was also a prophet. With Hidden Treasures, each time Paul enters battle he gets to play an enhancement from any good brigade. It’s not easy to pull off but it’s very effective if you do.

Another method for playing non-green enhancements was first made known by Daniel S. He uses the green brigade David to allow him to play any enhancement bearing David’s name in the title or scripture verse. Some of the most powerful of those enhancements are Unified Kingdom and Royal Parade.

Obadiah – Besides having a cool name, Obadiah has a few other things going for him. He owns pale green. Have you faced the new Assyrians? How about Esau the Hunter or Prince of this World? Obadiah doesn’t fear any of them and he’ll only have to fight them once. If there’s a pale green character who you find especially annoying, use Provisions so Obadiah can choose them to block. He also has good numbers to take on almost any evil Character from another brigade. Oh, and did I mention that he’s a prophet so he can use Hidden Treasures?

Nahum – He’s small enough to get initiative most of the time. Like Obadiah he also shuts down pale green characters, this time by negating their special ability. One of the best things about Nahum is that he has access to all Sites. In the post FoOF world of Redemption, that can be a very good thing. Oh, and did I mention that he’s a prophet so he can use Hidden Treasures?

Joel – If you’re looking for initiative you’ve found the right Hero. Unless your opponent has some kind of play first ability for their evil Character, Joel will have the first chance to play an enhancement. Since he gets a little bigger each rescue he makes, that won’t last for long. But really, how many times to you need to rescue before the game ends?

Like his fellow prophets in FoOF, Joel hinders the powers of an evil brigade. This time it’s special abilities on brown Characters instead of pale green. That includes you Uzzah, Foul Spirit, Esau and King Nadab. Oh, and did I mention that he’s a prophet so he can use Hidden Treasures?

Visions – This isn’t your average side battle card. For starters one of the evil Characters is going to come from battle. That means that it doesn’t work with Hidden Treasures. That also means that you have a good chance to defeat the blocker and leave your Hero a clear path to victory. To increase your chances of victory all of the special abilities on your opponent’s Enhancements are prevented. That gives you two nice options. You can choose one of your large evil Characters to fight them with and defeat them by the numbers or you can choose an evil Character that will give you initiative to do any number of abusive things.

Search – This is the second reprint we’ve come across in FoOF. There’s one important new line of text on this card – it cannot be negated if used by a prophet! You’ll almost always find yourself searching for a Dominant or that important piece to your combo. Let’s see… it can’t be negated, works with Hidden Treasures and lets you get any card you want? Where do I sign up?!

Arioch – Babylonians got a huge boost in FoOF, both in Tin III and Tin V. For the high price of discarding one of your male humans, Arioch can make in instant block if your opponent only has access to one Lost Soul. He also works great on a half rescued Lost Souls card.

Piling your Lost Souls under your deck can make it nearly impossible for your opponent to win the game before you do. To balance this amazingly powerful card, his ability doesn’t work if your opponent has a prophet in play. There are a large number of prophets in Redemption. Quite a few of them are commonly used. Be sure to discard, remove from the game or shuffle them so you can continue to use Arioch’s special ability.

Ashpenaz – Most Babylonians have large numbers making it hard to get initiative. Not Ashpenaz. This little guy will get you initiative against the majority of Heroes you face. Crimson has a number of powerful enhancements that you can take advantage of, such as Great Image, Carried into Exile, Set Fire and the new Babylonian enhancements, only to name a few.

Babylonian’s have a lot of capture abilities at their disposal. Ashpenaz gives you something to do with all those captured Heroes – he convinces them to join your team! One of my favorite things to do with the Heroes after they’ve been converted is to discard them to Arioch to put a Lost Soul under my deck.

Head of Gold – Crimson has gained a card that’s good against both humans and angels at the same time and for different reasons. The more Babylonians you can pile into your territory the better this card gets since you can capture a human for each of them. Towards the end of the game I’ve used it to completely eliminate an opposing offense and/or defense. It goes well with Raiders Camp, Ashpenaz and Headquarters at Riblah.

All those Babylonians in your territory are also immune to silver. That can be an effective weapon against The Strong Angel or Captain of the Host if you can grant your enhancement “cannot be negated” status with something like Ashera Pole, The Trap of the Devil or Nergalsharezer.

Nebuchadnezzar's Dream – There’s nothing real fancy going on with Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream. Your Babylonian gets to discard of a Hero, possibly lots of Heroes. In a multi-player game you get to discard a Hero from each opponent. In a pinch, the numbers aren’t bad either if you need to raise your power to defeat a troublesome Hero.

That concludes the assessment for Tin III. I hope you’ve found a few nuggets of wisdom that inspire you to try something new. What a great bunch of cards Faith of Our Fathers has added to Redemption!