Silver and Gold

[Gabe]

This deck started when I wanted to make a Luke themed offense but I didn't feel that there were enough quality cards for that theme.  I added a few other gold Heroes and some silver ones that play well with the gold guys.  The offense is large because the deck is geared toward multiplayer, although I've only used it in 2 player games so far. 

The defense is an interesting combination of stand alone and characters that force you to interrupt the battle or lose.

I didn't expect this deck to be very good.  It turns out it's really fun to play with.  After several games, many against quality players, it's only lost to my wife (she beats me more than anyone else ).

56 Cards

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/Curses 2
Chariot of Fire
Captured Ark
*Unknown Nation
Confusion of Mind
Gifts of the Magi

Sites 2
Dragon Raid
Hormah

Souls 8
Lost Soul (can't be prevented)
Lost Soul (female only)
Lost Soul (hopper)
Lost Soul (N.T. only)
Lost Soul (shuffler)
Lost Soul (site doubler)
Lost Soul (wanderer)
Lost Souls (3-line)

Heroes 10
Seeker of the Lost
Moses
Simeon (wa)
Israelite Archer
The Generous Widow
The Thankful Leper
Captain of the Host (ki)
Gabriel (wa)
The Strong Angel (wa)
Angel of God

Good Enhancements 7
Sword of the Spirit (ki)
Deborah's Directive
Repentance and Restitution
Ehud's Dagger (roa)
Furnace of God's Wrath
Striking Herod
Protection of Angels (ps)
Convincing Miracle

Evil Characters 10
The Amalekites' Slave
Uzzah
Sapphira
*Judas Iscariot (ps)
*Ananias
King Zimri
King of Tyrus (wa)
Egyptian Warden
Emperor Nero
Emperor Otho
Job's Wife

Evil Enhancements 6
Love of Money
Dance of Death
Lying Unto God
Philosophy
Expelling the Jews
*Deceipt of Sapphira (G)
Lurking

* added per your suggestions!

[amelo]

That's pretty cool. I like the looks of this deck, both offense and defense. Just out of curiosity, do you use the combo of banding Israelite Archer to Angel of God with Chariot of Fire active very much? It's kind of a nice combo sometimes

[Gabe]

That's pretty cool. I like the looks of this deck, both offense and defense. Just out of curiosity, do you use the combo of banding Israelite Archer to Angel of God with Chariot of Fire active very much? It's kind of a nice combo sometimes

Israelite Archer to Angel of God, yes, that's a nice combo and the main reason I included Angel of God in the deck.  Chariot of Fire isn't really necessary for that combo to work though.

[amelo]

oops, you're right.  obviously I haven't used this combo for a while. lol

[BubbleBoy]

I like it a lot. Did you ever consider Ibzan, though? He could be good for using Deborah's Directive (to recruit Moses along with whoever else you want) and Ehud's Dagger (double CBN, yay!). I would probably take Job's Wife out for Ananias, because then the FbtN is much srtonger. Also...it seems to me that you wouldn't really ever use Uzzah, because you'd want to keep all your artifacts. Is that a concern for you?

[Gabe]

I haven't tried Ibzan.  He would be really nice to play Deb's Directive on to bring in Moses.  As it is I usually try to use that to bring in Archer + Captain or my opponent's Heroes.  Ibzan would give me another nice option.

Ananias could work out really nice, especially when I can get him with the A. Slave.  Two things I like about Job's wife is that she can block Widow (hopefully they don't have AoCp) and she can use Expelling the Jews for a defense of 13 that most Heroes can't get past.  She still might be the best character to trade for Ananias though.

I use Uzzah pretty much every game.  There's always at least one Artifact I can afford to lose.  It's usually different depending on my opponent's deck.  Sometimes I need CoM or CoF, other times I don't.  I'm rarely reluctant to get rid of a Captured Ark that already has a use on it.  GotM has been the least useful card in the deck.  Although there are two cards that should play well with it they rarely come up together.  It's one of the first cards I've considered cutting.

[Tsavong Lah]

I was just going to say that you might be able to afford losing Gifts, but it seems you've already thought of that.

[SoulSaver]

How has the defense held up? It looks to me that you have the makings of a really good deck.

[Gabe]

How has the defense held up? It looks to me that you have the makings of a really good deck.

When I built this I didn't think the defense would last very well.  There's a lot of "one shot" blocks in there.  I've been pleasantly surprised by it's longevity.  A couple of times against "balanced" decks (ones with about the same amount of offense and defense) it's completely wore down an opponent's offense.  Hormah is also is pretty amazing with the number of characters that discard themselves.

[wk4c]

How has the defense held up? It looks to me that you have the makings of a really good deck.

When I built this I didn't think the defense would last very well.  There's a lot of "one shot" blocks in there.  I've been pleasantly surprised by it's longevity.  A couple of times against "balanced" decks (ones with about the same amount of offense and defense) it's completely wore down an opponent's offense.  Hormah is also is pretty amazing with the number of characters that discard themselves.

I play with defenses like that alot as well, and you are most defenitly right about it destroying balanced offenses.  I think this is one of the more effective defenses out there.  I really like the deck. 

[Gabe]

I play with defenses like that alot as well, and you are most defenitly right about it destroying balanced offenses.  I think this is one of the more effective defenses out there.

As someone experienced with this kind of defense, do you have any insight you could share with someone that's fairly new to using it?  Maybe characters or combos I've overlooked, Artifacts that work well with it, etc?

[wk4c]

I play with defenses like that alot as well, and you are most defenitly right about it destroying balanced offenses.  I think this is one of the more effective defenses out there.

As someone experienced with this kind of defense, do you have any insight you could share with someone that's fairly new to using it?  Maybe characters or combos I've overlooked, Artifacts that work well with it, etc?

Well, I'm sure you haven't overlooked it, but Deciet of Sapphira was a life-saver at times when I played this type of defense in a tournament.  I don't know that you need all of those multi's, and I would probably drop Lurking for it.  If your preference is having alot of multi's, though, then I don't think Deciet is absolutely a necessity. 

The one thing I actually think this defense could majorly benefit from would be Judas Iscariot.  I really used him as a defensive backbone, because he can block in alot of situations where your standard stand-alones couldn't.  I mean, I normally blocked with KoT or PoTW, but when they got killed(Huge targets) Judas can really step up from behind the curtian and pummel them.

The big shocker I pulled out often was Dance of Death + Judas Iscariot.  I don't think that block was ever beaten in my time playing the defense, haha. 

As far as artifacts go, Unknown Nation saved me a number of times, and it also was critical in killing that nasty Jake-CoTH band alot.  Plus, since I was suiciding quite a bit, it really helped to pull out that Judas as a shock-block, or whatnot.  I really think you could do without Captured Ark, but I don't know your style of play. 

Overall, I would see if there's a possible way to make room for Judas Iscariot and Unknown Nation.  The deck(And the player) is already good enough, but those cards were some of my favorites when playing this type of defense.

[Gabe]

Updated 

Wow, thanks for the advice!  You seem really sold on the use of Judas so I'm willing to give him a try.  Deceipt of Sapphira seems like a good inclusion since it works with so many of the ECs.  Unknown Nation seems like an obvious inclusion but somehow it wasn't even on the list of cards I considered when building the defense.

To make room I removed Gifts of the Magi, Convincing Miracle and Lurking.  I have a feeling that I might miss Lurking because of it's usefulness vs choose the blocker but we'll see.

I really tried to fit Ibzan but I just couldn't see how he'd be more useful than any of the current Heroes since he doesn't band or get initiative.  The only trick he has going for him is that sweet one with Deborah's Directive but I'm not sure that's enough to make him better than anyone on the existing team.

I also tried putting in Job's Wife for Ananias.  That sounds really good now that I have Unknown Nation to search for a piece of that band or add a 3rd character.

I've also considered trying to squeeze in Emperor Claudius and Rome Destory's Jerusalem but I haven't tried that yet.

[New Raven BR]

"gold and silver, silver and gold.
WAAHOOOO!!!!!"*throws his pickaxe in the air and the pick's end lands in the snow and he picks up the pick and licks the end a few times* "nothing" XD

[Tsavong Lah]

Is Seeker of the Lost a Luke hero yet?

[Gabe]

Is Seeker of the Lost a Luke hero yet?

Unfortunately, no.  The official word is that she never will be unless she's reprinted.

[Tsavong Lah]

Ah, bummer. Repentance and Restitution would have been even better in here...

Anyway, I'm wondering if you've run into problems with DragonRaid and Pergamum yet. Have you faced a dedicated site deck?

[Gabe]

Anyway, I'm wondering if you've run into problems with DragonRaid and Pergamum yet. Have you faced a dedicated site deck?

Excellent catch.  With only one access Site this deck stalls against Site lockout.  I originally only included one access Site since the deck was built for MP, but in 2 player I'd want at least one more way to gain access.  My initial thought was to add The Ends of the Earth since 6 of the 10 Heroes could use it without limit.  Do you think there's a better choice?

I've only faced one dedicated lockout deck.  I should have lost but my opponent didn't play/draw well.  My DR was at the bottom of my deck so I was waiting the whole game to draw access.  He drew all his souls and put them into Sites before Pergamum came up.  When he finally drew Pergamum he didn't have any souls left to place in it, allowing me to use DR ftw.  I had to be especially careful not to attack with The Thankful Leper and bring back the LS he buried or he could have placed that into Pergamum.

[Tsavong Lah]

The Ends of the Earth is an excellent choice, especially with Simeon available to give Captain access as well. I think that this deck is tough enough offensively to survive without the four O.T. heroes in the case of a site lock deck, but I'm still not sure that you should switch out Dragon Raid (my site deck has two ways to steal an access site, and theoretically could do so infinitely with Asher and King Nadab's recursion abilities). On the other hand, I can't find a card weak enough to take out after the removal of Gifts and Convincing Miracle. If you feel like there's a card you could pull, I would do so and have two site access sites.

You also have the advantage of playing a brigade that a lot of people use for sites. It seems like Gold and Red are popular site choices because of the perceived weakness of those two good brigades. So perhaps you could get away with just TEoTE.