Author Topic: Joe's Fresh Start (aka ANB Deck that Broke the Game again) (Read 1265 times)

Captain Kirk · « **on:** March 22, 2013, 09:32:24 AM »

Record: 5-1-1 (3 timeouts: win, loss, and tie), + 18 LS, 1st place at T2 only
Cards in deck: 105 (37/37/31)

NEUTRAL: 31
Lost Souls: 14
   Lost Soul (can't be prevented) x2
   Lost Soul (female only) x2
   Lost Soul (N.T. only) x2
   Lost Soul (Pigs)
   Lost Soul (revealer) x2
   Lost Soul (shame)
   Lost Soul (Speed Bump) x2
   Lost Soul (Wanderer) x2

Artifacts: 13
   Book of the Law x3
   Hidden Treasures x3
   Joseph's Silver Cup x2
   Magic Charms x3
   Stone Pillar at Bethel x2

Dual-Alignment Enhancements: 4
   Seven Years of Famine x2
   Seven Years of Plenty x2

GOOD: 37
Dominants: 4
   Angel of the Lord (H)
   Guardian Of Your Souls
   New Jerusalem
   Son of God

Fortresses: 5
   Goshen promo
   Storehouse
   Zerubbabel's Temple x3

Covenants: 1
   Covenant of Palestine

Heroes: 15
   Agur
   Haggai x2
   Hur x2
   Eli the Priest (Pat) x3
   Jacob (FoOF) x2
   Joseph (2011) x2
   Judah
   Rachel (2011) x2

Hero Enhancements: 12
   A New Beginning x4
   Abraham's Descendant x3
   Answer to Prayer (FoOF) x4
   Numerous as the Stars

EVIL: 37
Dominants: 5
   Burial
   Christian Martyr
   Destruction of Nehushtan
   Falling Away
   Mayhem

Curses: 2
   Captured Ark x2

Evil Characters: 16
   King Rehoboam (k)
   Assyrian Siege Army x3
   Assyrian Survivor x2
   Astrologers (TxP)
   Balaam (Di)
   Damsel with Spirit of Divination (TxP) x2
   Egyptian Magicians x2
   King Manasseh (Di) x2
   Uzzah x2

Evil Enhancements: 14
   Invoking Terror x2
   Death of Unrighteous x3
   Divination (TxP) x4
   Forgotten History x3
   Two Thousand Horses x2

Now that the errata is issued I might as well share my most recent "broken" T2 deck. Although I must say it is nowhere near as broken as previous decks I have made as my opponent still gets a turn every turn, in which they can draw cards and make a rescue attempt. So on that note I would not consider it broken so much as a "you can't block ever so try to win as fast as you can" deck.

Background

Quote from: Old ANB Errata

If making a rescue attempt, remove this card from the game to shuffle all cards in play, set aside areas, and hands into decks. End the battle. All players draw 8. End the turn. Begin a new turn.

I actually didn't realize how poorly written the last ANB errata was until 3 night before the T2 only when I was doing forum searches for other cards (not named ANB) and came across a thread from last April that laid out the ANB + Book of the Law loophole. Book of the Law protects ANB from being removed from the game so the shuffle does not happen. However, the next 4 abilities were separate sentences and therefore were not contingent on the removal and/or shuffle. So playing ANB pre-block was an impossible to block rescue attempt as the card says "end the battle" - meaning no characters can block, no artifacts can be used and no dominants can be played after I push my hero in battle and play ANB pre-block.

Strategy
Win condition: Zerubbabel's Temple + Book of the Law + Hidden Treasures + Green Prophet + ANB. Free LS each rescue.

I would get my hand down to 5 cards if possible before I made the rescue the first time for max drawing. I could draw 8 off ANB after my successful RA (as well as my opponent). Then because discard phase doesn't happen (due to "end the turn") I can keep my hand over 8 cards and d3 on my next turn - hitting the hand limit. Then I flip up Joseph's Silver Cup to prevent my opponent from activating one of many devious artifacts that could shut down my offense (Darius' Decree, Covenant with Death, Iron Pan, Magic Charms, Wasting Disease), flip up Magic Charms, and attack with Hur for a Lost Soul I was protected from rescuing (either Speed Bump making all of them protected or a NT or female only) due to only being able to make a battle challenge by selecting a LS I didn't have access to based on the rule that you can't make another RA after making a successful RA until your opponent has had a turn. My opponent loses the free 8 cards they "gained" off ANB due to Hur. Then I capture myself and one of my opponents' best heroes with Charms before they can block so nothing bad happens to me.

My opponent gets a turn but can't activate an artifact to stop me. If I didn't draw into my ANBs well enough I would sometimes hit a lag between attacks or if I didn't draw Joe's Silver Cup an opponent or two of mine were able to flip up artifacts to delay me while I waited to draw into counters to their counters to my cards.

I chose not to use Burial Shroud (over Silver Cup) because I felt that I could block a number of rescues with my defense rather than risking artifacts they could use to stop me after I was set up. It turned out to be a great deck building call as most of my opponents had artifacts to counter my deck face down at the time that I was set up. I probably would not have won without Silver Cup.

Kirk

Captain Kirk · « **Reply #1 on:** March 22, 2013, 09:32:41 AM »

Strategy continued
I had a strong enough defense to keep all of my opponents from getting to 7 in 7 games. None of my games ended in fewer than 7 turns and I had Lost Souls available most every turn except against Jayden in the last few turns of the game. This was a stark contrast to many of my past combo decks where my defense is only there to set up my offense and can't get many blocks.

Deck Building Notes
- I used Answer to Prayer to pull out ANB on some rescues with Joe to speed up the deck.
- I used Abe's Kids put back ANB in my deck. 4 ANBs + SoG/NJ meant I usually only needed to do that once in a game.
- 7 Years of Famine negated the draw part of ANB after I was set up and didn't need any more cards. I didn't want my opponent to draw counters to my deck.
- Agur was there for a pinch to recur ANB if I needed Abe's Kids to snipe CwD or if I didn't have Hidden Treasures. That was necessary in my game against Jordan as I had to fight his CwDs. I attacked with Agur and placed ANB on Haggai and then captured myself with Charms to set up for a rescue the next turn.
- King Rehoboam helped me to draw off Hur or place with Agur.

Other Thoughts
3 nights wasn't a lot of time to test. I found out on Wed evening and made my initial deck list. I couldn't find anyone to play a test game against so I did a couple test draws in RTS on Wed night. I thought about the deck a little on Thurs but spent the whole evening with my wife at a concert. After getting home close to 11 pm I sleeved all my cards for my 3 T2 decks and went to bed after making a few changes (most notably realizing that Book of the Law is NOT a Tabernacle artifact). And I spent Friday driving to the tournament and playing T2 multi. So 0 test games before the tournament.

After a timeout loss my 1st round against Bill, I was planning to switch decks if the deck didn't perform like I hoped in the 2nd round. However, the deck worked the 2nd round and I rode it the rest of the way.

I thought about shelving the deck until Nationals - but since the combo was posted last spring I figured the card would change prior to nationals and wanted to take advantage while I could. Little did I know ahead of time that MJB used the same combo in a deck for the T2 only. His build was slightly different and took the Burial Shroud approach (so opponents could flip up counter artifacts but could not attack on their turn). However, the critical flaw in his deck was that he used The Tabernacle to hold Book of the Law. Sorry to rain on your parade by calling you out on that 3 games into the tournament.

So even if I didn't use the deck there I imagine the change would have happened due to MJB.

You can read my T2 only tournament recap to see my game by game analysis. At the time I posted that ANB was still broken so I didn't want to spill the beans. Now my recaps may make more sense.

Kirk

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Author Topic: Joe's Fresh Start (aka ANB Deck that Broke the Game again) (Read 1265 times)

Captain Kirk

Joe's Fresh Start (aka ANB Deck that Broke the Game again)

Captain Kirk

Re: Joe's Fresh Start (aka ANB Deck that Broke the Game again)