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I've been experimenting with Teal/Green since I came into the game, for some reason it has always enthralled me.  This year, perhaps more than ever it has the potential to be dominating.  I feel that what Teal/Green lacks are powerful characters, outside of Aaron/Moses, and Phineas there isn't a whole lot to be had compared to Sam and Genesis.  They make up for this with access to some of the most powerful enhancements in the game, and HT to drop them preblock on the HT compatible teal/green heroes.  With Hur+Gifts and the feasts Teal/green also has great tools for speed. 

So IMHO a good Teal/Green deck needs to meet the following Criteria.

1: Compensate for weaker characters

2: Capitalize on HT

3: Include Hur+Gifts, the feasts, and a quick defense. 

I've seen a lot of different ways to run Teal/Green some capitalize on different strengths and minimize different weaknesses the following is my opinion on these different decks. 

Deck #1 Balanced Speed:  http://www.cactusgamedesign.com/message_boards/type-1-deck-advice/prophetsmagicians-29181/ The basic premise of this deck is to use Hur+Gifts/Set Asides in a 50 cards deck to blow through to HT + Spiritual Warfare, Aaron/Moses, and Phineas + Zeal.  It also has a fast defense with pretty good stopping power.  In a Deck like this the main problem is the offense, it just not as powerful as it could be.  It solves the problem in criterion 1 by causing a new one, a lack of characters, it's hard to make rescues with less than 10 heroes.  On criterion 2 a balanced deck like this can sometimes be hit or miss, but should do alright.  A balanced speed deck meets the 3rd criterion really well, with feasts, Hur+Gifts, and a fast defense.

Deck #2 Offensive Heavy Speed: http://www.cactusgamedesign.com/message_boards/type-1-deck-advice/prophet-speed-deck/ Again the basic premise is to blow through the deck to get to HT playfirst fun.  The problem is that a bad draw could kill this deck, if Hur+Gifts does not come the deck is done for.  With such a small defense there aren't going to be enough blocks.  In an offensive heavy deck the relative weakness of Teal/Green hero SAs really shows, there isn't a whole lot to compensate.  On Criterion 2 it definitely capitalizes on HT, probably better than any other deck becasue of house fast HT comes out.  On 3 however the deck actually falls just short of peak performance.  Because the defense is so small it fails to do much drawing to help the offense, Sabbath Breaker and Ammy Slave are only a +4, a larger defense could draw more and block more. 

Deck #3 Defensive Heavy: I haven't actually seen a deck like this, but I imagine it would be pretty interesting.  It would feature around 5 heroes (the three teal/greens, Moses, and Hur) and Assyrians, Babs, or Kings of Israel on the defense.  A deck like this may not meet criterion 1, since the defense would leave little room to compensate for weaknesses.  It would meet criterion 2 but would lack back up if HT gets nuked.  Criterion 3 would probably be met as far a Hur/Gifts, and the Defense go, but would lack heroes to drop feasts on.

Deck #4 Balance 56: http://www.cactusgamedesign.com/message_boards/type-1-deck-advice/teal-greenbabs/ http://www.cactusgamedesign.com/message_boards/type-1-deck-advice/tealgreen-ht-z-templekings-of-israel/ This type of Deck would be able to meet the above mentioned criteria as it has the card slots to make it happen, but it comes at the price of six extra cards and some missing doms.  It meets 1 by using Z temple to compensate for lack of character abilities via protection.  2. It Has the Characters and enhancements to capitalize on HT with back up to boot.  3. Can fit Feasts, Hur+Gifts, and a fast defense, but can't capitalize on these because it's 56 cards.

To recap. 

#1: Is probably the most efficient as far a drawing goes, and has good stopping power,  but lacks offensive punch of other decks.

#2: Maintains the speed of option #1 and makes up for #1's lack of offense but sacrifices the defense, and proportionally does not improve the offense that much.  Ultimately Sam does what this deck does but better.

#3: Meets most of the above mentioned criteria but does not have enough heroes to be a top deck.

#4: Meets all the criteria but at the cost of extra slots and possibly a few lost doms.

I've been experimenting with Teal/Green since I came into the game, for some reason it has always enthralled me.  This year, perhaps more than ever it has the potential to be dominating.  I feel that what Teal/Green lacks are powerful characters, outside of Aaron/Moses, and Phineas there isn't a whole lot to be had compared to Sam and Genesis. 

I can see where you're coming from, Teal/green has no Sam, but they have a several really underrated heroes.

Ahimaaz gets initiative, protected from charms & writ, and spies on opponent's hand
Abiathar: Protected from Plot
Hosea: This guy's a beast. SO annoying
Cherubim: Can band to either a Priest or a Prophet and put CM or Mayhem under their deck
Joshua the high Priest: Makes Zeal and any other battle winner CBN, and works great with Z temple
Priests of Christ: Access to the NT only, can fetch a dom, & not bad for initiative

But a lot of it depends on the player's style. Many players will go offensive heavy, but others prefer more defense. A large offense with speedy defense is probably the best way to go to keep up with Sam & Genesis.
I too think that Teal/Green has a lot of potential if built and played right.

That's a very in depth analysis, and I like that you included links to several different variations of this kind of deck.  This is exactly the kind of post that I'd like to see more of here because I think it would be really helpful for new players looking for deck options.

That's a very in depth analysis, and I like that you included links to several different variations of this kind of deck.  This is exactly the kind of post that I'd like to see more of here because I think it would be really helpful for new players looking for deck options.

Thanks for the complements Prof Underwood!

I think you're overestimating the power of Hidden Treasures. In general, it's good to play Search, Spiritual Warfare, and ANB pre-block, and that's about it. If you know that your opponent doesn't have any evil characters in hand, Two Bears is also perfectly fine.

Actually there is a lot more that HT can use, Holy unto the Lord is practically the equivalent of dropping AoCp preblock except that you have to discard some evil cards.  T&S is an excellent preblock play that deals with Nazzy or CP and can even deal with the defense the opponent has in territory.  And if the new CBP means CBP ruling goes through, Ezra's journey also becomes an excellent drop because it allows for a massive FBTN band if you bring in moses.  Oh and there's Burning incense too.

And to reverberate Mr. Hiatus, U&T compounds everything Teal/green does, and not because it makes teal/green better but becasue it makes the player perform better.

I can see where you're coming from, Teal/green has no Sam, but they have a several really underrated heroes.

Ahimaaz gets initiative, protected from charms & writ, and spies on opponent's hand Agreed he's underrated.
Abiathar: Protected from Plot But not from Writ
Hosea: This guy's a beast. SO annoying Annoying but not as powerful as his Sam or Genesis counterparts
Cherubim: Can band to either a Priest or a Prophet and put CM or Mayhem under their deck Sometimes useful but not Ismiah or Jacob, who would probably be his closest counterparts
Joshua the high Priest: Makes Zeal and any other battle winner CBN, and works great with Z temple Agreed But Ben, or Joseph trounce him
Priests of Christ: Access to the NT only, can fetch a dom, & not bad for initiative Same as above
 
Yes Josh and Ahimaz are good, and both get better with cov w/Phineas up but the thing is they still don't have the raw power of Sam  or Genesis.

Thanks for the responses guys, glad I'm to see my thread is appreciated!

Hmmm this might actually work.

It fulfills Criterion #1 by throwing in the angels and Sam.  It fulfills #2 Relatively well.  And it meets #3 quite well as Angel under the oak, Sam, and Eli's sound advice add an extra boost. 

My main problem is that it deviates from 'Teal/Green' by including 3 Gold characters and 2 Silver ones, not too much deviation as they are really just splashed in there but it certainly is less Teal/Green than the examples in my original post. 

That being said I think it looks like strong offense I would like to see how it would preform at a tournament.

Too true, I think that the offense does gain a lot of advantages this way.  The one downside I see is not having anything beyond the basic standalone defense.  Not that stand-alones are a bad defense as they are the most efficient one in the game, I just prefer to have more stopping power. 

EDIT: I just realized that this brings up another point:  Isn't part of what makes teal/green good the fact that it can actually work in a deck with a real defense? (See Chronic's defense under deck archetype #1)

The problem I have with Teal/Green is that most of its power comes from Enhancements, whereas Gardenciples and Sam decks derive most of their power from Heroes. Even Genesis is less Enhancement-centric than Teal/Green, as many of their enhancements serve to get our more Heroes. This causes it to be less streamlined than "S" offenses, and is a bit of a waste considering top decks often use meta-defenses. Teal/Green has the most pure battle-winning power of all offenses, but most defenses only stall once you've killed KoT.

Which is why I think the best Teal/Green Decks are the ones that compensate for lackluster in characters while still maintaining the proper emphasis on enhancements.

I think Pol's point was that there's a reason most of the top offenses have more emphasis on characters rather than enhancements. The best teal/green decks - in my opinion - focus on characters as much as any other top deck does. Aaron/Moses, Isaiah and friends, Phinehas, Ezekiel, etc. Teal by itself has some of the best enhancements in the game, but it doesn't really have the characters to back it up. Green has characters, but not many solid enhancements. The main problem is that, despite the synergy they both have, you have to devote a ridiculous amount of cards to get the best of both worlds, and in the meantime, it isn't fast enough to compete with Sam, Genesis, or Gardensciples on a card-by-card basis, unless you get Gifts of the Magi out early and pray they don't DoN or CA it early on. I experimented with Green/Teal a lot about two months ago and couldn't ever get anywhere with it, because when it came right down to it, other offenses were simply better, because green/teal was too slow. I do, however, support the making of green/teal decks. It's my belief that the best ones are somewhere around 20-25 cards on offense including support cards, with an emphasis on Tabernacle Priests and Ezekiel, with a Babylonian/Magician defense.

That depends. Keep in mind that Sam decks can deck out in three turns, and if they haven't decked out in six, the user either got a bad draw, their opponent got a really good anti-meta draw, or the user got enough out that they didn't need to draw anymore. We're talking about a deck that can easily get seven cards per turn, plus the draw phase, plus two feasts and Mustering for War. The closest green/teal has to that is Hur/Gifts and two feasts. With a perfect draw, a green/teal deck can deck out in 4 or 5 turns, but that's an absolutely perfect draw. Normally, it's going to deck out somewhere around turn eight or nine.

I dunno, maybe I'm underestimating green/teal. Were you doing any feast recursion?

Most of the time I've tried playing teal/green Gifts gets DoN'd before I can use it a second time, so yeah, I usually get it off once.

OK that's probably the difference then, I'm careful of when I use gifts so that it stays alive longer. (U&T ftw!) It sometimes means that I don't really start drawing until mid-game (because i have to wait for lampy), but once I get to mid-game I deck out pretty quickly. 

Maybe a fast defense like Pharisees would help Teal/Green with speed. Here's a Pharisee defense that could be pretty fast.

Fortresses: 1
   High Priest's Palace

Artifacts: 1
   Unholy Writ

Gray Evil Characters: 7
   Emperor Vitellius Draws a lot especially vs a Sam deck
   Hard-Hearted Religious Leaders
   Pharisees
   Pharisees
   Proud Pharisee D2
   Sabbath Breaker D3
   The Entrapping Pharisees

Brown Evil Characters: 1
   Uzzah
Multi-Color ECs: 1
    Scribe Bands & Recurs Balaam's Disobedience infinitely when you deck.

Multi-Color Evil Enhancements: 1
   Tenants Kill the Son (Gray/Black) D1

Gray Evil Enhancements: 4
   Balaam's Disobedience
   Gold Shield
   Pretension D2
   Self-Righteous Prayer

Yeah, that looks pretty good, it seems like it would be fast.  An early Sabaath breaker could really help get Gifts + Temple + Lampy up fast enough to do some real drawing.  It would certainly be worth play-testing.  I'm thinking maybe cut one of the characters. (the extra pharisees maybe?)

Yeah, it is a little big. You could definitely cut x1 Generic Pharisee. Maybe one the enhancements could go too.

IMHO Teal/Green needs to be run as a small offense with a heavy defense because it will not beat most auto-block defenses quick enough so you play with defense that can hold out long enough to get out your pre-block Spiritual Warefare, Burning incense, and then Zeal.

I half-agree with you. The problem is that teal/green inherently requires a relatively large offense to work properly, especially against larger defenses. It's too slow to run as an offense-heavy strategy however, so I think a balance (slightly more offense heavy but a ratio of something like 25-20 is usually okay) is the most effective way to approach the theme.

Haggai is very nearly a staple in Teal/Green, much moreso than Habbakuk.

In a small teal/green offense I would run Z-Temple priests with Micah Jeremiah Phineas and another prophet maybe habbakuk. You could then run provision recursion and Z-Temple endless rescue. I would also run Scribe on defense to get back Zeal at least once.

The problem here is this, the most efficient 'small offense' is not efficient enough.  Let's look at what cards a 'small Z-temple offense would need.

Z-temple + Micah + Haggai + Phineas + Zechariah + Josh + Hur + HT + Gifts + Zeal + Spiritual Warfare + Provisions + Pentecost + Burning Incense = 14 cards.  This offense lacks some of Teal/Green's most powerful cards namely Moses + Aaron and U&T.  This offense could have a lot more power even if you added just six or so cards.  Defenses these days don't draw that much, unless of course you use pharisees, expanding the offense allows you to add Feast of trumpets, Lampy, Joiada and other cards that allow you to maximize your drawing. 

If you want to go herolite Teal/Green I think that Zeke is probably a better option.

With that offense you would take out Hur, Gifts, Pentecost and any other speed cards. If you run a small offense you don't need speed. Your defense should hold out long enough to get out the offense you need and it is wasted card slots.

That's just not true. Every deck needs some speed to be competitive. You can pack your defense full of anti-meta cards, but if I've drawn four ways to get rid of those cards at least temporarily before you draw more than one of them, you're not going to win that game.

That's not what I've found.  But even if that is what I found it would be worth the risk.  Even the slightest possibility of a +7 would be worth it in my opinion.  Additionally Pentecost + Provisions + First Fruits and a defense that draws well is going to be enough to get you to Hur + Gifts in most cases.  Of course this is just what I've found to be true, and the meta I play in is not quite the same as the ROOT meta. 

I think that Chronic (Chronic I apologize if I'm misquoting you here) and I are saying that midsize offense is superior to a lite offense because it allows for that drawing.

Wait I'm a little confused.  Are you saying that he should leave it out if he has some other sort of speed, and to use it only when it is his sole engine for drawing?  That's what I'm inferring from your statement but I'm not quite sure if that's the conclusion you wanted.   

Ah, smart man.    Thanks for clarifying.  A plus one to you good sir.