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Honestly I believe sam was hit but not hit enough to where the meta is slow enough again for balanced decks to to truly be viable. I think as it stands A tier would look like this:

     A:  Gardensciples
          Various spread offenses focused on Sam or FBTNB.
          Disciples
          Watertomb

     B: Genesis aggro
         Straight FBTNB
         Judges
         Teal/X
         Prophets(Isaiah)

      C: Straight teal
           Blue/silver
           Royality
          Straight Red
 
     D: everything else.

Honestly I believe sam was hit but not hit enough to where the meta is slow enough again for balanced decks to to truly be viable. I think as it stands A tier would look like this:

The question isn't so much whether balanced decks are viable (I think they are, though I doubt one will place at Nats) but whether other offense-heavy decks have overtaken Sam in overall power. For your actual tier list, you neglected to put Prophets (probable B tier), Disciples (probable A tier), and Water Garden (probable A tier) in.

I agree that prophets should be higher than D but why is Royalty so high up? It should be D with everything else

Royality does not suck.  People don't seem to grasp that but then again it's not really played and is slightly slow. And I made the list on the fly so I left some stuff out on accident.

In my opinion Sam FBTNB variant is the best deck out there.

What does that look like to you?

I don't play online and haven't had much recent competition, but I do build a crazy amount of decks, so maybe my thoughts are worth something.

The new rules haven't changed the meta, at all, and being such the meta is at an advantage. Yes, the meta is good against the meta. Which makes me agree with Wings of Music for the most part.

That said, the gap between the powerhouse Samuel offenses (and the like) and balanced/defensive-heavy has shrunk massively. No longer does the meta defense have any assured blocks. This puts them at a huge disadvantage compared to what they were. Now it's more reliant on what your opponent gets and manipulating that. IF it's meta vs. meta, this isn't much of a problem, as you can use Gib Delagates, Ammy Slave, and Cupbearer without second thought to make up for that, or Captured Ark to get rid of Lampstand so your Falling Away is good, etc. However, against a slower moving deck, this can become increasingly frustrating, causing you to get so nervous in between rounds you FORGET YOUR DECK IS IN YOUR POCKET.

Okay, but seriously, I think defensive heavy does have a chance. Balanced less so, as it tends to be more haxy, since you have two things to worry about. In the end, speed will take it due to odds. When there's 10 good speed decks being piloted by good players against 2 turtle decks, it'll be tough. Next year it'll hopefully change.

FORGET YOUR DECK IS IN YOUR POCKET.

I saw what you did there

A Tier
Sam/FBTNB
Gardenciples
Other Sam decks
Genesis
Watergarden
Diciples

Even combining the multiple TGT, disciple, and Sam varients above, it is nice to have 4 or 5 different offenses that are all considered to be top tournament worthy this year.  That is far more balanced than years in the past.

Also, straight Red is better than straight Judges in my book.

I think that the Water-Garden is far below Gardenchiples because it's significantly slower.  Water-Garden is unable to make use of the speed tactics that Gardeciples and Sam have available, simply put, it's just not fast enough to win. 

Soul Gen is great but even with this slight shift in the meta speed is still king.

I think Genesis and Disciples are on par with each other cause they both have strong characters and good speed and enhancements. I say this cause I don't know is you listed those in A in order of how great they are or not.

Can I have a definition of a Gardensciples deck. Is it heavy on TGT or Disciples?

That's good description. 

What is TGT?

The Garden Tomb (RA)

Type: Fortress • Brigade: None • Ability: None • Class: None • Special Ability: If opponent has a redeemed Lost Soul, then Salome, Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Peter, John, and Mary the mother of James ignore all evil brigades that do not have at least two Characters in play. • Identifiers: Empty! • Verse: Mark 16:1 • Availability: Rock of Ages booster packs (None)

So there is a whole deck strategy based on one card? Wow.

Quote from: Scoobug on May 01, 2012, 11:41:27 AM

So there is a whole deck strategy based on one card? Wow.

The decks are based around TGT, but even without TGT it packs a powerful punch.

I'll challenge this. Remove TGT from a TGT deck. I'm curious to know if it will even be Tier 1 anymore.

The four person band is vanilla without it being CBN though.

Yeah, it helps immensely that they have a TGT girl that is also a tutor for TGT itself. Hopefully Disciples can get a Disciple hero reprint that tutors Fishing Boat to boost mono-Disciples.

Sorry to totally change the subject(TGT).  What about Daniel decks. It is reasonable with the new rules but it HAS to be fifty cards seeing is has no speed.

KingLeo

I could see Daniel decks having some speed with Words of Encouragement, First Fruits, Provisions, and Hur+Gifts. It's not a lot compared to Samuel decks however. The Daniel theme doesn't have a lot good of battle winners though.

Daniel+Michael+His Sword+Protection of angels. 21/17 protected from everything CBN (not including name on name)
There's one

KingLeo

That will take a while to set up though.

Usually Mike will use Angels sword on him, but yeah that can work.  Plus Daniel + HT can be a lot of fun if you have sword of the Lord, Search or Spiritual Warfare to get off.  It's certainly not tier 1 though.  I would say it's upper B tier at best.

Daniel negates N.T. enhancements, so Spiritual Warfare wouldn't work.

Daniel can be included in an A tier deck easily, but a Daniel deck is not close to A tier.

I think that the Water-Garden is far below Gardenchiples because it's significantly slower.  Water-Garden is unable to make use of the speed tactics that Gardeciples and Sam have available, simply put, it's just not fast enough to win. 

Soul Gen is great but even with this slight shift in the meta speed is still king.

Significantly slower?

Disagree. Besides Fishing Boat, what speed does Gardenciples have that Water Garden doesn't? I won't argue Sam - Sam is faster with Ishamiah.

Speed is still king, but I'll take the extra soul gen, plus all the other bonus goodies I get with Water Garden for a minor tick in speed. I'd rather drive a Lamborghini 55MPH then a beat up chevy 60MPH.

 

Huh... Obviously people don't play Water Garden the way I play Water Garden

I play with all 3 of those. Well not reach, I used too, but I took it out, because I never actually got the chance to play it

Matthew pretty much guarantee's that I get to block and do mean things. - The +3 is nice though. I still think Water Garden is better, maybe Gardenciples or straight Disciples has a little, little bit more speed, but I think Water Garden brings so much more to the table in Soul Gen, Disruption, and just general nastiness.

Noah decks are still king.

To be fair John, you don't really play a classic Water Garden, even though you defined it. Most people wouldn't think to splash a couple Disciples into Water Garden, and you're all over the place this year.

I just don't really understand that Since both the original Water Garden, and the 2011 version, and this years version used both Peter and John. I'm not really arguing the point, I just don't get it

4/10 TO THE FACE!!!11!1!!one!!!