In this article, I want to celebrate the team behind End of Times (EoT), explain how the
set aligned with rotation without us knowing it, and preview the themes and play styles
that make this set so special.

When I say I’m excited for this set, I cannot stress that enough. I’ve been on the elder
team for seven years now. This is the most teamwork I’ve ever seen on a set and that is
not an understatement, nor is it a slight on past work. It’s a compliment to this team and
how hard they’ve worked together on this set.

The elder team has a lot of experience from a vast number of areas and walks of life.
Outside of decorated Redemption careers as play testers, hosts, card designers, rules
guru, and teachers, they all bring aspects of Bible knowledge, life experience I mean we
are called elders for crying out loud. It is a team of God-fearing men that are passionate
about this game. With this set we got the best of everyone, and it is going to show in so
many ways.

Years ago, Chris and I were brainstorming the “times block” and what that would look
like. I wrote an article last year about a past present and future time set you can read
here. I won’t go over all of that again, but it was confusing to show a present block with
scripture of events that have already come. We consolidated the church theme into End
of Times and decided to do two sets instead of three. And what do you know, God
showed up. As an elder team we did not know when we would rotate or what exactly we
would be rotating. I had a hunch that we might be rotating when this set came out, so
End of Times was appropriate for the set name.

As amazing as the elder team was on EoT it would still be in the design phase if not for
the play testers. I will not credit them individually here, since we have something else
planned for them and further recognition, but I do want to highlight how hard they
worked. Jay, okay I will say one of their names, asked if this set was the most play
tested set ever. While I cannot accurately answer that question, I can say from my
experience it felt like the most play tested and thought through set from both teams,
play testers and elders.

Just like this set, this article was delayed a bit. For that, I apologize. Life has been very
busy, in a good way, but still busy. Let’s get into set design now. EoT is about the events
leading up to, the events in, and how the people will act in the end of times. It’s not just
a Revelation set. You will see parables that Jesus spoke about the end of times, His
conversation with His disciples, the Thessalonica church, scripture from Peter’s letters,
and a few other scriptures that revolved around these events. There are three main

offenses, Thessalonica (clay), Revelation angels (silver), martyrs (white), with some
gospel gold and purple support. I think we even have some edited by R.O.S.E.S.. For
evil we have Magicians and the Four Horsemen (pale green), N.T. animals (crimson),
Revelation demons (orange), as well as some gray support.

The Thessalonica church wants their Heroes out early and often. The more they have
out, the more boosts they get. This offense will feel the most, and I will quote Jay here,
“wonky.” Sometimes, I like wonky. Sometimes I get too wonky. I hope we found a
balance with the Thessalonica church. I will say that clay gets some fun cards either
way. Here’s a Hero who is a great resource generator. She’s also helpful to other
churches as well. The Virtuous Votary is a rare “+3” if she is banded into battle. It’s
another way of showing how the Thessalonica church wants to help one another.

Our next main theme is Revelation angels. I know this theme will be a favorite to many
players and not just Card Game Fanatic. The art is awesome, the abilities are fun, and
they have strong Heroes with a lot of ways to attack the opponent. This Hero used to
have a play ability, and it was either too good at times, or did nothing at all. It’s ok to
have some cards like that but felt wrong with this Hero’s scripture and being an angel.
This Hero’s scripture describes him flying over everyone preaching the gospel, so a
convert ability felt appropriate. I have always thought silver should have some way to
attack the hand, and I think this is a fair way to do that. We still have the same problem
of not always working, so we gave him a broad search just in case the opponent is
using N.T. animals or Revelation demons from this set, or just not using humans at all.

The last main theme will be, in my opinion, the favorite for most people. I also think it’s
the strongest. Martyrs will be flying out of your deck or discard pile into your hand or into
play and they will annoy and pester your opponent if they come into play from your
discard pile. Players will not want to discard your martyrs, and you will need to decide
how many you want to keep in the discard pile, how many you want to bring back, and
when you want to bring them back! I expect to see banishing opponent’s discard pile or
restricting them from searching for it to become more popular next year to slow them
down. Here’s a martyr that got a fun rework during the set that will help you visualize
what I am saying.

Gospel gold and purple each got a boost. It felt great to bring in passages where Jesus
is talking about the end of times and it helps that both of those themes could use a
slight boost. Abomination of Desolation is a strong card, especially when paired with
Artifact activation in battle. We had to make this card go directly at that! Matthew
chapter 24 is chalk full of end of times language. It’s when Jesus is telling the disciples
the signs and warnings before the Son of Man returns. I would highly encourage you to
read this chapter right before the set release, as you might see a couple more cards
from it!

Gospel gold was fun to give toys too. I think a lot of people enjoy gospel gold and wish it
was more competitive. It’s always difficult to balance strategies that attack the
opponent’s hand and deck, since too much can become way too strong. The Prudent
Five is from Matthew 25, specifically the parable of ten virgins. This parable talks about
the ten virgins who took their lamps with them, five of which were foolish and did not
bring oil for their lamp and the other five being wise and brought oil. The bridegroom
returns, which is a reference to Jesus returning and how some were ready and some
were not.

Gospel gold felt like it had little banding compared to most themes, so we gave The
Prudent Five the thematic reserve ability associated with gospel gold, plus the option to
band or draw 2. There were five wise women who went out, so a band makes sense.
You know I can’t help myself with a good old-fashioned band or draw 2! If you play
gospel gold you know Jairus can be hard to band to sometimes, so this modifier should
help that too.

That’s five cards from offense, which is fitting for our last card title. We don’t have five
for defense, but I do have four! One of my favorite themes from EoT is animals. You will
see each card in this theme have the same scripture used twice, once for the animal
and once for the Enhancement. Those two cards tend to pair together as well. I wanted
to make birds feel like they are constantly coming down to pester you and then flying
back up. We have seen this in the past with Devouring Birds from Revelation of John. I
love this concept and wanted to give animals a mini theme of birds, similar like they
have with lions, and make birds feel unique. This card can fly down, take something,
then fly back up after battle. It’s hard to keep these pesky things down. It also helps with
protecting your Evil Characters since the animals tend to stay in your hand, or return
back to it.

This next card might seem like an auto-include for all Revelation demon defenses and
might be enough of a reason to play that defense. Surprisingly, this Evil Character got
mixed results and few blocks, although I still think a card like this will block more often
than not in every game. Joe Schaefer pitched this idea and said he had thought of it for
a while. We loved it! Thanks, Joe! This Evil Character perfectly aligns with orange
philosophy of stronger characters and weaker Enhancements.

The next evil theme I think will be a fan favorite. In the past, magicians have always had
cool tricks, fun Artifacts and quirky Enhancements. We tried to keep that same feeling
and bring in enough cards to support an entire magician defense. I want to give credit to
Chris as he found a lot of great scriptures to use and that was not an easy task. The
scripture had to deal with end of times elements, themes or people, plus fit in with the
themes we chose for this set. This card feels like you are performing a magic trick, now
you see an Evil Enhancement in battle and now you don’t! But then it comes back with
sleight of hand, and you can play it. I had a lot of fun testing this card and I feel like I
didn’t scratch the surface with what you can do, especially if you get multi-brigade
banding going.

This last card is part of a 1-2 punch. You will see the “2” here and we will spoil the “1”
later. This card is very thematic to the set and a great tie-in to scripture and history. The
emperor at the time exiled John to Patmos and that is where he had his prophetic
visions and God showed him the events of the end of times. We wanted a card that
showed John being exiled due to his testimony to God and I think we hit it on the head
with this card.

There you have it! 9 spoilers from the new set! This set was so much fun to design and
see come to life. Playtesting was amazing, the design team was incredible and the
excitement around this set is exhilarating! I do think End of Times will be a favorite to
many players, and I am proud to write this article and share what we have been working
on. I hope you enjoyed reading this article, seeing the hard work of a community come
to life and get excitement about the upcoming set. End of Times is going to be amazing!

To buy singles, sealed product, and other gaming supplies mentioned, please visit our sponsors!