Persian Presidents 

When the Babylonians conquered the nation of Judah, they took many young Judeans to Babylon.  Among these were Daniel and three of his friends.   Daniel lived a long time in Babylon.  He outlived King Nebuchadnezzar, who had conquered Judah.  He outlived the next king, Belshazzar.  In fact, he outlived the Babylonian Empire, which fell to the Medo-Persian Empire. 

The new ruler over that area was named Darius the Mede.  He appointed 120 satraps and three administrators to oversee the land.  One of the three administrators was Daniel.  In time, Daniel performed his duties so well that Darius planned to promote Daniel over the other administrators (called presidents in the King James Version).    

Those Persian presidents were not happy.  They wanted to find a way to take Daniel down, so they watched his every move to find a flaw in his character or a weakness in his job performance they could announce to the king.  But Daniel was neither corrupt nor negligent. 

Since finding flaws didn’t work, the Persian presidents opted to use trickery instead.  We all know the story: They passed a law outlawing praying to anyone but the king, knowing that Daniel, the devout Jew, would continue praying to his God.  Daniel kept praying.  The punishment for breaking the law was imprisonment in the den of lions. 

The Persian theme begun by Haman and Zeresh gets four new cards in Rock of Ages.  One of the two new characters is Persian Presidents.

Persian Presidents

3/4 Brown Evil Character

IDENTIFIERS: Generic, Male, Median-Persian

SPECIAL ABILITY: Capture a Hero that was or is set aside. Cannot be negated if Lion's Den is in play.

SCRIPTURE:  All the presidents of the kingdom, the governors, and the princes, the counsellers, and the captains, have consulted together to establish a royal statute, and to make a firm decree, that whosoever shall ask a petition of any God or man for thirty days, save of thee, O king, he shall be cast into the den of lions.  Daniel 6:7

Tin XIX

Some top decks use set-aside cards such as Provisions, Gathering of Angels, or the two-color feasts from the Priests set.  This card gives a way to defend against those cards without using up an enhancement slot in your deck.  To increase the chances of this being useful, consider these tips for building a deck:

• Use Lion’s Den.  It can keep an opponent from responding with an interrupt, and can be very helpful to capture a “Gathered” hero banded to The Strong Angel.

• Use Raiders’ Camp and include some of your own good set-aside cards.  That way you can use Persian Presidents to capture your own heroes if you must.  Put the captured hero in Raiders’ Camp and, if you lose the battle, return your hero to your territory.

• Use The Bear from Rock of Ages.  The Bear is immune to Red brigade, which is helpful against the heroes who can access Lions Den.  Plus, The Bear can band to Persian Presidents, since they are Persians.

• If you are including Bear, you might consider pairing the Persians with orange brigade.  There is a nice 2-color enhancement in Tin 19 that makes this pairing a little easier.  The Bear opens up the opportunity to use “Two Possessed by Demons” which sets aside two humans until Son of God is played.  If your opponent ever gets his heroes back, Persian Presidents can capture one of them.

• Use the Lost Soul from Tin 15.  When you draw that Lost Soul, you get to set aside a hero from each territory for two turns.  That lets you tag a hero with a set aside label, so your Persian Presidents can capture it later.

These ideas are a start.  I hope you enjoy the prospect of building the Persians into a deck.  While they are too few to stand alone, they might make a sub-theme in an all-brown or orange-brown deck.

Spiritual Application 

When the Persians developed their conspiracy, their idea was that Daniel would die.  That whole plot kind of backfired on the Persian presidents, though, thanks to God sending an angel to intervene.

Scheming Persians seemed to have trouble escaping their own plots.  We all know how Haman’s plot panned out.  This reminds me of Psalm 7:15-16:

“He who digs a hole and scoops it out
       falls into the pit he has made.

 The trouble he causes recoils on himself;
       his violence comes down on his own head.”

When I read those words, and see its evidence in Bible accounts, my spirit sings in agreement with the psalmist as he continues in verse 17:

 “I will give thanks to the LORD because of his righteousness
       and will sing praise to the name of the LORD Most High.”