Flesh and Blood Finally has Another Onboarding Point: New Player Considerations in Heavy Hitters

Flesh and Blood Finally has Another Onboarding Point: New Player Considerations in Heavy Hitters

by Steven Jennings Leave a comment

By Dimos Flesh and Blood’s newest set, Heavy Hitters, is reminiscent of Welcome to Rathe, the game’s first set. The classes and play patterns are similar, and they’re both very fun to play. However, I think the most significant similarity is that both of these sets represent a wide-open door for new players to enter through. Prior to Heavy Hitters, FaB has had a series of sets that have been less-than-welcoming to new players. Since Everfest in February 2022 (over two years ago!), I feel like Outsiders has been the only accessible onboarding point for new players. The mechanics of the set are reasonably simple to learn, and the decks and heroes had some significantly broad appeal to players (at least in my observations). However, there was not too much excitement in the set - and created few “wow” moments to draw newer players in. Some of the other sets released in this window were expansion sets – meaning they were not playable in draft or sealed formats and that each pack came with fewer cards split across more classes. This makes it a challenge to build a deck from just buying some cards and increases the information barrier required to get started. The remaining draftable sets in this timeframe (Uprising and Bright Lights) were polarizing for reasons like rules complexity, pace of play, constructed-format impact, or a mix of the above. While Round the Table is a solid introductory product, it is also very self-contained. Add in how isolated the Ultimate Pit Fight format is from the rest of the game, and it becomes difficult for a newer player to transition to the more widely-played formats. But now we have Heavy Hitters to bring new blood into the arena. The set gets a lot of things right, combining successes of previous sets and creating brand new highlights for new players.   Even though Heavy Hitters has a bit of a contrived theme, it flows excellently. Games are consistently exciting with heroes from the set in both constructed and limited formats. The sealed format is quite strong, something that has historically eluded the gamemakers, and something I’m glad they’ve finally cracked. Draft is interesting, with meaningful differences between each of the six heroes. This allows different numbers of each class to get drafted at every table and still feel like there are eight balanced decks playing against one another. Looking at the data from the first week of Road to Nationals Classic Constructed events, it looks like the new heroes are contenders without being oppressive against old heroes. Overall, it feels like the set has hit the sweet spot in multiple ways, making it easier to bring someone new into the game. This is the first set in a long time that I am going to drag some non-FaB friends to play at Armories and draft nights because I think they’ll really enjoy it.    If you’re not sold on Heavy Hitters yet, I recommend you play around with the cards – they’re much more convincing than I am. But, in addition to being a fun experience, what makes Heavy Hitters a better experience for newer players than giving them any other accessible, draftable set? In short, I think that Heavy Hitters has some of the best budget options and advancement pathways of any set in Flesh and Blood so far. The last time that this was a viable option was probably with Fai in Uprising. However, starting with a draft in that format would be a challenge due to the rules complexity required to play in a set with Dromai and Iyslander. But now there are six new viable budget options for decks to build. Some of these budget decks will be better and simpler than others, due in part to requiring fewer cards from previous sets.   I recently sat down with a friend of mine to show him Heavy Hitters. He’s new to FaB and card games, but has experience with board games. We played some sealed, which he really enjoyed, then showed interest in building out his sealed deck into a proper Blitz deck. I let him go through my spare cards, which was mostly the Heavy Hitters bulk I had on hand. By the end of it, he had two very playable decks in Betsy and Kayo that could plausibly go 2-2 at an average Blitz Armory. I think there are three key elements in this process beyond the accessible rules and back-and-forth gameplay: the Rare headpieces, simple deckbuilding constraints and pathways, and affordable, powerful cards in this set and elsewhere.   Each hero in Heavy Hitters has a specialization helmet at the Rare rarity. And they’re all fantastic. Many outcompete the three generic Legendary headpieces in the game (Arcanite Skullcap, Crown of Providence, and Balance of Justice), for about 30 cents each. While they may warp limited games, they’re a godsend in constructed formats. Four of them have a floor of Temper 2. Three extra health is fantastically strong in this game, particularly in the newer-player-advertised Blitz format. Generally, this amount of armor value has previously been locked behind much more expensive Legendary equipment. Rhinar’s Monstrous Veil and Kassai’s Hood of Red Sand only block for one, but have strong effects like the other helms. Most actively work with each hero’s power and main deck engine. Betsy’s and Olympia’s allow them to Wager, turning on their hero text so they can get the party started and start their gameplan of continuously making powerful tokens. Victor’s helps him block and generate Gold, which also allows him to draw a card and have a reroll for future Clashes. Kassai’s draws a card, allowing her to extend her turn, discount her next sword swing, and provide her more tricky options through attack reactions. Kayo’s helmet blocks for three, which is great. And possibly opens the door for a very desperate play if he’s behind – definitely the worst effect of the lot. Broadly, these are all Legendary-tier equipment that can slot into a new deck for pennies. They’re accessible, they’re powerful, and they’re a great way for new players to organically discover how strong blocking equipment is.   Another reason why I think this set is so good for onboarding newer players beyond the simplicity of the rules is the natural pathways of deckbuilding in this set. Each hero has a clear direction to build themselves in, and can do so very effectively through Heavy Hitters cards. Betsy wants to Wager more than anything, and there’s only so many cards that allow her to do so (all of which are pretty good, if occasionally soft on blocking). Throwing a deck together with a bunch of cards that say “Wage” on them and adding generally good supporting class cards is a great way to build her, and is pretty close to the deck’s non-budget optimal build. Kayo allows you to run yellow and blue five-power attacks without sacrificing your consistency on Brute synergies. This allows double-dipping with his most powerful cards like Bare Fangs while keeping a strong resource base. Both of these broad lines were identified by my friend in his deckbuilding and he really enjoyed the experience of coming to those decisions through his own logic and discovery. I supplemented some aspects of it by introducing some cards from older sets, like Smash Instinct, Savage Feast, and a selection of Common and Rare Guardian Crushes. This deckbuilding simplicity continues through the set. Victor wants ways to make Gold and block effectively, both of which are clearly delineated through Heavy Hitters cards like Test of Strength, Test of Might, and big-damage Guardian attacks.    Betsy is my first vote for the best budget deck to build – and not just because I saw it happen firsthand. Although Betsy may not necessarily be the strongest deck in the game, her pieces come together quite naturally, which is an important first step. However, what I think stands out about her is the upgrade path. Betsy performs excellently with Big Bet and Primed to Fight, both of which are very affordable as key pieces. Although she is not a top-tier hero when fully kitted out, she is a viable budget deck. She requires no key Legendary equipment as her affordable (but fashionable) hat is the main power piece in her engine. However, each equipment that can be used in Betsy can also be used in any other Guardian, both of whom are strong meta contenders. Betsy offers a very open door for new players to step into, build a deck with cheap key pieces, upgrade it however much they want, then swap over to one of two strong heroes depending on their preferred playstyle. The only unused cards will be Good Time Chapeau and Bet Big, neither of which have a price tag over $1 and won’t feel like a waste. Overall, a newer player can figure out how to build a deck using her, can do it without breaking the bank, and then convert that deck into other decks down the line. I think these three things show what FaB does best (organic gameplay and approachable deckbuilding) while mitigating some of its drawbacks (siloed card usage and convertibility into other decks or archetypes).     Kayo would be my second choice of budget deck to build, but is likely to be more powerful. Throw in a lot of six-power attacks, some blue five-power attacks, some spare Bare Fangs, and then just let it ride. The reason that this isn’t my first choice of deck to build is because a lot of the upgrades feel either marginal, or can significantly change the strategy (Bloodrush Bellow or Berserk). Knucklehead is great at blocking, but it doesn’t advance the playstyle or learning of the deck at all. Additionally, the deck does not lend itself too much to convertibility for other heroes or archetypes. That being said, it’s not a total dead end, can become very powerful, and is, most importantly, a lot of fun to play.   My final message with this article is to get anybody you know who’s on the fence about the game to finally start playing. It’s an easy set to pick up and play and it offers accessible options for diving into Blitz or Classic Constructed. The current variety of viable heroes means that no one is iced out of having a reasonable chance to win. Yes, Legendaries are still expensive, but they’re less necessary now than they have been since the number of options keeps increasing. I don’t think there’s been a better time to jump into this game since the Welcome to Rathe/Arcane Rising/Crucible of War era.      

Heavy Hitters Comes Out of the Gate Swinging

Heavy Hitters Comes Out of the Gate Swinging

by Matt Day Leave a comment

By Dimos Flesh and Blood’s latest set, Heavy Hitters, is now officially out and it seems to be a smashing success with nearly everyone. I’m fairly biased towards the set since it features all three of my favourite classes. The set parallels Welcome to Rathe through its class selection and focus on a simplicity of gameplay. This is going to be the first in a series of Heavy Hitters articles. Next week we’ll be taking a dive into the wonders this set does for budget players. For today I’m going to be doing a run through of some of the banner elements of the set and some general design thoughts. We’ll be covering the design of the sealed set, how that impacts constructed formats.   If you’ve been paying attention to the FaB scene recently, I’m likely not the first to tell you that Heavy Hitters Sealed is a fun experience that feels pretty good all around. My favourite thing about it is its approachability for both new and veteran players. It feels like the first set in a long time that I can introduce a card game novice to and confidently think they’ll have a good time. This being said, as someone who has played all of FaB’s limited formats on release, Heavy Hitters still offers a depth of play for the more experienced. The set features new mechanics that play very well with variance (Clash) and back-and-forth decision making (Wager), while also rewarding forward thinking and set-up plays (Vigor, Agility, and Might tokens). I think that the set may gravitate towards a consensus hero in Sealed with time, but it is refreshing not to see that hero be immediately obvious (like Briar, Fai, or Teklovossen were). This is another strength of the format – the meaningful deckbuilding decisions to be made in sealed. Should I run 30 cards or 35? Which class should I play? Which hero in that class should I play? The most important question I found myself asking when building my sealed deck is “Am I winning this game by out-valuing my opponent from turn-to-turn, or by putting together one or more big combo turns?”. In Heavy Hitters, I think either strategy is viable roughly half of the time, depending on which cards have access to. Answering these questions is what makes any limited card game experience fun, and this set asks them in compelling ways.   The set certainly evokes a lot of the same feelings and play patterns as Welcome to Rathe did, and that parallel is no accident. While Welcome to Rathe is generally regarded as the best FaB limited set so far, it isn’t perfect – particularly in Sealed. I think Heavy Hitters does something better than Welcome to Rathe: it doesn’t allow for default fatigue strategies. In Welcome to Rathe Sealed, the go-to strategy was to play Bravo with as many three-block cards. You could consistently rely on the strength of Anothos to run your opponent out of cards. In Heavy Hitters, it feels like almost every card only blocks for two, even the defensive ones. This encourages people to play their cards, which leads to a more engaging back and forth. However, this has its costs for new heroes in Constructed formats.  That being said, all that glitters isn’t gold – no matter how many tokens you make. My main hesitation in this set centres around how explosive some turns can be, and then be immediately followed by more explosive turns. In one of my prerelease games I strung together consecutive turns of 16, 19, and 14 damage as Kayo. That game didn’t feel like much of a game because of how quickly and decisively it ended. Across the room, another player was making it known that the same thing was happening to him. On the other hand, I had a couple of games come down to a tense one or two life tightrope walk which felt very exciting for both players. Variance is always an element in card games, but depending on the type of variance it can lead to positive or negative feelings. Clash is a very positive-feeling form of variance so far. Having your opponent deal so much damage that you couldn’t do anything to play the game certainly leads to negative feelings. I hope these successive powerful turns are not frequent occurrences, because they may tarnish an otherwise-fantastic set for onboarding new players. My biggest question in this set (for limited formats) surrounds Down But Not Out. This is a card that really shapes how games are played – you simply need a strategy to defend against it. Does it warp the entire experience of the set? I think it does, I just don’t think it's in a negative way (at least not with current understandings of the set). I’m curious to see how people’s perceptions of this card shifts with time, both as a powerful play and as a card that dictates how games are played even when it is not present. I think there could be a whole article devoted entirely to it, its design, how to play with and around it, and how to evaluate it. For now, I’ll leave it at this: I think it’s cool but can lead to some stolen games which can create mixed feelings.   Moving on to the constructed side of this set, we see some old elements and some new elements. There are plenty of old elements in the simplicity of cards. Most cards have minimal text and even the wordier cards are explaining something that ends up being quite simple in practice. It is a very easily understandable set – and this translates really well to the pre-constructed Blitz decks that are available for the Heavy Hitters heroes. These finally (almost) feel like decently-powered starter decks that people could take to an Armory without being completely washed away. A lot of this comes from how strong some of the Rares are in this set – namely the specialization head pieces. We’ll dive more into that in a forthcoming budget-friendliness discussion.   The other big thing I’ve noticed with the constructed impact of this set is that two of the new heroes, Olympia and Betsy, are locked into running a lot of two-block cards. As heroes whose abilities are entirely reliant on the Wager keyword, they are functionally blank without running cards that allow for Wagers. The issue is that nearly every card that allows one to Wager only blocks for two. Guardian and Warrior have historically not had the strongest numbers on offense, but they have been able to fall back on nearly every class card blocking for three. For Betsy and Olympia, this is no longer the case. Their offensive numbers remain below-average, in line with their classes, but now their defensive numbers are taking a significant hit. Betsy can partially get around this by focussing on the relationship between Gold generation and Good Time Chapeau, but it still requires more than a few two-block cards to do so. Olympia does have options to Wager some attacks with two three-block pump cards, but it still feels thin when playing a 60-card deck. It is quite possible that a lot of these cards did block three previously, but were changed to block two for the sake of balancing limited formats. Importantly, reducing the block ability of these cards would prevent block-only fatigue strategies from becoming dominant. It does not surprise me that these two heroes are the ones that appear to be much weaker (at least for now) in constructed formats, since it is so difficult to overcome low blocks.   Overall, I am very excited for what this set does and will do. I think it’s fun, I think it’s going to shake up how the game operates, and I think it’s a great onboarding time for new players. If you know anyone who’s been on the fence about trying FaB, I think now is the time to push them towards it. It’s more affordable, more balanced, and more mechanically-understandable now than it has been since Welcome to Rathe was first released.   

Different Tones of Flesh and Blood Communities

Different Tones of Flesh and Blood Communities

by Steven Jennings Leave a comment

By Dimos In my experience playing local Flesh and Blood events in three different countries and across about a half dozen separate communities, I’ve seen a lot of different expressions of the game. Some communities run like pressure cookers for competitive play and deckbuilding. Showing up to an Armory event at these stores will pit you against highly-rated players practicing their top decks against other competitive players. Here, only the most invested new players stick around to become competitive enough to compete. Other communities run very casually with formats rotating between Blitz and sealed deck to keep barriers to entry low and the tone casual. In these communities, local competitive players tend to be less prevalent and tend to do their hardcore playtesting at home. In between these two extremes is a whole spectrum of communities that create and cater to players of all different types. None of these communities are better or worse than the other, but they all have different growth and maintenance patterns. Something that many people are saying will now impact these growth and maintenance patterns is the switch from XP-based National Championships invites to ELO-based invites. I don’t think that this will be the case. In the vast majority of communities and countries, anyone who can show up to two Road to Nationals events and have a winning record will likely accrue enough ELO to get their invite. Historically, these same individuals would likely have gotten enough XP in the same manner, since Road to Nationals wins are worth bonus XP. Based on current numbers, the vast majority of people with a positive ELO should receive an invite to Nationals. This is compounded with the fact that most countries have had their Nationals player cap expanded for 2024. I think this is a nice side effect of the ELO system still being relatively new. Whether this will carry forward into next year when the average player has a more established ELO rating is yet to be seen. In short – the math works out that if you have a winning record at two RTN’s, you should get an invite to Nationals. The only people I can see losing out from this change are those in communities that are geographically isolated and have only one RTN. I am sad to see the elimination of Cold Foil top 8 prizing though – that was one of my favourite previously-consistent things about RTN season. With the Gold Foil introduction for first place, the prizing skews even more top-heavy to align with every other FaB event and drive pure competition. Having been around a few nascent local FaB scenes, I’ve noticed that they tend to start off in similar ways. A multitude of formats and many different player types (casual, competitive, new, and experienced) all show up. Over time, the community shapes the nature of the events and the community composition to their preferences. With time, one notices more consistent attendance from one of either the competitive players or the casual players with minor overlap. This also tends to shape the formats that run at the store in the future – with competitive communities skewing towards Classic Constructed first and Draft seconds. More casual communities will run any format with frequent rotation. Broadly, I’ve noticed that competitive communities tend to have more consistent attendance from the same players, but not necessarily a higher average attendance. The less-competitive communities tend to be a bit larger, but with less consistent attendance. The different communities also have very different ebbs and flows of attendance. Competitive communities will be a flurry of activity in a new metagame then slowly die down as the format becomes more stable, or as people learn/get bored of the latest draft set. More casual communities are much less phased by the “staleness” of a meta and will keep showing up with new, barely-viable and increasingly jank decks each week, Another major factor in this evaluation of community evolution is the availability of other stores to play at. If there is only one place to play FaB within a commutable distance (usually in smaller cities), the community tends to either hybridize or die. Hybrid communities are where I’ve had some of my best FaB experiences – some weeks I can bring a full-power deck and try my hand with the more win-focussed folks at the event, and other times I can bring Genis to Blitz night. It’s hard to create this sense of community that appeals to a wide range of players when alternatives are available, but I do recommend trying to do so through varying formats with regularity. Having talked about the past and present, let’s talk about the future. New players are the lifeblood of any game, and FaB is no exception. No game can keep 100% of its players around forever, the door needs to revolve at some speed to avoid dying from attrition. LSS has really done all it can to court competitive players, and I don’t think that anyone is claiming they’ve not succeeded. A more in-progress courtship is happening on the casual side. LSS has tried to introduce social play events to FaB through the Social Play Melody Kit, thereby divorcing these events from the more competitive Armory-to-bigger-event ladder. I tried and failed to track down some of these events to play in and experience. There was a restricted amount of kits to go around and many stores with casual scenes may not have been invested enough to file the required paperwork to get the kits and run the events. Hopefully these kits and events become more widespread, as it can likely attract some new blood to the game, even if it is in peripheral formats like Ultimate Pit Fight. FaB has always been a multi-format game (mainly draft and Classic Constructed), and has a tendency to attract multi-format players. Maybe some of those players will be UPF and draft players, or UPF and Classic Constructed players instead of draft and Classic Constructed players. And, like all casual play discussions in the world of Rathe – it must end with the obligatory question of “I wonder what PvE will be like and when we’ll see it?”.

Flesh and Blood is getting faster. Who’s getting left behind?

Flesh and Blood is getting faster. Who’s getting left behind?

by Steven Jennings Leave a comment

By Dimos There have been some big changes to Flesh and Blood in the past year or so, and it seems that those changes are now accelerating. Sets are releasing more often, major tournaments are doubling in frequency, and heroes are rotating out via the Living Legend system at an unprecedented rate. All of this is also happening at a time where a lot of the local FaB scenes that I’m aware of seem to be at inflection points about their own survival. In my view, the past major changes to the game have centred around the nature of FaB as a retail product – the creation of “unlimited” sets and their subsequent removal for FaB 2.0. These didn’t have any major impacts on the actual play of the game, other than improving accessibility. However, the recent changes to the game have certainly changed the feel of play, and I think that local game stores are seeing this impact as well. With various things increasing in speed around FaB, I think that some people and stores are starting to get left behind as this game’s hyper-competitive niche carves itself deeper into FaB’s identity. This is largely at the expense of specifically newer players to older communities and collectors. I write a lot about the casual and semi-casual aspects of this game, and how to enjoy it at a community level. With these recent changes, I think those talking points may become less relevant. This article is going to look at the widening gulf between the ultra-competitive FaB lifestyle and the casual-competitive opportunities.   With an increased frequency in set releases coming in 2024, there is supposed to be an influx in playable heroes. This means new cards, new strategies, new counter-strategies and new considerations overall. 80 cards used to feel like plenty of sideboard space – you would have your main 60 cards, some anti-arcane cards, a couple of defense reactions, and maybe some very specific tech cards like Snag or Remembrance. With more heroes and more unique strategies per hero, one can’t plan for them all any more. This increases the person-hours required in testing, as the number of potential matchups increases exponentially with each new hero added. There are also a lot more decks to keep up with since the expansion slot seems to be used to tune certain decks into the realm of competitive viability with a single card.  Although not part of the main set, individual expansion slot cards in Bright Lights have arguably made larger impacts than the 230 main cards in the set. Particularly, Tome of Imperial Flame. The recently announced Luminaris and Azalea specialization seem to be in this vein as well – cards designed to give significant power to heroes outside of the main focus of the set. This means that in order to give yourself an edge at Road to Nationals, you not only need to test every new hero and deck presented in Heavy Hitters, as well as old Guardians, Warriors, and Brutes for upgrades, but you also need to test each old deck that got a power card in the expansion slot. This is incredibly hard to do without a well-staffed and well-organized testing team. These teams are popular, plentiful, and more than inviting but they also come with a large amount of responsibility that not everyone wants associated with a hobby.   The speed of news and trends in FaB will also increase as the number of major tournaments is just about doubling this year. There will be way more Callings, an additional Pro Tour (like there was in 2022), and a ramping up of Battle Hardened events. I think this is a great change for people who are looking to get involved in higher level play without having to commit to travelling as far or as frequently. However, it will bring an increased burden of information and a requirement to keep up with FaB news even more than is already necessary. Every major event brings up a question about if there was a large meta shift or a new, groundbreaking deck. If there is a major tournament every week, that is more information to keep up with an adjust to if you planning on going to an event soon after. Maybe it’s a sign of this little game growing up, but it is becoming increasingly hard to keep abreast of everything that is happening that could impact the competitive or semi-competitive environments. Even outside of the competitive environment, local armories are also being hit by this increase in the speed of change in FaB, mainly through the updated Living Legend system.              Recently, Legend Story Studios announced a change to how Living Legend works. In short, players can expect heroes to rotate much more quickly. More importantly, rather than updates to hero legality every month or two, updates now occur weekly. This is probably a positive change for folks who own nearly every deck, are heavily involved in the community, are on testing teams, and/or are otherwise very competitive as it makes for greater dynamism. While this can keep a competitive season fresh if one hero dominates the field, it can also lead to your deck getting functionally banned four days before you were planning to take it to an event. I would be a lot more okay with this if it was only limited to higher level events geared at competitive players, but the fact that it impacts regular armories leaves a bad taste in my mouth. As I will talk about next week, I think that local communities already have enough to contend with without having to explain to new players that the deck they just got a hold of has rotated out and they can’t use it anymore. Those same players will also likely be offered no immediate replacement from LSS. Whether this is a short-term policy to create a changing of the guard and reset the power level of the game away from its peak around Tales of Aria and Monarch heroes, or if this is the new long-term standard remains to be seen. But for now, it’s a lot to keep up with and will have some negative consequences to those players teetering on the edge of coming out to Armory events consistently, or considering going to their first Skirmish, Proquest, or Road to Nationals.   I never played FaB competitively, and certainly was never part of an organized team. I would do some vague playtesting with a couple of buddies a bit before events I cared about, which were just Road to Nationals at that time but that was the extent of it. With the card pool at that time, and the nascent nature of a game in its first two years, that felt like enough. In recent times, I have not felt this same readiness, even when I have put in the preparative hours. After that realisation, I also started preparing less, which has made me less likely to go out to these types of events and it has created a cycle where I now realise that I haven’t played FaB beyond an armory or pre-release in about a year. I still love the game and play it whenever I can, both in person and online, but that core of mid-level competition hasn’t been there for me. That area used to be the sweet spot for me. A lot of the friends I’ve made playing FaB are now either all on competitive testing teams or have expressed similar sentiments to me. It feels like the game is at an inflection point between its casual and competitive players. You are now either competitive, and dedicating time, resources, and vacation days to the game and attending large events, or you are thoroughly casual and sticking to those armories in smaller communities. It certainly feels like LSS is gearing the game down the competitive avenue, but I hope there is still some new stuff for folks in the middle. With that being said, the increased number of major events in 2024 presents me with an opportunity to attend my first Calling. And since its Heavy Hitters sealed, I don’t need a testing team or to do an extensive amount of homework for it. Ironically, FaB’s bend to the more competitive has given me a good window to enjoy some of that semi-competitive joy that I had for the game in years previous. However, I’ve also seen a lot of outcry about how Callings should not be sealed because it is an inherently uncompetitive, high-variance format. At the end of the day, I don’t think that every major event has to be for everyone. I definitely don’t think that every Calling should be constructed – just think about the breakneck pace that heroes would hit Living Legend if this were the case. It would be impossible to keep up even as an ultra-competitive player. Overall, I think that as the aggregate speed of the FaB environment increases, it makes it harder for less-committed players to get involved. This is fine at a competitive level, as it is clear that the best and those who can sacrifice the most in the name of achievement should be rewarded. However, at the basic level, or at the new player level, or at the small-store-with-six-regulars level, I think this new speed is going to leave a lot of people behind. I myself feel left behind and I would say that I’m heavily involved in this game – but maybe I, and some others I talk to regularly about this, need to change our perspectives to keep with the times. Next week I’ll be diving deeper into how I think the new FaB environment is impacting local LGS communities of various sizes and ages, and how new players are going to be the lifeblood to a FaB community of any size, location, or intensity. 

Taking a Look Round the Table at the Casual and Competitive Future of Flesh and Blood

Taking a Look Round the Table at the Casual and Competitive Future of Flesh and Blood

by Steven Jennings Leave a comment

By Dimos   It’s been a bit since Round the Table came out, and introduced us all to a new type of Flesh and Blood Product. I have been quite impressed with it, all in all. This is the first official support that we’ve seen for the Ultimate Pit Fight format. Three of the four of the decks feel new and unique, and all four of the decks introduce new mechanics. I find it difficult to evaluate the balance of this set because of how variable it is based on player sentiment from table to table. It is clear that Melody’s deck cannot be used as a viable Blitz deck, but that doesn’t mean that it is underpowered for playing in UPF.   However, the balance of this set is very secondary, the thing I have noticed first and foremost is the sheer amount of fun it provides. It certainly marries Flesh and Blood with the board game experience more effectively than the Classic Battles set did, while still providing ease of access for newer players. With this said, I do think that there should be at least one experienced player around the table who can help direct the flow of the game. A direct explanation of the patterns and timing of attacking, blocking and drawing your next hand goes a long way to ensuring that no one is accidentally or undeservedly ganged up on. The more experienced player is probably best suited to play the role of Brevant or Melody, as those decks can directly enable or aide other players if the balance of attacks around the table starts to become challenging for a single player. The main purpose of this article is to take a deeper dive into a bit of the philosophy and direction of casual and competitive FaB. I think Round the Table is a great window into the future of casual FaB, and the changes that have been seen elsewhere in the game tell us about the future of semi-competitive FaB.   There is a lot of great stuff in the Round the Table box, including the box itself. The price is quite accessible if split across four decks for four players. It still comes out as more expensive than the average board game, but not by a tonne. The fact that majestic cards come as pairs (a Blitz or UPF playset) rather than the singletons found in the Classic Battles set is a massive improvement for accessibility for those who want to use the cards in this box set in the wider world of Flesh and Blood.   These improvements in casual accessibility are all in stark contrast to one of the largest anti-casual steps FaB has taken recently: making Bright Lights’ adult heroes - Teklovossen, Esteemed Magnate, Dash I/O, and Max “The Hype” Nitro – all Majestic-rarity cards. Previously, any draftable hero had an adult token, not an adult Majestic. While we had seen some Majestic-rarity heroes in the past, they were the exception or non-competitive (except Bravo, Star of the Show, but I think everyone agrees that one was a bit of an error). The appearance rates on the Bright Lights heroes are not confirmed, but as best as I can tell, you get one of them every couple of boxes. This means that to get an adult hero with which to play with a slightly-upgraded sealed deck or an amalgam of draft decks you probably have to buy multiple cases of product or navigate the singles market for cards. This stings for me in particular since combining some draft decks is how I got drawn deep into the game. I had a starter deck previously, but being able to construct my own Bravo deck from my previous draft decks made it feel like my deck, rather than a deck. Having Bravo, Showstopper as the reverse side to my young Bravo token helped set that in motion for me. At this time, I was entirely disconnected from the singles market for any card game.   I am a big fan of the singles market for cards (there is a reason I write for Red Riot Games, who offer consistently affordable singles). The secondary market provides a very efficient pathway for allowing people to play the game without lottery elements, but it also requires a high level of involvement with the game. I have dabbled in many card games, but the only one I have ever bought singles for is FaB. If one of those previous card games had made a piece necessary to begin the “full” game as difficult to find as the new adult heroes, I would have lost interest in the game. As a player who only had a shallow knowledge of these games, I wouldn’t have known that no one really cares if you use a young token as a replacement. I think the sheer amount of times this question is asked in new player groups or webpages is telling of how much information we take for granted as invested players. I cannot speak for everyone, but I really do think that Majestic rarity adult heroes are a large step backwards for integrating players into FaB. These newer players may not know enough to ask if they can use the functionally-equivalent young heroes at a Classic Constructed armory event, and it just creates a very unnecessary barrier to being able to join in. I wonder if this change is representative of a continuing divide between casual and competitive FaB? Adult formats are for hardcore and competitive players who have to either buy a lot of product or navigate the singles market, while all young hero formats are for casual players who are buying products like Blitz starter decks and Round the Table. This leaves limited play, like draft and sealed, as the only bridge between these two sides at Skirmish and Pre-release events.  Will Blitz remain as a competitive format at all? We are seeing it phased out of the World Championships, and it is being replaced as the premier second-chance event at many big organized play meccas. These replacements are usually secondary Classic Constructed tournaments, draft events (likely due to the stated goal of delivering more draftable sets), or even the brand-new adult-hero focused Living Legend format. I’m not sure if this renewed format diversity is a result of the games growth or a sign that Blitz is headed to a permanent life at the kitchen table. If Blitz is phased out from being competitive at all, will that leave young heroes as purely casual options, and enshrine the now-harder-to-source adult heroes as tools only for those serious players? I’m hoping that these changes (like the adult heroes) are just LSS trying out a couple of things in an exploratory fashion, and will not be the permanent path forward. I think that it is important to keep crossover and interplay between casual and competitive FaB. I know it’s already jarring to go into a new store for an Armory and immediately realise that it was not the vibe you thought it was, whether it is extremely competitive or extremely casual. Both can be very polarizing experiences. I think things like the social play kits are interesting new touches. I hope that stores begin to run one more competitively-slanted armory and one social play event each week rather than just choosing one avenue. However, that comes at a cost of floor space, and requires a community robust and large enough to fill both events. As successful as FaB has been, it is still very much an underdog in trying to get stores to dedicate time and resources to run events and build communities for it.  

A Bright Future for Mechanologists under Bright Lights

A Bright Future for Mechanologists under Bright Lights

by Matt Day Leave a comment

By Dimos In Bright Lights, Flesh and Blood’s first single-class set, I was pleasantly surprised to see the variety of experiences available in limited formats. Having now played both sealed and draft with Bright Lights, I found myself enjoying playing Mechanologist heroes in ways that I previously had not. The class had historically not captured my imagination, but I think those days are over. I’m now excited to play Mech in both limited and constructed formats for the first time ever. Today we’re going to be talking through an overview of all the newness that Bright Lights brings to draft, sealed, Classic Constructed, and a bit of Blitz.   In both draft and sealed, I was forced to answer a question that Flesh and Blood had never posed to me previously: Which hero and which weapon do you want to play? Normally FaB asks you which class you want to play. In my few forays into Bright Lights, I found myself  largely limited to choosing between Teklovossen and Maxx as I was without significantly powerful items in both sealed and draft. Even after deciding on the vast majority of my forty cards, I didn’t know who to play. In all previous FaB experiences, I normally knew which hero I would be playing after choosing less than 20% of my card pool. Under Bright Lights, I was stuck wondering if I should play Maxx to pressure my opponents with Banksy and some potent Boost cards, or if I should play Teklovossen and take the game slow while upgrading Teklo Leveler. Ultimately, I think the correct answer for me in one scenario was to actually play Maxx with a Teklo Leveler and a couple of instant-speed Evos to get it online. That wasn’t what I did (I played using Banksy) but the fact that it was a meaningful option was something that I loved as a new experience. I have been told by avid drafters of other card games that Bright Lights is the first set that feels like it has the flexibility of other draft-oriented games. Seeing that through a FaB lens was a great initial experience, and if you have not drafted or cracked a sealed pool for this set, I highly recommend it. Moving onto the constructed side of the game, I think that there are a lot of new tools for old and new Mechanologists to use. Previously, the class had been about balancing Boost cards against items. However, this mostly happened in sideboarding and in deck list decisions rather than in-game decisions. Now with the advent of new heroes and the new Evo card type, there are more axes for Mechanologists to rotate around. With a new set of options comes new deckbuilding choices to make, including which hero to use. Never before have we had this deep of a pool of heroes within a single class. While each hero has their own preference of cards, their sideboard options are extremely wide. This is because the Mech class has a massive breadth of options. They can add more Boost cards to become some of the most aggressive heroes in the game. They can add items that allow them to do everything from building the best late-game in FaB (Induction Chamber and Plasma Purifier) to shutting down specific strategies (Signal Jammer).  They can now add Evos to bolster their armor and unlock uniquely powerful attacks like War Machine, Terminator Tank, or Annihilator Engine. Most importantly, they can mix all of these strategies together and move from one to the other within the same deck list. No other class in this game can move from pure aggression to a control deck (while maintaining high block values) as easily as Mechanologists can. Before we talk about the shiny new heroes, I want to polish some of the old brass cogs. A lot of these new cards can go into old Mechanologist decks. Classic Dash will still be very strong, as her ability is always going to allow her to start with the best item in her deck on the board, which should always represent a minimum of six points of value (see: Teklo Pounder). There are some interesting sideboard options for her, with cards like Boom Grenade allowing her alternative avenues to set up for big blowout turns, like she used to do with Teklo Core. Data Doll is loving all the new zero- and one-cost boost cards like Expedite and MetEx to help play out items, but still significantly struggles against anyone with armour or disruptive effects. It’s an absolute shame that Data Doll can’t use Symbiosis Shot, as I think that would really help with the problems of only having three intellect. The main thing that interests me is that there may now be enough cards to run a redline engine for any Mech hero. We can really push the motor to its breaking point by running exclusively zero- and one-cost boost cards, Maximum Velocity, Bios Update, and the best-of-the-best items (Teklo Pounder and Teklo Core). The deck will absolutely be susceptible to fatigue strategies, but I think it has significant potential to catch people off guard. Having enough set-up items, and High Octane or Hanabi Blaster shenanigans should allow the deck to punch through people trying to improvise a fatigue strategy against it, while still being able to race more aggressive decks. I doubt this will be the premier Mech deck in the format, but it certainly looks like a fun series of options to play around with. Looking at the newest and shiniest toys, I want to talk about the man who started it all in Metrix. Teklovossen seems to be the biggest puzzle of the new set, since he can play along any of the Mech pathways. There are currently options to build him aggressively, focusing on extracting value from Boosted Evos, or very slowly and defensively to guarantee enough time to set up on his own terms. Ultimately, I think where he ends up falling on this continuum will be decided by which other decks are strong at any given time. I’m also interested to see which weapon he ends up preferring. While Teklo Leveler is very strong, I wonder if that is what you want to be doing when you could be playing Evo upgrade cards. Terminator Tank or War Machine at their max power with a single blue are extremely efficient, and pitching a second card to shoot Teklo Leveler seems lackluster in comparison. In the early and mid game, Teklovossen often finds himself pitching five resources to activate his ability and play an Evo Sentry equipment as an instant. This gives him an opportunity to use Teklo Plasma Pistol to shoot for an extra two damage with that resource. Maybe that is more useful than a weapon that costs three resources at that same point.  Or maybe Teklovossen just becomes the next ultra-fatigue deck and runs nothing but defense reactions, Oasis Respite, Scrap cards, and high-blocking Evos. While I think that this is the least interesting of his builds, I do think it may be something that other heroes will need to have an answer for eventually. He is certainly the hero that I will be funneling most of my interest towards, and I hope that as time goes on his deck and techniques continue to be dynamic and interesting. I’m sure that the existence of Singularity also has many other people champing at the bit to test things out. I’m also quite interested to see how Teklovossen’s deck changes in Blitz. I fear he may fall into the quagmire of most other set-up decks in the format. It becomes apparent for many decks that the lower life totals don’t provide the time necessary to upgrade your board. Maybe this is where a Boost-heavy version of the deck shines, seeking to get Evos out as quickly as possible. This would let you play Singularity (which is probably just an automatic win in Blitz) or to simply convert boosted cards to armour blocks for some incremental value.   Moving on, Dash I/O has an extremely unique ability, and the potential to have a five-card hand each turn. I think this deck is rife with potential for shenanigans and some really interesting strategies and tricks. The fact that items cannot block in Flesh and Blood (and the massive liability that provides) is probably the only reason why this deck isn’t crazy right out of the gate. I think it has the potential to get there, with some very interesting paths to explore. System Reset can be a single card that can charge up Symbiosis Shot with up to twelve points of damage.    More obvious tricks like using Boom Grenade as an attack reaction in aggressive decks will certainly see their time in the sun, but I’m really curious about the weirder items in the set. In particular, I think that the Backup Protocol cards show a lot of potential. Plume of Evergrowth was my favourite card in Tales of Aria draft because it turned your worst blue into the best card in your graveyard. Likewise, the Backup Protocols let you do something very similar.    Recycling a Pulsewave Harpoon on demand when your opponent thinks they’re safe to hit you with a set-up combo turn can be backbreaking. Regarding new Dash, I think I’ll stick to limited formats where I can play with my new favourite hero art in Dash Database, as I don’t see myself being passionate about figuring out Dash I/O in Classic Constructed. However, I think that many other people have a passion for the deck and the most interesting things from Bright Lights will come from their efforts with her.   Finally, we come to Maxx. I don’t think he has anything super unique or earth-shattering about him, other than possibly being a more efficient avenue for existing Mech strategies. He makes good use of the new Crank items, as Banksy can allow him to apply pressure with them across multiple turns. He also plays very well with all of the Hyper Driver synergy from both Bright Lights and Dynasty.   His ability to use cards like Gas Up to their fullest potential makes his aggressive potential immense as well. Gas Up is a card that looks a lot like Belittle to me. Gas up represents one resource for four damage and go again, while Belittle represents one for three. Gas Up can fetch a Hyper Driver from the banished zone, which will represent three resources across three turns while Belittle can fetch a blue Minnowism (its most common usage) to represent three resources on the same turn. While Belittle is probably better due to more flexibility in game and in deck building, it is one of the strongest cards in FaB and is banned for a reason. I would gladly take a marginally-worse Belittle in a lot of my decks.    I really do think that Hyper Drivers with Gas Up (and to a lesser extent Re-Charge!) are the main reason to play Maxx. And while you’re playing Hyper Drivers, why not have fun with one of the craziest combos in the game in the form of High Octane and Nitro Mechanoid? Nitro Mechanoid can attack more than once per turn if you have excess action points, and High Octane does exactly that. In addition to being super fun to build, it’s a great way to overcome fatigue against decks that try to just block out Boosting Mechs.   At the end of the day, and at the end of each day where I play with Bright Lights cards, I am very happy that the Mechanologist-only set has managed to capture my interest and enjoyment as a non-Mech player. I think it’s great that LSS has managed to do this and I have a renewed faith in the fun that they can provide for single-class sets in the future. I do have my qualms with the set (Majestic-rarity heroes will be discussed next week), but I’m having a lot of fun with it. My enduring question is whether or not this will change the Classic Constructed landscape at all, or if that will only have life breathed into it when old heroes like Lexi and Iyslander rotate through the Living Legend system. I know it is very early, but my initial impression is that there is a very high chance that classic Dash may get a couple of marginal upgrades but otherwise remain the dominant Mechanologist. This would leave little room for new specialists like Maxx and Teklovossen to come in with their Hyper Driver and Evo toys in a competitive manner, which would be a shame.

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