by Red Riot Games CA

By:Dimos

 

Now that the new set of Flesh and Blood has been released, we’ve seen a whole host of extremely exciting cards almost exclusively for four heroes. However, I think I will leave how those cards upgrade and define their decks to hero-specific experts. Instead we’ll be talking about the structure of the set and some of the broader-use Generic majestics, because there’s always some fun to be had with those. I also want to talk about the structure of this expansion set as a whole. It’s almost draftable, but not quite. My first take on this is that it’s great to augment a cube with, as I explain below. 

The structure of this set is very interesting. As our first taste of the set, we were shown a suite of specializations for half the heroes in the game who then promptly received nothing else from the set. Every card after that initial suite of lore-tied specializations was heavily tied to the four stars of the set (Boltyn, Levia, Prism, and Vynnset). Because of this, many people have been speculating that this set was originally supposed to be a draft set. I’m not quite convinced of this argument because of the lack of interesting sub-archetypes within the set. In addition to Light and Shadow cards, Monarch had cards that cared about high or low base power. In Dusk Till Dawn, there really isn’t a second axis on which to draft. Most cards in this set are specifically targeted at making or improving how Boltyn, Levia, Vynnset, and Prism play. And overall, this flood of specific cards seems to work fantastically for the classes that it impacts, while leaving other classes out in the cold. I don’t think it’s possible for FaB to continue supporting every hero and class in every expansion from this point forward, but I think this set was handled well. Those classes who did get served got served fantastically well. Levia and Boltyn had life breathed into them after a lot of stagnation since their release, and the Light Illusionist and Shadow Runeblade card pools got fresh heroes in the form of new Prism and Vynnset. I think this concentrated refresh will have an overall greater impact on the game than giving a half-dozen cards to every class, many of which may not even see play, like we saw with Dynasty.

 

 

The almost-draftable nature of this set also gets me excited for an entirely different reason, other than the fringe uses of some of the more mediocre Shadow and Light talent cards. What I’m particularly keen about is how these extra cards provide ways to fill in the gaps in a Monarch or Light and Shadow cube. For those unfamiliar, a cube (or cube draft) is a fixed, curated set of cards that can be drafted repeatedly. What you lose in randomness, you make up for in replay-ability, a custom experience, and cost savings of not having to crack a new box each time. Personally, I am a big fan of the work that the good folks at OK&Y have done in the FaB cube space. You can find information on their Midwinter cube, starring Ice, Wizard, and Ranger cards here. They also have a Bento Box cube featuring Katsu and Ira, which is a perfect, easy-to-build two-player experience that I think evokes some of the best parts of the back-and-forth nature of FaB. I am a massive fan of this particular cube, and I encourage everyone to give it a go.

 

With these new Light and Shadow cards and the upcoming Monarch drafting season, I think that we will have multiple groups of people building up their own custom light and dark draft sets. I think there are a lot of fantastic ways that this could be built, with options for both Light Illusionist and Shadow Runeblade heroes that draft fundamentally different from one another, and a good mix of Monarch, Dusk till Dawn, and other support sets. I know I can’t wait to get my hands on the new cards to start crafting something replayable and unique. Cards like Vile Inquisition and Grim Feast can open the path for a slower style of Shadow play, while cards like Lay to Rest provide Light heroes with meaningful disruption against their Shadow foes. I also look forward to what others come up with. 

 

 

To get a bit more into the specifics of the set, let's look at our new Generic majestics, starting with my personal favourite: Mischevious Meeps. This card is, on the surface, not amazing or game breaking, but has the very powerful effects of both drawing a card and having go again. I think there will be some applications in Benji, and an argument for it in aggressive Dromai decks, along with some other marginal cases. However, the second I saw this card I immediately thought about building a whole deck around Meeps and their fellow low-power-but-interesting cards like Give and Take, Overload, Adrenaline Rush, and Fractal Replication. All of these can be paired in neat ways with Transmogrify and Phantasmify to make them too big to ignore. The deck I’ve put together can be found here, and I have to say that it is surprisingly not terrible and a good bit of fun.

 

Hack to Reality is exactly the card that needs to exist to get around Spectra (and other long-term Auras) if your deck can’t naturally deal with them. I think it is finally time to have an answer to Spectra that isn’t actively card-negative. Previously, the only generic answer to Spectra was Lead the Charge, which cost two cards to destroy an aura and continue your turn. This was always a losing proposition because the aura you were destroying was actively creating value for its controller while destroying it did not create any benefit to the attacker. The fact that Hack to Reality provides a two-attack boost in addition to destroying an aura parallels the benefits that the auras provide, and gives some much-needed upside. There are also some uses to be found in destroying certain combo Auras like Insidious Chill if Iyslander is trying to create a Frost Hex and Ice Eternal endgame combo. However, Hack to Reality comes at a significant deck building cost, being a two-block yellow, which is generally the worst of both worlds. Consequently, you’ll have to be very certain that you need this card before you put it into your deck.

 

Another tech card that’s cropped up is Hold the Line, which has a relatively low deck building cost as a blue that can be played at reaction speed. It has a tremendous upside against any deck that runs Art of War, Tome of Fyendal, or Three of a Kind, all of which are currently seeing use in a lot of top decks. The question remains if having a two-block blue is worth it on the turns where it doesn’t block for five, which can probably only be found out through testing. 

 

Warmonger’s Diplomacy is probably the card with the lowest opportunity cost of these Generics, as it is a blue that blocks three. I’m sure that there are a lot of niche uses that this card can provide, as it can shut down nearly every non-Ninja combo currently in the game, but at the cost of a card and an action point, and only for one turn. This card reminds me of This Round’s on Me in how it will find its niche. 

 

Our last Generic is Poison the Well, which is interesting but has extremely narrow use cases currently. This strikes me as a card that is necessary to exist in any card game. If an opponent can gain life, then it should be possible to counter said life gain somehow. Maybe we see some future life gain hero that this could be actively good against. But for now, it’s probably just a fun play against Sigil of Solace. Maybe you’re a Ninja who has someone low on life and locked down with Kodachis, and they try to break out of it with Sigil of Solace. Then you can play this to confirm your win, it is a blue zero-cost that turns Kodachis on, after all.

 

Finally, I want to write a few words about Levia. She got so many perfect tools in this set that really address a lot of her defensive utility issues I talked about recently. Everything that she could have asked for has arrived, and then some. Her lack of defensive utility is now completely addressed as she has not one, but two immediate fallbacks for when she is in a precarious position. Both her new Redeemed/Consumed card and Hell Hammer can both get you out of jams and create a whole bunch of alternative strategies. I am very excited to see how the decks get built around these new cards and if they are strong enough to help Levia face some of the more disruptive Ice decks, which she has historically struggled with.

 

Overall, I find myself much more excited for Dusk Till Dawn than I was originally expecting to be. I haven’t cared much about Light Illusionist and Shadow Runeblade in the past, so the run-up to spoiler season didn’t have me champing at the bit. But the unexpected amount of love for Levia and Boltyn, combined with the cards that look like they’ll round off a Light/Shadow cube very nicely, has me very much on board. Plus, Star Struck is in this set and that makes me very excited for Bravo, my original passion in this game. Can’t wait to get my hands on all these cards and start jamming some games.