Chane is a dimension-travelling bogeyman in the Classic Constructed format in this Road to Nationals season. Everyone needs some plan against him, whether you’re bringing Snags or are prepared to race him for damage in the first few turns, you need to show up with a clear strategy to come out on top. He’s showing up in a lot of Top 8’s and has 50 damage turns off of Seeds of Agony and Rift Bind. But I’ve written enough about Chane. One could argue too much, but he is such a meta force that it’s tough to avoid. He seeps into the shadows of a lot of ideas and strategies in this game at present.

His Shadow counterpart, Levia… exists. But you wouldn’t know that from any representation she is getting in Road to Nationals tournaments, or any other tournaments for that matter. Which is a shame, because I really like her. I think the negative design space she operates in by having her hero ability deal with a negative rather than actively generating a positive is very interesting (and as always, excellently thematically executed). Unfortunately, in a game as tight as Flesh and Blood, that negative can be absolutely game-ending. In exchange for being on the precipice of taking ten or more damage at the end of each turn, Levia gets attacks that are more efficient than other classes. I think Graveling Growl and Dread Screamer are Levia’s two best cards. They’re both commons, and they are both her most over-curve cards. They both block three, and “should” cost about two more resources than if they didn’t have their additional restrictions. If I had to give out the bronze medal, I would choose Shadow of Blasmophet since it enables a “toolbox” of other cards in the Banished Zone (usually Shadow non-Brute cards or Deep Rooted Evil). But these above-curve cards rarely feel like enough of an upside to her downsides. When I play her, I feel like some of that stems from some lackluster-feeling Majestics and lack of key, unique combo cards. In general, I think Chane gets a lot more mileage from the shared Shadow cards and from his non-Talent Class cards than Levia does.

Before I start making comparisons, I want to say that Levia feels really good to play in Limited formats (Draft and Sealed Deck), where everything meshes very well. Levia feels great in Limited – go hit a Dread Screamer then trigger Hooves of the Shadow beast into back-to-back Graveling Growls, all from pitching a blue and destroying your Blood Drop Brocade. That’s 20 damage from a four-card hand, using only commons. So much of her power comes from her common cards that you feel almost like you’re running at full power if you can find enough Shadow Brute cards to fill out your deck.

Outside of Limited, where most heroes get more choice, Levia feels restricted. For example, within her Talent, Chane feels like he uses the cards better. Shadow cards generally do one of two things: they banish cards or can be played out of the Banished Zone. Levia wants to banish six-power cards, but only reactively, to disable Blood Debt. There is little benefit in banishing Shadow Brute cards unless you have already started the clock on yourself. Chane generally gets more value from the cards that let you banish cards, since his Shadow Runeblade Cards are generally stronger than the Shadow cards that can be played out of Banish. Levia can use these cards to banish a Ghostly Visit, which is fine, but Chane does it better. Levia can also banish a six-power card if she is in a pinch. Playing a card to not attack and just get yourself out of a pinch doesn’t feel particularly satisfying, nor does having to face your opponent’s full-strength hand afterwards. Chane and Levia both like cards that can be played from Banish, such as Ghostly Visit and Howl from Beyond, but for very different reasons. Chane just gets to play more cards and add to the total amount of red cards that he can play from his Banished Zone. Levia likes to have the options to play those cards if she ever finds herself with extra action points or resources. Let’s go in-depth into how the mechanics of these cards work, how they end up in the Banished Zone, and compare how Levia and Chane use them.

Levia has to work to get cards into her Banished Zone. This can be done with Shadow of Blasmophet, a similar deck-banishing effect, or from her graveyard through an additional cost on her attacks. Most often, she needs to play them out or block with them first, which can be tricky, since nearly every card that can be played out of Banish is below curve or cannot block. For example, red Ghostly Visit and Wounding Blow both block for three and hit for four, but Ghostly Visit costs one resource compared to Wounding Blow’s zero. If a card cannot block, then the most common way to get it into the graveyard is by playing it. This feels especially bad with Tome of Torment. The upside here is that Levia can recycle the cards that she has played from the banished zone, and generally only needs to run one or two copies of cards that she can theoretically play three or four times in a game. In contrast, Chane gets cards into his Banished Zone automatically at the start of his turn but struggles to recycle them. Chane’s way feels better currently.

Tome of torment, when played from Banish, effectively converts an action point into a card in hand. Chane has an excess of consistent action points that Levia does not, through his hero ability (which can always give Tome of Torment Go Again to start a turn), Mauvrion Skies, and Seeping Shadows. The latter two cards usually mean that even if Chane uses his ability to give Tome of Torment Go Again, he can still attack at least twice. In order for Levia to use Tome of Torment out of Banish, she needs to find a spare action point, which is a rarity. It is nice to have an option to draw an extra card when you roll a six on Scabskin Leathers, but that is not something that feels good to bet on when the price is a red card that doesn’t attack or block, or do anything out of hand. Tome of Torment is fine out of banished if you get lucky, but you need to get it there first. Unless you banish directly from your deck with Shadow of Blasmophet, you won’t be happy when it comes around. Additionally, Levia can generate Go Again on her attacks from Dread Screamer, but the spare action point afterwards isn’t great to use on Tome of Torment, since you’re effectively just fishing for a worthwhile card to arsenal. Even though Tome of Torment is a card shared between the two, Chane makes much better use of it five times out of six.

Shadow puppetry does everything you want in a card. It strengthens attacks, gives them Go Again, and gives them an on-hit ability. It’s a shame that the on-hit ability benefits Chane more than it does Levia. Levia can hope to get lucky and see a card that can be played out of Banish on the top of her deck and maybe get a Ghostly Visit or Void Wraith into play, but Chane can see any number of cards in his deck and be happy as he plays out a Bounding Demigon or Unhallowed Rites. Levia also can’t rely on the on-hit from Shadow Puppetry to turn off her blood debt since the opponent has ample opportunity to block.

Guardian of the Shadowrealm is a very dangerous design space in this game. A defense reaction that can be played more than once is uncharted waters in Flesh and Blood. There is a very good reason why Remembrance cannot bring back Reactions, since they are very strong. Guardian of the Shadowrealm needs three very specific things to happen before it can be played again, which is a very high bar. And I believe that the bar is as high as it needs to be. But because of that high bar, taking a whole action point and two resources, it is very difficult to effectively recycle. Levia’s main weakness is a lack of spare actions points, and I don’t think a Chane would want to divert resources into pulling it out of his Banish. This is the only Shadow Majestic that I think favours Levia, but comes with such a high burden that it barely counts.

Carrion Husk is a card that is perfectly balanced between the two Shadow heroes. They both significantly benefit from it but in different ways. Chane’s aggressive game is on a clock from the turn where he makes his first Soul Shackle, and having six armor to block any on-hit effects that will slow down your aggressive plan is a massive aid. The fact that you will take damage every turn afterwards is less relevant since the game will be over, one way or another, within a couple turns anyways. In Levia it can be used much more flexibly over the course of a longer game where Levia is controlling, or in a more aggressive game. In either instance, Levia sets her own timer by being able to turn off her Blood Debt each turn. By the end of the game, you wont even notice that one extra blood debt in the pile of 15 others.  

Ebon fold is an emergency button that Levia can press if she has a two card hand and no way to banish a six-power card. It can be used offensively if you happen to have a Shadow card like Ghostly Visit in hand, but is usually better kept around in case you need to not kill yourself on a turn where you draw an awkward hand. It’s a card game. You can have the perfect 80 cards in your deck, but you will always see bad hands every so often. When Chane puts this hat on, it becomes a fantastic offensive option. Not only are most of his cards playable from Banish, they get stronger when played from there. This can function as either a turn extender or a turn enabler (such as by banishing Rift Bind to activate its effect).

Overall, I think that Chane gets more use out of the shared pool of Shadow cards. It would be very interesting if Seeping Shadows was a Shadow card instead of a Shadow Runeblade card. I would gladly run more blues in my deck for guaranteed Action Points. It is tough to run cards like Lead the Charge since all they do is generate an action point. It blocks poorly, does not have six attack, is not a Shadow card, and is not a Brute card. So much of Levia’s deck space is occupied with cards that keep the Banish train fueled and/or have six attack that any non-blue non-attack action has a very high bar to clear if it wants to slot in. Blasmophet may hunger for flesh sacrifices, but Levia hungers for action points.  

To get away from the practical side of actually playing the cards in this card game, and to go more towards design elements, I want to mention a couple of things. I think the usage of Talents is a great design space that creates a mix of flexibility and specificity. In Monarch there are multiple crossovers between cards that multiple heroes want. Shadow heroes compete for Shadow cards in draft, Chane and Boltyn compete for the cards that focus on “3 or less base power” and Levia and Prism focus on six-power attacks and those attacks that benefit from having a higher base power, like Zealous Belting. I also think that when it comes to recursion of cards in games, caution is definitely the way to go. As much as I like Levia, I would rather her be underpowered than able to infinitely play cards out of her Banished Zone and never run out of threats. Trust me, I’ve tried building a recursion deck, it underperformed and I couldn’t find an infinite loop to exploit.