By Dimos

Flesh and Blood has a lot of appealing aspects, such as the ease of play, the back-and-forth elements, and the artwork. There are also some elements of FaB that are much less appealing to newer players, mainly the cost and how competitive players can be. Building a community can be one of the toughest things about the game. As someone who has moved cities and countries quite a bit recently, often into areas without FaB communities or with nascent communities, I’ve definitely been a part of this struggle. There is a lot of amazing information and resources available out there about getting a local community off the ground. The current gold standard is this Learn to Play kit from Joey Senart, which is regularly updated. In my experience, having starter decks of new players to play with (and even take home) makes a big difference. Additionally, the quality of starter decks offered has a big impact on whether or not they stick around for more games. I think that this is a key step in growing both nascent and established communities. This article is going to discuss what I think makes a good starter deck to give to new players.

There are two key elements when building a deck for a new player: the mechanics included and the deck’s power level. The key question to ask yourself when building decks for new players is: “What game elements and strategies am I trying to teach with these cards?”. Players like to play games they are good at and can feel a sense of progression in. This means that whatever deck you are handing to a player should be understandable and have clear level-up strategies. Lord of Wind is a great card with an excellent payoff, as are a lot of cool Wizard combos. They can also be very confusing. You should be mindful about how familiar the deck user is with FaB and with card games in general. To some players these will be understandable, but they will leave many others lost. A clear level-up strategy is some element of a deck that can be used in different ways for different effects. Equipment and on-hit effects are often good gateways to this. Snatch and Razor Reflex is a good example, as is any strong card that requires support to see its power ceiling (like Steelblade Supremacy or Spreading Flames). Since we are trying to make players better at the game (which makes them more likely to become community members), we need to focus on how the cards we are giving them are communicating FaB lessons through gameplay.

I always try to incorporate three things when I’m building a teaching deck: a power combo, some arsenal-centric cards, and at least one card that develops board state. These are all concepts that I consider to be at the second level of FaB strategy: the development and application of multi-turn thinking. The first level is playing hands efficiently and making sure to use every card every turn. I think that level can be achieved with just about any deck, so I focus the deckbuilding on how to expose players to the next level of strategy. I think this is something that the original LSS-built Welcome to Rathe decks did quite well, but what more recent blitz decks have been lacking in. Blitz decks feel balanced against one another rather than as a dedicated teaching product, which is a different aim from what we’re trying to do here.

Power cards and powerful combos are key in any card game. Multi-turn thinking is a key part of FaB, and that requires having cards that are worth delaying gratification. Taking time to set up and wait for the right moment to play a game-shifting combo is often the path to victory. Oftentimes, starter decks lack power, but I don’t think this needs to be the case in Flesh and Blood. Generally speaking, a hero’s most powerful individual card (often a specialization) is a very cheap Majestic. Bloodrush Bellow, Crippling Crush, Steelblade Supremacy, Oaken Old, Lord of Wind, Red in the Ledger, Dominia, and Spreading Flames are all price-accessible in these decks, ranging from under $1 to $3. All of these cards are staples in decks because they are enough to single-handedly turn the flow of a game. Additionally, Super Rare cards are even cheaper, almost all under $1, and can have similarly large impacts. The aforementioned cards all also require some degree of set-up. You need to be able to pay for expensive Guardian attacks, you need to have enough attacks to follow up Spreading Flames to make it worthwhile, and you need a source of Go Again to make Steelblade Supremacy threatening. This does a good job of nudging new players towards multi-turn thinking. It also encourages the realization that a few big turns are better than many mediocre turns because of how FaB’s resource and card draw system works. If you choose not to include these Majestics, you can still set up powerful combos with just commons and rares. Any attack with an on-hit effect paired with an attack reaction is a good example of this. Snatch and Razor Reflex can be a blowout, as can Debilitate and Pummel. Giving these starter decks power seems simple, but it is key in helping these decks compete against whatever they may come up against at locals.

Arsenal usage and cards that interact with the arsenal is often one of the first FaB-specific skills that new players can develop. It contributes to multi-turn thinking and enables players to push damage over a threshold that opponents are willing to block. In the starter decks that I build, I always like to include cards that work with the arsenal. New players often trade four-card hands back and forth, never making use of the arsenal, or they get a mediocre blue card stuck in arsenal and never use it again. Cards with Dominate, defense reactions, Plunder Run, Scour the Battlescape/Trade In/Promise of Plenty/Fervent Forerunner/Frontline Scout, Electrify/Polar Blast/Sow Tomorrow, Disable, Thunder Quake, Breaking Point, Nature’s Path Pilgrimage, and the entirety of the Ranger class all interact with the arsenal. These cards are also commons or rares that can be easily included in different decks. Each of these cards forces some degree of interaction with the arsenal in order to achieve their peak value. As mentioned earlier, optimizing the value of each individual hand is one of the first skills players develop. By introducing cards that have direct text encouraging arsenal usage to maximize value, players are forced to wait at least one turn cycle to see the payoff and are now using multi-turn thinking as a skill.

Cards that develop a board state are important parts of the game, and new mechanics that advance board states have been released in every set so far. I have previously discussed how critical board states are here. I think that every starter deck should have an Energy Potion in it. It is a generic card that can be used in many different ways at different levels of play. It also enables massive, satisfying turns for new players that create a true combo feeling. Energy Potion usage can also help avoid bad-feeling play states where a player is one or two resources short of paying for a big turn. Rather than simply having to end their turn and end up with extra cards, players can pop the Energy Potion and play it out. I also think that teaching how critical null-block cards can be in hand is an important lesson. There are also other cards that serve similar purposes in different decks (Timesnap Potion, Talisman of Warfare, Teklo Pounder, etc.), but Energy Potion is the most broadly applicable. All of these cards teach multi-turn thinkingl, and often come with the significant initial investment of an action point. As much as players will learn how to use these items effectively, there will also be times where the core learning is when not to employ these strategies.  

Something that I would exclude from these decks, in the interest of making them playable against other decks, is bad cards. The original FaB starter decks featured blue Sigil of Solace. While it was one of the few examples of instant-speed mechanics in the set, it was also just horrible. Any blue card that blocks is better in that slot. There is an argument to be made that card evaluation and learning what makes a card bad is an important step. However, I think that learning is best done in a limited format where everyone has to make the same decisions. If you give this deck to a newer player and they show up to a local event and get punished for that irredeemably bad card while their opponent has no corollary, it’s a very bad feeling. Furthermore, that is why I think that starter decks should be as powerful as they can be. Giving them the best chance to compete with full-power majestic-heavy opposition helps to alleviate some of the buy-in pressure in FaB. “The game is super affordable after you buy your first few Legendaries and Generic staples, just over $500 or so.” is a common line in this game. If I can give a player a deck that helps bridge this gap with a few $1 Majestics and some cheap Temper equipment, they have a tendency to stick around longer and give the game more of a shot. I would be less concerned about balancing your custom starter decks against one another since that will usually be the minority of usage that these decks get. The LSS-built Blitz decks and Classic Battles are generally balanced against one another, where a higher-powered starter deck isn’t something that is currently available. My goal is always to provide someone with a starter deck that stands a chance at an Armory-level event, and something they can learn their next level of strategy from.

Something not discussed so far is if these decks should use 20 life or 40 life heroes. I am pretty neutral on this topic, as I think both versions have advantages. 20 life games go faster and can be more engaging since you see more beginning-, middle-, and end-game states. However, 40 life games are much less punishing. A player can make numerous mistakes in a 40 life game and still end up triumphant, whereas a single mistake in a 20 life game is often enough to end the game. Ultimately, this is up to preference and what your community plays more often – there is little point in providing someone a blitz deck if all the armories are classic constructed. The starter decks that you make for community use should aim to be useful. They should be playable, reasonably powerful, and focus on providing players gameplay opportunities to learn new FaB skills and strategies.