By Dimos Kaloupis

Flesh and Blood’s Canadian Nationals ran over November 13th and 14th, and it was a good chance to meet some of the people I’ve been playing online with over the past year. A few dozen people traveled multiple thousands of kilometres to cram into a too-small convention centre room and play some cards. The event itself was just over 80 people, seemingly mostly playing 0-cost Briar lists. The store that was chosen to host the event has hosted a total of zero Flesh and Blood events previous to this event (although a semi-affiliated franchise store runs weekly online Armory events). Frankly, the lack of Flesh and Blood experience showed. It also did not feel as if running this event was a priority for the organizers, as any information about the event (including start time, exact location, COVID requirements, and side events) was very sparse until a few days before the event. For an event where so many people are travelling from so far, this was less than ideal. Additionally, the judging was quite thin. There were two well-known community judges who confidently knew the rules of the game, but the other judges were less on point. One judge interrupted a game of mine twice with incorrect calls, with no time extension (I forgot to ask for one) just before the game hit time. From this event, I confirmed a previous suspicion of mine: I am not a competitive player. I found it stressful and not particularly fun, apart from a few moments. The crowded hall probably didn’t help either. The game is fun, but I can’t say I’m a huge fan of the serious environment.  

My entire weekend was won and lost on Oldhim. I played him in constructed, drafted him in one draft, and my only draft losses came from other Oldhims. The Grandfather of Eternity was absolutely the correct deck to bring to this event, and my losses were entirely from misplays and not from a poor meta call. My comfort zone is generally playing Bravo or a control-leaning Rhinar, so it wasn’t a huge leap conceptually. However, I only made this decision three days before the event, and played a sum total of five games on it before I showed up to Nationals. Thank you to my friends who came through and let me borrow all the necessary Legendary equipment. My lack of experience with the deck is what caused all of my losses with it. There’s a lot of defensive sequencing and decision-making that goes into playing the deck. Rather than think that through, on many occasions I just made the first play that came to mind due to the (valid) fear of time pressure. I had a very favourable series of matchups, almost entirely 0-cost Briars and Ice Lexis. And despite that, I managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory on a couple of occasions.

Many thanks to Guardian superstar and international community pillar Cayle McCreath (ThatGuardianGuy on Facebook), who provided me with the deck list. He also offered some helpful tips such as using Art of War defensively. The deck list can be found here. A lot of the sideboard space is dedicated to dealing with difficult control matchups like Prism and Dash, which I thankfully did not end up playing in the event. I really like Tunic in the deck, even though I missed as many triggers as I remembered (there’s the lack of practice again). The deck is by no means solved, and I would probably take out the Winter’s Bite to replace it with Icy Encounter, or even yellow Winter’s Grasp to make Art of War more consistent.

The draft portions of the event were where I had the most interesting games of the weekend. I managed to 3-0 my first draft pod on the back of Oldhim. Even though I had an Oaken Old and Sow Tomorrow in my pool, I credit my wins to a blue Turn Timber and a yellow Evergreen. My first match in this pod was against another Oldhim, who had an Oaken Old, a Pulse of Isenloft and eight blue Earth cards. We both traded some early Oaken Olds, and then recurred them with Sow Tomorrows. Knowing what was coming, I managed to keep my Turn Timber hidden through a Break Ground, knowing I would cycle back to it faster with my leaner deck. Later on, I blocked out the second Oaken Old and then swung with an Earthlore Surge and Evergreen when we were both nearly fatigued. This was the best game of Flesh and Blood I had in months. My other matches in that draft were against Briars who I managed to fatigue with help from Oaken Old’s disruption.

My second draft, on day two of the event, was in the top pod, which was a different experience. I was very confident in my Lexi deck, despite my inexperience with the hero and general aversion to heroes without strong weapons. I had seven Chilling Ice Veins (three of them red), two Ice Quakes, two red Lighting Press, three Weave Ice, and a red Weave Lightning. I also managed to draft several red Ice attacks with six power, including Icy Encounters and a Winter’s Grasp. With this list, I was extremely confident against other Lexis or any Briar. Unfortunately, my first-round opponent was one of the two Oldhims at the table. A couple Summerwood Shelters and a Turn Timber kept almost all of my arrows from doing much work and I ended up losing. The next round I got paired against a good friend of mine. Both of us knew that whoever lost this match would miss out on top 8. After the most regretful game of Flesh and Blood I’ve played, my Ice Lexi’s on-hits managed to sneak the win away from his Lightning Lexi. My third round was against the other Oldhim at the table. During the draft, I passed a Winter’s Wail in the third pack. What are the odds I play the Oldhim that I know is to my left in the draft? According to Murphy’s Law, which is rarely wrong, 100%. Another couple of defence reactions later, and I lost that match as well. But I still somehow snuck into top 8.

My ultimate elimination from the event came when I... forgot to block a Ball Lightning and skipped right to using Oldhim’s reaction. I had more than enough cards left in hand to entirely block each of the two cards left in my opponent’s deck and had it all counted out. Call it tournament fatigue, poor sequencing, or a lack of focus, but it happened. It was unfortunate, but making top 8 is more than what I was expecting when I showed up. I’m thrilled with Yuki’s win, as we had a great game in the Swiss portion of the event.