By Pankaj ( EthnicSmoke) Bhojwani

I have been testing out Iyslander in Classic Constructed for a few weeks now (over Tabletop Simulator, since the physical cards only became available this past weekend), and have gathered some thoughts on certain key pieces that I think are being overlooked. With the meta still being very fresh, this is by no means a definitive guide on cards that absolutely must be played in Iyslander, but rather a primer on what cards should definitely be considered when you are looking to build the latest wizard to enter Rathe.

Channel the Bleak Expanse

The story around this card is the epitome of the idea that “you cannot build a control deck until you know what you are trying to control”. Not that Iyslander is a full control deck (and to be honest, archetypes like control/tempo are pretty murky in Flesh and Blood anyway), but you get the idea. This was not a card I had in the first few iterations of my list, but it become something I looked towards when I realized that the only games I was losing when against Briars/Fais/other aggro decks were ones where they managed to resolve multiple Belittles over the course of the game. Since most of Iyslander’s “bread-and-butter” disruption taxes your opponent 2 resources on their turn (referring to cards like Winter’s Bite, Arctic Incarceration, Aether Icevein, and to an extent, Cold Snap), Belittle perfectly answers Iyslander’s disruption as it immediately provides 2 resources to your opponent (when used to find a blue Minnowism, which most players will do when against Iyslander), on top of being attached to a 3-power go-again attack. While most red-heavy aggro decks can be slowed down tremendously by being taxed an extra 2 resources, Belittle solves that issue for them and so I looked into Channel the Bleak Expanse as an answer.

Note that ‘silver bullets’ (i.e. cards that don’t do much except answer a very specific threat) are typically bad in Flesh and Blood (for example, Dissolution Sphere in Dash as an answer to Viserai). However, it turns out that Channel the Bleak Expanse does a lot more against the popular aggro decks right now than just neutering Belittle. Against Fai, it also stops Art of War, Flamecall Awakening, Engulfing Flamewave and Mask of Momentum. Against Briar, it stops Force of Nature, Snatch, Tome of Harvests, Gorganian Tome, Sonata Arcanix (playing CBE in response to a Sonata that they pitched for is pretty much game-winning on the spot) and any cards they might want to fuse. With Viserai potentially having a resurgence right now, CBE can also hit Become the Arknight, Drawn to the Dark Dimension and Sonata (again). These cards, along with the fact that some players are looking to play yellow Belittles as well as the reds, means that you can safely arsenal CBE and reasonably expect to be able to hit something with it on your opponent’s turn.

The drawback of CBE also must be discussed, and that is the fact that it stops your own fuses. However, since you are the one in control of when the CBE enters the arena and when it leaves, you have a lot of agency over how much this really affects you. Note that keeping CBE around at the end of your turn is optional, i.e. you can choose not to keep CBE at the end of your turn even if you have the required number of ice cards in the pitch zone, allowing you to fuse that blue aether icevein you put in your arsenal when it comes to your opponent’s turn. So really, the drawback of CBE only affects you when you play it at instant speed on your opponent’s turn and so CBE is still around when it comes to your turn. 

But, how much fusing are we trying to do during our main phase anyway? Red Aether Icevein is definitely one of them, and maybe Encase (though I am not opposed to blocking with Encase if I just used a CBE on my opponent’s turn), but aside from those the disruptive attacks I believe we are most happy to use on our turn do not require a fuse at all - and that brings us to part 2.