By: Dimos

One of my litmus tests of how well someone plays Flesh and Blood is to watch how they react to games unexpectedly going long. I define this as past 10 turns in Classic Constructed or seven turns in Draft or Sealed. At that point (unless life totals are at five or below), players should start considering how the game is going to end. Players have seen most of their decks, most of their cards are probably in the graveyard, and everyone has a good idea of what threats are gone and which are left on both sides of the field. The correct decisions to make in this scenario vary greatly based on individual decks and individual games. Some decks have few options outside of trying to end the game before turn 15 (when they will be seeing their pitch stack) by arsenalling a power card and buying time to play it in conjunction with another strong combo card. Some decks are actively looking to make it to the second cycle of the deck, since they lend themselves well to pitch stacking and conserving threats. We’ll cover some examples of how to react differently to longer games later in part two of this series, but for now I want to talk about identifying how long a game will go.

The first chance you have at expecting a long game comes the second your opponent reveals their hero. Certain heroes lend themselves well to long games. Guardians love them, as does any class with a powerful weapon or a blue-heavy base. There is a very high chance of your opponent playing a long game with Bravo and Oldhim. The vast majority of other heroes* (Rhinar, Dorinthea, Katsu, Dash, Viserai, Prism, Levia, Boltyn, Iyslander, Dromai, and sometimes Briar and Lexi) all have very viable options for long games, both in their sideboard options and as intra-game pivots. What this means is that it is not always easy to predict if a game will go long. A good indicator of whether this will happen is the metagame at any given moment. Back in the Crucible of War era, it was expected that everyone had a long game plan because of the prevalence of midrange and control decks that looked to extend games. More recently, in heavy aggro metagames, you are much less likely to see Viserai with the tools to build up a game-ending 30-damage turn if the game stretches long and he has not been intentionally conserving specific cards in specific orders (Tome of the Arknight, Revel in Runeblood, Mordred Tide, etc.). He’s probably at a high fatigue risk due to his sideboard (generally) being full of aggro cards. Use your judgment in these scenarios, and have at least a couple of cards in your sideboard to help deal with longer games. Strong Generic options for these are Sink Below or Enlightened Strike, as they let you stack your pitch without the lost resources that come with pitching a strong red card. Another question to ask yourself is how likely are you to win a long game with certain decks? Guardians generally like games going long because they have strong, easily-pitch-stacked, card-efficient options in the late game. Can your deck compete with that? Or do you need to end the game before it reaches that point? Can you aim to do enough damage to ensure that your one big pitched combo is enough to close the game out? You should have an answer to each of these questions both before and during the game (the answer may change!).

Now let’s imagine that you’ve sat down against a Dorinthea and are unsure if this game will go long, since she can play it both ways. There are a few signs to look out for as the game progresses. Is your opponent showing you a suspiciously low number of power cards (either playing them or blocking with them)? Are the life totals still above thirty? Has each player sighed a couple of times and played out an awkward all-red or all-blue hand? By answering these you will get a better idea of how long the game is going and whether it is an intentional plan by your opponent or if it is a mutual accident. In either situation, it behooves you to notice it earlier rather than later. If your opponent is intentionally setting up for a longer game, they are paying an opportunity cost by not playing their power cards, by awkwardly pitching reds, or awkwardly blocking with decent cards to conserve life. You can capitalise on this by pressuring in the early and midgame while setting up a coup-de-grace combo to finish them in the late game. This final blow can come either just as an arsenalled card or a fully pitched combo depending on how low you think you can push their life total. If the game is accidentally going long, you can really capitalise on it and possibly catch your opponent unaware. If you’re ten turns into the game and there haven’t been many power cards played, you know that they are very dense in the remainder of each player’s deck. This makes any cards you have with disruptive or defensive effects stronger, as they will help you survive the onslaught while protecting your own threats for later. However, if you’re wondering why there isn’t a lot of action happening on the face-up cards, it may not just be because of bad draws. It may be that there is a lot happening with hidden cards. Cards like Sink Below and Enlightened Strike allow a player to hide a game-winning combo effortlessly. Keep an eye out for when your opponent uses these effects, including when they Opt, use Crown of Providence, Crown of Seeds, or any other similar effects.

Your Dorinthea opponent has played the game more or less normally, pressuring when she has a strong hand and using her high density of three-block cards when she doesn’t. At one point she pitched a Glint the Quicksilver to play her turn out. On your turn she played Sink Below, putting a card to the bottom of her deck. The turn afterwards, after she lost tempo to an explosive turn of yours, she pitched a Twinning Blade to pay for a lighter turn. At this point, you know there is going to be a Glint and Twinning combo turn, which is powerful enough in its own right. To prepare for it, you can pitch a defense reaction so you draw it on the turn where she draws into those threats. What you don’t know is what the sunk card is. As the game progresses, I would keep a sharp eye out for key threats. I would especially be trying to count exactly three Steelblade Supremacies. Adding Steelblade Supremacy to the Glint and Twinning combo is probably Dorinthea’s strongest move, and you will need to be prepared for it if it comes up. This preparation can either come as pressure, disruption, or defense.

Now that you’ve identified that the game is going long, it’s time to figure out exactly how long this game is going to go. Is it likely to end on turn 17 or 18 when your opponent plays out their pitched combos? Or is it going to be a war of attrition where two aggro decks try to slam blue cards into one another? You are exactly half of any game of FaB**, your goal is just to make more than half of the impactful decisions. Hopefully you decide to have it end in your favour. Most games end in the second cycle because either one player has a better pitch stack and begins to dominate the match, or because players get antsy about going to a full fatigue state. This fear of fatigue can be due to inexperience, time pressures, or just because their deck is poorly suited for it (often indicated by the lack of a strong, stand-alone damaging weapon). I don’t believe that a state of fatigue is something to be feared, you just need to know what you’re getting yourself into. Fatigue can manifest itself in a few ways in FaB, mainly as soft fatigue or hard fatigue. Soft fatigue is when a deck is out of its power cards. If you’ve played out all your reds, odds are you’re dead in the water unless you have a weapon that hits for four or more damage. Hard fatigue is when you have zero cards left in your deck and can’t block. If you have a high life total, you’re probably aiming to hard fatigue your opponent using your life to preserve the number of cards in your deck. Meanwhile, your opponent on lower life is going to try to run you out of threats and soft fatigue you. It is just a matter of who can be more efficient and generate incremental advantage through the second and third deck cycles.

In the current meta, where Guardians are a very present threat, you should be prepared to respond to a long game. This response should include both pre-game and mid-game decisions. Bravo lists are generally focussing on a high density of disruption cards and may not necessarily be looking to play games as long as they used to. Regardless, they still can play a long game very well if the game shifts that way. I think this a good time for midrange decks to toss in a couple of late-game cards and catch some of the more aggressively-leaning Guardians a little bit off-guard and complacent.

Once you’ve answered all the questions posed above and decided how you want to steer the game, you need to enact that plan. The actions and reactions you take from this point forward will determine how the game will end and if you can close it out. That will be discussed in part two of this two-part series.

* Kano can play a “long game” by digging for his second cycle with his ability and a plethora of draw and Opt effects. However, that will happen very quickly and the game will be over one way or another before you even think about seeing your second cycle.

** Except Ultimate Pit Fight and PvE, but both of those are still floating in the aether waiting for their time to fully come to Rathe.