Rhinar vs Dorinthea Classic Battles: Interactivity and First Flesh and Blood Experiences

By: Dimos

Classic Battles: Rhinar vs Dorinthea releases today. A lot of people are also releasing their own opinions about the set. The set isn’t cheap, but many people will probably appreciate the goodies it comes with. There are other cheap ways of getting into FaB, so I don’t think this is locking anyone out of the game. There are some very nifty tools in here for constructed decks, but their number is quite limited. That’s fine by me, these aren’t structure decks or staple reprints, nor were they advertised as such. The core question I want to ask is: “Is this a fun set for new players?”. I think the answer is yes, but that is because of how fun FaB is as a game, and isn’t necessarily helped by the exact configuration of this product. There are a few ways we can explore this main question. We can examine some of Flesh and Blood’s core design principles and see how it stacks up. We can also look at other comparable “starter” products historically available. To begin with, let’s dive into some FaB design principles.

One of the earliest articles on the Flesh and Blood official site is this one, which opens with the idea that “[t]he ideal gaming experience involves players making meaningful decisions, every turn of the game. For a decision to be meaningful there needs to be consideration, a trade-off or cost for making that decision.” I think this is an excellent, if non-contentious point. This philosophy also comes out in the “every card matters” mantra, which led to FaB’s Drone of Brutality ban. That was something else that I was on board for. Which is why I am now puzzled as to why the Rhinar side of this classic battle is stacking up Intimidates, and using eight cards that can’t block. I think that one Intimidate is great for forcing decision-making. Decisions still need to be made, but now it’s a little bit more awkward because the card that you wanted to block with isn’t available any more. But once we get to three or four intimidates, there are fewer decisions. More importantly, it feels like there is no decision left to make. I don’t think this is a positive experience for a new player. That isn’t to say that Brute is inherently uninteractive to play against, especially not at the power level of a starter deck. However, the new cards brought in specifically for the Classic Battles set are cranking up the density of Intimidates that an individual card can have. The free intimidates offered by Ruk’utan (which then lead into Alpha Rampage, another high-Intimidate card) and the double Intimidates offered up by Wrecking Ball stack very easily with the 0-cost non-Attack Action intimidates in the decks. This lack of defensive decision making also applies to Rhinar’s defenses, as 20% of his deck can’t block. This is somewhat mitigated by Ironhide equipment and Rally the Rearguard. Anyone who has played with any non-blocking cards in their deck knows that there is a very real trade-off and the non-blocking cards can feel very bad. With 8 in the deck, there is roughly a 1 in 6 chance that Rhinar will draw a hand with 2 non-blocking cards. That’s probably once a game where a player will be restricted in decision-making.

Including non-blocking cards in a constructed deck is a decision to be made, and is effectively choosing to assume the risk before the match begins. But in a pre-constructed deck, they offer little decision-making opportunity. My fear is that the confluence of these Intimidates and non-blocking cards will lead to a lot of games between new players that are light on blocking. Fundamentally, blocking is the back-and-forth that makes Flesh and Blood fun. One can block heavily to look for incremental value, or choose to not block and risk the life loss to have their own big turn in response. By reducing the possibilities of blocking in this set, I think that players have reduced decision-making opportunities and will become forced into playing certain turns. Protecting newer players from mistakes that feel bad is one thing, but taking away decision points also takes away their ability to willingly take a risk and feel the triumph of having it pay off.

Now let’s take a look at some of the other starter products. The most basic starter set in FaB is the Ira demo deck. The demo deck did an amazing job of teaching the fundamentals of the game, with a focus on the ebb and flow of attacking and defending. Attack reactions and defense reactions are very important cards in the set, but are not blowouts, as even a Lunging Press-buffed Whirling Mist Blossom can be blocked by any two cards. These decks lack any equipment, and are only 10 unique cards at three copies apiece. This is where I think the only real shortcomings from these decks come from: a lack of replayability due to the narrow card pool, and a strong risk of running out of cards due to having 10 fewer cards than is normal for a 20-life game. These are both aspects addressed by Classic Battles, at the trade-off of other decision points. For what it’s worth, I don’t question the balance of the Classic Battles decks against each other, I just wonder if they are interactive enough, due to the defending restrictions, to make for a positive experience.

Most recently, Monarch and Aria gave us blitz decks. These came complete with Mentors, foils goodies, and equipment suites. They were also chock-full of set mechanics. Some of which were (and still are) confusing. Spectra, Phantasm, text-heavy instants, heavy Banished Zone interactions, Fusing (and not being able to pitch the card used to Fuse) are all things that caused some confusion for even experienced players when these were released. This is why I think using the un-talented Welcome to Rathe heroes for this set is a great start for a new player experience. It is much less confusing. There are fewer keywords that players need to learn. But I also fear that the pendulum has swung too far to the other side and these decks may be too simple. As far as I can tell, other than the universal fundamentals of the game (Go Again, damage, defending, etc.) there are only three play-relevant keywords: Mentor, Intimidate and +1 weapon counters. I’ve played enough boardgames and ready-to-play card games in my time to know that no one gets all the rules right the first time around. Generally, it’s on the second playthrough when the game clicks for people at the table. It is on that second playthrough where the previously-misunderstood mechanics work. Since the price and art of this product is aimed miles away from any children (a group that generally benefits from simplicity in new games), I think players can be trusted enough to include a few other mechanics that give the game depth.

This moves us to our final comparable: the Welcome to Rathe Classic Constructed starter decks. To me, these represent the happy middle ground between the Ira decks and the Blitz decks. These were full experiences, showcasing just about every mechanic that Welcome to Rathe offered, including items. I acknowledge that Dorinthea’s previous core interaction of needing Dawnblade to hit and have Go Again to swing a second time was confusing for first time players, so I have no issue with the changes made to that in this set. I feel that there is a lot of unexplored depth to FaB that could have been included in Classic Battles. Simply adding an Energy Potion or Timesnap Potion to each deck would have added a lot of depth. Players can generally ignore it the first couple of games as they learn the pace of the game since it still pitches perfectly, and any game is unlikely to go to second deck cycles. Then, in subsequent matches, when players understand the flow of the game, they can choose to use their potion as the powerful set-up tool that it is and explore some exciting turns that previously were not possible.

            Overall, I think the gameplay in this set does a lot of things right, but my core concern remains that it may be oversimplified for players, both by limiting their in-turn decisions and the amount of mechanics in the set. I’m looking forward to playing this set and seeing if these concerns are founded. I think that the gameplay in this set will be fun. I just don’t think that is the result of Classic Battles as a product, I think it is because it is hard to make a low-power game of Flesh and Blood anything but fun.