Critical Mass in Deck Building and Card Availability
By Dimos. K I suppose I should start this article with some acknowledgement of the recent bans. My briefest opinion is that overall, I am a fan. I don’t think that Plunder run and Ball Lightning were breaking the game (although they were icing several decks out of the meta), but I didn’t like their design. However, I am glad of the signals that this sends. LSS acknowledged the strength of unconditional Go Again, which is something that can definitely achieve critical mass to create a deck’s identity. We’ll get into that later. From these bans, I’m glad that LSS is pulling back on cards that push the bounds of strength. Cards that effect the entire turn or combat chain in multiple meaningful ways are incredibly strong, as are cards that cost zero resources. Once there is a critical mass of these cards, an entire deck can be built around these cards. Obviously, zero-cost Briar sprung up as a result of having enough of these hyper-efficient zero-cost cards. Scar for a Scar, Ravenous Rabble, Ball Lightning, Entwine Lightning, Exude Confidence and more are all complemented extremely well by zero-cost cards buff them such as Nimblism, Weave Lightning, Lightning Press, and Plunder Run. All of those cards come in Red, Yellow, and Blue, allowing more than three copies in each deck. Once there is a critical mass of a certain card type, powerful decks will start to spring up from those cards. Every deck requires a critical mass of its preferred cards to be good and achieve its goal. Otherwise, most of your deck is disconnected Generics and class cards. This was very apparent when the only set was Welcome to Rathe, where every deck had to run generic cards that were good but weren’t accomplishing anything in that specific deck. An example of this is Enlightened Strike in Bravo decks. An excellent card, but it does nothing for the deck that it can’t do better elsewhere. When Crucible of War gave each class more cards, a lot of classes saw viability in new ways. Dash became much stronger from the addition of non-Item Mech cards, which allowed her to Boost effectively while also having cards that block. Rhinar gained more quality six-attack, three-block, yellow Brute attacks in Crucible, and his performance skyrocketed as he had tools to address his core random mechanics. He saw nothing of the sort from Monarch, where all Brute cards had a null block value. To me, this is a sign that LSS thinks Rhinar has enough ideal resource cards in the form of yellow and blue six-power attacks that block. This extends to Levia as well. Deadwood Rumbler is a blue six-power attack that cannot block, and while Soul Harvest can block, it is limited to a single copy. Ira was the big winner from Crucible of War, as she gained many efficient, cheap attacks to end her high-value Kodachi chains with. This led to her becoming dominant in blitz, as she didn’t need a cohesive, game-crushing Combo line like Katsu. She got by just from efficient standalone cards like Soulbead Strike and Flying Kick being added to existing cards like Fluster Fist and Pounding Gale. These efficient, cheap attacks, in a high enough density, created one of the most dominant decks of its time. Now on to the class that everyone has an opinion on: Runeblade. In Crucible of War, Runeblade got a few very interesting tools. Meat and Greet, Mauvrion Skies, and Consuming Volition are all cards that add to a wide archetype of Runeblade. Viserai’s cards up to that point were mostly tall, focusing on building Runechants and throwing out single, powerful attacks like Arknight Ascendancy. The cards introduced in Crucible weren’t enough to make a viable deck on their own (believe me, I tried). But as time went on, and each new set trickled in a few more key cards, this build became more and more viable. Now, Viserai is seen as a key meta threat that everyone needs a plan against. A critical mass of cards can also manifest itself in unexpected ways. For example, any Runeblade (with or without a talent) can run more defense reactions in their deck than a talentless Guardian, which is supposed to be the core defensive class. With this history lesson over, what happens going forward? I’m sure Everfest will have plenty of surprises and shake-ups. The cards that are currently sticking out to me right now, which are begging to hit some type of critical mass, are efficient Runeblade attacks. Very few classes have multiple “vanilla” attacks that tread the same ground. Usually only one or two cards in a class will have purely efficient damage, with other cards all having unique effects. Runeblade is the exception, due in large part to having been in so many sets. Aranic Crackle, Singeing Steelblade, and Vexing Malice are all different iterations of the same idea: take the base attack for a card, such as zero cost for four damage, and split it up over physical and arcane damage. I could definitely see something similar to what happened with Ira happen with these cards on a Runeblade, since these can be complimented by powerful Go Again cards like Meat and Greet. I also think that Bravo has hit a critical mass of utility cards. There is nothing that the deck cannot do at the moment. Tall, wide, defensive, aggressive, disruptive, he can do it all and adapt to any meta. It is important to note that he can usually only do one thing well at a time though, and that his 80 cards need to be specific and prepared for each meta he goes in to. Let’s see if Everfest introduces some (or many) key cards that allow other archetypes to hit critical mass for deck building.
Brewing for Competition Part 1: The Process
By: Yuki Lee Bender Brewing for Competition Part 1: The Process This article is part one of a two part series where I lay out the deck building process that I personally use in Flesh and Blood. In the next article, I will lead you through the steps that ultimately led me to register what would become the winning decklist for Canadian Nationals. One of the key ideas, most frequently talked about in decktech videos is the idea of a “core”, which is a set of cards that are key to the deck’s gameplan and do not change, regardless of the matchup. The rest of the cards are often described as “sideboard” cards, which can be brought in to target specific matchups. I use this idea myself in my Lexi decktech video, because it is very helpful for explaining to others how to sideboard and play the deck. However, I personally don’t believe this idea has much of a part at all in the early deck building process. When I build decks, the core is something that emerges naturally as a product of my process. Getting too fixated on identifying your core early on can actually limit your creativity and hamper your ability to build an effective deck and sideboard. In this article I will explain why deckbuilding is important and guide you through each of the steps I personally use when building a Classic Constructed deck in Flesh and Blood. Why Does Deckbuilding Matter? I personally believe access to good deckbuilding, through one’s own skills or through a teammate’s, is one of the most valuable assets a competitive Flesh and Blood player can have. Flesh and Blood is a young game with a relatively small amount of major competitive events and a limited flow of information being shared between players at any given time. All of this contributes to the metagame never being truly solved, for example look how open the metagame is right now even after the entirety of the Nationals season. This is very different from a game like Magic the Gathering, where the metagame is often solved within 2-3 weeks of format due to the sheer volume of games played online, leading all but the most dedicated players to be best served netdecking. In Flesh and Blood however, there is plenty of room for players to gain an edge through deckbuilding. Not to mention deck building can be very fun and rewarding. The most recent example of deckbuilding to get an edge is Tariq Patel’s Lightning Briar list which took the Nationals season by storm. However, we have also seen this same trend in the past. There are too many pertinent examples to list them all, but here are a few relatively recent examples to consider. Team Arsenal Pass’ Chane deck from the Monarch metagame led Brendan Patrick to win multiple Road to Nationals events and fellow team member Dante Delfico to a top 4 finish in The Calling Las Vegas. Additionally, frequent innovator Matt Rogers took Midrange Viserai to a top 4 finish at The Calling Orlando. Finally, the example I am mostly personally in touch with, is brewing an Ice Lexi deck that effectively targeted the Lightning Briar deck was probably the largest factor that contributed to my win at Canadian Nationals. The Deckbuilding Process Deckbuilding is a non-linear process, where you frequently will go back to previous steps to make changes before testing your results again. Additionally, sometimes you may not be building a deck from the ground up, and instead just tweaking a deck. If this is the case, you do not necessarily always need to follow each and every one of these steps. That being said, this is my preferred deck building process, assuming I have enough time to see all of it through: Start with an idea or goal in mind. Build an optimized 60 card deck for each important matchup. Identify key cards that work well in all of your important matchups. Identify key cards in specific matchups. Narrow down to 80 cards and test your matchups again with these setups. Make changes to the 80 and go back to Step 5. The best place to start building a deck is either with a central idea or goal in mind. A great example of a deck built around a specific strategy is Tariq Patel’s Lightning Briar deck. It is designed to efficiently use all of it’s cards without having to pitch, in order to pressure the opponent in ways that are difficult to block efficiently. The interview with Tariq on fabtcg.com is a fantastic read if you are curious about more of the history and inspiration for this deck. The second major inspiration for a deck, is if you have a specific goal in mind. For example, going into Canadian Nationals my goal was to find a deck that was favorable against both Briar and Bravo which ultimately led me to build my Ice Lexi list. Oldhim is another great example of a deck that mostly started to see play in response to the Briar dominated metagame. Once you’ve clearly identified your idea or goal, the next step is to build an initial 60 card deck that can execute on that goal or strategy. As you playtest you will naturally make changes and refine your list, but as you play against a variety of decks, you may also identify that the strategy is more effective in certain matchups than others. For example, maybe you are happy with your anti-Bravo 60 card deck, but it doesn’t function well into the Viserai matchup. An ideal approach here is to build a whole new 60 card deck, which has one purpose - to defeat Viserai, even if it is substantially different from your build for defeating Bravo. This is the most important part of the process and may be a major shift in mindset for some players. The reason I like using this approach is because, when you are sideboarding before a game of Flesh and Blood, you are not just picking the best cards for each matchup. You are presenting a specific 60 card deck that has a strategy designed for that matchup. For each and every matchup, you are presenting a different deck with a different strategy. Certain matchups will have very similar 60 card configurations and strategies, but it’s important to think of each of them as distinct, because every hero requires you to play a little bit differently. At this stage, don’t worry about the “core” of your deck or if you could feasibly fit all the cards for this deck and your original 60. The goal here is not to construct your ideal 80 card deck just yet, but to learn what cards work well in specific matchups, and what strategies are available to your class in that matchup. You can then repeat this process for the rest of the decks you expect to encounter in an event. Often in the early stages of deckbuilding, I may have as many as 90-100 cards that I’ve identified as being useful in various matchups. This is okay and an important part of the deckbuilding process. Sometimes, this new 60 card deck may have a dramatically different core strategy than your original deck. A great example of this is hybrid Prism lists which play an aggro herald gameplan into most matchups, but play auras into decks with lots of 6 power attacks like Bravo. There are of course exceptions to this rule, for example if you are working on an Ice Lexi list, you aren’t going to be able to play a full lightning list with lightning arrows. However, in general the more open you make this process, the more you will learn about which cards are key in that matchup. Additionally, it may help you identify weak matchups and identify if they are even worth teching for at all. For example, Bravo struggles quite a bit into Dash, regardless of the configuration he chooses to play, so we can determine Dash is likely not a deck worth devoting a large number of sideboard cards to. Additionally, if you discover early that the hero can’t have as strong a matchup as you would like into a certain strategy you expect to be prevalent, you can more quickly identify that perhaps it’s time to explore a different hero instead. Once you’ve completed your ideal 60 card lists for each individual matchup, it is time to start working towards a more refined 80 card list. The best way to do this is to first identify which cards are ones that appear in all or most of your 60 card decks. These are usually cards that are universally powerful like Three of a Kind, or cards that are flexible role players that you are happy enough to run in a variety of matchups like Frost Lock which can range from a resource card to a power card depending on the matchup. As you assemble this list, you are actually creating an early draft of the “core” of your deck. What is powerful about this process, is that it allows you to construct your core in an organic way that ensures it is flexible and robust across your matchups. Now that you have the core of your deck, you should have a much better idea of how many extra slots you have for tech cards. Usually you won’t be able to fit everything you would ideally want in your deck. So, you can start by prioritizing the most impactful cards in matchups you expect to face often, as well as cards that perform well against multiple decks. I would highly recommend writing out each card sideboard card, and listing which matchups it performs well in next to it. This helps you see visually how valuable that card might be as part of your sideboard. In particular, cards that are flexible and can be roleplayers in multiple key matchups are very powerful. You may also make concessions in certain matchups if you do not expect to play that matchup often, or you feel confident enough in that matchup that you are happy to play fewer tech cards for it. If you are having trouble getting down to exactly 80 you could just cut some extras and opt to do some additional testing before deciding on a final list. I often spend a lot of time with a pool of ~85 cards I would like to have, and then fine tune various matchups and determine which ones are most important to include in the deck. Remember, that it is important to double check the ratios for these new 60 card decks all check out. Also, if the deck differs from your ideal 60 that you tested previously, you will want to spend some more time testing that matchup and ensuring the new deck still performs. Deckbuilding is an iterative process and often you will have to revisit previous stages. If you have an already established deck but just want to work on one problem matchup, consider building an ideal 60 card deck for that matchup and then seeing how many of those cards are needed and can fit with your core. Additionally, while this deck building method is very robust, it is also very time consuming. Often, you may need to find places where you can take shortcuts to speed up the process. In the Part 2 of this article series, I will discuss how I applied this process to brew the Ice Lexi deck I won Canadian Nationals with, when I had only two weeks to prepare.
The Year of Rhinar
By Dimos K Rhinar has long been one of my favourite heroes in Flesh and Blood, as has the Brute class as a whole. He was the first hero I played in an Armory (drafted, back when he was the laughing stock of Rathe), and he was my rep of choice for the early Skirmish seasons. I think Rhinar is a fantastic hero in Classic Constructed, Blitz, and in Limited formats. In fact, I was even preparing to take him to Nationals until red-line Briar became popular. It was a very generalist deck where the aim was to go 50/50 into as many heroes as possible. If you’re curious, here’s the link to it. I’m betting that Rhinar will come in big in 2022 because he has access to so much utility and so many counters to many perennial threats. Rhinar’s Intimidate ability functions as a great equalizer. If you want to play defensively to set up a strong board like Viserai, Dash, or Prism, Intimidate puts the game on a strict clock. Intimidate can break through even the strongest of Oldhim and Bravo’s defenses and ensure that they cannot fatigue in the matchup. To add to this, Rhinar has access to varied utility cards such as Bonehead Barrier, Argh Smash, and Reckless Swing. In a midrange or control meta, Rhinar shines very brightly. If there were continued major events in the Crucible of War era, I am confident that Rhinar would have dethroned Dash as the best hero (possibly with some interference from Katsu). Here’s a deck profile for Dan McKay’s Rhinar deck that won Red Riot Games’ big international tournament at that time. Rhinar can effectively counter any non-aggro meta threat in the game just by adding a few cards to his deck list. These additions are sometimes specific cards like Argh Smash, Unmovable, Bonehead Barrier, or Pummel (key against Sabres Boltyn). There are also more general cards that give strong strategies against a variety of decks, such as being able to pivot between Mandible Claws and Romping Club. Rhinar’s access to both of these weapons is half of what makes him so versatile (the other half being unparalleled access to Intimidate and specific utility cards). Like plenty of Brute attacks, Mandible Claws kind of suck when not paired with Bloodrush Bellow. In concert with Bloodrush, Mandible Claws will usually deliver a turn dealing at least 18 damage and two Intimidate triggers. This is excellent at smashing past any defense your opponent can muster. Conversely, Romping Club, with its base power of four, is one of the best standalone weapons in the game. A strong weapon gives a deck an effective default plan of blocking and grinding out an opponent with Club swings. Combine the strength of Romping Club with the strength of Barraging Beatdown, and Rhinar has a very strong grinding game plan when required. This complete reversal of gameplan, from an aggressive combo plan with Mandible Claws, can be achieved for the low price of one sideboard slot: the Club itself. This breadth of different strategies with little investment makes Rhinar an excellent, versatile threat into any meta that is not hyper-aggressive. As a contrast, Bravo requires much more sideboard investment to switch up his game plan from grinding to something more aggressive. Due to an absence of a weapon with Go Again, Bravo needs to put attacks with Go Again into his deck. Most commonly these are Zealous Belting and Rouse the Ancients, both of which are contingent on supporting cards in the deck (likely mediocre blue six-power Guardian attacks taking the place of powerful blue Guardian utility cards). The main reason that Rhinar struggles with very aggressive decks is that so much of his strength is tied to Intimidate, which is largely irrelevant to aggressive decks that weren’t going to block anyways. Any aggressive deck worth its salt will be running efficient attacks and on-hit effects, both of which Rhinar severely lacks. Rightfully, Rhinar doesn’t have on-hit effects or efficient attacks, because those in concert with Intimidate would be completely unfair. Maybe he gets some pseudo-on-hit in Everfest similar to Barraging Bighorn or Barraging Beatdown. Overall, I do not feel that Rhinar “needs” any additional cards. He is good at what he is good at, and he has corresponding weaknesses. I think it is important to emphasise that this is fine and that not every hero needs powerful cards to “fix” them and make them powerful in every single meta. In a meta dominated by anything other than aggressive decks, Rhinar will be a top-tier contender, and I think that is how 2022 will shape up. Everfest will likely bring a lot of utility and “answer” cards, similar to how Crucible of War (the previous supplemental set) did. Snag, Argh Smash, Find Centre, Meganetic Shockwave, Feign Death, Reaping Blade, Aetherize, and Gambler’s Gloves are just some of the cards with unique utility effects that counter specific strategies in other decks. While aggro has continued to be a popular deck type, it has been dealt with effectively as the 2021 Nationals season has gone on. The final say in this will be the (hopefully) imminent New Zealand and Australian National Championships, which I will be watching with hope.
Preparing for Winter: Planning with Oldhim
By Dimos Flesh and Blood is a game that rewards planning. This planning is mostly within three areas: the 80 cards in your deck list, the 60 or so cards that you present each match, and how you navigate each game from beginning to end. Each of these elements requires intention and forethought. Choosing your 80-card decklist is the element with the least time pressure, as you have any and all time before the event to choose. However, if you show up with the wrong deck list, you may have lost before you begin. A universal example is how much Arcane Barrier to bring. One Arcane Barrier for most Runeblades and maybe Prism, two if you’re worried about Rosetta Thorn, and three or more for Kano. In short, the 80 cards you bring on the day should reflect what meta you’re planning to play against. Now that Flesh and Blood is up to fifteen heroes, many of which have multiple potential archetypes, sideboarding has become more and more necessary, and has even begun bleeding into deck list selection. You can’t counter 15 heroes in just 80 cards. It is common for players to bring sideboard notes to be consistent in what to bring against who. This sideboarding is also key, as many cards are useless against certain heroes, such as red defense reactions against Kano. There are many excellent, dedicated articles to sideboarding in Flesh and Blood. This isn’t one of them, it's just aiming to say that sideboarding is an important part of planning out your match. This is because your sideboard determines your win condition, your strategy, and how you will spend the first two thirds of the game setting that up. What I think it’s the most important element of planning in Flesh and Blood occurs during the game. How do you turn your 60 or more cards into 40 or more points of damage and defeat your opponent? Designing your win condition comes in the pre-preparation stages with your 80-card list and sideboard for each matchup. Your actual strategy in each matchup can be pre-planned. Are you a control deck playing against an aggressive deck? Racing them is a losing plan, but fatiguing them or out-valuing them may be a winning plan. Which cards in your deck make that work? Enlightened Strike (some good damage with no on-hit effect) may not get you where you need to go, but Sink Below (excellent blocking that denies on-hit effects and lets you stack your deck) might. Pitch stacking is probably the most important part of a game plan (in anything other than aggro versus aggro matchups). This can be a daunting topic, and can be difficult in a game where you’re already thinking about so much else. But it is worth it. If you are conscious of your pitch stacking and your opponent is not, then you’re effectively playing a different game. You have much higher quality information than they do, and each turn cycle can be planned well in advance. Do you know that they still have a powerful red combo pitched away? Arsenal a defense reaction or play out a defensive aura in anticipation. That will give you the space to respond with your own strong combo. Even if the life totals differ significantly in the early- and mid-game, the better-stacked deck usually comes out on top (all other things being equal). Oldhim can be behind by 15 life after the first deck cycle (when the first pitched card comes back into players hands) and still feel very confident knowing that the three upcoming Oaken Olds will level the field and give them tempo. I think that Oldhim is an ideal example to highlight each of the three planning facets of setting your deck list, choosing your sideboard, and playing the game with a long-term intention. He is naturally built for control, and as such, required your 80-card deck list to be fundamentally reactive to other decks. Oldhim highlights all three of these elements with Forged for War. Firstly, do you even give it the deck space in your list? Do you bring one, two, or three copies? Bravo usually only likes one because of the high number of Battleworn equipment he has, but Oldhim can make any number work. Combined with Rampart of the Ram’s head, Crown of Seeds, and anything Ironhide, Oldhim sees plenty of upside from Forged for War at any point in the game. However, Forged for War is yellow and doesn’t have the Earth or Ice types attached to it. This means that unless Forged for War is doing something specific, it probably won’t be good to present for a match. Let’s assume that we’ve decided to bring three copies in our 80 because we think it shores up a couple of our weakest matchups, and we are expecting to see at least a couple of those. Now we have to figure out what to do with them. Forged for War is great against Dash, who has to break the chain with every pistol shot, allowing for the now-buffed equipment to block three or four times if need be. It is also useful against Prisms with Library as one of the few yellow cards that can slot into the deck. It is a useful 3-block card against 0-cost Briars, and can be situationally useful (mainly on turn 0 or 1) against most other aggressive decks. Additionally, it has a lot of uses as a set-up card to try and block out opposing pivot turns (such as against Bravo), or to allow Oldhim space to set up his own combo turn. Deciding if and when to play Forged for War is not always an easy task. It costs two cards to play (itself and one to pitch). That translates to a very high opportunity cost of six points of damage (assuming each card blocks for three or adds three points of attack to your turn). There had better be a big pay-off for that. In order to see a big pay-off, the timing of Forged has to be deliberate and achieve something for your plan. For example, playing Forged while arsenaling a powerful attack helps set up the next turn to be a big pivot or using Forged for War to let you keep a five-card hand for a final push with Last Ditch Effort. Forged becomes much more useful during the second cycle of your deck. You should know what cards are coming up and have an idea of what your opponent has remaining in their deck. Time it well, and it will make a pivot much easier to pull off. However, if you play it out blindly or without a specific plan, it’ll probably just end up absorbing a few points of damage and not being worth the opportunity cost. Overall, this is a game that rewards forethought and intention. By planning out each step of your game plan at home, before your match starts, and during your match, you will be rewarded quite well. Pitch stacking is vitally important, but it must be combined with an intention to arrive at a win condition. P.S. A short note to netdeckers: If you found your deck online, think about it critically. Flesh and Blood decklists are almost never complete information. They usually lack sideboard information, and even when it is provided, they lack tips on how to use specific cards in specific matchups. Many cards have many different uses. Art of War can be used effectively on both offense and defense. Tome of Fyendal can be used for life gain, big combo turns, or both. When you look at a deck list online, the most important thing you can ask is “Why?”. Why are each of these cards in this list? How do they get me to a winning game state? If your list is from somewhere online, you need to fill in the blanks to figure out how to turn 80 cards into 60 cards and then 60 cards into a lethal amount of damage against your opponent. This is not always an intuitive process, but it is necessary.
The “Briar Problem”, Linear Aggro and Everfest
By: Yuki Lee Bender Post Nationals Metagame Coming off a wildly successful Nationals season, the Flesh and Blood competitive scene has largely gone quiet, as we wait for the recently announced ProQuest season following the release of Everfest. However, it’s hard not to come across someone talking about Briar in the Flesh and Blood community and, considering her incredible run in Nationals and Skirmish Season 3, it makes sense she is the source of so much discussion. People from all over want to weigh in on the most effective bans or errata to rein in Briar’s power, while others still insist there should be no changes since the metagame seems to be starting to adapt to the deck. In this article I want to explore the “Briar problem” through a wider lens that I feel is largely overlooked right now. First of all, let me be clear and say that Briar is definitely not Chane. In a matter of weeks following Briar’s Debut at UK nationals we have seen decks like Oldhim, Chane, Ice Lexi and Viserai successfully target Briar. This is night and day compared to Chane who was flexible, resilient and capable of playing many gameplans to account for the entire cast of heroes. However, despite this metagame diversity, I still believe Briar poses a problem for the game right now, because far too many heroes are simply not equipped to deal with her and are pushed out of the metagame as a result. Linear Aggressive Strategies Linear aggro decks are ones like Post-ban Chane, Briar, Aggro Katsu and Lightning Lexi. These decks mostly don’t want to block and are happy to just take damage in order to push their own aggressive gameplan and race. While I do think that these type of decks are an important part of the competitive ecosystem, in the current state of the game they can also be problematic. The issue posed by these decks is that when they are efficient enough, it means that playing a defensive strategy into these decks is not an option. A deck like Briar pushes too many breakpoints and will ultimately get through your defenses, unless you are specifically a hero named Oldhim, who is highly specialized in defense. The problem with defending not being viable against these decks is that the rest of the heroes of Rathe are left with only two strategies available to try and compete with linear aggressive decks. You can either disrupt them or try to outrace them. While disruption is a viable gameplan that produces interactive and interesting games, the problem is that not many heroes have the tools to do this effectively. Currently the main heroes that can disrupt these decks are Ice heros through frostbites and discard or Bravo through crush effects like Spinal Crush and Crippling Crush. Every other hero essentially needs to race, which means you are playing an aggro mirror, and this naturally will lead to the most aggressive and linear deck coming out on top. In Monarch that was Chane, in Tales of Aria it’s Briar and come Everfest it could be another hero, but regardless of which hero it is, the fundamental problem will be the same. So what can be done to take aggro down a notch? One thing is clear, aggressive strategies thrive on a combination of card draw and go again. We’ve seen this formula in all the premier aggro decks including Chane, Briar, Aggro Katsu, Herald Prism, Dorinthea and Radyn Boltyn. More than any other card, I believe Plunder Run heavily subsidizes the success of runeblades and aggressive strategies in general. Plunder run is the perfect aggro card as it provides damage, has go again and with enough go again attacks, provides near guaranteed card draw. While plunder run has been a powerful card in decks like aggro Katsu in the past, the card is especially well utilized by runeblades who get additional rewards for playing non-attack actions. It is very telling that all of the top performing runeblade decks play 6 to 9 copies of the card. While banning Plunder Run may provide temporary relief to the problem and may ultimately prove to be necessary, I do think the linear aggro problem will eventually come back and resurface. There is a fundamental problem posed by aggressive strategies that can’t be blocked effectively and don’t want to block in that they force most other decks to play the same gameplan. These games tend to lack depth and to feel uninteractive as neither deck really needs to concern itself with what the other is doing. Often players talk about matchups like the Briar mirror or Chane mirror coming down to who draws better. Everfest The more permanent solution in my eyes lies in printing new cards in Everfest or potentially other future sets. While providing more defensive options may be effective, I think having control be dominant is a problem of its own. Games dominated by blocking and trading for small amounts of damage, while very popular amongst some players, are often not the most engaging games to play or watch and can be quite long and tedious. Instead, I believe a good solution is for LSS to provide more detrimental hit effects that are available to the entire cast of heroes. Currently the only generic cards that fit this category is Command and Conquer and Pummel, however these tools are insufficient alone. What I would like to see most in Everfest is more generic tools to help combat aggressive strategies, and force them to sometimes block or incur a significant penalty. This feels like an ideal solution because it promotes interactive games that are fun both to play and to watch. I think LSS should exercise caution when designing disruptive effects as they could easily invalidate aggro entirely if too many strong ones exist. Five card hands are a powerful and fun part of the game, and decks should want and get to play five card hands. However, I think linear aggro decks that limit gameplay to playing your entire hand aggressively is not healthy for the game long term. The real problem with a linear aggressive deck like Briar is not that she can’t be defeated, it is that too many heroes have no viable paths to victory as they are not equipped to block, disrupt or race her effectively.
Upgrading Bravo with Tales of Aria
Dimos Kaloupis Bravo has long been the hero of Rathe that represents patience, with strong defence and a consistent weapon. His Guardian cards deal a disappointing amount of damage compared to other classes, and a big four-card attack can be effectively defended by two cards from the opponent. With such lackluster damage from his class cards, he has to find power elsewhere. This is done in two places: his weapon, and his on-hit effects. Anothos is, I believe, one of the best, if not the best single card in the game. Many Guardian players have won at least one game by doing nothing but swinging the hammer and defending. Nowadays, Bravo has access to damage-efficient turns, courtesy of Zealous Belting, Rouse the Ancients, and Anothos. However, his main threats still lie in his Guardian Crushes. The remainder of this article will go in-depth in evaluating the new toys Bravo has. When I refer to a “regular” Bravo deck in this article, I mean a deck that runs mainly 3-cost blue cards, defence reactions, crush cards, and some tech for whatever the top meta deck of the day is. With the new Guardian cards in Tales of Aria, Bravo has access to three new tools. I am only going to discuss the in-deck cards, as equipment and weapon choice is an entirely different article. Tear Asunder is a no-brainer in any Bravo deck. “Costs 3, blocks 3, pitches for 3” is the gold standard, and Tear Asunder meets all of those criteria with an added bonus of buffing Anothos (previously only possible with Pummel) and offering a discard effect on-hit. Embolden meets the general 3/3/3 criteria, but unless the Bravo deck is running plentiful Auras, half of the card text is irrelevant. This is not a card that can be put into just any Guardian deck; it is a resource-intensive card that requires building around. Building an Aura archetype deck to work around the constraints of Embolden is too slow in the current meta, and too susceptible to disruption in a hypothetically slower meta. From this point on, we get a bit technical. To fully discuss this topic and all the factors that go into making deckbuilding decisions, in addition to in-game turn cycle decisions is a topic of massive scope. Here is my mediocre attempt at discussing some of those elements. So let’s talk about Thump. An amazing card in Tales of Aria limited formats, it is the subject of much debate in the world of Classic Constructed. Thump is a fine card. It meets the 3/3/3 criteria, and poses some threat. Oldhim can do some very interesting things with it, courtesy of cards like Earthlore Surge and Strength of Sequoia. However, Bravo finds the card generally lacking without access to those pumps. Red Thump fits more into the buffing Aura archetype mentioned earlier, in conjunction with Cards like Embolden, Come to Fight, or Plunder Run. All of those cards do not fit into a regular Guardian deck. Thump does not have the Crush keyword, and therefore cannot receive the buff from Crater Fist, meaning that it’s main equipment synergy is Goliath Gauntlet. Sacrificing two armor and a sideboard slot for a single synergy is a very high price to pay. Without those synergies, the only way to buff Thump is through Pummel, which renders the “this card gains dominate” half of the text irrelevant. In order to fully evaluate blue Thump, I think it is worth exploring how an entire turn cycle works for Bravo, what he is looking for, and where he can gain advantage. Additionally, Bravo has an extensive amount of options for cost three, block three, pitch three cards. One must consider if Thump is better than an existing card in the deck. I struggle to think of instances where I would rather have a blue Thump in my hand over any other 3- or 4-cost Guardian attack. The other Guardian attacks have more power, making Bravo’s dominate on them more effective at pushing damage. Additionally, if one is going to pummel either card, odds are that both the on-hit effect of Thump and the Crush effect of Debilitate, Chokeslam, or Crush Confidence will land as well. This is because, usually, the only point in the game you are playing 4-card hands with blue attacks and Pummel is near the end. At that end phase of the game, an average opponent is likely out of defense reactions and has a low life total. This makes the higher damage of the other Guardian attacks even more relevant. Any other 4-cost Guardian attack will do two additional damage compared to Thump. A 3-cost Guardian attack will still deal an additional point of damage, but has an added benefit. With a 4-card hand and a Seismic Surge token, 3-cost Guardian attacks can be Dominated with Bravo and still have enough resources to Pummel. A dominate before the reaction step is much more relevant for pushing late-game damage. The overall trade-off is one or two extra points of damage and a potential crush effect versus a second discard. Overall, I think the utility and damage of the other cards outweighs the potential discard effect of Thump. So, should Thump be in your Bravo deck? Here is the key decision maker for me that will keep Thumps forever out of my Bravo decks: in any hand where there is not a red Pummel, a 4-damage Thump is not even in the discussion. However, a 6-damage, 4-cost blue can still be dominated. This threatens a crush, encourages a block, and pushes 3 points of damage if the opponent does not have a defence reaction. If the opponent does have a defence reaction, Bravo would love it if they used it on a blue Debilitate rather than the Spinal Crush that was pitched earlier. Thump and blue Pummel requires Bravo to have a four-card hand, and can be entirely defended by two cards. A standard Bravo deck has no other ways to pump Thump, but it has better cards to use red Pummel on. Side Note & Post Script: I’ve seen a lot of discourse about Thump online. In order to fully explain why I prefer other cards to Thump, this article should be a complete series about how to play Bravo. The deck-building decisions that many people dismiss as “resource cards” are oftentimes more in-depth than those that go into the red power cards. For example, Crippling Crush has a very clear purpose. It is used for damage and to strip cards, or to buff Anothos and make a Seismic Surge. A blue card in a Bravo deck needs to play more than an offensive role. In addition to providing “pitch 3, block 3, cost 3” utility, they also need to contribute some degree of unique threat or further utility. This can range from enabling other cards (such as having a high base power to help Rouse the Ancients and Zealous belting), or provide its own relevant damage, on-hit/Crush effect, or special buff. To highlight some of these differences and further utilities, continue reading below for an in-depth example of a hand cycle. In it, Bravo can decide between Thump and Debilitate with Pummel. Let’s examine a hypothetical scenario, a dream hand for blue Thump: The game is reaching the end phase, Bravo has 14 life and his generic opponent has 11. Bravo has just drawn a red Pummel, a blue Thump, a blue Debilitate, and a Show Time, and has no arsenal. In total, this hand blocks for 11. The opponent has 2 cards and a card in arsenal. They play a red Scar for a Scar from hand for four damage with go again. Bravo is quite confident that the card in arsenal is not a defence reaction. Before Bravo declares any blocking cards, he should consider what he wants to do on his turn. His options are: Saving three cards to pummel Anothos for 10 damage and no additional effect could be an option as it nearly presents lethal. This option also allows Bravo to block 3 damage. Additionally, Bravo could likely dominate a 6-power attack next turn with a three-card hand to seal the last few points of health. However, the most likely response to Bravo swinging Anothos for 6 with two resources floating will be a 2-card block for 6, leaving Pummel to either get put in the arsenal for later, or to be played out to push the additional 4 damage. Swinging Anothos for 6 could be an option, and allows for Bravo to either block for five or block for three and a chance to put Pummel into the arsenal. One could also swing Anothos for 4 and block for 6 or 8. Playing Thump and Pummel for 8 damage and threatening 2 discards could be an option, but would not allow for blocks this turn. Playing Debilitate with Pummel for 10 damage, threatening one discard and a -2 debuff on his opponents first attack. Bravo could also dominate a Debilitate for 6 damage and block with or arsenal the pummel. This is not worthwhile as the Crush effect will be easily blocked by a single card, and the 3 damage that leaks through is not threatening when life totals are as high as 10 or 12. Based on these options, Bravo probably wants to close out the game, as he has some good tools to do so. Swinging Anothos for 6 or 4 presents neither disruption nor enough damage to be frightening. Unless he play a disruptive next turn, he will lost tempo back to his opponent and it is unlikely that Pummel will have an opportunity to see the board if it is arsenaled. This rules out Pummeling Anothos for 10. The remaining options are to play the 4-card hand with either Thump or Debilitate as the showstopper. Bravo declares no blocks, takes 4 damage from Scar for a Scar, going to 10 life. The opponent then pitches a blue to play a blue Brutal Assault from arsenal, threatening 4 more damage. Having already committed to taking damage this turn, and not being too scared of going down to 6 life, Bravo once again declares no blocks. The opponent’s turn ends. Now it is decision time. Playing either attack on the four card hand is viable, but Debilitate threatens more damage and 10 damage cannot be blocked by three normal cards, and would discard the 4th card. If Bravo knows that his next hand cycle is a powerful red card pitched earlier in the game (a Spinal Crush or a Crippling Crush), this leaves the opponent with zero cards to respond with, guaranteeing a dominated red Crush. If the Bravo does not have a big attack upcoming, the Pummel can be arsenaled after either play in response to a 3 card block. This leaves another 4-card hand with a Pummel for Bravo next cycle, assuming that he blocks the opponents weapon swing or attack next turn with one card. The upside to Thump in this instance is the same as Debilitate, but debilitate deals more damage. Debilitate in this above example could be replaced with other three- or four-cost Guardian attacks, and the decisions may change, but the thought process would likely be the same. Thump would lose out in most instances in lieu of other attacks because of their higher power. TL;DR: In short, I really don’t think that Thump should be making it into Bravo lists as it’s damage output is lackluster in comparison to other Guardian attacks, of which there are more than enough to fill out a Classic Constructed deck list.