Everfest Ranger Set Review
By: Yuki Lee Bender It’s everyone’s favourite time of the year, spoiler season! In this article I will dive into my initial thoughts on the new Ranger cards coming up in Everfest. Dreadbore Dreadbore is the newest weapon available to Rangers and it is quite an interesting one, that definitely requires some building around to maximize. The ability to prevent your opponent from playing cards from hand gives some rangers some much needed evasion. However, due to its once per turn activation and only working on the arrow’s chainlink, this card is best used in go-tall builds. In order to maximize Dreadbore we want our deck to have access to the following tools: Pumps so we can make make the most of our single arrow and take full advantage of the evasion granted by Dreadbore. Dominate to help our large arrows go over our opponent’s defenses. Ways to punish our opponent for having defense reactions. All of these points seem to suggest Dreadbore might be nice as a sideboard card in go-tall dominate builds, in order to punish your opponent for loading up on defense reactions. In particular, Azalea or Ice Lexi seem like nice options as both these decks tend to have easy access to dominate. Perhaps the most intriguing part about this bow is that it opens up the ability for Azalea to use New Horizon, as Dreadbore does not require you to have an open arsenal slot to activate. This might allow Azalea to play a slower strategy where she arsenals defense reactions, or even traps, while utilizing her other arsenal slot to load arrows and chip in with dominate. However, losing access to Skullbone Crosswrap might require us to get creative and find ways to increase Azalea’s consistency going off the top of the deck with her hero ability . Currently, I’m not sure the card pool gives us easy enough easy access to this, but it’s definitely something to consider for the future. There is also definitely something to be said about the existence of this bow discouraging opponents from loading up on defense reactions against go-tall builds. There’s some potential for cool mind games, where maybe you bring this in against someone early in a tournament and then play your regular bow later in the event. Synergies: The card has obvious synergy with Remorseless and Release the Tension, as together these cards completely turn off defense reactions. You can even add in Seek and Destroy to clear out the arsenal for future turns. Battering Bolt also synergises well as it can strand defense reactions in our opponent’s hand. Finally, Bolt’n Shot gets turned on by Dreadbore’s +1, something that Azalea hasn’t had free access to from her weapon up until now. Where Dreadbore Doesn’t Work: It is not just going to slot easily into your go-wide Voltaire and Death Dealer builds, because these bows require your deck to build very differently than how dreadbore does. Voltaire tends to want upwards of 30 arrows and Three of a Kind with only a few pumps. While go-wide Death Dealer builds play lots of non-arrow attacks with go again, which just allows your opponent to use their defense reaction on your non-arrow attack. The Verdict: I’m glad Dreadbore exists, but I think it will mostly be interesting as a way to target a slower metagame with lots of defense reactions. Other bows are likely more powerful into more open metagames like the upcoming Pro Quest season though. Tri-Shot The best part about Tri-Shot is that it is a blue that blocks for 3 and costs 0, while having some significant upside. That being said, Tri-Shot doesn’t fit smoothly into any existing first-cycle gameplans. Voltaire typically doesn’t have the resources to load more than 2 arrows, and while Three of a Kind does give you extra resources, it’s not guaranteed you will draw the blues and enough arrows to leverage Tri-Shot. Similarly, while Death Dealer seems like an obvious home due to it giving you lots of extra cards, it requires you to also be able to give the arrows go again. In my experience building decks so far, even with Perch Grapplers Tri-Shot feels quite clunky and hard to get value out of. Currently, the only real way to reliably use Tri-Shot is to set it up in the second cycle of your deck and playing towards a specific endgame, perhaps something like a Snapshot combo with Death Dealer. However, due to Ranger’s difficulties playing defense, successfully getting to the second cycle of your deck and being able to pivot can be quite difficult. The Verdict: I have no doubt that Tri-Shot will be a very fun card to build around and enable some absolutely massive turns. The possibility of setting up a Rain Razors, Endless Arrows and Tri-shot endgame to deal with fatigue is interesting, but not especially relevant in the meta right now. Overall, I think Tri-Shot may end up being a bit of a trap, at least for now, much the same way Rapid Fire and Poison the Tips are. That being said I think fun and janky build arounds are important for a card game to have, and this card definitely has potential down the road. Rain-Razors The rate on this card is very good, it’s basically a yellow lightning press that applies to all of your arrows. Additionally, +2 pushes our 5 power arrows to 7 which is a very important breakpoint. This card enabling multiple Bolt’n Shots is also quite powerful. For all of these reasons I think that the card will see play, it’s just a matter of figuring out where its best homes are. The Verdict: In Azalea, Rain-Razors feels like a premium attack reaction, there are just no other 0 cost ways to pump at the moment. Additionally, Rain-Razors might also be a good replacement for Lightning Press in Voltaire Ice Lexi builds, pushing Chilling Ice Vein up to 7, and then coming in with a Blizzard Bolt for 8 sounds fantastic. Lightning Lexi is probably better served playing actual lightning press as the card also fuses and is quite powerful from arsenal. Release the Tension While another pump isn’t exactly anything new, Release the Tension actually feels quite pushed and is one of the better 0 cost +3 attack pumps we have seen for Ranger. This is especially evident when you compare it to its close relative, Increase the Tension. Turning off defense reactions from Arsenal not only has obvious synergy with Dreadbore, but is generally more valuable than turning off defense reactions from hand. The reason for this is that dominate clearly seems to be a core mechanic in ranger, and arsenaling a defense reaction is one of the oldest tricks in the book when it comes to playing against dominate. While your opponent may still be able to play an Unmovable from hand, it requires them to draw it at the right time, instead of just saving it in arsenal for your big dominate turn The Verdict: Release the Tension Red seems like an auto-include for go-tall Ranger decks looking to come in with one big dominated arrow. However I think these decks need either more support or a different metagame to really shine. It’s also just one of the better untalented pumps in general as it makes it hard for your opponent to get value out of their big defense reactions. It also has nice synergy with Seek and Destroy. I could even see playing the yellow copies of this card in go-tall decks. Read the Glide Path Yet another 0 cost +3 attack pump with upside for Ranger. While this one isn’t quite as exciting as Release the Tension, I think it definitely has its own niche to fill. In particular, giving Azalea access to opt to increase the consistency of her hero ability is quite powerful. Cards like Read the Glide Path that are on rate and offer free deck manipulation are exactly the kind of tools we need to enable the more defensive Dreadbore build I mentioned earlier in the article. The Verdict: Good red in Azalea or future Rangers who care about the top of their deck. Lexi doesn’t really have any use for this effect though Battering Bolt This arrow mostly seems like a card designed to pair with Dreadbore, as it strands the defense reaction in hand and makes blocking very awkward for the opponent. Without the Dreadbore passive, your opponent will just happily play their defense reaction(s) from hand to block out Battering Bolt. Increase the Tension could also fill this role, but it isn’t a card that has seen a lot of play and neither card seems particularly good on its own. That being said, if you have Dreadbore in your 80 I think you will definitely want Battering Bolt as the synergy is quite high, I can imagine some very big blow outs with this combination of cards. The other very obvious place for this card is sideboard tech to pop Illusionist phantasms. It’s quite nice to have a card that is fine on rate and fits into ranger’s main gameplan, while also helping them block. Additionally, Prism tends to have more instants than most classes, which does get you a little bit of extra value. However, in most cases she would probably just choose to block this card, or play her instants in response. The Verdict: A nice sideboard card to play against Prism and good with Dreadbore. Possibly could be good if there is a class that plays a lot of non-action cards in the future. Overall it’s a bit on the narrow side, but will probably see some play. Fatigue Shot Fatigue is my pick for best Ranger card in the set and one of the best arrows ever printed. I talk about this card in full detail in my previous article “The Arrow That Will Forever Tip the Scales”. To summarize my thoughts, the card is excellent on rate, generally providing a 7+ point life swing if it hits. It also helps shore up Ranger’s weakness of a poor defense by mitigating damage and making scary hit effects like Command and Conquer, Crippling Crush and Spinal much easier to block. The Verdict: Fatigue shot is fantastic and exactly the kind of card Ranger needs. I believe Fatigue shot will be the most played Ranger card from Everfest, and will be an instant staple in any 80 card ranger deck. Don’t let the rarity of the card fool you, this card is the real deal. Timidity Point While I’m always happy to see new arrows, Timidity Point might be the worst arrow ever printed, at least for now. Taking away dominate is only relevant if we want to block with multiple cards. However, Ranger blocks worse than any other class in the game since we play lots of 2 blocks and our 3 blocks are mostly our attacks which we need in order to be able to do anything since bows do not attack on their own. Taking away dominate from our opponent just doesn’t feel relevant for a class that is so heavily disincentivized from blocking. The Verdict: This card is basically unplayable as of right now. However, LSS has a history of showing that their card designs are very well thought out and often plan into the future. Perhaps one day there will be a more defensive Ranger class that can actually make use of this effect. Until then, I will be passing on Timidity Point. General Impressions of Everfest Azalea got lots of new tools, but I am unsure if she will be able to hold a strong spot in the metagame, in particular prism is very challenging for go-tall builds. While Lexi got a few tools in the form of Fatigue Shot and Rain Razors, it doesn’t feel like anything that actually provides new deck building options. A set full of non-talented Ranger cards is tough for Lexi as she typically has very few slots for untalented cards due to the reliance on her fuse mechanic and hero ability. Overall the Ranger cards we received in Everfest are solid, and Fatigue Shot in particular is an excellent tool to have access to, but Ranger didn’t receive the raw power level that Prism or Runeblades did.
The Arrow That Will Forever Tip the Scales
By: Yuki Lee Bender Much to my surprise I haven’t seen many people talking about this card. Here’s my hot take: I believe Fatigue Shot will be the most played Ranger card from Everfest, and is in contention for being the best arrow ever printed. I think we will see 6 copies of Fatigue Shot in Red and Yellow pitch in every 80 card Ranger deck. Additionally, I wouldn’t be surprised for decks that can give +1 with their bow and/or decks that focus on buffing their attacks to play the blues as well. Perhaps part of why I feel so strongly about Fatigue Shot is because, just days before the card was spoiled I had pitched this exact card design to my playtesting group, a tool I wished Ranger had that would also be fairly balanced. If anyone from the LSS play design team is reading and looking to hire someone, feel free to hit me up! Jokes aside, why do I think this seemingly innocuous card is so incredibly good? Before we begin, let’s evaluate the average value of Fatigue Shot’s on hit effect. The vast majority of attack action cards people play hit for at least 4 damage, as this is an important breakpoint that requires a defense reaction or more than one card to block efficiently. Against these 4 or 5 damage attacks, Fatigue Shot gives -2 attack on hit. We will use this -2 attack as our baseline for evaluating the card, keeping in mind that it scales up higher against larger attacks. One reason Fatigue Shot is great is that it’s one of the best arrows in the game on rate alone. If Fatigue Shot hits for 5 and gives -2 attack on hit, this represents an overall 7 life point swing on the turn cycle and is absolutely fantastic in racing situations. A 7 point swing from a single arrow is comparable to all-stars like Remorseless, Buzz Bolt and Frazzle on an average turn, and completely eclipses other arrows like Head Shot and Hamstring Shot. Not to mention, Fatigue shot is untalented, comes in all pitch values and does not require you to fuse. Not only that, but the rate on this card can be even higher if your opponent wants to play an attack with 6 or more power. But wait, there’s more! Fatigue Shot is not only great on rate and for racing your opponent, it also helps Ranger solve one of their biggest problems: poor defensive options and difficulty blocking on-hit effects. Just how powerful is our previously established baseline of -2 attack? Well, in general it means our opponent's red-line attack is essentially a blue that pitches for one. Another way to think about this, is that -2 attack is similar to when pre-errata Briar blocks using one non-atack action with two embodiments of earth, except you don’t have to block to get the effect. The defensive value of giving your opponent -2 attack is absolutely huge, and Fatigue shot can offer more than that against large attacks. Giving a 4 power attack -2 means you can block all star cards like Snatch with a 2 block, or with your trusty Perch Grapplers or New Horizon in a pinch. Similarly, 5 and 6 power attacks can be blocked with a single 3 block. This has very far wide reaching application across almost every matchup in he game. Here’s a list of a few attacks that are extremely problematic for Ranger to deal with, that can be shut down with a single card if Fatigue Shot hits: Leg Tap and Meat and Greet red become 2 power. Surging Strike red becomes 3 power. Command and Conquer becomes 3 power. Herald of Erudition, or any yellow herald becomes 3 power. Any red arrow in the game becomes 3 power. Disable yellow or blue becomes 4 power, any block turns off the crush effect. Spinal Crush becomes 5 power, one 3 block stops the crush effect. Crippling Crush becomes 6 power, one 3 block stops the crush effect. Anyone who has spent a decent amount of time playing as Ranger or against it, should understand this is a total gamechanger. Command and Conquer is a ubiquitous card that hoses Ranger, and Guardian is Ranger’s most feared adversary. Ranger can now punish Bravo for taking damage to try and pivot with a dominated Crippling Crush or Spinal Crush by dropping a Fatigue Shot at the end of the combat chain. The punish becomes even more powerful if you have an attack reaction to push it over their armor block. Furthermore, Voltaire Lexi builds can leave a Fatigue Shot in arsenal face up to remind Bravo that if he doesn’t block, you are ready to throw a wrench in his plans. The defense provided by Fatigue shot is also a huge tool for Ranger decks that want to go tall and dominate their attacks. Typically, the biggest issue these decks have is that when you dominate your attack, you leave your opponent with their whole hand. While this is a problem with dominate in general, it is compounded by Ranger’s lack of defense. Some players have tried to overcome this with tall Ice Lexi builds, as it also provides on-hits that slow your opponents offense, but up until now you just haven’t had enough premium options to reliably stymie their aggression. Fatigue shot is an easy 6 of in these decks, and blues are worth a consideration. Fatigue shot might be exactly what they need to make them viable. While it is true that Fatigue Shot doesn’t work against weapons, Ranger usually is very hungry for tempo and is quite happy if the opponent is only swinging their weapon. Additionally, this has a lot of hidden upside, because it means that decks that get easy go again on their weapons like Katsu and Dash can’t get around Fatigue Shot’s hit effect. Kodachi, kodachi, Leg Tap still means their red Leg Tap is coming in for 2 damage. The final praise I will sing for Fatigue Shot is that it has an on-hit that is relevant against just about every class in the game. Virtually every hero wants to hit you with attack actions, the only exceptions to this rule being Dorinthea and Kano. This is a big improvement over arrows like Sleep Dart, Hamstring Shot and Blizzard Bolt which vary wildly in the effectiveness of their detrimental hit effects. One thing that does deserve extra mention is that Fatigue Shot is the bane of Boltyn. His hero ability will not give enough power to enable go again, even if we block. Even V of the Vanguard charged twice, yellow Courageous Steelhand or Beacon of Courage for 1 or 2 won’t get the job done; this card is an absolute nightmare for Radyn Boltyn. For all of these reasons, I think Fatigue Shot is absolutely fantastic. It might not be as exciting and flashy as some of the Majestics in this set, but don’t be fooled. This card is the real deal and is an instant staple for any 80 card Ranger deck.
Evaluating Everfest Spoilers!
By Dimos K I’m sure you’ve seen plenty of people comment on spoilers from Everfest. But hopefully there’s something new in here for you, or something new to consider at the very least. I’m going to be taking a bit more of an in-depth look at a few specific cards: Wild Ride, Nerves of Steel, Tri-Shot and Rain Razors, Aether Wildfire, and Even Bigger than That. There will also be a general discussion on the specializations of the Crucible of War heroes, how confusing the new Warrior cards are to me, how much utility the Illusionist class received, and a brief marvel at the future of generic items. Wild Ride: I think this card is actually great. It is most analogous to Pulping but has a conditional Go Again that is less dependent on your opponent. This is exactly what I am looking for in a Brute Go Again attack because the only games I go on the offensive as Rhinar are against midrange and control decks. Both of those deck types often run defense reactions and frequently stop Pulping. Pulping is a better Dominate card, but Wild Ride is a better Go Again card. They both definitely have their uses, and even their synergies with each other. LSS has once again shown that there are not to be any yellow or blue 6-power or higher attacks that block. I am also unsure of the dice-rolling archetype that this set pushes, as when I’m building my Brute decks I’m looking to reduce variance, not increase it. Nerves of Steel: This interests me for a couple of reasons. This is the only Guardian Aura that is not destroyed at the beginning of the next turn, and has potential for sticking around. It is also a very interesting way for Guardians to deal with Aura Prism that is not racing with Go Again attacks and Action Point generation. This gives Bravo the ability to use most of his equipment without consequence to block Spectral Shields and buy himself precious time to destroy more critical Illusionist auras. It is also worth pointing out the timing of this card. All those “free” blocks can become expensive if at the end of the chain your opponent adds some surprise damage and Nerves of Steel gets immediately destroyed (before it would stop your equipment from taking their negative counters). As discussed last week, Guardians already had so much utility, and this just adds to that massive pile. As does just about every card they received this set, which was more cards than any other class to boot. I firmly believe that Guardians are in an amazing position right now, and are heavily favored if they come prepared with a deck that properly addresses the meta of whatever event they attend. Tri-shot and Rain Razors: These are two very powerful cards that could see use in any number of Ranger builds. In line with Rapid Fire and Three of a Kind, Ranger is approaching a strong potential to develop a one-turn-kill build. Add in some Opt and Reload, and one can search for the combo pieces and shoot an Endless Arrow enough times to finish off the opponent. I doubt this will be entirely viable, but very powerful combo pieces like this warrant some deep exploration in deck building. Voltaire in particular plays very well with these cards, because of how they can extend turns for Rangers. I am excited to see what these cards can do in decks, even if I do fear that they will just make Ranger’s strong turns stronger and weak turns weaker. Rain Razors in particular is a very powerful card, and represents an average of four damage for 0 resources, 2 of which likely come in the reaction phase. This outpaces both Lightning Press and Pulse of Volthaven in various ways. It doesn’t block, but it has more than enough offensive power to make up for it. Aether Wildfire: This card primarily interests me because even though it has a similar effect to Aether Flare, it looks like it will be serving the role of Forked Lightning as a finisher against decks that run a meaningful amount of Arcane Barrier. From a design perspective, it is very impressive how different a card’s role can be by only tweaking it in minor ways, like by adding a single point of damage. By having a default of four damage, Aether Wildfire naturally overcomes most Arcane Barrier equipment suites. Each point of damage added will end up being at least two points of damage (like Forked Lightning provides) because it is so difficult to block damage past that threshold. Even Bigger Than That: This card feels to me like a spiritual successor to Plunder Run. It plays faster (and doesn’t need an extra turn of lag to come out of arsenal), but creates a Quicken token instead of giving a power boost. It doesn’t block, and it’s not a non-attack action for classes that care about that (Runeblades). Effectively it works as a minor hand fix for wide decks, and as a set-up action point generator for tall decks. I think this is a very interesting design space, as the restrictions between the power of the drawn card and the damage dealt puts unique decisions on how to defend attacks from both tall and wide decks. Maybe I’ll be willing to take five damage from an attack to deny this card having any use and shut down an opponent’s turn. It is a very curious form of on-hit effect that rewards decks for getting just over the opponent’s defenses. This tension intrigues me and I’m curious to see some of the less-obvious ways this card gets used in the future. The New Specializations: Microprocessor, Spring Tidings, Blood on Her Hands, and Ready to Roll are all really great cards that very specifically accomplish what their already-specific heroes are trying to lean into. Some are flashier than others, setting up 20+ damage wide turns, where others play very good utility roles. I like this type of support, and it is nice to see that these heroes have not been forgotten, even if they have been forgotten by the last few Blitz metas. How confusing the new Warrior cards are to me: Most classes have a strong base of cards that can be shared across each hero of its class. Warrior is becoming more and more of an exception to this, between the Light-locked and attack action card requirements of Boltyn and the 1-handed and 2-handed weapon split between Kassai and Dorinthea. The cards that came out in this set have only reinforced this by providing restrictions on whether each card can be used with a one-handed or two-handed weapon. Maybe there is something I’m missing, or some future set shenanigans that introduce heroes, weapons, or other cards that make this a necessary distinction. In contrast, the previous supplemental sets came with Hit and Run, a very diverse card that has meaningful applications across a wide variety of Warrior decks. This is because its only condition is to have a weapon attack and any other attack to make on the turn it is played. Illusionist Utility: Illusionists got lots of utility in this set. With the addition of a whole set of new non-instant Spectra auras, and Phantasm attacks that provide benefits when they are destroyed, making their game against tall decks stronger. However, this would come at the cost of running fewer light cards, which would require a significant shift from Prism’s current style. I am not on the cutting edge of Illusionist deck-building, but I would love to see some Blue Prism with Iris of Reality pop up and get strong somehow. An Item for Every Occasion: Much like a real carnival, Everfest comes with a lot of tat. There is a potion for seemingly every effect in the game, and then some extra potions with effects never-before-seen. Almost all of these are almost useless to almost every class right now, but there are a few interesting uses for certain ones in certain decks. The most important thing that’s going to come from these is the diversity of board states that can be built now. I don’t think those board states are particularly good today, but a lot of these cards scream “future design” and will probably do some cool stuff in a few months or years.
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.
