Unlike many competitive card games, Flesh and Blood’s answer to the question of “Play or draw?” is still up for debate. Like many of the decisions in Flesh and Blood, they’re often difficult, and knowing what to do gives you every bit a sliver of advantage that makes the difference between a good player and a great one. So join me as I explore in-depth the theory behind the play or the draw!
Level 1
First of all, the basics. I may refer to going first as being “on the play” and going second as “on the draw.” If you go first in a match, you are the first to be allowed to attack, however at the end of your turn, unlike every other turn of the game, your opponent also draws up to their intellect. The result of this leaves the players advantages for either playing or drawing.
So what are the advantages of being on the play?
Evasive Damage
First of all, as the first attacker, you get the opportunity to deal damage if you have methods of sneaking damage through your opponent’s blocks. Flesh and Blood is built to favor the attacker, and as such many heroes in the game have methods of getting damage through an opponent intent on blocking. These are very useful on the first turn, as an opponent is incentivized to block.
These include:
- setting up many small attacks that are difficult to block, a la the Ninjas
- mechanics such as dominate, overpower, and intimidate which restrict the cards your opponents can block with
- arcane damage, which can only be blocked up to one’s Arcane Barrier
- and by going bigger, presenting damage large enough that it overwhelms an opponent’s blocks regardless. This is particularly effective against decks which block poorly, such as Dash I/O or Aurora, Shooting Star.
Set Up
There is also another benefit to going first: being able to set up for future turns. Many heroes have the means to generate a lasting advantage, often at the cost of tempo. These plays are significantly better on the first turn as it doesn’t allow the opponent to block, and these advantages can carry onto future turns.
These include Illusionists setting up their permanents to carry over their advantages to future turns, Guardians and Runeblades setting up their auras for future damage, Mechanologists with their items or combo decks by setting up their soul, graveyard, or setting up potions.
Last of all, there is something that benefits all heroes: the arsenal. For most heroes, hands are exponentially more powerful. This is especially true for aggressive decks who often benefit from spiking one massive turn over several middling turns. By setting up the arsenal, you get to prepare your spike turns before your opponent.
I would like to emphasise the importance of ending your first turn on an arsenal, outside of an extraordinary play line. Being able to carry one card over in advantage to the following turn is far more powerful than dealing three points of damage due to the exponential nature of your hands.
Now that we have covered the benefits of being on the play, what could possibly be the benefits of going second?
Tempo
Flesh and Blood is a game about tempo. To slow your opponent down you have to blunt your own offense in return. Having the initiative and presenting your attack unobstructed first is the benefit of going second.
This is more powerful for certain characters over others: those who don’t need five-card hands to be at their strongest, those who disrupt the opponent by being on the offensive such as Assassins, and in the mirror of aggressive decks, whereby blocking is heavily disincentivized, and being the first player to attack unobstructed is very important.
Specific decks that like going second include Assassins as they get to control their opponent’s first attack with their disruption, Ninjas who play well off their four-card hands and pressure their opponents immediately, or Warriors who heavily incentivize their opponents to block key attacks.
Level 2
Now that we’ve discussed the basic strengths and weaknesses of being on the play or draw, we can discuss the more nuanced mechanics of this decision.
Denial of Advantage
First of all, most heroes can benefit from both going first and going second. Secondly, Flesh and Blood is not Solitaire, and you should weigh your opponent’s interests as well. Given the option, it’s important to deny your opponent if it heavily favors their game plan. Here are some examples.
As Rhinar vs Dorinthea
The classic battle. From Rhinar, Reckless Rampage’s perspective, generally, Rhinar has the conception of preferring to go first, due to his access to the strongest evasion in the game, Intimidate. He also has access to set up options such as Agile Windup and Smashback Alehorn to make his following turn impactful.
However, his opponent is Dorinthea Ironsong, one of the strongest decks at going second in the game. Dorinthea tends to snowball her advantage from exploiting an opponent’s poor blocks, and whilst Rhinar has powerful advantages going first, possibly dealing six or more damage off the first turn, being forced to respond to Dorinthea for the rest of the game might not be worth it. Rhinar also has a decent turn going second, with the ability to utilize his hand well going second.
Thus, in this case, I would choose to go second against Dorinthea.
As Dash I/O vs Zen
Dash I/O prefers going first due to her wealth of options setting up, using her items to garner advantages that carry over to the following turns. However, this is an aggressive deck, and going second grants you the tempo of punishing your opponent for keeping cards to return the attack.
Zen, Tamer of Purpose on the other hand would likely prefer to go second. As a Ninja he’s well suited to deploying his whole hand efficiently for attack and lacks excellent means for chipping damage outside of his weapon Tiger Taming Khakkara. However Zen does have benefits for going first, involving Transcending Chi into his deck for use with Traverse the Universe later on to either generate powerful hands or create a Zen State token with Twelve Petal Kasaya.
Thus, this comes down to the game plans of the decks. Dash I/O has an incredibly powerful beatdown plan, but so does Zen. Zen leverages the power of Zen State tokens to win trades later on in the game, while Dash I/O comes out of the gates blazing. As such, Dash I/O does need a health barrier. This is to weather the storm of Zen’s attacks while he is protected by Zen State tokens, as Dash I/O is a rather poor blocker and can’t turtle and wait out the Zen State tokens effectively.
In my opinion, the chosen player would prefer to go second. While Dash I/O can set up incredibly explosive turns going first, her turns going second are also effective, and force Zen to dampen his assault if he wishes to stem the bleeding while denying Zen the tempo to beat her down for free.
Fatigue
You have two “life totals” in Flesh and Blood: your actual life total, and your deck size. While it may be difficult to damage your opponent on the first turn, you certainly can attack your opponent’s deck. By throwing a massive attack or swinging your weapon, you can trade up on cards or chip damage on your opponent. This is especially the case if you’re threatening attack reactions, which can punish your opponent for not blocking sufficiently.
This is critical for certain decks and their game plans, and while often overlooked, is a reason for going first in extremely grindy matchups.
Sideboard
Next is sideboarding, which grants endless possibilities to deckbuilding. However, having separate plans for going first and going second can give your deck an edge. Cards that are more useful on the first turn can be boarded in, whereas they can be left out when going second, based on your shifting game plan. Structuring your decklist to be able to inch out advantages regardless of play or draw, and having a decklist that is smooth and functional nonetheless makes tournament-winning decks.
Examples for this involve boarding in a single copy of Teklo Pounder as Dash I/O, or Read the Runes for Viserai, Rune Blood. Both of these decks make excellent use of this single copy, having three copies of the tutors Spark of Genius and Become the Arknight. These cards would otherwise be clunky for the deck’s default game plan, however serve as powerful turn zero plays.
Passing
You decide or are chosen to go first and see your opening hand. It’s alright, perhaps you can squeeze a point of damage or two. You play out your hand and move to arsenal, as your opponent smiles as they redraw.
Something many players fail to consider is that by attacking your opponent, you allow your opponent to sculpt their hand to be more powerful on the return attack, or to dig through their deck for their power cards. Thus, there is a cost to attacking on the first turn that is worth far more than a point of damage or two.
Passing also has benefits against decks who have plays going second. Enigma, Ledger of Ancestry for example is more than happy to take damage on the first turn to resolve her Ward auras to retaliate with on the following turn. By holding onto an action point and passing over to your opponent, you prevent them from blowing you out by setting up an advantage going second. Alternatively, if they do commit to the play, it grants you information that they have fewer cards to block with, and you can continue to attack them further to offset their play.
Disruption
Some decks are infamous for their ability to disrupt your hands. Guardians such as Bravo, Showstopper and Assassins like Nuu, Alluring Desire keep your attacks tame by managing your hand. Against decks like these, it’s often underrated the importance of considering going second into them to ensure your first hand goes unobstructed. This results in them having to take damage to begin their chain of disruption, especially if the disruptive hands they’re threatening involve being of a large hand. Of course, these have to be taken with a grain of salt, and largely depend deck to deck on your game plans against these decks.
Level 3
Limited play in Flesh and Blood is immensely complex. Unlike learning a singular deck for a Classic Constructed tournament, Limited requires you to work on the fly, sculpting your deck and making the best with what you have.
Often the first question asked in every new format is when to go first or go second. This is where all of the above learnings need to be applied to your deck on the fly, and to the common tendencies of your opponent’s deck. Even at the highest level some of these questions continue to not have simple answers, and are often contextual to the limited pool of cards.
For example, Florian in draft would initially seem like he would prefer to go second; he lacks evasive damage, and his setup options are limited to merely his auras, running Earth cards into the graveyard, and potential early healing.
However, as the format went on, Florian going first was more of a consideration. Rosetta draft was strange; it was extremely difficult to utilize all four cards in your hand, and Florian was forced to generate impactful hands against Wizards which restricted his ability to block. Going first also allows Florian to launch the first attack, taking the lead in the battle for fatigue. Lastly, going second often forced Florian to use his Sanctuary of Aria to prevent taking immense damage from Wizards on the first turn, leaving him vulnerable to surge effects later on.
Thus the answer was often contextual. How much healing do you have in your deck? How many auras do you have and how often can you play them out? Do you think your opponent’s deck is high on arcane damage?
One level further up from this is planning your draft and adjusting your limited pool to going first or second. Cards such as Lost in Thought red can be boarded in when going second against a Florian, whose primary win condition against Wizards involves surviving and out-healing your limited damage output. If your draft is going well enough, recognizing and utilizing cards that are effective in your different game plans going first and second wins games in Limited.
Playing to Your Outs
My favourite topic in Flesh and Blood involves turning an unlikely scenario to a win. Some matchups skew towards one hero, and it leaves the disadvantaged seeking to set themselves up to wrestle a win from the jaws of defeat.
This often involves shifts from your usual game plan, and with that, your choice of going first or second. Here are some examples which involve risky choices.
As Azalea vs Bravo
This matchup is not great. First of all, Guardians rarely care about Ranger’s on hits. Secondly, even if it is debilitating, Guardians are extremely comfortable with simply blocking out. This is furthered by their wealth of armor choices. Lastly, while you’re ineffective against them, their on hits are extremely punishing for you, especially for Bravo, Showstopper, which grants them dominate which you can’t defend from due to your lack of armor.
I choose to go second in this matchup, which is unintuitive due to Azalea, Ace in the Hole’s powerful turn zero odds to dominate damage over, her ability to setup her arsenal, and Bravo’s powerful first turn, being able to grant a powerful attack dominate.
I chose this because my game plan involves punishing Bravo extremely hard for attacking me, and as the unfavored side of this matchup, I’m willing to gamble that Bravo is unable to dominate a Spinal Crush on the opening turn, which would win the game on the spot. If I survive the first turn relatively scot free, I get to retaliate with my full hand, forcing the Bravo to take massive amounts of damage to start his disruption, and, most importantly, pressure the use his armor. This is also the case as Azalea’s on hits rarely debilitate Bravo, so evasive damage would only be damage, rarely anything more.
As Nuu vs Azalea
As Nuu, Alluring Desire, the Azalea, Ace in the Hole matchup is pretty poor due to their relative immunity to Siren’s Call, resilience to disruption as most of their cards work independently from each other, and access to dominate if given the opportunity to use Azalea’s hero power, especially alongside Skullbone Crosswrap, leaving a defensive game plan less effective. Lastly, she does significantly more damage than you, and is more likely to win a race.
Azalea also has an extremely powerful first turn, threatening evasion if she’s lucky with her hero power, as well as the ability to set up her arsenal for future turns.
Regardless, I choose to go second. Nuu has a lot of power going second, having the ability to disrupt an opponents retaliation. Thus, I choose to submit to the odds that my opponent Azalea would be unable to score a first-turn dominate, at the cost of granting me control of the game at the start so I can push damage with cards such as Looking for a Scrap. I’ve found that if I had played traditionally, Azalea would win the damage race over time, so by forcing the issue and dealing damage as quickly as possible and relying on drawing powerful hands back to back, I have robbed wins that were otherwise impossible.
Conclusion
While I would love to provide a chart leaving the answers, I insist that deducing these choices improves you as a player. Context matters, and drawing your own conclusions based on your own deck construction and reasoning will improve your deckbuilding, your creations of game plans, and your play.
I hope this article has given insight to the deceptively complex question of play or draw in Flesh and Blood. Have a great holiday season, and thank you for reading! See you in The Hunted.
New to Flesh and Blood and wanna get into it without spending a lot of money? Then check out this deck tech for Betsy, Skin in the Game. Or pick up one of the latest Armory Deck precons, including Jarl Vetreidi, which we reviewed here.
