Building Dorinthea Ironsong on a Budget
Greetings and salutations my fabulous FAB folks! Welcome to another installment in our budget FAB decks series here on Card Gamer! I’m Donnie K., and today we’re going to go a little old school. With The Hunted right around the corner bringing new Warrior support, I think it’s time to look at the original. So today we’re building Dorinthea Ironsong in Classic Constructed!
Flesh and Blood’s Most Popular Warrior
Based on nothing but conjecture and personal observation, I’m dubbing Dori (or Thea as she’s known in some communities) as the most popular Warrior in the game. (At least until The Hunted comes out and Warriors gain access to a new talent with Fang.) Despite being a hero from the very first Flesh and Blood set, Dorinthea Ironsong has only accumulated 590 points Living Legend points, meaning she’s likely to be a safe choice for new players.
Dorinthea is a much loved hero and many players first love in the game. Her playstyle is very reactive and the Dawnblade build that I’m highlighting today can snowball if left unchecked. Being able to play against Dori effectively is one of the first tests players often face in their journey of getting good at the game.
Fair warning, this is the first deck I’m writing about that’s only *technically* under $100. The pre-shipping total is right around $95 on TCG Player. As you can probably guess, most of that is in the equipment slot…
Nice Lead. So, What Equipment Goes Into a Budget Dorinthea List?
Honestly, that’s a tough question. While the weapon is easy, the equipment is a little trickier. The Warrior class is known for having a solid suite of armor, but most of the really good pieces are outside of our budget range. The head slot is particularly tough. If you wanted to invest in the hero, getting pieces like Balance of Justice and/or Crown of Providence is a good upgrade goal. For now, we’re going to use Arcanite Skullcap.
Skullcap is an older piece that still serves its purpose, despite being outclassed by the newer gear mentioned above. It’ll most often be worth three points of block value and offers Arcane Barrier against Wizards as long as the requirements are met. While it’s not generally very good against traditional Kano lists, it is excellent against Verdance. Braveforge Bracers will cost about the same as the Skullcap, but it’s a critical piece for the deck. By itself, it’s worth four total points of value if you block with it twice before activating the ability.
Courage of Bladehold having Temper means you’ll only want to block with it once before cashing it in, but making attacks provides an insane amount of value. Finally, the default leg piece is about as cheap as you could ask for. Refraction Bolters can give you the critical go again you need to swing Dawnblade twice and are dirt cheap.
From there, we’re filling the sideboard with some additional Wizard hate and moving on to the core of the deck.
The Core Cards for a Budget Dorinthea List
Warrior Action Cards
To quote my buddy Noah, aka @BigmaczFAB, from my podcast who was kind enough to work on this list, the general idea of the deck is to present Dawnblade with or without go again every turn. Then you want to have some way to attack react over your opponent’s block. Making sure the first Dawnblade attack hits and has go again are the two main elements that need to be focused on when playing Dawnblade Dorinthea. Hitting with the Dawnblade means you get to attack with it a second time thanks to your hero power.
To get those hits, we need a solid core of pre-pumps (or front-pumps) and reactions. (We’ll get to the reactions in a moment.) The pre-pumps are cards that add a buff to the attack before you swing your weapon or give it go again. Things like Spoils of War, Sharpen Steel, and Warrior's Valor are precisely what we need.
Steelblade Supremacy and Ironsong Determination offer slightly lower stat boosts, but come with useful effects that either encourage the opponent to block, giving up cards, or prevents them from blocking, potentially closing out games. However, the most common way to close games as a Warrior is with your attack reactions.
Warrior Attack Reaction Cards
As an Assassin player, I have to show respect to the class that dominates the reaction step. While most of Dorinthea’s reactions are just raw numbers, there’s a reason why she’s popular. No block is ever really safe until the chain link is fully resolved. Most of the Warrior attack reactions we’re going to use have Reprise, which means if the opponent blocks with cards from hand, an extra effect is triggered. This fact is enough to cause fits in a lot of opponents.
Every game you play as Dori is a game of bluffs and interaction, making her one of the most fun heroes to pilot in Flesh and Blood. It also makes her one of the most challenging to play into, so new players can often score wins with her out of nowhere. There’s nothing worse than laying down your whole hand to block a Dawnblade on the first attack, hoping to cover any reactions, only to get blown out by the scariest card in the deck, Twinning Blade. Or a Singing Steelblade that’s SEARCHING for a Twinning Blade.
I love tutor effects, so Singing Steelblade is one of the coolest cards in the game in my opinion. The final list includes multiple singleton cards with this card’s effect in mind. Being able to search your deck for the perfect reaction to your opponent’s block is incredibly powerful. Additionally, as a budget deck, only having one copy of an attack reaction isn’t as big a deal when you have Steelblade to pull it at the perfect moment!
Any Other Budget Warrior Cards We Need?
That’s pretty much it for the main deck. There’s a few sideboard pieces that come in as silver bullets, but that’s customizable depending on your local meta.
We don’t need any attack action cards, but we’re going to include some defensive options. Take it on the Chin is a handy tool to cover annoying breakpoints and makes an Agility token. Sink Below and Oasis Respite in the sideboard also help in longer, grindier games where every point is important.
With all that said, let’s take a look at the final list!
BigmaczFAB’s Budget Dorinthea Ironsong Deck
Final Thoughts
Stop me if you’ve heard this, but Dorinthea Ironsong is one of the coolest heroes in Flesh and Blood and a timeless classic. Her playstyle is engaging, fun, and makes for memorable gameplay every time you shuffle up for a game. Use this list as a starting point to get into the class now if you think you might have any interest in playing Warriors. Keep in mind, I can’t guarantee the list will still be budget friendly when preview season for The Hunted officially starts in a few weeks.
What do you think of the list? Does it spark any creative ideas of your own? What’s your favorite singleton to fetch with Singing Steelblade? Want to hear me and my buddy Noah yap about Flesh and Blood on our podcast? Hit me up on Blue Sky, Twitter, or Discord as Dracohominis87 and let me know!
Wanna learn more about Flesh and Blood? Check out our in-depth guide to deciding when to go first or second.
