Image courtesy of Legend Story Studios
Welcome to my breakdown of one of the most complex and fun heroes in Flesh and Blood‘s new set The Hunted, Arakni, Marionette. Today we’ll look at everything from the basic play patterns of the deck to the powerful combos it wields, as well as tips and tricks.
The Playbook for Arakni, Marionette
Uzuri, Switchblade presented difficult decisions by wielding daggers that made blocking incredibly inefficient as well as threatening unknown information. Nuu, Alluring Desire presented difficult decisions by having an infinite number of possibilities in terms of reactions from her attacks, undermining blocks.
Arakni, Marionette, compared to the other Assassins, hinges even more so on their dagger, the Hunter’s Klaive. The Hunter’s Klaive simultaneously unlocks powerful hand activity with go again on hit, as well as adding a point of damage pushing it to a breakpoint of four. Last of all, Arakni Marionette’s hero power punishes opponents for blocking out his disruption, by transforming into one of six powerful Agents of Chaos.
Successful Arakni play involves three things:
- Mastering the classic fork of Assassin disruption by presenting your opponent with lose-lose situations, by blocking and remaining Marked, or taking efficient disruption and damage
- Making the most out of the opportunities given to you, given your draw as well as the situations created by the Agents of Chaos
- Knowing when to push and utilize your tools, and when to hold back and save your powerful cards in arsenal or second cycle for a better opportunity
Agents of Chaos
There is a rumor going around that all you want to do is stay in Arakni, Marionette’s base form. The way I know and have built Arakni, I can tell you that is false.
Broadly speaking, the Agents of Chaos enable powerful unpredictability that makes assaults extremely difficult to block properly without a host of defensive options. However, compared to Arakni, Marionette they do play worse on smaller hands as your attacks become more telegraphed and comparably less efficient.
Hence, you must meaningfully disrupt your opponent before transforming to grant yourself a window to use a large hand without retaliation. If all you’ve done is Mark your opponent and transform, you’ll struggle to effectively use their abilities as your opponent is free to attack. The more cards in hand you have when you attack, the more diverse the lines you can present and the harder it is to block out.
But how do we utilize each agent?
Arakni, Trap Door
Arakni, Trap Door has an inherent contradiction. Its hero power is the only one which provides card advantage, which is extremely powerful in Flesh and Blood, yet it’s also the only hero that doesn’t improve your offensive capabilities. On the contrary, the loss of Marionette’s base powers often leaves full hands clunky with Trap Door.
This means Trap Door is best at playing small hands, using the tutored Trap to stifle the opponent’s blows and return with an efficient hand. However, there is one caveat that has me excited whenever I transform into Trap Door.
The Mask of Deceit allows you to change from Trap Door to any of the other agents, and still preserve the Trap they found. Thus, their improved defensive power can be used to preserve your hand to be maximized as the other agents. I cannot understate how powerful this line is, and you should be actively looking to do so given the right hand and opportunity whenever possible.
Lastly, the Mask of Deceit can be used defensively to transform into Trap Door when the extra defensive power is necessary, serving as a five-block headpiece, reminiscent of Traverse the Universe.
Arakni, Orb-Weaver (feat. Graphene Chelicera)
Arakni, Orb-Weaver’s power essentially turns any card in your hand to Orb-Weaver Spinneret, and reducing the cost of the Graphene Chelicera. While innocuous, the newfound weapon is deceptively powerful. First of all, Arakni, Marionette is an extremely powerful wielder of the Flick Knives. Flicking it in a pinch is extremely powerful to grant Mark on-demand in matchups where the luxury of pitching for Hunter’s Klaive cannot be afforded. This alongside being able to flick spare Graphene Chelicera grants Arakni, Marionette a deceptive amount of endgame closing power.
Damage adds up in Flesh and Blood, and each Chelicera you create is a damage that inches an opponent closer to death.
Secondly, Chelicera combined with Hunter’s Klaives are an efficient way to close games, converting each blue to a difficult-to-block, one-two punch. A dagger swinging for two (one, plus one from Arakni, Marionette’s ability) is powerful in the end game as a Fyendal’s Spring Tunic or a go-again outlet. For example, I pitch blue and swing my Klaive into a stealth attack which my opponent allows me to hit, allowing me to cash in an extra point of damage with the floating pitch.
Lastly, the Chelicera are stealth dagger attacks. These are powerful, as its stealth status allows it to carry powerful buffs that do not require an attack action! Most importantly, remember the abilities of the other agents. Using Arakni, Black Widow’s ability on an otherwise innocuous Graphene Chelicera is very effective at making your attack difficult to block. It also carries both halves of Tarantula Toxin’s effect, granting six points worth of value. As the game draws to a close, it is more powerful to be equipped with one Chelicera and Klaive each ideally at the range whereby half of your opponent’s life total is gone.
Arakni, Orb-Weaver is primarily used to prop up the other agents. However, it’s best used in hands with little use for the Marked effect, and no need to pitch. During an Armory, my friend swung a Chelicera at me for 15 damage! A line of Orb-Weaver activation, into swing Chelicera with four attack reactions – absolutely backbreaking!
Arakni, Black Widow
Arakni, Black Widow is everyone’s favorite for a good reason. The art of banishing a card from hand is the classic way to disrupt an opponent in Flesh and Blood, and being able to threaten it on a whim on any stealth attack is very powerful.
Its power is undeniable, and can be applied on a Graphene Chelicera, incentivizing opponents to block it, leaving them open to a follow-up attack. Black Widow’s ability also counts as a reaction for Bonds of Agony, which, in combination with your footwear of choice and Flick Knives, tears an opponent’s hand apart with two cards as well as a ton of damage.
Black Widow grants Arakni the opportunity to steal tempo on a whim with Mask of Deceit and is a powerful option to transform into when you want to reverse the direction of the game at any time.
Arakni, Funnel Web
Arakni, Funnel Web is the least potent of the Agents. As Arakni, Marionette transforms at the end of your turn, your opponent is heavily incentivized to empty their arsenals before you can banish it. While a pseudo-inertia effect is subtly powerful, it’s nothing to write home about.
However, it is useful in certain niche scenarios. Arakni, Marionette often has to be the aggressor against defensive decks which try to block Arakni, Marionette out while playing towards a win condition. Examples range from Florian, Rotwood Harbinger with Germinate or Beygelman’s style Viserai with Mordred Tide. Thus, Funnel Web allows you access to banish these powerful win conditions that they hide in their arsenal.
While Arakni, Funnel Web is inherently the least desired Agent, they have their uses and should always be considered at the back of your mind.
Arakni, Redback
Arakni, Redback trades dismantling your opponent’s hand for being extremely difficult to properly block without a host of defensive tools. It mixes up your opponent by shifting the attack you commit on further down the chain, punishing over-blocking on the first attack. However, if they were to not over-block the first attack, you can commit your resources to the first hit regardless!
For example, you have Take Up the Mantle in arsenal and two stealth attacks, and an Assassin card in hand. You can transform either one into Bonds of Agony from your graveyard and commit your equipment to them based on how your opponent blocks. If your opponent appears to be letting the first attack through, transform the first attack into Bonds of Agony. If they block out the first one, use Redback’s ability and Mantle the second one.
Thus, Arakni, Redback is best at dismantling opponents attempting to block you out by giving them an extremely difficult decision on how to use their cards to block. Arakni, Redback is also useful to extend your hand for go again payoffs, such as flicking the Kiss of Death or Codex of Frailty turns.
Arakni, Redback is extremely powerful and is respected by your opponent – an absolute nightmare to block.
Arakni, Tarantula
Arakni, Tarantula, while not the most powerful, is my favorite Agent. Tarantula does so much damage. Comparably, Tarantula is best used on a hand with blues and dagger interactions, and in a situation where evasive damage is valuable.
With a Hunter’s Klaive and a Graphene Chelicera, you threaten two separate sources of one on hit damage, and alongside other niche dagger effects such as Kiss of Death or Pain in the Backside pushing even more damage. Flicking daggers via Flick Knives also deals additional damage, dragging your opponent unwillingly and quickly closer to death. Lastly, Arakni, Tarantula’s activation also makes it extremely difficult to block out these effects even if an opponent wants to block.
Arakni, Tarantula is the greatest when life totals are the resource being fought over, and should be a consideration for use when blocking with Mask of Deceit.
Back to Marionette
The Agents aren’t the only consideration when playing Arakni, Marionette. Marionette’s playstyle involves incentivizing your opponent as heavily as possible into blocking your stealth attacks and subverting their choices either way. This can be through the use of powerful on hit effects such as Mark of the Black Widow, Persuasive Prognosis, or Art of Desire: Body. Unlike other Assassins, if an opponent were to block, careful consideration has to be made whether you even want to use attack reactions to push the on hit effect, at the cost of consuming your Mark.
Many of Arakni, Marionette’s most powerful cards are best utilized if an opponent has begun their turn Marked, saving you the trouble of needing to spend a card to swing your Hunter’s Klaive for the turn, while also being in an Agent which maximizes your assault. Some examples involve Take Up the Mantle, Savor Bloodshed, and Tarantula Toxin, all of which are very powerful when carried over to be used alongside an Agent of Chaos.
This little minigame we play has to be balanced alongside actually playing Flesh and Blood. Careful blocking with spare resources to slow the game down is important, as we need to be careful not to lose value from our cards if our plan goes awry. It’s important to consider that an opponent may or may not block any given attack and that you have a suitable line to take regardless of their response.
Preparing for Matchups With Arakni, Marionette
Aggressive
In these matchups, usage of their poor blocking, alongside Arakni, Marionette’s base hero power, is critical to outvalue and kill them before they kill you. Powerful stealth on hits are key here, with Art of Desire: Body and Infect hosting a wealth of value. The dilemma in these matchups is finding opportunities to mark your opponents efficiently, while also doing correct blocks to stay alive.
Lair of the Spider is an absolute house in these matchups, as blocking for three allows you to save an entire dagger swing. Flicking your Hunter’s Klaives at opportune moments is also critical in these matchups as it saves you the effort of swinging them. While the first Hunter’s Klaive is not much of a loss, the second is critical to be kept until the absolute last moment, as closing games without it is extremely difficult, and running retrieval effects in such matchups is a risky endeavor.
However, if played correctly, these matchups should feel favored.
Value Midrange
These matchups are the ones where you’re the aggressor, as given time these decks generate an unsurmountable amount of value. In these matchups, an opponent is looking to block you out while still developing their own game plan and is adept with the tools to do so.
These matchups are extremely fun as they involve a back-and-forth pull and mastery of Arakni, Marionette’s tools to generate overwhelming turns as the Agents, while also keeping your opponent in check as Arakni, Marionette. These are the epitome of his play patterns where you want them to be expending resources blocking, all while you don’t want to be hitting. All-stars in these matchups include cards that make accurate blocking extremely difficult, such as Just a Nick or Stains of the Redback.
Ultra Defensive
These are decks that have no urgency to defeat you, but rather aim to run you out of threats while using powerful defensive tools such as Count Your Blessings red and defense reactions to shut your attacks down.
In these matchups, it’s a test to see how capable you are at subverting your opponent’s defenses and squeezing value out of each card you toss at them, either trading them for defensive tools or damage. Agent use is key here as they make it extremely difficult to predict your blocks. However, such decks often run tools to block out daggers. Lining your threats up properly, as well as accounting for pushes in the second cycle, are key to trying to defeat these decks.
These matchups, unfortunately, are not favored with the list I’m currently running. But with shifts in the metagame, tools that overcome defense, such as retrieval or anti-defense reaction cards, can come in clutch.
Assassin Mirrors
Mirrors are often a fun dance of grasping for tempo and maximizing the advantage while you have it.
Nuu, Alluring Desire is extremely powerful and forces you to function on smaller hands, which leads to it being very difficult to keep a large hand to overwhelm blocks. I’ve found it best to handle this matchup by biding my time into the second cycle whereby her blocks become faultier due to Inner Chi, and close out the game quickly with powerful reaction combos before she fatigues me with Mask of Recurring Nightmares.
Arakni, 5L!p3d 7hRu 7h3 cR4X grants you easy go again on your first stealth attacks. While that might seem fantastic, their deck is still extremely threatening as it’s built better to utilize smaller hands than you, often being able to present completely unpredictable assaults that you have to weather as you try to kill them as quickly as possible. Careful use of your defensive tools and knowing when to take their damage to maximize your retaliation is key in this matchup.
Lastly, the mirror is a fun way of using everything you’ve learnt as an Arakni, Marionette player. Maximizing your tools and your Agents while adjusting to the shifts of tempo is key in this matchup, as you need to know when to play small and large hands.
Knife Tricks
Kiss of Death is an extremely powerful card with many unique interactions. Since it’s a dagger, it can be flicked for an additional point of damage, plus one from its own on hit. What’s less considered is how it carries the on hits of the Agents well, thus it’s extremely potent in combination with go again via Blacktek Whisperers or Stains of the Redback. Note that on hits don’t carry over when flicking Graphene Chelicera.
Savor Bloodshed is also a powerful payoff for daggering, and the draw can also be obtained via flicking daggers as well! I would however delay flicking as late as possible into my turn, as forcing my opponent to use cards to block my daggers is preferable.
Lastly, Fyendal’s Spring Tunic does have limited uses with this deck, and most of them involve daggering. For example, if you were to pitch a blue to Hunter’s Klaive into a stealth attack, if it were to hit, using Tunic to swing a second dagger to Mark your opponent again is a great way to chain stealths, or encourage flips into Agents of Chaos. It’s also commonly used to swing Graphene Chelicera for extra damage or to retrieve with Pick Up the Point without spending a card for pitch.
The List
I brought Arakni, Marionette to an undefeated Swiss rounds at my local Road to Nationals, and am very happy with the list! It was a shell that originated from Shoma Yamamura during a release weekend win-a-box in Japan, and I’ve since adapted it to my liking.
Some notable exclusions include Command and Conquer, Codex of Bloodrot, several stealth cards, and many of the cards being two-ofs. As for Command and Conquer, I find the card extremely clunky as your daggers don’t pay it off well, and they can’t be discarded to your Agents, although I recognize its effectiveness against Prism, Awakener of Sol, ultra-defensive decks, and the Assassin mirror.
As for other stealth cards such as Mark the Prey or Mark of the Funnel Web, as well as many cards being two-ofs, I’ve found the decklist to be extremely tight and needing a wide variety of tools to function well. Some copies of Orb-Weaver Spinneret to obtain a Graphene Chelicera, some copies of Pick Up the Point to retrieve Klaives, alongside a wealth of varied attack reactions to keep your opponents guessing.
The rest of the exclusions involve what I’d expected to have faced. I built the deck to be powerful against other Arakni, as effective as possible against Cindra, Dracai of Retribution, and have game against Enigma, Ledger of Ancestry, as well as defensive variants of Viserai, Rune Blood, all of which are popular locally.
The card pool of Flesh and Blood is massive now, so feel free to make adjustments to the list to your local meta! In hindsight, I would attempt to fit a third copy of Stains of the Redback as well as a single copy of Command and Conquer in my list to recur with Codex of Frailty.
I truly do love Arakni, Marionette’s design and gameplay style; it’s really reignited my love for playing Flesh and Blood as of late, alongside the health of the recent format. I’ve also begun coaching recently, so if you’re looking for a more personal guide to your improvement, do feel free to reach out via my social media!
Good luck at your local Road to Nationals, and thanks for reading!
Looking for another big deck in the current Classic Constructed meta? Then check out our guide to Pitchless Cindra.
