Images Courtesy of Legend Story Studios

Dash I/O is my favorite hero in Flesh and Blood. Her hero power allows her to peek at her top deck, which enables manipulation by using her boost cards and equipment. This grants immense skill expression unmatched, that is ever so rewarding when mastered. Join me as I go in-depth into playing Dash I/O.

Dash I/O as it is currently built looks to utilize her power to outvalue her opponents with a fifth card every turn. This is unmatched efficiency in Flesh and Blood, however, with great power comes great responsibility. Dash I/O chews through her cards extremely quickly as Boost cards burn an additional card for Go Again, leading to a full deck of 73 cards being spent in about eight turns. Live Fast, Die Young.

Most importantly, Boom Grenade is the cornerstone of this deck, generating two points of damage on Symbiosis Shot alongside its four points of damage on hit, and an extra action point if found off the top. The entire deck’s mission is to send as many Boom Grenades into your opponent as possible, while shrugging away their attempts to disrupt you, and overpowering their attempts to outlast you.

The printing of Cerebellum Processor kicked Dash I/O into high gear, allowing you to grasp cards on the top previously thought untouchable at the cost of an action point. However, with the loss of High Octane, action points are far more restricted. Now, they are restricted to you cranking an item off the top of your deck or a single-time-use leg equipment when the situation calls. Lastly, it can be used as a pseudo-Ponder to end the turn on an arsenal.

Regardless of these restrictions, drawing cards is still extremely powerful. Spark of Genius drawing a card while searching for a Cerebellum Processor essentially draws two. I thought we banned those! Backup Protocol: Red also serves as an imitation, rather than using an action point, instead trading two pitch for a card instead.

Apart from the items, Dash I/O hits hard and fast with a plethora of Boost attacks. The vanilla Zero to Sixty, Zipper Hit and Throttle cannot be understated for no questions asked damage, however, several boost attacks stand out.

Pulsewave Harpoon enables Dash I/O to disrupt counterattack plans while attacking with a one for four, giving her an insane edge in aggressive matchups. Out Pace is an excellent card to push Boom Grenades after forcing defense reactions, leaving opponents struggling to defend. Lastly, Heist is the crown jewel, forcing opponents to block lest you generate a whole card’s worth of value from your banish.

Some opponents attempt to outlast you, thus the deck contains some extra punch to push those Boom Grenades over. Maximum Velocity is a lot of power at a hefty price, however its damage is unmatched.

Bios Update and Teklo Pounder blue form a very convenient combination of cards to push turns over the edge. Bios Update grants you access to a second item per turn all while providing three damage and blocking for three. It can even fetch the all-powerful Teklo Pounder, which delivers 6 damage in three different instances that are very difficult to block out completely, landing Boom Grenades.

Setup vs Power

Playing Dash I/O’s depends on her three possible opponents.

Midrange

The first of which are midrange matchups, which can attempt to both kill you and fatigue you. These are the most skill-testing matchups for Dash I/O, and need mastery of the concept of Setting Up, vs Pushing for Value.

The crank mechanic is the best example of this concept. Dash I/O gives you the choice, have the item stick around for an additional turn, forcing opponents to block a Boom Grenade out longer, or granting additional flexibility in using Backup Protocol: Red, or crank it and use the action point there and then, either to draw from Cerebellum Processor or get an extra Symbiosis Shot off.

This careful balance and choice of how to use your items is key to overcoming fatigue, or keeping up in the damage race. This mentality has to be on your mind at all times, knowing when to take a slower line to push hands with items set up, or to press the advantage, stopping your opponent from relenting with disruption. Choosing when to boost or when to preserve a card. Choosing when to activate Teklo Foundry Heart, chewing through two precious cards for an extra pitch of power.

I keep in mind how I am most likely to lose the game. If my deck is more likely to run out of steam, I take slower lines to prepare stronger assaults. If my opponent is threatening my life total, I activate Teklo Foundry Heart to find items more often, pushing my luck to return me to the driver’s seat.

Opponents such as these involve powerful Midrange decks like Brutes who shift their retaliations efficiently, to Assassins who pressure you too greatly to afford slower set up lines, threaten fatigue and yet block out well. Mastery of these matchups often reflects an intense understanding of Dash I/O.

Aggro

Aggressive opponents do not attempt to fatigue you. They attempt to race the five intellect monster and steal wins off of her inflexible and clunkier draws. Thus, these decks require you to push your deck to its limit. Push the button and activate Teklo Foundry Heart as often as possible to fish for your fifth intellect.

Teklo Core deserves special attention in these matchups, granting you the extra space to block with additional pitch cards every turn, slowing down an opponent’s aggression while retaliating. Lastly, remember Dash I/O’s armor suite is unparalleled, and planning careful use of Adaptive Plating grants you edges in races.

Fatigue

These opponents aim to outlast you, occasionally throwing disruption to pause your game of solitaire. These opponents require elaborate plans to break through their defenses.

The key involves two back-to-back power turns. The first turn is utilized to exhaust their defensive resources, be it pieces of armor or most importantly goading defense reactions out of arsenal. The turn that follows is when you go over their four cards for defense to make progress in the game. Identifying these opportunities to overcome defense is key knowing which hands to preserve with armor and which hands to fold.

All of Dash I/O’s items serve a dual purpose as additional resources for your power turns if used correctly. Teklo Core in often the difference between casting Maximum Velocity and being short of pitch, while Teklo Pounder blue pushes the traditional four-card attack over the top of a defense to land Boom Grenades. Taking the time to slow the game down and set up these tools and prepare an apt arsenal can strand cards in an opponent’s hand that they’d much rather use blocking.

Null Time Zone is Dash I/O’s newest tool, and serves as a convenient action point off the top, but more importantly, can be used to shut down common disruption tools or defense reactions. Blanking an opponent’s Sink Below or Rootbound Carapace from hand for two turns is extremely powerful and turn these annoying cards into deadweights.

Tips and Tricks

Dash I/O is a deck with many little joys that experienced pilots utilize to get an edge. Let’s cover some of my favorites.

Proper use of Crown of Providence accounts for a large percentage of the outcome of your games. With access to topdeck knowledge, knowing when to use Crown to cycle an item out of your hand to fix your hand is critical. It can also be used to push a powerful turn harder, grabbing some of Dash I/O’s most powerful cards such as Spark of Genius and Maximum Velocity off the top. You only have one use, and it is an extremely valuable tool so block wisely. Heavy the Crown is indeed.

As mentioned, action points don’t come as easily in FaB 2.0. Thus, utilizing your leg slot is very important. Most commonly I utilize these when I am going to have two Cerebellum Processors on the field, allowing me to draw twice during the turn, once with Dash I/O’s hero power, and again with her leg equipment. Utilizing Heavy Industry Gear Shift at the start of the turn is best, as it grants you the most opportunities to choose what you will draw. where’s Achilles Accelerator grants the flexibility of activating it when most convenient.

Dash I/O’s ability is usable once per turn, including your opponents! This is best done when the excess pitch can be used, either via blocking an opponent’s Arcane attack, or by sinking the pitch into a Backup Protocol: Red exchanging a blue for a red and an item!

Lastly, many games will end with you scraping the ends of your deck to close. Mindfully pitching an item into the second cycle, remembering where it is, and carefully manipulating your last two turns to access it on your last turn can mean the difference between a win and a loss. Planning it via boosting selectively and activating Teklo Foundry Heart is immensely satisfying and worth considering.

Notable Considerations

Dash I/O’s greatest foes are fatigue, and as such, a lot of the innovation that goes into her decks involve finding strategies to overcome fatigue.

As mentioned, my favorite method I am currently using is a combination of Bios Update and Teklo Pounder blue to add power to the deck, on top of Null Time Zone to stamp out opposing defense reactions. On top of that, I utilize the weapon Hanabi Blaster to hedge further. The obvious use of the weapon is to fire large chunks of overpowered attacks, however, the most important part of the weapon is removing the pressure to crank to push more damage from Symbiosis Shot, allowing you to make more setup plays. Care has to be made, however, as reaching the three boost threshold is difficult against disruption-heavy decks. As such, the Hanabi Blaster should only be wielded against the most defensive decks.

Here are some other options I have chosen not to include in my decklist. I believe Dash I/O already struggles with consistency, and while these cards are powerful, they often force you to play unintuitive lines that force you to lose tempo. Penetration Script is handy for buffing the wealth of cheap attacks the deck wields, but it itself is unwieldy to cast. Plasma Mainline is powerful, keeping your items around for an additional turn, but is only useful if found early, and using one of your Spark of Geniuses to find Plasma Mainline starts your game off very slowly, in a deck pressured for time. Lastly, Optekal Monocle reduces the variance in the deck by allowing you to manipulate your topdeck, for Dash I/O’s ability or Cerebellum Processor’s draw. However, with Null Time Zone’s printing, its slot in the deck has high competition, and I’ve found it lacking.

These are some cards that are considerable if the deck or metagame changes. With the loss of High Octane, Twin Drive has lost its best use case of generating extra action points. It has largely faced the cut in the deck as it competes with other expensive two-cost attacks, such as Heist which is very useful for forcing blocks, or Throttle which doubles as a popper and does additional damage. Twin Drive is still useful for casting Maximum Velocity and Pulsewave Harpoon, and if additional boost payoffs make their way into the deck, its inclusion is expected. T-Bone yellow is a weak attack, but in a metagame where equipment destruction is a priority, it can warrant its inclusion as well. Lastly, Soup Up is a powerful 0 for 4 with flexible blocking, but as long as Maximum Velocity is in the deck, it is too clunky to be used.

Conclusion

Thank you for reading! I truly love Dash I/O and hope this article gives you a jump start to the hero. This is looking to be my last article with Card Gamer, and if you’ve been reading my articles from the start, I greatly appreciate the support and am always open for a chat anytime. Until then, see you on the tournament circuit and take care!