Images courtesy of Legend Story Studios
Get ready to swear fealty in Flesh and Blood‘s latest set, The Hunted. Featuring cards from the Ninja, Warrior, and Assassin classes, the newest introductory product comes in the form of The Hunted Blitz Deck Collection.
The product features four decks, two booster packs, and a rubber playmat featuring Pursue to the Edge of Oblivion. Newbies can enjoy the product as a standalone board game, or upgrade the deck into powerhouses. With four decks, beginners can even split the decks amongst friends!
Priced at 69.90USD MSRP, each deck in the collection contains a foil copy of the new featured heroes, plus non-foil extended art versions of the deck’s centerpiece card.
The expansion features several new keywords, most importantly being Marked. This is a state on heroes which goes away when they are hit by another hero. The Marked status itself does not do anything, but interacts with cards in The Hunted.
Meanwhile, the term Flicking has finally entered the official lexicon of the game. Named after Flick Knives, Flicking is an effect with the following syntax: “Target dagger you control deals 1 damage to target hero. If damage is dealt this way, the dagger has hit. Destroy the dagger.” We’ll use this term several times throughout the article and it will definitely come up in future games.
Today, we’ll focus on two vengeful Dracai, who are top officers in the loyalist army. With their Emperor dead, they now seek out the assassin throughout Volcor. Let’s meet them!
Fang
A Royal Draconic Warrior, Fang wishes for the opposition to swear Fealty to their cause. By building up Fealty tokens, his dagger attacks can eventually be discounted. As such, Fang wants to take advantage of the Marked status to gain as many Fealty counters as possible to unleash a flurry of weapon attacks to whittle down the opponents.
We have to talk about Fang‘s signature weapon, Obsidian Fire Vein. This measly one-power dagger gets buffed when we play a Draconic card in the chain link. Importantly, Obsidian Fire Vein doesn’t count itself for the condition, as attacking with the weapon counts as activating an ability, and not playing a card. The upside is the weapon creates massive bluffing plays — a Warrior specialization — where the defending hero must overblock or else they might face a nasty Draconic pump card which can give this weapon go again.
Speaking of attack reactions, Blistering Blade and Dynastic Dedication are great Draconic pump spells which already synergize in a deck that wants to have long chain links, while Incision provides just a little bit more reach.
We can generate Fealty tokens through effects such as Affirm Loyalty and Endear Devotion, which also pump our daggers, while Pledge Fealty allows us to create the token at instant speed, to turn non-Draconic cards such as Incision into Draconic.
Meanwhile, Searing Gaze, Scar Tissue, and Stabbing Pain are all offensive attack reactions which can mark the defending hero at a moment’s notice, leaving them vulnerable to our punish cards.
In the same vein, the featured card Sworn Vengeance has a similar effect, but can only be played as an action.
Fang‘s hero ability and For the Dracai are some ways for us to generate Fealty by hitting marked heroes, while Point of Engagement can provide an additional boost throughout the whole turn when we plan to go all in.
Twist and Turn is a scary card which allows us to attack an additional time if our dagger hits. The legendary card Fire and Brimstone is one of our main finishers, as it gives us yet another additional dagger attack. We could potentially attack three times with our daggers (and for free!) if we’re able to set up this combo.
Coat of Allegiance is a great card to have in this deck and is an acceptable substitute for Blossom of Spring. The rest of the equipment suite are decent options when starting out and will serve well, even just for the extra blocks alone.
In all, the Fang Blitz deck presents a simple, yet efficient game plan that runs low to the ground, requiring almost zero resources to pull off long sequences of attacks in a single turn. It’s definitely one that can be easily picked up and played by new Flesh and Blood players.
Cindra
Another Dracai officer, Cindra also creates Fealty tokens on hit with a Marked hero. But she’s more dangerous – and more destructive, as she can throw out her Kunai with reckless abandon to achieve the ends to her means. Don’t be fooled though – even though she destroys her own weapons, they can and will come back!
Kunai of Retribution is an interesting weapon, as it gets destroyed after the combat chain closes. It’s definitely built to be the signature weapon of Cindra, as she can recur the weapons back through her own ability. It’s reminiscent of Zephyr Needle, which was recently pre-emptively banned in Classic Constructed due to all the weapon re-equipping shenanigans afoot.
The classic aggro cards Blaze Headlong, Dust Runner Outlaw, and Ronin Renegade all make another appearance in the Cindra Blitz Deck. These are just some efficient Draconic attacks with go again to build up chain links.
Fire Tenet: Strike First and Grow Claws also play with the Draconic chain links, providing and gaining buffs, respectively. By playing these cards back-to-back, the ladder can grow up to six power, without any other combat tricks!
Meanwhile, Mark with Magma, Hot on Their Heels, and Tag the Target provide us with ways to mark the opposing hero, and the first two attacks aren’t too shabby for the cost-damage ratio, either.
Display Loyalty and Cindra‘s hero ability allows us to generate more Fealty, though in Cindra‘s deck and playstyle, the counters are less of a concern.
For tricks, we have Burning Blade Dance and Silver Talons, which allows us to Flick our daggers towards the opponent. This means that if we attack with Kunai of Retribution on the same chain link, we can still destroy them and re-equip them through Cindra‘s ability – as the Draconic chain links still remain, only the daggers get destroyed.
Danger Digits, the Cindra deck’s arm equipment, is a much needed, fantastic budget alternative to Flick Knives. It lets us have combat tricks right in the equipment zone – and allows us to just close out the game regardless if the opponent ends up at one life. We’ve all lost many games due to the inevitable Flick play in the past!
In addition to this, Poisoned Blade also synergizes well with the Flick effects, as this adds another point of damage towards the opponent’s way.
For Fealty payoffs, Art of the Dragon: Fire is a notable one, as it just directly deals two damage to any target as long as it’s Draconic. This can unexpectedly close out games, which means going down to two life while playing against this Cindra deck can just be lethal.
Finally, our legendary card Wrath of Retribution is a great mid-game tempo swing, letting us attack for free with our buffed-up daggers. A great way to utilize this is by sculpting a turn where we end up with destroyed daggers, either just through annoying poke damage or a full-on assault. Then, the following turn, we can create a chain link of three Draconic cards, play Wrath of Retribution for free, use Cindra‘s ability to re-equip the daggers, and then go in with the daggers for some extra reach.
While the head and chest piece for Cindra aren’t stellar, Leap Frog Leggings at least has an interesting effect in that it can “leap” to the chain link as a defender if the opponent pops an attack reaction. It still faces stiff competition with go again leg pieces, but it will suffice for now.
The Cindra Blitz Deck requires more intricate sequencing and may be interesting for those who wish to play a deck that requires more lines for skill expression.
The Card Gamer Verdict
These two Draconic heroes provide aggression through separate axes of attack – one wants to hit fast and hard, while the other wants to close out the game through sneaky Flick plays. There’s definitely space for both Draconic heroes in this product, and it showcases the design space still available in Flesh and Blood.
Want more from Flesh and Blood‘s new set, The Hunted? Check out our guides to the best cards in the set for Ninjas, Assassins, and Warriors.
