Another month has rolled by, and as we get into the festive season, it’s time for another month of FaB to be recapped before we delve into the latest news from FaB.
World Championship Wrap-Up:
The world championship has been done and dusted, crowning the first ever Flesh & Blood world Champion, Mark Hamilton, who piloted Iyslander masterfully through all formats; Classic Constructed, Blitz and even Draft. We saw plenty of countries being represented at the world stage. Perhaps next year our own flag can wave among the rest.
Shortly after the conclusion of the World Championship, a new Ban & Restricted announcement was made, making no changes to the Classic Constructed format, but shook things up a little for the Blitz format.
- Aether Wildfire is banned
- Aether Icevein is suspended until the next banned and suspended announcement (January 30, 2023)
- Hypothermia is suspended until Iyslander becomes Living Legend
- Storm Striders moves from suspended to legal
This means that our wizard friends, and more specifically Iysalnder, received a bit of a nerf (still one of the best heroes in Blitz though), but with the return of Storm Striders, things could blance themselves out. The next B&R announcement is scheduled for the 30th of January 2023, which means that you can get your reps in while preparing for the competitive Classic Constructed season for the following months without fear of the format changing, barring some innovation from deckbuilders around the world.
Dynasty Release:
Dynasty has hit the scene and has started shaking things up like no other set before it. With the introduction of a brand new class/hero and such interesting new tools given to every other class, we expect some groundbreaking stuff to shake up the meta for months to come. Perhaps you can figure out a way to channel your inner Qi and unleash the forgotten power of the crouching tiger, or perhaps you will be the first mechanologist in all of Rathe to put together a hulkbuster suit, or even figure out a way to finally make Azalea work (that new bow is serious business). No matter what, Dynasty has opened the floodgates for innovative deckbuilding and sets up the stage quite nicely for the next competitive season beginning early 2023.
Armory Events:
With a new month, means new promos for our Armory events. This month we’re giving out a Cold Foil Quicksilver Dagger to the winner of each event, and 2 playsets of Predatory Streak split to players in 2nd to 7th place.
The player with the most wins under their belt at the end of the month will receive a sweet Water Glow Lanterns playmat (which will likely see a lot more play than the actual card unfortunately).
ProQuest Season 3:
As you may have heard from us literally non-stop talking about it in-store, little-ol' Isengard Fantasy Shop was granted the opportunity to host a Pro Quest tournament! That is massive news and we can’t wait to share more about it with you as soon as we can. For now you can read all about this season of Pro Quest events here, to satiate your need for info, until we finalize the details of our tournament taking place on the 21st of January 2023!
As we mentioned before, due to no Ban & Restricted announcement being made until the conclusion of the ProQuest season, any playtesting you wish to do in preparation for this event will be safe from any big changes happening to the format. Despite not being sponsored by them (though by this point I probably should be) please check out Fabrary.net and Talishar.net. These are both great resources/tools for improving your deckbuilding, sideboarding and play skills.
Gameplay:
Finally, I’d like to direct your attention to the gameplay page where you can find all of our in-store recorded matches. More Blitz and Classic Constructed action is available for you to enjoy, while gaining valuable insight into how different heroes operate. I am aiming for a bi-weekly uploading schedule, with at least one CC and one Blitz match per month, so check back frequently to see if new content has been posted.