As the temperatures reach a zenith, we get in vacation mode, while still prepping for the great Nationals event happening at the beginning of September. There have been some large competitive events from abroad that have helped shape this Dusk Till Dawn metagame and we’ve all been paying close attention.
August Armories:
In the last month of summer, we will be having some more prep for Nationals, in the form of two CC events and two Monarch Draft events. The store itself will be closed for summer vacation for the last couple of weeks of the month, but we’re still getting 4 events this month. Let’s take a look at the sweet promos we’ll be handing out exclusively for this month:
- 1 Cold Foil Hell Hammer to the winner of each Armory Event
- 2 of each pitch value Extended Art Rainbow Foil Hungering Demigon for 2nd to 7th place
- 1 Dusk Till Dawn Playmat to the player with the most XP gained during the month
- 1 Sekem, Archangel of Ravages Playmat to the player who exemplifies community spirit most during the month
Metagame Review:
In the past three weeks we’ve had two Battle Hardened events and a Calling, helping us define the Classic Constructed meta. During the wind-up for these events, lots of tier lists had been theorised and shared across social media accounts from various content creators, regarding which heroes they felt would have the greatest chance of succeeding in this new CC environment. There was a lot of hype surrounding the rejuvenated Shadow Brute cardpool, with Levia poised to show up in force. Dromai was said to also be among the top-dogs of the format, while Lexi kept her title as the premier aggro deck of the format.
Having a look at the top8 data from the past three events we see the following results:
During the first week event, Iyslander took it down with an Arcane only build, which was a huge difference from the Bull-Lander lists of previous seasons. Players were largely disregarding wizards as a competitive option during this season, and their choice of tools to fight against them helped the Elemental Wizard secure the victory week 1, especially due to the power of Warmonger’s Diplomacy which has proven itself to be quite the chase card from this set, already demanding Command and Conquer prices.
Week 2 was the same as the first, as Rhea Adams came on with back to back wins on Iyslander. The general absence of other successful Isylander shows the proficiency of the player with this hero.
For the large Calling event in Birmingham there was lots of speculation about how the metagame would shape, especially since we would see what the Europeans would bring to the table. The major takeaway from this weekend was none other than Bravo, showing up as the fourth most represented hero, taking up 3 spots in the top 8 despite not having such a showing the previous weeks. Despite this, ice prevailed yet again, with Iyslander Taking it down by the UK’s own Samuel Braben in a battle against a true Guardian of the game, Pro Tour 1 winner, Pablo Pintor piloting the breakout of the tournament, Bravo.
As the dust settles, we have one simple takeaway. All three events might have been taken down by Iyslander, but her representation in the overall meta tells a different story. Specialists can take heroes to events and take them down by exploiting the rest of the meta and other players' preconceptions about what is more powerful. Players have heavily disrespected Iyslander and her disruptive tricks in the past weeks, allowing players with a lot of experience on the hero to cross the finish line. I suspect the meta will learn to respect arcane damage again, and adapt accordingly, bringing tools or heroes that mitigate the impact of cards like Warmonger’s Diplomacy.
Competitive Season:
The rest of the competitive season until the World Championship is full of Skirmish Season 7 events and National Championship events in 44 countries. There’s lots of Living Legend points to be given out to the Blitz format from the Skirmish events, with the National Championships awarding points to CC heroes. We can almost assuredly expect Briar (and more importantly Rosetta Thorn) to finally bite the bullet in the CC format. The rest of the heroes will certainly accrue more points but none are particularly in range of reaching this status during this period in either the Blitz or CC format.
Our National Championship will be taking place on the 9th of September. You can find all of the details here.
Road Trip:
If you haven’t already heard, the most dedicated players of Flesh & Blood in Cyprus are organizing a little trip to Barcelona for the World Championship and simultaneous Calling event. The Cypriot TCG community has not had such an excursion since before the pandemic, so it’s all very exciting! If you’d like to participate, feel free to reach out to our TO, Nicolas Lazarides and they can give you the details.
Bright Lights:
And just as I thought I was done with this article, LSS drops a bombshell of an announcement! We’re going to the city of Bright Lights everyone! Mechanologists everywhere rejoice, for the next set is all about the so-far-forgotten class. Three heroes, 251 cards and some crazy new mechanics, all for your inner engineer to tinker with. You can see the full announcement here, along with the first couple of spoilers. We’ll be diving more into the specifics for pre-release weekend and all the implications of this set once I’ve had some time to digest all of this information. One thing is for sure; You can expect some Mech’s to start rolling around our midst very soon.