It’s already May! Time really does fly by with all of these incredible releases and jam-packed competitive schedule. We have plenty to cover for this month’s announcements so let’s jump right in.
Pro Tour Baltimore:
The first Pro Tour of the year is already in the books, and oh boy what an event it was. Sadly our very own Nicolas Kyriakou was unable to attend, but hopefully whenever there is another PTI up for grabs, the PT itself takes place at a more accessible location.
Without beating around the bush too much, despite an abundance of Lexis in the field and a 50% representation of the Elemental Ranger in the Top 8, it was a different Elemental hero that took the whole thing down, Oldhim. The Guardian from Tales of Aria, piloted masterfully by Michael Feng proved once again that he is a force to be reckoned with, even without his Icy Hammer, Pulse of Isenloft or Hypothermia. Previous meta-defining heroes, such as Fai or Iyslander had far less success in this PT, in large part thanks to the incredibly high pressure presented by Rangers, which finally now have their time to shine.
Not only did we have a PT result during this weekend, but also another CC result from a simultaneous Calling event. The lone Mechanologist who could pistole’d and boosted their way through the competition, earning Dash some more LL points.
Finally, a Battled Hardened event put some Blitz heroes on permanent ice, as this was the last time to showcase the capabilities of Oldhim and Iyslander in this fast paced format before they rotated out due to LL point acquisition. Iyslander ended up taking the whole thing down, finishing off her run in Blitz with 564 points.
Living Legend:
We have some major updates to the Living Legend status of a couple of heroes in Blitz, and a big chunk of points earned by a certain Elemental Guardian hero after their massive win in the Pro Tour.
First of all though, the Blitz hero who racked up an astronomical amount of points in a single Skirmish season, Iyslander went from middle-of-the-road competitor in the Blitz space, to the absolute dominator, earning a staggering 208 LL points in 3 weeks, meaning she took down over 100 events. Her instant speed shenanigans in Blitz will be indefinitely put on ice as she is now well past the 500 point threshold needed to attain Living Legend status.
Following second behind but with a much more steady pace of rising to the top, Oldhim has proven to be a force to be reckoned with in Blitz, even without his CC mainstay helm, Crown of Seeds. Oldhim has been slowly rising up the ranks ever since his release and now he too is in the Hall of Legends.
The two primary disruptive heroes in the Blitz format will no longer be around to cool down the opposition, and the meta is bound to be shaken up massively. We can’t wait to see what the Blitz landscape ends up looking like, but if we had to start gravitating towards some directions, Kassai, Dash, Kano and Chane certainly have our attention.
As mentioned above, the Pro Tour weekend has served up some more LL points. For Classic Constructed, Oldhim now rests at 888 points, and will very likely reach Living Legend status by the end of the year if he continues upon his steady path of defensive domination.
Dash is now the 4th highest hero in LL points following her win at the Calling event, with 572 LL points. There is still quite a bit to go for her to attain a place among the all-time greats. We can only hope that we see a new Mechanologist hero before this happens…
Banned & Restricted Announcement:
On the 4th of May we have had some updates to the Banned & Restricted card list. The Classic Constructed meta seems to be in a good place right now, with multiple options wide open for people to explore and play with, all with their own strengths and weaknesses. We will see how the meta evolves and if any changes need to be made as more sets are release throughout the year.
Blitz did have some shakeups though. Firstly, Iyslander and Oldhim have reached Living Legend status, meaning they and their respective weapons Kraken’s Aethervein and Winter’s Wail are no longer legal in the Blitz format. This has some further implications for other cards that were suspended until this point. Aether Icevein, Hypothermia and Crown of Seeds are now legal in the Blitz format.
The bigh news out of the latest Banned & Restricted announcement though came so far out of nowhere, even Randy Orton would be impressed. Drone of Brutality is now legal in Blitz. Drone was the first card to ever be banned in Flesh & Blood, the designers citing the “every card matters” philosophy, and how Drone flew right in the face of that core concept. With the departure of two heroes which were able to provide a more controlling and late game strategy to the fast paced format of Blitz, bringing back Drone of Brutality is meant to help decks which are trying to have such a late game plan. Time will tell of Drone is okay in the format, but as of right now, the biggest change is obviously the departure of the two strongest heroes in the format, opening up room for some other heroes to shine.
The next scheduled Banned & Restricted announcement will take place on the 3rd of July.
May Events:
This month we will have a whopping 6 Flesh & Blood events. The first armory of the month, Tuesday the 2nd, will be the last event using April’s promotional material. From there, the brand new May Armory promos will be given out to our weekly Armory events, held every Tuesday.
- Cold Foil Driftwood Quiver to the winner of each Armory
- 2 of each Extended Art Rainbow Foil trap from the below list, given by seed priority to 2nd-7th place.
- Pendulum Trap
- Tarpit Trap
- Boulder Trap
- Player with the most XP gained during the month will receive a Riptide, Lurker of the Deep playmat.
We have an additional Outsiders Draft scheduled for the 13th of the month. This event will have a slightly increased entry fee, with a greater prize pool. Please check our event page for specific details. No May Armory promotional material will be given out during this event, but rest assured that there will be plenty of promos and playmats being given out. ;)
Dusk till Dawn:
Seems like there is no time to take a breather with this month’s announcement, as we have the official announcement of the next set, Dusk till Dawn. This will be a supplementary set, coming out on the 14th of July, with a prerelease weekend the week before (more details about the prerelease event will be coming in a future article).
There are plenty of reasons to get excited about this upcoming set. For starters, this marks the 10th set milestone for Flesh & Blood! Almost assuredly this will mean that more celebratory announcements and activities will be happening around the set’s release.
As with all supplementary sets, there are fewer cards per pack and the set itself is not draftable, but it will contain cards for all classes, and it has been confirmed that we will also be getting some Light and Shadow cards to bolster the ranks of Monarch heroes, which if we’re being honest have been feeling a little left out of recent releases.
If you have been paying close attention to the Living Legend boards, the first couple of heroes to attain LL status have been Chane, a Shadow Runeblade hero, and Prism, a Light Illusionist hero. Dusk till Dawn will mark the return of both of those class/talent combinations, with Prism herself making a comeback with a new hero card (more details of which we should expect in a future announcement) and a brand new Shadow Runeblade hero, Vynnset. We know very little about these heroes, but we have seen an Angel ally that will be fighting alongside Prism.
The set will contain 236 cards:
- 1 Fabled
- 8 Legendary
- 56 Majestic
- 77 Rares
- 94 Commons
- 10 Marvels)
- Cold foil serialized hand drawn artist sketch cards by Livia Prima and Federico Musetti (Extremely rare. Only 20 total cards will exist worldwide)
This took a while to put together… Fingers crossed I won’t have to put together this big an announcement for until the next Pro Tour :P