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 Flesh and Blood (FaB) is a fantasy hero duel trading card game (TCG) developed and published by Legend Story Studios (LSS). In Flesh and Blood, players control a hero character and win by reducing their opponent's life total to 0 via attacking their opponent. Players create decks with a card pool determined by the hero they select. Each hero has a distinct class, flavor, and playstyle. The twist of Flesh and Blood comes from its draw step, and how cards can be used. Cards can either be played, used to block incoming attacks, or "pitched" to generate resources/mana. Players draw up to their hero's hand size at the end of their turn. Blocking with a card means you'll have less cards in hand on your turn to attack back with. Cards pitched for resources are put on the bottom of your deck, allowing for sculpting deliberate late-game combo hands. It's possible for a player to cycle through their deck multiple times in a match, or even run out of cards entirely. Running out of cards in your deck is not an immediate loss. Flesh and Blood follows the traditional TCG distribution model of booster packs containing random cards, with fixed preconstructed starter decks also available. The game launched in October 2019 with its flagship set, Welcome to Rathe. To date, five sets have been released. LSS has stated that they're aiming to release three to four sets every year going forward. Flesh and Blood takes place in the fantasy world of Rathe, consisting of eight distinct themed regions. There's a decent chunk of lore written about each region, and LSS publishes additional in-universe short stories on the game's website. The lore isn't necessary to play the game, but it's there for those who want it. The name of Flesh and Blood reflects how LSS wants the game to be played: in flesh and blood, i.e. in person. Online play of Flesh and Blood is still possible, and consists primarily of either Tabletop Simulator or webcam games. You can use the official Flesh and Blood event locator to find a nearby local game store to play the game at. You can also join the Goon FaB Discord for webcam and TTS games. ============= THREAD RULES ============= All normal SA/TG posting rules apply, with a couple additional caveats: There is controversy over whether Flesh and Blood is a scam. This thread is intended to talk about Flesh and Blood as a game, and not discuss TCG finance. Head over to this thread if you want to talk about that. Limited market discussion is okay; feel free to post about the sick deal you got on a card or complain about how a set going OOP caused something to spike. Don't post about how you think the market of the game is a big ponzi scheme or doomsday predictions of the game being dead in three months. Don't post buy/sell/trade offers here. This thread is again, to talk about the game. Talking about where to post B/S/T offers, or discussing general B/S/T experiences is fine. Helping people find the resources they need is encouraged, and if you do want to make an offer to somebody through SA, take it to SA-Mart. ============ HOW TO PLAY ============ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=416k-Rs8hgQ The Heroes   Heroes are the core of Flesh and Blood. Your hero determines what cards are legal in your deck, and have one or more unique abilities. Building your deck around your hero's ability is advisable to maximize effectiveness. Every hero has four critical components:
Heroes also come in Young and Adult versions. Adult heroes are only legal in a single official game format (Classic Constructed), and Young heroes are legal in all formats. Many heroes have both Young and Adult versions that only differ in their Life values. Some heroes only come in a Young version. The Cards Every card in Flesh and Blood can be used in (up to) three different ways:
   Most cards have three different versions. These versions make a tradeoff between the card's power when played, and the amount of resources/mana they generate. Each version differs in its pitch value, which can be either 1, 2, or 3. This is denoted both by the color of the card and the number of pips in the top left corner of the card. Blue cards are always 3 resources, yellow is 2, and red is 1. A lower pitch value means the card is more powerful when played. The cost of a card is shown in the top right corner of the card. In order to play a card, other cards must be pitched in order to pay its cost. You may pay more than the required number of resources to play a card, and the remaining resources remain until the end of the turn and can be used to pay for other costs.    There are four main types of playable cards in Flesh and Blood: Attack Actions, (Non-Attack) Actions, Reactions, and Instants. Action cards (of both forms) can only be played if you have an action point. Players begin with one action point on their turn, and can gain more by resolving an action that has the keyword go again. Reactions may be played in response to an attack (after blocks are declared), and Instants may be played at any time. A card can also be placed into your arsenal slot at the end of your turn, before drawing cards. A card in your arsenal can be played normally, but cannot be used to defend or be pitched for resources. It doesn't count against your hand size, so putting a card into your arsenal will give you more cards to use on your next turn. Weapons & Equipment Players choose one or more equipment and weapon cards to outfit their hero. These cards are in play at the beginning of the game, and have powerful abilities and effects that can make or break a match. Combinations of heroes, equipment, and decks create a huge amount of variety in how a player reaches the ultimate goal of defeating their opponent.   Weapon cards usually allow your character to attack your opponent by paying for its ability. The difference with weapon cards is that they persist between turns. This allows you to save on cards to outlast your opponent, or still attack with a small hand. Weapon cards are (almost) always restricted to a hero class, and each class has weapons that work thematically with that Class' overall playstyle. Different weapons can drastically change how a Hero plays, and some decks will run weapons in their sideboard to change their playstyle depending on the matchup.    Equipment cards can provide persistent or single use abilities and effects, as well as additional armor to block attacks with. Equipment cards come in five different varieties: Head, Chest, Arms, Legs, and Off-Hand. Heroes may only equip up to one card of each type, though decks will regularly have different equipment cards in their sideboard to use for different matchups. Many equipment cards are Generic and can be used by any class, while others are class specific. Play Formats Players construct a deck of cards restricted to their hero's class and talent. Decks must contain a minimum number of cards, and in constructed formats, the number of unique copies of a card in a deck are limited to either 2 (Blitz) or 3 (Classic Constructed). Flesh and Blood has two different constructed formats, Blitz and Classic Constructed (CC). Classic Constructed is, per its namesake, the more traditional form of a TCG with players creating a 60+ card deck and beginning with more health. Blitz is a more rapid format where heroes take on their young forms and use 40 card decks with half the health of Classic. Blitz and Classic strategies can widely differ from one another, as no other card, mechanics, or effects are different between the two. Threatening lethal damage in the first two turns is very feasible in Blitz, but difficult in CC. In addition to constructed formats, Flesh and Blood also has the normal limited formats of Sealed and Draft. In these formats, Blitz heroes are used and there is a 30 card minimum for decks. In Sealed, players are given six packs to construct a deck. In Draft, players select a card from a pack and pass the remaining cards to the other players, and do this for three packs. Token cards (hero cards and basic weapons) are freely available in both Limited formats, and players do not need to open/draft them to use them in their deck. ============ THE PRODUCT ============   Set Releases Flesh and Blood is a trading card game, meaning the game is primarily available in the form of booster packs that contain a random selection of cards from a set. Sets in Flesh and Blood are either standalone or supplemental. Standalone sets come with three to four brand new heroes playable in both Blitz and CC, alongside a card pool to support them. Cards in standalone sets may be playable by other heroes too, but some cards will be exclusive to heroes of that set. Standalone sets are designed for Limited play, with 15-card booster packs containing a predetermined split of card types. Supplemental sets come with new Blitz heroes, but no new CC heroes. They are not usable for Limited formats and instead support existing heroes with new cards. Supplemental sets have 10-card booster packs, with a less predetermined split of cards. Sets of Flesh and Blood also come in both First Edition and Unlimited releases. These contain exactly the same cards, but First Edition booster packs can contain a Cold Foil instead of a Rainbow Foil (see below). Unlimited set releases won't be around forever, but are printed to demand for the duration of the set's release window. To date Flesh and Blood has had five set releases, with the most recent set being Tales of Aria. The original two sets, Welcome to Rathe and Arcane Rising, contained heroes without talents. The following two sets, Monarch and Tales of Aria, have heroes with talents, and it seems as if all future standalone sets of FaB will contain talented heroes that expand upon the original mechanics of the currently existing classes. Card Rarity There are five levels of card rarity in Flesh and Blood: Common (C), Rare (R), Super Rare (S), Majestic (M), and Fabled (F). However, LSS eliminated the use of Super Rare after Arcane Rising, because it drastically impacted the distribution of card availability in a bad way; Super Rares were widely available while Majestics were very difficult to find. (This is also why a few certain staple cards are very expensive.)  Every pack of Flesh and Blood comes with a Rare, Rare+, and a Foil. The Rare+ is either a Rare or Majestic. The Foil can be a foil of any card in the set, including Legendary and Fabled rarity cards, which only come in foil (and thus are only found in the foil slot). Majestic cards are approximated to 1 out of every 4 packs, and Legendaries are 1 out of every ~92 packs (this varies from set to set, and LSS publishes these numbers). Fabled rarity is not published by LSS, but the common number thrown around the community is 1 out of every 960 packs. Yes, you read that number correctly. Every set has only one Fabled card, and it's exceedingly rare. Flesh and Blood has two different types of card foiling, Cold Foil (CF) and Rainbow Foil (RF). Rainbow Foils are what you'd expect from a foiled card in most TCGs; they reflect light in a rainbow pattern. Cold Foils have a metallic look to the foiling, and generally are more deliberate about where the foiling is placed on the card. There are also a limited number of Golden Foil cards given out as prizes for competitive events. Only certain cards in First Edition sets come in a Coil Foil version; typically these are Fabled/Legendary cards, Equipment/Weapon cards, and a few choice Majestics. Promotional cards may be an exclusive Cold Foil, alternate art, or extended art version of a card. ========= THE COST ========= This is a big topic. Top tier Flesh and Blood play is not cheap. Tournament winning constructed decks cost at least $500. Most of this cost comes from Legendary equipment cards, and one to three specific powerful Majestic cards usable in any class. There are a couple heroes that want a Fabled card too!   You don't need to make this investment to play the game. Preconstructed Blitz Decks are widely available, costing $12 USD. They're very well balanced against one another, and you can have a blast just playing the seven available preconstructed decks for a long while (and buying singles for other LSS-published or community-built starter decks costs <$8 per deck!). They're very fun, have a lot of depth, and are easily upgradable with even a couple of booster packs. If you've played other TCGs at your kitchen table with friends, Flesh and Blood will fit right in and you'll have a lot of fun. There's even a print-and-play deck available straight from LSS (see the links section below). But what if you want to go beyond the confines of your home and go to events? Unfortunately, Flesh and Blood is lacking in high-tier constructed budget decks. While the super expensive cards are not necessary to win, it sucks hard to play against them if you're on a budget. Since equipment begins the game in play, your opponent will always be able to use that $100+ Legendary card against you, and you'll always be thinking about the potential difference it could make. You can still win local events with a $50 deck (and I've seen it happen; it's hilarious to tear apart a $700 Aggro Katsu with a $45 Sledge Oldhim), but you're definitely gonna be thinking about how the deck could be better with some serious cash. If you want to play at events on a budget, play Limited. The buy-in is fixed and all players can only use the cards they opened at the table. Legendary and Fabled cards have a lower impact in Limited, due to the smaller deck size and shorter game duration. Limited Flesh and Blood events are held regularly in most areas where it's played, and LSS has stated they design sets with it heavily in mind. The Flesh and Blood US National Championships, a CC-focused tournament, still had six rounds of Draft. If you do want to drop cash, there is solace in knowing the really expensive cards (and the bulk of the cost of a competitive deck) are Generic and used across different heroes, so future decks will cost you drastically less. A set of class-specific cards typically costs under $200, and most Majestics are <$15 each. If you don't want to drop cash and really want to try high-tier decks, use Tabletop Simulator. As with any TCG, buy singles if you want to save money. Use TCGPlayer/ChannelFireball or join one of several online Flesh and Blood B/S/T marketplaces to find singles to purchase, and don't gamble on buying a case of booster packs with the hope that you'll get the Legendary you want. If you need help finding a good place to buy singles, feel free to ask in this thread. ======= EVENTS =======   LSS is heavily focused on supporting events at all levels of play, and has allocated a lot of resources to promoting them. Local game stores regularly receive prize support, and competitive play for 2022 features $1,000,000 of cash prizes. There are four tiers of events supported by LSS. Tier 1 events are basic, weekly LGS-hosted events. LSS provides monthly kits to qualified stores for Armory events, containing promo cards and playmats. Tier 1 event formats are decided by the store, provided they're one of the official four formats (Blitz, CC, Draft, and Sealed). Tier 2 events are still casual-level events, and provide ways to qualify for professional level events. These are still hosted by qualified LGSes, but LSS provides more structure for them. Tier 3 and 4 events are pro-level events. Tier 3 includes Calling events, which are open-entry large scale tournaments run in multiple formats across the world. These are typically livecast and winning a Calling is a big deal- players will scrape the decklists from these events and run them into their local metas for months. Tier 4 events are invite-only, top-tier professional events. ====== LINKS ====== Goon Flesh and Blood Discord Official Resources Offical Website Quickstart Rules Learn to Play Video Hero List Event Locator Official Print and Play Deck Tournament Winning Decklists Community Websites & Tools FabDB (Deckbuilding & Collection Tracker) The Pitch Zone (Alternative to FabDB) Flesh and Blood Community Discord Felt Table (Online play vs. AI only) Flesh and Blood Online (Online PvP client w/ limited card support) Community Content Learn to Play - Tolarian Community College Arsenal Pass (FaB Podcast) Team Covenant - FaB Foundations Ep1 Ep2 Ep3 DM Armada - FaB Starter Guide 2022, How to Build a Flesh & Blood Deck Rathe Times (Articles and Guides) Channel Fireball - Flesh and Blood Strategy Back Alley Borks fucked around with this message at 05:13 on Jan 7, 2022 |
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Jan 1, 2022 00:05
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Intellect: Your hand size. You draw up to this number of cards at the end of your turn.
Life: Your starting health.
Attack value.
Defense value.
Resources (mana) necessary to pay for cards, abilities, and/or effects. 
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| # ¿ May 17, 2024 20:43 |
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Reserved for possible future OP content.
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Jan 1, 2022 00:05
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I play Kano in Blitz, but haven't made the jump to trying him in CC yet. I hoped to learn how to pitch stack Kano properly in Blitz but the games are just too fast, even if it's against Bravo. I have too many CC decks though. I lucked into cracking a foil CnC, Estrike, and Tunic, so I finished the playset early. I'm currently trying to master Viserai, and afterwards I need to play around with Dash. I like Dash's build flexibility a lot, and hopefully she gets a lot more support in the next Standalone set (not to mention Everfest). My first CC deck was DD Ice Lexi, which I feel very comfortable on. coelomate posted:Really enjoyed reading through this, thanks for all the work put into the OP! You could try the event locator, or ask if/when they host stuff (EDIT: Beaten). Some store's events are small, 5-8 people, so you may not even notice when the event's actually going on. One LGS I go to has more EDH players on FaB night than FaB players, but they're primarily an MtG shop. Definitely try the blitz decks with a friend though. It's best to learn with a like-minded person and feel okay stumbling your way through the many triggers and effects the game throws at you.
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Jan 1, 2022 01:07
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The renewed COVID situation is definitely a threat to the 2022 event plan. I'm also finally looking into a webcam setup as it's a serious possibility events will be cancelled. It'll suck for organized play, though; it's impossible to regulate a high stakes event via webcam. A lot of places are running Farewell to Rathe events next month, we'll see how those go.
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Jan 1, 2022 03:59
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Leperflesh posted:Please use SA-Mart for intergoon transactions, to protect yourselves with the rules enforced there. I'll edit the OP to direct to SA-Mart instead of PMs. Thanks for the advice!
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Jan 7, 2022 05:12
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I'm very excited for an Ice Wizard, I already play Kano Blitz so I'll enjoy brewing whatever cards come out for her. Her ability means you're gonna want all 6 Stirs. I'll also slam whatever Ice non-attacks are good in my Ice Lexi deck, since it's in serious need of a boost at the moment! Wednesdays are usually the one free night for me, once I have free nights again. I'm hoping that'll start happening next week for me.
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Jan 10, 2022 23:11
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I got distracted for a while, how are people feeling about the EVR spoilers? I feel like Ranger didn't really get amazing tools to succeed. The new cards help Azalea, but Lexi (either variant) doesn't need them, and it doesn't fix the matchups she struggles into (i.e. Prism). Speaking of, all those new Illusionist cards are absolutely nutty. Prism may be the deck to beat in PQs. I'm sad that a CnC reprint didn't happen, but there apparently is a rumored precon product for Q2. Maybe that'll have some good reprints.
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Jan 31, 2022 04:15
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I played in Farewell to Rathe events this weekend, and did very well on Rhinar and Dorinthea. Bravo was always picked by some diehard control players in my scene, and similar with Katsu for aggro players, leaving me open to get passed things like a Steelblade Supremacy for my third pick. On Rhinar I got to grab tons of Primeval Bellows, and even a Bloodrush Bellow. Ended up 13-5 for the weekend across three events which I'm pretty happy with. The new Auras for Prism look like amazing sideboard cards, and Fractal Replication is just nuts. Miraging Metamorph is basically everything you want vs. Guardian, Brute, or maybe even Dash.
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Jan 31, 2022 20:39
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Three days of draft was... a lot. If I had to do it again, I'd definitely do just two. I'm opening a case of EVR. I can't seem to get any luck with loose packs (never opened more than an AoW), but boxes have been okay so far (3/6 L rate).
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Feb 1, 2022 02:31
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Oof, yeah, CnC was $85 last week. That's a drat shame that it wasn't reprinted; it does worry me a little about the future of the game long-term. As I said I'm hoping for some precon product in Q2 that has a CnC/Estrike in it at around $30-$40 which will tank the prices on those cards. I suspect that it'll settle a little below what it is now, people who were waiting on EVR spoilers are now snap-buying cards for the decks they want to build.
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Feb 1, 2022 07:00
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I'm trying out Lightning Lexi with the new tools, and while Tri Shot and Rain Razors are nice cards, I don't think they get nearly as close to the power of the deck with just raw Ball Lightnings. You can get some crazy 3-4 arrow turns with the right setup, but it's rare and requires tech cards to get Go Again in the right places. When compared to the power level of something like Viserai or Prism with all the new toys, I'm not sure if it's worth pursuing.
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Feb 2, 2022 07:00
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Stuff's really taking off with all the CC testing now. It feels like Prism really is just that ridiculous, with those 0-cost auras enabling a lot of new lines and the new attacks basically being an even bigger problem towards anyone who even considers breaking a Phantasm. "Take 7 or give me a copy of my Genesis" is not a fun tradeoff to make.
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Feb 4, 2022 08:29
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Everfest is out! Anyone get any good pulls?
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Feb 4, 2022 23:52
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Arcane Lantern CF is great! Bingo is also looking to be one of the best Ms of the set, I haven't gotten any but will probably pick up 3 at some point. I got 6 boxes (two loose), 5 for me and 1 for a friend. My case had a Stalagmite and the loose box I gave to my friend also had a Stalagmite. And then another case a local grabbed from the same store that morning had a Stalagmite. We're drowning in shields!
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Feb 5, 2022 08:35
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I like EVR's Blitz support but the CC support is much more variable. Rhinar doesn't want a bunch of dice rolls in a CC deck, but I'll totally meme with Kayo all day. Dorinthea's new cards are great but she's not *quite* there. Meanwhile Viserai got some absolutely nutty cards, there's a lot of hands now where he can come in for an easy 16 with four cards, and God help you if he gets a Revel in Runeblood into a Skeleta -> Sonata. I had a big brain moment last night after a friend of mine said someone was having success in Lightning Lexi, and that they weren't using any new cards except Fatigue Shot. I figured out what they were doing from that and ended up making a list that is pretty consistently aggressive and doesn't run a lot of the usual Lightning Lexi suspects (Light It Up didn't make the cut, for example).
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Feb 6, 2022 23:25
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The first Battle Hardened is happening in the US now, and apparently five of the top 8 are Bravostar. The other three are Chane and Briar, which blows my mind. The fact that Chane would perform better than Viserai with the new cards seems insane to me.
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Feb 13, 2022 22:32
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The Combat Chain is the most complex part of FaB, yeah. The Combat Chain is composed of individual "chain links", each of which consist of the attack -> block -> reaction steps you outlined. Playing subsequent attacks keeps the chain "open", adding another chain link to the Combat Chain. The chain is closed either explicitly by an effect (e.g. Phantasm, as you pointed out), voluntarily after an attack (i.e. you could close, then open an entirely new combat chain), or if you perform any action other than an attack (as of the new rules, technically you must close the chain before you can perform any non-attack action). Some attacks do care about what the previous chain link is, primarily Ninja attack cards with the Combo keyword. Otherwise previous chain links don't usually do much, though blocking equipment cannot be used to block a new attack unless the chain is closed (i.e. blocking equipment stays on an active chain, so it can't be reused on the same chain).
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Feb 13, 2022 23:01
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Rhinar is an interesting case because he's a midrange deck where your goal is to block damage, swing with your weapon off a 1-2 card hand, and then set up a 3+ Intimidate turn or have some sort of combo. So there are turns where you want all four cards, and turns where you're very happy with just one. Boltyn is similar, but in a different way. Radyn plus Take Flight allows using Tunic and two cards to come in for 6-7, and once you have charged soul or some Luminas lying around you just take whatever your opponent throws at you and come back in for 22+.
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Feb 17, 2022 00:07
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LSS has been doing a weird thing for a bit where the price they say is MSRP isn't the price many stores will sell the product for. SCG has the decks at $40 for preorder and some places are going even lower than that. I'm not entirely sure why that trend is a thing, but given the cards in these decks, it's probably better for new players to buy the older Blitz decks anyway. Classic Battles feels strangely geared towards current players with the extra foiling and entirely new hero cards + weapons.
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May 29, 2022 15:29
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| # ¿ May 17, 2024 20:43 |
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In the article describing the future of the game, Commoner was a format LSS said they're going to support, along with better support for their 3+ player mode (UPF) and a PvE mode.
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Jun 1, 2022 15:53
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