Flesh and Blood booster pack configuration has been designed specifically to support high-quality booster draft and sealed deck play.
Let's revisit the Welcome to Rathe booster pack configuration of 15 cards + 1 token per pack:
- 1 token
- 11 commons
- 4 generic commons
- 7 class commons (being a mix of Brute, Guardian, Ninja, Warrior)
- 1 rare
- 1 rare / super rare / majestic
- 1 equipment
- 1 premium foil
Token Gesture
The token slot contributes arguably the most important element of every limited format deck… the hero card and weapon they wield!
All but 1 card in the token slot are double-sided cards. All double-sided cards start the game in the arena, or are created by a card effect. Double sided cards are not included in your deck.
Double-sided cards that appear in the token slot include:
- Hero's
- Young hero's
- Weapons
- Quicken/Seismic Surge (a token created by another card effect.)
Cracked Bauble is the only card with a standard card back that appears in the token slot. It has a normal card back because it is included in your deck when required. (Cracked Baubles are added to a players card pool when they are unable to construct a 30 card minimum deck in a limited format event. This is usually only applicable when a player messes up their draft. Having Cracked Baubles in your deck is bad!)
When drafting, the card that appears in the token slot should be removed from the booster pack. This includes double-sided cards and Cracked Bauble.
The distribution of cards through the token slot is designed so that in a draft pod, players should usually be able to find the young hero and weapon cards they require from the collective pool of token slot cards opened in the draft.
Remember you do not draft hero or weapon cards. You are free to add the young hero and weapon(s) you need to your card pool at the conclusion of the draft or sealed deck construction.
Generically Good
In many ways, Generics are the glue that holds Flesh and Blood together for sealed deck and booster draft formats. Generics are generally inferior in some way than equivalent class stamped cards, but the key point of generics is they can go into any deck.
When playing sealed deck you get 6 booster packs to construct a 30 card minimum deck. That means you should open 24 generic commons + some number of generic rares and premium foils.
Because you get a high number of generic cards in your card pool, it's always possible to play any of the 4 heroes featured in the set. The art of building good sealed decks comes from evaluating the strength of each class in relation to the synergies coming through from your generic card pool. Check in next Monday for an article presenting different approaches to building a sealed deck.
When drafting, generics provide an option to "stay open" during early picks of the draft, while reading signals of what is being passed from players on your right. Once you have committed to a class, there are certain generics that become a very high priority to support certain draft strategies, and a range of generics for each class that function as the "nuts and bolts" of the deck.
Equip your Hero. Prepare to fight.
The ratio of generic to class-stamped equipment was chosen deliberately with consideration for supporting limited formats. Welcome to Rathe common equipment includes 8 different generic equipment and 1 equipment specific to each class, making a total of 12 common equipment in total.
On average 67% of common equipment opened are generic, meaning you should normally have options available to equip your hero for battle, even if you didn't manage to open or draft the equipment specific to your class.
Limited Options, Unlimited Potential
The first season of The Calling $10,000 tournament series kicks off late October, featuring limited formats (sealed deck with booster draft top 8) through to the end of 2019.
Check out details here for The Calling Auckland and Sydney, with our first USA location to be announced in coming days!