Ian Holland has competed at everything from the first Pro Tour to local Skirmish events, working to build his local community in Ireland, and pushing Belittle in Commoner before it was removed from the format. Today, we welcome him as a guest writer to talk about why you should consider playing Commoner, and what makes it a great tool for building communities.
When I started my journey into playing Flesh and Blood I had heard rumblings of a community organised format of only commons – in fact it was such a fresh idea that a real name had yet to be settled on. My experience with Commoner began at Pro Tour New Jersey – myself and my travelling companions from Ireland had all scrubbed out of the PT and the Calling so we needed something to do on the Sunday - it’s not like we could catch an early flight back to Ireland after all.
Neither of us had played a game of commoner, nor did we have any cards with us beyond what belonged to our respective decks. Armed with all the commons a vendor could provide us and enough food to keep us going, we went into the lab (hotel room) – focusing hard on Runeblade heroes as it let us play what we felt was (and would later prove to be bannably good) the most broken interaction in the format – Belittle and Minnowism.
The following day at the Commoner event, a huge crowd turned out. My results were unimportant, but I did develop a fascination with the format. It attracted the full spectrum of players: casual players who were on their favourite heroes, new players just learning the ropes, those trying to play off niche interactions, and those like myself and my compatriot – the absolute competitively minded who wanted to see how far they could min max a deck. Most importantly, everyone we played against was in high spirits and looking to play some fun games.
What was it about Commoner that attracted so many people? Sure – the lore book of Rathe was good incentive, as was the opportunity to brew in an unsolved format, but there had to be more to it right? I did some thinking, spoke to those in attendance and thought about my own experiences interacting with the format and similar alternative formats. I think I have a few ideas what might draw such a crowd.
A Perfect Entry Point
One of the things that we have run in my local game store has been Commoner events. They are the perfect way to recruit new players to the game. Price of entry tends to be the first thing that a new player, or a player from another game might find off-putting. So what if they found out there is a format out there that allows you to build any deck for $15 or less?
How we organised these was simple – the more enfranchised players simply took a couple of different heroes and built decks around them. These were left in the LGS so that new players wanting to try the game beyond their games with the Ira welcome decks could get a deeper understanding of the core mechanics of the game as well as the individual hero they have chosen. Between four or five of us we managed to assemble at least one deck for each class, providing plenty of options for those who wanted to try Flesh and Blood for the first time or at least explore each of the Heroes of Rathe before diving more fully into the game.
Not only did we recruit some new players, but the competitive players among us got to flex some fun deckbuilding and just play a class or two that we might not normally play. The variety and chance to work with unknown tools allows all players to sharpen their skills in gameplay and focus on the fundamentals of the game.
The Casual Gamer
“Casual” is a term that gets thrown around with varying degrees of disdain behind it by those who are heavily invested in any hobby space. Sometimes this can get ignored in the sea of high level competitive events that have been going on in the world of Flesh and Blood. However, they are in many games the life blood of play experience. They may not want to go above the skirmish level, but armories live by the casual player coming in weekly to have fun games and experience the game through their lens.
A perfect example of this occurred at the Commoner event in New Jersey where I met a player on Bravo. It wasn’t teched for any perceived meta – it was built with cards they liked for the hero, commons that in a constructed environment of majestics and legendaries weren’t seeing play. It was their deck, a real expression of what they enjoyed about the Guardian – tanky defences backed up by crushing attacks. It was fully foiled out too, complete with a few Alpha (!) Cold Foils.
This low investment format allows the casual players to easily find “their deck”. The one they can identify with, they can have it look as blinged out as they like – after all, this is “their deck” that they will play any time there’s Commoner going, at the kitchen table with friends or wherever that happens to be.
Big tournaments can be understandably cutthroat, after all there are big prizes to be won. Playing games and interacting with those who view the game on a different axis can be a nice reminder that, no matter how seriously we take it, we are all playing a game and that game is meant to be fun.
A Brewer’s Paradise
How many times have you heard a friend lament that there was little scope for brewing in a competitive format? Niche formats like Commoner provide just that scope. After all, there’s very little in terms of tournaments, winning decklists being published or even an established metagame. This was the draw that led myself and a friend to stay up until 3am – building, iterating and testing ahead of the Sunday Commoner event in New Jersey.
If you like looking at a hero’s card pool and think – why can’t this see play? Just try it. The fantastic thing about Commoner as it stands (at least following the recent banned and suspended announcement) is that the format is wide open. With such an openness in front of you, the rules and assumptions of how things get done are gone. Nobody really knows the new rules of deckbuilding in the format just yet – so you get to make up your own. Test, try, play games, and then keep what works or what you enjoy. The other real benefit to a more casual format is self-expression through deckbuilding and either going out in a blaze of glory or winning with something you created.
The Competitive Player – Pushing a Format to its Limits
This is where I come in personally. I spent weeks working on a Chane list, built around a broken pairing of Belittle and Minnowism, with the goal to end the game as quickly as possible. Even now, ahead of Pro Tour Lille, I’m working on a new deck following the recent banned and suspended announcement – it’s what drives me to play the game and what keeps me coming back.
The competitive player gets the same puzzle as the brewer, but it’s not about expressing anything through deckbuilding beyond their ability to hone a deck to a razor’s edge. Failing that, using their own skill to take a deck as far into a tournament as they can. My mentality here is simple – if I find something I think is good enough to be banned, I need to prove it. What might that be this time? Maybe I’ll get a chance to prove it going forward. All I’ll say is, there is exactly one format where Stubby Hammerers still hasn’t had its full potential shown yet and it’s not in my nature to let things like that go unexplored.
Commoner is for Everyone
So what was it about Commoner that attracted so many people? I think it’s pretty simple – there’s something for everyone, no matter how they choose to interact with the game.
Encourage your local game stores to run Commoner events, whether as a welcome day, an on-demand after an armory or even one armory a month. Encourage it for the new players who have moved on from their welcome decks, for the brewers and casual players or to give the competitive players a break from the speed of blitz or the highly competitive nature of Classic Constructed. Encourage your enfranchised local players to sort through their bulk and help prepare decks, or pool your resources and go through the bulk in your LGS. They should have plenty of commons to help people get started, or move on from their intro Ira deck to something new and exciting.
Competitive players have been really spoiled this year between the Pro Tours, several Callings and Battle Hardened events, Nationals coming up and even the World Championships. Sometimes we really need to take a step back – after all it’s not about spiking every armory – play the game we started because we enjoyed it. Have fun, flex your creativity in deckbuilding, play exciting and interesting games.
Embrace Commoner for all facets of the community. After all as James White has said, it’s about bringing people together to play great games in the Flesh and Blood.
Ian Holland is a competitive Flesh and Blood player and author of content relating to community, gameplay and strategy. The opinions expressed in the above article are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Legend Story Studios.