Heavy Hitters Pre-Release Primer

So, you’ve travelled to the Deathmatch Arena. Are you here for gold, glory, or just to test your strength?

To survive in the ring you’ll need to be strong, quick, and resilient. Let me show you the ropes before you get flattened into a smear in the dirt.

Your training awaits…

Heavy Hitters is the heart-thumping, chest-beating, gut-punching new way to play Flesh and Blood! The set features six heroes across three classes - Brute, Guardian, and Warrior. We’ll touch base on these heroes in a moment, but first, let’s go over some basic Sealed Deck reminders.

Start by cracking open your six packs of Heavy Hitters, and remove the last two cards in each pack and set them aside. These will be either token cards or rare Expansion Slot cards, such as Legendaries and Cold Foils, which can’t be used in your deck. Sort your cards into six piles: Brute, Guardian, Warrior, Generic, Weapons/Equipment, and Hybrid cards (the ones with dual class borders). If you wish to sort your cards differently - go for it!

Using your pool, build a deck of at least 30 cards, choose a hero token and weapon token(s), and prepare for battle in the arena! It’s that easy!

Tokens

Heavy Hitters features four tokens that play a huge role in the arena - Gold, Agility, Might, and Vigor.

Gold will stay in the arena after you create it, until you choose to use it. It allows you to have greater flexibility with your turns, cycle through cards quicker, and activate effects that require you to draw a card.

Agility tokens are shared between the Brutes and the Warriors. When you make an Agility token, it will always pop on the following turn to give your first attack go again. This is incredibly useful to attack more than once in a turn to force your opponent to defend and keep the tempo. Even if you control multiple Agility tokens, your attack will only gain go again once.

Might tokens are shared between the Brutes and the Guardians. When you make a Might token, it will always pop on the following turn to give your first attack +1 power. This is a great way to chip in more damage, threaten breakpoints for your on-hits, and generally lay the smackdown on your opponent.

Vigor tokens are shared between the Guardians and the Warriors. When you make a Vigor token, it will always pop on the following turn to give you one resource point. This can help you play more efficiently with your cards or play out huge turns that would otherwise be too expensive.

Wager and Clash

Wager is a new keyword debuting in Heavy Hitters that allows you to gamble on your own fights! When you wager an attack, you can bet on the odds of it hitting. If your attack connects and deals damage, you gain the rewards listed on the card (usually a token). If the attack is prevented, then your opponent gets the token instead.

Clash is a new keyword debuting in Heavy Hitters that allows you to grapple with the opponent to determine who is strongest. Commonly found on cards that defend, when a clash is initiated, both players reveal the top card of their decks. Whoever reveals the card with the highest power wins the clash and the rewards listed on the card. Sometimes both players will reveal attacks with equal power, or non-attack cards. In this case, the clash is a tie.

Overpower and Block

Overpower is a strong ability that prevents your opponent from defending the attack with more than one action card. This is a great way to close out games, so you should try to have a few tricks up your sleeve to avoid getting hit with it.

One way is through block cards. These are super simple - they block! You defend with them like any other card, but since they're not actions, they can easily get around overpower. Note that the cost circle in the top right-hand corner is blank, this is because block cards cannot be played, only pitched or defended with. Be careful not to put a block card in your arsenal, as then you might not have any way to remove it!

Heavy Hitters also contains instant cards that can prevent damage. You can play or activate instants during either player's turn without needing any action points. Most of the instants in Heavy Hitters are played or activated on the opponent's turn in order to prevent damage.

Brutes

Kayo is a wild young Brute who has been captured and forced to fight in the Deathmatch Arena. He has lost his arm and his sanity, but that doesn’t make him any less dangerous!

Kayo can only hold a single one-handed weapon, but this is hardly a disadvantage when you compare it to the rest of his ability. Kayo adds more consistency to your deck by increasing the power of his attacks when they are in non-combat zones, such as the top of your deck during a clash, or when a Brute card asks you to discard an attack with 6 or more power. On top of that, he can also make Might tokens, allowing you to set up huge turns that utilise both high power attacks and go again.

Kayo is an aggressive deck that aims to pressure the opponent with massive back-to-back turns. You’ll want to include lots of attacks that have 5 or more power, attacks with go again, and ways to make Agility tokens so you can keep the beatdowns coming turn after turn.

Rhinar is a fan-favourite from the old days of Welcome to Rathe who’s back for blood! Lured into the Deathmatch Arena by the fight-masters, Rhinar has decided to make the Deathmatch Arena his new hunting ground!

Rhinar is wild by nature and this means you will have to work with your attacks as raw as they come. He has an extremely deadly intimidate ability which removes defending options from the opponent. This can be great for closing out games but requires a little bit of building around.

Look for cards that allow you to discard, such as Windups or cards with Beat Chest. Cram as many cards with 6 or more power into your deck as possible to ensure you can reliably trigger his ability. You probably want upwards of 10 cards with 6 or more power in your pool in order to build a decent Rhinar deck.

Guardians

Betsy is a crowd favourite of the Deathmatch Arena, who revels in making eye-wateringly big bets, and spends her earnings on the finest booze and entertainment.

Betsy’s ability can only be activated when you wager an attack, and will increase the damage while also making it harder to prevent with overpower. This is great for forcing your on-hits through and reaping all the rewards, as well as closing out games.

Guardian does not have easy access to Agility, so you’ll need to focus on going ‘tall’ instead of going ‘wide’. As a starting point, look for as many red and yellow wager attacks as you can, and support them with cards that increase power like Money Where Ya Mouth Is, as well as 1-2 of the red Guardian auras Big Bop and/or Bigger than Big. Make sure to also include a high number of blues, as you’ll want to make the most of these giant swings by slamming down Betsy’s hero ability on top.

Victor Goldmane is a wealthy Guardian from northern Solana with a nasty streak. Born into money and power, Victor isn’t afraid to grease a few palms to get what he wants.

Victor’s ability is focused on winning clashes and using the rewards to grind away at your opponent, leaving them in awkward positions where they don’t have the right resources to fight back. The first time you make a Gold token each turn, you get to draw a card. This gives Victor an advantage in defending, attacking, pitching, or setting up with the arsenal as long as he keeps the cash flowing. The second part of his ability allows you to functionally ‘redo’ a clash, putting one of the revealed cards on the bottom and trying again.

Victor is a fatigue-style deck, looking to play a single huge attack every turn aided by Vigor, Might, and card draws, until the opponent runs out of threats or high enough defense cards to survive. Look for big attacks that will help you win clashes such as Thunk or Wallop, and a healthy amount of 3-defense cards and block cards in order to stave away your opponent’s aggression.

Warriors

Kassai has returned from the red desert to seek vengeance against those who wronged her. She plans to win big at the arena so she can afford to raise an army and take back what’s rightfully hers.

Kassai’s hero ability is extremely strong, allowing you to make great use of the Gold you earn to swing with your weapons for free. You can also easily use the second part of her ability to make Gold, as a large portion of your card pool will be reds and yellows. As a Warrior, Kassai also has access to attack reactions, which can close out games and stop overpower.

Try to include many red cards, and about 6-8 yellow cards to fuel Kassai’s ability. There are also other ways to trigger the free weapon swings, such as Draw Swords and Cut the Deck. Kassai is also at her strongest when she has an Agility token, which allows her to force the opponent into tricky defending situations.

Olympia is the prized fighter of the Deathmatch Arena, worth betting all your Gold on. He lives on the edge of his blade, never backing down from a fight, and always upping the stakes.

Olympia’s hero ability is more simple than Kassai’s, but it is deceptively powerful. When you win a wager, you get a Gold. While this might not grant you free weapon swings, it does allow you to make very interesting usage of your pitch cards, especially when you have Vigor tokens on board. Having a fat stack of Gold also allows you to dig through your deck to reach important power cards, rather than drawing them too late when you’re forced to defend.

If your card pool contains lots of wager cards you may want to consider building Olympia. Look for power cards that you can build around, such as Fatal Engagement or Rising Speed, and use your spare Gold to find them early and pop off. Keep an eye out for Prized Galea - the defensive protection from this rare headpiece can be a total gamechanger!

We hope you have a tonne of fun at Pre-Release events this weekend, and don’t forget to share any Marvels, Legendaries, Cold Foils, or Fableds you find with us on social media! We really enjoy seeing you all come together to celebrate a new set release, especially one as explosive as Heavy Hitters!

Let the games begin!