Roll of Honor: Dromai, Ash Artist

The crown was heavy.

It was heavy from the blood spilled between brothers and sisters. It was heavy from the gaping wounds gashed into the land. It was heavy from the choking embers of a fallen empire.

But she knew for the sake of her people she could not let it weigh her down.

Flecks of ash floated through the sweltering air as she gazed upon her burning kingdom. Everywhere the ash landed the ground was laced with violent history. It was time to clean up.

She knew they would panic. They would question her absence in a time where the people needed their leader more than anything. They would doubt her intentions, her methods, even her eligibility.

This is exactly why she had to leave. She needed the truth. The blood of dragons flowed through her veins as lava flowed from the peak of Mt Volcor. There had to be a source, a spark that ignited the flame, a secret that had empowered the Dracai to rule with undeniable authority for thousands of years.

She would return once she held this secret in the palm of her hand, burning brighter than the imperial furnace itself, to usher her people down a path that didn’t eventually lead to fire and bloodshed.

The Emperor was dead. She was determined not to repeat his mistakes.

Making her debut in Uprising on June 24th 2022, Dromai torched preconceived notions about the Illusionist class with a hot new take on how smoke and mirrors could connect to the fiery environment of her homeland. Her ability to generate a unique resource - Ash - through the typically unconventional action of pitching red cards, challenged players to delicately balance resources, boardstate, and tempo, creating an exhilarating (and often explosive) gameplay experience.

Dromai was initially content prowling the outer rim of the Classic Constructed metagame, her dragons feeding on control decks and arcanists. Over time she grew from a rogue outlier into a formidable anti-meta monolith, able to impose a chokehold on popular decks like Ranger while using a redline strategy to keep up with aggro decks. After a long history of placing in the Top 8 at Premier tournaments around the world, the final piece of the puzzle arrived in Bright Lights (2023) with Tome of Imperial Flame. Dromai reigned as the deck to beat throughout early 2024, finally reaching a climactic win at Pro Tour: Los Angeles, piloted by Arthur Trehet in an epic final match that will be remembered as one of the greatest games of Flesh and Blood of all time.

Dromai, Ash Artist officially reached Living Legend status in Classic Constructed on April 19th 2024. With her goes her signature dragon controller, Storm of Sandikai. Her departure opens up the path to several fringe heroes, but the dragons will only rest for so long before the skies run red once more. Congratulations to all the players who invoked the great beasts of Volcor. Your names have been scorched into the Roll of Honor!