Classic Constructed
The following heroes and signature weapons have attained Living Legend status and are no longer legal for official Classic Constructed tournament play as of August 30, 2022:
- Prism, Sculptor of Arc Light
- Luminaris
A roll of honor article celebrating all the players who contributed points towards Prism’s ascension to Living Legend will be published in the coming days and embedded in the hero page of this legendary hero.
- No other changes
After a weekend of the highest level of competitive play, signs across both the Calling and the Pro Tour point to a well balanced metagame. Five different heroes scored Top 8 berths across the two tournaments, and many more heroes were present just outside the winner’s circle.
Furthermore, the format has just undergone one of the most seismic changes in the history of Flesh and Blood, with Prism’s ascension to Living Legend. Prism had some of the most polarizing matchups in the game, and her very existence disincentivized the play of heroes like Bravo, Oldhim, Kano, Iyslander, Lexi, Dorinthea, and others who struggled to stifle Prism’s aura-based gameplay. With Prism gone, the metagame has the potential for dramatic expansion.
There’s no denying that Briar, Warden of Thorns had begun to distance herself from the pack over the last two weeks of results. We believe that the metagame space opened by Prism’s absence will allow decks to begin targeting Briar more effectively and allow some of her fiercest predators to gain metagame share. Should this balance fail to come to fruition throughout the upcoming Nationals season, and should Briar make it through Nationals season without reaching Living Legend status, we will not hesitate to take action to bring Briar (or any other outliers) back in line prior to the World Championships with the October 3 Banned and Suspended Announcement.
Blitz
The following changes are effective as of August 30, 2022:
- Stir the Aetherwind moves from suspended to banned
- Snapback moves from suspended to banned
- Crown of Seeds remains suspended until Oldhim becomes Living Legend
- Sonata Arcanix remains suspended until the next banned and suspended announcement
Following the suspension of Stir the Aetherwind and Snapback, both Kano and Iyslander continued to put up format-leading results. Even more importantly, the pace of play of Wizards slowed, leading to better gameplay experiences playing with, and against, both heroes. For this reason, we are moving Stir the Aetherwind and Snapback to the banned list.
The absence of Crown of Seeds from the Blitz format has similarly had a positive impact on the format, disincentivizing purely defensive versions of Oldhim and forcing the hero to find a way to actively win games. While there may be a future world where Crown of Seeds is an interesting tool for a varied suite of Earth heroes to consider, we do not believe the card can play that role while Oldhim is legal in the Blitz format. Crown of Seeds will remain on the suspended list until Oldhim reaches Living Legend status.
Sonata Arcanix still carries an high risk of leading to degenerate turns in conjunction with cards like Revel in Runeblood and Bloodsheath Skeleta. Currently, data suggests that the legal Runeblades remain high-tier choices in the Blitz format, even if they are not at the very apex of the metagame. For the time being, we are content with leaving Sonata Arcanix suspended. Should Runeblades struggle to find wins in the future, we are open to returning Sonata Arcanix to the card pool. Therefore, it finds itself remaining on the suspended list for the time being.
The net effect of these changes is that, despite some housekeeping, we will be playing the same Blitz format tomorrow as we were playing yesterday. Our review of data from a large sampling of Blitz events suggests that the format is relatively balanced, with many viable heroes.
Despite this fact, we remain committed to the idea of using the banned and suspended list aggressively in the Blitz format. These bans are intended to balance the format, but they are also intended to provide the best possible gameplay experiences, and to occasionally introduce new wrinkles for our skilled players to account for prior to a large event or season of play.
While we are comfortable with the state of the Blitz format at this moment, this should in no way suggest the status quo will remain for Blitz’s debut at the highest level of play at the upcoming World Championships. We will continue to carefully monitor for both win-rate and play experience outliers, and we expect the Blitz format to continue to evolve with our updated vision for the format.
Next Scheduled Banned and Suspended Announcement
The next scheduled banned and suspended announcement is October 3, 2022.