From zero… to your first eighty cards!
Shirui Wu breaks down his competitive Tuffnut, Bumbling Hulkster Classic Constructed decklist, complete with sideboard and matchup tips. When a new hero hits the track, the pros get you up to speed with Zero to Eighty!
Let’s welcome our newest Brute to the world of Rathe. The largest competitor to ever set foot in the Deathmatch Arena – Tuffnut!
Tuffnut may not be very smart, but he makes up for it in muscle! He boasts a powerful hero ability but pays the price with only 3 Intellect. Deckbuilding for him is a mix of balancing the inconsistency of his ability, making sure he does not crack under pressure, and packing enough punch to hit back! With the power of pure Brute force combined with the power of being a crowd favorite, Tuffnut swings into action!
So what exactly makes Tuffnut tick? Let’s dive in.
CARD CHOICES
TOUGH AS A ROK
Tuffnut’s ability let’s you pitch the top card of your deck each turn. If it has 6 or more power, you create a Toughness token. This creates a big decision point for deckbuilding:
- Do you stack your deck with lots of 6-power attacks to maximize your Toughness generation?
- Do you load up on blues to maximize your pitch?
- And why, exactly, would we want to pitch a random card every turn? The answer is simple: THE ROKKKKK!
Rok, introduced in Dynasty, is a one-of-a-kind weapon with an unfathomable rate of 3 resources for 7 damage, which also can’t be prevented by effects. However, that comes with a huge condition, requiring you to have no cards in hand. Conveniently, Tuffnut completely sidesteps that downside by pitching off the top of the deck instead of hand.
Add in Brute’s powerful attack actions and excellent equipment suite, and Tuffnut suddenly has a very real game plan.
Do you have these in XXXXXL?
To lift the glorious Rok, we must be single minded, every muscle fiber in our body has to focus on lifting and throwing our weapon. As such, our equipment must focus on the Rok plan.
Scowling Flesh Bag: a high-skill, high-reward piece. Familiarize yourself with the common play lines of other decks so you know exactly when to mess up your opponent’s big turn. Some prevalent threats include Oscillo’s Lightning Greaves combo turn, Kayo’s Bloodrush Bellow + Savage Sash turn, or Ye Olde Command and Conquer with two resources floating and what is sure to be Pummel in hand/arsenal.
Fyendal’s Spring Tunic: as disturbing as it may be to picture the giant hulkster squeezing into a dainty green dress – it keeps the Rok swinging when we come up short on a yellow. Knowing you can empty your hand via defending and almost always swing with the Rok back is key to victory with Tuffnut. This piece is especially potent, as games with Tuffnut tend to go long.
Apex Bonebreaker: extremely high value equipment that combos well with Tuffnut’s intrinsic high power deck and defensive playstyle, and can easily generate 5 value over the course of the game!
Scabskin Leathers: defends for 3 value and gives you an avenue to unlock crazy turns where Tuffnut can swing with cards from hand AND follow up with his trusty Rok! Embrace your inner Eugene Chung and roll those Scabskins!
The crowd goes wild
The deck revolves around one core play: flip a blue off the top, swing Rok for 7.
With 30 blues in a 60-card deck, you have a 50/50 chance to enable this line each turn. When it works, it feels incredible. One card swing for 7!
The best blues for the deck are Tuffnut’s only blue 6-attacks: Wind Up the Crowd and Wrecker Romp. These aren’t all-stars on their own, but as blue 6’s they’re perfect here. If you hit them with your hero ability, you get both a Toughness token and a Rok swing for an efficient 1-card 8 value.
Beyond that, the deck includes the blue and yellow versions of Tough Smashup and Vigorous Smashup. These let you clash with opponents (which Tuffnut often wins thanks to his high power deck) while also giving you a way to filter reds from the top. With so many blues, the chance of missing 2 blues in a row is only ~24.6%. Pretty good odds for Brutes!
A Tuff Nut to Crack
Even with a heavy blue count, we still run plenty of yellow 6-powers. When paired with Tunic or a Vigor token, they enable Rok while also generating Toughness.
Toughness isn’t always perfect. Smaller, go-wide decks can just poke through it with chip damage. To get more mileage from our blocks, we run Battlefront Bastion to spread out prevention and fully block out problematic attacks. Since Tuffnut pitches automatically, you’re often free to block with your entire hand and still play your main line. This makes defensive tools like Good Natured Brutality or Thick Hide Hunter shine, since they block well but want you to empty your hand.
For disruption, we run Disarm and Disperse, which can stop your opponents in their tracks. You can pair them with Never Give Up to hit the 6-defense threshold in response to their on-defense trigger!
Let’s play some Whack-a-Pal!
Not every matchup lets you sit back and defend. Against heroes like Florian or Verdance, who can set up and strand defensive cards in your hand, you need plenty of hand activity.
Jaws of Victory and Buckwild provide natural go again. Jaws is especially powerful when behind on life, letting you chain into Rok swings. Buckwild is powerful but requires 6-powers in your hand to enable, and thus is way better in matchups where you defend less. Agile Windup enables Tuffnut’s larger hands, as most of the cards in the deck aren’t only great at defending, but also hit hard with a Rok behind it! Lastly, Crowd Goes Wild is an especially cost efficient 6-power that pairs beautifully with Rok if you can find extra action points from Agile Windup or Scabskin Leathers.
Remember, there are some matchups you can’t win by just blockin’ and rokkin’. Hold your Scabskins tight and roll!
SIDEBOARDING
This build runs a 54-card main deck, with the following cards in the inventory:
- 3x Battlefront Bastion (yellow)
- 3x Buckwild (yellow)
- 3x No Hero Stands Alone
- 3x Good Natured Brutality
- 3x Thick Hide Hunter
- 3x Blow for a Blow
- 2x Argh… Smash!
- 1x Nullrune Gloves
wide decks
Against go wide decks like Cindra, Dash I/O, or Arakni, we are including Battlefield Bastion (yellow) and No Hero Stands Alone. The former uses Toughness very efficiently, saving you life in the future with the prevention effect, and the latter is very powerful at blocking chain-enders, but is very dangerous if you lose the clash.
TALL DECKS
Against tall decks like Kayo, Victor, or Levia, Good Natured Brutality and Thick Hide Hunter are used to defend massive numbers at the cost of emptying your hand. These two cards also happen to be 2-cost, so in the case you are forced into being aggressive, holding a blue with an action point source lets you convert these into a consistent 6 into 7 swing!
SETUP DECKS
Against defensive setup decks like Florian, Verdance, or Pleiades, Buckwild comes into play to present massive go again damage with a devastating Tuffnut into Rok follow up! The remaining 3 cards depends on the specific hero you are facing, but it’s usually Good Natured Brutality or Thick Hide Hunter.
other stuff
Blow for a Blow is excellent into Gravy Bones, clearing allies and dealing chip damage while controlling the board. You can also bring Buckwild in for this specific matchup.
Argh… Smash! is for dealing with Verdance’s potion combo, but you can also bring in 1-2 copies against Dash I/O to deal with her scariest items.
Nullrune Gloves holds off a moderate amount of arcane damage against Runeblades and Wizards, but you mostly want to be focusing on deploying the strengths of your other equipment. You can also try adding Skullhorn into the deck if you want more protection against Kano and Verdance, but when it comes to Oscilio, Scowling Flesh Bag is the superior choice.
METAGAME POSITION
Tuffnut unfortunately has some weaknesses. His 3 Intellect makes it hard to keep up with go wide decks like Cindra or Dash I/O, and Toughness tokens are less effective against many small attacks. His pockets of random chance also means he can sometimes stumble in key moments.
He also struggles against heroes like Verdance and Florian, who not only defend efficiently, but also have endgame plans to go over our defenses. These Earth heroes have extremely powerful late game plays in Rampant Growth and Germinate, which means Tuffnut needs to hit them as hard and as fast as possible to avoid facing nature’s wrath.
But into decks like Victor or Pleiades, which maximize the value of their hand by blocking and sending large attacks in return, Tuffnut shines! Toughness tokens let him absorb tall attacks, and Rok’s efficiency punishes midrange value-oriented strategies.
Underestimate him at your peril. This big green numbskull will absolutely steal games if your enemies let their guard down.
GET IN THE RING!
Tuffnut embodies everything it means to be a Brute – high variance, huge payoffs, and plenty of fun. If you can stomach the lows, the highs are unforgettable. Give our friendly green giant a try, and remember: the most important rule in Flesh and Blood is to have fun!
