Dev Download: Florian

Welcome to Dev Download, where we share red hot tips and tricks fresh from the game devs at Legend Story Studios so you can pick up a deck and play like a pro! This week we’ll be covering how to play each of the heroes in Rosetta, focusing on Booster Draft and Classic Constructed!

Today we sow the seeds of decay with Florian, Rotwood Harbinger!

Booster Draft

Rosetta is a dynamic Booster Draft experience, with dual talents (Earth and Lightning), dual classes (Wizard and Runeblade), and explosive arcane damage!

Florian is an Earth Runeblade, sending Earth cards to the graveyard in order to decompose them. Once he has banished 4 or more Earth cards this way, his hero ability grants you extra auras, such as protective Embodiments of Earth, or more importantly, vast piles of Runechants to overwhelm the opponent!

Key signals that Florian is open are powerful Earth cards that can decompose, such as Cadaverous Tilling, Rootbound Carapace, and Blossoming Decay. The two Earth equipment are also strong signs that Earth is open, and provide some much needed protection against both physical and arcane damage. Out of the heroes in Rosetta, Florian makes the best use of 1-cost auras such as Strong Yield, Harvest Season, and Arcane Cussing, as they perfectly line up with his signature weapon off a single pitched blue. If you're lucky enough to see an Arcane Seeds // Life, slam dunk it immediately!

You'll want to pick up about 3-5 decomposers, and roughly at least 10-15 Earth cards to support them. The other half of your deck should focus on payoffs for Florian's hero ability, such as Malefic Incantation, Arcane Cussing, and Deadwood Dirge. These cards are also strong signals that Florian is the open Runeblade, as opposed to Aurora. A lot of the time Florian will win the game by decomposing, then using combinations of these Runechant-making cards backed up by his hero ability to bury the opponent in a combination of physical and arcane damage. Other great pickups to round out your deck include Oath of the Arknight, Splintering Deadwood, and Sigil of Deadwood.

Classic Constructed

Some of you may have already started digging and have realised that what Florian unearths is an endless forest of possibilities. His hero ability and card pool synergises with several different playstyles, making him a dynamic longterm hero in the format. For example, the simplest and most straightforward way to play Florian is a standard control build, that focuses on defending heavily and leaning on disruptive cards like Felling of the Crown, Plow Under, and Command and Conquer to slow down the enemy to his level. Once your hero ability is online, you have access to a dangerously efficient 1-card play that outputs 5 damage each turn, using Grasp of the Arknight and Reaping Blade.

Florian has access to a wide range of flexible tools for any midrange enjoyer, allowing him to trade carefully with the opponent and just constantly present more value. Whether that's bigger attacks like Felling of the Crown and Cadaverous Tilling, double Embodiments of Earth generated from Barkskin of the Millennium Tree to easily stop breakpoints, Seeds of Tomorrow to counter arsenal disruption, prevent arcane damage, or even blank pesky daggers, or even the numerous Runechant-making toys such as Dread Triptych that Viserai has graciously allowed Florian to play with.

For those who enjoy a more aggressive playstyle, 1st Strike has some key cards to enable a "Go Tall or Go Home" build. Thrive and Flourish allow you to reach some truly towering physical damage heights. The Earth card pool already has some fantastic payoffs for these enablers such as Earthlore Surge, Channel Mount Heroic, and many of the Earth attacks themselves. You'll also find the power increase and Florian's ability both have some neat interactions with the Runeblade pool, such as Swarming Gloomveil and Nebula Blade. The average cost of this build is a little heavier, so make sure to pack a hefty number of blues.

And of course, we can't overlook Florian's nasty OTK potential. There are a few different approaches to this deck, but one of the most consistent is the use of 9 copies of Rootbound Carapace for decomposing, 9 copies of Fruits of the Forest for life gain and Earth count, paired with other life gain cards such as Sigil of Solace, and a lovely little Majestic called Thistle Bloom // Life. This combination of cards allows you to stay healthy while stacking up a MOUNTAIN of Runechants and taking the opponent out in a single turn! Since your hero ability is essentially Mordred Tide on a stick, all the OTK Viserai goodies come into play here as well; Read the Runes, Runeblood Incantation, and Blessing of Occult, many of which are searchable by Sonata Galaxia.

If you’re interested in taking Florian for a spin casually at your local Armory or just among friends but don’t want to commit to expensive Legendaries just yet, try out our Budget Florian Decklist below!