Living Legend: 5 Decks to Play

Rathe trembles as titans roam the land once more...

For the first time, Skirmish features the Living Legend format! Experience Flesh and Blood at peak power with ALL heroes and weapons legal, and most importantly, including those who have attained Living Legend status. With so many deckbuilding options at your fingertips, the possibilities are endless!

Today we're covering five different heroes that are each incredibly strong options for the Living Legend metagame. Each one has a completely unique playstyle to destroy the competition! Unsure which cards to sleeve up first? Below you'll find decklists that have made Top 8 at recent Premier events.

It's time to show your local Skirmish what you're really made of!

Chane, Bound by Shadow

If you're a fan of Mild Discomfort at the Disco, then you'll enjoy Rathe's original edgelord. Chane is an extremely versatile deck in Living Legend, able to race aggro decks with spike turns, or play slow into control decks until he outpaces them with sheer Soul Shackle value. Cut down before it could see the light of day is the infamous Duskblade, which is Chane's main tool going first, and also going second into control. Build your deck with the goal of banishing blood debt attacks like Rift Bind, Bounding Demigon, and Ghostly Visit, as well as copies of Seeds of Agony from the top of your deck, then playing powerful support non-attack actions like Plunder Run, Shadow Puppetry, and Mauvrion Skies, then triggering your weapon.

Rosetta Thorn is a faster alternative to Duskblade, and can help you push damage against aggro decks where you may not have enough turns to see value from your Soul Shackles. The other upside is it helps you maintain Spellbound Creepers, which when used on a non-attack action with go again, generates multiple action points to play out attacks from your banished zone. Belittle and Minnowism is an excellent package to support both these weapons, while also synergising with the rest of your deck. Whether you run one or both swords is up to you, as they are both excessively powerful options.

Bravo, Star of the Show

Despite being booted off stage for hogging the limelight, "Starvo" still has an important role to play. The gameplan is simple. Your deck should be bursting at the seams with Earth, Ice, and Lightning cards in order to activate his hero ability as often as you possibly can. This allows you to constantly drop huge attacks on the opponent, keep them behind with Winter's Wail, and in some cases, also arsenal a card. Any card can be put into arsenal, as the legendary Crown of Seeds allows you to convert it into damage prevention and a card draw, a handy tool for digging for that last missing element. Hands that don't enable the hero ability or contain some form of disruption should be defended with, so that you can keep your life total high as you wait for the next one.

While most of his hallmark attacks like Crippling Crush, Star Struck, and Oaken Old have been restricted to one copy, Starvo has found purchase in new cards he didn't have access to while he was stomping around in Classic Constructed. Heavy Hitters staples like Concuss and Command Respect have seen play, while others have opted for more targeted hate towards aggro decks like Chane and Zen with cards like Crush the Weak. Whatever your flavour is, just make sure you're tacking that hero ability on top to make sure it lands. All of these, alongside your bigger bombs, can be fetched by Awakening.

Prism, Awakener of Sol

Old sticks, new tricks. While both versions of the Light Illusionist are viable in different ways, Prism, Awakener of Sol has a much more explosive ability that can quickly get out of control. Running the original Luminaris means your Angel attacks won't have go again, but the rest of your board will. Attack with your auras and Heralds first, then end on an Angel attack with a bonus from all the soul you've acquired. At the very least it's an instant speed ward 4, which is super useful against a myriad of decks. You'll find Prism is a natural born killer of Wizards and Guardians, both of which have seen more play in Living Legend recently, but you'll have to keep on your toes against Ninjas and Runeblades. Use well-timed Arc Light Sentinels to avoid being mopped by spike turns.

There's also merit to playing Prism, Sculptor of Arc Light, as it gives you a healthy extra 8 life and more consistent damage prevention. If your goal is to try and fatigue aggro decks, and overwhelm slower decks with boardstate, then this may be the better path for you. Keep in mind that you do lose on-demand access to figments, which can be a very useful toolbox for certain situations, such as Judgment flipping a banished blood debt attack face down, or Triumph blanking an Art of War turn, or even Ravages popping a Spectral Shield attack in the mirror.

Zen, Tamer of Purpose

If you think Zen is nuts in Classic Constructed, wait until you see him in Living Legend! Here, Zen has access to all nine copies of Bonds of Ancestry, allowing him to once more hit those juicy double and triple Bonds turns. Alongside anthems like Art of War and Ancestral Harmony, Zen also has access to a cute little piece of equipment that Fai enjoyers will remember well - Stubby Hammerers. This acts like an anthem in every way except it starts in play and is free to activate. It is at its strongest when you can pair it with another anthem, but don't shy away from popping it on turn 2 if your hand is crazy. Most of Zen's deck can be buffed by Stubby Hammerers; Descendant Gustwave, blue and yellow Bonds of Ancestry, Hundred Winds, Tiger Swipe, Levels of Enlightenment, the list goes on...

Speaking of cards with 3-power, Belittle and Minnowism should be a must-include in your deck. While Chane tends to run multiple copies of each in several colours, Zen is right at home with 3 red Belittle and 3 blue Minnowism. Where he differs from Fai is that unlike the Draconic Ninja who would mostly use this free blue for pitching, Zen can actually play it for the purposes of transcending as well. Getting your Inner Chi live is the most crucial first step of your gameplan, as all you need is one in deck in order for your Traverse the Universe to fetch it back for a power turn.

Iyslander, Stormbind

Those cards aren't the only thing that needs sleeving. Pack some warm winter clothes because our premium disruption deck will definitely be out in force. With the recent unrestricting of Channel Lake Frigid, Iyslander now has the tools necessary to stop aggro decks in their tracks. While she does have a rough day at the office whenever Prism comes into work, Iyslander has a really consistent and potent gameplan for the discerning control players out there. Hypothermia and Warmonger's Diplomacy are restricted for a reason, so if you draw into these, often it can be game-winning to immediately slap them in arsenal and wait for just the right moment to shatter your opponent's dreams.

As a Wizard, Iyslander also comes with an interesting array of tech choices, one of the most popular being Scour. This card allows you to put Chane back to square one by destroying his Soul Shackles, wipe out an avalanche of Seismic Surge tokens created by Awakening, and clean up Prism's blue auras. A full package of Insidious Chill, Amulet of Ice, Frost Hex, and Ice Eternal gives you a ticket to beating slower blue-heavy control decks with high amounts of arcane protection, and of course, you can't go wrong with some classic Generic attacks like Wounded Bull.