Metagame Minute: Skirmish Season 10, Week 1

Welcome to Metagame Minute, where we tuck into the latest tournament results and discuss tasty trends, saucy highlights, and spicy decklists - all wrapped up in a bite-sized read!

Love a good Skirmish at the end of the year. Getting together with your mates for some casual gaming, whether it's Blitz, Living Legend, or Rosetta Sealed Deck. Some pretty mint prizes up for grabs this time round too, Cold Foil Terra and his hammer to boot!

The Blitz metagame is more diverse than ever, with a whopping 27 different heroes claiming wins this week. Seven different classes represented in the top eight heroes, with Brute being the one to double down. Aurora is this week's queen of the hill, followed by the five heroes we expected would be top performers in this Skirmish Blitz Guide. If you told me three years ago Data Doll would be a top contender I would have filed a restraining order against you.

In the Living Legend circle we have the lead actor himself reprising his role in his long-awaited sequel (after a year of being reduced to cameo fan-bait in the Living Legend Cinematic Universe). Starvo has graced centre stage once more, and all throughout Rathe we feel the biting winds, trembling ground, and sound of thunder from his mighty comeback. Zen's there too, but in a fairer capacity due to Bonds of Ancestry being restricted to 1 copy.

Today let's take a look at a fringe hero from each format who landed on the board multiple times, and although low in numbers, are worth watching out for.

Count Your ̶B̶l̶e̶s̶s̶i̶n̶g̶s̶ Duskblades

Fresh from 2nd place at Battle Hardened: Osaka with Count Your Blessings Oldhim, Japanese National Champion Xavier McLean has switched teams, taking Chane into battle to counter the strategy he himself popularised. Chane has picked up some excellent tools from Rosetta, from the Legendary Face Purgatory, Majestics such as Succumb to Temptation, Snuff Out, and Machinations of Dominion, to even above-rate commons like Hit the High Notes.

One nifty little trick this deck is packing is Eloquent Eulogy and Requiem for the Damned, making an Eloquence token in order to play Tome of Fyendal for monster hands and free life to boot! Eloquent Eulogy can easily be enabled by Grasp of the Arknight and Funeral Moon. Spellbound Creepers also offers a great value play on the defensive, by allowing you to defend with an attack action card then refresh your hand and heal up.

On a Roll

You know what they say -- 99% of gamblers quit before they win big. While the one-armed iteration of Kayo has seen more success this week, we can't ignore the OG runt who landed on the board 4 times! All the cooking in the world can't save you from Bad Beats, but in Skirmish sometimes you just gotta forget the fear and go all in! It's impossible to argue with Ten Foot Tall and Bulletproof if Kayo hits a 5 or 6 and domes you for 20! But on a bad roll, that's uh... let's not talk about that.

I'm a big fan of Freewheeling Renegades in this deck, as a 1-cost 6-power where its effect doesn't really matter regardless of how you roll. a 1-cost 10-power is obviously insane, and if its attack is halved then it doesn't make a difference if your opponent defends or not. This deck is also running Truce, which I can only assume allows you to start your action phase with a 5-card hand and abuse the likes of Bloodrush Bellow and Savage Sash. Lastly, it's packing not one, not two, but FOUR Pummels just to catch the opponent off guard when they think you're just sending a lowly 3-power at them.

There's some wild stuff going down at gaming tables this Skirmish, so if there's any crazy decks you've been wanting to try out, now is definitely the time! Get it out of your system, get down to your local game store, and show 'em That's Not All You Got!