Metagame Minute: Skirmish Season 9, Week 3

We've reached the end of Skirmish Season 9, and I think I speak for everyone when I say it was a Wild Ride. Another hero says their goodbyes in Blitz format this week, meanwhile Zen gets one last run in Living Legend format before he... you know... gets taken out behind the shed.

It's been another diverse weekend for Blitz, with a whopping 26 different faces on the board. Some big names have been toppled, and the key heroes we highlighted such as Blaze, Rhinar, and Victor, have all stepped up to the table. While Rhinar's finished his meal, we expect Blaze and Victor to continue reigning as the top dogs moving forward. But a huge amount of aggression has now departed Blitz, which means there's quite a wide window of opportunity for some niche strategies to bubble up to the surface. We'll only know for sure when we revisit Blitz in Skirmish Season 10 later this year.

Zen's back on top in Living Legend format this week, a nice last little treat before we send him on his merry way. With the Mystic Ninja reined in, it's hard to tell who will have the muscle to take out Prism. The Light Illusionist has had an amazing season and will probably continue to flatten her enemies under piles of auras for the foreseeable future. Maybe it's time for the Draconic gamers to form an Uprising?

Let's take a look at decks from each format that are hot to the touch...

Blaze of Glory

Hot out the gate, Blaze, Firemind has filled those instant speed shoes that Kano left behind. Now that even more copies of this hero have been handed out, Blaze is looking like the new arcane slinger on the block. Whether she keeps her position after the two new Wizards from Rosetta enter the fold remains to be seen, but moving forward she'll definitely be a threat to keep in the front of your mind. Her synergy with cards that opt not only allows her to close out games out of nowhere, it lets her dig through her deck at rapid speed while setting up those nasty kill combos.

While she may not be as immediately ballistic as Kano, not having to rely on the top of her deck opens up many opportunities for tech that Kano could never risk playing. Blaze can safely survive just a little bit longer with the use of defense reactions, one spicy callback to Arcane Rising being Absorb in Aether, which can threaten some serious endgame juice. And of course many builds are running the classic single copy of Nourishing Emptiness as the only attack action in the deck.

Red Red Redemption

Zen's going to be taking a back seat in Living Legend, which shifts eyes over to two of our friends from Monarch. Chane and Prism have both put in serious work this season, and now we face an interesting crossroads. Will they dominate the format unopposed? Or will Team Volcor rise up to knock them down a peg or two? Fai certainly has game into both these heroes, but Dromai can't be overlooked either. She's held onto a small but significant piece of the pie over the last few weeks, and as any Prism player will tell you, her dragons feast on Spectral Shields. If she can throw out redline attacks fast enough to kill Chane before either of his swords take over the game, Dromai will be in a strong spot moving forward.

There's a lot you can do with dragons, either by sending them out as if they were attack actions (which also forces your opponent to attack them instead of you), or you can set up nifty board states that can be impossible for some heroes to deal with. Depending on how the Living Legend metagame shapes up in late 2024, I expect we will start to see quite a few leathery wings reddening the skies come Skirmish Season 10. With Wizard getting a whole bunch of goodies, Armory Deck: Dash hitting shelves, and even a new dust for Ouvia, it might be time to reopen the petting zoo.

And that's a wrap on Skirmish Season 9! Fantastic performances by several heroes in Blitz, and fans reunited with classic favourites in the first seasonal Organised Play debut of Living Legend. We were stoked to see so many fresh faces rocking up to give it their best and we hope you all had a blast! Now it's time to tuck into Rosetta season, and the fruitful future it promises...