More Than You Imagined

The world of Rathe is mostly a place of humanlike people, creatures, the environment, and stories as large as the limits of the imagination. All these things sound very sensible and close to the reality we are familiar with.

I always believed a fantasy game needs more than reality. It needs fantastical elements beyond what we or the people of Rathe know to exist. Things that exist only in our mind’s eye. Fantasy needs Angels amongst other things.

Flesh and Blood is designed to primarily be a hero vs hero combat game. I wanted to bring Angels into the game in a way that didn’t outshine the heroes themselves, and made sense relative to the power level of human based hero combat. We needed a class that could turn imagination into reality.

The Great Library of Solana

The Great Library of Solana is a very significant landmark in the world of Rathe, a beacon of knowledge drawing people from across the land. Prism grew up in the library under the stewardship of The Librarian. She read and read and read, and being young and curious, was eager to know what books lay under the thick blankets of dust in the farthest corners of the library. She discovered a tome that contained a long forgotten fable of the Heralds of Sol, eight powerful Angels that protected the eight gates of Solana in times of greatest need.

As Prism’s knowledge of the heralds took flight, the arc light within Luminaris, a relic she had carried with her since birth, illuminated. Her ability to manifest the heralds as arc light illusions was revealed.

Sekem, the Herald of Ravages, is one such Angel Prism is able to sculpt. All eight heralds are powerful, as seen by them having over curved power plus hit effects, but remember they are not real. When illusion runs into reality, it ceases to exist. This is the design intent of the phantasm mechanic.

Changing the Reality of Gameplay

Next week the Comprehensive Rules will be published, along with the Monarch Release Notes, and updates to the Tournament Rules and Policy (including distinguishable cards, such as “slabbed” equipment, and randomly selecting cards from a graveyard).

With the release of the Comprehensive Rules, we are making a small change to the rules effective April 30 (Monarch Pre-release weekend). Players will now get priority during the defending step after the defending player has declared defending cards (if any).

This change is most relevant for the phantasm mechanic, which triggers during the defend step, and can be interacted with using instant speed cards/effects such as Blinding Beam.

For a phantasm attack to “pop”, the condition of the defending card having “6 or more power” must be true when the phantasm effect triggers and when it resolves. Therefore, you can respond to the phantasm trigger by playing Blinding Beam to reduce a defending card’s power to less than 6, which will prevent your Illusion attack from being destroyed.

There is another card in Monarch, called Exude Confidence, which this rules change supports. I’m confident Exude Confidence will be the subject of more rules questions than most Flesh and Blood cards, however that’s an article for another day.

Go again

It’s important to note that when an attack has go again, the attacking player gets an action point back when the chain link resolves. If an attack is destroyed before chain link resolution (ie. because of phantasm) the attacking player will not get an action point back.

The same is true for spectra. For what?

Prism is able to sculpt fantastical arc light spectras that confuse, confound, and combat bewildered opponents.

Prism’s spectras are powerful illusions that reshape the reality of the arena. However, a single touch is all it takes to “pop” the illusion. To capture this feeling, we designed spectras so they can be attacked.

Similar to phantasm, when a spectra is attacked, the chain link does not resolve, therefore an attack with go again will not give the attacking player an action point back.

Prism is very good at playing the game at instant speed. Just when your opponent thinks they have a good read on reality, Prism will conjure her arc light to throw them in a loop.

More Than You Ever Imagined

I hope you enjoy sculpting powerful arc light Angels, and discovering some of the other secrets that lay within the dust covered shelves of the Great Library.

Blitz Deck Prism

Play Prism straight out of the box with Monarch Blitz Decks releasing May 7 ( MSRP 11.99 USD / 11.99 EUR / 19.99 AUD / 19.99 NZD)