Primed to Fight: Pro Quest: Singapore

Prepare for Pro Quest: Singapore with Primed to Fight—a series where we break down two different viable Classic Constructed decklists, their matchups, and sideboard options. Sleeve up, get reps, and secure your victory!

Flesh and Blood’s sixth Pro Tour has reached its conclusion with an explosive finish, taken home by none other than the very first Pro Tour Champion, Pablo Pintor! No rest is spared for the wicked, however, and we have begun qualifying events for the next Pro Tour in Singapore!

Be it the best deck, something looking to target the big meta players, or even just a list excited to shine in a field freed from the reign of Mystic Illusionists and Mystic Ninjas, it’s time to sleeve up a deck for your local Pro Quest and get in there!

Aurora, Shooting Star

Aurora, Shooting Star is one of a few claimants to the vaunted title of “best deck in format”, and for good reason. She’s an explosive and consistent aggressive hero with plenty of flexibility in her card pool that grants her myriad ways to solve any problem you throw at her.

Let's break down the Aurora list myself, Yuki Lee Bender, Justin Cu, and a few others collaborated on and took to Pro Tour: London.

The Core

Aurora has a strong identity as an aggressive hero, defined by some foundational cards that shape and supplement her proactive gameplan. Her key pieces include Arc Lightning, a powerful specialization that helps smooth out turns by lending you extra action points as well as some split damage on top of that, as well as pairing quite nicely with Skyward Serenade.

A new piece from the Armory Deck, Skyward Serenade helps you get the maximum amount of value out of your Arc Lightning turns by generating arcane damage in two parts—first when you sing to find your Skyzyk, and second when you send it with go again at your opponent.

Her Lightning talent suite is filled out from there by Lightning Surge, an incredibly reliable ‘0-for-4’ attack that gets go again if it surges out of the arsenal.

Flittering Charge and Gone In a Flash are also essential parts of her kit, paying her out for leveraging access to powerful Lightning instants in unique ways.

Perhaps the most important reason to be Aurora, however, is access to Channel Lightning Valley, a card I affectionately refer to as ‘a tome in a post-tome world’. The ability to set yourself up to draw extra cards is already incredibly powerful, and Channel looms heavily over your opponent the entire game, forcing them to question if a card in your hand is this powerful instant while considering all blocking decisions.

It also touts incredible synergy with a new piece of equipment, Zap Clappers, and a classic Runeblade toy, Sigil of Suffering—both cards allowing you to do your best Victor Goldmane impression and draw cards while blocking.

A good Lightning Runeblade never leaves the house without her trusty generic staples, and Enlightened Strike, Snatch, and Ravenous Rabble are no exceptions. These cards have a real deckbuilding cost in not being Lightning, and therefore not getting your Star Fall online, and each one has a strong reason to justify its inclusion in spite of that.

Ravenous Rabble is the most efficient unconditional source of go again in Aurora’s card pool, helping you convert your hand every time you draw it in exchange for a bit of volatility in its output.

Enlightened Strike is one of the most flexible Flesh and Blood cards of all time and the strongest heroes in the game are the ones capable of happily making use of all 3 modes. Go again and +2 power both help you get all your cards on the table in an efficient manner, but Aurora truly shines with this card by using her hero ability or the aforementioned Arc Lightning to give this card go again while drawing to replace the card given up to its additional cost.

Snatch is one of the most brutal combat chain-ending attacks in Flesh and Blood history, and perhaps nobody leverages it quite like Lightning heroes. Embodiment of Lightning giving you the ability to repeatedly give Snatch go again makes it one of the most threatening on-hit effects in the format, promising a crushing tide of extra damage if your opponent doesn’t block—and they best have a plan for your Lightning Press, too.

The Equipment

Above all else, Face Purgatory stands tall as an exceptional piece in the Runeblade wardrobe, capable of punishing greedy or irresponsibly planned offense while allowing you to replace your blocking cards. This card used to be a bit too much of an ask for Aurora to make use of, but the Armory Deck gave us access to a bit of extra flexibility in that regard with Skyward Serenade and Written in the Stars both being non-attack actions she’s quite pleased to block with.

Grasp of the Arknight is an incredibly trusty workhorse piece of equipment, but Aurora’s signature gloves, Zap Clappers allow her to punish other aggressive heroes who may not present arcane barrier, or don’t frequently have the resources to stop a point of arcane damage coming across on their turn. Blocking 2 and dealing 1 is fantastic, but what truly shocks the opponent is Channel Lightning Valley ambushing them in conjunction with a Zap Clappers block.

Star Fall is an incredibly powerful weapon, but Runeblade is far from starved for choice when it comes to powerful weapons. Reaping Blade is a tried and true member of the Runeblade entourage, and it serves an important purpose for the Shooting Star. Allowing you to leverage a Fyendal's Spring Tunic resource for 3 whole damage in matchups where a fair bit of blocking can grind certain heroes out of the game (like into other Auroras), as well as dealing extra ‘deck damage’ to heroes that go into the matchup planning to fatigue you.

Where Nuu and Jarl might have previously succeeded, they can instead find themselves running out of cards first on account of the crushing long-game value mustered by a sword that threatens three damage—without requiring you to play a Lightning card, either.

The Sideboard

Aurora has access to plenty of silver-bullet solutions to heroes planning to target her, and knowing how and when to use them is half the battle. Command and Conquer is a card that has perhaps never been stronger than it is right now.

As the meta shifts to combat Aurora with extra 4-defense reactions, Command and Conquer presents the ultimate blowout—punishing reaction-heavy hands with a devastating on-hit, and all it asks you to do is run a couple of extra blues to support it. Many decks wish to protect a card in the arsenal until something lines up, and use a large package of defense reactions to do so.

In a similar vein, Exude Confidence really shines in the current field, allowing you to shut down reacts for an entire combat chain if lined up—as well as stifling Quickdodge Flexors.

A good Aurora deck is no stranger to blocking surprisingly well thanks to Electromagnetic Somersault, and her ability to comfortably run a few defense reactions supplements that. Sink Below is the ultimate defensive piece for proactive decks, allowing you to both fix your hand for your own turn as well as shut down meaningful 4-power hits with just one card.

Flicker Wisp is Aurora’s ultimate out to decks attempting to slow the game down too much. Unimpressive alone, when combined with Arc Lightning, Flicker Wisp creates an onslaught of arcane damage few decks can hope to deal with reasonably. Pushing through a huge amount of nearly-unblockable damage with this card helps her get over the hump of heroes looking to run her out of gas by dragging a game out.

The Opponents

Aurora is a fantastic and flexible pick capable of winning just about anything you throw at her, but being the best deck around also means that people are going to look to target you. Vynnset, Iron Maiden looks to shut Aurora out with plentiful defense reactions like Reduce to Runechant, and uses powerful Rune Gate attacks to send devastating small hands.

Vynnset is remarkably exploitable however, and if you’re willing to exhibit some patience, the Iron Maiden may just crumple before you. Bringing in 3 extra blues from the sideboard, all of your defense reactions, and presenting your Reaping Blade allows you to simply block and arcane barrier everything Vynnset sends at you, essentially forcing her to overcome her own Blood Debt clock. And, since you still have plentiful go again in your deck, if she ever decides to try and set up, you can easily punish her with upwards of 12 damage to force her onto the back foot.

Who better to prepare for as Aurora than Aurora? The mirror is a plenty common matchup you’ll face as this hero and this list contains my favorite approach to the matchup to date.

Six whole defense reactions in combination with Reaping Blade and Command and Conquer affords you a considerably higher agency approach to the matchup, letting you block out their nastier turns and still send back some real damage on small hands (0-for-4 with go again into a Reaping Blade swing that Tunic paid for is an incredible feeling) in a matchup that can otherwise be heavily influenced by the draw.

Zap Clappers also forces your opponent to play around it with spare resources all game, or risk being blown out by a sudden 6 card hand, thanks to Channel Lightning Valley.

Perhaps taking the ‘best deck’ isn’t exactly your style, but you still want a deck that can win your local Pro Quest. It takes a specific set of tools to be able to attack the top of the metagame without falling into the sights of other predators, but now and then someone perfect for the job comes along...

Arakni, 5L!p3d 7hRu 7h3 cR4X

Arakni, 5L!p3d 7hRu 7h3 cR4X has all the constituent parts to be a perfect predator for what’s at the top of the metagame right now. They’re disruptive, capable of sidestepping ways in which the opponent attempts to prepare for you, and perhaps above all else, they’re also just quite efficient in their own right.

Every Assassin has their own gimmick and set of tools, and what makes Slippy so attractive as a Pro Quest choice is their ability to leverage a ton of free action points thanks to their hero ability giving your first stealth attack each turn go again, which puts all the agency in the Assassin player’s hands against top decks like Aurora or Florian.

Aggressive heroes are often unprepared to deal with Bonds of Agony with go again, and grindier decks will find themselves struggling with Slippy's ability to draw multiple cards through smart usage of Mask of Perdition with Art of Desire: Body or Savor Bloodshed.

How to Win

Slippy provides a considerably more straightforward approach to assassinating your opponents—many heroes of the class win through fatigue, but Slippy's goal is damage. The hero often relies on a play pattern of leading with something that may or may not be punishing, and following it up with something that’s certain to—forcing you to choose between taking damage to see what’s next, or gambling that the followup won’t be worse than the first attack.

Kiss of Death’s synergy with Flick Knives allows them to present a fast clock while still managing to disrupt you plenty thanks to Hunter’s Klaive’s hit trigger, making it easy to run cards like Mark of the Black Widow and Take Up the Mantle.

Infiltrate is another incredible piece in a suite of cards promising punishing on-hits, often allowing Slippy to punish aggressive and defensive heroes alike by stealing the top of their deck and using it against them—whether it’s a 0-for-4 attack or a 0-for-4 defense reaction. Pain in the Backside also has an important role to fill, in terms of being innate go again that will also mark your opponent with Hunter's Klaive should it connect, teeing up another opportunity to come in with disruption.

There’s also a powerful retrieve subtheme in this deck, headed off by Up Sticks and Run, a card that not only makes it easy to get flicked Hunter’s Klaives back on board, but is also capable of buffing your Kiss of Death to a whopping 7-power.

Alongside that, Orb-Weaver Spinneret is a touch of pseudo-retrieve and will fill your empty dagger slots with Graphene Chelicerae. These token daggers not only get go again for free thanks to Slippy's ability, but also carry Tarantula Toxin well and are exceptional targets for your Flick Knives.

On top of all that, this hero has access to the powerful Codex of Frailty, letting you punish greedy plays and open arsenals with a loss of multiple cards in conjunction with the Assassin staple Leave No Witnesses.

The Sideboard

Slippy's sideboard makes some concessions in terms of deck space. Committing three slots to the anti-arcane Widow armor from Rosetta and four slots to different head pieces makes it tough to fit too many in-deck sideboard options, so priority is high on what you want to attack.

Shred needs to leave the deck against aggressive decks that aren’t consistently interested in blocking against you, and That All You Got? presents an excellent answer to Aurora's signature weapon, allowing the Chaos Assassin to cover it up without losing any tempo.

Pick to Pieces is a great answer to ward permanents and prevention cards like Seeds of Tomorrow, Mental Block, and Oasis Respite alike, getting both extra damage in and becoming unpreventable all for the low cost of playing one attack reaction.

Sink Below and Command and Conquer are both present in this deck as well, a reflection of the metagame we exist in. Command and Conquer helps you punish greedy decks like Assassin loves to, and Sink Below does the same in the opposite direction, insulating you from some of the worst damage heroes like Aurora are capable of sending your way.

Crown of Providence does a fantastic job saving your arsenal from Guardians and other Assassins, as well as preserving your tempo against Enigma where breaking up her board is paramount to staying alive.

Mask of Deceit lives up to its name, sneakily changing your hero’s text box in the Assassin mirror to deny other Assassins go again on stealth attacks, a nasty pitfall for anyone trying to leverage your own hero ability against you.

Finally, Mask of Perdition is both a recursive piece of armor against aggressive decks, accelerates the rate at which their deck is emptied out, and has a fantastic draw-multiple synergy with Art of Desire: Body.

Hunter or Hunted

Arakni, 5L!p3d 7hRu 7h3 cR4X is very much a hero that you take to target a few specific matchups, and has some real weaknesses. This hero is hoping in particular to sit across from everyone’s favorite Lightning hero, Aurora.

Against Aurora, Slippy's highest priority is to leverage meaningful on-hits to either gain massive swings in value or harass her off of her strongest turns. Obviously, powerful cards like Codex of Frailty and ways to threaten their arsenal are paramount, but there’s some texture to this matchup that’s a bit less apparent.

Infiltrate truly shines as a must-block 1-card hand, threatening the Shooting Star with one of her own signature 0-for-4 cards off the top of her deck—with the capacity for things to get much worse, should Slippy find Lightning Press or Arc Lightning.

Aim to keep your life total at a reasonable number, but don’t fight too hard over Aurora’s Channel Lightning Valley. Your goal is to limit their options, hit them hard and fast, and put them in a position where they quickly find themselves forced to block your attacks.

What hunts the hunter? An endless winter—Jarl Vetreiði stands tall as a bulwark of defensive power capable of staunchly denying Slippy's ability to get anything going. Just playing out your hands as you draw them won’t get you far against the Elemental Guardian, so winning this one requires some setup, and a little bit of luck.

You’ll need to line up powerful interactions that can go over blocks like Kiss of Death in conjunction with Tarantula Toxin and/or Savor Bloodshed, or to make use of Take Up the Mantle to send an absolutely massive Bonds of Agony that’s bigger than anything the great Jarl can deal with.

Persistence is the key, and a good Assassin would do well to keep note as the game drags on of what threats they still have to line up undeniable turns and get over fatigue.

At the heart of building a deck for your Pro Quest, and for any other event, is a drive to experiment and succeed, and anything from the best deck in the room to a rogue deck looking to target the big dogs can really show that.

The most heartfelt advice I can give is to always explore your ideas, even in the face of being told not to. The worst case scenario is you learn why cards are and aren’t played, and the ideal outcome is you crack a hero or metagame wide open.

Test once, and test again! Deckbuilding is the heart and soul of any competitive TCG and learning to engage with it on your own terms is a kindness all players should learn to afford themselves. Playing decks from others helps you learn, develop, and affirm common knowledge while learning the ins and outs of different matchups in a metagame.

Enough reps and experimentation, and you may just build the next event-defining list—but first, it’s time to get ready and take home the trophy from your local Pro Quest: Singapore!