Pablo Pintor Espinosa, Spain: Pro Tour New Jersey Champion
Are you feeling any additional pressure on you for Pro Tour Lille being the (first ever) Pro Tour New Jersey Champion?
Not really. I believe setting realistic goals for these kind of big events is important and it's worth keeping in mind, to not be disappointed if you don´t get an awesome result. I had my idea of what would be a good showing in the first Pro Tour and it´s the same exact one heading into Lille! That being said, having won Pro Tour New Jersey does put me in the spotlight, and I wouldn´t want to disappoint people, but don´t expect me to do impossible things!!!
Can you tell us a little about your Local Games Store and the Madrid and Spanish Flesh and Blood community?
Sadly, my town doesn´t have an LGS and we have to travel to Madrid (which is fairly time consuming), so we can´t go as much as we would like, but the effort always pays off because our community is great! We mainly go to Azkaban Juegos, which was the first LGS to support Flesh and Blood in Spain and also Padis, which has been our main LGS for many many years when we used to play other games, and where we developed our card game skills! Thanks to the ProQuest seasons, we traveled a lot around Spain and visited many other LGS and met other playgroups all across the country. The experience has been great! We have one big, welcoming community, with many new Local Game Stores showing up and supporting the game in new places. Things are looking great for Flesh and Blood in Spain.
Now that Chane’s gone, do you have your eyes on any particular hero in an attempt to take home a second trophy?
This is a tricky question! The meta seems really diverse right now, with a lot of decks being competitive options for Pro Tour Lille. Even my beloved Bravo has made a reappearance, but it has also made testing much more difficult! My team, The Sunflower Samurai, will have a big, week long bootcamp right before the Pro Tour (we rented a house, and will even have a pool to try to survive this European heat wave!), so I will have to answer this question after that. I'd say that Fai is much better than people think he is, even after the Stubby Ban!
Pedro Canali, France: Professional TCG Player
Which heroes are the key ones to be testing against in the new meta?
The new meta seems amazing! Prism is living out her last moments as a top tier deck before a well deserved retirement.
Fai, Briar, Dash and Viserai are the fastest heroes right now and Oldhim and Bravo seem to be very good strategies in the meta. Lexi is also a viable hero.
I can't wait to see this incredible metagame at Pro Tour Lille!
What are your first impressions of Dynasty?
I am looking forward to it. I know LSS is amazing at shattering our expectations and often surprises us with some unexpected mechanics and classes.
I'm hoping for a Necromancer class, and later on, more Shadow heroes. :)
What should the world know about the competitive French Flesh and Blood community?
France picked up the game very late, but we picked it well!
French players are so excited about the game and we have prepared a surprise at the Pro Tour and Calling! It will be awesome.
Players are starting to get a lot better and will have a sharper, more professional approach to preparation for these kind of events.
Also, hundreds of new players are starting to get into Flesh and Blood every month since the localisation.
The game is growing more than ever and it is pretty exciting!
Ethan Van Sant, United States: Professional Content Creator
Who are you playtesting with in the lead into Pro Tour Lille? Have you got any next level tech for the PT?
I am fortunate to be staying with some all star players in the week leading up to the Pro Tour; shoutout to Brodie Spurlock, Michael Feng, and Yuanji Li to name a few! While the breadth of my practice will have to come from that week of grinding, I have always been all aboard the Levia train, and this Pro Tour is no different. For once, the meta feels like Levia is not inherently countered by one of the top dogs of the format, so I'll be relying on my experience with the hero to bring home the bread even when faced with a difficult matchup. Speaking of difficult matchups, my biggest fear this event is Bravo, Showstopper. As a legacy hero, he has pilots that know the deck with 3 years+ of experience- even more than me with Levia! He requires special consideration when deckbuilding, and I'll definitely be bringing the tech to bring him down.
How was your Road to Nationals season? What were the highlights?
Yeah, I had an 85% win rate (17-3) on Levia this season at RtNs. Two 2nd places and a 1st- just let me brag about it, ok? The Shadow Queen loves the spotlight.
I was able to play multiple versions of Blood Debt-heavy Mandible Claw Levia to great success, which is normally a deck that has its downfall due to the glass cannon playstyle that Blood Debt forces. I think the main difference for this season compared to the last, was two main things: namely, I have just improved as a player. This June marked one year since I started playing, and it's been a lot of hard lessons with Levia game after game, all for hopefully some greater payoff (Fangs A Lot when???). Secondly, Crown of Providence was the linchpin card Levia needed to smooth out her inconsistencies. In every game I've played with it, I felt like it was the direct reason I overcame a point where I previously would have lost to a clunky draw. All red cards, the inability to turn off Blood Debt, too many non-block cards, etc. Forget Hope Merchant's Hood, Arcanite Skullcap, or Ebon Fold. This is the new must have, and I'm after it in Gold Foil.
What are your thoughts on the Commoner format?
I haven't had much experience since the Ball Lightning bans, but it's definitely a deeper format than people give it credit for. Wacky brews like "Battlemage Kano" or "Talishar Levia" are still playing on relatively even playing fields, you just need to have built an actual win condition into your deck, not just vanilla value. My sleeper pick for Commoner right now is actually Dromai, sorry Levia. I've had a lot of fun using her defensive tools and Phantasm attacks to just be a high value deck that closes with Aether Ashwing going too wide to handle. No big fancy dragons? No problem!
Yuki Lee Bender, Canada: 2021 Canada National Champion
Which region of Rathe do you think will have the most success at Lille? (Solana, Volcor, Aria etc)
I would guess Aria will be the most successful because I think Briar, Bravo, Oldhim and Iyslander all seem like competitive choices depending on what heroes show up in force at Lille. Lexi is also a personal favourite of mine from Aria and even though I personally don't believe her to be the best choice currently, I will still be cheering for anyone who does decide to bring her. Honorable mentions go to Solana and Demonastery who have strong representatives in Prism and Viserai respectively that could easily take down the entire event as well.
How was your Skirmish Season 5? What were the highlights?
I played Iyslander at a local Blitz Skirmish and ended up winning the event with Nghia Tran's winning list from Battle Hardened Toronto. I really enjoyed the gameplay of the deck because the games quite consistently last several turns which is not the case for most Blitz decks. It also reminded me of playing Ice Lexi because you get to control the tempo of the game a lot, which was very fun and interesting for me, although my opponents may not have felt the same way =).
Unfortunately, I won't participate in any other Skirmish events as I will be leaving for Europe in about a week from the time of writing and intend to go to Battle Hardened Portland. In particular I'm quite sad to be missing my local sealed Skirmish as limited is my favourite Flesh and Blood format.
Are there any particular players who you’d like to face off against at Pro Tour Lille? (or any you’d like to avoid?)
There are so many amazing players from across the world I have not yet had the chance to face off against and would love to have the opportunity to play against in Lille. This includes big names like Matt Rogers, Hayden Dale, Pablo Pintor and so many more that I could not possibly list them all. There are plenty of players I would be happy to have a rematch with as well, however meeting and playing Flesh and Blood with new people is always a big highlight for me at these type of events.
I'm hoping to avoid playing my fellow Canadian players at Pro Tour Lille since I would love to see my country do well at the event, although playing some of them may be unavoidable.
Sebastian Grøndal, Denmark: 2022 European Champions' Battle and Battle Hardened Krakow Winner
How does the Stubby Hammerers ban affect Classic Constructed for Pro Tour Lille?
It makes Fai way less potent in the matchups where your aim is to race your opponent. At Utrecht I liked running into Runeblades; it seemed that Fai consistently outraced them with his combo turn, however, without the 7 or so damage from the Stubbies, I think Runeblades once again possess the superior racing tools (Channel Mount Heroic and Mordred Tide). Having said that, I still think Fai is a strong option. He just needs a refreshed build utilizing other aspects of his card pool, rather than the Stubbies OTK variant. If you solve this: the Runeblade problem, I think you'll have a very strong deck on your hands.
How do you think the Flesh and Blood scene and metagame might differ from Denmark to the rest of the world?
In general I think the Danish community is very casual and down to earth. We have good players, dedicated players, though generally not any hardcore grinders (Søren Madsen being the exception). I am not sure what this will mean for the Danish representation at Pro Tour Lille; will our 'laziness' catch up to us (definitely looking at myself here), or will our 'talent' be enough to make up for it?
What are some key things that you took away from your European Champions' Battle win that you’ve been applying in your preparations for Pro Tour Lille?
I don't think the most important experience happened in the Euro Champs tournament, but instead in the Calling day two. I entered that day two draft with a 7-0 record and had to perform only decently to make it into the top 8. I ended up drafting Iyslander in a pod with two Iyslanders in total, sitting in the right spot, getting good cards. Somehow though, everything still ended up crumbling into an 0-3 record which, despite me making it through the last two Classic Constructed rounds with wins, still placed me outside top 8 on tie breakers. I still think about this experience and try to figure out even the smallest things I could have done to salvage a percentage point or two during the draft and my three matches. I definitely think I low-rolled during the three games, but it's a card game and that happens to everybody, so even though I can recognize the unfortunate draws and first/second die rolls, it doesn't really help me to get better. Finding small advantages through: card-evaluations, understanding the three hero matchups, as well as small gameplay judgement calls, are what I need to ask myself about. If I gave up even one percentage somewhere along the road, that percentage is on me, and it is my job to pick it up for next time.
Christian Hauck, Germany: 2021 German National Champion
What are your thoughts on the split Draft and Classic Constructed format?
When people ask me about tournament formats I always tell them that the Draft and Classic Constructed split format is my absolute favourite.
I love that you have to combine different skillsets to be successful, and as much as I like playing Classic Constructed, I am a Limited player at heart, it's not only the most fun format, it's also to best choice for a high level tournament like Pro Tour Lille.
What are your thoughts on the recent increase in popularity of the Belittle/Minnowism package?
Belittle/Minnowism has always been a very strong tool, but was under the radar because of the high power level of cards and heroes which were prominent at the time, that have since become Living Legends or got banned. The package speaks for itself if you think about the raw cost to power ratios of the cards which come at a very low cost and whose conditions are easily met.
That being said, I expect the popularity of the package to drop off a bit as the choice of decks it goes well into is very limited.
Last time we spoke, you said that Dromai appealed to you the most out of the three new Uprising heroes. What are your thoughts on her position in the metagame?
How things can change! Dromai appealed to me at first but after playing with her a bit, it's just not my playstyle and certainly not a hero I would love to pick up, myself. While showing some decent results, I think it's hard to predict were Dromai might end up in the metagame. It feels like anything is possible as the hero is still unexplored.
Hayden Dale, Australia: 2019 Calling Sydney Champion and 2021 Australia National Champion
Who do you think some of the biggest threats out there are?
The Europeans are on home turf so you can't look past some of the top players who have been putting up the results, like Pablo Pintor Espinosa and Maciej Janik. Outside of the EU I have to back two of the people I have been working with this season in Sasha Markovic and Brendan Patrick. Sasha going for the back to back Pro Tour Top 8s!
Is there anything you learnt from your experiences at Pro Tour New Jersey that you’re looking to apply in Lille?
Look for the off beat options. You can succeed with off-meta decks if you have a good reason to play them and a focused meta to target. What that means for me personally in Lille, I'm not sure yet, but I'm looking for something spicy!
Do you think there is any over/underrepresentation of any heroes in the current metagame?
Prism springs to mind for overrepresentation, but the Light Illusionist's results in the last two weeks of the Road to Nationals season seem to justify her continued popularity. Prism is certainly powerful. In terms of underrepresented, I'd say Lexi or Iyslander perhaps.
Matt Rogers, New Zealand: 2020 New Zealand National Champion and 2021 Calling Auckland Champion
If you could choose to be one of Dromai's dragons who would you be and why?
I would be Kyloria, the golden dragon amassing all the nice shiny items. :P
What would winning the second ever Flesh and Blood Pro Tour mean to you?
Winning the Pro Tour would be a dream come true in its truest sense. I have tasted victory at Nationals and The Calling, and a Pro Tour championship is the next step. It would be seeing all the hard work that my team and I have put in pay off, and a deep sense of accomplishment pitting my skill and talent against the best and coming out on top.
Who are some talented players whose names the world may not have heard of yet?
My teammate Nick Butcher has had little opportunity to make a name for himself with Australia having so few large events and so many cancellations due to COVID restrictions, I feel this is his time to shine. Dirk Crasto from NZ is a man wanting to make a name for himself. I played on a teams Pro Tour with Dirk in the past and he has had the fire for a long time. Looking forward to seeing him light it up!
Joel Repta from Canada who finished in second place at The Calling Orlando is testing with Team Dragon Shield this event and I can't wait to see him come out swinging at ProTour Lille too. There are many many more, so I am phizzing to see more amazing players break out on the big stage!