We're pleased to welcome back Drew Cordell as a guest writer for the second season of ProQuest! This week, Drew brings you the full retrospective on the metagame this ProQuest season; we'd like to thank him for all of his hard work on this series.
Welcome to my fourth and final article this season! I’ll be wrapping up the last week of ProQuest Season Two and giving you some insights into the meta heading into Uprising’s release. Then, as an added bonus we’ll dive into some of the spoilers from Uprising and talk about some of the most exciting cards coming up in the set and how they may help define strategies. Without further ado, let’s jump in!
Bravo, Star of the Show continued his winning streak heading into the fourth and final week of ProQuest Season Two, dominating the field and securing the highest percentage of overall wins. During the overall season, players all over the world used Bravo, Star of the Show to win 112 total events. Chane, taking the next most wins for individual secured 78 overall wins, and Prism followed in third place, claiming 56 overall victories.
Week four of ProQuest was a culmination of all the previous events in the first three weeks. The meta continued with the same momentum and direction, with Bravo, Star of the Show and Chane holding up strong individual portions of the overall meta and the remainder of the lesser contenders of the format gradually whittling away at Prism’s meta share and claiming more overall share within the aggregate meta. That’s not to say Prism didn’t have an impressive season as well—she was just facing some headwinds from reasonably tough matchups from both Bravo, Star of the Show and Chane.
Briar and Lexi remained strong picks throughout the season, also staking their claim to a decent-sized portion of the meta. Both heroes offer strong benefits and rewarded many players who took a chance and sleeved them up for their ProQuest events. Despite the obvious strength of the ‘big three’ in Starvo, Chane, and Prism, both of these heroes enjoyed strong seasons with many wins. Lexi will be getting access to numerous new ice cards in Uprising which may further enhance her strategies and her power to disrupt opponents with ice.
Some interesting metrics and facts from ProQuest Season Two:
- ProQuest Season Two featured 323 total events across 38 different countries—bringing a go-wide global perspective to localized events.
- 7,301 players took part in ProQuest Season Two, battling it out in local game stores all over the world for their chance at fantastic prizes and the opportunity to play at Pro Tour Lille.
- 14 young heroes were reported in the data, and as I mentioned last week, there was a verified Top 8 finish for young Chane. [06/21/22 - NB: We have since received more information about this event, and the store has now confirmed that Paul played Chane, Bound by Shadow, not a young hero.]
- With the exception of Azalea, every Classic Constructed hero in the game was able to win at least one ProQuest event.
- Every Classic Constructed hero in the game had at least one Top 8 finish during the season.
And most notably, Chane’s meteoric rise coming out of Pro Tour/Calling New Jersey and his strong showing across each week of ProQuest has pushed him over the threshold to officially join Bravo, Star of the Show and achieve Living Legend status in Classic Constructed. Chane fans will still be able to pilot Shadow Runeblade in the Blitz format. Both Chane and Bravo, Star of the Show will achieve full Living Legend status with the very fast approaching release of Uprising and will no longer be eligible for play. For Guardian fans who took to Bravo, Star of the Show, I’ll be writing an upcoming piece on Rathe Times with some recommendations on what Guardian looks like coming out of the explosive Everfest meta and the wake of Chane’s ascension to Living Legend.
The Classic Constructed meta has ‘settled’ at the conclusion of ProQuest Season Two, but that will be incredibly short-lived. Bravo, Star of the Show and Chane’s exit from the format will leave a large vacuum which other heroes will be hoping to fill. While unproven, there’s plenty of room for Uprising heroes to well… rise up and take claim their place next to the established champions of Rathe.
It’s a bittersweet moment to mark the passing of ProQuest Season Two and the end of an era for two heroes, but it’s also a moment that amplifies the electric sense of anticipation in our community. The meta is ‘solved’ but will once again go into a period of massive disruption and change. New cards, heroes, and strategies will emerge, and players all over the world will be experimenting with the power Uprising brings to the table for new heroes as well as existing favorites. New set release is one of the most exciting times to be a Flesh and Blood player, and is something I personally look forward to all the time as an avid deck builder and theorycrafter.
Uprising is sure to disrupt the Classic Constructed meta. Uprising brings forward the power of Draconic Illusionist to summon an army of dragon allies, the fiery go-wide style of Fai who can get aggressive and string together sweeping combos, and the cold-hearted disruption of Iyslander’s icy magic. I’m extremely excited for the set as a whole, but here are some of the card spoilers I’m most excited for:
For Dromai, I’m extremely excited for dragon-based strategies that try to flood the board with a swarm of powerful dragons, born from ash. What better dragon to help with that mission than Nekria? Nekria offers strong power and health while also helping you generate additional ash tokens that will be required to summon new dragons. Dromai incentivizes you to pitch red cards to help create more ash, but some of the most powerful dragon cards in the set cost 4+ resources to summon. Having the ability to create extra ash with Nekria will allow Dromai players to add more yellow and blue cards that can help pay these higher costs. Plus, Nekria’s high starting health makes it difficult for opponents to remove quickly.
For Iyslander, I’m most excited for Frost Hex. The ability to kill your opponent while also disrupting their resource generation and efficiency is extremely compelling. The fact that you can stack multiple Frost Hexes will make this a mainstay inclusion for ice-heavy Iyslander decks. Pair it with her other specialization card—Ice Eternal for some truly explosive finishes.
For Fai, I’m actually most excited for Phoenix Flame itself. The card is so mechanically unique. I love how many different ways Fai can wield it. It’s an omni-present lever that Fai players can pull to generate well-time strategic advantage and seems to enable some very creative and powerful combos. Notably, Fai seems like a hero who will seldom want to block—instead, he will want to look for ways to create synergy with attacks and build attack chains as long as possible. While not inherently powerful on its own, Phoenix Flame can further extend turns time and time again. Look for ways to use Tome of the Firebrand to keep fanning the flames.
Crown of Providence offers an interesting alternative to Arcanite Skullcap for heroes who leverage the armor piece, giving some added utility as well as a guaranteed block two. While Arcanite Skullcap can comfortably defend for three total points of defense if players meet its criteria, I imagine many heroes will want Crown of Providence for its ability to filter cards and create true five-card hands by trading in your arsenal card.
That All You Got provides added utility for defensive, controlling decks, creating card advantage and helping against aggressive, go-wide strategies. Oftentimes, control and defensive decks are forced to decide if they want to try to put a card in the arsenal or defend more damage. This card offers the best of both worlds and is sure to see some inclusion in sideboards for this deck archetype.
Existing heroes across the game will also be getting powerful new cards and strategies to pursue—especially Illusionist, Ninja, and Wizard who will each be getting numerous new class cards to explore. But I think it’s fair to say there’s a card for every hero in Uprising.
| Heroes | Players | Top 8's | Wins | %Meta | %Top8's | %Wins | T8Conv | WinConv | T8toWin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Azalea, Ace in the Hole | 83 | 8 | 0 | 1.41% | 0.36% | 0.00% | 9.64% | 0.00% | 0.00% |
| Bravo, Showstopper | 136 | 35 | 6 | 2.31% | 1.59% | 1.88% | 25.74% | 4.41% | 17.14% |
| Bravo, Star of the Show | 953 | 518 | 112 | 16.21% | 23.55% | 35.00% | 54.35% | 11.75% | 21.62% |
| Briar, Warden of Thorns | 541 | 188 | 32 | 9.20% | 8.55% | 10.00% | 34.75% | 5.91% | 17.02% |
| Chane, Bound by Shadow | 892 | 442 | 78 | 15.18% | 20.09% | 24.38% | 49.55% | 8.74% | 17.65% |
| Dash, Inventor Extraordinaire | 260 | 68 | 5 | 4.42% | 3.09% | 1.56% | 26.15% | 1.92% | 7.35% |
| Dorinthea Ironsong | 204 | 55 | 4 | 3.47% | 2.50% | 1.25% | 26.96% | 1.96% | 7.27% |
| Kano, Dracai of Aether | 238 | 50 | 2 | 4.05% | 2.27% | 0.63% | 21.01% | 0.84% | 4.00% |
| Katsu, the Wanderer | 262 | 81 | 3 | 4.46% | 3.68% | 0.94% | 30.92% | 1.15% | 3.70% |
| Levia, Shadowborn Abomination | 149 | 35 | 2 | 2.53% | 1.59% | 0.63% | 23.49% | 1.34% | 5.71% |
| Lexi, Livewire | 557 | 154 | 9 | 9.48% | 7.00% | 2.81% | 27.65% | 1.62% | 5.84% |
| Oldhim, Grandfather of Eternity | 218 | 51 | 4 | 3.71% | 2.32% | 1.25% | 23.39% | 1.83% | 7.84% |
| Prism, Sculptor of Arc Light | 862 | 376 | 57 | 14.66% | 17.09% | 17.81% | 43.62% | 6.61% | 15.16% |
| Rhinar, Reckless Rampage | 223 | 57 | 4 | 3.79% | 2.59% | 1.25% | 25.56% | 1.79% | 7.02% |
| Ser Boltyn, Breaker of Dawn | 123 | 27 | 1 | 2.09% | 1.23% | 0.31% | 21.95% | 0.81% | 3.70% |
| Viserai, Rune Blood | 177 | 55 | 1 | 3.01% | 2.50% | 0.31% | 31.07% | 0.56% | 1.82% |
To wrap things up, once again ProQuest season has been a demonstration of the Flesh and Blood community’s passion for the game. ProQuest has showcased the power of this event to pull together a global community on a local scale. As always, I’m incredibly thankful to LSS for the opportunity to write content directly for fabtcg.com. If you enjoy my writing, be sure to connect with me and the other content I create for Rathe Times and all over the web here! Until next time, good luck in your Uprising events!
Drew Cordell is a competitive Flesh and Blood player and author of content relating to gameplay and strategy. The opinions expressed in the above article are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Legend Story Studios.