Welcome to our second week of Skirmish coverage! The season so far has seen a diverse spread across a wide variety of heroes, as players all over the world join the Skirmish at their local game store at a grand total of 181 events across 32 countries.
So to start off our coverage, we wanted to acknowledge the heroes who have been the least represented on the field in the first half of the season (according to the GEM data submitted by stores). Shiyana, Diamond Gemini has the arguably dubious honor of being completely unrepresented at any event, with a triple 0 score across total players, Top 8 appearances and event wins. Kavdaen, Trader of Skins and Genis Wotchuneed both have exactly one registered player at any event over the last two weeks, and Data Doll MKII has only two! Both of Data Doll's representatives came from the last week of events, with Nick Donnelly taking her into the Top 8 in Australia.
At the same event, Azalea made another Top 8 finish for the season with Alex Jamieson, as did Dorinthea, Quicksilver Prodigy! We'd like to sincerely apologize to the 'new classic' warrior for leaving her out of last week's coverage, with a total of 14 players taking to her events worldwide over the first half of the season, and six Top 8 finishes so far! Xavier Nelson took her to a finals finish in Australia, as did Matthew Terry and Nick Allen in the United States. Her other Top 8 competitors include George Panagopoulos in Greece, Natan Tomeo in Italy, and Mark Bradshaw in the United States.
Fellow Solanian Boltyn made the Top 8 at four events this week courtesy of Théo Duchâtel in France, Fey Meadows in Canada, Jeremy Wong in the United Kingdom, and Joseph Finn in the United States. While Lexi made the Top 8 at twelve events in the last week, she didn't secure any wins. She did, however, make it to the finals of three events in the United Kingdom with Mitch Hewson, Hungary with Barna Terjék, and Canada with Ryan Mateff.
Looking at three of our four Ninjas on the block, Katsu was the only one who didn't win an event, but he did make the Top 8 at two events with Neil Gaskell in Australia and Adam Bruce in Canada. Benji, the Piercing Wind won one event with Victor Reis in Estonia, and Ira, Crimson Haze won an event with Theodore Raitzer in the United States.
Stopping to check in on our Brutes, Levia and Rhinar both secured one victory each this week, courtesy of Martin Szeto in Australia, and Alan Chavarin in the United States. Kayo, Berserker Runt won two events in the United States with Caleb Haney and George Ferris.
With the exact same number of Top 8 players as Kayo, Valda Brightaxe also won two events with Edward Joseph Batoon in the Philippines and Αναστάσιος Παπαγιάννης in Greece. Prism saw fifteen players make the Top 8, marking down two wins with Patrick Weiss and Cedar Graham in the United States.
While a number of players brought their dragons to battle around the world, only two players claimed a final victory with Dromai; Wojciech Arendt in Poland, and William Lapp in the United States. Similarly, the evergreen Briar took out three events — one in Australia with Alex Forndran, and two in the United States with Tyler Grady and Gui Cohen.
Fellow Guardian Bravo was part of a four-way eight-win tie with Chane, Dash, and Fai. After his adult counterpart knocked out a Battle Hardened week, the young Bravo was happy to steal the stage with Dave Pruneau in Canada; Jonathan Guldemont in France; Callum Birkett in the United Kingdom; and Sebastian Burnham, Aaron Cooper, Connor Talty, and Drew Gary in the United States. Chane emerged from the Shadows to win with Bartosz Ziemba in Poland; Daniel Correas in Spain; Gao Zhi-Peng in Taiwan; Adam Tan in Canada; Bartosz Ziemba in Poland; and Brodie Spurlock and Ethan Oechsle in the United States.
Dash made great strides with Dylan Thompson in Ireland; Rodolphe Lobet in France; Brodie Snoek in Australia; Ruben Van Dessel in Belgium; Jordan Beange in Canada; and Alexander Wolfe, Zachary Wallach, and Austin Somers in the United States. Finally, Fai brought a blazing heat to the battlefield with Floris van Asch in Belgium; John Walker in Canada; Sander Neeft in the Netherlands; Jacob Shaker and Connor Rash in the United States; and Leila Green, Nathan Eastwood, and Tom Evans in the United Kingdom.
Building on the success of her Quicksilver counterpart, Dorinthea took out nine events this week, with Kenneth Justin in Canada; Chakorn Benjasamitthiporn in Thailand; Andreas Ventzel in Denmark; and Kyle Jones, Joshua Lau, Sherman Darrenkamp, Dung (Yung) Le, Christopher Smith, and Matthew W in the United States.
Bringing a cold front to your local game store, Oldhim won nine events with Alex Kivitz in Belgium; Francco Cipriani in Australia; Kevin Zänker in Germany; Richard Casem in New Zealand; James Medland in Australia; Darvydas Čepukaitis in Lithuania; Kelvin Law in Hong Kong; Yorgos Samaras in Greece; and Samuel Nathanson in the United States.
The heroes winning the most events this week were all from Volcor - but only one was from Uprising. First on the list is the warrior Kassai, Cintari Sellsword, slicing and dicing her way through ten events this week. She was championed by Domonkos Ács in Hungary; Chu Heng Eng in Singapore; Anton Johansson in Sweden; Shen Ang in the United Kingdom; Sergio Nieto Becerra and Maria Jesus Penella in Spain; and Virgil Toms, Louis Solymos, Bryson Peek, and Alex Tyler in the United States.
Next up is our classic wizard Kano, blazing through the aether to claim victory at twelve events this week, including Grant Bartel in Canada; Jose Carlos González in Spain; Adrian Samyudia in Indonesia; Hugo David in France; Giannis Karyotakis in Greece; Kaspar Terauds and Kuan Li in Australia; Liam Spronken and Kieran Carnegie in New Zealand; and Jeff Phillips and Ronny Martin in the United States.
Drum roll for the reigning ice queen this week, Iyslander, who is celebrating not only seventeen wins but a total of one hundred and five players at Skirmish events worldwide over the weekend!
Two weeks down, two to go. If you need some ideas for this weekend's decklist, check out the articles below for some ideas. Pick up your favorite hero, grab your friends, and join the Skirmish!
R. N. G Tabletop Gaming - Australia
"We have been growing our little rural store's Flesh and Blood playgroup over the last year and everyone was super stoked to finally have a local place to participate in a Skirmish! One thing that I really enjoyed about our event was that everyone was playing different heroes. Our Dromai player took a big lead early on going 4/0 and making it easily into the Top 4 cut, Unfortunately in a rematch with the Kano player in the first Top 4 game their dragon-like domination came to an end! The other first match for the Top 4 was the Brutal Rhinar vs the Dazzling Bravo, another rematch and another flipped result with Bravo pulling no punches and coming out the winner and making his way into the final match. The final match-up was Bravo vs Kano, physical strength vs magical prowess! Right out the gate, Kano didn't give Bravo any breathing room, slinging spell after spell. Bravo was doing all he could to hold back the arcane powers that were being thrown at him, eventually though, it was lights out for Bravo with Kano taking the win"
Top 4:
1st: Alex Sheedy - Kano
2nd: David Aird - Bravo
3rd-4th: Hayden Kane - Dromai
3rd-4th: Paul Sheedy - Rhinar
Owl Central Games - United States
For the full breakdown of this event, check out the Owl Central team's tournament report on their website!
Top 8:
1st: Rylie Groff - Iyslander
2nd: Ciro Gambone - Iyslander
3rd-4th: Rose Smyth - Iyslander
3rd-4th: Andrew Donnelly - Bravo
5th-8th: Tyler Wolford - Oldhim
5th-8th: Tessa Myers - Kassai, Cintari Sellsword
5th-8th: Vincent Gambone - Briar
5th-8th: Thomas Walsh - Fai
No Label X - Greece
"It's hammer time !! Yorgos Samaras piloted his Oldhim today through a field of 18 players to win the skirmish event of No Label X in Greece, which was hosted by OrganizedPlay.eu. Winning over a solid Dorinthea player at the final game, showcasing that the old heroes can still pack a punch! The story of the day was Benji, which managed to get a top 8 finish!
Have a wonderful summer from everyone here in Greece."
Top 8:
1st: Yorgos Samaras - Oldhim
2nd: Nikos Tavoulareas - Dorinthea
3rd-4th: George Karampinis - Fai
3rd-4th: John Kitsos - Bravo
5th-8th: Konstantinos Paltoglou - Iyslander
5th-8th: Alex Paterakhs - Benji, the Piercing Wind
5th-8th: Dimitris Kasdovasilis - Levia
5th-8th: Alexandros Argyriou - Fai
Invaders Board Game Station - Indonesia
"This Skirmish season 5, we aimed to create a 'casually-competitive' environment by opting to run the sealed format. Everyone had a blast cracking packs with good pulls overall and as expected, Gian Arnandi showed his mastery of the Draconic Ninja by winning the event with a solid Fai deck!"
Top 4:
1st: Gian Arnandi - Fai
2nd: Ezequiel Emeraldo - Fai
3rd-4th: Junio Antono - Fai
3rd-4th: Theodore Andrew - Fai
Heroes’ Ink Comics - United States
"Heroes Ink in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania proudly presented a Flesh and Blood Blitz Skirmish for the Season 5 event series. Competitors played 4 rounds of Swiss Blitz action and in Top 8 we had Fai, 2 Dorintheas, 2 Iyslanders, Dash, Ira, and Kassai duking it out for 1st!
Our first place winner Chris Smith (Dorinthea) took the final round against Joshua Koslosky (Fai) and every player involved received the Silver promos and some extra side goodies thrown in from past events as well as packs of Uprising!
It was a successful event and we can’t wait to host more Flesh and Blood Organized Play!"
Top 8:
1st: Christopher Smith - Dorinthea
2nd: Joshua Koslosky - Fai
3rd-4th: Jeff Stamm - Dash
3rd-4th: Matthew Mosholder - Iyslander
5th-8th: Jeffrey Smen - Kassai, Cintari Sellsword
5th-8th: Graham Molsick - Iyslander
5th-8th: Mark Baumgartel - Dorinthea
5th-8th: Andrew Shafer - Ira, Crimson Haze
KROLM - Poland
"The Skirmish tournament this summer passed in a rather intimate atmosphere. Twelve duelists fought a battle for primacy and honour. But there can be only one winner! Wojciech Arendt this time took first prize with his unbeatable Dromai. Very smooth and careful game plan let him kick out Iyslander, Valda and three Dorintheas (in fact everyone saw Dori as Dromai's counterpick, but that's not a case anymore). Congratulations Wojciech!"
Top 8:
1st: Wojciech Arendt - Dromai
2nd: Adam Adamski - Dorinthea
3rd-4th: Mariusz Suchanecki
3rd-4th: Tomasz Cegłowski
Kraken Cards - United States
"We consider ourselves very lucky to be in an area with a really positive crowd of Flesh and Blood players. The event, while small, had no shortage of great energy and great games. We got to hear about players' plans for travelling to France for ProTour Lille, see people try out new decks that they were excited about (this was the first event that some of our players had seen Data Doll in action!), and see some quick friendships form over the course of one match.
The field was very warrior heavy, with nearly half of the players playing a warrior hero. Most warrior players brought Kassai decks, but we also got to see both Dorinthea and the new Dorinthea, Quicksilver Prodigy from the Classic Battles deck.
The final match was a very close wizard mirror, the last few turns were pretty intense and we got to watch our finalists use every wizard trick at their disposal to take the match. At one point during the match, a player asked 'whose turn is it again?' because so many cards were being played at instant speed, which seemed to summarize the match pretty well."
Top 8:
1st: Justin Salmon - Iyslander
2nd: Mitchell Tillery - Kano
3rd-4th: Ryan Wood
3rd-4th: Mitchell Gross