Classic Constructed
- No changes.
Classic Constructed looks to be in the midst of one of its most balanced and exciting metagames ever, and the recent ascension of Viserai to Living Legend has created a fresh puzzle for players to solve. It appears several more heroes will join Viserai in retirement this year. We’re looking forward to letting the Living Legend system be the primary shaping hand of the format for the next few months as we progress through the Pro Quest: Singapore season.
Blitz
The following changes to Blitz are effective from Tuesday, March 4, 2025:
- Traverse the Universe is banned.
- Zephyr Needle is banned.
- Crown of Seeds is unbanned.
We spoke at length about Zephyr Needle’s interaction with the retrieve mechanic when we banned the card in Classic Constructed (https://fabtcg.com/en/articles/banned-and-restricted-announcement-24-01-25). Even without the LL'd Ira's ability to buff Needles, the card continues to present number problems when it is returned from the graveyard at very low deckbuilding or actual cost. 2-power go again for 1 resource is simply too good on a weapon if its potential downsides are effectively mitigated. Retrieve mitigates Zephyr Needle’s downsides. Case closed; card banned.
The decision to ban a Legendary-rarity card must meet a higher burden of proof than a typical ban. We seek near-absolute certainty that the card’s output is net negative to format enjoyment and health. We also give ample opportunity for players for look for answers via deckbuilding and metagame evolution. In the case of Traverse the Universe, it’s safe to say that, right now, answers to its efficiency are not present in the compressed, ~20 life version of Flesh and Blood. Blitz also has a higher density of one-of transcend cards per deck due to 40-card deck sizes, meaning Traverse the Universe is almost always live for Zen. These facts point to the conclusion that it is time to shelve Traverse the Universe for the foreseeable future.
But things can always change. Look no further for evidence of that fact than today’s unbanning of Crown of Seeds. When we banned this card approximately one year ago, it’s fair to say that we anticipated saying goodbye forever. In the era where this card was dominant, it was too easy for Crown of Seeds to stall out games, and so many decks had no true outs to its pure defensive efficiency.
Things feel different today. By virtue of Flesh and Blood’s non-rotating card pool, decks almost necessarily become more powerful over time. Over the past year, a significant percentage of that increasing power has been allocated to the offensive side of the game. In lower-life Blitz, this has made extended games an increasing rarity. It is healthy to offer a diverse array of gameplay experiences in all formats of Flesh and Blood, and we now believe slower defensive Earth decks can play a healthy role in restoring some balance to an aggressively slanted Blitz metagame.
Speaking honestly, releasing Crown of Seeds back into Blitz is not a decision we come to lightly, and it is one with a reasonable risk of reversion. We will closely monitor the card’s impact on both health and overall enjoyment of Blitz as we proceed through the upcoming Skirmish Season.
Living Legend
The following changes to Living Legend are effective from Tuesday, March 4, 2025:
- Electromagnetic Somersault is restricted.
As we’ve stated in the past, management of Starvo’s massive card pool and powerful hero ability is going to be an ongoing task when it comes to the Living Legend format. While the format showed respectable diversity during the World Tour: Chicago weekend, when push came to shove, Starvo carried the day.
Electromagnetic Somersault makes sense as a restriction target because on top of having a powerful defensive effect attached to Lightning typing that is often challenging for Starvo to fulfill, Electromagnetic Somersault does a lot of work to sidestep previous restrictions applied to Starvo’s card pool. It doesn’t matter much that you can only have one Oaken Old in your deck if 9 Electromagnetic Somersaults can replay the card over and over. We’re happy to apply this restriction in advance of the upcoming Skirmish Season 11, and we will continue to monitor Starvo’s performance in that event series to understand if further action is required.
Commoner
The following changes to Commoner are effective from Tuesday, March 4, 2025:
- Rosetta Thorn is banned.
- Waning Moon is banned.
- Zephyr Needle is banned.
- Ball Lightning is unbanned.
While you can also apply everything said above about Zephyr Needle to the Commoner format, the bannings here are pointed at a more fundamental issue in the present Commoner metagame. Many good Flesh and Blood decks have made their fortunes on simply presenting better offensive or defensive numbers than their opponents. Decks stray from this path most prominently when they engage with cards with unique effects, create arena presence, utilize on-hit effects, or use cards that form combinations capable of dwarfing traditional number-matrix based output. In Commoner, all of four of these things are much harder to achieve, since the tools to do so typically appear outside of the Common-rarity.
With such a prominent focus on numbers, it makes sense that the decks which leverage the most powerful and number efficient SIPSIP (start in play, stay in play) weapons routinely rise to the top. Ira, Chane, and Iyslander have cast a sizeable shadow over the Commoner metagame, and when looking at bans, it was hard to imagine any individual deck card ban could release their stranglehold. Targeting these SIPSIP weapons is intended to both bring some churn to the meta by bringing the best decks down a peg and offering potential opportunities for classes who don’t have access to the “Big 3” SIPSIP weapons to compete on even footing.
A Ball Lightning unban may be shocking from a pure power-level standpoint, but when you consider the four number-breaking prongs presented above and the lack of success for any Lightning-talented hero in the metagame, it starts to make some sense. Ball Lightning functions as a unique effect, on-hit, and potential quasi-combo card—all things presently lacking in the Commoner meta. It could well be that the onslaught of Ball Lightning is just too efficient. Obviously, if we see this manifest in results, we will revisit our unbanning. However, now seems like the right time for a major shake-up in Commoner, and unbanning should be just as integral to this process as banning.
Next Scheduled Banned and Restricted Announcement
The next Banned and Restricted Announcement will be on Tuesday, May 27, 2025 (United States time).