The Ultimate Flex

The thunderous booming of war drums fills the defending soldiers with dread. The tide of red spills over the edge of the horizon. Scarlet and gold banners emblazoned with the symbol of a dragon loom overhead.

The Emperor’s army approaches…

Let’s say you crack open a few packs of Dynasty - nothing much at first glance, until suddenly, that glint of gold and black catches your eye.

A Marvel Emperor? It can’t be! With trembling hands you sleeve that bad boy up in multiple layers and keep him on ice until you can get him graded.

Now what?

You have a shiny Emperor that commands oohs and ahhs from all who see it - but like, what does he do? There must be a better use for this royal ruler than gathering dust on your shelf at home.

What better timing than with Skirmish Season in full swing to absolutely flex on fools with the most unnecessarily expensive deck you can muster?

Stack up those slabs because we’re cracking open the vault to create something truly monstrous. Not only is the Emperor fun and interesting to play - but hunting down the max rarity bling is a journey every collector will get a kick out of.

By the end of this you’ll not only know how to play the dynamic dictator, but you’ll have a list so full of drip that your opponents may even scoop out of sheer respect as soon as you slap down your slabs.

Let’s cook…

In the Red

Alright, elephant in the room - he can only play reds (or pinks if you’re running Alpha Print cards). Not having access to blues or yellows can seem like a significant drawback in the resource department, but this can be easily mitigated, and even exploited.

The Emperor works best as a hybrid deck that can go wide with several 0-cost attacks with go again, while also incorporating 0-cost defense reactions and instants for protection.

Any cards that you include with 1-cost or more should be few in number and carefully considered (Command and Conquer is an exception but we’ll touch on this later).

Cards that have alternative costs, such as placing a card from your hand on the top/bottom of the deck instead of pitching, fit in perfectly.

In order to make value out of playing these cards with a pitch cost, you’ll want to utilize Flamescale Furnace. You’ll likely be activating this almost every turn to generate spare resources for things like Razor Reflex, a sword attack, or activating the hero ability. This equipment is very versatile and can even be used defensively, creating spare resources at instant speed after playing an instant or defense reaction (useful against Wizards and Runeblades).

Because your deck is redder than a Volcor sunset, you get the bonus of absolute consistency with cards like Ravenous Rabble and Blaze Headlong - every hand you draw will be impactful in some way.

Some turns you’ll want to block as much as possible and just arsenal or chip with a sword, and other turns the hand is just too creamy to resist and you’ll swing back with 4-5 attacks that you have absolutely no business unleashing.

Upper Class

There are a lot of words on this guy. Having access to the red cards from two classes, one talent, as well as built in royalty opens a lot of doors.

Being Royal comes with a few perks - you get to call the shots with the Imperial cards from Dynasty, but these don’t have a lot of payoff yet. Feel free to experiment, but for now, we’re mainly focusing on the Emperor’s other skillsets.

The Draconic pool suits our fiery overlord perfectly as we can only play reds anyway. An absolute staple that should be the first card to go in is Blaze Headlong. You might also find some other niche lines with cards like Lava Burst and Inflame.

While others toiled with hammers, he studied the blade. Building around the Warrior cards is tricky due to their usual reliance on resources, but throwing in a few efficient pumps that can be blocked with in a pinch can be fantastic, plus the Warrior pool really shines in its equipment, with thick plating to protect our lower life total, and a decent weapon in Jubeel, Spellbane.

And he’s not called the Dracai of Aesir for nothing - another pool of cards that is generally resource hungry, but offers some delightful tasty treats to help you close games out of nowhere with cards like Blessing of Aether, Storm Striders, and any number of 0-cost burn spells.

Commanding Respect

One of the most impactful Flesh and Blood cards ever created, nothing gives you more of a dopamine kick than nuking your opponent’s carefully planned turn - and nothing feels worse than getting your hopes shattered by mean pointy man.

Command and Conquer is the heart and soul of this deck, especially in fast-paced Blitz games where everything has to go right at the right time.

While it is a 2-cost, the hero ability says it all. Pitch a red to pay for a 1-cost Warrior action that gives your sword go again, swing in, then finish with Flamescale Furnace to slap your opponent right in the face with a big CnC. Or if you have CnC in hand you can pay for a 1-cost attack action with go again, or play a Razor Reflex, and pitch a second red for Flamescale Furnace to get the two resources you need.

There are several ways to cheat this card out, and while the 2-cost may need some tender love and care to pull off, having On Demand and Conquer is something your opponent will always have to play around.

The List

By sheer coincidence, the powers that be have blessed our card pool with an incredible number of alternate arts, Alpha Prints, Cold Foils, you name it.

The list below is a playable midrange list using maximum rarity - you can also lean into the aggro side with more go again attacks, or focus more on arcane damage combos (hint: you can pitch a red for Steelblade Shunt, then pitch another red for Flamescale Furnace, activate Storm Striders, and fling a Scalding Rain at your opponent).

Emperor, Dracai of Aesir (Cold Foil Marvel)

Equipment/Weapons

Jubeel, Spellbane (Rainbow Foil - but you could snag a Cold Foil at the upcoming Road to Nationals season)

Crown of Providence (Cold Foil)

Fyendal’s Spring Tunic (Cold Foil Alpha Print)

Braveforge Bracers (Cold Foil Alpha Print)

Snapdragon Scalers (Cold Foil Alpha Print)

Storm Striders (Cold Foil 1st Edition)

Metacarpus Nodes (Cold Foil 1st Edition)

Gambler’s Gloves (Cold Foil 1st Edition)

Alluvion Constellas (Cold Foil)

Flamescale Furnace (Cold Foil)

Spell Fray Tiara (Cold Foil)

Deck

2 Command and Conquer (Cold Foil Fabled)

2 Enlightened Strike (Rainbow Foil Alpha Print)

2 Coax a Commotion (Rainbow Foil 1st Edition)

2 Scar for a Scar (Team Covenant Alternate Art Promo)

2 Ravenous Rabble (Rainbow Foil 1st Edition)

2 Snatch (Rainbow Foil Alpha Print)

2 Give and Take (Rainbow Foil)

2 Plunder Run (Rainbow Foil 1st Edition)

2 Nimblism (Rainbow Foil Alpha Print)

2 Razor Reflex (Rainbow Foil Alpha Print)

2 Fate Foreseen (Taiwan exclusive Alternate Art Promo)

2 Sink Below (Rainbow Foil Alpha Print)

2 Sigil of Solace (Calling Singapore Merlion Alternate Art Promo)

2 Blaze Headlong (Alpha Investments Extended Art Promo)

2 Blessing of Aether (Armory Extended Art Promo)

2 Sap (Team Covenant Alternate Art Promo)

2 Aether Dart (Rainbow Foil)

2 Prognosticate (Rainbow Foil)

2 Sharpen Steel (Rainbow Foil Alpha Print)

2 Hit and Run (Rainbow Foil 1st Edition)

But We're Not Done Yet...

And this is to go even further beyond!

Let’s throw playability completely out the window and just go for the Ultimate Flex. We can upgrade all of our equipment to Gold Foil (the recently released Gold Foil Prize Cards inventory will be a huge help), and fill our deck with whatever comes up first when we filter from "Price - High to Low" online. With this list we don’t care if we win or lose, we just want to gobsmack everyone with the sheer ridiculousness of our dragon hoard.

Emperor, Dracai of Aesir (Cold Foil Marvel)

Equipment/Weapons

Crown of Providence (Gold Foil)

Crown of Dominion (Gold Foil)

Arcanite Skullcap (Gold Foil)

Fyendal’s Spring Tunic (Gold Foil)

Flamescale Furnace (Gold Foil)

Courage of Bladehold (Gold Foil)

Braveforge Bracers (Gold Foil)

Metacarpus Nodes (Gold Foil)

Storm Striders (Gold Foil)

Snapdragon Scalers (Gold Foil)

Dawnblade (Gold Foil)

Deck

2 Command and Conquer (Cold Foil Fabled)

2 Enlightened Strike (Rainbow Foil Alpha Print)

2 Premeditate (Rainbow Foil)

2 Coax a Commotion (Rainbow Foil 1st Edition)

2 Scar for a Scar (Team Covenant Alternate Art Promo)

2 Even Bigger Than That (Alpha Investments Extended Art Promo)

2 Fate Foreseen (Taiwan exclusive Alternate Art Promo)

2 Sink Below (Rainbow Foil Alpha Print)

2 Snatch (Rainbow Foil Alpha Print)

2 Razor Reflex (Rainbow Foil Alpha Print)

2 Pummel (Rainbow Foil Alpha Print)

2 Sigil of Solace (Calling Singapore Merlion Alternate Art Promo)

2 Blaze Headlong (Alpha Investments Extended Art Promo)

2 Breaking Point (TCG Player Extended Art Promo)

2 Sap (Team Covenant Alternate Art Promo)

2 Aether Quickening (Alpha Investments Extended Art Promo)

2 Peace of Mind (Team Covenant Alternate Art Promo)

2 Ironsong Pride (Rainbow Foil Extended Art)

2 In the Swing (Team Covenant Alternate Art Promo)

1 Phoenix Flame (Cold Foil Marvel)

1 Blood of the Dracai (Cold Foil)

Perhaps you’ve got a keen eye for market trends and have some ideas for how to push this even further, or maybe you’re a math whizzkid and you’d like to run the numbers to see how much this would break the bank, or maybe you’re the one collector who will actually bring this madness to life.

Go forth, flex upon thine enemies, for the glory of the empire!