Content creator, interviewer, writer and commentator, Matt di Marco a.k.a. WatchFlake is the host of the Instant Speed Podcast, has written content for our website and for ChannelFireball, and is a regular member of the commentary team at Flesh and Blood events. Ahead of his appearance at Pro Tour: Lille, Matt is here to give you the rundown on what you should watch out for at the Pro Tour, whether you're competing in the main event or catching up from the comfort of your living room.
Memories of the first-ever Flesh and Blood Pro Tour Championship still linger in my mind. The grand spectacle of the event - from the wonderful player’s banquet on Thursday evening, to the thrilling finale Sunday afternoon - continues to resonate amidst the many fans of the game who are hungry for more of the same; we all are eager to renew our friendships in the community, but also bear witness to the titans of the game entering the arena.
As we quickly approach the next Pro Tour in Lille, France, taking place from October 26 to 28, a lot of the surprise factors may not be as potent to someone who was already one of the thousands who attended the first event in New Jersey. While there are a few rabbits left in the hat for the second go-around, there are still several points of interest to be mindful of while gearing up to attend or spectate the Pro Tour.
Meta At Its Purest
Without a digital client to churn out thousands upon thousands of games per day, Flesh and Blood has always had a very regionally defined meta game. Heroes like Starvo and Chane transcended the geographical pockets of gameplay based on their indisputable power levels, but examining data reports from Road To Nationals or Pro Quest circuits have yielded fascinating results. While the subjectively agreed-upon all-star in the field is Fai, where we go from there is truly a mystery.
With the stakes as high as they are, I can suggest that the decks we see will very much be off-the-radar brews that were concocted amidst air-tight secrecy. Truly, in a game that doesn’t have an outlet to queue into random players, the chances of accidentally crossing paths with a sleeping giant are minimal. Players are holding their cards quite literally close to the vest, not wanting their secret recipe to leak into the mainstream. In a field of the highest skill level players, any advantage is one to protect, and surprise is surely one way to tip the scales in your favour.
Pro Tour in Lille will be our very first glance at the most impactful decks coming out of the release of Uprising. The set seems to have been released a lifetime ago, but despite the plethora of Armories, RTNs and Skirmishes, seeing the cards in action on a global stage with fat prizes on the line will be the right climate for the master architects to unleash their most diabolical creations. From a spectating interest, be ready to see unorthodox hero selections, or the age-old mind games of trying to game the meta without gaming yourself. Pro Tour players will emerge from their labs with monsters that are not only brand new to us, but may in fact shape the meta landscape moving forward.
Draft Will Expose The Weak
Love it or hate it, drafting is an important aspect of card gaming. Pro Tour has integrated draft into their program, demanding the Pros show up with more than just a solid deck list. The players will now need to flex their skills of evaluating the strength of less impressive cards, as well as keeping track of the rest of the table’s behaviour. Incorporating this format to the Swiss rounds will add extra variety to the entire tournament, but more so it will also expose certain players who have either neglected to prepare for draft, or are just flat-out one-trick-ponies.
While Classic Constructed is the foundation upon which the competitive game is built, crowning a champion will now look to sift through the pretenders who may have caught lightning in a bottle, bringing a CC list that happens to catch the tournament meta off guard. In Draft, however, ingenuity and intuition can be paid off handsomely. A good read on your draft pod’s behavioural pattern will not only improve your deck’s strength, but also shape your decision making when deciding whether to hate-draft an Ice card, or draft a weak card.
Drafting is an art that requires tricks from your bag that you otherwise might not need in the standard CC format. I wholly anticipate that some notable players may go down in flames after getting completely rinsed 0-3 in their draft pods. On the other hand, though, I also believe there will be more than one player who becomes the talk of the tournament for rescuing their tournament lives by masterful Limited gameplay.
Who Will Rise From the Ashes?
Though the meta will remain a mystery, the talk of the town will likely be the fiery Ninja Fai. Scouring through social media, the common theme from the trend-setting players and personalities has come down to two main conclusions: the meta is a mystery, but Fai is certainly an aspect worth exploring.
Of all the discussions and testing that I have been privy to leading up to Lille, much of the conversation surrounds the turbulence of indecision and uncertainty. While the sheer chaos of trying to figure out which hero is hiding the secret sauce to win the Pro Tour, the stable eye of that hurricane is Fai. Despite banning Stubby Hammerers, Fai maintains a high octane aggression that other heroes struggle to duplicate consistently. Aggro players will likely lean on this juggernaut of pressure to keep games short and uncomfortable. The rest of the field will be searching for the right chemistry to neutralize an otherwise relentless attacker.
From the caster desk to the competitive field, Fai will drive a lot of the narrative for the tournament but it is hardly the only blip on the radar to keep a sharp eye on. While many will rely on the go-fast approach that a well-oiled Ninja deck can offer, some familiar faces will remind the field that they still pack a punch. Briar offers a terrifying offence on the back of a neatly timed Channel Mount Heroic turn, Dash can Boost her way to a poignant Teklo Pounding, and adept Lexi pilots will sprinkle frosty disruption alongside a rain of tricky arrows. Aggro has a variety of flavours, so picking the obvious choice of Fai may just be walking yourself into a trap of heroes looking to feast on him.
To the chagrin of many, and the collective gasp of others, Prism barely missed their train to Living Legend station by mere seconds. Sitting menacingly at 998 LL points, the Light Illusionist has been a mainstay of the metagame since Tyler Horspool legitimized the hero back at the Calling in Las Vegas in 2021. Ever since, the slower style of the heavy aura establishing strategy has been the bane of Guardian players, and kept a tight grip on the meta’s landscape from slipping too far into the control spectrum. You really cannot get any closer to retirement than Prism has, she is very much a viable choice for seasoned Prism players looking to capitalize on a hero seeking one last rodeo. Think of it as Sylvester Stallone pumping out one last Rambo movie before calling it quits.
Other familiar terrors will lurk, as we turn down the Light, and shift into the darker tones of Runeblade. Chane is long gone and sipping Margaritas with Starvo, but Viserai has proven resilient over the span of many months and bans. Early in the Uprising competitive scene, players like Hayden Dale once again leaned on the comforts of Viserai, proving again that the often dismissed hero has some pent up aggression left to settle. Being able to chain together massive turns that are split between physical and arcane damage can make for uncomfortable blocking decisions. Against heroes that forego any Arcane Barrier, Viserai is a potent threat. The questions will be whether Viserai will be able to withstand an onslaught of explosivity from Fai, and whether players will look to build the hero around a consistent offense, or a burst of One Turn Kill potential.
With Fai leading the charge and ramping up the action to hot and heavy levels, Guardian players will be out in droves seeking to pump the brakes and punish the aggro decks who throw caution to the wind and recklessly go face. The re-emergence of Bravo, Showstopper out from the shadows of his more flashy alter ego will provide a painful reminder to those who studied from the Book of No Blocking. Crush effects from cards like Spinal Crush, Crippling Crush, and Crush the Weak will force go wide decks to donate their hand and surrender their precious tempo. Should the stars align, slapping a devastating Dominate effect to these attacks will ground any altitude these ravenous decks were amassing, while also bleeding through damage. Aggro players will have a tough time digesting a constant barrage of big attacks that rob a player of their momentum.
The taxing effects that Guardians will bring to the table with their Crush attacks will also seep into dealing with other high performers such as Briar. Even Oldhim will have access to this naughty bag of tricks, boxing in go-wide strategies with Go Again killers such as Blizzard. Which Guardian you favour will lean more towards your style of play. Bravo seems like an appealing pick as the built in Dominate capability ensures you can convert on damage and set up game-changing turns, however Oldhim is built sturdy, meant to shrug off damage on the backs of Crown of Seeds and your choice of off-hand shields. I highly suspect that Bravo will be the more popular pick over Oldhim due to the presence of Prism who is looking for one last curtain call.
Shaping The National Championships
As I mentioned earlier, this is the first major showcase of what players have designed from what Uprising has added to the Flesh and Blood spice rack. The poisons and antidotes will be on display for the world to digest, but the repercussions will ripple well beyond the winner’s interview at the end of the whole event. What happens in Lille will have a significant impact on the upcoming series of National Championships across the globe.
The decks we witness at the Pro Tour will be gobbled up by the hungry masses desperate for the new hotness to bring to their own tables. The way I’ve described it is that when it comes to decks, it is a lot like airplanes. There are a lot more pilots in the world than aerospace engineers. There are a lot more people who can fly the plane than design it. As such, this stable of pilots will be keenly awaiting the shiny new designs that are going to be front row center at the Pro Tour. The decks will be dissected and scrutinized, evaluated by thousands as we watch the madness unfold.
Back in New Jersey amidst the Triangle of Doom meta (Prism, Starvo, Viserai), we saw a handful of brave souls register Kano as their hero. This was one hell of a gambit, but one that bore ripe fruits for the Wizards who put the time in. Kano may have slightly spiked in popularity immediately afterward, but the skill ceiling on the hero was still a thick barrier of entry for many to bust through. I would suspect Iyslander may be the flash in the pan should players anticipate a lack of respect towards ice and disruption.
The important thing to note here is that this tournament is setting up the framework for Nationals season. The Pro Tour is the early warning network that everyone will be tuned into to shape their own preparations. The best in the world are bringing their lab experiments to the big stage, and the audience is going to be taking notes. Will we see another surprise entrant into the Royal Rumble? And if so, will they leave a recognizable footprint, or will they get the Santino Marella treatment and get flung back down to reality in record time?
Matt di Marco and James White at Pro Tour: New Jersey
Of all the gameplay aspects we are looking to expect, we don’t want to overlook the aspect that keeps the first Pro Tour Championship so staunchly embedded in my fondest memories. The event was a joyful one. A celebration of the game we all love, and the community of people who have come together to create and strengthen friendships while dodging Kodachis and arcane damage. Despite my predictions above, the one element I’m steadfastly confident in is that the event will bleed out from mere card gaming and generate lasting experiences for so many. The laughs, the dinners, the cosplaying, the late night hotel lobby gaming sessions, and the countless beautiful souls who glide through the weekend will undoubtedly make this event worth digging into.
Matt di Marco 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.