Greetings and salutations once again my fabulous FAB friends! Today we’re going to try something a little different by playing Armchair Quarterback and taking a look at the competitive side of what we saw from Calling: Birmingham this past weekend. Fair warning though, I’m just a humble #FABDad and the opinions you’re about to read may be a little biased towards some heroes more than others. (Love Ninjas, despise being cold, etc.)

Everything I talk about is what I observed during the live coverage provided by the crew from the Push the Point podcast and hosted on Tabletop 24‘s YouTube channel. The meta data was pulled from the official live blog for the event. The PtP guys did a wonderful job casting the matches and I would highly recommend going back and watching the streams again to get their insight and play-by-play as the tournament progressed. It was very professionally done and extremely entertaining.

The Stats We Really Want to Know

There were 427 players total that started in the main event on Saturday. All of the currently legal Classic Constructed heroes were championed by one or more participants, with the exception of Arakni, Huntsman. It looks like everyone that wanted to play Assassin cards chose Uzuri, Switchblade for this tournament and left poor Arakni back at the lair.

The top five heroes registered were Lexi, Livewire (67), Dromai, Ash Artist (48), Bravo, Showstopper (44), Briar, Warden of Thorns (40), and Levia, Shadowborn Abomination (39). These five heroes’ combined totals for day one represented more than 55% of the metagame. Roughly 16% of the total field was Lexi.

The cutoff from the end of day one to participate in day two eliminated all but 94 players. The top five heroes that converted to day two were Lexi, Livewire (23), Bravo, Showstopper (13), Dromai, Ash Artist (11), Briar, Warden of Thorns (8), and Iyslander, Stormbind (7). None of the players that registered Vynnset, Iron Maiden, Prism, Awakener of Sol, or Riptide, Lurker of the Deep finished well enough on day one to continue playing the main event on day two, but all of the other heroes had at least one player make it into the second half of the Swiss rounds. (Even Ser Boltyn, Breaker of Dawn saw one player make it to day two.)

Final cut for the elimination rounds had three Bravo, Showstopper, two Katsu, the Wanderer, one Uzuri, Switchblade, one Azalea, Ace in the Hole, and one Iyslander, Stormbind fighting for their place at the top of the mountain of competitors.

Day One – Rounds One Through Seven Coverage

On the live coverage we saw several exciting matchups through both days of Swiss, leading up to the Top 8. As an American living on the East coast of the U.S., I was still asleep through the start of the coverage and missed out on more while I was playing Vynnset at my local Skirmish. (Great fun by the way, highly recommend it.) So, I’m going back after the fact and skimming the coverage for the first day to just hit what I see as highlights.

Round One saw Piotr Krzempek on Briar, Warden of Thorns vs Matt Foulkes on Levia, Shadowborn Abomination. Levia was pretty firmly in the driver’s seat all the way through to the end game and Matt Foulkes took the win.

In Round Two, we saw Jason Rolfe on Lexi, Livewire face off against Maximilian Klein on Dorinthea, Ironsong. Maximilian was on the new Decimator Great Axe fatigue strategy brought to the game by Dusk Till Dawn. Jason made a couple of slips, missing some beneficial triggers, and wasn’t able put out enough pressure to get through Dorinthea’s defensive capabilities before he ran out of threats and extended the hand to concede.

Lexi, Livewire returned with Marijn Lybaert in Round Three for a shootout against Azalea, Ace in the Hole, piloted by Aaron Francis. Despite popular opinion being that Azalea is favored in the matchup, sometimes the onslaught of disruption and wide arrows from Lexi just isn’t slowed down enough by Azalea’s big hits. Aaron’s last point of life was taken when he forgot to factor in the on hit effect from Remorseless when he only had one point left and Lexi claimed victory.

This is the third round in a row we saw a Lexi, Livewire on screen, this time piloted by Keir Sweeney in Round Four. The coverage team did their best to bring different successful heroes into the spotlight and it’s no fault of theirs that Lexi is a popular hero that happens to win a lot of games. Emlyn Ingram brought the spice to this match in the form of Ser Boltyn, Breaker of Dawn, wielding a “sword and board” layout with the new Bastion of Unity shield from Dusk Till Dawn and a full fatigue package. Once again, Lexi hit the ground running and threw herself against a wall. The last arrow was fired with no cards left in deck and Emlyn still at a comfortable 14 life. It did absolutely nothing, resulting in a concession from Keir shortly after.

Round Five we got a break from seeing frosty arrows on camera and got another dose of Ser Boltyn, Breaker of Dawn in the hands of Finlay Shepherd at a 4-0 record. Finlay’s opponent was Matt Rogers piloting the machines and gizmos of Dash, Inventor Extraordinaire. This round saw Boltyn employing a much more aggressive strategy with Raydn, Duskbane swinging at Dash repeatedly and beating the Mechanologist down until finally a Command and Conquer for seven with go again convinced Matt to offer a fist bump and the concession.

For the first time on camera, we saw Bravo, Showstopper in Round Six piloted by Yorgos Samaras facing off against our second player Michal Cwik, piloting Levia, Shadowborn Abomination. To absolutely nobody’s surprise, the game was a slug fest. Both heroes threw big, beefy attacks back and forth in a fantastic showcase of what they’re capable of. Throughout the game, Michal showed no fear of rolling dice and did so several times. Bravo was sitting at three points left and Levia comfortably at eight with tempo and a full banish zone. Michal rolled the dice again on Scabskin Leathers, looking to close the game out or transform into Levia, Redeemed and still be able to attack. The die came up as a one. That’s fine, we saw a Gambler’s Gloves activation to reroll the die and try again, only to find a single pip on the die for the second time. With no action points left, the turn ended, and Levia was consumed by Blood Debt to end the game in Bravo’s favor. #brutelife

Finally, in Round Seven, we had another Dash, Inventor Extraordinaire in the hands of Ruben Van Dessel facing off against Katsu, the Wanderer played by Matt Duggan. Both heroes were 6-0 going into the last round of Swiss for day one and, as someone firmly on the Kodachi train, I was cheering hard for Matt/Katsu throughout this game. Both players set a blistering pace for the match, coming out of the gates swinging hard and fast. But, when the dust finally settled, sadly, the Wanderer lay broken in the street at Dash’s feet and Ruben ended the day as one of only three undefeated players at the top of the standings before the second half of the event.

Day Two – Rounds Eight Through Twelve

The second day of Calling: Birmingham was even more exciting than the first. There were five more rounds of Swiss before the final cut to Top 8.

Round Eight began the day with a showdown between Bravo, Showstopper piloted by Luka Kramaric against Jeremy Miller on Uzuri, Switchblade. When Bravo gets on a roll, there really is no better deck in Flesh and Blood. Bravo eventually built up enough steam to roll right over Uzuri and Luka came away with the win.

In Round Nine, Stefano Meoni with Azalea, Ace in the Hole was up against the draconic forces of Volcor’s Dromai, Ash Artist and Jamie Faulkner. Despite an enormous amount of dragons on the field protecting her and massive life swings, in the end Dromai eventually fell to a Rain Razors for exact lethal through blocks.

At this stage of the event, it felt like every player was fighting for their lives. Round Ten saw the first Iyslander, Stormbind on camera piloted by Samuel Braben versus George Keys on Uzuri, Switchblade. Although Iyslander does her best to get Uzuri to “chill,” George eventually was able to close the game out in Uzuri‘s favor with the threat of a Bloodrot Pox token and no way to pay for it, drawing the concession from Samuel.

With only two rounds left in Swiss, these players knew their records were good enough to make the elimination rounds if they kept winning. In Round Eleven, we saw “The Hero Killer” Pablo Pintor on Bravo, Showstopper facing off against our first Lexi, Livewire of the day, piloted by Ernesto Silva. In Pablo’s hands, Bravo did his very best Oldhim, Grandfather of Eternity impression and consistently swung Titan’s Fist to grind Lexi into the dirt and eventually win by running her out of threats.

The final round of Swiss. Two players sat down in the feature match area and, in theory, it would be the last game for Calling: Birmingham for one of them based on their records. With that kind of pressure on their shoulders, Joel Rencen, piloting Dromai, Ash Artist, probably had a very different reaction to seeing his opponent for the win-and-in round than George Rodger did playing Fai, Rising Rebellion. Dromai is known to have an absolutely abysmal match up into Fai, and despite getting off to an early lead, eventually all of the dragons were ground away by Fai’s consistent, relentless assault. Unfortunately for George, his tie breakers kept him out of the elimination rounds and his tournament ended with a heartbreaking ninth place finish. Still an extremely impressive run. Well done!

Top Cut Featured Matches

Bravo, Showstopper was the king of Swiss at the end of Round Twelve, bringing Sebastian Grondal to the top of the standings as the only player to suffer a single defeat over the course of the two day event. Sebastian and Bravo faced off against Ralph Schlauri and Katsu, the Wanderer as the featured match in the first round of elimination.

Unfortunately for Ralph, a nuance in the rules that he didn’t realize cost him the half of his weaponry early in the game when he tried to play a Razor Reflex on Zephyr Needle, thinking that the Needle wouldn’t break at the end of the chain. The trigger and check happen during the defend step of combat though, and it doesn’t check again after the defend step closes, so even though the weapon was buffed it was still destroyed by a single card that blocked for three. The wiles of Katsu still made an exciting game of things, but Bravo managed to prevent every single opportunity for Concealed Blade to fetch the extra weapon from Ralph’s inventory. Both players were left with no cards left in their decks when Katsu finally fell.

The Semi-finals match brought Pablo Pintor back on camera with Bravo, Showstopper once again, this time playing against George Keys and Uzuri, Switchblade. The casters had a great time “golf casting” every hammer swing and despite a valiant struggle from Uzuri, Pablo and Bravo moved on to the finals with a dominate activation on Chokeslam to finish off Uzuri’s last life point.

The finals is a master class on why you should never call a game over until the last card has been played. Pablo Pintor and Bravo, Showstopper stepped into the limelight for the final game of Calling: Birmingham against Samuel Braben and his Iyslander, Stormbind deck. At several points, it looked like Pablo and Bravo were going to crush the frosty wizard, but they were never quite able to get the job done. Overcoming a massive life deficit, Samuel and Iyslander clawed back into the game and eventually the spell slinger got the last word. The third major Flesh and Blood event in a row in the new Dusk Till Dawn meta was taken down by the ice queen.

Final Thoughts

The Push the Point crew did an excellent job of casting this event. The stream quality was perfect and the player cameos were often hilarious and felt like a natural inclusion. Every game we saw was intense and wonderfully showcased the back and forth action that makes Flesh and Blood the amazing game that it is. I’m personally a little sad that the finals didn’t include a Katsu, but I can’t be too disappointed at the amazingly intense battles we saw play out from across the world. Well done and well played to all of the gamers who were there at Calling: Birmingham and congratulations Samuel on your hard fought victory.

Did you watch the event coverage live or are you going back and checking things out after the fact? What was your favorite on camera moment from the event? Is this an Iyslander world and we’re just living in it now? I’d love to hear your thoughts, so let me know here or on Discord or Twitter by reaching out to me as Dracohominis87!

Donnie K.

Donnie is an enthusiastic nerd and family man who grew up playing TCGs, starting when Pokemon cards were the hottest thing on the playground. After playing Yu-gi-oh and then Magic the Gathering for years, he found Flesh and Blood in December of '22, sold all of his other pretty cardboard rectangles, and dived into FAB head first where he discovered a deep love for go-wide strategies involving the use of Ninja cards. Be Like Water is his current favorite card, because he gets to do a terrible Bruce Lee impression every time it's played. (Much to the annoyance of his brother who hears it a lot.) Donnie has been married to his lovely wife since Halloween 2008 and has two beautiful daughters that he couldn't be more proud of.