(Dash, Database | Art by Sam Yang)

Thanks to Chu Heng, Elliot, Fen Fei, Isaac, Ivan, Kai Yang and Marco for all their guidance this limited season.

Coming off the heels of bubbling Nationals and crashing Calling: Taiwan, I looked to the horizon as World Championship: Barcelona loomed. Bright Lights draft is a deep format which has rewarded those who’ve paid the time necessary to understand it. Considering I was spending my only PTI to attend, I was determined to put in work to see some semblance of a result for what I was sacrificing.

This article covers the Limited half of my preparation that resulted in my 28th placing at Worlds: Barcelona, with the constructed portion following in a later article.

Bright Lights Draft

I’ve never seen myself as a “Limited player.” I’ve always preferred mastering my 80 cards and playing the peak of Flesh and Blood power with my constructed decks against my equally prepared opponents. However, at the highest tiers of competitive play, not only must you master constructed, but also drafting. My fundamentals in FAB have always been solid but never extraordinary, especially compared to the best in the world. 

Surviving the Monarch Draft during Singapore’s Nationals with a 4-2 record was a miracle for me, but my rough knowledge of limited cost me greatly during Worlds: San Jose, opening the tournament at 1-2 and dooming my run before it had begun.

As Bright Lights approached, I had never been more excited for a Limited format over its constructed implications. My old philosophy is “30 playable cards,” but due to the fatigue nature of Bright Lights draft, and the higher floor of decks, that was no longer an option. I had to draft good decks. 

Singapore’s high-level Limited players are terrifying, and set a high standard for remotely finding success, even at an Armory level. To a player like me, these players assembled insane decks that somehow whirred together beautifully in game. My first draft was miserable (but hilarious to play) – a Dash, Database deck with 17 items. As time passed and friends guided the way, I improved, and ingrained in me were several principles.

Boost is King

I learned this lesson the hard way from being starved of boost from both sides of the draft during an Armory. I created what I thought was a beautiful Dash deck, but somehow ended up with only five boost cards. A deck with many quality boost cards is never bad, or so I learned, and so the meta developed in Singapore around this idea.

Very few cards were chosen over premium red boost cards such as Lay Waste or Panel Beater, as they were universally powerful regardless of your hero. Only after the quality boost card dries in a pack do we look to home in upon selecting a hero. The intricacies of receiving a signal is something I never learned formally, but had learned to sense. The goal of receiving signals was to never be the weakest hero of a class, and end with a deck with a sufficiently cohesive strategy. It was important to find sufficient evasion and offense to defeat the base blocking ability of Teklovossen decks, as well as sufficient deck quality to be able to block efficiently against Dash and Maxx.

Drafting towards a cohesive deck, not just powerful cards, was one key lesson my Limited teachers (my “senseis”) had taught me. There is such a thing as too many Junkyard Doggs and Boom Grenades, and cards traditionally considered poor have uses in the right deck.

For example, zero-for-three boost cards appear bad, as they burn through your deck inefficiently and don’t chip damage. However, in a deck with either Penetration Script or Big Shot, these cards become key payoff enablers. Another example was Chu Heng (current #2 Limited in the world), fatiguing Teklovossen with MHz Script, Autosave Script, and a host of one-for-fours.

The wheel is critical, as the draft is tight and you need as many playable cards as possible. Reading the table and knowing which payoff cards will come back is critical in drafting a 3-0 deck, as poor quality blues or excessive non-blocks will punish you.

As I practiced, I learned that there are several archetypes within each deck: the lean aggressive Dash deck, the thicker value-trading Dash deck, “Tempo-vossen” happily running non-block Evos, a boost-free fatigue Teklovossen, and many more, all dependent on the appearance of certain key cards.

What I Could Not Learn

By the time we departed for Barcelona, I had maybe 12-15 drafts under my belt and barely comprehended what brought together a functional deck. We had several drafts before Worlds had begun, but they didn’t bring about new learning, rather just repeated and reaffirmed what I had already learned.

Among all my drafts, I had only drafted Maxx Nitro thrice, with only one of those decks looking remotely like 2-1 material. I wasn’t comfortable with drafting Maxx and regretfully never managed to learn, and avoided drafting him during Worlds outside of extreme scenarios (opening a literal Bull Bar or Maximum Velocity). Dash, Database and Teklovossen on the other hand were more comfortable for me, cashing in nearly double digit Dash drafts and a comfortable number of reps in Teklovossen.

The particular strategy I was looking to perform was leaning on heavy boost cards, going into a Dash signal if read, or else falling back on an aggressive Teklovossen strategy reliant on non-blocking Evos, powerful boost cards, and a superior weapon to close the game.

However, I lacked the ability to make my decks look as fluid and cohesive as those of whom had taught me; but alas, there was no more time. I hoped I could get by with what I could. And as I sat down for my first draft, I held my breath and opened my first pack.

The First Draft

The first draft table seemed to know what’s up, as boost quickly dried up. I found a mild Dash signal with a fifth pick Boom Grenade yellow and a wheeled Boom Grenade blue, and collected two Backup Protocol: RED on my first pack. I had lost several drafts in practice due to poor blue quality, so went out of my way to pick several decent blues in the first pack whilst trying to stay open as my commitment to Dash had yet been confirmed. A Maxx angle was still possible.

The second and third pack shut that idea off, however, as items appeared to flow rather well alongside boost cards, and I looked to wheel items as I bulked up the base of my deck. Several items strangely had not wheeled, however, such as Dissolving Shield reds. By the end of the draft, I managed about eight to nine items that were satisfactory, with a particularly miserable blue pool as I was starved of quality picks, with only four blues that blocked three and, importantly, basically no base armor. However, with the base of 11 red boost cards, including three copies of MetEx, the deck functioned.

It was certainly good into Teklovossen, with sufficient offensive power and evasion, but it lacked defensive tools and was inconsistent if I ever fell behind. It became clear that Maxx was open as I was passed late Re-Charge! yellows, but I ended up choosing Dash. It turned out my pod was one Maxx, four Dash and three Teklovossen. Yikes.

Round Five began soon, hence there was no time to worry.

R1 – Yegor Borschch – Maxx – Ukraine

When I paired with Maxx I was horrified. I was certain his deck was insane as he was a solo drafter. I decided to go second as I likely needed tempo to attempt to win this game. However, he presented 38 cards and looked to perform a fatigue strategy, playing efficient two-card hands. My deck had sufficient breakpoints, despite presenting only 34, and managed to close the game out via creating meaningful evasion with Boom Grenades. I’d figured that he had wanted to play Teklovossen, but that angle was closed off to him as he tinkered with a suboptimal Maxx deck. 1-0!

R2 – Olli Saarintern – Teklovossen – Finland

My opponent chose to go first and looked a lot more confident in his draft. He played the matchup well, presenting a clean 34-card deck, having sufficient boost cards to punish my poor block quality, and preventing me from having space to pressure him with on hits. I drew several of my items in poor order this game, dying with a Boom Grenade in hand, in arsenal, and in play. Such is variance, and well played. 1-1!

R3 – Paul Dollé – Teklovossen – France

I heaved a sigh of relief as I battled another Teklovossen and went first. I managed to setup early items and never let up the pressure. At one point during the mid-game, a Re-Charge! red‘d, Hadron Collider red‘d Over Loop red for 12 with a Boom Grenade yellow on hit was fully blocked from hand, and I got worried about being unable to close. Thankfully, the deck had sufficient chip damage following the tempo steal to keep his counter attacks at bay and closed the game. This game could have easily gone a different way if my deck had less pressure. 2-1!

The first draft was shaky, but I was fortunate to escape a mediocre draft as contested as I was. In the evening, I joined a community draft and forced Maxx, trying to open myself up to the possibility of playing him on the next day. But I ended with another miserable pile. Don’t force, kids.

Back to the same strategy the next day, it seemed.

The Second Draft

New day, new me. This draft was a lot more straightforward, with the first pack providing me a pick two and seven (!) Boom Grenade red, making me feel very comfortable with my position.

The blue counts were drying up particularly quickly during this draft. As such I made special notice to pick up blocking blues whenever possible. I leaned on a lower curve, running zero-for-threes and managing to luck out on a Pack Three Penetration Script to create precious evasion for these cards. I was low on armor, only picking up a single Cogwerx Base Arms and Teklo Base Chest, making me question what was happening in the draft, as I had planned for several to wheel.

Either way, its hard to be unhappy with six total Boom Grenades, about 13 red boost cards, and a pitch base that blocked outside of three cards. I went with Dash again, and the breakdown of the draft was four Teklovossen, two Dashes and two Maxxes.

R4 – Josép Gine – Maxx – Spain

This isn’t the first time I faced a ‘name mirror’ in the tournament, and we had a good laugh about it before the match. Going first, I managed the nuts turn zero with a Boom Grenade and Dissolving Shield out and softened his returning counter attack before ripping his hand out to block every turn until the game was won off the back of extra action points, breakpointed Boom Grenades, and unending aggression. 3-1!

R5 – Pudding Tam – Maxx – Hong Kong

While we were being deck-checked, I had a good time chatting up my opponent, having played numerous times with Team Blue Pitch across my ‘career’. He presented three base armor, laughing as he mentioned he had lost to a Dash the day before, answering my wonders of where all that armor went. I spent two whole turns attempting to strip his free breakpoint defenses, managing to scam a Penetration Script off the top of my deck to get a Boom Grenade to hit. However, his deck was very good with efficient small hands to chunk my pitiful 18 health life total. I lost, and it wasn’t close, a full turn behind from being able to push him onto defense.

He moved on to Top 8 the tournament, which does bring a smile. Something interesting I had found at the end of the tournament was that Singapore had a strong preference for drafting Dash, Database whilst Hong Kong players mostly all defaulted to Maxx Nitro for their aggressive hero of choice. 3-2!

R6 – Jimmy Niro Demers – Teklovossen – Canada

My opponent’s deck wasn’t built to combat Dash, as he attempted to make space to scale into the end game without putting pressure on my life total. I managed to have a Boom Grenade on the board essentially the entire game, pulling each card out of his hand throughout the game while I chipped with Symbiosis Shots. He eventually fell without ever finding a window to wear any Evos. 4-2!

Conclusion

My limited run went very well for what I had hoped, pulling no more than a single loss in every pod. My lack of experience did punish me in several instances, such as being too inflexible from being able to play Maxx in my first pod and ending heavily contested, and my second draft deck being less perfect than it could have been, drafting a couple too many excessive blues when my deck could have easily ran on yellows. I do believe Bright Lights has more in store for me to master and am saddened that the competitive season for it is over as we move on to Heavy Hitters for the next major Limited format.

Thanks again to all my friends who have taught me how to draft this season, and for aiding me in my successful run. I do hope that LSS does experiment with single class Limited formats in the future! The future of Flesh and Blood is bright, and I’m all for it.

Stay tuned for the constructed half of my Worlds run.

Further Reading:

A Review of the 2023 Flesh and Blood World Championship

Early Look at the FAB World Championship Meta

A Quick Look At Teklovossen in Bright Lights Draft