Blitz is sitting in a really weird place right now. Zen is extremely dominant to the point of feeling like a problem, and the best deck into him is lead by a hero that only has promo printings. This has led a lot of players to not want to play the format, and as a person that plays a lot of Blitz, I can understand why. Luckily there are still options if you aren’t keen on the gameplay the meta game provides right now.

Agree to Play Goofy Blitz Piles

I’ll start by saying not every meta will be willing or able to swap over to decks of this kind. Though if your meta will, it can be a great time. I’ve had a lot more fun trying to force outlandish concepts in Blitz than I ever have playing the Tier 0 stuff. Playing under-represented heroes can be a lot of fun and gives people a lot of room to flex their creativity and deck building. Some good things to try can be building one of your favorite heroes in a completely different way or trying a different hero you haven’t seen very much. If you want somewhere fun to start, try out these decks.

GreEnigma

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Hero (1) 1 Enigma, New Moon Weapons (1) 1 Iris of Reality Equipment (4) 1 Diadem of Dreamstate 1 Heirloom of Rabbit Hide 1 Skywalker Keikoi 1 Wave of Reality Main (38) 2 Coalescence Mirage red 2 Enigma Chimera red 2 Fate Foreseen red 2 Phantasmaclasm red 2 Sigil of Solitude red 2 Sink Below red 1 A Drop in the Ocean blue 2 Big Blue Sky blue 2 Cosmic Awakening blue 2 Haze Bending blue 1 Homage to Ancestors blue 2 Manifestation of Miragai blue 1 Pass Over blue 2 Passing Mirage blue 1 Path Well Traveled blue 1 Preserve Tradition blue 1 Rising Sun, Setting Moon blue 1 Sacred Art: Immortal Lunar Shrine blue 2 Second Tenet of Chi: Tide blue 2 Shimmers of Silver blue 1 Stir the Pot blue 2 Tidal Surge blue 2 Vengeful Apparition blue Inventory (9) 2 Essence of Ancestry: Body red 2 Oasis Respite red 1 Remembrance yellow 2 Hold the Line blue 1 Phantom Tidemaw blue 1 Unravel Aggression blue

This is a Cosmic Awakening deck that is all-in on trying to make that the win-con while being just relevant enough with your weapon to keep the opponent from holding too many cards. Note: This deck will always bring in two cards to get up to a 40 card deck.

What if I lived? Benji

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Hero (1) 1 Benji, The Piercing Wind Weapons (2) 2 Harmonized Kodachi Equipment (4) 1 Flick Knives 1 Fyendal’s Spring Tunic 1 Ironhide Legs 1 Mask of Momentum Main (40) 2 Fate Foreseen red 2 Flic Flak red 2 Healing Balm red 2 Sigil of Solace red 2 Sink Below red 2 Sun Kiss red 2 Vipox red 2 Ride the Tailwind yellow 2 Spring Tidings 2 Tiger Eye Reflex yellow 2 Wander With Purpose 2 Biting Breeze blue 2 Crane Dance blue 2 Find Center 2 Fluster Fist blue 2 Hundred Winds blue 2 Life for a Life blue 2 Soulbead Strike blue 2 Stab Wound blue 2 Winds of Eternity Inventory (6) 2 Oasis Respite red 1 Dishonor 1 Nullrune Gloves 1 Nullrune Robe 1 Tide Flippers

This is one of my favorite decks. It looks to chip away at the opponent while sustaining with life gain and defense reactions. To learn more about this pile check out this article I wrote about it.

Play Another Format

One of the nice things about Flesh and Blood being a card game is that we get access to multiple formats. Whether you want to be competitive in Classic Constructed or play more casually, there’s something for everyone. Here’s some of the other options.

CC

Most players are aware of Classic Constructed, as it’s the premier constructed format for FAB and has the most events. If you want to continue in the competitive atmosphere and don’t mind seeing the Tiger Ninja some more, this is where you want to move.

Commoner

I have a friend, Steven, who loves Commoner and carries around a long box of prebuilt Commoner decks with him to most events. He’s been having a great time playing pickup games of Commoner with people before events and between rounds. The varied landscape of the Commoner meta is going to allow you to do things that aren’t viable in other formats. I know I’ve seen Reality Refractor Enigma, Jubeel Boltyn, and a bunch more things be played with some level of success there. The other nice thing about it is that trying the format costs almost nothing if you or friends have a bit of bulk around. The average Commoner deck comes out below $10.

UPF

UPF can be a lot of fun with the right group. It’s reminiscent of Magic‘s Commander format. It’s unique in that it is a four-player free for all and serves as LSS’s main supported casual format. I’ve had a lot of fun playing decks centered around goofing with the table or playing politics in UPF. I really recommend this one for anyone that’s playing with a close group of friends. It can make for a great game night format.

Arena/Duo

At some point I’ll write a whole article on this fan-made format, but for today I want to suggest it as a fun alternative for when you’re feeling a bit burnt on competitive play. The format has recently been renamed Duo, but has spent most of its time known as Arena. This format is unique in that you pick out two young heroes to lead your deck. You then get to build a deck with both of their card pools combining things to try to make weird and wacky things happen that were never intended to happen in Flesh and Blood. There’s a catch though. Duo is a 60-card singleton format, meaning that you can only run one of each card, and you run more cards than Blitz. This makes the game flow in a more unique way every turn.  When it comes to your life total, you add the two young heroes’ life totals together and that will be your starting life total. As for intellect (looking at the Data Doll MKII players), you get to use the highest of your heroes. Your zones are the same as playing a single hero format (you only get two hands) but do note that weapons are exempt from the singleton rule.

Duo was intended as a 1v1 format, but can be combined with UPF to make for an even more interesting game. I’ve had a lot of fun with this format. Some of my favorite decks include: Benji, the Piercing Wind with Boltyn, because the Benji buff activates Boltyn’s ability; Oldhim and Kavdaen, Trader of Skins to have almost complete control of your life total while going two below your opponent to slowly use Kav to pull them down where they die to a dominated attack or two; and last but not least, Kayo, Berserker Runt and Shiyana, Diamond Gemini because Shiyana can copy Kayo and then you get to roll dice twice to try and quadruple the power of a Crippling Crush.

To learn more about Duo you can check out the format’s website at fabduos.com.

The Hopes and Dreams

Most of us that love Blitz are waiting for LSS to do something about the balance of the format, and particularly Zen. I want to clarify that I trust that they will, but I don’t think it will be pre-Skirmish Season. Fortunately in the meantime, there are plenty of options of formats to keep playing FAB.

Further Reading:

What to Expect at a Flesh and Blood Skirmish

Battling Burnout in Flesh and Blood

Ultimate Pit Fight – Multiplayer Flesh and Blood

Jo O'Brien

Jo (they/them) is an avid Flesh and Blood player, judge and, writer. They are one of the blitz specialists here at FABREC. Jo has played a lot of classes and heroes but, they have an affinity for two heroes in particular, Dash and Valda. When not playing FaB, Jo is typically filling their free time playing guitar, playing Apex Legends, or building their next Rube Goldberg machine of a deck.