Blitz has been changed quite a bit by this week’s Living Legend update. The format has lost Briar, Dash, and most importantly Zen. By phasing out three of the top aggro decks, it opens a lot of room for the format to change.

The Winners

With every LL or ban comes changes. Sometimes they can really improve a deck’s position in the meta by removing its biggest problem matchups or allowing its good matchups to thrive.

Blitz Players

Zen is gone and that’s the best thing to happen to this format in a long time. Everyone had gotten really tired of Zen making the format as bad as all of its critics always said it was.

Fatigue Strategies

With Zen and Briar out of the format, slower decks have fewer chances to be rushed down out of a game. I think this will see Decimator Great Axe and friends seeing a resurgence in popularity. Blocking with three cards and sending your weapon seems like it could be back in style for a while. Fans of Yoji, Blocky Bravo, and Oops all Traps Riptide will really enjoy this change of pace. The top of aggro right now is Brute and the fatigue decks have an easier time dealing with one chunk of damage rather than death by a thousand cuts.

That being said, Rhinar will be somewhat problematic for these decks when he’s chaining intimidates. Another thing of note is that with Rosetta coming up these decks are going to need a plan to close the game before the arcane damage decks can stack something to go over their heads. This should be easier than against Zen because they won’t typically do it in the first three turns of the game.

Warrior

In the same way as the fatigue decks, Warrior is happy to see the format slow down. Warrior being forced to race is not a position that the class likes to be in. A slower, more methodical format is their jam. This is why Kassai, Cintari Sellsword used to farm Oldhim players for wins. I think we’ll see a return to the class being able to grind life totals down and kill with a reaction. As we head into Rosetta Warrior continues to be relevant with a lot of builds running a healthy number of blues. This makes pitching into Arcane Barrier a more available strategy. Being able to mitigate arcane will be relevant in a format with three Wizards and three Runeblades. Overall, Warrior should be a really solid choice for the next meta.

Victor

Victor has shown to be one of the most consistent decks in the format. He was one of the few consistency decks putting up numbers this season because occasionally having five intellect is amazing. Victor’s ability to swap between blocking efficiently and outputting respectable damage with relevant crush effects makes him a strong choice for the format. We’ll see plenty of him around, but throwing more 10s than he was in the Zen meta.

The Losers

Data Doll

Data Doll MKII has become a casualty of Dash’s newly found LL status. Doll is now in search of a new weapon and her prospects are looking grim. Hanabi Blaster is hard to make consistent with three intellect and a bunch of items in the deck. Plasma Barrel Shot also suffers from the three intellect problem. Teklo Leveler is just not efficient enough. Lastly, and probably the best solution, Talishar, the Lost Prince has the most efficient numbers. Losing the ability to shoot Teklo Plasma Pistol repeatedly off of her extra actions points has really hurt her viability.

Assassin

Assassin has been praying on the prevalence of no blocks rushdown. Three of the most prevalent decks for that archetype just LL’d and decks that are prone to playing defense reactions are likely to rise in popularity. This will leave the Assassins in a weird spot.

Runeblade

Runeblade lost its favorite weapon along with Briar. The split four damage off of Rosetta Thorn was enough to win games on its own. The alternatives can leave something to be desired. Playing things like Reaping Blade, Flail of Agony, and Dread Scythe lose a lot of efficiency for the class.

The Impact

Losing these three and their weapons will shake the format a lot. In some good and bad ways. I look forward to trying the format with its new landscape. There’s a lot more room for creativity in the format without an undeniable best deck. I’m hoping we can return to a Blitz meta where a lot of strategies can win and very few things feel hopeless. The format can heal and improve now.

Further Reading:

What to Expect at a Flesh and Blood Skirmish

How to Win When You’re Behind

Fighting Fatigue in 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.