Tales of Aria released in September of 2021, and since then has captivated players with its rich colors, delightful lore, and flavorful heroes. Now, almost precisely three years later, each of the heroes featured in that set have since reached Living Legend, and players lost access to some of the game’s most stunning pieces. For new seeds to grow, the old must decay. This is Rhys, and today I’m going to break down the Lightning and Runeblade cards most impactful in Aurora, Shooting Star!

Before I begin, a huge shoutout to Legend Story Studios and their incredible design team. As you review Rosetta with me, you will see that they added to a card pool that was previously designed for dual-element heroes in a mechanically unique way that integrates both old and new cards. Not only that, they did so in a way that leaves the new single-element heroes with their own identities that feels on equal footing with the Tales of Aria heroes. They raise the bar with every release.

With Rosetta on the horizon, it’s difficult to overstate my personal excitement for the return of this aesthetic to the Classic Constructed card pool. Patiently waiting since Briar, Warden of Thorns‘s rotation to the Living Legend roster, the Runeblades of the world can rejoice at the powerful expansion to their card pool in Rosetta!

Fizzle or Bedazzle?

It’s already apparent that Aurora, Shooting Star is going to be a deck heavily focused on aggression, with early deckbuilding concepts considering a high number of cards that can’t block. When playing cards that offer bonus damage above the normal rate, it’s not entirely surprising, either. Fry adding itself to the Head Jab alignment chart as an elemental version of the standard attack is still good enough in 2024!

Burn Up // Shock being a split card that has a potential for five arcane damage stapled onto a zero resource action that blocks three is adding to the apparent theme of high-rate damage effects that are split between physical and arcane. Opponents who don’t block well are going to be devastated by this card. Not to mention the Shock side is an instant, so if your opponent over-extends at a low life total, you threaten simply beating them before you even need to worry about blocking!

Weave Lightning was already good enough, and will continue being good enough at six copies in your deck.

Returning attacks to your hand as a means of re-using them, either after attacking or blocking, is a largely unused design space in Flesh and Blood. The power level of this ability is immediately apparent in a deck like Lexi, Livewire as a way to pick up arrows after defending with them, giving a payoff similar to Three of a Kind. It’s beyond doubt that this ability is playable, but how much of it you want in your deck remains to be determined.

From here, there are cards that are playable, but may not make the cut. With Classic Constructed’s card pool deepening, even small hurdles for upsides become large power gaps against cards with more simplistic and impactful upsides, like Snatch or flexible like Enlightened Strike.

Heavy Hitters, Rosetta Edition

Since the recent banning of the different card draw effects in Flesh and Blood, Channel Lightning Valley stands out as an absurdly powerful card to pair with instant speed damage effects like Shock or Sigil of Suffering. Card draw is much rarer and harder to obtain now, so an effect that draws cards as a benefit to something you already want to be doing jumps out as a home run of a card. It’s also worth noting that it’s an instant, so it can be played on the first turn of the game as a setup piece, or after an opponent has chosen to allow damage through for the first time in a later turn. Expect great things from this card.

Call Down the Lightning walked so Arc Lightning could run. A yellow pitch card that can be pushed to an unbelievably high damage rate with effects like Channel Lightning Valley or other card draw effects and turns almost everything into split damage will make for incredibly frustrating defensive turns for your opponents.

Honestly, I could write an entire article just about Gone in a Flash, what an incredible piece. This can draw block commitments from an opponent, then you can play an instant-speed damage effect to pick this up, and then tag them with it an additional time if it has go again; Blink will do a lot of work here. The implications of this kind of power level is going to be worth the card investment. On top of all this, the art is gorgeous! 10/10, no notes.

Cards to Keep an Eye On

While neither of these seem incredibly impressive on their own, each of these cards has potential to be important role-fillers if a deck needs them. Current Funnel is a blue block three in Lightning, which is quite rare, joining Heaven's Claws in an exclusive space. Vaporize // Shock is a card made to interact with an opponents board state, which isn’t a common thing in Flesh and Blood at present, mostly being reserved for niche cards and Illusionists. It seems that Aurora, Shooting Star isn’t looking to interact with too many things besides an opponent’s life total, so it remains to be seen if this is worth the slot, or if this is a majestic rarity card due to its power level in Rosetta limited formats.

The non-talented Runeblade cards of this set have some incredible power in them, but are unlikely to make it into Aurora, Shooting Star builds, considering her want for instant speed effects, and that being a more common theme in the Lightning Runeblade card pool. Her needs are pretty specific, but the non-talented cards will be a great shot in the arm for Viserai, Rune Blood and Vynnset, Iron Maiden fans.

That will wrap up this Rosetta review! Let me know if you think I missed anything, and go start brewing!

More Rosetta Set Reviews:

The Best Rosetta Cards for Commoner

Rosetta Review – Florian

Rosetta Review – Verdance

More to come!

Rhys

Rhys (she/they) is a long-time Magic: the Gathering fan, having started in Seventh Edition. She played Legacy until around 2018, and now mostly plays EDH. She Transitioned to competitive play with Flesh and Blood at the release of Tales of Aria, where she was quickly enamored with the skill expression, seeking constant self-improvement. When not obsessing over cards, Rhys can be found consuming speedrunning content, or fawning over literature like The Witcher, or Sherlock Holmes.