This past weekend I finally got to play some paper FAB for the first time in what has seemed like ages at Calling: Sydney. My goal was simple: make Top 8 of the Gold Foil Commoner event and hopefully take down the whole event. I was quite confident in my chances and prep work to make the elimination rounds, and had settled on this list with the release of Rosetta.

Glacier by Daniel Yam

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Hero (1) 1 Oldhim Equipment (11) 1 Titan’s Fist 1 Steelbraid Buckler 1 Helm of Isen’s Peak 1 Ironhide Plate 1 Ironhide Gauntlet 1 Civic Steps 1 Nullrune Hood 1 Nullrune Robe 1 Nullrune Gloves 1 Nullrune Boots 1 Arcane Lantern Main (40) 1 Sow Tomorrow blue 1 Emerging Avalanche blue 2 Winter’s Bite blue 2 Arctic Incarceration blue 2 Chokeslam blue 2 Debilitate blue 2 Fruits of the Forest blue 2 Autumn’s Touch blue 2 Winter’s Grasp blue 2 Glacial Footsteps blue 2 Macho Grande blue 1 Harvest Season blue 1 Toughen Up blue 2 Unmovable red 2 Unmovable blue 2 Springboard Somersault yellow 2 Fate Foreseen red 2 Sink Below red 2 Steadfast red 1 Test of Strength red 1 Steadfast blue 2 Oasis Respite red 2 Oasis Respite yellow

Friday – 4:30 PM Commoner Side Event

I initially wanted to play Ira or Chane at this side event before Sunday, but ended up sticking with Oldhim since I really didn’t want to play the Ira mirror potentially every single round, but also because I was unsure of how the Oldhim list matched up against the powerful new tools given to Chane with Rosetta. My first round got called, I sat at the table, and while I waited for my opponent to show up, I just heard “I’m playing Bravo” on the table over, and I had a moment of doubt. Had I just predicted the meta of this event so badly that I might have to play against a bunch of Decimator Great Axe Warriors and hard-hitting Guardians? Thankfully my opponent arrived, pulled out Chane, and pulled me back down to reality.

R1: Chane – L

R2: Chane – W

R3: Oldhim – W

R4: Ira – W

Ultimately a pretty expected matchup spread for what I anticipated to be mirrored on Sunday, and some valuable data obtained. My first round loss to Chane was due in part to an extremely aggressive start as well as spending cards to block Seeds of Agony arcane damage. I’ll elaborate further on in the report about why I think this was a mistake on my part, but my opponent was very well-versed on Chane sequencing and leaned much heavier into Shrill and Hit the High Notes, playing a full six copies of each, leading to some dangerous turns. My other three rounds were pretty uneventful, though my second round Chane opponent (who I found out was friends and locals with the first Chane), played a Runechant-focused build that tried to go hard on Arcane Cussing + Deadwood Dirge and rune gate cards to put up 20-damage turns regularly. He took me down to one life in a turn where I had 17 runechants flying my way, but I managed to stabilize after he went all in on that round of attacks and fatigue him out. The mirror was about as grindy as I expected, especially given that my opponent was playing a more fun build focusing on Miller’s Grindstone and dominate attacks, and the Ira match played out the way I wanted it to; Earth react on the first Kodachi and take one damage on the second, and value block my way to victory.

Sunday – 10:30 AM Commoner Gold Foil Event

The one change I made between Friday and Sunday was switching out one of the blue Steadfasts for a blue Emerging Avalanche, not that I was really going to be doing much in the way of playing it face up, but the blue Steadfasts felt extremely bad against Chane, and there was less Iyslander and Dash than I expected looking over the other player’s hero choices on Friday. So I felt safe in this switch to be more proactive on straight up blocking. I got to the venue, overpriced coffee in hand, and made a beeline for the vendors to buy a blue Sow Tomorrow. I somehow didn’t own any copies of this common so I paid an exorbitant $3 for a rainbow foil, sleeved it up, and waited for the event to start.

Round 1 – Robert on Chane – W

Robert was my round one opponent from Friday, and got into the game with Chane, so he was very clearly well-versed on the deck and its lines. Against Runeblades, I’ve decided to take Nullrune Boots as my only piece of arcane barrier because the Quicken off the Civic Steps is absurdly detrimental in the face of Hit the High Notes. I also noticed he added in some yellow Lead the Charges to the deck for some longer combat chains, which was potentially scary had I not seen one banished off a Soul Shackle on the second turn. The game came down to him deciding to not pop Goliath Gauntlet on a Shrill and then forgetting to activate Chane a turn later, ending the turns abruptly and letting me get a small stabilizing position.

I think in terms of my play compared to my loss on Friday, I decided to not block out the Seeds arcane damage against Robert because he didn’t play Meat and Greets, meaning taking the ping was rarely the start of a huge turn. Robert’s list also played blue Seeds, which felt slightly awkward due to having fewer zero-costs in general, only being Bounding Demigon from banish and red Runerager Swarm, meaning that the blood debt damage started piling up and he was taking three to four damage and ultimately losing to an Oasis Respite I sandbagged for a few turns in arsenal.

Round 2 – Aabhii on Chane – W

This round started in the worst way possible, I missed hearing the announcement that it had started, almost got an IP2 for tardiness and then my sleeves split during shuffling. Thankfully, the judge gave us a time extension due to the round starting earlier than scheduled so I didn’t get penalized. Aabhii is also a Sydney-sider who picked up the new hotness in Chane, and is a self-confessed Wizard main, meaning he wasn’t the most familiar with the deck. This game was less closely-contested compared to my game against Robert as Aabhii had some unfortunate turns of not hitting a non-attack action nor drawing one, leading to some anemic combats.

Round 3 – Logan on Ira – L

Ira, my dread nemesis, finally reared her head at me as I played the last rounds surrounded by her. A Melbournian, Logan’s Ira deck was as clean and well-oiled as they came, with the only real surprise being the Pouncing Paws + Tearing Shuko package. I had a few awkward hands of all reds or no Earth cards, and he navigated alternating between using Ira’s buff on the second Kodachi and generating good breakpoints extremely well.

I think I also played quite poorly with my Civic Steps, choosing to defend with it in inopportune moments that led to some huge damage turns on Logan’s side. I ultimately lost to the classic four-wide combat chain into closing the chain, popping Cross Strap for a big attack after I expended all my cards. Great play from Logan, and a reminder to myself to tighten up when giving my opponents resources.

Round 4 – Jayden on Dash – W

This match was a funny one, in more ways than one. For starters, Jayden, another Sydney local, is just a funny guy. I immediately felt a more casual air to the match with him when he sat down, and really took everything in stride. Like Robert, Jayden got into the game with his hero of choice, and has stuck with Dash in all formats, meaning he really knew how to manage Hyper Driver, even playing red Re-Charge! to juice the next attack while maintaining resource advantage on me. However, his inexperience in Commoner came to be his undoing, as he chose to take Teklo Plasma Pistol and a defensive headpiece into me. As soon as equipment was revealed I let out a surprised “no shotgun?” to which he replied “shotgun?!”

Cue eight turns later, he’s popped the Achilles Accelerator after an Overblast only to shoot me for two with the pistol and said “I should’ve taken the shotgun…” An extremely fun match, and a great sport of an opponent, but now I was 3-1, and needed a win to lock up a Top 8 spot. The real worry was that there was an Enigma player floating around my bracket, which was a nightmare matchup for me. In fact, I saw the same player dismantle my round three opponent on Friday with extreme ease, so that was the one matchup I absolutely wanted to dodge.

Round 5 – Alex on Iyslander – W

Finally, a matchup I wanted to see! Alex was a rare opponent in that he hailed from Tasmania, the one state separated from the rest of the country by sea, and was someone I saw playing on Friday, also on Iyslander. This match itself was pretty uneventful in that I took arcane barrier five into Alex’s Wizard deck and promptly blocked every single attack out. Alex took it all in stride however, and we had a little discussion after our match about how he should have sided in both Fyendal's Fighting Spirit and Wounded Bull for the matchup as opposed to just the Spirit because it makes the cards I decide to arsenal a real tough decision between stowing a red and getting it out of my hand or putting in a Steadfast or an Oasis Respite which aren’t amazing at value blocking those big attacks.

So I was 4-1 and locked for Top 8, there were at least two Ira players making their way there as well, and a high chance the Enigma player and Alex would also be there at 3-2 due to strength of schedule and breakers.

Quarterfinals – Rematch against Alex – L

In what can only be described as the funniest outcome possible, I paired back into Alex after telling him how to beat me and I must say his adaptation was excellent. He made a great read on my arsenal being a defense reaction and proactively used Glacial Horns to lock it up before going for a big turn that drained me of cards and allowing him to blast me out on my turn. Fantastic play all around from Alex, and a great set of opponents for the event itself. The Top 8 was also less homogenous than I expected, comprising of three Ira, Oldhim, Chane, Dash Database(!!!), Enigma, and Iyslander. I think a lot of the Chane players paired into each other early on and knocked each other out of contention, which is a shame, but overall a nice varied Top 8 with some unexpected faces. Realistically, I think I had a decent shot of making the finals if things broke my way, but as the third seed heading into the elimination playoffs, I would’ve struggled against an Ira who got to choose to go second.

Conclusion and Moving Forward

I’m decently happy on my overall performance, with it being the first paper event I’ve played in almost a year now. I’ve got the drive and fire to play more Commoner, and have mentally committed to travel to the next big event in the region. Realistically speaking, I think I had a very strong chance at making Top 8 in the event, being the only Oldhim in the Sunday event, and having none of the rounds come close to going to time. I definitely felt the rust in some poor decision making and fell prey to the deck’s occasional brick hands of four reds, but the list itself felt smooth into the expected metagame.

My regularly scheduled writing will continue next month, going over some deck updates with Rosetta affecting the existing meta in a meaningful way, as well as a revision on how to play Oldhim against certain matchups. Also I got my playmat signed by the Tall Timmy, so who’s the real winner at the end of the day?

Further Reading:

Choosing the Right Flesh and Blood Deck in a Wide Metagame

How to Build a Commoner Deck For Flesh and Blood

The Best Equipment for the Commoner Format

Daniel Yam

Daniel is a competitive psychopath who has relegated himself into playing the most casual format of Commoner. Starting Magic at the onset of Shards block, he jumped into Flesh and Blood when the Ira demo decks were being given out to Australian stores and is a proud holder of a 4-digit GEM ID. In his spare time, he enjoys trying to convince his friends to play increasingly worse cards, going to museums, and playing Guild Wars.