All good things must come to an end, and it is with a heavy heart that I have to announce that this is my last article for FABREC. As the website continues to grow and expand into something that can encompass and platform a larger and wider range of card game content, it’s only understandable that the powers that be pause existing writing for the meantime. Since this is my final article for the foreseeable future here, I’d like to take one last look at Commoner as a format. No crazy decklists to share, no hot tech I’ve been hiding, just some parting words if I could ever instill some form of knowledge to anyone who has read any of my articles.

Keep Up With the Hotness (Regrettably)

As LSS solidifies its product types and release cadence, look to the increasing amount of preconstructed decks for new cards. I feel like we’ve seen this happen across multiple formats, starting with Glistening Steelblade in the Classic Battles: DVR, red Bittering Thorns and Civic Steps in Round the Table, and now red Sizzle in First Strike: Aurora. The future of the format could well hinge on an innocuous common printed in these products, and with Jarl announced on the horizon, you can best bet that keeping up with these Armory Decks and other beginner products can get you ahead of the curve both in terms of price and power.

For the Love of God: Own a Copy of Ira

This might seem antithetical to a lot of what I’ve preached in my writing, but every self-respecting Commoner player should own a copy of Ira at all times. I’m not saying that she’s the undisputed best deck and that’s why everyone should make the space to keep that deck sleeved, but her extreme consistency and flexibility makes her a good choice at events when there are new cards injected into the format and there may be a lot of wild brews flying around. She’s the ultimate safety net in Commoner, and the floor is also extremely high due to individual card quality, so everyone please keep a copy of the deck on you at all times.

Be Real With Yourself

There’s a slight misconception in the FAB space that Commoner seems to be a place where people can build their favorite heroes and compete. While this might be true if your favorite hero is one of the chosen few top-tiers, most heroes languish in mid-tier or below, owing to a variety of reasons affecting their viability. This is FINE if you want to still build your desired hero, one of my earliest articles highlighted as much, just please be honest with yourself. A friend approached me on Discord the other day looking to brew up Viserai OTK, but he had no qualms about the fact that Chane could do essentially everything Viserai wanted but better. So establishing those parameters before going into the deckbuilding will really help the entire process and give you a better clarity about what directions to take the hero.

And Now, a Segment On Why I Love Commoner

It’s no secret that I love Commoner and all that it offers. In fact, it’s the only FAB I actually play. There’s never been a proper time or place for me to articulate why that is in writing, so where else better than my last article on FABREC to go into it? I love Commoner for two major reasons, and one minor personal reason. Primarily, I believe that Commoner is a great way to play the game in a way that adheres strictly to the fundamental aspects of what makes FAB so enjoyable: attacking and blocking. It certainly feels more of a grounded ruleset when playing Commoner compared to some of the other formats where the game is still primarily centered around being cost-effective and valuing card advantage when attacking and blocking here and there, while people in CC are having the time of their lives with Count Your Blessings doing insane things and Living Legend saw Kraken’s Aethervein banned after amping up to an absurd amount of damage in one turn. Those things are undeniably awesome and show what’s possible within the game engine, but it is nice to have a format where the things described and taught by the Welcome Deck still hold true.

Secondly, Commoner is one of two non-rotating formats in FAB next to Living Legend (I’m not counting UPF here). Having an eternal format with no Living Legend system is a great way for lapsed players to maintain a deck (hence why I suggest always owning a copy of Ira), or for a reprieve from the fast paced points updates of a Blitz season that saw multiple heroes retired mid-season. Even if it’s not a format you play very often, having it be there right where you last left it is fantastic. Play CC, play Blitz, enjoy the amazing gameplay and diverse strategies you can do with those card pools – Commoner will always be there just as you remembered it. This has personally helped me maintain interest in FAB during lulls as even trying to optimize a decklist or brew up something new keeps me engaged with the game without worry of my hero suddenly become retired, which leads me to my last point.

I LOVE foils. It’s a problem that has plagued many card gamers, and the shiny sickness will continue to infect others until everyone is a foil addict. Playing Commoner allows me to play with fully foiled decks at a very affordable price point while letting me be dripped out in the fanciest pieces of cardboard money can buy. Sure, blinging out a deck with alpha foils is extremely excessive and not something I recommend others doing, but there is something funny to me about playing the Commoner format with a deck that is as expensive and shiny as possible.

Some Words of Thanks

Of course, I couldn’t have gotten here, 27 articles later, without some help. Many thanks to Jason for being so gracious with his time in replying to my initial application with feedback and helping me drill down my insanely bloated original submission into something legible. Andy, for being so patient with the few late submissions and issues I’ve had in my articles along the way, he’s been the best, adding in all the hyperlinks to other articles and pages that I should have done myself on some occasions. My local Birmingham crowd, who I miss, you guys were cool enough that I kept playing FAB for as long as I did during my time in the UK, and I hope to see you all again one day. And lastly, thanks to you, the reader, whoever you are and however few or many of you there are. I grew up in the age of longform written strategy content for card games being the norm, not the minority, and for a while, I got to be part of that life, and live a childhood dream.

I’ll see you all when I see you. Goodbye.

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.