(Katsu, the Wanderer | Art by Andrey Savchuk)

Hi! This is Rhys, back with another installment of Evergreen, a series focused on helping you unlock the power deep within the heroes of Flesh and Blood in the Classic Constructed format. Together we’ll look at an individual hero for each part of this series. We’ll go beyond what just appears on the text of the card and discuss how to release a hero’s full potential; a required skill as Flesh and Blood continues to grow.

Visit the Floating Dojo

This time we’re doing a deep dive on Katsu, the Wanderer, one of the oldest heroes in Flesh and Blood. With support printed as recently as Outsiders, the Wind Ninja has a breath of fresh air in a metagame of higher power. Modern builds now have a card pool deep enough to utilize Katsu’s ability to even greater potential, searching for the key piece needed to knock the wind right out of your opponent.

You may be asking yourself “Is Rhys going to make wind puns the entire article?” To which I say, “Probably.”

Katsu, the Wanderer uses Mask of Momentum, the legendary Welcome to Rathe equipment that threatens to allow us to draw an extra card if our opponent doesn’t block consistently, and he also has access to the infamous “Kodachi Lock,” but more on these later. First, we’ll look at the combo lines, a keyword specific to the Ninja class, and how to constantly keep yur opponent off their balance.

Dishonor on You, Dishonor on Your Cow

Before we begin, we’ll take a look at Katsu, the Wanderer‘s hero ability, which reads, “The first time an attack action card you control hits each turn, you may discard a card with cost zero. If you do, search your deck for a card with combo, banish it face up, then shuffle your deck. You may play it this turn.” This means our deck is going to be focused on the combo keyword, and making sure we have a good balance of zero-cost cards in our deck to both pitch and discard. Remember, pitching a zero cost card is part of what makes Harmonized Kodachi such a powerful late game card.

For now, let’s go over some of the combo lines, and how you can set them up. We’ll use Ivaylo Ivanov’s second place Road to Nationals decklist as a reference point.

The main starters are Be Like Water and Surging Strike, as they go into both of the combo lines you play. The finishers you have access to with them are Lord of Wind, and most importantly, Dishonor. The Dishonor line offers a strong damage output, and truly knocking the wind out of your opponent, leaving them with no abilities for the remainder of the game. Lord of Wind is a strong finisher, offering a place to sink unspent resources, and can help reload your deck with threatening starters in longer games. Starters are a precious resource, so be sure if you have multiples in a hand, that you carefully measure whether or not to put one in arsenal, or pitch it into your deck again. You don’t want to play two Surging Strike and a Be Like Water on a single turn; you won’t have enough resources for a full combo, and you’ll be unable to present a relevant combat chain in later turns.

A low opportunity cost combo that’s also played is Hundred Winds. Since you play Winds of Eternity as a zero-cost blue that blocks for three, adding more zero-cost cards to the deck that you can discard with ease has secondary value with Katsu’s hero ability.

The last combo this list plays is Spinning Wheel Kick and Cyclone Roundhouse. This combo is short, presents considerable damage, and doesn’t necessarily require one of your precious starters from your main combos. While you can theoretically start this combo with changing Be Like Water to Twin Twisters, playing that full combo line would cost a difficult-to-reach four resources. Fortunately, going from Spinning Wheel Kick into Cyclone Roundhouse is enough to satisfy the high potential of Cyclone Roundhouse.

Maximizing Katsu’s hero ability is twofold: getting the cards into hand for your current combo, and discarding cards that you can get a duplicate of with Bonds of Ancestry, facilitating wide turns with formidable attacks. Building combos might seem daunting at first, as it does make you think about what cards are still in the deck. Just hang tough, be graceful to yourself if you make a mistake, and in time you’ll surprise yourself. Not to mention, being able to keep track of what you have access to in your deck is a transferable skill to any game of Flesh and Blood.

It’s a contested topic among players about whether or not playing a deck solitaire with no opponent can inhibit your growth as a player, as it doesn’t often put you in a place to make a decision with a required block in mind. In Katsu’s case, practicing combo lines until they’re second nature will help free up energy you can use for thinking about those things in-game, which gives you an edge in later rounds against less-familiar opponents. Just like sparring in martial arts, managing the economy of your exhaustion is one of the best opportunities you have to gain an advantage over your opponent.

Measure Twice, Cut Once

Katsu, the Wanderer plays a lot of cards that say “Block me and I won’t be able to do anything else this turn.” A skilled opponent will often try and pull him into a long-winded, block-heavy game, where other heroes’ individual cards will often have higher raw power than Katsu’s. Heroes with powerful on-hit effects will also push Katsu into blocking, which is a particular challenge, as you often need four cards or more to facilitate a full combo. This is where reactions come into play.

Since there are key pieces of your combo lines that need to connect in order to get the ball rolling, attack reactions can do a lot of heavy lifting in this deck. Ancestral Empowerment even replaces itself, so you can draw into more resources, or even a piece of the combo you would otherwise have to discard to search for. Razor Reflex has a great damage buff, even though it consumes a resource, and can give an innocuous attack go again in a pinch.

Flic Flak has a very high defensive ceiling, turning a second card into an above-rate block later in the chain, and the instant Reinforce the Line can help protect a starter in your arsenal against the dreaded Command and Conquer, since it’s not a defense reaction. It’s important to carefully measure moments where you go into a hand with three or fewer cards, because it’s going to likely mean your return volley is below rate, and likely doesn’t pressure the opponent to interact back. Like other heroes that don’t like to block, once you start blocking, you can easily fall too far behind to catch back up.

But What Will I Wear?

Katsu, the Wanderer has a pretty budget-friendly armor suite, only opting to play the coveted Fyendal's Spring Tunic as a sideboard option against Iyslander, Stormbind and her frostbite tokens. Heartened Cross Strap means once a game we can play a full combo for zero resources, which is fantastic in a late stage of the game.

All of Katsu’s equipment gains power as the game progresses. Breaking Scales threatens a plus one attack reaction on a relevant attack. This can force an opponent into over-blocking multiple times, so make sure to leverage those moments, and only use it when absolutely necessary. Breeze Rider Boots is primarily a blocking equipment, but can dig you out of a weird hand that might be missing go again. Keep an eye out for moments you can start a combo partway through. Snapdragon Scalers will most often be your leg equipment, however, being a less conditional way to give something go again. Lastly, Blazen Yoroi is in this list, and would only really be used in the Katsu mirror match, or against Fai, Rising Rebellion, the draconic ninja from Volcor who goes wide with more straightforward go again attacks.

Lastly, Harmonized Kodachi. Holding one to make room for Arcane Lantern against Runeblades or Wizards is necessary to prevent the arcane onslaught, but the rest of the time you’re able to demand cards from your opponent in weird places to keep Mask of Momentum from giving you a card with these. Since Mask of Momentum wants the third consecutive hit to be an attack action card to give you a draw, make sure to sequence in a way that you don’t lose out on a chance for that card. Racing your opponent down with combos means when they’re at one life, they have to give an entire card to each Kodachi, so you can block all the way down to a one-card hand and still take two from them in return! This is the “Kodachi Lock” that was previously mentioned.

Wrapping Things Up

Katsu, the Wanderer is one of my favorite heroes to show to people as something with an extremely high ceiling, but requiring a high skill level to pull those last few percentage points out of, like the most technical characters in a fighting game. He also has the added flavor of being a hero that truly feels like you’re making those attacks in sequence, like a fighting game in an arcade. Even though his play patterns are a bit more straightforward than they used to be, that would often result in simply being unable to put a hand together that could pull off a combo. There isn’t much decklist tuning required with Katsu. His combos, paired with the needed attack and defense reactions, mean you can focus more on technical play. So, if you don’t like going to a lot of pain over your decklist, you’ll like what the Wind Ninja offers.

Thank you so much for reading along with this breakdown on Katsu, the Wanderer. I hope this guide gives you the button combo you need to win your next Armory!

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.