Greetings and salutations my fabulous fab folks! I’m Donnie K., and you’ve found another coverage review article here on FABREC. Today we’re taking a look at some featured matches from the coverage for Calling: Manilla.

Let’s get started!

Great Games in the Pearl of the Orient!

Sadly (for me at least), there doesn’t appear to have been a live blog for Calling: Manila. The website only says, “Official Live Blog Coming August 2024.” Meaning, it was a little harder to compile the info this week. But we make do, right?

The event was hosted by Legendary Games Distribution and the stream came to us from the official Flesh and Blood YouTube channel. Only the first names of the casters (Newsun and Elliot), were posted on screen where I could find them. I recognized Elliot from his previous work, but Newsun was a new face to me, and the casting from both was really enjoyable.

In the absence of a live blog, let’s get straight to the numbers.

The Numbers We Always Want to Know

Day One

After crunching the numbers from the metagame breakdown, there were 226 players who registered for the main event. The top five heroes on Day One were pretty much the usual suspects for the Part the Mistveil meta (Day Two data wasn’t available as of time of writing).

Zen was the most represented with 43 players, followed by Nuu with 28. There were 26 players who brought Kayo, then 20 and 15 for Prism and Victor, respectively. Betsy, Arakni, Bravo, and Katsu were all left on the sidelines as the other 23 legal heroes duked it out for the grand prize.

Top 8 Cut

After 11 rounds of Swiss Classic Constructed game play, the Top 8 consisted of five Zen, one Kayo, one Dash, and one Nuu.

1. David Yau (Zen)
2. Pudding Tam (Zen)
3. Naib Moibassir (Zen)
4. Gordon Koh (Nuu)
5. Brodie Spurlock (Zen)
6. Justin Cu (Dash 'IE')
7. Soh Zheng (Kayo)
8. Nova Chan (Zen)

Now, let’s talk about those games!

Feature Match Highlights

Day One (Seven Rounds of Classic Constructed)

Round One – Peng Joon (Kayo) vs Shoma (Uzuri)

Fresh off of his win in Amsterdam, Shoma Yamamura brought his Uzuri to Manila. Facing off against FAB’s newest PT champ was Peng Joon and a beautifully blinged out Kayo.

Shoma started things off with Isolate into Surgical Extraction, immediately ripping one of Peng’s Bloodrush Bellows away. The Brute had a weaker start, just setting up, but his second turn began with an Agility token. After a few more turns of disruption, Peng managed to find his second Bloodrush, discarding a Beast Within.

As scary as that was, the stars didn’t align completely, and he was only able to deal one point of damage through Uzuri’s blocks. Kayo had a few good turns, and the game came down to single digit life totals. Eventually, Shoma’s discipline and disruption earned him the win with a Bloodrot Pox token taking Peng’s last life total point.

Round Five – Junnel (Azalea) vs Yu Fan (Victor)

Yu Fan and Victor started the game against Junnel/Azalea with an arsenal pass. When Junnel shot his first arrow of the game, Yu Fan instantly threw equipment in front of it along with a Trounce. Then, on Azalea’s next turn, another Trounce earned Yu Fan another bevvy of tokens when he won the clashes.

Weirdly, very little damage made its way through on either side in the first few turns. Both players were content to play patiently and look for edges. That’s exactly what Victor wants to do though, and Junnel was never able to take control of the game.

Slowly but steadily, Victor beat the Ranger down until the game was locked out completely with a Pummel in the arsenal.

Day Two (Four Rounds of Classic Constructed)

Round Eight – Khoi Dinh (Azalea) vs Pudding Tam (Zen)

Pudding Tam and the rest of Team Blue Pitch have been on a tear this year, putting up very consistent results. In Calling: Manila, he managed to remain the only undefeated player left in the tournament at the end of Day One. Khoi Dinh and his Azalea had racked up six wins, so both players were still live for the top cut.

Khoi started with one of Azalea’s newest toys on the board, Sharp Shooters from Azalea’s recent Armory Deck release. That wasn’t his only unique choice though. Khoi’s list featured several arrows that aren’t normally in Azalea lists but have been given new life thanks to new aim counter support.

Pudding’s Zen weathered the unusual disruption very well though, and the Zephyr Needles put in a lot of work. Eventually, Zen did the Zen thing and blocked with his equipment suite to set up a massive turn.

Azalea didn’t manage to get any disruptive arrows to hit, and Warmonger’s Diplomacy at the end of Zen’s combat chain was the final nail in the coffin. Art of War on Pudding’s next turn closed it out completely.

Round Eleven – Ji Timm (Riptide) vs Soh Jia Zheng (Kayo)

There was a hiccup with the audio in this game, so the first few minutes are just rapid-fire card slinging. Normally, Zen is known for “blink and you’ll miss it style” games, but these two players must have had a lot of reps in the matchup. They set a blistering pace from start to finish.

Ji Timm on Riptide met Soh Jia Zheng on Kayo in Round 11 for a win and in to Top 8. The action really started with a double Bloodrush Bellow turn from Soh Zheng. Weapon swing led to a Pulping, then a literal Massacre for 12 after popping Savage Sash to give Kayo an 18-point life lead.

Riptide fired back with a handful of pumps on an arrow for 16, immediately narrowing the life gap when Kayo said “no blocks.” The pace was incredible to watch, but the Brute proved better in the end. Another Pulping, then Mandible Claw into Swing Big turn while Ji Timm had double Codex in hand secured Kayo’s spot in the elimination rounds.

Top 8 Cut

(Only one game from each round was streamed, except for the quarterfinals which had a back-up game.)

Quarterfinals – Gordon Koh (Nuu) vs Brodie Spurlock (Zen)

Gordon Koh on Nuu was the higher seed and chose “Kid Wonderbread” to start their quarterfinal game. Mr. Worldwide, Brodie Spurlock, was playing Zen and started with a Sift, but drew into a clunky hand.

Gordon did not have that issue. Two dagger pokes led up to Levels of Enlightenment for six, go again, draw a card and still had two cards left to play. He followed that with Leave No Witnesses, starting off strong with the disruption that Nuu is known for.

Brodie blocked and used the Command and Conquer from arsenal, but Gordon responded with The Weakest Link and took an Art of War from the hand. That’s pretty much how this whole game went. Every time it looked like Zen might have a way back in, Nuu had an answer that shut him down.

The final play of the game was double Just a Nick on Bonds of Agony while Brodie was on his last two life points. With Gordon still at 20 life, he had no choice but to hope Gordon wouldn’t have a third reaction to pair with Arousing Wave. No such luck, so Gordon moved on after a dominating performance.

In the other games, David Yau won the Zen mirror against Nova Chan, Justin Cu’s fatigue Dash outlasted Naib Mobassir’s Zen, and Soh Zheng’s Kayo eliminated Pudding Tam.

Semifinals – Soh Zheng (Kayo) vs Justin Cu (Dash 'IE')

Soh Zheng and Kayo were the higher seed, so they chose to go first, denying Justin Cu’s Dash the chance to set up an item. Where in the last game we saw with Soh Zheng was rapid, this one was methodical. Of course, that was mostly thanks to the brick wall of defenses Justin was running.

Soh Zheng started things off with a Pulping, trying to leak some damage through with dominate. Justin managed to come out of the turn with more life than he started with, thanks to Sink Below and a Sigil to block and reset.

Slowly and steadily, Dash weathered the barrage of aggression that Kayo threw. And point by point, the Teklo Plasma Pistol and Induction Chamber whittled away at Soh Zheng’s life total. No matter how hard Kayo punched, the Mechanologist just wouldn’t go down.

Justin still had a cushy 13 life when Soh Zheng was caught with two no-blocks in hand. He wasn’t able to protect his last few life points against The Weakest Link and Justin moved on to the finals to face Gordon Koh and Nuu.

Finals – Gordon Koh (Nuu) vs Justin Cu (Dash 'IE')

Both of these players have Flesh and Blood National Championship and Battle Hardened trophies to their names. (Gordon has two Nationals trophies, actually.) Justin also has a trophy from winning Calling: Taipei not that long ago, so they’re pretty similarly matched in pedigree.

Gordon Koh and Nuu faced off against Justin Cu in the finals of Calling: Manila and Justin was chosen to go second. The first dagger hit was met with a Battlefront Bastion, covering the second one as well. Justin only put an Evo Steel Soul Tower in front of Persuasive Prognosis, but no reactions came from Nuu.

Justin loaded the gun and the Induction Chamber, then sent The Weakest Link to force Gordon to block if he wanted to keep any instants in hand. He did block and also respected the pistol shots for most of the game.

Double Just a Nick on a second Persuasive Prognosis was met with a Firewall and a defense reaction. Only a few points leaked through, but every point counts in a game that both players knew would be going long.

The last Just a Nick lined up with a Bonds of Agony turn, but a clutch Sigil of Solace off of Sink Below gave everyone PT: LA vibes and kept any cards from being banished. Gordon followed up Codex of Frailty for Command and Conquer to finally push damage. All of this happened above 30 life points for both players!

The Final Turns

The game ground on and Justin started finding his items. By the time he did though, Gordon had over a 20-point life lead. Gordon had two attack reactions line up on a Leave No Witnesses, dealing another good chunk of damage. He seemed to smell blood, taking huge hits from the battery of pistol shots Dash began firing to keep the pressure up.

Once both players were in single digits, everyone watching was on the edge of their seats. The energy and tension were palpable even through the replay as Gordon struggled to find a way to close it out. Every trick Nuu could pull, Gordon tried, but Justin and Dash just would not give up.

With a full package of items in play, keeping more than one blue card would mean victory for the OG Mechanologist. Dash never got to keep that elusive second card though and Nuu finally found a trick to get over the last of the blocks. Gordon Koh claimed the trophy and title as Champion of Calling: Manila!

Final Thoughts on Calling: Manila

As the founder of the Cult of Nuu, seeing my favorite hero taking down big events so soon after release is both thrilling and terrifying. I’m happy that she’s powerful; it means I can actually win games. But I’m sad that she’s going to have a shorter life in Classic Constructed than I’d like. Nuu hasn’t caught up with Uzuri yet, but she’s getting close and has already crossed 300 Living Legend points, after all.

Calling: Manila was a wonderful event to watch on a lot of levels, even for someone on the opposite side of the planet who had to watch it in review. I’m not sure how anyone could tune in to the coverage for this game and not be hooked. (Come on, really, just look at this art!)

Now, with all eyes focusing on the upcoming return to Aria with Rosetta, the future both on the camera and off looks bright. With the way the last two sets have shaken things up in the meta, what kind of impact do you think the next set will have? Will Runeblades rule the world? Or will we all bow before the might of the coming Elemental Wizards?

Look for me in the Cult of Nuu on Discord or on Twitter as Dracohominis87 if you want to chat. Or, check out the podcast I do with some other FAB nerds and reach out to me there!