Greetings and salutations my fabulous FAB folks! Welcome back to another installment in our UPF brew series here on FABREC! Have you ever wanted to roleplay as an emo beefcake with a serious thing for leaves? I hope so, because here’s your chance! Today, we’re looking at the newest emo goth kid to hit the world of Rathe. Let’s talk about Florian!

Joining the Germi-nation!

With the influx of new Runeblade cards to the card pool, it’s time to look at a new Runeblade in UPF. Like I said, Florian is one of the newest heroes to the world of Rathe, coming fresh with the latest set, Rosetta. There are a few ways that Florian is being built in other formats, but long-time readers will know I prefer defensive decks in Ultimate Pit Fight.

With that in mind, I started brewing with the idea of outlasting our opponents instead of out-blasting them. However, that doesn’t mean we won’t have a few powerhouse attacks that scale well in multiplayer. Earth heroes have access to some absurd cards and they just get better when there’s more than one opponent to wallop. Anyway, I probably shouldn’t bury the lede.

So, What’s In the Emo Kid’s Wardrobe?

Like a lot of angsty teens, there’s a lot of purple and dark colors in what we’re going to wear to battle. We’re going with a few classic pieces and a newer one, but mostly retro goth. (Should I keep making the Emo jokes? I feel like I should. It feels…. right.)

Specifically, we’ll use Arcanite Skullcap as our headpiece and pair it with Arcanite Fortress from Rosetta. Fortress will only be a sideboard option in case of Wizard shenanigans at the table though. I prefer the Temper ability of Dyadic Carapace in the primary chest slot, because there will always be aggressive heroes at the table.

That being said, it probably looks weird picking Arcanite Skullcap over the powerful class/talent specific options, I know. Crown of Seeds and Face Purgatory are ridiculously powerful cards, but they don’t really fit in with what this deck is going to be doing. We’re not using very many attack actions after all, and we want our defense reactions to stay in the arsenal.

Fortunately, Grasp of the Arknight and Spellbound Creepers fit nicely into the other slots. The weapon is personal choice, but for now, I’m going with the super on-theme Dread Scythe.

Alright, What Kinds of Powerful Attacks Are We Using?

Honestly, not a lot. To begin with, there was a version of the original list that had no attacks at all. However, a couple of friends I showed that one to called me crazy and insisted I include the new Earth staples. They were definitely right.

There are going to be a grand total of six attack action cards in this list. Two copies of Plow Under and Felling of the Crown, and two copies of blue Autumn's Touch. Plow Under and Felling should be fairly obvious since they impact all of our opponents at once. On the other hand, Autumn’s Touch is just an Earth card that blocks for three.

Let’s talk about how we actually win with this deck now.

Really? Only Six Attacks? What’s the Catch?

No catch. Just gloom and doom as things go boom. Or rather, Looming Doom and a bunch of Runechant generators. The game plan is to tank the hits and let Looming Doom do most of the heavy lifting once it comes online in the middle game. To get there, we have a plethora of defense reactions and a horde of cards that make Runechants.

There are some easy includes and some notable exclusions to the suite of cards I’ve chosen for this list. For example, Mordred Tide and Mauvrion Skies didn’t make the list, despite being Viserai staples.

Mauvrion Skies just doesn’t make sense in a list with so few attacks, but there may be an argument for Mordred Tide if you can find the room. Maybe try cutting Runeblood Barrier, but I like that card a lot and there’s something to be said about playing pet cards in a casual format like UPF.

Also, this is a list that wants This Round’s on Me and Warmongers Diplomacy as well. For a final defensive touch in the main board, I’m adding Truce as a true political bargaining chip.

What About That Hero Power? It’s Pretty Strong, Right?

Of course! Florian‘s hero power will make for a powerful end game engine once it comes online. However, it’s not the focus of our strategy. With all the Runechant generators for Looming Doom though, space is getting pretty tight. With that in mind, we’ve eight Decompose cards total, our four big attacks and four copies of Rootbound Carapace.

As I said, getting Florian online is a luxury, not a priority for this list. We’ve got 16 total Earth cards and eight total Decompose. Getting to four Earth cards in banish is possible over a game, but we’re not looking for it by turn two or three.

For the final touches, we’re adding in a couple of prevention effects in the sideboard. For now, we’ll add some “Break Glass in Case of Wizard” things and a flex slot that I’m filling with yellow Reduce to Runechant.

Put it all together, and you get something like this…

Final List

" Emo Beefcake"

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Hero (1) 1 Florian Weapons (1) 1 Dread Scythe Equipment (4) 1 Arcanite Skullcap 1 Dyadic Carapace 1 Grasp of the Arknight 1 Spellbound Creepers Main (40) 2 Arcane Seeds // Life red 2 Deadwood Dirge red 2 Fate Foreseen red 2 Felling of the Crown red 2 Haunting Rendition red 2 Read the Runes red 2 Reduce to Runechant red 2 Runeblood Incantation red 2 Rootbound Carapace red 2 Sink Below red 2 Plow Under yellow 2 Rootbound Carapace yellow 2 Runeblood Barrier yellow 2 Autumn’s Touch blue 2 Germinate blue 2 Looming Doom blue 2 Sigil of Earth blue 2 This Round’s on Me blue 2 Truce blue 2 Warmonger’s Diplomacy blue Sideboard (7) 2 Reduce to Runechant yellow 2 Seeds of Tomorrow blue 2 Sigil of Sanctuary blue 1 Arcanite Fortress

Final Thoughts

Florian is the second Runeblade I’ve covered in an article like this now. The first one was Vynnset who picked up quite a few new toys with Rosetta‘s release. I’m going to have to revisit that list at some point and update it. For now, I hope you’ve enjoyed a brief look into what was basically the high school years of some of my most favorite people.

I’ve got another UPF article coming up in a few weeks and would love some feedback on which hero to talk about next. Do you want an Oscilio, Aurora, or Verdance list next? Or should I cover an older hero again? Should I have included Scepter of Pain and Bloodied Oval as the weapon slots in today’s list?

Would you like to listen to me and a few buddies chat about all the latest happenings in the world of Rathe? Hit me up on Discord or Twitter as Dracohominis87 and let me know!

Donnie K.

Donnie is an enthusiastic nerd and family man who grew up playing TCGs, starting when Pokemon cards were the hottest thing on the playground. After playing Yu-gi-oh and then Magic the Gathering for years, he found Flesh and Blood in December of '22, sold all of his other pretty cardboard rectangles, and dived into FAB head first where he discovered a deep love for go-wide strategies involving the use of Ninja cards. Be Like Water is his current favorite card, because he gets to do a terrible Bruce Lee impression every time it's played. (Much to the annoyance of his brother who hears it a lot.) Donnie has been married to his lovely wife since Halloween 2008 and has two beautiful daughters that he couldn't be more proud of.