Greetings and salutations my fabulous fab folks! I’m Donnie K., and welcome back to another coverage review here on FABREC! Today, we’re taking a look at the coverage brought to us from Calling: Warsaw on the official Flesh and Blood YouTube channel.

Flesh and Blood in the Phoenix City!

As someone on the North American side of the planet, I didn’t catch most of the event live due to the time difference. When I was able to tune in, the chat was popping off. By the time the Top 8 was playing on Sunday, there were over 2,000 people watching with me. (And in the semi-final game, there were quite a few of those people in chat eating crow.)

Thanks to the illustrious Baz the Bard (aka Mr. Barrie Wardle), I’ve got a full list of credits this time around. Calling: Warsaw was organized by the folks over at the Living Realms. Specifically, Ryan Miles and Fabio Pinheiro. (Fun fact, Callings: Birminham and Liverpool were also organized by them.) The stream team consisted of Allen Marlborough and Baz, with Romain Nicola, Erika Forslof, and Karol Ruszkiewicz on camera as the casting talent. Finally, Aurelie Violette was the mind behind the numbers/stats for the event. Thank you to everyone involved for putting on an awesome stream.

Now, let’s get to the good stuff!

The Numbers We Really Want to Know…

Day One – Saturday

The first day of Calling: Warsaw featured seven rounds of Classic Constructed before the cut to Day Two.

Going off of the Live Blog maintained on fabtcg.com by Alex Kivitz during the event, and adding up the numbers on the meta breakdown, there were 462 players at the start of Day One. The most represented hero in the room was Kayo, Armed and Dangerous with a whopping 102 players on the one-armed Brute for the event (a total of 22% of the room). The rest of the top five most represented heroes were Dorinthea Ironsong with 55 players, Azalea, Ace in the Hole with 42, Victor Goldmane, High and Mighty also with 42, and Prism, Awakener of Sol with 25.

Four players remained undefeated at the end of Day One. Yorgos Samaras and Brodie Spurlock, both piloting Azalea, Joaquim Ballot on Dash, Inventor Extraordinaire, and recent Pro Tour: LA Champ Arthur Trehet on Kayo all managed to win every game during the initial Swiss portion of the Calling.

Day Two – Sunday

After the first seven rounds of Classic Constructed, there were 101 players left who survived the cut by having two or fewer losses. Only five more rounds separated these 101 player from their shot at the trophy.

The top 5 heroes going into Day Two were the same as Day One, but in significantly smaller quantities (obviously). Kayo, Armed and Dangerous had 22 players still in contention. Victor Goldmane, High and Mighty and Dorinthea Ironsong were tied with 12 players each. Azalea, Ace in the Hole and Prism, Awakener of Sol were both down to single digit representation, with nine players for Azalea, and only seven for Prism.

Top 8 Cut

After 12 rounds of Classic Constructed over two days, the cut to the elimination round featured no undefeated players left standing. At the end of the Swiss, this was the final standings:

1. Jacob Trossing – Dorinthea Ironsong
2. Alex Chitu – Dash Inventor Extraordinaire
3. Jan Kucera – Kano, Dracai of Aether
4. Gianluigi Lia – Ser Boltyn, Breaker of Dawn
5. Brodie Spurlock – Azalea, Ace in the Hole
6. Thomas Preyer – Dash I/O
7. Kanaris Bounas – Kayo, Armed and Dangerous
8. Vincent Weinzierl – Kano, Dracai of Aether

Two Kano, one Dorinthea, one Dash, I. E., one Ser Boltyn, one Azalea, one Dash I/O, and one Kayo were set to duke it out for the title of Calling: Warsaw Champion and the extended art Gold Foil Balance of Justice. (Not to mention the cash prize, naturally.)

Day One – (Seven Rounds of Classic Constructed)

Round One – Paul Dohrer (Azalea, Ace in the Hole) vs Arthur Trehet (Kayo, Armed and Dangerous)

As is tradition for most Flesh and Blood events, the first feature match put a spotlight on a player who has had success on a high level recently. Paul Dohrer and Azalea found themselves up against the recent winner of Pro Tour: Los Angeles, Arthur Trehet and Kayo. Azalea started the round with a blind flip into a dominated Infecting Shot for 11. Arthur gave up armor to save some life and developed a Might token for his turn, but still took six damage to start the game at 34 with two Bloodrot Pox Tokens.

Wild Ride took a Bloodrush Bellow with its random discard and Paul was firmly in the driver’s seat of this game. However, you can’t count out a Pro Tour Champion until the last life points are burned. Arthur took a big hit from Remorseless, going to eight life to send a Command and Conquer at an empty arsenal, saving his second Bloodrush for later. Unfortunately for Paul, he’d drawn a hand with no arrows, so he lost all the tempo in a single turn after having to block with three cards, arsenal the last, and pass his next turn. Kayo got to keep a full grip, Scabskin Leathers gained him an extra action point, and suddenly Azalea only had one life point left. It didn’t take long for the Brute to close it out from there.

Round Five – Laurin Niehues (Levia, Shadowborn Abomination) vs Sammy Weckx (Prism, Awakener of Sol)

Laurin/Levia started things off against Sammy/Prism with a Smashback Alehorn on turn zero. Prism had no responses and chose to keep any shenanigans in hand since Laurin passed with an action point still available. Laurin attempted to trigger the phantasm on Sammy’s first attack, only to have his block rebuffed by Celestial Reprimand. Sammy took the return volley, using their life total as a resource while trying to develop the board. Laurin tried to block a Herald of Triumph with Carrion Husk, only for Prism to play another attack react to send it over. Figment of Erudition hit the board, joining Figment of War, and Sammy immediately flipped it to Suraya to draw two cards. Then they drew two more with the Herald of Erudition that followed it.

It looked like Prism was about to go nuclear, but Laurin replied with Bloodrush Bellow, making quick work of Suraya and dropping Sammy down to eight life. Another combat trick brought out the Figment of Protection for Prism, but Levia was smelling blood. Art of War, banishing a Slithering Shadowpede, helped Levia establish tempo, then a few turns later another Bloodrush put the game away.

For anyone who plays Art of War, please take note-

Choose your modes, then wait for your opponent to respond/pass priority. Do not immediately banish a card. That is not a part of the cost for Art of War and your opponent has a priority window to respond. Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

Day Two – (Five Rounds of Classic Constructed)

Round Nine – Alex Chitu (Dash, Inventor Extraordinaire) vs Jacob Clements (Kassai of the Golden Sand)

In Round Nine, Alex Chitu and Dash faced off against Jacob Clements on Kassai. When Dash flipped Induction Chamber in the opening of the game, it looked like it was going to be a long one. Instead, Alex started Boosting repeatedly, throwing mechanical haymakers at Kassai over and over. I believe Jacob expected to be the more aggressive hero, but Dash was all gas.

Kassai has really solid value on defense though, and both players’ life totals quickly made their way into the single digits. However, there aren’t any heroes that can play around the Teklo Plasma Pistol shooting several times a turn when you’re on your last life point. Two turns in a row, Alex managed to strip all of the cards from Jacob’s hand before finally closing the game out with back-to-back Zero to Sixtys and more gas in the tank.

Round Twelve – Michael Feng (Azalea, Ace in the Hole) vs Brodie Spurlock (Azalea, Ace in the Hole)

The final feature match for the Swiss portion of Calling Warsaw was a mirror match between teammates, Michael Feng and Brodie Spurlock on Azalea. This game would determine who moved on to the Top 8, as both players were on the bubble with a 9-2 record. Oddly, both players started the game with all three of their Red in the Ledgers displayed on the table. Since the Azalea mirror match can be a miserable play experience for whoever doesn’t find Red in the Ledger first, they agreed to leave them out for this game and race like gentlemen.

Brodie started the game by loading an Endless Arrow with the Death Dealer and tried to find an arrow to dominate with the hero ability. Unfortunately for him, he found a Premeditate instead. With no other way to load an arrow, Brodie played the Premeditate and activated Bull’s Eye Bracers to load Infecting Shot. Michael blocked with the whole hand, but still took three damage and then drew a hand with no arrows for his first turn. Talk about a low roll, huh? Michael put out some damage, but was never really in this game as Brodie’s deck never missed a turn of output before eventually closing it out.

Top 8 Elimination

Quarterfinals – Kanaris Bounas (Kayo, Armed and Dangerous) vs Alex Chitu (Dash, Inventor Extraordinaire)

Alex/Dash started off strong against Kanaris/Kayo by upgrading Dash’s arm piece into the Evo Steel Soul Controller immediately and setting up an arsenal. Having a Temper 3 blocking piece is solid, but Kanaris started strong as well with a turn one Bloodrush Bellow. Alex quickly cashed in Balance of Justice‘s block value on Mandible Claw, then popped it to draw a card when Kayo followed up with a Swing Big.

A second Bloodrush Bellow hit the table, discarding a Beast Within and life points flowed away like water. Sometimes Kayo just tells the opponent that it doesn’t matter what they do, they’re going to lose, and this was definitely one of those games. Kanaris found the third Bloodrush Bellow on the following turn, forcing Dash to respect the damage or fall into the Reckless Swing danger zone. Eventually, Kayo’s relentless assault eliminated Dash and Kanaris moved on to the Semifinals.

Semifinals – Vincent Weinzierl (Kano, Dracai of Aether) vs Gianluigi Lia (Ser Boltyn, Breaker of Dawn)

The Mistake

I’ve said this before, but in Flesh and Blood, the game isn’t over until the last life point is gone. At this point in the event, there were roughly 2000 people watching the game between Vincent on Kano and Gianluigi on Boltyn. Boltyn was on Decimator Great Axe and the game plan seemed to be to take Kano out slowly and methodically through fatigue. Kano was trying to set up a pitch stack combo to blow Boltyn up in one big turn. On turn 12, after pitching carefully all game, Vincent went for the combo, but made a mistake in where his cards were in the cycle. Gianluigi had an Oasis Respite ready for both Aether Wildfires and pitched a third one, taking zero total damage on Kano’s combo turn thanks to Vincent’s error.

The Last Chance

Without Storm Striders and being several power cards down, it looked like the game was over to everyone watching. In chat, people were complaining about the game “dragging on” when it was “obvious” that Kano had lost. Over and over, it was repeated that Kano couldn’t win from that position, Boltyn had too much life, etc., and “he should just concede already.”

Until turn 19. On turn 19, Vincent played two Gaze the Ages in response to Gianluigi’s attack. Aether Wildfire, Aether Flare, Aether Flare, and Blazing Aether were flipped by Kano’s hero power and the naysayers in chat suddenly got quiet. When the last card in Vincent’s deck was flipped, putting an extra 12 points of damage on the table before Blazing Aether came in for mega-lethal, the whole chat went berserk.

This was one of the craziest comeback games I’ve ever watched, and everyone being reminded that you should never give up before the game is officially over was epic. (I wonder if that one guy in chat actually did eat his shoe, like he threatened to do if Kano came back and won….)

Finals – Vincent Weinzierl (Kano, Dracai of Aether) vs Kanaris Bounas (Kayo, Armed and Dangerous)

The finals of Calling: Warsaw was a much, much quicker game for Vincent/Kano than the previous round. Vincent had a decent start, dealing one damage on turn zero. Kanaris threw his whole hand at Vincent on his first turn, going shields down. Not a good position against a Wizard. Kano took the hits from Kayo to return 28 points of damage with a mini-combo, and from there it was just a matter of time. If you ever find yourself at life parity with (or worse, at lower life than), a Wizard, you’re actively losing the game. Kayo only lasted through a few more cards before Kano’s fireworks cooked the Brute alive.

Vincent Weinzierl and Kano defeated Kanaris Bounas’s Kayo, Armed and Dangerous to claim victory at Calling Warsaw!

Final Thoughts

This was another high-quality event that I thoroughly enjoyed watching. I’m glad I caught the last few games live, but I’m also happy that I went back to see the games that played out in the Swiss. All of the games featured show clean play and wonderful attitudes. That semifinal game wasn’t quite on par with The Sigil from PTLA, but it was still an epic moment.

That’s where we’ll wrap things up this week, as the whole Flesh and Blood world waits on Part the Mistveil to officially release. Next week is the world premier in Tokyo, coinciding with Calling: Tokyo of course, so look for me in the chat on my podcast’s account, Siblings in Cardboard, and then for another recap right after!

What was your favorite moment from Calling: Warsaw? Did you catch the coverage live? Do you think that one person actually did eat their shoe like they threatened? (Doubt it.) Are you particularly excited for Nuu, Alluring Desire and want somewhere to talk about her? (Join The Cult of Nuu on Discord.)

Look me up on Discord or Twitter as Dracohominis87 and let me know!