Greetings and salutations once again, my fabulous FAB folk! As always, I’m some random #FABDad, aka Donnie K., and today we’re looking at the coverage produced by “the Heavy Hitters over at Savage Feats” for Calling: Dallas-Fort Worth! Let’s jump right into it!

FAB Deep in the Heart of Texas!

Savage Feats continues to be my personal favorite streamer of Flesh and Blood coverage at big events across North America, despite some hiccups with the stream in the first couple of rounds. The games were paused while the problems were handled and then play resumed, so the disruptions were effectively minimized. Since the hiccups occurred right when a Command and Conquer was played, the chat was having fun claiming there must have been an errata we hadn’t seen yet.

The casting team of Stephen Cookus (@armada_DM,) Brendan Patrick (@brendanAPG,) and Tannon Grace (@theTannonGrace) also did a great job keeping the coverage entertaining all weekend.

You can go back and watch the coverage for yourself on the Flesh and Blood official YouTube channel. There are several games that I would recommend going back and watching if you have time, but prioritize watching Round Six. Chat was calling for that game to be nominated for best stream game of the event.

The Numbers We Really Want to Know…

Day One

Keeping up the recent trend, Lexi, Livewire was the most highly represented hero on Day One of Calling: Dallas. Out of the 280 players registered for the event (according to the official live blog), 58 (20.7%) of them brought Lexi. The rest of the top five heroes consisted of Dromai, Ash Artist with 45 (16.1%), Bravo, Showstopper with 30 (10.7%), and Katsu, the Wanderer tied with Azalea, Ace in the Hole with 17 each(6%).

Every hero except for Riptide, Lurker of the Deep was represented by someone at the event, including all three of the newest heroes from Bright Lights. It’s worth noting that Dash, Inventor Extraordinaire, Fai, Rising Rebellion, Uzuri, Switchblade, Iyslander, Stormbind, and Ser Boltyn, Breaker of Dawn all had double digit representation behind the top five.

Day Two

Due to the size of the event, only the top 64 players at the end of Round Seven were allowed to continue into Day Two. Merrick Kemp on Dash, Inventor Extraordinaire was the king of Swiss, finishing the day as one of two undefeated players along with Michael Jaszczur on Lexi, Livewire. The top five converting heroes for Day Two were Lexi with 23 (36% of the day two field), Dromai with 18 (28%), Bravo with 8 (12.5%), and Fai and Azalea tied with 3 players (5%). While two Dash, Inventor Extraordinaires converted to Day Two, none of the other Mechanologist heroes were able to do the same.

The final cut to Top 8 after twelve rounds of Swiss consisted of four Dromai, Ash Artist, three Lexi, Livewire, and one Dash, Inventor Extraordinaire.

Round by Round!

There are twelve rounds of Classic Constructed to cover, plus three games in the Top 8, so we’re going to keep these summaries brief. Savage Feats and the casters did a great job with the coverage, so let me reiterate that you should go back and watch any games that particularly interest you.

Day One

Round One – Alex V. (Dromai) vs Matt W. (Boltyn)

In the first round of Calling: Dallas, Alex V. on Dromai, Ash Artist faced off against Matt W. on Ser Boltyn, Breaker of Dawn. Life totals stayed close until a critical turn towards the end of the game where Matt ignored the dragons on board and used Lumina Ascension to try to finish Alex off. Unfortunately for Boltyn, there were two Sink Belows in Alex’s hand to cover up most of the damage and Boltyn fell to a swarm of dragons two turns later.

Round Two – Brodie S. (Lexi) vs Shawn D. (Dromai)

Another Dromai, Ash Artist played by Shawn D. this round faced off against “Kid Wonderbread” Brodie S. on Lexi, Livewire. Brodie kept dominant control of the game through continuous use of Endless Arrow and, unfortunately for Shawn, his Tomeltai hit a blue when he was hoping to take out New Horizon. That whiff almost certainly ended the game on the spot, as Brodie’s Lexi didn’t miss a shot until Dromai was finally down for the count.

Round Three – Michael J. (Lexi) vs Justin G. (Kano)

This was a “blink and you’ll miss it” round, ending after less than 15 minutes of total camera time. Michael J. on Lexi, Livewire faced Justin G. on Kano, Dracai of Aether. Lexi hit the ground running, never giving Kano room to breathe, or set up. That’s the most effective way to deal with a Wizard, as it turns out, and Kano failed to go high enough on his combo turn, losing to a final barrage of arrows after Three of a Kind resolved.

Round Four – Matt V. (Dromai) vs Richard Y. (Bravo)

For the third time on camera, we saw a Dromai, Ash Artist, this time piloted by Matt V. against Richard Y on Bravo, Showstopper. The reign of the dragon empress continued as Matt ran dragon after dragon into Bravo’s six-power attacks, eventually grinding the Showstopper to dust with arcane damage from Azvolai and Burn Them All due to a complete absence of Arcane Barrier on Richard’s side of the table.

Round Five – Merrick K. (Dash, I.E.) vs Shane M. (Lexi)

You can certainly tell that Dromai and Lexi were the most popular heroes at the event. Six out of the seven camera rounds on Day One featured one of those two heroes. This is the first round where we see a Lexi lose, however.

Merrick K. on Dash, Inventor Extraordinaire boosted to victory over Shane M.’s Lexi, Livewire, sending one over-rate Mech card after another, until Twin Drive pulled double duty in setting up a final Maximum Velocity for lethal.

Round Six – Dylan S. (Katsu) vs Cody W. (Bravo)

The producers listened to chat and pulled a local player, Dylan S. on Katsu, the Wanderer, to the feature match this round, to face off against Cody W. on Bravo, Showstopper. Dylan is a YouTuber that I personally follow for Katsu content, and this round proved how good he is on the Ninja. Go watch this game (5hrs 9mins into the Day One stream).

Everyone in chat was on the edge of their seat through the whole match. Eventually, Bravo did fall to the dreaded “Kodachi lock” and breakpoint attacks from Katsu, but the outcome was uncertain until the final turns.

Round Seven – Joseph K. (Dromai) vs Levi R. (Azalea)

The final round of Day One saw Joseph K. on yet another Dromai, Ash Artist against Levi R. playing Azalea, Ace in the Hole. Dromai is typically favored in this match up, but Levi is known in the competitive scene as one of the best Azalea players in North America.

Joseph and Dromai did their best to fill the board with dragons, but Azalea and Levi ignored the scaly beasts, eventually ending the game with a second Rain Razors over blocks for exact lethal.

Day Two

Round Eight – Luke M. (Uzuri) vs Levi R. (Azalea)

In the first feature match of Day Two, we saw Luke M. as the only Uzuri, Switchblade to make the cut face off against Levi R. and his Azalea, Ace in the Hole. Levi wasn’t able to maintain the same pressure against Uzuri’s stream of disruption as he had against the Dromai he faced on camera in Day One, and the Boss carried Luke one potential step closer to the tournament’s final cut.

Round Nine – Matt B. (Lexi) vs Jonah O. (Rhinar)

As to be expected of two powerhouse heroes, Matt B.’s Lexi, Livewire and Jonah O.’s Rhinar, Reckless Rampage traded huge chunks of damage starting from the very beginning of the round. Rhinar gave up his equipment very quickly, trying to stall Lexi’s tempo with the intimidate trigger from Scowling Flesh Bag. Three Frostbite tokens effectively tempered his next turn though, keeping the Elemental Archer in the race. Lexi finally won the exchange by revealing an arrow off the top with Hornet’s Sting when Rhinar was on his last life point.

Round Ten – Reece W. (Dromai) vs Dylan W. (Fai)

Dylan W. on Fai, Rising Rebellion had to be feeling pretty good sitting down for Round Ten and seeing Reece W. present Dromai, Ash Artist, and then also getting to play second. Unfortunately for Fai, it went downhill quickly from there.

Dromai presented a turn zero Burn Them All, several Tome of Imperial Flame, and Nourishing Emptiness to establish a huge life lead early. Fai’s power turns weren’t nearly powerful enough and Dromai ran away with the match, finally ending things with the arcane trigger from Azvolai.

Round Eleven – Matt V. (Dromai) vs Merrick K. (Dash I.E.)

This was another fantastic game to watch. Matt V. on Dromai, Ash Artist started the game with all three copies of Rake the Embers basically played one after the other. Merrick K. on Dash, Inventor Extraordinaire was able to assemble the full item package almost as quickly and, from a life deficit of 15 to 40, decided to ignore the absurd number of Aether Ashwings on Matt’s side of the board to attack him directly. Matt/Dromai eventually closed the game out with arcane damage, but it was much closer than what we in chat thought it was going to be.

Round Twelve – Michael J. (Lexi) vs Jake A. (Lexi)

The Lexi, Livewire mirror is all about which player draws their power cards first. For Jake A., this was a last opportunity to potentially make it into the final cut on tie breakers. Michael J. needed the win to cement his place in the Top 8. Jake kept himself alive and played it down to the wire, but Michael drew more power cards and walked away with his spot secure after maintaining a healthy life lead all game.

The Top 8 Cut!

Quarter Finals – Gui C. (Dromai) vs Merrick K. (Dash I.E.)

The life totals in the featured Quarterfinals match between Gui C. on Dromai and Merrick K. on Dash looked close until the end, but Dromai was firmly in control of the game. Gui’s beautiful Marvel dragons ate everything that Dash could dish out and kept on flying. Gui, two other Dromais, and one Lexi moved on into the Semi-Finals.

Semi Finals – Matt V. (Dromai) vs Jacob B. (Dromai)

Like the majority of Dromai mirror matches, the Semi-Finals match between Matt V. and Jacob B. was a grindy affair where there were many, many Draconic casualties on both sides of the field. Eventually Matt managed to out-value Jacob for the win and moved on to face another mirror match in the finals. Yep, an all-Dromai finals at Calling: Dallas.

Finals – Matt V. (Dromai) vs Gui C. (Dromai)

Matt brought a more traditional Dromai list with extra poppers to the tournament, looking to grind each game to fatigue for maximum value. With no Tome of Imperial Flame in his 80, he chose to give up the powerful majestic to keep a head slot open for defense value. Gui was rocking the newest tech from Bright Lights and the extra card draw and efficient ash economy kept his board flush with allies.

Gui started things off with a bomb, playing Nekria on turn zero. Matt was forced to play more defense than he wanted, clearing Gui’s dragons and leaking damage while Gui’s board snowballed into a huge life lead. Eventually Matt was left with a single life point to defend as Gui played Miragai, followed by a Burn Them All. Matt extended the fist bump to concede, and Gui C. claimed the trophy and title as the champion of Calling: Dallas!

Final Thoughts

I honestly didn’t expect to see four Dromai in the top 8 of Calling: Dallas, or so much Dromai during the Swiss coverage. Looking forward to the World Championship in Barcelona in a few more weeks, it’s clear that Dromai is going to be a huge player in the metagame. Even more so now, since as of the time of writing, the Living Legend leaderboard has been updated to show Lexi, Livewire has crossed the 1000 point threshold needed to ascend out of Classic Constructed.

The coverage from Savage Feats was well done and the casters were solid. (Even if Boltyn didn’t get any support from Dynasty like one of them mistakenly kept saying early on.) All in all, this was an event worth going back to watch and I hope Legend Story Studios will hire Savage Feats over and over again to produce the same high quality product we’ve come to expect from them.

What was your favorite moment from Calling: DFW? Were you surprised by the numbers of dragons flying around the venue? Is Dromai the new deck to beat? If you want to chat about what went down, hit me up on Discord or Twitter/”X” as Dracohominis87. If you want to listen to me gush over the event as my buddies and I chat about all the latest FAB news, tune into our new podcast on YouTube or Spotify at Siblings in Cardboard – A Flesh and Blood Podcast. Take care of yourselves, and I hope to hear from you soon!