(Boom Grenade | Art by Sebastian Szmyd)

Under the neon lights of Metrix, a small skirmish had broken out with a purple-haired woman involved in the fight proper, rather than her usual thievery. Armed with a not-so-small supply of items and a borrowed gun, time would tell how well it might go.

Hey friends! This article is a little different from my usual analysis of items or jank brews. Instead, the prospect of winning a cold foil Teklo Core has driven me to work on a slightly more serious Blitz deck, and I wanted to talk about it. If it ends up doing well I’ll put my placements here – I got a Top 8.

Run Them Down

When it comes to my weapon of choice for this Skirmish session, I’ve chosen to run at the opponent fast as possible, this time with Dash, Database. This Dash provides a unique angle and challenge to the game that I appreciate, with having to track the top card and decide when to weave in instant-speed items.

Like the original Dash before her, Dash, Database is an aggressive deck with the goal of reducing the opponent’s life to zero as fast as possible, this time with Boom Grenade and other value-making items. Since Dash, Database is still Dash, we have access to Spark of Genius and Teklo Core. Spark has the added utility of being a turn extender by searching for a zero cost item with crank and drawing a card.

"Datadash go brr"

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Hero (1) 1 Dash, Database Weapons (1) 1 Symbiosis Shot Equipment (4) 1 Crown of Providence 1 Teklo Foundry Heart 1 Adaptive Plating 1 Achilles Accelerator Main (40) 1 Backup Protocol: RED 2 Boom Grenade red 2 Data Link red 2 Dissolving Shield red 2 Expedite red 2 Hadron Collider red 2 Heist red 2 Pulsewave Harpoon 2 Sprocket Rocket red 2 T-Bone red 2 Zero to Sixty red 2 Zipper Hit red 2 Boom Grenade yellow 1 Tome of Fyendal 2 Spark of Genius 2 Expedite blue 2 Sprocket Rocket blue 2 T-Bone blue 2 Zero to Sixty blue 2 Payload blue 2 Teklo Core Sideboard (7) 2 Throttle red 2 Mini Forcefield red 1 Convection Amplifier 1 Goliath Gauntlet 1 Viziertronic Model i

Proceed Forwards

Dash, Database follows the same thought process as traditional Dash, proceeding forwards until the opponent dies. Even though this deck lacks the high explosivity of Maximum Velocity and Twin Drive, it makes up for it with consistent damage and threatening turns, with the surprise damage from grenades. Sometimes this means you’ll find the bricky hands that do very little, and other times it means taking a gamble on if you’ll die to your opponent or not. Whatever may happen, you just need to proceed forwards and run your opponent down.

The downside to presenting surprise damage and shooting a gun multiple times is that there are many things to consider, and your lines will have a lot of permutations based on the top of your deck. Consistent pressure and being able to always have something you can do is the main goal, that way you can try to always take a card from your opponent.

In the sideboard there’s a package to help deal with control decks: Convection Amplifier, Goliath Gauntlet and Throttle. Using the Amplifier to give a Throttle dominate with a buff from Gauntlet and Hadron Collider to try to push through their blocks is the goal here. Mini Forcefield is there to mitigate high amounts of damage from someone like Bravo. The last slot can be Viziertronic Model i if you want to respect Emperor, Dracai of Aesir, or a Backup Protocol: RED to keep pressure going and retrieve your best attack.

Find the Flow

While this deck isn’t exactly odd or necessarily janky, it is a lot of fun to play. Sometimes you need to play a deck that’s more competitive and focused than a pile with a fun goal at its epicenter, but that doesn’t mean it has to be boring. Find a hero you enjoy or think plays the game in a fun way and start from there. If you know what you like to play, take that deck or hero and tune it up to the best of your ability. Even for a Skirmish  your goal doesn’t have to be winning; just take something you know you’d enjoy playing and pilot it to the best of your ability.

At the end of the day, you’re there to play a game for hours on end in a local game store for some shiny cards and playmats. So have fun. And if the prizes are something you really want, find the best deck you can make with your favorite hero. Otherwise just make a good time out of it.

As always, I hope you have fun and that your brews are ever so interesting.

Further Reading:

How to Build Data Doll in Blitz

What to Expect at a Flesh and Blood Skirmish

The Blitz Format is Great, and You Should Be Playing It!

Mari Groh

Mari is a Flesh and Blood player who enjoys a good session of deckbuilding more than playing the actual game at times, though both sides of the game are her passion. A former Azalea main she has put her bow away in favor of concocting odd brews, having yet to find a true favorite deck again. Coming from a slew of different card games including Magic The Gathering the resident jank specialist is here to brew and jam games... so long as she isn't distracted by other games or creative writing.