The dawn has finally come for lovers of Light Illusionist and Shadow Runeblade, because Dusk Till Dawn is right around the corner! This is Rhys, and today I’m reviewing the new cards in this supplemental set, particularly the ones that look to impact the Classic Constructed format (CC for short).

Illusionist

The return of Prism, in the form of Prism, Awakener of Sol, brings Light Illusionist back into the format, much to the chagrin of Rangers and Guardians, but Light Illusionists having representation again feels good. Her hero ability focuses on a new card type, Figments, and can fetch them out of the deck. Since card economy in Flesh and Blood is built on thin margins, any hero with a “tutor” ability is automatically worth looking into. The balancing factor is that the Figments have no block value, and Prism, Awakener of Sol has a meek 32 life to start, so choosing which of the eight Figments you play will be a decision tree before each game starts.

Dedicated Herald and Figment builds will get a new chest armor in Empyrean Rapture as well, meaning Prism could also have multiple free Figment transformations per game. At least Luminaris, Celestial Fury is a bit more balanced than its predecessor in Luminaris, meaning Iris of Reality is likely to shine once more, giving Auras space to attack alongside a transformed Figment.

It’s worth noting that even the least powerful of the Figments are impactful, as they’re yellow pitches, so getting them back into the deck to be found by Prism later has a low opportunity cost. Figment of Erudition stands out to me as the strongest Figment, devoid of context in-game. A Ponder token means you can always have a five-card hand set up, and the Archangel it transforms into gives you the ability to simply draw two cards by banishing a card from soul, an absolutely massive upside that can mean transforming more figments as a snowball effect.

Generating extra action points with card effects like Timesnap Potion or the upcoming Angelic Descent jump out to me as cards to watch out for, as it will mean multiple attacks from the transformed Figments. Figment of Protection and its transformed counterpart generate Spectral Shield tokens, which can serve as sources of protection for the archangels themselves, since the Ward keyword is not optional. Unpreventable damage will remove everything with ward from a board in a single swing, so expect to see things like Tiger Stripe Shuko and Vynnset, Iron Maiden using her hero ability to act as a balancing factor in overall metagame performance.

• Figment of Triumph will be a good option versus go-wide strategies like you’ll see in Lexi, Livewire, or Fai, Rising Rebellion.
• Figment of Rebirth is useful for re-buying any Herald attacks that find their way to the graveyard instead of Prism’s soul, though I’m not certain how much that’ll see play.
• Figment of Ravages can help keep the Aether Ashwing wielding Dromai, Ash Artist at bay, but since some builds focus heavily on “red-liner” strategies of playing high-value attacks with little focus on the Ashwings themselves, this may not see a lot of play. Two arcane damage outside of a Wizard deck is something to think about, however.
• Figment of Judgment acts as a way to manage the Prism mirror match and against Ser Boltyn, Breaker of Dawn, since each have cards that look for color strips in their souls.
• Figment of War isn’t particularly exciting to me, as many of Prism’s Herald attacks already live on mathematical break-points, and Bellona, Archangel of War’s +1 attack counters on all angels is less likely to impact multiple Angels, if early testing is any indicator of how Prism, Awakener of Sol will function.
• Figment of Tenacity jumps out to me as the least impactful, since Prism has so little life, there’s not a lot of incentive to be blocking with multiple cards anyway, and most of the blocking that will be done versus Prism will be with cards that can trigger Phantasm. I am open to being wrong about this particular card though, as dominate is uniquely powerful when making multiple attacks.

Angelic Wrath frightens me, to be blunt. A plus four reaction for Heralds for zero resources is going to claim victories. It can’t block though, so the opportunity cost of playing it will be higher than in other decks. Celestial Resolve is also an above-rate instant that serves as a defense reaction, but holding onto a card like it that can’t block is usually a net negative result, so I feel a bit better about this existing. Furthermore, incentivizing blocking has a good impact on the health of gameplay.

• Celestial Reprimand is unlikely to impact CC. It looks like a limited card that would function as a more balanced Angelic Wrath.

These are hard to evaluate, but after a bit of reflection, I don’t know how much any of these will see play. I’m happy to be wrong, but Flicker Trick seems difficult to squeeze a fifth block out of without breaking it, while also being good enough to not simply play a more universally applicable defense reaction. Lost in Thought has a high ceiling, but is a red card that only blocks two, and gives your opponent a fifth card in a coming turn. There are use cases for it, such as turning a Runeblade player’s hand into one that can’t attack, but doesn’t seem like a robust plan in the current era of Flesh and Blood play. If a definitive combo deck is allowed to exist, this could be a strong tool against that. Diadem of Dreamstate is a ward equipment in a set that introduces a hero with access to unpreventable arcane damage, and doesn’t give the consolation Ponder token for free. These factors combined means it may not see much play in CC.

Warrior

Ser Boltyn, Breaker of Dawn got some much needed support, giving both cards that charge soul, and cards that can give his below-rate attacks go again. On the surface, it looks like these two forms of support are at odds with one another though, so people committed to making the Light Warrior relevant are going to have some work ahead of them when building a deck. Being reputed as the worst hero in the game, while still having a damage ceiling of more than 40, it stands to reason that Legend Story Studios would be careful about how they design for the Light Warrior. One wrong number in one wrong place make this guy a Living Legend faster than you can make a reference to The Sandlot. Beaming Blade is unimpressive, meaning Raydn, Duskbane is likely to continue being his sword du jour. Soulbond Resolve is promising though, offering defensive soul charging, and a Temper two block means setting up for a combo turn gets a little smoother.

While a few of the Majestic rarity cards appear to add to Boltyn’s problems more than take them away, there are some clear winners. Banneret of Courage going to soul serves a double purpose as a card that can be spent from soul to give an attack go again, and the Courage token that turns the attack reaction ability on. Spirit of War is a great individual card, but also combos nicely with Banneret of Courage as a way to put more things in soul. Beckoning Light can help put any cards that were spent earlier to draw the needed cards when assembling a combo. This deck stands to offer a high skill expression for invested players. Banneret of Gallantry gets an honorary mention for being close to generically powerful as well, but will take some labor to take full advantage of.

• To be brief, the remaining bannerets are unimpressive.
• Glaring is a bit too below rate for me to consider for playability.
• Light the Way gives your opponent a bit too much agency over what your turn will look like.
• Resounding Courage looks pretty decent; more attack reactions in Light Warrior with upsides are welcome.
• Charge of the Light Brigade seems like a solid starter, and could see play as a card that is happy sitting in the arsenal for a moment to set things up.

Early on, there were whispers about how the Ser Boltyn, Breaker of Dawn support was lacking in this set. I would encourage testing before forming an opinion. James White hinted in a tweet reply that people should consider banking action points, so this is your signal to pick up some Lead the Charge or Captain's Call to go with your Timesnap Potions.

Dorinthea Ironsong is depicted on the newest legendary arm equipment that can buff your second sword swing in Ironsong Versus. Dorinthea will still prefer Braveforge Bracers, as it allows you to hide information from your opponent, and an opponent may block differently depending on the chance of an activation. Braveforge Bracers also has Battleworn, offering longer use than Ironsong Versus. In summary, if anyone is going to benefit from this arm equip, it’s Ser Boltyn, Breaker of Dawn, since the Courage token can boost non-weapon attacks. Since Boltyn with Raydn, Duskbane was playing Braveforge Bracers as a block three equipment with no abilities, this will be a welcome upgrade.

Light

The Light cards in this set leave an impression of being draft designs. Cube builders rejoice, but for Classic Constructed there’s not a lot here to discuss. Lumina Lance can help in late turns, and is a suitable yellow pitch to fuel either side of Ser Boltyn, Breaker of Dawn‘s hero ability, but only has two modes, since Ser Boltyn’s hero ability can give go again. Searing Ray can lose its own buff if you use Boltyn’s ability to give it go again with only one card in arsenal. Blistering Assault can’t trigger Phantasm, so won’t fill that role, and “hoser” effects like Break of Dawn targeting Shadow abilities has little use in CC. All in all, not a lot here for CC.

Brute

Levia, Shadowborn Abomination, poor thing, has been her own greatest weakness from day one, but this set is giving her an Azalea, Ace in the Hole treatment a la Outsiders. Brute might finally have what it takes to stand on the big stage with the other top heroes. Rhinar, Reckless Rampage is getting thrown a bone here as well with the impressive Scowling Flesh Bag. This legendary head equip gives an on-demand intimidate, making go-wide strategies think twice. Losing a key card mid-chain can cause Katsu, the Wanderer, Lexi, Livewire, or Fai, Rising Rebellion to lose enough speed that it could end the turn on the spot. This will be great to let you keep a fuller hand in late turns, where Brutes can sometimes struggle to close because of how mathematically fair their cards are. Diabolic Offering gives Levia, Shadowborn Abomination an additional blue card with six attack – a massive boon. Not all good things need a lot of words though, like Slithering Shadowpede. It’s simply efficient.

Expendable Limbs is a standout card for Shadow Brute. Being a four-block defense reaction that pitches for three, and can give any banished six-attack card a “play from banish” ability, is pushed to a fantastic rate. I’d expect to see this with some regularity.

• Shaden Death Hydra feels a bit short on power. If you can attack with three cards, it’s a good rate, but if you have to use four, it may not push enough damage.
• Blood Dripping Frenzy functioning as Art of War copies four through six is an exciting blue that blocks for three.
• Ram Raider being able to gain go again with some regularity is promising for a consistent twelve damage turn build, but the red slots in Shadow Brute builds are hotly contested. It remains to be seen if this will be good enough for one of those slots.
• Wall Breaker leaves the impression that it has a smaller chance of inclusion than Ram Raider, but I could be wrong.
• Shaden Scream offers greater consistency to trigger Levia, Shadowborn Abomination‘s hero ability to stop Blood Debt damage, but isn’t likely to fill the shoes red cards need to in this deck. Blue still offers plus three attack though, and blocking three may make it a worthy inclusion.
• Battlefield Breaker, Tribute to the Legions of Doom and Tribute to Demolition are functionally quite similar. I don’t believe they’ll each make it in, but having them as an option for when your list needs a red or a yellow pitch is a good thing to have access to.
• Shaden Swing is a yellow six with a great rate of one resource. This is a bit of a straightforward card, and would be a great closer for reds with go again.
• Dig Up Dinner can buy back a fair amount of what you lose to Blood Debt, but I’d rather have proactive blue cards to pitch over reactive ones.
• Numbskull seems like a poor fit in Shadow Brute. Rhinar, Reckless Rampage pilots who are balling on a budget may find this a suitable placeholder for any Command and Conquers they may be missing, though I’d sooner steer folks to Amnesia.

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t expecting to feel like any Brute was given enough sauce to be a metagame threat, but I stand corrected. This is thrilling news for the upcoming CC season, more viable heroes may be considered healthy or unhealthy depending on your perspective, but another angle is that it’s just fun to have someone’s favorite hero as an option.

Levia, Redeemed solves the very specific issue of Levia, Shadowborn Abomination decks randomly dying to their own Blood Debt in late turns. This card could demand nearly an entire article on its own, but I’ll summarize here that it’s a modal hero transformation that allows you to pivot your gameplan in a way that best suits how your cards have been drawn and played. Shadow Brute will now have the choice between either not having Blood Debt at the cost of your access to what is currently banished, or using your deck as your resource for paying for future Blood Debt. This grants a player monumental agency over the endgame. This will be a staple for high-level play, but will take experience and measured care to use to its full potential.

Runeblade

When Dusk Till Dawn was announced, I thought a Chane, Bound by Shadow reintroduction was due, but it’s clear that Legend Story Studios wants to spend a bit more time cooking him up before re-releasing him into the world. That said, Vynnset, Iron Maiden has me more than a little excited for Shadow Runeblade. She is wielding a fascinating weapon in Flail of Agony, and one detail that excites me most is that it’s one-handed, meaning you can hold an off-hand. Grimoire of the Haunt is the stand-out best option, as the other two available to her are Arcane Lantern and Ornate Tessen. Giving additional equipment to a Runeblade that can staple go again onto something is always powerful, and will pair well with Spellbound Creepers. Vynnset’s ability to make arcane damage unpreventable will also mean you can guarantee multiple activations from Spellbound Creepers. This offers balancing against Prism, Awakener of Sol as well, since unpreventable damage will tear through any and all Ward equipment, Spectral Shields, and Ward allies that she controls. Oblivion might be a bit tricky to pull off, so it may or may not see play, but the upside of having Nasreth, the Soul Harrower in play is tempting. Six health and six attack means this would require dedicating multiple resources to manage. Dyadic Carapace is a strong defensive equipment, but in the chest slot is competing against resource-generating chest equips, and Runeblade has access to Arcane Barrier in multiple other slots that are already playable in Crown of Dichotomy, Vexing Quillhand, and now Grimoire of the Haunt for Vynnset. Future sources of arcane damage may make this necessary if they blend physical damage a la bull-lander, Iyslander, Stormbind‘s iconic build blending arcane damage with high-rate attacks like Wounded Bull. Iyslander, Stormbind builds are in a tough place, especially with the return of Prism, Awakener of Sol and Dromai, Ash Artist staying relevant, so this isn’t likely to make an immediate impact.

These are a well-themed design cycle, but I’m less interested in Widespread Ruin than the others. Attacking the defender’s hand and arsenal are both highly sought after effects, and since the attacks themselves don’t have to hit to get this benefit when the chain closes, these will be formidable and hard to predict. Banishing the top card of the deck in a non-Assassin class doesn’t give me the same impression of value as the others.

• Funeral Moon acting as an additional copy of Seeds of Agony has promise, especially at instant speed.
• Requiem for the Damned is superb, and I’m glad that Briar, Warden of Thorns can’t have it.
• Deathly Delight, Deathly Wail, Vantom Wraith and Vantom Banshee are all Rune Gate cards that don’t have go again naturally, so I don’t know if they’ll make the cut over older, more robust Shadow Runeblade cards, but they have high attack, so a few might sneak in.
• Putrid Stirrings is support for Rune Gate cards, so while it could see play, three resources is a lot for a Runeblade, this one might not make the cut. You can never be too careful about underestimating blue block three cards, though.

Bequest the Vast Beyond, lovingly referred to as “we have Bloodsheath Skeleta at home”, is not immediately impressive, as there aren’t any large X cost attacks. What made Bloodsheath Skeleta so strong was Sonata Arcanix, which allowed a player to net extra cards in hand, facilitating turns that made multiple sizable attacks. This is a well balanced card that is likely to gain power as the card pool deepens. Runic Reckoning offers a great pump effect to Briar, Warden of Thorns and Viserai, Rune Blood, giving Briar more chances at an Embodiment of Lightning token, and Viserai more Runechants. Since both play Grasp of the Arknight, this could often be played for no cost, since many of their lines involve making a Runechant when starting things off, anyhow. That’s good enough to make the cut.

Shadow

The Shadow cards have a lot of what the Light cards had, which is “hoser” effects against Light. This will be a great addition of cards to any cube, as we’re nearing the point in Flesh and Blood’s age where such side-projects will begin to exist. You will 100% see me with an Aria themed cube as soon as more support rolls in for it. As far as CC is involved, cards that care about whether or not your opponent is playing Light cards are not likely to make an impact.

Dabble in Darkness is a solid rate attack, especially with three block. Runeblades are adept at giving attacks go again that don’t naturally, so this has promise there, but Brute is unlikely to be able to utilize it. Chains of Mephetis reads like a card that is going to gain power as the game ages and the card pool deepens, but is already showing promise as a blue three-block non-attack action. Tome of Torment will pair nicely with this, but since neither have go again, there will need to be some care given to how many of these types of effects you play. Eloquence tokens will come in clutch for these.

• Vile Inquisition could be a good blue, but I’m not impressed overall. Same with Grim Feast, it seems a little too below rate for CC consideration.
• Beseech the Demigon strikes me as a solid non-attack action in red, being on-rate enough to justify, and can target specific cards in exile; so you can buff at your leisure without breaking a combat chain partway through.
• Tear Through the Portal might be too low impact for CC when Eloquence tokens are accessible, but targeted red/yellow/blue interaction cards are wonderful design spaces, and I’m glad to seem more of them.

Generic and More

As we reach the final section of this breakdown, we get to talk about the cards that I have a personal bias for: the Elemental cards. Anthem of Spring is pound for pound the strongest of the three, being a solid buff, while also being a solid blocker when Unity is triggered. On-demand Embodiment of Earth is incredible, giving flexibility going into a defensive turn, and is an Earth card for helping keep Channel Mount Heroic around. This could replace Amulet of Earth, or could be added for extra Earth density in the blue pitch part of a deck. Oldhim, Grandfather of Eternity is gone, so Northern Winds won’t matter for a while, but an extra blue Ice card is nothing to sneeze at. Not having go again, and not blocking three are two things that make this stick out as potentially less impactful, especially since the Spellbane Aegis token will only likely make an appearance against Runeblades.

Call Down the Lightning is one of those cards that gets a little bit worse every time you re-read it. This theoretically works quite well with the Elemental arrows like Chilling Icevein, as they all have effects on damage, not on hit, so things like this can punch it through. It does signal as “If you were unsure about blocking, this is your sign to simply not do so,” but still pairs nicely with Lexi, Livewire‘s hero ability. Lastly, this card only blocks two, so this will likely stay in Blitz, and could make Snap Shot Death Dealer combo lists marginally more consistent.

Star Struck reads like a card that also loses some of its pizazz the more you reread it. Being a seven cost yellow, it lives in a strange place with the deck, mathematically, and has middling use cases against Ranger and Wizard. That said, this is likely still going to be good enough to find its way into a sideboard, as it can shore up aggressive matchups, where Bravo traditionally stumbles.

Hold the Line. This card made me feel several emotions in a short timeframe. On the surface, it’s a blue card with a use case to block five against decks designed to high roll with cards like Art of War, Three of a Kind, or Force of Nature. This seems incredible as a generic card. The main issue is that it’s a blue block two at every other point of the game, and doesn’t do anything itself. Ultimately, this impresses me as a potential sideboard card in metagames with a lot of unfair things going on.

• Censor has promise, and will reward players intimately familiar with their opponents’ decks.
• Mischievous Meeps is a bit too easy to block for play in CC, but Benji is frothing at the mouth for this. Meep.
• Hack to Reality can break Frost Hex, so this is a card to keep in your mind when playing Iyslander, Stormbind, but I’m not sure how overall playable it is.
• Warmonger’s Diplomacy makes Warrior very happy, and Runeblade very sad. A blue block three with a potential to take an opponent’s entire turn away has promise, but likely isn’t going to do that against a skilled pilot.
• Poison the Well is a design I didn’t expect to see in Flesh and Blood, I’ll admit. It didn’t strike me as likely in a game that doesn’t gain that much life, but as Cleric comes down the design pipeline, it may find playability in the future.
• Frontline Helm, Frontline Plating, Frontline Gauntlets, and Frontline Legs are for Blitz. Very strong for that, but not for CC.

Since Flesh and Blood is still relatively young as far as card games at this complexity go, nearly every card in a set still stands to have some impact. If you made it this far, I hope you enjoyed this review! Let me know which hero you think is the biggest winner in this set, and if you don’t think it’s Levia, Shadowborn Abomination. I hope you do well at your prereleases, and I’ll see you all when Dusk Till Dawn breaks into Classic Constructed!