Hello there! Today I’ll be reviewing Light and Illusionist cards from Dusk Till Dawn, the upcoming set from Flesh and Blood. I’ve always had an affinity for Prism. Playing cards that stay around long after the turn is over, and then using those cards as minor advantages over a long game is exactly my play style. That style helped me take down The Calling: Las Vegas 2021 with Prism, Sculptor of Arc Light. So without further adieu, let’s jump into the new cards.

A New Hero Enters…

Prism, Awakener of Sol is actually a very easy hero to understand. The first ability lets you tutor (search your deck) for a Figment whenever a Herald goes to soul during an action phase. Each Figment card comes into the arena with its own ability. The easy way to think about this is that anytime a Herald goes to soul it gets an additional ability of whatever Figment you want to tutor. Most of the time this will happen because the Herald will hit your opponent, but keep in mind that Halo of Illumination and Soul Food are additional ways of getting a Herald into your soul.

Unfortunately, Genesis is not a way to trigger Prism because it doesn’t trigger during an action phase. Prism also has a second ability which flips Figments that you’ve tutored into their Angel side. These Angels have powerful abilities which usually correspond with the Figment side and are Allies that can attack your opponent.

Traditionally, Prism has done well into classes that:

1. Don’t have enough six-attack cards to trigger phantasm.
2. Can’t go wide enough to pressure her permanent cards and the life total at the same time.

This doesn’t change with Prism, Awakener of Sol. She should have strong matchups into Ranger, Guardian, and Warrior that all have problems in one or both of these categories.

But How Much is a Figment Worth?

The difficult part of Prism will be how best to leverage your Figments into victory. Each Figment ability will be better in some situations and worse in others, making them very difficult to play. The first time a Herald goes to soul you will presumably have up to eight options to choose from (assuming you don’t have one in your hand or arena). In addition to choosing the best Figment to tutor from your deck, you also have to choose the best time to flip these Figments into their Angel side. All of this together will make Prism a difficult deck to play to its highest potential. That being said, Figments/Angels are going to be the easiest way for Prism, Awakener of Sol to win a game of Flesh and Blood.

The best 3 Figments:

1. Figment of Erudition
2. Figment of Protection
3. Figment of Triumph

The Equipment Facilitates the Whole Game Plan.

While two resources is a lot to pay for go again from the new Luminaris, Celestial Fury, the instant speed timing makes it worth it. Consider the case where you have Phantasmal Footsteps in play with a Wartune Herald red attacking. If your opponent decides to pop Phantasm you can pay one resource to get an action point. If they decide to block without popping Phantasm, you can now use Luminaris to give the card go again after blocks. These can become a losing situation for your opponent when deciding how to block.

Empyrean Rapture makes putting Heralds into your soul even more potent, because now making them into Angels becomes free. Gaining two resources (think Heartened Cross Strap) is a very powerful ability and can definitely rival Fyendal’s Spring Tunic for the chest slot.

Diadem of Dreamstate is a powerful effect, but doesn’t exactly outclass other head pieces that can be played in the same spot. But what makes Diadem so interesting is that it can be played in a Prism deck that focuses on Ward rather then Heralds, opening up completely different play styles for Prism or even for Dromai.

These Cards Help Make Heralds a Hit!

Forcing through Herald hits is going to be an important part of making Prism work. Being able to increase the attack to go over the top of a full block, or reducing the attack of a popper, is just what Prism needs. While Angelic Wrath looks playable in any color, Celestial Reprimand is best in blue because the overwhelming majority of Phantasm poppers are going to be exactly six attack. There is a major cost of putting these cards into your deck though: they don’t block! Between the Figments and these cards you might end up with hands full of cards unable to block your opponent’s effects, which is a surefire way to lose from 32 health.

Lumina Lance is such an interesting card, because instead of coming with a resource cost it comes with a cards from soul cost. It’s drawn comparisons to Celestial Cataclysm and Enlightened Strike, which are both very powerful effects, but it’s really its own thing. This card is on the cusp of being playable in both Prism, Awakener of Sol and Ser Boltyn, Breaker of Dawn decks, but it doesn’t quite hit the mark. In either deck having lots of cards in soul is a surefire way to tell if a deck is winning or not. Therefore, if you have extra cards in soul, it makes Lumina Lance a win-more card, but I’m happy to be proven wrong on this one.

Sideboarding Vs. Shadow

Dusk Till Dawn continues the tradition of printing Light cards that get buffs from being played against Shadow heroes, and vice versa. With two Shadow heroes in Levia, Shadowborn Abomination and Vynnset, Iron Maiden bound to be popular, these anti-Shadow cards are worth considering for sideboard purposes.

Lay to Rest is probably not interesting enough to consider for either Light hero. On its face a one-for-six is above rate, but that’s all the card does, and only if your opponent is one of the two Shadow heroes.

Defender of Daybreak and Break of Dawn both have tank Prism vibes from the old days of Flesh and Blood where fatigue with any deck was a possibility. These cards both bring major defensive upgrades to a deck that traditionally blocks very well when it wants to.

In Fact There is a Defensive Sub-Theme to These Cards…

Radiant Forcefield has a powerful ability to turn cards in soul into life, but there are two things working against it. First, a card in soul might be worth more then a life if used in other ways already. Second, there are more good anti-prevention effects to punish playing these types of cards. I think Radiant Forcefield is a powerful effect that can be used in the future to create a new archetype (defensive Boltyn anyone?)

Flicker Trick blocking five for zero resources is a powerful effect, but it only works in such niche scenarios. Any attack that is more than five is an automatic no-block. Any attack three or less makes this card inefficient in your deck. Any attack reaction that can bring an attack six or above can make it worthless. There are just simply too many bad scenarios to consider Flicker Trick as a good card.

Celestial Resolve is the best card of the bunch. There was already a push for Reinforce the Line in decks that could support it as an answer to Azalea, Ace in the Hole. Celestial Resolve has a slightly lower card pool to work with but defends for one more. I can envision this becoming a niche sideboard card in Herald heavy decks as an answer to the dominate key word.

A Few Random Cards to Round Out the Bunch

I wish I could count all the things Lost in Thought does badly, but I’ll just give you three. The first, and most obvious, is giving your opponent a Ponder token, which means you aren’t even taking a full card from your opponent unless that card completely makes the hand. Second, you’re paying a resource, which means this is more than one card to take a card out of your opponent’s hand. Third, it can only take attack actions, which in some cases doesn’t ruin the hand or even take a card. Imagine your Runeblade opponent shows you four non-attacks with an attack in arsenal, or a hand reliant on Sonata Arcanix. You just paid one resource to look at your opponent’s hand at that point. Lost in Thought is one of the most overhyped cards in this set.

On the other hand, I haven’t heard anyone talk about Searing Ray, which looks perfect as a Boltyn card. Boltyn looks to be the new deck that will be reliant on yellow cards, which will not only make this a one resource for six attack, but also will be easy to use Boltyn’s go again ability on. This might be an unassuming all-star for Boltyn going forward.

The very last card I want to talk about is the Fable itself, Light of Sol. Most recent Fables have been lacking in power and not seen competitive play. Light of Sol will likely end that streak. Let’s start with the obvious. Prism wants to get free cards into soul to trigger her Figment ability and be able to flip Angels. She also has the perfect card to set up a yellow Herald on top of the deck in Figment of Rebirth. This card allows Prism to have three or even four Figment turns!

Now turn your attention to what Light of Sol does in Boltyn, who just got a fancy new set of Banneret cards (which will be discussed in the Warrior set review) that want to go into soul for bonus effects. On top of this, if you hit a yellow card, which is very likely since Boltyn wants to play yellow now, you automatically turn on “charged this turn” for all cards such as Battlefield Blitz. This might actually be the most busted Fabled ever printed in Flesh and Blood.

In Conclusion

Light and Illusionist cards are as interesting as ever and present complex puzzles for deckbuilding. Some of these cards are absolutely pushed in power level (Light of Sol) and others are absolutely lacking (Lost in Thought). I’m excited to tackle a new Prism deck myself, but what do you think? Was there a card in this review where you think I missed the mark? Let me know in the comments below what you think of Light and Illusionist in Dusk Till Dawn.

Tyler Horspool

Tyler won the first ever major Flesh and Blood event in the world (The Calling Las Vegas 2021) and has been rated as one of the top classic constructed players ever since. He top 8ed the first US Nationals and has top 64ed every Pro Tour to date. Tyler hopes to continue playing Flesh and Blood at a high level and share his passion for card games with others.