(Levia | Art by Wisnu Tan)

Welcome back to CnC! Through this series, we’ll break down just what each hero brings to the table, from abilities, to playable cards and equipment, to interactions with other heroes. Looking at Blitz, CC, and UPF, we’ll see which heroes are winners, playable, fun, or need more support.

Let’s take a step back to the days of Monarch when Light and Shadow were at war. It’s there we will find our lady of the hour – Levia. Just a young girl struck by horrible misfortune. To this day she remains one of the most iconic Flesh and Blood characters, but many players don’t know much about her. Today we’ll go through her cards and abilities and see why some still choose to play her.

What Does She Do?

Young Levia has four intellect and 20 life, while Levia, Shadowborn Abomination has four intellect and 40 life. She is a Shadow Brute which means she can use Shadow, Brute, Shadow Brute, and generic cards. Her deck revolves around blood debt and so does her passive ability. Banishing a card with six or more attack makes your cards lose blood debt for that turn and keep you alive for a bit longer.

Weapon and Equipment

Like most Brutes, Levia likes using Mandible Claw as her weapon of choice. As for the other pieces of equipment, it really depends on your opponent and your playstyle. Carrion Husk can cost you later in the game just as much damage as it saved you from. But that doesn’t stop it from being an amazing chest piece. Scowling Flesh Bag is also a must in your deck – block two and intimidate is pretty powerful, but be careful when you use it. 

As for your arm slot, going with Apex Bonebreaker is a great idea as you get that extra Might if you block smart. Another option is Gambler’s Gloves if you want to play it a bit risky. If you’re going with Scabskin Leathers for your leg slot, you need Gambler’s Gloves. You’ll raise your chances of actually doing something with that dice roll. Another option is Hooves of the Shadowbeast as an easy way to get one extra action once.

Core Cards for Levia

There are quite a few cards you need in your deck as Levia. For starters, you’ll need blue cards, six attacks, and a fair amount of red attacks. Dread Screamer will give you width and it’s important for go again. Then you have your Mark of the Beast and Beast Within as two six-attack cards that are much more than that. There’s also Tear Limb from Limb which you can use with a dominated card as well as Bloodrush Bellow. Pulping is a good finisher, ideally if you have a Might token at hand. And don’t forget about the classics – Art of War is welcome in almost any deck, Doomsday is a fan favorite, and Savage Swing is just a very dirty trick up a Brute’s sleeve.

Now let’s talk about the two most important cards. There are two ways you can pilot Levia and both include transformation specializations. You can either aim to transform into Blasmophet, Levia Consumed or Levia, Redeemed. If you’re going for Levia, Redeemed, you want the long game to exhaust your opponent. With Blasphomet, you aggressively fight to the end. You fight with all you have and hope for the best. It’s a bit more difficult than Levia Redeemed, but the payoff is amazing. 

Blitz

Nobody really expects Levia. They don’t know how she’s played, which means that your opponent won’t be ready for you. It’s pretty easy to disrupt Levia, so you have to be prepared for that. Bloodrush Bellow in arsenal, lots of sixes in hands, blues, and a ton of reds. Your usual strategy will be Claw-Claw-attack for a lot, but even if you can’t get that “attack for a lot” card, it’s ok. Sometimes a dominated card that doesn’t go for much on its own can benefit from cards that boost it. You basically want the match to be over quickly, so just hit them with all you’ve got.

CC

If your enemy doesn’t know how to play against Levia, go second. You can fill your graveyard with cards that will be useful later. But no matter how prepared you are, almost every game with Levia is a gamble. Live by the Brute, die by the Brute. You might get a clunky hand now and then, but Claw-Claw-pass is something that might happen sometimes. Agility changed Levia a tad bit and made her more of a threat. Use that token to your advantage with cards like Agile Windup. 

The thing with Levia is that you need to do a lot of thinking. You need to keep track of your deck, your graveyard, and your banish zone. When transforming you need to keep track of which cards are where and how many cards you have where. You don’t want to die by blood debt, but you also want those six attacks down under so you can play them. In the beginning of the match you need to play slowly and fill up your graveyard with as many cards as you can (especially if you can’t play those cards due to certain requirements not being met). Then when you finally start dishing out damage, just as your opponent thinks they’ve got you, transform and continue from there.

UPF

While every hero can technically be played in UPF, you won’t really have much fun with her in this format. If you do choose to play her for any reason, go all out on the dice throws. Gambler’s Gloves are a must and Scabskin Leathers also. Nothing beats the feeling of gaining three actions points and just going to town with everything you’ve got in your hand. Also just throw everything you’ve got at your opponents and don’t be scared of blood debt. You might die from it, yes, but it will be a laugh.

Overall Score:  Fun to Play / Winner

Levia is a midrange deck that is really flexible, but how well she performs depends which part of the game you’re in. Theoretically you can win by not transforming into anything, but it’s not recommended and she is known to just kill herself from blood debt. If you’re into high risk, high reward gameplay, Levia is the perfect deck for you.

Further Reading:

The Levia Deck I Would’ve Played in Amsterdam

Building Levia in Commoner

Fighting Fatigue in Flesh and Blood

Valera

Valera tried Magic in highschool then forgot about it. Some years later, she fell in love with broken FaB heroes (like Data Doll MKII) and tribal commander MTG decks. A shapeshifter, collector, traveller, writer... Who needs free time?