Nuu – CnC (Casual and Competitive)

Nuu, Alluring Desire
(Nuu, Alluring Desire | Art by Jessada Sutthi)

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.

Assassins in Flesh and Blood have been scary, mean, tough, and powerful. Both Uzuri and Arakni are rough around the edges, operating in the Pits and such. But this Assassin is much different. Our alluring beauty from beyond the Mistveil is the perfect seductress – both dashing and deadly. Stick around to learn more about the latest member of the “contracted to banish opponent’s deck” team – Nuu.

What Does Nuu Do?

Young Nuu has four intellect and 20 life, while Nuu, Alluring Desire has four intellect and 40 life. She’s a Mystic Assassin hero, which means she can use generic, Mystic, Assassin, and Mystic Assassin cards. Like other Part the Mistveil heroes, she has an ability activated by Chi and a “regular” ability. Her Chi ability lets you banish a blue card off the top of your opponent’s deck, as well as play their banished blue cards for free. Her regular ability is a passive that targets her stealth cards making them get you more cards for your exile.

Weapon and Equipment

You want daggers in both hands, but which daggers you pick is up to you. While you might not need Orbitoclast in your inventory, all other daggers are yours for the taking. That being said, Beckoning Mistblade and Spider’s Bite will be your most likely played daggers.

Mask of Recurring Nightmares and Flick Knives are the more expensive cards you’ll want, as well as Fyendal’s Spring Tunic. The other options are far cheaper. Nuu uses Undertow Stilettos and Arousing Wave – simple yet effective commons that you can find in the bulk bin of your local games store.

Core Cards for Nuu

Lots of blues and lots of cheap stealth cards. Zero-cost stealth cards will be your bread and butter. This includes attacks like Leave No Witnesses, Persuasive Prognosis and Double Trouble.  Just because it’s not cheap, you shouldn’t forget about Surgical Extraction – it’s either a fair pitch card or an even better attack as it fishes for your blues. Defense reactions are a necessity – especially the classic Sink Below. You’ll also want a lot of transcend cards to get that Chi. Don’t forget her Sacred Art: Undercurrent Desires.

But all that can be put aside if your don’t have your attack reactions. Hiss that makes Slither is something you’ll need in your deck, and not just a few. You should always play a rainbow of Hiss as the go again will give you a pretty good advantage (more on that later). Also, Just a Nick is something that works wonders in any Nuu deck.

Let’s take a look at the formats she can be played in and see if she’s playable, fun, a winner, or needs more support.

Blitz

Why is attacking with one attack cards great? For the same reason that Dorinthea attacking with just a vanilla Dawnblade is great: it gets your opponent thinking. And in the fast game of Blitz, where you’ll probably cycle through your deck once of twice, nothing is sweeter than seeing your opponent’s puzzled face over a simple blue stealth card. Playing Nuu is more of a mind game than a strategy-based one. Remember how I said that Blitz is a fast game? Well, Nuu has all the time in the world to let her opponent overthink till they settle on a card to block your one attack with.

CC

Dagger, dagger, zero-cost attack. That should be your setup for most of your CC rounds with Nuu. Depending on your matchup, you’ll either be blocking with the remaining cards in your hand or setting up for a dangerous chain. Unlike Uzuri who needs to hit, you just need to get your opponents cards out of their hands. You’ll do that with multiple attacks per combat chain rather than pumping a single attack. So after the first zero-cost attack, give it go again by whatever means you can and go for a second zero-cost attack. If you can pull that off – your target is done for. Going in with other reactions to force a card out of their hand is also a more than valid option.

UPF

The same strategy from Blitz applies here. Take your time and let your opponents take themselves out one by one. You can’t do much when you’re outnumbered, but playing the innocent card at first will get you pretty far. Stock up on those defense reactions in case you see your neighbors turn on you, but don’t forget that lying is an option in UPF. “I basically have just blue cards in my deck, what could I possibly do with those?” said every Assassin ever right before attacking their target with a Double Trouble, followed by any Art of Desire: Mind and finished with a beautiful Infect.

Overall Score: Winner / Fun to Play

Just like Uzuri before her, Nuu is a ton of fun. The Stealth aspect of Nuu’s cards make them maybe not as interesting, but her Slither and Hiss cards give more of a poker face feeling than other Assasins. Do you have a reaction in your hand or are you just happy to see me? That’s the thought most of your opponents will have if you have a card in hand or arsenal. And while you do have enough support for Assassins to come out on top as the winner of almost any matchup, even just playing her will be a very enjoyable experience.

Further Reading:

How to Upgrade the Nuu Blitz Precon

The Power of Unknown Information in Flesh and Blood

How to Win a Flesh and Blood Mirror Match

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?