Flesh and Blood‘s Rosetta expansion has given us two new Wizard heroes, which has revitalized the class and opened up new ways to play the game on the opponent’s turn. However, this time we employ the power of Earth cards through Verdance to create a mix of defensive and offensive strategies to survive until we’re online.

Today, we’re going to take a different approach, providing an initial upgrade route, and then branching off to regular and combo deck suggestions.

What’s in the Verdance Precon Deck?

The precon list wants to leverage the power of the Amp mechanic, but it’s sadly a bit lukewarm due to the fixed Amp 1 of Staff of Verdant Shoots. However, it contains a huge amount of life gain and Earth cards that make it to the final builds.

Let’s look at the decklist first:

Power Cards

Fruits of the Forest is a core card in our game plan, as it allows us to gain life while filling our graveyard with Earth cards. Harvest Season accomplishes the same effect. Other efficient Earth cards include Autumn's Touch, which is great either as an attack or a pitch.

We also utilize other Decompose cards such as Blossoming Decay and Summer's Fall, and even the fantastic defensive Rootbound Carapace to quickly banish cards.

Pulsing Aether // Life is an important card in the deck, as it just does everything we need it to accomplish – we can push damage while gaining a small amount of life, all while proccing Verdance yet again. We’re keeping in Fyendal's Fighting Spirit due to its flexibility.

Initial Upgrades for Verdance

Our goal for the deck is to streamline our life gain and arcane damage shenanigans. We’re adding Fruits of the Forest to complete the rainbow suite. Cadaverous Tilling red and blue are decent attacks which also accelerate our game plan.

Defensive options include Sink Below, Sigil of Solace, and Healing Potion – these are all just great cards on their own, and are the defensive backbone of the deck. One thing to note: since we’re pinging for one arcane whenever we gain life, each of these cards are actually above rate now, as these see play even without any life gain synergies.

Waning Moon is our choice weapon, as it allows us to crank out more arcane damage as long as we play a non-attack action card. We currently have eight targets in the deck, which is a fair amount. However, you may add more depending on how testing goes.

Other gear options include Blossom of Spring, Goliath Gauntlet, and Mage Master Boots. However, our precon Helm of Lignum Vitae and Well-Grounded are still serviceable options. Evergreen is a decent sideboard option for longer matchups.

This is what the deck looks like after the initial upgrades:

Regular Verdance Upgrades

Rampant Growth // Life is the must-have card for the deck, whether it be the regular or combo version. This allows us to have ridiculous turns where we can Amp for huge amounts of damage.

Plow Under and Felling of the Crown are two above-rate Earth cards which push the deck’s power level higher. Meanwhile, Heartbeat of Candlehold, Verdance’s Specialization card, allows us to proc her ability three times.

Count Your Blessings is a widely-debated card which may warrant inclusion, but the community is divided in its power. It might be worth it in Verdance, though! If going with this version, make sure to run all six copies.

Command and Conquer and Enlightened Strike are insta-adds for any deck that plans to attack in any regular fashion, so these may be considered. However, you may also consider Destructive Aethertide as an option for arsenal disruption.

Metacarpus Node is a nice flexible pickup for Arcane Barrier 1.

Other usual suspects include Barkskin of the Millennium Tree, Fyendal’s Spring Tunic, and Crown of Providence, though these are the endgame cards to chase after.

Combo Variant

Foe the combo variant of the deck, we only need to look at a few substitutions.

Surgent Aethertide becomes our weapon of choice, as its synergy with Rampant Growth // Life is our main source of scaling.

We accomplish the combo through popping two Healing Potions and pinging, then casting both sides of Rampant Growth // Life, gaining Amp 5 in the process. It is important we do not proc Verdance’s ability on the Life tigger, as we do not want to waste the Amp 5 on her ability.

We can then either cast a second Rampant Growth // Life, electing to once again not proc Verdance’s ability for Amp 6. Should we not have a second copy, Plume of Evergrowth can fish out another copy from the graveyard. If we do draw into both copies, we can then Amp a third time.

And now, when we activate Surgent Aethertide, we deal arcane damage with Amp 11 (Amp 5 plus Amp 6), which then carries over to our next arcane damage as well. Due to its cost, Pulsing Aether // Life would be an efficient card, as it adds up to just one blue pitch for the weapon activation and our next arcane damage instance, though even cards like Pop the Bubble and Destructive Aethertide work.

We also don’t need to accomplish the full combo, as life totals in Blitz are much lower. So even mini-combos should work, or we can hold off until we’re on the brink of death then combo off.

A more advanced version, which requires some knowledge of the stack, is to hold priority on the Rampant Growth trigger, then playing another copy of Rampant Growth // Life, then letting both Rampant Growths resolve, which nets us Amp 6 on both effects.

If we have more life gain effects, the Amp amounts can ramp up to ridiculous amounts. Speaking of, for a more flexible approach, we can utilize Sigil of Solace, Fruits of the Forest and other life gain effects with Rampant Growth // Life for a single huge amp into a Surgent Aethertide activation.

The best part about the combo is we don’t need Storm Striders, though it may make comboing off in some spots easier.

We must note that Surgent Aethertide works with the second damage instance of Forked Lightning. However, Amp only buffs the first instance of Forked Lightning, so we need to channel the Amp through the weapon to buff both damage lines.

Verdance has been the talk of some Flesh and Blood circles for some time now due to its combo potential, all while keeping a healthier life total than its other Wizard counterparts. You might have even seen these decks pop up at your Armory events here and there. The regular version uses several format staples, which some readers may already have in their collection, which makes the transition easier. Meanwhile, the combo version requires fewer expensive cards to get up and running, but locks you into a lot of Wizard pieces – that may be a pro or a con, depending on your investment in the class.

Verdance definitely has some interesting playstyles and will continue to grow in possibilities as the card pool expands, so we’ll have to keep our eyes peeled on new combos or defensive upgrades. Till then, happy shuffling!