Hello and welcome to our Rosetta set review! This time, we’re taking a look at the generic offerings and the expansion slot cards. So all you Wizard and Runeblade haters who would rather just cave your opponent’s face in with a Rok than fuss about with arcane damage, your time has come!

Generics

Arcanite Fortress

Let’s start out with one of the biggest surprises that Rosetta had in store for us. Who had an Arcanite Skullcap on their spoiler season bingo list? Certainly not me. But the new legendary chest piece Arcanite Fortress seems to hint at a future equipment subtheme. If you equip both the twice dethroned former golden boy Arcanite Skullcap and the corresponding chest piece, the latter will block for a respectable two points of damage. And guardwell means that it will stick around to be able to be sacrificed to prevent two points of arcane damage.

I believe it’s fairly questionable that we will see a third piece in the Arcanite series sometime soon. That would mean that Arcanite Fortress would block for three points of damage, a threshhold I believe LSS would be unwilling to cross just now. But it’s cool that LSS is giving us some incentive to run the old school head slot option.

Arcanite Fortress might be an interesting sideboard option for any class that goes up against Runeblades. Guardwell and spellvoid combined means that the new chest piece will provide you with a fairly easy four points of value – provided that the Runeblade player is looking to deal more than one point of arcane damage at a time.

I don’t believe that’s very likely, however, since the more popular option for Runeblades is looking to be Runechant spam rather than, say, Looming Doom, Vexing Malice or Inspire Lightning. It’s almost a shame that Rosetta Thorn has rotated out already, Arcanite Fortress would have been such a neat card back when Briar, Warden of Thorns‘s signature weapon had everybody trembling.

Cut Through the Facade

Do you hate auras? Do you froth at the mouth when those snobbish Runeblades create their fifth Runechant token? Then Cut Through the Facade is here to aid you. The new entry into the tradition of generic majestics with niche, but technically over-rate, on hit effects absolutely dunks on decks looking to spam auras, and does so in a blunt but effective manner.

Hard to block at seven power, Cut Through the Facade becomes even harder to block if your opponent’s deck includes a large amount of auras. Even two auras in hand means that your opponent will be forced to use equipment or to have a defense reaction handy to prevent their auras from being destroyed.

This sounds pretty good, but I’m not entirely convinced. Of the 203 (at time of writing) auras in Flesh and Blood, most have some kind of self-destruction clause, either at the start of a given turn after being played or when a condition is met. Which means that Cut Through the Facade is less useful as a key silver bullet to destroy a lynchpin of your opponent’s aura strategy, and more as a way to generate a generic amount of value. It’s unlikely that the cards will line up in such a way to allow you to threaten a specific aura before it does its thing.

Ten Foot Tall and Bulletproof

Alright, this one takes the fun award for the set, hands down. Just looking at Ten Foot Tall and Bulletproof is a joy: A 10 power, 10 defense card for three resources? What’s the downside? Well, if you use it, you’re down at least six points of value and a bunch of tempo from drawing two fewer cards on your next turn (one card generally being valued at three points of value). That’s quite the bummer, since it mathematically means that the most amount of value you can get from it when all is said and done is four – and that’s on defense.

On offense, if Ten Foot Tall and Bulletproof (how fun is that name, seriously) doesn’t kill your opponent, you’re looking at a two-card four, which is terrible. Still, you can never totally rule the card out. For one, it’s a handy card against any deck looking to go tall. A way to delay the loss of cards on a key turn when you’re trying to, for example, dodge that dominated Crippling Crush.

But there is also the unlikely possibility that you have ways to give it dominate and buff its power for an under-rate finisher. The flavor text rings true, after a fashion: there’s no hangover if you kill your opponent before the migraine sets in. Convulsions from the Bellows of Hell, anyone? It could be a whole new deck archetype – and you’d get to run two cards with names that are incredibly fun to say.

Call to the Grave

Everyone who has played any amount of TCGs knows that tutors (effects that allow you to search up cards from your deck) are serious business. People who don’t have much TCG experience might ask why you would want to search a card up, only for it to land in the graveyard. The most succinct way to explain it is: your deck is the least accessible zone in the game – any zone is better for a key card to be in than your deck.

So far, Flesh and Blood has been pretty light on effects that deal with the graveyard, and with good reason. Many TCGs have entire decks built around tutoring a win condition into the graveyard, only to return it directly to play with another card for an easy two-card combo. As a game built less around amassing a board state, FAB is somewhat less vulnerable to this, and we’ve seen some light recursion effects and some amount of graveyard synergy in FAB design recently.

I don’t see any way to truly leverage Call to the Grave for a win just yet, but it is a card to watch out for even now. There are enough cards that incidentally generate value from the graveyard now for a blue two-block card that tutors to the graveyard to see play anyway. And if we ever get some kind of card that puts an attack directly from the graveyard onto the combat chain, we’d better watch out.

Truce

We’ve got the most fun card award out of the way, not let’s get to the weirdest card award. Truce is an odd duck that I can’t quite make sense of. If your opponent doesn’t attack you, you both gain three life – which is more valuable to the player who is behind on tempo, as it gives them some wiggle room to skip on blocks to keep cards for a clapback.

If your opponent does attack you, it at least replaces itself. So Truce has the air of a win-win card, but it costs two resources with no go again and thus becomes pretty difficult to weave in with another attack. I could see a turn where you lay into your opponent, and if they don’t block you out, you play Truce to end your turn. If your opponent decides to attack you anyway, you start with a five-card hand next turn.

If they decide not to attack, you’re both up three life, but they took a bunch of damage for a full hand that they didn’t get to utilize, and there is nothing stopping you from doing it again. I’m not sure whether that’s good enough, but there is the added detail that you choose the opponent to Truce with. So for now, I will just brand the card with the “designed for Ultimate Pit Fight” stamp and move on.

The “We Have Command and Conquer at Home” Cycle

These cards are likely just limited fodder, but I believe they might one day make a sideboard somewhere, and it’s good that they exist. Smash Up, Hand Behind the Pen, Tongue Tied are all on-rate attacks that banish a specific card type in your opponent’s arsenal on hit. There’s no way that any of these cards make it over Command and Conquer.

But Command and Conquer is the most infamously over-rate card, and with LSS recently deciding to ban a bunch of cards that provide too much card advantage, I could see it getting the ban hammer at some point. And if it does, we might find ourselves looking for just about anything to fill the gap it leaves behind.

The “Widow” Equipment Cycle

Continuing the theme of being dressed for the occasion, the Assassin class gets some incredible sideboard options against the arcane classes. If you equip Widow Veil Respirator, Widow Back Abdomen, Widow Claw Tarsus, and Widow Web Crawler, you have a staggering Arcane Barrier value of 4. On top of that, you have 4 points of spellvoid to prevent Wizards from killing you outright and Runeblades from sneaking through the last few points of damage to finish you off.

With no physical block, I don’t really see these cards being run against Runeblades, however. And four sideboard slots might be too much to give up against Wizards – there are other classes out there, too. But the Widow cycle gives you a lot of flexibility if arcane damage is prominent, since they are available in all slots and offer Arcane Barrier as well as spellvoid.

Splatter Skull

What a time to be alive! Hot on the heels of Strength Rules All, we’re now getting the second card with an on hit effect for Brutes. This one is quite a bit less conditional than its predecessor, but still a good deal more conservative than what other classes are getting.

For one, there is an additional hoop to jump through. For Splatter Skull to be anything more than a Brutal Assault you need to have intimidated your opponent in the same turn. That’s not exactly hard to do when playing a Brute, but without any kind of buff to its power, Splatter Skull is still easily blocked by most any two cards or a defense reaction and some equipment.

That’s not to say that Splatter Skull is bad; Rhinar, Reckless Rampage can enable it easily enough and two Barraging Beatdowns can make for a devastating blowout. But it is notable that the card requires a good deal of setup in a class that’s already full to bursting with great finishing combos like Savage Beatdown, Bloodrush Bellow, and Alpha Rampage.

Drink ‘Em Under the Table

Some love for Betsy, Skin in the Game! FABs most underwhelming Guardian (sorry to say) remains as one of the most fun heroes in principle, but has never quite gotten there. Drink ‘Em Under the Table is no less risky than the rest of Betsy’s game plan. More so, in fact! But if you can guarantee that it hits, its a pretty mighty blowout, guaranteeing you an arsenal and taking another card away from your opponent.

That best case scenario gets pretty prickly if you consider the tables to be reversed, though, and outside of her hero ability, Betsy is still pretty low on ways to make her wager cards more likely to pay off. I’m sure that’s intentional on part of LSS.

Most classes have a hard time blocking out eight points of damage cleanly, though, and Drink ‘Em Under the Table lines up well with a Pummel. So while the inherent risk likely guarantees that most players looking to optimize will stay far away from Betsy, still, those who do flock to her playstyle just got access to an incredible card for closing out games and generating wild stories. I’m here for it.

Gustwave of the Second Wind

Zen, Tamer of Purpose has been casting a shadow over the OG Ninja Katsu, the Wanderer since the former was released. Another card to diversify Katsu’s signature Surging Strike combo line isn’t likely to change that by itself, but Gustwave of the Second Wind is notable nonetheless.

A clean four-power attack for zero resources with go again is nothing to sneeze at, and it makes Katsu’s turns more unpredictable still. While Whelming Gustwave is the same thing with an on hit effect, Gustwave of the Second Wind can be a stand-in chain-ender like Fluster Fist in a pinch.

With how crowded the Surging Strike line has become, I’m not sure you’re guaranteed to run Gustwave of the Second Wind, but it’s always nice to have options. And we can all be a smidge more glad that Bonds of Ancestry just got banned, or this new Gustwave would have been even scarier.

Plan for the Worst

It’s blue, it blocks for three, it helps you regain tempo if you play your cards well – what’s not to love? Plan for the Worst might actually push Riptide, Lurker of the Deep over the edge at some point. It guarantees your opponent won’t have a five-card hand on their next turn, forces them to use their cards or lose them, gives at least one perfect trap – maybe more if you have a spare card lying around – as well as the information to make the correct choice, blocks well, and pitches for three at the very least.

The only thing that might make everybody’s favorite green slimeball still bad come the release of Rosetta might be Wizard dominance. No amount of card tutoring, information gaining, or preparation will help you, when some smug, fancy spellmonger lights you on fire from the next town over. At least Riptide’s new toy still pitches for three to prevent three of the 90 points of arcane damage heading your way.

Unsheathed

Unsheathed is another straight-forward upgrade for a certain hero, this one intended for Kassai of the Golden Sand. With her signature Cintari Saber, Unsheathed is a guaranteed three points of value with go again. Nothing to get too excited about, but still quite good.

The Illusionist Cards

Illusionists get their obligatory Dust card, this time, Ouvia gets her day in the sun with Dust from the Fertile Fields. This one also provides material for its corresponding dragon to live without fear of being popped through phantasm, and also blocks for three and is red. If you wanna spam tokens with Ouvia, you play this. But from my limited Illusionist experience, Ouvia isn’t really a make or break part of any deck, and card slots are limited, so I’d pass on this one.

Two new pieces of equipment, Calming Cloak and Calming Gesture provide Illusionists with added options for Arcane Barrier and some aura synergies that require destroying your equipment piece. There is some lovely design tension here that I can appreciate – if you destroy your equipment, you lose out on your Arcane Barrier for the rest of the game.

Given that before Rosetta, Illusionists had no options for Arcane Barrier in the chest and arm slot, however, anything short of blank text would have been an upgrade to Nullrune Gloves and Nullrune Robe. I like that LSS is playing into the design of Crown of Reflection with some more aura synergy in the Arcane Barrier equipment for Illusionist, but I see these as primarily providing a slight upgrade over Nullrune equipment and not as a way to really play into the aura plan.

Fluttersteps on the other hand is more of a standalone piece that further bolsters the ward plan that Diadem of Dreamstate and Celestial Kimono have established so far. Playing auras as instants is nothing to sneeze at, but my issue with the ward equipment archetype has always been the fickleness inherent in sacrificing your equipment. Fluttersteps likely isn’t the piece to break this game plan, but it might be one of many steps on the road to creating a full-blown deck eventually.

Conclusion

Phew! That was a lot. Rosetta has some incredibly interesting cards on offer for those who eschew the Wizards and Runeblades in favor of other classes. No card from the generics and expansion slot cards really sticks out as truly meta-defining presence, but with the big hole that the ban of Art of War and other card advantage tools have left in the game, anything could be possible! At the very least, Flesh and Blood‘s latest set is guaranteed to inspire deck builders everywhere to wrack their brains. I know what cards I’ll try to break. Do you?

More Rosetta Reviews:

Rosetta Review – Florian

Rosetta Review – Verdance

Rosetta Review – Aurora

The Best Rosetta Cards for Commoner

More coming soon!