Part the Mistveil in Blitz

While it’s been a while since Blitz has seen a competitive season, it continues to pick up cards with each new release. These are quietly fluctuating a dormant meta and the lack of competitive play can make it hard to filter what’s good and what isn’t. Good news, you don’t have to! I’m going to do it for you.

Mistveil buffs three classes that have seen wildly variable meta relevance in Blitz. Ninja was the best deck early on in Blitz in the form of Ira, Crimson Haze, Assassin has seen niche success with Arakni, Solitary Confinement, and Illusionist is always there to remind people that you can’t have an all-Guardian meta. With Mistveil adding to these classes, we see a lot of new tools in their kits, and with it a bump in power.

Ninja

Let’s start with Ninja. This class probably got the least out of the set, but still has some relevant new toys.  The most standout thing added to their kit is more Tiger synergy. This makes sense with the addition of Zen to the roster of heroes. Most of this is Mystic, but some of it is generic Ninja to help out our non-Mystic friends.

Aspect of Tiger: Body

First and foremost, this card is the most likely to see play outside of Tiger decks. A searchable card for Katsu that often works as a Head Jab and blocks three is exactly where Ninja wants to be. When this is in a Tigers strategy, it does almost everything you want sans buffing your attacks. I’m a big fan of this card.

Stride of Reprisal

Moving into Mystic, I want to touch on Stride of Reprisal. When you want to play this card you’re limited to Zen. Though, in return you gain access to the ability to play Art of War discarding a Crouching Tiger. When cards are everything, this is a big deal. Not having to banish an attack with better text can be the difference between winning and losing a game of Blitz. The tempo of the format doesn’t give much time to set up as an aggro deck. So, we appreciate value on demand. You can also build the deck as a glass cannon with a Blossom of Spring and Stride to get your first Art of War for draw two and buff the chain without pitching or banishing a non-token card.

Assassin

Assassin has had the issue of not being able to keep tempo in Blitz. Now, it feels like they have some more tools to avoid letting the opponent have the tempo back.

Persuasive Prognosis

Flesh and Blood players are pretty predictable when it comes to how the color spread of their decks go. Typically, they have a spread of reds and blues in their deck. Light heroes have a skew towards yellow, but very few classes or heroes run a good mix of all three colors. Prognosis gets to leverage this in the meanest way. In a format with 40 cards, 20 life, and a focus on tempo, on hit, prog is asking you for at minimum a card from deck and a damage. Its ceiling is nasty though. This thing can get a card from deck a point of damage, a card from hand and two life. When you pull this off once in a game of Blitz it’s likely to start the advantage snowball in your favor.

Art of Desire: Body

AoDB is a wild card for its ability to do everything you need to get out of a weird situation. It can gain life, draw a card for the arsenal, and take a card from the opponent if you need to pivot to fatigue. This card is particularly gross when you remember that Arakni, Solitary Confinement is available in Blitz. Leading on this card with go again puts the opponent in a weird situation, just like Snatch.

Illusionist

Illusionist sits in weird place in Blitz. They’re actively known for showing up to gatekeep the tall decks for their inability to deal with a board state. That changes a bit though with Enigma. She can still be a pain for tall decks because Ward translates to extra life, but she also can’t choose to take damage to swing the board at the opponent.

Manifestation of Miragai

Anyone who has vaguely kept up with what Enigma is doing knew this was going to make the list. All you need is Mirigai, an Inner Chi, and a resource. With these three things you can make a minimum of 12 value over a turn cycle. This is particularly entertaining when you remember that the resource can come off of Fyendal’s Spring Tunic. This is just the strongest Ward permanent in the game.

Essence of Ancestry: Body

This card might look a little odd on this list to some, but being able to ignore a red attack is a huge deal in a meta where Bloodrush Bellow and the like could just kill you in one turn. When this aura is on the board alone it can make your opponent reconsider their lines and give you some room to breath.

Mystic

Theres only one Mystic Card I want to touch on for Blitz specifically.

Cosmic Awakening

20 is the opponent’s life total (probably).

Generic

Generics fit into anything. So, I can’t get away without talking about at least one.

Rowdy Locals

This is a really solid blue. It blocks three and costs zero at its base stats. When you have a card you don’t care about in hand it has its on hit active. If you don’t want to discard to it, it’s a great card to end a chain with while you have no cards in hand. It’s one of the best low cards in deck blues I’ve seen.

Expansion Slot

LSS has done a good job supporting other heroes each set with the addition of the expansion slot, and MST is no different.

Shadowrealm Horror

This card is going to supercharge Levia in Blitz. From my testing it seems to typically get two of its three modes and another go again card would have probably been enough for her, but this makes it where you can really safely argue that Levia is better than Kayo again. This card coming in for seven go again most often is wild and sometimes it just turns into card advantage too.

Exiting the Mist

Part the Mistveil has added a lot of interesting and fun options to Blitz, and I think it will make the format more fun and interactive as a whole. Hopefully this encouraged you to go build something new or tune up one of your favorites. I look forward to seeing what everyone comes up with out of the new set!

Further Reading:

Part the Mistveil Review – Blitz Decks

Enigma – Fun or Competitive?

How to Upgrade the Nuu Blitz Precon