(Bittering Thorns red | Art by Maerel Hibadita)

The year 2023 was quite packed for Flesh and Blood. With the release of Outsiders, Dusk Till Dawn, Bright Lights, and even complimentary products such as Round the Table: TCC x LSS, many more cards were introduced to players from all over the world, across all formats.

While there’s been plenty of talk about the most powerful cards from 2023, such as Warmonger’s Diplomacy and Tome of Imperial Flame, these are just a little too powerful for Commoner. And so, I wish to look at some of the more powerful or flexible additions to the format this year.

Mask of Shifting Perspectives

Although ranking at less than 1,000 decks on the FABREC database (which only counts Blitz and Classic Constructed), Mask of Shifting Perspectives is an interesting addition to sideboards. It can be utilized as just a side-grade of Ironrot Helm, with a tiny upside at times. Still, it’s an exciting way to spice up the equipment loadouts in Commoner and adds more decision points.

Infecting Shot

With the rise, fall, and subsequent Living Legend status of powerful Rangers such as Lexi, Livewire, Infecting Shot has cemented itself as a format all-star for a common, going toe-to-toe with cards of higher rarities such as Searing Shot and Endless Arrow. For a measly one resource, Infecting Shot already gets over a relevant breakpoint and causes more headaches; do you just overblock, or do you take it and let the Bloodrot Pox token pop?

Honorable mentions go to Widowmaker and Scout the Periphery (which was a FABREC preview card).

Vantom Banshee

Although Dusk Till Dawn didn’t make as huge of a meta splash as anticipated, it still revitalized and expanded the arsenals of Shadow Runeblade and Light Illusionist players through an influx of cards which push the boundaries of design. Rune Gate, in particular, has a lot of potential, so Vantom Banshee will definitely see more play should there be more ways to generate Runechant tokens in the format. Vantom Wraith is also an honorable mention, as these two are the hardest-hitting Rune Gate attacks.

Boom Grenade

Enough has been said about this card. And it seems like I’ve written about Boom Grenade for three consecutive weeks now! It goes without saying that this item has snuck up the lists of many a Mechanologist player for its sheer efficiency, and its ability to be cheated into play and generate action points, all while providing some threatening on hit effects to what used to just be vanilla boost cards.

Bittering Thorns

Originally printed only in yellow and included in the Ira Welcome Deck (which serves as a great introduction to the game and format itself), Bittering Thorns has pushed what was already a strong contender for top deck in the meta to newer heights, all thanks to a red printing in TCC x LSS. The red version bumps up its power to hit a relevant breakpoint, and its cost plays perfectly into Ira, Crimson Haze‘s game plan. Although the Ninja was already on her way to becoming Living Legend in Blitz, the introduction of this card definitely sped up the process. Currently, the only way to acquire this card is through the sealed Ultimate Pit Fight product, and it fetches a price of around $12-15 apiece on secondary markets.

Generic Honorable Mentions

Cut Down To Size and Feisty Locals are both just generically good attack action cards, while their yellow counterparts also serviceable, or even preferable, depending on the deck. I would definitely consider picking up playsets of these if you don’t already have them lying around.

Finally, Ravenous Rabble continues to impress (even more so with the newly-announced promo printing), as it’s usually a four-for-zero attack with go again, especially in aggressive decks. It sees play in other formats as well due to its sheer efficiency. Definitely keep a playset.

That’s all for this year’s 2023 Commoner Wrapped. Welcome to the Club!

Further Reading:

The Commoner Metagame

How to Build a Commoner Deck For Flesh and Blood

Playing Flesh and Blood on a Budget

Kenny Suzuki

Kenny is a non-binary Flesh and Blood player of Philippine and Japanese descent. A two-time A Game of Thrones: The Living Card Game National Champion, they started playing Magic: The Gathering during the Zendikar Block and eventually switched to harder stuff, like Legacy and Modern. When not asleep, they are probably compulsively building new decks, working on their design brand, thrifting for pretty clothes, bringing their kpop photocards everywhere, touching grass or malding over Teamfight Tactics.