The Commoner Club: Levia Brings Down the Hell Hammer
(Levia | Art by Wisnu Tan)
The Commoner Club is a series of articles focusing on the Commoner format, providing decklists, key cards, and how-to-play tips for each hero. The Club aims to provide a budget-friendly and easy-to-digest avenue to Flesh and Blood for those who wish to try out the game.
Much like our previous article on Boltyn, Levia has received a second lease on life with the release of Dusk Till Dawn. This time, she carries the nasty Hell Hammer to bring down the pain on all who oppose her.
Hammer Time!
This huge attack plays into Levia‘s strengths — a huge attack which banishes itself means that we trigger the Shadow Brute’s ability in a more consistent manner, even for just a turn. The only caveat is we need to swing with it — but if we’re not attacking with Levia, what are we even doing?
Tribute to Demolition is also an interesting upgrade to Deadwood Rumbler — they both should ideally swing for eight, while the former now has the ability to block while needing one less resource.
Aggression is the Game Plan
Levia always wants to be actively attacking, especially in a 20 life format. Her cards having huge power numbers mean that she will usually threaten a block every turn. The opponent will typically be on the defense for most of the match. With that said, while our cards are efficient on their own, our Shadow Brute lady has several combos she can pull out of her hat.
One-Two Punch
The Graveling Growl and Dread Screamer duo is a Levia staple that sees play even in the highest-power format available, Classic Constructed. The fact that we can utilize these two in tandem means we can dish out a huge 12 power turn spread across two attacks, only needing a blue in hand.
One Big Swing
If there’s anything Brute can do, it’s swinging hard and swinging big. Unworldly Bellow and Hungering Slaughterbeast is another two-piece salvo that allows us to send 10 in one huge attack. Again, this also curves perfectly into a single blue for resource cost.
These two combos allow Levia to swing wide or go tall, which can depend on the matchup or situation.
Reduce Options
Another lethal combo that can end the game is Awakeing Bellow and Pack Hunt. It allows us to surprise an opponent with a full grip as we pare down their options to just a measly two cards. If you have any follow-up attacks, this can be a backbreaking scenario for the opponent.
Beefing Up Attacks
Brutes, unlike Warriors, telegraph their pumped attacks. However, that doesn’t mean the opponent can do anything about it! We run Come to Fight alongside Unworldly Bellow and Awakening Bellow for huge consistency in large attacks. After all, we only have so few go agains in the deck. All these growth effects also play into a single blue, given we have an abundance of two-cost red attacks in the deck.
Playing with Levia’s Chains
Given Levia’s newest toy, Hell Hammer, we are now presented some unusual lines of play that can be efficient. Off a single blue, we can attack with Hell Hammer and then close the chain. This banishes the weapon, which allows us to use Hooves of the Shadowbeast and gain another action point. We can follow this up with a Graveling Growl or a Boneyard Marauder, which allows for a huge turn with just two cards in hand — or a single card if you started with the attack in arsenal.
You can then extend this barrage of beatdowns through Dread Screamer or Tribute to Demolition, should you have enough action points from a lucky Barkbone Strapping roll. Lead the Charge is an interesting play on the turn if you have an extra resource and opt for a two-cost attack to follow the Hammer. Remember, you can close the chain to fill up the graveyard. This also allows us to use Goliath Gauntlet and Heartened Cross Strap for a huge attack. This chain closing tech is not purely for this combo, though you can use this little trick to fatten up the ‘yard should you lack a card to banish.
Finally, remember that Levia’s attacks are beefy enough to not really need to chain into a combo – they are efficient on their own. But it does pay off to be cognizant of these pairs of cards and add them to your heuristic. This allows you to use less brain power thinking about what to play and focus on other aspects of the match you might overlook.
Other Considerations
Deadwood Rumbler and Wrecker Romp are both included as they are blue cards that also have six attack, which can be used flexibly to either pitch, discard, or banish. Ghostly Visit is more of an insurance card and allows us to get some more value out of our banished zone should we run out of attacks. It allows us to get it back into the graveyard as well to be banished at a later time.
Tribute to the Legions of Doom is a huge attack and may warrant inclusion in the deck.
Gearing Up
Hope Merchant’s Hood is always a good consideration in any commoner deck — it allows us to fix a bricked hand, especially given that Levia has a lot of two-card combos that are reliant on a blue or the other piece. Ebon Fold and Spell Fray Gloves may be brought in for Wizards, while the miser’s Arcane Barrier in Nullrune Gloves is brought in for the Runeblade matchup. Ironrots are there should we need to block some attacks (e.g. Rangers, Guardians). Remember, you can block with Hooves of the Shadowbeast and Barkbone Strapping early to get use out of their Battleworn ability before you sacrifice them.
Sleeving Up
One last tip — Levia is a deck that actively uses its graveyard. Thus, you should consider sleeving up your equipment arsenal in the same sleeves as your deck, as they need to be put into the graveyard after use. Maybe consider the League of Levia Sleeves, should you be welcomed into the prestigious club by none other than Ethan ‘Man Sant’. For now, you’ll have to settle for the Commoner Club. So welcome to the club!