(Ira, Crimson Haze | Art by Le Vuong)

Ira, Crimson Haze is the original hero. Numero uno is about as simple of a textbox as you can get while still having one. The vanilla ice cream of the game; she’s tried and true. And the plus one ability makes an extremely efficient value engine.

The Playstyle

For most heroes I would point out different playstyles, but Ira is a special case. All of her strategies are to out-value your opponent. This can vary from using attacks for six damage as your second attack to make on-hits with breakpoints, to just aiming to Harmonized Kodachi lock people in a late game fatigue state. Ira takes good cards and adds a little damage to bury your opponent in advantage.

I like to think of her ability as gaining X damage per game, where X is the number of turns in the game. The longer a game goes, the more that little sentence is able to do. If you like to watch a snowball roll down a hill, this may be the perfect hero for you.

Her Toybox

Ira can make use of a lot of the card pool in better ways than some of the other heroes, but some of the tools show up in here toybox more often than others.

Harmonized Kodachi

Kodachis are a Ninja’s best friend. They always come in for two damage a turn… or do they? Ira looks at the usual pattern of one and one and asks the question, “Why not one and two?” While Kodachis are always effective, Ira takes one of the best late game weapons and makes them better by adding just a little more urgency to the equation. Ignoring her will get you killed a few turns faster than the other Ninjas. Another cool thing about this interaction is that Ira can turn any blue zero-cost card in her hand into a potential three damage. It’s a bit like constantly having Head Jab.

Command and Conquer

Command and Conquer (I like to call it coconut) is a great card in most decks. It’s a competitive staple, and for good reason. Ira just thinks it looks better as a seven power instead of a six. Taking an opponent’s arsenal is devastating, and coconut is an all-star at it. Even still, Ira is poking this bear with a stick and saying “Show me what ya got.” Unfortunately for the opponent, she runs faster than they do.

Snatch

Snatch has shown up in a lot of lists over the years. Drawing cards is good. And once again, Ira is making this a little harder to block. No longer is there the ability to absorb Snatch with a copy of Sink Below. The attack is coming in for five, and that means it’s going to take a piece of armor and a card or two. As a control fan, the idea of Snatch beating my Sink Below makes my skin crawl. Though, that probably means it’s good.

Give and Take

A new and potent option for the girl is Give and Take. This threatens to bring back things like coconut or any other action card that may be useful at that moment. It also goes to a break point of four when played as your second attack. This card can be huge into fatigue decks after the ban of Drone of Brutality. Also, never forget that it can recur another copy of itself.

Push the Point

I’ve seen Push the Point show up in the deck from time to time. It has one job and it does it well as a surprise big number. One of Ira’s attacks is bound to hit and you follow up with Push the Point to try and get the opponent to commit more of their hand than they wanted because one resource is rarely six or seven damage. My friend Brent used to play this one in his Ira and it would catch me off guard every time.

Zephyr Needle

While she doesn’t use it in every matchup, Zephyr Needle is able to be leveraged better in Ira than the other Ninjas. Into decks that aren’t typically on defense reactions, Ira has the capability to swing Zephyr Needle as the second attack every turn to keep it in the safety zone at three power. This is great for popular heroes like Kano, Dash, and Chane. It’s like having her usual value engine, but kicked up a notch.

Back Heel Kick

For a spicy include, there’s Back Heel Kick. Paired with Twin Twisters and the Ira buff, this attack gets plus four, making the red one into a zero-for-seven attack. This plus a resource generating chest piece can make for a cool two-card hand that presents 10 damage.

In the End

Ira is a favorite for a lot of people. She just presents patterns that other heroes don’t. It’s amazing how effective that one little sentence gets to be when put in context.

Jo O'Brien

Jo (they/them) is an avid Flesh and Blood player, judge and, writer. They are one of the blitz specialists here at FABREC. Jo has played a lot of classes and heroes but, they have an affinity for two heroes in particular, Dash and Valda. When not playing FaB, Jo is typically filling their free time playing guitar, playing Apex Legends, or building their next Rube Goldberg machine of a deck.