What’s the Story

A lot goes into a testing cycle for a professional team like the Runaways. While I am on a bit of an island with Levia, I have learned that one of the first things we like to explore are which SIPSIPs (Starts In Play, Stays In Play; what the devs call equipment, hero abilities, and weapons) are potentially abusable. More so than a spikey card combo you could draw, SIPSIPs guarantee on board power that allows for more consistently above rate or unfair interactions. The Runaways have succeeded multiple times with dedicating time to finding these interactions to surprise a format, namely Reaping Blade Briar, Hatchets Dorinthea, and Lynx Fai. 

For my entire history with Levia, I’ve been a Mandible Claw enjoyer. Before her card pool was fleshed out, you needed to add as much go again as possible in your deck, and when the choice was between Bloodrush Bellow and Mandible Claw or Shadow Puppetry and Hexagore… The answer felt obvious. However, she really has come a long way since then, and we’re coming to the end of the era for Mandible Claws anyway with Kayo's Living Legend ascension on the horizon. The Levia community accepts the time of Hexagore is coming, but what if there’s more to explore in the here and now?

Unfortunately, no, I’m not talking about Hexagore today, but instead I want to highlight these innocuous weapons from Heavy Hitters: Ball Breaker and Mini Meataxe. These weapons never really saw play in constructed other than the Celebrational Invitational where Brodie used Ball Breaker in his Kayo deck. Even in limited, these were low priority picks over just how powerful the access to go again on Mandible Claws is interpreted to be.

Drowning in Go Again

Shadowrealm Horror has inspired more aggressive Levia builds as seen by Mark’s 10th place US Nationals list that use Pulping and Wild Ride. These cards synergize well with Mandible Claw, but in practice, I rarely used the go again from both Mandibles. Either I would lead with Wild Ride, then double Claw in the early game before Blood Debt, or Wild Ride, then Claw, then Hungering Slaughterbeast to turn off Blood Debt. Even when used next to Shadowrealm Horror or Dread Screamer, my turns would consist of Shadowrealm Horror, then Wild Ride, then Mandible Claw. These turns are undeniably powerful rates anyway, but if I’m not using the second Claw on these turns, why not fold in Ball Breaker for the extra +1?

Using Ball Breaker to get +3 over the course of a game means you’ve accelerated the endgame by an extra card. The must block endgame is where Levia can excel where all of a sudden your overrate cards actually take more from your opponent (think Endless Maw – you spend two cards to take three). That extra breathing room for a turn or two lets you assemble the final push to win, and Ball Breaker can even help there as it comes in for a breakpoint!

This is not to say you’re sacrificing that much on Bloodrush Bellow turns either. Because of all the go again in Levia be it from your attacks, Agility, or Scabskin Leathers, your Bloodrush turns can easily look like Mandible Claw, go again attack, Ball Breaker. To better play into Ball Breaker, it does require using your arsenal for go again attacks more than anything, as you want to chain two together or have one for your Bloodrush Bellow turn. 

I played over 200 games with feedback from my teammates to finally land on the decklist I would have locked for the ProTour. While I was ultimately unsuccessful in convincing them to play it in my stead since I’ll be busy streaming, it does mean that I’m free to share it with you!

"Levia Has Two Arms"

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Hero (2) 1 Levia, Shadowborn Abomination 1 Levia, Redeemed Weapons (2) 1 Ball Breaker 1 Mandible Claw Equipment (4) 1 Apex Bonebreaker 1 Carrion Husk 1 Scabskin Leathers 1 Scowling Flesh Bag Main (60) 3 Boneyard Marauder red 3 Dread Screamer red 3 Endless Maw red 3 Graveling Growl red 3 Pulping red 3 Shadowrealm Horror red 3 Wild Ride red 3 Beast Within yellow 3 Bloodrush Bellow yellow 3 Graveling Growl yellow 3 Hungering Slaughterbeast yellow 3 Mark of the Beast yellow 3 Send Packing yellow 1 Boneyard Marauder blue 3 Clash of Agility blue 3 Deadwood Rumbler blue 2 Diabolic Offering blue 1 Doomsday blue 3 Dread Screamer blue 2 Reckless Swing blue 2 Smashback Alehorn blue 1 Soul Harvest blue 3 Wrecker Romp blue

No Art of War

With the potential of an Art of War ban due to Zen’s power, I started experimenting with Levia builds that moved away from the card. Of course that didn’t end up happening, but I was taken aback by the retained power in a Levia deck that finds go again from other means. With adding Wild Ride and Pulping, the deck could better abuse Savage Sash which is another SIPSIP whose ceiling hadn’t quite found it’s way into Levia. Go again that’s not tied to banishing has its own upside as well. Drawing Art of War on the turn you want to flip to Blasmophet, Levia Consumed can completely hamper your plans, but if you draw a Pulping red instead, you can still push quite the aggressive turn.

I ultimately found that AoW doesn’t synergize with the SIPSIPs we’re trying to abuse and leads to awkward situations where drawing it and Wild Ride together forced both cards to be used sub-optimally. Lastly, Art of War is stapled to Slithering Shadowpede at this point, and that would just spam the deck with a severe amount of non-blocks.

Blue Boneyard Marauder?

This slot is hard to finalize, but I settled on a flexible blue that slots into both phases of the game. Before Blood Debt, you can simply pitch it to follow a Wild Ride with Mandible Claw and Ball Breaker. With Blood Debt, you can just play it after Wild Ride to satiate Blasmophet. If you have one, Eye of Ophidia is passable in this slot due to its synergy with the draw effects in your deck, but be warned that it will clunk up Reckless Swing in your pitch stack.

Blue Clash of Agility is Back!

Yes, after talking with the Value Vampires, they reinforced the idea of maximizing not the playability of your blues, but what they do when you pitch and block. Clash of Agility also has synergy with seeing the top of your deck in certain draw/discard situations, so I’m all around very impressed with it.

Two Hundred Games at 80%

The 80% win rate is a bit inflated. The Talishar testing data is marred with some concessions, experimental decks, and AFK opponents, but with 200 games, I feel confident in what I was able to learn about each matchup. Namely, we are a deck that relies more on changing our SIPSIPs to affect the game plan than sideboarding tech cards. When we do sideboard, we’re looking to shore up mechanical deficiencies like graveyard fill or extra interaction. Let’s take a look at our inventory:

"Inventory"

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Weapons (1) 1 Mini Meataxe Equipment (6) 1 Beaten Trackers 1 Gambler’s Gloves 1 Grasp of Darkness 1 Savage Sash 1 Skullhorn 1 Spoiled Skull Main (6) 3 The Weakest Link red 3 Snag blue

Mini Meataxe slots into the Ball Breaker role for matchups where graveyard fill can’t be attained by blocking, namely Nuu, Teklovossen, and Kano. In these matchups, we are still very much the aggressor but lack the graveyard fill to maintain pressure. Mini Meataxe might not give us the damage push we want, but it lets us play the game at all and flip those matchups quite favorably. 

Snag is just for Nuu. There is just so much value to be gained when you stymie their damage and hit effects by just blocking with armor and then blanking their pumps with Snag.

The Weakest Link gives us the on hits we desperately need to slow down Zen while leaning into the payoff ceiling we have to trust for a matchup that is inherently too fast for us. This is truly the worst matchup I’ve run into, managing only a 40% win rate after 33 games. The main issue here is the lack of power spikes Levia normally can manage beyond just raw numbers since Zen is very similar in that regard. Scowling Flesh Bag is relatively ineffective, Carrion Husk is pressured very quickly before it’s ideal, you rarely get to flip to Blasmophet, Levia Consumed, and you almost never get to cast Doomsday.  Dash I/O poses a similar problem for us, so I bring it in there next with Savage Sash as well.

Honestly, this is the main issue I see with bringing Levia to an event like the ProTour. The winner’s metagame is sure to be very Zen heavy, so you’re effectively asking for a solid ~3 of your rounds or so to be a bad matchup. 

Variance

Lastly, I want to comment on variance because it’s something that I have swayed away from in Levia for so long. When she was weak, you needed variance to catch up and play the game at all. When she was decent, you were tempted by variance to be a better deck. Now that she’s strong, you’re just a machine of relentless damage that can use variance to speed up or slow down a game, but I think you can live with both outcomes very comfortably to still win.

Yes, you will have to hit Scabskin Leathers. Yes, you will have to blindly draw and discard sixes. Yes, you will have to hit Shadowrealm Horror. But do all of these outcomes have to happen in a single game to win? No, not at all.

The beauty of where Levia is at right now comes from how many ceilings she can play into, but it’s going to be up to the pilot to figure out how sequencing these events can maximize payoff and minimize risk. I know I’m looking forward to seeing these fantastic pilots on Levia, Ball Breaker or not, make Top 8 in Amsterdam!

If you need any gameplay before then, Michael Clair managed to Top 8 RealmFest with his own Ball Break list!

Further Reading:

The Power of Unknown Information in Flesh and Blood

Fighting Fatigue in Flesh and Blood

Don’t Let Break-Even Decisions Break You in Flesh and Blood

Ethan Van Sant

Ethan ‘Man Sant’ Van Sant is known for his commitment to Levia and his coverage of FaB events as Savage Feats. He has a light background with Yugioh and Pokemon, but Flesh and Blood is the first TCG that has fully consumed him… As willed by Blasmophet.