RIDING THE TIDE: PLAYING VISERAI, RUNE BLOOD IN THE PTI

Well met! I am Jin Han (or “Jin”, preferably), ranked 5 in Singapore (90-day XP) at the time of this article. Last weekend, I placed Top 4 in Singapore’s first Flesh and Blood ProTour Invitational hosted by BricksPlay. I am writing this article to share my experience playing in the event, as well as my take on the current meta, my deck choice, and what I hope to see in Everfest!

Briar errata and Ban announcement

On the 12th of January, Legend Story Studios published a post regarding their concern towards the power level of Briar, resulting in an errata and the banning of Plunder Run and Ball Lightning. The news came 3 days before Singapore’s inaugural ProTour Invitational (PTI). Even with only the errata in effect, its impact was felt throughout the tournament. Gone were the days where Briar could consistently throw a “non-attack'' action that blocked for 4.

Day 1

Day 1 featured a double elimination route, where the 3-0 and 3-1 (or 4-1) of each pod would advance to Day 2 and make the Top 8 cut. Day 1 went smoothly for me, but with no small amount of luck on my side. I drew into hands that were able to out-tempo opponents effectively, while playing conservatively on my off-turns.

Day 2

I went into Day 2 intending to make it to the Finals. However, I was stopped short in the semis by Denny Sunarjo’s Ice Lexi build, who managed to close out a neck and neck game after a miscalculation on my side (I missed the fact that his Spring Tunic had 3 counters on it, allowing him to activate Voltaire and attack with an arrow one more time). While I cannot be too upset about achieving Top 4, there was a good lesson to take away from this event; to always be mindful about the opponent’s equipment at every point of the game.

Conclusion

With the amount of time and effort I put into preparing for this event, making Top 4 was probably a better result than expected, but I admittedly have big ambitions, and while not making it to the finals due to a miscalculation was definitely a “feels bad” moment, I enjoyed the thrill of playing a face-to-face event with higher stakes than weekly armories. I appreciate the time and effort put in by the judges who ran the event with good knowledge, strict rulings and deck checks to set the bar for future ProQuest/RTN events.

Reading the Meta

Flesh and Blood has always been about trading damage, but what makes cards harder to evaluate and block are cards that have on-hit effects. It is what makes cards like Snatch a must-block, as the penalty for not full-blocking a Snatch becomes twofold. With this in mind, it is safe to conclude that the current meta for Flesh and Blood revolves around attacks that create additional value when they are not fully blocked.

Why Viserai?

With the on-hit meta in mind, I decided to attack Briar decks from a similar angle: If my on-hit effects allow me to outrace Briar, it should not be a problem to get Briar players to block my on-hit attacks, which will lead to weaker turns when they try to return damage. Cards like Mauvrion Skies, Meat and Greet and Dread Triptych boast incremental damage with Runechants when not fully blocked. Another lynchpin card in Viserai’s card pool is Mordred Tide, the namesake for “Ride the Tide” turns, which I will be going into details later. Consuming Volition is another sideboard tech which is effective in an aggressive meta, as it hits like a “softer version of Command and Conquer”, often forcing blocks out of the opponent.

Riding the Tide

Mordred Tide is basically the Channel Mount Heroic of Viserai. You almost never want to block with this, but you also want to use it on a set-up[1] turn, or unless your hand is good enough to play it out naturally. The average Ride the Tide turn should consist of making at least 3 additional Runechant tokens, effectively generating 3 points of arcane damage from just 1 card. Keep this value in mind, as it will help you pull off strong pivot[2] turns as Viserai.

[1] Set-up Turns - Turns where instead of playing a strong card, you either leave it in hand or set it in the arsenal zone and wait to draw a better hand. Set-up turns ideally should not take longer than 2 turns.

[2] Pivot Turns - Turns where you generate value with attacks to the point where you force the opponent to block with 2 or more cards from their hand, or risk creating a life total gap too big for them to overcome.

Everfest on the Horizon

With the Plunder Run and Ball Lightning bans in place at the time of writing, I plan to experiment replacing Plunder Runs (Red) with one copy each of Mauvrion Skies (Red) and Rattle Bones. While I do see this as a slight dip in power level for the Viserai list that I’m currently running, I hold out hope that Everfest will see a more well-balanced meta where heroes (regardless of class and talent) can make a splash in any format and event. I look forward to writing more articles after Everfest preview season is out, and will continue grinding for those sweet sweet XP. Until then, stay safe and keep on swinging Rosetta for 2 and 2!

Special Thanks

I would like to thank my friends, who made up the testing group that helped me make it this far into the PTI. Bryan Kong, Tristan Lim, Jose Lau, Marco Ng and Ya Qiong. Credits to the UK Nationals Top 8 Viserai player Hamish Chrisholm Brown for being the inspiration to my current Viserai decklist. Links to both decklists can be found below.

 

My Viserai: https://fabdb.net/decks/aKPrePyQ (Pre-Plunder Run ban) https://fabdb.net/decks/ZApYdDaV (Post-Plunder Run ban)

Hamish Chrisholm Brown’s Viserai: https://fabdb.net/decks/GQbnRaMj (Pre-Plunder Run ban)