Thread by @MrChecklistcard

This weekend I'm going back to Amsterdam, for the Flesh and Blood Pro Tour!

I'm playing a broken hero and another Shuko. Can't go too wrong, can it? 🤭

If you're near Amsterdam, step by the RAI and check it out during the weekend!

Thread with more info about the game 👇

The rules are easy enough that I will just explain them in a Twitter thread!

In Flesh and Blood you play as two heroes fighting each other. You start fully healthy and with all your armor equipped, then slowly get whittled down until you can barely stand anymore.

(2/x)

First step is choosing your hero!

There are lots of options to pick from (over 20 in current Classic Constructed), and they come in a variety of classes like Brute, Warrior, Ninja, Assassin etc. Some might also have talents like Draconic or Shadow.

(3/x)

The two numbers you see on the hero cards are how many cards you draw up to each turn (always 4) and your starting life total.

There are also young variants for each hero intended for limited play with half the starting life. Adult heroes usually have 40 life, young is 20

(4/x)

Your hero's class determines the cards you get to put in your deck. I'll play as Zen, so I get to put Ninja cards and Mystic cards in my deck, as well as generic cards

Up to 3 copies of each card, 60 card decks for classic constructed (30 for limited).

(5/x)

The unique thing is that this game doesn't have permanents. No reusable mana sources, no creature combat. Instead you try to hit each other with attacks.

At the end of your turn, you draw up to 4 cards. So every turn is a puzzle of how to best attack and defend with those 4.

I usually joke that in Flesh and Blood, every card is a split card:

Lightning Bolt / Dark Ritual / Healing Salve

This is of course simplified, but the game is balanced around the fact that cards that are good as Rituals are bad as Lightning Bolts and vice versa.

(7/x)

This is the anatomy of an attack action card. You can see the type line at the bottom.

Top right number is the mana cost. Top left is how much mana it makes if you pitch it to pay for another card.

Bottom left is the attack value and bottom left is defense value if you block.

Many cards come in three different variants: red yellow and blue (you can see the color strip at the top).

Red cards pitch for 1 mana but attack well.
Yellow cards pitch for 2 and blue cards pitch for 3, but attack worse.

When deckbuilding, you can have 9 Bastions in your deck.

So if your hand is a blue card and a red Battlefront Bastion, you can move the blue card to your pitch zone to play Bastion and attack for 7.

Your opponent then gets to block with cards from their hand, adding up their defense value. It cost no mana to block.
Here, they take 1.

At end of your turn you put all cards in your pitch zone on the bottom of your deck. So those blues that are good to pitch and bad to attack with? You'll draw those late in the game when you start getting FATIGUED 🥵

Then you draw up so you have 4 cards in hand and pass the turn

During your turn you can only take one action. That is, play any action card or activate an action type ability. Some of your cards might have the ability "Go Again" which means that you get your action point back when they resolve.
So it's important to sequence Go Again first!

You can play a sequence of attacks called a combat chain. Play your first attack (with Go Again), let the opponent figure out blocks, let damage and effects resolve.
Then you can add another attack next to it on the combat chain and resolve blocks for that one etc.

(13/x)

Each individual attack is called a Chain Link.

At any point during your turn you can close the chain and let all attacking and blocking cards go to the graveyard. If you use an action that is not an attack action, the chain will also break. You can start a new combat chain then

Ninja in particular cares about building a long combat chain, whereas classes like Guardian prefers to do one big attack.

Ninja also make use of the keyword Combo where you care about the previous chain link having a specific name.

(14/x)

Each hero starts with a weapon or two in play. A weapon is another option for you to attack with and goes on the combat chain, but stays in play.
I can either use the more powerful two-handed weapon in Tiger Taming Khakkara or use two Zephyr Needles since they are one-handed.

There is also the arsenal!

If you have an empty arsenal at the end of your turn, you can put a leftover card from your hand face-down beneath your hero.
This card you can use at a later turn, but you can only play it, not pitch it or block with it.

You only have one arsenal slot and the only way to get a card out of your arsenal is to play it, so be careful what you put there!

But it's a nice way to not have to use all 4 cards every turn or set up something for the future.

(17/x)

This is what a board looks like.

To the left you have your armor: head, chest, arms and legs.
To the right you have your deck with your graveyard above it, your banish zone (exile) under it, and your pitch zone besides it.

Hero in the middle with the weapon, arsenal beneath.

Now time for a puzzle!

Your hand is these four cards and you have Aspect of Tiger in your arsenal. You also have access to Khakkara. Ignore the hero ability as it's not relevant.

How much damage can you do? What's the sequence?

Keep go again in mind, you only have one action!

But keep in mind that in this game you draw your hand at END of turn. So the first thing that happens is that your opponent gets to attack you.

(19/x)

Here's the more realistic scenario: You are being attacked by Command and Conquer. If it deals even a single point of damage, you lose your arsenal.

How do you block? And how do you attack back? What's the most value you can create? (value being blocks + damage presented)

That's the real beauty of this game: if you can be on offense in a way that forces the opponent to block, they can't attack you back as hard.
But blocking and slowing down the game can also help you bide your time until you find a great hand.

(19/x)

Equipment is something that you start with in play. You can have one of each type: head, chest, arms and legs.

They either provide a recurring ability, some extra block value, or both. If you block with an equipment, it either breaks or just gets worse at blocking.

So it's often a one-time use to block with them, but when you play the game and need to cover just one more damage to stop an on-hit effect, you will see just how effective equipment is!

(21/x)

Reactions!

After blocks have been declared on an attack, there is the reaction step. This is where the attacker can play attack reacts (pump spells) to make their attack hit.

In this case, the Assassin player has been blocked but Hiss makes the attack still come in for 3.

But the defending player also has a chance to play defense reacts!

You can't block with defense reactions normally but have to play them by paying their cost in the reaction step. Luckily they often cost 0 mana, so that's fine.

In this case, the opponent reacts and takes 0.

Keep in mind that reactions are not actions and as such don't take up an action point to play. And you can also play them even if you are out of action points for the turn.

(24/x)

Instants!

Yes they also exist in this game. You can play them whenever, in response to whatever. And they can't block.

But what does this Transcend word mean? 😱

(25/x)

Transcending is a mechanic for Mystic heroes, like Zen. When you Transcend, you flip your card around and put it back into your hand as this beautiful Chi.

These are resources and can't do anything but pitch.

But they can pay for the very powerful Mystic hero abilities

(26/x)

So the aim of my constructed deck is to use these Transcend cards to get to tutor for whatever Combo card I need and try to make these huge turns. Check out Descendant Gustwave and Bonds of Ancestry! (We don't even play Surging Strike, as it's not needed to make Bonds work)

They recently banned yellow and blue Bonds of Ancestry so that you can't play 9 copies, which brings him to a more reasonable power level.

You also have access to these attacks that care about Crouching Tigers, which is super well supported by Zens hero ability and his weapon.

You also have some anthem effects to reward you for going wide on these big turns.
Art of War is used 99% of the time for the top and bottom mode: a Tormenting Voice that also buffs all your attacks, even the lowly Tigers

And Ancestral Harmony is nice blue to help you transcend

The real broken part is your equipment.

Once you have transcended, when you block with Traverse the Universe you get to essentially search for your best Combo card (through the Inner Chi). You can only block with it once, but it sets up a huge turn.

And Strides of Reprisal works super well to set up Art of War, because the Crouching Tiger is in your hand and counts as an attack action that you can banish to draw two.

So at some point you can have an arsenal and block with equipments to set up a 7-card hand. 40+ damage 🤯

I forgot one rule!

On the very first turn, BOTH players draw up to four cards, not just the starting player. This means that if you go first, it's often not worth to attack because they can just block with their whole hand anyway and get four new cards.

(32/x)

This means that often, the starting player just puts a card in arsenal and passes.

So essentially, the starting player has +1 card but the other player gets to attack first, creating the opposite dynamic to Magic 😄

And in some MU it's quite unclear whether you go first or not

I like this game a lot and I haven't even talked about how good the limited gameplay is yet!

So please check it out if you love card games and maybe see you in Amsterdam?

I'll keep you updated!

(35/35)

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