Flesh and Blood: Where to Start
Starting Flesh and Blood can be a massive undertaking, but a very rewarding one. You’re coming into a space that is both very competitive but also very welcoming and understanding. What do I mean by that? You will find many players in your local area that are willing and able to lend out some very strong cards because they too want to be challenged. Players of Flesh and Blood also tend to walk their opponents through what exactly is going on with their hero, more so than any other TCG I’ve come across. This creates a fair match and a deeper understanding of what all is going on, these are things the larger playerbase encourages because it eases new players into the game and this game is very complex so its honestly just a best practice to do.
Step one I think should be to see if your LGS has a playgroup for Flesh and Blood, do you have a place you can go to and enjoy the game locally? Currently at the time of writing this it can be hard to find a dedicated group for Flesh and Blood, but personally I think thats going to be changing in the future. You still want to play but dont have a LGS, we do have some clients online that you can play on. Nothing official or sanctioned, but good to play on and learn. We use Fabrary.net to build decklists and Talishar.net to play on. I will have another article detailing how to use those briefly too.
Step two is going to be what format does your LGS play? what format do you want to play? We have Classic Constructed which is the Standard format of the game. We also have Blitz which is a quicker pace format and coming in the near future we have “Project Blue” which is going to be a revised “Commoner” format. Personally Project Blue should be the launching point for all new players because of the ease of investment, pace of game, and easier to learn many heroes on. Then theres the Limited format which is your Drafts and sealed events, and those will come up on Pre-release events or at large events Side games or Top 8 situations.
The next thing to understand with Flesh and Blood is the Living Legend board. This is going to see heroes rotate out of the Classic Constructed format the better they perform at events. Personally this organic rotation of meta is beautiful. Too many times in other TCG’s you’ll see a Top 8 be 90% one deck and the event as a whole is like….60% of that deck, its rough and lame. In Flesh and Blood you get a massive array of heroes at events and yeah you of course have your heroes that are doing really well in the moment represented more, but they rotate out at a certain point, leaving a chasm to be filled with new opportunities. Look at the Living Legendd board and see where a hero you are interested in is at, how long do you think youll be able to play that specific hero and is that good enough for you?
So we found an LGS, we know the format we want to play in, and we understand the Living Legend Board now the fun part. One of the many ways to approach starting to learn a new TCG or any game really is, what playstyle do you enjoy. While this is important, personally I think getting a Hero that looks awesome is equally as important here. Because this game is very…. dependant on how good you are at piloting your hero. Yes some heroes are better than others and yes, sure some classes are deemed better than others too. But with Flesh and Blood, Metas change and maybe a class you enjoy or hero you enjoy will come back to being the best. Personally I thought Jarl was sick looking, after playing him, yea the guardian playstyle is something I kind of enjoy. Am I getting bodied with the meta right now, a lot of the time yeah, but im having a great time doing it. I do think im a Guardian main and I’ve been building an arsenal of guardian cards to use moving forward.
So you found a hero that looks awesome, sweet, now what? Get Excited, the heroes in this game are great, each unique and different to pilot even within their own classes. Check to see if your hero has an Armory deck available and pick that up. Play it for a while and get a feel for it, if you like it. Start to piece together some important card changes to the deck and grow with the deck overtime. Get a feel for the Class and see if you truly like that playstyle and stick to it. Get proficient with that class and hero and slowly integrate into that class because as we saw before, we have the Living Legend system. We need to understand that this Specific hero will go away at some point and time, but if we enjoy that class, we can use the cards we’ve accumulated over time still and keep playing with a new hero that comes out later.
Personally, I think if you can find a playgroup that is participating in Project Blue, this is your best place to start. You can build so many decks for cheap that are full of flavor and unique. I have been building my storefront to cater to new players in Flesh and Blood, I think you can build a deck for less than $10 for a lot of heroes which is awesome. I hope this article was a decent launch point and perspective on how to begin your journey into Flesh and Blood and when youre able to, check out my TCGPlayer Pro Store.