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Friday 2 July 2021

Flesh and Blood TCG - The Beginning

So, when I first heard about this game via Team Covenant on their podcast and YouTube channel, I didn’t pay much attention. After all, it’s a trading card game (TCG) and I had no intentions of ever getting into that trap again after my experiences with Yu-Gi-Oh / Vs System / Raw Deal. Boy was I wrong.

 

I saw the starter decks being sold on pre order via the Bearded Card Trader and I figured, I’d give the starter decks a punt, three of the four ( I don’t know why) and then waited for my pre order to arrive. In the meantime, I saw more F&B content being posted onto the Covenant YouTube channel and heard more and more via their podcast too. So, when I saw the latest Blitz decks being available for pre order on Zatu Games, I opted to also pick them up too…… you see where this is going.

 

Anyway, the original starters arrived, and I opted to keep them sealed until I would actually get to play them. However, the same cant be said for the Blitz decks. Although at first I saw the prices of F&B sky rocketing online, so a part of me thought “I might just hold off and resell for some money”… which lasted all of 2 hours. I opened the Levia and Chane Blitz decks first, because as you may already know, I’m much more aligned with the bad guy side of things in… well… everything.

 

I stared at the cards for hours, with no clue what they meant, did or how they would be used in the game. From there I ventured into more online content of the game to learn how to play. I watched a few of Covenant’s live plays, a few “Learn to Play” videos and some deck build tips videos.

 

The game itself seems and on paper reads, very complicated. Between layers, combat chains and keywords such as Boost, the game screams complex. However, when you just watch the game being played, its not that complicated. You take the LCG Marvel Champions cost system to play cards, mix it up with a UFS style of combat, throw in a sprinkle of Warhammer 40K Conquest and you get a game which brings a lot of depth!

 

With only one action point per turn and only four cards in hand (most of the time), you must think about each move, not just their costs, but also the follow up from that as well. As the opponent, you need to select which cards you are willing to bin to defend your health, as when it gets to your turn, you will only have left, what you had left at the end of the attackers turn. Should you bin your whole hand, your turn can be a massive waste.

 

There is the “arsenal” slot too, which you can use to keep that key card for later or put your opponent on edge, not knowing quite what potential massive hitter you’ve just put in a key position on your board.

 

This all brings a wonderful level of interaction between the players, something I’ve felt is missing from the main TCG I’ve played over the years, Yu-Gi-Oh. Where you just sit there and wait for the end in what will most likely be a One Turn Kill (OTK) or First Turn Kill (FTK) situation. A most depressing thought when sitting down to play.

 

My friend Stu and I sat to play the Levia and Prism Blitz decks off against each other. Although it took over an hour to play this 15-20-minute game, you can understand why when you have two people that have no real clue what they are doing. Yet, at the end of the game, it was really close, and I couldn’t think about anything else, but playing again. Now I’ve not felt that way about any competitive game since Warhammer 40K Conquest.

 

I toddled off and bought a sealed box of the Arcane Rising booster set from eBay. Once it came, I had this mad idea of keeping it sealed, using the Blitz decks to get my mates into the game and then suggesting a sealed or draft event with the box. Boy, that lasted a week I think, then I opened the boosters. I also bought an additional 18 booster packs and pre ordered 12 Monarch booster packs too. I’ve also spent an unfathomable amount on single cards via eBay and Tecklo Cards.

 

What did that leave me with you may ask? Well I have opted to only go with Blitz decks now due to the lack of playsets in my possession. So I have built Dash, the Mechanologist hero first. Essentially, I love her artwork, she looks like a mix of an Al Bhed from Final Fantasy X and one of those Steampunk people. Also reading how the Mechanologist cards operate, I really liked the idea of this fast furious assault which can take place should all the cards come together in the right way. The Boost keyword makes this possible, by banishing the top card of your deck and (fingers crossed) revealing another Mechanologist card, the card your playing gets Go Again, a critical piece of the puzzle. Go Again essentially means you get another action this turn.

 

Her ability to grab a cost 2 or lower item from your deck to start the game with is phenomenal and gives this flurry an initial boost (pardon the pun). Playing Dash you get this feeling of flying an X-Wing down the Deathstar trench, that fast break-neck assault where should you put a foot out of place, it will all fall apart quickly. I love it. Its so different to anything I’ve ever played before and its an exciting playstyle. Of course, you can play a different style where you focus on the Mechanologist guns, but I like the Boost Flurry style myself.  

 

The other deck I opted to go with was the Runeblade warrior Viserai. This character is the polar opposite of Dash in almost every way. His combination of witchcraft and swordsmanship gives him a much different feel than Dash as the speed is replaced by a more tactical approach. Where Dash throws this flurry of smaller attacks to weaken their opponent, my experience with Viserai is that you build up your Runechant tokens and then throw a biggish attack to hit your opponent for both Arcane (using the ability on the tokens) and standard damage. My play testing saw me generate a whopping nine tokens over two turns, so when I played an actual attack, all the tokens abilities triggered, with all of them being destroyed to deal 1 Arcane damage per token to the opponent. Good luck defending that!!

 

Although this feels almost brutish in its deployment, it doesn’t have that mindless Hulk style violence feel that the Brute characters exude in their playstyle. Runeblade have this almost Warrior-esque vibe while throwing in a sprinkle of Wizard Arcane damage style. Overall I am really growing to enjoy that Runeblade style of play.

 

Onto the third and fourth decks, at the time of writing this, haven’t been built yet. My current choices are Levia, the Shadow Brute and Rhinar, the normal Brute. Although, Rhinar is currently subject to change. Two Brute decks, may just be overkill when I want to experience multiple styles of play.

 

Regardless of what happens with my next two decks, I can tell you this with a level of certainty, I’m gonna enjoy playing the decks I end up building.

 

In summary, the play experience you get with Flesh and Blood is very interactive, its engaging with the people playing on both players turns and this brings you into the game in a way I’ve never really had in a competitive environment. Yes, the rules seem abundant and overly complicated, but when you actually just sit and play, it all kind of comes together. This game, the mechanics, the lore and the artwork, all come together to bring a new kind of game, which gives you a different feeling with every hero you play.

Thank you for reading, you can follow me on Twitter @bigboss010 or on Instagram @bigbossbookclub and even check out the podcast on Spotify:  

 

https://open.spotify.com/show/4WzsTV3YrQPfLWplbCWWFi?si=WN3w63NCQw6CJ2OwOsEcqQ&dl_branch=1

 

I’m Big Boss….. I’m out….. Peace!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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