Flesh and Blood Armory Event 22 March 2022 at Geek Retreat Llandudno.

So I haven’t written anything for the blog in a while, but I wanted to sit and give this event some time.

After my poor showing at the Pro Quest in Manchester, I wanted to brush off the dust and get back on the horse, so to speak. I’ve got my eyes set on attending the Skirmish event at Just Play in Liverpool in April and I figured getting some Blitz games in would start that ball rolling.

Following me confirming with the store that there was prize support this time round, as previously there hadn’t been. To put it into context, Crewe is an hour and a half drive at best and with petrol prices at the moment, if the prize was a handshake and a booster for entering, I would have left it there I think.

As I was still feeling a little let down by my Viserai deck building , I opted to run him again. I actually stripped my CC deck down and rebuilt it from scratch for Blitz. I used the following deck list:

Equipment: 9

Rosetta Thorn x 1

Bloodsheath Skeleta x 1

Arcanite Skullcap x 1

Crown of Dichotomy x1

Vexing Quilhand x 1

Grasp of the Arknight x1

Gamblers Gloves x1

Spellbound Creepers x1

Sutcliffe’s Suede Hides x1

Reds

Read the Runes x2

Mordred Tide x2

Sonata Arcanix x2

Amplify the Arknight x2

Spellblade Strike x2

Rune Flash x2

Revel in Runeblood x2

Meat and Great x2

Rattle Bones x1

Swarming Gloomveil x2

 

Yellow

Mauvrion Skies x2

Ninth Blade of the Blood Oath x2

Blues

Oath of the Arknight x2

Dread Triptych x2

Become the Arknight x2

Spellblade Assault x2

Vexing Malice x2

Maurvion Skies x2

Whisper of the Oracle x2

Skrill of Skullform x2

Blank

Gorganian Tome x1

 I do want to use the hero I’ve coined as Big Vis at Liverpool. I know its a bit boring, I have like 8 Blitz decks built, 4 of which have had investment put into them, so are probably ok in terms of competition. However, there is just something about Vis which has pulled me in from the get go. I released a Blitz deck tech episode on the podcast earlier this year, but this deck again has some changes and leans more into going an aggressive play style.

This deck is even way different to the Vis deck I ran when I first went to Geek Retreat Llandudno for an Armory, which was more of an OTK style of deck, but didn’t focus enough on it in hindsight. This was probably the reason for my result last time, although it was a reasonable 2-1. One thing I would point out is my results were posted incorrectly last time and the event has me going 1-2, not a big deal in grand scheme of things, but my GEM lifetime XP is 3 short.

The prize kit was a mix of the Christmas kit and the Everfest kit, my entry netted me two Everfest booster packs and a Seasonal Cracked Bauble cold foil. I would go on record as saying I love the Christmas themed Cracked Bauble, its so simple but looks phenomenal.

We had 6 players, including me, the event was going to go 3 rounds with no top cut and the line up was this:

1.       Me (Tom) – Viserai

2.       Stu – Dash

3.       Craig – Boltyn

4.       Ben (1) – Levia

5.       Ben (2) – Levia

6.       Lee  - Kassai

Round 1 – Stu – Dash

So this game was a bit funny, so Stu was my first opponent the last time I played at GR Llandudno and he played as Viserai too. He was then playing a much better OTK build than I was and he picked up the win. Now this time, he was also going to play Big Vis, however, he forgot his deck which he noted when he went to retrieve it from his bag to note it wasn’t there. So sadly we didn’t get our rematch per se. He borrowed one of Lee’s spare decks, which he hadn’t ever used before so straight away he was at a bit of a disadvantage.

However, he played the game very well, and his use of the boost mechanic had me on the back foot and it came very close. I had to let him reduce me down to 1 life so I could use my skull cap to defend and this then let me hit the Vexing Malice the next turn to finish him off. He had used his only Arcane Barrier card a little earlier to gain an action point. We did declare that next time he needed to use Vis and we would have our rematch.

I also convinced him to take the Rosetta Thorn too moving forward as he wasn’t too confident with it in his deck, however, after seeing it in use, he soon changed his mind.

One thing I would say, is I looked at the deck later and it wasn’t as attack heavy as I’d have expected it to be, had a few too many items in there for my liking and didn’t have Induction Chamber which was odd, instead choosing to use Hyper Driver as the free item.  Plus using the Plasma Barrel Shot over the Teklo Plasma Pistol.

1-0   going into Round 2.

Round 2 – Craig – Boltyn

Think Craig was relatively new to the game, think the deck may have for all intents and purposes been the Boltyn Blitz pre con deck.

The game itself didn’t last too long, he quickly realised he had only 1 Arcane defence, which was his Spellvoid 2 helmet. Which wasn’t going to get him far, I threw 9 Runechants  at him turn 2 with an attack action, I used Spellbound Creepers to throw in a red Read the Runes to bolster my arcane for my Rosetta Thorn swing and he opted to concede after that.

In all honesty I didn’t even blame him, I got some great draws in the game and it felt like everything was going according to plan.

We actually spoke after the game about changes he could make to the deck. Outside of upgrading the equipment, as he had no legendary equipment or Nullrune equipment, we discussed moving to the Sabres instead of the axes and getting more copies of some of the cards in the deck he was only running 1 of.

2-0   going into Round 3

Round 3 – Lee – Kassai

So at first I was worried here, the last time we played, surprisingly in round 3 of the last event I attended there, he was also playing Kassai. With the Everfest cards and updates, I figured this would be a less favourable match for me. This however, was quickly settled as he mentioned he’d not had chance to do anything to the deck since we’d last played. So I knew he didn’t have any Arcane Barrier cards or the cards from Everfest to hinder me.

I did a mini pivot here and opted to try a semi-OTK style, by turn 2 I managed to land 9 Runechants on the board and fired them off with a Ninth Blade of the Blood Oath, landing him on 1 health. Next turn, I sent another Runechant at him to get the W with Vis.

Once he has sat and updated the deck with the Everfest cards and slips in a Nullrune Hood, thats gonna be one hell of a deck. If I had the legendary cards’ I’d be playing her myself in all honesty.

3-0   at the end of the event. 

Was super happy with the result and made me feel a little more confident on my deck choice and direction to head towards going into the Skirmish season.

Its good to see the community there growing, as the last time I was there the player count was 4 and that was due to 1 guy being drafted in at the last minute. He hadn’t intended on playing at all. So to see that number increase by 50% and the store to be getting prize support is very encouraging.

I scooped a Bravo, Star of the Show playmat for my effort, which actually marks the first Flesh and Blood playmat I’ve won, hopefully will not be the last. I’d like the thank Geek Retreat in Llandudno for hosting the event and putting up the prize support. Actually intend on getting back to play again at some point down the line. Need to have that final showdown with Stu playing his Viserai deck.

Thank you so much for checking out the post, you can follow me on Twitter @bigboss010, on Facebook and Instagram @bigbossbookclub. The Big Boss Book Club podcast releases every Monday online via Spotify, Anchor, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and pretty much anywhere else you can listen to podcasts.

Thank you again, I’m Big Boss..... I’m Out..... Peace.