COMPENDIUM OF RATHE, Sealed Box Recap

“Damn it, NYC subway!”

I had left my apartment 45 minutes early, planning to take a leisurely commute to Long Island City for the Neutral Ground Gaming (NGG) pre-release event featuring Flesh and Blood’s latest set, Compendium of Rathe (PEN). As far as I knew, NGG was the only store in New York City running a PEN pre-release, and my anticipation to touch these cards for the first time was definitely growing. 

The D train had almost put paid to all of that. Stuck on the train due to a disruption for more than thirty minutes, I found myself half-running, half-trying-to-keep-my-balance as I maneuvered through the slush on the Queens Plaza sidewalk in a race to arrive before the event’s designated start time.

Unlike any other local game store in the New York area, NGG does not have an actual brick-and-mortar storefront. Instead, every Sunday, NGG owner Nieves rents out an entire CrossFit gym and turns it into his very own LGS-esque space. With large tables, excellent heating, and the latest Flesh and Blood tournament or NFL game always playing on the TV, I had always felt the space he created was among the more welcoming and conducive in the area. That’s before factoring in that some kind of snack and coffee were always available for hungry players to munch on in the midst of their games.

Almost out of breath, I burst into the space slightly late, discovering to my relief that we were still waiting for a couple more stragglers before starting. In the end, 22 players from around the NYC and Long Island area made it out to the event and were buzzing with excitement, ready to crack open a box of PEN and play some games of Silver Age. For many, this would have been the first time playing with the new PEN cards in-person.   

The format for NGG’s pre-release was slightly unique. Each player was randomly given a ready-to-play Silver Age (SAGE) deck and an entire box of PEN, and was allowed to modify their deck with any card they might open in their box while adhering to the 40-card deck size limit and keeping their deck SAGE legal.

For the event, I was assigned the Azalea deck. Azalea is a hero who has the potential to unload copious amounts of damage on an opponent through one (or more) large arrow attacks, but has the drawback of not blocking too well and being susceptible to disruption. The damage ceiling was up there with the best decks, though the deck did not always give you much agency. The hands sometimes kind of played themselves, so to speak. Nevertheless, I had been piloting Azalea, Ace in the Hole in the Classic Constructed (CC) format for a long time before she ascended to Living Legend, and so was excited to pick up this familiar hero once again.

   And so… I started cracking packs and building my deck - only to be interrupted every few minutes with cheers erupting from across the event space as the boxes of PEN yielded many good hits. Sitting directly across from me, Sly opened both a Marvel Chane and a Fyendal’s Spring Tunic with new, snazzy art. Not to be undone, Lexie proceeded to open the best box I have ever seen with my own eyes, hitting a Balance of Justice, Rainbow Foil Extended Art Fyendal’s Spring Tunic, Marvel Oldim, and Marvel Evo Beta Base Chest in the same box. She could hardly hold all her hits with two hands!

Unfortunately, I was not able to conjure even a fraction of their luck, opening a box with nothing of much value.  At the end of the deck-building process, my 40-card deck was largely unchanged from its original list, with just the notable additions of Unflinching Foothold and Drag Down to my sideboard.

A quick look at the other participants' decklists yielded similar, unsurprising results. Most players chose to either register their preconstructed deck card-for-card or make some minor sideboard changes to reinforce their game plan for certain matchups. Across the board, Unyielding Grip and Unflinching Foothold seemed to be the sideboard equipment of choice, either to add valuable extra points of block or insulate against a large dominated attack.

Furthermore, given the amount of support in PEN for the elemental heroes and Draconic Ninja, it was also expected that the players who were assigned the Iyslander or Fai deck made the most changes to their list. Become the Bottle seemed like a popular addition to the already premium Fai deck, with Colors of Aria and Frosthaven Sheath the additions of choice for the Iyslanders.

However, most of the new Ranger support in PEN did not fit particularly well into Azalea’s game plan, leading me to decide that minimal changes would offer my deck the best chance of success. And so, with my deck built and armed with my trusty bow and quiver, I was excited to get some games in and win some more packs of PEN.

Round #1 vs. Enigma (L 0-1)

Opponent: Fredrick Governale

Favorite Hero: Jarl Vetreiđi

Playing FAB Since: Dusk till Dawn

Right off the bat, I recognized my opponent as an adept fatigue player and knew I would have my work cut out for me if I wanted to punch through their ward and damage prevention barriers. To make things worse, they won the die roll and dropped both a Waxing Specter and Waning Vengeance on Turn 0, essentially gaining 7 (and possibly 8) health. This prompted me to crack my Talismanic Lens on my turn to dig for the huge dominated arrow I needed to destroy all the auras. Letting them live another turn would surely snowball into an unmitigated disaster. Thankfully, I was successful - but not for long. After missing two critical blind Azalea flips and only managing to put my opponent down to 2 health, I could not close out the game as a single Spectral Shield slowly chipped away at my deck and my life total. The Memorial Ground I had pitched down on the first turn was too late to drag me out of this one.

Round #2 vs. Azalea (L 0-2)

Opponent: Robert Abril

Favorite Hero: Oldhim, Grandfather of Eternity

Playing FAB Since: Everfest

Red in the Ledger. That was the card that defined Azalea mirrors in CC. It was simple - the one who resolved more Red in the Ledgers won the game most of the time. Thankfully, that card did not exist in the Silver Age format, though I was still a bit skeptical about just how much agency I would have in this lightning-quick matchup. I went first and was only able to present a meager 7-power dominated arrow on Turn 0, which my opponent didn’t even have to crack their Unflinching Foothold in order to block most of it. Two turns later, after drawing below-average hands and not being able to block for most of the game, I was hit with three consecutive damage breakpoints in the form of Ravenous Rabble into Ravenous Rabble into Swift Shot - a turn which drained what was left of my low life total.

Round #3 vs Dorinthea (W 1-2)

Opponent: Andrew Vallone a.k.a CF Andrew

Favorite Hero: Victor Goldmane, High and Mighty

Playing FAB Since: Outsiders

Still reeling from the closest of losses in the previous round, I was very determined to finally pick up a win with my powerful but slightly fragile deck. The strategy for Dorinthea was fairly simple: race. The one who went faster would generally win. However, I knew that if I could maneuver the few blocks I made to ensure that their Dawnblade did not gain additional counters, it was often profitable to do so and ensure the game did not spiral out of my control. The Unity equipment my opponent presented was a powerful 3 extra-block value per piece, but it also had the downside of requiring cards from the hand to be committed. Each turn they blocked my arrows with a Unity piece, I took advantage of their smaller hand size to more accurately calculate their damage cap and block the Dawnblade accordingly. Before long, it was the kill turn, and I willingly took an entire turn’s worth of Dawnblade damage, allowed it to gain a counter, and presented lethal on the backswing. 

Round #4 vs. Iyslander (W 2-2)

Opponent: Christopher Stassi

Favorite Hero: Maxx ‘The Hype’ Nitro

Playing FAB Since: Crucible of War

I sat down across from my opponent, and was extremely hyped to see Iyslander. For the longest time, I was an Iyslander main and even recorded my first-ever Top 8 finish in a Tier 2 event with her. When Iyslander and Azalea were both legal in CC at the same time, I found both sides of that matchup fairly enjoyable to pilot and was definitely looking forward to replaying that old rivalry once again. Card for card, I figured I had the better numbers as long as I successfully managed to play around the myriad of tricks Iyslander could pull on my turn. The crux of this was needing to time my use of Blossom of Spring to perfection, and thereafter knowing how (or if) I should play around a potential Frost Spike blowing up my entire turn or Brain Freeze stripping my arrow out of my hand. On the critical turn, after doing the math, I was forced to gamble that there was no Frost Spike in hand in order to push for the win. There was not, and I got there in a pretty close game.

Round #5 vs. Dash (W 3-2)

Opponent: Kevin Fontan

Favorite Hero: All variants of Kayo/Dash

Playing FAB Since: Everfest

Far from being a dead rubber, the last round of the day was still pretty exciting as there were still 2 packs of PEN on the line. The game started with Kevin flip-flopping between presenting Talishar, the Lost Prince or Plasma Barrel Shot, as we had a good laugh about the pros and cons of each weapon. Truth be told, I had very little idea about the contents of the Dash deck and could not really provide an objective opinion on this mini-crisis he seemed to be having. That being said, I was fairly happy when Plasma Barrel Shot was the weapon eventually presented, as Talishar would essentially turn a spare blue each turn into a red Zero to Sixty plus an extra resource. On my side, the gameplan was fairly straightforward - block with any additional arrows I had in my hands and attempt to send big arrows with on-hit effects to ensure my numbers were more efficient than theirs. In a game that went by in a flash, I barely got there by squeezing just enough value from my on-hit effects and Dry Powder Shot as a one-card 5.

And that was it! With a final record of 3-2, I unwrapped my prize packs to find… absolutely nothing! Well, there was a single NF Tigrine Reflex, which inevitably would find its way back into my Katsu, the Wanderer deck, when that hero is finally playable again. I started playing the game with Katsu and still have a soft spot for presenting some crazy combo lines. But that’s a story for another day.

To wrap up the event, we conducted a short interview with our 1st Place finisher, Leon Lu, who piloted his Bravo, Flattering Showman deck to a 5-0 record. Let’s hear what he has to say about the day and the SAGE format as a whole!

Which card was the MVP of your deck today?

Pummel, because every time I float two resources, my opponent has to start thinking about whether I have it or not.

Is there a play from any of your games today that was particularly memorable? 

There was a turn where I was able to pitch two blues to send a Chokeslam with a The Suspense is Killing Me in hand, and I used that and my Magmatic Carapace to generate a "mini-pummel" worth of value - it enabled my Basalt Boots to block for 2 on defense the next turn, and I also got the crush effect through. It was pretty cool!

Which hero are you most excited to play in SAGE?

Probably Kano. Being able to play at instant speed is very entertaining.

Which card(s) from PEN do you think have the biggest impact on the format?

If I had to pick one card, it would probably be Unflinching Foothold. The effect of making a target attack lose dominate at instant speed is extraordinarily powerful for any deck looking to beat Bravo/Azalea, and I think that the strength of these dominate heroes has gotten significantly lower with the introduction of this generic equipment piece.

If you enjoyed yourself at the PEN pre-release event or would like to be a part of

the Flesh and Blood community here at Neutral Ground Gaming, join us for weekly armories. Sundays at 12 p.m. Prize packs, GEM packs, light snacks, and drinks, you’ll be

hard-pressed to find better value in NYC.

About the Author: Theodore Tan (he/him) is a Flesh and Blood player from Singapore currently living in New York City. He has been playing the game since the release of Uprising, after randomly chancing across a Learn to Play session hosted by a local LGS. His favorite heroes are Iyslander, Stormbind and Lexi, Livewire.