Take Up the Mantle: An Assassin Deep Dive By Elyse Symmes

Class Identity

            In Flesh and Blood, Assassin is the class of forks and mix-ups, presenting difficult choices to the opponent and responding to their decision. This revolves around the reaction step, making decisions after the opponent is locked into their blocks. By representing different potential threats, the assassin player can force the opponent to guess what is ultimately going to hit, giving the assassin the last word in combat. This asymmetry can accrue advantage over the course of a game by forcing inefficient blocks and lining up reacts for peak performance.

            Assassin is also the class of preparation, showing up with the right tools to succeed against anticipated opponents. Common options like Shred and Spider’s Bite disrupt the opponent’s ability to block attacks,

 

 whereas Leave No Witnesses and Beckoning Mistblade will punish opponents that don’t want to block.

Contracts and Traps target categories of cards, such as red cards or attacks with go-again. 

Some cards even take this to extremes with Mist Hunter robbing a Mystic hero of all their Inner Chi, or Regicide threatening to delete royal heroes on hit. 

 

Assassin can even play cards from their graveyard with Codex of Frailty, giving extra chances for important attacks. Having access to a wide range of tools allows the Assassin player to tailor their deck to the field they expect.

 

            Despite this range of tools, their specificity in application makes it difficult to be ready for everything. Into Warrior, Assassin wants to have a Scale Peeler to mitigate armor block. Into Guardian, you want Shred to force through meaningful on hits. Into Aggro, you want Mark of the Black Widow (MotBW) to disrupt their hand. While effective in their lanes, these cards do little outside their respective matchups. Building and playing assassin requires foreknowledge of what you’ll be facing so you can come prepared with the right tools to succeed.

            Where other classes in Flesh and Blood scale down in power over the course of the game, Assassins become even more threatening as life totals and deck sizes get low. Myriad cards in the class banish cards from the opponent’s deck, which becomes meaningful should the game last to second cycle when pitched cards come back around. Once reactions threaten to end the game, the Assassin’s opponent is forced to block cards that haven’t been played yet or risk losing on the spot. In the late game, the combination of dagger attacks and reactions can force the opponent into the blender from which their demise is inevitable.

Assassin equipment leans further into this late game attrition style, but it won’t bail you out against an aggressive opponent like the armor from more durable classes. Assassin equipment often comes with some attack reaction, giving go-again or marking the opponent, at the cost of destroying the equipment. 

Some of the equipment can be reequipped from the graveyard using silver, a token generated by cards with Contract. When used multiple times, these pieces of equipment can be worth much more than those available to other classes, but in a short game, the Assassin may not have time to realize this value.

            Flesh and Blood is a wonderfully evocative game, and Assassin has a range of play from patient hunter wearing down prey, to a relentless chase cut short in the reaction step.

State of Class in CC and Sage

            In Classic Constructed, Assassin presently has three Araknis across a spectrum of playstyles, and one Uzuri.

 

 

            Arakni, Marionette was the most played Assassin in the season prior to Compendium of Rathe, and I expect this will continue to be the case going into Proquest season. Contemporary Marionette decks are focused on dagger synergies, using agent 3, Orb-Weaver, and their associated card, Orb-Weaver Spinneret, to acquire a Graphene Chelicera early in the game after flicking away a spare Hunter’s Klaive. This setup can pitch blue to set up the mark and pay it off right away by swinging the Klaive into Chelicera, and it allows for very efficient turns using Fyendal’s Spring Tunic to swing Chelicera with a hand of free pumps -- cards that increase an attack’s power. Marionette also has access to disruption in agent 1, Black Widow, and can board in additional disruptive stealth attacks as needed.

 

 

            Arakni, 5L!p3d 7hRu 7h3 cR4X (Slippy) uses the same card pool as Marionette but trades the extra value off marks for more flexible hands and deckbuilding. Slippy leans heavier on attack action cards and reactions to target them rather than  the dagger cards Marionette plays, which lend themselves  to a more toolbox suite of attacks. This Arakni is also better at splashing disruptive generics like Erase Face and Weakest link, playing them after a stealth attack that baits blocks. Slippy naturally creates difficult situations for the opponent by presenting a stealth attack with go-again at the start of the turn, and the innate go-again enables some interesting combos using Kiss of Death and Horrors of the Past. Chaos, unfortunately, gave this Arakni hero text that effects the opponent’s first stealth attack as well, so Slippy has a disadvantage when playing against other Assassins.

 

            Arakni, Huntsman is Flesh and Blood’s original Assassin who focuses on the Contract mechanic. This Arakni is a persistence hunter, patiently trimming the opponent’s deck before striking them at their weakest. While legal in other Assassin decks, Huntsman is the only one that gets to properly play “Hunter or Hunted?” due to their hero power triggering on play. The Huntsman hero power also allows more control over the game at large, allowing you to line up contracts you are confident will hit, learn cards in the opponent’s next hand if you don’t hit, or leave them a brick for later in the game when you bottom a card. The silver generated along the way can be used to buy equipment that you’ve sent to the graveyard, getting another use out of Blacktek Whisperers or upgrading your Graven Call to 2 power.

            Uzuri, Switchblade, is the only Assassin in CC not named Arakni, and she has the most emphasis on tools for the job. Uzuri takes face down information farther than other assassins by hiding generics like Command and Conquer, Erase Face, and Weakest Link before dropping the hammer in reactions. Playing these cards through a stealth attack allows some Assassin reacts like Shred and Tarantula Toxin to be applied before the swap and retain their defense-reducing effect. While you can sneak in disruption without showing your opponent, Uzuri’s hero text is most powerful when the opponent is interested in blocking, which makes her a more niche pick to target a specific meta.

            In Sage without Majestics, Assassin loses a lot of the overwhelmingly powerful plays from CC, but the opposition loses their best defense reactions in turn.

 

            Nuu, having moved on from CC, is the Assassin seeing the most play in the Sage format. Nuu can capitalize on her hero power more in this format than she did in CC due to the wider field and smaller deck sizes, making boarding out strong blues difficult. This makes her a threatening fatigue deck, but she doesn’t have the blocking capabilities of guardians or warriors, forcing her to play a more proactive fatigue with contracts. The mystic card pool combined with the free wins from her hero power makes Nuu the default Assassin in Sage.

            Arakni, Web of Deceit, has some built-in disruption to assist with the matchups that Nuu fumbles, but loses a lot of relative equity into the slower decks. The agents are more impactful in Sage than in CC as their effects are better than most reacts available in the format. The dagger Marionette build isn’t nearly as strong as the CC version, losing key build around cards, and I would expect a successful Arakni, Web of Deceit deck in Sage to include more attack actions than the CC counterpart.

            Uzuri’s hero power may be better in Sage than in CC due to the lower life totals that force blocks earlier. Humble and Cut Down to Size are the best disruptive options, and Chest Puff and Sneak Attack can come in for 7 instead of 6. Isolate and Shred are useful together to stick damage in a world without defense reacts. Starting Point is particularly good for Uzuri, extending turns past the swap. Unfortunately, Uzuri is competing with Nuu in Sage, and the evasive damage pales in comparison to what Nuu offers.

            Arakni, Solitary Confinement is the young version of Slippy, not yet escaped from containment. This Arakni is not symmetrical, unlike the adult version, so you won’t be donating go again to enemy assassins in Sage. Solitary can play a more aggressive deck than the other Assassins, utilizing Spikes from Outsiders and Talishar to curve out aggressive and moderately disruptive turns, but the aggressive card pool here is not deep enough to allow this deck to compete with real aggro decks like Kayo.

            Last and probably least, is the original Arakni from Dynasty. This Arakni is the young version of Huntsman, but without the layers of assistance from expansion slot cards and half the health. Competing with Nuu to play a slow game is a bad place to be, and baby Arakni has little to offer.

Deckbuilding in CC

            This section will explore example deck lists for the premiere Assassin in each format.

            Daggers Marionette is the most winning Assassin deck in CC right now, so I’ve chosen to discuss a pre-Compendium of Rathe list with which Jacob Clements won Battle Hardened in Rio de Janeiro. Clements also brought a similar deck to Calling Montreal, finishing 10th place, but at time of writing, this list isn’t public.

            The daggers Marionette decks try to establish the board of Hunter’s Klaive and Graphene Chelicera, which maximize the efficiency of the dagger pumps in the deck. Kiss of Death allows this deck to play dagger synergy cards on a stealth attack action, enabling even better aggressive numbers than through Chelicera. The dagger pumps come in two types, front pumps, non-attack actions played before the dagger, and reactions, played after blocks. This style of deck deals the most damage of contemporary Assassin decks, allowing it to pressure opponents and race all but the fastest decks.

            https://fabtcg.com/decklists/jacob-clements-arakni-marionette-cards-of-paradise-battle-hardened-rio-de-janeiro

 

Daggers Marionette lists have relatively fixed equipment in Mask of Deceit, Flick Knives, 2x Hunter’s Klaive, and Tunic, but the use case for the equipment has some depth.

 

            Mask of Deceit allows some control over the random hero power of Marionette. Most often this mask will be used to become agent 3 and get a Graphene Chelicera, enabling the rest of the deck. Against aggressive decks like Dash IO, you may not want to use the mask for Orb-Weaver and instead save it to take tempo with Black Widow or block out with Trapdoor later in the game.

            Flick Knives deals evasive damage while giving access to on demand marks when flicking Hunter’s Klaive. Flicking while base Marionette will bring red stealth attacks from 3 to 4, creating a break point, but going without a Klaive can leave you in awkward positions. Whenever you can generate a new Chelicera, consider trying to throw the existing one first to get the extra point of damage. Getting greedy with an Orb-Weaver Spinneret like this can be punished by the opponent discarding a Ripple Away or playing a Temporal Wobble, if they’re a wizard. The Orb-Weaver agent is immune to these effects by being neither an action nor a card.

            Hunter’s Klaive is the best way to mark your opponent and the only dagger you want to start with. Given the game most often begins by throwing away one knife to mark the opponent and free a slot, Mark of the Huntsman can slot in over one Klaive as a budget alternative, but this can have meaningful downside.

            This deck usually uses Fyendal’s Spring Tunic to swing Chelicera and enable red hands with dagger pumps. Tunic also plays well with the Codexes, allowing you to empty hand and have a resource after, to swing dagger or costed attacks. Sitting on a tunic counter can leave you open to these plays, bailing you out from an otherwise awkward hand.

            Boots are the only slot with choices in this list, running Blacktek Whisperers and Stalker’s Steps. They both give go again, and Blacktek is the default for blocking 1 along the way, as well as the hypothetical rebuy of silver from Leave No Witnesses, though this will rarely happen in this build. Stalker’s Steps have merit when the Arcane Barrier is required, but also when the go again needs to be applied independent of hitting, like against fatigue decks.

 

 

            The dagger front pumps, Cut from the Same Cloth, Up Sticks and Run, and Savor Bloodshed, are how this deck presents damage, and they are always in your deck.

            Cut from the Same Cloth is perhaps my favorite card in this deck for providing information about the opponent’s hand, so take a moment to look at their hand and consider both what their blocks look like, and also what their turn might be afterwards. You can use this information to make things awkward for your opponent. For example, if you see a blood on her hands against a Kassai with copper, you may want to go out of your way to Codex into Deathtouch to deny that on the upcoming turn and then pressure arsenal if they set it.

            Up Sticks and Run is primarily a 4 power pump in this deck due to the cost curve. This deck is pitching cards as infrequently as possible, so the 1 resource to retrieve is rarely efficient.

            Savor Bloodshed allows for the highest numbers we can achieve in this deck through the draw on dagger hit text. Provided your opponent is already marked, you can flick in reactions to trigger the draw and look for additional pumps to put on your attack. The floor on this is 0 for 4 like the last two, but it also blocks 3 and has the highest ceiling of our front pumps with draw potential.

            Orb-Weaver Spinneret is a weaker front pump, but you can make up the 1 to match rates above if you flick the Chelicera before making a new one. As mentioned earlier, this isn’t without risk, so consider the deck against you before greeding for the 1 here. The pump from this applies to stealth, so you can use it to pump non dagger stealth attacks in the matchups where their own hits matter.

 

            The dagger reacts are what make this deck a nightmare for the opponent. The most powerful ones, Tarantula Toxin and Stains of the Redback, also happen to block 3, so they can be played all the time. Scar Tissue and To the Point are 2 blocks, so they only belong in the deck against opponents who want to block you, not the other way around.

            Tarantula Toxin is notorious for the 0 for 6 value and can lead to unstoppable finishes late in the game. If you think the game could go to second cycle, saving Tarantula Toxin by pitching can be very impactful. Your opponents are aware of this card and will sometimes be reluctant to block daggers with stealth, so you can’t always hold out for both modes. If your opponent is inclined to block but doesn’t when you have this, setting it for better value can be correct. If your opponent isn’t inclined to block, don’t set this and instead convert to 3 damage when able. If you set this and are subsequently not able to keep cards to make it playable, you will lock yourself out of arsenaling a defense reaction or playing a Codex of Frailty for tempo.

            Stains of the Redback is most often played for free by having the opponent marked. If you have to pitch to this, it may be preferable to spend this on blocks instead as it is a 3 block. Flicking a Klaive to make this free is a risky maneuver unless you have a retrieve already available, but the high impact of the go again can make this worthwhile, particularly for finishing off an opponent.

 

            To the Point is just numbers, but you can consider setting it if you’ll be able to play it for the full value against a marked opponent later. Scar Tissue on a Chelicera can also be worth 4, pumping by 3 right away and applying the mark for additional damage on the next attack. These two cards are important to stick damage and keep tempo against defensive opponents, but they can be a liability against the most aggressive decks.

            These 2 block reacts trade cleanly in sideboard for the disruptive 0 for 3 stealth cards, Meet Madness and MotBW. You’ll do this swap when you want to be blocking more and playing with small hands against ninja or mechanologist.

 

            The remaining cards don’t interact with the deck’s main focus, big dagger, but this doesn’t mean they aren’t important to the larger strategy or the class as a whole.

 

            Codex of Frailty (CoF) is another notoriously high value card that is worth going out of your way to maximize. This means leaving your arsenal empty or setting a card you can clear out and play CoF in the same turn. This is among our most impactful cards against decks where we won’t see second cycle, so those matchups will punish you for having an awkward arsenal delaying your CoF. In slow matchups, you can pitch this down early to save it for when it matters most. This card will most often grab Leave No Witnesses to deny the opponent the arsenal it gave them, but Kiss of Death, MotBW, and Death Touch can be considerations as well. Front pumps into CoF into Kiss presents a lot of damage and is good for landing hits if you’ve already taken cards. MotBW can be chosen if the opponent already has an arsenal they may not care about protecting. Death Touch is the best for threatening life total choosing Bloodrot, but it has extra utility into weapon decks, stacking the frailty with CoF and crippling their turn.

            Leave No Witnesses is a great chain ender and target for CoF. If this is in your hand and doesn’t play easily, prioritize discarding this to an agent or blocking with it to set up the CoF for later. Having Leave No Witnesses in the graveyard is an important part of the setup to make the deck function efficiently.

            Pick up the Point may look out of place with the Up Sticks and Run already present, but a single copy of Pick Up the Point makes CoF also have the ability to retrieve. This can allow you to flick more aggressively for tempo by enabling more draws to reload the Klaive.

            Codex of Inertia (CoI) is not main deck, but it warps the blues chosen for the deck around it. This card is brought in against slower decks or decks that want to set up on us. The ideal use case is to empty your hand with some number of resources floating, then play this and the card it flips into your arsenal using a dagger. This is why blues like Night’s Embrace and Stains of the Redback are present. If your opponent is off arsenal and you have one, playing this from hand is still reasonable to set yourself up for a 5 card hand, forcing them to discard, and leaving them off arsenal again for another Codex of either sort on a following turn.

            Fate Foreseen is in the sideboard over Sink Below to facilitate CoI, letting you know what your top card is to make a more informed CoI play. If you cut CoI, this should probably be Sink Below.

 

 

            You want to have some traps in your deck in every matchup for when you roll Trapdoor, so bring some that will trigger against the opponent you’re facing. Recurring traps with Under the Trapdoor can be very powerful in the late game, turning a blue pitch into a red defense reaction. Inertia Trap forces the opponent off arsenal, making our Codexes more powerful, and Frailty Trap nerfs weapons and arrows, ruining some decks. I don’t personally like the mark traps, Den and Lair of the Spider, but Lair has some utility as a trap for fast decks that aren’t hurt by frailty.

 

            Amulet of Echoes is Oscilio tech, which might be more prevalent post PEN. With the addition of Temporal Wobble, this matchup has gotten harder for Marionette, so this sideboard piece may be even more needed going forward.

            Look Tuff is Prism tech; you will not play this into other decks or use it for anything but blocking into Prism. This can be swapped for Wage Gold instead, which trades the 1 additional power for the ability to discard to agents due to the Universal keyword on Wage Gold.

 

            These last cards are not included in the featured list, but I think warrant consideration when building the deck.

            Command and Conquer can be worthwhile as a 1-off, improving your CoF plays against slow decks or decks with Overcrowded. This is mostly a consideration for CoF, and it can be clunky alongside CoI.

            Take up the Mantle is another powerful late game card against the slow decks. This lets you convert blues you pitched early in the game into more Kiss of Death to finish off the opponent. This card is not good with CoI since it cannot be played on a Chelicera, and both cards are useful in overlapping matchups. This makes including both Take up the Mantle and CoI difficult.

            Surgical Extraction can be a powerful tool in the late game, but it is also a bad combo with CoI for costing 2. This card shines when you are playing a longer midrange game where the opponent wants to block some and return an attack.

            Whittle from Bone is another source for Graphene Chelicera, which can allow you to play efficiently while saving your mask for other situations. This card is not exciting but including it in your blues can give you an opportunity to make high impact plays with mask later in the game.

 

            Schism of Chaos is a quirky, high variance card that can win or lose the game by itself, and it is also incompatible with CoI. This card is tricky to use effectively and cannot be boarded into every opponent. The ideal scenario is an opponent who wants to keep an arsenal, like a ranger, or a deck with awkward cards to clear out of arsenal, like a guardian. This card has incredible highs of setting a Savor Bloodshed and awkward lows like setting Under the Trapdoor. Most of the cards in your deck are good to arsenal, so you will usually come out ahead on this. When you pitch this card in first cycle, it has an interesting effect of increasing the relative blue density in your deck, provided it isn’t the first blue you pitch. This is because when you pitch Schism the first time, there will be some number of pitch cards at the bottom of your deck with a random subset of the initial deck above them. By shuffling from this state, the deck afterwards has more pitch cards per hand than the original deck did, landing in the middle ground of the deck where you would be left with second cycle and the deck you started with. This card can sabotage an otherwise winnable game if you need to pitch it before you can clear a set attack react while your opponent has an open arsenal, but you can similarly steal games that were otherwise lost if you get lucky with a Tarantula Toxin.

            Tome of Pandemonium is a new card that asks the user to build the deck in a similar manner to Codex of Inertia, so we may be able to slot this in as well without too much fiddling. You would only play this into matchups where the opponent is also low pitch, like ninjas or assassin mirrors, but more draw 2s sound promising. Infiltrate is another potential sideboard piece for these same matchups.

            If you were to increase the amount of Arcane Barrier in the deck, I would recommend Widow head and then Widow chest. Flick Knives is too important to lose, and Mask has less value than Tunic when we are expecting primarily arcane damage.

 

 Deckbuilding in Sage 

            I think Nuu, with her mystic card pool, is the clear choice for sage assassin. While not performing particularly well in this just finished Proquest season, Nuu is looking better post Ban and Restricted announcement as it thoroughly nerfed her biggest threat, Briar. I have selected Taotao Chu’s list from Calling San Diego top 8 to discuss.

https://fabtcg.com/decklists/taotao-chu-nuu-calling-san-diego-2026-silver-age/

 

         Mystic grants Nuu powerful equipment in Arousing Wave and Silent Stilettos, both of which provide two reacts for Double Trouble. Stilettos and the Slither it generates can be used on any type of card, so these can pair with Nuu’s hero power to finish games where the opponent has good blues.

   

 

 

            Beckoning Mistblade is another powerful piece exclusive to Nuu, and this allows her to convert larger hands when given space. I could see cutting the Mark of the Huntsman for another Mistblade, should the meta slow down.

 

            Mark of the Huntsman and Prey Spotters are here to enable MotBW, providing disruption for aggressive matchups. I think this package is a little awkward, but the deck needs something to slow down aggressive decks. If the meta becomes less aggro centered, this package could be cut.

 

            Graven Vestment does not feature in this deck, but I think it could warrant an include with Plunder the Poor and Excessive Bloodloss already included. Recurring the chest even once beats out Blade Beckoner, but it takes some time to materialize. Alternatively, Graven Cowl and Garland of Spring could come in, cutting the mark package for one free cast of Excessive Bloodloss and a thing to do with the silver it creates.

 

 

            Intimate Inducement can be a difficult card to use well, and it features at 6 in this list. This card only reduces the defense of blue cards chosen, so playing this and not hitting a blue can deny your own hit. This card is best played into decks with blue attack while attacking with a stealth card so Nuu will banish the chosen blue. Into matchups with less blues, this is a 3 block that can be used to fatigue the opponent faster if not spent on blocks or snipe a card with higher impact before they can draw it.

            Nuu does not play many Inner Chi cards in this format due to the narrow application of her hero power and lack of other payoffs. Path Well Traveled providing go again is the best one for the deck in most cases, enabling a wider chain with your own cards or theirs. Pass Over maximizes our play from banish by letting you pick one out, and it can also be used to play the same card twice, re-banishing it after you play it once. These Inner Chi cards do not block, so they can be boarded out into aggressive decks where Nuu’s hero power has lower impact.

 

            Assassin is a class with options, letting you cater your deck to the meta at large, your local scene, and your personal preferences. Whether you’re looking to swing Chelicera for 14  20 or play with your food as they run out of opportunities, Assassin can provide.