Welcome to Rathe- A Flesh and Blood Primer By Noah Beygelman

Introducing Flesh and Blood - The Heroes

At its core, Flesh and Blood (FaB) is a card game where two players take up the mantle of a Hero, choosing cards that embody their human spirit and equipping them for a fight to the death. When playing the game, you become your Hero - the main character which determines your cardpool and preferred fighting style to dispatch your opponents. Before beginning a match of FaB, both you and your opponent will declare your Hero of choice to each other. You are then given a brief respite to prepare your decks for that opponent, ensuring you are well equipped to both defend and attack them. There are currently 12 classes of heroes present in FaB, each of which approaches the game in a different way. Here’s a simplified explanation of how each Hero engages with the game:

1. Warrior: uses their weapon of choice every turn, and attempts to evade the opponent with sword flourishes or overwhelm them with a powerful axe swing

2. Brute: sacrifices some of their intelligence and injects randomness to gain backbreaking power…if you’ve maxed out your Luck stat in real life, you’ll reap the rewards as a Brute

3. Guardian: tanks the largest of onslaughts with no problems, biding their time until the opponent is exhausted of their powerful attacks to start pounding them into the dirt

4. Ninja: strings together combination attacks which grow more powerful as more are played in sequence, and often can chip damage in as the opponent must fear their combo potential 

5. Ranger: shoots arrows laced with deadly toxins, weakening opponents who are unable to escape even a light graze, and sets traps around themselves which cripple anyone brazen enough to charge towards them

6. Wizard: zaps opponents with arcane energy and challenges them to a battle of wits rather than one of hits

7. Mechanologist: puts the pedal to the metal, burning away its own cards in the pursuit of technological advancement, with the goal of assembling an item conglomerate that entirely suppresses any hope from the opponent

8. Illusionist: spins a tale of immense power and riches, all of which will come true if the opponent is unable to see through their mysterious actions 

9. Runeblade: blends the best of the Warrior and the Wizard into one, dazzling their opponent with combinations of arcane flurries and physical hits that threaten inevitable defeat in the hands of skilled users

10. Assassin: combines the powerful toxins of the Ranger with the reliability of the Warrior, punishing any opponents who are caught unaware and inciting feelings of despair

11. Necromancer: decided that they would rather summon hordes of zombies to do their bidding rather than dirty their own hands, and forces the opponent to make the difficult decision every turn of whether to focus their attacks on the mobs or the main enemy

Many players end up trying out multiple classes before finding their favorite, and with the additional element of Hero Talents like Lightning, Shadow, Pirate and more, anyone can find a hero playstyle that they enjoy. 

Introducing Flesh and Blood - The Board

FaB has a few main areas where cards can be: arena, deck, hand, pitch zone, graveyard, and banished. Each player starts the game fully equipped with their choice of armor and weapons, like anyone who has signed up for a deathmatch ought to be. These cards are visible to your opponent when the game starts, and their effects range from things like having the ability to block your opponent’s attacks, drawing you additional cards, inflicting pain to your opponent (fortunately the card pool only supports inflicting pain to your opponent’s Hero and not the actual human at the table across from you…for now 😈), and much more. While some equipment will stay with you the whole game, becoming more worn down as the battle progresses, others will break after you use them and enter the graveyard. This game-long struggle to deplete your opponent’s equipment while maximizing the value of your own can be its own fun side quest to complete while trying to win the overall battle versus your opponent. The last pieces that start on the board are your Hero card and their weapon(s), both of which are integral to the way each turn of the game will function. Some Heroes take on a passive role, providing a small benefit every once in a while, whereas other Heroes have powerful effects that you will be trying to leverage on every turn of the game. Weapons fulfill a similar role, some of them have actions you will try to use every turn, while others are more like mystical artifacts that grant additional abilities to your other cards. For example, Dorinthea Ironsong has a Hero ability that cannot be activated every turn due to it both being reliant on her weapon Dawnblade successfully hitting and you having the necessary action point to swing the Dawnblade again, but it’s very impactful when you can pull it off.

 On the other hand, Gravy Bones, Shipwrecked Looter has 2 different abilities, and his weapon Compass of Sunken Depths also facilitates his necromantic rituals rather than being something with which you can physically strike your opponent. 

The area in the center of the board is called the “Combat Chain” and is a space shared by both players. When the turn player conducts their turn, they can choose to place attack action cards and/or their weapon onto the Combat Chain, after which the non-turn player can choose to place cards from their hand onto the chain as defending cards. Think of this like a mini-arena in the center of the table where the Heroes are brawling, and some Heroes can even use reaction cards to modify their attack or defense and surprise their opponent. 

Introducing Flesh and Blood - The Cards

Now that you have an idea of the board layout and some of the Hero options, let’s look at some examples of cards you can include in your main deck, which is the one you draw cards from. First, you are required to have a minimum of 60 cards in your main deck, and a normal turn entails playing some amount of the cards in your hand, then drawing cards up to your Hero’s intellect value (the blue number in the bottom left of your Hero card) at the end of each of your turns. Keep in mind that the FaB gods have ordained that each player shall be entitled to 1 Action Point per turn – meaning that each player can play only 1 card with the “Action” type printed in the bottom-center of the card. To play more cards from your hand, you will need your “Actions” to have the keyword “Go Again” as this gains you an Action Point when that card resolves, or you can play cards that are not “Actions” as these cards do not cost an Action Point to play. 

Let’s look at an example of a basic card: Soulbead Strike. We will start at the top and move down the card to take in all the information presented.

In the top right corner is the resource cost required to play the card. Conveniently this one costs 0, which is probably the most common cost required among FaB cards. Next is the name of the card, which can be important if your deck has cards that gain bonus effects depending on the existence of other cards with specific names in play. Joining the name is the Red colored strip which is associated with the number of filled in resource symbols in the top left corner of the card. Red cards pitch for 1 resource, Yellow for 2 and Blue 3. In most cases, the yellow and blue versions of the card have 1 of their stats altered 1 point lower to compensate for the increased resource allotment should they be pitched over being played. The bottom right shows the defense value, which is the value you would use to compete with your opponent’s attack if you chose to use Soulbead Strike as a defending card. In the center is the effect of the card, in this case Soulbead Strike would get Go Again if it hits. Saving the best for last, in the bottom left is the attack value, which is the value you would use if you decided to play Soulbead Strike as an Attack Action, placing it on the chain and declaring to your opponent that you would be attacking for 4, pitching 0 cards as the Soulbead Strike costs 0 resources to play. 

If your card costs resources to play, you must pay that resource cost by pitching cards from your hand to the pitch zone, the one horizontally adjacent to your deck. For example, in order to cast Swing Big, you would need to pitch cards from hand that are worth at least 2 resources – 2 reds, 1 yellow, or 1 blue and be left with a leftover resource. 

Many of the decks that play powerful cards that cost resources to play will try to balance their decks with a mixture of Blue cards, since they pitch for the most resources and Red cards, since they provide the most offensive output. As defending with action cards neither costs you resources nor uses up your Action Point, players are able to defend with excess cards that are not going to be needed as resources or cards to play out on their turn. Since you draw up to 4 at the end of your turn, you are incentivized to find a way to get value out of every card in your hand during the course of your opponent’s turn and your own. While there are always exceptions, you’ll notice that better players often accumulate a life lead as they are able to more efficiently use their hands each turn cycle. Looking at the life totals in combination with the cards currently available to both players in the turn cycle is often a good barometer of who is winning a game.

Lastly, FaB is very much a 2 player game, your opponent will also be trying to squeeze every point of value out of their cards in a given turn cycle. You will encounter many situations where on-hit effects or lethal damage are presented, and you may decide to use your cards for less objective value than their max potential…and that’s okay, I can promise the cards won’t get mad at you or start being disobedient. Part of the charm of FaB’s value system is how each Hero can be playing such different flavors of cards and effects that are all relatively balanced around the goal of averaging more than 3 points of value out of each card, while the order in which both players draw and the decisions each chooses to make with their cards can lead to endless permutations of a given matchup.

How can you engage with FaB?

Classic Constructed

Classic Constructed (CC) is the default way to play Flesh and Blood, and asks players to construct an 80 card pool, including their main deck cards and on-board equipment and weapons. You can swap cards in and out in the pre-game procedure after both players have revealed their heroes and the player who wins the die roll has chosen if they want to act first or second. This enables players to tailor their decks somewhat for each opponent, and you can even reference printed notes with advice on which cards should be taken out versus those to be prioritized before the game begins. If your deck is built well, you should be happy about the minimum 60 main deck cards and your equipment and weapon(s) you present in each matchup. But this paradigm also affords the intrepid player an edge: you can present a Hero that is traditionally built to be a redline 0-cost Go Again heavy deck, and befuddle your opponent, as your card pool and deck are actually filled with defensive and stalling tools. This is relatively uncommon, but the nature of the turn cycles of FaB often causes players to see a significant portion (if not all) of their decks in each game, so every card you include is important, and there will be times where the effect of a card you thought would be a throwaway blue card you plan on just blocking with or pitching will win you a game. 

Silver Age

Silver Age (Sage) is the most recent addition to the FaB competitive landscape, and its goal is to reduce the barrier of entry to the tournament scene, from both a financial and simplicity standpoint. In this format, you are restricted to cards with current printings at Common and Rare and the Sage banlist, tasked with constructing a 55 card deck, and must use the pool of Young Heroes. I believe that Sage can be just as competitive as CC, and by reducing the life totals and amount of bomb high-rarity cards present in the format, the gameplay experience has actually felt more punishing to the player who makes more “mistakes.” In addition, there are a plethora of pre-built Sage decks from Legend Story Studios (LSS) available at local game stores which offer a relatively inexpensive way to try out different playstyles. 

Draft/Sealed

Limited in FaB consists of both Draft and Sealed. Sealed is used for Tier 3 tournaments, Pre-release events and Side events, and Draft is used in Tier 4 events, Road to Nationals, Pro Quests and top cut of Sealed events. Sealed is relatively straightforward: open 8 packs, figure out which Hero you want to play from the options in that set based on your pulls, and every card you open is treated as part of your options to switch during the pre-match formalities, as long as you present a 30 card main deck. While Draft arrives at the same conclusion of a 30 card main deck and a specific Hero choice, you will build your deck using 8 person pods where each player is given 3 14-card packs. Since you will be drafting equipment at the same time as you are drafting main deck cards, it is imperative that you enter every draft with a strategy – and usually at least 1-2 backups. You cannot afford to waste many picks, especially if your Hero ends up being contested. But there’s no reason to despair if it seems like everyone is playing the same Hero…they most likely are, and I’ve both participated in or borne witness to trash decks competing against each other. I think these scrapes are some of the most fun games available, and playing out FaB Draft games in general is a vehicle for learning the core identity of new Heroes, to see if they gel with you. 

Online Resources

Lastly, I would be remiss to leave off two extremely valuable testing resources: the free simulator platform talishar.net and the free deckbuilding tool fabrary.net. If you are interested in exploring the card pool and building decks for any Hero and format, then playing games in any format against real opponents or a bot, these websites are invaluable. I think FaB is best enjoyed in person, and all major tournaments are all held physically at the time of this writing, but it’s hard to argue with the convenience of sneaking a game of Sage on your lunch break, or staying up until 4am grinding Guardian mirror matches; whatever floats your boat.