The last two big events before Pro Tour London have all wrapped up, and the highest performing decks have all told a very detailed story, all the while indicative of the wider Flesh and Blood Metagame.
We've done an extensive look at the ongoing story of Battle Hardened Jakarta in another article, and we've got a spotlight article for the Top 8 from that event too. This article is a close look at just Battle Hardened Dublin. Though it was not broadcast, it still saw players that I have met (and lost to) in person, I am interested to see how these players shaped their top tables going into this weekend's Pro Tour.
The Line Up
The Top 8 was comprised of 3 ast001-aurora-shooting-star-armory-deck-aurora-shooting-star-precon, arc001-dash-inventor-extraordinaire-arcane-rising-booster, 2 mst025-enigma-ledger-of-ancestry-part-the-mistveil-booster, , and win022-cf-riptide-lurker-of-the-deep-pro-tour-champion-cards-outsiders-promo.
It's to be expected that a good number of Aurora and Enigma will be in this and every Top 8 between now and the end of Pro Quest Season. They're unquestionably the two best decks in the format, with the slight edge going to the Lightning Runeblade.
The 5th Placers
Nuu
A lot of commentators, myself included in our Meta Analysis Article noted the decline of Nuu. What was easily the best Assassin during all of Rosetta season, and the first half of Hunted season, we saw her card dense play style be heavily punished by the aggression of Aurora.
This version picking ros223-count-your-blessings-1-rosetta-booster back up is in direct response to Aurora. The disruption and trying to stem the aggressive bleeding is exactly what Nuu may need to gain an edge, but a well versed Aurora pilot can play through it.
Some of the other card choices, such as the one off hnt221-rotten-remains-3-the-hunted-booster are what's interesting. There's definite play with Rotten Remains as a card that can be pumped to high stats in the Assassin mirror or, and Nuu giving it Go Again with nuu002-beckoning-mistblade-nuu-blitz-deck-precon. It has relevance, but it's a fringe pick in this style of Nuu.
Enigma
The other best deck in the format can sometimes be subject to bad draws and variance, that keeps it from the winning spot. Well played to Jimmy Niro Demers for making it that far.
1hk006-mage-master-boots-kano-blitz-deck-precon has been seeing play to give mst131-10000-year-reunion-1-part-the-mistveil-booster Go Again. It's incredibly clunky to play into Aurora, but its relevance into ros001-florian-rotwood-harbinger-rosetta-booster is not to be underestimated, as in that matchup, it works as copies 4, 5, and 6 of mst031-manifestation-of-miragai-3-part-the-mistveil-booster.
Riptide
The other Ranger (as of right now) is definitely a specialist choice in any metagame. Gustavo Cilleruelo's list looks fairly standard in terms of what win022-cf-riptide-lurker-of-the-deep-pro-tour-champion-cards-outsiders-promo wants, to do.
What gave him the edge going into this Top 8 was definitely Riptide's potency into the "big two". The pings from all the trap cards, which are all enabled by Enigma's attacks threaten her Ward. Which is less of a relevant factor with the number of Generic and Phantasm attacks she sends these days.
At the same time, a deck that can block efficiently with Traps while sending disruptive attacks is generally pretty positive into Aurora.
Aurora
The best deck in the format is largely solved at this point. The one copy of jdg035-cf-poison-the-well-3-judge-pack-season-5-promo is a reasonably free inclusion to tech against CYB, and the one off r-wtr163-remembrance-2-welcome-to-rathe-unlimited-revised-booster in the Yellows is also respectable to give the game a little insulation against something grindy.
3rd Placers
Aurora
Alex Chițu has been on the World Tour for a considerable time, and is in contention for the Player of the Year. His top 8 finish on a similar Aurora list in Sao Paulo has done him well in Battle Hardened Dublin as well.
I'll profile his take on Aurora a little later in this article.
Dash, Inventor Extraordinaire
Despite it being deeply not my style of deck, I deeply respect a player bringing a very unlikely version of a list to the high tables and doing very well for themselves.
arc001-dash-inventor-extraordinaire-arcane-rising-booster has been teetering on the edge of Living Legend for over a year now. After the release of Count Your Blessings, this style of grindy, Fatigue Dash has gained a lot of merit. If you want to play aggressive Mechanologist, just play [][].
This style of Dash plays all the disruption, blocks, and ways to search out the key Items. Then once you're fatigued, they come in with multiple shots of 1hd002-teklo-plasma-pistol-dash-blitz-deck-precon.
Finalist
Aurora
Shahmir Samee's Aurora deck made it to the final table. As a person who's known him for a good few years, and shepherded the cards in that Aurora list for him, I am happy to support a friend at the top tables.
I mentioned earlier about covering Chițu's list here. As a fellow teammate of Shahmir's they're on the exact same 80. The inclusion of dyn234-cf-crown-of-dominion-dynasty-booster and all 3 ele065-flicker-wisp-2-tales-of-aria-booster means they're locked in on the immense damage output combo with ast022-arc-lightning-2-armory-deck-aurora-shooting-star-precon.
Winner
Enigma
Though the majority of Martin Holík's mst025-enigma-ledger-of-ancestry-part-the-mistveil-booster includes some very interesting card inclusions. lgs276-rf-waves-of-aqua-marine-pre-release-part-the-mistveil-promo in the arms slot gives you a guaranteed breakpoint and then a free block, but its relevance into certain matchups is unusual.
fab226-gf-meridian-pathway-premier-organized-play-part-the-mistveil-promo has been seeing consistently less play than usual, but it has some good utility as a second Chi pitch outlet to enable mst077-levels-of-enlightenment-3-part-the-mistveil-booster.
The extenders in the deck are what I personally quite like. Cards like lgs305-rf-second-tenet-of-chi-wind-3-armory-season-13-zen-promo and mon103-spears-of-surreality-3-monarch-booster all extend the turn as it respectably pressures an opponent that otherwise wouldn't block.
Wrapping Up
Battle Hardened Dublin has shown a strong cross section of the meta going into London. We've seen the usual decks perform and a few fringe choices taking the top spots. All eyes are looking ahead to Pro Tour London, and this is a good look at what we can see going into that very prestigious event!
