Pro Tour London weekend was already jam packed with high level play and untold number of players jamming side events in every format. While the Calling was all Classic Constructed, and the Pro Tour had a six rounds of Draft thrown in, the other premier event of the weekend was in the Living Legend format!
Battle Hardened London hit its 128 player cap, and had elite players competing for the cash prize. Thanks to the FaBTCG official website, we're able to look at the deck lists for every participant and see how well each player performed over the course of that Sunday's gaming.
Living Legend Format
Since we have only been discussing Classic Constructed on DotGG, and that has been the focus on our new player guide. We should take a quick spin on what the Living Legend format even is.
Short answer, Living Legend is the format equivalent of Vintage in Magic. Cards that were previously banned in Classic Constructed are, at most, restricted in Living Legend. Except you, evr121-krakens-aethervein-everfest-booster.
This means that heroes and weapons that have hit the Living Legend status can come out to play! This means every Runeblade gets to swing bri004-rosetta-thorn-briar-blitz-deck-precon, and it's wielded by xxx011-briar-warden-of-thorns-organized-play-support-tales-of-aria-briar-2022-promo, art002-chane-bound-by-shadow-dusk-till-dawn-booster, and win007-cf-viserai-rune-blood-pro-tour-champion-cards-promo.
This isn't to say only heroes that have hit Living Legend are the only ones allowed to be played. In the field for Battle Hardened London, there are decks like ako001-kayo-armed-and-dangerous-armory-deck-kayo-armed-and-dangerous-precon that get to play dyn009-berserk-2-dynasty-booster, ros019-oscilio-constella-intelligence-rosetta-booster that gets to play ele186-ball-lightning-1-tales-of-aria-booster, and even win035-cf-zen-tamer-of-purpose-pro-tour-champion-cards-part-the-mistveil-promo (who's still legal as of the time of me writing and sharing this) getting back the deeply busted staples like jdg015-cf-art-of-war-2-judge-pack-season-2-promo and kat007-bonds-of-ancestry-1-katsu-blitz-deck-precon.
Decks from Swiss
When you think of Dromai, you think of Pro Tour Finalist Mara Faris. When she isn't beating my friends playing Vynnset, she's back on her personal favourite hero, shuffling in all the all the same good tech as the Uprising days, but along a lot of new hotness.
The staples from Dromai's past are all present in this expert deck. dyn234-cf-crown-of-dominion-dynasty-booster does wonders for creating the Gold as a pitch outlet to make Ash, and to enable evo245-tome-of-imperial-flame-1-bright-lights-booster.
In fact, the rest of the Equipment loadout is very concise. The same pieces go into every matchup. ros250-calming-gesture-rosetta-booster pulls double duty as being a pitch outlet, but also your source of AB1. What is most surprising is the return to 1hp353-snapdragon-scalers-history-pack-1-booster. Being able to draw a card with 1hp361-enlightened-strike-1-history-pack-1-booster, then still give it Go Again is powerful, but we have to look at hnt143-cf-dragonscaler-flight-path-the-hunted-booster. There's upsides and downsides to running both cards. Flight Path can't target E-Strike, but then Snaps don't block.
arc162-chains-of-eminence-1-arcane-rising-booster acts as a particularly sticking tech hate card. Naming Inner Chi against Zen turns off some of their most powerful turns, and if Chane has a wealth of Shadow cards they can soon play from Banish, choosing some of their better cards works against their whole turn.
Cards from The Hunted have made their way into the deck, some clearly powerful, some a bit more unlikely but still powerful.
hnt149-oath-of-loyalty-1-the-hunted-booster has quickly become a Draconic must play as it's the perfect starter in all five Draconic heroes. hnt155-drop-of-dragon-blood-1-the-hunted-booster is a strong mid-turn play to provide the resource and filtering you need to pay for another big Dragon.
While Mara may not have had the strongest record, she was at her best playing the Mother of Dragons.
Calling Amsterdam winner and 2023 US National Champion Charles Dunn knows how to put together a Zen list, featuring not one but two cards that are banned in multiple formats.
It took multiple nerfs and bannings to bring Zen's power level to where it is right now in Classic Constructed. The first pair of cards that were taken from him are Ninja staples: Bonds of Ancestry and Art of War. Being able to use lgs273-rf-stride-of-reprisal-pre-release-part-the-mistveil-promo to block, then use that as a card to banish with Art of War to draw 2. After that, the buff to all attacks is they need. This is all over the Zen decks in Living Legend.
On top of this is the tech, there's the inclusion of 1hp093-zephyr-needle-history-pack-1-booster. A weapon that was pre-banned in Classic Constructed before The Hunted released because of how it worked with the Retrieve keyword, of which Dunn's Zen list is running the Red and Blue versions of both gem028-rf-pick-up-the-point-1-gem-pack-1-booster and hnt179-up-sticks-and-run-1-the-hunted-booster. By cycling and sending multiple Zephyr Needles, ignoring its usual downside, as well as presenting the usual strong pre-ban Zen attacks, it makes for a very strong choice to play in Living Legend.
Top 8 Decks
This take is quintessential Prism, playing nearly every Aura with Spectra. It would have a particularly strong effect against decks like "Starvo" and Chane, who'd struggle to attack down multiple Spectra Auras.
The gameplan of building out the Aura boardstate, then turning them into Kodachi's with fab109-gf-luminaris-proquest-season-3-promo has always been very effective and very annoying.
It's interesting to see that this deck does not include mon006-genesis-2-monarch-booster nor mon005-arc-light-sentinel-2-monarch-booster. The deck has a very large suite of "Herald" attacks to pressure the opponent and get cards into Soul to convert into Spectral Shields.
As I stated, this deck is playing nearly every Spectra Aura, including one of my personal favourites: evr140-shimmers-of-silver-3-everfest-booster. As seen in the early Enigma day, this card partners very well with mst133-restless-coalescence-2-part-the-mistveil-booster. Simply by being able to attack with a Restless first, get a counter, then pull the counter to make a shield, then attack again is incredibly powerful.
Finalist Decks
Noted good player Jacob Clements represented the most played deck in the Living Legend format. win016-cf-bravo-star-of-the-show-pro-tour-champion-cards-promo or "Starvo" as he's known by all is the only deck that can play all 3 Elements, and presents a tricky deckbuilding puzzle to those who try to build and play the deck. By revealing all three element types from among cards in hand, you get to send a large, evasive attack, then Oldhim's signature weapon ele003-winters-wail-tales-of-aria-booster, to disrupt your opponent.
New cards from Rosetta include ros074-current-funnel-3-rosetta-booster as a strong Blue Block 3, and the now restricted ros087-electromagnetic-somersault-3-rosetta-booster.
It's interesting that Clements' list is playing two of the three Pulse cards, but is missing ele113-pulse-of-candlehold-2-tales-of-aria-booster. Perhaps the ratio of each element of card has balanced itself out in deck building, but only the architect can say for sure.
Always welcome to see a member of Team Blue Pitch doing well at a rated event. Nova Chan's take on Chane feels close to how he played before, but with the new disruption cards from Rosetta to help combat the aggressive metagame. This particular brew by Nova Chan took down the whole event!
New inclusions like ros117-snuff-out-1-rosetta-booster, fab252-gf-face-purgatory-premier-organized-play-rosetta-promo, and hnt259-cull-1-the-hunted-booster all strip additional cards from your opponent's hands, leaving their options limited as you send consistent attacks from the banished zone.
Living Legend is a vibrant but powerful format that Legend Story Studios are really starting to show support for. With more events like this, and an ever growing card pool, we can look forward to more games where the most powerful cards and heroes of Flesh and Blood can battle together.
We're going to be rolling out more posts regarding the other formats very soon, and bringing primers for the Living Legend format once the next Skirmish Season begins. For all your news, live and direct from the world of Flesh and Blood, keep your eyes right here to DotGG.
