Battle Hardened Tokyo has concluded. This gone weekend has been absolutely jam packed with high level play across the world. We've been treated with this event, Battle Hardeneds in Milan and Hartford, and of course the results for the final week of Pro Quest.
With all the results flying around, there are enough Living Legend points to put Nuu, Alluring Desire and Azalea, Ace in the Hole's futures in the game in the balance going into Nationals Season. After the results of all these events, it's interesting to wonder. However, neither the big Ranger nor the big Assassin made the Battle Hardened Tokyo top 8...
Battle Hardened Tokyo's Top 8 Decks
The Top 8 in Battle Hardened Tokyo featured: Cindra, Dracai of Retribution, Dash I/O, Fang, Dracai of Blades, 2 Florian, Rotwood Harbinger, 2 Kano, Dracai of Aether, and Rhinar, Reckless Rampage.
This a close showing of just how aggressive the East Asian meta game can be. While there's a good showing of Draconic decks here too, there is one unlikely pick that preys well on the defensive Runechant generator.
5th Place Decks
Dash I/O
The best, hyper aggressive Mechanologist proves that even in a world where Florian can run 15 or more Defence Reactions, she can still Top 8 a Battle Hardened.
Some of the newer Hunted card choices are all welcome and expected in this Dash list. While Nuu still exists, Null Time Zone can shut down Inner Chi, and a lot of her ability to Fatigue. Misfire Dampener also pulls its duty to prevent Arcane damage, which is very relevant for the many Kano players in this Top 8.
The arm slot has always been flexible for Mechanologist. While Dampener is welcome, and Adaptive Plating can serve to block very well when it has to, the card which has me scratching my head is Bracers of Belief. It has the ability to turn any card into Ravenous Rabble. Being able to add +2 to an unfriendly on-hit like Heist or something with a Boom Grenade into an added layer of threat is something that Dash players may want to consider.
Cindra
Unlike the deck which finished in the top 8 at Milan, this version of Cindra is running a very peculiar split of resource cards, and has a bevvy of unique tech cards to help it handle any match up.
14 Blues is easily the highest I've ever seen in any registered Cindra list. 9-12 is the range I've been seeing commentators and brewers work with, but 14 is a great many. This Blue base also includes some of the obvious cards like all 3 Warmonger's Diplomacy, and 3 Snag to handle its Assassin matchup.
It also features a card that I consider to be a Cindra staple, in Throw Dagger. As more and more players became wise on how to handle Cindra when she was threatening a draw trigger with Mask of Momentum, and forcing their hand to activate Flick Knives to keep the Mask triggers live, the inclusion of Throw Dagger means that you can still "flick" before needing to activate Flick Knives, or after you've activated Flick Knives, lulling your opponent into a false sense of security. Throw Dagger is a very strong card that red-line or not, you should be playing in your Cindra decks.
The other odd inclusions in this Cindra list includes Down and Dirty which I can only presume is a slot for Prism as it's a popper to park in Arsenal. Grow Claws as a three of in Red and a 1 of in Blue is baffling. It somewhat dilutes the number of Draconic attacks they need to enable Cindra's ability, however it attacks very above rate when enabled. Cut Through has been very strong in decks like Ira or even "Slippy" to go wide. As such, it's easy to enable here. In the Legs equipment, there is no Dragonscaler Flight Path to be seen, but instead the good old Snapdragon Scalers. There are enough non-Draconic attacks in this deck to make the ability hard to enable.
If you want a fresh new take on Cindra, this may be the list!
Kano
The Japanese player base continues to surprise me with their off-the-wall card choices.
This Kano list from Battle Hardened Tokyo has me looking with deep love and puzzlement. What is Imperial Edict doing there? It follows the same logic and same templating as Imperial Seal of Command which was all the rage in Aurora's final few days, and with some builds of Cindra and Fang. This is a highly skill intensive card, knowing each deck and which threat to respect out of each deck when you find a turn to get the combo kill.
The inclusion of Photon Splicing is also an unusual one. If they wanted a card which you could discard to amp, then include this in Blue, as they're already playing ros188-arcane-twining-3-rosetta-booster. The Red version implies they want to play it, as well as Red Aether Quickening.
There is still innovation to be done with the game's first ever Wizard.
Rhinar
When you hear the name Eugene, you think of Rhinar. I've had the pleasure of playing against this absolute expert of the first Brute. A few times in fact. This man knows this hero and this deck, and will always put up results. Only on Rhinar. In fields and metagames that Rhinar has no business being good against.
This late Hunted season, Rhinar does have a pretty solid game into the Earth Heroes, simply because of how flush they are with cards they want to block with, and his intimidation denying that efficiently, as we saw in Eugene's game against Nick Butcher in Calling Kobe.
The list is classic Eugene. Far more non-6 cards than should mathematically work in Rhinar. Yellow 1hp400-pummel-2-history-pack-1-booster. Freewheeling Renegades. As I said in my Brute Class Guide, being able to embrace the variance is the key to playing this class well.
3rd Place Decks
Fang
This list for Fang has brought us a lot of head scratching one of's to truly tech for any given matchup. The usual suspects are there. Oath of Loyalty, Savor Bloodshed, and both red and yellow Scar Tissue.
What's interesting is that it's trimmed on some numbers here and there. Only two [card]Sigil of Solace. One of Perforate and Calming Breeze. By including March of Loyalty over Blaze Headlong to ensure Fealty maintenance, but sometimes, it can extend the turn.
There's a borrowing of the prevailing "Markni" tech by running Cut From the Same Cloth. That front pump on a dagger and garnering of free information, can be very impactful. Particularly at +4, becoming an attack for 5 is a deeply sticky number. In my own testing, I've been registering the yellows to serve as a cost card. There is room for a lot of innovation in the world of Fang deck building.
Kano
Similar to the deck that also made Top 8, there are a lot of fringe choices in the form of Photon Splicing and Imperial Edict to offer alternate threats and to mess with your opponent.
The damage dealing spells like the full rainbows of Aetherwell and Flood Gates is still present, but that explosive damage is also needed to get past the Arcane Barrier and Spellvoid that Florian has access to from Dyadic Carapace and Amethyst Tiara.
Finalist
Florian
The big bad green man dominated the final in Battle Hardened Tokyo. This version is archetypal Florian (pre bannings of course) with Scepter of Pain to stack a large number of Runechants to ensure a truly explosive final turn.
This version is still playing Runeblood Incantation to generate a number of Runechants at the start of every turn, as well as Malefic Incantation to generate Runechants on attacks.
Florian registering this many midrange cards to generate Runechants with smaller bursts of arcane alongside some physical damage. Florian will always be versatile, sending disruption like Felling and Plow, or just stacking one million Runechants with Ninth Blade of the Blood Oath.
Winner
Florian
Florian, piloted by Ryosuke Urase won the Battle Hardened in Tokyo. The minor inclusions and distributions of certain cards is what makes this particular winning Florian list so interesting.
The inclusion of only 1 red Amplify the Arknight compared to there being three blue versions, means it gives the deck a strong card to pitch stack for, while converting the blues into resources, especially seeing as the general game plan for Florian may transition into Grasp of the Arknight then Reaping Blade turn after turn, using the rest of the hand to block at least 9.
Wrap Up
Battle Hardened Tokyo wrapped up with a good spread of decks with some very innovative takes on the card selections. We can expect to see this event's influences definitely affecting the player card choices going into Nationals Season. Read all your up to date news about Flesh and Blood trading card game right here on DotGG.
