The Flesh and Blood TCG Metagame is constantly evolving. With their new cadence on how they handle banning cards, the year losing four of its best heroes to Living Legend, and the release of the new set, High Seas, there has been a lot of very welcome change in the Flesh and Blood metagame. The June Meta has started strong!
Nationals Season has begun. With US Nats now in the books, you can read the contents of the top decks in another article. Here is what we can expect to be the overall June Meta. All of this data is pulled from US Nationals. The logic thus is that the higher the win rate the deck has been having, the better the deck is. This data has also been backed up by the results from the many many events thus far.
Tier List
| Tier | Deck | US Nats Wins |
|---|---|---|
| S | Florian, Rotwood Harbinger | 173 |
| Azalea, Ace in the Hole | 102 | |
| A | Prism, Awakener of Sol | 87 |
| Cindra, Dracai of Retribution | 86 | |
| Arakni, Marionette | 77 | |
| Nuu, Alluring Desire | 76 | |
| Kano, Dracai of Aether | 63 | |
| Arakni, 5L!p3d 7hRu 7h3 cR4X | 59 | |
| Verdance, Thorn of the Rose | 57 | |
| B | Gravy Bones, Shipwrecked Looter | 54 |
| Vynnset, Iron Maiden | 53 | |
| Fang, Dracai of Blades | 46 | |
| Oscilio, Constella Intelligence | 41 | |
| Kassai of the Golden Sand | 40 | |
| C | Kayo, Armed and Dangerous | 33 |
| Dash I/O | 24 | |
| Puffin, Hightail | 24 | |
| F | Dorinthea Ironsong | 19 |
| Jarl Vetreiði | 17 | |
| Katsu, the Wanderer | 16 | |
| Victor Goldmane, High and Mighty | 15 |
The metagame was in the perfect state of flux after the loss of Aurora and Enigma. With Pro Quest Singapore season wrapping up, it was the consensus of the player base to wait for the new set to begin innovating and iterating.
The June Meta has taken the cards with the High Seas expansion and allowed the established decks to truly evolve, and one of the new decks has already hit the ground running.
All the deck lists in this article are examples of the deck that had the best finish at the end of the Swiss rounds of US Nationals.
S Tier
Florian
The best deck in the previous season is probably the best deck going into this season, despite the results of US Nationals.
This defensive deck is poised to block efficiently whilst sending disruptive Earth attacks in the form of Felling of the Crown to make your opponent's retaliation even more awkward.
After Germinate was banned, the deck pivoted into that deeply midrange plan of blocking well with Rootbound Carapace whilst also sending Reaping Blade with Go Again thanks to Trot Along.
The new Earth Card, Everbloom||Life, from High Seas gives the deck a Blue Block 3 that was lost with Germinate, but also a level of card looping and redundancy to keep that efficient gameplan going if it gets into the nitty gritty fatigue place.
I truly believe that Florian will maintain his spot as a dominant deck for as long as he's legal, and will be one of those decks to benchmark others as new heroes are released.
Azalea
During the end of Pro Quest Season, the original Ranger has been ticking up in popularity, simply due to the versatility that she offers.
In this emerging June Meta, Azalea is well positioned as the deck which can offer large hits and the second most annoying set of On Hits in the game. Red in the Ledger will be a card that slows and annoys nearly every other deck in the game.
There is still a fair amount of innovation to be had within the first Ranger. While her entire lifetime has been played with her using Skullbone Crosswrap, the new versions are seeing an increase in the use of New Horizons to supplement the potential for a 6 card hand, and to use some of the new arrows from High Seas.
Further innovations include this highly aggressive deck running a very specific Defence Reaction. Not the Generic kind, a Riptide card: Tarpit Trap. Blocking an attack with Go Again is an easy feat to do in a metagame previously dominated by Aurora and Dagger based Assassins. Turning off the next on hit trigger however is all the more huge.
With her age, increased popularity, and increased card pool, it's a strong possibility that Azalea would have hit Living Legend if she had won US Nationals. This was not the case, however with 46 other Nationals' events taking place this season, as well as Calling Bologna and Battle Hardened Houston coming up, the first Ranger will leave the format by the end of June.
A Tier
Prism
The game's only Illusionist is still a very strong aggressive deck with an extremely high skill ceiling. High Seas gave us a new look on how the Prism design space can possibly look, and Herald and Sekem is poised to bring the deck a lot of extra options of play.
The deck is built with the old Phantasm keyword in mind, and offers a great deal of numbers and staying power thanks to the ward on the Angels, and the mixed damage with those Angels and incidental Arcane Damage through Merciful Retribution.
Prism's strength is that her stompy numbers requires you to either race or respect her by playing cards with 6 or 7 base power. This Guardian and Brute light meta will be the tester as to whether or not Prism's place in the June Meta will stay relevant. There's a few good decks that can interact with her, but there are ways she can play around it.
I maintain that there are factors in the metagame that would make it hostile for Prism to thrive, but for the most part, it seems that she has a lot of inherent power in her kit that players must always respect.
Cindra
After a literal explosive start during the early Hunted Season, Cindra fell off the wider metagame very quickly after Aurora rose to prominence and Enigma figured out the matchup.
Due to the explosive attacks and the reliance on the opponent to find the prevention effects such as Shelter From the Storm, Cindra has been considered a firm favourite into the Earth heroes. While her ability to handle the disruption from the Assassins may leave some to be desired, she still has the most consistent Aggro Gameplan aside from Fai, Rising Rebellion and Dash I/O.
The whole design for Cindra is clearly based on them trying to make a Ninja that can use Flick Knives. By using the daggers for true damage, and extra resources from Blood Splattered Vest, they can present large Rupture attacks like Lava Burst and easily get their Fealty tokens.
A lack of Guardians in the meta, and the upcoming ascension of Nuu to Living Legend means that Cindra's playability, though not necessarily her conversion rate, is set to go up.
Mario
The best Warrior in the Hunted was actually an Assassin.
After being popularised by Taotao Chu's winning deck from Santa Clara, this style of Assassin plays a lot of effects that means the Dagger attacks matter. Cards like Savor Bloodshed and Up Sticks and Run are there as front loaded pumps, with cards like Scar Tissue and To the Point to force through damage.
The usual Assassin suspects are still included with Leave No Witnesses to pressure the Arsenal, Persuasive Prognosis to pressure their hand, and Bonds of Agony to pressure their gameplan. While this deck may be low on pumps to buff the Attack actions, that's the magic of the Agents of Chaos, turning any Assassin card into a +3.
For a player that likes to offer versatile pressure, Mario is a strong contender in the June Meta.
Nuu
While there is still Mistveil in the meta, then Mistveil will be strong. In my opinion, all the gripes players have about Assassins are actually about Nuu.
The deck has always been the best at enabling Bonds of Agony. Her passive ability to banish action cards that block her attacks is always strong for fuelling her late game if they block with Blues. The Mystic Attack Reactions like Hiss, Venomous Bite, and Siren's Call are always powerful at boosting damage or including disruption to already disruptive attacks.
Nuu has always been the grindy, controlling player's dream. You annoy your opponent to death with the strongest On Hit abilities in the game, and run them out of cards in deck to ever mount any kind of defence.
Her time as a viable deck is running very short, given that she is liable to hit Living Legend at any moment. However, until then she will be a very strong option in this emerging metagame.
Verdance
To the surprise of a great many people, Verdance, in the hands of master Wizard player Majin Bae, won US Nationals.
Verdance, an Earth Wizard, is the only Wizard ever printed with 40 base Life, and cares all about self healing. That midrange plan can be built as a Battle Mage like Iyslander, Stormbind running Wounding Bull. The prevailing opinion however, is to send the bare minimum of attacks; specifically the good staples, and the ones that can Decompose, and then a large number of Arcane Damage effects.
The deck then wins with a combination of Rampant Growth||Life, lots of on board Life Gain like Healing Potion and the new sea195-pounamu-amulet-3-high-seas-booster to increase the arcane damage to a level that's lethal, and impossible to block with Arcane Barrier.
Verdance's strength lies on her ability to block just as well as Florian, and send split damage that's otherwise difficult to block profitably on your opponent's side. Decks that can pressure early and often, or disrupt consistently have a shot into Verdance.
B Tier
Gravy Bones
One of the three new Pirate Heroes from High Seas, and the game's first Necromancer had a phenomenal finish in US Nationals.
Gravy Bones has a very crunchy, but very powerful play style, which is built around trying to get cards with Watery Grave into your Graveyard as efficiently as possible. The passive ability of Gravy and Compass of Sunken Depths allows you to summon allies that can attack for high numbers, or who present strong utility, or both in the case of Sawbones, Dock Hand.
Playing against Gravy Bones gives you a great deal of gameplay tension. Block too much and you won't have the cards in hand to pressure him or the allies. Don't block enough, then you'll be under too much Life pressure. Attack him directly and you'll be under the thumb of more and more allies. Attack the allies directly, and he doesn't take any damage, and is able to keep cards in hand to develop more allies.
A deck that's aggressive right out the gate, or one that can go wide enough to threaten damage to him and the allies are well suited to beat back the shambling legions of zombie pirates.
Fang
The reputation of the best Warrior has been contested between Fang and the original Kassai, Cintari Sellsword in Blitz.
In this June Meta, Fang is very well positioned to pressure Gravy Bones, and all of the Earth Decks.
Fang, Dracai of Blades is built around Marking your opponent, and then generating Fealty on hit. After he gets his third Fealty token, all of his weapon attacks become free to activate, and that can present very consistent, very high damage.
A deck which can pressure his hand a great deal, or a deck that can clear Fealty, say with Scour can make Fang stumble. Nevertheless, the consistency of his damage output makes him a strong contender in the new meta.
Oscilio
The Lightning Wizard is the only deck in the current Classic Constructed meta that can run the egregiously powerful cards Channel Lightning Valley and Electromagnetic Somersault.
Oscilio, Constella Intelligence is able to play a great deal of Lightning attacks, often with Go Again, to put extra amp into [card]Volzar, the Lightning Rod to fuel a powerful turn ending arcane damage effect. Also by playing Sigil Aura cards, they can generate the Go Again or draw additional cards to fuel their turn.
Any deck that can block the physical efficiently while picking apart the hand is well suited into Oscilio. The pressure some decks can present also works in good stead against the very combo-centric Lightning Wizard.
While it's definitely a specialist pick, the inclusion of the new Consign to Cosmos||Shock card adds a level of redundancy that Oscilio needed in the June Meta.
Kassai
After Andrew Rothermel's win on Kassai in Minneapolis, players have given the prime Warrior from Heavy Hitters another consideration.
The gameplan of making every hit count, either it generating Copper thanks to Spoils of War to fuel a Blood on Her Hands, or to generate Gold to help her Raise an Army, we can clearly see Kassai on the up tick now that a newer version of her has come up ever since the grindy version from the Heavy Hitters meta has fallen out of favour.
Rothermel truly popularised the face-up damage Kassai. Playing cards like Draw Swords to push the swords up to ridiculously high numbers. The mere presence of Grains of Bloodspill as a Warrior card means that every Warrior attack has an on hit.
This is not to say that there are zero attack reactions in Kassai. Blade Runner in various colours will always be a staple in most two handed Warrior builds. In the Swing is a prime way to heavily boost the second, often smaller swing in this style of Kassai. Blade Flurry will be registered in nearly every Warrior pile for the rest of time.
Any deck that can go considerably fast, or present split damage will be a troublesome matchup for any Warrior, hence why the Earth heroes will continue to be strong in the June Meta.
Wrap Up
This has been called one of the most wide open metagames in the history of Flesh and Blood. This may largely be due to it being the first event of the season, and the new Pirate decks being far from solved.
The June Meta is eye opening and deeply optimistic. The field, whether by being new or by genuinely being fresh, is worth investing in. Now is the time to play Flesh and Blood TCG, and you can expect DotGG to have all the stats and results you need to keep up with the competitive metagame.
