It's been a good first five years for Flesh and Blood TCG. The game from New Zealand survived the pandemic and has now cemented itself as the new pick for competitive trading card games the world over. If you're looking to get into this game, our FaBTGC Primer is exactly right for you.
Whether you're new to card games, a seasoned veteran of Magic or Pokémon, or somewhere in between, this article will teach you how to play, some key fundamentals in deck building, different formats of play, a look at their tiers of play, and even more!
Hero's Welcome!
Flesh and Blood is a competitive trading card game. The gameplay feels like a back and forth fight between fantasy heroes usually seen at a Dungeons and Dragons table. I like to describe the game as D&D meets Street Fighter.
Usually games are for two players against one another, however there is a multiplayer free-for-all format. We'll get to that. When the game starts you present your hero card to your opponent and randomly decide who goes first. When you start the game, your hero's equipment also starts in play. This is the Armor the tanky Guardian wears into battle and which Mage's Staff the Wizard wants to zap you with.
This isn't a game like Magic or Pokémon, where you build up your engines or your board state over time, in FaB, you actually start at your strongest and wear down your opponent's defences.
The hero card is everything. You choose your hero when you build your deck. This choice greatly informs your gameplan and the kinds of cards which can be included in your deck.
Let's say you built a deck around hvy090-kassai-of-the-golden-sand-heavy-hitters-booster. She's a Warrior Hero, as you can see on her type line at the bottom. That means your deck can only include cards that are from the Warrior Class like u-wtr118-glint-the-quicksilver-3-welcome-to-rathe-unlimited-booster, her specialisations like evr055-blood-on-her-hands-2-everfest-booster, and Generic Cards, which can go in any deck, be they random like evr156-bingo-1-everfest-booster or a staple like arc159-command-and-conquer-1-arcane-rising-booster.
This is different than if you build a deck around say, hnt098-fang-dracai-of-blades-the-hunted-booster, who gets access to the same Warrior cards that Kassai does, but also the Draconic cards like cin008-blaze-headlong-1-the-hunted-blitz-deck-cindra-precon or Draconic Warrior cards like hnt102-long-whisker-loyalty-1-the-hunted-booster.
Once you choose a hero and know a play style, you can do pretty much anything.
Here's the Pitch!
The cards in your deck represent the attacks you send at your opponent. The cards also are your main line of defence against your opponent's attacks. Lastly, you use cards in hand to pay for the card you want to send at your opponent.
Let's look at the red version of a vanilla card like Critical Strike. You can see in bottom corners that it attacks for 5 and blocks for 3. It costs 1 to play, meaning you need to "pitch" cards in your hands to cover the cost of the card. If you had 2 red Critical Strike in your hand, you can use one for costs, by putting it face up, beside your deck, and then putting the other one onto the Combat Chain, attacking your opponent. However, most cards exist in the rainbow. Yellow Critical Strike and Blue Critical Strike may not attack for the same amount, but they make up for it in how many resources they give you. Most decks have a decent balance of red and blue cards, but that's something to be figured out deck building.
Now that you're attacking, your opponent can use any number of cards in their hand to defend. It doesn't cost to defend, but there is a trade off. If you defend with cards in your hand, you'll have fewer cards on your turn to attack your opponent back with. Remember, there's no draw per turn in this game, instead you're refilling to your hand size at the end of your turn. There's a give and take in this game. You'll hear "take damage to send damage" a lot in your early days of FaBTCG.
Just like in a fight, being able to react is everything. When your opponent decides to defend, you can then play an attack reaction, which could be a simple buff like i-cru186-lunging-press-3-ira-welcome-deck-2020-precon or some real disruption like mst009-sirens-call-1-part-the-mistveil-booster. This is also a chance for your opponent to take Defence Reactions to prevent damage done to them, alongside other effects like the stand out staple asb016-sink-below-1-armory-deck-ser-boltyn-breaker-of-dawn-precon. Once both players pass priority, damage is calculated, any effects that happen when an attack hits resolves, and then play goes on.
You start each turn with 1 action point. You can use this to play an action card, or activate an ability on your hero or equipment that requires an action. If that action has "Go Again", that refreshes your action point, and you can play another card or use another ability.
There are also instant cards, much like in Magic, which can be played on either player's turn, and don't require an action.
Once you've played all your cards in hand, or used up all your actions, you put the cards you used for pitch on the bottom of your deck, put up to one card face down behind your hero card as your Arsenal, then draw back to your hero's intellect stat (usually 4).
Play passes back and forth like this until one hero is reduced to 0 life. This can be done by aggressively rushing down your opponent, or stalling the game out until they have no cards in deck and can't draw any for their defence to just get beaten on.
A Matter of Formats
Now that we know the gameplay fundamentals, there are many different formats to play FaB and each feels different on a power level axis but still have the same gameplay patterns.
The premier format, which is what most high level events takes place in is Classic Constructed. You choose an adult Hero, then build 80 cards (equipment, weapons, and cards in deck, up to 3 of each card). When you are shown your opponent's hero, you choose which weapon and equipment to use for that game, and pair down your deck to 60 cards minimum.
Blitz is a much faster format. You build a deck with a young version of a hero, (which usually has the same hero ability and Intellect, but half the life points), and a 52 card deck (up to 2 of each card). You present your opponent with a deck of exactly 40 cards, plus equipment. This format is good for teaching new players and to get swingy, explosive battles.
Other formats that use young versions of heroes include Commoner; where you build 52 cards, but all the cards in deck must be Common rarity, and all the equipment, weapons, and the hero itself must be rare or common, and Ultimate Pit Fight, which is their take on a multiplayer free for all, where you decide which of your two neighbours you can attack each turn.
The last officially supported way to play is Living Legend, where with adult heroes and the Classic Constructed deck building numbers, you can play with cards that were previously banned in CC, and with heroes that have hit Living Legend status.
The Road to Legends
To understand a little better how the Living Legend system works, we should look at the short list of events that offer Living Legend Points.
Events at the store level like Skirmish offer points to heroes in Blitz, while Road to Nationals and Pro Quests offer points to heroes at the same format, usually Classic Constructed.
Bigger events that take place outside a store often around the world. From smallest to biggest there is: Nationals, a Battle Hardened, a Calling, the Pro Tour, and Worlds. All of these offer the winning hero card Living Legend points.
Once a hero reaches 1000 Living Legend, that hero (and their signature weapon) are no longer allowed to be played in the Classic Constructed format. This is a way to keep the metagame fresh if one hero was ever too dominant. The first hero to ever "LL" was evr017-bravo-star-of-the-show-everfest-booster and we had arc075-viserai-rune-blood-arcane-rising-booster leave the game in February.
These heroes maintain their power level, and are legal in the Living Legend format.
The End Step
This FaBTCG Primer is just your first taste into getting into Flesh and Blood. There are a plethora of learning resources and gameplay videos out there. But first and foremost, this game is played in person. Played in Flesh and Blood. Use the search function on Flesh and Blood's Website to find your nearest event!
Looking for more? Articles discussing all the different classes, how to use the unofficial online client Talishar, metagame reports, spoiler commentary, and even are coming soon right here on DotGG!
