We've been looking so closely at the results and the wider metagame during the past few weeks. Pro Quest Singapore Week 3 has been a turbulent ride. To the surprise of no one, not even the devs at Legend Story Studios, there has been another hero taken to Living Legend.
The results are clearly showing which heroes have taken over the format since the departure of Zen and Enigma. Aurora's ease of play, and continued meta relevance has never waned, and now we see it's taken the Shooting Star to the top of the metagame for the last time.
Right on her heels is Florian, a defensive but versatile deck that can truly handle Aurora and most of the remaining metagame. It's without question a format built for him and Nuu starting from this Friday.
Star Fall
With this absolute glut of wins, Aurora, Shooting Star will ascend to Living Legend on Friday 9th of May. We're going to discuss the wider consequences of her leaving the format in another article.
As far as this Pro Quest Singapore week 3, and for the rest of the Pro Quest Singapore, it's been Aurora's and her absence will leave many players guessing. With a distinct lack of consistent aggro, we could see decks like Fai, Cindra, and aio001-dash-io-armory-deck-dash-io-precon crawl out of the woodwork.
While many doomers are convinced that this will become a fatigue focused meta, I'm inclined to disagree more and more.
Fatigue is a response to rampant aggro. Efficient decks that block like Bravo, Showstopper and ajv001-rf-jarl-vetreidi-armory-deck-origins-jarl-vetreidi-precon, or anything that runs Count Your Blessings do lose one of their better matchups, but no one at the Armory level wants to sit through Fatigue mirrors.
Besides, it's open season now. Players are much less likely to innovate without the presence of a Calling or higher event on the horizon. The next big thing to look forward to after Pro Quests is Nationals, which will also be well after the release of High Seas. While some could, few will try anything new for the remaining two weeks of Pro Quest Singapore. Instead, they will play a deck they're comfortable with, and tweaking for what they'll likely see in their local metagame.
Cadaverous Tilling
With no Aurora, Florian, Rotwood Harbinger gets to make all the Runechants he wants without any challenges.
If he's playing the combination of Scepter of Pain and Channel the Millennium Tree, then he's forcing a great deal of decks to run AB3 as though he's Kano, Dracai of Aether. The midrange, Reaping Blade variants get to send lots of little piles of Runechants.
With this newfound place at the head of the metagame, it means that decks which challenge Florian will be on the rise.
If you're looking for decks that counter Florian, I have your back.
The first best current pick is Verdance, Thorn of the Rose. Her ability to gain life and weather the storm against many Runechant pings is a welcome counter to his play style.
A good Florian player should look to rely on Reaping Blade, and execute a gameplan of walking down the life totals, making Verdance's ability to heal all the more difficult.
Fang's explosive damage in the mid to late game is easy to enable, and leads to a win against a Florian through good decisions on the Fang, and poor ones on the Florian. Does Florian need to respect the first attack or the second? Is there a chance to go wide with multiple dagger swings with Fire and Brimstone or Perforate?
On top of his late game potential, Fang has his ability to block surprisingly efficiently in the early game. However, the distinct weakness to Runechant stacks, and a patient Florian pilot should know how much to block for, and when. Fang has game into Florian, but it's not as lopsided a matchup as one would think.
The Draconic Ninjas both have access to a card to shore up their Florian matchup, a card so good it's banned in Blitz. Mask of the Pouncing Lynx, when lined up with a very wide hand, one that can strip the hand of a Florian two turns in a row. If a good Fai or Cindra player can do that consistently, especially if he's struggled to Decompose, then they're in a good position.
Cindra may struggle against his prevention effects like Haunting Rendition or Seeds of Tomorrow, but if they treat their gameplan like the old Enigma matchup, where you aren't fussed about dagger ping value, and just want to pressure them, even through prevention, then they're in a good spot in that match.
Fai, particularly the 12 blues variants that are starting to become more popular, has the versatility to block when it has to until it's able to swing Searing Emberblade twice with Dragonscaler Flight Path and end the crucial Mask search. That style of deck is able to pressure all manner of aggressive decks except for possibly Jarl.
Just a Nick
Even if the talk of the town has been the Runeblades, the next best performing class this weekend was actually the Assassins.
While Nuu, Alluring Desire's matchup is traditionally tough, there are ways to play through their gameplan. It goes without saying that a player needs AB3 to deal with tree and sceptre, but if they present Reaping Blade against you, you can really count your blessings that you're not on Count Your Blessings.
A card I've been testing in my Nuu builds, under the suggestion from the guys on the Arsenal Pass podcast, is mst019-intimate-inducement-3-part-the-mistveil-booster. Being able to give something +1 on a 0 cost Attack React is tech no one is playing around. In addition, it lets you get their deck to take real threats, and trigger the banish effects on cards when it's possible.
Then there's the spiders.
The dagger variant of Mario that was popularised in Santa Clara has become the de facto way to play this hero. In contrast, Slippy being able to mind game your opponent by making your opponent guess which Stealth attack is the one to respect will always be a tough deck to play against, even for something like Florian that can block effectively.
Pro Quest Singapore Week 3 Wrap Up
Pro Quest Singapore Week 3 has shown us how far the meta has evolved since the start of the year, and we can only guess how drastically things will be different in a time as short as next week.
Keep your eyes peeled to DotGG Media for further updates in the world of competitive Flesh and Blood TCG.
