If you're starting your journey into Flesh and Blood Trading Card Game, it's a generally good idea to have a notion of what each class does. Flesh and Blood is built on these classes. They all have very distinct play styles. Each one truly matches how they feel in a Dungeons and Dragons style RPG.
This is the first article in a series spotlighting each of the classes. It'll talk about their history in the game, their general play patterns, their key equipment and in-deck cards, and the heroes that are Classic Constructed legal.
Sharpen your swords and grab your axes, it's time to armour up with the Warrior Class.
Warrior Class
Warrior was one of the four original classes, appearing in Flesh and Blood's first set, "Welcome to Rathe" back in 2019. For players who like the archetype of the seasoned combatant or a Fighter in D&D, Warrior would appeal to them. For the player who likes a clear gameplan and very consistent gameplay patterns, Warrior is definitely for them.
The majority of heroes use attack action cards in their deck to threaten their opponents. Warriors don't (unless you're asb001-ser-boltyn-breaker-of-dawn-armory-deck-ser-boltyn-breaker-of-dawn-precon).
Warriors are the weapon's matters class. While Rangers use their bows like evr087-dreadbore-everfest-booster to ready their arrow attacks, or Wizards use their staffs to sculpt their damage spells like 1hk002-crucible-of-aetherweave-kano-blitz-deck-precon. Warriors deal most of their game's damage with their weapons (unless you're Boltyn).
Art of War
Warrior weapons have in game stats that keep them close to rate with attack action cards of the same cost. As a class, they are able to eke out above-rate turns by blocking effectively, and by being able to threaten decent damage on two card hands.
Another way that Warriors are also able to generate a lot of damage by playing a lot of attack reactions. A sword attack for 6 damage is usually pretty "face up". Most opponents don't need to respect such damage, but being able to suddenly push it to 9 or 10 with dyn079-puncture-1-dynasty-booster is suddenly very threatening.
I'd say unless you're Boltyn here, but even then Boltyn has pretty good attack reactions like bol012-courageous-steelhand-1-boltyn-blitz-deck-precon.
Aggressive decks such as Ninja and Mechanologist, decks which don't feature many Defence Reactions can struggle into Warrior because of their attack reaction based damage.
Hero Spotlight
There are currently 5 Classic Constructed Legal Warriors.
Dorinthea
cru076-dorinthea-ironsong-crucible-of-war-booster was the first Warrior from the very first set. The character of a fair blonde woman is definitely a welcome contrast to what you'd normally expect from a D&D Fighter, and fun fact, Dorinthea is the name of Flesh and Blood creator, James White's grandmother, making the hero deeply personal for him and the game's community.
The balancing factor for most Warriors is that their weapons are once per turn attacks. Dorinthea's hero ability let's you swing with a "once per turn" weapon an additional time. This is essential for enabling her signature weapon, tea003-dawnblade-dorinthea-ironsong-hero-deck-precon. If Dawnblade hits twice in the same turn, it will gain +1 power counters, allowing it to snowball in damage output.
That doesn't mean only Dorinthea plays Dawnblade. While some other heroes work well in the "dual wield" style, Dorinthea's ability to get around once per turn attacks means she can possibly three times a turn with double hatchets or cru079-cintari-saber-crucible-of-war-booster.
There are some versions of Dorinthea that play more than 60 cards, lots of efficient blocking blues, ros223-count-your-blessings-1-rosetta-booster and attacks with dtd205-decimator-great-axe-dusk-till-dawn-booster.
Whether it's by putting life pressure on with a growing Dawnblade, or by being a tank with Decimator, the first Warrior is still a very strong deck choice.
Boltyn
asb001-ser-boltyn-breaker-of-dawn-armory-deck-ser-boltyn-breaker-of-dawn-precon is the second Warrior, and one of only two Warriors with a "Talent". Unlike most of his other Warrior brethren, Boltyn actually features a large number of attack action cards in his deck.
Light Heroes, which are just him and dtd001-prism-awakener-of-sol-dusk-till-dawn-booster, all care about putting cards into your Soul (under the hero card) to use as a resource for other effects. Light Warrior cards like asb010-express-lightning-1-armory-deck-ser-boltyn-breaker-of-dawn-precon all Charge cards, putting them from your hand under Boltyn. He likes it if you've charged, as it turns on his hero power to turn those cards in soul into a source of Go Again, and to enable his signature weapon asb002-raydn-duskbane-armory-deck-ser-boltyn-breaker-of-dawn-precon.
While most of the game Boltyn will wear down his opponent with attack actions, his most powerful turns make him feel like a Warrior when he's able to play one or more of the non-attack action card asb026-lumina-ascension-2-armory-deck-ser-boltyn-breaker-of-dawn-precon. Being able to swing your weapons an additional time, and giving them an on-hit which grants you both advantage for life and cards in soul is quite powerful in the early to mid game, whilst being very threatening in the late game.
Ser Boltyn is definitely a fringe choice, and if you're able to give the hero a great deal of practice, he can be incredibly rewarding.
Kassai
Before Heavy Hitters released in 2024, Dorinthea and Boltyn were the only Warriors in the game, but one of my personal favourite expansions brought us a plethora of Warrior staple cards, and two newcomers to the class.
win031-cf-kassai-of-the-golden-sand-pro-tour-champion-cards-heavy-hitters-promo is a welcome return for one of the strongest Warriors in the Blitz format her029-cf-kassai-cintari-sellsword-armory-season-3-promo.
Kassai embodies the idea of a mercenary. The orignal Kassai from Everfest came with cards like evr066-outland-skirmish-1-everfest-booster and cru084-spoils-of-war-1-crucible-of-war-booster to generate Copper tokens to either cycle through cards, or to fuel a powerful evr055-blood-on-her-hands-2-everfest-booster turn.
The new Kassai also plays the Copper matters cards, but she has her own on board ability to generate Gold. She's acquired more of a taste for money! These Gold can then either fuel her ability to make sword attacks free or to hvy105-raise-an-army-2-heavy-hitters-booster.
She's gone through iterations of being a grindy deck that blocks well, attacks two times consistently, whilst building up the gold to make three to four ally tokens. In recent times, to compete with decks like Enigma, she's been playing very aggressively with front pumps on the first attack like ksi015-draw-swords-1-kassai-heavy-hitters-blitz-deck-precon to make the both attacks free, and the first attack a little more impactful.
Olympia
The other Heavy Hitters Warrior is hvy092-olympia-prized-fighter-heavy-hitters-booster. In Heavy Hitters, there's a mini-game mechanic called Wager, where you actually bet if an attack will hit an opponent, granting you the wagerer a benefit, but your opponent the benefit if they block out.
Olympia gives you an additional Gold on top of any benefits if you win the Wager.
Originally, there was a lot of confusion as to why anyone would play Olympia when the other Warriors available at the time were doing significantly more powerful things. The Wagering generates interesting and interactive games, but very little tangible in game aggression or value, and potential blowouts if they take the benefits away from you.
Olympia's original specialisation hvy103-up-the-ante-3-heavy-hitters-booster brings some very big numbers on a single attack, assuming there were ample wagers.
In one of the expansion slots for Part the Mistveil gave us mst226-visit-the-golden-anvil-3-part-the-mistveil-booster. This one card gives a flavourful and powerful use for the Gold. Being able to rebuy the block value or the activated ability of a second copy of ola004-prized-galea-olympia-heavy-hitters-blitz-deck-precon. In theory, it makes Olympia one of the most monetarily expensive decks to build as a player would need to own multiple copies of Legendary Equipment.
Fang
The newest Warrior, and the one that has the most interesting deckbuilding tension. hnt098-fang-dracai-of-blades-the-hunted-booster has access to the Draconic talent, which means he can present a few aggressive cards alongside dagger attacks.
Fang presents an interesting mini game for the pilot. He wants you to build up and maintain Fealty Tokens. You need to keep playing Draconic cards to keep them around, but if you are able to generate three or more, you get the strong benefit of attacking with your daggers without pitching.
The draconic attack reactions and instants which Fang plays to buff the daggers from the Hunted are all numbered in a way to give fng002-obsidian-fire-vein-the-hunted-blitz-deck-fang-precon effectively +3, which helps them leak over for a break point, and allowing his hero ability to hit your opponent and creating the fealty, assuming they're marked.
Fang gaming usually feels like a race to generate the three fealty as soon as possible, then to present as much damage as possible immediately after.
The discussion for building Fang is on many player's minds. Is he played with Grains of Bloodspill and lots of reactions, or is he on attack actions, then treating the daggers like Dromai's Ashwings when he has the three Fealty. The deck will continue to evolve when the metagame makes things less hostile towards the Warrior Class.
Staple Equipment
Warriors are known for having the "fridge". A suite of equipment that both blocks well and has good utility.
fab020-gf-valiant-dynamo-premier-organized-play-monarch-promo is widely regarded as one of the strongest defensive equipment. Fang, Kassai, and most builds of Olympia usually swing two weapons a turn, so the ability for this to block one damage, cover a breakpoint, multiple times per game is very strong.
fab141-gf-ironsong-versus-premier-organized-play-dusk-till-dawn-promo is particularly strong in grindy games where you're playing swords. Being able to roll over Courage tokens to improve your combat math consistently can be very annoying for the opponent in the long run.
For heroes using other weapons like the bol003-hatchet-of-body-boltyn-blitz-deck-precon or Fang with his fng002-obsidian-fire-vein-the-hunted-blitz-deck-fang-precon, there's fab006-gf-braveforge-bracers-premier-organized-play-arcane-rising-promo. Being able to put an additional point of damage onto your second swing is strong in ways similar to Ironsong Versus.
hvy097-cf-grains-of-bloodspill-heavy-hitters-booster presents consistent, rolling value through a slightly less conditional on-hit than Ironsong Versus. Rolling over Vigor tokens allows you to stay well equipped with resources to pay for your front pumps or initial weapon attacks.
Though most Warriors play fab088-gf-crown-of-providence-premier-organized-play-uprising-promo, The Hunted did introduce hnt115-cf-kabuto-of-imperial-authority-the-hunted-booster. This head equipment is phenomenal in the Warrior mirror match, and had its own utility against Enigma, as all her ward counts as weapons.
Warriors tend to do well with other strong Generic Equipment, like r-wtr150-rf-fyendals-spring-tunic-welcome-to-rathe-unlimited-revised-booster.
Staple Cards
While Warriors tend to do very well with the Generic card pool. A lot of their best cards are specifically attack reactions.
r-wtr118-glint-the-quicksilver-3-welcome-to-rathe-unlimited-revised-booster is very innocuous on the face of it. It's very strong in second cycle, once you've got your opponent on the ropes. By giving a key weapon attack Go Again, you can then draw yourself into more resources or a follow up pump to close the life gap.
hvy101-blade-flurry-1-heavy-hitters-booster was a card that everyone looked at in Heavy Hitters, and agreed unanimously that it's good. 0 cost, for 4 points of damage, and being able to block 3 in a pinch is exactly what you want in an attack reaction. Except most versions of Boltyn, it sees play in nearly every Warrior deck.
The biggest weakness for the Warrior class at large is the lack of disruption and interaction they present. Most attack reactions merely present more damage than was otherwise added, but do very little else. One such disruptive attack reaction comes from the newest set. hnt117-provoke-3-the-hunted-booster.
Meta Share
With Enigma's considerable presence in the metagame, it's been a foregone conclusion that Warrior has been unplayable at every level of competition. There are some versions that can either stall out Aurora or race her until Arc Lightning shows up.
With Enigma reaching Living Legend, we can expect to see a likely uptick in Warrior's play rate, though which builds rise to prominence will depend how well they play into the strategies in High Seas, Florian, and the Guardians.
Wrap Up
This is the first class spotlight we've covered here on DotGG. You can expect primers on each of the 12 classes and more resources on how to keep yourself playing at the highest levels of FabTCG.
