First Steps - Flesh and Blood Sealed Deck #2

Yesterday I played my second FAB Sealed Deck event online in preparation for another in-person event this weekend.

Aside from organizing a few games online and playing over webcams in Discord while everyone is busy and/or my body aches too much to play in person, not much has been going on. A little packing, moving boxes an hour's drive away, installing doors, having a moderately stressful (mostly physically) time caregiving throughout the week.

I realized while sleeving my deck last weekend that I should have brought a playmat to make things easier, and remembered this one I love from Theros in Magic: The Gathering.
It's magnificent on its own, of course, but even more wonderful having unearthed it after so long, setting Tales of Aria cards around it, and taking a moment to appreciate all the art.

I organized my gradually-thinning workspace and materials, my self, and my thoughts in preparation for getting over upcoming anxiety hurdles (game-related and life-related). Then further prepared to play and compete by reviewing rules and thumbing through my previous pool and blog post to re-familiarize myself with everything.

Finally it was time to open more booster packs, still thankful that I can do so.

Opening My Pool

 

Pack one.

Evergreen B and Sigil of Suffering R, with a foil Ball Lightning B.

Pack two.

Flash B and Rites of Lightning Y, with a foil Biting Gale R.

Pack three.

Embolden R and Bolt'n' Shot Y, with a foil Invigorate B.

Pack four.

Ice Quake B and Sting of Sorcery B, with a foil Arcanic Shockwave B.

Pack five.

Snap Shot Y and Weave Ice B, with a foil Heaven's Claws.

Pack six.

Summoned Shelter R and Turn Timber Y, with a foil Biting Gale R.

Analyzing My Pool

Because of the way booster packs are designed, and the number of unique cards in the set, it all feels very familiar to me after the previous event, which is a good thing. There were a lot of notable differences, particularly in the equipment and having access to at least one piece for each class.

Generic elemental and equipment pile, with Honing Hood for ranger, Sutcliffe's Suede Hides for runeblade, and a Rotten Old Buckler for Oldhim.

Ice pile.

Lightning pile.

Earth pile.

Guardian pile.

Nothing stood out to me for guardian, except the two Biting Gale and Turn Timber, but in hindsight I feel this could have been a great direction to go.

Ranger pile.

At the time, I felt like this ranger pool was better than the one I opened previously and turned down, seeing that it had two each of Over Flex, Dazzling Crescendo, and Flake Out, and three Chilling Icevein and Buzz Bolt, and my lightning pool looked great. Having one Snap Shot and a Bolt'n' Shot also felt good, so I set my mind on playing ranger.

Runeblade pile.

Although my runeblade pool had multiple Vela Flash, Rites of Replenishment, Stir the Wildwood, and Bramble Spark, as well as a majestic Sting of Sorcery, it didn't excite me looking at the entire pool. Looking at it again, having so many blue cards (7 out of 16, about half) turns me away even now.

Building My Sealed Deck, Step by Step

Firstly, figure out which hero and what style of deck you're playing, or what you want to aim for. Include enough attacks so you can win the game, and in Tales of Aria have a lower ratio of fusion cards to essence cards (ice, lightning, and earth) so you don't miss all your fuse opportunities.
    Next, add any non-attacks to pump the strengths or even the weaknesses of your deck.
    Finally, look at your resource costs and adjust it higher or lower as desired for your style of deck.
    At this point, your deck is ready to play as long as you meet the minimum deck size requirements for whichever format you're playing (30 for Draft and Sealed, 40 for Blitz, 60 for Classic Constructed).

After deciding to play Lexi, I followed those mental steps to build my deck, setting all but a few of my ranger and ice cards to the side, and all but one lightning card (Flash in blue) that didn't work for my pool (but could have been excellent in red and possibly yellow).

In time, you will get a feel for how many cards of each pitch value you want in any given deck (as long as you pay attention to these details when both deckbuilding and playing), but there are some statistics you can use to help you learn more quickly or simply give you a "rule of thumb" to follow when starting out.

Channel Fireball has a good article by Hayden Dale: Flesh and Blood Deckbuilding 101. The article goes over deckbuilding and, although it is aimed at constructed players, is useful for everyone thinking about playing sealed or building their own deck for constructed.

Statistics, Golden Ratios

If you really want to dive deep into the math behind deckbuilding in Flesh and Blood, I would recommend two articles by Jasin Long: Ahead of the Curve: How much blue do you really need? on Metrix Daily, and Numbers Game - Getting the Right Ratios in Flesh and Blood on Channel Fireball.

In short, for decks that want to only have one of any card in hand but draw that one card each turn, you want to have that card make up about 25% of your deck. So, if you want to have one blue card each turn in Draft or Sealed Deck, you would play 7 or 8 blue cards (25% of 30); in Blitz you want 10 (25% of 40); in Classic Constructed you want 15 (25% of 60).
    This also applies to any other card type you want to have one—and only one—copy of in hand each round. If you include less, your chances of having none go up, and if you include more, your chances of having two or more copies goes up.

It seems like, in my limited experience so far, each hero leans slightly differently regarding this ratio.
    For Oldhim, you may want to lean more towards having two blue cards in hand each round if you have more high-cost cards (4-6 or even 7+), playing up to 50% blue cards.
    For Lexi, you may want to lean more towards having 0-1 blue card and 1 yellow card in hand, playing 15-20% blue and 25% yellow cards.
    For Briar, you may want to have one or two blue cards in hand at 25-40% of your deck (or a little higher) and no more than 10% yellow cards.

In limited, these ratios are more difficult to meet consistently, but it's good to be aware of the probabilities to help you get another edge against opponents with decks that are roughly evenly matched against yours but may not be as finely-tuned (or that are tuned much better).

Playing Lexi in Sealed

My "rough draft" deck list involved including everything except a handful of ice cards, one lightning card, and the generic non-fusion elemental cards. Later on, I would look back on my pool and do some fine-tuning, reminding myself of the ratios and a few card interactions I'd discover while playing.

My "fair draft" deck list:
    Removing Flake Out Y, Chilling Icevein Y, Buzz Bolt Y, and Chilling Icevein B to make room for two more ice and two more lightning cards for a better fusion-to-essence ratio.
    Adding Chilling Icevein R, Winter's Bite R, Winter's Bite Y, 2x Shock Striker B. Having a couple more red actions seemed fine, though the particular cards don't seem ideal, then adding the only two useful, remaining lightning cards that happen to be blue.

Because of the way Flesh and Blood and its formats are designed, I don't need to work any more to make a "final draft" for my deck, especially since my entire pool counts as my registered deck in limited.

Game One: Lexi vs. Oldhim

For the final draft of my deck for this game I just used my "fair draft" and tuned it to be as offensive as possible, with as many "go again" cards and lightning fusion arrows as I could fit.

[Match review, seemingly typical ranger and guardian gameplay with a few big elemental twists.]

I spent my energy this game getting used to defending more often, and sacrificing unneccessary or unusable fusions or essence to do so, as well as finding myself aware after a few rounds that I probably should have discarded or pitched more cards the previous round to draw a better hand for this one (instead of keeping one or two cards in hand). The new factor in these puzzles was usually the arrows, understanding the basic mechanics of how to play ranger but not how to play the class well.

Another factor was playing against Oldhim's ability and a variety of ice effects that would effectively force me to defend against invisible "cold damage" by pitching to pay for extra costs or discard, with no equipment that can be used to reduce the severity of these effects (unlike how arcane damage can be managed in other sets). The only way to deal with it seemed it be keeping good cards in arsenal (arrows, or anything that draws a card or gains "go again" from arsenal) and having a hand with one or two redundant blue and yellow cards you won't need (such as one too many ice or lightning cards).

Having a less-than-ideal ratio of blue and red cards with a moderately high number of yellow cards may have been a good thing on several turns, although it's difficult for me to say with certainty, and there were a few turns in which I conceded to my opponent's threat and used everything to defend with.

Strong ice attacks and earth defenses with an overall "go-tall" strategy (playing stronger individual cards) made this game difficult for Lexi. A few poor hands and not using my arsenal well (and sometimes not being able to use it at all) hindered me further, but I'm sure my opponent had nearly as many poor hands and at least one awkward arsenal turn.

Life Totals: 0 Lexi to 2 Oldhim, Oldhim wins.

Were there any rounds I could played better to deal that extra one or two damage?
    Yes, there was one turn in which I could have used Mark of Lightning after Ball Lightning was in play and another attack was defended. By using and destroying Mark of Lightning at that moment, I could have dealt 1 damage plus 1 from Ball Lightning. Instead, I was playing Cracker Jax, which has to be used before you attack, and only gives your next attack +1 power, which is not as consistently useful as I thought it would be.
    There was another turn in which I could have used Shiver to give an arrow +1 power against my opponent with no cards in arsenal and no equipment remaining, instead of giving it dominate which didn't matter that turn. I'll pay more attention to power break points for my arrows (in other words, making attacks above 3 power to get through cards that defend for 3, and above 6 to 8 against guardians), and attacks in general, to learn which mode to use on Shiver at what time and to play better with all heroes in the future.
    I could also anticipate the game lasting longer against guardians in the future, and include some life gain effects in my deck. However, rangers feel like a more aggressive class. Glancing at the rest of the set, it looks like there aren't any traps outside of Pitfall Trap Lexi's pre-built blitz deck which is from Crucible of War and not in Tales of Aria.

Making Adjustments

Noticing my synergies with Mark of Lightning made me realize I should be playing it over Cracker Jax whenever my deck has more bonus damage effects than effects that activate from having greater base power, and is a very valuable piece of equipment if I reach a certain threshold of lightning cards.

Chilling Icevein ended up standing out during play, synergizing with cards that deal multiple instances of damage, particularly lightning cards like Electrify, Shock Striker, and Buzz Bolt. This felt like a good package of cards to expand on since I also had plenty of ways to gain dominate (Shiver, Polar Blast) and a few quick-draw/multishot effects (Snap Shot, Bolt'n' Shot, Over Flex to a lesser degree).

I also wondered if rangers might want to avoid playing arrows above a certain threshold just like blue cards and the ratios above. At least in limited pools that don't have a critical mass of multishot effects or lightning cards to activate Lexi's ability, drawing more than one arrow on most turns or drawing one arrow with another in your arsenal either significantly hinders your turn or, simply, feels bad. Sometimes you can make up for this by pitching or defending with the other arrow, using an equipment to swap your arsenal and draw a card or gain "go again" or several other moves, but those moves are rarely more than just clever ways to make a bad hand more effective.

I noticed myself getting lost in these puzzles, craving a solution that lets me use everything, although I have yet to determine deeper design reasons why this happens more often when playing Lexi compared to Briar, and how much of that is propagated by the game's design causing those feelings in most humans and how much is from my own particular mind that works differently from most humans.

Game Two: Lexi vs. Briar

For this game, I decided to try a more "go-tall" strategy against a runeblade. I added two copies of Winter's Bite and my other two copies of Chilling Icevein, replacing two Dazzling Crescendo, a Shock Striker, and a Heaven's Claws. I expected to be discarding at least one card to defend each round and only making one attack on my turn, focusing on discard effects, giving my arrows dominate, and creating Frostbite tokens to slow down my opponent while we race.
    I also decided to use Mark of Lightning, having just thought about its synergies with other cards and moments in my first game. At the last second, I also swapped out each Over Flex for one my last Winter's Bite and single Rejuvenate Y, thinking that Over Flex wouldn't help my go-tall plan as much as the other cards would help me survive the race.

Briar went first this game, which didn't seem like it gave me that much of an edge.

It might have given me some confidence, but I was trying to stay even-keeled in my emotions during the event to focus.

Both of us were offensive, which I thought was a mistake by my opponent since they went first, but they seemed confident in their deck and, likely, Briar's abilities and weapon to beat my own by the end of the game. We didn't both stay offensive for very long, and would end up dancing back and forth between very offensive and very defensive turns, setting up for one or two turns to make big attacks after the other did such.
    By the end of the game, my opponent won with Electrify from arsenal, Bramble Spark, Stir the Wildwood revealing Evergreen for fusion, then a final Rosetta Thorn, dealing much more damage than necessary to bring me to zero.

Life Totals: 0 Lexi to 1 Briar, Briar wins.

Was there anything I could have done to win this game?
    Not really, though I think my opponent could have probably dealt one or two more damage on a few rounds and won a turn or two sooner!

Simulated Side Event

The event technically ended after this game, but I found some other people to join me for a "simulated sealed deck" Blitz event on the side. For these casual games, I asked the other players to either keep using their same sealed pool from the event we just played, open a new sealed pool, or use a Blitz deck with up to 12 rare, 1 Majestic, and 1 Legendary card.
    Although none of the people in this group were the same as my first online Sealed Deck event, and I had only played against one of them today, they were generous and stuck around for a few more games.

I continued played Lexi, acting as if I was in the same event with the same pool.

Game Three: Lexi vs. Lexi

For this game, I went back to my original "fair draft" deck, but keeping an extra Chilling Icevein and one more ice card to maintain a decent ratio of ice fusions to essence.

Nothing wild happened since we each played a more mid-range, even-tempo style, feeling out each round until our life totals got closer and closer to zero. In the final turn, I had a good hand to use with my Honing Hood to place Electrify into arsenal, reveal it to draw an extra card and give my next attack "go again," then play one arrow and another attack to finish the game.

Life Totals: 2 Lexi to 0 Lexi, my Lexi wins.

Was there anything I could have done better this game?
    Not really. There may have been a better time to use Honing Hood, and there were a few times I could have saved either an ice or a lightning card to reveal for Lexi's ability, but it seemed to work out well each time I made the decision to save the least apparently strong card in hand.
    My opponent could have potentially saved their own Honing Hood for a more significant turn later in the game, but they did use it to place their own Electrify into arsenal for card draw and a much better attack, which was a great play at that time.

Game Four: Lexi vs. Briar

The last round of the event, and by far my worst and my opponent's best game.

I decided to use the same deck as my second game, hoping to draw a little better and see more opportunities to use my abilities and equipment. I ended up playing Cracker Jax over Mark of Lightning, expecting my opponent to be more offensive and thinking it would help my go-tall plan.

My plan wouldn't really work out, I had two turns in a row with three or four arrows in hand and no way to fuse the one in arsenal, and the game only lasted five or six extremely fast rounds in spite of me discarding multiple cards to defend in a couple of rounds.

Life Totals: 0 Lexi to 5 Briar, Briar wins decisively.

My opponent had a good deck and consistent hands, letting them quickly gain and maintain a solid lead, forcing me to be much more moderate in my attacks but never being able to defend well without defense reactions or more equipment. 

At the end of the event, I finished 1-3-0 (wins-losses-draws). I won by 2 total life, and lost by 8 total life, or a total of 6 life across four rounds (best of 1 game) for an average of negative 1.5 life per game.
    Does that mean anything besides showing that I lost my games overall, or how I was blown out in at least one round? I don't know! But the statistics are neat to see, and in the future I might calculate them again and compare them to this event.

Thoughts & Feelings

Overall, I enjoyed this event more than my previous online event, probably in large part because I was able to use my webcam's mic and there wasn't a lot of noise around me, letting me focus deeper and be more mentally and socially present during each game. It still isn't totally ideal, but it's magnitudes better than opening packs alone after a stressful few days (or weeks).
    Getting to play four matches was also nice, and helped a lot to get me more comfortable playing the game, understanding the specifics of systems like the combat chain (how you may continue the combat chain by playing instants and attacks, and how you close the combat chain by passing priority and/or playing an action) and arsenal (which kinds of cards you do not want in arsenal).

Seeing more turns with ice effects forcing discards or creating Frostbite tokens before combat was very helpful in understanding Lexi and Oldhim. After the final game of the day, I also learned you should rarely be playing out your hand on the first turn of the game, and it's often better to instead place a card in arsenal, draw, and pass the turn. Especially against Oldhim who can deny your arsenal if you have one card remaining in hand.

Comparing Classes

Ranger feels less consistent and less flexible compared to runeblade, at least among Tales of Aria heroes in limited. I thoroughly enjoy the arrow and arsenal mechanics of ranger, and Lexi's ability to reveal either of her essence types in arsenal to gain a simple, strong effect, so I'll keep looking for people to play Blitz with until I can build and test a deck with her in Classic Constructed at some point in the (hopefully near) future.

Skimming through a previous set with ranger cards, Crucible of War, I wonder how often ranger players in limited and constructed need to fill out their decks with generic attacks, how often they only play all arrow attacks, and why or why not. Using the ratios for blue cards above, it might be better in some cases to play some arrows with other attacks to avoid having two arrows in hand as often.
    For Lexi, you do have access to Snap Shot which, if fused with lightning, lets you activate bow abilities an additional time that turn. This might mean that the above could apply unless you are playing a lightning ranger and have multiple copies of Snap Shot and "go again" sources. However, unlike other arrows, Snap Shot is not one that you want to play from arsenal, but instead have it in hand with another arrow or something like Electrify or Polar Blast to play from arsenal in order to use the benefits of Shiver or another bow twice in one turn. Still, this does get me interested in experimenting with other bows in a lightning-focused Lexi deck in the future, and other ratios of arrows and traps in constructed.

Guardian feels the most stable among the three classes, able to be offensive every other turn while always having more room to be patient and defensive. I still haven't gotten to play Oldhim, but I'm hoping to convince someone to play the official pre-built Blitz Decks with me, or play more of the "Simulated Sealed Deck" variant of Blitz to test out my guardian pool from this event.

Watching how each hero's abilities are used with elemental cards is exciting every game, even when turns are difficult for myself or my opponent. Just like my previous experience, I noticed again that having the elements made deckbuilding and each turn easy to compartmentalize and analyze in my mind compared to generic cards (the few non-fusion, non-essence arrow attacks and non-attack actions) which are still difficult for me to evaluate and factor in to the final deckbuilding equation.
    It always seemed like the generic, non-fusion elemental cards and non-fusion ranger cards didn't fit well anywhere in the puzzle, but it's likely that I need more experience to step up to another degree of understanding.

Wrapping Up

I'm still nervous about my next weekend event, but this time it isn't because of not being comfortable playing the game and instead because of not finding more people who show genuine interest in showing up (even after telling them about the free decks and offering to let them borrow one of my copies of the Tales of Aria Blitz Decks if they show up). I also want to be more proactive in getting people to stick around the table for a minute or pick up a free deck and play against me, and having not taught a new game to a stranger in a long time is knotting up my other threads of stress.

But, there's no use worrying or wondering. I'll show up, wait patiently, be mentally prepared, and see what happens. At the very least it will be nice to get out of my apartment again, and I can always think about other things and do some writing on my phone while waiting and people-watching.

If I'm lucky, I'll have another homebrew variant to share next week: Tag Team. I'm excited to playtest the rough draft of my rules in every official format (except, probably, Ultimate Pit Fight), mostly searching for volunteers online again.

Deep breath. And a deep, slow breath.

Thanks for reading! Good luck, have fun, and stay mindful!