60 for 60: Arakni

Welcome to the fourth installment of the “60 for 60” series, where I will be designing custom Armory Decks for the heroes of Flesh and Blood. Each deck will be limited to a budget of $60, balanced alongside LSS’ official Armory Decks, and built to introduce new and experienced players alike to their next hero. For this installment, I’ll be featuring the Chaos Assassin Hero: Arakni, 5L!p3d 7hRu 7h3 cR4X -- affectionately called Slippy.

Assassin is one of the newest classes added to the game and is designed around lethal attack reactions and disruptive on-hits. Due to this, they have often been closely associated with the Warrior class but distinguish themselves through their keyword synergy. Assassins defeat their opponents by keeping them guessing before unleashing a lethal storm of cards perfectly designed to finish them off. The Assassin class is full of flavor and has carved a competitive niche of being powerful enough to win but seldom powerful enough to run the meta by themselves. They are often at their most powerful when they have tempo and can confuse their opponents at what fresh new hell is coming next. It teaches players the importance of reading their opponent and waiting for the right moment to get the most out of their cards.

Prospective Assassin players have always struggled to get into the class due to high prices on their Majestics - so much so that I thought it was impossible to build a functional, cheap Assassin deck! But Slippy is different from their Assassin cohort. Like most Assassins, Slippy's hero power defines the meaning of stealth - and in their case, the first stealth attack each turn has go again, converting hands with multiple attack actions and making use of longer combat chains. This allows Slippy to be more aggressive than other Assassins and focus less on disruption, a trait which I think benefits budget decks well. Instead of chasing expensive equipment and all the best tech cards, we're going to hone in on one hyper-synergistic Majestic and build around that.

Normally I start with the equipment suite when I discuss a decklist because they typically have pieces which are relevant every turn. That's not the case for this decklist. Instead, this decklist is entirely built around Kiss of Death - a Dagger Assassin Attack Action with stealth that deals one damage to the opponent when it hits. You read that right, it is both an attack action card and a dagger. This means we can use cards that target either stealth attacks or dagger attacks to amplify our Kiss of Death.

The most common way we’ll take advantage of Kiss of Death’s dagger-type is through “flick” effects which allows us to destroy a dagger we control to hit the opponent and deal one damage. When we attack with Kiss of Death first, it gets go again from Slippy’s ability; then we can flick it on the next chain link to deal one direct damage and trigger Kiss of Death’s ability to deal an additional direct damage for two unblockable damage. We accomplish this through Danger Digits or Bite - which we run in the full rainbow, to maximize the chance at the combo.

Flicking our Kiss of Death also applies any on-hits we can staple onto it. This deck runs yellow Toxicity and Spike with Bloodrot as ways of making sure that our flicks deal maximum pain. Toxicity's hit trigger makes the opponent lose 4 life, while Spike with Bloodrot gives a stealth attack action card +3 power and an on-hit that gives the opponent a Bloodrot token. This deck runs Redback Shroud - a Legendary that fits within our narrow budget - to make Spike with Bloodrot cost 0-resources one time, so you don’t need to pitch for it. Look to pair both of these cards with other reactions to really put the pain on.

The list runs four other reactions for fifteen total in the list. Tarantula Toxin has the clearest use case; it can either reduce the blocking value of a card blocking one of our stealth attacks or give a dagger attack an additional plus three power. Of course, Kiss of Death is both, meaning that Tarantula Toxin could provide 6 value for 0 resources if the opponent tries to block it out. Razor’s Edge and Shred are a bit simpler, containing either half of Tarantula Toxin’s ability. We only run Shred at blue due to budget constraints, but the yellow is very strong as well. It has the added benefit of being able to destroy blocking equipment with the Temper keyword since it reduces the block value to 0. 

Our last reaction is a bit trickier; Take Up the Mantle gives a stealth attack action card +2 power unless they are marked. If the opponent is marked, Take Up the Mantle gives +3 instead and lets us swap it with any stealth attack in our graveyard. The most obvious use case is to bring in Kiss of Death for its extra damage and, if you use it on the first chain link, you can still flick it afterwards. However, it has a LOT of potential interactions with other stealth attacks. 

But this is all moot if you can’t mark your opponent. In this deck, we can do so with Reaper's Call or with our daggers. Our weapon of choice is Mark of the Huntsman and, I know, I know, it’s not very good. It only attacks for one, it doesn’t have piercing, and it can only mark the opponent by destroying itself. But don’t forget that we run Danger Digits and Bite which can flick the Mark of the Huntsman as well as Kiss of Death to help guarantee the mark. 

We also take good advantage of an empty weapon slot in this list by running Up Sticks and Run, which can give our next dagger attack +4 (don’t forget, that can also pump Kiss of Death) and we can choose to pay a resource to retrieve our dagger. We also have Orb Weaver Spinneret which pumps our next attack with Stealth and equips a Graphene Chelicera, a new weapon that attacks for one and has stealth. Wait, another dagger attack with stealth? Yup! Another great target for Tarantula Toxin and it gets free go again from Slippy’s ability.

I think now is as good a time as any to go over the bread and butter of the deck. When we aren’t comboing off with Kiss of Death or showing off our giant daggers like a real-life Crocodile Dundee, we are throwing simple damage with Stealth attacks. We have Prowl, which is a good chain starter that pumps our next attack with stealth. There's Infect, which gives the opponent a Bloodrot token on hit. Art of Desire: Body has the ability to draw us a card and gain one life if it manages to hit and banish a red card off the top of their deck. Mark of the Black Widow gives us another payoff for marking the opponent; if it hits a marked opponent, they have to banish a card from hand. Mark of the Black Widow is another solid card for Assassin trickery; we can mark them in the reaction step with Danger Digits or Reaper’s Call or swap some pointless attack into Mark of the Black Widow with our Take Up the Mantle.

But how do we finish the game? I’ve outlined a few methods already: direct damage with a flick, a big combo turn with Kiss of Death, or just dumping a bunch of reactions onto an attack. But this felt a little weak, all things considered, and I wanted one last tool in our belt. Enter: Double Trouble! My favorite card from Part the Mistveil, Double Trouble gains two power once we activate two attack reactions on top of it. That could be Danger Digits into a Take Up the Mantle, turning an unassuming blue stealth card into an eight power attack at reaction speed outta nowhere! Or perhaps combo it with Redback Shroud and Spike with Bloodrot. We also run Snapdragon Scalers and Mask of Perdition as additional reactions in the equipment slot that we can add to get our two reactions. Snapdragon Scalers gives an attack action go again so we can convert attack-heavy hands while Mask of Perdition lets an attack action banish an additional card off the top.

There are all sorts of mind games you can play with Slippy, and it only gets better the more power cards you add. The biggest upgrade you could buy for this deck would be Flick Knives, giving us a repeatable version of Danger Digits. That means no need for Bite and 9 more slots in the list to play with. Pair it with Hunter’s Klaive as our new daggers to keep the opponent marked more regularly which gives them more options you could have to think about.

If you want an upgrade while staying on budget, consider playing Spur Locked. It lets you trade health for whatever card you want! Great for finding the right combos the deck wants to run. Finally, replace blue Prowl with Bonds of Agony, a devastating attack that can rip apart an opponent’s hand if you stack it with three or more reactions. This will often force out lots of blocks from the opponent on a dinky little 1-power blue, giving you plenty of space to punish them on the next chain link. Regardless, this list should serve as a functional base for the greatest strengths of the Assassin class. 

• Go Second to put the pressure on the opponent and give them a chance to let you filter for one of your combos.
• Track Take Up the Mantle in your pitch stack. In the late game, being able to swap in a Kiss of Death or Double Trouble at the right moment is how you win games.
• Don’t Arsenal Attack Reactions because they need attacks to work. Instead, arsenal your attack actions because you’ll always be able to convert them into damage even without the reaction.

I hope this decklist proves useful and informative to anyone looking to get into Assassin or introduce their friends and community members to the World of Rathe. Let me know which hero you'd like to see get the budget treatment next. If you want to see more from me you can catch my work on the Pitch It To Me Podcast where my co-hosts and I discuss the past, present, and future of Flesh and Blood Design. You can follow us @pitchittomepodcast on Bluesky, Instagram, or Youtube.