Exploring the Fringes: Forcing the Untalented Illusionist

Dusk Till Dawn has reintroduced Prism; and while there's plenty of work to be done testing and refining the decklist for the new Awakener of Sol, I'm taking a detour to wander through the largely untouched core Illusionist card pool.

Illusionists have always occupied a curious place in Flesh and Blood. As the first new class to receive a full set of support after Welcome to Rathe and Arcane Rising established the 'core FAB experience', Illusionists made their debut alongside Talents - and as a consequence of that, we've never seen an Illusionist hero without one. (I theorize there may be a story-based reason for this, with Illusionists requiring a medium to work within, but that's really irrelevant to the topic at hand.)

But while we lack Illusionist heroes without talents, we certainly haven't lacked Illusionist cards without talents. They paint a picture of what we might one day see in a talent-free Illusionist, a prospect I'm personally very excited about.

But why wait? Why not start mining the core Illusionist card pool looking for unique cards and interactions?

I'm done waiting. Today, we're just gonna force it.

...but honestly, those of us who love janky decks don't get enough written content. We've all got spaces where we can afford to take some losses for the novelty of an unexpected deck and some good stories.

Finding our hero is an easy first step. Between two versions of Prism and Dromai, the original Prism is the least tied to her talent. Yes, her ability is fueled off her soul - a mechanic exclusively tied to the Light talent - but its ability to create Spectral Shields aligns with one of the themes found in the core Illusionist card pool.

The other reason for using MON Prism is Luminaris. While it's thematically tempting to build a deck around one of the untalented Illusionist weapons, I can't decline the way that Prism's infamously broken weapon makes this deck viable. Luminaris gives our Illusionist attacks go again, so long as we've pitched a yellow. That's going to inform the play patterns of our deck. Ironically, Luminaris helps this concept stand out from the mainstream Light and Draconic Illusionist builds, as we're not looking to build a board state here.

When deciding on a direction for the deck, I latched onto a recurring theme of granting cards the Illusionist tag. Because of Luminaris, we can easily give any Illusionist-tagged attack go again - a benefit that Briar has proven works when combined with generic attacks. Transmogrify into Snatch into Fractal Replication is a spicy combo line that runs off a single yellow pitch, threatens 16, draws 2, and doesn't even use all your resources.

One of my favorite aspects of this deck is just how customizable it is. Really, you can plug any of your favorite attacks into the generic slots, swap around the Heralds, and still follow the same lines of play. I arrived here from a Crazy Brew decklist, and several cards sit in my conceptual sideboard for iteration down the road. For now, here's the list I decided to present.

As noted above, our ideal hand draws multiple cards via cards like Herald of Erudition, Snatch, and Fractal Replication. Slipping Illusionist onto our generics to give them go again is vital, and I'd recommend trying to pair those up across 2 hands as necessary. That said, Veiled Intentions is just a solid buff card, and can just as easily hit our innate Phantasm cards for higher damage.

Compared to Light and Draconic decks, this one has a much more varied pitch curve. Yellow cards remain our most important, due to the need to give our attacks go again; but we can more easily incorporate 3-cost attack sequences when one tall attack looks more impactful than a sequence of mid-sized hits.

I've chosen to incorporate Herald of Protection, due to a lower defense value curve on average. These save a little bit of damage, and might even serve as attacks from Luminaris if they last until your next turn. However, we're not a terribly defensive deck, and in general you shouldn't put effort into maintaining any board state you incidentally might build.

Speaking of board state, there are two auras that felt worthwhile: Passing Mirage and Pierce Reality. The former makes our opening Phantasm attack a less dicey prospect, while the latter enhances our damage output. Perhaps more importantly, they're likely to draw fire, taking it away from your hero. If you manage to toss a Coalescence Mirage with one of these in play, expect your opponent to double down on destroying them, assuming they're more important to your gameplan than they actually are.

Like Rogue Theory's article on Iris Dromai, this deck is primed to perform better with a hero who supports its strategy, rather than one whose class tag simply fits. We're truly not looking to harness Prism's ability at all; and while we've built around Luminaris because it's available, the core premise of the deck would survive a change from a wide attack pattern to a tall one.

There's a hunger for more Illusionists, especially as LSS continues to release amazing class cards that have no place in the talent-focused builds of Prism and Dromai. Hopefully the blue-focused, generic-morphing Illusionist we all presume is next shows up in the next set, but until then, this deck will let you play with the tools of their trade.