FaB101: Viserai and the Runeblade Class

Viserai, Rune Blood is Flesh and Blood's original Runeblade. Once a powerful martial warrior in his own right, Viserai was imbued with the power of the Arknight Shard, allowing him to augment his physical abilities with arcane power.

Runeblade remains the true hybrid-damage class, capable of dealing both arcane and normal damage. While Chane and Briar lend themselves most effectively to aggressive strategies, Viserai sets the pace for being the most versatile of the Runeblades, capable of fielding respectable Aggro, Midrange, and Combo/OTK builds. The combination of sword and sorcery is represented on Runeblade cards in a number of ways, with the most common theme being combining non-attack actions and attack actions in such a way to allow for turns above the normal power curve. For Viserai specifically, it is also represented in the form of Runechant tokens.

As a Runeblade player, Runechants do a number of things for us besides hitting our opponents for extra damage when we attack. Most Runeblade cards (and all Runeblade Attack Actions) involve Runechants or arcane damage in some way. Some cards have their cost discounted, others create new Runechants when an attack action hits, and some just give you Runechants no matter what.

Runechants are Viserai's core mechanic, and they do a number of things for us besides hitting our opponents for extra damage when we attack. Many Runeblade cards involve Runechants or arcane damage in some way. Some cards have their cost discounted, some create new Runechants when you attack or hit, some reward you for having dealt arcane damage, some key off of generating them (Runechants are auras), and others just have arcane damage stapled onto them.

From the beginning of the game when players select their equipment, opponents will know that they'll need at least one instance of Arcane Barrier 1 in order to reasonably repel our onslaught of arcane damage. While the four Arcane Rising classes each have a piece of class equipment with Arcane Barrier 1, it's less common or absent among many other classes. (And then there's the efficiency issue: Brute, for example, has Arcane Barrier 2, which isn't as effective against Runeblade- more on that later.)

This "Runeblade tax" on our opponents takes a very real toll on their ability to block our physical damage. Warrior players against other purely martial classes would probably run an equipment setup consisting of Arcanite Skullcap, Courage of Bravehold, Braveforge Bracers, and Refraction Bolters.

This equipment represents 10 defense over the course of a game. From my own playing experience, Warrior opponents will generally choose Arcanite Skullcap as the cut for a Nullrune Hood. So just by virtue of the class we're playing, we have deprived them of 3 defense that would have been very helpful in stopping some of our powerful Runeblade attacks and on-hit effects.

Ignoring the synergies with our other cards for a moment, Runechants represent a separate source of damage whenever we attack our opponents. From a purely damage dealing perspective, this is advantageous due to it forcing our opponents to split their defensive efforts between the two damage types. This effect is easy to overlook initially, but it’s nearly the equivalent of having go again and a second attack action stapled onto our attacks.

Additionally, our arcane damage adds a new defensive angle that our opponents must consider, which is pitch value. It's not uncommon for Ninja or Warrior players to block aggressively with a red heavy hand, comfortable in the knowledge that the single blue they're holding should be able to fuel their entire next turn. But what happens when we're attacking with 6 Runechants? Not only do they still potentially need to block the normal damage we're sending at them, but against our Runechants there is only a single block 3 in their hand. They now need to weigh the cost of taking a bigger chunk of damage now versus the quality of their following turn.

Many Runeblade attack actions are overcosted relative to other classes' attacks with similar power. Just compare Viserai's cards to Rhinar's:

But Ninth Blade of the Blood Oath isn't just a plain 9 power attack for 9, and therein lies its power. Many Runeblade cards receive discounts to their cost based on the number of Runechants we have built up.

The cost reduction of Runeblade attacks makes for some very scary turns for our opponents. Attacking with cards like Arknight Ascendancy or Amplify the Arknight for zero cost frees us up to either block aggressively or spend our resources on damage buffs like Sloggism or Pummel.

Arguably the most potent tool in our Runeblade Discount Armory was Bloodsheath Skelata. Prior to Monarch, the most common power play with Skeleta was to break it (with at least 3 Runechants) to make a Sloggism free, and follow it up with an Arknight Ascendancy or Ninth Blade of the Blood Oath, netting anywhere from 3-7 effective resources for our trouble. Bloodsheath Skeleta's ability can be applied to non-Runeblade cards too!

Sonata Arcanix fundamentally altered the way Viserai midrange decks were constructed. It made your attack action/non-attack action ratio matter more, made playing Arknight Shard and defense reactions a real cost, and resulted in greater emphasis on attacks with go again. With the new emphasis on big Sonata turns featuring cards like Meat and Greet, Maurvion Skies, and Enlightened Strike, something had to go; so cards aiming to go tall, such as Arknight Ascendancy and Sloggism, largely disappeared from midrange decklists.

Discounting our cards is obviously very powerful, but we're limited because each time we make use of our Runechants for a discounted attack, we expend all of our Runechants (no, you can't choose to save any of them for later). Ninth Blade of the Blood Oath and Arknight Ascendancy are much less impressive if you actually have to pay full cost to play it. This brings us to the all-important subject of generating Runechants.

First, let's examine Viserai's Hero ability more closely.

Viserai's ability will trigger every time you play a Runeblade card, even if that trigger won't result in a Runechant being created. (These Runechant-less triggers are frequently handwaved or ignored as they are often irrelevant, but just know that the trigger does indeed happen every time.) In order to make the most of our Viserai triggers, what we want are proactive 'non-attack' actions with go again to "turn on" our ability. Once the 'non-attack' action criteria has been met, all subsequent Runeblade cards we play in that turn will net us a Runechant.

Runeblades have many solid options for fulfilling Step 1, such as Mordred Tide, Mauvrion Skies, Gorganian Tome, Become the Arknight, Sonata Arcanix, etc. When deckbuilding, keep in mind that the requirement of the Runeblade card type is not free. Enlightened Strike and Command and Conquer are two of the best attacks Flesh and Blood has to offer, but they tend to put a stopper on Runechant creation. (The first time you have to pitch to play a Reduce to Runechant, you'll understand)

When it comes to producing Runechants, Mordred Tide is in a league of its own. Zero cost with go again, and it can block for 3 when you need it. The only thing it doesn't do is play well on its own!

Which brings us to the easiest way to produce Runechants, which is simply by playing cards that say "Create Runechants". Each of these cards produce respectable amounts of Runechants on their own, but when combined with a Mordred Tide they go into overdrive. Playing Mordred Tide into a Read the Runes sets you up for a free Arknight Ascendancy turn, and Spellblade Assault does almost as much setup work even while getting in for damage of its own!

Viserai benefitted greatly from the weapons and equipment from Tales of Aria. Duskblade is so strong it was preemptively banned from Classic Constructed, and soon after that from Blitz too!

Rosetta Thorn gave Viserai more closing power due to it dealing 2 arcane damage as a single source, so it has become the default weapon (despite the flavor fail). Reaping Blade remains a consideration, but is best suited to the slower OTK playstyle.

Viserai has some of the best equipment in Flesh and Blood. Spellbound Creepers emulates a multi-use Mage Master Boots, with a fail state of being Ironrot Legs. The generic Arcanite Skullcap is played almost strictly for its defensive stats.

Crown of Dichotomy is the default Arcane Barrier 1 option for Viserai (mostly because Skullcap is normally our least important piece of armor). Aether Ironweave and Sutcliffe's Suede Hides are both great budget-friendly options, with Suede Hides even getting the nod over Spellbound Creepers in aggressive games.

Last but not least, we have our Runeblade Legendary arms, Grasp of the Arknight. While you should always strive to end your turn with Runechants in play, in practice that's not always feasible. That’s where Grasp’s activated ability comes into play. For the cost of 2 resources, Grasp will create a Runechant for us (provided we don't currently have any), which is very important for ensuring cards like Reduce to Runechant are viable plays. The efficiency of Grasp falls off pretty harshly if you already have Runechants in play, but it's still nice to have the option available.

There are games where the quick generation of Runechants and Arcane Barrier 1 make Vexing Quillhand the better choice for the slot, so if you can't afford this legendary you don't need to feel like your settling.

A quick recap on the state of Runeblade's cards in organized play formats:

Now that you're familiar with the core aspects of Viserai, here's a decklist that puts these concepts together into a cohesive game plan.

Become the Arknight is a key card for this deck, as it helps with our consistency. It can find Mordred Tide or Read the Runes to give you a big setup turn, or Swarming Gloomveil or Rattle Bones to give you a multiple attack offensive turn. You can play it via Spellbound Creepers after attacking with an attack action to net an Action Point and grab a Revel in Runeblood to follow up with a Rosetta Thorn for 10 damage.

This deck can play out very differently turn to turn. Some turns will be for setup, some for attacking, and occasionally you'll dump your entire hand on defense. This hero/deck/archetype rewards having a good sense of what you should be doing turn to turn, so getting in practice reps is of paramount importance.

The Demonastery welcomes all, but mastering Viserai and the Runeblade class is a complex and difficult proposition. Some may fall, finding themselves vessels for the Demonastery's many necromancers, but those that rise to the challenge will ascend and join the ranks of the Arknight.