Have We Misunderstood Levia All Along?

by Mark Chamberlain
Brute
17th August 2021 8 : 06
This article is narrated by Mark Chamberlain, and is available only to subscribers. Subscriptions are currently managed via the FaB DB Patreon page. You must purchase Supporter+, Majestic+ or Legendary+ to get access to The Rathe Times' Pro Series content.

If the Road to Nationals hero representation charts haven't made it clear, Levia is not a character players have any confidence in. She’s a large part of the unsolved meta that Alex Truell talked about in his recent Thoughts and Baubles article. (Even if she doesn't appear on his unsolved list).

Editor's Note: I acknowledge my error. -Alex

My testing partners and I have dedicated some time to making Levia work- as one of our number had taken a special interest- and we think we’ve started to find some success.

Branching Paths

Before I get into the decklist and strategy that we'll focus on for today, I want to take a moment to mention the many different approaches you can take when building Levia.

  1. Tempo Levia aims to conservatively utilize Blood Debt, focusing instead on Ravenous Meataxe or the combination of Bloodrush Bellows and Mandible Claws. This deck is smooth and steady, attempting to only invoke the blood god under certain circumstances. Because they aren't beholden to paying their Blood Debt, they can focus on the traditional Brute combos, like Blood/Claws or Tear Limb from Limb.

  2. Aggro Levia, in contrast, aggressively pours Blood Debt into the graveyard and banished zone with cards like Mark of the Beast, Shadow of Blasmophet, Dread Screamer, along with anything that needs to banish 3 cards from your graveyard as a cost. This deck lives and dies by its ability to feed the need for blood, and must manage its discard/banish flow carefully.

  3. Toolbox Levia uses cards like Tear Limb from Limb and Plunder Run for unexpected spikes in power, while using the Banished Zone for utility in a Chane-like fashion.

  4. Reckless Levia goes for full-out, dominated aggression with no care for defense, sending 12-14 a turn in a single, big attack. This one runs either the Romping Club when going first, or Hexagore when going second.

  5. Control Levia does not include any non-blockers. No Deadwood Rumbler, no Tear Limb from Limb- you have to be able to prevent some of their incoming damage. It runs the generic free-for-4 blockers, as well as Guardian of the Shadowrealm. Pair with the Romping Club for fatigue matches.

Yet we have found that all of these ideas run into walls in a lot of matchups. You either can't deal enough damage, or can't put on enough pressure with crucial on-hit effects.

What we arrived at was a midrange setup deck that simply makes the best play available to it every turn, with only loose heuristics for how to best proceed. It is designed to be flexible, and that has proven to be valuable in these uncertain times defined by new blood and unexpected ideas.

This is a pro series article, requiring a subscription to The Rathe Times. Subscriptions are currently managed via the FaB DB Patreon page.
You must purchase Supporter+, Majestic+ or Legendary+ to get access to The Rathe Times' Pro Series content.

Mark Chamberlain

Our narrator, Mark Chamberlain, is a long-time card game player-- but they're all sitting on the shelf while he practices Guardian in Flesh and Blood. Mark is based out of Colorado Springs, USA.