
Monarch Day 1 Decklists
Blitz offers a fast format for jamming games with a fresh decklist. And that's exactly what these three contributors have done. These decks are still early in their refinement (of course), but the pilots of these decks have learned plenty about the classes they're running. Use these as a launch point for your own deckbuilding!
Levia: A More Civilized Brute
When Levia was previewed, I thought she was just a bad Rhinar. But my stance on her has completely shifted. - Michael Clair
View this deck on FABDB. Note: Gorganian Tome is a placeholder for Lady Barthimont.
Levia varies from Rhinar in how she pays for cards. Rhinar discards from hand as a cost, losing an extra card from hand to take a card from theirs via Intimidate. Levia doesn't have to build her deck that way. Her cards and weapon draw off the top of the deck before discarding, so her hand remains intact. But she can’t Intimidate natively. This actually comes with an interesting side benefit: Intimidated cards come back at end of turn, blocking cards don't.
How does that benefit Levia?
- Cost efficiency due to Banish as payment on Attack Actions (Dread Screamer, Unworldly Bellow, and Writhing Beast Hulk) and Attack Buffs (Unworldly Bellow, Convulsions from the Bellows of Hell).
- Easy, cheap access to Go Again and Dominate.
If Levia isn't discarding from her hand, how does she pay for that efficiency? The graveyard. Like cards in hand, your graveyard quickly becomes a limiting resource. So how do we keep it full of 6-power attacks?
The easiest way is to block. Which means that cards with no block are really dangerous (such as Deadwood Rumbler of any pitch, Shadow of Blasmophet, and Deep Rooted Evil). Block early and often!
Her weapon, Ravenous Meataxe, is also good at filling the graveyard. All the other cards that draw and discard have a glaring weakness: they can’t block. The Meataxe is a quick, efficient way to fill the graveyard.
Another card good at filling the graveyard is Primeval Bellow. I have strongly considered it at any pitch value, but it’s difficult to justify vs. the banish buffs because you can die to Blood Debt if you can’t banish, and you want to turn on Graveling Growl.
Having 3 cards in graveyard and banishing them to play a card like Endless Maw for 9 might seem strong, but it’s very dangerous. An empty graveyard is bad, and even if it’s refilled quickly with equipment breaking or non-attack actions being played, that creates a graveyard that doesn’t trigger Levia or other cards, which is just as dangerous. Starting down the Blood Debt path (3+ debt) is a commitment that ends with death- yours or your opponent’s.
So what I’ve found is that you want to get at least 5-7 cards in GY, with at least 3-4 6+ attacks ideally. Once you have a 3-banish 'buffer' (3 cards in graveyard with one 6+ attack) left after a banish 3 effect, you can start chaining together banish turns fairly easily and feel confident that you won’t die to a full banish zone worth of Blood Debt for a while. It’s quite common to keep 10+ Blood Debt in the banish zone for the latter half of the game.
Once you’ve gotten your opponent into single digits, their equipment is dinged up, and you have a relatively healthy graveyard (and a scary amount of Blood Debt), this is where Levia begins to shine. Dominate is absurdly dangerous at low life totals, but she has another line at endgame that takes advantage of her Go Again cards or allows her to turtle very effectively:
One of Levia’s problems is that once she runs out of graveyard, she’s in danger because she needs to stave off her Blood Debt. Usually that requires at least two cards (pitch + play & banish), which severely limits her ability to block. Thankfully, you have an answer.
Blasmophet is a legit threat in this deck at endgame. First and foremost, he is a 0 cost 6 attack and you have a lot of Go Again (don’t forget the boots!) to set him up. But second, and more importantly, he banishes a card for free. This is incredible as you can block with 3 cards, save a Shadow 6 power attack in hand, and swing with Blasmophet for 6, banishing and triggering Levia’s trait. And if they attack Blasmophet instead of you? You have a full hand and have gained a huge tempo swing.
Once you get a feel for her, Levia is really strong right now, as is Brute in general.

Prism: The Aura Engine
Instead of relying on the Iris of Reality, I decided to lean into generating shields and playing auras, while using Luminaris to activate them in my action phase. - Vazerum
After seeing how Michael Clair's Levia was untouchable due to the Phantasm clause on Illusionist attacks, I went back to the drawing board to think of other ways I could make Prism effective. I decided to scrap most of the Phantasms, keeping only the blue versions I could also use for pitch. Instead of relying on the Iris of Reality, I decided to lean into generating shields and playing auras, while using Luminaris to activate them in my action phase. Knowing I needed to also protect those shields from being used to prevent damage, I tossed in defense reactions like Fate Foreseen, Sink Below, and Unmovable.
The first run was surprisingly successful; being able to cast auras at instant speed and putting counters on everything with Glisten was great. It also made auras like Ode to Wrath more meaningful because I was attacking with 2-5 'weapons' each turn. I was concerned that I'd have a tough time against decks that dealt chip damage, however; that would force me out of my hand to protect the auras.
That concern lead to a hybrid version that could potentially work well against anything. I include both Iris of Reality and Luminaris, to keep my options open for matchups. As for equipment, I am leaning toward straight damage prevention like the Ironrot and Nullrune sets. While other equipment might have great synergistic effects, the value of the simple armors is for each damage prevented there’s a potential to also keep a shield in play.
The latest change was adding Herald of Erudition back to the deck, since Dominate makes it more difficult to block. Use it to close out a chain of attacking auras, and the card draw can add more opportunities for Instants even if you don't have any more action points.

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Chane: Playing with Fire
With the help of the #runeblade-discussion channel, I was able to put together a very powerful and consistent aggressive Chane deck. - Jacob Smith
The Blitz meta has been turned on its head. New contenders enter the fray. The moment Chane was spoiled I was brewing and uploading low quality images of his cards on Tabletop Simulator. I tested and tested and tested some more, spamming the Community Discord for matches in a frenzy to find his true potential. With the help of the #runeblade-discussion channel, I was able to put together a very powerful and consistent aggressive Chane deck.
Nebula Blade is my go-to weapon for this build, due to the 4 attack with a good 'on hit' effect. You are able to trigger its ability most turns, but Reaping Blade or Galaxxi Black are also
viable options.
In my opinion, Carrion Husk is one of the strongest cards to ever be released. 6 armor on an equipment is insane in a lot of matchups. And because Blitz games go so quickly, you almost never take 6 damage from the blood debt of this card. Grasp of the Arknight is still a good fit here, due to its 2 armor with battleworn and the ability to pitch unwanted cards for a Runechant. That Runechant can be key to sneaking in an arcane damage to trigger your Piercing Shadow Vice or Meat and Greet. But if you're on a budget, Stubby Hammerers are surprisingly awesome in Chane, especially if you adjust your build for it. It has synergy with Bounding Demigon, Shadow of Ursur, Vexing Malice, Arcanic Crackle, Rift Bind, Ghostly Visit (Y), Unhallowed Rites (Y), Piercing Shadow Vice (Y), Rifting Torment (Y), and Rip Through Reality (Y).
James White summarized Chane perfectly when he said, "Chane’s hero ability is powerful and self fulfilling. As soon as you dabble in the dark arts, you’ll find yourself delving deeper and deeper until you win or die." This deck embraces that thought process to the fullest. You will want to use Chane's ability every turn to both go as wide as possible and to feed your banish zone to have more cards to play. You will want to rarely block with cards in hand, maybe with one or two if you can still get two to three attacks in on your turn (relying a bit on the luck of what gets banished). Carrion Husk does a lot of work to allow you to maintain tempo; just remember, if you start your turn with thirteen or less health, it will get banished; don't let it get wasted!
Chane is all about the lines of play, so here are a few key ones to get you going:
- Shadow Puppetry into Soul Reaping (banishing a Red Bounding Demigon from hand). Attacking for 7 with Go Again, the on hit effect of Puppetry, and gaining one resource. This leads to a lot of possibilities depending on what you have banished. At minimum, it leads to a Chane ability on Red Bounding Demigon for 4 with Go Again; follow-up with a 1-cost attack from hand, or pitch a blue to Grasp of the Arknight for 1 Runechant, then attack with Nebula for 4 and 1.
- Shadow Puppetry into Enlightened Strike. E-Strike, in this case, is an 8 with Go Again, or a 6 with Go Again and 'draw a card', as well as the 'on hit' effect of Puppetry.
- Seeds of Agony. I love this card, as it enables both the arcane damage requirement on Piercing Shadow Vice and Meat and Greet, as well as the Non-Attack Action requirement for Bounding Demigon, Unhallowed Rites, and Nebula Blade. Sometimes it's worth playing from banish just to not take the blood debt and trigger Nebula Blade. Remember you can recycle them fairly easily with Unhallowed Rites.
- Art of War. If I have a lot of attacks in banish, I will choose to give my next attack action Go Again. If I'm only coming in for 2 or 3 attacks, I will choose the +1 attack. (Your other choice is always to banish an attack action to draw two, as its a solid +1.)
I believe Chane will be one of the strongest heroes in the Blitz meta both due to his inherently strong mechanics and his positive matchup versus Dorinthea the current deck to beat.

Alex Truell
Alex Truell is the editor for the Rathe Times. Alex is a casually competitive player overseeing the growth of a Flesh and Blood scene in Ripon, WI. Alex is a player who cares about the competitive environment, but doesn't have to live in it; an optimist who loves the game, but can take a step back to critique it; and a deckbuilder who revels in novelty.

Jacob Smith

Michael Clair
Michael Clair has 20+ years of competitive gaming that he draws from as a Rathe Times author. His goal is to prepare players for the top tables of competitive FaB, with practical advice that goes beyond the cards and the decklists.
Discussion (1)

Great article, I really enjoyed the early deck reads
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