This week in flesh and blood
Welcome back to The Rathe Times, where we strive to keep you updated, informed, and ready for battle! We are always in a competitive season here in the world of Rathe, so you've come to the right place if you want to get ahead and stay ahead.
Pro Quest Season Five starts up this month with events spanning the month of April all over the world. This is what you've been training for: a shot at the Pro Tour, a Gold Foil prize card, and more could all be yours...
Spoilers for the next two Flesh and Blood products - Part the Mistveil and the Kayo Armory Deck - have started to roll out. I'll post a few images and discussion starters below!
Pro quest Netherlands, season 5
It's the third year of Pro Tour events for Flesh and Blood, and boy are we excited to be headed to the Netherlands in July! To get into the Pro Tour, one must either win a Pro Quest feeder event, or redeem one of their accrued Pro Tour Invites. There are a few ways to get in, but only two ways out: Win, or Die. Try your hand at Pro Quest events from April 13th to May 5th at select local game stores worldwide.
All Pro Quest Season Five events are Open Entry, Classic Constructed format tournaments. Each store has a little leeway in how and when they want to run their event, so be sure to check the Events Finder for more information in your local area and contact your LGS for more details like cost and timing. As an open entry event, you do not have to qualify in order to attend a Pro Quest: you just need real steel in your deck and in your nerves if you're gonna take one down.
You never know what all prizes a store is going to include on top of the regular kit, but we know this for sure: Legend Story Studios has a little something special for the top8
1 Pro Tour Amsterdam Invitation awarded to the event winner (or finalist, if the winner has already qualified)*
1 Random Common, Rare, or Majestic Gold Foil card for the event winner
8 random Rainbow Foil adult hero cards awarded to the top8 (featuring New Kayo, New Kassai, and All-New Betsy)
2 Judge Judy, Executioner playmats awarded to the event winner and finalist
3 Living Legends points for the winning hero
Now that's what I'm talking about: with prizes like that, the competition is going to be fierce. Even if you aren't going to make it to the Netherlands, it's always worth shooting your shot and going for the Gold! Be sure to head out to your LGS and bring a friend; plan a roadtrip to the next city over and show 'em what your local scene is made of!
I always like to see LSS trying things out, tweaking the algorithms and working hard for a good player experience. Three LL points per win one of those variables. They have said in the past that the Living Legends stakes would change with the size of the available hero pool; with the number of events and players.
Here's a quick snapshot of the top of the Living Legend Leaderboard as of this article's publishing:
- Katsu is a cut above the midline at 582
- Bravo is still on the mainstage with 684
- Dash Inventor Extraordinaire has discovered 762 points
- Fai burns towards the finish line with 780
- Dromai is the closest to leaving with 996 points
Just two event wins and Dromai will be off to stay with the other Living Legends after nearly two years of burninating the countryside and all the peasants.
...And let's not go thinking that the LL format is just some offshoot: this is the format where all the power comes out to play. Just ask recent Living Legend Battle Hardened winner (and actual Living Legend himself) Michael Feng!
The Mistveil Continues to Part
You've already read about the hype here at The Rathe Times: we are all SO EXCITED to see Flesh and Blood head over to Japan. Not only is the game reaching a wider audience and becoming more accessible to more languages, but also a gorgeous set of new promos are being sent along for the journey!
The landmark World premier event in Japan will feature incredible new promos and hero art, including an anime-art-style hero, new extended art for Flik Flak, and all sorts of neat goodies - including an extra legendary AND an extra marvel in the language-debut Japanese edition. When the original heroes first came to the European languages via History Pack 1, special marvelous versions of each were introduced. Mayhaps when the mistveil parts, we will see the Crimson Haze standing in that slot!
Little bits of information continue to trickle out, whetting our appetites even more. We were all amazed at the reveal of blue-colored pitch icons, and have been reeling since that Los Angeles afternoon over what it could all mean for the game - and now, with more information, we're still lost!
We can see that there are Legendary non-specialization cards for these new Mystic Heroes, and we can see that they appear to transcend in to resources... And as of just recently through Discord, the head of rules at Legend Story Studios, user MoonlightSolace, tells us that cards that transcend, return to hand flipped and stay flipped for the match. Normally when a double faced card transitions between zones, it reverts to its original state: but not so with transcended cards. Plus, so far it looks like these transcend cards all become three-chi no-block cards, and that these Chi resource cards apparently can be used for either Chi or traditional Pitch.
This Spoiler season is, as ever, leading some players to speculate on the power of these new cards: tell us what you think in the comment section!
Spoiler season is live
Not only are we getting spoilers for the new set, there are also some rolling in that showcase some of the new stuff coming to the Kayo Armory deck. Now, I'm no designer, but I can't help but notice how powerful Berserk could have been, if it got paired with this new chest piece and maybe a few more pieces of spice.
Be wary of potentially fake spoilers, folks! Official spoilers are found in our discord, and the main Worldwide Community Discord, and will sometimes get talked about on our front page through articles like this one.
It can be easy to get swept up in all the excitement that surrounds seeing new cards, and it can certainly be easy to nit double check your sources. I remember not too many moons ago, a card called Fangs A Lot was being passed around as a real spoiler - but you just couldn't find it on the official spoiler discord or on fabtcg.com anywhere. Well, after a few days passed and much discussion was had, it all turned out to be for naught as the card was a fabrication. Don't be fooled by potential goofs like "Strength Rules All" or "Fangs A Lot": The Rathe Times has got your back with weekly news, regular strategy articles, and guides to rev the engine for any new player.
