Seeking Horizons: Heavy Hitters Part 3 (Guardian)

Bravo's blue-heavy, hammer-focused strategy has been a standard of Flesh and Blood since Welcome to Rathe. It's comfortable, consistent, and - in my humble opinion - a little dull. I'll own it: I'm not a Bravo fan. I also struggled to find things to enjoy about Oldhim, and have generally felt uninspired by Valda. Guardian just doesn't seem to be a class that resonates with me.

And yet, there are a lot of cards in the Guardian pool that suggest I could enjoy a Guardian deck. The crush strategy appeals to the Azalea player in me, while cards like Reinforce Steel, Withstand, and Nerves of Steel indicate an armor-blocking Guardian may be in the works.

Is Heavy Hitters going to make these things a reality? Am I going to successfully pitch myself on the premise of this article series?

The core attributes of a Guardian include high-cost attacks, reliance on blues, and a natural fatigue plan. They generally block well, both due to reliable defense values and heavy duty armor, and they don't mind laying 3 cards in front of an attack. The fallback of 'pitch blue, swing hammer' exerts pressure due to the breakpoint 4 that many Guardian weapons attack at; and because they pitch so much, they tend to fare pretty well as the game goes long.

But while blocking may be an organic fit for Guardians, they're by no means beholden to it. A Guardian can generally make good use of any number of cards in hand, with plenty of resource outlets to spend their blues. With just Tectonic Plating and a hero power, Bravo can spend an extra blue on beneficial effects for this turn and the next.

Because our blue cards are inefficient attacks, we prefer to pitch them for the late game, when both players' card quality has declined; or to use them in defense, assuming our opponent presented something worth defending.

Guardians are an extremely flexible class in-game, but to date they've found their meta niche in endurance matches with elements of fatigue and disruption.

As noted in the Warrior article earlier this week, Heavy Hitters puts a major focus on Gold tokens - which, in the case of Guardian, represent a modular outlet for spending resources. This is especially important for our newest hero, Victor Goldmane, who lacks a hero ability that allows him to spend resources; but generally, Guardians will enjoy more widespread access to Gold, as it serves not only to stack your pitch pile with cards (Anothos is watching), but also replaces the card spent while generating change.

Victor looks to be a hero who can skew more aggressive than Guardians of the past, and probably wants to, if you lean into the clash mechanic.

In contrast, Betsy wants to wager that her attack will hit. This plays directly into the crush mechanic of the past, and encourages a decklist that can either make its attacks hard to block or modify them on the fly. The former has previously been the providence of Bravo, whose dominate-on-demand has closed many games; but Betsy's overpower and +1 modifier can be just as influential.

Token-wise, Guardians are thus far generating Might and Vigor, granding +1 attack and +1 resource, respectively. These can be incredibly relevant for the standard math of Guardian cards: +1 attack raises a standard weapon swing for 4 to outside the range of a free defense reaction, while an extra resource can pay for the many 4-cost attacks found in the class pool with a single card.

Overall, the impression that these two heroes give at this point of previews season is that Guardian is finally ready to throw its weight around. So far, we've been limited to the valorous Guardians of Aria; now, we'll meet Guardians with ego and a taste for battle.

To date, Guardians have been grapplers, staving off damage while curating a perfect hand for an unavoidable smackdown. From the looks of Heavy Hitters, these attributes are shifting slightly in Betsy and Victor. Both continue to have the Guardian's durability, but prefer a more aggressive posture; and while Betsy still produces unavoidable damage via overpower, neither hero compares to Bravo in that regard.

Often compared to Bravo, Azalea is a glass cannon version of the grappler archetype. While arrows have nothing on guardian attacks for power, the general gameplan of a Ranger includes multiple buffs that bring those dominated arrows to overwhelming heights.

Immediately, Betsy's design calls to mind the 'inevitable hit' strategies of Azalea. Overpower may not be as conclusive as dominate, but Guardian attacks are much taller on their own, and the pool of attack modifiers in Guardian is already fairly deep. Playing a massive attack and telling your opponent, "I bet this hits," is exactly the experience that appeals to me personally, and will be the reason I give Guardian a wholehearted try with this set's debut.

The parallels to Assassin apply to all 3 classes in this set, but this is the first time I'm calling attention to Arakni specifically. Victor is showing all the early signs of a fatigue deck, thanks to his efficiency in blocking, Guardian's pitch-heavy playstyle, and because his hammer of choice burns cards from the top of the deck.

Arakni players have long suffered beneath the superior performance of Uzuri, but Victor could give fans of the playstyle a new path forward.

Teklovossen debuted with many comparisons to the Guardian class - and many saw him as ideally suited to pick up the fatigue mantle left behind by Oldhim. While Teklo hasn't risen to the occasion yet, there are parallels to be seen between the Metrix Magnate and Victor Goldmane.

Armor blocks are the bread and butter of a Teklovossen deck - and while we don't have a full picture of Victor yet, already there are signs that he's effective at blocking too. Will he be developing an endgame payoff as well? Or simply doing his best to remain untouchable while burning through your deck?

At this point, it's hard to say anyone's a Teklovossen main, but if you found yourself taking an interest and haven't managed to crack the code, Victor may be a faster route to success with a similar gameplay pattern.

Finally, Bravo mains need to pay attention to these new heroes, because there's a very real chance Bravo will Living Legend sooner than later! Might as well start learning your natural next steps now!

If none of the above applies to you, there's still a case to be made for spending some time playing Guardian.

Perhaps no other class puts heavy-hitting attacks in competition with your default weapon the way Guardian does. The best Bravo players - and Oldhim players of the past - learn when its best to throw that big attack and when it's better to pitch it for later. This is a pitch-stacking class, a skill that's unique to Flesh and Blood and difficult to learn without the right deck.

Guardians have also been a consistent cornerstone of the meta for years now. Any time spent learning how they work is guaranteed to be relevant in competitive play.

If you love Guardians, if you hate Guardians, or if you've never considered them at all, Heavy Hitters makes an incredibly compelling case for trying them out with Betsy and Victor. As we head into previews next week, keep your eyes - and your mind - open as the identities of these new heroes take form. And I hope you give them a fair shake beyond your release-day events.