Solving the Enigma of Olympia

In the lore, Olympia is described as an “enigmatic fighter who rose from obscurity to become one of the greatest fighters of all time”.   Enigmatic is the perfect way to describe Olympia in the current metagame: he is difficult to understand, but is a man that gets things done.  At the end of the game, he often leaves his opponents completely perplexed as to how such a large life lead was opened up. 

Rarely does Olympia end games in a quick or flashy way; most of his games, he wears his opponents down through multiple turn cycles, leaving them unable to pinpoint exactly why they lost.  This is a sentiment that is rare in Flesh and Blood; you can normally point to a crazy Art of War turn, a Bloodrush Bellow turn or the Storm Striders turn as to why or when you lost a game.

To this day, Olympia remains a misunderstood and underexplored hero. Most of the Heavy Hitters limelight has gone to Kassai - however, you don’t earn the nickname “The Eternal” without quite the resume.  In this two part series I will discuss why I think Olympia is a fundamentally strong hero, and then we will discuss several builds that I have had success with at Road to Nationals, on Talishar, and on stream.

After hundreds of Olympia games, I have noticed a few things about his gameplay.

1. He has access to multiple high-impact Warrior cards that support his game plan.

Unlike Ser Boltyn, who has to play a critical mass of Light Warrior cards, or Kassai, who has to focus on 1-handed and sword based Warrior cards, Olympia has access to everything.  A strong base of 3-block cards, coupled with solid cards like Blade Flurry, Glint the Quicksilver, and Goblet of Bloodrun Wine, allows Olympia to get great value while remaining unpredictable.

Being able to present several possible gameplans is important to the playstyle of Warriors in 2024. Dorinthea has access to Dawnblade and the Decimator Great Axe;  Ser Boltyn can play an aggressive Raydn aggro strategy or sit back a bit more and combo his enemies out of nowhere with Cintari Sabers, Courage of Bladehold, and multiple Lumina Accessions.  Likewise, Olympia can play with Hatchets or Decimator Great Axe (or even more weapon combinations if you like).

Strong armor + access to attack reactions makes Olympia extremely resilient against overpower effects (Golden Sun, Nitro Mechanoid, ect.).  Olympia is also strong against Saber-based strategies since he can sideboard into a deck that runs no attack actions. Many heroes have to adjust their game plans in the face of these strategies because their normal win cons won’t work.

2. His two specializations are some of the strongest in the game, with extremely unique effects.

Prized Galea and Up the Ante both operate at reaction speed, and being able to wager at reaction speed is only available to Olympia.  Up the Ante's blue pitch stripe is a huge bonus, since you really want your blues to be strong when your hand floods with blues. Oftentimes you are paying 3 into Up the Ante, so that works nicely!  You are also able to cheat on resources with Vigor and Gold tokens to help pay for Up the Ante.  In the second cycle, Up the Ante can ensure kills with careful pitch stacking as well.

We have heard from James White himself that Olympia will be getting another specialization in the coming months. This is likely to come from the expansion slot in the upcoming Part the Mistveil set.  It could also be printed in the upcoming “Armory CC Precons” that will be available at your local LGS in Q2 2024. Either way, Olympia is set to get stronger very soon.

3. He executes his game plan (value) extremely effectively and consistently.

Valiant Dynamos + Hatchets = insane turn cycle math. If you block with 2 cards, that's 6 value generated, since most Warrior cards block for 3.  If you swing with a hatchet, play Blade Runner, then swing the other hatchet and reset Dynamos, that is another (2+6+1=9 value).  Getting 15 value out of 4 cards is something that is really hard for most decks to do consistently.  Even top tier go-wide aggro decks struggle to get more than 15 value per turn cycle!

Dynamos also insulates you from some of the most annoying on-hit effects in the game, such as Mask of Momentum, Snatch, Leave no Witnesses, and other breakpoint on-hits. Additionally, playing defensively means you don’t need the perfect 4-card hand to go on offense.

Having such a straightforward gameplan with many redundant pieces allows for consistent execution of his game plan.  It is not uncommon to get 13+ Dynamo resets in the first 15 turns of the game.  Grains of Bloodspill also contribute to some of the best turns in the game.  For example, if you are able to go into a turn with 2 Vigor tokens and an Agility token, you can full block (12 value) and then return for 5 damage and a Dynamos reset for 18 value in a turn cycle!

4. Gold tokens allow for smoother and more dynamic gameplay.

When you look at payoffs, Kassai's are easier to identify in Raise and Army, Blood on her Hands, and Cash In, as well as her hero ability turning Gold activations into free sword swings. But Olympia has access to several payoffs too: namely, Cash In and Double Down.  However, simply breaking several Gold tokens cannot be underestimated.  You could draw into a go again source you needed, draw a blue that gives you +1 net energy to fully play out your hand, or chain several Gold tokens together to pay for Up the Ante.  You could draw into two attack reactions, ensuring that you don’t lose a wager to a Sink Below; at worst, you can oftentimes turn the extra cards drawn into Vigor tokens via Grains of Bloodspill.

The most effective, defensively-slanted midrange builds at the moment do not have much high roll potential. In exchange for that, they are given solid defensive tools, as well as near-best-in-game consistency and grind potential. Gold is part of that toolset.

5. Olympia rewards knowing when your opponent doesn't want to block.

“Know thy enemy” is one of the most famous quotes from the Art of War.  Level 1 gameplay is attacking with a wager card with an attack reaction to back it up; level 2 gameplay is attacking with a wager card without an attack reaction to back it up. Predicting what your opponent is likely to do given a situation is the core of Dorinthea, but also applies heavily to Olympia.

Some heroes cannot take advantage of Agility tokens easily, especially if they block. Other heroes simply block very poorly because of low armor or lots of 2 blocks (Fai and Prism, for example). Some heroes need their whole hand to execute a game plan (such as Raydn Boltyn).

Beyond that, some players simply just don’t like to block. This is something you can pick up on after a few turns have gone by. Knowing how and when to cut corners is important to squeezing out even more value from Olympia.