What to Expect from FaB's First LL Calling

Flesh and Blood's competitive year is starting to wind down, but before we all go into holiday mode and await the World Premiere of The Hunted, there's one more milestone for FAB in 2024. The Calling: Chicago, hosted by MinMax Games, is the first ever Calling featuring the Living Legend format, and marks a new level of legitimacy for the game's eternal format.

Last year I wrote a two-part primer (Part 1 and Part 2 available here) on the foundations of the format heading into its first Battle Hardened in Barcelona, and after the "Oops, All Starvo's" incident, Living Legend got its first shake-up in a pile of restrictions to bring Starvo more in line with the rest of the format. But a lot more has happened since then. Here's the quick version:

• Channel Lake Frigid was unrestricted, which was welcome news for all Ice heroes. There was much rejoicing as the LL format appeared to be relatively balanced.
• Much like in CC, Zen ran roughshod over the LL format after his release thanks to Stubby Hammerers making Bonds of Ancestry look even more degenerate.
• Bonds of Ancestry was restricted during the great book banning. There was once again rejoicing as the format appeared to be relatively balanced.
• Rosetta brought the amp keyword fully into the game, which in turn led to Kraken's Aethervein seizing the title of "Most Broken Weapon in Flesh and Blood History" from Duskblade. (Summer Giles was hit for 186 arcane damage on camera for the singular event that Kraken's Aethervein Verdance was allowed to exist. Summer, we salute your sacrifice.)
• Kraken's Aethervein became the first card to be banned from Living Legend.
• After being briefly overshadowed by Kraken's Aethervein, Kano won his second consecutive Battle Hardened in Osaka, this time playing 9 copies of Open the Flood Gates, effectively giving Kano 15 Tomes.
• Open the Floodgates was restricted and Star Struck was unrestricted.

The release of Rosetta brought a lot of new toys and new heroes to the Living Legend format. Throw in the Jarl Armory Deck and the unrestricting of Star Struck, and you've got a solid recipe for a Starvo resurgence just in time for the Calling. But he's not the only one to find some new power; let's take a look through the decks you can definitely expect to see in Chicago.

To say that Starvo got powered up would be an understatement. One of Starvo's former weaknesses was that he was forced to play cards like Break Ground and Lightning Surge to keep aggressive fuse ratios intact. Those days are absolutely gone. Trip the Light Fantastic, Current Funnel, and Electromagnetic Somersault are major upgrades to the previous Lightning inclusions. Fruits of the Forest and Earth Form buffed up the Earth cards, and the unrestricted Channel Lake Frigid is joined by Channel Mount Isen and Frozen to Death from the Jarl deck to make sure that they can cut all of the bad 2-block Ice cards. Cut Through the Facade gives Starvo extra game into Prism and Runeblades, and the unrestricted Star Struck means 2 more powerful crush attacks that can steal entire turns from Runeblades, Ninjas, and Rangers.

But wait, there's more! Gauntlets of the Boreal Domain give Starvo a pitch outlet and a reason to potentially include Mangle as a way to destroy just about any problematic equipment he might be facing.

Zen in LL looks a lot like the current CC versions of the deck, with a few key upgrades. Art of War and Stubby Hammerers are legal, as is Belittle/Minnowism (and the blue Belittles are incredible in this deck). The jury is still out for some on what the optimal version of this deck looks like, but I expect Zen to be out in force in Chicago. Thanks to an embarrassment of riches in the head slot - Traverse the Universe and Mask of the Pouncing Lynx - Zen is the classic aggro deck most likely to pop off and kill you on turn two or three.

Rosetta breathed new life into the OG Runeblade. Face Purgatory, Runerager Swarm, Malefic Incantation, and Deadwood Dirge headline the Arknight's new staples. These new additions turn Mordred Tide into the power card it was always meant to be, and let Viserai float between being a very fast aggressive deck and a combo deck thanks to the classic combination of Bloodsheath Skeleta and Sonata Arcanix. These new versions can also play Belittle/Minnowism for added redundancy in the face of Icy disruption. Undisrupted, Viserai is one of the faster aggro decks in the format, and Skeleta/Arcanix gives him explosive ability that can rival Zen (but I think the existence of Twelve Petal Kasaya makes gives Zen an important edge in what is otherwise an extremely close matchup).

Despite the short-lived tenure of Open the Flood Gates (which can still be run as a singleton copy), Kano still made a number of solid gains from Rosetta. Destructive Aethertide, Overflow the Aetherwell, and Arcane Twining join the fabled Will of Arcana as improvements to the suites of blues, allowing Kano players to finally rid themselves of the generally less desirable Scalding Rain variants. I think Kano will easily be the least represented of the Top Tier heroes, and I suspect several of the heroes I've labeled Dark Horses will also outnumber the Dracai of Aether - but that is the exact scenario that the Mount Rushmore of Kano players (Majin Bae, Alex Vore, Pete Buddensiek, and Julian Sniffen) will be looking to take advantage of. The lower the percentage of the field Kano is projected to be, the more likely people are to trim on Arcane Barrier and hope to just GEM dodge Wizards - and the easier time those Wizards will have carving their way through the field.

Chane was already good, but the real question is, how much better did the rest of his competition get? Chane gained some very solid blue core upgrades in Hit the High Notes and Machinations of Dominion, but those aren't exactly power cards. Face Purgatory is very strong, but Chane doesn't use it quite as well as Viserai, and it's not uncommon for games to play out where it's just a very pretty Blade Break 2. Succumb to Temptation is a quality disruptive piece, and Eloquent Eulogy powering up Tome of Fyendal is a nice combo that can help win races - but is that enough, alongside some free cards and Carrion Husk, to win games? Time will tell.

Rosetta brought a decent batch of new toys for the Elemental variant of Runeblade, with Regrowth/Shock headlining Briar's new cards. Its existence as an Earth and Lightning card for fusing and channeling purposes is big, and it will go a long way to smooth out some old deckbuilding tensions. Late in her CC life, fusing Arcanic Shockwave and Entwine Lightning took a backseat to making sure you could keep your Channel Mount Heroic around as long as possible - but it's now much easier for Briar to have her cake and eat it too, getting to more fully utilize both sides of her elemental affinity. CMH is the way for Briar to break damage parity in aggro matchups, and that (combined with being able to block well when needed) is why I'd give Briar the edge over our next hero.

Aurora is a fundamentally strong and consistent aggro deck (think Fai at the advent of the LL format). Arc Lightning is the one thing Aurora can do that Briar can't, and there's great synergy there with Tome of Fyendal and some bonus value to be gained alongside Ball Lightning; but at the end of the day, I just don't think Aurora's hero card gives you as much power as Briar's provides. That said, tournament results matter, and since Rosetta's release Aurora has two BH Top 8's to Briar's one, despite lower representation in the field.

Do not sleep on the power level of an Oscilio that has access to Tome of Fyendal and Tome of Aetherwind. This is a deck that, much like Kano, will unapologetically kill you from high life totals, and a healthy dose of Spellvoid isn't going to save you. The big issue for Oscilio - aside from overall consistency - is that he's quite vulnerable to popular disruption like Erase Face, Command and Conquer, and The Weakest Link. If he's able set up a good 5-card hand with a few Sigils in play, look out.

Prism has historically been favored into Starvo (thought scholars might argue the degree of favored), but Starvo seems ready to Cut Through the Facade that the matchup is anything better than a coin flip nowadays. Add that to the Runeblades all getting juiced and the Zen matchup being similarly poor, and the odds certainly seem stacked against Prism. You can never fully count Illusionists out though, so I wouldn't be surprised to see a Prism make a deep run during the Calling.

Lexi finds herself in a strange place in the format, straddling the line between aggression and disruption. She received some Rosetta upgrades via Eclectic Magnetism and Electromagnetic Somersault, but Lexi wasn't particularly clamoring for new Lightning cards. Since her raw damage output isn't on par with the truly aggressive decks of the format, she needs the Ice disruption package to be good - which can be a tall order for a format that still has Belittle. Similar to Prism, I'm sure there will be some diehard Lexi specialists in the Calling, and we'll see if that hero loyalty pays off for them.

Now we get to some of the weirder stuff. These decks are either slept on, underexplored but with big potential, or "solved" corner cases that don't find themselves well positioned at the moment. These are fine decks that I am sure will be registered for the event, but I'd consider them longshots to make Top 8 for various reasons.

It's here that Count Your Blessings finally rears its ugly head. This deck is exactly what you'd expect: life gain for days, and leaning on Crown of Seeds and good defenses to run opponents out of cards. I was briefly concerned about the ramifications of this deck existing, but my concerns were quickly alleviated when I remembered that Drone of Brutality exists. This deck can't beat board state decks for anything, Starvo can beat him with a few copies of Evergreen, and some of the aggro decks will just be able to kill Oldhim before he's able to turn the corner on Count Your Blessings getting good value.

Florian is not a deck I would have expected to be writing about for LL a few months back, but it's been too long since Bloodsheath Skeleta made some real noise in the format. LL Florian is a CYB OTK (One Turn Kill) deck, featuring a bunch of life gain, all the good decompose Earth cards, and Skeleta + Germinate to increase their Runechant count by 50% and gain a huge amount of life. And if you think this is a deck that can't kill CYB Oldhim, you'd be wrong; you can stack your CYB's and combine them with Thistle Bloom/Life to give yourself access to another enormous turn of Runechant generation. "100 life, meet 140 Runechants."

Unsurprisingly, this deck will struggle against decks that assemble a board state, and without access to Oldhim react or Ice cards, it will be tougher for Florian to live through the aggro onslaught. Still, this is my pick for fringe deck to come out of nowhere and win the whole Calling.

Iyslander has some solid matchups into the format’s aggro decks, but the Starvo matchup is abysmal, and even the conventionally good matchups aren't free wins. Not only that, but you know that there will be Prisms in the field, and CYB decks can gain enough life where only a perfectly stacked Frost Hex combo has any shot at killing them (and I'm not even sure if that's enough).

Dromai has been making some noise in LL this Skirmish season, but it remains to be seen if it can translate to the highest levels of competition. If a Dromai shows up to Calling: Chicago and gets paired into round after round of Starvo or CYB decks, they will have a field day and casually Top 8. If they hit a string of Ninjas and Runeblades, I am not optimistic about their chances.

Berserk is the name of the game with Kayo, but the real battle is consistency, as Kayo doesn't have access to any tutors. The nice part about playing Kayo is you can play some perfectly solid aggressive turns while you wait to find your two extremely important NAA's: Berserk and Bloodrush Bellow. Savage Sash and Scowling Flesh Bag are quite powerful though, so disrespect Kayo at your own risk.

I've seen Dash I/O regarded as an aggro deck that thrives against other aggro decks, but this is not a format where I want to have a significant portion of my deck filled with non-blocking cards. Then again, High Octane, Tome of Fyendal, and Cerebellum Processor all working in conjunction are capable of some ludicrous damage output turns.

Prism #2 gains Luminaris in Living Legend, which is inherently threatening, but this is a deck that needs to connect with at least two Heralds before they have undone their starting 8-life deficit. In a format where you can sometimes just die on turn 2 or 3, you need to be really sure that this is what you want to be doing in the format. The Awakener of Sol isn't without her tricks though, as both Herald of Judgment and Figment of Judgment can mess with Zen and Chane, and Arc Light Sentinel can still eat entire opposing turns.

At this point, I believe the Living Legend format and Calling: Chicago are Starvo's to lose. No other deck received so many upgrades, and it wasn't as though Starvo was unplayable previously. Living Legend is the format where people can go to play some of their favorite heroes forever though, so I am sure we will see some diehard specialists making deep Calling runs and making Starvo earn every win.

As for me, I will be playing Chane in Chicago (to the surprise of no one) as I just have too much fun playing the deck to bother with other options, and I know that Chane is capable of beating any deck in the format. Hopefully Ursur looks favorably upon her loyal servants as we try and plant the flag of the Demonastery on the summit of the first Living Legend Calling.