My Journey in the Flesh and Blood TCGI’ve been playing Flesh and Blood for nearly four years. Since then, I’ve constantly strived to improve as a player by practicing, studying metagames, reading articles from various sources, and discussing the game with friends. After all this time, I finally achieved a significant result.So, I am thrilled to share my tournament report from the Brazilian Flesh and Blood National Championship and explain how I made the Top 8 after 10 rounds!Deck Choice: Dash I/ODash I/O (DIO) is my favorite hero in the entire game. Beyond her explosive potential, she has one of the strongest hero abilities—interacting with cards played from the top of the deck. I’ve already written a few articles about her, so I won’t dwell too long on the deck itself; the key takeaway is that she is an aggro deck that beats other aggro decks, poses the greatest aggro threat to Midrange, and—with the right setup—can defeat most fatigue decks. However, I had one concern...Victor Goldmane, High and Mighty was the best deck at the time and one of Dash's worst matchups, which worried me quite a bit. To counter this meta, I abandoned the Maximum Velocity strategy in favor of the Prismatic Lens plan. Thanks to this choice, I felt much more at ease regarding the matchups I might face.Let’s see how the tournament unfolded.Day 1 - Classic ConstructedG1 - Victor (W)Of course, a major tournament for me couldn't start without a bad matchup. Due to Victor's high defensive capabilities and his ability to draw cards during my turn, this matchup ends up being very difficult for me. To navigate the matchup, I need to play much more defensively and focus on setup: getting multiple Teklo Pounders on the board, deploying Convection Amplifier to deal significant damage, using Prismatic Lens to put items back on top of the deck, and so on. Only then can I start threatening massive damage with Boom Grenade (1) and larger attacks.However, this match was shorter than I expected. I managed to set up very early and quickly with Plasma Mainline, two Teklo Pounders, and Teklo Core. During one of my best turns, I managed to generate four Action Points and still push through a lot of damage with Symbiosis Shot. My opponent also failed to trigger many Clashes, which really helped me out.G2 - Gravy Bones (W)Overall, the Gravy Bones matchup is reasonably favorable, but I couldn't afford to let my guard down. Thanks to Chum, Friendly First Mate and Sawbones, Dockhand, the game can quickly spiral out of control, leaving me unable to both kill Allies and threaten damage simultaneously. That’s why, in this matchup, I needed to threaten Boom Grenade (1) whenever possible—clearing out the most important Allies—while also setting up Teklo Pounder to take out higher-health Allies more efficiently.My opponent managed to chain together multiple Chums very quickly, and I was even worried I might run out of cards (fatigue). However, with the right setup, I managed to push enough damage before my deck ran out and successfully cleared the most relevant Allies.G3 - Fai (W)Fai is the typical matchup where neither player wants to block and the winner is whoever deals damage the fastest, but a few variables worked in my favor. I won the die roll and chose to go first, which allowed me to play a Teklo Pounder on turn one. On turn two, I played a Pulsewave Harpoon and stripped a card from my opponent, weakening their subsequent turn (a turn where they comboed with Spreading Flames and Art Of The Phoenix: War (1)). I also found several grenades during the game. At times, I was threatening lethal damage with every attack, leaving my opponent unable to attack or dictate the pace of the game.G4 - Rhinar (W)Rhinar recently received some new cards, such as Aggressive Pounce (1) and Bare Destruction. This allowed him to play much more aggressively—making it difficult for the opponent to block, thanks to his ability. However, I wasn't interested in blocking anyway; but had I needed to, I had all my Equipment available (plus an extra card from Balance of Justice for the Brute's explosive turns). Late in the game, he ended up having a very weak turn—it happens when Brutes discard the wrong cards—and I managed to swing back for the win.Day 1 - DraftAfter going 4–0 in Classic Constructed, the moment that worried me most in the entire tournament had arrived: the Draft. Fortunately, for this National Championship, there would be only one pod (compared to the two pods last year). Since I was doing well, I just needed to stay calm and not do anything too unconventional.I ended up drafting Oscilio, which, in hindsight, might not have been the best choice. The draft pod included four Oscilio players, two on Zyggy, and two on Aurora, Emissary of Lightning, making arcane damage cards highly contested. This was reflected in my final deck: more Attacks and less arcane damage. However, what made the deck quite decent was the amount of damage prevention provided by Cosmic Suture (1). I generally don't like that card in Draft, but thanks to it, I was able to "negate" a large portion of my opponents' damage.G5 - Oscilio (W)Overall, the Oscilio mirror match is very delicate given the amount of Arcane damage both players can deal; any slip-up could result in dying on the opponent's turn from Arcane damage. However, I had more damage prevention than my opponent, which allowed me to fatigue them. Despite having only one health point left, there came a point where my opponent had no damage left in their deck while I still did, securing me the victory.G6 - Zyggy (L)My first loss in the tournament was against a Zyggy player. With the field wide open for that hero, my opponent's deck was incredibly strong, utilizing the best cards for the archetype in this format, such as Polarus Pulse Ray (1) and Corrosive Space Dust (1). On one turn, my opponent threatened 11 damage, while my hand consisted entirely of Instants. The life point gap grew so wide that winning the match became impossible, and I ultimately lost to an activation of Aphrodias.G7 - Aurora (W)I was a bit apprehensive about facing Aurora, as her potential is highly explosive—featuring various 0-cost cards with 4 power or 1-cost cards with 5 power—which is terrible for me given the number of Instants in my deck. However, my opponent played a more Midrange-style deck, giving me enough breathing room to make a few plays. Since Aurora is the hero with the least access to damage prevention, I was consistently able to push through Arcane damage, ultimately winning the game with a clean 5 points of Arcane damage.Day 2 - Classic Constructed and Top8Heading into Day 2, I was 6-1, which is already a very good result. I just needed to keep the momentum going, as I had some margin for losses and would still remain well-positioned in the Swiss rounds.G8 - Cindra (W)Overall, the Cindra matchup is quite favorable for me; I just needed to navigate the game correctly to prevent her from picking up Mask of Momentum. However, my opponent revealed Flamescale Furnace and Boots of Omnis Ward among her equipment. This signaled a plan to try and fatigue me—possibly using Sink Below (1) and Shelter from the Storm—if she couldn't win the damage race; this was confirmed when she played Warmonger’s Diplomacy, which actually came as a relief. With that strategy in play, I could afford to take weaker turns to set up, but that proved unnecessary after I opened with Teklo Pounder and neutralized her strongest turns using my own equipment.G9 - Vynnset (W)I really dislike facing Vynnset because she is extremely disruptive. Cull, Face Purgatory, and Succumb to Temptation are some of the tools that can shut down my turns. Furthermore, thanks to her Equipment and the fact that most cards have a Block value of 3, she can pivot to a fatigue strategy alongside her disruption.However, once again, I got a Teklo Pounder out very early, and my opponent telegraphed a Succumb to Temptation play. In the end, with both our life totals running low, I managed to threaten lethal damage using just Symbiosis Shot—I simply needed to find an item off the top of my deck to enable multiple attacks in the turn.With that victory, my Top 8 spot was already secured, so I went into the next match feeling much more relaxed.G10 - Victor (L)My first Swiss round was against Victor, and my final Swiss round was against Victor. But, unlike the first game, I didn't manage to pull off any truly absurd turns. Fewer Boom Grenade (1)s connected; I ended up Boosting away the most powerful cards for this matchup (Spark of Genius and Heist), and my second deck cycle consisted entirely of blue cards. Even so, upon reviewing the game later, I realized there was a line of play in my final hand—just before running out of cards in my deck—that could have secured the win. That didn't bother me, though, since I had already locked up a spot in the Top 8.I ended the Swiss rounds on an 8-2 record, finishing 3rd overall!Top8The Top8 was:- 3 Victor Goldmane, High and Mighty;- 1 Arakni, Marionette;- 1 Oscilio, Constella Intelligence;- 1 Cindra, Dracai of Retribution;- 1 Dash I/O;- 1 Prism, Awakener of SolOverall, the Top 8 looked quite tough for me. I was worried about the matchups against Victor and Arakni, but I ended up facing Oscilio—a matchup that’s actually pretty good for me. However, the Wizard could still beat me depending on how the game played out, and that is exactly what happened.TOP 8 - Oscilio (L)To maximize my chances of winning, I needed to find Null Time Zone as quickly as possible to prevent Oscilio from pulling off his Gone in a Flash combo. By choosing to go first, I increased the odds of this happening; however, I didn't find the card, and my opponent had Gone in a Flash right on the first turn, executing his combo and securing an arsenal card with Constella Contemplation (2).I didn't manage to put together any particularly strong turns—no Boom Grenade (1) came off the top of the deck—and since the matchup is so fast-paced, that delay in finding the right cards ultimately cost me the game. In the end, my opponent, Michel Veríssimo, won the National Championship.What's NextWith the LigaFaB finals taking place on July 12th and Victor Goldmane reaching Living Legend status, it seems right to stick with Dash until she reaches that status as well. However, among my decks, Puffin, Hightail and Oscilio, Constella Intelligence appear to be the best options for the future. A lot can happen before the next major competitive event, but until then, I’ll be focusing on these two heroes. Aurora, Legacy of Tempest is also on my list to test, but she hasn't yet proven herself strong enough for my liking. I want to wait for a few more Callings to see if the unbanning of Skyward Serenade was enough to make her a competitive contender.Top 8In this final section of the article, I would like to thank the brazilian Flesh and Blood community for all the messages and support you sent me during the tournament. I want to give a special thanks to my team—Pummel Party—for always being by my side, supporting me mentally (and with granola bars) throughout the event, and cheering for me.Thank you for the support, for being such a wonderful community, and for reading this far—see you next time.
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