Flesh and Blood Review: March 23rd Banlist and Preemptive May Bans

As promised, LSS updated their Banned and Restricted list today, now that this Classic Constructed Pro Quest season is over. The update itself was full of surprises, though, and brought us some critical information as well!

The following changes are now legal:

Rootbound Carapace (1) is unbanned.

Scepter of Pain is unbanned.

Nowadays, Classic Constructed is going through great changes. We got a new set, Compendium of Rathe, and two heroes are leaving the format (we'll discuss this soon). So, it wouldn't make sense to ban something in such an open meta, which is still finding its footing (unless there was something really absurd seeing play, but that wasn't the case). Obviously, LSS could still make some changes.

Rootbound Carapace (1) was originally banned because of Verdance, Thorn of the Rose, which was considered one of the best decks at the time. The idea was to remove from the format the Decompose mechanic that this hero used defensively and force us to be more proactive to use her abilities with cards like Felling of the Crown and Plow Under. This also took out from the format one of the strongest defensive tools this deck played.

As for Scepter of Pain, it was banned because of OTK (One Turn Kill) Florian, Rotwood Harbinger. This list brought problems to this format, but now that he is a Living Legend, LSS can safely return this weapon to Classic Constructed.

I'd like to take this moment to discuss two heroes that became Living Legends this Pro Quest season.

In the Heavy Hitters season (early 2024), Kayo was an excellent aggro strategy, as well as one of the best decks in the format. His ability fixed one of the biggest problems the Brute class faced when it came to consistency: using blue attacks.

Because of the many attacks that get better when you discard cards with 6 power or more, Brutes usually try to play less non-attack actions or attacks with 5 power or less (which, in general, are blue). Kayo fixed that and made this deck a lot more consistent (the cost was an arm, but that didn't make it any worse).

Alongside that, he created Mights, which made your attacks harder to block. In turn, this made him excellent against fatigue decks. This Brute hero was a success, competitively speaking, as soon as it came out, but once Part the Mistveil came out, it disappeared, and it remained in the shadows for a long time.

Then, we got Super Slam, and this was the final push Kayo needed. Buckwild (1), Show of Strength, and Reckless Stampede were great additions to his game plan. They made him one of the best aggro lists in the Super Slam and Compendium of Rathe seasons.

Mandible Claw also left the format because of Kayo, and this was, for many years, a Brute staple. Without it, the other Brutes will have to adapt their strategies and start playing weapons like Romping Club or Ravenous Meataxe.

Verdance's story is a bit different. She premiered in Rosetta and didn't make a lot of noise because Aurora, Shooting Star, a very popular hero then, was a terrible matchup for her. Some months later, Aurora became a Living Legend, and Verdance started rising.

Once her build was well-established (leaning more towards Battlemage, like Iyslander, Stormbind), Verdance centered exclusively on value, blocking a lot and attacking with Felling of the Crown, Command and Conquer, etc. In long matches, her life gain combo with Rampant Growth // Life made her one of the best late-game strategies around. And, when the opponent didn't have a lot of life points, Storm Striders and Waning Moon won the game quite easily.

Nonetheless, Verdance only took off once we got two cards: Burn Bare and Light Up the Leaves (1). These two non-attack actions deal a lot of Arcane damage and made this deck a lot more powerful with Storm Striders. Like so, Verdance played the best attacks in the format and also excellent tools against most decks.

Her value-based game plan remained decent even when Rootbound Carapace (1) was banned, so it was certain she would become a Living Legend eventually.

The most exciting part of this banlist update, however, wasn't the changes above but a few preemptive bans. These bans will be effective from May 28th onward, one week before the new set, Omens of the Third Age, comes out. Let's go through them.

Please note that the cards below are not banned yet. These changes will only be effective from May 28th onward.

At least the following cards will be banned then:

- Skyward Serenade;

- Reaping Blade;

- Volzar, the Lightning Rod;

- Phantom Tidemaw;

- Electromagnetic Somersault (1);

- Channel Lightning Valley

LSS didn't explain why they'll ban these cards, but let's review them to try to see what's to come and what we can expect from the next set. Our goal is to understand why these cards will be banned, not guess what the new heroes will be like.

The only two cards that don't seem to make a lot of sense out of the cards above are Reaping Blade and Phantom Tidemaw, but they could point to something else.

Ziggy (the Lightning Illusionist) might do something with the counters the aura above can stack, whereas Reaping Blade might be an issue in new Aurora lists, particularly against slow decks. It could turn a blue card into Grasp of the Arknight plus the weapon's attack or prevent those decks from gaining life, but we'll need to see more of the new set to understand.

It's not the first time this instant is a problem. In the Living Legend format, it was restricted, among many reasons, because it let us play more copies of Bravo, Star of the Show's powerful attacks. Did you block with a Crippling Crush? No issue, just return it to your hand with the instant above. Did you manage to attack with that very same Crippling Crush? How about returning it to your hand and playing it again in the future?

Besides creating a similar issue in Classic Constructed, this instant can turn into a powerful defense reaction. You can use two attacks that block 3 each (blocking 6 in total) and then return them to your hand. Not even the most defensive decks can do something similar.

Channel Lightning Valley (or CLV), overall, is quite powerful, as Rosetta heroes have shown us. However, it is truly powerful when we deal damage on the opponent's turn. Sigil of Suffering (1), Shock, and Zyggy's weapon are some of the cards that can take advantage of this aura.

Furthermore, it is an instant, so it can turn any damage into a Snatch (1) all of a sudden. And, thanks to Channel, it can stay in play for a few turns. This is a very powerful card that forced us to do a lot to answer it if we wanted to prevent our opponent from drawing more cards.

This card, which was only available in Aurora's Armory Deck, was extremely strong in Aurora lists because it was incredibly versatile and powerful when it came to its stats: it's a Lightning non-attack action (which enabled Star Fall) that naturally had go again (which allowed us to deal damage with Arc Lightning) and turned a 0-cost card into 4 power with go again (with Skyzyk). But there's more to this card.

When Aurora became a Living Legend, Bryan Gottlieb (an LSS dev) mentioned online that it was printed wrong:

Skyward Serenade shouldn't have go again naturally. It should have been one of its "modes", so its final version ended up a lot stronger than it should have been.

This, so far, is the most controversial ban in this list. Volzar, the Lightning Rod is the heart of Oscilio, Constella Intelligence lists. It's thanks to this weapon that we can play combos with Gone in a Flash, end games with a decent amount of Arcane damage with Shocks, and make this whole thing work.

Banning this card would kill this deck as we know it today, and it could end up becoming something else. What it will look like once Omens of the Third Age comes out is still a mystery. We'll have to see the new Oscilio weapon and the new Wizard cards to understand.

The March changes, by themselves, won't impact Classic Constructed much. But two heroes leaving the format has certainly changed the meta.

Strong heroes will remain strong. Arakni, Marionette, Oscilio, Constella Intelligence (for now), and Dash I/O will still show up in competitions, but, without Kayo and Verdance in the meta, some decks will start showing up again: fatigue decks, particularly Victor Goldmane.

Victor is currently the best Guardian hero because of his ability, which creates more value when you block, because he has great ways to end the game, and because he got a few tools to deal with Allies, which has been his greatest issue since forever. Because of these favorable conditions, we might soon see him becoming a Living Legend.

What do you think? Tell us your thoughts in our comment section below.

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!