New Blitz Changes Are Announced Ahead Of Skirmish Season 7

To start off Flesh and Blood's July updates, a new announcement was made this Monday, the 10th, describing some very interesting changes to the game's more popular format, Blitz.

Blitz is usually played at a faster pace than Flesh and Blood's more competitive format, Classic Constructed. To play Blitz, players must choose a deck with minimum 40 cards and maximum 52 cards, and up to 11 cards in the inventory. Matches usually last around thirty minutes.

But now, LSS, Flesh and Blood's publisher, announced on the official website that they would be implementing experimental changes to Blitz for the Skirmish Season 7.

The changes will be valid only for Skirmish Season 7, as they intend to monitor their impact in the meta closely. Additional surveys will be conducted at the end of the season, which will happen from July 29th to August 13th at GEM registered stores, so players' opinions can be accounted for and considered moving forward.

The changes made will be the following, according to the official announcement:

Official Announcement

"From July 29th to August 13th at GEM registered stores, Blitz will have modified deck construction rules, to be in effect ONLY at Skirmish Season 7 Blitz events."

> Players will submit a decklist that includes 1 young hero and up to 52 cards (an extra card compared to the current Blitz format). Like Classic Constructed, these 52 slots can contain a mix of cards that go in your main deck (deck cards), or cards you can equip/that exist in your inventory (arena cards).

> At the start of the game, players reveal their heroes simultaneously, decide who is going first, then each player presents to their opponent a shuffled main deck of at least 40 cards, plus any weapons and equipment they want to start the game with. Any non-presented cards reside in player inventories.

> Players then reveal their equipment, draw up, and play some Flesh and Blood!

Reasons

In theory, what the changes intend to do is give players more agency to "tech" their matchups accordingly before the game starts. Blitz players have been reporting a feeling of "one-sided games" for a while now in the format, and this change would address this by essentially adding something similar to Magic: The Gathering's "sideboard".

The announcement itself mentions these reasons, stating:

"Sick of losing to your store’s Kano master? Pack a few copies of Oasis Respite and soften the blow of those Aether Flares. Prism's auras giving you nightmares? Time Skippers and Enlightened Strike to the rescue! Riptide laughing at you from behind a never-ending wall of traps? Introduce him to Burdens of the Past! With limited slots for extra cards and equipment, you’ll still have to choose your tools wisely, and we expect careful and thoughtful deckbuilding to be rewarded in this updated version of Blitz."

Even though this is stated in the announcement as changes "only" valid for this season of Skirmish, Season 7, they might be implemented down the line if the perception of players indicates more enjoyment in the format when these changes are valid.

If you are a Blitz player, keep an eye out for these changes from July 29th to August 13th and don't forget to participate in the future surveys.