FaB: September 1st Banlist Review

On September 1st, 2025, LSS released another banlist update to adjust Classic Constructed and get us all ready for the next set, Super Slam.

This update included:

Classic Constructed

- Bonds of Agony is banned;

- Golden Tipple (1) (red and yellow) is banned;

- Plume of Evergrowth is banned;

- Talk a Big Game is banned;

- Germinate is unbanned;

Blitz

- Talk a Big Game is banned;

Living Legend

- Deadwood Dirge (1) is no longer restricted.

A few months ago, LSS introduced one of the best tools ever to Flesh and Blood: GEM, which is what we use to submit lists at tournaments and what LSS uses to manage these tournaments and player profiles. It both allows us to easily access everyone's lists at a certain event and makes collecting huge amounts of data from these events a lot easier as well.

Thanks to the incredible amount of data LSS started collecting, they can now review the format with a lot more precision and make more solid changes when it is time for another banlist update. So, LSS also decided to adopt a new banlist philosophy. Let's go through each part of it.

They'll ban something if:

- A deck is running afoul of design principles;

- A deck is performing in a statistically anomalous fashion or unacceptable patterns;

- A deck is providing a toxic or difficult-to-engage-with play experience;

- A card is restricting current and future design space;

- They want to freshen up a metagame;

- They want to slightly modify balance, adding space for more heroes and classes to succeed;

They also stressed that, though in the past players saw bans as "design fails", currently the dev team just uses bans as a tool to make the game healthy and adjust when necessary to respect players' time and investment.

When Bonds of Agony was first released, it was a challenge to both the Assassin player and their opponent: if you were playing it, you had to consider the order of your Attack Reactions carefully, and if you were facing it, you had to think twice before blocking. However, as new Assassin cards came out, this card slowly turned problematic.

Particularly with Arakni, 5L!p3d 7hRu 73h cR4X, Bonds was often impossible to play around. If you overblocked it, Arakni would then play another disruptive attack. If you decided to tank the entire attack or part of it, Arakni would activate its Attack ability and remove key cards from play. To make things worse, Take Up the Mantle could turn any Attack into a Bonds, so it made it even harder for us to play around.

Because of this (and to make this Assassin's win rate a bit more palatable), LSS decided to ban this Attack.

Another problem we're seeing in Classic Constructed is Gravy Bones, Shipwrecked Looter. His win rate might not be the best, statistically speaking, but most players see this Necromancer as the best deck in the format nowadays. It makes sense, considering veterans have performed rather well with it in big events like Callings and the Pro Tour.

But, because of how complex he is, it's hard to say how, exactly, LSS should try to "contain it", so they decided to adjust it bit by bit. The first thing they wanted to do was slow down Gold production (by removing their main tool, Golden Tipple (1)). This way, we'll need more time to set up a bigger turn, but this wasn't the only adjustment they had to make.

They might also ban Saltwater Swell (1) in the future. And, if Gravy Bones becomes too weak, they might go back on this decision as well.

Regardless of what they do, it won't be the last time we mention this Necromancer when we review banlist updates, but, for now, LSS only banned this Attack.

Verdance, Thorn of the Rose is, in her essence, a Battlemage: she focuses on dealing both physical and Arcane damage nearly in the same amount. However, she can't really end the game against opponents that can protect themselves against Arcane damage. So, that's why Rampant Growth // Life exists. It helps us end these ridiculously long games. However, since a few new cards came along, things changed.

Because of Burn Bare and, most particularly, Light Up the Leaves (1), this Wizard now has some incredibly powerful Arcane damage tools and doesn't need to, strictly speaking, use Rampant Growth // Life to end the game. With Plume of Evergrowth, Verdance can end the game on the opponent's turn by getting Light Up the Leaves (1) back and playing Storm Striders.

So, as this hero changed and new cards came along, LSS needed to ban this Head piece to make matches less polarized.

The reason Talk a Big Game is in this banlist update both in the Classic Constructed section and in the Blitz section is the same: just like Berserk and Zephyr Needle, this is a preemptive ban.

Once Super Slam comes out, some decks might become too powerful with this Action. So, to keep Classic Constructed healthy, LSS banned it before the new set came along.

Some updates ago, we mentioned Florian, Rotwood Harbinger was a problem in this format, and so LSS decided to ban some of his cards. As time went on and High Seas came out, we saw what this did: Florian was pushed out of the format nearly entirely.

Bans are supposed to balance decks and open space in the meta, but not remove entire strategies from the format. Despite the Everbloom // Life + Germinate infinite loop, LSS can reintroduce this card somewhat safely in the format to breathe some new life into this Runeblade. We'll soon see how this will pan out and whether it will be enough to bring this hero back to the meta.

Living Legend

In the last banlist update, Chane, Bound by Shadow was significantly nerfed and, just like Florian in Classic Constructed, disappeared from the meta. To bring this hero back to the format and also support Viserai, Rune Blood a bit more, LSS decided to free the Action above.

Because of how long this banlist update is, a new Classic Constructed meta could form soon.

Super Slam is just around the corner (pre-release is just about two weeks away), so it's hard to say what the new meta will be like before it comes along. Nonetheless, we can somewhat predict how this banlist update will affect some heroes.

Keep in mind this new set includes 31 new Expansion Slots, so even the heroes impacted by this new banlist update could get more support once it comes out.

Slippy has been considered one of the best decks in the format since Nationals, and it seemed unstoppable. Matchups that seemed unfavorable, like Fang, Dracai of Blades, weren't that bad because Bonds of Agony could turn the game back around. If you couldn't block this Attack (like Dash I/O can't), you'd just feel as if the game was over after they played it. So, a slower meta with more Defense Reactions might not be that favorable for this Assassin.

However, Slippy will get, in December, a new Armory Deck. We don't know much about it yet, but new cards and equipment could be enough to put it back in the meta.

Gravy Bones has been one of the most popular topics of debate in the last few months, both because he is rather new and already performing well and because of his polarized gameplay. However, regardless of his legion of fans and haters, he needed balancing. Golden Tipple (1) was the card the community wanted LSS to ban, but not the only one. The fact is, Gravy might still be too strong and probably won't leave the competitive scene anytime soon.

Making his Attacks less dynamic and forcing him to play a bit less "proactively" could open some space for aggro heroes to shine, but we must give it time to see how these changes will affect the meta. Only time will tell whether he'll remain a problem for the game.

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

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!