How to Navigate a Fresh Meta

Arsenal Pass Ep202 - How to Deal with a New Meta | RTN Deck Selection

Estimated read time: 1:20

Summary

In episode 202 of Arsenal Pass, hosts Hayden and Punkish Bani delve into the intricacies of dealing with a new meta in the Flesh and Blood TCG following the living legend status attainment by Visai. They discuss how the absence of a gatekeeper like Visai impacts the game and what strategies players can employ for upcoming Road to Nationals events. The episode emphasizes the importance of playing proactive decks, ones that consistently "ask the question" of opponents, as a means to navigate the uncertainties of a fresh meta. Additionally, the hosts share insights on the potential rise of heroes like Enigma, Prism, and Aurora in this changing landscape.

Highlights

Reflecting on the impact of Visai's departure and the opening of the meta. 🌀🔜
Debating whether the current meta is truly fresh or not, following Visai's leaving. 🤨📈
Rundown of top contender heroes like Enigma, and how they fit into the new meta. 💪🦸‍♀️
Discussion on deck strategies: playing proactive versus reactive styles. 🕹️⚖️
Punkish and Hayden contemplate personal picks for Road to Nationals under the new circumstances. 🤔🏆

Key Takeaways

Say goodbye to Visai, the gatekeeper is out and the meta is fresh for exploration! 🚪👋
Proactive decks are your best friends in a new meta. Choose ones that ask the questions, not answer them. 🤔🃏
Explore the potential of Enigma, Prism, and Aurora as top contenders in the fresh meta landscape. 🌟✨
Be mindful of reactive decks in a fresh meta, as they might struggle without clear targets. 🔄🚫
Plan your deck selection around powerful, consistent strategies that can adapt to shifting metas. 📈🔄

Overview

In this episode, Hayden and Punkish dive deep into what it means to navigate a new meta in the competitive realm of Flesh and Blood, following the Living Legend triumph of Visai. With few gatekeepers remaining, the discussion turns to how players can adapt and thrive amidst these changes.

The duo explains why, in times of meta uncertainty, opting for proactive decks is advantageous. Instead of waiting to react, players should aim to ask the questions, seizing control of the gameplay. Punkish highlights heroes like Enigma and Aurora as prime candidates for such strategies.

Finally, amidst the cheers for the rise of Prism and fresh strategies, the hosts caution against overly reactive decks that may falter in the unstable landscape. Their advice is clear: prioritize powerful, adaptable strategies for the Road to Nationals and beyond.

Chapters

00:00 - 00:30: Welcome and Introduction The chapter titled 'Welcome and Introduction' is the opening segment of the Arsenal Pass podcast's episode 202. The hosts, Hayden and Punkish Bani, establish the focus of the podcast which centers on the game 'Flesh and Blood.' They outline the podcast's purpose as a strategic guide for players, aiming to keep them informed about advancements and news within the game's universe, known as Wraith. This setting of the agenda prepares listeners for the ensuing discussions and content related to the game.
00:30 - 10:00: Main Discussion: Upcoming Meta Changes The chapter titled 'Main Discussion: Upcoming Meta Changes' explores the potential changes in 'The Meta', discussing whether it is an entirely new meta or merely an adjustment to the existing one. It also delves into strategies for adapting to the evolving meta environment. The upcoming week is expected to bring significant changes leading up to the Pro Tour in London, along with related events like the Road to Nationals, battle hardenings, and callings. The discussion sets the stage for what's happening this week in the Flesh and Blood realm and builds anticipation for the main topic of the podcast.
10:00 - 17:00: Patreon and Pre-Show Mention The chapter opens with a mention of Patreon supporters and discusses the intended topic "how to prepare for a fresh meta" in gaming, specifically Flesh and Blood strategies. However, the conversation shifts to a philosophical debate on what constitutes a 'day one meta.' The narrator shares personal experiences from a recent Flesh and Blood event, emphasizing improved success compared to previous performances, noting a strong performance in the initial Swiss rounds.
17:00 - 23:00: Week Recap – Hayden and Punk's Performance in RTN In this chapter, the narrator discusses the events of a Swiss round in a tournament known as RTN, held in Seattle. During the sixth round, the narrator had already secured the top seed position. Consequently, they decided to concede their match to an opponent who had not yet qualified for Nationals, allowing the local competitor and friend to secure a place in the top eight. In the quarterfinals, the narrator faced Marco from Techo Foundry, another player aiming for Nationals qualification. Recognizing Marco's aspirations, the narrator chose deliberately to let Marco win, demonstrating sportsmanship and support for other players' goals.
23:00 - 27:00: Deck Selection and Playtesting The speaker discusses an interaction with a store customer, wishing them good luck in making it to the finals and expressing a desire to see them in Vegas. They then reflect on their participation in the Swiss runs, particularly their use of the Arac Marinette deck, which felt smooth and powerful. The speaker also mentions a challenge they issued on their patreon pre-show: if the listener can convince them by the end of the podcast recording, they would do something unspecified.
27:00 - 32:30: News and Announcements: Arsenal Pass Content The speaker is discussing their experience playing the game 'Flesh and Blood' and evaluating different heroes in preparation for a tournament, the 'road to Nationals'. They mention feeling that their current hero feels slightly awkward or 'janky' and express a willingness to be persuaded to play with it for the upcoming event despite not having immediate events. They are also preparing for the evolving game strategy post-some meta update and are considering future game events, such as a tournament in London.
32:30 - 51:00: Commander Cookout – Budget Competitive Play The chapter focuses on a player's experience with trying out different Heroes during the week, aiming to understand what might be effective in the game. The speaker shares that they've played seven different Heroes, albeit with varying volumes of play for each. They seek feedback from the audience on what Hero to play next, encouraging YouTube viewers to comment their suggestions. The discussion also covers a fresh perspective on mid-tier gameplay and strategies.
51:00 - 80:00: Main Topic: Day One Meta Strategy In this chapter, the discussion revolves around the meta-strategy for an opening day, with a particular focus on selecting the right play. Several contenders are mentioned, including Verdance, Marinette, Prism, and Enigma. Despite this variety of options, there is a humorous acknowledgment that the decision might ultimately default to playing 'Dash' as a preferred choice.
80:00 - 95:00: Case Study: Choosing a Deck for RTN The chapter discusses a new content series where a professional player is featured in a monthly replay analysis of games covered officially for streamed audiences. The first episode is now available featuring Yuki Lee Bender, a well-known player and content creator. This content can be found on the bble YouTube channel and podcast.
95:00 - 96:00: Closing Remarks and Thanks In the closing remarks, the speaker expresses excitement about the new monthly series and appreciates the positive response to the first episode. The first episode featured a discussion about Yuki's CNRA list and her victory in the first round of the Calling Memphis. The speaker also encourages others to check out the episode and thanks the team for making it happen. Additionally, they mention further plans for analysis and content, including in-house replay analysis of test games, some of which will be exclusive to their Patreon.

Arsenal Pass Ep202 - How to Deal with a New Meta | RTN Deck Selection Transcription

00:00 - 00:30 you're listening to Arsenal pass a flesh and blood podcast for players by players and all about strategy leveling up and the latest news in the world of wraith welcome to Arsenal pass welcome back to episode 202 of Arsenal pass Hayden here with punkish bani this week on the Pod we are talking V
00:30 - 01:00 living legend and what does that mean for The Meta is this a new meta is this a slightly changed meta well we're going to speak about that and also talk about how you adapt to a new meta either way this meta is going to look different for this last week of road to Nationals and it sets us up for a very interesting leading to Pro Tour London plus a few battle hardens and uh callings along the way but with that said Punk this week in Flesh and Blood what's been happening before we get into that I'm so excited for the main topic this pod we
01:00 - 01:30 started off saying the main topic would be how do you prepare for a fresh mattera how do you prepare like what are good decks for day one mattera and then we decided to Pivot it to a philosophical discussion on whether this is even a day one mattera and really looking forward to it we'll do FL and blood yeah yeah we're doing both my week in Flesh and Blood Hayden I had a much better rtn this past weekend than the previous one uh I well okay I'll get more into it so in the Swiss rounds I went undefeated I went 5 in the Swiss until round six this was a sixth round
01:30 - 02:00 Swiss rtn we get we get pretty big rtns out here in Seattle it is amazing uh and then in the sixth round since I was already locked for top seed I just conceded to my opponent so they would be guaranteed to get into top eight they hadn't qualified for Nationals yet and you know he's a local he's a pal so I was like all right go ahead you know make your top eight and then quarterfinals I paired against well Marco actually the Techo Foundry some people might know him and he's also looking to qualify for Nationals and I just let him have the win as well I actually once the uh quarterfinals were paired up and I saw those against him I
02:00 - 02:30 just walked out the store I was like cool good luck hope you make it the finals I was like and I want to see you in Vegas basically so uh that was that but uh the Swiss runs which I actually did get to play I played arac Marinette and the list felt pretty good Hayden um I I think was a pretty smooth and pretty powerful I issued so for those that don't know for our patreon we do a pre-show the Arsenal pass pre-show every week and uh I issued a challenge to pun that if he could convince me by the time we finished recording podcast today to
02:30 - 03:00 play Marinette I would uh because so far with the list I've been playing in my games has felt a little bit janky of a hero I'm not been super excited so but I said you know if you convince me I'll play out for road to Nationals this weekend that's been me this week in Flesh and Blood no road to Nationals but I've been starting to get some grinding for this new post F maida uh just starting to understand like what I think's good what I want to play looking here to London as well and what I think is going to be the shake out of the mid um I've been playing a few different Heroes like just trying to I've been
03:00 - 03:30 dipping in and out like I think this week probably I've played like seven different Heroes across games so um not a lot of volume on each of them apart from maybe one or two but yeah just trying to get an understanding of of what might be good and uh we're going to I guess maybe if we could get to the end of this podcast and I decide by the end of this podcast maybe even in the comments the audience can help me out here our listeners can help me out if you're on YouTube drop a comment I need to know what to play this weekend what should I play you're going to listen to our discussion on a new look at the mid right whether that's brand new or at
03:30 - 04:00 least it's a day one of somewhat fresh meta help me work it out from our discussion what should I play if I don't already come to a decision by the time we get to the end this pod so I tell you what right now my top contenders are verdance ya Marinette prism Enigma so there's quite a few in there I mean I would love to try and convince you and I'm sure our viewers will as well but we all know you're just going to go play Dash anyway so what is even the point hidden oh nah mix in the pocket it's all right
04:00 - 04:30 all right with that Hayden we do have some news to go over uh first one well some Arsenal past news the we started a new content series we were alluding to this the past two weeks it's a monthly replay analysis of an official streamed coverage game where we bring on the pro player to talk about the game that they played first episode is out this one's featuring Yuki Lee Bender extremely established player and content creator in her own right go check out the on the bble YouTube channel and podcast if you haven't and yeah yeah go check out this
04:30 - 05:00 new monthly series as well the first episode was amazing we got to talk about Yuki's cnra List and her win at round one of the calling Memphis Yeah great uh I'm really excited for this page and thank you for doing this I think great response to that first episode if you haven't gone and checked check it out please do so um and I know you're doing some some more of these and also some additional analysis as well some additional one for the patreon yes this one is in-house replay analysis so just games that I've been playing in test
05:00 - 05:30 uh this the first episode is actually going to be me playing Marinette into a local of mine uh yeah so that is available for the patreon members other than that we have a couple of new previews the Aurora Armory deck has now been officially previewed one thing I want to shout out shout out is there are reprints of Ark lightning in this product which I'm really really excited for I I think that is awesome that they're reprinting actually I don't know the value of AR lightning but it is a very essential Majestic for the deck and I'm glad that they including it in the
05:30 - 06:00 Armory deck yeah I'm not sure either but I I think reprints are good for the game you know I think they do need to find a way to get reprints in there but also they're going to be careful about reprinting stuff and then these decks being bought out by people who just need access to that specific card for another deck so I think it's such a great place to reprint Staples for that hero in their Armory deck so I really like this balance yeah good to see Arc lightning and I am I'm excited for this Armory deck I think it gives a lot to Aurora I'm actually super interested in Aurora even even just the first two cards we
06:00 - 06:30 saw with um Skyward serenade and skiz um I quite like those cards so um yeah I've been high in Aurora for a while and yeah I think after this Armory deck I expected to be quite a force uh at PT London and they previewed a bunch of cards a bunch of new cards in the Raw Armory deck particularly in the equipment slots uh but there's two that I think we're going to shout out right now in this new section which I think are potentially the the key ones to look out for the first one is Written in the
06:30 - 07:00 Stars this is a blue zeroc cost three block lightning rune Blade action and I feel like I can say that and people already know how relevant this is likely going to be right blue zero cost non-attack action three block that has lightning on it everything that you want in Aurora and the text says create an embodiment of lightning token if you've dealt Arcane damage this turn draw a card very important to note Hayden this does not have go again on its it would
07:00 - 07:30 be busted if it did yeah it was it was something I'm sure a lot of people missed when they first read it it does not have go again so looking to be more like a chain Ender like the last thing to do uh on your turn you play this you've dealt Arcane you sub embodiment of lightning you refresh Your Arsenal whereas normally a lot of times Aurora will need to pitch pitch the whole card to the hero ability to make the embol of lightning this one just gives it to you but refreshes the card yeah yeah you're right so rather than just using your two resources ending up with no Arsenal you play this you still get your Aral and an
07:30 - 08:00 aurora can Arsenal almost any card in the deck like in fact actually just every card so um at least in the current version so yeah I think this card is really good I also think you know you're going to find it's a block three which is huge as well lightning card uh and also you've still got lightning gves like there will be times where you do play this that's not at the end of the chain or the end of the turn um because of lightning gaves when you're going for some sort of turn that that involves that so yeah it's it's very good it replaces itself it gives you an embod of lightning embodiment of lightning that is
08:00 - 08:30 definitely massive so you also brought up Skyward serenade just now and I think along with Skyward serenade and written the stars and what's like Arc lightning already exists and maybe flicker whis sees a bit more of an uptick as well maybe people go into Sizzle as well to increase the non-attack density in the rora deck which means she might be able to run start running face poetry which would be an upgrade over Crown Providence and I think that is the other power bump that we can potentially expect to see from Aurora once the Armory deck comes out it's just a wider
08:30 - 09:00 access to good non-attack actions which unlocks a more powerful headpiece for her I I'm not a face Purgatory fan I think that card is a bit of a trap um I like to the extent that I didn't register in V when I played road to Nationals the other weekend um I to be fair don't get me wrong I I think the card is powerful like there is there is a time and a place for that card I think this format has not been the time and the place for it like there's not you know being necessar the things that
09:00 - 09:30 I these these either these Decks that present the value of go again so they're going to present like five six plus attack damage with wanting to keep specific cards back for the next chain or for Arsenal for instance um or reactions like more reactions because your triggers in defense window so but I do think you'll see an uptick in Assassins to your point you'll see an uptick in places where yeah you might want to play face face pergatory one thing I will say about Aurora is I think Aurora's strength and I'm not necessarily think that we've seen this
09:30 - 10:00 be built into because of um just the lack of cards that we are about to see in the Armory deck is just the consistency of like the lightning cards and the repeatability of very specific game pattern that doesn't just like attack with my zero for fours my one card fours and hope I have enough go again and I do think you're going to see more of that with some of these cards like Skyward ser8 is a phenomenal card for that I think um but I I do think one thing that has been a big part of Aurora not bricking hands sometimes is having exess to Crown of Providence cash in
10:00 - 10:30 you're like oh I have these all four attack hands and I have no instant to give my uh card go again this turn sort of thing or I don't have a blue so I can create an embodiment on this all these sorts of things so yeah face P powerful card but I I'm personally in the camp that card is often just not as good as just playing crown of Providence and a deck that needs two cash and cards sometimes so we discussed face bugry in visai I think a couple of weeks ago and I was definitely with you on on that in visai but I think VIs R was a little
10:30 - 11:00 more beholden to needing a specific hand texture to do something whereas yeah whereas I think Aurora is actually a little bit more robust against something like that and can afford to give up only non attack in a hand to face patry especially when you consider non- attacks like skywood serenade or flickerwisp which require some other thing to also be fulfilled for them to be strong flicker you really want to pair with Arc lightning and Skyward serenade I could totally imagine if a royalist do include that in their decks
11:00 - 11:30 you're going to have game states where you have seen all your schx like you've played three red schiks or you saw them early and you drew a Skyward seret later and it's not very good if you don't do the tutor part of it the rest of it's still playable but I think if you get to turn on and face patry with that it's probably a better use of the card so and yeah and and like we already said she's okay if she goes to her turn holding three attacks right and Twine lightning go again another go again and an Arsenal Los card or something like that so I feel like sometimes she's okay sometimes she's okay sometimes it's freaking
11:30 - 12:00 agreed if it's like yeah flittering charge and gone in a Flash and no instance or something yes uh but I think in general I feel like she has a few more hands where she's okay giving up the only non attack in it or something like that so I could see this being a powerful upgrade but to your point yeah I mean she still does need to have a whole bunch of instance she still likes playing some D reacts like s of suffering so yep maybe not we will have to see the other attack I want to point out or the other card from the Armory deck is spark spray coming out in red so for those who don't know spark spray the
12:00 - 12:30 red version uh is a zeroc cost lightning action attack attacks for four blocks for two and says when this is defended by one or more cards you may pay one if you do this gets plus one yeah we saw this in yellow already is that right in the first strike it was only in yellow yeah no I think this card is good I again my my question though is how many zero for fours can you play in the deck especially ones that don't have
12:30 - 13:00 go again or at least natural go again and I yeah like is this going to take the place of one of the other ones that don't naturally have go again like but what is that like on flash probably not um so I don't know this C this card is good though and I do think one of the things I really like about this card is that it's very good in the ingame um I do think that you do want ways to Resource sync at times and in the end game this this could be it um but also
13:00 - 13:30 if you're just in pure damage race 04 no go again the blocks two is not necessarily the thing you want to see if if you're not threatening like Channel Lighty Valley Etc where you you are forcing your opponent to block the card so I don't know this card is good though for sure I think the prevalence of this card kind of comes back to our previous discussion on face Burger tree and the non-attack density cuz I imagine if the non-attack density goes up you would need to cut the cards that gone in a Flash and flittering charge and then this becomes a very very easy replacement for those spots right
13:30 - 14:00 because those also don't have natural go again um and then so then you put this in there so you're not really increasing your brick rate when you put this in but then you get the payoff of this and you've got your higher non-attack density and the payoff of this the fact that you can it cancel trigger in the defense reaction step means that they can never be 100% certain that a z for 4D react covers this because you could just pay the extra and get your burn up shock on H or get your channnel lightning value on hit to your point about damage races yeah I probably don't see this coming in there too much cuz if
14:00 - 14:30 you have a spare resource you'd probably rather use it on Starfall but in the matchups where they're trying to block you a little bit more and if this can sneak in your burnup Shar or your channel lighting Valle you could see that being pretty strong is the dick good at that point though like honestly if you start cutting all these Goan cards and you have less attack density to threat to push damage for your channel lightning Valley or your burnup shock like should you be playing Aurora at that point like that that's kind of one of the questions I have about Aurora is like I I have this I have this Theory and something I've been testing a little bit this week is like like starting to
14:30 - 15:00 play some like one cost and play less blues and play more yellows right and and rely Less on embodiment of lightning and having to like always go wide and the dick just doesn't feel like it kind of works like it feels like you're competing with yourself in terms of these cards just lose Synergy particularly your Power Cards like Chanel lightning Valley and burnup shock is a very powerful card the turns you know the games where you push that through versus the games where you don't massive like they're insanely massive you saw it on your replay analysis you're watching with with Yuki right um so I don't know that's my question is
15:00 - 15:30 like can Aurora actually Flex or is it more that what comes out of this Aurora Armory deck is upgrades to the current kind of way of playing aora yeah it yeah I think it remains to be seen that we could very well see a shift entirely in the way they're built or these cards aren't good enough and then they just stay the way or stay Aurora just stays the way she is right now maybe just like skyw and schx uh or there's a bit of a hybrid thing uh in the middle it'll definitely require some testing but yeah I definitely agree with you that you are giving up some power
15:30 - 16:00 when you cut like the flittering charges and the gun in the flashes so it's like whether that exchange of power is worth it yeah don't know it's going to be a great question to one we'll have to answer very soon next in the news section third week of rtn season just ended we have our last week of rtn coming up this weekend but this past week we had in the classic constructed wins graph here we had visai at 24 wins firmly leading the pack this past weekend looks like a lot of people wanted to take him for his last har and
16:00 - 16:30 they successfully did that after that we had new at second place with 14 wins that's a significant drop off from the first place of 24 and then Aurora at 13 and then prism and syndra sharing the fourth and fifth place at 10 wins each prism catching up to syndra over there for this third week of rtn yeah I I mean I think we expected this to happen with thisai right it was going to go at the bang the last two weeks people have been pil on like I know people just been playing I actually
16:30 - 17:00 shout out um I got a three four different people messaged me on Friday and or Saturday and say hey I'm going to play your viser list at Road you know so I spoke about my viser list last weekend I posted it up on patreon with the c plans and stuff from what I played the weekend before had like three or four people reach out and say hey I'm considering PL you know would you change anything Etc like people I know um and my friend very good friend one of my best friends Dave he was like um oh he he should even tell me going to play he just missed me he like oh I met a RTI
17:00 - 17:30 and I'm like playing your list what would you do on this match up you'd never match up thing for it and I was like oh yeah I know probably this and then he just missed me like two hours later just a picture of his gold foil I was like nice contributing to that one there he's done a good job there nice I actually also heard I this might have just been a rumor but I heard a lot of V rise splitting the finals and allowing the opponent to take the win so that v r doesn't get more LL points he still ended up at 24 wins just go to show the sh number of people that just had to take him for his last R oh it was
17:30 - 18:00 massive massive amounts of people it's um interesting to see you know no there in second considering how strong visai was this weekend do you think that is a lot of cyb news hanging in there and and what's the I don't know what's been the appeal of playing new and what changes I think I've been seeing for a while I think the new V man up was 50/50 so but youve also been saying you don't think new is very good right now yeah yeah but uh that's more because of like Aurora and synas not not really
18:00 - 18:30 the the visai part of it sure um yeah I think the Aurora matchup is pretty tough for new and that she's like heavily tech for it cnra is actually still a bit more playable uh Aurora is one I'm a little more nervous about uh but yeah I'm I am also a little bit like looking at the top half of this graph here I don't see too many matchups that you'd be very happy to take new into uh so yeah I'm not too sure I I I do expect it more of it to be cyb though I think just to combat like the Aurora for example I
18:30 - 19:00 think c new has a better chance in Aurora than the regular new yeah let's just quickly do this okay so visai 5050 Aurora bad match up uh yeah I think I think s new has a has a better time into Aurora but I still wouldn't be happy on the new side I think prism not great Syra playable wow what about this one cuz this one was a bit of a surprise I think but I've I know specifically this one one of my locals vinet oh vincet is so interesting that matchup
19:00 - 19:30 is so weird because both of your cards like both of you have cards that function so differently in this matchup normally you're like oh leave no Witnesses is going to disrupt them but then sometimes it banishes a rune gate off the top and a run gate in the Arsenal and they're like cool now I can send three run gates at you at the same time or other times like send a Sal attack at them and they're holding a bunch of Run Blade cards they if they block with it all gets banished and they're suddenly sinking like like five blood dead a turn or something and they can't clear the banish sword so that mat
19:30 - 20:00 up is super interesting I don't think I have a fully definitive grasp on it yet I don't have super high level reps uh playing that matchup but my current hunch is that it is new favored uh simply because it's just so much more in the Viner to try and execute something and it can just very easily just be disrupted yeah any other thoughts about the obviously we SP specifically about new I do think it's interes I I think all the top five make a lot of sense to me cnra dropping away prism kind of rising up to combat the Sy and the auroras of the world um I think
20:00 - 20:30 surely that is good for prism with visai hitting out as well um and Vin is is the first one that's interesting to me the rest all kind of makes sense to me you know Iris and their enigmas and their Arachne Zen Etc all kind of Mak sense to me I think prism's a little bit interesting to me given that this was visz last weekend and we don't have the data on how many people registered this right but I imagine the number was maybe a bit higher than usual and so to have and to have prism match up with the number of syas I think is a little bit
20:30 - 21:00 surprising cuz that V prism match up is not very fun for the prism from what I've heard I just think it shows the power of prism against the rest of the format though like honestly you look at the second most played deck the second most winnest deck new Aurora cnra prism's good into all those three I think so I think it's just the it's like the level two deck right it kind of seems to be like prism at the moment so yeah makes sense anything else in the news section you want to talk about hiden yeah speaking of new content and
21:00 - 21:30 things coming your way from Arsenal pass in the very very near future as in like in the next day or two when this pod drops gameplay series myself Mr Nick butcher uh we have a game new gameplay series we've done this before it's actually we it's been over a year I think it's almost been two years since we last did this I think we did this for I can't even remember what set it was that's that's how long ago it was like yeah crazy might think might have been Dynasty I don't know I think it was D Dawn cuz I remember playing pris a very interesting prism list with two for
21:30 - 22:00 five weapon that one refractor yeah it was oh wait no was it what yeah reality refractor yeah yeah so um we've got a new series coming out four four series uh four installment series gameplay series really diving into some interesting matchups post ferai uh the first one coming your way is Ira syndra which I think is very interesting because looking at this you know classic construed results but also what I expect to happen with viser leaving is that cnra has kind of been the default Redline aggro deck of this previous meta
22:00 - 22:30 and potentially this next meta Aurora's maybe an interesting one within that and what that does but Ira I think becomes a lot more playable once verai goes um and has a very interesting spot in the m and what it does and Nick brings a pretty interesting Ira list to the table for our game so definitely worth catch catching we've also got Heroes like Enigma Heroes like y Heroes like Arachne Marinette which I know people will be excited to see um verdance Aurora uh involved in our gameplay Series so all coming your way and then we've got some
22:30 - 23:00 patreon changes which we've been speaking about for a while that aligns with this new content that's all going live from next Monday so if you're an Arsenal pass patreon make sure you go and check that out uh if you're not interested in being so then check out our new structure that's coming your way from next week awesome finally we are implementing the patreon changes that we've been talking about for well February I think February was a Target and we we wanted to get everything set up in the right way new content out all the things in the pipeline cogs moving all those sorts of things so yeah excited to to launch
23:00 - 23:30 this next phase of Arsenal pass with this uh content that we're supporting come on a cookout time page if you want to get your questions in for the commander cookout please do so you can drop them in the YouTube comments below let us know that they are a question for the commander cookout you can email us at Arsenal passfab gmail.com um you can yeah DM us directly whatever you want to do this question is another one from our not so recent now mailbag episode but one of the questions that we didn't get to that we highlighted to come back to too because good questions to be honest
23:30 - 24:00 uh this is from skiet double shout out to the community in the Pacific Northwest first of all uh that's that means you punk just so you know yeah I know this person he's awesome oh cool okay question is playing competitively can be very expensive from card acquisition to traveling and event costs I know that card games are sort of a luxury hob hobby but as someone who is who someone with a truly competitive spirit I want to be the very best like no one ever was good reference uh do you have any thoughts or tips or tricks or
24:00 - 24:30 anything in regards to reaching trying to reach the top on a tighter budget or how people get sponsored small tangent here real quick I was recently having a discussion with someone about goto karaoke songs in the car like when you're doing like a road trip or something and the Pokemon theme song is the top of my list it's the first thing uh to answer the question though sorry I just going to say I say fear but also I've heard you do karaoke and you didn't bust that one out so just saying wait did we not do that in Japan
24:30 - 25:00 I don't know if was it on there maybe we didn't I've just forgotten yeah um anyway so to answer the question I think with the current size of the game the current size in state with the game I don't think sponsorships are reasonable expectation uh at least right now I think the only sponsorships that I've heard of are the minmax ones and it's you know it's like there's Michael F there's Brody and I think recently Michael Hamilton as well in that sort of thing but it's it's you know it's really really very very small number of people and it's very very I I
25:00 - 25:30 think mmax is the only uh entity that I know of that actually like sponsors Flesh and Blood players so that I wouldn't say is a very reasonable expectation but in terms of trying to reach the top on a tighter budget as a question asks I think my best answer the best Avenue is winning locally and then using the gold foils probably selling them sealed honestly that's just your best return on return for the value don't you know risk opening them and selling them sealed is how I know a lot of people try and fund their trips to
25:30 - 26:00 you know say like Nationals or sometimes even overseas yeah uh one I guess slight amendment to that first piece so uh shout out to Invasion gaming and to PCG who do sponsor The Invasion PCG team I don't know what that looks like comparative to what MX do um but they they do provide sponsorship they uh for instance I mean I won't go to too many details of what they do but they they do financially try and sponsor and provide um ways for people to get to events international events particularly easier
26:00 - 26:30 or at least support them not in full but to help them so just want to shout out to PCG and also to Invasion for what they've been doing with the PCG Invasion team um and trying to get players out to international events but yeah to that point like it's not it's not a reasonable expectation I don't think and I think it's very hard to get off the ground and trust me I've been trying to do this for a very long time um shout out to Matt Rogers like me and him have had many discussions about this we've uh had a couple iterations of even like I guess a team or sponsorship to try and like help this happen for players like
26:30 - 27:00 specifically to try and help more players get out to events has been our goal um and it's not easy because it's just not the financial return for the sponsors unfortunately like it is really difficult um we've seen it come and go I don't remember if you remember Dragon shield for a while had a team right and they sponsored I think quite significantly financially uh a team but it's just like the the viability at the size of the game right now is quite difficult I think unless you're a very entrenched um brand within the game that can expect or you're trying to grow your
27:00 - 27:30 brand perception or um awareness within Flesh and Blood Community it is quite difficult I think you it is a big marketing cost but in saying that I you know it does happen right so I just want to point that out but I I don't yeah to your point it's not the it's not the Avenue I think that is the most likely and I I do think that in terms of playing things on a I guess a budget or being competitive on a budget I think the first thing is really targeting the events that you want to go to so you said like you know play locally start locally 100% like that's going to be the easiest to play locally win locally
27:30 - 28:00 really build your competitive resume build your wins up um that's also going to help you with things like ELO for instance so help you get those those invites come back for more um and then you know Target the events that you want to go to so it's like okay I know realistically it's like I should make sure that I'm prepared for one event if I say I'm in North America one event one ti4 event is going to be in North America every year at this point in in time that is just guaranteed right so let's make sure that I Circle making
28:00 - 28:30 sure that I can get to that event with funds Etc but also maybe my next step is to get to an International Event okay what is going to be the most likely International Event I can get to Flesh and Blood Al are much better now at announcing events earlier rather than later and you can start to plan for that early right so for instance we've just had Singapore announced last week you know middle of the year you've got four or so months to to try and book yourself in for that look now start looking now start looking at things like flights putting alerts on flights is a really
28:30 - 29:00 good uh tip I would say so like Chuck your alerts on different like times of flights be flexible with like the time you fly even honestly one of the ways to save money in this game is like taking non-direct flights for international trips like if you can bear it and do it it's going to save you money it might be slightly L comfortable might take you a little more time I think there's like this whole thing of like what's your currency like what's the currency you have to expend is it time or is it money right like it's really hard if you have neither like in terms of like you don't
29:00 - 29:30 want to push the budget on either your time or your your financial um expenditure into the game but if you can stretch one of them um you can do it uh budget friendly whether that's time budget or cash budget um so those would kind of be some of the big things I would say but yeah get an early start to plan it really nailed down what events you want to go to and it's like okay if they announce just like I want to go to three callings this year and maybe one of them internationally and they announce one that's going to take you like three to get there and it's in a very difficult to reach Place probably
29:30 - 30:00 not high in the list of getting to right so just trying to prioritize and and be strategic about getting to those events there's another aspect of this which as you were talking just came to my mind and I'm curious to know your thoughts on this I honestly haven't solidified my own opinion on this either but where do you think deck selection and like card buying like that aspect of it where do you think that comes in we alluded to this a little bit earlier with Armory deck talking about reprints
30:00 - 30:30 honestly we could probably have an entire pod on like reprints and stuff would wouldn't mind seeing some of those Staples come down a little bit uh but do you think there's a that aspect of it as well where you pick a class or a certain deck that I I don't know like can you hedge and maybe like this one will remain stronger give you a more value for money uh throughout a longer period of time instead of needing to instead of picking something and then like 2 months later The Meta shifts in your deck is now completely worthless and you just go buy into a whole new other deck I think
30:30 - 31:00 it depends right I I think there if you are someone who wants to play specific classes and heroes then yeah I think it's going to be a lot easier for you if you're someone who just wants to be competitive and have access to play the best decks and give yourself the best chance of winning at any given time I think there's a few things you can do one is be really cognizant of what's going to hit living legend and you know cashing out so to speak on some of your cards cutting your losses sometimes on cards that you've you've bought you've used them the hero is going to live in Legion soon like for instance you know maybe now is a reasonable time to start
31:00 - 31:30 thinking about cashing out of your Zing cards or maybe after Pro Tour London it might be for instance right um and then I think the other piece of that is just how you acquire and how you get cards so just being smart about you know not getting cards so if you're going to not if you're not going to maintain a large collection getting to a point where you acquire a card and then you get rid of it and then you acquire it again like just the rules of how you know trading works and especially if you've got any sort of stores or third party involved like you're going to add cost into that
31:30 - 32:00 unless you've done some very very smart and Savage trading based on understanding The Meta generally you're going to incur costs as opposed to save costs on that sort of thing um the last step I would say on that is if you do want to be someone who has access to all or more cards more options um build a group like just you know have a have a group of players like-minded who kind of share the burden of that you know um obviously it's difficult if you all want to go to the same event and play the same dick that's going to be tough um but building connections and and just you know having some Rel ship where sometimes you you you can maybe borrow
32:00 - 32:30 cards or people will offer to lend you cards is um is great right I think that is very very helpful that's how I mean personally like as someone who played magic when I was going through school um that was like the best thing is like I had a bit of a collection but my friends also had Collections and and you know we would lend cards to each other and and um that was very helpful I actually want to add on to that I mean the question starts with a shout out to the p&w community and uh actually I want to add on to that as well my first my first full year playing the game My cncs were actually borrowed I didn't buy my own play set of cnc's
32:30 - 33:00 until like almost a year um into the game uh playing competitively so yeah I think that aspect of it like borrowing from people around you borrowing from people in the community who are generally it feels like the Flesh and Blood player base is very very open to just lending people cards yeah and now look at him money bags page over here with his casai uh sansay no I'm kidding I think you just have regular sanses right yeah it's just I I don't bling out my stuff at all I mean we had the
33:00 - 33:30 conversation we had the command and C question right a few weeks ago was like do we bling out I was like I don't bling out my stuff um unless I can find a cheap version like my new mask is a Japanese cold foil version but that's cuz I got it cheap when I was in Japan yeah what's your new hero which which one are you playing with oh I I have the the Japanese anime one yeah I knew you would all right great command cookout question shout out to community shout out to being smart and Savvy about playing FL blood um yeah like there's so
33:30 - 34:00 many ways that I think you can do it on the budget that you want to do it on like everyone's got a different reason for traveling so if primarily your reason is to play a bit of a value game play competitively but do it in a way that's sustainable first of all sustainable doesn't mean winning to You Know cover your costs it means doing it so it's sustainable to the budget that you feel is reasonable and wins become additional right they become like nice Surplus back but that shouldn't be how you plan your your trips but if you're someone who's you know I know a lot of
34:00 - 34:30 people will do it as like oh it's my holiday for the year or it's like one of my two holidays for the year my vacations whatever you say in North America um so I will I will plan it around that and you know I'm not going to travel on quite as tight of a budget sort of thing and so it's it's a sliding scale but I I do think there's definitely ways to to game on a budget for sure people have been doing it for years Grinders have been doing it for years so there's always ways to um I mean we might not be the two best place people to to speak to that but I think when it comes to travel we've done a lot of it for this game game um and I would say that just the way you travel the
34:30 - 35:00 places you stay how early you book um how prepared you are for things how much you plan things out as a as a good way to win out and those things absolutely get your questions yeah as I said get your questions we want more moving on to the main topic of today's pod Hayden what to play in day one of a new meta so just lay the ground a little bit meta shifts happen all the time right it happens regularly either with new set releases like we just saw with the hunted or with Heroes Ling you
35:00 - 35:30 know particularly in the past old them Ling was such a massive caused such a massive ripple effect and a massive meta shift and so in this episode we want to discuss at a bit of a higher General level what sort of decks should you prioritize when you are entering a fresh meta so the first weekend after the meta has shifted in a significant way what sort of deck should you be aiming for now we will also discuss some specifics coming up for this spe for this coming rtn like this weekend for those of you
35:30 - 36:00 playing we will talk about specifics but mostly we want to focus on a general aspect how can you take these learnings and apply them in the future when meta shifts happen again so that was what we want to discuss in this part but also as we were talking about this being the main topic Hayden brought up a very very interesting point which is is this weekend even a day one meta is did The Meta shift that happened with this right link does that constitute a strong enough meta shift to call this a day one
36:00 - 36:30 meta so before we go into what is strong in the first few weeks of a fresh meta we're going to go over how fresh is this meta now in the first place one thing I want to start with is just how so traditionally when you'd say a fresh meta the reason it's fresh is because of um so there's two aspects to what what what makes something fresh there is the aspect of new cards coming in and new Heroes coming in and an unknown element right of like oh what does this do what do these cards do what does that mean for matchups right but the thing we've
36:30 - 37:00 seeing with flesh and blood is that actually a lot of the time new cards don't NE make the same impact as living Legion does right more so a hero leaving and the the void that that creates for other Heroes to come in and fill has been a much bigger impact to living Legion you just cited ultum leaving that opened up the pathway for many decks that couldn't compete because of ultum just holding them down so much being able to compete so there is there's like kind of those those two elements what I will say though and the reason this is quite interesting to me is okay viser was one of the best decks if not the
37:00 - 37:30 best deck right so clearly creates a void the one thing that's different this time around as to when ultim hit living legend is there's so many more Heroes than there was at the time when ultim hit living legend there's so many cards that have come into the game for those heroes in the last 12 months that I think there's also almost this element of newness to an extent of like well if a hero becomes more playable it almost it's almost a new hero because it's not been playable before and we've not really had that before so I I think I'll use a I use an example with um let's use
37:30 - 38:00 verdance I think verdance we've seen a few results recently right if that was a bad matchup into visai and now becomes potentially more playable how much do people know about Vis how much do they know how to play into visai I use vinet as an example if it was so held down because it was just the worst Run Blade or the worst uh run chant wielding Run Blade because of a but now sort of steps up into maybe being the preferred option and as bitter in the m how much people know how to play against that deck how much of experience they had against it
38:00 - 38:30 so I think what's really interesting with this question of is this is true day one meta is that this example of what we're about to walk into is unlike any fresh meta potential that we've had before to your point I think the term gatekeeper comes to mind over here when old them L and the Icelander L and Dr L those were very much Gatekeepers in those formats they had a lot were causing a lot more restriction on the
38:30 - 39:00 format than perhaps vist was which is I think what makes this conversation particularly interesting it's how much of a gatekeeper was V yeah so Vis was a gatekeeper like we did discuss this last week as well he was gatekeeping like the florians and like the Ys and like the victors like those were like hard matchups and Victor was and Vis was really saying hey you need a very good reason to bring those decks cuz I'm here I'm very very strong and I will just beat you almost always but I think we can agree that he wasn't as gatekeep as when you think about like the Dr like
39:00 - 39:30 actually saying you literally just cannot dare to play an assassin um while I'm around or like when iender was around it's like you just try and play URI into that or bolt into that actual just you just cannot do this um so I guess to some extent is maybe this conversation of of how fresh is this meta is that just relating to how much of a gatekeeper is Vis R are they both just you know uh explicitly related in that sense like linearly related it's just not simp simple that's the thing it's just not simple like it's not as simple as saying yes or no it was a
39:30 - 40:00 gatekeeper yes or no it has an impact yes or no these Heroes now have more relevancy and you sp I love that you spoke about gatekeeping because it's like a sliding scale and the reason I think V has maybe less impact as a quote unquote gatekeeper to other Heroes is simply the fact that if you look at these other Heroes like Alexi I'm going to point Alexi as well uh Dr my Tim Icelander they they almost prevented whole archetypes from being relevant in the meta and a big part of that was their disruption and as a crit to L that
40:00 - 40:30 they've gotten better to the point that these Heroes just aren't as pushed out as they used to be before you know the the Gap is closer these aren't these really kind of polarizing matchups and polarizing archetypes that just kind of say no you know what oh hey you want to play that well too bad ice is in the mid and you can't play your red line hero because it's just unplayable um because not only is the Icelander but hey you also have Lexi that splashes as ice or you know forbid when we had three ice hers in The Meta um so there is just like that that just doesn't exist as
40:30 - 41:00 much anymore so when it comes to Vis I think yes gatekeeper but if we take a step back and say what did it gatekeep well I think it gate kept Heroes that tried to do something similar but weren't as efficient so I think I'd put Viner and floran into their bucket for instance and I think it gate kept Heroes that couldn't deal with two axes of attack because of how prevalent it was uh will that remain maybe because maybe floring and vinet rise and take its place but honestly How likely is that it's more that we see a shift to some of
41:00 - 41:30 the other really powerful heroes in the format and that's why I do think that it will be quite a fresh met because I think we're going or semi fresh because we're going to see aggro dicks have a lot of impact which I think we're already seeing that because I think they were they've their positions not change necessarily the synas the auroras but what will change is the Decks that people play to react to that we spoke about prism in the news section it's reacting to a lot of the heroes in this format but now you open up Avenues I think to something like Guardian being able to potentially slip into that spot of being able to be a reactive I think assassins become more playable to be
41:30 - 42:00 honest uh in that space as well because now you don't the dicks that just can't deal with that split damage or those setup turns that Vis could do so it's to me it's more about almost the level two of The Meta becomes a bit fresher and then the question becomes okay in 3 weeks time or by we get to London what what does that mean does that mean that the the format looks is it going to be like a gradual process of freshness as we go across the next few weeks the interesting thing about V Ray when you spoke about the archetypes that he was sort of well quote unquote
42:00 - 42:30 gatekeeping cuz I think we already discussed he wasn't that extent he wasn't to that level of a gatekeeper the interesting thing is that in theory the archetypes that he was gatekeeping they actually could build in a way that at least helps them a little bit which is very different from like old Olden versus prism right whereas like Olden almost just can't even build to like beat that prism deck uh whereas these days like the Assassins like the reason why I think assassin was like still fine into the Vish r that will every now and then just set up and give them five cards is cuz some of these decks can
42:30 - 43:00 actually build themselves to be able to convert the four to five card hands um which I think is but so then now to your point about the level two thing it's also to some extent okay now these Decks that had to build themselves a certain way to have a good shot into Vis don't need to build themselves that way anymore um stuff like the cyb stuff that v r was also stuffing we spoke about this last week as well reaping blade Sol stuffing a fully defensive cyb sort of deck that can't put on pressure those sort of things can even come back
43:00 - 43:30 down and how does that level two sort of shift change everything else around it as well yeah I think Enigma is a good example of that what does Enigma do now like you know um the one other thing I want to say as well is that I think the big change has been that when you look at classes we have more options within class so you'd say oh okay um previously your Run Blade was invalidated because all Run Blade strategies were no good into let's say ice for instance like it was like visar and Brier into ice geez
43:30 - 44:00 what a nightmare right I just guess I just can't play room blade at the moment but it's like actually oh no this time when your Florian isn't playable because of XYZ reason well actually you have vincet you have secret ninja Aurora like you know you have these different play Styles and different things that these Heroes can do and that even extends out to you know um different different classes as well you could say the same for Ninja you could say the same for uh even like Illusionist to a degree you could say the same for GU defitely ya versus like Victor um for instance if
44:00 - 44:30 it's like oh Illusionist is is really good I think you can build Victor in a way to have some game against prism and Enigma yaal on the other hand no chance you're not going to be able to do it so I do think there is also just the depth within class and the V the variability within class of how Heroes play um because of and and this is the genius of it right it's because of the talent system it's because a big part is because of the talent system honestly can't say that about wizard though because we don't have one in the mattera I just real quick had to had to
44:30 - 45:00 shove that in there all right get out my violin world's tinest violin um okay so verdict then how okay I guess I'm not even sure how to put a greeing scale in this I was going to ask how fresh is this mattera but I don't know how we supposed to grade like the freshness of this matter okay okay relative to say hunted release yeah which was a fresh meta how fresh is this upcoming weekend with Vis riot paring like more let's start with more or less than like 100 well what I'd love I'm I'm
45:00 - 45:30 down with that but can we also first think what is the freshest meta we've ever had like what is the like the time where was like all this meta Feels So Fresh to me like it might be after star I think staring star but chain was still around and there wasn't many Heroes then oh yeah chain was around I that's a good point old yeah I could see I could see old him being there yeah or I actually think the freshest met we've had potentially is when um heavy hit is
45:30 - 46:00 released like came in became playable my second was going to be MST release actually okay okay I can buy that cuz those Heroes were Rob that's kind of close that's kind of call the The Meta just reduced to zenu right that that was the meta immediately post Ms release all right I won't use scallion okay more or less fresh than the hunted um oh that's a great question actually more Le for so let's break it down the hunter came in the biggest impact was
46:00 - 46:30 cnra immediately right visai was already kind of seen as maybe the best deck coming out of that because dashio had been had the hit CB Enigma just W worlds so I think that M was like semi fresh I'm going to say similar like honestly similar like I I don't think it'll have more impact and I don't think it'll have much less impact than the Hunter coming out this change I I could see it being less but the only reason why I think it's a
46:30 - 47:00 little bit less is because if I recall hunted release people were a lot lower than cnra than they should have been yeah that's trueir well is it is kind of what it is it's like cnra actually came and actually did Shake Up The Meta but people like weren't expecting it and so she had a bit of a larger impact than I think you know if people were expect her for it she probably wouldn't have actually no that's a very weird way to phrase it people are expecting an an exra shift doesn't change how much the shift is no okay you know what yeah I'm I'm I'm with you I'm with you on a on a
47:00 - 47:30 similar level where we probably see a couple of new players uh but there's still going to be a whole whole bunch of the existing players doing the thing let's say if the hunted releasing was a 10 doesn't matter what it's out of uh one the hunted releasing is a 10 and zero to or one is no change at all I think it's like an eight to a nine like I think it's slightly less impact to your point I agree with you on that about hunted but I don't think it's far off like honestly I I think what's interesting is that some heroes are going to change how they build and play
47:30 - 48:00 but I think we're going to see things we're going to see some really interesting things like hey vinet starts creep up is that actually just good hero and people going to play it um prism is that going to rise to be one of the best decks in the format now are we going to see the smattering of Warriors and Guardians come to play is Ira really relevant is marionet actually a good deck like Punker says it is and going to have a good time with v right leaving the like these are all questions that we have to answer and honestly the question to all of those could be no like it's just going to be aggressive format but something has to rise to combat the
48:00 - 48:30 aggressiveness of the format either way whether that's prism keeps its trajectory whether it's some out of Guardian comes in whether it's new just finding a way to be that default like something has to change in some way shape or form so it can't be completely non-fresh like there is going to be some freshness to the format I'm going to change my answer where I said it was slightly less than the hunter I'm actually going to give it I'm going to say 10 I'm going to say it's going to match uh the hunted release of level uh and I think a big part of it it may not be new her specifically but a bit of what I was alluding to earlier I think bills are going to change yeah
48:30 - 49:00 significantly enough uh that it will just look very very different and I think there will also be new Heroes too so I'm I'm I'm going to give it a 10 so with that hidden what should people play When the meta is fresh hunted release or any other previous set release or suddenly a hero L and you expect some churn in The Meta you expect new things you don't know what to expect rather what how should you what should
49:00 - 49:30 you register so that you are best positioned to perform well it's a great question page uh I also think that at one point I'll head on here just with this current change we're about to go through is I actually think although the meta might end up being somewhere to slightly less fresh to around the same I think the unknown are a little bit more than when we hit the hunted I think because you go through a previous season um yes people might have been a little bit lower on syndrome than they should have whatever but I do think that there was there was less questions to answer honestly um because some of the
49:30 - 50:00 questions that were lingering about hey Dasio has you know been somewhat banned out of the format CB has had the knock we had a few events post that already to help answer that question before the hunter released so I do think there was maybe a little bit more questions to be answered so with that said um I mean I don't want to steal your thunder but you so I'll I'll I'll say this and then you can elaborate because I think this is exactly my thoughts as well is that you should play the deck that asks the question as as opposed to the deck that tries to answer the questions you should play the powerful cards as opposed to
50:00 - 50:30 trying and play the reactive cards in other words you want to play the deck that does the maybe not necessarily linear but it does the powerful thing M that's not reactive it's doing the active powerful thing and the reason why I really wanted to talk about this this week is cuz I hear this phrase being thrown out a lot which is play the deck that asks the question but how do you define what is a deck that asks the question question um I think it's a little difficult to honestly just
50:30 - 51:00 give a very generic response to like what is a deck that asks a questions but an example that comes that sticks up very clearly in my mind is actually PT Amsterdam meta where very clearly Zen is the deck that's asking the question and then new is the deck that is answering the question and those were like sort of the two polls of the format if you will uh those I think that's the clearest example of this is a deck that's asking a question this is a deck that's reacting to the deck that's asking a question question and what we're going what we're talking about here is that for the first weekend the first few
51:00 - 51:30 weeks of a fresh matter you want to be playing a deck that's a lot closer to the Zen side in the PT Amsterdam matter which is the deck that is asking your opponent to react to it rather than the deck that's that's trying to do what new was doing in that mattera which is answering I think the way you see it's it's maybe difficult to put it simply I I don't disagree one why this is how I would try and simplify it though which is you want to do something proactive and when you sit down for a game you are generally going to do the same thing in every game and ask your opponent what
51:30 - 52:00 are you going to do about it as opposed and the things you will react to is hate or your opponent trying to stop your plan that will be what you react to but another player sits down with a linear proactive deck doesn't change your game plan you're going to do the exact same thing and that's what asking the question is about I think it is about the fact that you're going to do the powerful thing you're going to do it repetitively repetitively and if your opponent can't stop you from doing the thing either by killing you before you can kill them or having enough disruption to stop your plan then you
52:00 - 52:30 will win the game I think that's a great way to put it actually and I think one thing that makes it maybe not always so clear-cut I think actually the PT Amsterdam thing the Zen new was actually fascinating it's actually really complex I think it yeah it's it's fascinating how in a sense of how clearcut like that one was specifically but most of the time you have your decks set are in this sort of gradient right every deck is yeah it's like the decks lie on the spectrum of how linear they are how much they're asking the question so to speak and how much they're reacting I think like if
52:30 - 53:00 you look at how use worlds for example yeah like d iio were you were people going to show up with like was this question right are people going to show up with nine boom grenades in the deck and play this pure linear deck or are people going to play a bit more of a Rea you know we saw Sam Su in the top eight with a more combo focused version because he decided that that was the correct plan to play was a slightly more reactive version as opposed you know reacting to what the mid is doing as opposed to saying like I'm going to do my thing and I'm going to close my eyes and if you stop me you stop me sort of thing oh like the even the ninja decks
53:00 - 53:30 these days right like wax on and wax offs for example I think is this sort of package that came in as a reaction to certain other things in the meta but they are still fundamentally agcs are still fundamentally doing the asking the question they've just maybe shifted a little bit towards the reactive side which you know they should to get a much better um like win rate uh but yeah most decks usually fall somewhere in the spectrum of linear to reacting but but what saying is for this first weekend for the first as the met that way shaken
53:30 - 54:00 out yeah lean lean towards asking the question I'm also just that's my philosophy of this game like I will always lean towards the more proactive strategy the more repeatable game plan like that is just always My Philosophy for this game it's why I think you know I've really struggled honestly page with like trying to pick up and play Assassin because so much of your game plans change depending on the the opponent and the the texture of the game can change and I actually really like textures of game changing within game but I don't necessarily love it before the game
54:00 - 54:30 starts you know like there's this whole philosophy of when you sit down and this comes down to proactive versus reactive to your point right where you s on that scale there's the whole thing about okay you can almost you know win or lose again well you're not necessarily winning it but you can lose the game in sideboarding a all the time I think and that's that's the pregame stuff based on how you set up your deck how you decided to to play did you bring the right cards like I was listening to um Majin Caleb was like talking about his battle hard and win which is an insane Story by the way um but he was like oh you know like I plan to play Poison the Well but I
54:30 - 55:00 forgot to bring them and I had snags instead it's like that kind of thing of like okay did you get paired into the CB deck and then lose to it because you no Poison the Well because you lost in like pre-build or sideboarding like those are the things that I personally try to avoid and I will say for this like next few weeks and when it comes to a new M those are the things that I think majority of players in least you have a really good handle on a hero or a really good handle on M you should also avoid small tangent and that I was so upset with him when I listened to that story time because I was like dude I had
55:00 - 55:30 poison the Wells on me you could have just borrowed mine but he never asked he did borrow my Wong's diplomacies though which he still hasn't returned what the heck margin anyway putting him on noticed publicly um man there was there was something I wanted to say as you were going on that and then the tangent kind of just shot it out my mind um my fault I apologize all good uh I do want to sh shout out aelia here as one of those Decks that I think is the on the linear
55:30 - 56:00 side of the spectrum of like asking questions and stuff but has some element of reacting this might be a little bit to what you were alluding to when you're talking about the amount of hate that you're packing I think the sort of arrows that AA chooses to bring changes from meta to meta and there's some aspect of that as well right like we're currently in a meta at least maybe while this R is still around where in a meta where hamstring shot is incredible destroys Aurora destroy maybe not destroys but it's like giving them a frostbite which is something that they
56:00 - 56:30 definitely don't want often times also affects feriz but in there was The Heavy Hitters meta where fatigue shot was an amazing Arrow to bring in that meta for example there's lot of Guardians around I think that is just once again a little bit of an element of how linear decks even have these little dials that move them towards uh that that just puts them on the Spectrum uh where they they move towards like being a little more reactive yeah there's other examples I mean we play National season just being we played a very explosive aggressive
56:30 - 57:00 Dash deck that didn't even have an item package in the sideboard really we played one chamber just to start with and we play t-bones and magnetic Shockwave as disruption pieces in that deck right so that slightly reduced that damage output but it was to you know try and answer a question that was being asked at the format with Zen so there's yeah there's there's definitely different it's it's like you said it's a sliding scale and when you dial it up you still have ways to dial it across into that reactive a little bit while still being Ultra proactive so it's it's a very in some ways it's like it's
57:00 - 57:30 actually a circle it's not a it's not a um flat line right a flat Spectrum so it's really interesting what I guess let's talk about it I think syra's success is really derived from being that pure proactive piece in the mid through the first few weeks of the hunted season does that we've seen it come back a bit as we got into roach National season and the format solidified a little bit after those first two calling ons what happens next what are the Decks that are these proactive ones in your list that you think uh primed for success in this
57:30 - 58:00 fresh format actually that reminded me of the point for got thank you yes thank you for reminding me CU you brought up that you have always had a preference towards the proactive stuff yeah um and I'm the exact opposite I I love the decks where I need to find the answers I I love the decks where my power cards are different based on the matchup and I really had to study and practice this matchup to understand how much I'm supposed to Value certain cards over the other at which point in the game is my strategy supposed to shift and does my
58:00 - 58:30 strategy shift at all pre like you know based on the hero that my opponent flips up I mean we've had this conversation but I stand how that was the sort of deck that did that all the time um and yeah to me that is why I love card games and honestly this first few weeks of a fresh mattera because of how you should be playing the linear ask the question deck this is usually my least favorite time like when red line syndra is like the thing you're supposed to play the weekend of Hunter release I'm bored I'm just like I really don't want to play in this G I want to start finding the
58:30 - 59:00 answers but I I need to know what what the questions are being asked for me to find the answers so I need to wait for that to shake out um so I'm personally not too looking forward to this to this last week of rtn season for that reason uh and my picks can I just add because I know you're about to go into your picks but just can I just add to that because I think it's it's so fascinating I think we we we do truly sit on opposite ends of the fiction but one thing I will say and this is something I just did speak about before but I just want to kind of flish out this point a little bit I think really what you find is deck building you are a deck builder you love
59:00 - 59:30 deck building you find your answers to your questions and the way that you set up your ad cards and then how you go into your games and the texture changes game to game based on that right and I just spoke before about deck building sideboarding versus ingame I love coming up with an 80 cards that I think can really attack the m to your point so I do love being able to understand a m but not for the reason of like necessarily choosing the right cards for the matchup it's more about the right cards for the m to execute my plan and I still love flexing turn to turn like that is honestly one my favorite
59:30 - 60:00 Parts about the game I'll use enigma as an example right I i' said this anecdote many times on the Pod now but um world's day one I felt like I had a not very good deck list of enigma um at least for me in my play style I didn't enjoy it I felt like it was too reactive I changed for the calling I I switched to a more proactive build that I spent time on and my ad80 cards felt really strong in terms of getting me to what I wanted to do game to game in a very proactive way but then the games themselves felt so different and still a very cool way
60:00 - 60:30 where there's still a lot of decisions to be made I still use my power cards in different ways um so I I just want to make that distinction because I do think there is a way you can still without going the full just Bam Bam Bam aggro dick cuz that's not my I hate playing Agro dicks like that's not my style so I think if you know there's a we are on opposite sides of the spectrum to a degree but maybe not as much as we think that's the and that's why I say maybe it's actually CC oh yeah to be clear I think when we talk about doing like playing the deck
60:30 - 61:00 that asks the question or the deck that does the in a sense thing where the game plan yeah where the game plan doesn't change too much uh going from game to game that's not the same as play the aggro deck and actually it's not yeah I have four picks for what you should play this weekend and two of them are not aggro decks and two of them are Agro decks so I guess since we were talking about that I'll go over the non- AGR deex first these are two I'm the most sad about the first one is Enigma uh I think Enigma is very much the I am doing this thing can you answer it I am going
61:00 - 61:30 to set this up and are you able to answer that efficiently if you're not able to I will just run you over and just trample you with the world can you answer my Traverse turns effectively can you answer just my board State effectively can you answer my good numbers when I play like fantasma clasm or tuning miring metamorphs for example so Enigma is okay I I didn't really order this list because any as one of the four the other one the other non-ag dech is cyb new specifically cyb new not the regular new I think regular new needs to know what it's answering to
61:30 - 62:00 understand what tech pieces to put in cyb no though is doing the asking a question is doing the linear powerful thing of I'm going to fatigue you I have my mask I have my hero ability and I have life gain I will fatigue you what are you going to do about it and these two are my non- Agro picks for this weekend for asking the question yep and then your AGR piics my AGR piics are syndra and Aurora for I mean it's the same reason that the de ask a question it's just on the they
62:00 - 62:30 are firmly on the aggro camp Aurora maybe it's a little bit Aurora is the one I would take if you are confident that like over syndra I would take Aurora if you're confident that your area doesn't have too many aggro players and more the sort of players that want to play the little bit more dirly a little bit more midrangey stuff because then you just have this natural combo package to help into that autom ially whereas Syra is the one I would prefer if you know your mattera is a lot more Agro focused cuz I think Syra has a
62:30 - 63:00 slight Edge over Aurora in Agro mirrors but Aurora has the edge of a syndra in the small mid-range matchups 100% I mean fck whisp AR lightning is very very powerful um combo you can sit up I think I mostly agree the one that kind of sticks out to me is like the cyb new thing but I think I think you're right I think I just don't want to believe it cuz I think that dick is just a Paro I hate that dick it makes me so sad like I said Enigma andc no being on my list makes me sad but I just yeah I was like
63:00 - 63:30 it is what it is I think there's there's three other dicks I want to talk about in this space um one is prism because I think it's had a very good start to the season road to Nationals and I think visi leaving is only good for it and it does proactive things it does smack big Heralds on the table and says hey if you're playing an Agra dict they can't deal with this I'm going to get so much card Advantage flip angels and I'm just going to overwhelm you um and I think that is quite a proactive thing to be doing and I don't think honestly the the complexion of the deck changes needs to
63:30 - 64:00 change too much like I think you can just do your thing I I want to push back on the prism a little bit I think that prism like yes but to your I think when we discussed this we're saying that no matter what your opponent flips up your game plan doesn't change I think prism actually does need to change if you face up against like a Victor you can't do your Herald game plan anymore like that just that just won't work if you face up against a random brute that's lying around like I don't know some brings a l or KO and and hate those you can't really do that anymore either is I might
64:00 - 64:30 I think like I might just scoop like honestly like I think I think that's effectively what I think prism is right now anyway like I don't think you are like I think you might have some sideboard packages to be like Oh I'm playing in against Enigma I need to have like you know ways to buff my stuff over the top of their like ability to block CU I need to flip an angel otherwise I do lose this game because it's a snowball game or you know okay um maybe I do care about Guardians and I do have but that's the same for like you talk about raar it's the same like if I'm playing it's a dick that might fatigue me like I need to have access to flicker with spk lightning like these these
64:30 - 65:00 dicks still do have some elements of that to degree syndro I'm going to present 65 cards instead of the 60 so I make sure I don't fatigue in this matchup sort of thing like I do think there's an element of that and I I my argument would be right now prism as opposed to Old prism that just had very different game plans all the time it doesn't have access to those things anymore like it is a heral deck these days like it is quite linear I think which is which is why I wouldn't recommend it for this first weekend because we like because these new unknowns right we don't know who is going to come out of the Woodworks what if this weekend happens and suddenly
65:00 - 65:30 people realize hey you know what KO is back on the menu or like Lavia is like back in the menu or like Victor is actually a force in the mattera and which is why it would be like if you're bringing a deck that I don't it can't actually execute what it wants to do fairly consistently across different hero flips then it's it wouldn't be my recommendation for the that's the question right like how how easy this is why you should just default the powerful thing because if you think that prism isn't as powerful as some of these other decks in terms of just being a good
65:30 - 66:00 linear deck then yeah don't play it because I think you can say that that's the same for people go oh you know what I think this met is going to be very aggressive I'm going to play a full fatigue yal Guardian deck cyb yal and that's my answer to this format is like I'm just going to fatigue all these Agro decks like people can also just come to that conclusion and you're not going to be able to do your thing in those games as an agro de so I but what I think comes back to is people will have different takes of the format if you want to play the linear thing that's the most powerful do the one that is the most
66:00 - 66:30 powerful okay I could see it I could see it I'm still it's it's okay it's it still hasn't made my list but but go on continue you said there were I'm not sure it's making my list either it's just the one I would I would throw I'm not saying I'm going to go and play it but like I do think it's been winning I think there's a reason it's been winning I think it's pretty linear these days in terms of what it used to be um I'll move on I think Kan I think okay you go on the so to me prism was winning because the meta was specifically an aggro meta
66:30 - 67:00 and if we're going to a weekend where we're not sure whether that is that status quo is being maintained is why i' be has I think taking person is a bit more of a risk but yeah could take could well be I think that's part of the unknown right I also think taking Aurora could be a risk this weekend um if people decide to to show up with decks to combat um like if if the Met is just going to be super aggressive like I don't know if that's the deck I want to be playing this week weekend um off those decks but I don't know uh Kano let's talk about Kano I think Kano is
67:00 - 67:30 interesting I think it's a bit of a wild card I think often there's there's two ways Cano can go when the mid is really wide often it can feel terrible because people just prep for all sorts of things they play random Oasis in their deck and all these sorts of things or it works out well because people just cutle their Arcane barrier because they can't fit it because they feel like they need to combat different strategies um and generally in a proactive meta that is probably less true I think it's more happens weeks 3 four Once the Met starts it's still wide but it starts to
67:30 - 68:00 solidify what the strategies are as opposed to maybe the heroes so I think Kano maybe not the best pick for this week but might be a great pick in say two weeks time if you hit into a battle Harden for instance I think Kano is one of those where if we're talking about rtns know your local meta are they the sort of people that always respect Kano then in that case don't bring it but there's L of people where they're trying to build a decks find an unknown mattera and the first thing they cut is the ab and the spell void then yeah then go ahead and bring Kano I think you you mentioned wild card and I think I can't find a
68:00 - 68:30 better term to play Kano it's very much a wild card I I cannot say I advise or advise against bringing this hero no no I wanted the last one I want to talk about as a bit of discussion is Zen where does zen sit on this is Zen actually a proactive deck these days or is it more somewhere down the scale towards maybe even being a somewhat reactive dick in some ways I would put it somewhere in the middle too closer to the reactive thing at least the way we've been seeing it bu the past couple of months like the addition of like the
68:30 - 69:00 wax on wax offs for example but then he can also go further into like red harmonies of the hunt red tiger form incantation even if he needs to really be aggressive if the meta is full of enigmas for example then Zen wants to go more into like the tiger package stuff in so more the D react stuff so I I do think Zen wants to see how the meta plays out a little bit uh he's he's yeah he's in a weird aggro deck spot in that sense in my opinion so bad no it's I just I I can't and this is the thing I want to get a handle on because I think it forms my choice to play this
69:00 - 69:30 weekend is what is the best just default aggro deck like if you just lean as hard as possible into being the best kind of damage dealing proactive thing is it cnra I mean Zin actually might be able to put up a case of being like hey if I just draw transcend every turn and I don't bother with playing all these defensive cards in my dick but I guess the problem now is that it just lost so much from bonds and things like that I just can't compete in the same way they used to and that's why people move towards the wax on wax offs and and being more of a kind of quote unquote
69:30 - 70:00 mid-range kind of deck I guess I think to answer your question of the best aggro deck or like the default aggro deck I think the one that's the most well-rounded in my eyes is Aurora because you have the game plan into a dirly decks and you have a game plan into other aggro decks sure you're a little weaker into the other aggro decks compared to like say syndra but you aren't completely lost when you pair up against like a Victor ARL so I think Aurora is like the most rounded and cnra is the the closer to the leading towards I'm just going to do this thing uh and
70:00 - 70:30 are you able to block me out are you able to answer me okay let's talk a little bit about um so we talked about proactive decks and we we put Enigma in there which I think is a great shot you know I think that has reactive elements to it but it it just honestly wants to slam numbers and slam Ward on the board it's build is going to look different potentially that's one thing that's going to be maybe hard to answer is what build of aniss you play specifically um if we move down towards a bit more of the mid-range stuff these Decks that want to play you know some amount of proactive but reactive plans they need to fuel maybe their banish zone for
70:30 - 71:00 instance in the case of Florian um G verdence Victor what do you think these Heroes set do you think there's a is there a reason to play any of these this weekend or just stay stay clear of them I feel like it's a bit of a gamble to bring some of these Heroes because you don't really know the sort of tech pieces to bring it now so we spoke about play the deck that ask the question play the one uh that needs to answer the thing that's asking the question and I
71:00 - 71:30 don't the example I want to bring up here is not a specific deck or specific hero but a specific card which recently has come in and out and that's weakest link I think this the story of weakest Link's prevalence in The Meta kind of encapsulates the point I'm trying to get across here which is before hunted release when MST was rampant across the meta weakest link is a card you want in your mid-range e decks to slow down the Zen or to even just like you know make it awkward for
71:30 - 72:00 the news and enigmas that are running around M post hunted release though we've been seeing this card being cut from a lot of lists in favor of erase face because visai is back and being a massive force in The Meta cnra is back and being well cnra is released and being a massive force in The Meta so they swap the weakest link for their Race Face um and that's the sort of point I'm trying to get across here where when you pick the mid-range decks like the Earth Heroes uh of like the Y there are certain pieces like the weakest links that you don't know which
72:00 - 72:30 one you're supposed to bring in yet cuz you don't know what you are trying to answer and these are Decks that need to have these answers to be able to match the Decks that are asking the questions yeah I I just couldn't put it bit myself I think it's so true I knowing which of these cards you need to play and which ones you aren't and the there's I don't want to go too deep down a rabit hole but when you play a deck that has to play reactive pieces what happens is that you play a game and you go okay I'm going to disrup my opponent with XYZ card so I come in I attack yes
72:30 - 73:00 I've drawn the hand that presents 15 damage and presents a a Race Face the classic is like I love Spears of seran enigma for instance yeah the old three card hand Spears into a Race Face against my Syer opponent great I've taken the tempo I've forced on the back foot they've had to block with their shitty two blocks and they're going to present not much damage next turn and then I draw up my hand and I have two transing cards another random blue and and a defense reaction what do I do I mean I've just I've just I've taken Tempo and now a for
73:00 - 73:30 out hand that doesn't actually capitalize on that Tempo and that is the problem with the playing these reactive decks as well is like they have to be so well built to make sure that your ratios are right that your game plan is executable and then things still have to go right after that as well and you still have to draw the cards at the right time so I just think yeah when it comes to those things that's why I just kind of want to stay away particularly in the first few weeks from any dick that needs to place some amount of reactivity in in the DI that's an excellent point and I think that also touches a little bit on reps right like
73:30 - 74:00 when like you need just reps into the the Decks that are asking the questions so that you know when you look at a hand okay this is a pivot hand or this is a hand I can take the damage for um and maybe I'll get punished if it dra specifically like 2D reacts in the next hand but this is the way I actually can this is like my way to win the game because you have those reps but first weekend of rtn when you're going to be playing a bunch of decks and a bunch of deck builds that you haven't played against before you don't know the answers to these questions you don't know which of your hands are the strong
74:00 - 74:30 ones to Pivot off of or what other sort of hands that can punish you down the line so yeah that that's the other reason to not really play the midr stuff in my opinion all right with that said where does because let's let's just wrap up this pod a bit I think we've spoken a lot about what you should shouldn't play this week let's use me as a case example for this weekend I have now decided based on our conversation uh Punk that I'm not going to play yal this weekend that's off the table too reactive don't want to play it I'm not going to play verdance I
74:30 - 75:00 think because I think that hero might just be too reactive and might suck a little bit unfortunately um so let's say that leaves me with Enigma marionette and I'm going to say prism leaves me with those three Heroes I I don't want to play aora before the Armory deck comes out I think it doesn't quite fit my style and I I SRA is not my style so I think that's where I'm left at maybe Zen maybe Zen could be in there any advice for me now on those so if we say my my options I've narrowed down to now are prison Zen uh
75:00 - 75:30 Enigma and Ary Marinette any advice for me where does because you you've played some Ary Marinette where does that fit in this conversation we've just had assassins are so weird right because assassins it feels like they are the class that are built to react the most depending on what's happening in the matter I think the card that comes to mind for example is Art of Desire body right suddenly beinged nowra even infiltrates infiltrate is so funny because I putting
75:30 - 76:00 infiltrate in Myck being like Oh yeah my opponent's cards are better than mine so I rather have infiltrated an autod desire body because I rather draw one of their cards than one of my cards for example um or you know that's a card where most people are running a lot of D well most people are running a lot of D reacts these days so your infil can randomly hit a d react sometimes and you get paid off of that um I think Marinette is a little bit closer to the agroy side as far as assassins go like compared to like new for example uh
76:00 - 76:30 they're a little bit more on the okay I can send damage and ask my opponent difficult questions but it's still I mean there's a reason it wasn't on my list of decks I would highly I would recommend people it's still reactive right this weekend like although it's AR it's still reactive because of the card choic like you just spoke about exactly so of your picks I mean as much as it pains me and it kills me inside to say it only one of those Heroes was on my list so I you know I would recommend Enigma uh which I know feels very very
76:30 - 77:00 um almost sacrilegious for for me to say play The Illusionist Hayden but yeah that would be my advice is there any love for floran is there any way we can play a really practive Florian dick that might be interesting there there might be a way but it just comes back to again like how right yeah and is it the most powerful thing you can be doing if you want to beat the enigmas and stuff then yeah you'll put Bramble Sparks seen some with even Chan the Millennium tree and stuff like that but then it's also what are the aggro decks how you like combating them it's just
77:00 - 77:30 there's too many questions yeah the Florida needs to figure out what answers it needs and it just we just don't have that yet until the meta shakes out a little bit all right well I've narrowed things down I've not exactly said what I'll play this weekend but I'll tell you what if I decide before I go to bed tonight I will throw up on the Arsenal pass uh patreon the deck I'm going to play and whatever sideboarding plans I might have as semblance and in case anyone wants to for some reason emulate my um thought process that we've gone
77:30 - 78:00 through in this podcast or maybe you want to do your own thought Pro process based on our discussion on this podcast let us know in the comments below if you're on YouTube or pop over to YouTube drop some comments below let us know what you think first of all this discussion second of all what you think this thought process might lead you to play this weekend for road to Nationals um can't wait for all the auroras and synas to jump in um maybe we'll hear some really interesting stuff maybe people will pick out the wild cards and caners maybe some people have some interesting thoughts that even we we didn't get to think about so um you spoke about aelia maybe there's love for
78:00 - 78:30 aelia because it does kind of a bit of both of what you said so uh yeah I'll go away have a little think I'm definitely playing tomorrow so I need to work out what to play but I'll come up with something I'm sure and before I end up playing like freaking y or something not playing y awesome uh well I'll be playing Marinette because my only other option my only realistic option is new I'm like with you I don't like playing the aggro decks and I don't play Illusionist so it's new Marinet for me and I hate CB so I'm not and I spoke about how I think cyb new would be the
78:30 - 79:00 pick for this weekend so between regular new and Marinette I'm just going Marinette because it's closer to the scale of asking the question rather than reacting compared to new but I don't think it is the best pick fair enough all right well that has been episode 202 of Arsenal pass thank you very much for listening shout out to all the Arsenal pass patrons remember we do have patreon changes coming next week make sure you check out all the other additional content we are sending you away with punes replay analysis with Pro players with the gameplay series that's about to come and until next week we'll see you
79:00 - 79:30 in the next episode