The National Championships season has started strong. Numerous nations have played their rounds, with Nationals week 1 in the books, and we have a lot of results to consider. Each of these higher level wins are all adding up to what we can expect the metagame in Pro Tour Singapore.
As a refresher for those who may not be in the know, players who's ELO ratings were good enough, or for those that won a Road to Nationals event qualified for their country's respective National Championships. Each player who makes Top 16 at their Nationals will qualify for the World Championships.
Lest we forget, these wins will convey Living Legend Points to the winning heroes. CC meta shifting, Living Legend points, and more, there's so much on the line.
Week 1 Results
The countries on offer this week just gone features: Brunei, Canada, Czechia, Denmark, Germany, Iceland, Romania, Slovenia, Switzerland, Thailand, and Taiwan.
The results from these 11 countries are very eclectic. This, to me, looks to be a cross section of the best heroes in the current metagame.
In this article, and the other articles covering Nationals 2025, we're going to spotlight the winning deck from each country.
Brunei
This was an intimate, 8 person National Championship. The event was so small, 2 of the 8 players didn't even register which heroes they were playing.
Dash I/O, piloted by Fadhil Majid, made the win here over 6 rounds of CC and 3 rounds of Draft.
It's very interesting to look at some of the noteworthy inclusions and omissions from Majid's list. It's a given to see the full complement Pulsewave Harpoon for disruption, and 8 out of a possible 9 Boom Grenade. This version Nationals Week 1 winning deck has the full complement of 3 Maximum Velocity but no Twin Drive, one of the easiest ways to enable that hefty finisher.
The use of Arcanite Skullcap is utterly baffling since there is a welcome blocking piece in the form of Adaptive Plating. Bracer's of Belief has been seeing play in Dash I/O as it's very easy to enable to put a little extra damage onto an attack.
Under Loop is a delightful on hit to snipe away the majority of Gravy Bones' allies.
Canada
One of the other events streamed through the official FABTCG Youtube, we were treated to the full experience of the Canadian National Championship.
During the semi finals of top 8, we were paraded with what felt like an eternity of a Gravy Bones mirror, only for one of the prevailing Necromancers to be defeated by Jordan Jalbert-Ross' Cindra, Dracai of Retribution.
Jordan Jalbert-Ross - Cindra, Dracai of Retribution - National Championship 2025 - Canada
The switchboard based on which mask you're using gives Cindra so much utility. In race matchups, where you can consistently hit, Mask of Momentum can draw so many cards. In games where things can go a little long, and you need a burst to go over the top, Mask of the Pouncing Lynx will shore up the damage, with the silver bullets of Lava Burst, Salt the Wound, and Tenacity to find.
The 6 Blues are there for welcome utility. We get to see them pitched into the daggers to compensate for the higher number of Generic, and non-Draconic Ninja attacks in this deck, to make the number of Draconic Chain links there are. Cindra will remain a strong choice for anyone seeking to keep their Gravy or Verdance matchups easier to manage.
Czechia
Hosted from an LGS in Prague that I had the pleasure of opening a Warmonger's Diplomacy in during The Hunted World Premier week, the Nationals Week 1 event in Czechia saw a big and varied metagame taken down by a deck I love to doom on.
Prism, Awakener of Sol has prompted decks to run copies of Blanche and Rally the Coastguard in decks that can't play them as attacks just to respect her gameplan.
When avoiding poppers, Prism offers the strongest numbers in the game, turning her on hits into a board presence that snowballs other value.
Despite coming up against a Rhinar, Reckless Rampage in Top 8, Jakub Kouřil's Prism deck was able to take down the day. The deck looks otherwise standard, following the trend of 2 copies of the new Herald of Sekem to enable arcane and easy charging through a popper, and the inclusion of Riches of Trōpal-Dhani to provide even more valuable uses of Yellows.
Denmark
This second of the four Cindra decks from this weekend is by far the most unique. We see an absolute glut of Blues, but absolutely zero Yellow cards. This increase in resource cards allows for more 1 and even 2 cost attacks at a pinch. Command and Conquer has likely been included as a popper. The inclusion of Flamescale Furnace also eases some of that resource pressure.
There are card inclusions like Mark with Magma to up the Fealty generation for the Generic cards like Snatch and to up the consistency of the near full complement of Art of the Dragon: Blood, Art of the Dragon: Fire, Art of the Dragon: Claw, and Art of the Dragon: Scale.
The Blues included are either Warmonger's Diplomacy - a tech card into the Azalea and Gravy matchups. They're also all dagger synergy cards. Stab Wound is a Blue equivalent to Salt the Wound on a Wrath of Retribution and Concealed Blade can get back a banished or face down Kunai, since Balázs is running all 3.#
Germany
The Assassin decks are often better in a more figured out metagame, given that they can find what answers they need based on what the metagame is set to be doing.
Sebastian Kleiner's take on Slippy offers a good deal of disruption into Cindra and Verdance, and enough Go Again aggression into Gravy and his team to be a reasonable contender in this meta.
What's interesting about this version is that it is a deck which does not care as much about Marking. There's no Reaper's Call in the Blue base and there's no Mask of Deceit. Instead, it uses Hunter's Klaive very sparingly to enable Mark of the Black Widow and is then fuel for reactions with Flick Knives to enable Bonds of Agony and Double Trouble.
Codex of Bloodrot may not see quite as much play as the other, more broken Codex card, but in an aggressive deck like this where you can pressure the hand into blocking, taking away their last blocking card means you can reliably force an on hit.
It's also nice to see the new card Undercover Acquisition on display. Stealing a Rum or Gold from Gravy Bones, a potion from a Wizard, or anything from Mechanologist is a huge tempo swing for you.
The event was streamed, and the vods are available to watch back right here.
Iceland
This 24 person Nationals Week 1 event saw Azalea's only win of the weekend. The deck that many were calling the format's defacto aggro deck has since been outclassed by Cindra, and has many wondering whether or not she'll even LL by the end of Nationals season.
Azalea, Ace in the Hole has been doing well filling an aggressive void that the metagame sorely needs, by providing real aggression and disruption which did a great deal of work curtailing Florian at the end of the last metagame and going into Calling Bologna.
The version won with Ásgeir Jóhannesson is very Redline and aggressive. We see only Nock the Deathwhistle as a utility Blue, and the rest of the Yellows being there to enforce aggression in the form of Amplifying Arrow and Rain Razors, or are there to ensure consistency with the market warping Codex of Frailty.
Romania
Arakni, Marionette took the day in Romania. This deck has been solidified as the Daggers and Disruption matters deck, playing the kinds of pumps you might expect to find in a certain style of Fang deck.
Unlike the Slippy list which won in Germany, this deck cares about keeping Hunter's Klaive on board. Up Sticks and Run is often played as a front pump, but its the better Retrieve effect over Pick Up the Point.
The rest of the deck is very aggressive, leaning towards dealing high damage with the daggers and attack reactions, then using the right kinds of reactions to threaten with Bonds of Agony.
Slovenia
The only prevailing Gravy Bones, Shipwrecked Looter came to us in Slovenia, piloted by Marko Leben.
This is what I like to call a budget list, simply because it does not contain the extremely expensive Fabled cards Eye of Ophidia or Riches of Trōpal-Dhani.
The rest of the deck looks incredibly consistent, with all 9 copies of Golden Tipple to filter allies or Sea Legs into the graveyard. It also has the capacity to gain extra action points through Back Alley Breakline and Lead the Charge.
Prevailing deck building theory dictates that Gravy Bones should be on as few Reds as possible, to make sure that Chart the High Seas remains a consistent value engine card.
Switzerland
Switzerland brings us our third winning Cindra deck of Nationals Week 1. Piloted by Tigran Grigorian.
This hyper aggressive version has the bare minimum of Yellows and Blues, but still has the room for adoptive tech from other Cindra lists that we've been seeing in the past.
Including Battlefront Bastion and likely Freewheeling Renegades for Prism makes sense, but there are other attacks with costs which stand out. Dragon Power in Blue is a welcome sight for some Cindra decks, but it's surprising in this list. Being reliant on Blood Splattered Vest for resources may strain this slightly heavier cost base.
Taiwan
Verdance piloted by Oh Oh picks up the victory in Taiwan.
This particular list looks stock standard. Verdance is able to send respectable, heavy arcane damage if the player presents Surgent Aethertide, which can follow any arcane spell. At the same time, Verdance is a far better Cadaverous Tilling deck than Florian.
Oh Oh's list relies on the Healing Potion combo, but is well suited to the mirror by including Arcane Compliance.
Thailand
The final Cindra deck of Nationals Week 1 was piloted by Wiroon Juesathainrat in Thailand.
Its Yellow and Blue count is at around average, but some of those Blues being Energy Potion allows for cards with a steeper cost to be played without pitching or over using Blood Splattered Vest.
This is once again a Cindra deck running 3 poppers, and there have been some lists that even run up to 6, just to shore up their Prism matchup. If this has been bringing the Cindra decks a modicum of success, then we can expect to see it going forward.
Wrap Up
The 2025 Nationals Week 1 has given us all some very powerful decks to consider, and we have to strongly evaluate what the metagame looks like going into the rest of Nationals Season. Keep up to date with the break down of the top decks in Flesh and Blood TCG right here on DotGG.
