The third and final major event in August has many players in Flesh and Blood wondering what we can glean about the state of the High Seas Metagame.
After the impressive finish with Gravy Bones, Shipwrecked Looter winning in Calling Kansas, and Kano, Dracai of Aether in the Battle Hardened, we all saw the Necromancer mirror match, and the high number of Gravy Bones players making the overall top 8.
Going into Copenhagen, many players were, and still are, calling for the Ban Hammer on the Necromancer, but the results from this weekend painted a slightly different picture.
Calling Copenhagen
Going into this Classic Constructed Calling, we got to see a varied cross section of the Classic Constructed metagame.
The vast majority of the decks were of course, the two stand out heroes, Gravy Bones and Arakni, 5L!p3d 7hRu 7h3 cR4X. There's a significant drop off to the next hero, Oscilio, Constella Intelligence who's meta share has crept up a lot since the past event, and whose ability to present split damage in the form of wide combat chains and tall arcane damage is challenging for most decks, including the top two.
After 7 rounds of Swiss, the conversion rates of certain decks going into day 2 was surprising. We saw the drop off of both Slippy and Gravy Bones, with a strong showing for other aggressive decks such as Dash I/O and Fai, Rising Rebellion. Being well suited into the current metagame top dogs did well for those fringe decks in Copenhagen.
After 5 more rounds, the very eclectic top 8 comprised 2 Gravy Bones, 2 Slippy, Oscilio, Fang, Dracai of Blades, Cindra, Dracai of Retribution, and Jarl Vetreiđi.
There is a smattering of decks that are positioned into the top by offering damage that's hard to answer, being able to perfectly fatigue out the aggressive decks, or going faster, all posed reasonable answers to Slippy and Gravy.
The narrative during the livestream was around Maximilian Klein, and his journey throughout the tournament. While on stream during Round 1 and the final, they seemed particularly strong into the field.
Fancesco Giorgio's Slippy was able to take down the day from a well timed pair of Just a Nick which turned a Bonds of Agony into an attack for 17 from virtually nowhere. This has lead to many internet commentators on Flesh and Blood question the overall power level of the Assassin class. Perhaps we may see Assassin cards hit the chopping block come
Nevertheless, it made for deeply entertaining games that has cemented Slippy at the top of the metagame.
Battle Hardened Copenhagen
While day 2 of the Calling raged on, Battle Hardened Copenhagen was also taking place, and was also in the Classic Constructed format. 126 players battled over seven rounds to bring us to a very eclectic top 8.
The top 8 consisted of 2 Arakni, Marionette, 1 "Slippy" Arakni, Cindra, Dracai of Retribution, 2 Dash I/O, Prism, Awakener of Sol, Vynnset, Iron Maiden.
The top 8 saw the Dash mirror at the start and the Assassin mirror at the end, with Marionette coming out on top. Konrad Niva's list is particularly unique, having only a slight care about daggers, and favouring quite a few utility traps.
Arakni Marionette's play rate has been increasing slightly, and being so favoured against Slippy is a strong point in the other Assassin's favour. We can only wonder if this will translate into his Gravy Bones matchup, because if it does, that may put the other Assassin back into the metagame mix.
Wrap Up
While there are very clear front runners in the waning days of the High Seas metagame, it might not have been the deck we first thought it was. Instead, it's Assassin taking home the titles in Copenhagen. We can only wonder if the double Just a Nick plays will ever be allowed to see the light of day come September 1st, or if they'll hit anything out of other top decks like Gravy Bones, the Wizards, or Dash I/O.
In the event that anything changes, you can find live, up to date news about Flesh and Blood TCG right here on FaBTCG.gg.
