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In a game like Flesh and Blood, where decks become part of your identity, it's tough to say goodbye sometimes. The Living Legend system has been parting people from decks they've identified with, that they've put hundreds of hours of gameplay into.
The loss of these decks have people looking towards the Living Legend format, then seeing how it's been inconsistently managed, and thinking better. As someone who has my Marvel Enigma, Ledger of Ancestry on my desk, I miss the hero deeply.
Taylor Craford from The Card Guys has been hard at work with other creators to develop the Golden Age format. This article is here to bring you up to speed on what this new fan format is, how it looks to work, and what we can expect from it.
Golden Age Gaming
Golden Age follows the same deck building rules as Classic Constructed. 80 card deck, plus an adult hero card. Games are expected to be in the 40/50 minute range. In deck presentation, you present a deck of exactly 60 cards (no fat decking in Golden Age!).
The main difference between CC and Golden Age (or Gage for short) is the cadence on bannings. The ban list for this unofficial format somewhat mirrors the current Classic Constructed ban list, as well as a few notable inclusions and omissions:
- Art of War
- Awakening
- Berserk
- Bloodsheath Skeleta
- Bravo, Star of the Show
- Cash In
- Chane, Bound by Shadow
- Count Your Blessings
- Drone of Brutality
- Heavy Industry Power Plant
- Kraken’s Aethervein
- Open the Flood Gates
- Orihon of Mystic Tenets
- Remembrance
- Stubby Hammerers
- Tome of Divinity
- Tome of Firebrand
- Tome of Fyendal
- Zephyr Needle
The lack of High Octane on this ban list is noteworthy, as it adds back to the overall identity of the Mechanologist class, and greatly improves Maxx 'The Hype' Nitro.
The banning of Remembrance and the fact that decks have to be 60 cards all adds to the fact that fatigue is discouraged. This won't stop decks like Oldhim, Grandfather of Eternity and Arakni, Huntsman from fatiguing most Mechanologist decks.
In addition to the above banned cards, there are several cards on a "watch list". These are cards that are quite powerful, and ones that could be banned at some point in Golden Age's future.
- Blast to Oblivion
- Bonds of Agony
- Bonds of Ancestry
- Cerebellum Processor
- Channel Lightning Valley
- Crown of Seeds
- Electromagnetic Somersault
- Mask of the Pouncing Lynx
- Mind Warp
- System Reset
- Tome of Aetherwind
- Traverse the Universe
Stubby Ban-Hammerers
As we look at this formats legality, we have to wonder what the thought process was behind this. Flat out banning Chane and Starvo is incredibly bold for an eternal Flesh and Blood format, but some would argue very necessary.
On the official Golden Age website, the team talks about their thoughts behind how they assess which cards should be legal.
Firstly they want to be proactive with what stays legal in this fledgling format. They firmly believe in banning the problematic card, rather than cards that are strong around it. That's why Starvo and Chane are gone.
The team are also interested in banning cards regardless of its collector value. Legendary equipment like Traverse and Crown of Seeds are under consideration because of their raw power.
Why Go for Gold?
We've seen fan formats like Clash and official formats like Commoner and Ultimate Pit Fight go by the wayside. Why should the average Flesh and Blood player care?
Golden Age is the chance to play with long lost heroes from CC's past in a way that's more viably balanced than Living Legend. It also has full developer support
Wrap Up
We are interested to see where Golden Age can go next. Fan formats in other games utterly revolutionised those games. it's hard to imagine where Magic the Gathering would be without Commander. Follow the full details about Golden Age on its official website.
Keep your eyes to fabtcg.gg for the latest in Flesh and Blood news.
