To the surprise of nearly the entire player base, the first mechanologist Dash, Inventor Exraordinaire hit Living Legend.
During the Nationals Season, everyone had their eye on Azalea, Ace in the Hole being the second hero from Arcane Rising to leave Classic Constructed. Not so. While the first Ranger is safe for now, she's not safe for long. Similar to Briar, Warden of Thorns in her own time, Azalea teeters on 999 Living Legend Points.
Dash has been on the top of the leaderboard for many years and has leap frogged over the finish line.
Dash Living Legend
Spark of Genius
Being the first Mechanologist from Flesh and Blood's second ever set, there was a lot of growth and exploration to be had with Dash. At first, the Boost synergy cards kept the deck fairly aggressive, especially with the fact that their templating has been seen that once and not again in Bright Lights. Zero to Fifty is significantly worse than Zero to Sixty. It all added up to multiple Boosts with Maximum Velocity to act as your finisher.
When Crucible of War was released, it gave the deck Plasma Purifier, which indicated towards the resource sink and welcome damage output that the deck otherwise needed. The deck started to become either hybrid Boost aggro, or efficient Fatigue, turning a single Blue into multiple damaging shots with Teklo Plasma Pistol.
As more and more cards were given to the Mechanologist class, and other heroes in the class came from Bright Lights and High Seas, people started to move away from the original girl. For those that wanted Boost Aggro, they would simply play Dash I/O. For those that wanted to play with Construct Nitro Mechanoid, they got Maxx 'The Hype' Nitro. One day Teklovossen, Esteemed Magnate will get some time in the sun, and the discourse around Puffin, Hightail is up in the air.
The original Mechanologist would get a few points here and there, but the recent changes to say that she earned 1.5 times the number of Living Legend points per win means she got over the edge, and left Classic Constructed on July 11th 2025.
Teklo Core
The main draw of the first ever Mechanologist was the versatility. Being able to start with any Mechanologist Item card in play gave you a great deal of versatility.
Wanted to be aggressive? Teklo Core or Teklo Pounder improve your aggressive output and frees up cards in hand for damage instead of Pitch.
Towards the end of her lifespan, the full Fatigue style deck was the done thing for Dash. The banning of Count Your Blessings deeply hurt the deck's performance, but in the hands of a skilled Fatigue pilot, there was a great deal of power. I myself have lost tragically to this style of Dash deck more than once.
The deck in its Fatigue shell is what won the title during Spanish Nationals, and what pushed Dash into Living Legend.
It was a deck that got stronger the more and more pieces were added. With cards like Plasma Mainline to extend the lifespan of newly played Steam Items, and original cards like Convection Amplifier to ensure the deck was able to squeak out Dominate, finishing damage, there was always angles of attack that the Inventor Extraordinaire can go through.
Spark of Genius
We've seen a staggering 5 other heroes hit Living Legend in 2025; Viserai, Rune Blood, Enigma, Ledger of Ancestry, Zen, Tamer of Purpose, Aurora, Shooting Star, Nuu, Alluring Desire.
This shake up of the metagame means that, in the case of all the heroes just mentioned, there are a great many cards left with no decks. No hero can play Arknight Shard or Flicker Wisp, and there are no more Mystic Heroes to Transcend or reach their Levels of Enlightenment.
The good thing about fans of red haired ladies who invent things is that the character of Dash, and her powerful Specialisations, are still Classic Constructed Legal. Dash I/O is a very strong meta counter to Gravy Bones, Shipwrecked Looter and can race aggressive decks like Cindra, Dracai of Retribution and Arakni, Arakni, 5L!p3d 7hRu 7h3 cR4X.
Enjoyers of cards like Teklo Core and Spark of Genius are welcome to continue to use them to great effect.
While most cards are not lost to this Living Legend update, one key card is lost. Teklo Plasma Pistol.
Teklo Plasma Pistol is Dash's Signature Weapon, and it leaves the Classic Constructed format with her. There are many versions of Maxx Nitro that don't care about Banksy or Construct Bank Breaker and just uses Pistol to convert resources and uses it as an efficient chain ender before getting into the Mechanoid. I've even seen a few Item heavy versions of Puffin which have been playing Pistol instead of Spitfire or Cogwerx Blunderbuss.
This loss will mean that the Mech hero pool will be reliant on their own weapon over the efficiency of the Pistol.
Zipper Hit
Dash, Inventor Extraordinaire is a signpost to me of why she's the second of the original 8 heroes to LL, after Viserai. Her and Viserai were the most open ended in terms of deck construction.
Sure, the Fatigue style deck was what the player base converged on in terms of consistency, but there's an argument that the deck can be built so many different ways. Just like Viserai. There were aggressive and defensive builds to both decks, and the ability to play both styles leaves most players questioning and guessing.
Over Flesh and Blood's near 6 year existence, the design of Heroes has been trending towards more and more of a clear cut deck build for most heroes, with a clear mini game in each. The first few heroes didn't necessarily have that. Katsu, The Wanderer can be played with any amount of Combo lines to find a victory. Bravo, Showstopper can give any large attack Dominate for his benefit. Dash can find any item to fuel any play style.
While having the decks be much more archetype specific can be helpful in early building and optimisation, there's definitely an upside to the first few decks being open ended, to the delight of many players.
Wrap Up
While Dash is gone, there are many more places to use your Mechanologist cards. Not merely like Illusionist with their one hero.
Keep your eyes to fabtcg.gg for all your Flesh and Blood news.
