Nationals Week 2 has ended with a bang and we can see how much the metagame has changed since Calling Bologna, and even Week 1.
The article about week 1 will cover all that you need to know about the logistics of Nationals Season and how it affects standings going into the World Championships. This article is going to be a long look at the stories of this gone weekend's events, and the decks which prevailed.
It's worth noting that just because these decks won their respective Nationals events, we have to congratulate each player for prevailing in a real challenge. Nationals is a split of Classic Constructed and Draft. Someone running hot in CC may utterly bomb out in Draft, and that can completely scupper their chances to progress. Take the results we report with the consideration that the minds behind those winning decks also played Draft to a very high level.
Week 2 Results
We had results in Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, France, Indonesia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, and Vietnam. As well as Battle Hardened Houston, there are lots of CC winners this weekend, and the metagame has shaken up immensely, as people look to the final Nationals week going into Pro Tour Singapore.
United Kingdom
We're starting a little bit out of the alphabet, because I had the pleasure of being in the venue for UK Nationals. While I did not quite make the mark to qualify this year, it was an electric experience that I am eager to go back to.
During my time in UK Nationals, I was able to play a healthy heap of Classic Constructed, on my pet deck Fang, Dracai of Blades. Going positive over two side events, I feel as though my own play has deeply improved over these few months. I still deeply miss Enigma, Ledger of Ancestry.
After the jam packed house filled up on 9 rounds of CC and 6 rounds Draft, the top 8 was whittled down to Aaron Boyhan's Gravy Bones, Shipwrecked Looter brew. Despite feeling the lightning against Oscilio during the live stream, he was able to prevail overall.
What makes his version noteworthy, as Gravy Bones deckbuilding continues to evolve is the distribution of allies. In a metagame, and a field so full of Cindra, Dracai of Retribution he knew to keep copies of Limpit, Hop-a-long to a minimum, and to increase the number of Reds in deck.
The spicy tech is Amulet of Echoes. Being able to stifle a combo deck like Oscilio looping Gone in a Flash or even the mirror playing 6 to 9 copies of Golden Tipple.
We can see that Aaron also went completely undefeated during the Draft rounds, proving his spot as the UK National Champion.
Belgium
We get a completely different story in Belgium. This 78 player event was taken down by Joris Verhelst on Kano, Dracai of Aether.
The original Wizard is a deck that players always, always need to respect with some amount of Arcane Barrier. When Aurora, Shooting Star hit Living Legend, many Kano players were posturing back into more of a finesse combo with cards like Aether Spindle, rather than the hyper aggressive version with the full complement of Open the Flood Gates. Verhelst has included it alongside the full aggression of the draw spells, as they're needed against the speed of Cindra and the inevitability of Gravy Bones.
It's clear to see that Spellfire Cloak has been fully abandoned for Old Knocker. The copy of Imperial Edict has both great flavour, and is essential for forcing through a kill turn, especially with Arcane Compliance being a card that warrants respect.
Brazil
The Brazilian community for Flesh and Blood are some of the most enfranchised and passionate gamers out there. They also got a great deal of welcome attention on them during the Calling in Sao Paulo towards the end of the Hunted Meta.
Raphael Barrese won in Brazil with Prism, Awakener of Sol. The number of dtd037-angelic-wrath-3-dusk-till-dawn-booster has been going more and more down, but that's to be expected as the deck tries to find the space for the new Herald of Sekem.
Riches of Trōpal-Dhani has surprisingly strong uses in Prism. It being a Yellow to pitch to enable Luminaris, Angel's Glow, as well as creating Gold, the pitch outlet to also allow you to keep Yellows in the Pitch zone.
Bulgaria
Antoan Yordanov prevailed in Bulgaria with Vynnset, Iron Maiden. I always find it deeply interesting when a Vynnset player does not register Oblivion but that's a personal deckbuilding choice.
This version is slightly slimmer on copies of Malefic Incantation; only 5 total. By running two copies of Sonata Galaxia, you get a great deal of consistency to find them when the game state needs it.
Croatia
This more intimate, 18 player Nationals was won by Nikola Kramarić on Prism, Awakener of Sol. One of the pillars of the metagame, despite my comments on another platform.
This Prism list is noticeably without the new card Herald of Sekem, as in testing, it can be somewhat clunky in the face since it's the only Herald that does not have the on hit.
The other newer card for Prism, Warcry of Themis does make the cut. It's always been a versatile card, even with the decline of Earth. Kramarić may have lost their first draft round, but their finish on Prism, including a tense game final against Dash I/O means they had a deserving win in Croatia.
Cyprus
Cyprus may not be the first place one thinks of for high level Flesh and Blood gameplay, and with an Arakni, 5L!p3d 7hRu 7h3 cR4X brew that had Giannis Koumidis undefeated in CC to match their undefeated draft record to boot.
With the advent of Gravy Bones in the wider metagame, and the decline of Florian, Rotwood Harbinger, we've seen the decks to counter Gravy tend towards the aggressive side to clear allies and pressure the hero. Slippy is able to easily do this while presenting respectable damage.
Slippy has also evolved to include some of the Daggers matter cards from Arakni, Marionette. Playing all 3 copies of Hunter's Klaive as well Mark of the Huntsman to ensure Marks. What's interesting is that there are no Retrieve effects in deck, only 3 copies of Concealed Blade to bring out extra Daggers as needed.
The new card Undercover Acquisition is well placed in the meta full of Gold tokens and Wizard's Potions.
France
I had a moment while looking through the results for Nationals in France, and wondered who may have won. Of course it was Pro Tour Champion Arthur Trehet, and bringing back a love of allies to play Gravy Bones.
His version is interesting. The Red count is a little high for a Chart the High Seas deck, but running a single Fiddler's Green is a way to mitigate that a tad.
Riches of Trōpal-Dhani is seeing less and less play in Gravy Bones compared to Eye of Ophidia. A Blue that fixes your top deck is too powerful not to consider.
The distribution of allies is worth considering. Playing Oysten, Heart of Gold is a choice given the aggression of the metagame, but I doubt it comes in in every matchup.
Another interesting inclusion are the new Amulets. Diamond Amulet giving the action point is a welcome inclusion to go wide when there are more allies in play, but Pearl Amulet is a worthy inclusion to get another Gravy or Compass of Sunken Depths activation; or to swing with an ally twice in the same turn, action points depending.
Apart from that, there's Blanche for a popper, but an otherwise clean Gravy list.
Indonesia
Odi Winata won the intimate, 20 person Indonesia Nationals on Slippy.
Vastly different from the Cyprus deck, this version is playing Up Sticks and Run to ensure Dagger buyback, it is also a level of Dagger aggression alongside the usual Assassin disruption.
Bonds of Attraction is a card that has not seen a great deal of play previously, but it's a very reasonable piece of Graveyard disruption against our new favourite Necromancer.
The remaining deck presents the same tricky gameplay patterns that Slippy is otherwise known for, and it puts the deck into a strong position for this emerging High Seas metagame.
Lithuania
The National Championships in Lithuania did things a little differently, with a Top 8 Draft instead of more rounds of Classic Constructed.
The overall winner of that event, Vladislovas Kofyrinas, was able to pick up the win across that event, going undefeated in CC with Verdance, Thorn of the Rose.
This list is standard in a lot of ways, but is not playing any Healing Potions. It does have 2 Evergreen to ensure that Fatigue is unlikely, and to be a repeatable card to send into high health Gravy Bones allies.
It is particularly well teched for the mirror, carrying a copy of Arcane Compliance.
Verdance - Nats 2025 - Lithuania Winner
Luxembourg
A big congratulations to Jun Pan for winning Luxembourg Nationals. Unfortunately, none of the heroes or deck lists were reported, so I sadly have no data to offer.
Netherlands
Ian Zhang played Dash I/O in the 78 player Nationals in the Netherlands. They were successful across all three Draft rounds, and went into Top 8 as first seed.
It's clear that this version of Dash I/O has been designed to beat Gravy Bones. Cards like Expedite and MetEx have unconditional on hits that get you value when you eliminate an ally. On top of that, they're also playing Signal Jammer to truly shut down Gravy Bones' ability to play a non-attack Blue and an Ally in the same turn.
For any Mechanologist enjoyer who wants to make their already favourable Gravy Bones matchup even better, this might be the way to build it.
New Zealand
Oliver Berry took yet another Gravy Bones all the way to the top in the New Zealand nationals. Out of 131 players, there were only 8 Necromancer players in the room.
The deck has largely converged on an average of 30 Blues, and Sea Legs among the Yellows. The full 9 copies of Golden Tipple is also a deckbuilding consensus.
Berry's deck looks to feature a very high number of Reds, which can lead to potential anti synergy with Chart the High Seas, but the inclusion of Swiftwater Sloop brings a welcome additional layer of extra aggression.
Singapore
The National Championships in Singapore was taken up by Slippy, piloted by Brandon Peh.
It's always interesting to see which specific Stealth attacks are included in any given Assassin deck. Brandon's list features Wither simply to handle other aggressive decks, such as the as yet absent Cindra.
Just a Nick is a reaction that's too strong not to play in Slippy, despite its numbers coming down more and more in Marionette, but Peh has accounted for it in their deck with Art of Desire: Mind.
They're also on a very aggressively slanted version, with copies of Spike with Bloodrot to go along with Redback Shroud in their equipment suite.
Vietnam
All my love to Nguyen Tuan Anh for winning the Nationals in Vietnam. While the Top 8 was in Draft, their winning deck was registered as the first Ninja: Katsu, the Wanderer.
LSS unbanning Bonds of Ancestry really unlocked Katsu's aggressive abilities. Retrace the Past also adds to this level of consistency. By playing both the Red and Yellow versions of Surging Strike and Descendent Gustwave.
The switch board which includes Mask of the Pouncing Lynx along with Tenacity and Salt the Wound gives the this deck great versatility and reach in differing match ups. For those who understand Ninja can find some great power in this metagame.
Wrap Up
The metagame for Nationals Season has been turbulent and fascinating. We can expect to see the little pockets of each area to see which decks are favoured by others.
This is the second of third Nationals events, and we can expect even more shake ups before Pro Tour Singapore and beyond. Look to our reports on the shifting metagames right here on DotGG Media.
