The September 1st Banned and Restricted Announcement has been hotly anticipated by the entire Flesh and Blood player base. We have all seen the strong meta dominance that Gravy Bones, Shipwrecked Looter and Arakni, 5L!p3d 7hRu 7h3 cR4X has held over the competitive scene.
We all knew that these decks would come under fire in the latest B'n'R, as well as other decks such as Verdance, Thorn of the Rose who stands to gain most from both the Assassin and the Necromancer taking a hit.
The cards chosen and the cadence for why has left this commentator reeling, and wondering what will become of the Classic Constructed Metagame.
Classic Constructed
The following changes were made, and are effective as of September 1st:
- Bonds of Agony is banned.
- sea159-golden-tipple-1-high-seas-booster is banned.
- sea160-golden-tipple-2-high-seas-booster is banned.
- Plume of Evergrowth is banned.
- Talk a Big Game is banned.
- Germinate is unbanned.
Golden Tipple
I've gone on record saying many times in my local play community that "if they take tipple, they kill the deck." I, and many other content creators, were sure they were going to ban Saltwater Swell as it was the card which best facilitated the explosive turns, to ensure that they have the resources to pay for multiple effects.
The effect behind Swell, to generate a metric tonne of resources is much less impactful without the absolute glut of gold behind you, to draw into the turns that propel Gravy Bones ahead. The September 1st Banned announcement takes away 6 more gold from the deck.
My initial concern was not with the gold going away, but the discards. There's a loan term from reanimator decks in Magic that I liked to use when describing Tipple; the card is a milkshake, because it "brings all the boys to the yard". The gold was an incidental bonus, it was the discard that I found most valuable. The combination of both effects are deeply synergistic, and without it, the deck loses considerable power.
However, I will be glad that I hoarded all my gem pack copies of Restless Bones and Jittery Bones to be replacement milkshakes, and 3-blocks to boot. The undead will rise again.
Bonds of Agony
The card which has induced rage since the days of Nuu, Alluring Desire. My article redeeming Part the Mistveil is not aging well...
Taking away Bonds has cut the disruptive ceiling deeply out of the Assassin class. Without this key Blue, they'll need to go back to playing Surgical Extraction as their second cycle cost card.
More importantly, the stocks for Just a Nick have deeply sunk, given that it only pairs best with Persuasive Prognosis and the kinds of blue stealth cards you'd rather be playing in red.
Without the presence of Bonds of Agony, Assassin goes to how it played in the intervening months after Nuu hit Living Legend. Assassin should always be a disruptive, tempo based class; Bonds became a deck building crutch that at best ruined your opponent's chances of winning, or at worst forced a level of respect from them which gave the Assassin the upper hand.
The September 1st Banned announcement has set Assassin back to its roots, not seen since Outsiders and Uzuri.
Plume of Evergrowth
Other commentators identified that if Gravy and Slippy are targeted by these bans, and Verdance isn't, then Verdance becomes Queen of Candlehold and Queen of the Metagame.
By removing this head piece, she loses a great deal of combo consistency. The versions which play with tall arcane damage with the combination of Burn Bare and Storm Striders, with additional amp from Rampant Growth||Life. Plume gave the Verdance player redundancy in their combo turn.
The Verdance needs to work that little bit harder for their combo kills.
Talk a Big Game
This is a puzzling ban given that the card has seen exactly zero play between Heavy Hitters in 2024 and now.
With a set which cares about both Brutes and Guardians on the horizon, cards that fit both classes will garner more attention, and with the Reviled heroes like Lyath Goldmane, Vile Savant and Kayo, Underhanded Cheat both playing with manipulating the power of their attack cards, there's room for this innocuous non-attack action to do some absurd things.
Germinate
Legend Story Studios recognise they may have misjudged how greatly Florian, Rotwood Harbinger needed his specialisation. It provided probably the strongest end game in Flesh and Blood, if the matchups ever got to that state of grind. Most of the time, Florian acted like a very potent, split damage Guardian, that presents so much inevitability in the end game.
Germinate is a way to actually secure end games if the format will tend towards fundamental value gaming, which is a likely possibility with the other bannings and the arrival of Super Slam.
While this unbanning was initially scary to hear, remember that the Stack Florian archetype is no longer a factor. Scepter of Pain remains banned, and likely will stay banned. The Florian players get to have their best blue block 3 back, but they still need to tempo their opponent, rather than attrition them.
Blitz
The following changes were made, and are effective as of September 1st:
- Talk a Big Game is banned.
Likely for the same reason that it was removed from Classic Constructed, they banned the Brute/Guardian Might maker card to prevent whichever egregious combo deck was on the horizon from Super Slam.
Living Legend
The following changes were made, and are effective as of September 1st:
- Deadwood Dirge is unrestricted.
After the marketing blunder of including it as a 3-of in the Viserai, Rune Blood LL Precon, the developers decided to give the Runechant making action back to Chane, Bound by Shadow and to make decks like big Vis viable in Living Legend well in time for the World Championships.
Wrap Up
The next Banned and Restricted Announcement will come out November 3rd 2025, with changes effective from November 10th 2025. Whether they take more cards from any format, or change their decision on one or more cards, we can only see.
Keep up to date with all the latest news from the world of Flesh and Blood TCG right here.
