With High Seas making some immense waves in the Classic Constructed metagame, it's been hard to argue that Flesh and Blood is anything other than thriving. High prices for staples, and the game's difficulty being something of a barrier for entry has had some lose faith in the game. Until loud noises happened.
We now know what set 17 of Flesh and Blood will be. Super Slam takes us back to the Deathmatch Arena for a set themed around Brutes and Guardians. Not only that, this will be the first look at the Reviled and Revered talents, to show the crowd's favourites and the competitors that draw the ire of the spectators.
In this article, we're going to take a good long look at Super Slam's themes, what we know about the Hero Cards and the revealed talent cards, and some changes to the product going into this new expansion.
Super Slam Revealed
This theme alone is a departure for many Flesh and Blood fans. It's an open secret that the developers at Legend Story Studios are fans of professional wrestling. The theming of this is so prevalent in the templating of the cards and the theme of Super Slam. Even down to the bright colours and the name Super Slam being such a similar call back to SummerSlam, an annual event put on by World Wrestling Entertainment.
I want to take this moment to support this theme. Is it a departure? That's a matter of perspective. The setting of Rathe,
The game of Flesh and Blood has characters that appear like mystical geisha, in the case of Nuu, Alluring Desire alongside knights in shining armour like Ser Boltyn, Breaker of Dawn alongside characters like Maxx 'The Hype' Nitro who look as though he fell out of Cyberpunk 2077.
I would encourage players who are lamenting that the WWE is in their Flesh and Blood game, and calling it a reskin akin to how Magic the Gathering has been handling their recent sets, to suspend their disbelief a little. There is nothing outside of what could happen. We saw the Brutes, Guardians, and Warriors clash in Heavy Hitters; now we're seeing the fanfare and spectacle of the Deathmatch Arena. It just so happens to resemble something in our world. For as many players who don't want to suspend their disbelief for this expansion, we'll have just as many people who utterly love it.
Just let people play their fantasy card game!
The Revered Heroes
There are two new talents coming to Flesh and Blood in Super Slam. The first one is Revered. It represents the "faces" to borrow a wrestling term. The good guys in the story that the crowd cheers.
It's been said in previous Dev Talks that, while Classes can be from anywhere in Rathe, Talents are somewhat locked to the region they're from. Mystics come from Misteria, Draconic Heroes from Volcor. I can personally see Revered and Reviled heroes being from anywhere, however it makes sense the most that they're from a place where crowd appeal is key.
The first Revered Brute is Tuffnut, Bumbling Hulkster. The first CC hero with 3 Intellect. That's right, 4 is the default, but not the only number it can be, as we've seen in Data Doll MKII in Blitz.
It's very hard to imagine the build for a hero this bizarrely templated, since he wants to mitigate the 3 card hand size downside by pitching from the top of the deck. Many players, including a very high level Judge I know, are very committed to filling the deck with just Blue cards that block 3, to be able to block 6 every turn, then use his ability for 3 resources, to attack with Rok. Unironically, this presents a potentially very powerful, defensive deck with a good deal of inevitability.
We will see what the Brute can do with this smaller number of cards in hand, especially with what can be done with those enigmatic Toughness tokens.
Pleiades, Superstar is the first Revered Guardian. As I was watching the trailer, I was convinced she'd be a rock star Bard, but it would have been pretty ambitious for LSS to bring out two new Classes in back to back sets. Melody, Sing Along does not count despite how cute she is.
Pleiades is a very perplexing hero when read in a vacuum. She cares about Auras that have Suspense counters on them? The flavour is clear, that she's keeping the crowd in anticipation until she brings down her axe guitar on the opponent.
Her playstyle will depend entirely on what these Auras of Suspense can do. Guardian cards that care about Auras such as Imposing Visage will be key to find the one you need at any given moment. How she'll use the new Confidence tokens is also a mystery, as we don't know what those do yet either.
LSS are well positioned to market off the back of their newest, cutest waifu. Armory Deck Pleiades will be released at the same time as Prerelease, with CC and Blitz compatibility, to ensure players can start rocking out with Pleiades from the release.
The Revered cards all care about the crowd cheering you. The current benefits all affect the costs of otherwise pricey to play cards. The crowd cheering makes Crowd Goes Wild effectively free, while Comeback Kid is templated to be online if you're on less life than opponent, because the crowd will always cheer on an underdog.
This looks to be how Revered seeks to play, taking a little bit of early damage to set up some value in the form of Confidence and Toughness, gearing up to send back high stat attacks in the late game.
The Reviled Heroes
Good faces are nothing without good "heels". Again, WWE term. That's been a lot of the discourse for this set already. It's interesting that the "bad guys" are both familiar faces, and still count as a "Hero". Then again so do the Shadow Talent Heroes Vynnset, Iron Maiden and Levia, Shadowborn Abomination.
Kayo, Underhanded Cheat looks to do something similar to his first CC form, Kayo, Armed and Dangerous and pretend that cards are 6 power when they actually aren't. The ability to turn something 6 power, which the vast majority of these Reviled cards don't look to be, is pretty steep, at 4 Resources. However, Kayo's ability to create Vigor tokens will help cover some of those costs.
Another member of House Goldmane, who many people online are comparing to the Lannisters from Game of Thrones, has entered the arena. Our high fantasy prayers have been answered, much like Gimli from Lord of the Rings, Lyath Goldmane is a Dwarf. While not the Dwarf hero we were expecting, we're very happy to see him for flavour reasons.
In terms of function, he is the first hero with 5 intellect. Drawing a 5 card hand (6 with an Arsenal) is immense. He comes with the immense downside of his power and defense stats being halved (round up). Aside from this being great flavour, Dwarf, diminutive. In terms of function, it's a huge downside. Sink Below being a 2 block is crippling. A blue card with Crush, such as 1hb017-debilitate-3-bravo-blitz-deck-precon not being able to Crush without a pump is an immense drawback. Lyath Goldmane is a deckbuilding challenge, that will take a lot of work, even after his release.
Bully Tactics offers Intimidate outside of the Brute Class. It being small in stats means that Lyath has the option to boost it with Might tokens, Kayo can use his extra resources from Vigor tokens to Intimidate multiple times. Mocking Blow starts off small, but gains benefits for being on higher life, the opposite of the Revered cards. It being a 1 power gets around Lyath's downside, and it can easily gain the boost out of nowhere.
The Revered talent looks to be more aggressively slanted, and we can look at the small stats on these initial attacks going up massively: from outta nowhere.
Super Rare Return!
There are multiple changes in the way the booster packs of Super Slam have been templated.
Super Rare cards are a relic of the first two sets, slightly more common than Majestics, were present in both Welcome to Rathe and Arcane Rising. The rarity was retired by Crucible of War, and reprints of previous Super Rare cards like Nock the Deathwhistle and Maximum Velocity were changed to Majestic.
For Super Slam only, they're being reintroduced here. This is probably to make elements of the Draft work, since there's going to be a big change in how booster packs are set laid out.
The first Super Rare cards we've seen since the first and second sets of the game are Charms that work to each of the new heroes. Them being instants called Charms and having bullet point options feel very akin to cards like it in Magic.
Each one is a guaranteed Cheer or Boo to the talent that wants that particular crowd reaction. Each one destroys or steals the kinds of tokens that the other Classes or Talents care about. It's the third options that work well for each Hero. Pleiades can recur then replay an Aura, likely resetting the Suspense counters on it. Tuffnut can pitch off the top to ensure he has the Resources for whatever large Revered attack he may want to play. Kayo can deal extra damage or force a discard if he's sent a large attack.
I want to highlight Liar's Charm for a moment, not because it's a one turn Dishonor. It's potent because he can target himself to put his cards back to their advertised stat-line. All of a sudden an immense Guardian attack, that was halved can suddenly jolt up in power from out of nowhere. That's a play line I expect to be a common occurrence in Lyath Goldmane decks, and one that players will need to do their best to play around.
There are 40 super rares in Super Slam, but never again (probably). It's been done for theme, and to make Limited work. We will see what the new old rarity can do.
Expansion Slot Power
There are 31 expansion slot cards in Super Slam.
That statement alone has my excitement for this set through the roof. High Seas had 14 expansion slot cards. The Hunted had 15. Rosetta 15.
This set is offering more than double the number of cards to the non-Revered, non-Reviled, non-Brute, non-Guardian Classes and Talents. While most Expansion Slot cards may be relegated to trade binders, there are some like Unsheathed, Ring of Roses, and Claw of Vynserakai that have become staples overnight.
To top it off, LSS says that "all time favourite" cards will be coming back as reprints. They've learned their lesson from the Legendary prints of Command and Conquer and Codex of Frailty and are putting quality reprints into the Expansion slot of Super Slam to bring down the prices of staples.
We can only speculate on what those Expansion Slot cards can be, since we won't see previews until September 2nd.
Pre Release Power Slam
Pre Release is getting something of a makeover as Super Slam unveils Flesh and Blood's first Pre Release kit!
The 8 packs for sealed, and the promo tokens available all in the one box. The entry to Pre Release gives you everything you need, and they're available to purchase at your LGS, much in the same way Magic does their Pre Release kits.
Wrap Up
We can expect to see details about Super Slam being revealed during Pro Tour Singapore. There are lots of parts to consider as it comes up to the World Premier in Montreal on September 12th.
We can also look forward to Pre Release one week later, with Super Slam's official release on September 26th. Look forward to all news from the world of Flesh and Blood right here on DotGG.
