The first ever stop of the Flesh and Blood World Tour in China. It was an unforgettable clash of competitors in this emerging Silver Age format. Given how new Flesh and Blood is in China, it made sense for Silver Age to be the format of choice.
Players from all over the world made their way out, and despite the initial dooming players had for the format, the field was diverse for the Silver Age Calling and Silver Age Showdown events.
Calling Shanghai
Even with the best deck in the format making up nearly a quarter of the meta share, there are still a respectable number of other decks filling up in the field beneath it.
Kayo provides raw power and aggressive consistency in his gameplan, with a surprisingly effective defensive armour suite against physical and tall arcane.
Despite this, hyper aggressive decks like Fai, and Ira, Crimson Haze have risen up to meet him, alongside the proactively defensive decks like Oldhim and Florian .
The conversion rates speak to the eclectic and more balanced nature of the metagame than we had all previously thought. With fewer than a quarter of Kayo players converting, we can assuredly say that the Brute's time in the sun has started to decline slightly.
While it's an achievement for only one Terra player to make it to Day 2, the real show out of conversion rates are Ira, Kano, and most importantly, Valda Brightaxe. Valda has been converting considerably well into the Brute, simply due to the free value his random draw-discard effects bring.
We saw players from all over the world flock to World Tour Shanghai, and after two days of gaming, the top 8 was delightedly eclectic.
This time one week ago, the top 8 would have been dominated by Kayo - as we had seen the earliest Battle Grounds events with 5+ copies of the Brute deck in their top 8s. The higher level players are all bringing the right tech and right level of reps to counter Kayo's aggression, and leaning into the variance that Brute Gameplay brings.
The only copy of Kayo was eliminated in the Quarters, simply because it drew 3 non-blocking cards in the same hand, and died to a consistent onslaught from Chris Iaali's Briar.
Enki Dupaquier's Valda deck typifies how the hero plays in this format. By utilising the best that Mastery Pack Guardian has to offer, the deck plays solidly into other Guardian decks while offering disruption to decks like Briar and Kayo that want to output consistent aggression.
The new card, Rites of Earthlore makes for an efficient, one card set up that is still respectable when the vast majority of cards are given on defense.
Chris Iaali, World Championship Finalist, has taken Briar in a very unique direction after the bannings. The deck has pivoted a great deal into face up, proactive pumps to threathen arcane damage alongside physical.
The prevailing theory of presenting Arcane Barrier 1 into Briar is still correct, however cards like Harness Lightning makes that value exchange dubious. Compendium card Sigil of Voltaris in the Blue slot demands a card on defence before an attack has even been sent, but the ping of arcane must be respected so as to not turn on Second Strike.
Despite the dominance that Kayo wrought on the format after the bannings, and Briar's sudden departure, it looks like the roles have been reversed and Briar is back.
Showdown Shanghai
Across the hall, the Showdown was offering players a one day tournament in the Silver Age format.
Pro Tour Amsterdam Champion Shoma Yamamura took down the Showdown with his beloved Ira list. There are simultaneously a lot of things very stock standard about this list, and some things very unique. Of course we can expect the Tigers matters equipment in Pouncing Paws and others, as well the Ninja staples for this format such as Flying Kick and Bittering Thorns.
This version looks to be including both blue and red Pouncing Qi, as to synergise with the other Tigers matters effects like Tiger Eye Reflex and Growl.
The spicy include is the one off Down But Not Out. Being able to threaten your Kayo opponent with 8 Overpower, generating so much token value on hit is both unexpected but effective.
Wrap Up
World Tour Shanghai offered us a fresh and hopeful look at the Silver Age format going into Pro Tour Yokohama. Many higher level players in my circle were dooming about the state of Sage going into this two format Pro Tour, but now with these mixed results, we can expect to see the metagame diversify going into the first Tier 4 event of 2026.
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