Legend Story Studios (LSS) announced a surprise Banned & Restricted announcement today that removed Kraken’s Aethervein from the Living Legend format.
LSS had to take immediate action on this majestic Wizard weapon after a weekend of Living Legend events were warped by the power of Verdance, Thorn of the Rose from Rosetta wielding Kraken’s Aethervein in combination with the amp mechanic. Players were piecing together turns where they could deal massive amounts of damage and draw tons of cards while opponents could simply not interact in any meaningful way.
Bryan Gottlieb wrote that the design team considered pre-banning Kraken’s Aethervein, but wanted to give players the chance to experiment with new powerful combinations of cards first. That turned out to be a mistake because, “The power level of Kraken’s Aethervein was too obviously on display, the options for counterplay were too limited, and the gameplay was simply not interesting enough.”
Gottlieb joined Flesh and Blood creator, James White, for an episode of the game’s podcast “Dev Talk” to discuss the ban as well as reflect on Part the Mistveil, Rosetta, and the shift in design goals the game took last month.
With the problem of Verdance and Kraken’s Aethervein gone from Living Legend, players can get back to working on the format in preparation for the World Team Cup and Battle Hardened events at the Flesh and Blood World Championship in Osaka, Japan that starts at the end of the month.
Read the official announcement from LSS.
