Legend Story Studios (LSS) released its scheduled Banned & Suspended announcement for Flesh and Blood today, making bans in Classic Constructed and Blitz.
James White, the creator of Flesh and Blood, penned the update to the list that comes in time to mix up the formats that will be featured at the game’s first World Championship on November 3-6.
Classic Constructed
The only change coming to the Classic Constructed metagame is the banning of Pulse of Isenloft. The ice and earth elemental card has been a fixture for Oldhim, Grandfather of Eternity and Bravo, Star of the Show before that.
Removing the card will weaken Oldhim, but not to the point of making the hero irrelevant. White noted:
Banning Pulse of Isenloft after it’s been a tournament staple for over a year isn’t about trying to fundamentally reshape the format. It’s about nudging it slightly to curb a couple of percentage points off Oldhim’s win-rates, to narrow the small but consistent advantage Oldhim appears to have against most combat based decks.
James White
While only a one-of in Oldhim lists, the card does allow the deck to do powerful things — mainly powering up Oaken Old with a single card and pitching to his hero ability multiple times in a game. Many top players took to Twitter to debate whether Oaken Old is even playable in the deck now and are looking for new ways to build the current top deck of the format.
Blitz
The majority of changes coming in today’s Banned & Suspended announcement have to do with Blitz. Two pieces of equipment are being banned: Mask of the Pouncing Lynx and Bloodsheath Skeleta. Along with those bannings, Storm Striders is being suspended until the next Banned & Suspended announcement, while Sonata Arcanix returns to the format after its suspension.
Both of the above pieces of equipment generate free resources and damage, whether in the form of cards and damage or actual resource points. By removing Bloodsheath Skeleta from the format, Sonata Arcanix is free to return to Blitz.
Storm Striders is getting the boot for now due to is power level in Wizard decks by virtually giving the decks that can run it an additional turn. If you can kill your opponent on their turn, there is no opportunity cost to using your hand while being attacked.
Ultimate Pit Fight
Yorick, Weaver of Tales is now banned in official Ultimate Pit Fight events as not all players are comfortable with combining all four players’ decks into one. Players are still free to play Yorick in casual and non-sanctioned UPF events.
Young Hero Legality Update
Going forward, only adult heroes will be legal in Classic Constructed and only young heroes will be legal in Blitz. This update comes after players have registered young versions of heroes that reached living legend status in Classic Constructed events, like Prism and Chane. This will be prevent any issues going forward where a hero designed for Blitz could cause problems in Classic Constructed or vice versa.
Read the official announcement from LSS.