Legend Story Studios founder, James White, issued a statement detailing numerous changes and additions coming to Flesh and Blood. FAB 2.0 is a list of items he says will better support the delivery of its “mission over the coming years”.
Retiring 1st Edition
Citing its primary mission, to “bring people together in the flesh and blood through the common language of playing great games“, White explains why it will be retiring the 1st Edition product line for set releases. The game’s growing fanbase worldwide along with record setting organized play numbers, larger quantities of boosters are needed for fans to play the game on release day.
It is noted that releasing 1st Edition and Unlimited on the same day does not align with the game’s vision. White goes on to say that he wants it to be possible for every FAB fan to experience the “moment of joy” when hitting cold foil legendary or fabled cards while opening a booster.
Detailing the plan for the future starting with Uprising releasing on June 24, there will be no differentiation between 1st Edition and Unlimited.
Uprising will include both cold foil and rainbow foil equipment, fabled, and alternate versions of cards. White states these are “the most impressive alts we have done yet! You’re in for a big surprise!” Legendary and Fabled cold foils will be approximately 3 times rarer than they have been previously. There will be one change to the the booster pack configuration with this set, as cold foils will now appear in the token slot.
Fans will also see a new rarity symbol with cards in Uprising, noted with a purple triangle. The rarity of these cards are reference as “marvels”, and used on high tier alt versions moving forward.
Here are the average pulls rates for Uprising (FAB notes “pull rates are not guaranteed to exist in any pack, display, or case. They are an indicative average over the entire production run“).
- Fabled Cold Foil – ???
- Fabled Rainbow Foil – ???
- Legendary Cold Foil – 1 per 220 packs
- Legendary Rainbow Foil – 1 per 80 packs
- Majestic 1 per 4 packs
- Rare 1.75 per pack
- Common 11 per pack
- Token 47 per 24 packs
- Cold Foil 1 per 24 packs
- Rainbow Foil 1 per pack
- 16 total cards per pack
Reprints and New Products
A growing player base and expansion in countries around the world has caused accessibility issues with cards in non-rotating formats. History Pack is a new booster set that includes reprints from FAB’s past and will serve and important role filling needs, while also “respecting the collectability of the original printing of cards”. This set will not contain any foils and cards will have a white border. History Pack 1 will include reprints from the following sets: Welcome to Rathe, Arcane Rising, and Crucible of War.
The Black Label edition of History Pack 1 is a product that will be released in four localized European languages: French, German, Italian, and Spanish. These are cards with black borders with a limited print run. After the print run is gone, any further printings will be the same as the English History Pack 1, white borders and no foils.
Social and Casual Play
Up until this announcement, White states focus and resources have largely been directed towards competitive play. With this plan, FAB will expand its outreach and support into the following key areas:
World building, storytelling, character development, lore
- Investment into the story of characters like Bravo, and Dorinthea and Rhinar
- Publishing lore, including books
- Play experiences to bring fans into adventures, conflicts, and story arcs
Products made for play and social experiences
- Classic Battles is planned to be an ongoing product geared towards new players discovering more about their featured heroes, while playing at the kitchen table with family and friends.
- Player vs Environment (PvE) will be a flagship product geared towards social play and is currently in development. This will have players band together in campaigns going on adventures and is not geared to towards winning or losing.
Reformatting Casual Formats
Ultimate Pit Fight (UFP)
Community feedback led to FAB updating the suggested rules for Ultimate Pit Fight (UFP) to align with Blitz. Along with the following suggested UFP rules, White encourages playgroups to also shape the rules to their liking.
- Young heroes only.
- 11 card inventory (weapons and equipment).
- 40 card deck.
- Up to 2 copies of each unique card.
- Every official Flesh and Blood card is legal, including cards like Go Bananas and Taylor.
Commoner
With growing interest in this format, FAB has published the official rules for Commoner:
- 40 card deck – common cards only
- 11 inventory slots (weapons and equipment) – can include up to 2 rares and all other cards must be common (token weapons are common)
- 1 young hero card – can be rare or common (token heroes are common)
- Up to 2 copies of each unique card allowed
- An independent banned and suspended list for the Commoner format
- 30 minutes per round, best of 1
Rule enforcement for casual events
White states that they are looking for a “3rd type of rules enforcement level (REL) to help differentiate the environment and player expectations of casual events such as Armory, Pre-release and Skirmish, and more competitive events such as ProQuest and Road to Nationals.” He continues, “The aim is to better support an enjoyable play experience at the casual organized play level, while maintaining a high standard of rules and policy compliance at the competitive level.”
Elo Ratings
Elo until this announcement has only been awarded to Calling and National Championship events. Moving forward, Elo ratings will also be applied to the following events, making it more accessible to players around the world;
Restricted and Suspended Lists
FAB will retire the concept of a restricted list, replace it with a with a suspended card list, and introduce this to Classic Constructed and Blitz. Any card that has been placed on the suspended list will not be legal for tournament play, and a timeframe of the suspension will be indicated. It is worth noting that there are no cards currently suspended. From the announcement, here are examples of how a timeframe could play out:
- Until the next scheduled banned and suspended announcement.
- Until June 30, 2022.
- Until [HERO NAME] becomes a Living Legend.
Living Legends and Their Weapons
FAB will be updating its Living Legend system so that “when a hero becomes a living legend, they take their signature weapon with them too.”
Living Legend leaderboards and information can be found here.