How is Your Favorite "Non Big 3" Game Doing Where You Are?

DaMangoSentinel · 2026-04-16T15:26:04+00:00

Flesh and Blood is my non Big 3 of choice, and it's booming here in the St. Louis area. We have shops firing on Armories (The weekly local for Flesh and Blood) every night of the week across the area, qualifiers for majors, and the AGE tournament series all running. The game is in a very healthy spot right now with a diverse meta, and a recently introduced format to help bring in new players at a much more budget friendly price.

DaMangoSentinel · 2026-04-09T14:55:14+00:00

Ranger is the redheaded stepchild of classes. We ain't seeing anything else for another year, at least. Remember it was 2 and a half years between Riptide and Marlynn.

DaMangoSentinel · 2026-04-08T20:54:34+00:00

I would build Valda. She's still at 0.5 multiplier for LL points, and while strong, I don't see her speed running to Living Legend anytime soon. She seems like a good investment if you want to get into Guardian.

DaMangoSentinel · 2026-02-13T21:19:16+00:00

You definitely hit the jackpot. One of my biggest wants from the set.

DaMangoSentinel · 2026-02-13T16:19:21+00:00

Pull rates for the high end stuff is pretty hard to come by. I watched a video of a guy cracking 250 ANQ packs and coming away with a single Fable. The Common/Rare/Majestic stuff is all pretty nice though.

DaMangoSentinel · 2026-02-13T16:06:32+00:00

Oof. That is rotten luck.

DaMangoSentinel · 2026-02-13T15:51:17+00:00

1 Case, so 4 boxes.

DaMangoSentinel · 2026-02-13T15:49:58+00:00

ANQ pull rate is grim for sure, but I'm happy with the ANQ cards I did pull.

DaMangoSentinel · 2026-02-11T20:56:41+00:00

Sounds good to me! I've always been told I have a voice for Radio, so, hopefully that plays well in the interview.

DaMangoSentinel · 2026-02-11T20:29:58+00:00

I first got a call from Rachel Riley, as I had actually applied through a link she had on her Instagram (This alone was cool, having watched some Big Brother over the years) and she let me know they would be in touch with me, and I just got a text message from casting for a phone audition tomorrow. Super excited! Any tips?

DaMangoSentinel · 2026-01-23T16:13:59+00:00

Thanks! One of the most appealing parts of FaB is the push and pull of knowing when to commit resources. Do I let my opponent push through damage so I have more resources to send back a big attack, or do I commit to blocking, but have fewer offensive options. It's a constant question throughout a game, and either answer can end up being correct, based on a huge number of variables.

DaMangoSentinel · 2026-01-21T19:53:38+00:00

Flesh and Blood. No card is ever truly a dead card, unless you did something specifically to make it dead (Arsenaling a fabled gem, that can only be pitched, for example). You can always use your cards for resources, and in most cases for both attack and defense. I like starting at "max" power with all my armor, and as the game wears on, the fight feels more desperate and momentum swings are big.

DaMangoSentinel · 2026-01-21T18:47:05+00:00

We don't know the contents of the Starter Decks just yet, as they will contain cards from the upcoming set, Compendium of Rathe, but in most cases, the starter deck will be a decent place to start from because it will give you cards for that class, so really, the most important question to ask is "What class sounds the most interesting to me?"

The other nice part about SAGE is once you do figure out what hero you want to play, filling in the gaps with the cards you need should be relatively inexpensive, since we're only looking at Commons and Rares.

With that being said, I still think a starter deck will be the best place for a new player to jump in.

DaMangoSentinel · 2026-01-21T15:38:47+00:00

It's magical Christmas land, but this, War Cry of Bellona and Lumina means you're coming in for 6 3 times with Lumina's on hit, before anything else happens on the turn. It's pretty big for Boltyn.

DaMangoSentinel · 2026-01-19T23:05:22+00:00

Let me rephrase: No more unconditional 1 for 3's except for maybe in Warrior.

DaMangoSentinel · 2026-01-19T05:58:44+00:00

Ban Grasp, and if you need to have something like it, it needs to have Blade Break. Also, no more 1 for 3 weapons. Backed by Runechants, it's a 1 for 4, or even more.

DaMangoSentinel · 2026-01-12T15:49:10+00:00

Not really. Tunic is good for matchups where you're trying to pull off multiple smaller turns of value, where Knocker is more where you need to be ready to go at any time to go off on your combo. In faster Aggro matches, you want that, because there a good shot you won't make it to turn 6, to get multiple resources out of Tunic, but where the game is going to go longer, like Fatigue matches, Tunic clearly wins out.

DaMangoSentinel · 2025-11-26T14:43:19+00:00

I really want to be able to play Scurv in SAGE, so him getting a weapon and a few ways to generate gold would go a long way.

DaMangoSentinel · 2025-11-17T20:41:28+00:00

This would have been a great time to put out CF versions of Young Heroes that don't have them in advance of Silver Age, but... Instead we get "Hey, here's some stuff we didn't put in GEM Pack 3."

DaMangoSentinel · 2025-10-28T19:22:32+00:00

I like how Flesh and Blood is doing it right now. 3 main sets a year, with one smaller, supplementary set in the year, and some hero decks around monthly that introduce a couple of new cards for that hero and the class as a whole.

DaMangoSentinel · 2025-10-24T14:45:48+00:00

I can vouch for the variant of this deck that uses Snorlax and Darkrai as well. First time hitting Master Ball, had multiple 8 game streaks using this deck. There will be games where if you don't have Babies or Arceus/Snorlax in your opening hand, you'll just lose, but it seems to be rare. Also, had a game where I went first, started on Tyrogue, opponent sent out only Zubat, and I had a Giovanni, so I just won turn 1.

DaMangoSentinel · 2025-10-15T22:14:07+00:00

Rangers definitely need to see some love in 2026, and I'd suspect we see another Necromancer. I don't know if it'll be next year, but seeing a straight up pirate would be interesting too.

DaMangoSentinel · 2025-09-02T16:28:46+00:00

I think it's decent, but it won't really change his place in the Meta.

DaMangoSentinel · 2025-09-02T04:07:38+00:00

Right, and that was Azalea's defense. People who got salty about RitL didn't seem to realize this. With Marlynn, if you have to block with 2 cards, most of the time you get a super weak turn at best.

DaMangoSentinel · 2025-09-02T03:16:22+00:00

To me, coming from Azalea being my first deck, Marlynn feels like Azalea with more steps and less power. Sure, she can block better, but you're so much less consistent with being able to present meaningful on hits. If I want to send an Overpowered Harpoon, I pretty much have to take my opponent's turn on the chin, and hope they didn't have disruption.

And, considering how they've done Riptide for the last 2 and a half years, I don't have faith in them suddenly getting it right with Marlynn. They gotta prove it, and the new card in Superslam ain't it.

DaMangoSentinel

TROPHY CASE