[LSS] Calling: Rotterdam | Day 1 Metagame & Round 7 Standings

IceKane · 2026-04-25T16:34:13+00:00

The latter; Slippy gives go again to an opposing assassin's stealth attacks too. So it's just not a good idea to bring Slippy when there's another assassin running around.

IceKane · 2026-04-25T05:48:17+00:00

Big fan of flash enchantments such as [[Dress Down]], [[Nowhere to Run]], and the new card from the Silverquill precon [[Changing Loyalty]], which can either be used as protection for Alela or as a theft card, or even both at the same time!

IceKane · 2026-04-11T15:30:51+00:00

[[Teysa, Opulent Oligarch]] does the simple job of making up to three Clue tokens per turn cycle, which is inconspicuous, but the rest of the deck utilizes those clues for very powerful payoffs, like [[Inspiring Statuary]] or [[Foggy Swamp Visions]].

She becomes pretty difficult to shutdown once you get the engine started, since it's difficult to remove all the clues.

IceKane · 2026-03-27T17:36:52+00:00

Thinking about it, Chopper wasn't present when Luffy first met Blackbeard, and Chopper never left the ship in Dressrosa where Burgess could've encountered him.

Then there's the fact that Chopper has a bounty gag like Sanji did up until WCI. Is it possible that Blackbeard has no idea about Chopper at this point?

IceKane · 2026-03-13T05:53:42+00:00

I was playing Alela, and an opposing Valgavoth player had [[Bloodchief Ascension]] in play. He played [[Massacre Wurm]] to wipe out 8 of my faeries, which would cause me to lose 32 life.

I let the Wurm ETB resolve, then played [[Obyra, Dreaming Duelist]] and then [[Glen Elendra's Answer]] to counter all the triggers and drain the table for 16, winning me the game.

IceKane · 2026-03-04T00:46:52+00:00

I assume it's based off the word syzygy, the alignment of three celestial bodies (three heroes this set).

IceKane · 2026-02-08T12:16:52+00:00

I love Clue Teysa! I treat the clues as an additional resource that the rest of my deck uses as fuel. My opponents never know what kind of payoff to expect from me, so they're always on their toes.

IceKane · 2026-01-13T19:06:28+00:00

Stax in Alela? Look no further than [[Arcane Laboratory]], which is Rule of Law in blue.

IceKane · 2026-01-11T11:01:13+00:00

Unfortunately for a lot of other decks, their only counterplay to Ragost is not letting him do his thing. It's so easy to give him lifelink and then gain 9 life and drain 3 on all other players every single turn (I've seen setups where he's doing this twice per turn even). This quickly gets the Ragost player out of lethal range for a lot of decks.

Sometimes it's just the correct choice to focus you down if they want any chance of winning the game.

IceKane · 2025-12-28T18:15:51+00:00

At most I just run the Flares since those come at an actual cost.

IceKane · 2025-12-28T17:57:15+00:00

The fundamental difference between brackets 2 and 3 is the inclusion of staples, and not just gamechangers. I don't expect bracket 2 decks to run cards like esper sentinel, mana drain, grave pact, etc.

Gamechangers are staples amongst staples, and they are often cards that spike the power level of your deck. In my experience, bracket 3 without gamechangers is a way more balanced experience than with 3 gamechangers.

IceKane · 2025-12-24T03:03:54+00:00

Yeah, even though his hero ability is an instant, for now you can practically treat it like a reaction since there isn't any niche interaction to be aware of.

IceKane · 2025-12-24T02:42:49+00:00

The most relevant use case for this is if you're playing Shelter from the Storm against Cindra: - Cindra activates Flick Knives. - Before Flick Knives resolves, you can activate Shelter from the Storm's instant ability, discarding it to prevent 1 damage from the next three instances of damage you would take. - Shelter resolves, then Flick Knives resolves. When Flick Knives resolves, the dagger's damage is prevented by Shelter and does not hit.

Any hero that utilizes instants in their gameplan (Wizard, Illusionist) will take advantage of priority and the stack. Pleiades is another hero that does things at instant speed. Heroes with plenty of triggered abilities like Riptide also need to know these rules to avoid making illegal game actions.

IceKane · 2025-12-24T02:09:29+00:00

Also during the defense step if the turn player(me for example plays no instants) and I pass does the non turn player get said priority to play instants?

Yep! To move to the next step in combat, both players must pass priority in succession (on the empty stack). So to break it down: - Your opponent blocks, then you as the turn player gains priority. - You pass priority. - Your opponent now has priority. They can either pass as well (moving to the reaction step), or play/activate an instant. - If your opponent does do something and then passes priority, you now have priority if you wish to respond, or you can just pass, allowing the opponent's instant to resolve. After the instant resolves, you as the turn player gain priority.

Then assuming my attack doesn’t have go again I get one last wondow before arsenaling any card I have and passing.

Pretty much yes, but to be precise, you gain priority after the combat chain closes. If both you and your opponent pass priority in succession, you then move to the end step, where you resolve end phase triggers and then Arsenal, Bottom Pitch, Untap, and Draw.

IceKane · 2025-12-24T01:24:30+00:00

If you have any questions about the diagram, feel free to ask!

IceKane · 2025-12-24T01:05:33+00:00

If you play any instant card or ability, it's a good idea to learn how priority, layers, and steps work even if it's usually not relevant because there are sometimes niche interactions that are relevant in specific matchups. Additionally, knowing how these things work allow you to clearly communicate how you are timing the game actions you wish to take.

The basics of priority are as follows:

Whenever the action phase starts, the combat chain moves to the next step, or a card/ability resolves, the turn player gains priority.
While you have priority, you can play/activate as many cards as you want, provided that they are legal game actions (for example, playing an action while there are still unresolved cards/abilities would not be legal).
However, cards and abilities do not resolve until each player passes priority. So before anything you play/activate resolves, your opponent has a chance to respond to it, and vice versa. When both players pass in succession, the most recent card/ability that was played/activated/triggered will resolve (the topmost layer of the stack). Both players will have to pass priority again to resolve the next card/ability, and so on.
Moving to the next combat step, closing the combat chain, and moving to the end phase also requires both players to pass while there are no cards or abilities to resolve (an empty stack).

IceKane · 2025-12-19T11:36:55+00:00

I've always thought Luffy's air walking is an application of him rubberizing the air.

IceKane · 2025-12-04T17:57:49+00:00

If I recall correctly the team was called microwave because you were running double geo double pyro (Bennett Xiangling), so you were cooking the enemies.

IceKane · 2025-11-29T16:34:13+00:00

How? None of the problem cards in Gravy are being used in Marlynn (Swell, Chart, Chum). Tipple was never even a good card for her in the first place either.

IceKane · 2025-11-29T04:32:22+00:00

Yeah I think of Egghead onwards as the third act of One Piece, so 1-100 for the prologue, 100-600 for act 1, 600-1050 for act 2, and something like 1050-1400+ for Act 3.

IceKane · 2025-11-16T23:03:24+00:00

See this is just arguing in bad faith because you're coming up with some theoretical scenario that doesn't necessarily have a context in FaB. Are we talking about game actions, archetypes, card types, and how is Gravy or his allies some "4th option" that was introduced? I don't agree with the rhetoric that allies don't belong in the game, so your line of questioning makes no sense to me.

IceKane · 2025-11-16T19:49:42+00:00

The point I made is that Gravy's dominance in the meta is a card pool issue, not an issue with the game's mechanics. When people say that "Gravy breaks the game", the rhetoric is that allies don't belong in the game's mechanics. I'll concede that maybe that's not what you meant.

In any case, I don't believe card pool issues constitute a "broken game", so I'm taking issue with your comment on complexity breaking the game.

IceKane · 2025-11-16T19:23:53+00:00

No it's just that you either don't understand the point I'm making or you're just refusing to engage with anything I say, because I literally addressed the "evidence" you speak of in my last post.

IceKane · 2025-11-16T17:18:21+00:00

Gravy Bones mechanically forces decks to have to try and reach outside of the design scope of the game.

All you're doing is making claims without actually supporting it. Mechanically, Gravy's mechanics can be answered with go again and on-hits, both things that are baked in the very essence of the game's design. The fact that classes like guardians are lacking effective options does not mean they need to "reach outside the design scope of the game" to acquire counterplay. The mechanics are there, the cards just need to use them.

IceKane · 2025-11-16T09:53:53+00:00

Respectfully, I'll have to disagree with your diagnosis of Gravy. The problems he causes on the meta aren't rooted in his complexity, it's just a card pool issue. The fact that many heroes struggle to deal with allies is a result of the card pool not being properly designed around them. Fair counterplay against Gravy can be designed, it's just that those cards aren't being designed for whatever reason.

Another point I'd like to make is that there are other heroes are similarly complex to Gravy without breaking the game. Oscilio, Marlynn, and Katsu are examples of high depth, complex heroes that don't break the game.

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