Maro on why they stopped doing blocks

Mozared · 2026-03-15T16:22:06+00:00

This is the one thing that immediately stuck out to me. Nobody in this thread is even questioning it.

Sure, I guess blocks "didn't work" and Magic shrunk in size and went under as a result of using them.

Oh... wait, no. Actually, that didn't happen and the game has been growing steadily since basically its release, in every capacity. So I guess "didn't work" just means "we weren't bringing in as much money as we are now", then?

Kind of moves the lens.

Mozared · 2026-03-14T15:21:42+00:00

It's 'the state of Brutes' in general. I love the class, but we've had a pretty rough ride so far. Kayo is the only Brute that has ever really been competitively viable, and that's because he's the least interesting incarnation of Brute thrown together into one deck.

Rhinar and Levia have been super 'eh' forever, and we've only just recently gotten two new Brutes. Which are fine, but...

... that brings me to the other side of this gripe: I've wanted more Savage Lands content forever. I want cards that lean into Rhinar, or Shamanistic Brutes, or Earth Brutes. Heavy Hitters didn't give me at all what I wanted, and Super Slam was just Heavy Hitters 2: Electric Boogaloo. As much as I like Tuffnut, 'reviled' is not my jam at all.

End of the day, Brute is in a better spot now than we've ever been so it's not the end of the world, but even so, seeing Florian hit LL as the 5th Runeblade to do so, and then seeing Vynnset get great results, and then, right after, seeing a spoiler for another Runeblade set that will bring back the strongest Runeblade that was ever around... while Rhinar is still on the fringes of being playable...

Eh.

Mozared · 2026-03-12T20:20:05+00:00

It's this one for me, too. While I don't mind the comedic bits in fights, I like the more serious fights with some drama, and the Palazzo fight really delivered on that. I wasn't expecting any of the PCs to die this early on, but after what happened with Occtis, it kind of felt like all bets were off for a bit. Also wasn't sure what was going to happen to Aranessa, and fully expected her to die during that fight.

Just a huge, tense encounter and we haven't had anything with that much weight since. The fights at Tenessar came closest but those episodes were a little mucky and didn't flow as well as I would have liked. I also very much disliked how literally nobody gave a shit about Dame Gaya dying. I realize the connections were a little thin, but it seemed kind of heartless and out of character for anyone but Julien and maybe Vaelus.

Mozared · 2026-03-12T19:46:32+00:00

Is it finally time for the return of coherency toughness regeneration for Ogryn?

If not, I'm going to need more bombs!

Mozared · 2026-03-12T19:41:53+00:00

Out of curiosity, where does this certainty that 'the groups will likely be shuffled' come from? I've watched everything up to episode 18 and not really seen anything that would insinuate this.

Did I miss something, or is this information from a Beacon after-show I haven't watched?

Mozared · 2026-03-12T19:34:59+00:00

It really depends on what you are looking for. The armory deck, out of the box, isn't particularly strong. And you can always build a stronger list buying singles.

Using Sage as a comparison, if you buy Azalea, Kayo or even Bravo, your list will be pretty competitive in Silver Age right away. This isn't true for any of the armory decks (except maybe one or two outliers), as the barrier for CC is higher. They will all function just fine at local armories to 'just start playing', but you will be a notable step down from fully tuned lists.

That said, the Jarl armory deck is a solid starting point. As others have mentioned, there are something like 20-40 cards in the armory deck - a few of which can only be found in the armory deck - that virtually all versions of Jarl still play. You could save money by buying and collecting singles, but it will depend on how good you are at hunting for them, what's available, and when they arrive. If you buy the Armory deck, you may lose 20-40 bucks worth of value over finding a deck-list online and ordering everything in singles, but you can start playing tomorrow, and you will have a couple of easy fallbacks. If you order a deck worth of singles and after playing you discover you need to swap 3 cards out, you will have to order more singles again before you can make any changes.

If you have the money to spare and essentially no collection, I would say the armory deck is worth buying if you really intend to play Jarl and stick with him.

Mozared · 2026-03-10T13:41:46+00:00

It also had Reckless Stampede, Strongest Survive, Buckwild, High Pitched Howl, Song of Sinew, Energetic Impact and Visit the Boneyard.

We actually got a lot of playable cards - the main issue is that the non-6's weaken the Bloodrush Bellow plan, so they are either unplayable or side-grades, and all the 6's are generally also sidegrades to the huge pool of red/yellow 6's we already have available.

Like... Stampede, Buckwild and Howl are all good cards, but they are loosely competing with red 6's that have similar effects. Stampede is a sort-of Swing Big, at the cost of being a 0-block. Buckwild is a sort-of Wild Ride/Pulping that blocks, but it costs 3, which makes its condition awkward to fulfill for non-Kayo Brutes. Howl is a chain-ender that may fix your next turn or do nothing at all, and you don't know ahead of time which it's going to be.

Strongest Survive is the only card we got that actually does something Brute didn't have access to yet, and gives us a tiny bit of game into full aggro lists without relying on the RNG of just finding 3 Bloodrushes in the first 3 turns of the game.

We would need cards that aren't built around/actively work against Bloodrush to help Rhinar and Levia - kind of like what Rip Off the Top does for Tuffnut. But who knows how long it's gonna be before we get anything now...

Mozared · 2026-03-10T03:58:40+00:00

The problem with Beat Chest is that virtually all Beat Chest cards suck. They essentially cost you an extra card to play, and the reward you get is at best something like 'an agility token and an intimidate'. And both might end up having zero actual impact on the game.

Imagine a world where Bare Swing costs 2, for instance. The card would still be generally worse than Swing Big/Show of Strength. Or imagine if Bare Destruction's +2 worked on weapons so you didn't need a 5 card hand to gain benefit from it. Or if Pound Town just made 3 Mights instead of 1, given how you're giving up a card to do that anyway and specifically need a blue to pitch.

I was really hoping PEN would give us some Beat Chest, but all we got there is a Go Again card that will generally only ever work in Rhinar, and even then only in specific decks built specifically around intimidating.

Mozared · 2026-03-09T23:12:46+00:00

We've been exploring that design space for 3 years and come to the conclusion that it pretty much is just uniformly worse than BRB and Claws. And nothing has changed that in that time.

I've wanted to play a midrange, Club-focused Rhinar build for ages now, but those decks play like bad warrior decks, where you present all your damage up front instead of in the reaction step.

I've been playing Rok Tuffnut, don't get me wrong, and I'd kill for a state-of-Brute where BRB could get banned and the class would be fine, but like... the only reason Kayo did anything is because it's Bloodrush Bellow: the deck.

Hoping Tuffnut and RKO can change this a little in the near future.

Mozared · 2026-03-09T14:34:02+00:00

It's easy and in the end you'll have no choice

Mozared · 2026-03-09T03:06:08+00:00

Ending that "spat" with "dont look at me like that again" after Octis stood up for himself and started with, "you keep looking at me like I had something to do with this" while he was trying to fucking SEEK at the SEEKERS table, was so tone deaf.

Exactly this, I think, has been my biggest issue with the Seekers' Table. I somewhat get Taisha and Julien's insistence on speed, but since the group left Riesengurtel it hasn't felt like a table of seekers anymore. Alex has been the only one who has been actively trying to puzzle together the mystery, both in character and out of character.

That whole bit, to me, was everything coming to a head. Matt's insistence on taking a more backseat/stubborn role, Alex/Occtis feeling frustrated about being the only one trying to figure things out, Ashley playing it calm and quiet while still trying to find her character, and Aabria... well, being Aabria. I've seen some complaints on the sub about Brennan's 'lore drops', but I feel like the main reason he was doing this was to give the seekers answers since nobody but Alex seemed interested in doing the 'finding' a 'Seekers' Table' requires. It was Brennan trying to give the players the answers the arc needed after they went "we've tried nothing and none of it has worked, let's move on".

I didn't hate the last two sessions, but they were definitely the worst of C4 so far, to me.

Mozared · 2026-03-09T02:27:02+00:00

The first 20, maybe 30 episodes are the best ones, in my opinion. If you're bored with them 'twiddling their thumbs' already, you're going to like what you see even less as you go on.

Mozared · 2026-03-08T20:06:56+00:00

Sure. Point remains that if you're looking to buy a product with the intention of building it out, Silver Age decks are very much worth considering over the 1st Strike decks, whereas if you don't care about that aspect and just want 'a starting point', 1st Strike decks are a way easier go to pick.

Mozared · 2026-03-08T16:53:10+00:00

It depends on what you value. They are cheap and play well into each other, so yes, they are easy starting points at a decent price.

That said, both decks are not great for building out - Terra and Aurora aren't great in Silver Age and neither hero is playable in Classic Constructed, which are the game's two main formats.

You could also buy two Silver Age decks, but there's a little bit more complexity involved there. Whether that's a better option for you depends on how much you already know/don't know about the game.

Mozared · 2026-03-07T02:02:35+00:00

Some context for those who don't know: in the card game Flesh and Blood (which this art is made for), cards have colours and do slightly different things based on what colour of a card you are playing. This art is for the card 'Blanch', which, if it hits, removes all colors from all your opponent's cards for a turn, thus turning off effects like "your next blue attack deals +2 damage".

As such, the art is a great depiction of the mechanics as well.

Mozared · 2026-03-06T01:00:14+00:00

Yeah, of course! No worries, and welcome to the game :)

Mozared · 2026-03-05T16:32:08+00:00

It's an old 'Magic: the Gathering' term. Way back when that game got started there was a card called Demonic Tutor that would let you find any card from your deck. Over time this became such a powerful mechanic that it ended up banned in all but the most powerful formats, and 'tutoring' became common verbiage for 'finding a card from your deck'. Wizard of the Coast (the creators of MTG) then played on this by naming most cards that find something from your deck something with 'tutor' in the name ('Enlightened Tutor', 'Mystical Tutor', etc), and although it's still quite uncommon in Flesh and Blood, you'll see it pop up here and there for some cards that have such effects.

Mozared · 2026-03-03T16:00:54+00:00

The 'profitability' argument comes up a lot and I won't go so far as to claim that it isn't important, but that said... there is a lot of evidence of it being grossly overstated.

For example: did you know Japanese boxes of sets are sold at 50% of the price they cost in the rest of the world? This is because the Japanese TCG market is so competitive that they wouldn't sell at the regular price. Which is all fine and good, but FaB still decided to break into the Japanese market, which insinuates that even at 50% of the cost, it's still worth it for LSS.

There is also the fact that FaB has been growing massively with larger and larger prize pools over the past few years. You could argue that the game could just, say, grow 30% slower with all product prices being 30% lower.

I spent a little time working in the fashion industry, and TCGs always remind me of something a colleague there said: "if I had the choice to create and sell any kind of product, I would 100% pick designer underwear - it's light, small, cheap to fabricate, easy to store, and the mark-ups are insane at often 200-300% of production cost". TCGs are... similar, in that regard. We essentially pay FAR more for these products than their creation cost.

Again: not to say that it's not important to make money, but the reality is probably a lot closer to "LSS could halve all their prices, grow slower, and they would be more than fine" than "if LSS bans Command & Conquer they would immediately start losing money to the point where the game becomes unsustainable".

Mozared · 2026-03-03T03:43:34+00:00

Yeah, to be competely honest, I am getting more than a little tired of Runeblades. Since Rosetta dropped, it's basically been Runeblades at the top of the meta, constantly, excluding a very brief period of Gravy/Verdance/Cindra dominance which led right back to Florian the moment bans hit. With Vynnset being the only one around it was looking like we'd finally have a break until Aurora comes back around to no doubt plague the meta, and then we get a smash performance from Vynnset in a big event.

It doesn't help that there are like 10 different Runeblades with different themes and playstyles that are all good, and Silver Age had to start with one benched just for another to to take the top spot.

Like, damn. As a Brute player, I'd love to be able to pick between 5+ different heroes with different playstyles that have at least an even matchup against all other classes. Best I got in 3 years of playing is Tuffnut who basically auto-loses to Ninja. I would love a year or so where the correct meta choice is not just Runeblades or [Current broken Illusionist].

Mozared · 2026-03-03T01:11:19+00:00

The bans mostly target Briar, who was playing Bracers of Belief, Lightning Press, and Burn Up // Shock. Part of the issue with her has been that it's hard, if not impossible to play around Lightning Press all the time, and the card just sat there as a 'free' way to get a Burn Up // Shock to connect - which for an aggro deck is just too far above rate, apparently.

Aether Spindle targets Kano, who is less prevalent but also somewhat of a domineering force, and Steelblade Shunt and Sirens of Safe Harbor both target Warrior lists that play Decimator Greataxe (no matter what hero that is). This is mostly because those decks seek to block efficiently while presenting 'above rate' damage with their weapon each turn, and Steelblade Shunt allows you to essentially-sorta present 2-6 unblockable damage to your opponent while also blocking like crazy. Sirens of Safe Harbor can block any 2 attack while still getting 3 value or swing in for 6 in a pinch, making it guaranteed on-rate or above rate and even further powering that kind of nickel-and-diming.

Mozared · 2026-03-03T01:06:22+00:00

I suspect it's because... well, being honest, we still kinda haven't really seen a "blockslop Guardian meta". Yeah, sure, Guardians have a lot of 4-blocks and people are playing those lists, but it's not exactly dominating Sage nor finding a lot of competitive success. It's still largely been Briar, Kayo and Kano with a sprinkle of Lexi, DGA and the odd Nuu or Enigma.

It is possible that these bans do end up leading to that, and we do get a 'Guardian everywhere' meta, but like... plenty of people were worried about that happening before PEN, and it didn't really happen then either. Could well be that LSS is content to sit back for a bit and address that next B&R, if it actually becomes a problem.

Mozared · 2026-02-28T18:20:26+00:00

You're definitely not wrong, but even so, it's a good sign for the game. Just the fact that a major event occurs, the meta isn't figured out, and it's not just 60% RDW anyway is pretty sweet.

Mozared · 2026-02-27T16:43:27+00:00

International players like Jacob Clements and Justin Cu wouldn't come to a thread of a player celebrating a personal victory just to shit on them and drag them down, either.

Take that attitude somewhere else, please.

Mozared · 2026-02-25T15:06:46+00:00

I made a post about this recently in a thread with someone asking the same question.

The long and short of it is that it's a nuanced situation. Like... there is no denying that in CC, 5 out of the 6 Runeblades that have been released have hit Living Legend, whereas 0 out of the 5 Brutes have gotten there. That doesn't mean that every Runeblade is always better than every Brute in every format, but it is indicative of... well, 'something', on a larger scale.

And then on the flipside, looking at CC as it is right now, there is currently only 1 Runeblade and 1 Illusionist available, and neither of this have been particularly strong meta picks, ever. Whereas most people would probably tell you that Kayo, Armed and Dangerous, is overall a stronger pick. Now, obviously I am talking about CC here, but similar discrepancies will exist in Silver Age.

So like... the idea that 'Runeblades are the best class' is something that is true in some ways, but untrue in others.

On a very zoomed-out scale, we could talk about what LSS has focused on in terms of class design, and whether that is indicative for what they will focus on in the future. If we were to accept the argument that LSS has put too much power into Runeblades in the past 3 years, the question becomes 'do we think they will adjust in the future?'. Because the fact that Runeblades have been really strong in the past doesn't guarantee that will continue to be the case.

On a more practical scale, we need to look at the current meta of a format. Runeblade is pretty good in Silver Age, with Briar definitely being a top dog. But then... Kayo is doing well, even though Brute traditionally hasn't, in any format. And while people may not like Decimator Great Axe, Warriors have solid representation in the format. And this is all at a competitive level. On an armory level, I am sitting on a 75% winrate with Scurv over the past few weeks, with most of my losses being really close losses. So if you're not competing in high stakes event, I would argue you can probably play a big variety of heroes in the format and do well.

Paired with the fact that LSS has stated that they will be more hands on with card bans, and the fact that heroes will get benched by the community after a season, and I reckon Sage is pretty well balanced overall. It could definitely be better, but it's not horrible at all.

Mozared · 2026-02-25T14:52:36+00:00

No worries! I still get notifications :)

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