Auckland Calling – Flesh and Blood Weekend

This past weekend was something special — Auckland hosted a Double Calling, right here in the home city of Flesh and Blood. The first Calling, we were venturing back to Welcome to Rathe, the game’s very first set.

Normally, at these big Calling events, there are special side events you can enter that give you a shot at qualifying for the coveted Welcome to Rathe Alpha Draft. Alpha packs carry a high price tag, especially if you manage to crack a Cold Foil Legendary.

But this is the last chance for a while, Legend Story Studios has decided to put those drafts on ice — saving the remaining Alpha stock until the 10th Anniversary of Flesh and Blood.

Instead, Auckland Calling gave us something new and exciting:

Day 1: Welcome to Rathe Sealed – Unlimited product.

Day 2: If you make the cut — 48 players opening Welcome to Rathe Alpha.

WTR Sealed/Draft Calling (A)

Sealed is where you open 6 packs and play with a deck from those. You use the Young heroes, who have half the life of the adult heroes, and you have a deck size of 30 cards, which is a nice upgrade. Back in the day, you could use all your playable cards and just outlast your opponents.

My sealed pool was… let’s say not exactly stacked. I wasn’t expecting to crush the competition, but hey, you never know until the cards hit the table.

Round 1: Beat Pudding Tam from Team Blue Pitch — a great player and an awesome first win.

Round 2: Loss to Ricky.

Round 3: Loss to Ricardo Diaz, an American based in Japan who happens to be mates with my friend Xavier.

Round 4: Win over Sam.

Round 5: Win over Connor.

Round 6: Loss to Naib.

Round 7: Loss to Dave.

At that point, with just one more round left, there was no path to Day 2 for me. I decided to drop from the main event, take a breather, and jump into the promo event for that gorgeous Gravekeeping promo card.

In all of my games, I managed to bring all of my opponents' lives below 3 (you start with 20 in sealed and draft formats), and most were reduced to 1. And all my losses, they pulled a lot better than me, so I can't complain.

And that was my Day 1 — plenty of good games, some tough losses, and a fun finish to the day.

We went home, had an amazing dinner cooked by Kuan, and played Dominion to the wee hours of the morning.

Classic Constructed Calling (B)

Since I didn’t make Day 2 of The Calling A (the Sealed/Draft event), I knew I’d be jumping into The Calling B — Classic Constructed.

Classic Constructed is the main format of Flesh and Blood using adult heroes. Your deck has to include 80 cards (excluding the hero) and includes all of your weapons and equipment. You must present at least 60 cards at the start of the game.

For a very long time, my Classic Constructed hero of choice was Dash, Inventor Extraordinaire, but she recently hit Living Legend status. That meant she was no longer legal in CC, so I’d been preparing for the change. I didn't include an image of her hero power because she lets you start the game with an item that costs 2 or less, and that's it. Mine often sat on the side out of the way for the rest of my items.

During Nationals, I started building Gravy Bones, Shipwreck Looter — the new Pirate Necromancer from High Seas. The recent Living Legend adjustments made it even more appealing to switch to a new hero, and with everyone cracking High Seas for Draft practice, key cards were floating around in abundance.

A couple of weekends before the Calling, I took Gravy to the Whangārei Road to Auckland event just to get some reps in. I managed to 3–0 that event, learned a lot, and felt much more confident heading into Auckland.

Day 1 – Swiss Rounds

R1 vs Thomas on Arakni, Marionette – Close game, but he snuck it through in the end. I haven't played much into this hero at all, espiecally playing Gravey Bones.

R2 vs Bill on Dash I/O – We’d been staying together and he’d been testing with Kuan the night before. I was meant to watch, but got distracted with Dominion. He took a turn off to set up towards the end, which gave me the window to apply pressure and take the win.

R3 vs Topher on Prism – Very close, but Conqueror of the High Seas did great work stopping angel attacks, and a spicy Remembrance to get more poopers back sealed it. (Poopers are attacks with 6 power or more, which destroy a lot of Prism's Angel attacks)

R4 vs Jaden on Arakni, 5L!p3d 7hRu 7h3 cR4X (or Slippy, my friends had a good run showcasing this new hero at the Chritchurch calling earlier in the year. Jasin managed to make top 4 with it) – Jayden is a great local from Wellington and a really good player. Popular deck right now, but I kept up the pressure for the win.

R5 vs Naib on Ira – He was coming in hot of a win over in Singaapore but I got the board state I wanted and didn’t let go.

R6 vs Cayle on Jarl – We’ve had many grindy fatigue matches over the years. Remembrance for three Conquerors = 24 damage, which carried me to the win. Let's say he wasn't happy about that.

R7 vs Michael on Prism – Very tight game that got close to time, but I managed to have just enough presurre at the end there.

That left me 6–1, only dropping my first round. Strong position going into Day 2 with Top 8 hopes alive.

Day 2 – The Push for Top 8

R8 vs Max on Ira – The only undefeated from Day 1. Fiddler’s Green cheekily saved me 3 life at a key moment at the end which allowed me to keep my whole hand, and I was able to push through from there

R9 vs Amelia on Kano – The potion parade: Turn 0 potion, Turn 1 potion, Turn 2 potion, Turn 3 an Arcane spell but it should have been a potion, Turn 4 potion, my turn, boom — dead. Kano things exploding people out of nowhere. Amelia had an amazing run the whole tournament.

R10 vs Alexander Vore on Oscilio – On stream. A couple of small mistakes cost me — using my Quickdodge flexors an attack later than I should have and not blocking with my hook would have kept me at 3 more life, which meant he wouldn't have been able to blow me up on my turn and we'd be playing more fair Flesh and Blood

R11 vs Hamish on Kano – Much fewer potions here. On the final turn, I navigated a tricky arcane threat with Scuba, Sawbones and Arcane complaince to keep the Scuba alive and deliver lethal. That win scraped me into 7th place and the Top 8.

Top 8 – Quarterfinals

I faced CYK Lionel, who went on to win the whole event.
Turn 0, he hit a Null Timezone, naming Golden Tipple — brutal for my deck’s game plan. He managed to keep it around and bring out another one and by Turn 5, I’d seen six of my nine Tipples while still under Null Timezone. He piled on the pressure, forcing me to play allies from hand, which is never ideal. I got absolutely smoked, but hey — he was the champ for a reason.

Final Thoughts

Finished Top 8 at a Calling — finally! After so many bubble finishes, it felt great to get there.

Earned a Pro Tour invite, which I’m aiming to use for Japan (unless I qualify at a pro quest and then I can keep the PTI in the bank for future).

A bunch of my opponents also made Top 8 — Jayden, Michael, Amelia, and Alex. Always cool to see friends and great players succeed.

Gravy Bones felt strong, and it paid off luckily with the 3 games of prep I did a few weeks before. I learnt so much about the hero over the weekend.

For my Gold Foil prize card I got a Kabuto of Imperial Authority

I also managed to win and trade for enough tickets to get another uncut sheet, which you can see in the video of the Gold Foil Opening.

All in all, an incredible weekend of Flesh and Blood in Auckland. The home of the game put on a great show, and I can’t wait for the next big event.