How To Play Flesh & Blood: A Beginners Guide

Welcome to the world of Flesh and Blood, a thrilling collectible card game that combines strategy, tactics, and deck-building. Whether you're new to card games or a seasoned player, this guide will help you get started on your journey to becoming a skilled Flesh and Blood duelist.

Having its world-wide debut in late 2019, Flesh & Blood is one of the world's newest and most quickly rising trading card games, with millions of players jumping right on. 

Understanding the Flesh & Blood Basics

• Objective: The primary goal of Flesh and Blood is to reduce your opponent's hero's health to zero while protecting your own hero.
• Components: You'll need a deck of Flesh and Blood cards, a play-mat (optional but helpful), health counters, and a resource token.
• Deck Construction: A standard deck consists of exactly 60 cards, including your hero card. You can have up to three copies of each non-hero card in your deck.

1. Breaking down further, when playing Flesh & Blood you essentially have 2 decks, your main deck (40-60 cards depending on format of the game) and then your equipment deck. 
2. The equipment deck is laid out on the table and always available to you during gameplay, rather than being drawn from the deck per turn.

Building a perfect Deck

• Choose a Hero: Select a hero card from one of the four available classes - Warrior, Wizard, Ninja, Mage, Ranger, Illusionist, Brute, Guardian, Runeblade & Mechanologist, with many more being added. Each class has its unique play-style and abilities.
• Create Your Deck: Build your deck around your hero's abilities and strategies. Include a mix of attack cards, defence cards, equipment, and resource cards. A balanced deck will give you more options during the game.
• Pitch and Attack Values: Each card has a Pitch value (the resource it provides) and an Attack value (the damage it gives out). Balancing these values is crucial to your deck's success.

The Gameplay 

(while there are two versions of the game, ‘Blitz’ & ‘Classic’, during this beginners blog were talking about the gameplay for the ‘Classic’ or “full fat” version of Flesh & Blood)

• Setup: Both players start with 40 health, but this is also available in the bottom right hand corner of the cards, marked in green. Shuffle your deck and draw a starting hand of 4 cards, which are your hero cards. Place your hero card in the hero zone, and put a health counter on your hero card.

• Phases: A typical turn consists of the following phases:

1. Start of Turn Phase: Put a card from your hand face down as a resource (pitch) and gain one resource token. 
2. Action Phase: Play cards from your hand, use hero abilities, and attack your opponent. This is the ‘meat’ of the turn where the real gameplay occurs.
3. End Phase: Clean up any used cards and prepare for the next turn. You draw back-up at this point in the game, not at the beginning of your turn, (except in the case of the first turn, where instead both players draw up to hand size at the end of the first player's turn only). 

•   Attacking and Defending:

1. Declare your attack by playing an attack card from your hand.
2. Your opponent can defend by playing defence cards from their hand or using their hero's abilities.
3. Compare the Attack value of the attacking card with the Defence value of the defending card.
4. Damage is calculated by subtracting the Defence value from the Attack value. Any remaining damage reduces the defending hero's health.

Winning the Game:

Reduce your opponent's hero health to zero to win the game. Utilise your hero's unique abilities, synergies within your deck, and tactical decisions to out-manoeuvre your opponent.

Tips for Success:

• Practice: The more you play, the better you'll become at understanding card interactions and strategic choices.
• Card Knowledge: Familiarise yourself with your deck and the cards in your opponent's class to make informed decisions.
• Resource Management: Balancing resource generation and card play is crucial. Don't overspend or overcommit.
• Adaptability: Be prepared to adjust your strategy based on your opponent's plays and the evolving game state.
• Deck Tuning: Continuously refine your deck based on your experiences and what works best for your play-style.

Remember, becoming a skilled Flesh and Blood player takes time and practice. Embrace the challenges, learn from your losses, and celebrate your victories as you embark on this exciting card game journey!