The 3rd Flesh and Blood ProQuest season is starting next week, and I’m excited to get back into competitive play. My goal is to top 8 at least one event. I’ve only made top 8 once (in a Tales of Aria draft Skirmish) so this will be a big challenge for me. To give myself the best chance of achieving this goal, I’ve been putting in a lot of testing time, and I’m planning to play in 3-4 PQs.

It seems that the top decks from Worlds - Fai, Iyslander, and Oldhim - are still the ones to beat. These decks are powerful and well-rounded, and I expect to see them played without many changes from previous competetive lists. The release of the Dynasty expansion has given some 2nd tier heroes a boost, most notably Dash, who is now a top contender in the meta. Ranger and Brute have also received some help. Not enough to elevate them to prominence, but I will not be surprised to see them taking some PQs depending on the local meta.

My epectation going into my local week 1 event is that I’ll face a diverse representation of heroes. Sure, I expect to see plenty of the top tier decks. But historically I’ve noticed a high proportion of “pet decks” in our local area, and this time will be no different. Specifically, I am expecting more than the average rate of Lexi and Dromai. I wouldn’t be surprised to see 3 or more of either of them in a pool of 30 players. We have some warrior stans that will definitely play Dori and the Runeblade faithful that will play Briar or Vis no matter what. That said, my prediction is that Dash might be the most represented hero in my week 1 tournament. Iyslander would be my second choice.

I’ve decided to play Fai. He is still one of the strongest heroes, with a linear, aggressive gameplan that can be tough to beat if you aren’t practiced in the matchup. I fear that folks will be expecting a lot of Fai and maybe even sideboarding some Fai specific cards (c.f. the recent spike in This Round’s On Me prices). Still, Fai can go toe-to-toe with pretty much anyone, regardless of how well prepared they are.

While Fai is definitely a strong hero, I do not think he’s the “best deck” right now. So why did I pick him? I decided that it was likely better to just pick a viable hero I felt comfortable with and get in a lot of quality practice rather than spreading myself thin trying out a bunch of decks and try to outsmart the metagame. I prefer the play style of ice heroes like Oldhim or Iyslander, but with Fai I can get in so many more reps, playing 2-3 games for every one that I would play as Oldhim or Iyslander.

I’ve been spending the majority of my testing time practicing Daniel Rutkowski’s World’s Fai list and refining gameplans. I may make some small changes to the list over the next week in an effort to improve my matchups against certain heroes, but overall I’ve found that the list is strong and haven’t had too many reasons to tweak it so far.

I am leaving open the possibility of pivoting to Iyslander or Oldhim if necessary after week 1. This could happen if everyone in the local scene is playing Oldhim or packing their sideboards with Fai hate. While I’ve played a decent amount of both Iyslander and Oldhim, I would still need to get in a lot of reps with either of them if I chose to pivot, so I may start testing those heros a bit this week, just in case. Plus, getting in some cross-training on other heroes will help me understand my matchups as Fai a bit better.

Overall, I’m looking forward to the start of the PQ season and the opportunity to see how the local meta is shaping up. I expect to be tinkering with my deck and gameplans quite a bit between weeks 1 and 2 based on what I learn in week 1. In the meantime, I’ve been having a lot of fun preparing for the season and feel like I’ve gotten much better over the past few weeks of focused testing. I look forward to seeing everyone at PQ!