Last weekend, the Flesh and Blood Trading Card Game’s third World Championship wrapped nicely in Osaka, Japan. We now have a new World Champion and pretty much know who the top Heroes are in the current metagame. But that’s not all; World Championship weekend also had two other major tournaments – Calling: Osaka and Battle Hardened: Osaka, which also have their own Champions in their respective formats. There’s also the Gold Cold Foil Commoner tournament, which now garnered more attention now that there’s a Commoner Battle Hardened in Portland later in the month. Let’s dive in!
The 8th Seed Buff
For the third time in a row, the 8th seed player won the World Championship in what’s starting to be an unofficial FaB tradition. Grzegorz Kowalski played a unique Enigma list that leverages the Mystic Illusionist’s strengths along with one of the most controversial cards to date: Count Your Blessings. This allowed him to play both sides of the spectrum – as a value-based, snow-balling powerhouse on the offense with the Miragai and friends against slower decks or a fatigue deck that can weather even the most explosive turns against the faster ones. It’s not that the deck is unbeatable, though; there were a number of really close calls, but Count Your Blessings and smart play to get around things like Poison The Well allowed the deck to win on fatigue against opponents who are ahead by 20 health or more!
World Championship 2024 Results
Champion
Grzegorz Kowalski – Enigma
2nd Place
Mercy Bickell – Aurora
3rd – 4th Place
Sam Sutherland – Dash I/O
Allen Lau – Dash I/O
Top 8
Michael Hamilton – Nuu
Noel Beygelman – Viserai
Rob Catton – Aurora
Valentin Mackl – Enigma
No Assassinations Today
After getting heavily nerfed from losing the Bonds of Ancestry combo line, which allowed him to pretty much one-shot anyone, Zen lists easily adapted by adopting a ton of Crouching Tigers and being an Ira deck instead! The Zen iterations of today merge all of the best traits of the other Ninjas without any drawbacks – Katsu’s combo consistency without relying on the search, Ira’s value numbers via the Tiger combos working together, and Fai’s…well, heavy armor! The deck was so well-oiled that Nikolas Kramic even won the finals against one of its worst matchups – Nuu, the deck that was made to hard-counter Zen even during his strongest days! While no Zens made it to the Top 8 of Worlds, there’s no doubt that he replaces Kayo as the most well-balanced deck in the metagame that’s always a good, comfortable tournament pick.
Calling: Osaka Results
Champion
Nikola Kramaric – Zen
2nd Place
Emad Kashy – Nuu
3rd – 4th Place
Cas Mulder – Aurora
Kei Iikubo – Nuu
Top 8
Mariano Lemus – Ira
Brian Kong – Dash I/O
Nghia Tran – Dash I/O
Manuel Wachouschek – Azalea
Burn Them All!
Peter Buddensiek might have a comfortable final against Oldhim, where he has all the time in the world to burn the Elemental Guardian down with Kano’s exponential damage, but his road to the top is definitely a rough one – going against Viserai and Dash I/O. It’s kinda funny to see how Heroes who haven’t even reached Living Legend status are making their mark on the format, with half the top 8 being undergrads who are enjoying the (nearly) unlimited power afforded to them.
Battle Hardened: Osaka Results
Champion
Peter Buddensiek – Kano
2nd Place
Xavier McLean – Oldhim
3rd – 4th Place
Lucas Oswald – Bravo, Star of the Show
David Yau – Dash I/O
Top 8
Brodie Spurlock – Chane
Suh Jaeyong – Aurora
Carlo Ople – Briar
Christopher Iaali – Viserai
It’s Cold At The Top
Commoner might look like a casual format to the outsider looking in, but having competed in multiple Gold Cold Foil tournaments before, I can absolutely tell you that it has its own set of sweaty tryhards (like yours truly). Paweł Sosnowski continued to prove that Iyslander is the true terror of the format that’s swarming with all kinds of Ira and Chane. Arcane damage in the format is premium, and despite new ways to deal with it, like Arcane Polarity, Iyslander is getting new tools like Fyendal’s Fighting Spirit and Photon Splicing, which seemed to balance things out. Snapback is great in the deck, as it helps push arcane damage against AB3 and make surprise kills, as not all decks consistently have 2 or 3 Blues in their hand. At the moment, Pawel’s list is probably as perfect as it gets, and we can expect to see a lot of the Ice Wizard at BH Portland.
Gold Cold Foil Commoner Osaka Result
Champion
Paweł Sosnowski – Iyslander
And that’s it for this year’s World Championship! For 2025, Flesh and Blood TCG is rebranding its Pro Circuit into the FaB World Tour with the same $1,500,000 prize pool distributed among all of its events worldwide (we’ll talk about that in a separate article), so there’s plenty to be excited about. It’s not too late to get into the game, and it only gets better from here!
You can find all of the decklists HERE at FaB TCG’s official site.
Check out our other FaB Articles!
Read More:
Everything You Need To Know About “The Hunted” – Flesh and Blood TCG’s Upcoming Set – VRSUS
VRSUS Cosplay Feature: Levia, Shadowborn Abomination by Gerzsefex – VRSUS
Where To Play Flesh And Blood TCG In Manila For Every Day Of The Week – VRSUS
VRSUS Cosplay Feature: Nuu, Alluring Desire By Mira Rae – VRSUS
Flesh And Blood Is The Best Trading Card Game That You Should Try Right Now – VRSUS
