Flesh and Blood Monarch brings with it four different young Heroes as a starting point into the Blitz format or the game as a whole. They also introduce a brand new class in the Illusionist, as well as light and shadow talents to give the game some more oomph.
Of course, the biggest draw for enfranchised players towards these decks are the mentor cards which are only available in this product. Today, we’ll be examining the Monarch Blitz decks in detail to determine if they’re worth a purchase for you.
What Is The Blitz Format?
The Monarch Blitz decks are made for Flesh and Blood’s Blitz format. Blitz is a format made to be quicker than Classic Constructed while still maintaining the entertainment value. A game of Blitz generally lasts between 10 and 20 minutes.
The deck building rules for Blitz are as follows:
- You must use a young version of a Hero
- 40-card deck size limit
- 11 inventory cards
- You can have 2 copies of a given card in your deck
Blitz is generally played best of 1, and is made to be compatible with Play Anywhere.
What Are The Monarch Blitz Decks?
The four different Monarch Blitz decks are an introductory product meant for beginners to start with the Blitz format or the game as a whole. There are 4 different Monarch Blitz Decks:
- Prism(Illusionist,) containing the Librarian mentor
- Boltyn(Warrior,) containing the Minerva Themis mentor
- Chane(Runeblade,) containing the Lord Suttcliffe mentor
- Levia(Brute,) containing the Lady Barthimont mentor
All four of these have a distinct playstyle and deck list. The Monarch Blitz decks do a great job of not only introducing each class, but evolving them in new ways.
Each Monarch Blitz deck costs 11.99 USD or 11.99 EUR at MSRP. Due to the exclusivity of the mentors, the prices were significantly higher for a while, however, I don’t recommend buying them at much higher than MSRP.
These decks are a great entry point for new players, and with the new Mentor card type, they offer a breath of fresh air for enfranchised players too.
They’re made to be played against each other, rather than fully fledged competitive Blitz decks. Keep this in mind if you’re looking to take your Monarch Blitz deck to your LGS.
What Comes In A Monarch Blitz Deck?
Each one of these decks contains:
- A rainbow foil young Hero card
- A Mentor card exclusive to that deck
- 4 equipment cards
- A premade 40-card deck made out of commons and rares.
Each Monarch Blitz deck has a fixed deck list. This means you’ll know exactly what you’re getting before you make your purchase.
With one mentor in each deck, you’d need to purchase two decks in order to get a playset of a given mentor. With that being said, whether it’s correct to play one, two, or even no mentors at all is a question that remains unanswered.
Although the decks are made out of commons and rares, they can often hang with more expensive, but still casual decks.
Are The Monarch Blitz Decks Worth Buying?
With all of that being said, the question remains- are these decks worth it?
The quick answer- Yes.
Below, we’ll be looking at how buying a deck compares to buying the singles, as well as how well the decks play and are balanced against each other.
Financial Value
These decks pack a lot of value, assuming you’re able to get your hands on, say, the Boltyn Monarch Blitz deck for a bit above MSRP, Minerva Themis and Boltyn himself would pretty much pay for the deck by themselves.
Outlets are listing these two at around $9 and $5 respectively, which adds up to be above the MSRP- and that’s just two cards. In terms of value compared to getting singles, even just counting the cards above $1 will leave you at $20-25 of value.
With that being said, it’s important to consider whether or not you need those cards. Maybe you just want the mentor? Or maybe you want to give Boltyn a go without her? In both of these cases, it would be more economical to simply buy singles.
These prices are also likely to deflate over time, however, the product is still likely to come out as financially valuable to a new player.
All in all, the financial value in the Monarch Blitz decks is great at the moment, and is likely to stay at above MSRP.
Gameplay
Each of these decks does an excellent job of presenting the core ideals of the Hero’s class. Unlike many preconstructed decks in other card games, the Blitz Monarch decks are made with high synergy in mind.
Playing with one of these decks against a deck filled with higher rarity cards is perfectly reasonable. Against a more casual deck, you’re unlikely to face any issues playing these decks.
All of the Heroes in the Monarch Blitz decks have 20 life, this means you should be prepared for quicker games.
It’s notable that due to the talents system, Monarch Blitz decks are a bit more complex compared to the original 8 classes. However, we feel that they’ve hit the sweet spot between being too complex for new players to get into, and too simple that enfranchised players can’t enjoy them.
Below, we’ll be looking at how to play and upgrade each of these decks on a budget. The first upgrades you should get is always 7 additional equipment to get you to a full arsenal.
So, how do you play each deck?
Playing Levia, Shadow Brute
Blood debt is a new mechanic introduced in the Monarch Blitz decks. You lose 1 life at the end of your turn for each card with Blood Debt in your Banished Zone. Blood Debt cards tend to offer more power at the expense of the higher risk associated with playing them.
Levia is able to get around this risk by attacking with 6 or more attack every turn. This firmly sets up Levia as a mid-game Hero looking to go either tall or wide, depending on th situation. It’s important to note that Blood Debt can kill you. Because of this, it’s crucial that you activate Levia’s ability as consistently as possible.
Levia is one of the more complex Heros to play out of the Monarch Blitz decks. This makes her ideal for more experienced players looking for a novel approach to aggressive decks.
In the early game, you’re looking to defend, contrary to how it might seem with Levia’s outward appearances, you don’t want to start banishing cards straight away. Using cards like Deadwood Rumbler is crucial in this stage of the game to fill up your graveyard. The Ravenous Meataxe equipment helps you with getting in some damage while filling out your graveyard for the mid-game.
In the mid-game, you’re finally looking to start banishing your Blood Debt cards. You should’ve stocked your graveyard with around 10 cards by this time, it’s time to go on the offensive.
Levia treats your graveyard like a resource, and this is where her high skillcap comes in. You need to be constantly refilling your graveyard while maintaining efficient use of it. Be careful not to go through your graveyard too quickly, as it can be very tempting to launch a huge attack, exhausting your graveyard in the process.
Generally speaking, it’s not worth it to exhaust your graveyard unless you’re putting your opponent at a very low life total(2-3life or so.)
Now, that’s the ideal, but what do you do if you can’t trigger Levia’s ability on time? Saving cards like Ebon Fold or Blood Tribute can help you prevent the damage Blood Debt would deal to you without relying on your hero.
In the late game, you need to be patient with Levia. You might need to wait up for a turn or two to get your graveyard filled enough to launch the final attack. If you’ve managed to lower your opponent to 2-3 points of life, it’s time to go for the kill.
Cards like Consuming Aftermath will help you out with this. 3 is the “average” block amount, meaning that if you can get your opponent to 3 life or less before playing Consuming Aftermath, the Dominate keyword makes it quite likely that it’ll be the last card you need to play.
- Add in Romping Club, you should generally be favoring it over the Meataxe to help you get in early damage
- Add in the Nullrune set( Nullrune gloves, boots, hood, etc.)
- Take out Smash With Big Tree(Red) and add in Pulping(Red) to help you get that little bit of extra damage through
- Take out Blood Tribute, as it doesn’t help the deck’s proactive play patterns. Add in Unworldly Bellow to help you banish while providing some additional explosiveness
You can also add some more expensive cards like Tear Limb From Limb and Bloodrush Bellow to help facilitate more explosive turns in the deck.
Playing Prism, Light Illusionist
Prism is possibly the most complicated out of the four decks to pilot. Prism gives you endless room to interact with your opponent in combat using her ability. A lot of the time, you’ll be using it after combat at the end step of your opponent’s turn.
A lot of Prism’s offense comes from Iris of Reality. Swinging with your auras for 4 with go again is great. Going for a phantasm attack afterwards is when turns with Prism really get going.
You’ll want to pick to go second if you’re able to. This is done to take some damage and get down a yellow Spectra aura as soon as possible. The Spectra auras are great for matchups with aggressive, go-tall decks. If you’re up against a deck that doesn’t play a lot of cards with Go Again, then they’ll need to spend a whole turn dealing with them.
Take advantage of Prism’s ability to minimize the damage you’re taking in the early game by using it at the end of your opponent’s turn. This will help you stay alive into the mid-game.
Sometimes, you’ll get the chance to put a Halo of Illumination down on turn one. This means you’ll likely get to attack with Go Again starting with turn two- take advantage of this.
In the mid-game, you should usually switch from using Prism’s ability to defend to using it to go on the offense. You’re the aggressor in most matchups, so you should try to get the most out of your phantasm attacks and overwhelm your opponent.
In the late game, you’ll likely be falling behind so try to conserve some resources and try to surprise your opponent with a huge attack.
- Add the full Nullrune set
- Take out Spell Fray Leggings and add Time Skippers
- Take out Seek Enlightenment (Red), Rising Solartide (Yellow), and Wartune Herald (Blue) to add 2 of each color of Pummel.
- Replace Herald of Tenacity(Red) with Herald of Triumph(Red)
- Take out Spears of Surreality(Blue) with Zealous Belting (Yellow)
- Exchange 1 Phantasmal Shield(Red) with Ode to Wrath(Yellow)
After these upgrades, the deck will pivot to a very Pummel-focused aggressive strategy with a lot of yellow cards. This is a great way to go for anyone looking to have intricate decision-making to do in an aggressive deck.
Playing Chane, Shadow Runeblade
Chane is one of the simpler heroes, looking to go wide, chaining attacks many times in a single turn to get through and deal massive damage.
Chane’s ability to create Soul Shackles is incredibly powerful, but don’t underestimate its downside- it can kill you very easily. One of Chane’s biggest perks is the capability to play Shadow Runeblade cards with Blood Debt from the Banished Zone. Effectively, this gives you access to a larger hand with which you can overwhelm your opponent.
Ideally, you’ll be using Chane’s ability pretty much every turn to help you play as many cards as possible.
If you get the chance, you should always choose to go first. Getting your banish engine going is crucial for your success with Chane. Use Chane’s equipment to maximize the resource points you can obtain, and always stay on the lookout for creative ways to get Go Again going.
Using cards like Seeds of Agony in the early-game(or even mid game) can help you get a little bit more chip damage in. Using Galaxxi Black for this purpose is also a great idea. Even if you haven’t triggered any of its effects, it’s still a little bit more arcane damage to push through.
In the mid-game you should start using cards like Unhallowed Rites to help yourself stay alive and not get killed by Chane’s ability.
Chane is really looking to end the game in the mid-game. Usually, you’ll want to do this by mounting an insurmountable offense with Go Again and Arcane damage sources. Your opponent should already be low on life at this point, so it shouldn’t be too hard to finish them.
- Add in the Nullrune set
- Replace Galaxxi Blade with Nebula Blade, this will help you get more Soul Shackles, and Chane plays deceptively many non-attack cards.
- Take out Arcanic Crackle (Blue) and add Plunder Run (Blue)
- Take out Rifted Torment (Blue) to add in Vexing Malice (Blue) to help push in some more Arcane damage
- Take out Piercing Shadow Vise (Blue) to add in Unhallowed Rites (Blue)
- Take out Lunartide Plunderer to add in Rift Bind (Yellow)
- Take out Warmonger's Recital (Yellow) to add Seeds of Agony (Blue)
This build of Chane is looking to leverage non-attack cards to push in a lot of damage. Rift Bind deals a surprising amount of damage, and Nebula blade gives us more to do on turn 1.
Playing Boltyn, Light Warrior
Boltyn is the simplest of the 4 decks to pilot. Much like Chane, he’s looking to accomplish a go-wide playstyle. However, instead of pushing a lot for Go Again, Boltyn seeks to take advantage of the Charge mechanic to push in as many attacks as possible in one turn.
With that being said, there’s another interesting way to play Boltyn we’ll be exploring in the upgrades section, one that uses his axes as the main source of damage.
With Boltyn, there’s not much of a difference in playstyle depending on the stage of the game. Once you’ve pushed an attack to 3-4 power and have charged a few times, remember to use Boltyn’s ability to give it go again.
Cards like Courageous Steelhand and Take Flight will help you get damage through and turn on Boltyn’s ability.
Even without those, you can have amazing turns using Gallantry Gold and cards reserved in Boltyn’s soul to use his axes to deal a lot of damage.
- Add the Nullrune set
- Remove 1 Battlefield Blitz (Red) to add Nature's Path Pilgrimage (Red)
- Remove Courageous Steelhand (Red) to add Hit and Run (Red)
- Remove Cross the Line (Red) to add Through (Red)
- Remove 1 Dusk Path Pilgrimage (Red) to add Sharpen Steel (Red)
- Remove 1 Invigorating Light (Red) to add 1 Beacon of Victory (Yellow)
- Remove Push Forward (Red) to addWarrior's Valor (Red)
- Remove 1 Valiant Thrust (Red) to add 1 V of the Vanguard (Yellow)
- Remove Courageous Steelhand (Yellow) to add Sink Below (Red)
- Remove Cross the Line (Yellow) to add Second Swing (Yellow)
- Remove Express Lightning (Yellow) to add Take Flight (Blue)
- Remove Rising Solartide (Yellow) to add Sharpen Steel (Blue)
- Remove Illuminate (Blue) to add Warrior's Valor (Blue)
- Remove all copies of Seek Enlightenment (Blue)
That is a lot of changes, but we’re changing the deck’s whole playstyle. Instead of focusing on charge, which relies on our opponent to block us, we’re relying on Boltyn’s synergy with his axes to swing for a lot of damage.
Balance
The decks are extremely well-balanced against each other. There’s a complex hero for both Light and Shadow(Prism and Levia) as well as a simpler option(Chane and Boltyn.)
There are a couple suboptimal matchups such as Prism vs Levia, which favors Levia a bit due to her density of 6 power attacks. With that being said, the matchup is closer to 50/50 than you might think at first glance.
If you’re looking to get into the game with a friend, the ideal picks would be Boltyn and Chane. They both employ a go-wide strategy to help with learning about the combat chain, but are relatively simple to learn still.
The most consistent deck in our testing proved to be Levia. Although the deck can sometimes have clunky defensive turns, its attacks are consistent, and the playstyle is complex and satisfying.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Monarch Blitz Deck Should I Get As A New Player?
All of the decks are excellent picks, but Boltyn offers the most versatility in terms of upgrades.
Are Monarch Blitz Decks Competitive?
The Monarch Blitz decks aren’t quite good enough to be competitive, but they can put up a fight with competitive decks using minimal upgrades. IF you want to build your own deck, check out our article on how to start deckbuilding in Flesh and Blood
How Many Decks Do I Need To Buy To Get A Mentor Playset?
You can play 2 mentors in a deck, so you’d need to get 2 of the same deck to get a playset of mentors.
Will The Monarch Blitz Decks Be Reprinted?
Yes, the Monarch Blitz decks will be reprinted to match demand.
I Want To Start With A Friend, What Decks Should We Get?
Although all of the decks are pretty well-balanced, the Boltyn and Chane decks offer the most satisfying games in our experience.
How Much Should I Pay For A Monarch Blitz Deck?
The MSRP for Monarch Blitz decks is 11.99USD/EUR, you shouldn’t be paying more than 17USD/EUR, but anything under 15USD/EUR is a great deal.
Verdict
They offer a well-balanced playing experience, and expand on the mechanics for each class. Financially speaking, each deck is worth significantly more than its price in singles.
The decks provide a unique rainbow foil version of their face hero, making them an interesting choice for collectors.
The gameplay of the decks is simple enough not to confuse new players but has enough decision points to keep skilled players entertained. Do keep in mind, however, that the decks can be made better and more focused very cheaply.
All in all, the Monarch Blitz decks are an excellent product for newcomers and experienced players alike.
Written by Ilija Miljkovac
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