As a very long time (19 years) magic player, I totally understand what you're saying. The last several years wotc (and daddy hasbro) have just gone off the rails in so many ways. I still love the game, but I mean I am here watching this for a reason too. Haha
I started consistently playing fab after Tales of Aria first released and, while I'm not the most skilled, the process of messing up and learning what I can do better in my next match is addicting.
This is definitly why the MTG Commander format has become the most popular way to play the game. Most people just want casual magic; play against three other people with wildly different decks. A focus on having fun over winning is what Magic needs more of.
Also in commander, you can create broken combo wombo decks that are not fun to play against. So it mostly depends on the type of player you’re up against.
True; one solution to this that my playgroup has is folks can vaguely describe if they want to play with decks that can win in just a handful of turns which permit infinite combos, or slower more casual strategies where we can have more wacky cards from our childhoods to play with in a laid back mindset
And that’s why sealed mtg products are now marketed toward commander players, with increasing power creep. Community choose what format to play, wotc makes that format expansive if you eanna stay competitive
I feel so much the same. I loved Magic, and for many years going back to the late early 00's, but I've never been able to compete at that top level. I had for a brief period of time around Scars/Besieged a disgustingly fast red goblin deck that could often win turn 2, and if the game made it to turn 4 it was guaranteed to lose, but at the time the dominating deck was a $500+ Jace deck. I dipped my toe into digital Yu-Gi-Oh recently. Gross. Very recently I discovered Flesh & Blood and Sorcery, I just ordered some cards and pre-cons, haven't even got to play yet but been watching videos and they have me really excited.
"no hope to play casually without being a punching bag" That my friend is why among a friend group, you need to develop a sort of scaling for the power of the decks your using, so you can both play a bad deck on purpose, or know what decks they are playing you might struggle with in certain match ups. Maybe ask for help designing a deck to be good.
This is fascinating to me because my son and I just started learning MTG and Lorcana. We are playing with slightly modified starter decks. When we started figuring things out, it didn't take long to realize that the game was going to be ludicrously expensive and complicated if we wanted to build decent decks and strike out to play with other people. As a brand new player, it's all a bit off-putting and I'm definitely second-guessing whether or not MTG is going to be something we invest in for playing. (I don't care about the investing, speculating, etc.) Thanks for the video!
Pokemon is the one wit the cheapest tier 1 deck, you can build a devk with 100€ and win the world championship with it. It’s also kid friendly, and the gameplay is good
Fab is really a game design wonder of our time, the amount of thought they are putting into its design and the sheer fun it is to play, while being deep but also easy to start playing at a surface level, it is just unparalelled
MTG was more like this from about 1996-1999 in the Type II format, and YuGiOh was like this in 2010 with Edison, but as cards are printed for financial reasons the games inevitably become flooded with the complexity he's talking about in Magic and modern YGO
I think most of your criticisms of MTG are perfectly fair. I will counter-argue one point that "I went to play with others and they stomped me with their more powerful decks" isn't a MTG-unique situation. I can happen in any TCG, even FAB. My understanding from what you say is that you bought a box of MTG cards and just built a deck with what you had and lost to players playing serious competitive decks but for FAB you endeavored to build the most efficient deck you could within the game's card restrictions. I think that because of this you are making an unfair comparison between the games. Again, I think overall your criticisms of MTG are fair and there's nothing wrong with preferring FAB. All in all, you did a great job with this video.
I think his experience was more as an example or a prelude to a greater point; You're 100% correct that the same thing can happen in FaB to a new player but it is also true that a few steps in and FaB is already a wildly more approachable game than Magic can be.
@Library4Lich FaB is also only 5ish years old, compared to 25+ years for MTG. If you add 5x more cards to FaB and you only buy the newest set, you'd have the same thing happen.
Totally agree, I was thinking the same thing. I actually remember having a similar experience as a beginner MTG player, thinking everyone else was playing unfairly because their decks were more powerful... Until I learned how to build better decks. I still play casually, I'm just better at it, and now I know my earlier feelings were misidentifying the problem. It's very possible that if he had stuck with it instead of giving up, he would have improved and had more level matchups. Still, even after saying all that, I've just gotten into FaB recently and found it very easy to pick up and play with others. Deckbuilding is simpler because of the constraints of classes and talents, there are fewer sets to reach back into, and the games are more straightforward due to there being no alternate win conditions unlike Magic. Both have their merits, and ultimately I'm more of a MTG player at heart, but the learning curve is much steeper there than with FaB.
I got into FAB this year and am slowly convincing my commander group to try it as well. Nice video. The audio was a little on the soft side though. Look forward to seeing more (hopefully FAB related) videos in the future.
FaB is the best competitive card game I have ever played and I have played just about every major card game in the US since 2005. Has the best tournament structure, great prizing, the secondary market is very healthy and makes me actually think game to game. I feel like I make infinitely more decision in 1 game of FaB then I do in an entire 14 round tournament of MTG or pokemon. I have gone to and competed in worlds for Pokemon TCG, Force of Will TCG and Flesh and Blood, + almost 20 years of card gaming exsperiance makes me hope my opinion matters a little.
I don’t quite agree with the title as I think FAB is a fairly typical TCG in many respects, with downfalls just like other TCGs (expensive legendaries that are mandatory in order to compete) . However, I do think that FAB is exceptionally well designed in its mechanics and cards. I adore the design philosophy of having ~6 common cards for a hero in a given set, and another 2-3 rares, with those cards synergistically combining to execute a clear game plan. Majestics can act as powerful combo finishers or have big payoffs for certain lines of play, but they aren’t mandatory to constructing a deck that is fun and cohesive. This is very beginner friendly but especially when you consider generics and then layer multiple sets with support for a hero, there’s plenty of room for an experienced player to craft a unique deck that can compete in a meta. The core card design where most cards can perform any one of three functions (pitch, play, defend), meaning there are essentially never “dead” cards in hand (assuming you’ve even remotely constructed the deck appropriately), is a huge improvement from MTG, IMO. FAB isn’t perfect but it fixes some of the big fundamental problems seen in older TCGs. And given that collecting and chasing rare and desirable cards had always been an aspect of TCGs, FAB at least has the goodness of design to only require a player to have a single piece of legendary equipment in their entire collection.
As someone coming from MTG, your criticisms overall seem very fair. In particular though, your comment about how FAB doesn't have mana screw/flooding makes it seem pretty appealing, as one of my personal least favorite parts of MTG is that you have to rely on your deck giving you the right proportion of cards, and how sometimes, even with a well-built deck, you just get unlucky. Regarding your criticisms of MTG though, I think your initial experience was one that is inevitable in any card game - If you go into a match with your starter deck that you just brewed having learned the game a few days ago and everyone else is playing their strongest deck, of course you're going to lose and not have fun. I bet if I started FAB today and built myself a deck without any outside tools, I would get stomped if I played against an experienced player. I also feel like starting with commander (which it sounds like you did) is the hardest way to learn MTG. A format like Standard has far fewer complex mechanics than commander, only has ~2,500 legal cards (which is a lot, but far fewer than the ~27,000 cards legal in commander), and it's a simpler format with lower deck diversity. This means that going into a game, it's easier to tell what your opponent is playing. Sometimes they're playing something super new and unique that you didn't expect, but I know that if I see my opponent play a Plains on turn 1, it's very likely they're on Mono-White Aggro. Again though, I really liked your video, and FAB seems like a cool game that I may have to check out at some point!
It's not that he started with Commander, I think. It's that his friends played either competitive Commander or Legacy and didn't set any expectation when they invited him. Telling someone to play and making them search for the first thing to buy to then face against your Legacy deck is just bad communication, if not bad friendship.
Hearing the comparison between Flesh and Blood and Magic from a Flesh and Blood player's perspective in this video, feels like hearing a comparison between Magic and Yugioh from a Magic player's perspective. Magic players say the exact same things about Yugioh that you said about magic lol. Specifically the combos and the back-and-forth.
Playing Magic casualy is very much possible. Like yeah, Standar, Pioneer, Modern and even Pauper these days are expensive and extremely competitive, but the most popular formar Magic has is Commander. Idk if you tried it, but it's a lot of fun, and you can find opponents on your level pretty much everywhere, because most experienced to medium player probably have a cheaper deck or a pet deck they made for fun.
I recently started playing as levia shortly before dtd and even as a rookie i did decently well. So When I messed up it was my fault not my decks fault. And thats what got me the most interested in flesh and blood
This video was literally made for me. Im fairly new to MTG Commander and yesterday I played with a new playgroup and as a casual player who doesnt have decks for few hundred bucks or more just to somewhat compete with the others I obviously got destroyed and was nowhere near the powerlevel. Also the amount of knowledge the guys had I feel like I have to quit my job to get close on their level. Now I am searching for other TCGs as an alternative and I found your video describing my exact feeling about MTG right now, well done mate
Really solid video!! Not coming here to defend at all, but if you have the chance to draft MtG that is the way it was originally intended to be played! Level playing field and you get to brew a deck on the fly!
I don’t disagree, but the issue with draft (or sealed) is that if you open a bomb, it can just carry you to victory regardless of skill or deck construction. I won a Shadows over Innistrad prerelease solely because I happened to have an Arlinn Kord in my prerelease kit, which took all pressure off of the decision of what colors to play and straight up won me the game every time I cast her.
@@doylerudolph7965Not to invalidate your experience with mtg draft/sealed, but sets have changed quite a bit after Shadows of Innistrad. I feel like recent sets have been way less bomb heavy, meaning that opening a bomb card doesn't automatically mean that you're going to win, you still need to build a good deck that has synergy.
Love your energy! I've gotten more into FAB recently myself and I've been trying to find more fun channels making good content for it. I really hope to see you make more content like this!
I agree with the general thesis here. FaB is just a damn fun game to play. I’ve only approached FaB at a kitchen table level, but I’m just really hooked on the mechanics despite only playing occasionally over the last couple months. I’m a long time Magic player and FaB feels like a breath of fresh air. I still play MtG, but I really want to get more into FaB. I’ve been snatching up blitz decks just to keep exploring more of the heroes and mechanics. On a side note, if you do ever want to look at Commander in MtG again, 42 lands in mono white is waaaay too many. Mono white works best when you’re behind on lands and you utilize cards that allow you to catch up to your opponents. Look at stuff like Archaeomancer’s Map. It allows you to just passively catch up to your opponents when they get ahead on lands. My mono white Commander decks only runs 31 lands and I’m basically never mana screwed because of those kinds of effects.
What i don't like in FAB is that their Precons are made only for blitz. It would be spetacullarly good if they make a CC deck with a young hero version inserted, you instead of buying more, you would buy less. Also, if they create 2 CC precons with unique heroes based on the theme of the box and 4 regular blitz with the younger version of the heroes inside the box, it would not hurt the system.
Fantastic video, thank you! My wife and I are looking into getting into a TCG. I collect FFTCG but unfortunately there is not much going on with that game around us. The big ones around us are Lorcana, MTG, Pokemon and Fab. Just something about the name of Fab threw us off, so we were looking at the others but have been on the fence. This got me excited to look into it! Fantastic presentation and your MTG concerns are what is holding us back from jumping into it.
Great video but i feel like the argument here relies on how FaB has a significantly smaller card pool then magic, if you played it when it came out i assume it would be similar to how lorcana is now, each colour does a specific thing with its own playstyle, the thing you like about FaB. This is from an outsider perspective though, i play pokemon, yugioh and lorcana not MTG and FaB. Also referring to FaB as a fighting game when yugioh exists is wild 😅
Fr yugioh has longer combos than Mvc3 😂 EDIT: After looking around a bit, it looks like this game actually has got a lot of yugioh players hooked. Might just have to give it a shot now 👀
So major magic player here....first flesh and blood vid I have seen (minus the professor's video on the multi player pack). I usually play commander but a bit...finance fatigued with mtg and not happy with their business practices and what they did with my boi Ajani. So.. what do ya think of the multiplayer variant they are making? Any heros like Ajani?
A Guardian like Bravo or Brevant (from the Professor's Round the Table product) might be up your alley, they have big burly attacks they can buff and can build some lifegain too. Your only concern might be that neither of them are catpeople. 😉
Definitely felt that way about every TCG I've played. Casually it's fun if you play with a friend group and no one goes researching, as soon as someone hits the forums it becomes a landslide which sucks when you want to naturally explore and develop a style. Final Fantasy I was hoping would be a bit more approachable and it was in some sense but I was unable to play at a reasonable level while learning by playing. People would always say to me, "You should combo this card with that card and two of these... etc." And it always boiled down to there being a handful of standard meta decks.
Your experience with MTG is very real for me aswell, it appears that there are very little people that are casual players, most communities I've been in and especially the first ones were competitive tryhards that care about being the day's winner and not having fun or catering to a specific power level
The most popular format by far (Commander) is explicitly casual. Besides that, a lot of people play only in their homes with their friends. To say that nobody is casual is just plain wrong. As for competitive players, being competitive doesn't mean you don't have fun (there is a lot of fun at the top level) or that you only care to win (you care, but you can still have friends and take it easy). This notion that the competitive environment is not for you is simply due to power level difference. No, nobody is going to try to play suboptimally to match a Deckbuilder's Toolkit. What matters here is that everyone is on the same page. We're going to play *this* format with *these* top decks that are expected to cost *this* much and have *this many* cards in the pool. If you don't like that because of complexity or cost, there are plenty of formats to choose from. It's very simple communication.
Flesh and Blood does look like an intriguing game, and definitely the best suited for a player like me who really doesn't like the whole mana/cost gimmick in games. I ask anyone who reads this comment to please try out KeyForge too. It has had a rocky road through its life so far (and kind of still does at the moment) but it really is an amazing game I think many F&B players would enjoy. No costs involved and a tonne of fun to have with every game feeling unique!
I bought some KeyForge decks last week, and although i haven't played it yet, i really liked the quality of the cards. I wanted to collect FaB alongside KeyForge, but the prices are too high in my country. I can buy like, 3-4 decks or even a Starter Set for the price of a single FaB Blitz Deck.
@@leonardoribeiro7706 That's so cool to hear (not so much about F&B prices). If you have any questions.I am more than happy to help with any questions you have about the game.
Everything as a resource is one of the reasons why Duel Masters was my favorite game and still is. If only it was still played in the U.S. :( Maybe I should get into this game. Its got nice artwork and archetypes I think I could get into and everything is a resource.
I played Magic since 1995. Now I onli keep one modern deck and one commander deck to play with my friends. In 2021 I discovered Flesh and Blood. I like it because plays completily ditfernt from Magic, as pointe in this video. Recentily I've been playing FaB Round of the Table bos with my friends. Last year I start playing Grand Archive TCG. Is like 50% MtG, 50% original mechanics and no land cards.I like the art style too. A GA competetive deck costs half of other games.
Fab is extremely fun for casual fun, but the competitive scene is super sweaty - I can't stress enough that if you are looking to play competitively, you have to grind like crazy and have absolutely tuned decks to stand a chance at any event beyond some hole-in-the-wall armory event. If cardshops did more UPF, I would play more, but right now I just don't see the point in paying for an event for barely a puncher's chance at getting the prize... which is also kinda the problem: the prize cards are valuable, hence the sweaty atmosphere around obtaining them.
You don’t need fully tuned decks to win regional events. Good players often slot in a pet or meme card like Titanium Bauble or Rok because they know their skill can carry them with a suboptimal deck.
Depends on your local area too. My LGS is happy to play UPF and does every month but perhaps the Sydney Aust area doesn't have a big UPF fanbase and possibly people don't usually travel up to an hour to an Armory.
My only but in this video is that the volumen is too damn low. But otherwise, great video! The perspective of how approachable is FaB over any other TCG is on point, I think you are the first one pointing about the feeling of how you feel fight the player and not the game.
I feel like the name of this video is unintentionally disingenuous. I respect your feelings & experience & don’t dismiss what are your very real gripes with Magic, but I also find that your statement of Flesh & Blood being “the TCG for non-TCG players” is hard to make if you haven’t played very many TCGs. Of the big 3, you got through the surface level of Magic, then backed down when you realized the complexity of the card count wasn’t for you. That’s fine. Granted, there are set rotations & formats that limit the number of cards in the game, which makes that less of a hassle - something I feel you didn’t express in this video. It would be helpful information for your audience according to the video title, which seems to be aimed at people who, like your past self, had just a passing interest in trading card games. This is moreso an intro video of Flesh & Blood’s game mechanics, & less a comparison between how it’s played & how others are. Yes, you mention how it compares to the resource system in Magic, & the general playstyle of the five colors, but there’s also a lot of nuance to those two that I don’t think is realized by non-TCG players when you lightly graze over it. I dunno. Maybe I’m tripping. I didn’t dislike the video, I enjoyed learning about Flesh & Blood. Truth be told, I have a lot to learn about TCGs myself. I would like to make one, having been inspired by the likes of Yu-Gi-Oh & Inscryption, along with a bunch of other random games over the years like Boss Monster. But to make a game I’ve had to study the game design & try to understand the fun of these games very intently, which this video may not do to effect.
I was a 10 year old in the mid 90s. When I tried to play MTG, it always felt like nerdy opponents were making up rules on the spot to explain their terribly complicated dorky cards, and how it's better than my hand/deck. I swear, some players were insistent upon winning before the game even began, just because they wanted to explain all of their great cards they've aquired. Glad to have gotten out a very long time ago. Flesh and Blood looks a little more streamlined. Has it been around for 10 years or so? Thank you for the video.
FaB is somewhat more accessible than the big 3 with formats like blitz, but it's very competitive classic constructed community can be hard to crack into for casual players. I started playing FaB pretty recently myself. Learning the game and commonly used cards wasn't too bad, getting actually good at the game is a completely different experience. FaB attracts a lot of smart and competitive players, so even winning local tournaments takes a lot of practice and quite a bit of investment into the stable cards to be ready for larger tournaments.
"What the hell is a pendelum summon" truer words have never been spoken. I got into FaB as a joke, as i told my buddy if i pull a 100$ card ill play, i bought a random Dusk Till Dawn pack, and pulled a cold foil empyrean rapture. soooo i bought a box of dusk till dawn, and traded alot of my sealed MTG stuff thats lost value for the rest of th eboxes my old LGS had before quitting flesh and blood. and now while i dont play anything other than blitz. im a certified Prism simp er player.
It seems like you are comparing Commander to a regulated tournament format in the video, that is indeed very lopsided comparison. I think if you would compare something like standard to the F&B tournament format it would be more close.
As a die-hard casual MTG player the more videos I watch about Flesh and Blood the more tempted I am to try it. Any recs which kind of format/decks are best for beginners? As for the mismatch in MTG matches I'd say this is why magic has so many variant formats and power levels - you very much have to decide which format and power level/card pool you want to play with before you sit down to play. I started like you playing kitchen-table 60 card decks against my friends using just the cards we had to hand. We all had similar budgets so our decks were always similar in power level. There are loads of preconstructed decks for things like commander these days but even then the learning curve seems so much higher for newer players than it ever was for me, especially if you play with strangers. Overall, great analysis. I love magic but I do think it is now missing that entry-level format that maybe it once had.
If you're still looking into the game, any of the blitz precon decks are a great starting point, especially the ones from History Pack 1 (the ones in brown boxes). Bravo and Dash are great heroes who teach fundamentals very well. You should also be able to get two free ira welcome decks from most lgs to try the game out or borrow decks from locals (they usually have several and are kinda like commander players in that regards). Wish you best of luck!
Love this video. I got into CCG’s in the early 90s, in my teens and in all the time since I’ve never got into magic as it really feels like it is not designed for newcomers despite what they say. No I have kids, I’m on the lookout for fun card games that I can play with them and I’ve never considered magic even though whereas I’ve started playing Star Wars unlimited with my son and he picked it up straight away. I feel and is perhaps one step too far at the moment for him but never say never as I really love the idea of game
Honestly, I'm too much of a spike (competitive player) to get into FAB because of the cost. I considered playing back when it came out and if I did I'd probably still be playing, but looking at tournament topping decks being $1200-$1500 and knowing that there's a bunch of staples I don't have that cost a lot, I'm not going to get into it. I've come to love digital tcgs more because I really never liked the collectability and tradability as much as the deckbuilding and gameplay, so Legends of Runeterra is where I'm at now. Playing from the beginning and buying every other battlepass or so has left me with every available card in the game and enough dust to craft the entire next set when it comes out. The resource system and turn system it uses is very intuitive to someone who played other TCGs and right now the meta is in an interesting spot.
What decks are you looking at that are over $1000? There’s pretty much only one or two, and those are only the heroes who make use of Heart of Fyendal (which is easily replaced for minimal loss with any random blue). There are very few must-play equipments, and the budget options are usually nearly as good.
I like big numbers to hit my oppoent with and in FaB I can do so. Beginning on turn one until the bitter end, because of the card draw at the end of the turn :)
It is really a shame that Magic os so uninviting for New players. The game is overwhelming just by itself (rules, mechanics, the absurd amount of products and price) and if you dont have a casual group to start, this experience is almost the standart
Have you ever played Sorcery: Contested Realm? It has many similarities to Magic but it is played on a grid. It solves the mana issue you refer to here by letting players draw from two decks: a mana deck (sites) and a minions & actions deck (spellbook). It's also relatively new so there aren't that many cards yet. Seems like you'd enjoy it, judging by the factors you bring up in this video 🙂
You just found TCG for you. Many problems of MTG are not present in most new card games. For exmaple mana is replaced by much more friendlier system in games like dragonball (you can play any of your cards as reasource), One piece (you get 1 special energy card more to use each turn), or even digimon (where it is blanace of how much you spent - this much opponent will get).
The only thing I don’t like is the fact that FaB is not easy to understand without a rule book. The first yugioh decks came with a basic rule book. Magic have it. But I don’t see one to FaB
Yeah, funny enough that the free Ira welcome decks you can get at most LGS' has the best rules insert, which they don't use in any other intro product. Tbf, they usually just link to a pretty good learn to play video, but there is something about physical rulebooks
It’s really disappointing to hear how you were introduced to Magic The Gathering and I hope the folks that gave you a bad first impression learned along the way to have a more inclusive mindset next time. I’ve taught four people how to play MTG and one to play Yugioh and the top priority is always to ensure they’re comfortable and engaged based on their interests. Sure it’s hard not to be intimidated by folks having fancy gear for their hobby, but what they could do is either play weaker decks to match a beginner’s experience or offer to split a deck and walk you though how to play it. Education, inclusivity and support are key to any hobby and I’m glad to hear that at least you got that from a different crowd.
Not even close to true. I have come across one tournament deck that is more expensive than a meta Modern deck. I personally played with budget options for many months and didn’t see a huge spike in power when I finally got the $100+ pieces. And there are several competitive heroes who can be built to full tournament-winning specification for under $500 - see Bravo, Dash, Dorinthea, and Dromai for a few examples. (Also having a reprint policy that only protects Cold Foil printings is a great way to protect collectors while still allowing game pieces like Tunic or Crown to be reprinted, as they’re doing in back to back sets.)
@@doylerudolph7965there's no way you're comparing a new tcg to mtg modern deck values 💀 most mtg players don't even want to play standard/pioneer because of the price
It uses the cards themselves as the resource as well as the one normal summon. It's very obvious to long time players when someone doesn't know how to use their cards wisely.
I would argue that the reason why you feel FaB is easy to get into is mainly because the game is relatively new (it's only a couple of years old at this point), And so it hasn't had the time or chance to drown players in cards, mechanics, and design space. I come from a YGO background and have been playing it on and off for about a couple of years, and it's definitely easy to get lost in the sauce when it comes to finding a good play style and deck; the same can be said for magic. This drives new players out and forces other players into the FOMO effect. The FOMO effect harms new players as they are blasted with new product releases, many cards, and mechanics. It also hurts more veteran players because they want the latest and greatest cards, the cards that will do the best in comps, or the cards they can speculate on. If you want to hear me out, I recommend a few other TCGs: Grand Archive (another reasonably new TCG) and Digimon. Both are fairly easy to get into both from a cost wise and in terms of deck building.
it seems you're implying that all Magic play is kitchen table style when that is not the case at all. Generally you are restricted to specific card pools and not able to use cards from throughout the game's history. At least when playing competitively.
I can relate, I too never really had a passion for MTG, I did like Yu-Gi-Oh and duel master growing up though. I trie other tcg's, but they're too complicated or the player base is too far advanced for me to play against.
My first magic set with my brothers was Game Night 2019, with Jace and Vraska on the cover. The visual resonance of spiritual amnesia programs. Later, my first box solely of my own was Theros Beyond Death. Long story how I ended up with the name from there.
Being mana screwed absolutely has to do with your deck building skills. Having 42 lands does not garantee that it is well built. You need ramp spells, mana rocks, and other strategies to make sure you have all the resources you need. If you are overwhelmed by the game's mechanics that is understandable it is the most complicated game ever created. But that's not the game's problem it's been around for over 30 years. Flesh and Blood will eventually be the same 30 years from now.
The problem with magic is that you played commander and that format sucks. No one is able to tell you the power level of their decks truthfully and you need a shit load of cards. Play sealed or draft and you will not feel lost because a new set came out since its new to everyone. You will not feel behind either.
The fact that you draw 4 new cards each turn is overwhelming ngl. I also don’t like that heroes just disappear forever when they go LL like Lexi and briar atm. This game feels like work cuz it’s so complicated. If I block my next turn is weaker. You have to run through 20 possible outcomes it’s just not for me. I want to relax after work not being stressed out..
I am sorry, I really want to get into FAB, hence why I clicked on this video. But stomping on MTG to make FAB look great is not the way to go. You say that this is not a video criticising MTG but you do that a lot. And the things you point out about MTG is pretty flawed, and I assume you do not know much about MTG. So I think I would have enjoyed the video more, if you did not try to compare FAB to MTG, and actually would point out and explain only what FAB is and what makes it fun. I do find MTG to be a battle of wits and strategy, and I do have fun playing with my friends. Friends who knows that it is unfun to bash other to the ground with OP decks. The same would be true with FAB, which can be just as unbalanced.
MTG Vintage, Legacy, and Modern are extremely cancerous, especially for newer players. Commander and draft are much better. Standard is okay, but you can't really do your own thing in Standard. Netdecking is just too common for a Standard deck you make yourself to have any chance.
Yep. Crown at $60 is huge. E Strike is $30. Tunic is getting another reprint next set. The reprint policy is super healthy and well-communicated too, so there aren’t many feel-bads from buying a card in nonfoil that gets reprinted and drops in value - if you want to collect and have your cards retain value, that’s what Cold Foils are explicitly for!
For me it's completely other way around. The flesh and blood deckbuilding feels too restrictive comparing to magic's freedom to mix and match all pieces together in almost infinite combinations, and playing mtg came to me quite naturally. Playing fab on the other hand is hard to grasp for me butt feels kinda too simplistic on the same time (like i smash u, u smash me kinda way). I got Prism and Levia blitz decks and I have no idea how to pilot them. They are much to hard for staters imo (probably my fault for picking them xD) I was hyped for this game but kinda felt like it was more boring than magic after playing and went back to it. Kinda sad because I thought I could enjoy them both side by side
You should playing commander for magic! typically you its a 4 player game so even if your deck is not as strong as the other 3, a nice playgroup won't be targeting you as much since they know as well. It is perfect for casual play! and you never get bored of creating decks !
I actually find FAB less "fun" than other TCGs. It feels brain-burny and tight. You want to play your cards, but you have so few, and so many go to pitch and defend. The character styles vary so much, it's difficult to participate in the full breadth of the game. That being said, there's something so compelling about it. The visual style, the world, the characters, and the one-on-one focus... It all adds up to something brilliant. I still don't think the game itself is a good fit for casual players, however, despite being less ostensibly intimidating than older games.
![เปิด อาณาจักร หมื่นล้าน "สาระตั้ม" l [Nickynachat]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/3XE0nPF4YkQ/mqdefault.jpg)
As a very long time (19 years) magic player, I totally understand what you're saying. The last several years wotc (and daddy hasbro) have just gone off the rails in so many ways. I still love the game, but I mean I am here watching this for a reason too. Haha
I started consistently playing fab after Tales of Aria first released and, while I'm not the most skilled, the process of messing up and learning what I can do better in my next match is addicting.
This is definitly why the MTG Commander format has become the most popular way to play the game. Most people just want casual magic; play against three other people with wildly different decks. A focus on having fun over winning is what Magic needs more of.
Also in commander, you can create broken combo wombo decks that are not fun to play against. So it mostly depends on the type of player you’re up against.
True; one solution to this that my playgroup has is folks can vaguely describe if they want to play with decks that can win in just a handful of turns which permit infinite combos, or slower more casual strategies where we can have more wacky cards from our childhoods to play with in a laid back mindset
And that’s why sealed mtg products are now marketed toward commander players, with increasing power creep. Community choose what format to play, wotc makes that format expansive if you eanna stay competitive
Flesh and Blood is addictive man, definitely the best tcg in recent years.
I feel so much the same. I loved Magic, and for many years going back to the late early 00's, but I've never been able to compete at that top level. I had for a brief period of time around Scars/Besieged a disgustingly fast red goblin deck that could often win turn 2, and if the game made it to turn 4 it was guaranteed to lose, but at the time the dominating deck was a $500+ Jace deck.
I dipped my toe into digital Yu-Gi-Oh recently. Gross.
Very recently I discovered Flesh & Blood and Sorcery, I just ordered some cards and pre-cons, haven't even got to play yet but been watching videos and they have me really excited.
"no hope to play casually without being a punching bag" That my friend is why among a friend group, you need to develop a sort of scaling for the power of the decks your using, so you can both play a bad deck on purpose, or know what decks they are playing you might struggle with in certain match ups. Maybe ask for help designing a deck to be good.
This is fascinating to me because my son and I just started learning MTG and Lorcana. We are playing with slightly modified starter decks. When we started figuring things out, it didn't take long to realize that the game was going to be ludicrously expensive and complicated if we wanted to build decent decks and strike out to play with other people. As a brand new player, it's all a bit off-putting and I'm definitely second-guessing whether or not MTG is going to be something we invest in for playing. (I don't care about the investing, speculating, etc.) Thanks for the video!
Pokemon is the one wit the cheapest tier 1 deck, you can build a devk with 100€ and win the world championship with it. It’s also kid friendly, and the gameplay is good
Fab is really a game design wonder of our time, the amount of thought they are putting into its design and the sheer fun it is to play, while being deep but also easy to start playing at a surface level, it is just unparalelled
Couldn't agree more, more people need to spread the message that it's easy to play at a surface level and that is perfectly fine to do
MTG was more like this from about 1996-1999 in the Type II format, and YuGiOh was like this in 2010 with Edison, but as cards are printed for financial reasons the games inevitably become flooded with the complexity he's talking about in Magic and modern YGO
This is a great video!!! Fun to see people expand the conversation around FAB. Thanks so much for making it, and sorry I missed it when it released!
I think most of your criticisms of MTG are perfectly fair. I will counter-argue one point that "I went to play with others and they stomped me with their more powerful decks" isn't a MTG-unique situation. I can happen in any TCG, even FAB. My understanding from what you say is that you bought a box of MTG cards and just built a deck with what you had and lost to players playing serious competitive decks but for FAB you endeavored to build the most efficient deck you could within the game's card restrictions. I think that because of this you are making an unfair comparison between the games. Again, I think overall your criticisms of MTG are fair and there's nothing wrong with preferring FAB. All in all, you did a great job with this video.
I think his experience was more as an example or a prelude to a greater point; You're 100% correct that the same thing can happen in FaB to a new player but it is also true that a few steps in and FaB is already a wildly more approachable game than Magic can be.
@Library4Lich FaB is also only 5ish years old, compared to 25+ years for MTG. If you add 5x more cards to FaB and you only buy the newest set, you'd have the same thing happen.
Totally agree, I was thinking the same thing. I actually remember having a similar experience as a beginner MTG player, thinking everyone else was playing unfairly because their decks were more powerful... Until I learned how to build better decks. I still play casually, I'm just better at it, and now I know my earlier feelings were misidentifying the problem. It's very possible that if he had stuck with it instead of giving up, he would have improved and had more level matchups. Still, even after saying all that, I've just gotten into FaB recently and found it very easy to pick up and play with others. Deckbuilding is simpler because of the constraints of classes and talents, there are fewer sets to reach back into, and the games are more straightforward due to there being no alternate win conditions unlike Magic. Both have their merits, and ultimately I'm more of a MTG player at heart, but the learning curve is much steeper there than with FaB.
Dude for a first video this is pretty dang good!
I got into FAB this year and am slowly convincing my commander group to try it as well.
Nice video. The audio was a little on the soft side though.
Look forward to seeing more (hopefully FAB related) videos in the future.
FaB is the best competitive card game I have ever played and I have played just about every major card game in the US since 2005. Has the best tournament structure, great prizing, the secondary market is very healthy and makes me actually think game to game. I feel like I make infinitely more decision in 1 game of FaB then I do in an entire 14 round tournament of MTG or pokemon.
I have gone to and competed in worlds for Pokemon TCG, Force of Will TCG and Flesh and Blood, + almost 20 years of card gaming exsperiance makes me hope my opinion matters a little.
Ressource management in FAB is awesome.
Also a big + to the game starting at full speed, no long ramp, you just jump into battle
Beautifully written and presented! Loved it!
I don’t quite agree with the title as I think FAB is a fairly typical TCG in many respects, with downfalls just like other TCGs (expensive legendaries that are mandatory in order to compete) . However, I do think that FAB is exceptionally well designed in its mechanics and cards. I adore the design philosophy of having ~6 common cards for a hero in a given set, and another 2-3 rares, with those cards synergistically combining to execute a clear game plan. Majestics can act as powerful combo finishers or have big payoffs for certain lines of play, but they aren’t mandatory to constructing a deck that is fun and cohesive. This is very beginner friendly but especially when you consider generics and then layer multiple sets with support for a hero, there’s plenty of room for an experienced player to craft a unique deck that can compete in a meta.
The core card design where most cards can perform any one of three functions (pitch, play, defend), meaning there are essentially never “dead” cards in hand (assuming you’ve even remotely constructed the deck appropriately), is a huge improvement from MTG, IMO.
FAB isn’t perfect but it fixes some of the big fundamental problems seen in older TCGs. And given that collecting and chasing rare and desirable cards had always been an aspect of TCGs, FAB at least has the goodness of design to only require a player to have a single piece of legendary equipment in their entire collection.
Well said, may I add that Legendaries these days can cost the price of one or two Fetchlands.
Just got into Flesh and Blood as well and really enjoying it.
As someone coming from MTG, your criticisms overall seem very fair. In particular though, your comment about how FAB doesn't have mana screw/flooding makes it seem pretty appealing, as one of my personal least favorite parts of MTG is that you have to rely on your deck giving you the right proportion of cards, and how sometimes, even with a well-built deck, you just get unlucky.
Regarding your criticisms of MTG though, I think your initial experience was one that is inevitable in any card game - If you go into a match with your starter deck that you just brewed having learned the game a few days ago and everyone else is playing their strongest deck, of course you're going to lose and not have fun. I bet if I started FAB today and built myself a deck without any outside tools, I would get stomped if I played against an experienced player.
I also feel like starting with commander (which it sounds like you did) is the hardest way to learn MTG. A format like Standard has far fewer complex mechanics than commander, only has ~2,500 legal cards (which is a lot, but far fewer than the ~27,000 cards legal in commander), and it's a simpler format with lower deck diversity. This means that going into a game, it's easier to tell what your opponent is playing. Sometimes they're playing something super new and unique that you didn't expect, but I know that if I see my opponent play a Plains on turn 1, it's very likely they're on Mono-White Aggro.
Again though, I really liked your video, and FAB seems like a cool game that I may have to check out at some point!
It's not that he started with Commander, I think. It's that his friends played either competitive Commander or Legacy and didn't set any expectation when they invited him. Telling someone to play and making them search for the first thing to buy to then face against your Legacy deck is just bad communication, if not bad friendship.
This game is very expensive because of the equipments one card alone costs 200$ and those are must haves for high level tournaments.
Hearing the comparison between Flesh and Blood and Magic from a Flesh and Blood player's perspective in this video, feels like hearing a comparison between Magic and Yugioh from a Magic player's perspective.
Magic players say the exact same things about Yugioh that you said about magic lol. Specifically the combos and the back-and-forth.
Playing Magic casualy is very much possible.
Like yeah, Standar, Pioneer, Modern and even Pauper these days are expensive and extremely competitive, but the most popular formar Magic has is Commander.
Idk if you tried it, but it's a lot of fun, and you can find opponents on your level pretty much everywhere, because most experienced to medium player probably have a cheaper deck or a pet deck they made for fun.
I recently started playing as levia
shortly before dtd and even as a rookie i did decently well. So When I messed up it was my fault not my decks fault. And thats what got me the most interested in flesh and blood
This video was literally made for me. Im fairly new to MTG Commander and yesterday I played with a new playgroup and as a casual player who doesnt have decks for few hundred bucks or more just to somewhat compete with the others I obviously got destroyed and was nowhere near the powerlevel. Also the amount of knowledge the guys had I feel like I have to quit my job to get close on their level. Now I am searching for other TCGs as an alternative and I found your video describing my exact feeling about MTG right now, well done mate
Really solid video!!
Not coming here to defend at all, but if you have the chance to draft MtG that is the way it was originally intended to be played! Level playing field and you get to brew a deck on the fly!
I don’t disagree, but the issue with draft (or sealed) is that if you open a bomb, it can just carry you to victory regardless of skill or deck construction. I won a Shadows over Innistrad prerelease solely because I happened to have an Arlinn Kord in my prerelease kit, which took all pressure off of the decision of what colors to play and straight up won me the game every time I cast her.
@@doylerudolph7965 absolutely!! That is also why cube environments are excellent, the only way I play!
@@doylerudolph7965Not to invalidate your experience with mtg draft/sealed, but sets have changed quite a bit after Shadows of Innistrad. I feel like recent sets have been way less bomb heavy, meaning that opening a bomb card doesn't automatically mean that you're going to win, you still need to build a good deck that has synergy.
True, I'm a big fan of limited FaB and MTG (just put off with Hasbros business direction in the last few years)
Love your energy! I've gotten more into FAB recently myself and I've been trying to find more fun channels making good content for it. I really hope to see you make more content like this!
Sold my Mtg. And months later I discovered FaB and they got me. So much beauty and details. Now I try to introduce it to my Kids
Great video, mate! Thank you :)
I agree with the general thesis here. FaB is just a damn fun game to play. I’ve only approached FaB at a kitchen table level, but I’m just really hooked on the mechanics despite only playing occasionally over the last couple months. I’m a long time Magic player and FaB feels like a breath of fresh air. I still play MtG, but I really want to get more into FaB. I’ve been snatching up blitz decks just to keep exploring more of the heroes and mechanics.
On a side note, if you do ever want to look at Commander in MtG again, 42 lands in mono white is waaaay too many. Mono white works best when you’re behind on lands and you utilize cards that allow you to catch up to your opponents. Look at stuff like Archaeomancer’s Map. It allows you to just passively catch up to your opponents when they get ahead on lands. My mono white Commander decks only runs 31 lands and I’m basically never mana screwed because of those kinds of effects.
Appreciate showing boltyn in the vid! Boltyn main sounding off.MILB
What i don't like in FAB is that their Precons are made only for blitz. It would be spetacullarly good if they make a CC deck with a young hero version inserted, you instead of buying more, you would buy less. Also, if they create 2 CC precons with unique heroes based on the theme of the box and 4 regular blitz with the younger version of the heroes inside the box, it would not hurt the system.
CC precon coming soon!
@@edchan9667 After 6 months of lost interest, tho.
Great vid! Cant wait to see what else you make in the future!!!
Fantastic video, thank you! My wife and I are looking into getting into a TCG. I collect FFTCG but unfortunately there is not much going on with that game around us. The big ones around us are Lorcana, MTG, Pokemon and Fab. Just something about the name of Fab threw us off, so we were looking at the others but have been on the fence. This got me excited to look into it! Fantastic presentation and your MTG concerns are what is holding us back from jumping into it.
Great video but i feel like the argument here relies on how FaB has a significantly smaller card pool then magic, if you played it when it came out i assume it would be similar to how lorcana is now, each colour does a specific thing with its own playstyle, the thing you like about FaB.
This is from an outsider perspective though, i play pokemon, yugioh and lorcana not MTG and FaB.
Also referring to FaB as a fighting game when yugioh exists is wild 😅
Fr yugioh has longer combos than Mvc3 😂
EDIT: After looking around a bit, it looks like this game actually has got a lot of yugioh players hooked. Might just have to give it a shot now 👀
So major magic player here....first flesh and blood vid I have seen (minus the professor's video on the multi player pack). I usually play commander but a bit...finance fatigued with mtg and not happy with their business practices and what they did with my boi Ajani. So.. what do ya think of the multiplayer variant they are making? Any heros like Ajani?
A Guardian like Bravo or Brevant (from the Professor's Round the Table product) might be up your alley, they have big burly attacks they can buff and can build some lifegain too. Your only concern might be that neither of them are catpeople. 😉
@@fabiandemeter7284 ngl...that IS a big concern x3
Definitely felt that way about every TCG I've played. Casually it's fun if you play with a friend group and no one goes researching, as soon as someone hits the forums it becomes a landslide which sucks when you want to naturally explore and develop a style. Final Fantasy I was hoping would be a bit more approachable and it was in some sense but I was unable to play at a reasonable level while learning by playing. People would always say to me, "You should combo this card with that card and two of these... etc." And it always boiled down to there being a handful of standard meta decks.
Your experience with MTG is very real for me aswell, it appears that there are very little people that are casual players, most communities I've been in and especially the first ones were competitive tryhards that care about being the day's winner and not having fun or catering to a specific power level
The most popular format by far (Commander) is explicitly casual. Besides that, a lot of people play only in their homes with their friends. To say that nobody is casual is just plain wrong.
As for competitive players, being competitive doesn't mean you don't have fun (there is a lot of fun at the top level) or that you only care to win (you care, but you can still have friends and take it easy). This notion that the competitive environment is not for you is simply due to power level difference.
No, nobody is going to try to play suboptimally to match a Deckbuilder's Toolkit. What matters here is that everyone is on the same page. We're going to play *this* format with *these* top decks that are expected to cost *this* much and have *this many* cards in the pool. If you don't like that because of complexity or cost, there are plenty of formats to choose from. It's very simple communication.
Looking forward to your next videos! ❤
Flesh and Blood does look like an intriguing game, and definitely the best suited for a player like me who really doesn't like the whole mana/cost gimmick in games. I ask anyone who reads this comment to please try out KeyForge too. It has had a rocky road through its life so far (and kind of still does at the moment) but it really is an amazing game I think many F&B players would enjoy. No costs involved and a tonne of fun to have with every game feeling unique!
I bought some KeyForge decks last week, and although i haven't played it yet, i really liked the quality of the cards. I wanted to collect FaB alongside KeyForge, but the prices are too high in my country. I can buy like, 3-4 decks or even a Starter Set for the price of a single FaB Blitz Deck.
@@leonardoribeiro7706 That's so cool to hear (not so much about F&B prices). If you have any questions.I am more than happy to help with any questions you have about the game.
This video was really enjoyable to watch. It was interesting to hear your experience. Thanks for making it!
Dude, you totally nailed it.
Everything as a resource is one of the reasons why Duel Masters was my favorite game and still is. If only it was still played in the U.S. :( Maybe I should get into this game. Its got nice artwork and archetypes I think I could get into and everything is a resource.
That was a well made video man. I really enjoyed it!
Insta-subscribed. Amazing video essay. Well fleshed out points with a solid through line. Bravo.
I played Magic since 1995. Now I onli keep one modern deck and one commander deck to play with my friends. In 2021 I discovered Flesh and Blood. I like it because plays completily ditfernt from Magic, as pointe in this video. Recentily I've been playing FaB Round of the Table bos with my friends.
Last year I start playing Grand Archive TCG. Is like 50% MtG, 50% original mechanics and no land cards.I like the art style too. A GA competetive deck costs half of other games.
Fab is extremely fun for casual fun, but the competitive scene is super sweaty - I can't stress enough that if you are looking to play competitively, you have to grind like crazy and have absolutely tuned decks to stand a chance at any event beyond some hole-in-the-wall armory event.
If cardshops did more UPF, I would play more, but right now I just don't see the point in paying for an event for barely a puncher's chance at getting the prize... which is also kinda the problem: the prize cards are valuable, hence the sweaty atmosphere around obtaining them.
You don’t need fully tuned decks to win regional events. Good players often slot in a pet or meme card like Titanium Bauble or Rok because they know their skill can carry them with a suboptimal deck.
Depends on your local area too. My LGS is happy to play UPF and does every month but perhaps the Sydney Aust area doesn't have a big UPF fanbase and possibly people don't usually travel up to an hour to an Armory.
That was a great description. Ty 👏👏👏👏
My only but in this video is that the volumen is too damn low. But otherwise, great video! The perspective of how approachable is FaB over any other TCG is on point, I think you are the first one pointing about the feeling of how you feel fight the player and not the game.
This was such a great video, great content man. Looking forward to more videos!
"Casual" magic is by far the most cutthroat way to play
Was the random picture of Kassai for me?
Mostly
I feel like the name of this video is unintentionally disingenuous. I respect your feelings & experience & don’t dismiss what are your very real gripes with Magic, but I also find that your statement of Flesh & Blood being “the TCG for non-TCG players” is hard to make if you haven’t played very many TCGs.
Of the big 3, you got through the surface level of Magic, then backed down when you realized the complexity of the card count wasn’t for you. That’s fine. Granted, there are set rotations & formats that limit the number of cards in the game, which makes that less of a hassle - something I feel you didn’t express in this video. It would be helpful information for your audience according to the video title, which seems to be aimed at people who, like your past self, had just a passing interest in trading card games.
This is moreso an intro video of Flesh & Blood’s game mechanics, & less a comparison between how it’s played & how others are. Yes, you mention how it compares to the resource system in Magic, & the general playstyle of the five colors, but there’s also a lot of nuance to those two that I don’t think is realized by non-TCG players when you lightly graze over it.
I dunno. Maybe I’m tripping. I didn’t dislike the video, I enjoyed learning about Flesh & Blood. Truth be told, I have a lot to learn about TCGs myself. I would like to make one, having been inspired by the likes of Yu-Gi-Oh & Inscryption, along with a bunch of other random games over the years like Boss Monster. But to make a game I’ve had to study the game design & try to understand the fun of these games very intently, which this video may not do to effect.
Will be waiting for more FaB content. Thank you so much.
I was a 10 year old in the mid 90s. When I tried to play MTG, it always felt like nerdy opponents were making up rules on the spot to explain their terribly complicated dorky cards, and how it's better than my hand/deck. I swear, some players were insistent upon winning before the game even began, just because they wanted to explain all of their great cards they've aquired. Glad to have gotten out a very long time ago.
Flesh and Blood looks a little more streamlined. Has it been around for 10 years or so? Thank you for the video.
FaB will be 5 years this year. Don't think they'll have an Urzas Saga type set(s) this year though
WOOOOOOOO yeah killer video dude!
FaB is somewhat more accessible than the big 3 with formats like blitz, but it's very competitive classic constructed community can be hard to crack into for casual players. I started playing FaB pretty recently myself. Learning the game and commonly used cards wasn't too bad, getting actually good at the game is a completely different experience. FaB attracts a lot of smart and competitive players, so even winning local tournaments takes a lot of practice and quite a bit of investment into the stable cards to be ready for larger tournaments.
"What the hell is a pendelum summon" truer words have never been spoken. I got into FaB as a joke, as i told my buddy if i pull a 100$ card ill play, i bought a random Dusk Till Dawn pack, and pulled a cold foil empyrean rapture. soooo i bought a box of dusk till dawn, and traded alot of my sealed MTG stuff thats lost value for the rest of th eboxes my old LGS had before quitting flesh and blood. and now while i dont play anything other than blitz. im a certified Prism simp er player.
Cool video dude, appreciate it!! 🤟🏼
It seems like you are comparing Commander to a regulated tournament format in the video, that is indeed very lopsided comparison. I think if you would compare something like standard to the F&B tournament format it would be more close.
If you like flesh and blood then you'll love the universe's card game/my hero academia card game.
Hope to see you do more Flesh and Blood content!
As a die-hard casual MTG player the more videos I watch about Flesh and Blood the more tempted I am to try it. Any recs which kind of format/decks are best for beginners?
As for the mismatch in MTG matches I'd say this is why magic has so many variant formats and power levels - you very much have to decide which format and power level/card pool you want to play with before you sit down to play. I started like you playing kitchen-table 60 card decks against my friends using just the cards we had to hand. We all had similar budgets so our decks were always similar in power level. There are loads of preconstructed decks for things like commander these days but even then the learning curve seems so much higher for newer players than it ever was for me, especially if you play with strangers. Overall, great analysis. I love magic but I do think it is now missing that entry-level format that maybe it once had.
If you're still looking into the game, any of the blitz precon decks are a great starting point, especially the ones from History Pack 1 (the ones in brown boxes). Bravo and Dash are great heroes who teach fundamentals very well. You should also be able to get two free ira welcome decks from most lgs to try the game out or borrow decks from locals (they usually have several and are kinda like commander players in that regards). Wish you best of luck!
Love this video. I got into CCG’s in the early 90s, in my teens and in all the time since I’ve never got into magic as it really feels like it is not designed for newcomers despite what they say. No I have kids, I’m on the lookout for fun card games that I can play with them and I’ve never considered magic even though whereas I’ve started playing Star Wars unlimited with my son and he picked it up straight away. I feel and is perhaps one step too far at the moment for him but never say never as I really love the idea of game
Great video. Keep the good stuff coming.
Honestly, I'm too much of a spike (competitive player) to get into FAB because of the cost. I considered playing back when it came out and if I did I'd probably still be playing, but looking at tournament topping decks being $1200-$1500 and knowing that there's a bunch of staples I don't have that cost a lot, I'm not going to get into it.
I've come to love digital tcgs more because I really never liked the collectability and tradability as much as the deckbuilding and gameplay, so Legends of Runeterra is where I'm at now. Playing from the beginning and buying every other battlepass or so has left me with every available card in the game and enough dust to craft the entire next set when it comes out. The resource system and turn system it uses is very intuitive to someone who played other TCGs and right now the meta is in an interesting spot.
What decks are you looking at that are over $1000? There’s pretty much only one or two, and those are only the heroes who make use of Heart of Fyendal (which is easily replaced for minimal loss with any random blue). There are very few must-play equipments, and the budget options are usually nearly as good.
Thats why we all went back to 93 94 old school.
I like big numbers to hit my oppoent with and in FaB I can do so. Beginning on turn one until the bitter end, because of the card draw at the end of the turn :)
It is really a shame that Magic os so uninviting for New players. The game is overwhelming just by itself (rules, mechanics, the absurd amount of products and price) and if you dont have a casual group to start, this experience is almost the standart
Red, in Magic, is Direct Damage, not Monsters.
Have you ever played Sorcery: Contested Realm? It has many similarities to Magic but it is played on a grid. It solves the mana issue you refer to here by letting players draw from two decks: a mana deck (sites) and a minions & actions deck (spellbook). It's also relatively new so there aren't that many cards yet. Seems like you'd enjoy it, judging by the factors you bring up in this video 🙂
You just found TCG for you.
Many problems of MTG are not present in most new card games. For exmaple mana is replaced by much more friendlier system in games like dragonball (you can play any of your cards as reasource), One piece (you get 1 special energy card more to use each turn), or even digimon (where it is blanace of how much you spent - this much opponent will get).
The only thing I don’t like is the fact that FaB is not easy to understand without a rule book.
The first yugioh decks came with a basic rule book. Magic have it.
But I don’t see one to FaB
Yeah, funny enough that the free Ira welcome decks you can get at most LGS' has the best rules insert, which they don't use in any other intro product. Tbf, they usually just link to a pretty good learn to play video, but there is something about physical rulebooks
It’s really disappointing to hear how you were introduced to Magic The Gathering and I hope the folks that gave you a bad first impression learned along the way to have a more inclusive mindset next time. I’ve taught four people how to play MTG and one to play Yugioh and the top priority is always to ensure they’re comfortable and engaged based on their interests. Sure it’s hard not to be intimidated by folks having fancy gear for their hobby, but what they could do is either play weaker decks to match a beginner’s experience or offer to split a deck and walk you though how to play it. Education, inclusivity and support are key to any hobby and I’m glad to hear that at least you got that from a different crowd.
The TCG for everyone
Looks at price of cards
The TCG for everyone with a big stack of moolah
Not even close to true. I have come across one tournament deck that is more expensive than a meta Modern deck. I personally played with budget options for many months and didn’t see a huge spike in power when I finally got the $100+ pieces. And there are several competitive heroes who can be built to full tournament-winning specification for under $500 - see Bravo, Dash, Dorinthea, and Dromai for a few examples. (Also having a reprint policy that only protects Cold Foil printings is a great way to protect collectors while still allowing game pieces like Tunic or Crown to be reprinted, as they’re doing in back to back sets.)
@@doylerudolph7965there's no way you're comparing a new tcg to mtg modern deck values 💀 most mtg players don't even want to play standard/pioneer because of the price
Tell that to the collectors
Nice vid. Agree with the comparisons
Yugioh doesn’t have resource management lol
Its competitive lineup also consist of one archetype
It uses the cards themselves as the resource as well as the one normal summon. It's very obvious to long time players when someone doesn't know how to use their cards wisely.
I would argue that the reason why you feel FaB is easy to get into is mainly because the game is relatively new (it's only a couple of years old at this point), And so it hasn't had the time or chance to drown players in cards, mechanics, and design space. I come from a YGO background and have been playing it on and off for about a couple of years, and it's definitely easy to get lost in the sauce when it comes to finding a good play style and deck; the same can be said for magic.
This drives new players out and forces other players into the FOMO effect. The FOMO effect harms new players as they are blasted with new product releases, many cards, and mechanics. It also hurts more veteran players because they want the latest and greatest cards, the cards that will do the best in comps, or the cards they can speculate on.
If you want to hear me out, I recommend a few other TCGs: Grand Archive (another reasonably new TCG) and Digimon. Both are fairly easy to get into both from a cost wise and in terms of deck building.
it seems you're implying that all Magic play is kitchen table style when that is not the case at all. Generally you are restricted to specific card pools and not able to use cards from throughout the game's history. At least when playing competitively.
How affordable is FAB to play in tournaments?
I can relate, I too never really had a passion for MTG, I did like Yu-Gi-Oh and duel master growing up though.
I trie other tcg's, but they're too complicated or the player base is too far advanced for me to play against.
I really liked Star Wars Destiny. I played it a lot with my nephew. I was heartbroken when FFG cancelled the game.
My first magic set with my brothers was Game Night 2019, with Jace and Vraska on the cover. The visual resonance of spiritual amnesia programs.
Later, my first box solely of my own was Theros Beyond Death. Long story how I ended up with the name from there.
It's also nice I'm fab that you can build a super budget deck and compete
Incredible video! Keep it up!
Being mana screwed absolutely has to do with your deck building skills. Having 42 lands does not garantee that it is well built. You need ramp spells, mana rocks, and other strategies to make sure you have all the resources you need. If you are overwhelmed by the game's mechanics that is understandable it is the most complicated game ever created. But that's not the game's problem it's been around for over 30 years. Flesh and Blood will eventually be the same 30 years from now.
Mulliganing is also an option and knowing what hand to keep is a skill
The problem with magic is that you played commander and that format sucks. No one is able to tell you the power level of their decks truthfully and you need a shit load of cards. Play sealed or draft and you will not feel lost because a new set came out since its new to everyone. You will not feel behind either.
Commander is the most popular format?
Man I loved this MtG hit piece! Good video ❤
The fact that you draw 4 new cards each turn is overwhelming ngl. I also don’t like that heroes just disappear forever when they go LL like Lexi and briar atm. This game feels like work cuz it’s so complicated. If I block my next turn is weaker. You have to run through 20 possible outcomes it’s just not for me. I want to relax after work not being stressed out..
I am sorry, I really want to get into FAB, hence why I clicked on this video. But stomping on MTG to make FAB look great is not the way to go. You say that this is not a video criticising MTG but you do that a lot. And the things you point out about MTG is pretty flawed, and I assume you do not know much about MTG. So I think I would have enjoyed the video more, if you did not try to compare FAB to MTG, and actually would point out and explain only what FAB is and what makes it fun.
I do find MTG to be a battle of wits and strategy, and I do have fun playing with my friends. Friends who knows that it is unfun to bash other to the ground with OP decks. The same would be true with FAB, which can be just as unbalanced.
MTG Vintage, Legacy, and Modern are extremely cancerous, especially for newer players. Commander and draft are much better. Standard is okay, but you can't really do your own thing in Standard. Netdecking is just too common for a Standard deck you make yourself to have any chance.
One grand for a main format deck doesn't sound like a TCG for everyone to me.
Sounds like you need to play ECGs instead of TCGs. Try Ashes Reborn
Do you remember WOW tcg?
Pepperidge farm remembers.
How long did that game last for?
@@edchan9667 More than my virginity.
And for their most part, costs are WAAAAAAAY DOWN.
Yep. Crown at $60 is huge. E Strike is $30. Tunic is getting another reprint next set. The reprint policy is super healthy and well-communicated too, so there aren’t many feel-bads from buying a card in nonfoil that gets reprinted and drops in value - if you want to collect and have your cards retain value, that’s what Cold Foils are explicitly for!
Just give FaB a few more years to experience the tcg lifecycle and you'll get the broken cards, meta decks, gigantic card pool, etc.
I have noticed FaB absorbs players from other games like boardgames and fighting games
For me it's completely other way around. The flesh and blood deckbuilding feels too restrictive comparing to magic's freedom to mix and match all pieces together in almost infinite combinations, and playing mtg came to me quite naturally. Playing fab on the other hand is hard to grasp for me butt feels kinda too simplistic on the same time (like i smash u, u smash me kinda way). I got Prism and Levia blitz decks and I have no idea how to pilot them. They are much to hard for staters imo (probably my fault for picking them xD) I was hyped for this game but kinda felt like it was more boring than magic after playing and went back to it. Kinda sad because I thought I could enjoy them both side by side
Title... YES!
You should playing commander for magic! typically you its a 4 player game so even if your deck is not as strong as the other 3, a nice playgroup won't be targeting you as much since they know as well. It is perfect for casual play! and you never get bored of creating decks !
I actually find FAB less "fun" than other TCGs. It feels brain-burny and tight. You want to play your cards, but you have so few, and so many go to pitch and defend. The character styles vary so much, it's difficult to participate in the full breadth of the game.
That being said, there's something so compelling about it. The visual style, the world, the characters, and the one-on-one focus... It all adds up to something brilliant. I still don't think the game itself is a good fit for casual players, however, despite being less ostensibly intimidating than older games.
You should try Star Wars Unlimited, it is the only TCG I've ever even wanted to try, and it is very readable to new players.