Further demonstrating the randomness of my blog entries – here’s a nerdy data analysis post about Flesh and Blood, a Trading Card Game (TCG) that I started playing recently!
Flesh and Blood (usually abbreviated to FaB) is a competitive TCG published by Legend Story Studios (LSS) from New Zealand that revolves around “Heroes” battling against eachother (I use quotes there because some of the characters are decidedly not heroic, but LSS use the word “Hero” to define all of the characters!) – the aim is to reduce the opposing Hero to 0 life before they do that to you! It has a pretty strong competitive scene and lots of well attended major events all around the world (raning from local Armories, to Callings, Battle Hardeneds, Road to Nationals, Nationals, and Worlds). I won’t claim to be any good at the game yet – I’ve been playing for about four months now and I’m still fumbling my way through the heroes and I’m lucky if I actually win a single game at an Armory event – but I still enjoy playing and I like collecting the cards too (which have very nice artwork) :D. I’d like to think I’m slowly getting better anyway!
You can find out more about the game at https://fabtcg.com/en/resources/learn-to-play/ and there are plenty of gameplay, reviews, opinions and deck tech videos on twitch and youtube (and probably someone is playing it at an FLGS near you)!
FaB is played in a variety of formats, but the main competitive format is Classic Constructed (CC) which is played with a deck of at least 60 cards, with Adult Heroes starting around 40 life. One interesting thing is that Heroes rotate out of play based on how many Living Legend points they accumulate over time – they gain these LL points by winning major events. They start at 0 points and once they get a total of 1000 points they “retire” and rotate out of play and are no longer legal to play in official CC events (there is another format called “Living Legend” where all heroes – even the retired ones – are legal to play and that features some particularly powerful decks). Usually after a few months the hero is republished in a different form (with different abilities) and can be played again, so they aren’t out of action for long. I may refer to “Young” and “Adult” heroes later – Adult heroes are the ones that are played in CC, while Young heroes are 20-life versions of the Adult heroes that are played in the smaller Blitz format (I have gathered the historical leaderboard data for Blitz too that I’ll post in a similar way here at a later date) – usually there are Young and Adult versions of each hero but some heroes only exist in Young form (e.g. Terra, Data Doll) and some only exist in Adult form (e.g Jarl).
Nowadays LSS usually updates the Living Legend Leaderboards on their website every week (or during/after every major event), and I wondered if there was an archive of the scores so that we could see how the LL points had evolved over time for each hero. To cut a long story short: I managed to track down a lot of older LL leaderboard pages on the Internet Archive and I compiled the data, did some programming jiggerypokery with Python and made a table and some graphs out of it! It seems that LSS didn’t start publishing the LL scores on their website regularly before mid 2022 so the earliest data is completely missing, but enough had been archived since then (albeit irregularly) to give us a decent idea of how the LL scores evolved over time.
I’ve plotted the graphs by Hero Class – I’m not sure if that’s the best way to do it but it works! I’m not sure that I’m particularly qualified to offer any expert commentary on these but I will try to share some relevant observations at least, and you can draw your own conclusions from the graphs :).
One thing to keep in mind are the release dates of the Sets that introduced many new cards (and often introduced new heroes) that may have changed the meta – our graphs begin in September 2021, after the release of the first four sets (Welcome to Rathe (11 October 2019), Arcane Rising (27 March 2020), Crucible of War (28 August 2020), and Monarch (7 May 2021) so in our dataset many of the heroes released in those early sets start with a significant number of LL points accumulated from events played before September 2021. The next sets were Tales of Aria (24 September 2021), Everfest (4 Feb 2022), Uprising (24 June 2022), Dynasty (11 Nov 2022), Outsiders (24 March 2023), Dusk Til Dawn (14 July 2023), Bright Lights (6 October 2023), Heavy Hitters (2 Feb 2024), Part the Mistveil (31 May 2024), Rosetta (20 September 2024), and the latest set (at the time of writing this post) is The Hunted (31 January 2025).
A total of nine heroes have retired from CC since the initial release of Flesh and Blood – Bravo (Star of the Show) (16 May 2022), Chane (13 June 2022), Prism (Sculptor of Arc Light) (29 August 2022), Oldhim (22 May 2023), Briar (19 September 2023), Lexi (23 October 2023), Iyslander (12 December 2023), Dromai (16 April 2024), and most recently Viserai (25 February 2025). The retirement of powerful heroes may change the meta significantly so keep those dates in mind too!
So without further ado, let’s dive into the data and see what we can find!
Assassin
No Assassins have retired yet, though Nuu is the closest and still rising (and may be gone within a few months) – The Hunted recently introduced a lot of new Assassin cards (as well as “Slippy” and “Mario”, two new flavours of Arakni) so it remains to be seen whether this will give her or any of the other Assassins a boost.
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Brute
The mighty Rhinar has been in the game since the first release of Welcome to Rathe and Levia (the only Shadow Brute so far) was introduced in Monarch, but the upstart Kayo is doing the best out of the Brutes so far. Introduced as an adult hero in Heavy Hitters in February 2024, Kayo shot up the LL Leaderboard but flattened out (along with the other Brutes) after the Mistveil set was released in May 2024 (despite his Armory Deck release in the same month) – we’ll be seeing this “Mistveil Effect” a lot later on since the heroes from that (Enigma, Nuu, and Zen) have dominated the meta!
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Guardian
Guardians are pretty well represented in Flesh and Blood, and are generally very tough characters that do massive hits. Two Guardians have retired already – Bravo, Star of the Show (aka “Starvo”) was a very powerful Elemental version of the normal Bravo, Showstopper that was introduced in Everfest in Feb 2022 and almost immediately shot up the rankings and hit 1000 points within four months! Oldhim was another Elemental (Ice/Earth) Guardian introduced in Tales of Aria in September 2021 (during a large blank space in our LL data), but he lasted about 20 months. A new Ice/Earth Elemental Guardian (Jarl Vertreidi) was recently introduced in an Armory Deck in November 2024 who is just starting his journey up the leaderboard. The current Guardians have largely flattened out since mid-2024 due to the “Mistveil effect”, and Betsy (introduced in Heavy Hitters) has barely got off the ground at all at, being stuck at only four points since her introduction.
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Illusionist
Illusionists are a deceptively powerful class that summon powerful allies to defend and attack for them, and two have retired already (the Light Illusionist Prism, Sculptor of Arc Light and Draconic Illusionist Dromai, Ash artist), with the third (Enigma from Part the Mistveil) well on the way. Prism was re-introduced later in Dusk Til Dawn as Prism, Awakener of Sol – interestingly she only started to get LL points after Heavy Hitters was released (which was largely focused on Brutes, Warriors and Guardians) but has been increasing fairly steadily since then – this is because a better weapon was printed for her in HH (Luminaris, Angel’s Glow) which allowed her to start being competitive.
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Mechanologist
Until October 2023, the steampunk/cyberpunk Mechanologist class was represented in CC only by Dash, Inventor Extraordinaire – but then the exclusively mechanologist Bright Lights set came out and introduced three new heroes (including an alternate Dash I/O). Dash IE was doing consistently well since her introduction and was on the cusp of retiring at the end of 2024… but then a key card (High Octane) was banned in November 2024 and since then she has stalled completely. Additionally she seems to have started to stall in July 2024 just after she hit 900 points but I don’t see a specific reason for that (no Mech cards were banned in July and I’m not sure if Dusk til Dawn would have affected anything Mechs would do). This may be due to some delayed impact of the “Mistveil Effect”, but does anyone have any more insight into this?
The other CC Mech heroes (Dash I/O, Teklovossen and Maxx Nitro) have struggled a bit since Bright Lights but Dash I/O got a bit of a bump with the release of her Armory Deck in October 2024. The next set – High Seas, due for release in July 2025 – is rumoured to have some Mechanologist support so we’ll see if that improves their lot.
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Ninja
The so-called “Ninja” class (in practice the majority of them are arguably more like “Martial Artists” but that’s what LSS have called them 🙂 ) has been in FaB since the beginning in the form of Katsu, the Wanderer, and the class is fairly well represented with five Heroes now. They are generally a “go wide” class – they throw out a lot of attacks per a turn that do a small amount of damage each, but in total can be quite damaging and overwhelming.
Katsu was doing reasonably well but then has his first flatline from June 2022 to June 2023 around 350 points. From June 2023 to May 2024 he started winning games again and climbing the leaderboard, but he stalled out again in May 2024 (when Part the Mistveil was released – this stalled out a lot of other heroes too) and has been stuck at 655 points since then.
Fai was the first new Ninja (a Draconic one at that) released since Katsu, and was he introduced in Uprising in June 2022 – I’d guess that maybe Fai was taking wins from Katsu since the latter’s first flatline is around when Uprising was released. Fai shot up the rankings in late 2023 but has largely flattened out since then.
Zen is a Mystic Ninja introduced in Part the Mistveil, and like all of the Mistveil heroes (Enigma, Nuu and Zen) he has rocketed up the leaderboard and largely dominated the meta since release – the Mistveil heroes are consistently in the top 8 of events and often win them. Zen should be retiring within the next couple of months if he continues at his current rate. Hopefully the Mistveil heroes will reach 1000 points by mid-2025 and that can open up the Meta again!
Cindra is a new Royal Draconic Ninja released in The Hunted who has got off to a very good start, with over 200 points in only a month so keep an eye on her. Ira is a Ninja who may be familiar to many FaB players – her young version was in the “Welcome Deck” used as an intro to the game. Her CC-legal Adult version (Ira, Scarlet Revenger) was introduced in late 2024 as a promo card – while legal to play she is harder to find because of that.
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Ranger
Currently there are only two Rangers active in CC – Azalea and Riptide – and one (the Elemental Ranger Lexi) has retired already. Lexi started doing really well after around May 2023 (when Oldhim retired?) and hit 1000 in October 2023. Azalea’s evolution has been interesting because she has been in FaB almost since the beginning (arriving with Arcane Rising, the second set released) but she won no events at all – she literally had 0 points – until the Outsiders set was released in March 2023 to provide her with some much needed assistance (probably in the form of her now-staple Bloodrot/Frailty/Inertia Shots, Laces, and Codices). Since then she has climbed steadily and I think she’s likely to LL within the next six months (certainly by the end of 2025). Riptide is a trap-based Ranger who was introduced in Outsiders who was also off to a rough start (being stuck at 2 points for his first year or so) but has won a few games since then – but he’s still struggling (especially in the current Mistveil-dominated meta). Rangers are rumoured to be getting more support in the upcoming High Seas set so hopefully we’ll have some help for Riptide and maybe even a new Ranger hero (an Elemental Ranger would be nice to have again, since all of those ER cards have been unusable in CC since Lexi retired).
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Runeblade
Runeblades are another well represented class, with six Runeblade heroes in total (one ‘pure’ Runeblade, three Elemental, and two Shadow), Chane and Briar retired early – Chane shot up 500 points in one month (possibly because Starvo had hit 1000 points in early May 2022?)! Vynsnet (a Shadow Runeblade like Chane) has been struggling but it seems that since The Hunted was released she’s been starting to win a few games. Viserai – the original Runeblade – had largely flattened out but suddenly started doing well with the release of Rosetta at the end of September 2024 which added two new Elemental Runeblades (Aurora and Florian) who are both also doing well. Viserai’s meteoric rise culminated in his recent retirement during the Feb 2025 Road to Nationals event, making him the first of the original heroes (those released in Welcome to Rathe and Arcane Rising) to retire. It’ll be interesting to see what effect his rotation will have on the current meta.
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Warrior
Warriors have certainly been feeling the pinch from the ‘Mistveil Effect’, all have been struggling to win games since the release of Part the Mistveil. Dorinthea has been most successful but it still hovering around 600 points (doing better than Ser Boltyn who initially followed a very similar path but who has stalled more since Uprising was released). Kassai was shooting up the leaderboard initially but again hit a brick wall when the Mistveil heroes showed up, with barely any increase since then. And Olympia has barely got off the ground at all, with a measly total of 7 points since his release in Heavy Hitters. Fang is a new Draconic Warrior introduced in The Hunted but so far he has made little impact compared to Cindra and the new Araknis. Once the Mistveil heroes retire, Warriors may start to pick up again.
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Wizards
Wizards are the arcane powerhouses of FaB, dishing out a sometimes terrifying amount of hard to block Arcane Damage in one turn! The Elemental (Ice) Wizard Iyslander retired from CC at the end of 2023, and Kano (a Wizard introduced in Arcane Rising who in retrospect really should be a Draconic Wizard since he’s from Volcor and is very fire based, but Draconic wasn’t a concept then) starting to climb the leaderboards after his icy counterpart left. Kano seems to be largely unaffected by the Mistveil Effect, though he seems to have flattened out since Rosetta was released. Verdance and Oscilio were Elemental Wizards (Earth and Lightning respectively) introduced in Rosetta but haven’t been doing as well as their Runeblade counterparts.
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And just to show all the heroes together in a confusing mess, here’s everyone in a single graph 🙂
If you want to play around with the data yourself, here’s the excel spreadsheet I made from collecting all of the archived pages from the internet archive:
final_LL_table_for_CC_25Feb2025.xlsx
If you have any comments or further observations (or can explain some of the graphs better) then I would love to hear them in the comments here – and please let me know if you spot any more interesting patterns!