Written by: Anthony Junta
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It's been a great year for competitive Flesh and Blood. We saw the return of Callings in North America and the first U.S. Nationals with a slate of other events mixed in. FAB Foundry also launched our competitive team, Team Foundry, which has given me the chance to play with and learn from some incredible players.
Overall, Team Foundry had a pretty good year. Every member of the competitive team (save yours truly) was qualified to U.S. Nationals this season and, at the time of writing, we have five team members in the top 50 (U.S.) for Constructed ELO, headlined by Justin Salmon at #5 in U.S. and #7 Globally!
Road to Nationals Season
Team Foundry had a solid Road to Nationals season, featuring two winners, Sam Yuen and Justin Salmon, and a combined 13 Top 8 finishes across the five active members, an 81% Top 8 conversion rate.
The Team spent a good amount of time testing against Chane, but didn't really solidify on a specific deck to try to fight the Shadow menace. Alberto Miracle took Dorinthea to a second place finish, while Will Harrison and I dabbled with Dash. Sam Yuen took Bravo to three Top 8 finishes and one win, and Justin piloted Prism for a win and two additional Top 8s. Will and Sam also decided to embrace their inner villain for a bit and play Chane themselves to decent results.
All told, three of the five active Team members qualified via Top 4 finishes, while Will and newcomer Jesse Valdez easily qualified on 90-day XP. Sam also took over the top spot on the 90-day U.S. XP leaderboard in this period and crossed the 1000XP threshold. Sam currently sits second on the Lifetime U.S. XP leaderboard with over 1700XP.
The Calling Season
As we moved into the North American Calling season, Team Foundry was focused on Classic Constructed testing for Vegas, with teammates again taking the heroes they felt best with: Justin on Prism, Alberto on Dash, Will on Chane, and Jesse on Dorinthea.
In Vegas, all four Team Foundry members qualified for Day 2, with three in the top 16 after the first seven rounds. In the end, Alberto took Dash into the Top 8 before falling to Champion-to-be Tyler Horspool in the quarterfinals.
After Vegas, we also started some Tales of Aria Limited testing with the Dallas and Cincinnati Callings on the horizon. Though less represented than at Vegas, Team Foundry had players at both Dallas and Cincinnati. Justin, Jesse, and Sam played the Calling and Pro-Quest in Dallas, with Sam making an impressive Top 4 run at the latter with Bravo.
In Cincinnati, Alberto was the sole Team Foundry representative. After dropping to the Pro-Quest on Day 2, Alberto took Dash to an 11th place finish, narrowly missing the cut to Top 8 after a single loss to Sabres Boltyn. Overall, the Team's Limited results were a little disappointing and highlights a key area for improvement in 2022. In terms of Limited ELO, Team Foundry has three players between ranks 254 and 305: Jesse, Will, and Alberto, but will look to improve that in 2022.
U.S. Nationals
While the Team was preparing for Tales Limited for Dallas and Cinicinatti, Will and Justin were also hard at work developing and testing an Earth Briar deck for Team Foundry to take to U.S. Nationals.
A week before the tournament we felt like our deck had positive matchups in a field of primarily Bravo, Prism, Rhinar, Dash, Katsu, and Chane. The emergence of Cheerios Briar the week prior at UK Nationals threw that into question, but in the end we felt the deck still had a close matchup vs. Cheerios Briar, largely dependent on whether our deck was able to find a Channel Mt. Heroic early enough.
In the end, Will, Justin, and Jesse opted to play Earth Briar, but Limited again proved to be the Team's weak point. Everyone on the Team ended Day 1 at 5-3, with Jesse and Justin moving on to Day 2, while Will and Alberto (Dash) opted to play The Calling-Orlando where they were joined by Sam (Bravo) and our esteemed patron OniT (Ice Lexi). The Team Foundry Briar players finished the weekend a sweet 28-8 in CC between Nats and the Orlando Calling. Jesse made top 32 at Nats and Alberto made top 64 at The Calling; but more than any of the results the event was great for bringing together almost all of Team Foundry in person.
Skirmish Season 3 and the FAB Competitive Team League
Since November, Team Foundry has enjoyed a more relaxed schedule, while still posting a number of solid Skirmish-Season 3 results, including wins from Alberto (Dorinthea), Sam (Draft), and Justin (Draft), plus five(?) additional Top 8s, from me (Ira, Draft), Jesse (Draft), and Sam (Kano, Draft).
In December, Team Foundry brought in some new blood, Adam Roark and Mitch Tillery, and joined the FAB Competitive Team League, which you can find on YouTube or often streamed on TowerNumberNine's Twitch Channel. Week One saw us fall to Team Kitchen Fable, but we bounced back in Week Two with a win over The LGS Team. In an extended Week Three over the Holidays we'll be taking on The Card Guyz, so keep an eye on the FAB Foundry Discord for updates on our games!
Onward to 2022!
As we look to 2022, a resurging pandemic has cast some things into doubt, but Team Foundry will be aiming to participate heavily in North American Callings throughout the year, and to qualify a number of Team members to the first ever FAB Pro Tour via the upcoming ProQuest season.
We're shooting to snag some more wins in the Competitive Team League and will be looking to improve our performance in Limited formats. Keep an eye on the FAB Foundry Discord for updates on the Team and look for many of us in the North American Playtest League - Season 6 for some spicy Everfest brews starting in February!
Thanks for reading and Happy Holidays!
