Prepare for your local Skirmish event with Primed to Fight – a series where we break down competitive decklists, their matchups, and sideboard options. Sleeve up, get reps, and secure your victory! Today we have Jackie Rousseau AKA The FAB Workshop bringing you two ready-to-play decklists for Silver Age. Firstly, a Kassai deck that leverages Cash In and new cards from Mastery Pack Warrior, and secondly, a Rune Gate Chane deck that celebrates the return of the original Shadow Lord!
Skirmish Season 15 brings us a brand new Silver Age metagame, with benched heroes and the return of a familiar face. With the format wide open and plenty left to discover, now’s the perfect time to jump in. Here are two deck options to take to your next event.
With the release of Mastery Pack Warrior and the return of Cash In, Kassai is finally getting the attention she deserves. Honestly though, I think she was already a strong contender even before the new support arrived. She’s incredibly consistent, rewards good sequencing, and has the tools to compete across a wide range of matchups. Even with all that, she’s still one of the format’s most overlooked heroes – and that’s exactly what makes her such a great pick.
The second hero is the former Silver Age menace, Chane.
Chane has been an extremely powerful hero throughout multiple formats in the history of Flesh and Blood, and his performance in the lead up to the official release of the Silver Age format led to him earning his position as the first ever benched hero.
With his return, Chane has picked up a few bans, and even some unbans, once again having access to Seeds of Agony, opening up new deck building possibilities! If you enjoy sequencing attacks and pulling off combos, Chane is a great choice. He is a hero with incredible depth and a high skill ceiling, with the ability to catch opponents off guard.
Kassai revolves around two core principles – presenting efficient weapon attacks, and maintaining strong defensive capability, cementing her as an incredibly consistent midrange value deck. Every turn is about balancing pressure with maintaining your life total, knowing when to save your Gold and when to cash it in for explosive value.
Kassai’s resilience can give her an edge against aggressive decks, allowing her to defend efficiently while still generating meaningful offensive value from smaller hands. At the same time, her flexible midrange playstyle excels into slower strategies, where her consistent weapon pressure, Gold generation, and careful planning let her outlast defensive opponents without running out of threats.
Dorinthea Pão de Queijo · Sep 25 · 71 min read0 likes00 comments0
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Card Choices
My Kassai deck focuses on maintaining pressure every turn, with each card either ensuring we present two weapon attacks, or increasing our damage potential. I’ve aimed for a fairly even amount of reds and yellows to make sure we can extract as much value as possible out of her hero ability.
With Cash In now unbanned, Gold generation is more valuable than ever. Turning one Gold into two cards and effectively gaining 2 thanks to our hero ability can provide a huge boost to our damage output, or let us set up a late game combo to finish off defensive decks.
Go Again
The core of Kassai’s gameplay revolves around Blade Runner and Run Through, really these are our signpost cards. The red variants enable us to attack with both of our swords for a total of 7 damage, spending only one card from our deck, and requiring only one blue card for pitch. This leaves us up to three other cards in hand to extract value out of each turn cycle either by adding further damage, or protecting our life total – in this hypothetical scenario, defending 9 damage with these three cards and attacking for 7 puts us at 16 value for the turn cycle, nothing to scoff at!
In years gone by we’ve often run a full set of Hit and Run, but with Mastery Pack Warrior, we’ve got some fun new cards that push Kassai’s power and consistency even further. Blade Rush is in most cases a slight improvement on Hit and Run, and Shimmer of the Blade is one of my favorite new cards, filling in for Hit and Run when needed, or allowing us to push more evasive damage. We’ve still included 2x Hit and Run (blue) to help keep our cost curve low, and low resource hands functional with two cards.
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Pumps
When it comes to pushing damage we have a mix of new and old cards, at action speed we have Slice and Dice which puts our swords into damage breakpoints in many scenarios, and another fantastic new card – Crimson Waltz, which feels a lot like Draw Swords, but adds +4 as a yellow, getting our red to yellow ratios nice and even.
Outland Skirmish is a neat tech choice. While Copper isn’t relevant to our game plan, against Dromai it prevents Kyloria from drawing a card on hit. In those situations, giving away a Copper is a small price to pay – as long as you’re not holding any Gold.
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Attack Reactions
At reaction speed we have a few more tools than we traditionally would have, Kassai’s hero ability encourages defending, and we can capitalize on this with Stroke of Foresight. The rest of our core is made up of fairly vanilla +3 reactions.
Overpower (red) is included at 2x copies for hyper-fatigue matchups, while Backside of the Blade is an excellent late-game play, enabling powerful three-swing turns that can help you get around defense, especially when your opponent triggers Hot Streak. Shove Off effectively serves as Silver Age’s equivalent of Rout, helping push attacks through when every point of damage counts.
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Equipment
Cintari Saber and Hot Streak are a powerful combination, Hot Streak is especially powerful in low-life situations, making defending awkward, and sometimes granting free go again. If your opponent chooses not to defend, the deck naturally contains enough go again to keep your chain going. Together, this weapon package provides an excellent balance of consistency, flexibility, and sustained pressure.
Deep Blue helps make sure we can convert an all-red hand. It’s saved me from losing tempo countless times, transforming an otherwise unplayable hand into a fully funded, explosive turn. Few equipment pieces can swing a game as dramatically. This chest piece is so good that we run it in every matchup.
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Physical Defense
I’ve selected Gauntlets of Unity and Pillar of Unity as my defensive pieces. Kassai converts small hands into pressure exceptionally well, making it easy to defend with a card from hand and a Unity piece without losing momentum.
Myrkhellir Helm is a flexible piece that can defend for a total of 3, or turn a blue heavy hand into something more powerful by cashing in a single Gold to draw two cards.
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Arcane Barrier
Nullrune Hood, Gloves, and Boots all make the cut. I respect Blaze, and you should too. These pieces give us a little more longevity to help us survive what I consider one of our toughest matchups. If you’re not expecting any Wizards in your local meta, you’re in luck – these become flex slots that can be swapped for other options.
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Sideboarding
For this Kassai deck I’ve taken the approach of starting with a total main deck size of 46, and siding out cards depending on the matchup.
Myrkhellir Helm, Gauntlets of Unity, Deep Blue, and Pillar of Unity form our default equipment loadout unless otherwise specified. Deep Blue is the only chest piece.
Against Aggro
Against aggressive decks, Kassai adopts a midrange gameplan. Trade efficiently, preserve your life total, and leverage her ability to convert small hands into meaningful damage. When your opponent gives you an opening or you can take the tempo by presenting lethal damage, capitalize immediately by committing extra resources to push as much damage as possible.
Side out:
2x Overpower (red)
2x Oasis Respite
2x Arcane Polarity
Against Runeblades, keep 2x Arcane Polarity in and instead side out 2x Draw Swords.
Against Fatigue
Against fatigue slanted decks applying consistent pressure is important, but how you pitch your cards can be even more critical. Plan for the late game by pitch stacking to set up an explosive Cash In turn once they’ve exhausted much of their defensive capability, Overpower (red) is great for delivering a massive finishing swing. Backside of the Blade is another card we can play to get around defenses, particularly when Hot Streak is enabled. This is a bit of a skill test but definitely rewards you by efficiently pitch stacking your threats for the late game.
Side out:
2x Slice and Dice (yellow)
2x Oasis Respite
2x Arcane Polarity
Against Dominate
Against Valda and Bravo your gameplan is similar to other defensive matchups, but you must respect their crush attacks. Oasis Respite in combination with our armor pieces should allow us to cover important attacks with dominate. While there isn’t enough room to dedicate defense reactions to this matchup, the deck is capable of applying enough pressure to outpace them.
Side out:
2x Slice and Dice (yellow)
2x Arcane Polarity
2x Overpower (red)
Against Wizards
Prioritize preventing arcane damage where you can whilst maintaining pressure. If Blaze has built up a large number of energy counters, avoid overextending, especially if they’re willingly taking damage, as they’re often setting up a powerful spell followed by Snapback. Your best opportunity to be aggressive is when they’re low on energy counters. Above all, make preventing damage from Aether Spindle a priority whenever possible.
Two key elements make Chane tick – careful Soul Shackle management and powerful Blood Debt attacks. Each turn is about balancing aggression with resource efficiency, converting your banished cards into damage while ensuring Blood Debt doesn’t catch up with you in the late game.
As it stands, Chane has (in my opinion) two viable builds:
The classic “Boomer” version, focused accruing a large number of Soul Shackles to put together large combat chains, and sometimes very big pumped attacks to overwhelm his opponents, or
The modern “Rune Gate“ variant, focused on generating Runechants and playing Rune Gate attacks turn over turn to pressure the opponent with larger amounts of split damage.
Choosing between the two builds ultimately came down to the current meta. With aggressive heroes like Briar, Fai, and Blaze performing well, I opted for the Rune Gate variant, which I found to be better suited to handle the faster pace of the field, as it’s able to present higher amounts of damage with fewer cards in hand.
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Card Choices
Runechants, Runechants, and more Runechants
With the banning of Deathly Delight and Vantom Wraith, Chane now needs to generate 3 Runechants turn over turn to access his Rune Gate attacks.
With a greater reliance on Runechants, increasing our Runechant generation is essential. Malefic Incantation and Read the Runes remain auto-includes, while Envelop in Darkness helps us consistently reach our Runechant breakpoints, It also buffs your Rune Gate attacks, making it a great fit for the deck.
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Spellblade Assault is another key inclusion. It can be used as a chain ender, allowing you to start your next turn with 2 Runechants, or, with a Malefic Incantation in play and a Soul Shackle active, help you reach 3 Runechants and set up a powerful Rune Gate attack on the follow-up.
Arcane Cussing is another standout inclusion. Creating 3 Runechants on demand is incredibly important, and it synergises perfectly with one of our equipment pieces, which I’ll cover shortly.
More Runechants, you say? Reduce to Runechant is one of the best defense reactions this deck could ask for, helping us generate additional Runechants while defending, usually at no resource cost.
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Rune gate
For attacks, the Rune Gate cards are what we’ve built the deck around. I’ve opted for a full set of Vantom Banshee and Deathly Wail. Deathly Wail is particularly effective, refunding a Runechant if a hero has lost life when the combat chain closes, while Vantom Banshee helps maintain the density of Rune Gate attacks we need. A particularly effective strategy is to send multiple Deathly Wails on the same turn / combat chain.
Putrid Stirrings doesn’t generate Runechants, but its attack buff is highly effective against slower matchups, helping push damage through stubborn defense.
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Pummel
With so many high-cost attacks in the deck, I couldn’t resist adding a cheeky Pummel. It may only be a single copy, but it can absolutely steal a game when your opponent least expects it!
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Equipment
I’ve opted to run a wider range of equipment in this Chane build, primarily to give us more flexibility across different matchups. With the right equipment choices, we can adapt our gameplan to maximize resources throughout the game.
Blade Beckoner Helm and Blade Beckoner Boots make up our defensive pieces. Helm will be used in most matchups, while Boots are primarily brought in against more aggressive heroes.
Bloodtorn Bodice pairs with Arcane Cussing, an expiring Runeblood Incantation, or a surplus Soul Shackle to generate an extra .
Runehold Release provides a critical third Runechant when you need it.
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Sutcliffe’s Suede Hides can unlock explosive triple attack turns, but you need to carefully manage its cost. It’s best used when setting up wide turns to overwhelm your opponent’s defense and may require some pitch stacking to get the most out of it.
Unflinching Foothold is your go-to leg equipment against crucial dominated attacks. It’s especially valuable in matchups where one big attack can swing the game, so timing it correctly can be the difference between winning and losing.
Nebula Blade is a natural fit for this build, its on-hit effect helps us toward our next Rune Gate attack, and it’s a great finisher.
Annals of Sutcliffe is a specialized weapon brought in primarily for hyper-fatigue matchups. The goal is to use it to set up a late game pitch stack, all whilst developing an extremely threatening boardstate. The pitch stacking aspect, if managed carefully, can allow you to assemble a powerful triple attack sequence while also building up your Runechants for a big finishing turn.
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Crown of Dichotomy, Runebleed Robe, and Nullrune Boots. Once again, Arcane Barrier 3 is my happy place. What can I say, Blaze scares me!
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Sideboarding
This deck includes a main deck total of 44, siding out 4 cards in each matchup. This sideboard plans cover both general archetypes and specific heroes I expect to see throughout the season.
Nebula Blade is the default weapon of choice, with Annals of Sutcliffe coming in specifically against Oldhim. Runehold Release is the only arm piece.
Against Aggro
Against aggressive decks, we will need to activate Chane practically every turn in order to find our attacks. These opponents are generally incentivized to forego defending to play attacks, this allows us to use cards like Reduce to Runechant to generate extra Runechants, protect our life total, and enable us to send back significant amounts of damage utilizing cards from our banished zone, even if we are forced to defend with our entire hand.
Use Blade Beckoner equipment when you’re ready to seize the tempo and swing the game in your favor. Against Briar specifically, try to save these for Star Fall on their Burn Up // Shock turns, as shutting down these explosive turns can be crucial to winning the matchup.
Equipment:
Blade Beckoner Helm
Bloodtorn Bodice
Blade Beckoner Boots
Side out:
2x Arcane Polarity
2x Putrid Stirrings
Against Runeblades, keep 2x Arcane Polarity in and instead side out 2x Runeblood Incantation.
Against Fatigue
Fatigue Oldhim is a deck I expect to see this season. In this matchup, our goal is to set up an enormous turn, ideally with three attacks and somewhere around 30 Runechants by activating Annals of Sutcliffe and carefully pitch stacking our threats. Avoid activating Chane’s ability in the early game, as you want to avoid banishing your Runechant generators. Instead, focus on defending efficiently, setting up your auras, and building Runechants until you’re ready to unleash your big turn.
Another hero to expect in the fatigue category is Enigma. However, this matchup requires a slightly different approach. We can’t afford to sit back and set up, as we want to avoid giving her too much room to build up a board of auras. Instead, our goal is to apply pressure by sending wide, split damage whenever possible.
Be mindful of Essence of Ancestry: Body. Your Runechant damage will trigger first, and your opponent can choose to let Essence of Ancestry: Body be destroyed, negating the damage from your red attack action.
Equipment:
Blade Beckoner Helm
Bloodtorn Bodice
Sutcliffe’s Suede Hides
Annals of Sutcliffe (specifically against Oldhim)
Side out:
2x Arcane Polarity
2x Spellblade Assault (red)
Against Dominate
This is where Unflinching Foothold becomes particularly valuable. Your goal is to maintain pressure while minimizing the impact of powerful crush effects. One crush card you can actually turn to your advantage is Boulder Drop, as you can let it hit and stack a Rune Gate card on top of your deck to control your next Soul Shackle banish.
Be mindful of fatigue, though. If your opponent realizes you’re trying to race them, they may change their gameplan. You may still need to angle toward setting up bigger turns into the more aggressive Guardians.
Equipment:
Blade Beckoner Helm
Bloodtorn Bodice
Unflinching Foothold
Side out:
2x Arcane Polarity
2x Spellblade Assault (yellow)
Against Wizards
Blaze is a race matchup where our goal is to put them within lethal range as quickly as possible while efficiently managing incoming arcane damage, which is why I’ve opted (hehe) for three Arcane Barrier equipment.
thanks to our hero ability can provide a huge boost to our damage output, or let us set up a late game combo to finish off defensive decks.
as a yellow, getting our red to yellow ratios nice and even.