Alliance Format

Before Flesh and Blood, and even occasionally nowadays, I play a little bit of Commander, a format for Magic: The Gathering. What I liked about the Commander format is, strangely, the so-called "politics". Players would form alliances with each other for a certain time, make non-aggression pacts, one player might become the archenemy for playing a really powerful card, and so on. The reason I'm a fan of things like alliances is because when players become 'allies', they usually discuss strategies to take down the other player(s), and I really like collaborative plays like that. You can tell I really look forward to the PvE mode for FaB.

However, this also got me thinking; could a PvP format expressing this 'collaborative strategy' exist for Flesh and Blood?

Introducing, Alliance! A made up casual format that I've been brewing in my head.

Quickstart

  • Ideally 4 players, but viable with 3 or more than 4.
  • 1 young hero card
  • 51 card-pool. 11 weapons and equipment. 40 cards in the deck.
  • Start with exactly 40 cards in the deck
  • Up to 2 copies of each unique card
  • Each player starts with a single copy of these 2 cards in their Banish Zone.
  • No time limit, game time varies depending on number of players. Winner is last player standing.

Start of Turn Procedure

  • Players should be seated randomly.
  • Decide who the first player is using a random method, then play turns going around clockwise.
  • Players present their 40 card deck in the deck zone at the start of the game.

Card Legality

No cards are illegal at the moment.

Additional Rules

  • When an Alliance is formed, you are no longer an Opposing Hero.
  • When an Alliance is formed, heroes in the Alliance share 1 Action Point during a turn of an ally hero, the alliance decides which hero will be using an Action Point.
  • When attacking, the hero performing the attack action may choose any opposing hero.
  • When defending, all heroes in an Alliance may help defend the hero being attacked.
  • Card rules text containing 'you' or 'your' now applies to your entire Alliance . i.e. Earthlore Surge played by an ally will apply to your next attack like Leg Tap

This sounds like chaos

It's a little bit. But, hear me out.

Like some other formats thats making the headlines, the combination of different hero classes makes for really interesting interactions. The big difference here is that in one turn, your hero might have a truck load of cards across your entire alliance to use. This may sound like it could create overpowered plays. But, when testing out this format at my local, it wasn't an issue at all. The reason it works is because your allies may not neccesarily want to use up cards to help you push damage, it leaves them vulnerable until the end of their next turn after all!

Another really cool thing I found during testing is that players don't always tell their allies exactly what cards they have. It will always be something long the lines of "I can help push more damage so you can get over the blocks" or "I can help slow down their play". This was exactly what I was going for, and really appreciate my locals helping me refine the format for it to reach this point.

Whilst I have been brewing this format for a while, what I'm really looking forward to is the Dusk till Dawn release with the Unity cards. Its an extremely happy coincedence that they work really well in Alliance. An ally may defend you with a Unity card and both your heroes may benefit from its effect! I do feel that Unity was geared towards PvE, and PvE FaB was an inspiration for Alliance. Great minds think alike?

FAQ / Notes

Q: Why Sigil of Immortality?
A: The deck construction for Alliance is basically Blitz. But 20 health is rather low and could make games way too short if an alliance forms. Sigil of Immortality is meant to be an answer to this.

Q: What about effects of equipments like Hope Merchant's Hood
A: All heroes in an alliance do benefit from it.

Q: Can someone play Alliance Treaty and form an Alliance with me without my consent?
A: In practise, I think most players would probably ask before forming an Alliance. There isn't many practical benefits of having an Alliance if players aren't helping each other. In addition, with the card text on Alliance Treaty, you can also break off from an Alliance yourself as an Instant because the 'You' applies to the entire Alliance once it resolves.

Q: What about effects of cards with 'Opposing hero', like Channel Lake Frigid.
A: When you are in an Alliance with a hero who play cards like Channel Lake Frigid, you are not an Opposing hero (per rule above, in case you missed it) and therefore are not effected, i.e. you will not have to pay additional resource for your cards and activated abilities.
As an inverse example, you do benefit from Channel Mount Heroic buff ... I've made a mistake haven't I.
Please note that the Alliance rule apply to the upkeep cost as well, so choosing your allies depending on their hero and where they are sitting is important.