Drafting Uprising

Describing drafting Uprising in three words? Pretty. Damn. Good.

I said previously that Flesh and Blood draft is a really fun experience, from discussing the potential draft strategies before set release, to the actual drafting itself. Uprising have met my expectations to what a Flesh and Blood draft should be. Welcome to Rathe will probably remain the most pure FaB drafting experience, but Uprising comes very close!

In this post, I just wanted to quickly discuss my experience drafting all three heroes in Uprising. As well as pointing out why drafting Uprising is so good.

Drafting Fai

Fai shares the Draconic talent with his sister, Dromai. So, the pool of cards for Fai does have an extra layer of contender beyond different classes.
My experience in a good Fai draft has been when I open or see Draconic attacks that naturally have go again in the first few packs, before locking in. Fai cares quite a bit about Draconic chain links, so the more of these in the deck there are, the more fluid the game for Fai.

I found Flamecall Awakening and Inflame especially good for Fai because it helps fetch a Phoenix Flame for really wide chains and activating Fai's ability, if you have the Phoenix Flames to back it up. These are also good cards to stay open for Dromai (explained later).

A Heat Wave when you have decided to lock into Fai is also fairly good.

Heat Wave can be used to boost those good turns with 2 or 3 Phoenix Flames at Instant speed. You don't have to make the decision before you attack, see how they block first. I think that makes it a very good card in Limited.

Fai's ability to present a huge amount of damage gives him a favourable match into Dromai. Dromai needs to build up some Dragons before she's a threat. It's harder for Dromai to do that when Fai can just put her in lethal range in a couple of turns.

Fai is, however, prone to disruption due to most cards only pitching 1 resource. Iyslander have a good matchup into Fai in limited due to her ability to give Frostbites, and also dealing big Arcane damage. My most difficult matches have definitely been Iyslander ones. However, I feel like it is much easier to draft a decent Fai deck then an Iyslander deck. As a result, Although Iyslander can keep tempo well, it usually is a close match.

Drafting Iyslander

Iyslander is the only Ice hero in this set. One would think that makes her an easy pick due to not having to contend with another hero on talent. However, I have found that this isn't always the case. Iyslander needs blue pitch cards to work effectively. It's entirely possible for a deficiency of blue Ice and/or Elemental Wizard cards in a draft. Not being able to play a non-attack action from Arsenal on the opponent's turn, as is Iyslander's ability, prevents her from dealing enough damage with Waning Moon.

However, if one does manage to draft the blues for Iyslander, she is able to function as intended.

Save a blue card in Arsenal.

On the opponent's turn, when they attack, I'll play the card from Arsenal. Cards like Aether Icevein (fused) and Cold Snap are very good as it can force cards out of the opponent's hand and stop their turn dead in it's tracks. I will still likely have 3 cards left in hand to block as well. If my play stopped the opponent's turn, I may activate Waning Moon for some chip damage, or save my hand if I have something like a red Aether Icevein that can deal 5 Arcane damage and also disrupts the opponent's next turn. If I do decide to activate Waning Moon, it still forces cards out of my opponent's hand for their turn, as they have to decide to block Arcane. Whilst the set does allow for damage prevention through Quell, the equipment does break so they can't do it forever either. Except for Dromai, who can summon lots of Aether Ashwing which have Arcane Barrier.

Since Iyslander has a monopoly for both Ice and Wizard cards, picking them in the first couple picks essentially is locking in. If you want to stay open, a good consideration for pack 1 pick 1 is Oasis Respite in red. Still open, blocks 4 damage and heal, a very good card for Iyslander as I think my playstyle essentially wants to fatigue the opponent a little bit in the early game whilst I take down their ability to prevent damage.

Drafting Dromai

Drafting Dromai was quite interesting given that her ability dictates the red/yellow/blue ratio. 70-80% of the time, you want a red card. I have found that if Dromai cannot create Ash, it'll be a difficult game. Some good first picks whilst staying open would be Scar for a Scar in red, Oasis Respite in red, and as mentioned, Flamecall Awakening and Inflame.

A classic Dromai limited build may also want to go for as many Dragons as she can get.

Cromai gives action point, so there's no fear even if it gets popped, you still can play the turn. Miragai prevents the first Dragon attack from being popped, so combos well with Cromai. A few of these Dragons have really nasty effects. The above two in particular also have more than 1 health, so very difficult for Iyslander to deal with. Fai does have a better time into them, but can still get quite annoying.

The reason I thought Flamecall Awakening and Inflame can still be good to stay open for Dromai is because they are cheap red cards to play that also help trigger Dromai's abilities. I have also seen some interesting plays like including Phoenix Flames in deck construction to play for 0 damage, but it allows for Dragons to gain go-again.

I still don't feel as comfortable drafting Dromai yet. But, I feel like she has bit more of a ceiling in limited, seeing that there are multiple ways to construct a deck for her. I could try to summon bigger dragons for the late game. I could summon little dragons and just poke damage whilst defending. I could also just go full Phantasm package to rush down my opponents. A very interesting hero to draft indeed.

The good things about Uprising draft

As you can see from my experience drafting all 3 heroes, they have a triangular relationship in terms of good and bad matchups in the set. This subverted my expectations when I heard that there will be 2 Draconic heroes and only 1 Ice hero. I initially thought there would be an imbalance. But, LSS have cleverly not made it about talent, but about play-style.

On the note of talent. Although fusion was in this set, not all heroes had to fuse to make full use of their potential in limited. Even Iyslander didn't really need to fuse most of the time in my experience. This was very different, and definitely a positive, compared to Tales of Aria draft. I had a Tales draft where half the table drafted all the Ice/Lightning/Earth, and the other half drafted only the Elemental cards, so there was very little fusion and the game just felt weird.

The balance in this set is just really good, in my opinion. Even with bad matchups, it usually is a close game.

Looking forward to Drafting at Bad Moon RTN

I'm glad that I did manage to get some practise drafting all 3 heroes. And, I'm really looking forward to drafting at Bad Moon Cafe's Road to National event this weekend . If you are drafting this weekend at a RTN event as well, then all the best! I hope your packs present favourable options. I also hope that this post have given you some more 'mental' practise, as it were, especially if you hadn't had a chance to draft all 3 heroes yet. Remember, read the signals! The person to your right is your best friend.

If you enjoyed the read, I would appreciate if you wanted to buy me a ko-fi on the left of the page 😊.