Who am I?

I got into Flesh and Blood around the release of Uprising, and I started the game with Briar using Lightning Press to push through Snatch. Upon the release of Dynasty, LSS gave us the Assassin class, all about on-hit effects and combat tricks, and I moved in promptly. It took a little bit for Assassin to become the class it is now, and in that time, I’ve earned Living Legend points for every Assassin to come through Classic Constructed (and Solitary Confinement in Blitz). Since the AGE Open Series came to New England, I’ve been playing whenever I can make the event, landing in top 8 the majority of the time, but always piloting an Assassin. This article is going to get into my approach to building and playing Arakni, 5L!p3d 7hRu 7h3 cR4X in our changing meta before Pro Tour Las Vegas.

Why 5L!p3d?

Slippy was a menace in the pre-Super Slam meta, opening turns with Bonds of Agony and introducing the opponent to the blender. Combined with Take up the Mantle, Slippy was threatening Bonds’ devastating on-hit nearly every turn. This perpetual psychic damage proved unpopular, and Bonds of Agony was consigned to obscurity in the Living Legend format. Slippy has made few appearances since this ban, but with the decline of Marionette at the hands (feet?) of Boots of Omnis Ward, Slippy may have the tools to target this developing meta.

While not the hero it once was, Slippy remains the most flexible Assassin in deckbuilding and gameplay, giving the opponent hard choices on defense while giving the pilot a suite of tools catered to their specific target. This deck is minimally siloed, playing cards from all the Assassins past, with good access to generic staples and hate cards like Command and Conquer and Warmonger’s Diplomacy. All of the Stealth attacks and associated reactions block for 3, which, combined with the Go Again from the hero, allows the deck to convert hands as called for on a turn by turn basis. Unlike other decks spamming Head Jabs, Slippy can pivot into a fatigue angle based on the state of the game, and if the text is matched to the target, the Stealth Head Jabs can be converted to Winter’s Bites, forcing cards from the opponent’s hand. The range of options presented by the first chain link gives the opponent plenty of rope to hang themself with, either by blocking things that aren’t coming or letting it through to not get blown out in reactions or by a Codex of Frailty to follow. Cards like Art of Desire: Body prey upon the redline decks that don’t want to block anything, and flexible blues like Under the Trap-door and Unmake the Underlings provide additional utility while being blue block 3’s and passable threats in combination with Just a Nick and Take up the Mantle.

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The Stealth attacks are the heart of the deck and will take up something like half of the slots in the build. Every hand wants to have at least one of these to take advantage of Slippy’s free action point and convert reactions to evasive damage. Some of these are always in the deck, like Kiss of Death and Persuasive Prognosis, and some can be sided in and out, like Art of Desire: Body and Bonds of Attraction. These will be your starters and your threats, and their selection will be tailored to the decks you expect to play into.

Flick Knives is central to how this deck plays, and cannot be substituted. Flicking a Hunter’s Klaive is the best way to mark the opponent on demand to enable Take Up the Mantle, and flicking throughout the game by generating Graphene Chelicera and Orbitoclast helps chip opponents into kill range and finish them off. Kiss of Death with Slippy’s hero power lets you nearly always flick the Kiss for an extra 2 damage, and Spike with Bloodrot interacts particularly well here, retaining the on-hit for the flicked Kiss and generating another Bloodrot Pox token. Where Marionette depends heavily on a single early flick in order to set up their ideal weapon configuration, Slippy will flick many times during the game and often cares more about clearing the spot than landing the hit. Due to this, Slippy suffers less from the printing of Omnis Ward, which lines up perfectly against Marionette’s intended play pattern, and I would be more concerned about an opponent presenting Quickdodge Flexors. While Slippy gets more flicks than Marionette, they remain a finite resource that you ought to try and maximize.

Codex of Frailty is notorious for generating obscene value from a single card, and Slippy takes particular advantage of this card with the extra action point per turn. In other Assassins, keeping the arsenal empty or occupied by something easy to clear is important to allow Codex to be played or set when you find it, but Slippy converts every Stealth attack into a starter, thereby expanding this easy-to-clear category and improving the baseline quality of Ponders. Leave No Witnesses, Command and Conquer, and Death Touch are the primary targets for Codex of Frailty, but in a pinch you may also fetch Mark of the Black Widow or Pain in the Backside. Codex can be pitched away if the game is going to last to second cycle, but if this is not guaranteed, the Codex should be run out for tempo and deck velocity. Overcrowded complicates resolving Codex, and you can respond to this in a few ways. Bonds of Attraction lets you banish the Overcrowded from the yard, ignoring the problem entirely, or you can choose to recur a 6 -power attack that won’t be covered entirely by the Overcrowded. If the opponent has Overcrowded and a lot of cards in hand when you resolve the Codex, it can sometimes be good to choose Leave No Witnesses and then pass without attacking, leaving them with cards in hand and Overcrowded in arsenal. You can do this against a Guardian that has kept cards since they won’t have the action point to clear the Overcrowded and this can deny them the opportunity to arsenal a better card or swing something meaningful.

Combat tricks let the 3 power Stealth attacks actually land against opponents willing to block them, and the deck plays a variety. Razor’s Edge is basic, converting for 3 offensively or defensively, but is worth more than 3 when enabling an on-hit, such as Infect. Spike with Bloodrot makes use of a Tunic resource to push through an on-hit with a bonus Bloodrot, comboing with Kiss and Flick as mentioned above. Just a Nick makes the blue Stealth attacks into passable two card 6’s, but it really shines in pairs or with a Take Up the Mantle, leading to three card 11-14’s. Tarantula Toxin is usually just Shred in this deck, but you can get the full 6 value by targeting Kiss of Death or using Take Up the Mantle to convert another Stealth attack into it. The tricks exist to get compounding value, stacking with the on-hits of the Stealth attacks, so it can be worthwhile to arsenal the trick if you are already getting the hit. This is completely free while you have Crown of Providence up, and if you need to clear the arsenal otherwise, you only need to keep the one stealth attack to play the reaction before resolving Codex of Frailty off Slippy’s go again. Arsenaling the reaction can get punished if you manage to draw a hand with no stealth attacks and a Codex of Frailty you want to resolve, or if your opponent successfully disrupts your arsenal before you can convert it. Consider these factors before setting an attack reaction you could otherwise convert.

Take Up the Mantle has a range of uses, but will often require a flick to make it work. Changing the text of the attack during reactions lets Slippy sneak in on-hits that would otherwise have been blocked out, and there are a few one-ofs that facilitate this. Double Trouble is the biggest number to mantle into to get over blocks, and Pick to Pieces provides a smaller buff while denying value from prevention effects. Bonds of Attraction will never hit a hero who wants to protect something in their yard, but mantle lets this connect with a Gravy or Cindra who would otherwise cover it. Mantling over Lobotomy and Unmake the Underlings gets extra value from their on-attack triggers having already resolved. If you’re able to resolve Mantle without having flicked already, you can banish Kiss of Death to flick on a later chain link for 2 evasive damage. Against aggro, you can mantle into Mark of the Black Widow to force a card or, if you need the life or think you can fatigue them, choose Persuasive Prognosis so you can choose what card to take from them. Mantle into Prognosis loses to a 4-block defense reaction, so don’t be greedy with this one. Mantle has a lot of utility to offer, so consider your options rather than just clicking the best number every time.

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Oscilio

There are divergent builds of Oscilio at time of writing, but they all want to keep their cards to throw some magic at us. Stalker’s Steps and Widow Veil Respirator are easy to slot in, providing Arcane Barrier 2 and Spellvoid 1. Tunic would be the next piece to go if a third Arcane Barrier piece was needed, but Flick Knives and second dagger are too important to sub out for Widow arms or Arcane Lantern. Disruptive Stealth attacks – Mark of the Black Widow, Meet Madness, etc – will tax the limited amount of blocking cards in hand, and Mantle can be used to recycle these effects. Arsenal disruption in Leave No Witnesses and Command and Conquer stop them from keeping the same Gone in a Flash around forever, and these get recycled by the other broken yellow. Pain in the Backside will land against this hero more often than others, providing a good offensive rate and enabling mark synergies without costing a flick.

Zyggy

Zyggy is still finding their place in the world of Rathe, but with the unban of Electromagnetic Somersault, I think this hero is worth looking out for. Flick Knives can do a lot of work in this matchup, threatening Ward pieces that are needed to cover on-hits, so look for spots where Flick is worth extra, such as popping an aura with Ward 2 or higher. There are lots of Ward 1 instants available to this hero, so the Flick may trade for a card in hand rather than the intended target. Pick to Pieces is easy to enable, requiring only one reaction, and makes a good Mantle target against this deck. Like Oscilio, this deck probably wants to set a Gone in a Flash, so spamming arsenal disruption is good here too. Extenders like Pain in the Backside and Looking for a Scrap are good tools to go wide and clear a Ward board.

Aurora

The recent Skyward Serenade unban might make this deck real, but at time of writing, it's not clear what this deck will look like. Stalker’s Steps for Arcane Barrier 1 lets you dodge the on-damage effects that some of her cards have, but it can be worthwhile to pop these to take tempo or present lethal. Shelter from the Storm and Sink Below can be used to cover up Burn Up//Shock turns, and Frailty Trap on a Go Again turns her sword from 2 value to 0. Under the Trap-door can recycle Frailty Trap as needed or pitch to Arcane Barrier. The same disruption from Oscilio can come in here to keep her off of big hands.

Marionette

This matchup is annoying because you donate some extra hero text to the opponent, but their deck isn’t usually built to capitalize on this heavily. Frailty Trap is always online here and is worth 4 or 5 depending on how many weapon swings they are making, and you can get this effect as many as six times with Under the Trapdoor. Codex of Frailty does particularly good work here since you’ll reliably get value from the Frailty token, and Death Touch can be the best target to further stifle daggers or pressure life total with Bloodrot. Marionette is also a Codex deck that plays cards to capitalize on the recursion effect, so consider saving this for when they already have an arsenal. Art of Desire: Body will draw a card most of the time against this deck and makes a good starter, providing you have the combat trick to back it up. Bonds of Attraction can banish daggers or Codex targets from the graveyard for minor value. Warmonger’s Diplomacy can be worth a lot in this matchup since their most efficient pumps are non-attack actions. Boots of Omnis Ward can be played to deny the first flick and keep Marionette off their Chelicera a little longer. If you’re really afraid of this matchup, Mask of Deceit can take away the Go Again Slippy provided Marionette (by changing you into another hero and eliminating Slippy’s static text from relevance), potentially ending their turn early.

The Draconic Ninjas

Fai and Cindra are not the same deck, but the way we interact with them is similar enough that they can be grouped together here. These are the best Art of Desire: Body matchups, as it very reliably draws cards and gains life, and you can double down on this effect by running Mask of Perdition to get an extra banish (and potentially an extra card and life point gained). This once per game gain 2 life, draw two cards can be very swingy given the short duration of the game. Bonds of Attraction hates on their hero power by targeting Phoenix Flame or Kunai of Retribution in the graveyard, but it also can interact with other cards like Loyalty Beyond the Grave and Draco Fire. If you manage to hit with Bonds of Attraction, the opponent can activate their hero power in response to the trigger to save something, so these secondary targets will get hit a lot. If Fai has more than one Phoenix Flame in the bin, the other cards mentioned will often be a better banish target than one of two or three flames. Against either hero, forcing a hero power activation during your turn will usually be inefficient for the opponent, so you’ll get advantage playing this even if you don’t banish relevant cards. Erase Face is a very effective ender against these heroes, but be aware that Fealty and other effects that make cards and attacks Draconic will still work through this effect. Defense reactions are good here to make blocking more efficient, but blocking alone won’t win these matchups. It is important to keep some cards to pressure their hands and keep them off balance.

Dio

This is another aggro matchup, but it is harder for us to hate on Dio’s plan. AoD:Body will hit less often into this deck than other aggro decks, and they don’t care about their graveyard. Double Trouble is among the best Stealth attacks here since every card banished off the top is one less boost chain link to deal with later. Dio will naturally move their deck into the banish zone, and this – combined with the quality of their fridge – means you’ll be fatiguing them most often. Sitting on a defense reaction in arsenal to stuff a surprise Boom Grenade is a comfortable position, and you can block efficiently without worrying about covering things entirely when they don’t yet have a grenade. Under the Trap-door is good here for a higher density of defense reactions, but none of the traps’ text is hugely relevant. Erase Face will shut down their entire turn, but it is a 2-card play that will get stuffed by their armor the first time you try it, so this can be a liability to include with its red pitch and 2 block. Warmonger’s Diplomacy is a 1 card play that will soften their next turn, stopping them from playing items and giving you some breathing room to take cards off their deck, and timing a Warmonger’s for when Dio has established a Cerebellum Processor on board can be as demoralizing as it is effective. Crown of Providence lets you convert an arsenal into a blocking card in this matchup, which can be important to cover a particularly wide turn. Play small hands with disruption to get through their fridge and cut their time short.

Gravy

You will usually kill Gravy with damage, but it's important to keep things clean while you get them in kill range. While the opponent is above ~15 life, you want to be clearing everything, except for Oysten when they don't have gold. Lobotomy will stop the opponent from using their graveyard on their turn if you can make it hit, which will stop a new board from being built and give you space to chip. Unmake the Underlings is designed for this matchup, and you can get extra value by attacking face, resolving the trigger to flip an ally, then using Mantle to turn Unmake into something with an on-hit, like Bonds of Attraction to remove another thing from the bin. Using Unmake to clear can be blown out by Fearless Confrontation, so do this on chain link 1, ideally with a backup plan of another attack or a react to push over (and push the offending ally under). AoD:Body will never trigger in this matchup, but AoD:Mind can do work, particularly with Just a Nick. Once the opponent is around 15, look for an opportunity to set up a tall react turn and force them to low life. Play Warmonger's Diplomacy after clearing their board to make the Gravy choose between attacking or rebuilding. This will give you the space to chip them in range or finish the job. Once you can force the Gravy to block your attacks, the game goes much easier. Preserve your life total early on while clearing the board so you can take damage for the pivot.

Vynnset

This matchup is really fun, and it lets the deck flex between offense and defense throughout the game. When the Vynnset is set up and applying pressure, convert cards on defense and preserve life total. They will eventually take a small turn or a total setup turn, and you can use this space to overwhelm them with Blood Debt by banishing an abundance of their cards. This can be a liability if they are able to clear their banished zone, so be wary of banishing into a Vynnset that has Auras or Runechants waiting. Cull can be particularly punishing if you hit it off the top on chain link one as they will be able to play it as an instant before your next chain link. Warmonger’s Diplomacy can steal tempo or force them to tank a large Blood Debt hit, and this swing can easily put you in the driver’s seat. Play flexibly and take advantage of the clock they put themselves on to control the tempo of this matchup and bleed them out.

Fatigue

Whether it's a Guardian, Huntsman, or Decimator Fang, fatigue will force you to maximize the damage in your deck. Swinging daggers lets you get chip in here, and you can prioritize setting up a Graphene Chelicera with Orb-Weaver Spinneret to efficiently convert a blue into two chain links. Slippy will give the Chelicera Go Again, whether they are marked or not, so it’s important to swing a Stealth attack first if you need the Go Again there. If you are set up with Klaive and Chelicera, you can use Slippy on chain link one, then Klaive on two, and optionally fit the Chelicera in at chain link three if they let the mark through. If the opponent is blocking your Klaive, this is usually a good thing for you, so it's okay if they cover and you don’t get the Chelicera swing. Use extenders in conjunction with these wide dagger turns to get around blocks. Codex of Frailty is important towards the end of the game, and you’ll want to be using it to recur 6 power attacks like Death Touch and Command and Conquer, particularly if the opponent has Overcrowded to stuff the typical Leave no Witnesses line. Spreading Plague will punish blocks against these decks, so including this at one or two copies can be high impact. Fatigue decks can give you space to line up Just a Nick with Mantle or Kiss of Death with Tarantula Toxin, so look to set some part of these combinations and wait for the other. Crown of Providence will bail you out of an awkward arsenal in the event you get punished for setting one of these. The one-of Pick up the Point can get you an extra marking flick in these matchups to enable a Mantle, and you can Codex for Pick Up in a pinch to reload a Klaive. Pitching Mantles and Nicks will turn the blues you naturally pitch into threats for late game. This can lead to situations where the opponent is compelled to overblock and you may not even need to spend the reaction. Pay attention to how many defense reactions they have if you go this way so you can know when to pull the trigger. You can use these forks to either get them in the blender or scam a kill.

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My build

This list is slightly modified from what my teammate Ka and I brought to a recent AGE Open, where both of us made it to semifinals before getting deleted by Gone combo Oscilio and Fai respectively. This list is choosing to respect Gravy and Oscilio while having game into the aggro decks and Zyggy. Erase Face is the closest card in the maybeboard to getting in the deck, but I chose to run Warmonger’s instead. If you want to respect the aggro decks more, that can be swapped out at the expense of the Gravy matchup. Under the Trap-door can slot over any of the blues except Persuasive Prognosis, depending on preference, and then you can add Frailty or Inertia traps over extenders to lean more in that direction. Balance of Justice has a higher ceiling than Crown of Providence but compromises the ability to arsenal freely and makes Ponder tokens worse. Looking for a Scrap can leave to fill out the playsets of Sink and Shelter if you anticipate a lot of Burn Up//Shocks and Boom Grenades in your local field.

Redline

This list was played by OH Youngjin to a 5th place finish at South Korean nationals. The redline version trades long game value and flexibility to be a more aggressive tempo deck. Losing the blues and Just a Nick allows this deck to play Codex of Inertia to increase deck velocity. This redline build also features more extenders, a full playset of Pick Up the Point and Ravenous Rabble plus two Scar for a Scar, allowing you to more easily race at the expense of versatility. Extinguish the Flames is an interesting inclusion here, acting like another copy of AoD:Body into Cindra, but this card is too narrow for my liking, particularly with Fai sharing Cindra’s niche. Creep and Enlightened Strike are big hand enablers, and these gain value if you don’t intend to block anyway. Notably, this list is on exclusively Blood Splattered Vest, no Tunic, which provides on-demand access to bonus resources through Flick Knives, but depending on this can overtax your Flick. I find this particularly awkward when playing with Kiss of Death; using Spike with Bloodrot on the Kiss of Death lets you double dip on the effect, but you can’t use BSV to pay for this and still have a Flick available. There are very few costed cards in this deck, so I assume BSV is being used for single dip Spike with Bloodrot or to enable Spreading Plague. Snatch and Enlightened Strike pair with the Snapdragon Scalers to get a draw and keep going when the 1 block from Blacktek isn’t useful. I think this deck is much softer into opponents who want to block due to the reliance on Flick and fewer tricks, but it has the potential to run opponents over under some circumstances. Being pitchless also hurts the Gravy matchup, making overkilling allies more common, and the single point of Arcane Barrier probably means you lose to spell Oscilio with Aether Flare every time. If Jarl takes Victor's place, builds like this will struggle to function through Frostbites and Channel Lake Frigid. This list is also lacking the tall attacks in Command and Conquer and Death Touch, which can make it harder to get through the defensive decks, especially if they land an early Overcrowded in the graveyard.

Cute Stuff

Horrors of the Past and Toxicity are cool cards that can do some cute stuff, but I think they are too inconsistent to be worth an include. Horrors of the Past gains the abilities of the previous Stealth chain link rather than becoming a copy of it, so you can Mantle over Horrors to get the text of two Stealth attacks. This can let you staple together Art of Desire: Body and Bonds of Attraction to draw 3 cards and gain 3+ life, or you can have Prognosis be the previous chain link and the Mantle target, resulting in having all the Prognosis text twice, banishing two cards from deck and two from hand, while gaining 2 life per action banished. These lines are cool, but the opportunity cost of a 2-power Stealth attack with no text of its own is often too high to include. Toxicity pairs with Kiss of Death to do a more extreme version of the Spike with Bloodrot double dip, but it is at action speed, making it face up and inflexible. This is hard to line up with the required tricks to land both hits, but it's worth upwards of 10 damage on the off chance it works. Should you decide to play this, the yellow is often best to be able to convert to a dagger swing when you can't force the on-hit.

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The meta for Pro Tour Las Vegas is anyone’s guess, and not every outcome is ideal for Slippy. If Marionette emerges from under the heel of Omnis Ward, I wouldn’t be eager to trade 2 total life for the symmetrical text of Slippy. Victor surviving nationals with his rude block effects would be bad news for all the Araknis, so I can only hope someone will take the horse down in time. In my ideal world, Fai would see himself out as well, leaving us with the less explosive Draconic Ninja to draw cards off of. We could see a new world with Zyggy and Lyath popping off, unlocked by the unbanning of Electromagnetic Somersault and Talk a Big Game. Whatever the rest of the players choose to submit, bringing the forgotten Arakni gets points for obscurity, catching opponents unaware (having not read the article). As we learn more from the few post ban events leading up to the Pro Tour, I’ll be picking my spider, be they patient, armed with a big knife, or 5L!pp!nG 7hRu 7h3 cR4X.