Primed to Fight: Road to Nationals 2025

Prepare for the upcoming Road to Nationals season with Primed to Fight—a series where we break down two different viable Classic Constructed decklists, their matchups, and sideboard options. Sleeve up, get reps, and secure your victory!

Road to Nationals is almost upon us, and with brand new cards and a fresh metagame, it can be tough picking a hero and locking in the final 80.

This year in Flesh and Blood competitive play I'm looking to bring you even more decklist action so you can head to your local event brimming with confidence. I'll be kicking things off myself with Road to Nationals season by breaking down two tournament-winning decklists from last weekend, but what you can typically expect to see from this series moving forward are your favourite pro players and community content creators cooking fire decklists for you to try out at Pro Quest, Skirmish, and National Championships.

Today we're taking a look at Cindra, Dracai of Retribution and Prism, Awakener of Sol. Without further ado, let's get Primed to Fight!

Cindra, Dracai of Retribution

First up is the Calling: Memphis 1st place decklist, designed by Yuki Lee Bender, and piloted by Brodie Spurlock. Literally just a day after the Hunted hits shelves and Cindra makes her mark. We've seen a lot of Cindra theory crafting in the leadup to The Hunted, with many opting a similar build pattern to Fai, Rising Rebellion. But this version of Cindra is pure red-line aggression, opting to cut almost all yellows and blues entirely (with the exception of Brand with Cinderclaw for its Draconic-izing effect, and Warmonger's Diplomacy because the card is just silly good). This deck doesn't aim to swing the Kunai very often, instead relying on 0-cost attacks and using Flick Knives to force Mask of Momentum to trigger. It's very consistent at flicking and fetching a single Kunai every turn.

Although the bulk of the list is made up of 0-cost attacks, there are still a number of 1-costs in the list, which are enabled by Blood Splattered Vest, Ignite, Rising Resentment, and Art of the Dragon: Blood. The aim is just to threaten card draws every turn in order to force blocks, while also leaking damage with Flick Knives. It puts the opponent in a very inflexible spot where leaning too hard into defense or offense both lead to bad outcomes. Fealty created from cards like Demonstrate Devotion and Display Loyalty, as well as the effect of Brand with Cinderclaw, can be used to convert Art of the Dragon: Fire for massive amounts of aggressive value. Due to the amount of undefendable damage effects this deck puts out, it's very easy to close games at low life totals.

This deck is very good at racing aggressive decks like Viserai and Aurora, because if they want to push back with a full hand they have to let you draw free cards, and forcing that one card block can make all the difference. In dangerous situations where the opponent is threatening on-hits the deck is also happy to defend with a few cards and send a few back, as it's lean enough to do so. You also get great points into Illusionists and Wizards with counterplay to ward and fast-paced damage output (but don't let your guard down - Illusionists can still pack a punch). Assassins are also less scary into this build, because it doesn't require you to keep every card in hand and/or arsenal to hit back. You can usually comfortably lose a card or two to disruption and still deal similar or more amounts of damage.

Although this is an aggressive deck at heart, there is much room for tech to help you with matchups who will be targeting Cindra after her performance at Calling: Memphis. Jarl is a significant consideration due to the risk of losing Flick Knives early in the game, so it can pay to bring a few extra blues in the sideboard in case that happens, so that you have an efficient way to pitch for your daggers (and the odd Frostbite). Shelter from the Storm and Wax On are standout cards to bring in versus Assassins and the mirror match, and Spell Fray equipment is far more useful than a second piece of Arcane Barrier if you run into Kano, since you don't want to pitch very often.

Prism, Awakener of Sol

Just when you thought Cindra was going to claim back-to-back Classic Constructed wins at Memphis, Prism illuminates the stage once more. This Battle Hardened-winning deck is complex to play but extremely powerful, and with Assassins and Wizards gaining popularity, is well-positioned this season. She stands to gain a lot from the possible Living Legend rotations that could occur in the early stages of Road to Nationals. The start in play elements of this deck all work in tandem - Luminaris lets you threaten double Heralds, the hero ability manages your figments which can be used aggressively as angel attacks or defensively as instant-speed ward, and Rapture discounts that extra yellow you'd normally need to pitch.

Despite lower life totals, Prism is actually really good at racing aggressive decks. Her damage output is consistently high, and she is able to continuously threaten on-hits that can cause things to spiral out of control. Right now her strongest tools are Herald of Erudition and Suraya, Archangel of Erudtion, which are what she uses to come back from low life totals and start forcing the opponent to take serious amounts of damage. Currently there are a lot of strong-performing decks in the metagame that don't want to commit several cards to defending, which is why Angelic Wrath can be such a massive blowout. There's less Guardian these days, which means your attacks have a very string chance of being over-rate into a large portion of the field.

Spectra has long plagued slower decks, but comes with a weak non-blocking point against aggro decks. However, it's important to realise the impact that Prism has on the ebb and flow of the game. Paying 4 to play Parable of Humility when your opponent is coming at you seems risky, but into decks like Cindra who will functionally have all their breakpoints turned off as a result, it can cause them to waste an attack on eating the spectra, which can give you a window to play a double Herald hand, and enabling those hands is where spectra can give you the most value. Arc Light Sentinel is nasty on the fly, but consider if you're achieving enough by dumping your whole hand into it, or whether it's better to pitch/arsenal it so you can drop it after they've taken damage. The blue auras have slightly dropped in numbers now that Guardian is less present, but sticking a single Passing Mirage or Pierce Reality can cause a real headache for decks like Assassin.

Prism requires a wide range of components for her deck to function, which means sideboard space is tight. Anything you bring in to help with a certain matchup should be carefully considered, as its synergy with the rest of your deck can often be just as important as the role the card serves itself. With dagger-centric decks on the rise it makes sense to play That All You Got, which is also a yellow. Some decks will likely try to bring in poppers against you like Cut Through the Facade, which makes yellow Celestial Reprimand a great option for taking them out behind the shed. If you can spare pocket, Great Library of Solana has regained popularity, likely due to its application against blue-heavy heroes from Part the Mistveil, and red-heavy heroes from The Hunted.