“Some of you may die, but that’s a sacrifice I am willing to Make.”
Art:Bloodrush Bellow
by Wisnu Tan
Table of Contents
UPF is Flesh and Blood’s premier multiplayer format, and it is an absolute blast to play! Whether you are playing the traditional UPF format or the growing in popularity PVE cube, or just at a kitchen table with friends and house rules, there are a ton of different and fun ways to play UPF. Since UPF is a multiplayer format, there are cards here that you typically wouldn’t see in Blitz or CC because of their focus on every hero, so if you have been playing a ton of those formats, it can be a breath of fresh air with new and interesting cards. UPF is a ton of fun and I hope after reading this today you have some ideas on the rules of the format, how to get started and a couple of decks you can start with if they look interesting. Without further adieu lets get it!
Format Rules for UPF:
- 1 young hero card or Adjudicator hero card
- 52 card-pool (every official Flesh and Blood card is legal, including special-use promos)
- Start with exactly 40 cards in the deck
- Up to 2 copies of each unique card
Source:fabtcg.com
Additional Deck Construction Rules:
- With the exception of generic cards, cards in the deck need to correspond with the hero or class you are playing; for example, if you are playing a guardian hero, you must include guardian attack actions and any card that is a subset of the guardian. There are a ton of cards for each class, and generic cards can be played in any deck.
- Some heroes may allow or limit what cards can be included. (e.g., Heroes with “Essence” allow certain talented cards to be included, even if the hero doesn’t have the same talent. Cards with “Legendary” limit themselves to only 1 in the card pool.)
Source: fabtcg.com
Gameplay Rules for UPF:
- You may only target heroes and objects controlled by those heroes to your immediate left or right (for attacks, or with effects that say “target”), with the following exceptions:
- If an effect explicitly allows you to target any hero, you may target any hero in the game (effects that say “any target” don’t count).
- If an effect explicitly targets 2 or more heroes, you may target any hero in the game (separate effects that target 1 hero each don’t count).
- If an effect allows you to change the target of an attack/effect, you may choose any legal target for the attack/effect (not just the heroes to the left or right of its controller).
- When you attack a hero (or an object controlled by that hero), the combat chain is focused on that hero. You can not target another hero (or object controlled by another hero) on following chain links of the same combat chain – you must close the combat chain first.
- If an effect allows you to change the target of an attack, you may target any legal target, not just the focused hero (or their objects).
Source: fabtcg.com
How Do I Get Started?
Finding a playgroup for UPF is the first place to start, if you have a LGS that supports Flesh and Blood already you can check and see if they have a UPF armory event throughout the week which many do. If LGS isn’t an option, you can always form a casual UPF night with friends. You can also look into variations of UPF with some degree of house rules or the PVE cube portion of UPF, which is growing in popularity. There are a ton of different ways to approach UPF at the LGS level and at the kitchen table, find what works best for you and your playgroup.
How do I decide on a deck?
Decideing on a deck is pretty much like most formats in Flesh and Blood, UPF offers a ton of heores including special or promo heroes so there is some additional variety here, but as always if you don’t know where to start you can certainly pick someone based solely on art or class. There is no wrong choice here and looking at decks using that hero and their overall gameplay style can be a great way to determine a deck, borrowing someones UPF deck to check out there hero is a great strategy as well. There are a million different ways to decide who you want to play but since it is UPF pay special attention to the promo or other special heroes that are allowed in the format.
Two UPF Decks to Check Out!
These are two UPF decks that I have been having a blast with that I wanted to share with you all. These are not budget, but both come in around 200 bucks, and if you are a longtime FAB player, many of these cards you may already have and if you are a new player you can certainly replace them with budget versions. I have been having a blast with these, and I hope you enjoy them both.
Oldhim Frostbite
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| Hero / Weapon / Equipment |
|---|
| Hero: Oldhim  Weapons: Winter's Wail  Stalagmite, Bastion of Isenloft  Equipment: Coronet Peak  Heart of Ice  Crater Fist  Ironhide Legs  |
| The Deck: |
|---|
| Pitch 0: 1x Gorganian Tome  Pitch 1: 2x Crush Confidence (Red)  2x Endless Winter (Red)  2x Frost Fang (Red)  2x Oaken Old (Red)  2x Pummel (Red)  2x Thump (Red)  2x Thump (Red) Pitch 2: 2x Pummel (Yel)  2x Snow Under (Yel)  Pitch 3: 2x Blizzard (Blu)  2x Exposed to the Elements (Blu)  2x Frost Fang (Blu)  2x Icy Encounter (Blu)  2x Insidious Chill (Blu)  2x Northern Winds (Blu)  2x Polar Blast (Blu)  2x Staunch Response (Blu)  2x This Round's On Me (Blu)  2x Warmonger's Diplomacy (Blu)  2x Winter's Bite (Blu)  1x Pulse of Isenloft (Blu)  |
| Inventory: |
|---|
| Pitch 1: 2x Oasis Respite (Red)  Pitch 3: Pummel (Blu)  Equipment: Nullrune Hood  Nullrune Boots  |
Oldhim was a monster in CC and is honestly still kind of a monster in UPF, but their power is certainly lessened in a multiplayer format. This deck focuses entirely on taxing the resources of your opponents and generally slowing them down while using your weapon to chip in for damage and represent a constant threat, we are a control deck through and through and have a ton of nice ways to slow down or often stop our opponents on their turns.
Chane Runeblade!
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| Hero / Weapon / Equipment |
|---|
| Hero: Chane  Weapons: Duskblade  Equipment: Crown of Dichotomy  Bloodsheath Skeleta  Grasp of the Arknight  Ironhide Legs |
| Inventory: |
|---|
| Pitch 1: 1x Mauvrion Skies (Red)  2x Oasis Respite (Red) 2x Sink Below (Red)  Pitch 3: Read the Runes (Blu)  |
Chane is a very cool hero and who doesn’t love runechants?! Well our opponents probably wont and with a ton of high power attacks, cards that effect each opponents and some arcane damage on top this one is an absolute blast. I would highly expect all of the nullrune equipment in the world to come out against you here but that’s alright cause we are going to keep on making them consistently and constantly.
Format Staples for UPF:
Staples in UPF are certainly different than other formats within Flesh and Blood because it is a multiplayer format; cards that affect multiple opponents have much higher playability and are considerably stronger due to the multiplayer aspect. UPF is typically casual, so there are a ton of cards that are widely played for the fun/jank factor as well. Below is a list of some of the cards you may or may not come across throughout your journey in UPF.
Format Resources:
Fabtcg The official site from the creators of the game Legend Story Studios has awesome information like store locators and info about new and old sets, find decklists from old and more recent tournaments, a great one-stop shop for information.
Fabrary is an amazing resource for decklists and individual information about cards.
Conclusion:
UPF is a ton of fun and I hope you enjoyed this writeup, multiplayer is an absolute blast and after jamming a ton of games of CC or Blitz I love to sit down with my testing group and rock out some UPF. I hope this guide helped you understand the rules fo the format and how to decide a deck and I hope you enjoyed the UPF lists that I shared. Thanks for reading to the end and for all of your support!