Flesh and Blood, Tolarian Community College team up for new multiplayer boxed set

polygon.com:

Flesh and Blood, the upstart competitor to Magic: The Gathering, has built up a lot of steam since its launch in 2019. Primarily played as a two-player dueling game, it has a thriving competitive scene, with 4,000 stores worldwide helping promote its organized play program. But until now, the game hasn’t had an introductory boxed set geared toward more casual players.

Now the New Zealand-based company has teamed up with Brian “The Professor” Lewis, the trading-card-game guru behind the popular Tolarian Community College YouTube channel, to create Round the Table, a new four-player boxed set available on Sept. 29. It includes four decks of cards built around FAB’s existing Ultimate Pit Fight multiplayer format. According to publisher Legend Story Studios, the game was built specifically with new players in mind, and includes all new hero characters — including one based on Lewis himself.

In Flesh and Blood, players take on the role of fantasy warriors engaged in one-on-one arena combat. Players use items like weapons and armor, as well as special moves played from a small hand of cards. These moves form a “combat chain,” where characters trade attacks, parries, spells, and other maneuvers to disrupt their opponents, break their guard, and do damage. The first player to bring their opponent to zero health wins. But what truly makes FAB stand apart is its commitment to local game stores.

“Flesh and Blood is a true indie game,” Lewis told Polygon in an interview on Wednesday. “That’s something very rare in [trading card game] spaces. It’s the only major TCG game that I know of that is not owned by a huge corporation like Konami or Hasbro. But rather, it was created by an individual, James White.”

Speaking with Polygon in