FAB: A Closer Look at Kassai
It’s no secret that Warrior is my favorite class and the one that I’m most familiar with. However, I’ve noticed recently that for many players, Warrior seems synonymous with Dorinthea Ironsong, the original Warrior hero from Welcome to Rathe. I think the other Warrior option, the Blitz-only Kassai, is unfairly neglected, so I’m writing this article to encourage players take another look — Kassai may be better than you think!
The Hero (and Weapons)
(© Legend Story Studios.)
Kassai has two abilities. First, she allows you to make your second sword attack each turn for one less energy. Second, if you attack two or more times with weapons, you gain a Copper token for each weapon attack that hit once the turn ends. This synergizes well with Kassai’s weapons of choice, the dual Cintari Sabers — as long as you can get a Go Again effect going, Kassai can make two sword attacks for only one resource, then get a Copper token for each attack that hits!
This ability synergizes great with Warrior’s various cards that grant Go Again to weapon attacks, especially those that provide unconditional Go Again. Since you don’t need to land a hit with your first swing to make a second weapon attack (unlike Dorinthea, who needs to hit to trigger her hero ability), cards like Hit and Run or Spoils of War work well with Kassai’s attack pattern, allowing multiple sword attacks and potentially bonus stats as well. On the other hand, Warrior’s Valor isn’t as good a choice in my view. The conditional nature of the Go Again on Warrior’s Valor makes it more susceptible to being blocked out, ending your turn without getting that second attack in.
Interestingly, one card that isn’t so strong for Dorinthea, Driving Blade, can be quite effective for Kassai! While this card’s cost of two is expensive, Kassai’s hero ability makes up for it — if you pitch a blue card for three energy with Kassai, you can play Driving Blade for two energy, swing the first Saber for the remaining one energy, and then make another swing with the Second saber for free using Kassai’s discount!
Hit and Run deserves special mention, as it is one of the best cards in Kassai’s arsenal. Compared to Dorinthea, Kassai is much more likely to get “maximum value” out of Hit and Run. The dream for Kassai is to get a Go Again from some source, come in with your first Saber, play a Hit and Run to buff the second Saber and give it Go Again as well, and then follow up your second swing with a generic attack! This sort of attack pattern can be very dangerous, and unlike some “dream turns” it’s actually quite realistic to pull off during a game. However, even if you aren’t “living the dream”, Hit and Run is still a great card for Kassai.
The Money
This token might not be so good on its own, but there’s a secondary use that can help…
…with four Copper on the board, Cash In is delicious, delicious card advantage.
(above cards © Legend Story Studios)
Unconditional buff, unconditional Go Again, and more Copper tokens? Sign me up!
While the “money” theme doesn’t seem fully fleshed out yet, with Silver and Gold tokens still a no-show as of this writing, Kassai is the hero best suited to take advantage of Cash In. While Cash In has seen some play in Dorinthea Ironsong decks for Classic Constructed, Kassai’s hero ability takes it to the next level — since Kassai will often generate a bunch of Copper tokens just by attacking twice with her Sabers, she can play this card without even landing a hit from Spoils of War, generating valuable card advantage for the cost of Copper tokens you were likely not going to use anyway!
One other note is that, while enabling Cash In is probably the primary use of Copper, the tokens can also provide a solid option in the event of drawing a hand with lots of blue but no solid threats, as you can pitch two blues for six energy and spend four of it and a Copper token to draw a card. While this isn’t a reliable means of drawing a strong threat, it can nevertheless pay off at times.
The Build
So, with the basics covered, let’s get to an actual build. This is the latest version of my Kassai deck, though the build is still likely to change from this base in the future as I test more:
Deckbuild by me, cool deckbuilder by FABDB.net, game and cards © Legend Story Studios.
This build is focused on giving me unconditional “go again” and then using that in order to get multiple Cintari Saber swings while also threatening bonus damage with various generic attacks, some of which are best before the Sabers (Scar for a Scar if I’m lower life, EStrike 5 go again) and some of which make a great “combo ender” (Snatch, Command and Conquer, EStrike 7).
With respect to Equipment, here’s where I’m currently at in the different matchups:
Against Kano: Nullrune Hood, Nullrune Robe, Nullrune Gloves, Refraction Bolters
Against Viserai: Nullrune Hood, Fyendal’s Spring Tunic, Braveforge Bracers, Refraction Bolters
Against Kayo: Arcanite Skullcap, Fyendal’s Spring Tunic, Gambler’s Gloves, Refraction Bolters
Against aggro decks: Arcanite Skullcap, Courage of Bladehold, Braveforge Bracers, Refraction Bolters
Against everyone else: Arcanite Skullcap, Fyendal’s Spring Tunic, Braveforge Bracers, Refraction Bolters
The choice between Courage of Bladehold and Fyendal’s Spring Tunic is somewhat difficult — Courage has better defense but its ability is worse, especially since Kassai’s second sword attack is free anyway so this will only save you one energy, while Dorinthea can often save two energy with this if she’s making multiple Dawnblade swings. In general I prefer Fyendal’s Spring Tunic “by default” and in games that I think are likely to go long, while Courage of Bladehold is stronger in an aggressive game.
If Guardian becomes prevalent in Blitz then Courage might also be important there to block Crush effects, but that doesn’t seem to be the meta we’re in at present and I haven’t done a lot of testing to see whether the “long game” power of Tunic outweighs the increased defense of Courage in that matchup.
You may notice that this deck doesn’t have a lot of attack reactions relative to Dorinthea builds — that’s because landing individual attacks isn’t as important with Kassai! It’s not as if I need to land a hit with my first swing to trigger Warrior’s Valor or Dorinthea’s hero ability — if the opponent blocks up, I often feel comfortable just “shrugging my shoulders” and coming in with another attack! This also means I can save my attack reactions for when they matter more in the late game and use them to threaten lethal.
Right now, the build is still very much in flux — I want to try and get a second Cash In in there, and I’m still not sure about those Last Ditch Efforts, which are an experiment to help deal with fatigue in the control Ira matchup. If you want to tinker around with this build for yourself, I’ve made the decklist public over at The Pitch Zone.
That said, despite this being a somewhat experimental build, I’ve had some success with it in online play, doing fairly well in Blitz games both casually and in more structured events. If you want to see the build in action, I recently uploaded a YouTube video with my commentary on three quick recorded Kassai games from an online Play Anywhere event — check it out below!
I hope this overview provided a good idea of the basic thoughts behind Kassai, as well as a deck you might be able to play around with. While I don’t think Kassai is at the heights of the top tier alongside Kano and Ira, I do think she is a strong and fun character and perhaps even better than Dorinthea when it comes to Blitz play.
Last but not least, I want to announce a new feature for the blog — comments! I didn’t actually realize it was possible for me to enable comments on this platform before (derp!) but now that should all be resolved — feel free to leave a comment both here and on other articles on the site if you have any thoughts, questions, concerns, or suggestions!
