Kayo Armory Deck, a review.

I don’t know where to start…

The Armory Deck: Kayo is an entry-level product for new players to be introduced into the Classic Constructed format. Marketed to be competitive at an Armory level containing “many of the foundational cards used in tournament-winning decks of the featured hero.” In addition to many reprints, it also contains exclusive cards that are only available in this deck. This includes Savage Sash, Hide Tanner, Run Roughshod (Only Blue), and Strength Rules All (Battlefield Bastion is also a new card but has already been revealed as a promo for Mistveil release). At first glance, this is a great product. It fulfills the need as a friendly introduction to the Classic Constructed format. A new player can easily pick up this deck, learn how to play, and understand what they are doing. 

But one of the primary issues I have with this deck is that it cannot compete at an armory level, not even close. The only way I could see this deck winning an armory, is if everyone is playing it. To be fair, my armory is at quite a competitive level. We have many top players in the country playing high level decks containing strong cards (ie. Command and Conquer, Fyendal’s Spring Tunic, Legendary Class Equipment, etc…). Despite my skepticism at first unboxing, I wanted to put it to the test. So I gathered my fellow coworkers at MinMax and put it through the ringer. My greatest takeaway? Savage Sash is going to be insanely good in a real Kayo deck. I would like to start this article by highlighting the good things this product offers. Like I stated above, I think this product does fulfill a need and I want to give LSS their props. 

The Good

To begin, this deck works. Not just at a basic level but it really works. As someone who has been playing Kayo since the first day he was spoiled, I was doing the Kayo thing. Wild Ride, Claw, Humble, arsenal Bare Fangs. Discard Agile Wind Up, Send a Savage Beatdown. Wreck Havoc for 7 and watch your opponent cry. At a fundamental level, the deck performs well and retains the classic Kayo floor that you come to expect with the hero. The numbers are good and simple. The deck contains all 6 attacks so there are no potential misses for a new player to worry about. Just play that Bare Fangs and enjoy your 8 damage. Salty, sweet and savage. I gave the deck to my coworker who barely plays FaB and he was able to play the game. Did he win, not at all. When I asked him if he felt like his deck was doing something, he responded with, “uhhhhhh kinda…….I guess?” And that’s how I felt about it as well. 

So the deck works, what else? The new exclusive cards are pretty dang good. Savage Sash and Run Roughshod will see competitive play and I will be adding them to my actual Kayo deck on release day. Who doesn’t love new cards, especially when they are being given to the best deck in the game. This will definitely make the value of the box worthwhile, at $40 (Unfortunately, it will be selling for much more considering how limited the product is). Savage Sash alone will probably be a $30 card, if not more. 

The best thing about this entire product is the QR code on the back of the box. This QR code holds some of the greatest information any beginner could possibly want. Upon scanning the code, you will be directed to a webpage directly on the fabtcg website. It provides detailed descriptions of all the important cards in the deck, upgrade suggestions, competitive decklists and a fantastic 20 minute long deck tutorial done by LSS Dev, Karol Ruszkiewicz. He covers everything from card analysis, deck strategies, hero overview and card upgrade suggestions. I can’t applaud LSS enough for this incredibly thoughtful and well made “how to play” resource. Karol, you are awesome and thank you for the great video.

The Bad

For starters, the packing for this product is quite bad. The box looks nice with some cool flavor text on the back but once you pick it up, you will feel and hear your new deck rattling in the box. Surrounded by one thin paper insert, the insert is not even held stationary. Upon opening the box, you will find the deck…..that’s it. No manual, no product sheet, no playmat, not even a rule book can be found. In all fairness, as I mentioned above the QR code is an amazing addition to the deck. It is a fantastic way to cut costs in production while simultaneously reducing excess waste. But I think it would have been even better if they really directed your attention to the code. It sits unassuming on the back and on a card insert within the deck where many players might just throw it away without much thought. Either way, the cards within the package were not damaged and had survived their initial shipment.

The deck itself contains all the cards advertised, 60 cards and 4 pieces of equipment with your trusty mandible claw. Once I removed the plastic seal I came across another strange choice. They provided rainbow foils in the deck which is awesome! Savage Sash being rainbow foil was a great surprise along with the Hide Tanner as well. But then they also provided one rainbow foil copy of Strength Rules All and one of Run Roughshod? You still get the playset, just one copy is RF while your other two are non-foil. I understand what they were trying to achieve with this. It’s nice that they printed both variants so the people who like to foil their deck can actually acquire foil copies of the new cards. But for the average player that wants a full playset for their deck, you will need to either trade, buy multiple copies of the deck, or buy singles on the second hand market. Normally, I would say this is just a slight inconvenience for the greater good. But the first wave of this product is very limited. Much more limited than a beginner entry level product should be. My concern is that the competitive players will harvest this product in order to get their very powerful exclusives and foils while leaving little left for the casuals and beginners.

My biggest concern with this product is how it is being marketed. I would argue that this deck is not viable for an armory setting. Can you play this at your armory? Yes. Is this deck legal at armory? Yes. Can you win games at your armory with this deck? Potentially. For simplicity, LSS opted out of providing any additional cards beyond the base 60 and 4 equipment pieces. So if you sit down at your armory and are facing a Kano, you will die. I feel like Arcane Barrier or Spell Void equipment would have been a very simple addition in this product and would have edged it closer to an “Armory level deck”. This deck is also lacking some of Kayo’s most powerful cards, Bloodrush Bellow and Cast Bones. These cards on the secondary market are not that expensive and would have been a massive bump for the power level of this deck. LSS may respond to this claim by saying, you can purchase these cards separately to power up your deck. I agree and as a game store, I am thankful for this. But as a player, I’m left feeling a little weak in my brutish activities. 

$40.70 Upgrades that will make you more Savage

(Priced per MinMaxGames website)

3x Bloodrush Bellow: $13.80

3x Cast Bones: $14.40

3x Yellow Wild Ride: $1.50

3x Yellow Agile Windup: $1.50

3x Red Assault and Battery: $1.50

3x Red Savage Feast: $1.50

1x Nullrune Gloves: $0.80

1x Spell Fray Leggings: $0.50

1x Skullhorn: $5.20

https://fabrary.net/decks/01HWTDKEMMHHG1KETQY787B5NY

Here is what I would build with these upgrades being added to the base armory deck. I took out some of the blues and put them in the maybe section. Feel free to customize and continue to upgrade from this point. Swing Big, Send Packing, Scowling Flesh Bag, Scabskin Leathers, Apex Bonebreaker and Command and Conquer are more expensive upgrades but worthwhile if you would like to become more competitive. 

Addressing the Brute in the Room

I have been lurking on social media and hearing the outcries of the public and I would say that the public discourse on this product is quite negative. I see many people complaining about how the new support is going to break Kayo even more, making the deck too unfair. I urge people to consider two things. One, LSS intentionally put this product out at the very end of RTN/PQ season. They did not want it to have a direct impact on the current metagame where Kayo is already rather dominant. We get one month before Mistveil is released. My guess is that Mistveil is going to dramatically shake up the meta as we know it. We cannot look at these new cards without considering that LSS has more information and feels as if this card may even be needed to maintain balance for Kayo into the future meta. That is a scary thought to consider, implying that an even stronger beast is lurking in the shadows about to pounce and decimate Kayo as we know it. They have been very good at preemptively balancing the gamestate and trying not to repeat the same mistakes they have made in the past. I think banning Crown of Seeds was a clear example of this. There are no current earth heroes in the game that can even use this card, but I guarantee there will be in the near future and they do not want that card to terrorize the game as it did during the years of Starvo, Oldhim, and Briar.

On the other hand, they may want to power up Kayo to get him out of the game. I believe that this is the more likely scenario. Mandible Claw has been a long time hindrance to brute’s design. That card in combination with Bloodrush Bellow has made brute an absolute nightmare to balance for years. To the point where they literally had to make a brute with one arm to balance the combination of the two. They have creatively designed a “two birds with one stone” solution. Create a CC hero (Kayo, Armed and Dangerous) that can have one Mandible Claw as his signature weapon and make him powerful enough to where he can LL and get that monstrous weapon out of the grimy hands of all the other brutes. The timing for this release is also quite convenient. We will be able to play with Savage Sash throughout the Nationals season which allocates a massive amount of LL points. Coincidence? I think not. This is even more clear to me now after seeing the recently spoiled Levia card, Shadowrealm Horror. That card is broken and I think the public can determine that rather quickly. But would it seem as broken if Levia was playing Hexagore instead of Mandible Claws? The narrative changes quite a bit with that perspective. Brute has been getting the short end of the stick for some time now, largely because of the lopsided design of BRB and Mandible Claws together. Kayo has already acquired over 400 LL points since his release only 3 months ago, let the brutes just have a good time. It will be short lived and after the smoke clears, the game will be in a better state. We had to suffer for almost an entire year as Lexi dominated the game restricting many decks from even being viable picks. We are currently in a meta where pretty much anything can win. 

Trust LSS, they have a vision.

In Conclusion

I’m very happy that we are finally getting an entry level Classic Constructed product line. With a second release of Boltyn in the works (Hype), I can’t wait to see how this product evolves and is utilized to bring new players into the game. I have vended at many events and there is no greater joy than being able to teach someone how to play this awesome game and watching them walk away with four blitz decks. Many times I get to see that player months later when they are playing at their first Calling. My hope is that down the line, these products become readily available and the number one way to get a new player into the game. I do not think that the Kayo Armory Deck is that product yet, but it is very close. Can this product compete at an armory, I would say no. Is this a great standalone product to introduce a new player into the game, absolutely. I hope that new players will actually be able to get their hands on this product as I fear the competitive players will be the largest consumers. 

This product is a Drip.