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FAB Classic Constructed 📍 Calling: Mexico City 2026 — Top 4 Piloted by Brodie Spurlock

Levia, Shadowborn Abomination — Classic Constructed Strategy Guide

~$550 deck cost Published Oct 28, 2026 Event Oct 26, 2026

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Archetype Overview

This is a Shadow Brute deck that turns its own graveyard into fuel. Nearly every attack swings for 6, and the list is built so that putting those 6-power cards into your banished zone pays you three ways: it switches off blood debt, it powers up your conditional attacks, and it moves you toward Levia, Redeemed. Brodie Spurlock took this list to Top 4 at Calling: Mexico City 2026, and the construction explains why it can compete at that level.

The Engine: Six Power Into the Banished Zone

Levia, Shadowborn Abomination has one line of text, and the whole deck serves it. If a card with 6 or more power was put into your banished zone this turn, your cards lose blood debt during the end phase. That clause turns the deck's main drawback into a choice you control. Banish a big card, and that turn's tax disappears.

Your attacks do the banishing for you:

  • Dread Screamer, Endless Maw, and Shadowrealm Horror banish 3 random cards from your graveyard as an additional cost. Each one is rewarded when a 6-power card goes this way: go again, +3 power, or a tiered payoff that can let you play a banished card.
  • Deadwood Rumbler draws and discards at random when it attacks. If the discard has 6 or more power, it banishes a card from a graveyard.
  • Graveling Growl and Diabolic Offering are the payoffs. Growl can only be played after a 6-power card has hit your banished zone this turn. Offering is a 0/0 until that happens, then becomes a 6/6 for 1 resource.

The graveyard needs feeding, and the list handles that too. Wrecker Romp and Bloodrush Bellow discard at random as a cost. Bellow draws 2 and gets go again when the discard has 6 or more power. Call to the Grave searches any card straight into your graveyard. Beast Within rewards being discarded: it digs through your deck until it finds a 6-power card and puts it into your hand. More than twenty main-deck cards carry a printed 6 power, so random effects that look risky on paper land on a big card most of the time.

The Equipment Rewards the Same Trigger

The equipment is built around the same condition:

Together these let you string several 6-power attacks into one turn instead of swinging once and passing. That burst is what makes the deck threatening.

How It Closes

Blood debt is also a resource you count. Hexagore, the Death Hydra is a 6-power weapon that damages you for 6 minus the number of blood debt cards in your banished zone. Early it hurts. Once your banished zone fills, it attacks for free in life terms. Rockyard Rodeo copies Hexagore's base power, which gives you another 6-power swing.

The deck has three closing tools:

  • Doomsday unlocks at 6 blood debt cards banished and creates a Blasmophet, the Soul Harvester token.
  • Levia, Redeemed waits in your inventory until you have 13. Once you transform, your cards lose blood debt for good, so you can banish as freely as you like.
  • Soul Harvest and Soul Cleaver give you a direct answer to opponents who build a soul. Soul Harvest banishes 6 cards and gains power for each blood debt card among them. On hit, it banishes the defender's soul and makes them lose that much life.

Defensively, Carrion Husk is a 6-defense chest that banishes itself and carries blood debt, so even your blocks add to the count. Engulfing Shadows does the same from your hand.

Why the Plan Is Strong

The deck's strength is redundancy at a single number. Most of your attacks present 6 power, so the opponent has to answer every swing as a real threat.

Your drawback is also self-correcting. The cards that build blood debt are the same cards that switch it off for the turn, and they push you toward the transform that ends it permanently. Pummel adds +4 power and a discard on hit to any attack action costing 2 or more. That covers most of your attackers and punishes opponents who block light. A 40-life hero gives you room to absorb Hexagore's early self-damage and the occasional uncovered end phase.

The weakness is real, and you should know it before registering. Several key effects are random. When your graveyard is thin or your discards miss, Growl and Offering go dead, and blood debt starts costing you life.

Who Should Pick It Up

Choose this deck if you like proactive Brute pressure but want more control than dice alone. You need to track two counts every turn:

  • whether a 6-power card has been banished this turn
  • how many blood debt cards sit in your banished zone

Players who want a fixed, linear script will find the randomness frustrating. Players who enjoy setting up the graveyard so that random effects almost can't miss will find a deck that hits hard, closes in several ways, and punishes opponents who misjudge a 6-power swing.

Core Strategy & Game Plan

Levia is a Brute pressure deck that uses its own graveyard as a second hand. Almost every attack in the list swings for 6, and the engine rewards you for moving those 6-power cards from graveyard to banished zone. Your job each turn is to present a 6-power threat the opponent has to respect, and to banish at least one 6-power card while you do it. Turns where you manage both are the turns the deck is built for.

How the deck wins

You win by stacking 6-power hits until blocking every one becomes too expensive. Most of your attacks carry blood debt, which is the price of that power. Levia, Shadowborn Abomination switches off that cost during the end phase on any turn a 6-or-more-power card hits your banished zone. That is the core rhythm: if you play blood debt cards on a turn, banish a big card on that turn too.

Over the game, blood debt cards pile up in the banished zone and fuel your late-game cards. Hexagore, the Death Hydra deals you 6 damage minus the number of blood debt cards banished, so the more you bank, the cheaper it is to swing every turn. Doomsday turns on at six banished blood debt cards. Soul Harvest gains power for each one it banishes. Levia, Redeemed becomes available at thirteen.

The engine: fill, banish, cash in

  • Fill. Wrecker Romp, Bloodrush Bellow, Deadwood Rumbler and Skullhorn all discard. Call to the Grave puts any card from your deck straight into the graveyard. Cards you block with also end up there. Pitched cards do not, so the graveyard only grows through discards, blocks and resolved attacks.
  • Banish. Shadowrealm Horror, Dread Screamer and Endless Maw each banish 3 random graveyard cards as part of their cost. Each gets a bonus when one of those cards has 6 or more power: go again, +3 power, or the chance to replay a banished card. The deck is full of 6-power cards, so these bonuses usually hit. Deadwood Rumbler adds a targeted banish when it discards a 6-power card. Beast Within works from any other route into the graveyard: it banishes from the top of your deck until it finds a 6-power card, which goes to your hand.
  • Cash in. Once a 6-power card is banished this turn, Diabolic Offering becomes a 6/6 for 1 and Graveling Growl becomes playable. Hooves of the Shadowbeast can also be destroyed for an extra action point, which keeps the chain going.

The strongest single sequence in the list is Call to the Grave fetching Beast Within. It has go again, puts a 6-power card in your hand, and counts as banishing a 6-power card. That one play turns on Levia's ability, Diabolic Offering and Graveling Growl before you commit a real attack.

Posture

You are the aggressor in nearly every game. The list runs a single defense reaction, Engulfing Shadows, and it banishes itself, so even your defense feeds the count. Carrion Husk gives you one big 6-defense block. Like Engulfing Shadows, it banishes itself and counts as blood debt.

The 40 life on the hero card is a resource you spend. You pay it through early Hexagore, the Death Hydra swings, Beast Within repeats and blood debt you can't switch off. Spend it deliberately. Keep in mind that Carrion Husk banishes itself at the start of your turn once you are at 13 life or less.

The ideal game, turn by turn

  1. Opening turns. Your graveyard starts empty, so the banish attacks can't pay their cost yet. Lead with discard attacks like Wrecker Romp or Deadwood Rumbler, or with Bloodrush Bellow into a 6-power swing. Blocking with spare red cards is fine because it builds fuel. Swing Hexagore, the Death Hydra now only if the full self-damage is worth the pressure.
  2. Middle turns. With a stocked graveyard, open with a banish attack, then follow with Diabolic Offering, Graveling Growl or a second 6-power attack. Use Savage Sash, Hooves of the Shadowbeast and Scabskin Leathers to fit an extra swing into a key turn. Pummel goes on an attack action with cost 2 or more. It can't target Hexagore, the Death Hydra, which is a flail, not a club or hammer.
  3. Closing turns. Your banished blood debt is high, so Hexagore, the Death Hydra costs little or no life and gives you a 6-power swing every turn alongside your hand. Rockyard Rodeo copies its 6 base power. Doomsday and Soul Harvest become live finishers. Against heroes holding cards in their soul, Soul Cleaver gets go again and Soul Harvest punishes them on hit.

The Redeemed decision

Transforming into Levia, Redeemed turns all your banished cards face-down, and from then on cards you own lose blood debt. That removes the drawback for good, but it also removes your banished blood debt count. Hexagore, the Death Hydra goes back to dealing you the full 6 per swing. Doomsday can no longer meet its condition, and Soul Harvest loses its bonus.

So play Doomsday and any big Soul Harvest first, and transform when the blood debt drawback is costing you more than your weapon is giving you. Don't transform just because you can.

Card Choices & Breakdown

Hero, Weapon and Finishers

Almost every card in the list depends on one condition on Levia, Shadowborn Abomination: a card with 6 or more power has been put into your banished zone this turn. Meet it and cards you own lose blood debt during the end phase. Nearly every red and yellow attack in the deck has 6 power, so most turns can meet the condition.

Hexagore, the Death Hydra cares about a different count: blood debt cards sitting in your banished zone. Each swing deals 6 damage to you, minus that count. Early on it is a painful 2-resource, 6-power attack. Once six blood debt cards are banished, it costs you nothing. Treat it as a weapon for the middle and late game.

The same count unlocks the legendary package. Legendary cards are limited to one copy per card-pool, so these are single copies by rule:

  • Doomsday is a 0-cost instant once you reach six blood debt cards banished. It creates a Blasmophet, the Soul Harvester token.
  • Levia, Redeemed waits in your inventory until you reach thirteen. You then transform, turning your banished zone face-down. From then on, cards you own lose blood debt.
  • Soul Harvest costs 6 and banishes six cards from your graveyard as an additional cost. It gets +1 power for each blood debt card among them. On hit it banishes the defender's soul and drains life equal to the cards banished. That makes it a large attack in any matchup and a real threat against decks that build soul.

Banish Engines

Red Dread Screamer, Endless Maw and Shadowrealm Horror all banish three random cards from your graveyard as an additional cost. All three carry blood debt. If a 6-power card is banished this way:

  • Screamer gets go again.
  • Maw swings for 9.
  • Horror scales with the number of 6-power cards banished: +1 power, then go again, then the option to play one of the banished cards.

These attacks are what switch on Levia, Graveling Growl, Diabolic Offering and Hooves of the Shadowbeast. That is why each is at the 3-copy maximum. The constraint is graveyard size: they need cards there to pay the cost.

Blue Dread Screamer runs only two copies. It has the same clause, but it has 4 power. That means it never counts as a 6-power card when it gets banished later.

Graveyard Fuel

Each of these puts cards into your graveyard, and several reward you when a 6-power card is involved:

  • Wrecker Romp: a 2-cost, 6-power attack with a random discard. The discard feeds the graveyard.
  • Bloodrush Bellow: discards at random and gives your Brute attacks +2 power for the turn. If the discard has 6 power, you draw two and it gets go again. Given how dense the deck is with 6-power cards, that happens often.
  • Deadwood Rumbler: draws and discards at random when it attacks. A 6-power discard lets you banish a card from a graveyard, which is a direct way to banish a 6-power card.
  • Call to the Grave: 0 cost with go again. It puts a chosen card into your graveyard to set up a Horror, or puts Beast Within there to trigger it. It runs two copies because it is setup, not pressure.
  • Beast Within: when it reaches the graveyard from anywhere other than the combat chain, it banishes cards from the top of your deck. You lose 1 life per card until you hit a 6-power card, which goes to your hand. That card was put into your banished zone this turn, so this also meets Levia's condition. It runs two copies because every trigger costs life, and casting it from hand is just a 3-cost 6-power attack.

Conditional Payoffs

Both of these only work on turns when a 6-power card has been banished:

  • Diabolic Offering (3 copies): a 1-cost 6/6 on those turns, and 0/0 otherwise. As a blue, it is never dead, because you can always pitch it.
  • Graveling Growl (2 copies): a 1-cost 6-power attack, but you cannot play it at all without the condition. It can rot in hand, which is why it stays at two.

Other Attacks and Pump

  • Soul Cleaver (2 copies): 6 power, with go again only against a defender holding soul cards.
  • Rockyard Rodeo: a 6-power blue attack as long as Hexagore, the Death Hydra is in play.
  • Pummel: its weapon mode needs a club or hammer, and Hexagore is a flail. You will always use the attack action mode. Put it on cost-2-or-more attacks like Endless Maw or Wrecker Romp for +4 power and a discard on hit.

Blood Harvest is the only zero-pitch card in the list. It is never a resource, so you will always be playing it. Cleave the Heavens in red and blue, plus Feeding Frenzy, Rumbling Hunger, Fallen Herald, Pull from Beyond, Rites of Nightfall and Goremass Summoning, round out the list, mostly at full copies.

The colour split matters. The deck runs 29 blues to 23 reds because its 3-cost 6-power attacks need real resources every turn.

Defense

Engulfing Shadows is a 0-cost, 4-defense reaction. It banishes itself instead of going to the graveyard, and it carries blood debt. Every block pushes you toward the thresholds for Hexagore, Doomsday and Levia, Redeemed. It has no power, though, so it never meets Levia's condition.

Equipment

  • Carrion Husk: a 6-defense chest that banishes itself after defending and carries blood debt, so it is another point on the count. It also banishes at the start of your turn once you are at 13 life or less. Block with it before that happens.
  • Savage Sash: destroy it for go again and cheaper 6-power attacks that turn. Save it for an Endless Maw or Deadwood Rumbler turn.
  • Legs: Hooves of the Shadowbeast trades itself for an action point when a 6-power card is banished. Scabskin Leathers is the alternative, a die roll for zero to three action points.
  • Arms: Gauntlets of Tyrannical Rex costs a resource and taps for +1 power on your next attack. It only activates with a 6-power card in your pitch zone, such as Wrecker Romp, Deadwood Rumbler or Beast Within. Nullrune Gloves are the Arcane Barrier option.
  • Heads: Scowling Flesh Bag intimidates when it blocks. Crown of Providence filters your hand when it blocks. Skullhorn trades itself for a draw and a random discard (more graveyard fuel) and has Arcane Barrier 2. Boneseer Skullcap is the fourth option.

The Decklist

Deck compositionCards in the list · 68 cardsPitch 0 3Red (pitch 1) 23Yellow (pitch 2) 13Blue (pitch 3) 29
What's in the list, by pitch. Plus hero, weapons and equipment (13).

The pool is one hero, one two-handed weapon, ten pieces of equipment, the Levia, Redeemed demi-hero in inventory, and 68 deck cards. That totals the 80-card pool Classic Constructed allows (source: fabtcg.com Classic Constructed format page, accessed 2026-10-19). The deck leans hard toward blue pitch and red threats, with 6-power bodies everywhere so the banish triggers on Levia, Shadowborn Abomination and the rest of the engine fire as often as possible.

Hero, Weapon and Equipment

CardSlotNote
Levia, Shadowborn AbominationHeroCore
Hexagore, the Death HydraWeapon (2H)Core. Its self-damage drops as blood debt cards pile up in your banished zone.
Levia, RedeemedInventoryCore
Crown of ProvidenceHeadFlex: a block that also filters your hand.
Scowling Flesh BagHeadFlex: intimidate when it defends.
SkullhornHeadFlex: Arcane Barrier 2, or a one-shot draw that feeds the graveyard.
Boneseer SkullcapHeadFlex: fourth head option.
Carrion HuskChestCore. It gives 6 defense once, and it carries blood debt.
Savage SashChestCore. It makes your 6-power attacks cost less on a big turn.
Gauntlets of Tyrannical RexArmsFlex: +1 power with go again, as long as a 6-power card is in your pitch zone.
Nullrune GlovesArmsFlex: Arcane Barrier 1 for arcane-heavy opponents.
Hooves of the ShadowbeastLegsCore. Trade it for an action point the turn a 6-power card gets banished.
Scabskin LeathersLegsFlex: a die roll for extra action points.

Deck (68)

PitchCardsFlex notes
0 (3)3x Blood HarvestCore
Red (23)3x Cleave the Heavens, 3x Dread Screamer, 3x Endless Maw, 3x Feeding Frenzy, 3x Pummel, 3x Rumbling Hunger, 3x Shadowrealm Horror, 2x Soul CleaverSoul Cleaver only gets go again against heroes who build soul. It is the first red slot to trim when those opponents are absent.
Yellow (13)2x Beast Within, 3x Bloodrush Bellow, 3x Engulfing Shadows, 3x Fallen Herald, 2x Graveling GrowlBeast Within and Graveling Growl sit at two because Growl needs a banish first and Beast Within costs life to fire.
Blue (29)2x Call to the Grave, 3x Cleave the Heavens, 3x Deadwood Rumbler, 3x Diabolic Offering, 1x Doomsday, 2x Dread Screamer, 2x Goremass Summoning, 3x Pull from Beyond, 3x Rites of Nightfall, 3x Rockyard Rodeo, 1x Soul Harvest, 3x Wrecker RompDoomsday and Soul Harvest are Legendary, so one copy each is the cap. Blue Dread Screamer, Goremass Summoning and Call to the Grave are the swing slots. Rockyard Rodeo copies Hexagore, the Death Hydra's 6 base power.

Reading the List

Treat the 3-of slots as the skeleton. Several of them are the shared Levia core: Hexagore, the Death Hydra, Carrion Husk, Hooves of the Shadowbeast, Savage Sash, Levia, Redeemed, Blood Harvest, Shadowrealm Horror, red Dread Screamer, red Feeding Frenzy, Fallen Herald, Diabolic Offering and Wrecker Romp. All three published Levia, Shadowborn Abomination lists ran them (source: fabtcg.com decklist API, 2026-09-20 to 2026-10-19). The 2-ofs and the extra head and arm pieces are where this list makes its own choices.

The equipment flex breaks down simply. You get four heads and two arms to choose between, so read your opponent's damage type before you pick arena cards. Nullrune Gloves and Skullhorn give you arcane protection. Crown of Providence, Scowling Flesh Bag and Gauntlets of Tyrannical Rex cover everything else.

The deck holds 68 cards against a 60-card minimum (source: fabtcg.com Classic Constructed format page, accessed 2026-10-19). That leaves you room to shape the deck from your registered pool, and the configuration chapter covers how.

Hand Planning & Pitching

With intellect 4 and no mulligan, every hand is a puzzle you solve on the spot. Levia's hand plan comes down to one question: can this hand put a 6-power card into your banished zone this turn? That condition turns off blood debt at your end phase through Levia's hero ability. It also unlocks Graveling Growl, turns Diabolic Offering into a 6-power attack, and lets Hooves of the Shadowbeast trade itself for an action point. Hands that hit it are strong turns. Hands that can't should defend and set up the next one.

Count Your Sixes First

Before you pitch anything, sort the hand into 6-power cards and everything else. Most of your attacks print 6 power, and this split decides three things:

  • Random discards. Wrecker Romp and Bloodrush Bellow discard at random. They are best when the cards left in hand are all sixes. Bellow only draws 2 and gets go again if the discarded card has 6 or more power.
  • Random graveyard banishes. Dread Screamer, Endless Maw and Shadowrealm Horror banish 3 random cards from your graveyard. A graveyard full of sixes makes their bonuses close to guaranteed.
  • Gauntlets. Gauntlets of Tyrannical Rex only activate with a 6-power card in your pitch zone.

To clean up a hand before a random discard, move the odd card out of it. Pitch the non-six to pay the cost, or place it in arsenal, since arsenal cards are not in your hand.

What to Pitch

Your blues split into two groups: pitch fodder, and 6-power attacks that are also strong pitch.

  • Pitch freely: Doomsday whenever you have fewer than 6 blood debt cards banished (it can't be played yet). Also Dread Screamer (blu), the 4-power copy. Your blue support cards (Rites of Nightfall, Pull from Beyond, Goremass Summoning, Cleave the Heavens (blu)) are also candidates when the turn's attack plan doesn't need them.
  • Pitch for value: Deadwood Rumbler and Wrecker Romp give you 3 resources and put a six in the pitch zone. That turns on Gauntlets for +1 power on your next attack, and Gauntlets has go again. Pitching a six you can't cast this turn is never a waste.
  • Yellows: Beast Within and Graveling Growl also count as sixes in the pitch zone. Keep Beast Within in hand on turns you have a random discard, though, because discarding it is better (see below).
  • Avoid pitching Call to the Grave if you have a turn to set up. It costs 0 and has go again, so it is almost always worth more played than pitched.

Plan your attacks around two cost cutters. Savage Sash makes 6-power attack actions cost 1 less for the turn, so save it for the turn you chain two or three of them. Hexagore, the Death Hydra costs 2 to swing, and it deals you 6 damage minus your banished blood debt cards. Early on, that life cost is real. Don't hold back 2 resources for Hexagore before your banished zone has some blood debt in it.

The Beast Within Engine

Beast Within triggers when it reaches your graveyard from anywhere other than the combat chain. The trigger banishes cards from the top of your deck until a 6-power card appears, then puts that card into your hand. That banished six satisfies Levia's ability, Graveling Growl, Diabolic Offering and Hooves of the Shadowbeast for the turn. There are two ways to set it off:

  • Use Call to the Grave to search Beast Within straight into the graveyard.
  • Have it discarded by Wrecker Romp, Bloodrush Bellow, Deadwood Rumbler or Skullhorn. This is the one case where a non-ideal random discard still pays off.

Each card banished this way costs you 1 life. Count your life before you start the chain.

Beast Within does not trigger when it goes to the graveyard from the combat chain. Blocking with it is a plain 3-defense block.

What to Keep for Defense and Arsenal

Pitched cards go to the bottom of your deck, not your graveyard. That makes blocking one of your main ways to fill the graveyard. Defending with the 6-power reds you can't afford this turn (3 defense each) loads them as fuel for future random banishes. Block with sixes before you block with anything else.

  • Engulfing Shadows costs 0 and blocks for 4. It banishes itself instead of going to the graveyard, adding a blood debt card to your banished zone. That moves you toward Doomsday, Levia, Redeemed and a cheaper Hexagore, the Death Hydra swing.
  • Carrion Husk banishes itself after it blocks, so spend its 6 defense on a turn that really matters. It also leaves on its own at the start of your turn once you are at 13 life or less.
  • Crown of Providence lets you trade a dead card from hand or arsenal for a fresh draw while you defend.

For arsenal, Pummel is the natural pick. Its second mode targets attack action cards costing 2 or more, which covers most of your sixes. It does not boost Hexagore, the Death Hydra, because the first mode only works on clubs and hammers. Otherwise, arsenal a six that will have graveyard support next turn.

Going First vs. Going Second

Going first, your graveyard is empty. Dread Screamer, Endless Maw and Shadowrealm Horror need three graveyard cards to pay their cost, so they can't be played. Graveling Growl is locked and Diabolic Offering is 0 power unless Call to the Grave into Beast Within gets a six banished. Lead with your self-starting cards:

  • Wrecker Romp, whose discard also seeds the graveyard
  • Deadwood Rumbler
  • Rockyard Rodeo, which matches Hexagore, the Death Hydra's 6 base power
  • Bloodrush Bellow when the rest of your hand is all sixes

Arsenal a graveyard-dependent attack for your second turn.

Going second, defend with your sixes on the opponent's first turn. You then start your own turn with a stocked graveyard, and the random-banish attacks come online immediately.

Sequencing & Key Lines

Stocking the Graveyard Before Your First Banish

Dread Screamer, Endless Maw and Shadowrealm Horror all require you to banish three cards from your graveyard as an additional cost. You can't play them at all until three cards are there, and going first you start with none. Pitched cards go to the bottom of your deck, not the graveyard. Your early graveyard therefore comes from random discards (Wrecker Romp, Bloodrush Bellow, Skullhorn, Deadwood Rumbler), from cards you defend with, from resolved attacks, and from Call to the Grave.

The cleanest opener is Call to the Grave fetching Beast Within. It costs 0 and has go again. Beast Within enters the graveyard from the deck, so its trigger fires: it banishes from the top until it finds a card with 6 or more power and puts that card into your hand, costing you 1 life per card banished. Now a 6-power card has been put into your banished zone this turn. That unlocks Graveling Growl, makes Diabolic Offering a 6/6, switches on Levia's end-phase clause and lets Hooves of the Shadowbeast trigger.

Count the action points:

  • Call to the Grave hands your point back through go again.
  • Destroying Hooves of the Shadowbeast adds a second point.
  • That's two 1-cost, 6-power attacks off two resources.

The same chain happens whenever a random discard hits Beast Within.

Banish First, Cash In Second

Until a 6-power card hits your banished zone, Graveling Growl can't be played and Diabolic Offering is a 0/0. Always lead with the card that does the banishing.

  • Read your graveyard before you commit. With exactly three cards in it, the "random" banish isn't random. You know what goes and which bonuses you get. If those three include three 6-power cards, Shadowrealm Horror gets +1 power and go again, and you may play one of the banished cards this turn.
  • A bloated graveyard dilutes the bonus. Each banish-cost attack is still 6 power without it. If you need the go again on Dread Screamer to keep the turn going, set up the graveyard first with Call to the Grave.
  • Deadwood Rumbler is another enabler. If its discard is a 6-power card, banish a 6-power card from your own graveyard. That turns on Hooves of the Shadowbeast, and the point it gives you plays Graveling Growl after the chain link.
  • Destroy Savage Sash on turns you'll play two or more 6-power attack action cards. On a single-attack turn it's wasted.
  • Gauntlets of Tyrannical Rex needs a 6-power card in your pitch zone. Pitch a printed 6-power card (Deadwood Rumbler, blue Wrecker Romp, Beast Within) and activate before the attack you want boosted. The activation costs a resource of its own, so budget for it.

When to Swing Hexagore

Hexagore, the Death Hydra deals damage to you equal to 6 minus the cards with blood debt in your banished zone. Early, it costs you up to 6 life per swing.

  • Track your banished blood debt cards: Engulfing Shadows, banished attacks and Carrion Husk once it leaves.
  • Hold the weapon until that number is high. At six or more, Hexagore costs you nothing, and Doomsday becomes playable at the same threshold.
  • Rockyard Rodeo reads Hexagore's base power of 6 regardless of the count. It's your weapon-independent 6-power swing while the count is still low.

Transform Timing

Levia, Redeemed needs 13 or more blood debt cards in your banished zone. Once you transform, cards you own lose blood debt, which changes three things:

Fire Doomsday (a 0-cost instant) and any Soul Harvest before you transform. After the transform, stop counting on the weapon. The transform is an action activation without go again, so make it your last action of the turn.

Defensive Branch Points

  • Carrion Husk: it banishes itself at the start of your turn if you're at 13 or less life. If an incoming attack would put you there, defend with it now. You lose it either way, and either way it lands as a blood debt card.
  • Diabolic Offering: it has 0 defense unless a 6-power card was banished that turn. On the opponent's turn, pitch it rather than plan around blocking with it.
  • Engulfing Shadows: it banishes itself instead of hitting the graveyard. Every one you use raises your blood debt count toward Hexagore and Doomsday.
  • Crown of Providence: defend with it when you're holding a dead card, such as Graveling Growl with no enabler in hand.

Playing Around Defensive Tech

Expect opponents to hold defensive tech. Among the 32 published lists in the window, the most-registered generics included Shelter from the Storm in 16 and Sink Below in 15 (source: fabtcg.com decklist API, 2026-09-20 to 2026-10-19). Three habits beat it:

  • Go wide, not tall. Several 6-power go-again swings tax blockers harder than one huge attack. Save the 9-power Endless Maw for when their hand is thin.
  • Use Pummel early in the chain. Only its second mode works here, because Hexagore is a flail, not a club or hammer. It also can't target Graveling Growl or Diabolic Offering, which cost 1. Put it on your first cost-2-or-more attack: the discard on hit strips a card they would otherwise use against the rest of your chain.
  • Roll Scabskin Leathers only with surplus. If you've equipped it, remember the roll spends an action point. A 1 gives you nothing back and a 2 or 3 only refunds the point. Roll with the point a go-again card returned, once your must-play attacks are already done.

Matchup Matrix

Jarl Vetreiði
Even
Levia mirror
Even
Cindra, Dracai of Retribution
Unfavored
Fang
Even
Ser Boltyn, Breaker of Dawn
Favored
Ira, Scarlet Revenger
Unfavored
Other aggro
Unfavored
Control / fatigue
Favored
Arcane damage
Even
Matchup verdicts at a glance. Details below.
MatchupVerdictWhat decides it
Jarl VetreiðiEvenWhether your 6-power turns break through a defense-heavy Guardian before their big swings land
Levia mirrorEvenWho manages blood debt better and transforms first
Cindra, Dracai of RetributionUnfavoredYour self-damage against their speed
FangEvenHow well you block, and whether you keep Carrion Husk online
Ser Boltyn, Breaker of DawnFavoredSoul punishers (Soul Cleaver, Soul Harvest)
Ira, Scarlet RevengerUnfavoredSurviving their early turns at a healthy life total
Other aggroUnfavoredLife total management
Control / fatigueFavoredCard quality and the transform clock
Arcane damageEvenWhen you spend your arcane barrier equipment

Arakni, Marionette and Fai were both listed as Living Legends as of 2026-10-19 (source: fabtcg.com Card Legality Policy, accessed 2026-10-19). Living Legend heroes leave official play the Friday after they reach the mark, so neither is a factor at a 2026-10-26 event.

Jarl Vetreiði — Even

Jarl had the most Round 1 entries at Atlanta, 71 of 600 (source: 100th Calling: Atlanta Round 1 pairings, 2026-10-03/04). Expect a deck that blocks well and makes you work for every point.

The matchup turns on chaining 6-power attacks so their blocks run out before your threats do:

  • Lead with go-again pieces like Dread Screamer and Shadowrealm Horror once your graveyard is stocked with 6-power cards.
  • Save Pummel for the cost-2+ mode on an attack they must block heavily. The discard on hit strips the cards they need for the next turn.
  • This is a game where you can afford to bank blood debt for Levia, Redeemed and Doomsday, because they are not pressuring your life the way aggro does.

Levia mirror — Even

Levia was the second most-entered hero at both Callings in the brief: 52 of 600 at Atlanta and 29 of 342 at Kyoto (source: Round 1 pairings, 2026-10-03/04 and 2026-10-17/18). You will play this mirror.

  • Both decks race toward 13 blood debt cards in the banished zone, the condition for activating Levia, Redeemed.
  • Track their banished zone count every turn. The first player to transform stops paying for blood debt.
  • Scowling Flesh Bag's intimidate and Pummel's discard both cut into their next big turn, so prioritize them here.
  • Don't hit 13 or less life with Carrion Husk still in play unless you have already gotten value from it. At the start of your turn it banishes itself.

Cindra, Dracai of Retribution — Unfavored

Your costs hurt you here. Hexagore, the Death Hydra deals damage to you whenever it attacks, minus your banished blood debt count. Beast Within costs life. Carrion Husk disappears at 13 life.

  • Block early and often. Engulfing Shadows at 4 defense and Carrion Husk at 6 are your best tools.
  • Take the end-phase cleanse from your hero ability every turn you can banish a 6-power card.
  • Don't swing Hexagore, the Death Hydra with an empty banished zone. Six self-damage is a turn you hand them.

For that side of the matchup, see our Cindra, Dracai of Retribution Classic Constructed guide.

Fang — Even

Fang had the most Round 1 entries at Kyoto, 32 of 342, but no Top 8 slot (source: Calling: Kyoto Round 1 pairings and final standings, 2026-10-17/18).

  • Your 3-defense attack actions block cleanly, so you can defend with cards you weren't going to swing that turn.
  • Use Crown of Providence blocks to filter dead cards toward your next attack turn.
  • Win by trading efficiently: every 6-power attack demands a real answer, and you have more of them.

Ser Boltyn, Breaker of Dawn — Favored

Light decks that charge their soul feed two of your cards:

  • Soul Cleaver gains go again whenever the defending hero has 1 or more cards in soul.
  • Soul Harvest banishes their entire soul on hit and makes them lose that much life.

Hold Soul Harvest until their soul is full and you have six graveyard cards to banish, ideally with blood debt for the extra power. Treat it as your finisher, not a tempo play.

For that side of the matchup, see our Ser Boltyn, Breaker of Dawn Classic Constructed guide.

Ira, Scarlet Revenger — Unfavored

This plays out like the Cindra matchup: a fast deck that punishes you for paying life.

  • Keep blockers in hand over greedy setup cards like Call to the Grave on turns where you are behind.
  • Arsenal a defense card rather than a big attack when your life is under pressure.
  • Your heavy-hitting turns come later. Your job is reaching them with life to spare.

For that side of the matchup, see our Ira, Scarlet Revenger Classic Constructed guide.

Other aggro — Unfavored

Apply the same rules as against Cindra and Ira:

  • Respect your life total before casting anything with a life cost.
  • Use the hero's blood debt cleanse every turn you can.
  • Value Engulfing Shadows as a defense reaction, not as pitch.

Control / fatigue — Favored

Slow decks give you time to stack blood debt safely and transform. Once you flip to Levia, Redeemed, your cards lose blood debt for good.

  • Bloodrush Bellow draws two when it discards a 6-power card, which keeps your hands full.
  • Pummel's discard grinds down their hand over a long game.
  • Don't overextend into big blocks. One lethal-threatening attack per turn is enough.

Arcane damage — Even

Nullrune Gloves and Skullhorn carry arcane barrier, but Skullhorn also wants to be destroyed for its draw-and-discard.

  • Against arcane-heavy opponents, keep Skullhorn on the board as protection rather than cashing it in early.
  • Race with go-again chains, since your pressure usually outpaces theirs once your graveyard is set up.

Card Pool & Matchup Configuration

Classic Constructed matches are best of 1, but you still configure every game. Each game you choose your arena cards, then your deck cards, from your registered card pool. At Callings that pool is registered online before the event and cannot be changed during the tournament (source: fabtcg.com Classic Constructed format page and Event Structure and Decklist Requirements, accessed 2026-10-19). The pool is 80 cards including weapons and equipment, and the deck must start with at least 60 cards. This list registers 12 arena cards and 68 deck cards, exactly 80. That means up to 8 deck cards can sit out of any given game.

The order matters. Under the pre-game trial announced 2026-09-17, heroes are revealed at the same time, then arena cards at the same time, then decks are presented (source: fabtcg.com B&R announcement, 2026-09-17). You pick equipment knowing only the opposing hero, but you pick your deck after seeing their arena cards. Use that second look.

Arena Configuration

SlotOptions in the poolDefaultSwap when
WeaponHexagore, the Death HydraAlwaysNo alternative is registered
InventoryLevia, RedeemedAlwaysIt only needs to be in your inventory to activate
HeadCrown of Providence, Scowling Flesh Bag, Skullhorn, Boneseer SkullcapCrown of ProvidenceSkullhorn for arcane damage; Scowling Flesh Bag when you expect to defend often
ChestCarrion Husk, Savage SashMatchup-dependentCarrion Husk for fast decks, Savage Sash for slow ones
ArmsGauntlets of Tyrannical Rex, Nullrune GlovesGauntlets of Tyrannical RexNullrune Gloves for arcane damage
LegsHooves of the Shadowbeast, Scabskin LeathersHooves of the ShadowbeastScabskin Leathers when you need the extra point of defense

Chest is the real decision.

  • Carrion Husk blocks for 6 once. It then banishes itself as a blood-debt card, which is one more toward Levia, Redeemed's 13 and Doomsday's 6. It also means one less damage from Hexagore, the Death Hydra on every swing afterward. Because it banishes itself at 13 or less life, it is an early-game card, and that fits the fast matchups.
  • Savage Sash gives you one turn where your 6-power attacks are cheaper, with go again. That is a burst turn you want against decks that give you time to set it up.

On legs, Hooves of the Shadowbeast pays out reliably because the deck banishes 6-power cards on purpose. Scabskin Leathers defends for 2 instead of 1 and needs no setup, but a roll of 1 gives you nothing.

Gauntlets of Tyrannical Rex usually turns on, since you pitch 6-power blues constantly. Only arcane damage justifies the swap to Nullrune Gloves.

The Deck You Never Touch

These cards are the engine and stay in every game:

  • Blood Harvest
  • Shadowrealm Horror
  • both colors of Dread Screamer
  • Endless Maw
  • Diabolic Offering
  • Wrecker Romp
  • Deadwood Rumbler
  • Bloodrush Bellow
  • Fallen Herald
  • Feeding Frenzy
  • both colors of Cleave the Heavens
  • Rumbling Hunger
  • Pull from Beyond
  • Rites of Nightfall
  • Goremass Summoning

Call to the Grave and Beast Within are a package. Searching Beast Within into your graveyard triggers it, which digs a 6-power card into your hand and stocks the graveyard for your banish costs. Cut both or neither.

The real flex pool is:

  • Soul Cleaver (2)
  • Soul Harvest (1)
  • Pummel (3)
  • Engulfing Shadows (3)
  • Rockyard Rodeo (3)
  • Graveling Growl (2)
  • Doomsday (1)

Configurations by Opponent Strategy

Aggro. Use Carrion Husk, Scowling Flesh Bag and Scabskin Leathers. Present 60 cards and cut these 8:

  • 2 Soul Cleaver
  • Soul Harvest
  • 3 Pummel
  • 2 Rockyard Rodeo

Soul Harvest costs 6, which you can't afford while blocking. Pummel and Rockyard Rodeo defend for only 2. Keep every Engulfing Shadows: a 4-block for 0 that also banishes itself as blood debt.

Control and long games. Use Savage Sash, Crown of Providence and Hooves of the Shadowbeast. Keep all 3 Pummel, because the discard on hit taxes the cards a control hand is built on. Note that Pummel's weapon mode only targets clubs and hammers, so it never pumps Hexagore, the Death Hydra. Aim it at your 2-plus-cost attack actions. Cut Engulfing Shadows here, since you won't be under the pressure it exists for. Present more than 60 if the game will go long: a bigger deck gives you more total pitch before you run out.

Soul-based heroes. If the revealed hero or arena cards show a plan built on putting cards into their soul, everything soul-related comes in:

  • Soul Cleaver gains go again whenever their soul has a card.
  • Soul Harvest strips the whole soul on hit and drains life equal to the number of cards banished.

Against everyone else, Soul Cleaver is a plain 6-power red and the first cut.

Arcane damage. Use Nullrune Gloves and Skullhorn for 3 points of arcane barrier across two slots. You give up Gauntlets of Tyrannical Rex and Crown of Providence's filtering, so only make the swap against decks where arcane damage is the main way they win.

Mirror. Levia, Shadowborn Abomination took 52 of 600 Round 1 seats at Atlanta (source: fabtcg.com 100th Calling: Atlanta Round 1 pairings, 2026-10-03/04), so expect to face it.

  • Deadwood Rumbler banishes a card from a graveyard, not just yours. Use it to remove the opponent's 6-power cards before their Shadowrealm Horror or Endless Maw banishes them as cost.
  • Use Carrion Husk to absorb their early 6s.
  • Cut 2 Soul Cleaver and 3 Rockyard Rodeo for a tighter 63.

Doomsday stays in for every configuration except the 60-card aggro build. If a fast deck will end the game before you have 6 blood-debt cards banished, Doomsday is dead weight there.

Tech Choices & Variations

Your registered pool is 80 cards: the hero, Hexagore, Levia, Redeemed, ten pieces of equipment, and 68 deck cards. Since the deck can start at 60, every game you leave equipment and up to eight deck cards behind. At a Calling, the pool is locked once you register online, so every tech decision happens before the event. The real question is which flex pieces earn a place in the 80.

Equipment: the built-in tech

Every slot except the weapon has two or more options. These are your cheapest adjustments, because none of them costs a deck slot.

SlotOptionsTrade-off
HeadCrown of Providence, Scowling Flesh Bag, Skullhorn, Boneseer SkullcapCrown turns a block into card selection. Flesh Bag intimidates on the block. Skullhorn gives up defense for Arcane Barrier 2 and a go-again loot that drops a card into your graveyard.
ArmsGauntlets of Tyrannical Rex, Nullrune GlovesGauntlets give +1 power with go again whenever a 6-power card is in your pitch zone, and they block for 2 with temper. Gloves block for 0 but carry Arcane Barrier 1.
ChestCarrion Husk, Savage SashHusk is a one-shot 6-defense block. It carries blood debt and banishes itself, so it counts toward your banished-zone totals. Sash is a burst turn: a cheaper 6-power attack with go again.
LegsHooves of the Shadowbeast, Scabskin LeathersHooves give a guaranteed action point the first time a 6-power card is banished. Scabskin blocks for 2 more and can be activated every turn, but its action points come from a die roll.

The Gauntlets condition matters for deckbuilding. Wrecker Romp, Deadwood Rumbler, Rockyard Rodeo and blue Cleave the Heavens are the blues that turn them on. If you cut blue 6-power cards for utility blues, the Gauntlets get worse.

Deck-card flex slots

  • Graveling Growl (2) vs. a third copy. It costs 1 and hits for 6, but only after a 6-power card has hit your banished zone that turn. Diabolic Offering has the same condition. Stack too many conditional attacks and you will draw hands that cannot start a turn. Two is the ceiling unless you add more enablers.
  • Soul Cleaver (2). It only gains go again if the defending hero has a card in their soul. Against a field that never builds a soul, it is a plain 6-power red with blood debt. This is the first slot to trim if your room has no soul decks.
  • Beast Within (2) and Call to the Grave (2). These form a package. Call to the Grave puts any card from your deck into your graveyard. If that card is Beast Within, its trigger digs into your banished zone until it finds a 6-power card, which goes to your hand. That banish switches on Levia's end-phase clause, Growl and Offering in the same turn. Random discards from Wrecker Romp, Bloodrush Bellow, Deadwood Rumbler and Skullhorn trigger Beast Within too. The cost is 1 life per card the dig banishes, which is unappealing against aggressive decks.
  • Rockyard Rodeo (3). It reads Hexagore's base power, so it is an unconditional 6-power blue. It has no blood debt and costs 3. Cutting a copy for another Shadow card raises your blood debt count for Hexagore and Levia, Redeemed but makes your pitch-and-swing turns clunkier.
  • Pummel (3). Hexagore is a flail, so only the attack-action mode applies. Nearly every attack you play costs 2 or more, so it almost always has a target. Treat it as core, not flex.
  • Blue Dread Screamer (2). It has 4 power, but it pitches for 3 and still gets go again off the banish. These are your blues that stay live as attacks, so leave them alone.

Doomsday and Soul Harvest are Legendary, so one copy each is the maximum, not a choice.

Tuning for your local field

Start by removing heroes that will not be on the table. The legality policy listed Arakni, Marionette, Fai, Kassai, Oscilio, Constella Intelligence and Dash I/O as Living Legends (source: fabtcg.com Card Legality Policy, as of 2026-10-19). Cindra sat at 966 points, just under the 1000 threshold (source: fabtcg.com Living Legend leaderboard, 2026-10-19). Confirm her status the week of your event before spending pool slots on her.

Your first priority is the mirror. Levia SA had 52 of 600 Round 1 entries at Atlanta (source: 100th Calling: Atlanta Round 1 pairings, 2026-10-03 to 2026-10-04) and 29 of 342 at Kyoto (source: Calling: Kyoto Round 1 pairings, 2026-10-17 to 2026-10-18). Mirrors are races of 6-power swings. For them, value Carrion Husk, Engulfing Shadows and a full set of Savage Sash-style burst turns over durdly utility.

Jarl Vetreiði led Atlanta's field with 71 of 600 entries (source: 100th Calling: Atlanta Round 1 pairings, 2026-10-03 to 2026-10-04). If your local scene follows that, plan for longer games:

  • Play Crown of Providence for card selection.
  • Keep Doomsday and Soul Harvest as top-end.
  • Keep the full Beast Within and Call to the Grave package, since the life cost matters less when the opponent is not racing you.

Two other field shifts change the build:

  • Arcane damage is common: Skullhorn and Nullrune Gloves come in. You give up physical defense for Arcane Barrier.
  • Fast aggro is the main threat: cut the Beast Within life costs and the second Growl first. Keep every 3-defense red and Engulfing Shadows.

Budget Options

The list comes in around $558 at TCGplayer market prices. You can't build a competitive Levia for pocket change, but you can stage the purchase so every dollar you spend early is a card you will never cut. Check current prices before you buy. The guidance below covers which slots are likely to cost the most and which you can delay. It does not tell you what any single card costs.

Where the money likely sits

  • Generic equipment. Crown of Providence and Nullrune Gloves fit into any hero's card-pool. Crown of Providence shows up in 10 of the 32 published CC lists and Nullrune Gloves in 9 (source: fabtcg.com decklist API, 2026-09-20 to 2026-10-19). Cards that every class wants tend to hold their price. The upside is that they also carry over if you change heroes later.
  • Legendary pieces. Levia, Redeemed, Doomsday and Soul Harvest are all one-ofs. Single-copy cards built for one hero are often among the pricier pulls in a set.
  • The weapon and class equipment. Hexagore, the Death Hydra is the deck's only weapon. Carrion Husk, Hooves of the Shadowbeast and Savage Sash are Levia-specific gear the list can't do without.

What you cannot cut

Every published Levia SA list plays the same core. That core is Hexagore, the Death Hydra, Carrion Husk, Hooves of the Shadowbeast, Savage Sash, Levia, Redeemed, 3 Blood Harvest, 3 Shadowrealm Horror, 3 Dread Screamer (red), 3 Feeding Frenzy (red), 3 Fallen Herald, 3 Diabolic Offering and 3 Wrecker Romp (source: fabtcg.com decklist API, 2026-09-20 to 2026-10-19). Buy these first. A version missing any of them is not a budget Levia. It is a different, weaker deck.

Levia, Redeemed deserves a special mention. Your hero only removes blood debt during the end phase, and only on turns when a 6-or-more-power card hit your banished zone. Transforming makes cards you own lose blood debt outright. Without it, every turn you fail to banish a 6-power card leaves you exposed.

Acceptable swaps and what they cost you

Your registered card-pool is 80 cards. That includes weapons and equipment, and you need at least 60 cards in the deck. This list registers exactly 80: 12 arena cards and 68 deck cards. Each game you choose your arena cards and deck cards from that pool. Most budget savings come from leaving out redundant options.

SlotDelay buyingCover it withWhat you give up
HeadCrown of ProvidenceScowling Flesh Bag or SkullhornCrown's block-and-filter: you lose the option to put a dead card on the bottom of your deck and draw a replacement. Flesh Bag gives you intimidate when it defends instead. Skullhorn trades a defense slot for a one-time card filter.
ArmsNullrune GlovesGauntlets of Tyrannical RexArcane Barrier 1 against arcane damage. Skullhorn's Arcane Barrier 2 partly covers that hole, but it uses up your head slot.
LegsScabskin LeathersHooves of the ShadowbeastThe dice roll for extra action points. Hooves already gives you an action point reliably when you banish a 6-power card.
FinisherSoul Harvest3rd Dread Screamer (blu)The soul-banishing life loss on hit. You get a cheaper attack that gains go again off a 6-power banish.
InstantDoomsday3rd Call to the GraveThe Blasmophet token threat. You gain another blue pitch that sets up your graveyard for banish costs.

There are other two-of slots that can be filled up to three copies if you are short on a specific card. These are Soul Cleaver (red), Beast Within, Graveling Growl and Goremass Summoning. Keep the pitch curve intact while you do this. Replace a blue with a blue and a red with a red, so your hands still pay for 2- and 3-cost attacks plus Hexagore, the Death Hydra's 2-resource activation.

A warning on running fewer cards: Shadowrealm Horror, Dread Screamer and Endless Maw all banish three random graveyard cards. They need 6-power cards to hit for their bonuses. Don't fill holes with low-power utility cards. Every card under 6 power that you add makes those random banishes miss more often.

Upgrade path

  1. Core first. Get the weapon, Levia, Redeemed, the four core equipment pieces, and every core three-of listed above.
  2. Fill to a legal 60. Add the remaining red attackers (Endless Maw, Rumbling Hunger, Pummel, Cleave the Heavens) and the blue pitch package (Deadwood Rumbler, Rockyard Rodeo, Pull from Beyond, Rites of Nightfall). Keep Engulfing Shadows and Bloodrush Bellow in the yellow slots.
  3. Generic equipment next. Crown of Providence and Nullrune Gloves are the best long-term buys because they keep their value in any future hero's card-pool.
  4. Legendaries last. Doomsday and Soul Harvest are high-ceiling threats, but the deck functions without them. Add them once everything else is locked in.
  5. Finish the arena options. Scabskin Leathers, Boneseer Skullcap and the redundant head pieces round out your game-by-game choices.

At Callings, you register your deck online before the event and cannot change it during the tournament. Complete your card-pool before registration closes, not the night before round one.

Common Mistakes

1. Passing a turn without a 6-power banish

Levia, Shadowborn Abomination only strips blood debt at the end phase if a card with 6 or more power reached your banished zone that turn. Every Dread Screamer, Endless Maw, Shadowrealm Horror, Soul Cleaver, Diabolic Offering, Graveling Growl and Deadwood Rumbler you resolve adds to the blood debt pile. Players who just "play the good attack" eventually end a turn with that pile still live. Before you commit your first card, find the turn's banish source. That can be a graveyard-banish attack with enough 6-power cards behind it, a Deadwood Rumbler discard hit, or a Beast Within trigger. If you have no reliable source, build the turn to create one before you add more blood debt.

2. Swinging Hexagore into an empty banished zone

Hexagore, the Death Hydra deals you 6 minus the number of blood debt cards in your banished zone every time it attacks. On an early turn with one or two banished blood debt cards, you trade a big chunk of your own life for a single 6-power swing. Treat it as a mid-to-late-game threat that gets cheaper as your banished zone fills. Count the pile before you pay the 2 resources. If the self-damage isn't close to zero, you need a very good reason to swing, such as the hit setting up lethal.

3. Transforming into Levia, Redeemed too early

Once you control Levia, Redeemed, cards you own lose blood debt. That shuts off every card that counts blood debt:

  • Doomsday needs 6 or more blood debt cards in your banished zone, so it becomes unplayable.
  • Soul Harvest gets +1 power per blood debt card it banishes, so the bonus is gone.
  • Hexagore, the Death Hydra counts zero blood debt cards, so it hits you for the full 6 on every swing.

Cast Doomsday and fire Soul Harvest before you transform. Then decide whether you still plan to swing Hexagore, the Death Hydra at all. Transform when ending the blood debt check matters more than those payoffs, not the moment you reach 13.

4. Firing graveyard-banish attacks into a thin graveyard

Dread Screamer, Endless Maw and Shadowrealm Horror banish three random cards from your graveyard. With few 6-power cards in the yard, you often whiff:

  • Dread Screamer gets no go again.
  • Endless Maw gets no +3 power.
  • Shadowrealm Horror falls short of its go-again threshold of two.

Pitched cards don't go to your graveyard, so they never fuel these attacks. Fill the yard first. Wrecker Romp and Bloodrush Bellow discards, Call to the Grave, and attacks resolved on earlier turns all stock it. Save the random banishers for when the odds favor a hit.

5. Playing enablers after the payoffs

Diabolic Offering is a 0-power attack and Graveling Growl can't be played at all until a 6-power card has hit your banished zone that turn. Leading with them is a wasted card. This also applies on defense. Outside a turn where you've banished a 6-power card, Diabolic Offering has 0 defense, so it is not a block. Count it as a pitch or an attack, never as one of your defending cards. The same timing applies to Hooves of the Shadowbeast: destroy it for the action point only when you have something left to play with it.

6. Random discards into the wrong hand

Bloodrush Bellow draws two and gets go again only if the discarded card has 6 or more power. Wrecker Romp discards at random too. Firing either while holding Pummel or Engulfing Shadows means you can lose the card you were saving for the swing or the block. Play them when the rest of your hand is mostly 6-power attacks. Beast Within is an ideal discard: it banishes cards off the top until it finds a 6-power card, which turns on Levia's end-phase effect, and puts that card in your hand. It also costs 1 life per card it flips, so track your life total when you're low.

7. Pitching without a plan for the pitch zone

Gauntlets of Tyrannical Rex only activates with a 6-power card in your pitch zone. If you pitch Call to the Grave or Goremass Summoning when a Deadwood Rumbler or Wrecker Romp would have paid the same cost, you lose the +1 power. When two blues cover the same cost, pitch the 6-power one if the Gauntlets matter that turn. Keep the blue that does more from hand.

8. Letting Carrion Husk banish itself unused

Carrion Husk banishes itself at the start of your turn once you're at 13 or less life. Hoarding it for "the big block later" often means it leaves before you ever defend with it. When it does defend, it banishes as the combat chain closes and becomes one more blood debt card in your banished zone. Use its 6 defense while you're still above 13, especially against an attack that would otherwise cost you cards from hand.

Tournament Prep & Final Notes

Lock the Registration First

At Callings, deck registration happens online before the event, and you can't change the registered deck during the tournament. Each game, you choose arena cards and then deck cards from that registered card-pool, which is capped at 80 cards including weapons and equipment (source: fabtcg.com Classic Constructed and Event Structure pages, accessed 2026-10-19). Settle your list before registration closes.

Your arena choices are where you have room to adjust. You have four head options (Boneseer Skullcap, Crown of Providence, Scowling Flesh Bag, Skullhorn), two chests (Carrion Husk, Savage Sash), two arms (Gauntlets of Tyrannical Rex, Nullrune Gloves) and two legs (Hooves of the Shadowbeast, Scabskin Leathers). Under the pre-game trial announced 2026-09-17, heroes are revealed at the same time, then arena cards at the same time (source: fabtcg.com Banned and Restricted announcement, 2026-09-17). You see their hero but not their equipment before you commit, so write down a default loadout for each likely opposing hero and don't improvise at the table.

Calibrate Your Testing

Levia SA had 52 of 600 Round 1 entries at Atlanta and 29 of 342 at Kyoto (source: fabtcg.com Round 1 pairings, 2026-09-20 to 2026-10-19). Practice the mirror. Jarl led Atlanta's Round 1 count with 71 entries (same source). Arakni M, Kassai, Oscilio CI, Dash I/O and Fai are all listed as Living Legends as of 2026-10-19, and Cindra sat at 966 points that day (source: fabtcg.com Card Legality Policy and Living Legend leaderboard, 2026-10-19). Living Legend status is checked every Monday, so recheck the page the week of the event before you decide what to drop from testing.

What to Drill

  • Graveyard reads before random banishes. Dread Screamer, Endless Maw and Shadowrealm Horror banish 3 random cards, and their bonuses depend on what lands. Before you commit, count how many 6-power cards are in your graveyard. Practice seeding it with discards from Wrecker Romp and Bloodrush Bellow, and with Call to the Grave.
  • Pitching for the Gauntlets. Gauntlets of Tyrannical Rex needs a 6-or-more-power card in your pitch zone. The cards that qualify are blue Deadwood Rumbler, blue Wrecker Romp and Soul Harvest, plus yellow Beast Within and Graveling Growl. Build the habit of pitching those first on turns you want the extra power.
  • Life around 13. At the start of your turn, Carrion Husk banishes itself if you have 13 or less life. Track how much your own effects cost you so you choose the turn it leaves, rather than having it happen to you.

Interactions to Know Cold

  • Levia, Redeemed turns off blood debt permanently. After you transform, cards you own lose blood debt. That has three consequences:
    • Hexagore, the Death Hydra counts zero blood debt cards and deals you the full 6 every time it attacks.
    • Doomsday can't meet its requirement of 6 or more blood debt cards in your banished zone.
    • Soul Harvest gets no bonus power.
    Play Doomsday and Soul Harvest before you transform. Transforming also requires 13 or more blood debt cards in your banished zone and turns every card there face-down.
  • Your hero's end-phase effect doesn't help Hexagore. Levia's blood debt loss only happens during the end phase, while Hexagore attacks in the action phase. A banished Carrion Husk still has Blood Debt, so it counts toward both Hexagore and the Redeemed threshold.
  • Beast Within from discards or Call to the Grave. It triggers whenever it goes to the graveyard from anywhere except the combat chain. Each card it reveals costs you 1 life. The text banishes the 6-power card before moving it to your hand. Read literally, that satisfies the "has been put into your banished zone" checks on Levia, Hooves of the Shadowbeast, Graveling Growl and Diabolic Offering. Confirm this ruling with the head judge before round 1, not in the middle of a turn.
  • Pummel limits. Hexagore is a flail, so the club-or-hammer mode can't target it. The other mode needs an attack action card costing 2 or more, which rules out Diabolic Offering and Graveling Growl.
  • Diabolic Offering is 0/0 without the trigger. Its defense is also 0 on turns when nothing with 6 or more power has been banished, so don't count it as a blocker on the opponent's turn unless that has happened.
  • Engulfing Shadows adds blood debt to your banished zone but has no power. It never turns on the 6-or-more-power conditions.

Clock Management

Matches are best of 1 in 55-minute rounds. When time is called, the turn player finishes their turn, one more turn is played, and the match is a draw (source: fabtcg.com Classic Constructed page, accessed 2026-10-19). This deck uses up time with:

  • random banishes and random discards,
  • a die roll on Scabskin Leathers,
  • a running blood debt count.

To save time:

  • Keep your banished zone in a tidy spread, with blood debt cards grouped so you can count them at a glance.
  • Announce the count when Hexagore attacks.
  • Plan your next turn during the opponent's turn so your own turn is just execution.

Your plan is to win by deal damage, not to grind, and a draw gets you nothing.

Final Assessment

This list wins by density. Almost every attack has 6 power, so the conditionals on your hero, Hooves of the Shadowbeast, Graveling Growl, Diabolic Offering and the Gauntlets fire often rather than occasionally. Once the banished zone fills up, Hexagore becomes a cheap repeatable threat. The costs are self-inflicted life loss and randomness you can't fully control. It finished Top 4 at Calling: Mexico City. Pick it up if you're willing to count every turn, plan your life total two turns ahead, and accept a few random reveals in exchange for raw power.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does the Levia, Shadowborn Abomination deck win games?

It stacks 6-power hits until blocking every one becomes too expensive. Levia, Shadowborn Abomination switches off blood debt in the end phase on any turn a 6-power card hits your banished zone. Banked blood debt then fuels Hexagore, the Death Hydra, Doomsday, Soul Harvest and Levia, Redeemed.

What is the strongest single sequence in this Levia list?

It is Call to the Grave fetching Beast Within. It has go again, puts a 6-power card in your hand, and counts as banishing a 6-power card. That turns on Levia's ability, Diabolic Offering and Graveling Growl before you commit a real attack.

When is it safe to swing Hexagore, the Death Hydra?

Hexagore, the Death Hydra deals you 6 damage minus the blood debt cards in your banished zone, so hold it until that count is high. At six or more it costs you nothing. Before that, swing it only if the self-damage is worth it, such as when the hit sets up lethal.

When should I transform into Levia, Redeemed?

Play Doomsday and any big Soul Harvest first. After the transform they lose their blood debt payoffs, and Hexagore, the Death Hydra hits you for the full 6. Transform when the blood debt drawback costs more than your weapon gives you, not just because you reached 13.

What are the hardest matchups for Levia?

Cindra, Dracai of Retribution, Ira, Scarlet Revenger and other aggro decks are unfavored because they punish your self-damage. Block early with Engulfing Shadows and Carrion Husk, and take the end-phase cleanse every turn you can. Don't swing Hexagore, the Death Hydra into an empty banished zone.

How should I play my first turn when going first?

Your graveyard is empty, so the banish attacks can't pay their cost yet. Lead with self-starters like Wrecker Romp, Deadwood Rumbler, Rockyard Rodeo, or Bloodrush Bellow when the rest of your hand is all sixes. Then arsenal a graveyard-dependent attack for your second turn.

What budget swaps can I make for Levia without breaking the deck?

Buy the core first, since a version missing it is a weaker deck. You can delay Crown of Providence, using Scowling Flesh Bag or Skullhorn instead, and Nullrune Gloves, using Gauntlets of Tyrannical Rex. A third blue Dread Screamer can stand in for Soul Harvest, and a third Call to the Grave for Doomsday.

What should I practice before taking Levia to a tournament?

Drill counting the 6-power cards in your graveyard before random banishes, and pitching 6-power cards to turn on Gauntlets of Tyrannical Rex. Track your life around 13 so you choose when Carrion Husk leaves. Also practice the mirror, since Levia was heavily entered.

Metagame Context

Built from Brodie Spurlock's Top 4 list at Calling: Mexico City 2026 (2026-10-26), via fabtcg.com official decklists. Metagame context comes from a research brief dated 2026-10-19 covering 2026-09-20 to 2026-10-19, drawn from fabtcg.com (official Flesh and Blood site). Card text and prices: the-fab-cube card dataset and tcgcsv.com (TCGplayer prices).

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Source: tournament results. Decklist and placements as reported by the event organizer.