The short answer
Usurp the Shadow Throne Hero Rankings
- Best adult hero to test first: Viserai, the Forsaken (IAR106). Of the two adult heroes in the set, we'd try his proactive hybrid build first if you expect aggressive opponents.
- Second overall, first to consider for a slower field: Malice, Domina of the Dead (IAR053). Her allies can give you a strong plan when opponents struggle to clear your board.
- Limited has three ordinary young choices: Levia (IAR002), Malice (IAR054), and Viserai, Between Worlds (IAR107). Choose based on the cards you open or draft; the adult ranking doesn't tell you which young hero to pick.
- Scope correction, September 26, 2026: an earlier version ranked adult Levia first. We had ranked which existing decks benefit from the set instead of answering which heroes in the set are best. Adult Levia is excluded here; young Levia remains in the Limited comparison.
- Provisional, not tournament-proven: our Classic Constructed (CC) picks come from two experts' builds and matchup advice, so confidence is low; we haven't playtested them ourselves. The set released September 25, 2026.
- Heroes printed in the set: Card Vault's downloadable card list identifies five base hero printings in the booster product. Viserai, Usurper is a reverse face, not an additional contender. Baalghor, Omen of the End (IAR159-RF) belongs to the prerelease product; his Marvel belongs to Omens of the Third Age. An IAR number on a card doesn't, by itself, mean you can open that hero in the booster set.
Rank 1 · Adult Runeblade
Viserai, the Forsaken
- Why we would start with Viserai: Yuki Lee Bender describes a proactive hybrid usurp and rune gate build she considers favored or even into aggressive decks. Michael Jaszczur identifies aggression as a challenge for Malice. That makes Viserai our first choice to test against aggressive decks, but we're drawing a conclusion from their advice; we don't have head-to-head results or proof that he wins more overall. Read Bender's September 24 analysis.
- How the deck works: Malefic Incantation and Runechant of Lust help sustain Runechant production. Widespread Annihilation and Widespread Destruction provide disruption. You'll need to balance Runechants, playable blood-debt attacks and Gates while managing banished cards you can't use yet.
- The Forsaken side banishes the top card whenever you create one or more Runechants, then traverses if you have created at least three that turn. Usurper gives the first blood-debt attack action you play each turn go again. Only that first attack gets go again; the ability doesn't extend every attack. Read both hero faces.
- A list to start from: Bender's September 24 reference list accompanies a 54-card core and matchup-specific additions. Her guide discusses larger 65-67-card configurations against fatigue. Usurp the Shadow Throne helps with that endgame plan, but it isn't an automatic answer to every opponent.
- The strongest counterargument: banish variance and below-rate cards can hurt long games. Ripple Away interferes with Runechant production from action cards, while Circlet of the Eternal End can remove a key banished attack. The hero's abilities don't guarantee you can recover from that disruption.
- Choose Viserai if you expect aggressive opponents and enjoy planning complicated turns. Practice against fatigue and targeted disruption too, because strong proactive turns won't solve every matchup. This recommendation is for the new Forsaken hero, not Viserai, Rune Blood.
Rank 2 · Adult Necromancer
Malice, Domina of the Dead
- When we would choose Malice first: Michael Jaszczur's September 22 analysis gives Malice two distinct plans: get value from small hands against aggressive decks, or save Gates and Corpses to build a larger board against slow decks. If your local opponents are slower, that second plan could make her your first choice. Read Jaszczur's matchup plans.
- A list to start from: Jaszczur's September 22 reference list uses 12 allies: three each of Restless Templar, Restless Commander, Restless Magister, and Restless Quartermaster. His article distinguishes a 51-card core from non-equipment sideboard options. Those are the numbers for his list, rather than rules every Malice deck has to follow.
- Cards to consider: Dead Threads supports recurring resources, while Crown of Providence, Base of the Mountain, and Undead Grasp help manage awkward hands. They're cards in the expert build, but you don't necessarily need every one, and an optimized list may be expensive.
- The strongest counterargument: allies can't defend from hand, and aggressive opponents leave you less time to put your cards in the right zones and build your resources. A Corpse created in the banished zone is not already an attacking ally. Vox Necropolis supplies the entry-triggered attack when a zombie arrives from the graveyard or banished zone; Malice's hero ability doesn't do that by itself. Read Malice's hero text.
- What players are reporting: Armory Deck discussion echoes concerns about nonblocking hands and aggressive opponents, with Dead Threads frequently discussed as an upgrade. A separate Guardian matchup discussion describes troublesome Corpse boards but also counterplay. Those comments give you reasons to test both plans, but they don't show a consensus or tell us a matchup win rate.
- Choose Malice if you enjoy maintaining an ally board, especially into slower opponents with limited ways to clear it. Armory Deck: Malice, released September 18, provides an assembled starting point. Having a ready-made deck doesn't mean Malice is easy to master.
Results audit
Usurp Hero Win Rates and Tournament Evidence
- Tournament results are still too thin to rank them: in the sources checked on September 26, we did not establish a comparable post-release CC event cohort with participation, finishes, and decklists for both eligible adult heroes. That means we couldn't confirm enough comparable results from the sources we checked; it doesn't mean no events happened.
- Reference lists are not tournament results: the official Zero to Eighty decklists have no tournament placement. We use the authors' explanations to understand the decks; appearing alongside paper results on a third-party tracker doesn't turn those lists into tournament finishes. Check the official decklist archive.
- Why we aren't ranking by these win rates: the FaB TCG Meta live CC page, viewed September 26 with 2 Weeks and Online selected, reported Viserai, the Forsaken at 24.8% over 222 games and Viserai, Usurper at 34.1% over 510 games in separate rows. We couldn't verify which face gets credited for a game or whether the same game can appear twice, so neither row gives us a reliable overall hero win rate, and we did not average them.
- The tracker showed Malice at 31.4% over a rounded 1.0k games. The dated research snapshot records all six displayed rows from our original check, including three adult Levia faces that don't belong in this corrected ranking. We haven't used any of those rows to decide the order or treated deck counts as match counts.
- The environment changed: the September 17 announcement unbanned Brand with Cinderclaw and banned Entwine Lightning in CC effective September 18. A two-week online sample spans that change and the September 25 set release, so it doesn't tell us how the heroes performed in paper events after release.
- What could put Malice first: repeated top finishes for Malice at comparable events, or clearer evidence that fatigue and disruption do more damage to Viserai than his proactive plan can overcome. We'd need results grouped by the hero players started with, after the release and rules changes, along with event sizes, player counts, matchups and decklists. A slower local field can already justify choosing Malice first.
Draft and Sealed
Best Usurp Heroes for Limited
- Pick the hero your cards support: the eligible ordinary choices are young Levia (IAR002), Malice (IAR054), and Viserai, Between Worlds (IAR107). In Sealed, choose the strongest complete playable pool. In Draft, follow the support you receive. The adult CC ranking isn't a Draft pick order, and the evidence doesn't give us one young hero that is always best.
- Viserai: balance Runechant makers with usurp attacks. Too many non-usurp blood-debt cards can leave you paying for resources you can't use.
- Levia: prioritize enough six-power-or-higher cards to support the blood-debt condition. Blasmophet, the Insatiable Hunger has no attack ability of his own and needs cards that command him; don't expect him to give you a free attack every turn.
- Malice: look for zombies, discard outlets, Gates, and blue pitch cards. The official prerelease guide recommends 4-6 zombies and at least 12-14 blues for its exactly 30-card Sealed deck. Those numbers apply to that Sealed deck, not to CC.
- Baalghor is a separate prerelease exception: Baalghor, Omen of the End (IAR159-RF) is a young promo, not a third adult CC hero or an ordinary booster-set option. The prerelease rules allowed him only if opened in your kit. That permission doesn't carry over to ordinary Draft or Sealed. Read the event-specific rules.
- Kasharn Rao's September 15 prerelease guide is the source for these Limited construction and mechanics notes.
Reading list
Sources and Related Guides
- The linked Viserai and Malice articles and reference decklists support the adult comparison. We used official Card Vault data to check which heroes belong in the set, while the two Reddit threads offer player observations and reasons to question the picks.
- Legend Story Studios product page: release dates and featured heroes. Official decklist archive: source classification and recorded finishes.
- Browse the Flesh and Blood guide collection.
- Card artwork belongs to Legend Story Studios and the respective artists. Sources checked September 26, 2026.