Before Friday
Fai and Arakni October 23 Classic Constructed Cutoff
- For official Classic Constructed events on or after Friday, October 23, 2026, replace Fai, Rising Rebellion or Arakni, Marionette as your hero. Their signature weapons, Searing Emberblade and Hunter’s Klaive, leave the format too.
- The October 20 announcement from Legend Story Studios follows Week 4 of Pro Quest: London. Both heroes crossed the 1,000-point Living Legend threshold.
- The important date for your event is October 23, rather than the day the article appeared. The change applies to the named cards, including other printings of those same cards.
- You can keep playing these adult heroes in the separate Living Legend format, subject to that format’s own card restrictions. A Classic Constructed Armory doesn’t become a Living Legend event just because you bring a retired hero.
Four exact cards
Fai, Arakni and the Departing Weapons
| Card | Role | What changes on October 23 |
|---|---|---|
| Fai, Rising Rebellion | Adult Draconic Ninja hero | Can’t lead an official Classic Constructed deck. |
| Searing Emberblade | Draconic Ninja weapon | Can’t be registered in Classic Constructed, including with another compatible hero. |
| Arakni, Marionette | Adult Chaos Assassin hero | Can’t lead an official Classic Constructed deck. |
| Hunter’s Klaive | Assassin weapon | Can’t be registered in Classic Constructed, including with another Assassin. |
- Changing Fai to Cindra doesn’t save Searing Emberblade. Its own Classic Constructed legality changes, even though both heroes can use Draconic Ninja cards.
- Changing Marionette to Uzuri or Huntsman doesn’t save Hunter’s Klaive either. Choose a legal weapon for the new hero and rebuild the turns that depended on marking with Klaive.
- This announcement doesn’t ban every Ninja, every Assassin, or every card from Uprising or The Hunted. Check each card against the new hero’s class, talents, specialization rules and the current banned list.
What you lose
Fai’s Phoenix Flame Engine and Replacement Choices
- Fai can start with a Phoenix Flame in the graveyard. His once-per-turn instant ability brings a Phoenix Flame back to hand, with its resource cost reduced by your Draconic chain links.
- That makes a known follow-up attack available without first drawing it. If a hand relied on retrieving that Flame to continue the turn, replacing only the hero and weapon can leave the sequence short.
- Choose which part of Fai you want to keep. Cindra preserves access to Draconic Ninja cards but uses a dagger engine. Katsu offers a combo-search plan. Ira gives a simpler reward for sequencing a second attack.
- The replacement examples below are deckbuilding starting points, not tested complete decklists or a ranking of tournament strength.
Closest shared card pool
Cindra, Dracai of Retribution After Fai
- Consider Cindra if keeping your Draconic Ninja cards matters most. Her Royal and Draconic talents don’t turn her into Fai, and they don’t let her use Dromai or Fai specialization cards such as Red Hot.
- Cindra creates a Fealty token whenever you hit a marked hero.
- A marked hero loses that condition when a source controlled by an opponent hits them. To earn another Fealty token from another marked hit, you need to mark them again.
- You can destroy Fealty to make the next card you play that turn Draconic; that doesn’t change which cards are legal to include in your deck.
- Her once-per-turn instant ability equips up to two Draconic daggers from your graveyard, with a resource discount for your Draconic chain links.
- Kunai of Retribution attacks for one resource and has go again, but its activation schedules its destruction when the combat chain closes. Cindra can recover eligible daggers once they are in the graveyard; you can’t recover one that hasn’t gone there yet. Closing the combat chain clears its chain links. With no Draconic chain links remaining, the recovery ability costs three resources, so don’t assume it is always free.
- Don’t copy Fai’s opening assumption that a Phoenix Flame starts in the graveyard. Cindra doesn’t supply that permission or Fai’s Flame-return ability.
- Cindra was at 966 Living Legend points in the October 20 leaderboard check, only 34 below the threshold. That is a real risk if you would need to buy most of her deck. Her current eligibility isn’t a promise of a long remaining run in Classic Constructed.
Build around combo
Katsu, the Wanderer After Fai
- Consider Katsu if you want to stay with Ninja attack sequences and are willing to rebuild around combo. The first time an attack action card you control hits each turn, you may discard a zero-cost card to search for a card with combo. You banish the found card, shuffle, and may play it that turn. It doesn’t go into your hand.
- Finding the combo card doesn’t pay its cost to play or give you an action point. If you pass on the first qualifying hit, a later hit won’t trigger Katsu again that turn. A dagger hit isn’t an attack-action-card hit. Keep enough attacks that can meet the condition, zero-cost cards you can discard, and useful combo targets in the deck.
- Katsu has no Draconic talent. Phoenix Flame and other Draconic cards don’t become legal for him just because they came from your Fai deck.
- Keep the relevant cards from your existing Ninja pool, then choose complete combo sequences. A pile of individually legal Ninja attacks can still miss the named-card conditions that make combo work.
A simpler attack plan
Ira, Scarlet Revenger After Fai
- Consider the adult Ira, Scarlet Revenger if you want a straightforward sequencing plan. Your second attack each turn gets +1 power.
- For example, a legal weapon attack followed by an attack action makes the attack action your second attack. If you attack twice with weapons first, the second weapon attack gets the bonus instead. Ira’s power bonus doesn’t grant go again; you still need permission and an action point for the next attack.
- Ira has no Draconic talent and doesn’t return Phoenix Flame. You’ll need a legal non-Draconic Ninja and generic card pool, with a resource curve that supports the attacks you actually want to make.
- The Ira Armory Deck linked above is a product option to investigate, not a newly validated tournament list. Check its full list against current legality before registering it. Use the adult Scarlet Revenger for Classic Constructed. A young Ira card isn’t an interchangeable replacement for this format.
Marked attacks change
Arakni, Marionette’s Engine and Replacement Choices
- Marionette gives your stealth attacks against a marked hero +1 power and a trigger that gives the attack go again when it hits. At the beginning of your end phase, if an opponent is still marked, you become a random Agent of Chaos. A hit removes the mark; if you haven’t marked them again, that opponent won’t satisfy the end-phase condition.
- A stealth attack moved to another hero doesn’t automatically keep the extra power or go again. Stealth by itself doesn’t supply those benefits.
- Huntsman and Uzuri are eligible Assassin directions in the checked October 20 snapshot. Neither has Marionette’s Chaos talent, so remove cards that require Chaos before testing the new list.
- Choose Uzuri if you want to keep a stealth-and-reaction decision tree. Choose Huntsman if you want to rebuild around contracts and information about the opponent’s deck.
Keep the guessing game
Uzuri, Switchblade After Arakni
- Uzuri’s once-per-turn attack reaction banishes a card from your hand face down. When it resolves, you reveal the banished card. If it’s an attack action costing two or less, your targeted attacking stealth card goes to the bottom of its owner’s deck, and the revealed card takes its place on the active chain link. If the revealed card doesn’t qualify, it stays face up in banishment and the original attack stays.
- The replacement is put onto the chain link rather than played. You don’t pay its usual play cost, but you also don’t get effects that require you to play it or attack with it. On-hit abilities still work: a switched-in Shake Down can trigger if it hits a hero, because activating Uzuri satisfies its attack-reaction condition.
- The opponent can respond after you activate Uzuri, before her ability resolves. There’s no response window between revealing the card, bottoming the stealth attack and putting its replacement onto the chain link. Cards already defending stay on the chain link. The opponent’s earlier blocks don’t disappear when the attack changes, and effects on the original stealth card don’t simply transfer to its replacement.
- Start by separating your stealth starters from the attacks you want to switch in. Include enough of both to make the hero ability useful; keeping every Marionette reaction without that balance won’t recreate the old deck.
Rebuild around contracts
Arakni, Huntsman After Marionette
- Huntsman lets you look at the top card of a target opponent’s deck when you play a card with contract, with the option to put that card on the bottom. Use that information to improve the prospects of the contract you’re trying to complete.
- Looking at a card doesn’t itself complete a contract or banish that card. The contract’s actual condition still needs to happen.
- You keep the Assassin class and the Arakni identity, but lose Marionette’s marked-stealth engine and Chaos talent. Regicide’s Arakni specialization can fit an eligible Huntsman deck; it can’t move to Uzuri merely because she is also an Assassin.
- Recheck your weapon plan as well as your attacks. A legal Assassin dagger such as Spider’s Bite pressures defenses differently from the departing Klaive; don’t assume it supplies Klaive’s marking trigger.
Date the choice
Replacement Hero Legality Snapshot
| Adult hero | Class and talents | October 20 Living Legend points |
|---|---|---|
| Cindra, Dracai of Retribution | Royal Draconic Ninja | 966 |
| Katsu, the Wanderer | Ninja | 789 |
| Ira, Scarlet Revenger | Ninja | 134 |
| Uzuri, Switchblade | Assassin | 411 |
| Arakni, Huntsman | Assassin | 280 |
- These five were below the threshold in the official leaderboard check. Points measure progress toward Living Legend, not a power ranking, win rate, price forecast or guaranteed remaining lifespan.
- The current Classic Constructed policy also excludes young heroes, retired heroes and weapons, banned cards and special-use promos. A hero being eligible doesn’t make every card in an old list eligible.
- The specific October 23 announcement controls Fai, Marionette and their weapons. Don’t let an older card-page label or an old saved decklist override that dated cutoff.
Rebuild a real turn
Classic Constructed Deck Change Checklist
- Pick an eligible adult hero and legal weapons first. Put the departing hero and weapon aside so they don’t remain in your event inventory by accident.
- Sort the remaining cards by class, talent and specialization. Check the current ban list separately; changing your hero doesn’t bring back Art of War or another banned card.
- Write out one ordinary opening turn with your old hero, then repeat it with the replacement. Name where the resources, extra attack, go again or card retrieval now comes from.
- Test hands that miss the new engine too: no marked opponent for Cindra, no attack-action hit for Katsu, no suitable switch-in for Uzuri, or no contract card for Huntsman.
- Update the actual list you will register and confirm the event format with the organizer. Keep the original deck together if you also want to play Living Legend.
- For the previous wave, our Dash, Kassai and Oscilio guide covers the separate October 16 cutoff. Those dates and weapons shouldn’t be merged into this October 23 change.
Primary references
Fai and Arakni Living Legend Sources
- Legend Story Studios, October 20 Living Legend announcement: exact two adult heroes, two weapons and October 23, 2026 cutoff.
- Official Card Legality Policy and Living Legend leaderboard: format restrictions, Friday effective-date policy and the dated replacement snapshot.
- Official Katsu Card Oracle, marked-hero rules, Fealty rules, official combat rules, official Cindra profile, Outsiders release notes for Uzuri and Dynasty release notes for Huntsman: gameplay descriptions and timing distinctions.
- Named-card explanations were checked against the official Card Oracle and identified printed cards. Images open the corresponding TCG Spikes card or printing page. Marketplace links are for comparing exact items, not verified delivered offers.
- Sources checked October 20, 2026. No games, full replacement deck validation, matchup win rates or future retirement dates are claimed.
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