Flesh and Blood's newest hero is a pit fighter named Betsy

In Meat and blood's newest expansion, Heavy hittersthe trading card game introduces a brand new hero named Betsy. Set against the backdrop of a fight club known as Rathe's Death Match Arena, few competitors inspire the kind of fear and respect that she does. While other fighters have come and gone over the years, Betsy was born into this life: raised in the shadows of the arena. She embodies the determination, hedonism and excitement that make the gladiatorial spectacle the one place where fighters are guaranteed to win big or lose it all. Those odds pair well with its signature mechanic called wager, which invites players to bet against their opponents for increasingly complex and rewarding combat encounters.

“We wanted a hero who personified the theme of the set, all the bombast and spectacle, the gambling, the drinking, the drinking, the partying, the absolute debauchery,” explains Bryan Gottlieb, senior game designer at Legend Story Studios. Meat and blood's New Zealand publisher, during an exclusive conversation with Polygon. “We wanted Betsy to be the hero who lived all these ideals. She's all about gambling, drinking and partying. And she is loved in this environment for the way she embraces all the excess.

Betsy's hero cards are printed with Meat and blood's Marvel treatment. Some boosters may contain these double-sided cards. “The normal card is in Cold Foil on the front,” says Alex Norvill of Legend Story Studios, “and on the back instead of the regular Meat and blood card back is the full Hero Art with no text, also foiled. They are tournament legal.”

Wager, a brand new gambling-inspired mechanic in Heavy hittersfeatures prominently on Betsy's hero cards by encouraging and rewarding players for using attacks that utilize the betting mechanic, effectively making her attacks stronger when a bet is made.

The mechanic will work as a high-risk, high-reward mini-game that players can choose to use with certain cards – especially in Betsy decks – but other heroes will also have access to bet cards. The way it functions, as Gottlieb puts it: “When you play an attack, you can decide whether you want to bet or not. If the attack hits, you get the benefit of the bet. If not, your opponent gets the benefit of the bet.”

One of the new cards available for betting is the new Bet Big attack, which allows the attacking player to stake additional tokens on the outcome of an attack's resolution.

“You're actually just betting on yourself. You say, “I'm good enough to make this attack.” There's a lot of mind games involved when you offer this bet and you say, 'Yes, I'm going to hit you,'” Gottlieb said. “And when I say this to you, and with that kind of confidence, you have to ask yourself: Should I try to prevent this from happening?”

That's where the mini-game comes into the picture. Once a bet is made and there are additional advantages or resources at stake in an attack, defensive players must consider how much they are willing to do to prevent a particular attack from striking. Maybe it's worth letting it happen so the attacker can spend cards and connect for a modest profit before attacking them again the next turn once they have fewer resources to defend.

Or, on the attacker's side, maybe the bet is a bluff altogether. An attempt to fool the defending player into over-defending, wasting his own cards for fear of allowing a low-impact bet to connect, and inadvertently reducing future defense potential on subsequent turns.

“The phrase 'know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em' came up a lot during the development of this set,” Gottlieb added. “We wanted people to be loud, like yelling and screaming and having big explosive moments… There are moments where you feel like you're gambling, like you're gambling for your life.”

Preview season for Heavy hitters begins on January 17, 2024, followed by the set's world premiere on January 19. Pre-release events will take place worldwide from January 26 to 29, with the set's official release on February 2, 2024. Pack booster boxes, also known as displays, will be available for purchase at local game stores with a suggested retail price of $109.90.