Calling Hamburg 2026

This was my seventh tier 3 or above event on Dash I/O. I reached the top 8 in my first Calling with her in Warsaw in 2024. I always qualified for day 2 and got to the top 16 last year in Hamburg. But I never got to take her back to the top cut. Before Hamburg, I obviously hoped that I could get another top 8 on the hero. After all, I think it was one of the best metagames for her in all the time she’s been legal.

You can find my hero stats on my friend’s fanstastic page: fab-results.net

You can find the decklist I’ve played, including matchups, here.

I lost the die roll, but he put me on the play. I won’t complain, and I immediately punished his decision by setting up Teklo Core from the top and another item from my hand. Hos draw isn’t that great, and I won quite easily. Out Pace helped a lot, circumventing his Face Purgatory and getting off Maximum Velocity.

1-0

Wow, just 11 people on Aurora, and I got to play another one. Reminds me of Calling Toulouse earlier this year, where I played against 3 of 9 Dorintheas in the first 4 rounds …

Anyhow, this is a much better matchup. I won the die roll and went first again. He soul-read me and blocked my Pulsewave Harpoon with his Face Purgatory, which nuked my Spark of Genius that I planned on using to get Teklo Core. However, the top of my deck is said Teklo Core, which I played and sent a gunshot, which mitigated the loss of my power card. My draw was just better than his, and I got there.

To be fair, this is an aggro matchup, and on average my damage output should outvalue theirs.

2-0

I knew that he is a Dawnblade Dorinthea main. Not great news. I won the die roll and started by playing two red Boom Grenades on turn zero, one from hand and one from the top, knowing very well they wouldn’t connect on the next turn.

My goal was merely to put him on the defense immediately. He started by playing Raise Blades, which found him a blue, as he told me after the game, to attack and play double Provoke. No way I get off the grenades now, so I sent a Throttle and set up for the next turn, where I got off Maximum Velocity and used Backup Protocol: Red to arsenal another one.

I had a Teklo Core in play, so I was confident to resolve it on a normal hand. The next hand, however, had 3 items. Then I drew into a 2-item hand, then a normal hand, which just wasn’t enough to put real pressure on his life total. In the meantime, he had stacked a bunch of +1 counters on their sword already, and I drew into another 2-item hand and died.

2-1

I lost the roll, but had a Teklo Core on the top of my deck and a Spark of Genius, along with an item and two blocking cards in my starting four-card hand. He started by sending Ignite, which I took, then sent a dagger, which I blocked with my Teklo Foundry Heart. This confused him a bit. The flick the dagger and then sent another Ignite, which I didn’t block. My brain thought the second chain link didn’t hit. He drew from Mask of Momentum and sent Breaking Point, which I blocked with 2 attack action cards. Overall, not the worst turnout. With Teklo Core and Spark of Genius I got things rolling right from the start, and his draws didn’t match my output.

3-1

He is a super nice guy who is a Hamburg local. I won the die roll, went first, and his turn 1 is quite underwhelming. His only play a blue Saltwater Swell followed by a Tip the Barkeep and nothing else.

My draws were insane. I looked at my hand, saw a Bios Update, then looked at my deck, and it’s a Teklo Pounder. So, this was my turn 2 play. I basically kept smashing at him until I won. He played it well and tried everything, but it was just not in the cards.

4-1

This time I lost the die roll. The game started much better for my opponent than the previous one. He played a Call to the Grave to search for Chum, Friendly First Mate, but I could clear it efficiently.

Shortly after, I had to survive a Conqueror of the High Seas, and soon after I could take the initiative: I baited his Quickdodge Flexors with a looming Boom Grenade trigger, but ended the turn on Max V and connected the explosive item anyway.

Next, he used Call to the Grave to find Oysten, Heart of Gold, which he attacked with a dry hook activation. I used a card to block. I think he followed this up by another aggressive turn where I had to block a Riggermortis with a Loot the Hold on hit attached to it.

The final turn of the game came down to him not having an ally to discard for Anka, Down Under on my Spark of Genius draw. He didn’t have it, and I can get Maximum Velocity off and win the game.

The Italian is a great player and even better guy. His energy and friendliness are just infecting and I am looking forward to celebrating him on his next tournament run.

5-1

The dreaded mirror. I won the die roll and set up Cerebellum Processor from the top, sent a Sprocket Rocket, which got blocked by Crown of Providence and dealt one damage. His hand must have been really bad. I couldn’t push more damage, but I was able to set up more because I saw a Teklo Core, drew it, played a cranked Null Time Zone (naming Zero to Sixty), and arsenaled a card.

Null Time Zone being good in the mirror seems counterintuitive, but let me explain. By naming a card that is a 6 to 9 off in decks, I might be able to stifle their turn significantly. And I am in full control of the item, meaning I can just choose not to remove a counter and let it go away on my next turn. Which I eventually did, as my next hand contained two copies of the named card.

He had a couple of Cerebellum Processors, powered by Spark of Genius, sent a couple red Zipper Hits, and I go to my turn. My turn is alright but nothing special as I don’t find an item from the top. He pushed out a pretty sick turn, powered by an extra action point from his Heavy Industry Gear Shift. He ended the turn on Maximum Velocity, which I had to block with equipment, and I found myself below 10 life. He was still at 22 at this point with 5 or 6 Armor Block remaining. Luckily for me, he didn’t find an item from the top that turn.

I started my turn with two resources from Teklo Core, a Spark of Genius in Hand, a Sprocket Rocket, an Expedite, a Fast and Furious, and another Sprocket Rocket. I sent the first Rocket for four, banishing Teklo Core from my deck. He didn’t block, and I cranked a red Grenade from the top. Good start. I drew a red Zero to Sixty with my Processor and Spark for another red Grenade, as I needed to threaten lethal to take cards from their hand. I drew from Spark and couldn’t believe my eyes: It’s Maximum Velocity. We rollin’! The next Rocket attacked for 4 as well, and I turned up winning the game that turn, as his hand had a non-block. Casually threatened 37 damage ….

Fun sidebit: We played the matchup at a previous Calling at a side event, and the start of the game was quite similar, with him using Crown on my turn 0 and having many items early. But my draws back then were a lot worse, and I lost the game.

I still hate the mirror.

6-1

Round 8 was finally versus the most-played deck, and a favoured matchup: Oscilio. Mirko Dolce is a former Value Vampires teammate from Italy and on the spells version of the deck. I won the die roll and started the game but didn’t have anything special. I was forced to crack my Viziertronic to unlock my hand of four reds (including a Boom Grenade), and he used their Balance of Justice because of it. However, this mostly increases their blocking ability and is not as punishing as against the Gone in a Flash version.

I constantly pressured him, and he amped an Aether Flare but didn’t have an instant spell to follow up, but he rather used Storm Striders for another action that put me to 4 life. I still have Arcane Barrier 1, and he didn’t have the reach to kill me on my turn, so I got there.

7-1

Fantastic ending for day 1; however, it’s not the time to celebrate yet. I was well aware that the job is not done, as I thought back to my Calling performance in Rotterdam, where I started 6-1, won my first match on day 2, and then got crushed by the eventual winner of the event, Michael Feng, in a favored matchup –  and pretty much everyone else after.

The Danish TCG master was on the spell version of the deck. I lost the roll. He dealt 4 arcane damage on their first turn, and I got to filter my hand a bit. He commented that this was probably a misplay, allowing me to filter for just one damage. I’d tend to agree.

I had a pretty good draw, but couldn’t seem to find resources in my first big turn. I didn’t find any blues or even yellows on top of my deck; neither did I draw any from my Spark of Genius. This forced me to postpone attacking with a Maximum Velocity to the next turn. The game got down to the wire mainly because his Ponders and topdecks from the hero ability on his small hands were lining up perfectly.

I did, however, find a crucial item, Null Time Zone on top of my deck, named Sink Below, which he had only used one before and sent exactly lethal with two gunshots. Turns out, he only had 1 Sink Below in his list. This was closer than I was hoping for, but Simon navigated it perfectly to his outs.

8-1

My friend and Berlin local Linh Tranh were on the Gone in a Flash variant of the deck. I won the roll, and we got deck-checked. Next to us, Adam Urban and Daniel Brockhage were having an epic sword fight that was still going on when our match concluded.

I started by hitting him hard on turn zero. I found Cerebellum Processor and “leaked” 6 damage, and still had a card for my arsenal left over. That was pretty much the perfect start. Overall, my draw was just way better, and I won rather easily.

Linh then proceeded to finish in the top 32 and cash their first Calling. Congrats!

9-1

Enes Findik from Germany is a good friend and is on the Gone in a Flash version. I did lose the die roll, had a red Boom Grenade in hand, but was able to block his attacks efficiently. They did not send arcane damage, so I am stuck with the grenade in hand. My turn 0 is unfortunately quite weak, partly due to the item. I eventually lacked a counter on my gun to present lethal and die on my turn, when he needed to find an arcane spell in the top two cards. They did and dealt a total of four damage to kill me.

9-2

I was aware of the fact that he won a Battlegrounds in Poland on a defensive-minded version of the deck recently, giving the hero its first Living Legend Points. The game was on stream, and it was a win and in for both of us.

You can watch the game below, and I highly recommend it, as it is super close and very entertaining, on top of being a good example of how to fight fatigue as Dash I/O.

There are, however, a couple of thoughts I’d like to add. I knew that his deck has great defensive capabilities, which led me to play the full fatigue package, including Plasma Mainline and Null Time Zone.

There were two crucial situations in the game. The first one was hitting with Heist which was powered up by Bios Update, which found a Boom Grenade from the top, while having another one in play.

The other is the final turn of the game, where I had to find my one remaining item: Backup Protocol: Red. I had to use Teklo Foundry Heart once that turn and had to pray it wouldn’t banish the much-needed item.

I eventually got there without any cards remaining in my deck. What a relief! Adam was understandably a bit stunned, as this was the first time he lost to Dash I/O on Hala. He even won their finals of the Battlegrounds against the mechanlogist hero.

100% one of the best games I have played at a higher level so far.

10-2

I got paired down to my Table One teammate, Francesco. He could only reach the top 16 with a win, and I had to play for position in the top 8. Finishing on a higher seat is very good with DIO; hence, I really liked to try to win this round as well.

We were about to prepare for the game when Francesco realized that his deck was missing. Not a great start. However, he bolted over to Lost and Found and returned a couple of minutes later with his deck. Lucky guy!

I won the die roll, looked at my hand, and saw a Spark of Genius and a blue, thinking to myself that this is a great start, as I could set up Teklo Pounder. A second later, I realized I had the Pounder in hand, so I could just play it out and keep the Spark for my next turn. I passed and checked my next hand, where I saw that I would be able to get off a nice Maximum Velocity turn.

Francesco had a great start as well. He opened with a Kiss of Death, which I didn’t block. He flicked his dagger, which marked me, and played a Stains of the Redback. He proceeded by closing the combat chain, played Orb-Weaver Spinneret followed by Codex of Frailty. Wow! Not a bad opener.

I did, however, have just an amazing draw and was able to get his Mask of Deceit for very little value. I attacked him with Expedite; he blocked with Mask and Boots, transformed into Trap-Door, I sent a four-power attack, which was defended by a Fate Foreseen, and I followed it with a Pulsewave Harpoon from Arsenal, which came for 3 because of the Frailty token. The attack forced him to block with Savor Bloodshed. He keeps an Up Sticks and Run and a Lair of the Spider. I sent Zero to Sixty of the blue variety, which they didn’t block. I saw no reason to send my Heist into their traps and decided to just shoot my gun for 1.

Overall, my draw was just very good, and I secured the second seat going into the top 8.

11-2

The Top 8 is five Oscilio, Constella Intelligence; two of them play Gone in a Flash, while the other three are on the spell version, with no attacks. There is a Kassai and a first-time Calling Top 8 appearance by Marlynn, Treasure Hunter.

This game was streamed, like the rest of my top 8 games. Daniel’s list was rather offense-minded, including a bunch of two blocks and “just” seven defense reactions. This led to me not bringing the full fatigue package and rather just one of the three Teklo Pounders, as I feared that if I drew too much setup, he could take advantage of it and win a race. I was the higher seat and chose to go first.

There’s one turn where Daniel couldn’t block out my Heist at the end of the chain, which did put me quite far ahead in the game. Unfortunately for him, he made me aware of the two-block, as he briefly revealed it at the previous chain link where he contemplated putting two cards in front of my Out Pace to prevent Boom Grenade from hitting. Overall, the game goes pretty well. I sent a Maximum Velocity turn at them, and the life totals were 13 to 30 at that point.

This was when Daniel said out loud that it would help him if I drew a four-item hand. I picked up my cards, and it was three items and a Spark of Genius. Close enough. Luckily, there were two Backup Protocols and a Teklo Core. My original line was to send something fetched with BUPR and use the Spark to get another Teklo Core.

I realized too late that I didn’t have a Core remaining in deck, so I had to go for a different line. I grabbed a Heist, which demanded a card and equipment, and sent my gun, parked the Spark in the arsenal, and passed my turn.

At this point, I thought that I just needed to threaten a bit of damage every turn and set up a final blow. However, I didn’t have it on my bingo card that sending Expedite at his Sellsword token would net me the action points needed to get over their blocks and win the game.

I got my rematch against Enes, which was one of my two losses in Swiss. This time I got to go first, and although I dealt a lot of damage on turn 0, he got to deal 5 arcane damage as well.

The game was quite close, largely due to Enes drawing really well from their hero ability. In the endgame, I didn’t have to risk getting scammed by arcane damage on my turn, and due to finding a well-timed item from the top, I got there.

I am very happy for Enes on his first Calling top 8 and for myself getting the chance to win on Dash I/O.

I got to go first again, but could only set up a red Boom Grenade, knowing very well that the chances of connecting it on my next turn were quite low. I passed; he played a Sigil of Solace and Chromatic Refinement on my turn, followed by Aethersling for 6 on his turn. I feared that I was getting rolled, but he didn’t have a follow-up and just arsenaled a card. You can see on the stream that he drew into Will of Arcana and two defense reactions. As expected, the grenade didn’t connect, and my first couple of turns I just traded damage with him, not finding anything impactful.

However, there’s a turn where he unluckily pondered into a Mental Block a bit later in the game and took a lot of damage to bring me down to 9. I went into my turn with a blue, two yellows, and Spark of Genius, and due to having access to Arcane Barrier 3 and him not having an arsenal, there was no way he could kill me on my turn.

I attacked him and finished the turn with a lethal attack by Symbiosis Shot.

My friends congratulated me on the win. I got handed the trophy and the prize card, a Marvel Quickdodge Flexors. They took a couple of pictures for the coverage, and I joined Scott Mines on the stream for the winner interview.

After that, we went to a nearby steakhouse for dinner (mushroom salad for me) and shortly after headed back to Berlin, where we arrived after about 3 hours. I came home around midnight. Even though I was super tired, as I was the driver, I still had to read and answer messages and watch the stream of the game against Hala.

In my interview with Scott, he asked me about my decision to bring Dash I/O, and these were my thoughts just two weeks earlier. I just copied it from my notes app:

I thought about how to approach events. Recently, many top players have been focusing on a hero, and it looks like it is paying off: Evan Tanguy on Gravy Bones Jacob Clements on Arakni Marionette, or Brodie Spurlock on Vynnset. This leads me to believe the best strategy is to go all in on a hero and spend most of your time mastering it and its matchups. At a certain point, most of the time when a hero LLs or is close to LL, it is time to rebuild and find a new hero.

My conclusion: I will double down on DIO until she is LL, at least for Calling Hamburg and PQ season. I will, however, begin the rebuild and discover, play, and build new heroes.

Even a bit more than a week after the event, and already another Calling, with Kansas City in the books, it doesn’t feel real that I’ve won the event. I want to conclude by thanking my team, Table One and our sponsor, Fablazing. I would also like to thank my friends and locals; they have been amazingly supportive before, during, and after the event. This community is why I love playing Flesh and Blood. If you want to connect, you can find me on Twitter here.

Last but not least, I have screenshotted some of my favorite comments from chat, Discord, and X.