The Doctor Will See You Now

Suddenly: Assassins.

I had suspicions the next Mastery Pack might be Assassins, but I wasn't actually expecting it to be Assassins. I would have thought Ranger, or Ninja, or even Mech deserved first billing. Assassins do need some help somewhere, but I thought it would come from a slice of one of the next sets, not a full Assassin entry point.

Suffice it to say, I'm excited as heck, quite literally on cloud 9. So I decided to break out of my slumber, write something up, and get some thoughts out in the world.

This article will mostly be stream of consciousness, I might not even do an editing pass, because I really just want to get something down on paper, and I know if I start editing things with serious intention, I will very quickly hit a writers block and nothing will get posted (More on that at the very end of the article)

So let's get to it!

As of right now, we know very little about the set. We know the three heroes featured in CSP, we know 3 Majestics, and we know about an armory deck with a new weapon and a new specialization, both supporting a whole new hero.

Additionally, we can assume that this set will be printed under the context of Marionette having hit LL. Just judging by the support already shown off and the ideas presented within them, it seems very clear that LSS has no intention of Marionette still being around to play with any of these cards.

On release, then, Assassin will have four heroes: Huntsman, Uzuri, Slipy, and our new king, Dr. Mortimer.

Knowing these four, I think LSS was very careful about the cards they picked to spoil in the announcement, being Mutually Assured Destruction, Prey on Insecurity, and Remember the Mists.

It's obvious for two of these, but these cards point at very specific characters. Remember the Mists is directly intended to be swapped onto the combat chain by Uzuri and Prey on Insecurity needs go again somehow to turn into a free spike, which comes for free from Slipy.

Interestingly enough, both are playable in Mortimer. Mortimer can give Prey go again with his hero ability (Though, with significant commitment), and Remember the Mists, even without the power buffing, is still significant as being copies 4, 5, and 6 of Surgical Extraction (Though, definitely worse in many regards). Both are definitely considerations in our new hero, but pointed more directly at some old favorites.

I think I need to see more cards to say where Uzuri or Slipy will end up with this support, but I'm inclined to say that both are going to be walking away from this set incredibly happy (Uzuri more so than Slipy, due to being featured in the set's CSP.)

Mutually Assured Destruction seems interesting though, as it looks on it's surface like it's pointing at both Mortimer and Huntsman equally. That said, in the short amount of theorycrafting that has been done, a 2 for 6 doesn't exactly land in Mortimer as well as you might hope. In Huntsman, though, it has a significant synergy with Coercive Tendencies being able to essentially freely trigger contracts for silver when you set it up.

Mortimer might have reasons to run it, but Huntsman will generate way more success with it.

In short, I believe that these three cards are each directly pointing at other heroes in a deliberate attempt to obscure what Mortimer is intended to play as.

Before we talk about the star of the show, I do want to discuss set design. This set is clearly being printed to support CSP with three heroes, so we'll need some limited space to play in.

What's interesting to note is that all three of these heroes being supported have a very interesting relationship with the stealth keyword.

Only one hero in the set, Uzuri, even features Stealth in her textbox. The other two, Arakni and Mortimer, both couldn't care less about the distinction between Stealth and Contract. Uzuri herself works weirdly with Stealth. She doesn't often care about resolving a Stealth card because of the text it carries, but because of the ability to swap it out for something else. This means she mostly looks at auxiliary utility effects found on the cards. Dominate on Isolate. Trap recursion on Under the Trap Door.

Huntsman, as well, loves utility stealths. Thanks to an interesting conundrum created by Hunter or Hunted and sets like MST and PEN, Huntsman is more than happy to jam specific utility stealths in their lists, as well as cards like Double Trouble for extra fatigue uumph.

Given these two heroes both care more about the utility effects of Stealth attacks than the attacks themselves, and given that Mortimer seems to have the exact same relationship to Stealth as Huntsman does, it feels incredibly safe to say that MPA limited will treat Stealths as a whole in the same vein.

In fact, just looking at the support, I can almost guarantee this. Prey on Insecurity doesn't do anything on it's face, and is instead utility for whatever your next Stealth ends up having.

Where am I going with this?

Well, judging by Slipy not being in the set, I think Slipy is unlikely to receive very much direct support in this set. The indirect support will come from utility stealths, which could mean that Slipy might incidentally take the exact same stance as Uzuri and Huntsman moving forward.

You heard that right folks, as of right now, I am theorizing that MPA will mark a major shift in Assassin class design. I believe that Stealth moving forward will be more a marker of utility flex pieces rather than value attack cards. No more Bonds of Agonies, no more Kiss of Deaths, no more Just a Nick or Tarantula Toxins pushing better numbers. Assassin will be forced to interact with meaningful design spaces to out-value their opponents.

Anyways, enough of that. It's time to talk about the Good Doctor, the hit drama from ABC.

First off, before we talk about literally anything else, I need everyone to just look at this artwork. Take it in. Stare at it. Become infested by it.

Othon Nikolaidis absolutely knocked it out of the park on this one. Holy cow. This might genuinely be my favorite non-landscape art ever printed for this game. Staring at this guy sends chills down my spine in the absolute best possible way.

Looking at Mortimer at face value presents a unique take on the class. His top ability blends historic Stealth disease value cards with more modern Huntsman Silver cards. Though I am a touch sad that Huntsman is losing their unique effects, I do believe that the way Mortimer interacts with it will be very exciting to see.

Curing diseases is also often not a cost. For Frailty, you have a window to cure it after your opponent has finished swinging, and Inertia often forces your opponent to play their whole hand anyways, leaving you yet again with a window to cure it after it's done it's damage. Bloodrot Pox will always lose it's text when you cure it, but that's okay when the other two don't.

As an aside, it is incredibly funny that Dr. Mortimer hands the opponent a disease, watches them writhe in agony, and then sells them a cure after they've already recovered from their infections.

Mortimer's bottom ability is the more interesting one, as it presents an immediate on board use for that Silver. This ability, though, is quite a slippery slope. It's a tale as old as time: Players see some broken interaction with go again, lean into it, and quickly leave the class or character because it isn't working well. To put it simply, Assassin is not and never has been an aggressive class. I suspect many players will attempt to build a deck that utilizes Mortimer's go again as much as possible, without adequately understanding how significant of a cost 2 Silver will actually end up being.

In my opinion, I believe Dr. Mortimer will use his ability for go again maybe once or twice per game, on purposefully chosen power turns designed to grab tempo and steal control of the game.

The armory deck reveal shows us two of Mortimer's support pieces, Humour Plunge and Viral Diffusion.

For now, I'm going to all but write Humour Plunge out of consideration. If the opponent is infected, you can turn that disease into a Silver. With two Silver, you can throw Graven Call and buy it back with a +1 counter.

In other words, why settle for temporary +1 you have to work for every turn when you can invest in permanent +1 you get to keep forever?

Viral Diffusion, though, is incredibly powerful.

On it's surface text, it's a two card 4 block Defense Reaction. However, it also creates a Bloodrot Pox for 2 more damage (2 basic value), as well as a Frailty (Anywhere from -0 to -6) and an Inertia (Untold potential value). And in the worst case scenario, once that Frailty has served it's purpose, cure it for a Silver.

In other words, this is almost guaranteed to be a two card 7 value Defense Reaction, which is just an Unmovable. However, that Frailty and Inertia can do significant damage, leading this to be an incredibly potent defensive powerhouse.

It does also give us more context about Mortimer as a deck, context we are deeply missing from the three cards spoiled far above in this article: Mortimer doesn't just go face. There is not a single aggro deck out there that wants to mainboard a 3 cost Defense Reaction. Mortimer's spec is a 3 cost Defense Reaction, meaning this deck is at it's fastest intended to play in a midrange playspace.

Mortimer is a Silver based midrange value deck based on disruption, decision forks, and Silver buybacks.

Wait.

Where have I heard that before?

https://www.blackjackstavern.com/post/revolutionizing-huntsman

On November 9th of 2025, 4 days away from exactly one year before the release of the new set, I posted an article called "Revolutionizing Huntsman".

Revolutionizing Huntsman had a unique thesis: Huntsman, the classic fatigue deck, could potentially use their newfound Silver engine to justify a more aggressive shell with Redback Shroud and Spikes (1 cost +3 AR with text).

The deck needed some love, and was further advanced by other players in the community, until it got shelved with PEN pushing fatigue Huntsman so far into relevancy that Midrange Huntsman didn't really have a place outside of the kitchen table.

Well, one year later, it's back. But this time, with a new hero at the helm.

It's insane to say this, but Midrange Huntsman is a real deck, it was just a year early and missing it's helm.

Dr. Mortimer takes what I did with Gothstana, Riptide, Clement, and Copilot way back in the day, and drags it out into relevancy.

Here is my very early Mortimer list using this design intention: https://fabrary.net/decks/01KZSEPVFQ72P3NEM36BE7SF9R

As we learn more about Dr. Mortimer and Mastery Pack Assassin, I will be at the edge of my seat, toying around with different pieces, different decks, and different ideas. I think Mortimer will end up looking very similar to the old Redback Shroud Huntsman list, but we'll have to see how the deck evolves and expands with more pieces to play with.

If you would like to join in any of that discussion, join into the Assassin Discord and chat along!

To end off this article, I thought I'd do a quick "State of the union" and kind of tell you where I've been for the past 6 months or so.

To make a long story short, a few things took over my time. Namely, my role at work expanded to a place that I needed to kind of just put my head down and focus on the job.

Additionally, in early July, I got proposed to my girlfriend, which required a ton of planning and work beforehand, taking my focus away from Flesh and Blood even more.

I tried to keep writing more articles, and even had something that was supposed to release in April or so (It's even almost fully edited and sitting in my drafts folder), but writer's block started preventing me from wanting to write anything, so I didn't

All things considered, I basically stopped paying attention to this game outside of Armories, and it honestly felt really nice for a wide variety of reasons.

As my time started to free up, I decided to invest that time in other things. I learned Exceed Fighting System (A really cool collectible card game y'all should check out), I set up weekly board game nights with my friends, I got super deep into Slay the Spire 2, I spent time with my family and my friends, I did a lot.

Honestly, I fully intended to stay in that stepped away state, and I can't promise I won't return to it. That said, the hype of Mastery Pack Assassin is making want to completely reconsider that, to step back into competitive play, to write more, to engage more, and everything related to it.

I might be slow getting back into it, but by the time Mortimer releases, I want to be fully back in the swing of this game, going out to events and pushing the hero as far as I possibly can.

I don't want to make empty promises, so I won't, but keep an eye on this website. I very well may keep writing more things for it!