The Telltale Stark

This article contains Minor Spoilers for the First Episode of the Telltale Game of Thrones video game and for the song of Ice & Fire series.

You may have first heard of Telltale Games through The Walking Dead series.  These games are essentially visual novels, where you are asked to make decisions for characters at certain points in time, often under the pressure of a timer.  Aside from the occasional quick time event, your "success" or "failure" often comes down to the consequences of these decisions.  I was never a huge fan of The Walking Dead so I passed on picking it up, but when I heard there was a Game of Thrones version coming out earlier this month it caught my interest.  The genre had finally been meshed with subject matter I could really get behind, and after the first chapter, I wasn't disappointed.

The game is broken down into six episodes which are released periodically to form the entire story.  During the first episode you take control of three characters related to the Forrester House, bannermen to the Starks during the War of the Five Kings which occupies the majority of the second and third books of the series.  Gared Tuttle, squire to Lord Gregor Forrester is serving alongside the Stark army when he is forced back to Ironrath, the seat of House Forrester, with a grim message for his Uncle Duncan, the castellan.  Gared is a young man of humble beginnings, relatively unskilled at swordplay but knowledgeable of combat from his time as squire.  Much of the swordplay and "combat" is concentrated in his storyline.  

However fans of Game of Thrones should know the tension in the series doesn't always come at the edge of a sword, but at the tip of a tongue.  Balancing diplomacy and deceit among a cast of characters that each have their own agenda is part of the political intrigue in GoT, and to play is first-hand got my heart racing.  While Gared's decisions often revolve around loyalty and honor, the duplicitous nature of Westeros politics takes precedence in the other two characters of the first episode.  

Ethan Forrester is the third son of Lord Gregor, but is forced into the role of leading the house in his father and elder brother's absence.  He is surrounded by competent men who each have their own opinions on the best form of leadership, including the diplomatic Castellan Duncan, the stoic Maester Ortengryn, and the stubborn master-at-arms Ser Royland.  Who you choose to take council from in critical moments will shape the young leader, and there are plenty of critical moments for Ethan and House Forrester as he tries to navigate his family through a sea of shifting alliances.

Mira is called before Cersei & Tyrion in King's Landing.

Ethan's older sister Mira is handmaiden to Margeary Tyrell, the betrothed of King Joffrey Baratheon.  While Ethan has the backing of his ancestral family lineage behind his decisions, Mira is in uncharted territory at King's Landing.  There are eyes and ears everywhere, and several characters have something to offer her... if she can trust them.  Her mother writes to her hoping she can pull some strings with Margeary to benefit House Forrester in these troubled times, but from the onset of her storyline it becomes apparent that task will be nowhere near easy.  Within minutes of adopting Mira's character she is called before Queen Regeant Cersei Lannister to vouch for her family's loyalty to the crown.  Cersei hurls volley after volley at Mira in quick succession, all in the presence of Margeary and Tyrion Lannister, Master of Coin.  It's one of the most tense moments in game, and the part I most want to replay for fear I may have inadvertently pissed of the wrong person, without even being fully aware of it.  So much is said in the sideways glances and the silence between decisions that even when I'm pretty sure I emerged unscathed, I'm left with doubt.  You may know if your answers pleased Cersei from the prompts in the upper-left of the screen, but what does Margeary really think of how you handled yourself?  Or Tyrion?  And what of your fellow handmaiden Sera, is she to be trusted?

One of the criticisms I've seen in the forums of the first episode is that none of your decisions bear consequential fruit right away.  The episode's thrilling end is the same regardless of your decisions, though with five more episodes to come, it's certain the choices highlighted at the end will affect the story in the future, such as Ethan's punishment for a man accused of thievery.  Even innocuous decisions such as whether to pocket a key weigh on my mind.  What implications could this have down the road?  Will I encounter some door I can't open without it?  Will someone notice the key is gone and suspect me or treachery?

An early concern I had about the game was that it would shoehorn in popular characters from the show just for the sake of having them in there.  However the retinue in King's Landing weaves itself perfectly into the personal plot of the Forresters, without detracting from the main plot set forth in the books.  The voice acting is solid and adds to the tension if you're a fan of the television adaptation, since you know the wrong word at a particular moment could mean a beheading (or debearding).  If you're concerned that the story will be mired in King's Landing and Ironrath, worry not.  There are still two more playable characters in the overall series that haven't been introduced, including the exiled Asher Forrester in Essos, where Daenerys Targaryen is becoming a rising star in Slaver's Bay.  There's also good reason to believe we'll be seeing the Night's Watch of The Wall, though more than that I won't say.

I picked the game up on sale over Steam, and I'm really eager to play the second episode, slated to release in January, in the hopes of finally seeing some of the consequences of my decisions.  Fans of the show to consider this game, particularly if they enjoyed The Walking Dead or visual novels, though those unfamiliar with Game of Thrones might be lost a bit regarding some of the more important events in the game.  The first episode clocked in around two-and-a-half hours for me, and with five more to go that means a full playthrough will be the better part of a day.  

And We'll Never Beat Royals

A few weeks since its release, one of the dominant draft archetypes to emerge from Shattered Destiny is humans, thanks in no small part to the addition of Sir Giles Rowan, the new Ruby Champion.  If you manage to get a single Ruby threshold, you can spend four charges to target a troop.  That troop and every troop that shares a trait with it (Race, Class, Robot, Pet) gets a permanent +1 Attack boost, including troops outside of play in your hand, deck, or graveyard!  This is a strong effect to be sure, but it does force you to try to keep most of your troops within a particular race to make the most of it.  While I've seen Giles in Orc and Dwarf decks as well, he gets truly scary when combined with Humans, since their troops tend to be a little on the weak side, but excel in the utility they bring to decks.

Take an unassuming card like Shield Trainer.  Though he was the bane of Burn in triple Shards of Fate draft from his inspire ability, he was quickly outclassed by larger troops, with little ability to trade with other troops once players reached four or five resources.  With Giles power he grows to a 2/1 just by being another human, which greatly increases the number of troops he can trade with.  While this meager buff may not sound impressive, keep in mind this effect is just what is happening to your support crew.  The main hitters in your deck will get this permanent power boost, which makes them more threatening on an aggressive draw and better to trade with problematic troops in you're behind.  Daring Swordsman becomes more daring, winning fights with even the meanest of Squirrels; the Phoenix Guard Aeronaut can finally chew up the the 2/4 Flight troops that clogged the skies in Set 1; and Sword Trainer can sharpen the skill of your late game guys even more.

Aside from overall power, there are additional pros that come with drafting humans.  Unlike Dwarves, which can quickly fall apart if you don't get enough cards to support it, Humans tend to be more forgiving of dipping outside of their race.  Since you won't be assembling construction plans or firing a Volcannon, you can afford to take an Arena Regular or Goreseeker to round out your curve (if the class matches, these troops will also benefit from Rowan's ability).  Humans also have a greater pool of removal to choose from.  Diamond and Ruby both have strong removal options in Shards of Fate, and Sniper of Gawaine will often be a 3/2 when he hits the field, giving you greater range for taking down your opponent's men (sorry Wreckasaurus... not today).  

Some of the cons associated with humans is, more than the other races, you have to pay attention to your threshold when you draft it.  You'll likely be Diamond as one of your main shards, with Sapphire and Ruby as support.  This can be tricky to juggle if you don't see any fixing, so it's often good to make sure you have a core deck of two shards that can win even if the third type is absent.  Also, even though Humans are deep, it is an incredibly popular archetype, meaning you'll likely be fighting tooth and nail in the third pack for an Inner Conflict or Ruby Pyromancer while the Wild and Blood players happily scoop up their Murders and Boulder Brutes later in the pack (in my experience, good Blood and Wild cards tend to go later in 2-2-1 than they have in Triple Set 1).  My main caution would be don't try to force Humans if it doesn't look open.  How will you know if it's open?  A general rule of thumb is to look for Royals.

If you are at pick three or four and there is still a card with the word Royal in its name, that's a good sign that Humans are open.  I'll use my last draft as an example.  My first two picks were an Agent of MOLE and an Electroid, and I was perfectly happy to punch face with robotic fists for three rounds, Kismet willing.  But pick three came around and a Royal Valkyr was still in there.  Despite some solid robot support also in the pack, I scooped up the Valkyr, being a strong signal that the guy passing to me was not in Humans (the first pick was likely the rare, which could have been a Jags for all I knew, so you can't glean much from that).  Pick four was a Royal Herald, which may not be enough to get many people to abandon their first two picks, but combined with the Valkyr was enough to abandon my second pick (I could still run the Agent) and run Humans.  Herald is a perfect card for the deck: indispensable threshold fixing early game (when you need it most) and can usually poke in for a few points of damage while your opponent is tunneling, or will be traded early after you've gotten a useful ability out of her.  One of the problems with inspire troops is you are often reluctant to block with them so that you can keep abusing their effect.  After turn four, the Herald becomes a 3/1, which adds more potential to alpha strikes if she has survived that long.

Other Royal troops to look out for around this time is the Royal Enforcer (a 5/5 with steadfast in tri-shard decks), Royal Cutblood (a fragile 3-drop that is nonetheless incredibly difficult to race if your opponent cannot kill it or you can protect it), and Royal Diplomat, which might be my favorite uncommon in Shattered Destiny.  The Diplomat is just so devastating to play against, and has seemed to cause my opponents fits when it hits the field.  With Gems and Rowan's pump he is a 4/4 Steadfast-Swiftstrike-Flight, which is incredibly difficult to play around.  He resists a large chunk of conditional removal and can single-handedly stop your opponent's assault.  I managed to snag one in pack two alongside a Sword Trainer in pack three.  In one game I played Augmented Awakening on the Trainer which had died earlier in the game (now a 5/4 post Rowan/AA) and played the Diplomat on the following turn making it a 9/4!  That's the kind of diplomatic power John Kerry dreams of.

There are other beefy bodies you'll want to be on the lookout for.  Bastion of Adamanth is really good at locking down your opponent's biggest troop to push through some damage.  Wounded War Hero doesn't look all that impressive, but if you get him out on the first turn he can quikly snowball out of control.  Town Crier is a card I was dubious about initially, but the draw ability can win you the game in some situations, and his stats look much better with the extra point of attack.  Removal is somewhat limited in the first two packs.  Crackling Bolt and Meek are the most frequently seen cards, though Boulder Toss (if you can snag one) and Adrenaline Rush are equally powerful options.  After that you should focus on threshold fixing through the uncommon shards or Herald (Immortal Tears if you have to), and rounding out your curve.  Pack three can be rough depending on how you open, but between the three shards there's usually a good pick somewhere in there (the Royal rule applies here too, if you're lucky enough).  Prioritize good, cheap removal and inspire/evasion troops.  Shards of Fate and Adaptable Infusion Device can be godsends if you're feeling iffy about your fixing, though the Shards of Fate doesn't provide you with the ever important charge for Rowan, so exercise caution.  Benjamin is also a bomb in the human deck that could reasonably be passed to you within the first few picks.  Getting him online early could lead to insurmountable card advantage.

Here's the full draft deck for reference so you can see what a Human deck might look like.

Champion: Sir Giles Rowan
Shards (17)
8 Diamond Shard
5 Sapphire Shard
2 Ruby Shard
1 Shards of Fate
1 Shard of Innovation
Troops (18)
1 Royal Valkyr
1 Launchpad Specialist
1 Royal Diplomat (Flight/Swiftstrike)
1 Bastion of Adamanth
1 Phoenix Guard Aeronaut (Swiftstrike)
1 Subterranean Spy
1 Town Crier
1 Sword Trainer
1 Prophet of Wren
1 Chimera Guard Outrider
2 Royal Herald
1 Agent of MOLE
1 Imp Hoodlums
1 Phoenix Guard Trainer
1 Phoenix Guard Scout
1 Reactor Bot
1 Arena Regular
Actions (4)
1 Augmented Awakening
1 Ruby Lance
1 Meek
1 Diamond Aura*
Artifacts (1)
1 Adaptable Infusion Device
*I'm pretty sure I didn't start Diamond Aura, but I can't for the life of me remember the 40th card and I know I boarded it in frequently.

Next week I'll be doing a State of the Game article and (hopefully) video to overview the year of Hex and what we can expect from the game this winter.  If I actually get a couple days off, I'll try to stream a draft if I get a chance since it was requeste.  Also make sure you log in to the game between now and January 4th for your chance to get the Holiday Sleeves.  Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Card Images from Hex TCG Browser

Shattered Destiny Release Weekend Primer

Shattered Destiny is officially out for Hex!  Kickstarter Backers have received some free boosters to get a jump on their collections, and new items are available from Shattered Destiny chests on the Wheels of Fate, including sleeves, alternate art cards, PvE cards, and equipment!  In addition to all that, this weekend (Friday through Monday) there will be special promos given out for players who participate in Draft and Sealed queues, which will use Shattered Destiny boosters exclusively!  

If you plan on participating in a release tournament, here are some requisite links you'll want to check out to get caught up if you haven't logged in since the patch dropped Tuesday:

• Shattered Destiny Release Tournaments: Overview of the tournaments and prize payout, as well as the alternate art cards to participants and winners.
• Shattered Destiny Card List: All of the nearly 250 new cards found in Shattered Destiny, as well as five new champions available for deck construction.
• Known Issues Thread: Compiled forum post featuring all the bugs that have come up with the latest patch, including card specific bugs you should be aware of for limited play.

Even with the patch a few days old, there are already quite a few articles discussing card evaluation, strategy, and deck construction from various fan sites (Five Shards in particular has a very in-depth card review).  You can find links to these in the Hex subreddit or in the Strategy Forum on the official message boards.  Since the patch launched I've jumped into a handful of drafts utilizing the new general format (2-2-1).  Though drafts and sealed events this weekend will use only Shattered Destiny boosters, I thought I'd give returning players who maybe haven't logged in for a while an overview of some things they can expect from Shattered Destiny so as not to be at too great a disadvantage this weekend.  This isn't meant to be an exhaustive list, but some general tips and early impressions I've gathered from the time I've had to test the cards first hand.

1. Removal is much different in Shattered Destiny.

In Shards of Fate, players wouldn't hold too much attachment to their troops since an Inner Conflict, Repel, or Murder could easily nullify even the bulkiest of beaters.  In Shattered Destiny, the removal is much more number focused.  Diamond in particular has much worse options than it did in Shards of Fate, having to rely on Meek as their only common removal action, which won't be able to oust anything truly threatening.  Two of the best common removal actions, Crackling Bolt and Crackling Rot, are defense based and won't easily be able to deal with anything that has a particularly sizable rump, such as Bastion of Adamanth.  When you venture into the uncommons and rares, you get more general removal like Immortal Decree and Dishonerable Death, though these come with a high resource investment though, so don't rely on them for stopping your opponent's early aggression.  

One of the keywords featured in Shattered Destiny, Lethal, makes up for this a bit.  Cards like Killblade of the Milky Eye and Lethal Weapons are common cards that use the ability, which will allow the Letahl troop to destroy any opposing troop it damages.  This can be effective for punching through damage or forcing your opponent to hold back a big troop.  This makes evasion all the more important when facing off against decks that have cards like this in their arsenal.

2. Tri-Shard decks are more viable, and sometimes encouraged.

With the lack of threshold fixing in Shards of Fate players would often have to resign themselves to choosing two shards and sticking with them.  Shattered Destiny offers much more options for splashing a third shard into your deck with the cycle of uncommon Dual-Threshold Resources and cards like Immortal Tears that can search up a standard resource from your deck.  Getting the uncommon Resources later in a draft can be tricky, particularly the Shard of Innovation since both Dwarf and Human players have reason to take it.  Humans is at the front of the line among archetypes that most encourage you to spread into a third shard.  Uncommon troops like Royal Enforcer and Royal Valkyr can be devastating if you can manage your resources, and the Vanguards of Cerulea and Gawaine are solid troops to fall back on if you aren't super confident going full tri-shard and simply want to splash the third, relying on two main shards to get you through the majority of your games.

3. Familiarize yourself with Tunneling cards and costs.

One of the general things you want to do to prep for a big limited tournament is to familiarize yourself with Quick Actions and effects.  This lets you prepare for combat tricks and removal spells your opponent can play (given the resources they have available) so you can plan your attacks and plays effectively.  In Shattered Destiny, you not only want to familiarize yourself with Quick Actions, but also with tunneling troops.  This way, when your opponent sends something under on turn two you'll go from "That could be anything!" to "Okay, that could be one of a handful of troops."  There are about two dozen tunneling troops spread across four shards (every one but Diamond) and a few artifacts.  Most of them take between one and four turns to pop out from underground, and each of them will be able to attack the turn they emerge.  Prepping an attack or defense can be even more difficult with the effects that trigger when some of these subterranean saboteurs emerge from underground.  The Launchpad Specialist can give an allied troop +1/+1 and Flight when it emerges, and the Wakizashi Ambusher, which can eighty-six a troop with less defense than its power.  Additionally, cards like the Ambusher and Grave Nibbler can get stronger that they would have been when a troop above ground dies.  What might be a reckless attack by your opponent could really be a scheme to make their underground troops more powerful when they emerge.  The effects vary from shard to shard, so knowing what your opponent could have underground is incredibly important to your overall strategy.  

One other thing to note is that you can't seem to choose the order you want troops to emerge from underground.  This was frustrating to one of my opponents who tried to time a Launchpad Specialist and Excavation Hulk.  The Specialist emerged first and failed to use its ability, followed by the much less happy 4/4. 

4. Expect to see new Champions.

One of the things that caught me off guard in my first draft was how strong some of the new champions are.  The Shin'hare in particular are truly terrifying, with the Wild-based Fuzzuko giving all your troops a +1/+1 boost for five charges and the Blood-infused Bunoshi sacrificing a lesser troop to give another a +2/+2 boost for three charges.  Both of these effects are permanent, and put the buffs from previous champs you might be familiar with (like Palamedes) to shame.  There is also a renewed focus on champion powers through the number of cards that gain you extra charges or trigger effects whenever you gain a charge.  Charge Hulk and Inductocopter Bot, as well as an entire set of Crackling cards are just a few of the cards you can use to give your champion some extra mojo.  You might need these extra charges to afford some of the more expensive, but powerful charge powers, such as Daughter of Stars, which at the steep cost of ten charges will return every opposing troop to your opponents hand, giving you an opening to attack through for the win. 

5. You might deck yourself... or your opponent.

Milling was a bit of a wonky strategy in Set 1, usually requiring you to play cards that had little impact on the board outside of their mill effect like Twisted Fate or Spawn of Othuyeg.  In Shattered Destiny, there are some sizeable troops that can help you survive while you slowly chew your opponent's deck away.  Dementia Daisies and the Neophyte of Xarlox can play defense and resist most removal actions while also taking chunks away from your opponent's deck.  Murmurs From The Void is an expensive constant that can act as hard removal for a troop by bouncing it to the top of the deck and then forcing your opponent to discard the top five cards from their deck.  All of these cards could easily find their way into a Sapphire or Blood Sealed Deck, a much slower format than draft.  Drafters can harness the power of these mill effects and build around them with Typhoon Galleon, an uncommon troop that gets stronger whenever a card enters an opposing graveyard, be it from the battlefield or the deck.  Nin the Shadow is also still available as a champion for players who want to dedicate themselves to a draft strategy.

Of course, you'll want to have some luck on your side as well.  There are 18 legendary cards hiding in Shattered Destiny boosters, and more than a few are insanely powerful, including three dragons that can quickly end the game if not dealt with.  Good luck this weekend with your drafts, sealed pools, and the Wheels of Fate spins you will inevitably pour your hard-earned gold into!

Card images from Hex TCG Browser.

Groundswell

Lots has been written about digital design space in games like Hearthstone and Hex.  Games like this not only streamline the tedium of upkeep costs that games demand (like remembering mandatory effects at the end of the turn or maintaining the game state in accordance with the rules), but they also allow cards to interact with the game in ways that they traditionally can't, adding a whole new element of strategy.  The seminal example of this can be seen in the MTG card Fauna Shaman.  It's one of a number of cards in MTG where you get to search your deck for a specific type of card (in this case a Creature card) and put it into your hand.  The benefit of a card like this is you can run a wide array of creatures and use the Shaman to search up the card that you need when the time is right.  A problem arises in a physical setting though, since there is nothing from preventing your opponent from simply picking up their deck and getting any card they want without adding the clause "reveal it" to the effect.  While this solves the problem, it adds a dimension to limited search effects like these where your opponent always has to know what you got to ensure you aren't cheating.

Digital games get around this drawback inherently since the rules are arbitrated by an independent system.  Oakhenge Ceremony in Hex has a similar restriction of only being able to select a troop from the top five cards of your deck, but doesn't require you to reveal it.  You can't choose a non-Troop card because the game won't let you.  Interestingly, there are still a few cards that  require you to reveal what card you chose (Careful Rummaging and Guardian Angel) despite there not being a need to do so.  I imagine this is a conscience decision by the design team, though there may have been mind games involved in trying to guess what card your opponent drew if they just gained four health off their Guardian Angel and passed the turn.  However this isn't the only instance present in Shattered Destiny that demonstrates the advantages that come with working in a digital design space, and each of them is a reason for skeptical MTG players to give the game a try.

One such card is Arborean Rootfather, which got an overhaul from the version we saw in August, now featuring a sort of reverse-cycle effect where it goes back into your deck at a permanent cost reduction.  Not only is this a cool mechanic (that I'd like to see repeated in the future) but cost reduction like this is impossible to replicate with physical cards.  In Limited this effect is particularly strong since having a 7-drop in your opening hand can be a bit of a drag on your tempo.  But with all the tunneling chewing up 2-cost abilities, you'll be free to shuffle this back into the deck without losing too much time or board presence on your second turn.  when you draw it again it will be at a much more reasonable 5-resources.  Archon of Nulzaan does something similar to this, but in reverse, where you can pluck a different version from your deck to abuse various gem setups.  Since the Archon is a rare, you likely won't get to play too many tricks with this ability in Limited, but in Constructed he can become a pretty unique finisher for any kind of deck.  Mimeobot is another card that plays the reshuffle game, selecting a troop in your hand and making replicas of it to shuffle back into the deck.

There are also cards that can give you information that your opponent has without them knowing.  Looking at an opponent's hand is generally something that they will know when it happens.  Cards like Inquisition have effects similar to this included in the text, so you'll know when your opponent has seen a combat trick or removal spell.  Subterranean Spy is a card where that knowledge is less apparent, though there are definitely signs (like threshold) that let you narrow down the tunneling candidates, particularly in limited where the common and uncommon cards are much more frequent.  Canyon Scout has a much more restrictive benefit of only being able to see your opponent's underground troops (which are generally hidden face-down), but uses the effect while in your hand, which means it's much more difficult to get a tell when your opponent knows not to swing into your Fissuresmith.  The covert tactics of secretive information gathering makes me incredibly hopeful that we get to see some serious spy mechanics in the future.  

That whole set feels much more dynamic than the first, perhaps because it is releasing all at once rather than in bits and pieces.  Shards of Fate was an excellent introductory set, but most of the cards were used to establish what the shards and factions typically do.  Shattered Destiny fleshes out that world even most by expanding upon existing archetypes like Humans and Dwarves.  Emergent archetypes like Dinosaurs and Zombies may see play with the addition of the enablers Savage Lord and Izydor, and decks that revolve around a specific card like Booby Trap and Briar Legion get Agent of MOLE and Briarpatch, changing the overall approach of decks the utilize those cards.

There's also plenty of cards that generate random effects as well.  Zakiir headlined my last article, but more have been added.  Reese can churn out random robots at the end of every turn, as well as fundamentally change any effect that would put a lowly Worker Bot into play, making him and Eurig an interesting team.  Teapot of Prosperity can offer a cost reduction to a random array of cards in your deck, while Jovial Pippit can turn a dead card into something else that requires the same threshold.  There are plenty of random effects in this set, but the most game changing might be Eternal Drifter, which gives you the charge power of a random champion along with compliment of charges that you had throughout the entire games. Even if you get something somewhat lackluster, you still get a 6/6 body for six resources, which is nothing to sneeze at.

Shattered Desinty launches Tuesday, August 9th.  To celebrate CZE is holding a release weekend from Friday-Sunday featuring promotional cards to players that participate in Sealed in Draft tournaments.

The Power of Zakiir

What do we want?  Dragons!  When do we want them?  BURN!

Zakiir is part of a cycle of Hex dragons.  The first set brought the Wild and Blood dragons Jadiim and Uranaaz, and Shattered Destiny looks to complete the cycle with the Diamond, Sapphire, and Ruby dragons.  An early version of the Sapphire dragon Zeedu was previewed over a year ago around the time of the Kickstarter campaign, but little information of the other two had been spoiled until this past Friday's Update, where players got their first look at the red menace.  

Like his cousins, Zakiir is a 5/5 flying troop for six resources.  Fatties like that are generally enough to end a game on their own, but Zakiir's ability allows him to generate at random one of five power cards specific to him at the start of each of your turns (similar to the Hearthstone card Ysera).  This means tricky ways of subduing the beast like Mesmerize or Inner Conflict still won't stop the power generation, which are incredibly powerful and cost efficient.  So what are these powers should you open or have to face one down in a Sealed or Draft Tournament on release weekend?

Flame Breath
Flame Breath is the cheapest of the cards you can generate with Zakiir, but it's still a free Ruby Lance that has the added option of burning your opponent directly.  This power pushes Zakiir players towards a mono-Ruby build to make the most use of this, and will likely be the largest source of raw damage among any of the cards.

Flame Servant
Flame Servant is a 4/1 troop for a single resource with both Speed and Swiftstrike.  While this means he's likely going to win most skirmishes he gets into, if he does manage to kick the bucket, or otherwise leaves play, he deals 4 damage to a champion or troop.  Since this means your opponent will likely take four damage anyways, it can be an equally effective source of damage.

Eye of Zakiir
The Eye is a more control style card that lets you draw three cards and deal 3 damage to a champion or troop.  If you're running burn spells like Ragefire or Crackling Bolt, this card can search them out for you to end the game.  In Counter-Burn decks, which may be an option with the addition of Fish Hands, or any other generic control deck, the card draw will allow you to protect Zakiir more.

Destructive Delirium
Destructive Delirium is kind of an outlier in that it nukes all artifacts, which can be particularly strong against Dwarves or Chimes-Combo (since late in the game is around the time you should be concerned about it), but it also permanently scorches four resources from your opponent, draining them from their available resources to boot.  This will most likely cripple your opponent if it resolves, and when multiplayer games are implemented it will hobble every opponent.

Glimpse of Insanity
Is it just more or is Zakiir slowly growing more insane with every power he gains?  I mean, that might have something to do with the flavor text.  Zakiir looks to be a Wild Dragon initially, before he slowly succumbed to the maddening effects of Ruby gems.  Glimpse of Insanity "purifies" the world, cleansing it of all non-dragon kind.  While Jadiim might be able to hold his own one-on-one against Zakiir, more often than not this will be a complete board wipe, save for your dragon of course.

Zakiir is one of those cards that is just fun to own so you can slam him down and spin the wheel at the start of your turn.  I also think this is a good example of randomness done right.  Most of the Powers are icing on the cake... powerful and late-game relevant cards that you earn just from having recruited a dragon to your cause.  I'm curious just how much Zakiir will open at when the set is released on (hopefully) December 9th, but his addition is one more reason to open any primal packs you manage to snag.

Underground Archetypes

The hype-train was derailed this week as the launch of Shattered Destiny was pushed back another week.  While this is unfortunate, it's also understandable considering just how important the launch of this upcoming patch will be to perceptions about how consistently and effectively Hex can implement new material.  Despite this, Shattered Destiny spoilers have been flowing consistently on the main site, as well as Twitch and Twitter.  The set plays on themes that were established in Shard of Fate, empowering strategies that revolve around the four races: humans, dwarves, orcs, and shin'hare.  But hidden among the tunneling rabbits and noble knights of Entrath are a slew of other cards that are just begging to be built around.

Izydor

If I had to do a list of my favorite cards from Shards of Fate, Zombie Plague would be up there.  I mean, who doesn't dream of overrunning their opponent with an army of slavering, brain-hungry minions?  While zombies are a popular archetype in other games, they are separated from their Necrotic cousins in Hex from being a main race.  But just because they're outside the spotlight doesn't mean you can't win games with them, and Shattered Destiny gives zombie fans some love with Izydor, a Goblin whose affinity for necromancy is deadly!  Well... deadlier than normal.  Any zombies you manage to summon from your Plague, or perhaps from a Corrupted Afterlife gain Lethal, meaning any damage they deal will be enough to take down their opponent with them.  Once per game you can use Izydor's ability to create a couple minions out of dead troops (even your opponents) to bolster your field.  The ability requires 5 resources, which can be a bit restrictive.  Add the fact that this Goblin's four-resource cost has him competing with the likes of Vampire King and Xarlox and you may find yourself omitting Izydor in favor of something else in generic Blood control decks.  But for dedicated Zombie decks, he fits right in the curve.  He's also very strong in draft, where you might actually have a use for those 13th pick Determined Zombies that would otherwise litter your reserves.

Constantina

It didn't take long for people to start crying "power creep" when this card was spoiled.  Her combat stats (3/3) were actually boosted from the version leaked at GenCon, where she had one less point of toughness.  Now for only two resources you get a 3/3 with Steadfast that prevents your troops from being bogged down from exhaust effects like Menacing Gralk and Wind Whisperer.  The double Wild Threshold means you'll likely want to only be running the green shards in your deck, but with all the other aggressive Wild cards, a mono-Wild violent beatdown deck could make a serious impact on the constructed metagame.  Constantina is a Unique troop though, which means that while an army of 3/3s might be something you want, you can never have more than a single copy of her on the field.

Archon of Nulzaan

Archon of Nulzaan is one of those cards you might have to read twice.  A 4/4 for 6 is nothing special, but the tactical use of his search ability combined with a diversity of the Gems in both Major and Minor Sockets can give you an answer for multiple situations.  In Sapphire decks you can set it up so three of the Archon's can fly, while one is equipped with the Quick Gem for a savvy combat trick.  You can also search up versions of the Archon that have effects granted from other cards, like Spirit Dance or Replicator's Gambit, for an even more explosive play.  With all the new threshold fixing Shards in Shattered Destiny, it's no longer as crazy to run three or more thresholds in your deck, increasing your Archon specialization options.  The ability isn't strong in Highlander unfortunately, but that's something I'll forgive in my quest to scoop up four copies of this guy ASAP!

Agent of M.O.L.E.

While this guy is a dwarf, he probably won't be played in your typical Volcannon style Dwarf decks.  Sabotage was a card from Shards with lots of cool design but little support.  Now with a stick that can keep on infiltrating your opponent's deck and loading it with Booby Traps, the chance their draw step will be both dead and deadly increases.  His attacks won't kill your opponent outright, but combined with deck destruction cards like Chronic Madness or gem effects like the Prime Ruby of Intensity and Prime Sapphire of Subterfuge, the traps can flow to the top and accelerate your opponent's demise.

Hope you guys had a happy and safe Thanksgiving!

Snow-vember

For those that don't know, I live in western New York, and we are absolutely buried in snow right now.  Generally speaking this isn't exactly new for the area, but such a concentrated amount of snow so soon and so quickly is kinda crazy.  The bright side is I don't have a car to deal with, just a ten minute walk to work and back.  In between I'm in full hibernation mode, which means Strategy games and the new Hex Novel that was released this week.

I'm only a few chapters in, but the novel is solid so far.  It's got all the makings of the classic fantasy bildungsroman, with some Great Wolves thrown in.  The novel's apparent protagonists don't appear to be depicted on any cards as of yet, but the peripheral characters include well known humans like King Gabriel and Princess Victoria.  Prince Talysen is also name dropped, brother to King Gabriel and lord of Gawaine, an area heretofore known for its snipers and legionnaire.  I got pretty deep into the lore of Magic too, particularly during Kamigawa Block, so it's always fun to see what sort of mechanics get put to the iconic characters.  However Hex will also be releasing lore not just through flavor text and novels, but through the dungeons and overarching campaign, and with the Frost Arena coming mere weeks after the launch of Shattered Destiny (assuming it is relatively bug-free), lore freaks like me will be rejoicing!

In the mean time I've been fooling around with Civ5 Mods and have decided to give Europe Universalis IV another go, having bought it last year and not really picked it back up due to time constraints (college and LSAT prep).  Now that the controls are becoming a little more intuitive and I seem to have a grasp of the mechanics, I'm planning on an Ironman run as Castille soon (though I know they've been done to death a bit).  I'll probably end up streaming that this weekend when I get some time, as well as a weekend of Hex events during launch weekend December 5-7th.  We still only have about 150 cards from Shattered Destiny spoiled so far, and since the set has over 200, there's plenty of room for meta-changing and theorycrafting gems to emerge during the previews next week.  When the official set launches, you can view all the cards in the set in the card manager by selecting "Show All," a neat feature I might utilize to do a set review when it's patched in.

Outside of that it will be a pretty relaxing week.  Next week I will try to pre-build a few decklists I'd like to test for the upcoming Blood Cup Tournament.  Until then, stay warm!

Liberating Eldon

As readers of this blog will know, I love me some transforming cards.  It's a simple mechanic, but a broad one that highlights the benefits of working in a digital design space.  Shards of Fate came packed with cards that transform, including two cycles of transforming cards that spanned across all five shards.  The first cycle, the Incantations, are easy enough to recognize since the name jumps out at you.  The other cycle requires a more discerning eye to catch.  It's comprised of five rares that "level up" twice, similar to how a Charmander would level up into a Charmeleon and eventually a Charizard. 

For each member of this cycle you start with a card that is slightly underwhelming for its cost, but that has the promise to become something amazing.  On one end of the spectrum you have cards that get gradually better over time, like Kindling Skarn or Hop'hiro Samurai.  On the other end you have cards which get a huge dip in power like Giant Caterpillar and Ascetic Aspirant, which require you to wait out the second stage before they reach their ultimate forms.  Then there's Eldon's Distress Signal, the intriguing oddball of the group.  While the others all start off as Troops, EDS starts off as a Constant in its first stage, requiring you to exhaust three troops to transform it to the second stage, which is a troop, but can't engage in combat (though he can cast some limited magic from his prison cell).  This execution makes the "transform" mechanic of EDS feel less like a Pokémon you have to level up and more like a Quest, assembling a team of to find the imprisoned mage and coordinate an attack to free him!  It's also a deceptively difficult quest to pull off in competitive play, since board wipes run rampant in Constructed and alpha strikes can be difficult to coordinate in limited.  The pay off for Liberating Eldon is worth it though, essentially giving all of your troops a Prime Sapphire of Mind.  In the months I have played Hex I've never been able to free the mage outside of random matches against the AI, until he found a spot in a deck I drafted not too long ago...

Liberating Eldon
Champion: Palamedes, The Righteous
Troops [16]
1x Malfunctioning War Bot
1x Phoenix Guard Scout
1x Effigy of Nulzann [Sky]
2x Buccaneer
1x Phoenix Guard Trainer
1x Quick Strider
1x Wind Whisperer
1x Devoted Emissary
1x Archmage Wrenlocke
1x Noble Citizenry
1x Ascetic Aspirant 
1x Stoneclaw Gargoyle
1x Mistborn Wendigo [Duty]
2x Phoenix Guard Aeronaut [Duty]
Other [7]
1x Peek
3x Repel
1x Eldon's Distress Signal
1x Oracle Song
1x Countermagic
Shards [17]
9x Sapphire Shard
8x Diamond Shard

I won't go too much into the actual draft, suffice to say it's always nice to crack an Archmage Wrenlocke in your first pack.  Most removal cards are actions, so prioritizing Repels allowed me to decide fairly early on Diamond-Sapphire, a powerful draft combo featuring the bulkiest flying troops.  Diamond turned out to be a good choice since the Aspriant was waiting for me in my second pack.  EDS came pick 4 or 5 of Pack 2, which is surprising to me since it can be game-breaking if left unchecked.  

Eldon plays a bit clunky and even though his abilities all fit thematically, they're a bit of a mechanical mish-mash when rolled into a card.  As such, he has a habit of being a misplay magnet, where there is some aspect of the card players will forget or overlook.  At one point my opponent had a Feral Ogre on the board to my Eldon the Imprisoned and Phoenix Guard Scout, and an exhausted Quick Strider.  I had no resources available for a trick, so with only a 1/3 there was little reason to hold the Ogre back from attacking, but seeing a 2/4 on my side, he kept his Ogre back, forgetting that Eldon is under Inner Conflict so long as he remains in jail.  There was also a moment in one of my matches where my opponent attacked with a 4/1 Thunderbird into my team of four troops + EDS.  I exhausted three to transform into Eldon the Imprisoned, then gave a Swiftstriking Wendigo Flight to shut down the Thunderbird.  (He later got revenge in another game by playing Crushing Blow on a Thunderbird in a similar exchange).  One of the reasons I think there are so many misplays surrounding Eldon is that he plays much different in all of his forms.  Where card like Kindling Skarn stays relatively consistent and just scales up in power, Eldon goes from being a completely useless Constant, to a Murder-able Flight Machine, to a card draw engine.

There were two moments during the draft where both of my Aspriant and EDS each reached their Ultimate state.  I liberated Eldon against Dwarves, coming through with a Devoted Emissary, Phoenix Guard Aeronaut, and one of the Coyotle.  Eldon's freedom didn't last long though, a Ruby Lance for 4 shot him out of the air the following turn.  It was a tragedy, but at least he died getting to taste one last moment of freedom.  The monk of the cloister got to achieve Transcended status in my first match.  While this alone is generally enough to lock a victory, my deck was made it somehow even more broken with Wrenlocke.  My opponent attacked with two troops to which I responded with Repel, searching up another Repel with Wrenlocke's draw, playing the second Repel, and then searching up the third with the draw from that.  I did not envy my opponent, but it was pretty cool to pull off a Legendary-Rare combo in draft.  He did manage to play Inner Conflict on The Transcended, but that didn't stop his effect of letting me tutor up whatever I needed to put away the game.  

I ended up winning the draft, 6-2 on games.  The overall deck was lacking a lot of the heft you might expect from a Sapphire-Diamond deck. Sky'le Griffin and Mystic of the Tranquil Dream were noticeably absent, as were Inner Conflict and Mesmerize.  The curve and Troop count was solid, and Noble Citizenry & Palamedes was able to push my 3 power Aeronauts to aerial domination strength.  

Evaluating Eldon

Eldon is a fairly strong card in limited for his ability to unclog a board.  Flying-on-Demand can be particularly helpful for getting bulkier troops with no evasion off the ground.  The fact this ability is on Eldon's Imprisoned stage is crucial, since it makes the card good enough to play without you having to worry about it reaching the final form.  For Constructed the ability to give something Flight for 2 is much weaker and does not justify including it in a deck, so you have to look at his final form and how to reach it.  This is what presents the greatest problem: for one of your turns you are essentially skipping your attack phase to get EDS to Eldon Imprisoned, and then the next turn (or one of the turns soon after) you need to deal damage with three troops.  Often times being able to coordinate a safe attack with three troops means you're already in control of the game, so the inclusion of Eldon seems like a way to win-more, a trap new players often fall into when building a deck.  On top of that, Eldon Liberated's card-draw ability only effects your troops that are dealing damage after you've already freed him, meaning the most powerful effect won't become active until you've gone through three entire turns with your army on the field.  The ability to dodge that much removal should itself win you that game, making Eldon an unnecessary addition to most Constructed decks.    

However, looking ahead to Set 2 and beyond, there might be some interesting uses for EDS.  While his effect doesn't fit decks that have average sized troops, it does seem to fit well with swarm decks that generate multiple smaller troops (typically 1/1).  A Shin'hare deck can easily generate enough Battle Hoppers to find Eldon, and later in the game an Evolve or Command Tower would let them actually deal damage.  Getting three of your Hopper militia through shouldn't be too difficult with the numbers they churn out.  Eldon also doesn't specify combat damage has to be dealt to trigger the transformation or card draw on his final form, so a card like Malfunctioning War Bot or a troop with Dwarven Ballistics Training could be a way to subvert the attack phase altogether and play in the reactionary style that Sapphire is so fluent.

Finally, Eldon might find a cozy home in PvE alongside the Mercenary Ashahsa.  The mercenary, which is currently available from the Wheels of Fate, lets you put a Windbourne Acolyte directly into play for three charges.  Her passive lets you draw a card when three or more troops you control with flying attack.  Since triggering this Passive coordinates nicely with liberating Eldon, and both would work well from a deck that ran small, efficient Sapphire Troops with Flight, EDS could find a nice home alongside Ashahsa in the second phase of the Arena, when  mercenaries will first become active.  While this still doesn't fix the weakness that these decks have to mass removal, cards like Countermagic and Fish Hands might be enough for a Sapphire based tempo deck to answer board wipes like Extinction and Heat Wave.  

The most vexing question of all surrounding Eldon might be what exactly his story is.  Was he a fellow scholar of Cerulea who was ambushed by the Underworld and locked away?  Was he an obsessed and manic mage who was banished from human lands to an isolated cell atop a frozen mountain?  Flavor text is noticeably absent from every form of Eldon, begging the questions surrounding the nature of his imprisonment and his plans following his liberation.

Down to Earth with the Anglo-Saxons

  I didn't want to do a review of Beyond Earth until I had a good chunk of time invested in it, since it generally takes a while for the hype to wear off before you can do the review objectively.  Other reviewers have had similar utterances when it comes to games as sprawling and time consuming as the Civilization series.  I played the game for about two weeks solid, roaming through different Affinity paths and victory conditions, collecting achievements along the way, but recently I've been turning back to Civ5 and the extensive mods the game offers.

  My general advice to the perspective Beyond-Earth-buyer is if you haven't purchased BE yet, you're probably best waiting until it goes on sale.  It simply isn't worth the $50 unless you really enjoy strategy games, and even then you shouldn't expect it to be Civ6 or Alpha Centurai 2.  I'd probably go even as far to say it's worse than Brave New World in terms of satisfaction.  BNW seemed to bring so many good things to Civ5 that really made the game shine, where Beyond Earth seems like somewhat of a let down.

  For all the negativity that's been going around about it, Beyond Earth does do some things right.  I'm certainly not alone when I say that the Tech Web and Affinity Systems are excellent additions to the game, and alone make the game worth picking it up.  The ability to choose which path you want to stretch out towards on the Tech Web allows a great imbalance in power spikes.  You might be able to shoot straight for a unit or building you really want that is buried in a tech your opponents won't pick up until many turns later, if at all.  Since techs are how you will pick up most of your affinity points and unique late-game units, spikes in military power will come at different times for everyone.  The affinities change the way your units and cities look, determine what sort of resources you will be hunting, and each unlock a special victory condition tied to that affinity.  The affinities are one of the best executed features of the game.  The philosophies of each of them are very believable, and they emerge through the flavor text that is read when you level rises. They run the gamut from the Harmony players who believe humankind should adapt to this new land and view it as their real home, to the Supremacy players who do not want the existence of their race to be determined by the planet they live on, but rather through technological superiority.

  Aside from these high points, the overall experience seems very shallow.  The lack of polish and character poked sharply out from underneath BE during my sessions, from the leaders, many of whom are more unimaginative than their historical counterparts in a spacesuit, to the quest system, which is more of a glorified buff system for your buildings.  The Wonders are exemplary of this flavor drain.  They've been significantly watered down from its predecessor, both in power and execution.  In Civ5 I will nervously cross my fingers, hoping the AI doesn't beat me to a wonder so that I can hear that satisfactory, the breath of relief when I hear the chime and the beautiful illustration and accompanying flavor text.  In Beyond Earth I will resign myself to a wonder when I'm out of buildings, be unconcerned about finishing it before an AI, and when I do complete it be treated to a picture of an exoskeleton of whatever it was I built accompanied by just plain bizarre flavor text.

  Despite this, I think the changes made to the structure of BE through the tech web, affinities, and virtue system will allow for this to be an excellent multiplayer game once some patches roll in to fix the numerous bugs and address the balancing issues within the game.  Multiplayer is essentially broken for BE, and outside of achievement hunting (all of which are pretty generic), I'd rather play BNW, since it is a much more complete game.  I recently picked it up again using a handful of the hundreds of mods in the Steam Workshop.  Until now I've never really played with mods because I wanted to practice for multiplayer and preserve my ability to get achievements.  But looking through the Workshop for ways to make BE more palatable, I stumbled into the Civ5 mods, and fell in love all over again.

  The main mod I've been using is the More Luxuries Mod, which adds nine new luxuries to the game.  This allows you to expand a little more while keeping your happiness in the green, since you can usually get a couple cities with two new luxury resources in a few of your cities if you plant them well.  Expanding early is usually important for dealing with the forward settling AI, so I definitely appreciate the introduction of some extra early happiness.  Plus the visuals of the luxuries fit in very well, and with the addition of Cocoa and Bison from the recent patch, the map feels a fresh compared to a few months ago.

  I've also been using some of the Alternate Civilizations.  I played an Emperor game as the Safavids and out-space raced the Zulus this past weekend.  For this week I'm rolling another Emperor game with the Anglo-Saxons, who expedite their Golden Ages and get a Social Policy boost while they're in a golden age.  I'm knee deep in the Medieval Era and manged to found my second city on Lake Victoria.  I was even able to snag the Oracle and the Mosque of Djenne, and founded a religion.  Unfortunately my neighbors have strong religions of their own: Boudica & Theodora of the Celts & Byzantines respectively.  I predict some Missionary Wars as we venture into the Renaissance... or possibly the other kind of war.

  I'll probably check back in next week with a game overview.  I'll try to stream the game when I can too, and if you have any Mods you would suggest, share them in the comments.  

Quarterly Infodump

Earlier this week, Hex President and draft aficionado Cory Jones went into the forums for a Q&A regarding the Basically-Open-But-We're-Not-Ready-To-Call-It-Open Beta.  Much speculation has been surrounding the next major features for the game, including larger tournaments; Shattered Destiny, Hex's second PvP set; and the Frost Ring, the introduction to Hex's long awaited PvE content.  The thread quickly ballooned and many questions were fielded, resulting in a veritable info-dump and giving us a good idea about what to expect from the Beta as we approach the end of the year.

The next three major content updates according to the Q&A are Shattered Destiny, which is planned for November; Frost Ring/Arena, planned for December; and to many player's surprise, asynchronous Sealed tournaments, also planned for December.  It's important to note that Hex has been reluctant to release specific dates, as there has been a history of missed deadlines that have caused ripples in the community.  As such, it's not unlikely to realistically expect some of these updates getting pushed to the first quarter of 2015 (Shattered Destiny was originally announced to launch in late August).  But reservations aside, these upcoming content updates are fairly sizable steps towards getting the game to resemble what was presented in the Kickstarter.  

Shattered Destiny

A good chunk of Set 2 has been spoiled, and a lot of the cards look awesome and feature mechanics that will change both draft and constructed.  The Dual-Threshold Shards will be particularly key for making three-shard decks viable in the metagame, as well as smoothing out the draws of dual-shard decks.  Cards from Set 1 (Shards of Fate) will find some love with the addition of Shattered Destiny as new strategies will emerge.  The Darkspire Clan will at least double in size with two new cards added to the mix, including the incredibly potent Darkspire Tyrant.  The other Rare and Legendary cards are equally strong, and many come with the quirky charm that Hex likes to inject into their design, evidenced in cards like the menacing Killipede, which can toxify your opponents before the finishing sting!  

This will be a particularly important addition to Hex for a few reasons.  Primarily, it serves to reinvigorate an increasingly stale metagame.  Many of Hex's most ardent players have been drafting Set 1 for the better part of a year now, and Constructed has been tested and tuned evn before then.  While a good portion of the backers are waiting until PvE is in the game to start actively playing, the ones that are as addicted to draft as I am will be coming back in full force when Set 2 finally drops.  There will also be significantly less Set 2 packs given out from the Kickstarter than of Set 1, meaning we'll probably have a better idea of what the market will look like going forward when pricing singles from Shattered Destiny.

Asynchronous Sealed

If you've played Hearthstone or wanted to draft but couldn't commit the three hours to do so, you'll understand the appeal of this feature and why learning that it's being developed and slated to launch soon excites me.  Normal Single Elimination tournaments can run anywhere from ten minutes if you're eliminated quickly in round one, to near three hours if you grind it out to the finals, and that's not accounting for deck construction!  Asynchronous Sealed allows you to compete in Sealed Deck without as much of a time commitment.  You get build and play the deck at your leisure, facing off against other Sealed players until you hit a certain amount of losses or you max out on wins.  At least, that's a rough overview of how it works in Hearthstone.  It's unclear exactly what Hex's Asynchronous Tournaments will look like, though it's fair to speculate prizes will be based on the number of wins you get and that it will cost packs and platinum to enter.  This format could work with either Constructed or Sealed, though not Booster Draft, since playing against the cards you pass is part of the overall strategy.  Additionally, the ability to play tournament matches at your leisure can only open Hex up to more players, including myself, since I've been resigned to drafting almost exclusively on my days off when I don't already have plans (an increasingly rare occurrence).

Frost Ring/Arena

A majority of the information was unsurprisingly pointed at PvE.  The Frost Ring, sometimes referred to simply as "Arena," is planned to launch in December 2014.  Kickstarter PvE card rewards are planned to be distributed upon launch of The Frost Ring.  PvP Champions will be usable in the Arena until "phase 2" (suggesting gated content), at which point Mercenaries will be introduced.  The Might System and player Champion creation will not be introduced yet.  The most important part is that this will be the first chance players get to use Equipment and PvE Cards and the first opportunity, aside from the Wheels of Fate, for players to earn these items in game.  

The chests which have been collecting dust in your inventory stash throughout the summer will finally be accessible as well.  Available inside booster packs, players can open the chests to acquire loot based on the chest's rarity.  Chest loot will likely take the form of PvE Cards and Equipment, but may not be limited to just those.  Like the Wheels of Fate, players might have the opportunity to earn mercenaries or card sleeves.  Players looking to get a jump on PvE can find three cards exclusive to the Wheels of Fate: Air Elemental, Lightning Elemental, and Water Elemental, as well as equipment (two for each card) which can be equipped to your champion in the Arena to grant powerful buffs to your cards.  Each champion has six slots for equipment, and each item is tailored to a specific slot.  Bubble Mail, which will provide a buff to the Water Elemental, is a chest piece.  Since each champion can only have one item attached to each slot, players will have to think carefully about not only which cards they want in their deck, but how they want to coordinate the equipment.  This adds a whole new level to deck-building similar to the gem slots, and scooping up that last piece of gear you need will provide the impetus for completing Frost Ring dungeon runs, which will have two difficulty modes and which Cory guesses will take roughly twenty hours for a casual player to complete.

The Wheels of Fate Elemental Cycle, as well as the current loot available from the Wheels of Fate, will be available throughout Shattered Destiny's launch, rotating with the launch of Sets 3 & 4 sometime in 2015.  A full list of the information from the Cory Q&A was broken down by Yasi in the Hex subreddit.

Rock League - Season 2

In community news, the second season of the Rock League has begun.  Deck construction is restricted to only commons and four uncommons, making it perfect for new players. Players can earn points for up to three matches every week, with tiebreaker points for additional matches.  Boosters and even Primal Packs have been donated by community members as prizes for the top 32 participants.  Players can even earn bonus prizes for playing different champions through the league.  The Rock League will run for four weeks beginning November 3rd.  Information and sign-ups can be found at the link above.

Next week I will tell you a tale of how an Archmage from the academy at Cerulea and a young monk from an isolated mountain pass teamed up to liberate one of the most powerful mages on all of Entrath.  

Until next time.