Today I'll be going over the latest patch from Hex, currently in alpha. You can view the Patch v824 Breakdown and Update Notes here.
Probably the biggest thing about this patch is the new card layout. The new card layout is much better for viewing gems, and especially for viewing rarity and faction. The Card Modification/Doubleback features haven't been implemented yet, but that's probably where you'll find the collector's numbers, which is the only information lost from the old layout (not that it meant much at this stage).
Most of the general changes are quality of life changes: card manager remembering decks, overlapping text on abilities such as living totem. One of the major changes is cards getting discarded to the correct graveyard. If I remember correctly discarded cards went the graveyard of the controller of the effect, so you would Inquisition them and the card would go to your graveyard. This actually effects gameplay, since Uruunaz can resurrect things from your opponents graveyard when he hits, so this is a pretty important fix for decks that run him and cards that interact with the graveyard.
For gameplay updates, there's a fix to Lixil where her Uniqueness works as intended. There are rarity changes to Shield Trainer and Kraken Guard Mariner: these two cards basically swapped names, so the rarity changes at this stage is likely just to ensure one card shows up as often as it should in limited. Archmage Wrenlocke had its correct text back: he draws cards when a spell resolves. This is important for understanding his interaction with cards like Chimes of the Zodiac (one of the three new cards released this week), where the copied spell will also draw you a card.
Speaking of new cards, we got some awesome ones this week. Chimes of the Zodiac is a pretty broken effect, automatically doubling every action you take. At seven cost, it will require you to build around it, but if it sticks, it will quickly turn the game. I've already mentioned how powerful it is with Archmage Wrenlocke. Even innocuous cards like Peek with Wrenlocke/Chimes puts you four cards up, two of which are trained. Blood Control decks also have excellent options for copying like Life Syphon and Terrible Transfer for massive life gain, so even outside of control decks this card has potential to see some play in control decks.
Inferno is one of those cards you either hate on principle or will hate through experience. A lot of people give Red Mages (specifically Red Deck Wins) flack in MTG, and it's not entirely unjustified: when the deck performs, it is incredibly difficult to stop, and often there will be nothing your deck can do if these sort of decks do what they need to do. Often these decks will manage to get their opponent down into "burn range," where the other player has stabilized and is about to reap the rewards of card advantage. Every so often, the fire gods will smile and tuck some direct damage safely on top of your deck. While I imagine Ragefire will be more rage-inducing than Inferno since it can actually deal with opposing troops, Inferno has the potential to end the game on its own (though in which direction, no one can be sure). People may not like cards like this, since it really does tilt the game more towards the luck side of things, but they have to realize that the person playing this card is also taking the risk it not only won't live up to the price tag for the damage swing it offers, but it might actively do nothing but kill them. One thing this card does do is create pressure. Often versus RDW, the opposing player will know when they are in the danger zone: when they can no longer wait on better value for Extinction than the lone Savage Raider constantly two-ing them in the face every turn. They have to start playing fast and loose because their opponent might just have a bunch of burn in hand. Inferno creates this board state, though in fairness I think Blood Decks can easily deal with Inferno with the plethora of life gain they have at their disposal, which I suppose is unfortunate for those few men who just want to watch the world burn.
I was honestly not expecting this card anytime soon, mostly because I imagine it to be a coding nightmare. If Spirit Dance is still having problems, I can hardly imagine how reliable slowly infecting enemy troops, removing the, reverting them, transforming them, and putting them into play under control of another player would be. Surprisingly I haven't encounters any weird affects with Zombie Plague in the Alpha yet, which is extremely promising. As for the card itself, it is very good, and perhaps the most important card for the current metagame, where Xentoth's Inquisitor is dominating the metagame. Zombie Plague neuters one-toughness creatures like this while giving you men in return. Even if this only makes one guy it will be worth the cost, but it also scouts the deck and weakens finishers. My early impression is that this card will be extremely important in the Blood Control mirrors, which is a shame because those are the decks that are running Xentoth's Inquisitor anyways.
Zombie Plague is also one of those cards where the functionality of it can be a flavor-breaker. Take Briar Legion, Rune-Ear Commander or Honeycap for example. Now these cards get stronger based on the game state, but in the deck they have no stats. Zombie Plague will immediately kill them when it finds them even if they would be stronger if they were in play. Now this isn't a bad thing, and it doesn't make the card inherently broken, but Zombie Plague (and many Hex cards) seem designed from a very flavorful standpoint. Zombie Plague is slowly infects the enemy, turning the weak into minions of your own and weakening the strong. But the problem is these would-be strong troops just happen to be weak based on the game rules while they are in the deck. Even if Rune-Ear Commander would be a 4/4, he's powerless in the deck (I believe he's also still bugged to die if Uzume tutors him up, which happened in a game of mine), and instantly becomes a zombie. What this does it gives decks whose big creatures are printed with large Attack and Defense an advantage against Zombie Plague, for no reason other than functionality. And functionality is perfectly acceptable reason to have a card work the way it does, but it does break flavor. It's something the game, and player, has to do to work properly, but it's important to minimize this aspect in moments where this functionality will cause the person on the receiving end to roll their eyes and mutter "that's dumb," and I think Zombie Plague will be getting its fair share of eye rolls. Also, like Blood needs any more help ;)
Overall the takeaway from this patch is that control decks are probably stronger, and the cards are much more legible, especially in limited where it is much easier to see you rare and legendary cards in sealed. By my count there are still quite a few cards to go before they have their full PvP Set 1, though there were comments that the set would likely not contain the number they had at the onset. I imagine they would still want to balance the shard so they each have an even number of cards though, so it will be interesting to see what gets added over the next few weeks: Ruby has five less cards than Blood for example, and Sapphire has more cards at legendary rarity than the other shards.
Until next time.
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