Hex: PvP Set 1 Cards & Closed Beta

People seem pretty antsy about when Closed Beta is coming up.  Cory's 2nd Blog Post listed a number of features they want to include in Hex which aren't out yet, but most notably is the fact that all of Set 1s projected PvP cards aren't out yet.  If they're going to sell cards out of the pack, and have Sealed and Draft, they're probably going to want every card in the first PvP set out.  As of a quick count, we're at 313/356 of the cards that were datamined when Alpha first launched.  Some cards have been added that weren't on this list, but here are the cards that are currently not available for play in Alpha:

Green cards were not on the datamined list, but are available on the alpha.  Red cards were taken out of the set permanently.  Greyed cards have been released since this article was written (Patch v823).

Artifacts

Chimes of the Zodiac

Chrome Sphinx

General's Tent

Genesis Cube

Mysterious Portal

Rallying Banner

Shrine of Prosperity

Time Bug

Blood

Curse of Oblivion*

Darkspire Priestess

Grave Concerns

Omen of Oblivion*

Persecute

Ritual of Malice

Vampire King

Zombie Plague

Diamond

Alabaster Sphinx

Ancient Sentinel

Angel of Dawn

Chimera

Circle of Preservation

Hero of Adamanth

Oath of Valor

Solitary Exile

Spearcliff Cloud Knight

Trial of Faith

Ruby

Crushing Blow
Elimination Specialist

False Orders

Gore Feast of Kog'Teqtel

Head Games

Inferno

Kindling Skarn

Master Theorycrafter

Reginald Lancashire

Ruby Arc

Te'Talca, Orc Gladiator

Sapphire

Arcane Shield

Bird O' Plenty

Cerulean Mirror Knight

Disrupted Silence

Devoted Emissary

Meditate

Necrotic Merchant

Nuts and Bolts

Ploy

Spawn of Othuyeg

Stoneclaw Gargoyle

Windbourne Acolyte

Wild

Eye of Creation

Field of Poppies

Oberon's Tempest

Pheromones

Plant Garden

Puck Dream Bringer 

I haven't been following the patchnotes all that closely until recently, but Omen of Oblivion was likely changed to Curse of Oblivion.  Other cards like Cerulean Mirror Knight (the 3+ to target this troop version) may have been changed from earlier versions of combined with other cards.

Some notes also on the implications of this.  Many of the cards that have yet to show up likely have very unique coding involved.  Mysterious Portal just ports in something from another era... the reminder text actually says "Who knows what will happen?"  Some of those cards also have big implications for the current Metagame.  Plant Garden shoving out a 9/9 Crush or 5/5 Lifedrain after gaining health might be very good in an all Wild Shard deck.  

While Cryptozoic has been churning out new cards side by side with new features in a consistent fashion, getting the cards released as well as having them all work well will take at least six more weeks on an optimistic schedule.  Additionally, one of the side effects of the emergent competitive scene within the Alpha has created balance changes to PvP cards before the set releases.  Cryptozoic has stated that they will not change PvP cards once they are released, which means the second the collections are wiped and the cards go for sale, there are unlikely to be any more balance changes to PvP cards.  So as long as there are "good cards" still to be printed, it is to Hex's benefit to keep us outside the Kickstarter Bonus distribution Beta zone if they wish to keep this promise since a few weeks in the Alpha allows for the developers to see how these cards play in the metagame.

New Patchnotes usually drop Thursday, so I'll likely have an update with my thoughts after the weekend.  Enjoy.