Hex: Cosmic Echoes

Well, it's finally happened.  As of last Friday's patch, we have the entirety of Set 1 PvP available in the Alpha!  The final numbers as I've calculated them (so as much as you trust my math) is 40 Artifacts, 60 cards of each shard, and Shards of Fate.   With the full set out, we'll have a clearer view of exactly what Competitive Constructed play will look like.  Hex TCG Pro recently held a tournament on the 827 patch, so all but the last four cards of the set were able to be played, none of which save perhaps Darkspire Priestess would have impacted the tournament much (though I have seen some nutty Reginald decks).  The results of the tournament, rife with Xentoth's Inquisitors, Vampire Kings, and Eye of Creations, will likely serve as a watershed for early metagame formation, as for the previous tournament the latter two cards weren't patched into the client yet, and Xentoth's was banned due to a bug.  

Needless to say, the top 8 decks are relatively homogeneous.  This should be expected, but it's a symptom of competitive constructed, and one of the effects is it kind of mutes some of the more interesting card interactions (and cards in general) that Hex has to offer.  I'm reminded of when Shrine of Prosperity was previewed, I was listening to a podcast where someone mentioned that as cool as it was, they just ended up cutting it for more proactive cards.  There are many cards in Hex that seem to suffer from this syndrome, as 60 card decks (which are really 34-38 card decks when you account for the shards) drive out unnecessary features.  It is ultimately up to Design & Development about how aggressive they want to feature the unique aspects of Hex in competitive play.  Xentoth's Inquisitor is very powerful, but also unique in terms of its interaction with gems and the digital medium keeping it the same as it goes from the field to the hand multiple times, so as much division as its power has caused in the community, it makes a good poster boy (or poster-arachnid) for Cryptozoic to demonstrate the potential of this design.

Some of most fun I've had in Hex has come from Booster Drafts and from Highlander, a 100-card Singleton format I talked about last week.  One of the benefits of Highlander is that instead of playing with 34-38 cards, only maybe 10-12 of which are unique among the non-shard cards, Highlander you usually get to play upwards of 60 unique cards.  The same is true of Booster Draft, where a majority of the cards in your deck will be common or uncommon.  Highlander lets you go kind of wild with throwing in whatever crazy card you want.  While Xentoth's Inquisitor and Vampire King are still very strong in Highlander, you can't really rely on seeing them.  As such, in the games I've been playing, it's not only difficult to plan around what your opponent has (since they could feasibly have anything), but decisions regarding which troop to use a removal spell on are much more important.  The games are also much slower, since your curve is more unstable.

While some have derided Highlander due to the limited card pool as of now, the games I've played have generated some crazy game states, and combos I would never be able to reliably pull of in random proving grounds matches.  Since any Highlander deck at this point will be so haphazard that an overall "strategy" is likely just dictated by whatever you draw at the time, it's kind of hard to name them.  Based on this past week however, I'm naming this deck after a few of the cards that were instrumental in my recent crazy-games.  So without further ado, my first Highlander deck list: Cosmic Echoes!

Cosmic Echoes
Champion: Running Deer
1x Adaptable Infusion Device
1x Bottled Vitae
1x Droo's Colossal Walker
1x Eternal Guardian
1x Runic Monolith
1x Secret Laboratory
1x Shrine of Prosperity
1x Adamantian Scriviner
1x Angel of Dawn
1x Ascetic Aspirant
1x Blinding Light
1x Diamond Aura
1x His Majesty, King Gabriel
1x Inner Conflict
1x Kraken Guard Mariner
1x Living Totem
1x Lixil, the Deathless Gem
1x Princess Victoria
1x Protectorate Clergyman
1x Protectorate Defender
1x Repel
1x Shield Trainer
1x Soul Marble
1x Wind Whisperer
1x Archmage Wrenlocke
1x Bird o' Plenty
1x Buccaneer
1x Cerulean Grand Strategist
1x Cerulean Mentalist
1x Cerulean Mirror Knight
1x Cosmic Transmorgifier
1x Devoted Emissary
1x Dream Dance
1x Eldritch Dreamer (Prime Wild Orb of Dominance)
1x Incarnation of Ascendance
1x Mesmerize
1x Mimic
1x Mutate
1x Oracle Song
1x Phoenix Guard Trainer
1x Prophet of Lodegan
1x Replicator's Gambit
1x Servant of Shathak
1x The Ancestor's Chosen
1x Time Ripple
1x Wizard of the Silver Talon
1x Battle Beetle (Prime Sapphire of Mind)
1x Boulder Brute (Diamond of Lifedrain)
1x Eye of Creation
1x Giant Caterpillar
1x Glimmerglen Witch
1x Howling Brave
1x Moon'ariu Sensei
1x Nature Reigns
1x Nelebrin Skirmisher (Sapphire of Flight)
1x Oakhenge Ceremony
1x Spirit Dance
1x Stargazer
1x Succulent Roostasaur
1x Wild Aura
1x Wild Root Dancer
1x Shard of Fate
13x Diamond Shard
13x Sapphire Shard
12x Wild Shard

General strategy is tricky, since this is basically a pile of my favorite Wild, Diamond, and Sapphire cards.  One of the cards that motivated me to try this color combination is Stargazer, who is really strong if you get him out early and can activate his abilities.  The Sapphire one in particular is an extra Secret Laboratory effect, which is very good in Highlander.  Wild-Sapphire also gives you access to Spirit Dance-Dream Dance, which like Shrine of Prosperity makes your next draws that much better, particularly if you've shuffled in any Ancestral Spirits.  One note of caution: as of the current game state, if you have Ancestor's Chosen and Shrine of Prosperity in play, the card you reveal from Shrine will get instantly shuffled back into your deck when the Specters are created, making Shrine much worse.  I'm also operating under the rule that only one copy of each gem can be used in deck creation.  I initially made this change since I wanted as much diversity in gem choice as I did in card choice, and while some are still effects like returning a troop from the graveyard to the hand and drawing a card are still very strong, the Major Gem Slot troops now have a little more flavor.  My Eldritch Dreamer now has the nickname "Rhino Ambassador" in games, spreading the good word of the elder gods to the indigenous horned jungle mammals.

My absolute favorite card in the deck is Cosmic Transmorgifier, since it takes a random game and shuffles it around even more.  It was also instrumental in two of the Highlander Games I played this past week.  The first I was playing against Brodtenheim, who was running a Ruby-Sapphire-Blood control deck.  I got out to a strong start with a turn one Ancestor's Chosen, clogging the ground the following few turns with other random troops.  All he had to answer was an Incubation Slave.  I promptly played Mimic on the Slave, and thus a great game of Spider chicken commenced.  He blinked first, putting seven Spiders into play.  Unfortunately for him, his life was low enough that he couldn't swing with them, and the Specters I eventually drew would have flying to trump his groundlings, prompting an Extinction earlier than I imagine he wanted to.

I recovered well with an Angel of Dawn and a Specter I had held back, but Brodtenheim plopped Bird O Plenty to stymie my attack.  When I gathered three Specters and a Lightning Armada to compliment the Angel, I swung with the team into the Bird, putting him at four and giving him eight fresh cards in the process.  At this point he had a Chimes of the Zodiac on the board, and twelve resources.  Fearing the Escalation madness that could ensue (he had played both Chronic Madness and Relentless Corruption earlier) I played Time Ripple on the Chimes after this attack.  With 17 cards in his hand, he was forced to use the majority of his resources to play the Chimes again for eight, but unfortunately followed it up with Heat Wave and Burn, both doubling from the Chimes and clearing the field of everything but his Bird.  I tried to claw back with more troops, but was concerned I wouldn't have enough power before he decked me, since Chronic Madness was now at 12, and with Chimes that could spell game over as I was only at about forty cards left.  I assembled a meager assortment of men and a Cosmic Transmorgifier, and passed with 6 resources up, his Ivory Pawn putting him at six life.  During his turn, he indeed played Chronic Madness clearing out all but a few cards of my deck, following it up with a Relentless Corruption, stealing the two or three cards left in my deck.  However, all he had on the field was a Wizard of the Silver Talon and the Bird O Plenty.  "If only I had one more attack," I thought, seeing the now paltry six life points that stood between me and victory.  Curious to see what my field would have been had I been graced with another turn, I activated the Cosmic Transmorgifier with the remaining resources.  As luck would have it, I randomly got a Malice Demon and a pair of Pterobots while transforming his Bird O Plenty into the most pathetic Ozawa I've ever seen.  Though he did get a single flier, I had enough to deal the remaining damage during my attack phase... if I had a next attack phase.  But it didn't matter now, with no cards in my deck, it was all over... ... ...BUT WAIT!  My Adaptable Infusion Device!  The little rascal that I played ages ago and neglected to cash in for the extra card was transformed as well into... Cosmic Totem!  Never in my life had I been so excited to see this card, much less have it be important!!!  I snapped it immediately to shuffle the massive pile of cards in my graveyard back into my deck during the end step and was able to bash in for victory!!!

The second game of the weekend wasn't as thrillingly close, but it did involve some absurdity.  This time it was against Steelwall, who was running Sapphire-Blood.  Most of the annoying cards were there: Bird O Plenty, Storm Colossus, Xentoth's Inquisitor, Flock of Seagulls.  One game, with a near full grip from the bounce I played Ascetic Aspirant, another card I've yet to find success with in the Proving Grounds, but is scary-dangerous in Highlander.  I evolved him to The Transcended with ease, pumping the resources from the down-turn into Living Totem to blunt the assault.  After the transformation I searched up Prophet of Lodegan.  He responded by playing Yesterday.  I replayed The Transcended, and the following turn I searched up Replicator's Gambit.  I replayed Prophet of Lodegan, and immediately cast Replicator's Gambit on it.  With the card draw from Gambit, I searched for the very Prophet I shuffled back in!  I searched for Phoenix Guard Trainer, so when I replayed him the following turn, the six Prophets (and all the Echoes) would have flying.  The result was... well, a picture is worth a thousand words...

The following turn I tutored up Cosmic Transmorgifier with my final action.  I popped it, and was surprised to see how many Gigantasaurs, Malice Demons, Pterobots, and Storm Colossus were gifted to me by my army of ECHOESECHOESECHOESECHOESECHOES (Sorry, I had to).  I inquired on the board why this was, and was told the Cosmic Transmorgifier takes the cards original resource cost into effect when determining what it gets transformed to.  So the Adaptable Infusion Device actually had a better chance of turning into Cosmic Totem then I realized, and Echoes of Lodegan, themselves set to seven, will net you some beefy fliers more often than not.  While I hope this is addressed at some point to make Cosmic Transmorgifier truly random, some people might like the power you get combining it with Lodegan to reroll some men with more heft to them.

I hope as we move into beta (hopefully in the next few weeks) and people eventually reap the rewards of their Kickstarter boosters, we'll see this format emerge, since I've had a blast playing it already.  Patch v828 also gave us three new gems and fixed the two champions that were bugged: Bun'jitsu and Tetzot.  Tetzot has interested me since launch, and with the number of resources in Highlander he could make a strong champion, so this weekend I'm going to try to brew up some Rock Elementals with him.  If you're itching to try your hand at Highlander, but need an opponent to play against, add me in game.  My keep name is Kyrstrava.

Until next week, may your echoes soar!