Hex: Drafting Dwarves

Patch v826 brought the much sought after Booster Draft format, and with it, a glut of drafting strategy articles that will quickly be flooding out onto message boards.  I was initially going to write such an article, but instead of redundantly going over why Te'Talca is a first pick or why Rot Caster is good at curbing aggressive draws, I elected instead to do a few drafts and talk about one of the decks I had the most fun with.

Normally when I draft, I never get a string of cards with synergy.  If you're facing Kyrstrava in Hex, I'm likely not going to have The Inspire Deck or The Shin'hare Deck, if those are even archetypes.  Legendary Bombs and a metric ass ton of fliers is about as much of an overarching strategy as I usually dare to venture when I'm relying on what's inside a booster pack.  However I found myself in my third or fourth draft of the weekend with an interesting Dwarf-Artifact deck that just sort of connected together in the middle of pack one.

His convoluted firearm is capable of gunning
down an entire squad of Battle Hoppers.

So what cards push you into the Dwarf/Artifact if you open them?  The one that got me in there was one of the new cards added into the patch which I was keen to try out: Elimination Specialist.  A 3/2 for 4 is solid body, and every artifact you have on the field gives him a charge that allows him to ping one of your opponent's troops that turn.  Even without a deck around him, this guy should be able to shoot down a Flock of Seagulls.  But at his strongest, he is capable of blasting an Uruunaz or gatling down on an entire squad of Battle Hoppers. 

One of the benefits of drafting this deck is that decent cards in other decks are very good in yours, allowing you to priority pick them out of packs much later than would be expected. Rocket Ranger was a sixth or seventh pick in pack two.  Outside of an artifact deck he could be a Phoenix Guard Scout, but with a few more on the field he evolves into a late game monster.  Scrap Welder is relatively poor unless you have the artifacts to support him, and are often still hanging around until the last few picks.  If your direct damage spells and bounce can control the skies, he can quickly start clocking your opponent down. Construction Plans also tend to go relatively late, but are obviously very strong in a deck with a core of Dwarves and Robots.

In terms of removal, Ruby and Sapphire are rife with strong options in forms of Burn, Mesmerize, and Mortar Strike, all at common.  Buccaneer, though not sporting the most dwarvish of beards, is nonetheless a strong tempo card in the deck, and fills out the somewhat vacant area for solid 3-drops.  The deck also makes good use of naturally strong artifacts like Turreted Wall and Runic Monolith, which tend to stay on the board and can trigger your Scrap Welders and Researcher Adepts.

The big-bad-rare dwarves, Eurig the Robomancer and Master Theorycrafter, are excellent cards on their own, and make a fine addition to your deck, but lack the mass you might need to seal the deal.  Since Rocket Ranger is a rare, it not exactly a reliable dude either, and since your army is mostly in the middle range as far as power and toughness goes, you might need some heft to cross the finish line.  One of your more common options is Heavy Welding Bot, a 4/5 body that shrugs off Murder and can fish a Sapper's Charge or Bottled Vitae from your bin to boot.  Hellhound is also an excellent card to have in the deck, since the Sapphire Gem of Flying essentially makes him a Shivan Dragon.

So for the most part, dwarf drafting is pretty easy: Dwarves + Artifacts = Boom!  However there should be a few things to keep in mind while you're drafting this deck in particular is unique to this deck.  The first point, and probably the deepest of the three I will list, is whether you plan on running Bertram Cragraven or Fahrny as your champion.  The second is the number of Artifacts you should plan on running.  The third is the number of Dwarves/Robots you should plan on running.  Following in the footsteps of the famous Canadian lyricist Aubrey Graham, I'll start from the bottom.

Your Dwarf/Robot count being high is something the deck will naturally gear you towards, but you may find yourself in a situation where you have a lot of Buccaneers and Turreted Walls and no way to work on your Construction Plans, or with a bunch of non-Dwarf dorks and a clunky 7-cost Pterobot.  Robots also make up the core of the Artifact Troops, and since you want to run a good chunk of artifacts while not skimping on the troops, it's good to keep int he back of your head how many of them have legs.  If you're relying Pterobots and CP:War Hulks as your big hitters, you want these numbers higher than normal, 8-12 being a decent range.  If your number is on the lower end of this scale, you'll either need to have a lot of removal to survive the early game, or you'll need to run Bertram to power these cards out.

Bertram's ability is a good fit for artifact decks
that have multiple War Machinists or Pterobots. 

The artifact numbers are a more general principle.  Most draft decks will have about 17 resources and 23 other cards, and most of those non-resource cards should be troops or removal.  Artifacts that pull double duty in these roles like Sapper's Charge and Effigy of Nulzann will be key for your deck in keeping your artifact numbers high while maintaining the general balance of troops and removal you are looking for--so it's not just important how many artifacts you have, but what their purpose is.  If you have War Machinsts and Gearsmiths in high abundance, you generally want your Artifact numbers to be higher to ensure these early game drops are more relevant since 1/1 troops are outclassed relatively quickly.  These cards two guys get stronger from just having a large quantity of artifacts in your deck.  Dwarves that simply need an artifact in play to "turn on," like Scrap Welder and Researcher Adept, so they're less demanding in the number of artifacts you are playing, so long as you managed to get one of them into play.  Research Librarian and Rocket Ranger fall into yet another category where the need multiple artifacts in play to get better.  This has a huge impact on how your dwarves are going to interact with the artifacts you have in play. While Gearsmith just benefits from you having a Sapper's Charge in the deck an Adept might make you think twice about when you should sacrifice the charge if it's the only artifact milling about on your field, and actually using the charge doesn't really help Rocket Ranger.

This brings me to the biggest question: which Champion?  I will start off by dismissing Poca Nin and Lionel, since neither of these effects are really as strong in the deck.  Wyatt's card draw is solid in draft, but Fahrny is a guaranteed burn spell for the same cost, allowing you to punch through damage or eliminate an on-board threat.  FDD's  flying is normally pretty good, but most of your guys are too small to make the ability very strong.  Any minor socket guy will have flying, as will Rocket Ranger, Scrap Welder (for a turn) and Pterobot.  It might be worthwhile with some Heavy Welding Bots or bulkier artifact ground troops, but Bertram and Fahrny have more synergy in a majority of these decks.

Bertram's ability is one you will likely use a few times during the game.  The robo-dork isn't particularly game breaking, but can trigger War Machinist, work on CPs, power out a Pterobot, and aid Ranger and Librarian.  If you have Command Tower, their ground-clogging capabilities become even better, and with Volcannon the extra man could double your damage output.

The flip-side is Fahrny, who with a charge power at five, you may only get to use once. The difference here is that while Bertram won't win you the game, Fahrny's ability is a very solid removal spell, capable of turning the game on its own. With a Turreted Wall or a Heavy Welding Bot, he can oust your opponent's strongest troop from the field. The drawback is he requires you to have a hefty Artifact on board to get the most out of him. However, the potential is chilling.  There was one game I played, among a one or two drop I can't recall, Effigy into Turreted Wall into Elimination Specialist-Fahrny. My opponent's entire field was decimated and I still had a Mortar Strike and Mesmerize in hand.

Overall, I think Fahrny is the stronger choice in most versions of this deck.  Bertram may be stronger in a more tempo based deck that combines multiple War Machinists, Construction Plans, Scrap Welders, and Pterobots.  Elimination Specialist also doesn't shun the little Worker Bots.  Since I'm sure some of you just want to scroll down and check out the decklist that inspired the article, I've included it:  

Champion: Fahrny
2 Buccaneer
1 Charge Bot
1 Effigy of Nulzann [Sapphire Gem of Flight]
2 Elimination Specialist
1 Gearsmith
1 Hellhound [Sapphire Gem of Flight]
1 Phoenix Cloud Trainer
1 Researcher Adept
1 Rocket Ranger
2 Scrap Welder
2 Turreted Wall
1 Bottled Vitae
1 Construction Plans: War Hulk
1 Doppelgadget
2 Mesmerize
2 Mortar Strike
1 Runic Monolith
9 Ruby Shard
8 Sapphire Shard

Since the last two decks I've featured have been Ruby-Sapphire, I'll try to branch off into other shards next week.  I'm also hoping that Cory will be back with a blog post this week, and that the follow up Patch v827 will have details about what remaining cards we are waiting on for a complete set and possibly an ETA on Beta, now that a majority of the PvP features are live, though admittedly buggy. 

Until next week, I'll see you in the drafting queues.