Patch v825 has been released. You can read the full patchnotes here. As with the last patches, I will be doing a first impressions review of the new cards and features
 |
| Left unchecked, Te'talca and her High Cleric form can quick end the game. |
The big addition to this patch outside of new cards was the introduction of deck sleeves. This is one of the features of Hex I didn't think I would enjoy as much as I do. In cardboard TCGs I almost exclusively buy solid colored sleeves, but the ones available in Alpha look very sleek, and I suddenly find myself very excited for the Kickstarter rewards. King Tier backers (like myself) get Spectral Lotus sleeves, which I can't wait to see in all their glory. There is also a new visual effect for socketed cards in this patch, which makes good use of the new card layout. This shows off all the things they want a single card to be able to do, particularly with the Doubleback and Card Modification options. While the gems do look nice, it is sometimes difficult to see them on the new cards frames, however in the few Proving Grounds games I've played, I can generally tell at a glance.
Gameplay changes saw this patch break Zombie Plague, but fixes a bug with Xenototh's Inquisitor that caused its resource cost to not increase when it returned to your hand. This kept it from being played in the most recent HexTCGPro tournament, leading to a swarm of Mono-Ruby Aggro decks taking down the field. Zombie Plague being down for the time being is disappointing. The patch had a rewording on the card, where the original creature was voided and replaced with a zombie instead of being reverted and transformed into a zombie.
On to cards though. There's five new ones this time:
The Bird will probably find some home in a combo deck, if it does at all. Its cost is too prohibitive for it to be a reliable counter for aggressive decks, and Crush troops should ignore most of this troop's effectiveness. I imagine it could see play in a Ruby-Sapphire deck, where you Ragefire it constantly to cycle through your deck and find more Ragefires, which is cute, but I imagine most decks want a decisive finisher. In limited he's a pretty annoying blocker if you get to him. He's still as easy to shut down since Murder/Atrophy/Inner Conflict are all active at common, and he's a lot to invest in for a card that won't actively win you the game. He is a glorious tropical bird though.
Ruby has been panned for having a subpar selection of cards. Patch v825 might change that, particularly with the inclusion of Te'Talca. Not only is she an efficient finisher in the Mono-Ruby decks, she's also a good, beefy point removal character for the aggressive decks. 4/4 stats allows her to pick of a lot of popular troops like Xentoth, Root Leaf Dancer, Wrenlocke, and Xarlox. Her flipped form will end games: Removing the strongest blocker, transforming her, and beating with an army of lower cost troops. Wild-Ruby might enjoy her as well, the only problem being how threshold intensive most of the Wild cards have been. In draft she's a bomb, and possibly on the top ten list of cards you want to open.
The deck destruction strategy has never been particularly savory for constructed. Spawn will likely be a backbone of this in early attempts to build it. The phrase "if this guy connects X times" is the calculation most people do when determining how effective he is. The truth is, if you can protect Spawn for five or six turns, you might as well protect a 2/2 flier and pressure your opponent's life total. Limited however is a different story, where the 40-card decks can let Spawn can get out of hand quickly. He's a live draw in late games, where one or two attacks can finish off someone's deck when you're getting the full five.
If Kindling Skarn didn't transform, it would still be a perfectly fine card for an aggressive deck. The 1/1 early drop combined with Quick Actions like Burn make the Skarn very difficult to block. Transforming him into the 2/2 version is probably as far as you can reliably go in the Mono-Ruby decks, at which point he can dominate the battle field and end games. One of the reasons you should like Skarn is that he lets you maintain pressure on the board with overcommitting into an Extinction. He also encourages decks that run a small number of early, high-impact troops and burn spells, which is how traditional Sligh/Red-Deck-Wins operates. The early men drop the opponent down into single digits, with burn to close the gap to zero. If anything Kindling Skarn is hindered from the limited card pool for Actions in Ruby. Trying to combo around him probably isn't the greatest idea since he is very fragile, but a Sapphire-Ruby tempo deck with Peek, Ragefire, and Time Ripple can definitely abuse him. Wrenlocke also fits into this model of deck that wants to play a lot of actions, so it's something to watch in the upcoming weeks.
The mono green decks that ran rampant in the early meta have subsided a bit. The most explosive draws you could get involved Howling Brave into Chlorophyllia into Fist of Briggadon. Puck doesn't allow you to trick a Fist into play on turn 3, but just about any other 6 drop is fair game with him. Battle Beetle and Jadiim are definitely fair game, and even Wrathwood's cost doesn't look as prohibitive with the extra bit of mana ramp that Wild now has. Puck's also a 2/2, so he can even lay a beatdown when he needs to. Threshold is again the most prohibitive feature of Puck. Te'Talca would be an excellent addition to decks with Puck if it wasn't for competing Threshold costs. As is, Puck only really makes a relatively weak deck more consistent.
One lats note on the patch is that Trial of Faith was included in the visual Card Files. It seems to have Ancient Sentinel's old portrait though, so it might just be a placeholder.
No comments:
Post a Comment