Dance Dance Evolution

Hey everyone.  I took a week off for GenCon, and in that time there's been a storm of new information surrounding Hex, including a new Content Patch, a Gamescom interview featuring PvE information, and Shattered Destiny Drafts and Starter Decks at GenCon.  I'll be starting off with another decklist this week and finish by giving away another Draft/Pack Code.

Dance Dance Evolution

For those of you that haven't played the randomness that is Hex Highlander (100 cards minimum, maximum of one copy of each card), I will let you know that a turn five Spirit Dance is a blessing.  Highlander is all about long, drawn out games, and both Spirit Dance and Dream Dance let you invest in the future, making all your troops that much better.  The current 60-card version of the Dance Deck was initially made by a friend in alpha.  His version featured a full compliment of Spirit Dances and Dream Dances alongside very cheap cards that shuffled troops back into his deck: The Ancestor's Chosen, Pack Raptor, Verdant Wyldeboar, and Replicator's Gambit.  It seemed a crime to me that Wild Root Dancer was not included, so I made some minor adjustments to make the deck a little more viable against the current meta.  It probably won't win you a tournament any time soon, but it's really fun to play the handful of times you can get it to work.

Champion: Running Deer
4 The Ancestor's Chosen
4 Pack Raptor
4 Moon'airu Sensei
4 Wild Root Dancer
4 Buccaneer
3 Eldritch Dreamer (Prime Sapphire of Mind)
2 Battle Beetle (Prime Wild Orb of Empowerment) 

3 Dream Dance
3 Spirit Dance
2 Yesterday
2 Incantation of Transcendance

4 Shards of Fate
10 Sapphire Shard
11 Wild Shard

If Hex had a DDR mini-game in one of their dungeons, it should definitely involve the three Dances: Dream Dance, Spirit Dance, and Wild Root Dancer (technically, Incantation of TranscenDANCE is an honorary fourth "dance").  My inner Bard wants Wild Root Dancer to have a Mega-Form that he transforms into if you manage to play him with both Dance effects on him, or maybe just an achievement of some sort if you manage to make him Dance enough times.

Back to the actual deck though: one of the big changes I made to my friend's deck is reducing the number of Dances to three of each.  The Dances don't immediately effect the game when you play them, so you don't really want to draw more than one copy early.  Luckily, after one Dream Dance you can discard the extra dances once you start chaining troops to the draw-discard effect.  Having multiples in your opening hand can be rough though since what you really want to be seeing is the Chosen and Raptors. 

Ancestral Specters & Moon'airu Senseis become even stronger at churning through your deck after a Dream Dance, though one of the problems this deck has is that the client doesn't allow you to choose the order of "enters play" effects.  As of now, a Moon'airu Sensei with Dream Dance will have you perform the Dance's effect before the troop's normal effect: you draw, discard, draw; as opposed to the preferable draw, draw, discard.  This is a minor grievance though, and one that you will surely forgive once you play the stronger Spirit Dance to transform those same utility dorks into resource-free 3/3 bunnies and 4/4 fliers that immediately replace themselves.  Your other "enters play" troops are Buccaneer (which is almost an instant 4-of for me with the limited card pool) and Battle Beetle, which can give your troops a +5/+5 bonus the turn it hits the field (+7/+7 with a Spirit Dance).  As an alternate path to victory, you can drop an Incantation and play Yesterday to return all of your Dream Dance/Card Draw troops to your hand, then transform the massive Incantation and ship over your opponent's field to finish him off.

One of the problems the deck has is mass troop removal.  Most of your early troops only have 1 or 2 defense, meaning a Sorrow or Heat Wave can chew enough card advantage out of you to negate any quality you might get from the Dances.  Part of the reason I didn't include Stargazer in the list is because it's often just another early guy that dies to these sweepers.  The threshold can also be difficult to manage, particularly when you want to play a Wild Root Dancer into an Eldritch Dreamer, the latter of which is an excellent target for permanent Attack & Defense buffs, but some of the new shards in Shattered Destiny should help that out.

One of the strengths of this deck is that it can play very aggressive if you get a fast Pack Raptor/Root Dancer draw--never underestimate the power of a bulky Swiftstriker--or it can play for the long game, where you grind out card advantage and quality through Dances while amassing a collection of cheap, efficient troops for you to dump back on the field after a well-timed Yesterday.  The combo of Yesterday + utility troops will also let you experiment with different builds and also expands your reserves options: Manti Elder Druid can revert Soul Marble and Living Totem, Glimmerglen Witch or Sensei of the Wounded Petal grant you early life gain against aggressive decks, and Shrine of Prosperity is a cool addition that might aid you against protracted matches.

Gamescom PvE Update

Cirouss was able to talk to Cory at length about PvE, including an extensive look at the Kraken's Gold dungeon.  The video features an overview of several of the fights in the dungeon, demonstrating the unique challenges the player's deck will face as they are forced to adapt to different enemy strategies.  Additionally, through the might system and card specific to PvE, your deck will be changed permanently as you progress through the dungeon.  The Sea Hag, one of the earlier bosses, can apply a debuff to your troops that remains on those troops during your next encounter, even if you defeat her, making future battles more difficult.  To counteract these detriments, you will also gain Might Powers as you progress, which provide special bonuses to your deck.  The Might Powers are based on your class, and vary from dungeon to dungeon, so a Warlock will not only have a different abilities at their disposal than the Warrior in the Kraken's Gold dungeon, but will also have a whole new set of powers in another dungeon.  The variety of challenges, combined with the variances in bonuses will make Dungeons a challenging puzzle for even seasoned CCG players to solve.  

Full bullet-points from the video compliments of Aswan_Jaguar in the subreddit, as well as the video in its entirety below:

Gen Con 2014 & Shattered Destiny Info

Gen Con was a blast this year.  In addition to getting to play with some Shattered Destiny Cards, I got to talk to Cory about the nature lore and races of Hex and how elements like art, music, flavor text, and card mechanics all work together to bring the world of Entrath to life.  I'll have a full article about my experience at Gen Con and the interview next week.  For those of you who are interested in the information on Shattered Destiny you can check out the Shards & Sockets and Tunneling articles on the main site.  I'll also do giveaways for some extra copies of the GenCon deck sleeves I was fortunate enough to snag in the coming weeks.

Vennen Music

Shapiro posted a theme from the Vennen to Soundcloud recently.  The music resonates of a cryptic underground cathedral, which immediately makes me think of Scarlet Monastery from my WoW days.  I'd like to see some of these themes over the cities of the Underworld factions since we've seen updated version of the Ardent cities.  Have a listen!

Patch v0.9.3.015

A small content patch launched this past week which featured the addition of the Tutorial, a feature that alongside the Starter Trials will help ease new players who are unfamiliar with TCGs into Hex.  There were also several bug fixes and quality of life changes in this patch as well.  You can read the full details of the Patch Notes on the main page.

As the summer wraps up we have a lot to look forward to right around the corner: the Shattered Destiny launch, the transition to Open Beta, trading (hopefully), an interface update, and hopefully not too far in the distance the first bits of playable PvE content trickling into client.  In the meantime you can sate you Hex hunger in the draft queue with a free Draft/Pack Code.  For your chance to win, just comment below (or in the subreddit) with the gem combo you would socket into Arborean Rootfather, one of the cards previewed this past weekend.  Remember to include your In-Game Name in you post so I can add you and send you the code if you win.

Until next time...