Hey everyone! This is likely going to be my last update before GenCon. I'm looking forward to playing some Hex and earning some Jovial Pippits, along with snagging a few of those custom posters. If you haven't seen them yet, make sure you check out last week's Friday Update on the main site or Cory's blog, because they look amazing. There was a glut of information over the weekend from the Child's Play Stream, including promos and interviews. There were also some new tracks from Michael Shapiro on Soundcloud. AND I have a deck I've been tinkering around with to share this week.
Firecat Blitz
Most of the decks I have aren't really competitive... they're more fun. I have a few decks (including the Skarn deck) that I'm trying to make competitive, but I've never really enjoyed super top tier Constructed play (I love me some limited though). For those times when I don't have enough time to draft but I still wanna get my Hex on I've found myself tinkering around with this deck.
Champion: Poca
4x Bombsmith
4x Cerulean Mirror Knight
4x Buccaneer
2x Archmage Wrenlocke
4x Burn
4x Cerebral Fulmination
4x Ragefire
4x Peek
4x Replicator's Gambit
3x Oracle Song
11x Sapphire Shards
10x Ruby Shards
2x Shards of Fate
So the goal of this deck is to Replicator's Gambit your Blaze Elemental back into your deck to give you an instant 21 damage attack. Ragefire is an alternate win condition, and if you draw extra Gambits you can shuffle in a Buccaneer or Bombsmith since their "enters play" abilities become much better. Though this deck is a little kitschy I think Poca-Gambit is a solid little combo on its own since you don't lose any cards when you Gambit a Blaze Elemental (unless they kill the Elemental in response), and you have a very powerful, cheap play that you can topdeck. This list is about as dedicated to getting the "Firecat Blitz" combo off as you can, and if you pull it off, it's a pretty enjoyable attack phase.
Without threshold fixing, the two Shards of Fate are kind of a necessary evil to ensure you can play the Fulmination and Ragefires while still getting at least a couple cards off of Peek. This deck is strictly a combo deck: it doesn't have much in the way of generating card advantage like most control decks do, and it doesn't have a way to rush damage that most aggro decks do. Most of what you can do with generating card advantage will be restricted to Mirror Knight and Wrenlcoke, and most players will focus on killing them on sight if they can. There actually aren't a whole lot of troops for Mirror Knight to inspire, but if you don't have Gambit he turns Poca into a cheaper version of Wyatt since you Blaze Elementals will instantly net you a card. The four-resource cost of Wrenlocke also makes 23 resource a bit questionable (I'm always nervous about being stuck at 3), but the rest of the deck is so inexpensive I'm usually fine.
Wrenlcoke is also the most expensive card in the deck, though if you're having trouble affording them, he's not super necessary for the deck and could easily be replaced with something else. He's also not a good Gambit target since he's unique, so changing him up to something like Royal Falconer may actually help some draws.
Beta Features
During the Child's Play Stream Event, Ben Stoll (head of PvP) and Cory Jones both sat down for interviews with InfamousNeo & Cirouss. Vorsa & AswanJaguar in the official forums were kind enough to give the highlights of the interviews. I will go over a few of the finer points that are coming down the pipeline in the coming weeks, but it's worth checking out the overviews and interviews for yourself. You can find links to these overviews here: Jones Interview / Stoll Interview.
The next major content releases will be the tutorial, Set 2 PvP, and following that an update to PvE content. Trading (a send-by-mail version), as well as an improved AI are currently in the works. The Doubleback feature and Guilds have been pushed further back, likely until after Open Beta. Regarding Set 2 (Shattered Destiny), it will feature the mechanics Lethal, Skyguard, and Tunneling, the latter of which is a mechanic that is rooted in Hex's digital design space and will have a cool visual effect and thematic tie in. Shattered Destiny will also build upon the racial themes introduced in set 1, adding cards to Shin'hare, Human, Dwarf, and Orc strategies. Some of these we've already seen, like Fury of the Mountain God and Cottontail Recruiter. Shattered Destiny drafts will be mixed format: 2 Set-2, 1 Set-1 and award prizes of comparable distribution: so if you won 3 packs you'd win 2 Set-2, 1 Set-1.
New Champions and Gems will be introduced, possibly with Shattered Destiny, and if not they will be implemented during the next block of sets. There will also likely be a champion/gem rotation for what is allowed/available in PvP at a particular time. The "Wild West" PvE/PvP format may incorporate every Gem/Champion option though. Set 1 (Shards of Fate) and Shattered Destiny will comprise the first block, with Set 3 & Set 4 comprising the second block. This second block will focus on the other races it seems: Necrotic, Coyotle, Vennen, and Elves.
Firecat Blitz
Most of the decks I have aren't really competitive... they're more fun. I have a few decks (including the Skarn deck) that I'm trying to make competitive, but I've never really enjoyed super top tier Constructed play (I love me some limited though). For those times when I don't have enough time to draft but I still wanna get my Hex on I've found myself tinkering around with this deck.
Champion: Poca
4x Bombsmith
4x Cerulean Mirror Knight
4x Buccaneer
2x Archmage Wrenlocke
4x Burn
4x Cerebral Fulmination
4x Ragefire
4x Peek
4x Replicator's Gambit
3x Oracle Song
11x Sapphire Shards
10x Ruby Shards
2x Shards of Fate
So the goal of this deck is to Replicator's Gambit your Blaze Elemental back into your deck to give you an instant 21 damage attack. Ragefire is an alternate win condition, and if you draw extra Gambits you can shuffle in a Buccaneer or Bombsmith since their "enters play" abilities become much better. Though this deck is a little kitschy I think Poca-Gambit is a solid little combo on its own since you don't lose any cards when you Gambit a Blaze Elemental (unless they kill the Elemental in response), and you have a very powerful, cheap play that you can topdeck. This list is about as dedicated to getting the "Firecat Blitz" combo off as you can, and if you pull it off, it's a pretty enjoyable attack phase.
Without threshold fixing, the two Shards of Fate are kind of a necessary evil to ensure you can play the Fulmination and Ragefires while still getting at least a couple cards off of Peek. This deck is strictly a combo deck: it doesn't have much in the way of generating card advantage like most control decks do, and it doesn't have a way to rush damage that most aggro decks do. Most of what you can do with generating card advantage will be restricted to Mirror Knight and Wrenlcoke, and most players will focus on killing them on sight if they can. There actually aren't a whole lot of troops for Mirror Knight to inspire, but if you don't have Gambit he turns Poca into a cheaper version of Wyatt since you Blaze Elementals will instantly net you a card. The four-resource cost of Wrenlocke also makes 23 resource a bit questionable (I'm always nervous about being stuck at 3), but the rest of the deck is so inexpensive I'm usually fine.
Wrenlcoke is also the most expensive card in the deck, though if you're having trouble affording them, he's not super necessary for the deck and could easily be replaced with something else. He's also not a good Gambit target since he's unique, so changing him up to something like Royal Falconer may actually help some draws.
Beta Features
During the Child's Play Stream Event, Ben Stoll (head of PvP) and Cory Jones both sat down for interviews with InfamousNeo & Cirouss. Vorsa & AswanJaguar in the official forums were kind enough to give the highlights of the interviews. I will go over a few of the finer points that are coming down the pipeline in the coming weeks, but it's worth checking out the overviews and interviews for yourself. You can find links to these overviews here: Jones Interview / Stoll Interview.
The next major content releases will be the tutorial, Set 2 PvP, and following that an update to PvE content. Trading (a send-by-mail version), as well as an improved AI are currently in the works. The Doubleback feature and Guilds have been pushed further back, likely until after Open Beta. Regarding Set 2 (Shattered Destiny), it will feature the mechanics Lethal, Skyguard, and Tunneling, the latter of which is a mechanic that is rooted in Hex's digital design space and will have a cool visual effect and thematic tie in. Shattered Destiny will also build upon the racial themes introduced in set 1, adding cards to Shin'hare, Human, Dwarf, and Orc strategies. Some of these we've already seen, like Fury of the Mountain God and Cottontail Recruiter. Shattered Destiny drafts will be mixed format: 2 Set-2, 1 Set-1 and award prizes of comparable distribution: so if you won 3 packs you'd win 2 Set-2, 1 Set-1.
New Champions and Gems will be introduced, possibly with Shattered Destiny, and if not they will be implemented during the next block of sets. There will also likely be a champion/gem rotation for what is allowed/available in PvP at a particular time. The "Wild West" PvE/PvP format may incorporate every Gem/Champion option though. Set 1 (Shards of Fate) and Shattered Destiny will comprise the first block, with Set 3 & Set 4 comprising the second block. This second block will focus on the other races it seems: Necrotic, Coyotle, Vennen, and Elves.
New Music
Some of you may remember Michael Shapiro from the Massively article back in April where he discussed composing some of the various sounds for Hex. His Soundcloud was updated over the past month with some new tracks, including a haunting theme titled The Necrotic, which will likely be tied to their Underworld Location, or possibly a Necrotic themed Dungeon. If you haven't had the chance to check out his page, give it a listen!
Set 2 Previews
The Child's Play Stream also featured 4 new preview cards from Shattered Destiny:
Lethal was confirmed to equal "when this troop deals combat damage to another troop, it destroys that troop." This adds a bit of complication to deciding what gems you socket on this guy, since normal evasion rules may not always be better. Obviously giving it Flight makes sense in Sapphire-Blood, but so does slamming it on the field as a Quick Action to block and kill your opponent's gigantic attacker. Swiftstrike is equally good, since dealing combat damage first--and in turn, killing them--will keep him immune to whoever he's brawling with, so long as they too don't have swiftstrike. While the sockets and Lethal are this card's strength, the resource cost and toughness are definitely its weakness. Five resources for two-toughness is a very dicey proposition, since a Heat Wave or Burn will easily incinerate him. Despite this, he still appears to be a strong pick in draft, though this could change depending on how plentiful removal is in Set 2.
Let me put on my Highlander hat for a minute, since this card seems designed for the potentially powerful and incredibly wonky big-stack formats. You could get a Zoltog, Te'Talca, and an Ash Harpy... or you could whiff into a couple of Unmerciful Tormentors and a Royal Falcon (the bird, not the trainer). This is assuming "token" troops count towards the pool of potential cards this could generate, though if this is the case, you could generate The Triumvirate too. It probably won't see play in constructed, but it could be a slam in limited: most Ruby guys are pretty aggressive, and even if you get a couple of low-cost guys in the mix, you have a pretty good chance of at least breaking even with your resource investment.
Returning a massive amount of cards from your yard is pretty powerful, and if you are generating a lot of Worker Bots or sacrificing Sapper's Charges and Bottled Vitaes you will probably have some cheap cards to replenish your field after playing this. Right now artifacts are relatively tame, but this is a card that will likely be much more powerful as time goes on and more low-cost artifacts are printed. Charge, Vitae, and Goblin Cooking Pot are probably your best bets as far as abusing abilities. Pterobots aren't a bad choice either since their cost scales down with the artifacts you have in play, so if you get to 7 on the board that same turn you can generate a small army of 3/4 fliers. I'm less interested in playing a PvP deck with this than I am in trying this with Bebo in a PvE deck, since his Robot Parts can be generated fairly easily with the extra charges from Vitae and maybe Induction Coil.
Cost-efficient dudes with drawbacks tend to be hit or miss, and even with Steadfast this guy is asking for a Gozzog activation or... well... anything with evasion. One thing that does get me excited is this guy is an Iljuni, the anthropomorphic elephant people heretofore (to my knowledge) referenced only in the flavor text of Shrine of Prosperity. The ornately fashioned Iljuni seem really cool from a design standpoint--it has an Indian/Hindu feel--so I'm happy to see them more prominently featured on a card. Another interesting point about this card is that it has the Ardent emblem on the left-hand side, traditionally reserved only troops from the Ardent races: Humans, Orcs, Elves, and Coyotle. This could easily be an oversight, but it might also highlight that some of the "neutral" races are more closely allied with the Ardent or Underworld thematically. We already know the Shroomkin are closely tied to the Shin'hare (though much to their chagrin), so perhaps we will see some elephant shamans and clerics teaming up with Elves and Orcs in PvE dungeons.
Pack/Draft Code Contest
Congratulations to Arkios for winning last week's Pack/Draft Code. I'll add you in game and send you the code. I'll have another pack & draft code next available after GenCon. I'll also try to include some pictures meeting the Hex team and hopefully some of the podcasters from Threshold and 2 Turns Ahead (which if you haven't listened to, you should).
Until next time...
Pack/Draft Code Contest
Congratulations to Arkios for winning last week's Pack/Draft Code. I'll add you in game and send you the code. I'll have another pack & draft code next available after GenCon. I'll also try to include some pictures meeting the Hex team and hopefully some of the podcasters from Threshold and 2 Turns Ahead (which if you haven't listened to, you should).
Until next time...
FYI, you can replicate a unique card, as the replicas it spawns strip the unique flag.
ReplyDeleteWow, I didn't know that.... the Replicator wheels are turning now :p
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