Emperor Thaurissan & Hex Dungeon Encounters

Though I never really got into Hearthstone, I've watched several Youtubers run through the Naxxramas Dungeon and most recently the first wing of the Blackrock Mountain Adventure.  Back when Naxx was released Hex backers, who at that point were devoid of any PvE content, had a mixed reaction towards Hearthstone's version of it.  On one hand Naxx mirrored the dungeon crawl Hex players had envisioned from when the game was first released with thematic bosses, unique cards, and enticing loot drops.  On the other it seemed devoid of the customization that Hex promised with its PvE experience, such as the ability to equip items to a champion to alter existing cards in your deck.  

One of the major differences between Hearthstone and Hex is that Hearthstone allows players to vacillate in their overall dungeon strategy by building decks specific to the encounter.  Unlike Hex where the deck you choose for the Frost Ring Arena is locked in from the start and has to run through a gauntlet of opponents by itself, in Hearthstone you can choose a different deck for each encounter.  This means that dungeon bosses can have very specific strategies and prompt the players to uncover and build a specific counter to them.  

Blackrock's Emperor Thaurissan is one such encounter.  Thaurissan's hero power deals an absurd 30 damage to the enemy for only two mana, though he only gets to use the ability if a troop that begins play on his side of the field dies.  This changes the dynamic of the encounter so much that a general strategy won't often work.  If this were Hex, a traditional Blood control deck would find their Extinctions pretty useless and be forced to deal with the opposing troop threat piecemeal.  Here's an example of a Budget Deck guide that Bog Otter came up with which demonstrates the very specific nature of the encounter and his approach to it.  (If you enjoy Guild Wars 2, Richie's channel is definitely worth a follow as well)

This mechanic of keeping a particular troop alive is similar to one that was hinted at in an interview Cory did when discussing the Kraken dungeon.  In one of that dungeon's encounters the town mayor is under the spell of a witch, and if the players manage to keep him alive by the end of boss fight they gain a reward.  This makes the "don't kill troop x" mechanic act as more of an achievement than a prohibitive feature of the encounter, one the players may deal with before proceeding as opposed to one they must deal with.

Hex likely couldn't get away with making these prohibitive encounter features too prevalent in their dungeons, since a single stack of sixty (minus the Mercenary tag-in) is required to navigate several encounters in one go.  If there are encounters that require mass reversion and troop destruction to a level that you are almost forced to run Extinction and Filk Ape, you threaten to lose the customization aspect of Hex that makes it so appealing.  However if the encounters are too submissive in the challenge they present and a dominant deck like Gore Feast can easily stomp through without having to adjust, the encounters become much less engaging.

The Frost Ring Arena demonstrates some of the troubles that come with balancing what the game demands of the player in deck construction.  While each encounter is certainly thematic, it is difficult to build a deck that specifically counters everything the Arena could throw at you.  Modifying a deck that has trouble against War Bot might tempt a player to include more artifacts than they might otherwise include, while an encounter like Zoltog might demand a card like Heat Wave to deal with the onslaught of Orcs.  As such a player could be pulled in several different directions when trying to improve their deck upon looking at their loss screen.  This problem is exacerbated by the randomness of the opponents you face in the FRA (since you might build your deck to better deal with War Bot and never actually encounter him) and the very nature of some of the champion abilities (two free Guardian Angels in a row, eh Avenging Angel?).  All of this makes getting a Perfect Tier or Perfect Clear seem more reliant on luck than individual skill, which is by and large something strategy games should want to avoid.

Perhaps FRA shouldn't be exemplary of future Hex dungeons in this particular aspect, since these dungeons will be using player customized characters, more linear dungeon progression, and other features like the Might System that could alter the overall gameplay.  Now that Hex players have a taste of PvE, it will be interesting to watch it evolve and gradually conform to our expectations as the Beta progresses.  But while so much attention is focused on the AI, which is still the most pressing issue for PvE, it shouldn't siphon attention away from creating engaging and challenging content.