Skitter Along

While some of Hex's races have dedicated keywords like Inspire or Prophecy to capture their flavor, others have more loosely defined mechanics.  One of these mechanics for the Shin'hare and Dwarves was the ability to churn out Worker Bots and Battle Hoppers.  Despite their similarities, these glorified chump blockers were designed to be played in very different ways: the Dwarves used their defensive robots to construct even greater robots, while the Shin'hare was fine sacrificing their creations for the sake of power.  

Much like the Dwarves and Shin'hare, the Vennen have a particular fondness for breeding Spiderspawn.  Xartaxis, Biship of the Azure Fang was one of a handful of cards designed to abuse these web-slinging menaces.  He has a passive ability that is active when you have two Sapphire threshold, granting all of your spiders the ability to draw a card whenever they damage to an opponent.  This can be an incredibly potent ability in a control deck, to which Sapphire and Blood are a natural fit.  But until now your options for getting Spiders on the field were a bit limited.  Luckily, Armies of Myth are bringing Spiders back in a big way, and one that is sure to leave a lasting impression on your opponent.

The Vennan are cold and calculating, unlike their uncontrolled Orcish "relations."  Where the Orcs want to pound you into dust immediately, the Vennen are interested in the long game, and their way of troop reproduction is much more nefarious.  Several of the Vennen in AoM create Spider Eggs which get shuffled into their opponent's deck.  When the opponent draws one of these eggs or the egg is send to the graveyard directly from the deck, the eggs hatch, creating an unblockable Spiderling for the venerable Vennen player.  

Exarch of the Egg is one such card, shuffling two Spider Eggs into the opponent's deck whenever a Vennen comes into play (including itself).  It's also a 1/3 Lethal troop for only two, which are decent stats for the low price of two mana.  Playing multiples of the Exarch in succession sets you up for a Spider explosion in the late game.  Runeweb Infiltrator is another layer of eggs, creating two whenever it deals damage to an opponent, which shouldn't be too hard since it comes equipped with Flight as well.  If you are dedicating yourself to the egg infiltration strategy, Hatchery Cultivator will help enable you, doing the same thing for Eggs that Ritualist of the Spring Litter did for Battle Hoppers.  

These unblockable menaces make a perfect match for old Vennen like Xartaxis, but the grand-daddy of Spider Lords is Phenteo the Brood Priest.  This Legendary Vennen can exhaust to shuffle three eggs into each opponents deck.  But these aren't just any eggs.... they're Terrorantula Eggs!  If you are unfamiliar with the Terrorantula, you probably don't know the keyboard-to-forehead inducing rage that is the Xarlox fight of the Frost Ring Arena.  It can be an incredibly frustrating fight since you start the game with three Terrorantula Eggs (actually, Broodlord Eggs, but functionally similar) in your deck.  If you have the misfortune of drawing one, or of the enemy using one of the myriad of mill effects in their deck, you have to tangle not with a miniscule Spiderling, but with a 5/5 behemoth that devours one of your troops when it enters play!  

While several have complained about how overpowered the spider egg infestation strategy is and how aggravating the Xarlox fight is, the Terrorantula murdering a troop and putting you on a four-turn clock is the real threat.  While the 1/1s are nothing to sneeze at, they can at least be dealt with by the likes of Heat Wave or another mass-removal action.  Infesting a deck is setting the control player up for later on.  It allows them to sit on reactionary cards, keeping all of their resources up for quick actions while they periodically receive a stealthy attacker on their field.  I'm not a huge fan of decking strategies, and I'm certainly not a control player, but the vennen offer a fun and interesting take on both, and I'm definitely looking forward to giving them a try in sealed and draft.