Shattered Destiny is officially out for Hex! Kickstarter Backers have received some free boosters to get a jump on their collections, and new items are available from Shattered Destiny chests on the Wheels of Fate, including sleeves, alternate art cards, PvE cards, and equipment! In addition to all that, this weekend (Friday through Monday) there will be special promos given out for players who participate in Draft and Sealed queues, which will use Shattered Destiny boosters exclusively!
If you plan on participating in a release tournament, here are some requisite links you'll want to check out to get caught up if you haven't logged in since the patch dropped Tuesday:
- Shattered Destiny Release Tournaments: Overview of the tournaments and prize payout, as well as the alternate art cards to participants and winners.
- Shattered Destiny Card List: All of the nearly 250 new cards found in Shattered Destiny, as well as five new champions available for deck construction.
- Known Issues Thread: Compiled forum post featuring all the bugs that have come up with the latest patch, including card specific bugs you should be aware of for limited play.
Even with the patch a few days old, there are already quite a few articles discussing card evaluation, strategy, and deck construction from various fan sites (Five Shards in particular has a very in-depth card review). You can find links to these in the Hex subreddit or in the Strategy Forum on the official message boards. Since the patch launched I've jumped into a handful of drafts utilizing the new general format (2-2-1). Though drafts and sealed events this weekend will use only Shattered Destiny boosters, I thought I'd give returning players who maybe haven't logged in for a while an overview of some things they can expect from Shattered Destiny so as not to be at too great a disadvantage this weekend. This isn't meant to be an exhaustive list, but some general tips and early impressions I've gathered from the time I've had to test the cards first hand.
1. Removal is much different in Shattered Destiny.
In Shards of Fate, players wouldn't hold too much attachment to their troops since an Inner Conflict, Repel, or Murder could easily nullify even the bulkiest of beaters. In Shattered Destiny, the removal is much more number focused. Diamond in particular has much worse options than it did in Shards of Fate, having to rely on Meek as their only common removal action, which won't be able to oust anything truly threatening. Two of the best common removal actions, Crackling Bolt and Crackling Rot, are defense based and won't easily be able to deal with anything that has a particularly sizable rump, such as Bastion of Adamanth. When you venture into the uncommons and rares, you get more general removal like Immortal Decree and Dishonerable Death, though these come with a high resource investment though, so don't rely on them for stopping your opponent's early aggression.
One of the keywords featured in Shattered Destiny, Lethal, makes up for this a bit. Cards like Killblade of the Milky Eye and Lethal Weapons are common cards that use the ability, which will allow the Letahl troop to destroy any opposing troop it damages. This can be effective for punching through damage or forcing your opponent to hold back a big troop. This makes evasion all the more important when facing off against decks that have cards like this in their arsenal.
2. Tri-Shard decks are more viable, and sometimes encouraged.
With the lack of threshold fixing in Shards of Fate players would often have to resign themselves to choosing two shards and sticking with them. Shattered Destiny offers much more options for splashing a third shard into your deck with the cycle of uncommon Dual-Threshold Resources and cards like Immortal Tears that can search up a standard resource from your deck. Getting the uncommon Resources later in a draft can be tricky, particularly the Shard of Innovation since both Dwarf and Human players have reason to take it. Humans is at the front of the line among archetypes that most encourage you to spread into a third shard. Uncommon troops like Royal Enforcer and Royal Valkyr can be devastating if you can manage your resources, and the Vanguards of Cerulea and Gawaine are solid troops to fall back on if you aren't super confident going full tri-shard and simply want to splash the third, relying on two main shards to get you through the majority of your games.
3. Familiarize yourself with Tunneling cards and costs.
One of the general things you want to do to prep for a big limited tournament is to familiarize yourself with Quick Actions and effects. This lets you prepare for combat tricks and removal spells your opponent can play (given the resources they have available) so you can plan your attacks and plays effectively. In Shattered Destiny, you not only want to familiarize yourself with Quick Actions, but also with tunneling troops. This way, when your opponent sends something under on turn two you'll go from "That could be anything!" to "Okay, that could be one of a handful of troops." There are about two dozen tunneling troops spread across four shards (every one but Diamond) and a few artifacts. Most of them take between one and four turns to pop out from underground, and each of them will be able to attack the turn they emerge. Prepping an attack or defense can be even more difficult with the effects that trigger when some of these subterranean saboteurs emerge from underground. The Launchpad Specialist can give an allied troop +1/+1 and Flight when it emerges, and the Wakizashi Ambusher, which can eighty-six a troop with less defense than its power. Additionally, cards like the Ambusher and Grave Nibbler can get stronger that they would have been when a troop above ground dies. What might be a reckless attack by your opponent could really be a scheme to make their underground troops more powerful when they emerge. The effects vary from shard to shard, so knowing what your opponent could have underground is incredibly important to your overall strategy.
One other thing to note is that you can't seem to choose the order you want troops to emerge from underground. This was frustrating to one of my opponents who tried to time a Launchpad Specialist and Excavation Hulk. The Specialist emerged first and failed to use its ability, followed by the much less happy 4/4.
4. Expect to see new Champions.
One of the things that caught me off guard in my first draft was how strong some of the new champions are. The Shin'hare in particular are truly terrifying, with the Wild-based Fuzzuko giving all your troops a +1/+1 boost for five charges and the Blood-infused Bunoshi sacrificing a lesser troop to give another a +2/+2 boost for three charges. Both of these effects are permanent, and put the buffs from previous champs you might be familiar with (like Palamedes) to shame. There is also a renewed focus on champion powers through the number of cards that gain you extra charges or trigger effects whenever you gain a charge. Charge Hulk and Inductocopter Bot, as well as an entire set of Crackling cards are just a few of the cards you can use to give your champion some extra mojo. You might need these extra charges to afford some of the more expensive, but powerful charge powers, such as Daughter of Stars, which at the steep cost of ten charges will return every opposing troop to your opponents hand, giving you an opening to attack through for the win.
5. You might deck yourself... or your opponent.
Milling was a bit of a wonky strategy in Set 1, usually requiring you to play cards that had little impact on the board outside of their mill effect like Twisted Fate or Spawn of Othuyeg. In Shattered Destiny, there are some sizeable troops that can help you survive while you slowly chew your opponent's deck away. Dementia Daisies and the Neophyte of Xarlox can play defense and resist most removal actions while also taking chunks away from your opponent's deck. Murmurs From The Void is an expensive constant that can act as hard removal for a troop by bouncing it to the top of the deck and then forcing your opponent to discard the top five cards from their deck. All of these cards could easily find their way into a Sapphire or Blood Sealed Deck, a much slower format than draft. Drafters can harness the power of these mill effects and build around them with Typhoon Galleon, an uncommon troop that gets stronger whenever a card enters an opposing graveyard, be it from the battlefield or the deck. Nin the Shadow is also still available as a champion for players who want to dedicate themselves to a draft strategy.
Of course, you'll want to have some luck on your side as well. There are 18 legendary cards hiding in Shattered Destiny boosters, and more than a few are insanely powerful, including three dragons that can quickly end the game if not dealt with. Good luck this weekend with your drafts, sealed pools, and the Wheels of Fate spins you will inevitably pour your hard-earned gold into!
Card images from Hex TCG Browser.
Card images from Hex TCG Browser.
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