Heart of the Wrathwood

I've come to the conclusion that there are two types of cards I will always love in Hex.  The first is cards that transform your cards into other random cards, and the second is cards that randomly create a specific type of card.  Reese was one of these cards for me, and I'm very happy I picked up my playset while they were around 400-500 platinum.  Strength aside, the reason I like these cards is that with every new set, the cards themselves actually change since there is a greater pool of cards for them to transform into or generate.  My Reese before Armies of Myth has a strong array of Robots to create, but after the set gets released I might get blessed with a Charge Colossus or Mechanized Demoloisher during my end step.  Either way, the odds of it being a 0/0 Tower Hulk are that much lower.

Maybe you're not big on the robotic side of life though.  Perhaps you view this legion of mechanical monstrosities as an affront to nature, and to correct this imbalance you want to spread the glory of the natural world as far as it will spread.  Those arrogant dwarves and their misplaced hubris!  They are treading where they ought not, and will soon feel the inexorable might of the WRATHWOOD!!!!!

Heart of the Wrathwood is a bit more expensive than Reese, and requires you to really commit to Wild Shards before you can play it.  But when you do you'll have a very formidable finisher.  Heart of the Wrathwood has Attack and Defense values equal to your permanent resources.  That means every shard you play will only cause it to grow more magnificent.  Fist of Brigadoon may be Invincible, for for the same cost you can grow your own bigger troop.

"That's all well and good," you may be thinking.  "But a simple Murder will cut the Heart at the stump, sending it to the graveyard."  This is true, but as your Heart dies, his presence lingers on the field in the Seed Pods he disperses.  Now these troops are the weakest of weak, comparable to that of an untrained Battle Hopper.  But the Seed Pods are a bit different, each one acting like a mini Plant Garden.  Over time these Seed pods will accumulate seed counters.  Once they have three, they transform into another random Plant.

This means that to get your random Plant engine online, you'll need a little patience.  Just as Reese needs to tunnel for a few turns to get the random-robot generation online, the Seed Pods need a few turns on the field to charge up before they achieve their ultimate destiny.  Unlike Reese who is safe underground, the Seed Pods are extremely vulnerable on your field.  Heat Wave or Extinction will clear them all from the field.  Though this will still be card advantage for you since they will have spent two cards on your one Heart, it's still super-frustrating.  Cards like Oath of Valor or Monsuun might offer your some counterplay to these effects, but since your Hearts won't show until mid-to-late game anyways, the Seed Pods should act more as a ticking time bomb that your opponent has to deal with before they evolve into more dangerous flora.

So what sort of plants are there that you can get?  Well the dream scenario is having one of them transform into another Heart of the Wrathwood, capable of dropping even more Seed Pods should it meet the same timely fate as the first.  Any of the Plant Garden Trio are up for grabs, like the 9/9 Vine Goliath, which can lock down opposing troops as you swing in.  Wrathwood Master Moss is a solid result as well, itself needing to effectively die twice before it is fully off the field.  Briar Legion isn't bad if you can get multiple copies (assuming transforming counts as it entering play for the +2/+2 to proc; otherwise it could die instantly if you haven't played another during the game).  There are even some off-shard plants like Dementia Daisies and Rose Lion.  

As of right now, there are only 15 distinct Plant troops, and Seed Pod can't turn into itself which leaves you with just over a dozen options.  But one of the great things about this card and cards like it is that as more Plants are introduced into the game, the number of different troops you could get from your Seed Pods increases, giving you quite a bit of mileage out of it.  

Armies of Myth was scheduled to release today (Tuesday, July 14) but was delayed due to a bug.  Hopefully it releases this week so I can do some drafts over the weekend.  Otherwise I'll have to squeeze them in while packing for GenCon.  

Gauntlet Throwdown & Limited First Impressions

A metric ton of information got dumped on us recently for the new Hex set.  Not only will the Armies of Myth patch feature Chest Opening and Extended Art, but we'll also be getting Gauntlet Tournaments, which are similar to Asynchronous Tournaments from Hearthstone.  The downside is that for Sealed Players you can't actually net any packs by going undefeated.  You play until you hit 5 wins or 3 losses, then collect prizes based on your wins.  Five victories earns you six boosters, while any other scenario nets you boosters equal to the number of wins you earned.  This means that unless you sell your packs (or the contents of the chests from those packs), you won't be able to "go infinite."  That's a small quibble compared to this patch basically giving me everything my little heart desires though.

The full card spoiler is out as well, with about 250 new cards to use and abuse.  I'd eventually like to do a full set review (obligatory eye roll), but for now I'll give my initial impressions on limited for this format, which from my understanding will be entirely done with Armies of Myth packs.  Now one larger point I think I should make is on reserves cards with the new Gauntlet Sealed, which uses one-game matches.  This means you don't get to bring your Vandalize in game 2 against your opponent's Syyn, which is a shame since there's a lot of nice situational cards that might not merit a spot on your opening forty but can be absolute blowouts against the right deck.

Quick Troops can gain prophecy buffs
while in your deck, making their surprise
appearance even more deadly.

One of the things I think will be overlooked is the number of Quick Troops in this draft format.  Quick troops can be particularly nasty since you reveal next to no information during the turn you plan to play them.  Having any resources up could make your opponent think twice about attacking with important troops they want to keep alive.  Many of the Quick Troops aren't exactly the hardiest, Snarling Ambusher being a fine example at a 3/2 for 3 resources.  But that three attack points will allow it to trade with many things early on.  And if you're fortunate enough to give a Quick Troop a Prophecy buff from a card like Nightsky Stargazer, a surprise speed bump can become a game changer.  

One of the things people are particularly worried about are the Spiderlings, due in large part to the frustrations with Xarlox int he Frost Ring Arena.  Now 1/1 troops with unblockable are undoubtedly annoying, particularly when your opponent gets them for free.  However, having played more than a few games with Booby Traps, I know how dicey relying on your opponent to draw them can be.  Sometimes your opponent will have a dozen in their deck and not draw a single one while your life is slowly chipped away by a Phoenix Guard Messenger.  Other times your opponent will draw them the instant they get put in (and if you're like me you instantly feel guilty for your fortune).  The upside to the infested player is that they won't lose their entire draw with Spiderling Eggs like they would with Booby Traps.  The bad news is that this means several eggs could trigger in a chain reaction of skittering menaces.  Now this isn't the end of the world, since a few cards can deal with these spidery threats pretty handily.  Though these cards might be too narrow to merit main deck status.

There's also a question of how deep in the infestation strategy to you go?  While a dedicated Spiderling Deck with Painbringer and Brood Baron would be interesting, it's a strategy that seems more likely to be abused in Draft than Sealed.  Many of the effects that produce Spiderling Eggs are tacked onto cards people will play based on the strength of the card outside of the Eggs they provide.  Parriphagy is expensive, but effective removal that could net you a few spiders if the game goes long.  Nazhk Webguard has decent defensive stats for a 2-drop, and becomes more valuable at messing up combat the more eggs you get into your opponent's deck.  Hatchery Priest on the otherhand has very poor stats to justify including it into the deck unless you are dedicated to the archetype, and Incubate does nothing to the board at all when it is played.

Finally we have removal, which is one of the first things I think people should look at when analyzing a new limited format.  For Blood, the most straightforward removal is the aforementioned Parriphagy, though at five resources the cost can be very prohibitive if the format is fast.  Rot Cast is solid 2-cost removal action for early drops, and doesn't discriminate Artifact Troops the way Murder did.  Taint on the other hand is all of the narrowness of Atrophy with none of the sweet, sweet card advantage.  I wouldn't be against using it if the situation called for it, but when the best case scenario is a 1-for-1, I won't feel good about it.  I suppose Merciless Culler is removal as well, though the Battle Hopper generation of past sets isn't present in Armies.  Sacrificing a Spiderling might make this guy not awful, but at the end of the day you still just have a 3/2.  Shadowblade Assassin has a lethal shift that should not be overlooked either.  This ability can be important for Necrotic decks, which will likely gravitate towards Blood-Diamond, and also provide a good chunk of Swiftstrike options to pair with.

Speaking of Diamond, they probably have the most interesting removal of any of the shards.  Pride's Fall is good (and cheap) for taking down the biggest and baddest of your opponent's troops, but will do little against a tempo rush.  Etherealize transforms a troop or constant into a 1/1 Phantom.  Unfortunately it's basic speed, so instead of being a combat trick, the best you can hope for is nullifying your opponent's strongest dude if you have aerial presence.  In dire straits it could give you a finisher if the ground is clogged, or a chump blocker for a turn if things are particularly grim.  Inflict Doubt is a dicey uncommon that acts as a cheaper Inner Conflict if you have more guys than they do.  If you have troop generation this isn't too bad, and it seems that Ruby-Diamond could be a decent shard combination to do this if you get some combination of First Blood or Veteran Raider.  Martyr (a rare) transforms a troop into a Monument of the Martyr, which will either allow you to swing through for the win or sacrifice one of your troops to have an on-board pump (I see this seeing some play in Constructed).  And finally Stinging Ambush is a decent reserves card against opposing Phantoms and Spiderlings, but not terribly effective against beefier fare.

I fully expect a Shakespearean Play
dungeon stage now.

For Ruby (and they have buffet of removal), Bombwright and Boomsmith are both four cost dwarves that can oust low defense troops, Boomsmith once for 2 when he comes into play and Bombwright every turn for 1.  Bombwright will likely be good for chewing up Spiderlings and Phantoms though potentially underwhelming against other decks.  Fiery Indignation is quality removal (with excellent artwork) that can ping something for 2 early game or roast something for five later in the game, when you have a 5-drop on the field.  Lunge is a cheaper version of Adrenaline Rush that only gives +2 Attack for the turn instead of 3, though that will likely be enough to topple whatever you're trying to kill.  Scorch is in the same boat as Taint and doesn't even have the courtesy of being a Quick Action (I wouldn't mind trying it out in my Kindling Skarn deck though).  Skewer is much better: 3-for-3 at Quick Speed that can bolt your opponent if you manage to snipe a low-defense utility troop like Windspeaker.  Staggering Blast is a reserves option against Spiders and a potential finisher for a speedy deck.  Volley of Arrows is incredibly expensive and situational, but it can be a stalemate breaker in a clogged board.  Tribal Warfare is a windmill slam, capable of gunning down every one of your opponent's troops in a single turn.  Playing with Fire is a unique pick that could really pressure your opponent on a curve or not do a single thing.  You have to draft/build around it, and in Draft that is much easier to do, but if you have a good chunk of 5+ drops in your deck it's worth considering.

For Sapphire, you have a couple options for dealing with raw damage but little for dealing with utility.  Cripple isn't bad if you plan on flying over your opponent but it doesn't deal with any toughness attached to that troop.  Incubation Webs is a quality removal card, particularly for control decks since it will serve you better the longer the game goes, providing the chance for chump blockers/win conditions every turn thereafter (if the Spider Eggs get shuffled in every turn it's even better against Prophecy).  Windspeaker is a bit like Wind Whisperer from Shards of Fate, though requires Sapphire-Diamond to start shutting opposing troops down every turn.  Suffocate is expensive for a Countermagic, and the extra eggs probably don't justify the cost, but if you have enough Quick Troops to justify passing with four resources up it might be worth considering.

Wild has more tricks than removal, but there are a few cards of note.  Predatory Prey is expensive as hell, but can remove a big troop of your opponent and give you two extra power on your attack in.  Return to the Soil is very strong if you can find a target for it, which may be a little more difficult without Construction Plans and Pterobots making the rounds, but the raw card advantage should give you strong consideration for including it in your Sealed main.  Stinkhorn Soup is a very nasty combat trick that readies and makes Lethal one of your troops for the turn, though unless you have decent defense or swiftstrike it's pure card disadvantage.  Vine Lash is good against Flight decks from the reserves, but is likely too narrow for Gauntlet Sealed.  In the rares there are some dinosaurs, Carnasaurus and Crocosaur, that can fight when they enter play, but require a heavy Wild threshold investment if you want to play them on curve.  Scorn of Oberon (another rare) can be a blowout in the right situation.  Quick Speed reversion, artifact destruction, or constant destruction is probably enough to at least justify the cost, but the ability to do two or even all three for only three resources is very enticing.

Overall I think there are some very strong removal options for many of the shards, and it will be interesting to see how they fare with the new mechanics of the set.  I'll be back next week with some card reviews, and maybe an update on Guild Wars 2 or Offworld Trading Company (which I snagged during the Steam Sale this week).  Have a great weekend!

Anana's Avenging Phantoms

There is one card from Armies of Myth that popped out at me the moment I saw it: Golden Avenger.  Now on the surface it's just a bulky mid-range flight troop, a hero of mysterious allegiance from another plane of existence.  But when he dies this noble hero leaves behind his Mask, which can be used to transform another troop you control into the Golden Avenger.  

Something about this card just seems right from a design standpoint.  First off, he doesn't seem ridiculously broken.  A 4/4 for 5 with solid stats isn't going to destroy the meta (at least I don't think so.... I haven't played PvP constructed much).  There's also plenty of counterplay for the Mask since it's a basic action: you can use discard effects to get rid of it from your opponent's hand, kill the troop in response to the Mask being put on it, or just straight up counter it.

And yet, there is an alluring quality about this card, that if abused properly could devastate the Vampire Kings and Angels of Dawn that your opponent relies on to carry the game.  It's clearly a limited powerhouse, and will definitely be fun in highlander/singleton/Elder-Zakiir-Highlander, or whatever version of the "fun" format Hex eventually gets.  But it's also the sort of card I'd love to take into the Proving Grounds to troll around with (if you got gold for losses....).  At the very least it's the sort of cards I'd like to play against my friends, so in the off-chance I snag four copies of it, I'd like to get a deck going.  

Now since the first half of this card is pretty straightforward, the only thing there is to "abuse" is the Mask.  To ensure your avenging days continue you need to have a troop on the field when the Avenger bites it.  Normally if you're just looking for troops to get churned out you want something along the lines of Worker Bots or Battle Hoppers.  Wretched Brood isn't bad for pumping out future Avengers, though Golden Avenger doesn't have Lifedrain, so you might risk killing yourself with Brood if you don't put in countermeasures to prevent that.  Bertram in a Sapphire-Diamond Worker Bot deck doesn't sound like too bad of an idea either.  Sapphire also has a good chunk of cagey utility troops like Phoenix Guard Messenger that don't penalize you if your opponent kills them before they can put on the mask.  Humans also have lots of Rangers that generate troops when they enter play, giving you many options for transformation.

But the deck I want to run is a bit more thematic, and uses a new champion from Armies of Myth: Madame Anana.  This Necrotic spiritualist requires Blood and Diamond threshold to work her dark magic, but for three charges she allows any troop under your control to leave behind a Phantom when it dies.  Now as of writing this Anana isn't available in the client, so I can't test her, but I assume since both effects trigger off of the Avenger dying that they will both happen when he is killed, giving you both the Mask and a 1/1 Phantom to conveniently place it onto.  You can also use Minion of Yazukan and Xentoth's Inquisitor, two difficult troops to fully eliminate from the board, and ones that can repeatedly die to Anana's ability once they are enchanted with her charge power.  Here's a sample list I'd like to tool around with:

Anana's Avenging Phantoms

Champion: Madame Anana

4 Golden Avenger

4 Minion of Yazukan

4 Xentoth's Inquisitor (Brutality)

3 Crackling Rot

4 Extinction

3 Inquisition

4 Repel

4 Solitary Exile

2 Oath of Valor

2 Zombie Plague

11 Blood Shard

11 Diamond Shard

4 Shard of Retribution

For reserves options I'd probably run a sacrifice engine to get around cards like Inner Conflict or other cards that hobble, but don't outright kill opposing cards.  Born to Die is thematic, but not particularly effective, though it could be a win condition if you get a rotation of Phantoms going strong with Minion deaths.  Hopefully in the upcoming weeks we'll get some news about an Armies of Myth release date.  In the mean time I'll be feverishly grinding Arena matches until I have one of every promo card (3 more to go).  

Card images from HexTCG Database

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.

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

Long time, no Hex article.  Part of the reason is that there hasn't been much to write about.  In a few short days Shattered Destiny will be six months old.  Aside from Hex's first expansion and the Frost Ring Arena, there has been little in the way of game updates, which is concerning since many of the features of the game that really make me want to play (dungeons, character creation, double back) seem ages away.  Waning enthusiasm aside, a new card set is always enough to pique my interest, and the recent glut of spoilers make me optimistic that the set will be launching within the next few months, at the very least be playable at Gen Con (if Hex will be there this year).

The three new keywords in this set are Allegiance, Shift, and Prophecy.  You can read about all these keywords here, but today I'm going to focus in on Prophecy and the Coyotles, who seem to be heavily associated with it.  Now in the first two set these prescient pups took a back seat to their Ardent allies, the Humans and Orcs.  While they got their fair share of cool cards, the next two expansions are going to focus on the Coyotle, alongside the Necrotic, Vennen, and Elves.

Prophecy is a keyword mechanic that functions similar to cards like Spirit Dance and Shrine of Prosperity, which allow you to invest in the cards that are still in your deck, making them stronger when you draw them.  Prophecy is much like that, strengthening the cards in your deck.  Troops get beefier, Actions get cheaper, and resources gain extra charges.  Lanupaw, Prophet of Fate is one of the Unique Coyotle, and the queen of prophecy in the set.  When you play her, she buffs the next action, resource, and troop in your deck, and as you reap the rewards of her visions, she becomes stronger.  One interesting aspect of Lanupaw is that she requires three different thresholds to play.  Multi-threshold cards won't necessarily be making their debut in Hex with Armies of Myth, since The Triumvirate was possible to summon in Shards of Fate.  But Armies will be your first chance to open them from packs and include them in your deck.  And these multi-threshold cards aren't just restricted to cards of legendary rarity.  

Dreamsmoke Mystic is an uncommon that requires both sapphire and wild threshold.  While many of the Coyotle Prophecy cards will buff cards in your deck, others like the Mystic can be used to dig through your deck to find them and get them out more quickly.  One of the more interesting multi-threshold cards is Brown Fox Scout, which will likely become a staple of the constructed format.  Brown Fox Scout is ostensibly boring: a 3/2 troop for two resources, requiring sapphire and wild threshold with no evasion or combat abilities.  What makes the scout unique is that while it is the top card of your deck, it will reveal itself to you and allow you to play it directly from the top of your deck to the field.  While this already combos well with prophecy cards that make your troops bigger, the icing on the cake is that Brown Fox Scout is a Quick Troop, meaning you can play it during an opponent's attack to screw up their combat, or at the end of your opponent's turn, denying them the ability to use basic actions like Extinction or Crackling Bolt to kill it.  You also don't lose a draw when you play the Scout, making it a free troop in many ways, so long as you have the resources and threshold to play it.

Some prophecy effects are powerful enough for you to build around their effect by themselves.  While Lanupaw and many others have Prophecy effects that give moderate buffs, Indigo Dreamwalker can cause the next card in your deck to be played for free.  This could create crazy situations with huge actions like a turn-five Citadel of Adamanth or a free Zodiac Divination with resources available to play the cards you just drew.  Even Escalation cards are strong with Dreamwalker, since in addition to having their resource cost stripped away they get shuffled in to hopefully be drawn again.  There aren't any reliable ways to know what the topmost action of your deck will be, but nonetheless the Dreamwalker will be an incredibly fun card to play in Highlander formats where zany, expansive cards can easily be played.

There's a few dozen spoilers for Armies of Myth out already, with more getting previewed every week.  Hopefully we'll have a rough release date in the next week or so, and I'll get a chance to draft the Coyotle myself.  It would also be nice to get an update on Mercenaries & Chest Opening, but at this point I will take what I can get.  The Armies of Myth patch will also bring about Extended Art, though instead of being tied to the doubleback feature it will be a gold sink for Frost Ring grinders.  I'll post my thoughts about that next week, along with a closer look at Shift, which seem to be an ability tied to the Necrotic.  

In the mean time, keep watching the main site and forums (or reddit) for spoilers.

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. 

The Frost and The Furious

One of the things I've been waiting for in Hex, more than even running the actual dungeons, is the equipment.  I'd be lying if I said I wasn't looking forward to tearing through all the chests that are sitting in my inventory, sorting out all the loot and brainstorming decks.to run through the arena.  Unfortunately when the patch launched, I only had three pieces: The Mirrorblade (a Kickstarter Reward that enhance Replicator's Gambit), North Wind Chimes, and Sky Walkers (which buff Elementals obtained from rolling on Shards of Fate chests in the Wheels of Fate).  Some equipment from the Wheels, like Spark Mitts, was noticeably absent from my inventory stash, along with all the mercenaries and chests.  The chests are still accessible to roll on, but it's a weird interface problem that's crept over from pre-Frost Ring.

  

This means I have to grind the Arena a few times with a deck sans equipment.  Luckily the Arena is very doable without equipment, and a player with little more than a starter could probably finish with little problems.  Getting a perfect run and killing Uruunaz might require a little more power in your stack, and with the diversity of decks, it is definitely possible to bleed a game or two against bosses and minor opponents.  Those achievements are just required to earn you sleeves though.  To grind equipment you just need a bit of tenacity and a deck that can deal with the boss fights, preferably a fast one if you want to do it in decent time.

Arena Orc Rush
Champ: Sir Giles Rowan

4 Savage Raider

4 Ridge Raider

4 Arena Regular

4 Spark Elemental

4 Furious Taskmaster

3 Fierce Warlord

1 Goremaster

3 Zoltog

4 Ragefire

4 Crackling bolt

2 Burn

23 Ruby Shard

This probably isn't the most optimal list since I don't own a full playset of Goremaster, but the list is very strong and very aggressive.  With eight one-drops you will likely be beating for two on the first turn.  Fierce Warlord can make that three if played early as well.  There's a charge sub-theme in the deck in Spark Elemental and Crackling Bolt, allowing you to get Sir Gilas's charge power off multiple times in the match, and on turn three if need be.  Spark Elementals also take advantage of the AI's poor recognition of Swiftstrike troops, often allowing you to chunk an early rush with little push back.  Arena Regular has synergy with the additional charge cards as well, giving you extra reach if the ground gets clogged to deal damage even on otherwise dead draws.  Dealing damage off charges with the Regular will also trigger Zoltog, giving you a free Savage Raider for your troubles.

The deck also takes advantage of the buffs granted from challenges, which often grant you charges, resources, or even Arena Brawlers at the start of the match.  In one Arena run my tier four boss was Xarlox, one of the more difficult matches one can draw.  However thanks to two prior challenges, I started the game with an Arena Brawler and two additional charges.  Since the Brawler is an aggressive Orc and my charge power is meant to buff all my Orcs, this was a dream setup, and resulted in a turn-4 win for me even with him starting at 25 health.  This also ended up being my first perfect run, so in addition to ten cards and equipment I got the achievement sleeves. 

Despite the runs I've made, most of the equipment I've gotten affects cards I don't yet own, however a few of them have caught my eye as ones I'd like to build around.  One in particular is Ring of the Goodfellow, a Rare trinket that give puck the ability to look at the the top five cards of your deck whenever he deals damage.  You get to take a troop from among those cards and add it to your hand, which Puck can help you play the following turn if its cost is five or more.  

Frost Ring Arena Overview

In this article I'm going to give a brief overview of the Frost Ring Arena.  This will serve as reference for future articles, including one later this week regarding my general impressions from the Server Test this past weekend.  If you didn't get the chance to participate in the Test Server, you can check out some of the cards and equipment that were spoiled from the Arena at the following links:

Hex TCG Browser PVE Cards
King Gabriel's Equipment List

The Frost Ring Arena is the first piece of PvE content that will be available in Hex.  The patch that implements the Arena will also feature the ability to build decks specifically for PvE using cards like Lightning Elemental or Death Cap, as well as the ability to use equipment in conjunction with your cards.  During the Test Server Weekend (February 5th-7th), players in the Beta were able to try out the Frost Ring Arena at its current state of development.

Deck Construction

Deck Construction for the Arena is similar to that for PvP, with two major differences.  The first is that in addition to cards from Shards of Fate and Shattered Destiny, players will be able to add PvE exclusive cards that cannot be opened from boosters.  These cards can be obtained by completing battles in the Arena, spinning the Wheels of Fate, and opening chests.  The upper-left corner of a PvE card will have a distinct filigree pattern along the card name and resource cost.  (See Shiitake Chef and Honeycap below for a comparison)

The second major change in deck construction is that players will be able to equip items to their champion.  Each champion has six slots for items: Head, Chest, Hands, Feet, Weapon, and Trinket.  Every piece of equipment in the game fits into one of these slots, and provides a bonus to a specific card.  In the example below, you could equip the Starfire Headdress to your champion to give all Starfire Totemist cards in your deck Lifedrain.

This presents an added wrinkle to deck construction, since you could have several cards in your deck that would benefit from different pieces of equipment, but you can only equip one of each type.  So if you wanted to use another piece of "Head" equipment, you wouldn't be able to use the Starfire Headdress.  Most cards have between one and three pieces of equipment associated with them, so utilizing equipment can allow you to create one or two really powerful cards or spread out the buffs among multiple cards in your deck.  Even cards that aren't very powerful in PvP might have equipment that completely changes their power level in PvE.

Arena Deck Construction will still utilize the 25 PvP champions that are available in PvP, like Lady Elizabeth, Kishimoto, or Running Deer.  Later dungeons will require players to create their own characters with a specific race and class like traditional MMOs.  Players are not allowed to change their deck during the Frost Arena, and as matches are single games there is no Reserves or Sideboard option.  Mercenaries will be implemented into the Frost Ring Arena sometime after launch.  Mercenaries are similar to champions, but can only participate in one or two matches throughout the course of a dungeon--you can "tag them in" when you are facing an opponent you don't feel your main deck can defeat.

Frost Ring Arena

Once you have your deck you can access the Frost Ring Arena on the main page.  After an introduction from Hogarth, the Keeper of the Frost Ring, you will get to play through the Arena, which is broken down to twenty matches divided into four tiers.  Each tier contains four Regular Battles with one Boss Battle at the end.  During the First Tier, Hogarth will start your first four opponents at 15 Health to ease you into the experience.  Each Tier afterwards will have them starting at 20.

One of several potential champions you
could face in regular Frost Ring battles.

The opponents for Regular Battles are drawn from a general pool at random, many of which represent in game cards like Wild Root Dancer, Dragon Guard Stalwart, and Zodiac Shaman.  Each opposing champion has a Charge Power similar to PvP champions, and a Passive Power which provides a benefit strategically tied to their deck.  Some of these Passive Powers trigger once at the beginning of the game, such as that of Wild Root Dancer, which allows both players to select a Troop in their deck and create four additional copies of it to shuffle in.  Others are effective throughout the entire fight, such as that of Zodiac Shaman which makes it so players cannot play cards during opponents turns.  Take that Countermagic!

Boss Champions are based on Unqiue characters in Hex like Eurig the Robomancer and Zoltog.  Each has an Active and Passive Power similar to standard opponents, but are often much more powerful.  Zoltog's Passive, for example creates a Savage Raider whenever an Orc troop he controls damages you (thankfully, this ability is only active when he has two blood and two ruby threshold).  All Boss Champions start at 25 Health (first tier boss only starts at 20), meaning you'll have to do a little more damage to bring them down.  Additionally, Boss Champions have their own Equipment attached to them which will affect some of the cards in their deck.

Challenges

Once per tier Hogarth will present a challenge to you during one of your regular matches, which is a side-condition you have the option to try to accomplish during the match.  You won't receive a penalty if you fail the Challenge, but if you manage to pass you will receive a bonus during the Boss Battle of that tier. These bonus vary, through most of them take affect at the start of the game, such as beginning with a free Resource or Arena Brawler in play.  Here's a few challenges I ran into to give you an idea of what to expect:

Kismet's Luck Challenge: Hogarth plays Kismet's Reverie at the start of the match.  You complete this challenge simply by winning.

Ivory Pawn Challenge:  Hogarth gives you a free Ivory Pawn at the start of the match.  You complete this challenge by winning the game while above 30 life.

Mastery of Time Challenge:  Hogarth wants you to finish the match quickly and plays Mastery of Time on you.  You complete this challenge by winning the game before your extra turn ends?

Loot

One of several prize cards
available from prize chests.

Every Victory against a standard opponent will net you gold.  Defeating a Boss will grant you gold and a prize chest, which is either a PvE card or Equipment.  Additional prize chests are awarded for a Perfect Tier Bonus (completing a tier without a defeat).  Though these amounts are not set in stone, the total amount of gold players received for a full run through the Arena was around 16,000 gold, near the amount you receive for finishing second in a Booster Draft.

You are allowed three Defeats in the Arena before you are eliminated.  Defeats against a standard opponent are marked against you and you progress past them, but do not collect gold for lost the match.  Defeats against a boss are marked against you, but you cannot progress until you defeat them.  You may withdraw from the Arena and take your winnings with you at any time.  You can also save your progress in the Arena, picking up where you left off later on, however you are not awarded any gold or chests until you Withdraw or Complete the Arena.

Time & Difficulty

As introductory PvE content, the Frost Ring Arena isn't terribly difficult if you have a decent deck.  With the reduced health, players with only the cards from their Starter Trials and no equipment should be able to clear the First Tier with little difficulty.  Factoring in the AI still making questionable plays on the Test Server, it is difficult to judge just how formidable the rest of the opponents will be for newer players, but the variance in opponent's decks will be an eye opening experience for those new to the genre to the depth of strategies available.  There was also mention of a Hard/Heroic mode for the Arena, but this was unavailable during the test.

Assuming minimal lag (which was not the case on the test server) a strong mid-range deck should be able to clear the twenty matches of the arena in about three hours (this assumes about 8 to 12 minutes per game).    This run time could be cut significantly with an aggressive deck and a little luck, and for players looking to speed run the FRA, this will likely be the first thing they attempt to optimize.  Many players will want to collect four copies of a particular card and the associated equipment, if not every card available (about two dozen).  So the Arena will probably offer many hours of content as some people look to repeatedly grind it, and the random generation of opponents could make it seem fresh for at least the first few times through.

Card Images from Hex TCG Browser

Potential Intensifies

This weekend is shaping up to be a perfect storm of gaming for me, so this is going to be a more sporadic update from me as opposed to the general Hex strategy article.  Hex is certainly headlining the weekend though.  If you haven't read the official news, you can find it here, but I am proud to announce that I can finally add the PvE tag to the blog.  The short of it is Cryptozoic is opening a Test Server that players currently in the Beta will have access to for the weekend.  The Test Server will be available from Thursday, February 5th to Saturday, February 7th with mirrored accounts that feature your current collections, but with the added bonus of 20,000 platinum and some PvE cards.

If you haven't played Hex since Alpha and want to try out some of the new cards in Shattered Destiny without having to cough up the cash, that 20,000 platinum will easily buy 100 boosters (and maybe a few Primal Packs) for you to tear through.  You won't get to keep the cards you buy during the Test Weekend, but on Saturday at 3:00pm Eastern Time there will be a Free Sealed tournament for those in the Test Server.  Participants will get a Free Constructed Queue Entry Ticket and up to 10 Shattered Destiny Boosters based on the number of wins you manage to get in the tournament.  This is another massive stress test for the Tournament Servers as they look to expand the maximum tournament entry beyond its current 128 players.  

The main reason people will be (and should be) playing is that PvE content will finally be available to test.  Players will be able to build PvE decks and equip gear to their champions.  Gear gives bonuses to certain cards in your deck while they are equipped to your champion.  Each card has between one and three pieces of equipment specifically tied to it, but each champion can only hold six pieces of gear, which adds another strategic wrinkle to deck building in a similar way that gems and socketed cards do.

The last and biggest addition is that participants will get to test out the Frost Ring Arena.  We've been getting bits and pieces of the arena sprinkled in Friday Updates for the past few months, but this will be the first time we actually get to try it out for ourselves.  Hex has warned that this is very much an unfinished version of the Arena, and the new UI and improved AI won't be incorporated.  For those that haven't faced the AI in its current state, it will do random things like play Suppressive Fire with no targets or Bombsmith their own Troop.  It has improved somewhat since Alpha, but it is far from where it needs to be to make PvE an enjoyable experience.

This sort of launch is the best thing Hex could have done for me personally.  I've wanted to test out the Equipment and PvE Cards in Hex for ages, since that is what really drew me into the game, and where I think the game really stands out from other CCGs.  While the MMO part of this MMOTCG has seemed to ebb further and further away, the full deck building experience was cut short with the exclusion of equipment.  Getting to have access to equipment for a weekend of hands on testing will help innovators to find combos that don't exist in PvP, and with the community compiling lists of equipment we see, it will give players something to talk about long after the Test has ended.  I want Hex to take their time with the Dungeons and Raids, particularly the AI, because I want a good degree of polish when this content is officially launched so I can enjoy it without having to worry about getting bogged down by bugs.  But I also want to try this stuff out while it's still broken and tinker with it, so the Test Server option is the best of both worlds for me.

If you don't feel like playing but still want a peek at what's going on with this Frost Arena Test, there's a day long stream from some of the personalities in the Hex community on Wednesday (today) on the HexTCG Twitch Channel.  I will also try to stream the Arena during the weekend if/when I have time on my Twitch Channel.

Guild Wars 2

This past weekend was also a big one for Guild Wars 2.  At PAX they announced the first official expansion Heart of Thorns to be released later this year.  I played this game quite a bit the first year it was out, but gradually phased out of it do to school and lack of people to play with.  My friend recently picked up the game when it was on sale for $10 during the announcement of the expansion, and I've been teaming up to carry his little Asura through the leveling process (which isn't long, and is actually very enjoyable).  I have some Season 2 Living World stuff to catch up on and three more characters to get to 80 (My Elementalist, Mesmer, and Guardian are already there).  It's been a while since I've played, and in September they overhauled the daily system.  You get rewards just for logging in, and only have to do three relatively easy to complete daily quests, so despite the Arena I'll probably be peeking my head in there during the weekend as well.

LCS

While I'm playing in the Hex Sealed Tournament on Saturday I will have the NA LCS on Twitch in the second monitor.  This split is shaping up very well and I'm 2-0 in my Fantasy League, thanks in part to focusing on CLG (3-1) and SK Gaming (4-0) during the draft (first pick Aphromoo baby).  I started following it pretty heavily at the tail end of Season 3, and since I always cheer for the eternal underdog, I'm hoping CLG finishes well.  They have a lot of strong players on their team with the addition of Zionspartan in Top Lane and XSmithie in the Jungle.  CLG fans are wary of being disappointed by a team with unlimited potential but that always finds a way to fall short, though (and it's been said before) this might just be the year.  

The two newest teams to the NA LCS, Team 8 (2-2) and Gravity (3-1), have also been doing surprisingly well, stealing games off TSM (3-1) and Cloud 9 (1-3) respectively in the first week.  Cloud 9 has been performing very poorly this split, though they are facing Team 8 and Coast (1-3) this week, so if they are still the caliber of team from Worlds they should be able to even up their record after this weekend.  Dignitas is another veteran team that has been performing poorly, and it's unlikely to turn around soon.  Their jungler Crumbz stepped down from the team earlier this week, and they face TSM and Liquid (2-2), two very strong teams looking to cement their place among the top teams.  

Matches to watch this week:

Thursday 2/5 Match 4: Roccat (1-3) vs Giants (2-2)

Friday 2/6, Match 5: Elements (3-1) vs SK Gaming (4-0)

Saturday 2/7, Match 2: Cloud9 (1-3) vs Team8 (2-2)

Sunday 2/8, Match 2: CLG (3-1) vs Gravity (3-1)

Full Schedule

I didn't even get into the new chapter of Telltale's Game of Thrones that launched yesterday, which I probably won't get to play until after the weekend.  I also haven't mentioned a few board games I had the opportunity to play recently (Kanban, Archipelago, Fields of Arle), but that requires its own article.  Next week I'll probably have an a reaction to the Frost Arena Test Server.  

Card Images from Hex TCG Browser