Firecat Blitz

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.

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:

Cockatwice

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.

Born of the Flame 

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.

Robotic Rapture

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.

Stonetusk

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...

Mental Walls

Today I want to talk briefly about cards I value higher than I probably should in draft.  This is something I think affects every drafter: you either have a good early experience with a card, or it just fits into your style of play, or it just appeals to you in some indescribable way.  Either way, you find yourself incapable of passing that card.  You know that on every ranking list, in every cloistered scenario, it's not as powerful as that Crazed Squirrel Titan you're shipping down the line.  I imagine Reginald Lancashire is like this for people, and there are definitely cards like this for me in Set 1, but the most egregious violator is Cerulean Mentalist.  

Now I don't think I'm entirely unjustified in this since Mentalist is a solid card.  I mean, all of your expensive stuff draws you a card when you connect with it, and there are also some solid evasion guys that get Inspired by Mentalist like Wailing Banshee and Infiltrator Bot.  But in my opinion, none of these cards is more back-breaking to give the "damage = cards" effect to than Turreted Wall.

A turn-three Mentalist into a turn-four Turreted Wall is so groan-inducing for your opponent.  The 0/5 Artifact is annoying enough as is: it blocks just about everything early game and is immune to most forms of removal.  Even things like Inner Conflict that stop it's ability to block still don't neuter its ability to ping you for one every turn... and that start of turn damage will trigger your Mentalist.  Yes, for those of you unfamiliar with Mentalist, it doesn't specify combat damage.  So every turn you put your opponent one-tick closer to death you also have your very own  personal Cerebral Fulmination churning out cards.  Often times the sheer card advantage you generate off of this will be enough to put the game away, and if it doesn't the Wall still allows you to race in the air (I mean, you are dealing a point of damage every turn).

Cory also recently blogged a few more spoilers from the next set: two Shin'hare that will definitely add some power to the fledgling bunny brigade.  In trying to maintain my analysis of Shattered Destiny Cards in real time, here they are:

Cottontail Recruiter

Associated Cards: Shin'hare Militia

Recruiter is a small one-drop that turns replaces any Battle Hopper you would create into a Shin'hare Militia.  This essentially gives your Hoppers +1/+1, but since many cards put them into play on the cheap like Concubunny or Wretched Brood it's good way to capitalize on these recurring effects to create an army that does something other than chump-blocking.  I'll admit to not being the biggest Shin'hare fan, but this card seems pretty strong for a dedicated Shin'hare swarm strategy with cards like Ritualist of the Spring Litter to pump out more and more Militia to your cause.  Of course board sweepers like Heat Wave and Extinction are the bane of all swarm strategies, so until the Shin'hare get some post-apocalypse survival skills, it's unlikely they'll be topping the constructed charts anytime soon, though this is definitely a step in the right direction.  In limited this card's power will vary greatly based on what Battle Hopper creating effects are in the pool since he really wants to be drafted around: if you get him pack one and then get some Concubunnies in the next couple packs, then he's probably worth it.  Perhaps just a cautionary "Don't play him outside of Shin'hare" will suffice.

Necrophage Sensei

The "enters play" clause works a bit differently in Hex than in paper TCGs since cards retain attack and defense changes when changing zones.  If the Sensei gets killed and then brought back to life, the "+1/+1 for every troop in your graveyard" effect will happen again.  He might be a modestly sized 3/3 the first time he graces the playing field, but post-Extinction you might be able to dig him back up with a Cruelty Gemmed Xentoth's Inquisitor or a Call the Grave.  When you do, he comes back to your hand as a 3/3 (or whatever he was before), only to grow in size when you play him.  He is also annoying resilient to bounce effects, as anyone who has been in the unfortunate situation of having to Buccaneer a Honeycap or Briar Legion can attest to.  He's definitely strong in limited, though without evasion I wouldn't be surprised to see him go mid-pack.  I could also see him seeing play in Constructed, possibly as an alternate win-condition in a weird Chronic Madness deck.

Also, I'll be at Gencon this year, clawing through crowds to try to snag one of those sweet posters (and sleeves) from the Hex booth.  I missed out on getting into a Shattered Destiny draft, but hopefully they'll have some other fun stuff there for me to try out.

Finally, congratulations to Airwrecka for winning the Pack/Draft Code.  I'll friend you in game so I can message you the code.  I still have more Pack/Draft Codes to give away, so for this week to enter just reply with a card you draft earlier than you probably should and why it beckons you so much.

Until next time...

Edit: Some clarification on Necrophage Sensei 

Brood Missionary

Quick Blog Post for those of you that missed it: one of the forum members over on Hex TCG recently passed five thousand posts.  In honor of this momentous achievement, he got to challenge any one member of the Hex team to a match.  If he won, he got to spoil a cards from the new set.  Well, Gwaer challenged Ben Stoll to a match and after successfully getting out the Triumvirate only to have is exhausted turn after turn, Gwaer emerged victorious and got to spoil a card from Shattered Destiny.  Here's Brood Missionary:

First thing to note is that Missionary is part of a cycle of cards.  This might not necessarily mean there will be one in every shard, but that it might be a cycle of Ardent-Underworld hate.  For those unfamiliar with Hex's lore, the Vennen are a race of anthropomorphic spider-beasts (similar to driders) that are allied with the Underworld Races.  Vennen are actually the offspring of orcs, with captured orcs enslaved and entombed in the Vennen's silken strands and used as incubation pods for the new brood, which will burst forth mercilessly from their victim's bodies.  The card Incubation Slave illustrates what happens to captured orcs pretty well.  

Brood Missionary is one of the first examples of a dedicated hate-card that we have in Hex, a card that isn't spectacular on its own, but is very strong against a particular deck.  If Orc decks become particularly popular, this might be a good reserves option for Blood Control decks., especially considering Fury of the Mountain God is a highly anticipated card from this set as well.

As far as cycle speculation, we might already have hints about it considering the current racial dichotomy.  If you picked up an Orc Starter and ran through the starter trials, you may have noticed that the opposing champion in all three games was Zared Venomscorn.  Being the only Vennen Champion, Zared demonstrated a bit of soft storytelling for the Starter Trials, as did the other decks: Humans faced off against the Necrotic champions, Dwarves against the Elves, and the Shin'hare took on the Coyotle.  If these races have such derision for each other, perhaps the cycle alluded to will see a Necrotic card that converts Humans into Necrotic (which is also in keeping the the Necrotic thematically).  I'm unsure what the Elves & Dwarves or Shin'hare & Coyotle hate cards could be, but this card has me really eager to see what else gets revealed of the Hex lore in Shattered Destiny.

This card really needs an ability like Lifedrain to justify running him in the main.  A 2/4 for 4 without evasion is generally very subpar, but if you get to use its ability, you stand to gain massive card advantage since Incubation Slave itself is a ticking time-bomb of skittering potential.

That's all for today.  As we wrap up the week, I have my fingers crossed that we get some patch, or an update with what we can expect as far as updates go into August.  As of now, all we know that they have coming up is a Tutorial, which will be needed for the transition into Open Beta.

Until next time...

Shattered Destiny: First Wave

Last we heard, Shattered Destiny is slated to come out in August.  So with Hex's new PvP set on the horizon, I thought I'd catch everyone up to speed on that cards that have been spoiled so far from the new set, the features of the set, and the state of the Beta.

First thing I should talk about is the implications of releasing an expansion in Beta.  As of now, the game isn't where they want it to be for for Open Beta.  Several key features are missing, including Guilds, the Doubleback, and Trading (it is a digital TCG after all).  This isn't even mentioning PvE content, which seems like a mirage in the distance at this point in time.  I won't lie that my interest in the game has been waning somewhat with the feature slog we're in.  This winter we were getting the first set rolled out slowly so I would check in periodically to try out some of the new cards.  While I'm still an active drafter, it's been painful waiting for things like trading and guilds to be introduced.  The more things I can do with my local group of friends the better, especially trading.  

Be that as it may, Set 2 will definitely be refreshing for those of us in the game, but there are two big complications with it.  The first is whether or not releasing too many expansions before launch will overwhelm players when they finally get into the game.  I say "too many expansions" since Cory has stated that once they start releasing expansions, they will be churning out new sets every 3-4 months.  If the game isn't officially launched until this time next year--which might be an optimistic estimate if we consider how much is left to get into the game and how frequently they've been implementing new features--that's gonna be 4-5 full sets out for players to have to catch up to.  Unless there is stuff for them to do other than get schooled in the Proving Grounds or Constructed Tournaments by player's who have been in the game since Alpha, it might be overwhelming and push them out of the game.

The other concern is how quickly and efficiently new sets can be patched into the game.  It took a long time for all of Set 1 to get patched into the client, and even longer to work out all the bugs with the cards, not to mention the balance changes that happened along the way.  Shattered Destiny will be untested outside of their Development Team, and will be patched in presumably all at once so that it can be drafted (apparently it will be draftable by Gencon).  While the revenue from these sets might be necessary to get Hex rolling to the point where they can pump out PvE content on a reliable basis, I'm very cautious how much they are pulling away from other areas of development to implement these PvP expansions.  Hopefully my fears will be averted and we will have everything needed to get out of Closed Beta (trading, guilds, doubleback) by or near the time Shattered Destiny releases.  My fingers are still crossed that before the month is up I'll be able to trade.

Anyways, about Shattered Destiny: The two big features they are unleashing is cards that have two sockets for gems, and cards that have Tunneling.  Not much is known about tunneling, though I speculate it might be a version of underground evasion that works similar to flying.  A handful of cards have been previewed from the set already which I'll share below with some of my early impressions on them.  This isn't a formal review, since a card's Constructed and Limited worth depend a lot on what is in the rest of the set, but rather some evaluation on decks that these cards might be good in or how to get the most use out of them.

Heart of Fire

Heart deals one damage to your opponent and all their troops, and makes all your Ruby Actions deal one more damage, a kind of global escalation.  This card has potential with Actions like Heat Wave which deal damage among multiple targets.  The fact that Heart itself can contribute to the cause for board wipe might let you build around it in a Ruby Control deck.  On its own, it's a fine reserves card against Shin'hare and Worker Bots.  The damage increase effect also reads that it increases the damage dealt by the card in each zone.  I'm not sure what this is a portent of (if anything at all), but maybe we'll see cards that can search up an Action based on how much damage it would deal, which would be interesting.

Mentor of the Song

Mentor is an interesting card.  It's just a 2/1 dork, but when it dies it transforms into an Oracle Song.  A control deck doesn't really want a 2/1 for 3, and few run Oracle Song, but against an aggro or midrange deck this could trade with a decent opposing troop and then give you two cards on top of that, giving you an albeit expensive 3-for-1 in terms of card advantage.  Even nicer is that he is at the magic resource number of 3 to trigger some important Inspire effects like Cerulean Mirror Knight and Mentalist.  You can read the official reveal of this card on the HexTechs site.

Jank Bot

I love this card for Highlander.  I have a couple Highlander decks kind of haphazardly assembled at the moment, and each of them would love a Jank Bot (and 49 other cards, since they are all at a sleek 100).  This is one of those extremely efficient cards like Servant of Shathak that forces you to build your deck sub-optimally in order to reap the rewards.  The crazy thing is that eventually there might be enough cards like this that make a huge Jank-Servant deck good enough to be viable.  I mean, read that effect again.  You just get to play three cards for free.  It can get chumped by a Battle Hopper over and over and you're still getting three free cards out of it.  Cosmic Transmorgifier is already one of my favorite casual cards for the randomness it creates and Jank Bot is right up there with it.  In limited you might be able to pull this off depending on how religiously you stick to your shards.  You can scoop him up in any pack and reliably play him since he's an artifact.

Starving Lich

The Lich is an interesting card for two reasons.  1: I have no idea what Lethal does.  2: He has a greater threshold requirement than his cost.  You could sneak this guy out turn two right now with a couple of Adaptable Infusion Devices, but he probably wouldn't be worth it since a 2-defense troop is so easily dealt with.  He seems to want to be played in a deck that sneaks low cost troops onto the field and sits behind a wall of Countermagics and Terrible Transfers to pave the way for him to steal your opponent's soul.  With the number of control decks currently in the meta now, it certainly wouldn't surprise me if Lich finds a way in there.  There's also no telling what sort of threshold fixing we can expect in Shattered Destiny or in sets to come.

Royal Valkyr

Speaking of threshold, Royal Valkyr is another strong example of "Threshold Matters" outside of just getting your cards on the field.  In limited it's a slightly expensive 3/4 for 6, but if you happen to have Sapphire & Ruby threshold as well, it will blast an opposing troop or champion for 3 and draw you a card.  That's very strong, particularly considering in a mixed limited format with set one those shards will feature all the Inspire Troops, and Valkyr is big enough to trigger each and every one of them.  I definitely wouldn't be upset first picking Valkyr and building around it.  In Constructed you probably have better things to do with 6 resources, though it is much easier to generate the threshold in Constructed, and the effect can be powerful if timed right.

Fury of the Mountain God

So Fury of the Mountain God has two sockets, one for Minor Gems and one for Major Gems.  He costs 8, but this cost goes down by 1 every time a troop you control deals damage.  The sockets mean that what he ends up doing is going to vary a lot based on what sort of deck you build.  Maybe he flies and draws cards, or has spellshield and makes Rhinos.  None of these options are bad in limited, and your options for shards to pair are pretty open since your troops will be dealing damage eventually to reduce his cost.  In Constructed you probably want to abuse the second ability.  Fang of the Mountain God and Claw of the Mountain God since the damage they deal to you also counts as damage, making him a strong finished in an Orc deck.  One of the difficulties with him is he's not always a good card to topdeck, particularly after a board-wipe where he might stay at a paralyzing 8 resources.  On the other hand, troops that deal damage to opposing troops also triggers the cost reduction, so Bombsmith can also do double duty of pinging and swinging to get him on the field early.  There could also be a crazy combo deck with this and Elimination Specialist.  Since his ability triggers individually, you could theoretically get the Fury down to cost 0 if you had enough artifacts in play.  This guy seems like a limited bomb with massive Constructed potential, and I'm really eager to see the rest of the double-socket cards.

Scheme

Scheme is an interesting card that creates four extra copies of an Action and shuffles them into your deck.  I am in the camp of players that seldom sees the fourteen or sixteen Ancestral Specters that get shuffled into my deck by The Ancestor's Chosen, so my eyebrow is firmly arched as to how willing I am to pitch a card to populate my deck.  There are definitely toolbox style control decks that run one copy of an escalation card that would make an excellent target for scheme, particularly because if you draw the single copy of these escalation cards you can just play them to get them back in the deck.  One of the drawbacks to running Scheme alongside single copies of cards that are good against certain matchups is that you might have both cards in your hand.  That said, I think Scheme could see reserves play in control mirrors where you may want as many extra copies of Mastery of Time as you can get.  It could also pair well with Eye of Creation or Ring of Fire, or deck that revolve around the effects of a particularly strong action.  Bonus point for a simple name on a unique effect, because I'm sure Sapphire mages will be scheming of ways to abuse this card many sets down the road.

Storm Cloud

Associated Cards: Bittybolt, Splashy, Thunderpuff

Storm Cloud wins the prize for most adorable artwork in Hex so far, which is the honor for a game with Samurai Bunnies.  Storm Cloud is one of those cards that if you don't kill it can generate quite a bit of card advantage.  It's a 0/2 with Flight for 2 that gets a storm counter whenever you gain a charge.  You can sacrifice Storm Cloud to summon one of three "stormlings" at random for every storm counter that was on it.  You can enhance the number of storm counters Storm Cloud gets but enhancing the number of charges you would normally get, so Induction Coil or Shrine of Prosperity will pair well with the Cloud.  The sacrifice ability can only be done as a basic action, so having an oversized Storm Cloud might draw out some removal spells.  But if they don't have removal spells you can snap it for a few stormlings, all of which are 1/1 troops with Flight with sacrifice abilities of their own, though these are not restricted to whenever you can play a Basic Action.  Splashy draws a card, Thunderpuff exhausts opposing troops, and Bittybolt can deal 2 to an exhausted troop.  These effects are somewhat benign on their own, but is you get enough of them you can really rain on your opponent's parade.  Storm Cloud seems pretty strong in limited, and could potentially be strong in Constructed with Air Superiority, making all of you stomlings stronger, though the randomness of which stormlings you get makes it difficult to plan your deck around.  Often times you'll be playing a game of chicken with the number of counters you can safely put on  before snapping him.  This will largely depend on your opponent's board state, but those sort of mini-games will make this card very interesting when played.

That's all for me this week.  I still have some Pack & Draft codes to give away.  Unfortunately last time I tried in the blog I failed to realize I have no way to message that person with their code.  So this time around when you comment add your Keep Name in Hex and I will message you in game with the code if you're the winner.  Feel free to add me in game as well (Keep Name: Kyrstrava).  To enter this time tell be which of the new Shattered Destiny cards you are most excited about and what sort of decks you want to build around it.

Until next time...

Upcoming Streams: July

A quick update on what games I'm playing and what I have coming up as far as articles go.

Faster Than Light

I picked this game up on the Steam Summer Sale.  Needless to say, I'm pretty bad at it (I've only beat the Kestral on Easy Mode), but I've been playing it a couple times through per week whenever I have time.  Like Hex, FTL has Manti so I'm a big fan, but it also has micromanagement and experience and all the good stuff I love.  I might pick up streaming this on my Twitch channel for a few achievement runs (so I don't embarrass myself too much).

Civilization 5

Civilization Beyond Earth is coming out in October, so I want to get my fill of earth Civilization with crossbows and pyramids before I take off into the great beyond.  I've been doing achievement runs with the Brave New World Civilizations I haven't had a chance to play with.  My friend Travis (who recently got the game) and I are planning on doing a "Two-Men-Versus-The-World" scenario where we play against 8 Emperor Bots.  We're having a vote in the WNY Gamers Group for which Civilizations you want us to play.  We'll play the Top 2 chosen.  I plan on streaming this for a few hours Sunday afternoons/evenings.

League of Legends

Doom Bots of Doom were announced, which means that when I'm losing to degenerate power spikes I might actually be happy.  I'm almost exclusively an ARAM player.  I play in provisional Ranked games just to get my flashy border and season skins, but the Howling Abyss is where i make my home.  The Doom Bots have enhanced effects and abilities, though not the best strategy or objective focus that humans do.  Still, I'm looking forwards to trying it out.

Everquest Next: Landmark

Beautiful House from Everquest Next: Landmark
Courtesy of Bellazar

I got into the Landmark Beta for the next seven days, so this weekend I want to monkey around in the game a bit with the world creator to see what it has to offer.  The stuff I've seen about the game leaves me with equal parts mouthwatering anticipation and eyebrow-arching skepticism.  Normally I'd be filling my MMO itch with Guild Wars 2 or Hex, but since Hex doesn't have its MMO elements in, and GW2's new area has been laggy to the point of unplayable for me (the game is still beautiful), I'd rather go Everquest Minecrafting for the weekend.

Hex

Saving the best for last ;) I've been hard at work trying to get the website set up exactly how I want it when I finally convert it from blogger.  Since the mercenary changes there hasn't been too much in the way of news.  There was a large scheduled constructed tournament announcement that revamped the structure.  It costs platinum to enter, but winners get 20 packs and 70K Gold!  Sadly until they enact peer-to-peer trading I'll probably be steering clear of constructed for the time being.  I do have a few decklists I plan on posting to let you guys know a few ideas I'm monkeying around with in my playtesting group.

Mercenary Changes

  Mercenaries got a big rework recently.  I like to think of this more as streamlining them to make them function more like PvP Champions and less like the PvE Characters we'll level up through Dungeons.  Instead of having various powers that grow stronger as you level them up in PvE content, each of them has a charge power that functions like the Champions we current play with, though there are some important differences.

  The first difference is that Mercenaries have a Passive Power that is always active, and functions outside of charges.  This wasn't exactly news since many of the previewed mercenaries had passive powers, however with the new Mercenaries as they've been previewed, the Passive abilities seem much more the focal point: Bebo randomly repairs discarded artifacts, Ashahsa gives you cards when you attack with flying troops, etc.  The second difference is that the Mercenaries previewed don't have the threshold requirements for their abilities like the PvP champions.  This might seem like there is a bit more flexibility in deck building now, but the Mercenaries appear incredibly specific.  The powers are such that you want to build around them.

  Mercenaries also appear to be functioning as the Reserves (or sideboard) element in PvE Dungeons & Raids, where during particularly difficult encounters--though not bosses--you can bring a mercenary with its own custom deck in to fight.  While Cory did mention that you could use them multiple times after you have already beat a Dungeon, the initial challenge is still mostly up to your character.  There's also speculation that they can be used in things like Keep Defense and "Wild-West" style games that incorporate cards from PvE to create an "anything goes" type format.

  One of the ramifications of these mercenary changes is that, since they now mimic Champions, we might see mercenaries released into the Beta Client for testing (which I would very much appreciate).  Though they are still kind of congregating under the "PvE Content" umbrella, the design process and implementation of of them shouldn't be too difficult to get into the client soon, so if we get to cash in out Ashahsa Tokens from the Wheels of Fate or get our Bebo Kickstarter Reward card, it will probably invigorate my desire to hop on hex and wander about the Proving Grounds, or at the very least build some new decks.

  Since I'm going to Gencon this year, I'm excited about getting the chance to grind enough Hex Games to earn a Brosi Buk, a completely new Mercenary.  I love the random card element of Brosi's Charge Power, though his passive is too easy to abuse in Highlander, so he's probably a perma-ban in that format.  Allowing players more options in custom games is also something I'm hoping gets implemented at some point in time during Beta.  I know between Trading, the Tutorial, Guilds, the Doubleback, and other game features, it will be difficult to squeeze all of these things into Beta, but the ability to test the Mercenaries (and multiplayer) is something I think the game would be better for if it was testing during Beta.

Gems, Sockets, & Card Customization

So as much as I want to talk about the PvE videos coming out of E3 and the announcement of Set 2 PvP, the article I have planned for this week is a very length overview of Gems and Sockets.  Because of its length it took me an extra week to write this all up, but I think this will have good information for people who are in the game and looking for some good strategies with the gems.  I also hope it will highlight a very unique element that Hex does with their TCG for people who aren't in the Beta yet or who are curious about the game and what makes it stand out from the others.  Enjoy.  (Those looking for the Pack/Draft Code giveaway should scroll down to the bottom of the article)

Gems Overview
One of the main features that Hex has implemented that really speaks to the design space  opened up on the digital frontier is the Hexing Gems.  For those of you unfamiliar with what they are, Hexing Gems are little jewels that can be used on cards with sockets that grant abilities to those cards, fundamentally altering what they do.  Boulder Brute is a solid 4/4 Troop for 5 resources as is, but it also has a minor socket.  This means that with a Sapphire of Sky he could go toe-to-toe with a Cloud Titan, or attack the turn it comes out with a Ruby of Ferocity.  You can socket any minor gem into Boulder Brute that you want, but the ability granted by the gem won't actually activate unless you have the appropriate threshold for it.  The Sapphire of Sky requires a Sapphire threshold for it to take off into the air, and the Ruby of Ferocity needs a Ruby threshold to bash in immediately.  You can play Boulder Brute even without the gem active, but it will just be a regular 4/4 until you get the appropriate threshold. 

Depending on the shards you are using and your deck's overall strategy,
Eldritch Dreamer could be anything from a necromancer to a rhinoceros summoner.  

In total there are 16 cards in Set 1 that have sockets for these gems, three in each shard and the Effigy of Nulzaan.  Five of these cards have Major Sockets, which allow the use of Major Gems in addition to Minor Gems; the rest have sockets for Minor Gems only.  In the rest of this article I'm going to talk about some of the specific Gems and the cards that use them, the effects these gems have on Limited and Constructed play, and the larger implications that Gems and Socketed cards have in card customization and on the game as a whole.  

Minor Gems
To start with I'm going to give you a general ranking of the Minor Gems for Constructed Play.  If you know nothing else about Booster Draft or Selaed this should give you an idea of what gems you should be looking at during deck construction and socketing.  I'll go into the individual cards in more detail later on, discussing which gems pair best with them.

S-Tier
Sapphire of Sky (S: Flight)
Ruby of Flames (RR: This troop can't be blocked except by artifact troops and/or troops that share a shard with it.)

A-Tier
Wild Orb of Conservation (WW: Spellshield)
Diamond of Duty (D: Swiftstrike)
Blood Orb of Rage (B: Rage 1)

B-Tier
Sapphire of Mischief (SS: You may play this troop at any time you could play a quick action.)
Wild Orb of Primordium (W: +1/+1)
Blood Orb of Deception (BB: When this troop becomes blocked by a troop, that troop gets permanent -1/-1.)

C-Tier
Ruby of Ferocity (R: Speed)
Diamond of Lifedrain (DD: Lifedrain)

The S-Tier Gems are the two gems that grant evasion: Sky & Flames.  Evasion is a very strong determining factor in drafting and deck construction for limited.  Those who are familiar with the acronym BREAD will know evasion as the E, generally prioritized after Bombs and Removal.  Sky and Flames are generally what you should be looking at if one of your shards is Sapphire or Ruby, and neither are particularly bad choices for any of the cards.  Flames has a double Ruby threshold requirement, but makes it so the troop can only be blocked by other troops of the same shard or artifacts.  The downside to this is that Worker Bots can be churned out by the Dwarf deck, a popular draft archetype, with some reliance.  Sky just puts your troop in the air, which allows you to attack over ground guys, but also block opposing aerial troops.  This can be important if you are facing off against a Skyle Griffin or Spearcliff Pegasus.  The downside to this is that Feather Drifting Downriver, Phoenix Guard Trainer, and Sapphire Aura may make the flight from this socket redundant, whereas the ability on Flames cannot be generated by an Aura, Inspire, or Champion effect.

The A-Tier Gems are solid choices if you are not in Sapphire or Ruby, and which work better on particular troops or with certain strategies.  Wild Orb of Conservation allows you safely dump Auras on the troop without fear of it being targeted by removal.  This gem is commonly used on Boulder Brute, since it has a large body often worth protecting from kill cards.  Diamond of Duty grants Swiftstrike, an important combat ability which will often make it as difficult to block the attack troop.  Alternatively it could stymie your opponent's attack by threatening them with a bad trade.  Blood Orb of Rage is good on cheap troops like Grim-Skull Sorcerer and Shamed Gladiator for growing their power.  It's also not bad on troops with large toughness since they can attack unimpeded and gradually grow more deadly.

The B-Tier Gems are situational choices that might fit into a combo or be resocketed between games of a match once you know what your opponent is playing.  Sapphire of Mischief allows you to play the Troop as a quick action, typically during your opponent's combat to intercept an attacker or at their end step while your resources are up to bluff at a quick action.  This might be useful on troops with larger bodies like Mystic of the Tranquil Dream, which can easily kill something during combat to gain you card advantage in a shard that is short on removal.  The Wild Orb of Primordium is a straight-up power boost that can be useful when you just need a that troop to be bigger.  An example of this would be a Wild Mirror in which your opponent also has Boulder Brutes.  By swapping from the Conservation Gem to the Primordium Gem you require your opponent to have another card in order to answer your Brute, which is just bigger.  The Blood Orb of Deception can be useful against Evolved Battle Hoppers or Worker Bots, which are annoying troops that can block and trade with low-toughness Socketed troops like Mazat Ranger.  The Blood Orb of Deception can also combo well with Pheromones, which in Blood-Wild can force your opponent to block a Boulder Brute or Mazat Ranger and will hinder every single one of your opponent's troops while netting you some free damage with the rest of your team.

The C-Tier Gems I advise avoiding in Limited.  Ferocity may be good tempo in aggressive decks, but often the evasion provided by Flames is vastly superior in the long run.  Lifedrain has double the threshold requirement that the Duty Gem and offers no combat advantage.  The life may be important for triggering Righteous Paladin or the Diamond Incantation, but even then the Duty gem is probably a better socketing choice for your troops since you can run Dimid and attack with the swiftstriker.

I'll note that the power level of these gems varies from card to card, so I think it's a good idea to take a closer look at the cards that have Minor Sockets: six commons and five uncommons.

Effigy of Nulzaan
Effigy of Nulzaan is a perfect canvas to start with since it can go into any deck, and will signify the overall strength of the gems as I outlined above.  The best Gems for the Effigy are the evasion gems: Sapphire of Sky and Ruby of Flames.  The Ruby makes it only blockable by other artifacts, since the Effigy has no shard of its own.  The Flight Gem gives it evasion while also giving you the option of blocking an opposing flying troop.  Two other solid options are the Diamond of Duty (which essentially turns it into Quick Strider) and the Wild Orb of Primordium, which turn it into a rhinoceros.  As an added bonus, the Effigy is resilient to Murder.  Because of Effigy's versatility it makes a solid draft choice mid-pack, particularly when the shard you are in has dried up.  In Constructed this guy is a hard sell, even in a Sapphire-Ruby artifact deck since he's not a robot.
Best Options: Ruby of Flames, Sapphire of Sky, Diamond of Duty, Wild Orb of Primordium.

Grim-Skull Sorcerer
Grim Skull is pretty scrawny for diamond gems.  Lifedrain isn't effective enough when it's just for 1 point each turn, and Swiftstrike is unlikely to kill anything.  Sapphire doesn't particularly want him since a Phoenix Guard Scout is a 1/3 flight for 2, making even the Sapphire of Sky sub-par on him.  The best gems for Grim-Skull are the ones that enhance it.  In Wild it can be a 2/3 for 2 which puts it on par with Rigid Buffalo at least.  The Blood Orb of Rage is probably the best overall choice though.  He comes down early enough for you to reasonably get in an attack or two, and he'll have a decent front end  by the time the ground gets clogged.  Later in the game the gem will make him a live option for permanent pump effects like Noble Citizenry or a Blood Aura.
Best Options: Blood Orb of Rage, Wild Orb of Primordium

Gem-Crazed Berserker
Three-power for three with the potential for evasion is solid, so Sky & Flames again are powerful choices with this guy.  The weakness with Flames is that Worker Bots will come out from Bertram just in time to block him, and with flight he quickly gets outclassed.  Swiftstrike is an equally strong in Ruby-Diamond, and his cost is high enough to trigger several Inspire effects like Ruby Pyromancer and Protectorate Clergyman.  In an Orc deck you will probably start Flames, and potentially swap to the Blood Orb of Deception against Dwarves so Worker Bots can't chump him.  This guy could also see legitimate Constructed play in a Ruby Deck with the Ferocity Gem so it can beat in right away.  Flames is a fine choice in this situation too for consistent evasive attacks.
Best Options: Ruby of Flames, Sapphire of Sky, Diamond of Duty, Blood Orb of Deception, Ruby of Ferocity (Constructed).

Mazat Ranger
Mazat is like super Gem-Crazed Berserker.  Flames, Sky & Duty are top choices based on the color combination you choose.  Sky is slightly better on him than the Berserker since he can trade with a 2/4 with flight for the same resource cost.  Flames for Blood-Ruby Orcs is par for the course.  The pivot to the Deception Gem is all the more important against Blood and Dwarves since not only does it neutralize Worker Bots but also any annoying Darkspire Priestess you weren't able to scoop up in the draft.  Unfortunately he has some stiff competition in Constructed for 4-drops, including Xentoth's Inquisitor & Vampire King.  Even in an Orc deck either of these is much stronger than a 4/1.
Best Options: Ruby of Flames, Sapphire of Sky, Diamond of Duty, Blood Orb of Deception.

Mystic of the Tranquil Dream
Nine time out of ten you will want the Flight Gem on this guy.  A 2/4 with flight isn't super impressive, but it's on par with Skyle Griffin and is hard to kill.  Rage isn't a bad option either, though in Blood-Sapphire you probably want as much flight as you can get.  One trick you might be able to get away with is to run the Sapphire of Mischief to sneak him out and snipe an attacking troop, then change it out between games to Sapphire of Sky.  Your opponent might play on the defensive when you have 4 up.  This doesn't work as well with the weaker troops since they likely won't survive, but the Mystic's durable vitality allows you to make cagey plays like this more often.
Best Options: Sapphire of Sky, Blood Orb of Rage, Sapphire of Mischief

Boulder Brute
Boulder Brute is probably the best common in Wild, which says something about it's power.  Just about every Gem works well with him, though the one that sees the most play is the Wild Orb of Conservation, since a 4/4 is worth protecting from Inner Conflicts and Murders.  Spellshield also allows you to put Wild Aura on it safely, turning it into a 6/6 Crush machine that can swiftly end games (other Auras work just as well).  Sky turns it into a common Cloud Titan, but most Wild-Sapphire decks will run Feather.  At that point it's worth considering the Mischief Gem since a timely placed Boulder Brute mid-attack can win the game on its own.  Flames isn't as strong on Boulder Brute since Monika'shin & Bertram can both squirt out chump blockers.  At that point the Conservation Gem is probably better for insurance against removal.  In Diamond-Wild the Duty Gem makes him almost impossible to block.  Another clutch play (as mentioned above) is to run Deception-Pheromones on this guy to decimate the opposing team.
Best Options: Wild Orb of Conservation, Sapphire of Sky, Sapphire of Mischief, Blood Orb of Deception.

Shamed Gladiator
The uncommons have a bit more relevancy in Constructed when compared to their common cousins.  Shamed Gladiator is an aggressive drop that is a strong addition in a Ruby-Blood Orc Deck.  Rage and Ferocity Gems are solid options, both poised do deal a good chunk of damage on a clear field.  He's also potentially a 3/3 for 2 with the Wild Orb of Primordium or a 2/2 with flight in Sapphire.  One of the difficulties at the moment for this guy in Constructed is that the resource base for multi-shard decks has limited fixing.  Shards of Fate causes you to miss a turn for resources and a champion charge, and in an aggressive deck this can be a death knell.  Even as a 3/3 on turn 2, having both a Blood & Wild Shard on the second turn can be difficult, not including the double-resource requirements of 3 and 4 drops the deck might want to run, like Wild Root Dancer or Vampire King.  In Limited this guy gets outclassed swiftly with Sky Gem and can get chumped by Darkspire Priestess when gemmed with Flames.  I ran this guy with Swiftstrike in Diamond-Blood for a potentially earlier Quick Strider and it worked fine, though he was far from spectacular.
Best Options: Wild Orb of Primordium, Diamond of Duty, Sapphire of Sky.

Nelebrin Skirmisher
Evasion is probably more important on the Skirmisher than any other card in this set.  After a couple of connections he can get out of hand, though the same can be said of Thunderbird or any card with Rage really; the bonus with the Skirmisher is that he actually gets beefier Defense as well.  This is the one card I would consider running the Ferocity Gem on just so you can ensure he gets that initial trigger when your opponent is open. The problem is after that he's basically just a Feral Ogre, and you could get the same body with the +1/+1 gem, so you really need a strong compliment of removal to work around him.  Wild Aura is good on him if you go Spellshield, but other than that stick to the evasion package.
Best Options: Ruby of Flames, Sapphire of Sky, Wild Orb of Conservation, Ruby of Ferocity.

Phoenix Guard Aeronaut
Both of the Sapphire Gems are pretty poor on this guy since he already has flight and you more than likely won't want to intercept an attacking troop with a 2-defense guy.  Since he already has evasion, Ruby of Flames is slightly redundant.  Swiftstrike is good, but has muted effect on him since Skyle Griffin and Mystic are 2/4, which trumps a 3/2 even with Swiftstrike.  Blood is a solid pairing with him since the Rage Gem can end the game incredibly quickly and allow it to trade with the 2/4s.  Wild Orb of Conservation is incredibly powerful with buff effects that come from Diamond & Wild, particularly the Auras, which basically turn your deck into Build-a-Beast Workshop.  Deception and Primordium Gems can also be used to counter Griffin & Mystic.
Best Options: Wild Orb of Conservation, Diamond of Duty, Blood Orb of Rage.

Mistborn Wendigo
Wendigo is a bit weird since it has a couple different modes it can play: glorified blocker or assault machine.  Flight is an excellent fit for Wendigo for both of these reasons.  It can attack for 5 when skies are clear and block a Skyle with a Noble Citizenry pump and live to tell the tale.  Swiftstrike makes him incredibly hard to both block and attack into, since a couple pumps gives him enough strength to skewer most troops.  Blood Orb of Rage is decent since he can swing with relative impunity, but he can already get to lethal range fairly quick.  Wild Orb of Conservation could protect him from Inner Conflict and Murder, but what he wants most is flight so he can own the skies, so unless you have Feather/Phoenix Guard Trainer/Sapphire Auras to ensure this guy drinks his Red Bull, slap the Sky Gem in him. 
Best Options: Sapphire of Sky, Diamond of Duty, Wild Orb of Conservation

Hellhound
Hellhound is a first pick.  He costs one most than Boulder Brute for the same stats, but the pump ability is simply devastating.  He's also in Ruby which means he has direct access to the Ruby of Flames without any extra threshold requirements.  Sapphire of Sky may be slightly better if you are in Ruby-Sapphire since he can stop attacks from the air the turn you play him.  If your opponent does block to kill him it will cost him other flight Troops.  Ruby-Wild can socket the Conservation Gem, strap Ruby/Wild Aura on, and enjoy the ride.  Swiftstrike works well, but evasion needs will often trump combat advantage.  Spellshield is the only other viable option if you feel the need to protect him.
Best Options: Sapphire of Sky, Ruby of Flames, Wild Orb of Conservation.

Major Gems
Major Gems are much more involved than their minor counterparts.  There are still ten of them, two in each color, but rather than granting static abilities like Flight and Lifedrain they have abilities that either trigger upon the troop entering play or upon them dealing damage to an opponent.  Since there are only 5 cards that can use Major Gems, and they are all rare, their impact on limited is diminished.  So instead of ranking them by their usefulness in draft of limited I'll instead divide them into two categories: the Combat Gems which trigger off the troop dealing damage to your opponent, and the Action Gems which trigger a particular effect when the troop enters play.

Combat Gems

• Prime Blood Orb of Cruelty (BB: When this troop deals damage to an opposing champion, you may put target troop from your graveyard to your hand.)
• Prime Diamond of Solidarity (DD: When this troop deals damage to an opposing champion, troops you control get permanent +1/+1.)
• Prime Ruby of Intensity (RR: When this troop deals damage to an opposing champion, each champion discards their hand and draws three cards.)
• Prime Sapphire of Mind (SS: When this troop deals damage to an opposing champion, draw a card.)
• Prime Wild Orb of Dominance (WW: When this troop deals damage to an opposing champion, create a Rhinoceros and put it into play.)

Action Gems

• Prime Blood Orb of Brutality (B: When this troop enters play, target opposing troop gets permanent -ATK equal to this troop's ATK.)
• Prime Diamond of Endurance (D: When this troop enters play, your champion gains health equal to this troop's DEF.)
• Prime Ruby of Destruction (R: When this troop enters play, it deals damage equal to its ATK to target opposing champion.)
• Prime Sapphire of Subterfuge (S: When this troop enters play, each opposing champion buries cards from the top of their deck equal to this troop's combined ATK & DEF.)
• Prime Wild Orb of Empowerment (W: When this troop enters play, target troop you control gets +ATK/+DEF equal to this troop's ATK & DEF this turn.)

You'll note that all the Combat Gems have double threshold requirements, and all the Action Gems have single threshold requirements.  The combat gems have the potential to be stronger over the long run since they can be triggered multiple times.  As such it's important from a design standpoint that the deck running them is deep enough into that shard to generate two threshold to activate it.  The action gems tend to work better on troops that can enter the field multiple times so you can trigger the abilities again.  Devoted Emissary is an example of a card that can let you replay troops with Action Gems.

With these individual cards I will talk more about Constructed than Limited play (though I will touch on the latter).  I'm mostly going to talk about the ways to get the most out of the gems slots an ignore the card's individual power level (Xentoth's Inquisitor with a Rage Gem is probably an individually better card than a Protectorate Defender with Solidarity).  It's also difficult to go into every deck type since Constructed Deck strategies will vary more than Limited: any deck destruction archetype will likely want to run the Subterfuge Gem over any other.  So the "Best Options" are really more generalized here than in the previous section.

Protectorate Defender

The new version of protectorate defender
looks to be a fan of House Stark.

Before I get into Protectorate Defender I want to talk a bit about the history of this card, since it has changed greatly over it's time in Alpha.  The first version of Protectorate Defender was a 2/4 for 4 resources that had a One-Shot ability for 1 resource that would bounce it back to its owner's hand.  This early version gave you a much more reliable way trigger Action Gems twice.  I played a Wild-Diamond deck with Wild Root Dancer and the early Protectorate Defender socketed with Empowerment.  The first time it hit the field it would only give +2/+4, but after a few pumps with Wild Root Dancer you could return it to your hand and give a massive pump to a Crush troop to finish the game.  It was also difficult for your opponent to kill since at any point in time you can just bounce it to your hand.  This would diminish the power of the next pump, but it would force your opponent to waste a kill-card.  

The current version of Protectorate Defender is the cheapest Major Socketable troop at two resources.  It still has an effect which would allow you to get the Major Socket effect again, but rather than return to your hand, it is shuffled into the deck, which makes you much less likely to find it again.  In fact the recursion ability is overshadowed now by it's resource cost, since it is the cheapest way to get a Major Gem effect on the field early.  The shard-fixing in two-shard is lackluster, so playing him turn-two with an off shard Action Gem does require a little more luck than I would like.  His stats make him poorly suited for gems that rely on attack of defense like Subterfuge or Endurance, since burying three cards or gaining one life seems a waste of the Socket.  Empowerment and Destruction are probably the best options in a Ruby-Diamond or Wild-Diamond deck since it gives you an extra two damage that turn.  The Destruction Gem seems better among the two since you can clear the way for him to attack and if your opponent bounces him with Buccaneer you can chunk him down on the replay instead of having to swing through.  The Solidarity Gem is good on him in a Diamond rush deck, but the cards for this archetype don't seem to be prevalent yet.  The lack of evasion on this guy makes me hesitant to run many other Combat Gems on him, particularly since you both have to curve very well on your first three shard drops to get the Gem active in time for your third attack AND you have to clear the way for him.  Prime Wild Orb of Dominance isn't horrible since it would net you a 3/3 early enough for it to pressure the field, and Howling Brave can help ensure your second Wild threshold.  Prime Sapphire of Mind could also work in a Diamond-Sapphire Tempo deck with Buccaneers and Time Spirals to clear the way, but again the shard fixing hurts the most.  Lixil is a possible turn-three follow up to ensure you get your Combat Gems online, unfortunately at that point you have no more resources to Solitary Exile/Bounce your opponent's blockers.  Protectorate Defender is also extremely fragile, so you're probably best not dedicating many slots in your deck to ensure the Combat Gem is active on your third turn attack.  Overall I would suggest sticking with Solidarity for Diamond unless you have an aggressive deck and want to run this guy with Destruction alongside Pyromancers.  In Limited, Solidarity is basically a better version of the Rage Gem and if your opponent doesn't answer this guy it can generate enough to pressure for your field to win.  Swiftstrike isn't a bad option either, but the 1 toughness gives this guy a bulls-eye for Bombsmith, so attacking early is my recommended protocol.

Best Options: Prime Diamond of Solidarity, Prime Ruby of Destruction, Prime Wild Orb or Dominance.

Eldritch Dreamer

This guy is the most evasive card that exists right now, so he's practically made for the Combat Gems.  Prime Sapphire of Mind is a natural fit since it will generate you more cards to keep him safe.  Dominance is cute, but another 3/3 is probably subpar to just giving it Spellshield with the minor Conservation Gem to ensure your opponent can't kill it.  Prime Blood Orb of Cruelty works similar to Mind, but allows you to target specific troops that died earlier like Buccaneer and Corpse Fly.  Prime Ruby of Intensity could generate you massive card advantage if you actually connect with this guy.  I topped off my curve with Dreamer in a Skarn Deck I posted a while ago and it basically turns Time Spirals into Murders since they will discard any bounced troops afterwards.  Crimson Clarity helps you get the Ruby Threshold while also ridding your hand of cards that would otherwise be discarded from the trigger.  This plan is very risky, but the deck has so many other cards that attract removal (Cerulean Mirror Knight and the Skarn itself) that the Dreamer can sometimes skate by the early removal and dominate the mid-game.  In limited Mind is probably the gem you go to.   Anything else requires you to be very optimistic about your shard draws, though Spellshield might be worth it if you're in Wild and he's your main win condition.

Best Options: Prime Sapphire of Mind, Wild Orb of Conservation, Prime Ruby of Intensity, Prime Blood Orb of Cruelty.

Xentoth's Inquisitor

Inquisitor has also changed since alpha, though not as drastically as Protectorate Defender.  One of the original Ruby Gems dealt damage to a random opposing troop equal to the socketed troop's power, and Inquisitor abused that gem greatly.  That gem was eventually scrapped and Xentoth's cost was increased increased from 3 to 4 as a safeguard.  You'll probably get to play him a couple times throughout the course of the game, so the Action Gems will benefit you greatly as you can activate them multiple times.  Destruction and Brutality are probably the best options: one will chunk your opponent for 3 each time it enters play and the other will neuter one of your opponent's troops for -3 ATK.  As an alternative to the Subterfuge Gem some Blood-Sapphire options just started running the Sapphire of Sky on him, since a 3/1 with flight that keeps coming back is an annoyingly effective finisher.  In Limited this guy is a bomb, and it really depends on the shards you are in when you are determining what to play with him.  Swiftstrike is good on a 3/1 in Blood-Diamond and he makes a great target for Auras and Noble Citizenry pumps since he retains these bonuses through death.  Spellshield isn't as strong on him as other bombs since your opponent is losing card advantage whenever they point a kill card at him, which in the long run is good for you.  

Best Options: Prime Blood Orb of Brutality, Prime Ruby of Destruction, Sapphire of Sky, Diamond of Duty (Limited).

Master Theorycrafter

Theorycrafter is another card that you want to abuse Action Gems since the War Bots have the Gem's ability.  Prime Ruby of Destruction lets you deal a guaranteed three damage every turn, including two the turn you play the Theorycrafter itself.  Subterfuge is also surprisingly efficient in draft since the War Bots will bury 6 cards each turn, and the Dwarf deck is Sapphire-Ruby anyways.  This allows you to skewer their deck with three or four activations while generating a decent sized robot to protect you, though Destruction is probably a more straightforward win condition.  Empowerment isn't bad either, but the bonus damage is basically what you'd be doing with Destruction anyways, with the drawback that you might have to attack and possibly run into a Repel.  The War Bots don't have evasion and the Theorycrafter has to exhaust to make one, so Combat Gems have a muted effect.  Endurance and Brutality don't have the game-winning power of the other games, so you're best sticking with Destruction or Subterfuge.

Best Options: Prime Ruby of Destruction, Prime Sapphire of Subterfuge.

Battle Beetle

Battle Beetle has a big enough body to work fine with most of the gems that work off your Attack and Defense.  Empowerment and Destruction both provide a massive spike the turn it comes into play.  Brutality also offers a huge Attack nerf to an opposing guy if you are racing, which the Beetle can do well since for two resources it gets flight for the turn.  This added evasion benefit also makes some of the Combat Gems work well with it.  The difficulty here is that when you connect with this guy he deals so much damage that most of these effects won't matter, since a couple of successful attacks will probably kill your opponent at that point in time.  The Wild Orb of Conservation is solid to protect him from targeted removal, particularly in Limited since he is such a big threat.

Best Options: Prime Wild Orb of Empowerment, Prime Ruby of Destruction, Wild Orb of Conservation.

Card Customization
Hex announced yesterday the launch of their second PvP set Shattered Destiny this August.  Regardless of your particular feelings towards this announcement, one of the features of this set will be cards that can have two gems socketed into it at once.  As the game moves forward and new sets come out the developers will likely be finding new ways to use Gems and Sockets.  Additionally the number of Gems will likely grow as time moves on: Wild could get a Crush Gem or Ruby a Tunneling Gem, which is another mechanic hinted at in the announcement.  There could be Race or Class specific Gems that only Rangers or Necrotic troops can use.  There are countless possibilities to what sort of tools we might get in the future, and every new Gem that's introduced could have an effect on older cards.

And that concludes my look at the initial batch of Gems in Hex.  Also, for those of you who are in the Hex Beta right now, I received a small batch of Packs & Draft Codes that I'll be giving out at the end of a few of my articles and also on my Twitch stream (subscriptions appreciated).  To enter for your chance to win one of these Packs & Draft Codes, simply leave comment with your favorite Card-Gem combination.  It can be one that won you a draft, or a wacky combo you're trying out in the proving grounds, or just a personal favorite like the Rhinoceros Summoner Eldritch Dreamer.  I'll announce the winner next week.

Until next time, may your gems be truly outrageous!  (I had to)