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)

A Tale of Two Drafts

Spoiler Alert: I love the Coyotle.  When I first laid eyes on Ozawa, Cosmic Elder and Howling Brave, I had high hopes for making a Coyotle theme deck.  Unfortunately, the Coyotle in set one didn't exactly get a bunch of cards that formed a cohesive deck strategy like the inspiring Humans of the artifact obsessed Dwarves.  While the cards are somewhat lacking, the Coyotle champions have very strong abilities, particularly in limited, where Feather Drifting Downriver has what I consider to be one of the most format defining abilities.  I did two drafts recently where I got to run Coyotle Champions.

The first draft I opened a poor pack one and just took a Comet Strike for my collection.  For the second pick I got shipped a Mancubus and figured I'd get to run my boy Flynn again.  Third pick had a Buccaneer and fourth and fifth had a Murder and Brood Creeper, none of three having anything noteworthy in ruby.  I figured I'd just stick to those three shards through the first pack and make a decision on my next pack.  The second pack had a Throat Cutter which I picked up assuming I would still be in ruby for orcs, but to my surprise I was passed a Bird O' Plenty.  At this point I had mostly Blood Cards with only a Ruby Pyromancer and the Mancubus keeping me in ruby.  When the third pick offered a second Brood Creeper, I cemented myself in Blood-Sapphire since it would give me access to Feather and let me fly my spiders in the air to create an small army.  The deck I ended up drafting had an abnormally high amount of repeat uncommons, flying in the face of probability.  I ended up going 3-0 in this draft (6-3 in games, I had to sweat it out every round), the list follows:

Champion: Feather Drifting Downriver

2 Darkspire Priestess

1 Effigy of Nulzaan [Flight]

2 Buccaneer

1 Darkspire Enforcer

1 Giant Corpse Fly

3 Brood Creeper

2 Throat Cutter

1 Devoted Emissary

2 Mazat Ranger [Flight]

2 Boltpaw Wizard

1 Bird O Plenty

1 Sapper's Charge

1 Time Ripple

1 Murder

2 Terrible Transfer

10 Blood Shard

6 Sapphire Shard

1 Shard of Fate

I want to say three things about this deck.  The first is that I think it demonstrates how a pile or unimpressive troops can just win if they can fly over your opponent thanks to Feather and the Flight Gem.  Here are my plays for one game:
Turn 3: Throat Cutter

Turn 4: Murder opposing flier, attack for 3 (TC: 3/2)
Turn 5: Mazat Ranger, Feather: Throat Cutter, attack for 4 in the air (TC: 4/2)

Turn 6: Attack for 10 in the air (TC: 5/2, MR: 5/1)

I didn't even play a Sapphire card in this game, yet without access to the Shard I certainly would not have won the game in as timely a fashion as a did, and there is a good chance I would have lost if my 1 and 2 toughness Orcs could have been ground blocked.  If you look closely (pic below) you'll see that I'm actually only running 5 Sapphire cards in the deck, but access to the Sapphire Shard changes the entire dynamic of the deck.  This is an important lesson when you are looking at draft and specifically when you are trying to hate draft people out of a shard: it's extraordinarily difficult to do with Sapphire.  While you can steal removal and bombs so you don't have to deal with them, you can't hate your opponent out of the Sapphire Gem of Flight and Feather Drifting Downriver.

Second thing I want to point out is the shard count, since it's somewhat unconventional.  10-6, with a SoF.  Normally this would be considered a splash for Sapphire, where among all my cards I only have 5 sapphire symbols, and in the entire game i'll only ever need one sapphire threshold.  I paid for this a couple games where I never saw a second Blood Shard, but having Feather means you need a reliable way to activate the charge power, which means that in a deck like this, where I would otherwise be okay with going 12-5 (I'm actually somewhat motivated with 2 Terrible Transfer), or trying to pare down the Time Ripple for another Blood card to restrict my need for so many Sapphire cards, since I want to reliably get something in the air turn 4 or 5, I want to ensure I hit my threshold reliably early.  My normal recommendation for draft decks is running 17 lands, and counting the threshold symbols to determine which shards you need an extra copy of, or which cards have more double-threshold requirements, or which shard you need earlier.  Maybe you have small Ruby troops but big Wild troops, so you add the extra Ruby Shard to ensure you don't get deprived in the first few turns.  

The third thing about this deck is the different modes of play it has from the two-card combos in it.  Granted you aren't likely to even see multiple copies of most of these uncommons in the same draft, much less manage to acquire the ones that I did, sometimes getting a few sets of four or five cards that have synergy with each other will give you the ability to respond to whatever your opponent is playing in the first game, and let you tweak the deck with your reserves between games.  Here I have a set of seven Orcs that the Throat Cutters pump (Mazat, Darkspire Priestess and Enforcer).  I have a disruption group with the Corpse Fly, Buccaneers, and a Devoted Emissary to replay them for added annoyance (and it is annoying).

Lastly I have Boltpaw Wizard + Brood Creeper for control, reversion, and maybe once in a blue-moon spider mill.  While the Brood Creeper spider army is self explanatory, I feel I may need to explain the Boltpaw more in depth.  I'll start by just exclaiming that reversion is incredibly strong and possibly a bit undervalued in Hex.  Though reversion is attached to a few cards like Polymorph: Dingler and Corrupted Afterlife, in its most straightforward form it only appears on three cards: Reversion, Manti Elder Druid, and Boltpaw Wizard.  Of the three I consider Boltpaw to generally be the weakest since it requires a troop to sacrifice, but having him ready with a Spiderspawn or two on the field can really stall an opponent's attack, and sometimes even their play.  First, it is a direct counter to Auras, which are solid combat tricks.  If you can't Time Ripple the troop in response to a Diamond Aura or a Ruby Aura, you could quickly find yourself in trouble.  Reversion will directly remove the effects of these cards, netting you card advantage assuming you didn't lose a troop in the trade.  It can reset Rage on cards like Thunderbird or Wrathseeker, and can straight-up kill a Honeycap.  It also counters many popular champion abilities like Feather, Palamedes, or Lionel.  My third round opponent had a Feather of his own, and in staring at the Boltpaw with a couple of support troops was often resigned to not using Feather on a few of the turns he might have, since he couldn't attack with his new flying troop since I could revert and block.  I often see Boltpaw Wizard going later than he should in drafts, though this may be a reaction to Blood being comparatively unpopular.  In any case, while the 3/3 body isn't that impressive and you probably need some Battle Hoppers or a Darkspire Priestess to get the most bang for your buck with the Shin'hare Mage, the threat he produces can be game altering.

The second draft started with me abandoning my first pick again, this time a Ritualist of the Spring Litter.  After a somewhat lackluster first pack where I added a Rune-Ear Commander, a pair of Inner Conflict and Adamanthian Scriviners, I had the makings of a weird Diamond-Wild Shin'hare deck, which might be salvaged if I opened Oath of Valor.  Instead I ended up being passed a slew of bulky Wild dudes, including Boulder Brute, Tyrannosaurus Hex, and a Battle Beetle as a first-pick from the third pack.  I found myself with a plethora of playables, so i cut all the Shin'hare except for Rune-Ear Commander.  However during the draft I had planned on playing Monika'shin, and I was desperately searching for a Champion to play.

I noticed I had two Howling Brave and a Wind Whisperer in my deck.  This prompted me to play One Eye Open, a champion who allows you to ready all troops you control for 3 charges and a diamond threshold.  This allowed me to play a turn 3 Boulder Brute off a Howling Brave, since it could add an additional resource to my pool; and also allowed me to tap two opposing troops with Wind Whispered to help push through my massive Wild beasts.  I gemmed my Boulder Brutes for Swiftstrike, which may seem to be a bit of a weird call considering how strong Spellshield is (indeed, one of them was targeted by Inner Conflict in the last round), but the ability to attack with a Swiftstrike Troop and have it up to block the next turn is incredibly strong.  Plus my deck had a fairly sizable number of threats, so I was perfectly content with letting my 4/4 soak up a removal spell if it meant my T-Hex or Battle Beetle got to live.  

This deck ended up going 2-1 with this deck overall (5-2 in games).  I didn't get a screenshot of this deck, but here is roughly the list.  I will note it's not that impressive on paper, but it played strong and really utilized the champion to ramp and then late-game control with Wind Whisperer and the Swfitstrike Squad:

Champion: One-Eye Open

2 Howling Brave

1 Shield Trainer

1 Feral Ogre

1 Kraken Guard Mariner

1 Grim Skull Sorcerer [+1/+1]

1 Wind Whisperer

2 Quick Strider

1 Spearcliff Pegasus

1 Sensei of the Wounded Petal

2 Boulder Brute [Swiftstrike]

1 Protectorate Sorcerer

1 Battle Beetle [Solidarity]

1 Tyrannosaurus Hex

1 Gigantasaur

1 Sapper's Charge

1 Howling Ambush

1 Wild Growth

1 Reversion

2 Inner Conflict

9 Wild Shards

8 Diamond Shards

Overall I'd like the chance to draft around One Eye Open again.  Howling Brave & Wind Whisperer have excellent synergy with him, and I can imagine Stargazer, Concubunny, and Succulent Roostasaur would fit in nicely as well.  I plan on doing an article about Reversion in general, highlighting exactly what it does and some of the game states where it comes in handy for newer players.  I think I gave a decent primer in the first section with Boltpaw Wizard.

Until next time, good luck in your drafts.

A screenshot of the first draft deck... for science.

Chest Rolling & Wheels of Fate

This is just a quick post for those of you that had questions about Chest Rolling & The Wheels of Fate, I made a Youtube video that features me rolling on some chests and explaining exactly what they are and what you can do with them.

• Chests are opened from Booster Packs and Primal Packs.  You receive one Chest per pack.  This includes Booster Packs you open during Drafts, so after every draft you will always have 3 new chests.
• Chests have five rarities: Common (White), Uncommon (Green), Rare (Blue), Legendary (Red), and Primal (Yellow).
• Each Chest contains a random assortment of Loot based on its rarity.  You currently cannot open chests in the Beta Client.  This will be patched in at a later date.
• You will be able to trade Chests on the Auction House once it is implemented.  Not sure if you can just trade them among your friends or guild though.
• In addition to opening Chests, you can roll on them using the Wheels of Fate.
• The Wheels of Fate are located in the store by choosing the "Open Pack" option.
• Rolling on Chests requires an amount of gold based on the rarity of the Chest.  Common costs 1200, Uncommon costs 3100, Rare costs 8500, Legendary costs 30,000 gold.  I am unsure about Primal Chests.
• Gold is generated by playing in PvP tournaments: Sealed, Draft, and Constructed.  I am unsure about the exact gold payout for tournaments, but 1st place for Draft current awards 20,000 gold, and 5th-8th reward 5,000 gold.  Gold will be generated through PvE content once it is implemented.
• You can roll on each chest only once, though many of prizes from the Wheels of Fate will grant you a paid reroll or a free reroll.
• Prizes from the Wheels of Fate include Upgrades to your chest, Alternate Art cards, Deck Sleeves, PvE Cards and Equipment for them, Mercenaries, PvP Cards, Gold, and even Booster Packs.
• Some of the prizes generated from the Wheels of Fate (Alternate Art cards for example) are only obtainable through the Wheels of Fate.
• The prizes available from the Wheels of Fate will change as new sets come out.
• PvE cards, Equipment, and Mercenaries are not currently in the Beta client.  However, you can still see what you've won from the Wheels, including all of your Chests, under the Inventory Stash tab under the Card Manager (their icons will appear).  
• Alternate Art PvP cards will appear in your collection.  They have a Purple Rarity symbol, so if you sort the cards by rarity they should should up somewhere between the rares and the legendary cards.  Here is an example of an Alternate Art card that I won:

Hope this helps some of you wondering what to do with your mountains of gold.  Until next time, may the fates smile on you.

Flynn It to Win It

Two bits of good news: I now have a Bachelor's Degree, and drafts are in full swing!  With the craziness of finals week behind me, I might finally get the chance to sit down and draft a bit more, as well as write more articles on drafts.  Right now there are a slew of them that describe different draft archetypes, as well as individual set reviews.  You can check these more indepth discussions on Hextechs and HexTCGPro.  These are really good resources for a majority of your drafts, and knowing the archetypes and the powerful cards to play around are key to winning.  I'm not going to talk about archetypes as a whole, but instead talk about a specific deck type I half-discovered a couple weeks back.

To start off I should note that the draft metagame, unlike the constructed metagame, is heavily centered around Champions and Gems.  Most of the individual cards are powerful on their own, but many of the best archetypes are enabled by champions that compliment them.  Dwarves is powerful in part because the ability to squirt out a Worker Bot every third resource with Bertram really helps the other cards in the deck, which need an artifact or robot in play to realize their full potential.  Sapphire decks have dominated the air thanks in part to the Sapphire Gem of Flight and Feather Drifting Downriver, which can turn a Boulder Brute or Hellhound into an aerial behemoth.  However surprisingly often in a Hex draft, outside of established archetypes, I rarely consider the champion I will be playing while drafting.  This is something I'd recommend everyone keep in mind, particularly when you are drafting outside of an archetype or just rare-drafting and trying to cobble together a deck that can squeak by the first round.  While a good deal of my losses come from a shortage or flood of resources, or a timely played bomb by my opponent, more then one has come from a champion that turned an average pile of forty into an intimidating force.

Three champions in particular have done this in limited games I've played.  The first was a Blood deck that ran Bun'jitsu and no less than eight Darkspire troops.  Darkspire Prietsess is an intimidating card in the early game, and like most players, rather than swinging blindly into them I held my troops back until I could fly over or just out-muscle them.  Then on turn five he sacrificed two of them and made a 7/5 Abomination, before playing another Priestess freshly tutored up and playing Blood Aura on the Abomination, making it an 8/6 with Lifedrain.  He didn't play a single troop in his deck I couldn't deal with, but the Abomination just sat there and chewed away my board one man at a time, each one bringing him further out of reach.  The second is Fahrny, which combined with a Surge Mechanism & Shrine of Prosperity quickly chewed through my board like a gatling gun.  The deck was less of a Dwarf deck and more of a mono-Ruby good stuff deck, and Shrine + Sniper of Gawaine & Sword Dancer can get out of hand quickly.

Don't let those dashing looks fool you, he'll
steal the game from you in a heartbeat.

The last one is one I got to use in a recent draft, and I want to use this article to talk about him; if you couldn't tell by the title, that champion is Lionel Flynn.  Like the other champions I mentioned, Lionel's power costs 5 charges, giving a single troop a permanent +3/+0.  Five is a very steep charge cost, since often the three & four cost guys will get to use their charge powers earlier, and often two or three times per game.  That means you want to make sure that when you use the charge power it has a game changing effect, as Fahrny/Bun'jitsu will.  Also like these two, Lionel needs a more dedicated strategy during deckbuilding and drafting that champions like Bertram and Feather simply don't need.  So what cards sent me down the path of this roguish gentleman?  Royal Falconer & Mancubus.

Mancubus was my pack-one pick-one, and while there were arguably better cards in the deck, I was tempted to try him out as I had yet to draft him (I also didn't own any copies of him at the time).  If any card needs Lionel to really make it shine, it's Mancubus.  He comes out on turn four, and on turn five you you can pump him to a 5/2, steal their biggest threat, and swing in for five.  There are precious few cards that can withstand the tantalizing gaze of a five-power Mancubus, much less on turn five.    Royal Falconer was gifted to me pick two of pack three, and while the Falconer is fine without Lionel, the pump from Lionel makes his birds of absurd strength.  

Other Ruby cards that were featured in the deck that I used Lionel's ability on were Goreseeker, a Gem-Crazed Berserker with the Ruby Gem of Flames, and Daring Swordsman.  Goreseeker is an absolute house once she gets going, and the +3/+0 puts her well out of stack-block range for most boards.  The Gem-Crazed Berserker did work racing a blue-white fliers deck, beating for 6 unanswered points each turn after he was Buccaneer'd the turn I played him (In fact I'd say Ruby Gem of Flames is the best "thing" to combo with Lionel).  Daring Swordsman swung in for ten after my opponent left only one troop up which I played Mortar Strike on before pumping and beating in.  He then proceeded to stare down an army of men before I found a Ruby Aura to slide on him.  Outside of these cards, I ended up drafting a fairly decent Diamond-Ruby deck.  This was mostly motivated by a Repel and Inner conflict I had drafted earlier, but the pairing also had access to mini pump effects in the form of a pair of Ruby Pyromancers and Noble Citizenry.

I could go into the intricacies of my deck, but I'd rather talk about Lionel since without him, a majority of these games I could not have won.  The race with the Gem-Crazed Berserker and the Mancubus that stole a Cloud Titan were two games I am certain I would not have won had I chose a different champion like Poca or Palamedes.  The 6/2 Goreseeker and 5/2 Daring Swordsman games may have gone my way eventually, but Lionel certainly helped me put them away, and I'd like to take the rest of the article to look at his potential in certain archetypes over other champions. 

Diamond-Ruby
I've mentioned above that this was the deck I drafted, and I feel this is probably the strongest shard combination for Lionel.  Swiftstrike is one of the best mechanics to jam extra power onto, so common cards like Quick Strider become fine targets for Lionel.  The pump spell works in naturally with Inspire Engines or cards like Noble Citizenry.  Some other decent targets for Lionel are Sky'le Griffin, Forgotten Lord, and Shellsafe Sure-Shot.  Diamond also present Inner Conflict for an aggressive removal spell, alongside Repel, which is good for halting early game aggression while you set up a big Lionel.  Diamond Champions are also somewhat lackluster or niche compared to others, which gives Lionel a stronger nod in this archetype.

Sapphire-Ruby
There are two major problems with this combo.  The first is that these are dwarf shards, and while they might value certain cards differently than you, they are not above taking removal or solid troops like Buccaneer away from you.  The second is that playing Feather is arguably always better than +3/+0 a turn later.  While it's certainly unconventional it's not out of the question, though the only Sapphire card that I could see making me consider Lionel would be Eldritch Dreamer: 6 unblockable damage every turn is so difficult to deal with.  Since you'll be fighting Dwarves for removal and DS fliers for Sapphire cards, I'd probably try to snag a Phoenix Guard Trainer.  He will be an important card, since it typically gets picked up in the middle of the pack and you can use it to get some of your other guys off the ground.  One benefit is you have access to the two minor gems with evasion, with the ability to switch out between them in sideboarding.  Gem-Crazed Berserker with Sapphire Gem of Flying is better against Worker Bots, but you can switch out for the Ruby Gem of Flames against DS Fliers.  Hellhound with flying is equally insane.

Blood-Ruby
Blood Ruby is a fine enough deck, mostly because they are somewhat underdrafted in my experience.  The worst fortune that could befall you is if someone drafts a dedicated Orc deck, since you can passively pick up cards like Throat Cutter and Furious Taskmaster without having to dedicate yourself to the archetype.  Corrupt Harvester is actually terrifying with any sort of pumps, and he's high enough in cost for Sword Trainer to boost up as well.  The problem is the Blood Champions are actually pretty good with Blood.  Zared can pick guys off for a little cheaper and Bun'jitsu is actually very solid with enough Darkspire Priestess.  If you do happen to find yourself in an aggressive Orc deck Poca is usually better than Lionel as well.  That said, if you find yourself in Blood-Ruby with a good chunk of removal and solid evasion guys like Giant Corpse Fly and Wailing Banshee, you could do worse than having Lionel lead your way.

Ruby-Wild
This is the second strongest combo for Lionel in my opinion.  Wild wants gigantic troops and Crush synergizes well with Lionel's pump.  A properly gemmed Boulder Brute or Nelebrin Skirmisher can three-shot opponents with a +3/+0 boost, and Wild's compliment of Pump spells to Crushing Blow and Ruby Aura can let you own the combat phase.  Wild also has relatively weak options in the way of champions.  Monika'shin is only a live option if you're in Shin'hare; Kishimoto's pump is temporary (and weaker) than Lionel's; Polonius doesn't affect the board until late, and even then can usually be handled with a lone removal spell.  Running Deer is a good default champion for Wild since if you have good late game she can usually gain you enough life to survive to that point, but Lionel is more proactive in maintaining pressure.  The worst argument for Lionel is that you often won't need the pump if your draft goes properly, but If you plan on going Ruby-Wild from the get go he's one of your stronger options for champions.

Mono Ruby
For mono Ruby decks tend to either go super aggressive with Poca or midrange-control with Fahrny and a slew of Artifacts and some stolen Dwarves to enable it like Elimination Specialist.  I'm actually not against drafting this latter archetype as a way to counter dwarves while staying out of the sapphire fight, since Scrap Welders go notoriously late (this tends to be the ramshackle sort of deck I default to when I rare draft).  While I spelled out a lot of Ruby cards that go well with Lionel, most of them don't benefit from a single shard the way a pure aggro deck or a psuedo Ruby-Artifact deck would.  Surge Mechanism-Ruby decks should almost always go Fahrny, or force Sapphire and go Bertram.

In summary, I think Lionel Flynn fits a very unique position in Hex limited play.  While Bertram or Feather generally tips you off to what sort of deck your opponent is running, Lionel doesn't reveal much at the start of the game.  Combined with the Ruby Gem of Flames, Mancubus, or keywords like Swiftstrike and Crush, the power bonus Lionel nets you can single-handedly swing the tempo of a game in your favor.  So the next time you're in a draft and you see the luscious nipple-rings of the Mancubus, consider what other troops could benefit from a +3/+0 buff and draft around Lionel Flynn!

Until next time, may your drafts be Flynn-credible! 

The Secondary Races: Spiders, Satyrs & Jackals

Fair warning, this is another speculation article, since Beta has been somewhat stymied due to the dreaded middleware bug of 2014. 

I have a confession to make: I'm secretly happy that the draft queues are down.  This is mostly because if they were up, I wouldn't have any of the work that I have for the semester's final papers done.  As is, there's not much to distract me from the end of semester, but my mind is still wistfully wandering away from Saul Kripke and the Great Syrian Revolt and back towards Hex.

Like many Kickstarter Backers, I got four copies of every starter deck, along with a fat stack of boosters.  I opened a small chunk of them at launch, just to get a collection going, and in slogging around the Proving Grounds I began to build up the starters a bit with cards from my collection.  Having drafted each archetype at least once (the first draft pack I opened in Alpha had Zoltog, which led to a very strong Orc deck) it wasn't to hard to find the main commons and uncommons.  If you are like me and didn't back enough to get a playset of every card, and also want to keep a majority of our boosters for draft, you're probably in the same boat when you log in and play a few games, busting out an Shin'hare+ or a Human+ deck.

After a few dozen games versus randoms and the AI, I thought I'd see if I could build a deck for each of the main Hex races.  But the main races of Hex that didn't get starters don't really have the sort of synergy found with the raging Orcs or ingenious Dwarves.  So while draft still glimmers like a mirage in the distance, I thought this would be a good chance to look at some of Hex's non-archetype races and speculate a bit on what we might expect of them strategy-wise in the upcoming sets and in the PvE campaign.  One of the first things that caught me in looking them over was how asynchronous the shard division was among the races:

Ardent

• Humans: Diamond, Sapphire, Ruby
• Coyotle: Diamond, Sapphire, Wild
• Orcs: Blood, Ruby
• Elves: Wild

Underworld

• Necrotic: Diamond, Blood, Sapphire*
• Dwarves: Sapphire, Ruby
• Shin'hare: Blood, Wild
• Vennen: Blood

The Necrotic technically have a troop in Ruby (Shadowblade Lurker) and Sapphire (Windbourne Acolyte) as well for the first set, though their main concentration is in Diamond and Blood.  They do, however, have a Champion with a Sapphire charge ability in Nin the Shadow, so I feel obliged to include Sapphire in their shard divison, though this may grow.  Along with the Coyotle, Vennen, and Elves, the Necrotic missed the boat in Set 1 PvP on having a dedicated strategy that revolves around their them.  In fact most of these races are woefully underrepresented in comparison to the other races.  However the troops that were released in these "secondary races" might have clues to what we can expect in future sets.

The first deck to break this guy better be called High Five.

The Necrotic are actually a good place to start, since they are the Underworld's only avenue of access to Diamond.  There are some cool cards in Blood that already produce Zombies, like Corrupted Afterlife and Zombie Plague, though none of these are directly tied into with the Necrotic.  Thematically the Necrotic seem to have some sentience and agency that Zombies do not, but raising troops from the dead, or at least abusing graveyard resources is something thematically tied to Blood.  One Necrotic Troop in particular that mimics this Reanimate strategy is Midnight Shepherd, which can resurrect a troop every turn if you manage to fetch up one of every threshold.  The threshold requirement also appears on Lixil, the Deathless Gem, granting her invincibility when you reach your domain.  Additionally her "enters play" ability fetches up a resource from your deck and grants you the threshold of that card.  In might not be a coincidence that both of these cards are necrotic.  Since they derive from the humans, they are likely to mimic their living counterparts in the shards that the humans also hold sway in: Diamond, Ruby, and Sapphire.  With the death-centered Blood shards added to the mix, the necrotic have stretched themselves very far across the domain table.  Existentially, their very being seems tied to these shards of the Hex comet:

Amidst the great necropolis where the humans kept their fallen heroes in carefully constructed stone vaults, the Hexing Gems somehow caused the dead to awaken. The risen corpses, who called themselves the necrotic, were the first sentient race on Entrath created by Hex, and their existence and motivations remain mysterious. Fresh necrotic were “awakened” by socketing diamond Hexing Gems in the eye sockets of dead humans, who would arise with no memory of their former lives and an entirely new sentience. 

As such the necrotic may unlock their true potential when all the various shards are brought together into a sort of harmony, and perhaps the Necrotic will be a race that spans all five shards, or that gets bonuses when you play additional shards.  Another mini-theme between a couple of the Necrotic Champions is Lifedrain, which also appears on Corrupt Harvester.  While Lifedrain is certainly not unique to the Necrotic, the "Bleed" mechanic (you lose life, I gain life) could also be a mini-theme that resonates throughout Hex.

The Vennen have the least amount of troops of any of the main eight races of Hex (only five).  All of them exist within the Blood shard, and have moderate resource costs to play.  Their Unique Troop, Xarlox, alongside Brood Creeper, demonstrate an ability to generate Spiderspawns.  Proliferation of a specific type of troop seems somewhat typical of races: Shin'hare have Battle Hoppers and Dwarves have Worker Bots, for example.  Spiderspawn are 2/1 troops, which make them a little more formidable than your average troop generated this way.  Incubation Slave also creates Spiderspawns despite being an Orc, though his existence might be attributed back to the Vennen and their hatred of their Ardent counterparts.  With so little cards to go on and so little threads to work with, it's hard to really surmise anything about the Vennen from current cards other than potentially amassing a swarm of Spiderspawns.  Thematically, they are extremely religious and relish in punishing heretics, perhaps explaining their depiction in the artwork of Inquisition.  Xarlox demonstrates an ability that marries the two: purging heretics (other troops) and generating Spiderspawn, which could be demonstrated in other ways on future Vennen cards.  An interesting and annoying Vennen card might infest your opponent's deck with Spiderspawn, thought this ability might be too heavily entrenched in Sapphire and Ruby now with cards like Sabotage and Reginald.

Elves aren't far ahead of Vennen in terms of numbers, with only six cards to their name, all in Wild.  They have even less cohesion in their tribal strategy than the Vennen do, with no two cards having similar abilities.  Briarpatch Conjurer makes Briar Legions, but this ability seems unique to her, and their Unique Troop Puck isn't stingy about which kind of troops will trigger his ability or be put into play: the bigger the better!  Thematically the elves look and act more similarly with satyrs than of something from Tolkien's Middle Earth, engaging in revelry and creativity.  Much like the Vennen, they are an isolationist race, even among their allies, which might explain why the two are only represented in a single shard.  Philosophically in keeping with their lore and with Wild in general, Elves are a race that wants to dominate the late game. Cards like Wild Root Dancer and Nelebrin Skirmisher are progressively stronger with time, while not necessarily needing the Inspire Engine of Humans.  Personally, something I would love is if Elves had Bards (among other non-playable classes, perhaps) that performed songs that got stronger if you played them on successive turns.  Maybe the Portensio of Avon mercenary is a portent of my bardic dreams coming true in the near future (though I still have to get my hands on a Portensio of my own).

The last race is my personal favorite race, possibly because they remind me so much of the Tauren society in WoW.  The Coyotle have a slightly more extensive list of troops spanning Wild, Diamond, and Sapphire, though these troops are no more cohesive than the Elves are in terms of what they do.  The action Spirit Dance and Dream Dance, both of which feature Coyotle artwork, might indicate a long term deck augmenting strategy for the Coyotle.  Sapphire and Wild are no stranger to deck tinkering, as Pack Raptor and Ancestors' Chosen can attest.  Again I will turn to the given lore on the race to surmise what we might be able to expect in future Coyotle cards.  Perhaps the most exciting one is that the Coyotle have the ability to control the weather, which means we could get Coyotle Stormcallers capable of changing the conditions of the battlefield, generating lightning storms that zap random troops or snowstorms that hamper attack plans (Cory's blog displayed a happy little cloud with happy little raindrops about a month ago, which could be a weather card).  Regarding generated troops, coyotle shamans can summon bestial spirits to attack for them, though lorewise they don't seem to have any utility in this aspect the way Worker Bots or Battle Hoppers might.  There may also be something to the constellation aspect of the Coyotle, now only passingly referenced on Zodiac Shaman.

Perhaps these races will shine more uniquely once PvE content is in, but I also think there is space in the lore and shard scheme for some cool and innovative design around these races for PvP.  Hopefully that design would let a future me draft a Coyotle Weather deck or a Necrotic Domain deck... though a few more days of tournament withdrawal and future me might be forced to draft the seed packets in the garden section of Home Depot (first pick windmill slam Basil).  I guess I can only hope the issues get resolved this weekend so that when I stumble from a paper writing stupor I can bust through my store of draft boosters.

That's all for this week though.  If you have any ideas for what you expect from the Necrotic, Vennen, Elves or Coyotle in future sets or in PvE, or thoughts on their lore, leave it in the comments!  Next week I'll hopefully have had a chance to draft a bit and try out the Wheel of Fate.  Also for those of you who enjoy the Phoenix Wright or Zero Escape video game series, there's a Kickstarter for a game called Exogenesis: Perils of Rebirth you should check out.  

Until next time, remember that we're all just part of one big coyotle world.... man.