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Generally midrange decks try to fill in the gap which falls somewhere in between “agro” and “control.” If we’re going this route we want to build a deck which has enough removal to stave off a strong early game presented by aggressive troop-based decks, and follow that removal up with a package of efficient and hard to deal with threats which begin to come into play towards the middle of the game. On the flip side, against slower decks we are aiming to put out threats faster than our opponents can deal with them. Starting off with the removal package we have both persecute and murder as already mentioned, we could go further into blood by adding in terrible transfer but that is likely to be too slow for us. Ruby is definitely an option since it has both Burn and Ragefire but both of these might be a little too narrow for us in terms of what troops they are able to deal with. This leads us to Diamond where we find Inner Conflict which fits very well into our game plan, not only is it fairly cheap but it is able to deal with a wide variety of threats which could prove to be problematic for us (I’m looking at you Fist of Briggadon). Not only does Diamond give us access to Inner Conflict, but we’re also able to add in a number of evasive threats which suit our deck very well.
Without further ado let’s look at the decklist: (I excluded links for cards which aren’t up to date)
1x Soul Marble
4x Life Siphon
4x Persecute
4x Murder
4x Inner Conflict
12x Blood Shard
9x Diamond Shard
4x Shards of Fate
-Vampire King: once the king is added to the game this becomes the perfect deck for him
-Relentless Corruption: decent sideboard tech to bring in against slower decks
-Frost Wizard: if our opponents are relying on escalation then bringing this silver bullet in from the sideboard is a pretty easy decision
Midrange decks often attack their opponents from a somewhat sideways angle, they’re able to push this even further after sideboarding. That’s not to say that it doesn’t come with some weaknesses, evasive spellshield troops like Storm Colossus dodge our removal and can often turn the game around if the opponent is able to stabalize. Furthermore, there is definitely potential for a powerful deck that includes no troops which in turn makes many of our cards into dead draws.
I hope you all enjoyed the article. Sorry that I haven’t had nearly as much time to write / vlog about Hex this month, or even really play it for that matter. Though in the time I have had to log in I’ve been blown away by the outstanding appreciation I’ve been given from all of the folks tuning in. Thanks a bunch everyone! On that note I’ll leave you with a quick video of this deck in action…
Less Fail, More Funktion
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Card: Eye of Creation
Cost: 3 + X (unchanged)
Card Text: Reveal the top X cards of your deck. You may put any revealed troops into play. If you reveal another Eye of Creation this way, transform it into a copy of this action and play it. Put the remaining cards on the bottom of your deck.
Originally I saw the new card cost (“3X”) and thought they’d REALLY nerfed it since my original interpretation of “3X” was “3 times X”. After talking to Ben it turns out that the actual interpretation should be “3 plus X” – this is going to be refined to make it clearer in a future version.
So, who won? Well, no one got it exactly. A few people got the card and the cost. One person, however, was the first to suggest that they’d restrict the types of cards that Eye of Creation would be able to play (by guessing that we wouldn’t be able to use it to play resources) – not exactly right, but in the sprit of the actual changes (which are even more restrictive!). Congratulations, Mokog!
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I’ll be playing a Wild/Blood swarm deck (mostly Shin’hare) most of the time. Let’s see how the hotel internet holds up!!!
Colin
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First up…
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R.I.P. Runt 3 – you will be missed! Know that you were loved, much, much loved…
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I have first hand knowledge of one of the 3 cost cards having been significantly redesigned since it was spoiled. I figured I’d run a quick competition to give away roundtrip flights to/from HexCon! All you have to do is make a guess at:
The person who, in my opinion, gets closest to the new version of the card wins. Better be quick – you only have 2.5 days before Alpha (hopefully). And… it could be sooner if the card gets spoiled before that!
The only way to enter is to leave your guess as a reply to THIS post! Have fun!!!
EDIT: Because it’s a FAQ… There may well be more that one card that has been changed. I have a specific card in mind. So, it doesn’t matter if you’re completely right about the card you guess, you need to have guessed the card I’ve chosen!
EDIT2: Entries closed at 4:45pm PDT on 10/8/2013. Set 1 Spoiler List posted to HexTCG.com. The card I had in mind is NOT on the list… yet… As soon as CZE spoils it, I’ll announce the winner.
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Ok, so maybe that’s not a true story (it happened on the train), but there are some pretty exciting things about Hex. One of these things happens to be my topic for today… SOCKETED CARDS (the crowd goes wild). I’m gonna give you my two cents about each of the cards and the options which I think will be particularly powerful. So lets start off by putting everything out on the table and working our way down the list.
Before I get into the nitty-gritty you might have a few questions on how sockets work. Hopefully this will at least cover the basics:
Alright, if you have any other questions just post them down below in the comments and I will be sure to answer them for you. I really love how sockets make each card extremely flexible, there are just so many options for each card (and that’s not even counting equipment either). With that said, let’s look at some of the outstanding options for each socketed card.
With a common rarity you can expect to see quite a bit of Boulder Brute in limited play, but how can you make the best use of him? For me this rock beast is probably the least exciting of the bunch, but if slam dunking huge rocks is your thing there’s still some hope to be had:
If it weren’t for the socket this Vincent Price wannabe might be pretty unassuming; however, add in a minor socket and all the sudden that story changes pretty quickly.
Minor Wild: Cost -1. If it weren’t for the threshold conflict this would be an incredible option. Since you’re not actually able to play the Sorcerer on turn 1 this way it’s kinda a non-bo.
This massive sword wielding madame is the only PvE socketed card which we’ve seen so far. I’d be lying if I said the combination of her socket and ability didn’t make me scratch my head. Definitely seems interesting though in a dedicated lifegain deck running Adamanthian Scrivener & Righteous Paladin. So the big question is what do we have access to?
I could probably list another 5 gems and explain why that particular gem is better than any of the others, but that’s all just theory…
That about wraps everything up for today. I’m betting that we have yet to see a couple more socketed cards, if you enjoyed my analysis be sure to let me know in the comments and I’ll do a part 2 once I have access to a complete spoiler. In case you’re not already aware I’m on a quest right now to release one piece of content each and every day until Alpha (this is day 3). Hopefully, I will manage to pull it off… and hopefully Alpha doesn’t getting delayed at the last minute, then I’d really be in trouble.
Until next time,
Less Fail More Funktion!
Colin
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As you might remember from the Comet Strike card spoiler article, Entrath started out with just 2 native magic sources: Wild and Blood. After the Hex comet smashed into the world the native races suddenly found three more shards available to them: Ruby, Sapphire, and Diamond. The flavor text on the card tells this story pretty succinctly. Cloudwatcher is one of the few cards we’ve seen with an affinity for magic outside her threshold color:
Cloudwatcher is a 1/1 for 1 resource with a threshold of 1 Wild – nothing particularly special there! However, she has a couple of abilities available to her that suggest an affinity for both the Sapphire and the Diamond shards. Right away that tells us that we’re probably not going to see Cloudwatcher in mono-Wild decks, and instead she’ll be more likely to find use in either Wild/Sapphire or Wild/Diamond decks.
Let’s look at the synergy of Cloudwatcher in Wild/Diamond decks first. For 1 Diamond threshold and 1 resource you can exhaust Cloudwatcher and give another of your troops Steadfast (the ability to attack without becoming exhausted such that the troop would still be available to block on your opponents next turn) this turn. A key use for this ability will be to grant one of your large troops (e.g. Legionnaire of Adamanth, Ozawa, Cosmic Elder, or Jadiim) Steadfast so that they can beat on your opponent this turn but also be available to defend on your opponent’s next turn.
In Wild/Sapphire decks you can exhaust Cloudwatcher to allow you to draw a card and then discard a card at a cost of 1 resource (and assuming you have a Sapphire threshold available). This allows you to more quickly find the cards you need in your deck and discard cards that are not useful given the current board state and/or time in the game, in effect thinning your deck.
What does Cloudwatcher bring to the table in PVE?
Stormwing Breastplate (Uncommon) allows you to pay 6 resources (1 Diamond and 1 Sapphire) to return a card from your graveyard into you hand. Clearly there is obvious synergy with the Sapphire-based ability – you can freely discard cards into your graveyard and then retrieve them later as needed. I also wonder whether or not the threshold is supposed to be Diamond or Sapphire – I’ll check with the team and post an update.
The Storm Fan (Rare) allows you to play all Diamond and Sapphire cards for 1 less resource cost. That’s pretty good resource acceleration, and allows you to potentially speed up all of your drops past Turn 1.
I hope you enjoyed both of the exclusive card spoilers we’ve been able to share! I certainly enjoyed thinking about how they could be used and sharing my thoughts with you. I’d like to thank the HexTCG folks for providing them. Hopefully they’ll be the first of many!
#HexTCG cards to spoil!!! New resource fixing! Thank you @HexTCG @Cryptozoic
— Hex Vault (@HexVault) October 1, 2013
Before I spoil the card, let’s spend a little time talking about threshold and resources in HexTCG. It’s probably obvious to most people following the development of HexTCG that the resource system is based on five basic shards: Wild, Blood, Diamond, Sapphire, and Ruby. When you play a basic shard resource card it actually provides 2 distinct things: a threshold of the appropriate type AND a resource. This is key to understanding the resource system in HexTCG – although threshold and resource are frequently given as a package deal (i.e. basic shard resource cards), they are technically completely separate. What does that mean to me? That means that cards can potentially provide threshold but no resource, resource but no threshold, or both. In the UI, the display on the two mechanics (threshold and resources) is actually separate — two numbers that are displayed independently and can be changed independently. Time to get out of the habit of checking the numbers in the threshold symbols to calculate how many resources I have available!
Adaptable Infusion Device is an example of card that provides a permanent threshold of your choosing without increasing your available resource count. Notably, for now anyway (and definitely in Set 1), anything that provides threshold is permanent.
On the other hand, when we look at resource acceleration, cards (or actions) can provide temporary resources that are only available on the turn they are played/used [X/0] (e.g. Spectral Lotus), resources on the turn that they are played and on each subsequent turn [X/X], or permanent resources only on subsequent turns [0/X] (e.g. Surge Mechanism). Chlorophyllia is even more nuanced – you essentially get 2 Wild threshold, and a resource effect that is essentially [0/2] (no temporary resources the turn you cast Chlorophyllia, but 2 resources each turn thereafter).
OK, now that you understand threshold and resources in HexTCG, let’s look at the card! Crimson Clarity – threshold fixing and resource acceleration for Ruby:
As an aside, and like most of the cards spoiled so far, I love the flavor text for this card…
Basically the card text says “Gain 1 Ruby threshold” (a permanent change) and “Gain 3 resources this turn” (and only this turn!), i.e. playing this card results in a net gain of 1 Ruby threshold and 1 resource. Threshold fixing and (albeit modest) resource acceleration on the same card! As an example, on Turn 2 with 1 Ruby and 1 Wild threshold and 2 resources in play, you could play Crimson Clarity and then play another troop for 3 resources. At the very start of Turn 3 you’d have 2 Ruby and 1 Wild threshold but only 2 resources available to you.
Crimson Clarity’s resource and threshold fixing obviously allows you to play cards with 2 or more Ruby threshold earlier than normal, even if you’ve only been able to play 1 Ruby basic shard resource card, e.g. Mancubus or Zoltog on Turn 3, Ash Harpy on Turn 4, Inferno on Turn 3 (assuming you’ve had 2 Ruby basic shard resources), etc. You could even get a Turn 4 Te’talca, Orc Gladiator, ahead of the curve, and likely with your opponent only having weaker troops and potentially being resource constrained! It can also smooth out bad basic shard resource draws when using Poca, The Conflagrator – after all, her charge power (Blaze Elemental) requires 2 Ruby threshold.
Crimson Clarity will probably have utility in PVP in constructed formats, especially in very aggressive decks and also decks that stray away from mono-Ruby. It’ll see even more use in limited formats, especially in decks where 2 other shards are prominent but you need to add a splash of Ruby to play a bomb and/or removal, e.g. Ragefire. Another thing – Crimson Clarity is common ensuring that we’ll see it in drafts pretty frequently.
What about Crimson Clarity in PVE? Insane resource acceleration! Let’s look at the equipment:
Crimson Copperhead (Common) reduces the cost of Crimson Clarity by 1 thereby giving you a Ruby threshold and a net gain of 2 resources the turn you play the card. Now you’re potentially getting all of the cards I described previously a turn earlier!
Lucid Gloves (Uncommon) take the temporary resource gains and make them permanent – 3 extra resources every turn, including the turn you play Crimson Clarity. Using these gloves in combination with the Crimson Copperhead, and having multiple Crimson Clarity cards in hand on Turn 1 could result in a very large and angry dragon (well, in Set 2) beating on your AI opponent by Turn 2!
I’m excited to see more threshold and resource acceleration in the game. What do you think of Crimson Clarity? Leave your comments below or on Facebook or Twitter.
That’s all for today, but tomorrow I’ll be spoiling a Coyotle Mage who has embraced the Diamond and Sapphire magic brought to Entrath by Hex… Check back soon!
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