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Hex Vault is at DragonCon! I’m planning to post interviews with the CZE folks, audio recordings of the Hex-related panels (MMO Design, Kickstarter, PVP, and PVP), and anything else that might be of interest to the Hex community…
Stay tuned…
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Greetings, and welcome to my guest “Card Mechanics” article on Hex Vault! Colin asked me to write up a more thorough concept design of a mechanic I proposed on the forums. It was going off of an idea vickrpg had of a “splitting” troop.
The idea around this mechanic is to help make a traditional “slime monster”, though it could be used for any number of unique creatures – including vickrpg’s original idea of a “band” troop where the band splits off into its individual members.
The idea involves adding 2 keywords – Divide and Combine.
Divide X [Quick Action] – this troop splits into X <name> troops, with the original attack and defense evenly divided (or unevenly, if it’s not an even division) among those X troops. The divided troops will also have and abilities the original troop had, and they share their “state” (attacking, blocking, exhausted) with the original troop.
Combine [Quick Action] – combine all other troops in play under your control with the same name into one troop. All attack and defense from each troop is added for the new troop’s defense, and any abilities any one troop has are retained on the new troop.
Hands up all those who think Chris (the only guy in the puppy pen) should be fixing bugs in the HexTCG UI rather than playing with puppies?
Just kidding, Chris! 
You definitely deserve a break after your superhuman efforts at GenCon…
Puppy party today at Cryptozoic! A little de-stress from the convention season. pic.twitter.com/VQcQZxw7Jx
— HexTCG (@HexTCG) August 27, 2013
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A recent article here on Hex Vault showed a somewhat forgotten image of the Set 1 art for the Wild PvP troop “Pack Raptor” (rather than the Kickstarter Exclusive Alternate Art version). Perhaps more importantly this article also showed the Extended Art and sparked a discussion about this rarely discussed feature within HexTCG.
As a brief interlude, I am Hammer, and I have been playing TCG’s and dTCG’s for more than 10 years. I am an avid collector at heart; loving alternate art, extended art, foil and any other promo card! It shouldn’t be hard to understand why my $500 pledge for the kick-starter went against 2 of the collector tiers This is my first article focussed on HexTCG and I am excited to start expanding (no pun intended!) on the original Extended Art feature.
Each card in HexTCG has a “Double Back”, listing a set of challenges that enable the unlocking of a Foil effect, Extended Art, or both (i.e. an Extended Art Foil Effect card). It appears that every piece of card art for Hex has either been drawn with the Extended Art in-mind, or with the full art being cropped, to hide an element of the art to allow the art to fit within the card frame. The complexity and difficulty to unlocking these art features isn’t known yet, but based on the full art revealed on the HexTCG.com website we do have a pretty good understanding of how some of the Extended Art might look.
This article will take a look at the images we have seen so far and, hopefully, spark a discussion on whether it will be desirable to unlock the Extend Art and the type of “Easter Eggs” we might expect to reveal within the larger piece of card art.
Disclaimer: the cards below have been mocked-up using the full-art images taken from the HexTCG.com site and overlaid on the card. For reference, the mockups have been overlaid on to the un-extended art version of the card. This is for illustrative purposes only – the exact look of the Extended Art cards will likely vary.
I mentioned previously that I had backed the Kickstarter for HexTCG: the Extended Art Urunaaz in the Dragon Blood Starter caught my eye early on, and memories of this were jogged recently by the news and spoiler from the Dragon Lord Dinner of the Sapphire Dragon “Zeedu”. We also got to see the full art version of the wonderful Jadiim. The first image below shows how the Extended Art is likely to reveal Jadiim’s lower body, the rock out-crop which Uranuuz is wrapped around and the stunning scene that Zeedu is swooping over.
Dragon Extended Art Cards?
I then went in search of other full art images and I was amazed at just how many of these had been used to promote the Kickstarter and/or were included in Art-Feature articles on HexTCG.
Cast your eyes over these images below and get a feel for how many of the Extended Art cards might look once you have taken the time and effort required to unlock them.
Extended Art Cards?
Extended Art Cards?
It is likely (as seems to be the case from the Pack Raptor spoiler) that the art will extend both at the top and the bottom, revealing new things about the card and the character. Who knew that Sensei of the Milky Eye is balancing on one leg?
Extended Art Cards?
Extended Art Cards?
PvE cards are also set to have the Extended Art feature – I’m sure the race will be on to acquire a play set of Extended Art Princess Cory. The Lady Cassandra full art looks incredible.
Extended Art Cards?
We might also have the option to unlock PVP Champions or for tokens to be Full Art too:
Champion Extended Art Cards?
The art in HexTCG is mind blowing, and I personally love the potential of the Extended Art and the chance for us to see more of the rich images created by the artists working on Hex.
Will we be able to trade Extended Art cards or will they revert to normal on trade? If so, will they be desirable? Will you be actively looking to unlock your cards?
Let us know what you think in the comments below or on the Hex Vault forums.
I hope you enjoyed this look at the potential extended art cards – until the next time!
Hammer
Proud Member of The Unnamed Council
Here is Part 2 (of 2) of Funktion’s review of everything Hex-related at GenCon:
Some of the topics discussed:
Enjoy! Enter our iPad/HexCon and Jadiim Sleeves giveaways!
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Hello, I’m Gage “HyenaNipples” Lawhon, and it is my pleasure to be this week’s guest contributor to Hex Vault’s “Card Mechanics” column! For my contribution, I have something completely new. This idea bounced right out of my brain, so this definitely isn’t something the Cryptozoic team has up their sleeves.
My concept is a new Keyword, but unlike any of those already in the game, this one is a detrimental Keyword. I call it ‘Infected,’ and here’s what it would do:
Before I go deeper, let’s take a look at the two cards featuring this new Keyword. The first card is essentially a Wild version of the Blood card, Zombie Plague, except that it works a little differently.
Fungal Infection
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This week’s Kickstarter update mentioned that we should start to see some of the extended art assets in the relatively near future. BossHoss uncovered the earliest extended art preview we know about (Pack Raptor) from a video released quite some time ago:
Pack Raptor Extended Art
I’m really excited to see more of the extended art in the coming weeks. especially for many our little Shin’hare friends.
What cards are you most excited to see the extended art for? Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments below.
And… remember to enter our giveaways!
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High quality images of Uruunaz and Jadiim were hiding out amongst all of fantastic images of Zeedu on the Dragon Lord USB drive. Zakiir was also there – I hadn’t planned to spoil his art (even though 40+ people have the image) until I realized he’d already been revealed on The Wrath of Zakiir (thanks for the tip, Icepick). So, here you are – a high quality image of Zakiir, the Ruby Dragon:
Zakiir, the Ruby Dragon
Image is a copyrighted work of Cryptozoic Entertainment (CZE), © 2013 All Rights Reserved.
Zakiir, the Ruby Dragon #HexTCG #DragonObsessed http://t.co/yHDgUwU3iN
— Hex Vault (@HexVault) August 23, 2013
Here is Part 1 (of 2) of Funktion’s review of everything Hex-related at GenCon:
Some of the topics discussed:
Enjoy! Enter our iPad/HexCon and Jadiim Sleeves giveaways!
GenCon 2013: Funktion’s Video Wrap-up – Part 1 #GenCon #HexTCG @FunktionFails http://t.co/YX0hHy8weh
— Hex Vault (@HexVault) August 23, 2013
Our forums are now live! To commemorate the occasion we’re giving away a code (well, at least one!) for the GenCon exclusive Jadiim, the Emerald Dragon. All you have to do is create a worthwhile post in the newly opened Hex Vault forums! I’ll randomly select a winner to send the code to on September 8th, 2013.
No official picture of the sleeves yet, but this image of Jadiim should tide you over (and it was the image associated with the sleeves reward at GenCon)…
Jadiim