The first ever limited-budget Tournament in Hex – the $10 Budget Cup – took place this past Sunday with 49 eager participants hoping to make their mark on a brand new meta. A wide array of unique decks were on display – with troop sightings that included the Shin’hare Milita, The Triumvate and everything in between.

Without access to the expensive staples like Angel of Dawn and Vampire King and the banning of Gore Feast – players were enticed to re-evaluate every single card and form new synergies and strategies that previously might have been overlooked.

After 3 rounds of play, Phase 1 was completed and our Top 8 Hexers were decided (check bracket here for results). The stage is now set for a Champion to take his rightful crown this Sunday, November 16th . Ahead of the finale let’s take a look at the top 8 contenders, and the decks that got them this far.

Note: Players are allowed to change their decklist for the upcoming Top 8 matches, including having access to Reserves.

IGN: Caerbannog

Deck: Diamond/Sapphire Servant Tempo

Troops (21)

4x Servant of Shathak

4x Buccaneer

4x Thunderbird

3x Mystic Spiritwalker

2x Living Totem

1x Menacing Gralk

1x Wizard of the Silver Talon

1x Prophet of Lodegan

1x Cerulean Mentalist Actions/Constants/Artifacts (15)

4x Countermagic

2x Stormcall

1x Stoneskin

1x Arcane Shield

1x Peek

1x Reversion

1x Repel

1x Inner Conflict

1x Sapper’s Charge

1x Time Ripple

1x Oracle Song Shards (24)

13x Diamond Shard

7x Sapphire Shard

4x Shards of Fate

I haven’t played TCGs much at all before HEX. I got into it with MTG 4th edition, but I had no people to play with in my home town, so that was a very brief stint. I played the first MTG computer game a bit also, but that’s about it so next to no real TCG gaming until I got into the HEX Alpha in the first wave thanks to my Kickstarter pledge. Since then I’ve been hooked.I read Wurtil’s article over at hextcgpro.com about $10 deck and that was a solid starting point both in the deck I would play and what others might play. Then I remembered Wurtil’s words from the hextcgpro invitational: Every deck ran either Extinction or Countermagic (or both). Extinction is hard to fit in cost wise, so I went to Countermagic.I started out from Wurtil’s version of the Servant deck, but when I play tested it a bit I just didn’t seem to get much use of the Protectorate Defenders which made up $4 of the budget, so I cut those for a couple of Living Totems and going up to 4 Thunderbirds also. It put me a little over budget, so I had to drop the Lord Benjamin unfortunately. Then I tweaked a bit in the “one of”-list, most notably adding two Stormcall as it’s a great card to finish off games.Underrated is hard as I don’t really know how people rate cards, but Stormcall might be it. Or perhaps Xentoth’s Inquisitor. It is highly regarded, but it’s even more awesome!If I would get a personal card I think I’d like it to be a little dwarf with some sneaky ability akin of Gearsmith. Perhaps a:Crazed EngineerWhen this troop enters play void target artifact you control. Search your deck for a random artifact of the same cost and put it into play.

IGN: DeathRealm

Deck: Mono-Sapphire Control



Troops (22)

4x Buccaneer

4x Thunderbird

3x Flock of Seagulls

2x Splinter of Azathoth

2x Eldritch Dreamer

2x Wizard of the Silver Talon

1x The Kraken

1x Storm Colossus

1x Prophet of Lodegan

1x Bird o’ Plenty

1x Monkey of the Nine Tails Actions/Constants/Artifacts (13)

4x Countermagic

3x Time Ripple

3x Sapper’s Charge

2x Oracle Song

1x Peek Shards (25)

25x Sapphire Shard

I’ve been playing TCGs for 5-6 years or so, I believe. Of course, the game I play mostly amongst TCGs is Magic: the Gathering. Love playing control decks, my favorite MtG colors are blue, white and black.I live in a small town (Sumy, Ukraine), and there is a friendly community of TCG- and boardgame- players. Unfortunately, there are not as many players as I would like, because such kind of games are not very popular in my country.My first step into Hex was made this spring or early summer, when I won a beta-key watching someone’s stream on twitch.tv. But talking about real playing – taking part in some tourneys, drafting, and constructing decks, I’ve been playing for 2 months.As I said, I love control decks, and there are a lot of great Sapphire commons and uncommons, which may be considered as some of the best cards in the entire game. Countermagic and Time Ripple are in top ten for sure, and Buccaneer, Thunderbird, Flock of Seagulls are great too. $10 format should not be overwhelmed with mass-removal spells, so I’ve decided to include Storm Colossus because of his Spellshield ability, and Prophet of Lodegan because it is pretty hard to remove 4 targets with Murders or Repels, etc. The Kraken is just a fun to play bomb (I like to play fun cards even competitively), which can be searched for using Peek. Mono-sapphire decks lack good removal, so I included Sapper’s Charges for small threats and Monkey of the Nine Tails for significant ones.Well, I’m not a specialist for current constructed meta, and I can’t say for sure which cards are underrated for now. But I can say which card seems a little overrated for me. It is Relentless Corruption. It becomes better than Oracle Song only on second play of it, and it is harder to cast in multicolor decks. Seems to be very slow, or maybe I just don’t see the hidden potential in it yet. By the way, I would like to see more crazy combos with Replicator’s Gambit – this card is amazingly fun.Name: Troop – Voidtouched, Unique. Stats: 0/1. Cost: 10 (10 Sapphire threshold). As this card enters play, target opponent loses 1000 life, discards his hand, puts 60 cards off the top of his library into his graveyard and voids his graveyard, then he draws a card.

IGN: Desk

Deck: Mono-Blood Control

Troops (19)

4x Corrupt Harvester

4x Darkspire Priestess

4x Giant Corpse Fly

3x Malice Demon

2x Droo’s Colossal Walker

2x Xarlox the Brood Lord Actions/Constants/Artifacts (16)

4x Inquisition

4x Murder

4x Terrible Transfer

2x Sorrow

2x Extinction Shards (25)

25x Blood Shard

I like TCGs but haven’t played them in a while due to time and money constraints. I played magic in elementary school, and more recently all of the wow tcg raids with a group of friends. I started playing Hex in August, and kickstarted at the king level.Because originally it was one game elimination, I thought a mono deck would be more consistent. I also am most familiar with running mono blood so I lean toward it when given a choice. And blood is pretty strong in this format, it has a lot of good commons and uncommons.Darkspire Priestess. It’s just a great value card.It would be a Darkspire legendary. Because I am really excited making a Darkspire deck after seeing more of the Darkspire spoilers from Set 2, and the Darkspire are badass.

IGN: Herford

Deck: Mono-Ruby Orcs



Troops (27)

4x Savage Raider

4x Arena Brawler

4x Furious Taskmaster

4x Ruby Pyromancer

3x Emberspire Witch

4x Gem-Crazed Berserker

4x Veteran Gladiator Actions/Constants/Artifacts (10)

4x Burn

4x Ragefire

2x Crushing Blow Shards (23)

23x Ruby Shard

I have played Magic the Gathering for 2 years; Solforge, War of Omens, Hearthstone, Might and Magic DoC are my other TCGs of choice. I have been playing Hex TCG for 2 months now since I got a beta key from HexColin in Twitch Chat.I picked the Orc starter deck so I only needed 7 cards for this monoruby list that I borrowed from a friend. Other than that I figured that a fast consistent deck would be good in a format with access to minimal sweepers. I also enjoy playing any deck that is fast enough to punish slow draws or flood. I played the list I found on http://hextcgpro.com/wurtil-wednesday-10-decks-for-10-bucks/I don’t really play Constructed. This was my first Constructed match/tournament. I focus mostly on Limited play.A 2/2 for 2 with 2 Ruby threshold with Speed. When it enters the battle field, it gives target other creature you control +2/+0 and Crush until end of turn.

IGN: JohnyH

Deck: Wild/Ruby Rush

Troops (20)

4x Gas Troll

4x Kindling Skarn

4x Savage Raider

4x Cottontail Ronin

4x Verdant Wyldeboar Actions/Constants/Artifacts (18)

4x Wild Growth

4x Burn

4x Crushing Blow

4x Suppressive Fire

2x Ruby Aura Shards (22)

11x Wild Shard

11x Ruby Shard

I have been playing TCGs since I have been 8 years old starting with Pokemon. I moved to Dragonball Z, to Yugioh, then to World of Warcraft over the years with some occasional experience playing Magic on the side. Currently, outside of Hex, I am getting involved with the resurgence of Dragonball Z (made originally by Score, now being printed by Panini). I am also occasionally sampling Weis Schwarz on the side with a friend.I chose this deck because I wanted something fast before my opponent would get a chance to react to my deck. I also don’t care for flooding. At least if you are screwed, you still have cards in your hand if the Shards eventually come.Gore Feast of Kog’Tepetl – There’s a reason why it is banned for this tournament and I feel its strength is largely underestimated still. Combo with Poca and it’s just crippling.Burn in Hell – Cost 2, 2 Ruby Threshold (Constant) – This Constant comes into play with 2 counters on it. (1) and Remove one counter – Deal 2 damage to target Champion or Troop. If there are no counters on Burn in Hell, destroy it. I love Burn decks and something like this would be very appealing to me.

IGN: Kayas

Deck: Wild/Sapphire Spellshield

Troops (29)

4x Buccaneer

4x Moon’ariu Sensei

2x Storm Colossus

4x Boulder Brute

4x Howling Brave

4x Wild Root Dancer

4x Dandelion Sprite

3x Nelebrin Skirmisher Actions/Constants/Artifacts (7)

4x Incantation of Savagery

3x Time Ripple Shards (24)

14x Wild Shard

7x Sapphire Shard

3x Shards of Fate

20 years of MTG played(Started playing in Revised and still play off and on to this day). I was a highly competitive tourney player from Ice Age Block to Urza’s Block. I stopped collecting but continue to play in pre-release and sealed tourneys for fun. I’ve finished in the top 15 of two PTQs finishing 11th out of 225 just missing the top 8 qualifiers, and 3rd out of 56, just missing the top 2 qualifiers. Probably for the best but who knows.10 years of Legend of the 5 Rings. 5 of those years were highly competitive in both local play and tournament play. 2 years of WoW TCG. I played when it first came out and then people in my area suddenly stopped playing. I found a new group in my area about a year before Hex was announced and I played until it was discontinued due to Hearthstone. So I’m somewhat familiar with CZE TCG games already and I thoroughly enjoyed WoW TCG. I’ve played Hearthstone since the first closed Beta test and continue to play.I’m a Collector Tier Kickstarter backer for Hex and I played briefly in the first Alpha when my Kickstarter tier was admitted but due to the plethora of bugs and not being able to finish most of my games I decided to wait. I recently came back and activated my kickstarter keys about a month ago and even joined a guild (props to the Cornerstone Guild guys for helping me test decks).First off, I really like this type of format. Limiting the powerhouse cards really opens up the meta game. I enjoy seeing new and intriguing deck ideas instead of the same combination of yet another Gore Feast Falconer deck or Blood/Sapphire control deck.There’s a variety of reasons why I chose this deck. All successful decks have removal and in a format where board clear cards were reduced due to cost, cheaper targeted removal would be more popular; Time Ripple, Murder, Repel, Burn, etc. Spellshield is the perfect counter to that kind of removal. Most Spellshield Troops were in Wild so I picked Wild. I use the Wild Root Dancers to quickly buff my untouchable troops and maintained a dominant board presence. My champion choice of Feather Drifting Downriver allowed me to provide evasion to troops who didn’t have it. My troops which did a majority of the damage had flight.Thanks to my teammates from Cornerstone. Specifically Warrender, Nicosharp and Herford who helped me test well into the night and ultimately choose this deck.That’s easy: Stormcall. Similar powerful effect as a Menacing Gralk but at Quick Action speed, 1 less resource and 1 less threshold. Much easier card to splash and more versatile.Definitely a sapphire human. Low threshold so I could be splashed in many different decks. Major Socket so I could be versatile in many different styles of decks; control, tempo or combo. I would call it, Distracted Engineer.

IGN: MrBims

Deck: Mono-Wild Shin’hare

Troops (19)

4x Bucktooth Commander

4x Rune Ear Commander

4x Cottontail Ronin

4x Moon’Ariu Sensei

3x Boulder Brute Actions/Constants/Artifacts (17)

4x Runts of the Litter

4x Evolve

3x Onslaught

3x Wild Growth

3x Nature Reigns Shards (24)

24x Wild Shard

I don’t have much past experience in physical TCGs – I enjoyed what little I could experience of Magic and the Pokemon TCG I got as a kid, but I didn’t have the ability to get routine rides to malls or gaming stores where I could meet other players. MTGO was a big deal for me when it came out since it was a way to play whenever I wanted, but I was still too young to buy enough boosters to actually appreciate it and it eventually fell to the wayside. My interest in card games was only rekindled by the Yu-Gi-Oh video games and free or freemium computer games like Elements and Might & Magic: Duel of Champions.I have only been playing Hex since I heard about it just two weeks ago, and was skeptical at first about the value of going back to the MTGO model, but I have been enjoying my time doing drafting tournaments, and eagerly await the RPG content additions.My deck feels very ‘consistent’ to me – whichever card I draw, it is something that is going to synergize with my on-board presence immediately, or give me an action that will be useful in many different circumstances, and I am never going to think that I lost the game because I got a low-power card in a late draw or because I had too many situational cards sitting in my hand. My deck has to perform on time, every time, and that seems true of Shin’hare tribal aggro.I don’t have any experience in Constructed tournament play, so I am going off just what I’ve seen on streams and write-ups combined with my own speculation, but I think there is something to be said for Speed creatures like Rampaging Tarrasque in the current meta. Too many players feel safe from reprisal for being able to exhaust their opponents’ troops or send them off the board, and if they had to fear the possibility that they would be left open to attack immediately afterward, I think they might be more discerning in when they perform their Extinctions or Yesterdays, or even where they take them altogether.I’d be the Shin’hare Emperor Ito. I’d be the meanest, baddest three-foot-tall bunny around, and I would be surrounded by two elite bunny-guards. When one of them dies, the top card of my deck is turned into a token immediately replacing that one. My greed will be my downfall when you can mill me by taking out the poor bunnies who swore their life to me.

IGN: aVen

Deck: Blood/Wild Beetle Tu-Pact

Troops (16)

4x Moon’ariu Sensei

4x Howling Brave

3x Battle Beetle

2x Corrupt Harvester

2x Wrathwood Colossus

1x Rot Caster Actions/Constants/Artifacts (19)

4x Chlorophyllia

4x Murder

2x Sorrow

2x Blood Aura

2x Pact of Pain

1x Pact of Life

1x Inquisition

1x Secret Laboratory

1x Chaos Key

1x Necessary Sacrifice Shards (25)

12x Blood Shard

9x Wild Shard

4x Shards of Fate

What is your TCG background and how long have you been playing Hex TCG?

Over 15 years of MTG, tried several other TCGs, paper and digital but didn’t go deep in any. Playing Hex since alpha started.

Why did you choose this deck for the tournament? (your original deck, not top 8 deck)

It’s somewhat close to what I often play in regular Constructed and I thought it would be strong in a budget meta because there are so few ways to deal with my threats.

What do you think is the most underrated card in Constructed play right now? Why?

If I were to pick one it would be Mastery of Time. It’s a sapphire Gore Feast, less deadly but also draws you a card, offers a greater versatility, fits in more kinds of decks (not just aggro/tempo) and is never a dead draw.

If you could make a card representing yourself, what would that card be?

Cost 3 (1 sapphire)

Troop – Human Bird Mage

Flight

(1) -> Lose all charges. Reveal cards from the top of your deck for each charge lost and separate them into 2 piles. An opponent chooses one of those piles. Put those cards into your hand and the rest into graveyard.

3/2