Why not make an Orc deck?

But first, some news. So the members of Murder, Inc., one of the major Hex guilds out there are amazing and integrated the spoiled Hex cards into the software CCG-Lackey; and thanks to their efforts and the indefatigable Gage Lawhon/HyenaNipples of Hex Shuffle we can all give Hex a try. Check out his instructions here: http://hextcgshuffle.com/2013/07/24/play-hex-tcg-now-halfminds-hexlackeyccg-plug-in/

So with that being said, if you are interested in getting a start – but don’t know where to begin – why not try out an Orc deck?

So Orcs, as per the lore, are aggressive and focused around Blood and Ruby magics. You find that their attack tends to be greater than their health, especially at lower costs. For ruby based orcs, you’ll frequently see Speed as a keyword, and for blood based orcs, Rage. Orc based decks you’ll find focused on putting out a lot of troops and going straight for the opposing champion’s juggular. So you’ll definitely want to be putting out a troop every turn, and ideally attacking immediately with these troops before your opponent can set up an effective defense.

This is where Speed comes in handy, attacking the turn you play a troop can start putting pressure on your opponent right away. Rage Howler can help give Speed to every single one of your orc troops, including himself!

Essentially, while Rage Howler is in play, all orcs in your hand have Speed for 1 extra cost. Once you have a nice board filled with orcs, which is scary on it’s own, it’s even more scary when you drop Claw of the Mountain God.

One of the biggest issues facing Orc decks is that eventually, their attack and health stop scaling to the higher cost troops that your opponent is playing. They’ll eventually have troops in play that can kill your orcs and live to defend again, cutting off your path to finishing off their champion. Claw of the Mountain God can help close the gap. Sure your Orcs will die in glorious battle, but so too will your enemy. If left unchecked, you can start putting insane attack values on your orc troops.

As I mentioned above, the biggest issue is that Orcs tend to have issues dealing with blockers. So what you’ll want are cards that can stop blockers, troops like Rage Monger are a perfect fit, but direct damage and removal cards like Burn or Murder are useful as well. Finally, there may be times where you are able to get your opponent so close to fatal damage, but not quite, when their board position stabilizes (in other words, they have more and better troops on their side of the board). You might want to consider putting in Burn to the Ground as a finisher, as you can just bypass every defense they have to finish the game.

Finally, while just a framework that you should customize, here is a base deck to give you a nice jumping off point:

Champion: Poca, the Conflagrator

Deck:

Blood Source: 9

Ruby Source: 13

Burn: 4

Burn to the Ground: 4

Claw of the Mountain God: 4

Fang of the Mountain God: 4

Rage Howler: 4

Rage Monger: 4

Ruby Pyromancer: 4

Savage Raider: 4

Unmerciful Tormenter: 3

Zoltog: 3