Shattered Destiny – Prismatic Humans

By Ben Stoll

Hey HEXers, Director of Game Theory Ben Stoll here to show you a few new cards and talk to you about some of the new stuff that the humans get up to in Shattered Destiny, releasing December 2nd! The humans of Entrath get a lot stronger in both constructed and in draft—let’s take a look at how.

Those of you who are familiar with Shards of Fate might know that humans are currently found in three shards: Diamond, Ruby, and Sapphire. Humans don’t use Wild or Blood magic. With the exception of those players that are ambitious enough to try to put The Triumvirate into play, current constructed decks typically combine just two of these three shards into one deck . With all three, it can be a little tough to get the right thresholds at the right time. Although you would get to pick the most powerful human troops from each shard, there aren’t a ton of other rewards for dipping into all three shards.

…But all of that is about to change.

For starters, it’ll be a lot easier for your human deck to draw upon the power of all three shards. Not only are there the new Special resources, but we also have cards like this:

Royal Herald comes down early, allowing you to get your thresholds in order while still keeping pressure on your opponent. She’s also a Human, which makes her the most awesome way to get your thresholds, at least as far as War Prodigy is concerned.

War Prodigy doesn’t do too much early game as a 3 cost 2/3, but once you get his ability turned on…yowza! All your humans will have +2[ATK]/+2[DEF], and you’ll likely want to proceed to the beatdown.

One of the cool things about War Prodigy is that at first glance you might think you’ll have to wait until at least turn 6 to turn his power on. But with cards like Royal Herald (she’s not the only new way to get extra threshold early) you can start the war as early as turn 4.

But not every tri-shard payoff demands all the work of War Prodigy. Some of them will even work powerfully in a less ambitious deck that uses two shards, even if they’re optimal with all three.

Tri-shard humans are also breaking into booster draft, and they’re one of my favorite draft archetypes coming out of Shattered Destiny. A card like Royal Cutblood goes a long way to strengthen this archetype, especially since she’ll end up being quite effective even if you end up with a two-shard deck. Whether she has Rage 1 and lifedrain or Rage 1 and unblockable, she’s no slouch, so you can take her early without making a hard commitment to accessing all three shard types. Of course, when she has all three powers, she can practically win the game by herself.

There are more benefits to tri-shard humans than just the explicit payoff cards like War Prodigy and Royal Cutblood. For one thing, it makes it possible to draft a deck that’s almost entirely made up of human troops, since you have three shards to pull from. For this reason, there are a few human cards that, while working well in any deck with humans, tend to be even more powerful in tri-shard humans.

How many cards can you draw? At only a single sapphire threshold, it’s not too hard to sneak this guy into any human deck, even if it’s primarily Ruby and Diamond.

And so, from the lowliest town crier all the way up to Her Majesty, Queen Grace—wait, her Majesty Queen Grace?! That’s right HEXers, you now have matching His and Hers Majesties. If you thought King Gabriel’s cost was “just a touch too high to make the cut” in your human deck, you might want to reevaluate.

Queen Grace is not only the mother of Princess Victoria, but she is also considered to be the symbolic mother of all the humans who dwell in the realm of Carloth. Whether she’s devoting herself to protecting the royal family or making the lives of your other human troops easier, Queen Grace is sure to be as beloved an addition to your human deck as she is beloved by the realm of Carloth.

At a 2 cost 1/3, Queen Grace is already pretty solid at coming down early game and standing in the way of early beaters, helping you stay alive to the late game and get mileage out of her powers.

Her cost reduction power is particularly versatile—not only can you bring out your more expensive troops earlier, and sometimes a lot earlier if you keep targeting the same human troop in your hand—you can also target your human troops in play. Why the heck would you care about reducing the cost of human troops that you’ve already played??? Well, in case your opponent is planning on returning troops to your hand with cards like Time Ripple, this power JUST KIDDING IT’S DEFINITELY BECAUSE OF INSPIRE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11

(Ben’s excitement during this sentence was so much that it was literally uneditable. Thank you for your tolerance. –Will)

Ever wanted your Sword Trainer to teach somebody with cost less than 4 how to use a weapon? Well, now you can. But speaking of inspire, I have one final card to show you before we close out the article…

Lady Shimmer is about to become one of HEX’s most popular characters, due to her key role in the first HEX novel, The Accidental Knight. Now, when she shows up on your board, the game is going to get pretty out of hand for your opponent pretty fast. Maybe even that same turn if Lord Alexander is in attendance!

Note that Lady Shimmer and each of her echoes are all going to get every inspire power you have. If you want to put a crap ton of ability-packing giant troops into play all at once, Lady Shimmer is your gal. Worried that your opponent’s going to find a way to kill all of your inspire troops before she hits the board? Well, you may remember a little card from Shards of Fate called Blessing the Fallen, a card that’s particularly good friends with Lady Shimmer. If you want your human deck to close out the game in style, it’s hard to do better.

So, that’s all for today, HEXers! I hope you’re as excited about the new possibilities for your human deck as I am, and if you are (or even if you’re not!) we’d love to hear your thoughts in the forums

-Ben

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