MY HEXCELLENT ADVENTURE – Best Practices

By Chris VanMeter

Lots of changes are afoot.

As I touched on in my previous pieces, the competitive aspect of TCG’s is what really draws me to them. Gauntlets are awesome, and I really enjoy getting to battle over and over while tuning my deck and trying to win some value at the same time. But I’ve always wanted more. I really want to see just where I stack up against the rest of the field. There are times where I may just have the wrong configuration in my deck, or the wrong gems socketed, and just want to start over.

The leaderboard and limited ladder over at Hexmeta.com have both been great tools that I have used to track my record and see where I stack up against the field, but now we’re going to have something similar built into the actual game client.

Last week over on Hextcg.com they finally revealed what exactly the ladder system is going to be like and that we would even be able to test it out on the PTR for a bit before it goes live. Ladder play is going to be awesome, and I really can’t wait. Having a way to see what rank you are and receiving some awesome prizes for ranking up is something that will promote lots of play and lots of innovation. Not being locked into a deck for an entire gauntlet and being able to change things up based on what you are seeing is awesome. I just hope that we can still get decklist data like we had before on the Hexmeta.com website.

There will be both a constructed and a limited ladder, and being separate means that there is incentive to hone your skills in both. Limited encompassing draft, sealed, and evolving sealed means that there are a lot of different routes that you can go to try and climb the limited ladder. In the last couple pieces I have touched on draft strategies, how they’ve evolved with the addition of Primal Dawn, and talked about how new champions have affected things by driving new shard combinations.

Sealed play is very different than draft, and this is especially apparent in the sealed gauntlets and evolving sealed queues where the matches are best of one. Building your deck, making the right decisions on your shard base and champion choices, as well as including cards that hedge against one strategy or another are all very important. Evolving sealed has even more depth to it as the version of your deck that you play drastically changes over the course of a few wins. Next week, I plan to get more in depth with evo sealed strategy. But for now I just want to talk about effective ways to approach trying to climb the ladder and play in a competitive environment. I understand that not everyone wants to be as competitive as possible, but for the purpose of this discussion I want to look at it from the perspective that I generally take when playing a TCG with rankings and goals involved.

First, let’s look at some things that generally go unstated, but aren’t often as obvious as we all like to think.

TILT

This first one is something that I have trouble with, but is very important. We all get tilted. Sometimes you just mulligan into oblivion and lose a favorable matchup. Sometimes you’re sitting there with all of the answers in the world and can just never draw that Sapphire Shard that you need to turn on your champion power and unlock all of the powerful cards in your hand.

It happens, and there isn’t much we can do about it.

But there are a few things that are in our control. Building decks, making decisions, and careful play can minimize the impact and frequency of bad RNG. We are never going to be able to remove chance completely, so we have to understand that sometimes bad things will happen (just like it happens to our opponents). But perfecting the things that we can control are the best practices that can take our play to the next level.

Is our cost curve way off? Should we have more two-drops and less five plus? Are our threshold requirements conflicting? and are not easy requirements to meet in the same deck, so making sure that we are playing the right cards and having the right shardbase is important.

Did we mulligan when we could afford to? Did we not mulligan when we couldn’t afford to? Did we analyze the game and change gems and necessary during reserve swapping? Again, it’s not easy, but focusing on the things we can do differently or better rather than just saying “Kismet smited me” and losing our cool about it is the best way to continue our growth in the game and pave the way for success.

Now, even with all that, sometimes I just can’t get over it. I was so close and feel like I got robbed. I played to give my opponent that 1% chance to hit and they did and now I’ve lost a game that I “shouldn’t” have.

Well, even though they only had that one out of one-hundred chance to hit their out and win the game, they still had a chance. The didn’t quit, just like we shouldn’t ever quit even when there is the slightest chance that we can win.

When they do hit it though, oh man does that get my blood boiling. It’s only natural until we learn to control that “tilt-a-whirl” kind of thinking. The best thing I have found is to just take a break. I mean, honestly, sometimes I even just Alt-F4 and go sit on the couch. This is only going to become even more beneficial with the advent of ladder play. The last thing you want to do is tilt and spew off a bunch of stars because someone hit their one outer and got lucky.

Did they get lucky though? That question is what really helps me stay grounded. Have you ever had a game where you figured out early on that you were behind and that a few key things had to happen? You had to get lucky enough to draw one or two cards in the right spot to win the game and, recognizing that, you put that game plan into motion? To an opponent, it looks like you miracled what you needed right off the top, but it was really a combination of skillful play and betting on your possible outs that won you the game.

Either way I take a break, refrain from saying negative things to my opponent, and do something else for a bit so that I can be a bit more level headed.

FOOD, WATER, and MOVING

I come from a physical TCG background. Playing in tournaments can be rough, both mentally and physically. It’s ingrained in me to make sure that I have snacks and water with me whenever I go into battle. I also make sure to walk around from table to table each match. But when I’m at home grinding away on HEX, it’s not always as apparent that these things are also important.

If you’ve ever caught any of my streams, you might notice that I am always just sipping on water from a bottle, munching on snacks, and takeing regular restroom breaks.

These all really help with concentration and health, which in turn increases the chances that you’re successful in your ladder climbing.

Water is key. Being dehydrated makes it tough to concentrate, and forcing yourself to wait on using the restroom is uncomfortable and distracting. Early on in my TCG career I had to get over the fear of making my opponent psychically wait while I interrupted our match to use the restroom, but it’s all for the best. With HEX you don’t even have to do that. You can just get up and go use the restroom!

This may seem like common sense, but we are all gamers and we know just how easy it is to get consumed with whatever we are competing in.

Walking around also helps me think. I can’t really get up and walk around while I am trying to figure out something in a physical tournament, but when I’m playing online I will sometimes get up and just walk around my apartment for a minute while thinking. Sometimes it’s nice to be in the comfort of my own home!

TAKE NOTES

This is something that helped me tremendously while playing. I always have a pad of paper next to me or a notepad open on my computer while I am playing, and I strongly urge everyone else to do so as well.

Reserve-swapping notes are great and are something that you can put together before even playing a match by figuring out how you want your deck to look against the popular decks in the meta, but even less organized notes can be very beneficial.

CHECK GEMS is one that I use frequently.

CHECK STOPS is another that I use too.

I also make it a point to write down any known information so that I can track it. Cards that are revealed from my opponent’s hand. Things that are returned to their hand or put back into their deck. Spiders and Terrorantulas that are in my and my opponent’s deck. All of this information can be written down so that you don’t have to use your mental energy remembering and can focus on the rest of the match.

I also like to note important cards that my opponents might have, especially bomb rares and legendaries in limited. You can also note down any tendencies that your opponent might show. Playing shards pre or post combat. Always quickly playing their Shard for the turn right after they draw a card if the card drawn is a shard. Any information that your opponent leaks can be noted down and used to your advantage.

A lot of players are going to use the ladder as a way to test their constructed decks. This can be a double-edged sword since you’re going to want to get the experience and insight from playing your deck and it’s card choices against the popular and powerful decks, but sometimes you will just run into other players who are trying out their brew.

Regardless, I am also an advocate for taking notes while testing. If you see that Mass Polymorph Dingler is constantly crushing every non-Urgnock matchup you’re playing, then that’s important data. If you are not hitting two Diamond threshold early enough to support all of your cards with those requirements, then that’s important to note down so that you can make adjustments.

Note taking in general is fairly underused and I am a heavy advocate.

Don’t get married

Ok, that title is a little misleading. I just got married and it was one of the best decisions of my life. What I’m talking about here though is to not get married to a card, shard, or deck building concept. Sometimes when trying to build a new deck it’s easy to fixate on an interaction or something that you are trying to do to the exclusion of all else, but it’s important not to get married to those things.

In the current constructed meta, Wild/Sapphire Boris Blastforge is the most popular deck by a pretty wide margin. If the deck that you are working on can’t beat that deck, then it’s possible that it’s just not good enough for the current meta. Knowing when to move on is an important aspect of deck building and will be very important with the new patch since any time wasted playing a disadvantaged deck can hurt in the ladder rankings.

Along the same vein, I think it’s important to ask yourself this question when you are working on a deck:

“Is this a worse version than something that’s already established?”

We might have this idea that we think is awesome, but when we start working on a deck or the shell for this idea it may turn out to just be a worse version of something that already exists. Is this control deck I’m working on just a worse version than the classic Sapphire/Blood Spiders deck? Your Azurefate Sorceress deck has potential, but maybe it’s just a worse version of the UzzuCannon deck.

Being honest with yourself in these situations is important for efficiency, and keeping yourself from being married to an idea is a great way to remain flexible and have success climbing the ladders.

I would love to hear any “Rules of Thumb” that you hold yourself to. Whether it’s something that can be applied for climbing the ladders, or just improving testing processes, please share some of you best practices in the forums.

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With 20 years of TCG experience, Chris VanMeter brings a unique perspective to HEX. Favoring constructed decks that can either go under the competition or as far over it as possible, you can find Chris playing draft, sealed, and constructed on his Twitch channel and talking about his experiences endlessly via social media.

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