Primordial Knowledge – Revisiting Ramp

Things are a’changing in the good ‘ole world of Hex. The Ranked Constructed Ladder brings an entirely new way to play competitive constructed. Such a huge change requires a competitive player to take a moment and reflect on how this impacts the decks you play and how to succeed.

TIME IS MONEY

There are two salient points which fundamentally shift the meta when playing the Ranked Constructed Ladder:

There is no barrier to entry. There is a perception that fast = efficient.

These two points generally lead to aggressive decks becoming very prevalent in a ladder system. While it offered excellent expected value for the savvy veteran, the Constructed Gauntlet was a fairly expensive model for the casual or thrifty gamer, requiring 500 platinum in addition to having a complete PVP deck. The Ranked Constructed Ladder, offering rewards at no cost other than time and success, is a much more appealing model for players on the fringe of competitive constructed. Neither does the system punish players financially for experimenting or bringing a budget deck. This increased accessibility in turn increases interest in competitive constructed as new or budget players look for affordable decks with which they can succeed with on the Ladder.

As it somehow happens in every card game, the most affordable competitive decks in Hex are very aggressive. The primary culprits in question being Morgan McBombus Ruby/Sapphire Aggro and Blood/Ruby Yotul Mogak Burn. Both decks can be made entirely with commons and uncommons for less than 1,000 platinum and have each proven their competitive mettle on multiple occasions.

The popularity of aggressive decks is further driven by the notion that fast is better when playing the Ladder. Unlike Constructed Gauntlet where the number of games played per run is finite and your only measure of success is relative to your own performance, Ladder offers infinite play time and measures your success relative to others. Ladder also has less severe repercussions for losing. This encourages players not to play the deck they feel will have the highest win rate over seven matches, but the deck which will achieve the highest number of wins in the shortest period of time. An aggressive deck can complete a large number of games relative to a control deck given a similar amount of time, allowing the aggressive deck to both lose and win more games. This larger quantity of games combined with the Ladder’s fairly generous allotment of bonus stars allows for an aggressive deck to climb at an effective rate over time even with a lower win percentage.

THE LADDER META

Unsurprisingly, Morgan McBombus and Yotul Mogak are by far the most popular decks on the Ladder. When the meta shifts so far in one direction, we can take advantage by playing a deck or cards which are specifically good against the most popular strategy. Some of the best counters to both Yotul and McBombus are the fight dinos: Carnasaurus, Succulent Cluckodon, and Crocosaur. Succulent Cluckodon is particularly powerful against aggressive decks since it blocks well, is big enough to survive most Ruby removal, and provides sizable health gain. Even though Yotul and McBombus play surprisingly few one drops to remove with the Cluckodon, the card more than holds its own as a sizable body with a health gain effect. Chomposaur is also particularly effectively as McBombus will almost always have a Bumblebot in play and Yotul will usually have an Ebony Pawn or Blood Infusion Device.

There are several decks we can play the fight dinos in. One of the most popular right now is Wild/Diamond Rutherford Banks Ramp, often sporting Forever’s Child. While that is a very strong deck, I wanted to steal a page of strategy from the Yotul and McBombus decks and play something more proactive.

OUR PRIMORDIAL BREW

Cressida has always been one of my favorite champions due to her incredibly powerful charge power. Combining traditional ramp like Chlorophyllia and Howling Brave with her charge power means you are playing powerful cards a turn before any other deck can. That’s a huge deal! In my opinion it was worth the risk to bring a seventeen health champion into a field of aggressive Ruby strategies. Here’s the list I played almost exclusively to reach Cosmic on the Ranked Constructed Ladder.

CHAMPION: Cressida

Rune Ear Hierophant is socketed with Major Wild Orb of Dominance and Minor Wild Orb of Conservation.

Arborean Rootfather is socketed with Major Ruby of Destruction and Minor Ruby of Ferocity.

The first criticism I usually hear of the deck is the aforementioned seventeen starting health. While it is surely a risk in the current meta, Feralroot Acorn goes a long way toward mitigating that risk. By just doing your normal thing and playing resources, this deck will often have an effective starting health total of twenty or twenty-three. The deck can also be blistering fast, rendering the low starting health pool moot. The deck can kill as early as turn four with early ramp into Periwinkle and Arborean Rootfather.

Additionally, I’ve tweaked the main deck to have several answers to Yotul and McBombus which would otherwise be relegated to the Reserves. As we’ve already discussed, Succulent Cluckodon is incredibly effective against the popular aggressive. It also is fairly reasonable at filling in our deck’s curve and diversifying our threats in other match-ups. Chomposaur is much more narrow, but is often game winning against the aggressive decks while providing collateral benefits against opposing Closed Coffins and Soul Marbles. The deck also utilizes its Reserves incredibly well, being able to bring in heavy hate for the popular aggressive match-ups or go all in on the end game with Eye of Creation against midrange and control decks.

Let’s take a look at the two directions I usually take the deck after game one.

VS AGGRO

BRING IN:

TAKE OUT:

Brutal efficiency is necessary against today’s lightning fast aggro decks. Arborean Rootfather and Eye of Creation are too expensive to help us stabilize in the early or midgame. Drawing multiples of either is often a death knell against Yotul and McBombus as we will lack other necessary tools to stay in the game. Using Arborean Rootfather to draw is also a losing strategy in these match-ups. If you’re not spending your resources to deploy early threats or answer your opponent’s, you’re likely losing to aggro. Without our endgame, Periwinkle becomes much worse. She is also very susceptible to Ruby removal, making her an easy cut against aggressive Ruby decks.

We bring in more Succulent Cluckodons and Chomposaurs for health gain and Burn for removal. Burn is especially effective right now as it answers Arena Brawler, Starcaller Ancient, and Flickering Gobbler. Pact of Life is our endgame against the aggressive decks in games two and three. If you’re able to stabilize, Pact of Life will usually run away with the game. Since your opponent is often trading card advantage for damage, gaining health often correlates to actual card advantage in these match-ups. Your Feralroot Acorns heal for six and Chlorophyllia becomes a health gain action. I’ve found Pact of Life will usually gain me nine to fifteen health in a game and it has been a key component to my ability to combat the popular aggressive decks.

Depending on the specific match-up, you can also bring in the Lullabys or even the fourth Greenpaw Emancipator. If you feel either is good in an aggro match-up, you can bring them in by trimming copies of Chlorophyllia, Puck, Dream Bringer, Artisanal Cheesesmythe, or Chomposaur. As an example, Artisanal Cheesesmythe is generally pretty poor against the builds of [champ]Morgan McBombus[/card] which play both Flickering Gobbler and Sunsoul Phoenix since most of their threats fly. Thus, I usually trim copies of Artisanal Cheesesmythe in this match-up for two Lullaby.

VS MIDRANGE/CONTROL

BRING IN:

TAKE OUT:

Against midrange and control decks, I go all in on our powerful endgame. Perhaps not surprisingly, just jamming Arborean Rootfathers and Eye of Creations is often enough to steal more than a few games. Most of your opponents in this category are going to give you the time to play your threats, so your game plan should be to play as many and as powerful threats as possible. When siding into this build of the deck, it’s important to identify the quickest lines of play to land an early Arborean Rootfather or Greenpaw Emancipator. Bonus points if you’re able to play a Periwinkle beforehand. Be sure not to play too afraid of Extinction. Don’t be scared to lose a card or two to Extinction, as you need to deploy at least one of your powerful threats in order to force your opponent to use Extinction. While you shouldn’t overextend into Extinction, it is usually correct to play out your hand and go all in if it becomes clear your opponent doesn’t have the board clear. Extinction can hit this deck hard, but fortunately our threats are powerful enough to rebuild the board quickly off a good top deck or two.

Speaking of Extinction, Heart of the Wrathwood is in our reserves to help against Blood decks. Much like our plan against aggro, you can adjust the Reserve plan based on the specific match-up. If I want to leave a Chomposaur in for game two to munch on Soul Marbles, I’ll usually not bring in the fourth Greenpaw Emancipator or Eye of Creation. Against Boris Blastforge, I usually bring in two Lullaby and trim copies of Artisanal Cheesesmythe since he cannot block flying Rune Ear Hierophants.

RAMPING UP

I feel Cressida Ramp is an excellent deck to conquer the Ladder with. It is both proactive and has access to many of the best counters to the current meta. Let me know what deck you’ve been climbing the Ladder with in the forums!

Unfortunately, I won’t be able to make my usual Friday stream today as I will be recovering from surgery in the hospital. However, I look forward to streaming again for all you fine folks as soon as I recover!

See you on the ladder,

Varranis | Twitch | Twitter | Team Fade 2 Karma

Varranis is an analyst for professional gaming organization Fade 2 Karma. He has played countless TCGs over the last eighteen years and brings a unique lens to HEX theory crafting and deck building based on his historical experience. Varranis has numerous tournament wins and top finishes to his name across several popular TCGs and has coached and supported players in world championship level events.

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