Card Spotlight – Gaze onto the Abyss

Guys and gals, do I have some awesome news for you today! Frostheart is right around the corner, and I have a super sweet spoiler for you today. We’ve seen Holy Ascension where you become the Paragon of Righteousness in Diamond. We also have Psychic Ascension where you can transform into the ever-powerful Paragon of Thought in Sapphire. So, does that mean every shard will eventually get their own Ascension? While I can’t answer that question, I can tell you that Blood will get its very own version with Frostheart. Let’s get ready to gaze onto the abyss:

“Genius is one of the many forms of insanity.” -Casare Lombroso

To Ascend into the Paragon of Insanity, we need to have this constant in play, then start our turn when our opponent has more cards in their crypt then in their deck. That’s not an easy task to accomplish. Is it even worth becoming the Paragon of Insanity for all the work we need to do? Let’s take a closer look at the Blood Paragon:

Wow… So, you know how the Paragon of Thought generates random cards, and how sometimes they are okay and other times they are very meh or almost unplayable? Well, this won’t happen here. You will get to see a random card that’s in your opponent’s crypt and play it for free. Sure, it’s random, but cards taken from your opponent will have a higher density of powerful effects when compared with Psychic Ascension. If you are playing Constructed, you are most likely playing against a strong deck that has powerful cards in it. This means you’ll be hitting things like Lanupaw’s Sight, Herofall, Lazgar’s Vengeance, Underworld Crusader, Dark Heart of Nulzann, Hero of Legend, Heart of Embers… heck, you might even hit a Psychic Ascension.

But wait, there’s more! “When a card enters an opposing crypt, deal 1 damage to that champion.” This ability is going to be EXTREMELY underrated. This means by just playing out the game, your opponent will slowly die. These are just a few of the many ways your opponent will take damage:

Dreadlings

Kagulichu champion power

Playing actions

Having troops die in combat or to removal

Any sort of discard

Bury

Speaking of bury, if you aren’t sure what that term means, it’s a term used in HEX when you are putting cards from your opponent’s deck into their crypt. Cards like Chronic Madness, Psychic Torment, or Azure Fang Decree do this. So, this passive would basically turn your Chronic Madness into an extremely powerful Ragefire if you are the Paragon of Insanity. You know what Chaostouched turns on Demented Ascension immediately? Bastardspawn of Bokrug. As soon as it deals damage, the Bastardspawn will bury half the opponent’s deck rounded up. That’s so powerful! You could make a deck with bury and Demented Ascension, how sweet is that? You get rewarded for playing a bury deck! Man… If only we had more ways to bury our opponent’s deck, right? Hold onto that thought…

SURPRISE! More spoilers! A Sapphire card with Crush isn’t the norm, especially one that’s a 5/5. Boglam, The Mad Marsh makes Dementia Daisies when it deals combat damage to the opponent. This means if Boglam just connects once, it’s basically game over since you’ll get five 0/4s that will bury your opponent for ten when you play a shard. This not only fuels Demented Ascension, but it also insures they die if you become the Paragon of Insanity.

Where’s the best place for these cards?

So, it’s obvious that Demented Ascension can and will see play in decks that try to deck the opponent. It gives you such an insane payoff for cards that don’t normally have a strong ending strategy. You can easily just jam four Chronic Madness into your deck along with other cards that deplete your opponent’s deck and have a huge wincon in Demented Ascension. However, while I don’t know the entire spoiler list, I do not believe that is going to be the best route to go. Instead I’d want Demented Ascension in my slow grindy Blood deck. By playing Blood, I’m already slowing the game down by a lot, and over the course of the game my opponent will have a bunch of cards in their crypt naturally, especially if my opponent is utilizing any sort of Dreading strategy. I can very easily just play a controlling Blood deck with Vampire Prince, Eternal Sage, Boglam, The Mad Marsh, and even some Azure Fang Decrees. This way my bury cards don’t just deck my opponent, they do other important things like kill my opponent. I believe this will be the most powerful and probably best way to turn on Demented Ascension. Of course, keep in mind this could easily change depending on what other cards we get with bury effects. For example, if we got an action that put half of our opponent’s deck into their crypt, then we could really start exploring that route.

I’m the creator of arguably the best and quickest Psychic Ascension deck. That deck was the Wintermoon Mastery of Time deck that is still played in Immortal. I believe we can turn on Demented Ascension much faster than Psychic Ascension in the right deck, and rest assured I’ll be exploring this card a lot! I could even tune my Renner Control deck to win with Demented Ascension instead of Fallen Singularity. It wouldn’t be that hard to do. However, I do want the full spoiler before I start brewing. Otherwise, the brews tend to be suboptimal.

I am super pumped about Frostheart, and I’m ready for some sweet new card and interactions. I love brewing new decks, so anytime a new set comes out I’m extra excited. It’s like Christmas! Thanks for reading and remember, when you gaze into the abyss the abyss gazes back.

Until next time,

Ali Aintrazi

@Alieldrazi on Twitter

My Twitch Channel

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