HEX Update – It Came From The Sea

Take a look at Phil Cape’s favorite non-boss deck!

Hi HEXers! It’s Friday update time. We’ve spent our week preparing for some upcoming features and Armies of Myth launch. We’ve begun some improvements to the chat tool, and we’re looking towards the next big patch. In this update, R&D is highlighting another Arena deck—the Seaweed Behemoth.

Charging Up

Phil Cape here, checking in with another in-depth look at one of the Arena Encounters. Last time I talked about one of the Boss decks, but today I want to talk about my personal favorite non-boss encounter: the Seaweed Behemoth.

In my last piece, I mentioned that we were trying to represent each featured race with at least one fight. Similarly, we wanted to ensure that each available two shard pairing was represented. Some combinations were easier than others, and there was even some overlap between pairs and races. Sapphire/wild was having a bit of an identity crisis. Coyotle are the only featured race in both shards. They had not been fully featured yet, and were penciled in for another shard combination anyhow; we felt that a coyotle themed sapphire/wild deck would fall short. So, we went looking for another hook for the sapphire/wild deck. There was this awesome looking sea monster thing covered in seaweed in the art file for PvE, and he embodied what we would imagine a wild/sapphire monster would look like. Shattered Destiny was in development at the time, and the charge theme (which I’m sure many of you have had a chance to try out already) seemed like a good fit. After putting together initial versions of the deck, we were very happy with the results.

One of the things we realized when making the Arena was that random powers like seaweed behemoth’s passive (when a champion gains a charge, there is a 25% chance he gains an additional charge) are great because PvE content is consumed on a mass scale. Even if it doesn’t trigger in this specific game, it will trigger in crazy ways in someone’s game and that leads to a memorable experience for that player. Additionally, this content was designed to be replayable and accessible to players with a wide array of skill levels. Passive powers like this help that goal greatly – the experienced player will certainly be challenged to win when the Behemoth’s power triggers repeatedly, gifting him several extra charges. That player remains engaged in part because he knows that the behemoth can be a massive challenge in any given scenario. On the other hand, players with less experience and/or smaller collections don’t feel hopeless going up against it – there is a decent chance the Behemoth’s passive power only helps the player’s champion and never helps the Behemoth at all!

Just yesterday I lost to him in a way that really highlights how explosive he can be. I had dropped him to 1 health, but he had stabilized behind Eternal Drifter (who received Rutherford Banks’s charge power). I was playing a ruby deck, and was hoping to draw a direct damage action to finish the Behemoth before he could kill me. The behemoth was empty handed, but drew Talisman of Vitae for the turn and had enough resources to both play and activate it. His passive turned those charges into more, and Bellow of Briggadon made two enormous beasts. The talisman put him back to 18 health, and I died a few turns later… but it was awesome. Battles like that are a big part of what keeps me coming back to the arena.

As with the Xarlox encounter I detailed last time, we made sure to include a few spicy single copies of cards to keep players on their toes. A single Turbulence keeps the skies clear, and a lone Nature Reigns ensures that Seaweed Behemoth won’t get abused by powerful constants or artifacts. Even though these aren’t the types of cards that are useful in every scenario, the fact that they are so specific combined with the sheer volume of opponents ensure that they will find a use. Highly specialized cards like this tend to create more memorable moments, and that’s really what this whole experience is about.

Here’s what Seaweed Behemoth’s deck currently looks like. As I mentioned before, these are pretty easy to change, and so will likely be tinkered with fairly regularly. This deck is entirely PvP Legal, so you could even try it out for yourself!

Seaweed Behemoth



VIP Information

From the 24th until 26th of April, VIP players can play in the VIP events. Format will be Sealed Deck, so you’ll build your deck from six booster packs: 4 Shattered Destiny and 2 Shards of Fate. Start times are listed below in CEST, PDT, and EDT [Worldclock]:

Start times listed in CEST below:

Friday: 19:00

Saturday: 04:00, 12:00, 20:00

Sunday: 03:00, 18:00

Start times listed in PDT below:

Friday: 10:00 AM, 7:00 PM

Saturday: 3:00 AM, 11:00 AM, 6:00 PM

Sunday: 9:00 AM

Start times listed in EDT below:

Friday: 1:00 PM, 10:00 PM

Saturday: 6:00 AM, 2:00 PM, 9:00 PM

Sunday: 12:00 PM

Sealed Deck Entry Fee: VIP ticket + 1,400 platinum or 6 packs + 200 platinum

Players: 16 minimum – 128 maximum

Format: 4 rounds of Swiss

Prizes:

4 wins: 10 packs / 2 Goremaster AA / 2 Succulent Cluckodon AA

3 wins: 8 packs / 1 Goremaster AA / 1 Succulent Cluckodon AA

2 wins: 4 packs / 1 Goremaster AA / 1 Succulent Cluckodon AA

1 win: 2 packs

0 wins: 1 pack

We’re Nominated

This year, we’re up for an award from RPC for best PC and Console game! RPC is the premier high fantasy gaming convention in Europe, so this is a big deal! If you love HEX, please take time to vote here. We’re on the 5th tab, PC and Console games.

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