Hexploration – A Look into Sapphire/Wild

Welcome, welcome, welcome! This is hopefully my first article of many for the great game called HEX. Before we delve into some sweet decks, I’d like to tell you a little about myself. So gather ‘round children, mothers, fathers, and all lovers of HEX – my name is Ali Aintrazi. I’ve been playing TCGs competitively for over thirteen years with countless high finishes. I’ve even won United States Nationals and a tournament where I got to make my very own token in my image.

I’m known for my innovation when it comes to TCGs – I typically find cards and strategies that other people look over. I intend to be doing the same thing for HEX with my new article series. So if it’s insight into deckbuilding, dusting off old cards, or finding new and exciting decks, then you’ll want to keep an eye on my Hexploration column. Hopefully, from time to time, our decks will shake the HEX metagame. My job is going to be to shine light on exciting or new decks that are doing well on the ladder. Some will be from me and others will be from deck creators in the community. My goal is to flourish and grow the variety of decks in HEX.

If you want some more background on me, I’m also a father, a streamer, and a student. I hope not only to enlighten but also form new friendships and bonds with this article series. So please, feel free to message me or comment on these articles and I’ll try to get back to everyone. So with that in mind, let’s get to it shall we?

A Full Moon

Today I want to talk about Sapphire / Wild decks in HEX. I’m a huge lover of drawing cards, accelerating resources, taking extra turns, and playing big, crazy actions. It’s no wonder that I instantly fell in love with Winter Moon. I think she isn’t played enough on the ladder at the moment and want to showcase the potential she has in our current meta. So today I will walk you through two decks, each with its own distinct playstyle, that use Winter Moon and a Sapphire / Wild shard combination. So get ready and strap on your brew helmets! It’s time to explore.

This was my first iteration of the Winter Moon archetype and it’s where I am at currently.



Rune Ear Hierophant is socketed with the Major Wild Orb of Cultivation and Minor Wild Orb of Vigil.





This deck is currently my favorite deck in HEX. Not that I’ve experienced every archetype and every deck in the game, but this is my go to play style. It’s what I love doing, it’s my home. I am playing this deck on the Cosmic Ladder and it has been working very well. The hardest match-ups are very fast aggro decks like Mono Ruby Argus or Ruby / Sapphire McBombus. And those match-ups aren’t unwinnable either, it’s just what you will sometimes struggle against. This is pretty typical of this kind of Sapphire / Wild brew. However, you are favored against anything that is midrangy or other control decks playing Psychic Ascension.

What Does the Deck Do?

The deck tries to get into the mid / late game as soon as possible. Traditionally, ramp decks don’t want to play too many early actions or troops since playing cheap things defeats the purpose of accelerating your resources. They tend to avoid dropping things early, wait until they have a lot of resources, and then drop threat after threat.

This deck takes a middle road. We are not all in on ramping up. Instead we have a delicate balance of ramp, card draw, card selection, removal, and three big actions that will slam the door shut on our opponent’s face and give them little hope of recovering. The cards that can easily take over the game are Windsinger, Master of the Hunt; Mass Polymorph Dingler; and Psychic Ascension. Our deck feeds off those cards and they are our ultimate end game. In the mean time, the deck relies on interrupts and removal to keep itself above water.

Know Your Countermagic and When to Use It

These are a few good questions to ask yourself when you’re holding interrupts.



“Can this action/troop kill me now?”

“Does it remove my Windsinger?”

“Will it kill me in a couple of turns if I let it resolve?”

“Do I have an answer for it in my hand or on the board?”

“If I interrupt this action/troop, can my opponent play a different one that will put me at a severe disadvantage or just outright win him the game?”

Anything that kills you, or puts you on a severe clock, you’ll want to interrupt. Your late game is one of the best in the game, but you have to get there first. However, there are also times you will just interrupt any play they make in the early turns of the game. This is true if you are going to use all your resources the following turn to play an Oracle Song or a Zodiac Divination . If you know you are going to use your resources anyways, buy yourself some tempo by interrupting their three or four drop so you can then use all your resources to develop your resource or card economy with Oracle Song Sight of the Sun , or Zodiac Divination

Actions like Verdict of the Ancient Kings, Halt, and Countermagic are premium when you have an active Windsinger, Master of the Hunt on a semi-stabilized board. In that scenario, you’ll want to interrupt anything that threatens Windsinger. Otherwise, you should probably let it resolve. Here’s what I do to decide and I think it’s helped me a lot.

When not to counter when you have an active Windsinger:



Opponent wants to play a Silver Talon Adjudicator? As long as I’m not at three or less health, I couldn’t care less. Even then I’ll think twice before interrupting it. Sure our opponent will draw a couple cards, but so will we.

Underworld Crusader? Sure the card is good, but my Windsinger can block and kill it. Then when it dies, I’ll also be able to draw a couple of cards. Profit!

Clash of Steel? Whatever, I just want my Windsinger to stay alive. This coyotle can take me to victory all on his own if he lives long enough.

Odd Choices Explained

Don’t be intimidated if this is your first time playing with interrupts. It takes some getting used to, so don’t beat yourself up if you make mistakes. We all make mistakes. What’s important is that we try to learn from them the best we can. Just play a dozen or so games and you’ll begin to develop a feel for it.

I am playing no Chlorophyllias because I believe Rune Ear Hierophant and Sight of the Sun are very powerful cards that can ramp you and just win the game by themselves. This isn’t true for Chlorophyllia. Both those troops accelerate your resources in different ways, and Rune Ear Hierophant can additionally be a very real threat and a good blocker. Chlorophyllia is just dead growth by comparison. Plus, Rune Ear and Sight of the Sun both work phenomenally well with Mastery of Time. Chlorophylia doesn’t have the same oomph.

Including a Chimes of the Zodiac is unconventional, but getting a turn with the Chimes will usually spell game over if you can play a Mastery of Time or almost any draw / card selection action. In one game, I was able to abuse Chimes of the Zodiac and make my opponent draw his thirty card deck when he was over one hundred health by targeting him with my own card draw actions.

Scheme is a new card I am toying with. It is card disadvantage and that is the biggest reason why I am keeping an eye on the card. However, it allows us to play a wild array of reserve cards and that raises the deck’s flexibility considerably. Scheme can make all our actions that are singletons suddenly turn into multiples. Nothing is sweeter than Scheming Mastery of Time if you already have a couple troops on the board or a Chimes of the Zodiac. Heck, you may even need to emergency Scheme that Mass Polymorph Dingler because you need it right now against that Kagulichu opponent.

Gaming Gambits

The other Winter Moon deck I want to talk about today is a Replicator’s Gambit deck. However, it’s not the Diamond / Sapphire / Wild one that you’re used to seeing.



Rune Ear Hierophant is socketed with the Major Sapphire of Sorcery and Minor Wild Orb of Vigil.

Mad Robomancer is socketed with the Major Sapphire of Sorcery and Minor Wild Orb of Vigil.





The original creator of the deck is InfamousNeo. I’ve been playing the deck for a while and I’ve switched some numbers of cards around and added a couple of cards so the deck isn’t as all in on Replicator’s Gambit. For example, I really liked Moon’ariu Sensei over Phoenix Guard Messenger. I understand that one has Flight, but I really like getting my card advantage right away, especially if it has Replicator’s Gambit on it. Alright, enough about card choices, let’s talk about the deck shall we?

Getting into Gambit

First off, what is this deck doing? Well… a lot of things. The main thing the deck is trying to do is play some early troops out, get some value out of those troops until you pull a Replicator’s Gambit, and then start playing Pack Hunters on your replicated troop. Do that enough times and you’ll have a very good chance of drawing your replicated troop for an almost certain victory. The deck is carefully crafted so that we won’t just make a bunch of copies of some random body – our troops generally have very good abilities. For example, Moon’ariu Sensei, Carnasaurus, Rune Ear Hierophant, Time Bug, Mad Robomancer, and Buccaneer are all major threats when they come in sevens.

Sensei will draw you a new hand.

Carnasaurus essentially Extinctions your opponent’s side of the board while giving you a ton of health in the process.

Rune Ear Hierophant will get you a bunch of actions that cost three or less which is a full hand’s worth of card advantage… not to mention they will all grow themselves since they will see each other entering play.

Mad Robomancer… Hahaha, well, I’m not sure they can recover from that troop. It gets ridiculous when it starts replicating itself.

Time Bug will give you a bunch of turns if you manage to connect. Not only that, but you can put the gambited Time Bug back into your deck so you can draw it and play it all over again.

Buccaneer is not quite as exciting, but it will help you control the board with a ton of free Time Ripples.

I’d like to explain Mad Robomancer in the deck. While Infamousneo doesn’t play him, I really think it’s important to have an alternate win condition outside of Replicator’s Gambit in the main. Usually you’ll want to Pack Hunters whatever you cast your Gambit on. Sometimes though, you don’t have that option. For games where it is tricky to draw your combo pieces, it’s nice to not have a dead card wasting away in your hand. You can just Pack Hunters your Mad Robomancer since that little dwarf can easily take over the game if left unchecked.

This deck is super complex since it has so many things going on. I’m not saying don’t challenge yourself, but just be ready to make a couple of slip-ups while you learn the ropes. It’s a very fun and cool deck, so kudos to InfamousNeo for bringing it together.

Well that’s all I got for you guys today. I really hope you’ve enjoyed reading this article as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it for you. Again, my goal with my column is to shine light on new or exciting decks in hopes of growing and evolving the HEX metagame. I want HEX to grow as an entity and I plan on doing whatever I can do make that happen. The bigger HEX gets, the better it is for all of us. So I ask you to help me in that endeavor. Share the game, promote streamers, and read the articles. And please, leave your comments below. Let me know if there is a particular deck that sticks out for you or that you want covered in my next installment.

Thank you so much for the support and for reading!

Ali Aintrazi

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