Primordial Knowledge – Heroes Never Fall

With the entire set of Herofall spoiled and the recent PTR, I haven’t been able to stop thinking of exciting brews using the new cards. And there is a lot to work with in this set. Hex has upped their game with Herofall. Not only did they give us powerful troops and actions which are sure to reshape the meta, but a new cycle of dual shard resources which will see play in nearly every competitive constructed deck for years. This is a great time to play Hex, and I can’t wait to share my thoughts and brews with you.

BREWFEST

When I first approach a new set I tend to look for cards that slot well into current archetypes or could serve as a win condition in a new archetype. For example, as soon as I saw Herofall and Paw of Yazukan, I knew they would slot easily into the already popular Blood/Wild Kagulichu decks. Tavish, Construct Guild Boss on the other hand looks like a powerful win condition for a new deck. Both of these are strategies I want to test with the release of Herofall. I also look to identify cards with a significantly higher than average power level. For example, Mightsinger of Ages is far beyond the usual power level for a two cost troop and is easily splashable. It is a card I will be trying in many, many decks and I expect will prove to be the best card in the set.

But this set runs deep. There are many other cards to get excited about aside from the obviously powerful Herofall and Mightsinger of Ages. There are two cards in particular which I found incredibly interesting not just in terms of power level but also deckbuilding.

Chris VanMeter spoiled Ardent Crusader and Underworld Crusader a little while back and had a lot of great thoughts about how we could use these cards. I particularly agree with his assessment that Ardent Crusader looks best suited to an aggressive Diamond deck. Mono-Diamond Aggro has long been a fringe deck in constructed, just shy of having the necessary tools to compete at a high level. I think that might be changing in Herofall. There are quite a few new cards which not only slot well into the Diamond based aggressive deck, but look to take it to another level. Let’s talk about Ardent Crusader first since he is one of our heavy hitters and his card text will partly dictate how we build the deck.

Ardent Crusader is clearly overstated and overpowered for his cost. He brings the stats of Justicar of Aryndel without the restrictive thresholds, a minor socket, and a powerful ability to boot. The true cost you’re paying is the restriction he puts on your deckbuilding. To put Ardent Crusader in our deck, we have to play a total of ten different Ardent troops (including Ardent Crusader). If you haven’t tried it yet, that is a surprisingly difficult task. Most competitive decks play little more than twenty troops. This means to play Ardent Crusader you’re not only limited to Ardent troops but may also need to play a lot of one-ofs. It’s also important to note that many format staples like Crocosaur and Vampire King have no faction and won’t count toward this number. Fortunately, there is one style of deck which just looks to play a bunch of troops – aggro. Not only do aggro decks look to play a slew of troops, but there are many strong, aggressive Ardent troops.

Not the least of these are Wise Magistrate and Warparty Guide. Wise Magistrate is incredibly well stated relative to other two cost troops. Not only does he have the coveted 3/2 stat line, but he comes with Steadfast and a powerful ability. His ability makes it difficult (i.e.; nearly impossible) for other decks to gain a tempo advantage by playing more than one card per turn. Even against decks which generally don’t play more than a single card per turn, a 3/2 body with Steadfast for two is a bargain and perfect for an aggressive deck. Warparty Guide provides critical card draw in an archetype which often runs out of gas quickly. If we’re playing Ardent Crusader, a large amount of our deck will be composed of Ardent troops, so Warparty Guide will be sure to draw cards frequently.

Another huge addition to aggressive Diamond from Herofall is Hero of Legend. This one’s a doozy of a three drop. Not only are its stats far above average, but it gives you a means to go over the top. Since we’re playing a ton of Ardent troops, Hero of Legend will be making a lot of Valor. On the PTR, a common play I made was to curve into Hero of Legend on turn three after having played a troop on each of my first two turns, allowing me to create two Valor to power up my squad on turn four. Not only does this push damage, but it makes blocks difficult for your opponent (who wants to block an invincible knight?) and allows you to play around board clears by improving your board with Valor rather than overextending with troops.

Paired with old standbys like Protectorate Defender and Highlands Shinobi, the new tools in Herofall give aggressive Diamond more than enough pieces to complete the puzzle.

OUR PRIMORDIAL BREW

There’s one more troop from Herofall I’m excited to talk about, but first let’s take a look at the draft list I’ve been piloting on the PTR.



Protectorate Defender socketed with Major Diamond of the Ardent

Ardent Crusader socketed with Minor Diamond of Wind





As you can see, we’ve gone Sapphire as our second shard in order to play one troop in particular.

I am unreasonably excited about Silver Talon Adjudicator. Not only does it have sweet art, but it oozes value. While a 3/2 flier for four isn’t particularly exciting in constructed, it has the sort of abilities which swing games. There are three important things this card does for our deck:

It is an evasive threat, so it can end games. It refuels our hand. We’re an aggressive deck, so we will usually have fewer cards in hand than the opponent. It allows us to win races against other aggressive decks by providing health gain.



The crazy thing about this card is that sometimes it does all of the above at the low, low cost of four resources. I expect Silver Talon Adjudicator is going to find a home in many decks, and I’m excited to play it at the top of our curve in aggressive Diamond. We’re packing the full four copies as it will be our best way to swing a game in our favor. Also note that it interacts favorably with Valiant Escort as the bounce will allow us to dodge removal and replay the owl for its effect.

Backing up a few paces, let’s talk about the deck as a whole. The strategy is simple – curve out and bash with high value threats. Hero of Legend and Ardent Crusader are your heavy hitters. Both play well against Extinction and both attack well into enemy blockers. Minor Diamond of Wind is particularly fearsome on the Crusader, allowing a single Crusader to end the game swiftly against an unprepared opponent.

Highlands Shinobi and Marshal Josephina’s charge power give you powerful tempo plays, allowing you to waylay blockers or slow down an aggressive opponent to bring you ahead in the race. Be sure to use your shards and charges wisely as locking down the right troop at the right time is often the difference between victory and defeat.

Strider Scout is not especially exciting, but it is a reasonable Ardent one drop. It’s possible that these should be Cloud Runners or a fourth Valiant Escort, but I value troop diversity, swiftstrike, and the ability to have a one drop that can be played on turn one. Strider Scout has been sufficient thus far, but I would not be shocked if it gets replaced in future iterations of this deck. Similarly, I had difficulties determining the correct number of William Rowan to play. While he can have his moments, Will is often a worse Wise Magistrate. I included a single copy to allow us to play Ardent Crusader and to avoid inconsistencies due to it being unique. I could see playing two or three copies, however, as the effect is game winning if achieved early. I am only playing two copies of Angel of Dawn because it is miserable in our opening hand. I want access to the powerful swings it can provide, but I want to minimize the risk of it appearing in our opening hand.

Pride’s Fall is our removal of choice due to how weak we are to Crocosaur. With the absence of Spellshield, I expect a resurgence in Crocosaur’s popularity. If this occurs, it is mandatory we have a main decked means for dealing with it. Fortunately, Pride’s Fall is perfect and playing it on a Crocosaur will usually result in a win. We have access to two more in the Reserves as well as a myriad of other options for opponent’s who don’t play Crocosaur.

DEVELOPING DIAMOND

I feel I’ve only begun to scratch the surface of this archetype. In particular I feel the deck can look to stretch its shard base and thresholds. My current build is very conservative, only playing what are essentially free sources of Sapphire (Carloth Cobblestone and Well of Purpose will nearly never be unable to create Sapphire) to support four copies of a single card as well as one card in our reserves. It should not be difficult to develop this shard base to support more Sapphire cards or to take it in a new direction with Ruby. There is even a chance the deck could support three shards since we have access to a far above average number of shard fixing resources. Ruby could be particularly exciting as we then get access to truly powerful one drops like Quash Ridge Tusker and Boltspasm. It could even be correct to take the deck into Wild, dropping Silver Talon Adjudicator for access to turn two Ardent Crusader off a turn one Howling Brave.

With Herofall on the horizon, there truly are innumerable deck building opportunities in Hex. I can’t wait to keep brewing with Herofall and I look forward to hearing about your current favorite brews in the forums.

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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