Wow, that last patch was a big one! BOOSTER DRAFT is finally in… and, lo and behold, it was actually the cleanest patch we’ve had yet! (Way to go engineering team!)

As we get closer to launch, the patches should get better and better. We build on what we have and the more polished it gets, the better each update will be as we move forward.

I have to say … draft is actually a huge problem for me, because it has killed my productivity! I am having so much fun drafting that it is all I want to do. Staying up late drafting is exactly what I talked about in the Kickstarter. Finally, those unused hours between 11pm and 4am have a purpose!

Seriously, it’s a problem. I will get home at 10:30pm and think, “If the draft starts in the next 10 minutes, I could be asleep by 1am. Or maybe I will lose in the first round and I could be in bed by 11:30 … hey, that would be great! I could lose in the first round!”

That’s actually another problem I am having. I find it VERY hard to play to win. I am playing anonymously (when I played on my primary account, every game turned into a Q&A session), and my opponent will occasionally mention that it’s their first time drafting and how much they are loving it. So, there is LITERALLY no way I can roll this person and ruin their first experience. Luckily, the joy of someone loving HEX is more than enough to make up for it.

So there you go, if you are losing in the first round tell your opponent it’s your first time drafting and that you love it. It might be me and you’ll get the win as I tearfully concede the game.

This was the beginning of the dream, and now it’s a reality. I really cannot wait for each of the upcoming features to go live, like joining a guild and raiding with friends. They are going to be so much fun, and these are just some of the dozens of things HEX will offer.

Phil did a great job on his overview of how drafting works, and laid down some really good strategy as well. Be sure to check it out ( http://hextcg.com/draft-tournament-overview ).

I wanted to talk about my experience drafting and also use this blog to reinforce something I have been saying for a while. HEX is a REAL TCG, with REAL draft. I know that this does not come as a surprise to many of the people reading this blog, but I think it bears repeating. It’s not just that we offer real honest to goodness draft (8 players opening and passing packs); we also designed the card file from the ground up to be the best possible experience for draft.

Something that doesn’t often get highlighted, but is a huge priority for us, is the idea that in the individual card design and the overall set design, we give meticulous attention to how the various rarities of cards fill out a draft pool and whether or not they will make for a fun draft experience. This component of the design process is, in my estimation, the element that received the single largest block of test time, falling just behind the actual card designs.

Draft is also about adaptability and creativity. One of the primary elements of HEX is the ability to mix the various shards, and this flexibility gives you the chance to find an exciting NEW way of mixing and matching the cards every time. Draft is one of the places that a crazy combo can actually win a tournament, and underrated cards can be king.

You can really feel the rewards of that extra attention in the compelling fun of our drafts, when you are chasing a deck build or simply drafting the best card. It’s all just so enjoyable.

One of my favorite (but rather odd) draft strategies is trying to force the shard least represented in your first pack and build around a mono shard type. Typically, there is at least one reasonably good pick for each shard type in the first pack, so find the shard with the least amount of tier 1 cards in the pack and take the best card. Continue doing this for the rest of pack one, sticking to a mono shard type. As you get deep into pack 2, you have likely forced most of the players off your shard type, and you see some pretty great picks later in the pack, sometimes even allowing you to wheel (pass a good card and have it come back to you) some amazing cards.

I have noticed this strategy is more effective with certain shard types. Blood is great for this strategy, with Diamond and Wild also being pretty good. Some of the cards that take a pretty high threshold commitment, like Terrible Transfer (an incredibly powerful card) can be picked up pretty late in the draft; hell, I have gotten it as my last card on multiple occasions!

Granted, this is a pretty goofy draft strategy, but it plays into my love of “living the dream”, which lives in the heart of every Johnny TCG player: that the impossible will come together and you will win big. (This probably applies to my overall life view more than I would like to admit.)

And now it’s time for … CORY’S UNDERRATED DRAFT CARDS!

(or, cards I see in the last 3 picks and it blows my mind!)

(This statement is uncomfortably similar to a truth you will observe if you ever draft in real life, in that EVERY TIME you draft, someone will say, “How is this card still in the pack?” This statement simultaneously tells everyone else they are idiots AND they are the superior player for realizing it. I have done HUNDREDS of drafts and this happens EVERY time, I swear it’s uncanny!)

Not in any order …

Infiltrator Bot

ALL Auras

Terrible Transfer

Incubation Slave

Boltpaw Wizard

Wind Whisperer

Bravery

Reversion

Incite Fury

Countermagic

Mortar Strike (I cannot believe how often this card wheels)

Crushing Blow

The overall theme here is combat tricks and late game / unblockable. I even threw in another semi “how is this card still here?” style comment after Mortar Strike; clearly, draft makes it hard to NOT be a dick. Sorry!

If you haven’t played draft yet, you really do need to jump in and give it a try. I’m not kidding about how fun it is, and if you are already drafting, give my mono color build strategy a try. It is pretty fun and sometimes you get an incredibly broken deck, which is absolutely fun!

Finally, because I am still insecure that these blog posts offer any real value (I guess they are worth what they cost), here is a sneak peek at a card from set two. This seems like the type of card I would love to play, so it is a fitting preview. (Also I LOVE Michael’s flavor text on all the robots.)

Sorry I missed last week. Hopefully I can keep on track with this, but the war inside myself between what is “good enough” to post and the desire to do this every week is a bit rough.

By coryhudsonjones - Mar 19, 2014