How to play : Vex Gloomist

Everything starts with the Legend: when you hold a battlefield at the start of your turn, you may exhaust Vex, Gloomist to draw a card. That is one card a turn however many battlefields you hold, so the rule is simple: never start a turn holding nothing. Scuttle Crab and Steel Paws do that job cheaply: units with 0 might can still conquer and hold, Scuttle Crab draws you a card as you play it, and Steel Paws has Deflect, so the opponent pays an extra power to aim a spell at it.

A battlefield you control also gives you its facedown slot, and that is where the deck’s 13 Hidden cards wait. From the mid-game on, Vex, Apathetic stands guard on a battlefield, and every unit the opponent plays arrives stunned: it deals no combat damage and cannot move that turn. Astral Heron is the finisher: 7 might, and while it is at a battlefield, the first card you play each turn makes your next one 2 energy and 2 power cheaper.

Keep a hand that holds early: two of Steel Paws, Scuttle Crab and Clockwork Keeper, plus one card worth hiding, such as Switcheroo, Back Off or Tornado Warrior. Remember that Clockwork Keeper also draws you a card if you pay its extra Calm power as you play it.

Send Astral Heron back: at 7 energy it is a late card, and the deck will draw into it. Keep Vex, Apathetic beside two cheap units, never alone. Against a fast deck, Back Off, Gust or Defy is worth more than a second 4-energy unit.

Get a unit onto a battlefield and leave it there: every turn you start by holding it is a point and a card. Hide your first card on that battlefield as soon as you can spare the power (hiding costs 1 power of any domain, and the card can be played from the next turn on, the opponent’s included). Do not trade the early units away for nothing: this deck scores by staying, not by fighting.

Know your battlefields. Startipped Peak lets you channel 1 rune exhausted each time you hold it, which gets you to Vex, Apathetic and Astral Heron sooner. On Fortified Position, the unit you choose when you defend gains Shield 2 for that combat (+2 might while defending). On Forbidding Waste, a unit defending alone has -2 might, yours included, so never leave a unit that matters there on its own.

Hide one turn ahead. A facedown card cannot be played on the turn you hide it, each battlefield holds only one, and losing the battlefield loses the card, so hide where you expect to defend. Tornado Warrior goes where Steel Paws stands: when you play it from face down, it empowers Steel Paws until the end of the turn, and the 0-might cat fights at 7 might. Every card you play from face down also gives Ember Monk +2 might that turn.

Evelynn, Entrancing is the Hidden card that attacks: played from face down on your turn, she can pull an enemy unit from another location onto her battlefield. Hide her on the battlefield you hold, pull the lone defender off the one you want, then move in. Boots of Swiftness gives the unit it is attached to +2 might and Ganking, so on your turn that unit can move from one battlefield straight to the other. Late in the game, with energy to spare, pay Steel Paws’ own Empower cost of 7 energy, and it stays at 7 might until something disempowers it.

Switcheroo and Back Off answer the same attack in different ways. Back Off stuns one unit so it deals no combat damage this turn, and if you play it from your hand you also draw a card: cast it from your hand when you have the 3 energy, and hide it when you do not. Switcheroo is the one to hold when you must win the combat: swap the might of their biggest unit with that of your 0-might Steel Paws or Scuttle Crab at the same battlefield, and theirs fights at 0.

On the opponent’s turn, keep energy up: 1 at least, 3 when you can. Defy and Gust cost 1 energy each, plus a Calm power for Defy: Defy counters a spell that costs 4 energy or less and 1 power or less, and Gust returns a unit at a battlefield with 3 might or less to its owner’s hand. Star-Crossed costs 3 energy and a Chaos power and returns a friendly unit and an enemy unit to their owners’ hands: pick your own Scuttle Crab, replay it and draw again. Zhonya’s Hourglass saves Vex, Apathetic or Astral Heron from one death, but recalls the unit to base exhausted, so the battlefield can still fall.