New Hexy Control - 2026 Online Roundup Winner

Once upon a time Fearmongers, known then as the 4th Ring, absolutely dominated the tournament scene. Pre-erratas of Paralysis Mark, Blood Curse, Soul Blast and Puppet, among others, paved the way. I wanted to see how the current state of Hexy control would do against the current meta.

We've long known that Phantasm is almost as good as the old Paralysis Mark. Combine the above with some movement tricks in Papa Marias, Shadow Walk, and others, and roll it into at least a 15x15 draw structure, and it's definitely a top contender (or at least I assumed as much going into the event). I wouldn't make any major judgments over one deck in one event (both of my final 2 matches had a TON of luck in my shootout hands), but so far the theory seems to hold.

I only wanted a 15x15, but by happenstance a minor 3rd value popped up in 10's. I think that ended up helping a good amount, as it came in handy once in awhile to make a legal full house. Otherwise, I cannot overstate how nice it is to only ever worry about redrawing 2 different values instead of 3. There are always the times where you draw 3 pairs in hand, and you have the dreaded choice on which to go for, or where you just need one of 2 values, but you end up with the 3rd. There's never a wrong choice to make in this deck when making shootout hands - you're almost always only going for 9's and Q's.

Other than that this is a standard quasi-slide hex control list. It really doesn't want to fight early, but one stud and some redraw is usually enough for a full house or better. I tend to only play one deed in 9's and one in Q's, and prefer maybe 2 of each of hearts on the board, at most, per game - you really need to pay attention to whats on the board in this deck to know how aggressive you can be. Many of these off values are easy to get on the board, and the draw structure can tighten up very quickly.

My biggest worry was that this deck was trying to do too many things - chess/control and shooting, and I was worried it would be bad at both. Of all my games this event, the results were all over the place - I had a couple games where my fears came true and it couldn't do any one thing well. But then I had several more where the pieces really fit together nicely, and after a bit of buildup and spreading the opponent out, this deck can strike like a Serpentine snake and very quickly end a game with one good shootout.

The jury is still out on this particular deck - I like it and overall it did well - but it certainly does suffer from trying to shoot and control/chess.

Recording of the finals, and proof that luck sometimes beats skill... https://youtu.be/r67zRI77fPA