Images courtesy of UVS Games
Critical Role: Heroes of Exandria (HEX) has two awesome introductory products with its two starter decks. Beauregard Lionett and Percival de Rolo III join the battle with attacks, foundations, assets, and even backups from the main set, ready to go in 60-card decks.
Let’s take a look the the two decks and how to upgrade them.
Heroes of Exandria Starter Deck Lists
Here’s what the decks look like out of the box.
Percy Starter Deck
Character (1)
1 Percival de Rolo III, Pepperbox Sharpshooter
Foundation (32)
2 Science Bros
2 Electric Resilience
4 Collecting Components
4 Found Family
4 Imprisoned Noble
4 Show Off
4 Tarot Reading
4 Weapon At the Ready
4 Inspired Design
Attack (21)
2 Bad News Bullet
4 Pepperbox Fire
4 Tinker Shot
3 Bang Bang
3 Alchemical Satchel Toss
3 Golem Beating
2 Merciless Lead
Asset (5)
2 Quest Board
3 The List
Backup (2)
Beau Starter Deck
Character (1)
1 Beauregard Lionett, Looking for a Brawl
Foundation (35)
2 Peerless Footwork
3 Combat Evaluation
3 Strong Windup
3 Subdual Technique
4 A Day for Relaxing
4 Everlight’s Grace
4 Martial Prowess
4 Mystic Recovery
4 Radiant Visage
4 Swift Change
Attack (21)
2 Shoulder Toss
2 Great-Axe Chop
2 Predator’s Pounce
3 Upward Disarming Swing
4 Furious Charge
4 Staff Crack
4 Heavy Kick
Asset (2)
Backup (2)
Are the Heroes of Exandria Starter Decks Good?
Both of these decks are great fun when first starting out. Playing them against each other is an enjoyable experience for new and veteran players alike.
While the starter decks provide an enjoyable experience, the fact is that they’re only fit for a condensed beginner experience. The abilities aren’t awful, with the right synergies, but 22 health just isn’t gonna feel good bumping elbows with the characters from the main set. Luckily the rares within the starter deck provide a great jumping off point for both characters, and the decks themselves don’t require a massive overhaul to get you winning games at your local!
Want to head to your local game store and play in some weeklies? Or potentially in a store championship for awesome prizes? Have no fear, I’ve got a couple of lists here that will upgrade these starter decks without draining your wallet!
Upgrading the Heroes of Exandria Decks
Beauregard Lionett, Upgraded
Character (1)
1 Beauregard Lionett, Expositor
Foundation (38)
2 Peerless Footwork
4 A Day for Relaxing
4 Martial Prowess
4 Radiant Visage
4 Capture the Target
4 Weightless
4 Expression of Friendship
4 Ferocious Attacker
4 All in This Together
4 Syndicate Target
Attack (20)
4 Shoulder Toss
4 Staff Crack
4 Heavy Kick
4 Smashing Stomp
4 Falling Heel Strike
Asset (2)
2 Team Dr. Ichigaki
These two foundations, Capture the Target and Weightless, will most likely have the biggest impact on your gameplay with these upgrades. Checking a six off the top is pretty rare, so you’ll almost certainly be committing a foundation to use Beauregard’s once-per-turn enhance. This compounds with the fact that Beauregard also commits a foundation to pay the cost on their damage pump enhance as well.
Thankfully there are lots of options to help refund that cost and keep you kicking butt!
Another pair of impactful foundations, these are gonna help you in the late stages of your kill turn quite a bit. All in This Together mirrors Beauregard’s damage enhance, this time on a flip cost. Expression of Friendship has a powerful check bonus, reinforced by the fact that it can be used even while committed. Beauregard generates the face-downs necessary to get that bonus, so make sure to commit Expression of Friendship before other foundations when paying your character’s costs.
Smashing Stomp is a great attack at all points in the game. +1 to your next check to play an attack makes it a solid opener. The response to draw a card when it deals damage puts pressure on the rival to hold onto low blocks. Late game you can spend momentum with EX:3 to pump the speed to the moon and finish off your rival.
Falling Heel Strike is a little more conditional, but only slightly. Plenty of the best foundations in the deck flip themselves, and Falling Heel Strike lets you reuse them a second time. Drawing additional cards from Ferocious Attacker or readying additional foundations with Weightless will greatly improve your odds of victory.
Team Dr. Ichigaki is the cherry on top for this deck; every time I remember it’s an uncommon, I’m blown away. It cancels nearly any ability in the game. The reality of Beauregard’s damage pump requiring your card pool to fill up means the strategy can be quite fragile. Breaker and card pool clogging effects are gonna be high priorities for this cancel.
Upgraded Percy, Zero Mercy
Character (1)
1 Percival de Rolo III, Vengeful Sharpshooter
Foundation (37)
4 Science Bros
4 Imprisoned Noble
4 Weapon At the Ready
4 Inspired Design
4 I’m With You
4 Loss of Consciousness
4 Unabashed Manner
3 Deft Maneuvers
3 Draw Your Swords
3 Latent Skill
Attack (20)
4 Bad News Bullet
4 Pepperbox Fire
4 Tinker Shot
3 Bang Bang
3 Tri Gravity Beam
2 Short-Range Shot
Asset (5)
3 The List
Action (4)
The Casino Package
Named for its random outcomes, decks focused around Combined Firepower have proven incredibly powerful over the last year. This “Casino” setup relies on cards that want to enter the discard pile during the enhance step. Where it all comes together is that cards responding when they enter the discard pile almost always remove themselves for cost, which means you can respond for +1 speed and damage from Science Bros with each activation!
Sometimes you’re forced to build the foundations that need to enter the discard pile to utilize their effects. This is where the sacrifice outlets come in. Death has two nearly identical cards looking to destroy your foundations in exchange for stat pumps. Thankfully they block opposite zones making it easy to include both.
Taking more from the Godzilla line of Challenger Series decks, Tri Gravity Beam is a nasty ranged attack. At worst it’s a seven damage move after Percy’s response gives it speed; it’s often the penultimate attack of the game. Short-Range Shot is a great budget option for decks that are looking for an all-in option as a finisher. The high base speed makes it a reliable poke for Percy and encourages you to use all of your resources to pump its damage. Short-Range Shot also helps fight back against all of the decks that are happy to sacrifice a foundation to gain a single health or to reduce your attack’s damage as well.
Time to Conquer Exandria!
I hope these quick upgrades will help you jump into the action of UniVersus and hit the ground running. Beyond these initial changes, I’d recommend investing in good card advantage. While its not necessarily difficult to find inexpensive card draw, they tend be very conditional. A lot of the best draw effects are found on rares and ultra rares in recent sets.
Powerful defensive actions like Referee Juri and Genkai’s Guidance are incredible hand traps, but that’s reflected in their price tag as well. For now give these decks a try and see if they get your juices flowing!
Looking to attend a UniVersus Regional tournament? Make sure to read this guide and learn How To Prepare For A UniVersus Regional Tournament!
