This weekend, several local players - some new, some old - got together for a day of in-house Altered drafts. We ended up doing three drafts, two Beyond the Gates and one Trial by Frost. Draft 1 This was a six-person Beyond the Gates draft. The deck went 3-0. The draft I started with Bravos rares for P1p1 and P1p3. P1p2 was Coppélia (F) as a strong 2-drop that’s especially powerful for Treyst or Rin. ...

This is the Lindiwe list I brought to the Monday A.W.O.L. weekly on 2025-02-17, where it went 5-1 for 5th of 124. The deck The last time I played Lindiwe & Maw. Trial by Frost give Lindiwe access to Moth Lantern, a strong tempo play and late-game win-condition all in one. Alongside Baba’s Isba, she’s now a lot closer to the critical mass of worthwhile sacrifice outlets to make the sacrifice archetype a serious contender. ...

I pulled a very cool Mighty Simbi (U) from my Trial by Frost opening that ramps when one of your expeditions moves forward due to forest. Not long after, I came across a Cernunnos (U) with the exact same line of text on the Discord Marketplace, and I thought I might have a shot at building around the effect with some consistency. I took this list to the Monday A.W.O.L. weekly on 2025-02-10, where it went 4-2 for 16th of 125. ...

This is the sealed deck I ended up with at a local post-release Trial by Frost sealed event. The pool First impressions: I have access to Sigismar & Wingspan, the strongest hero in limited, but there aren’t a ton of Ordis cards I’d be happy about playing: the Ordis Liaison (C)s and Rallying Call (C) are the only draws into the faction. I also have access to Kojo & Booda. They’re nearly as strong as Sigismar & Wingspan, but my Bravos offers many more desirable 2 and 3-drops. Muna is my second deepest faction, offering three copies of Persephone (C), a Demeter (C), and Lost in the Woods (C), my pool’s most flexible removal spell. Lyra and Yzmir are reasonable support factions. They have just a couple premium characters each, but both offer several spells and permanents I’d be happy playing. Lyra’s highlights are the Winter Outfits which work well with my Haven Seiringar (C)s and Persephone (C)s. Yzmir gives me another removal spell in Blizzard (C) and some reserve interaction with Rime Frost (C). I can quickly discount my Axiom, which is both shallow and weak. 4 copies of Amarok is amusing. I tried every configuration with Sigismar & Wingspan as my hero, but Ordis was shallow enough that I ended up being unhappy with the last several cards I had to run in each case. ...

This is my first Trial by Frost draft deck. The draft itself was pretty messy, but I came away having learned a lot about the set for limited. The draft This is about on par with an average common, but I'll take any unique! I started the draft with a solid Ebenezer Scrooge (U), passing on Fen & Crowbar. I took it mainly because it was a unique, but I was also happy to bias towards Ordis with in hopes of picking up Sigismar & Wingspan as a hero. I took an early Mobile Armory (R) to go with it but didn’t see other strong Ordis cards for the rest of the pack. ...

For the first A.W.O.L. tournament after the release of Trial by Frost, I brought the tempo Gulrang list I’d been tweaking since the previous set, updated with some of her new goodies. The deck ended up going 4-2 on the day for 30th of 113. Changes The last time I played Gulrang during Beyond the Gates. Geyser (F) is the biggest upgrade that tempo Gulrang received in Trial by Frost. The defender line on her hero ability is a serious downside, so turning it off a whole turn earlier is massive. It being a catch-all removal spell that you’re incentivized to keep means you can afford to include fewer situational spells such as Sticky Note Seals (C), one of the problems with the earlier iterations of the deck. ...

I opened a case of Trial by Frost and wanted to share the uniques I pulled, as well as some of the stats about the case. If you can afford to, make sure to buy locally to support the game stores that are running Altered events! Overview Unique count Total uniques: 29 Uniques per box: 5, 5, 5, 5, 4, 5 Missing rares Six boxes left me just 9 rares short of a complete Trial by Frost playset (3x of each rare). ...

This is the sealed deck from my third and final Trial by Frost pre-release. I finally managed to open a unique! The pool First impressions: My pool doesn’t have any of the top-tier Trial by Frost heroes: Sigismar & Wingspan, Kojo & Booda, or Fen & Crowbar I briefly considered Gulrang & Tocsin. Two copies of Flutter of Moths (C) and a Moth to a Flame (C) would be strong finishers, and two Sunisa, Dedicated Ensigns might be able to turn off defender if things line up right. My token-generation is too light to reliably get a benefit out of Gulrang’s hero ability, though, and I don’t have enough ways to ensure it wouldn’t more often be a detriment. Subhash & Marmo are strong in the early game, but I have very few ways to compensate for their card disadvantage. Sierra & Oddball were off the table since Axiom doesn’t offer any 3+ mana permanents and no two factions together fill the void. Rin & Orchid’s hero ability provides generic card advantage, and the pool has a Magic Beans (C) and two copies of Persephone to help it trigger more often. I have access to two copies of Demeter as a win-condition between Bravos and Muna. Axiom can fill out the deck with solid 2 and 3-drops in a way that none of Lyra, Ordis, or Yzmir can. Uniques Gibil: 2/7 ...

This was the sealed deck I played at the second Trial by Frost pre-release I attended. The pool First impressions: Kojo & Booda and Fen & Crowbar are two very strong options for heroes, which is fortunate because Bravos and Lyra are also my strongest factions. Bravos is very deep and offers a great aggressive curve with four copies of Fire Rabbit. Lyra is not as deep, but it has two copies each of three excellent characters: Snowball Commando (C), Nisse (C), and Nyala, Gifted Conjurer (C). Muna and Yzmir are light on playables, so I wrote both off very quickly. Axiom provides some resupply/reserve synergies and solid 2-drops but won’t be giving me an increase in power. Ordis’s cards are higher-costed and require more to go right, but there’s a higher quantity of strong cards. Kojo is probably stronger in a vacuum, but there’s enough Fen support in the pool that I think she’s a better fit: ...