Today I participated in a 6-player Beyond the Gates draft. I witnessed some pretty wild things, including a player who was virtually mono-Ordis, a Treyst with every from-reserve ability under the sun, and an honest-to-goodness Lyra Festival win. The draft I didn’t have flashy options for my P1p1, but I was happy to start with a Paper Herald (F) as a strong, cheap play that gets better out of Fen. The Sandman (R) was an easy choice as the strongest card in P1p2 that shared a faction with my P1p1....

I’ve been gradually tweaking my spell-centric Fen list, but it received a massive upgrade when I took notes from some of ElWiwi’s innovations. I took this list to the Monday A.W.O.L. weekly where it went 5-1 for 3rd out of 60. It was especially exciting to practice the Lyra mirror in the semifinals against Gamanight’s Nevenka & Blotch, which went on to win the entire event! The deck One of the most attractive things about Lyra is how versatile the faction is....

At the end of my last outing with Gulrang & Tocsin, I speculated that some of the hero’s fundamental issues could be solved by thinking of them not as a defensive late-game hero, but as a tempo hero whose finishers come online at 8 mana. I took the end-result of that experiment to the Wednesday A.W.O.L. tournament on 2025-01-08, where the deck went 3-3 to finish 18th out of 36....

I brought Akesha & Taru to the Monday A.W.O.L. weekly where I went 1-4 (after a first-round bye) for 30th out of 46. The deck feels solid despite today’s disappointing performance, which I attribute to playing against strong players and getting a couple of tough matchups. The deck This an attrition-style control deck that plays for the long game by gradually running your opponent out of resources. Large 3-drops alongside Akesha’s after-you ensure that you can trade in the early-game at worst, threatening to go 1-0 if your opponent can’t contest both expeditions....

It’s been a while since I’ve played Bravos, so a new Dracaena (U) seemed a great excuse to bring Basira to the Monday A.W.O.L. weekly. I ended up finishing 3-3 for 18th of 47. The deck The last time I played this deck. This build is very similar to my last one. I haven’t been playing the deck much, so I can’t vouch for all of the cards I’m running....

Over the holidays, I ran a private sealed event with five other players, each of whom had somewhere between zero and five prior games of Altered under their belt. All of them have experience with light/medium eurogames, but Altered is their first trading card game. As refreshingly simple as Altered’s core mechanics are, I knew deckbuilding would be a step up in complexity, so I did my best to prepare so that the event would run as smoothly as possible....

I played an updated version of my Rin deck at the Monday A.W.O.L. weekly on 2024-12-23, where it went 3-3 for 30th of 58. The deck For a detailed breakdown of the deck list, see the last time I played this deck. The biggest change is that I acquired another Coppélia (U) that plays itself when it goes to reserve. Going down a copy of Coppélia (R) was a downside, but I included a second Cernunnos (R) in its place to make it more likely the deck can progress on T1....

I recently participated in the 128-player sealed tournament held by Altered Aces over Discord. I didn’t make it out of the group stage, but I thought it would be worthwhile to review the games and how I approached my pool. The pool Here are the first things I noticed when I looked over my sealed pool: No Sigismar & Wingspan or Kojo & Booda, but I did have Teija & Nauraa All three heroes are generically strong, though Sigismar & Wingspan are in a class of their own since their token threatens to win an expedition by itself if not contested....

I brought this Afanas & Senka list to the Monday A.W.O.L. tournament on 2024-12-16, where it went 6-0 for 1st place out of 55. R6 featured one of the most exciting games I’ve played since launch. It had the high stakes of a finals match while also containing the kinds of tense turns and massive swings that make Altered so engaging. The hero Afanas & Senka make use of Yzmir’s card draw and disruption tools in a spell-based tempo deck that only gets stronger as it gains access to more mana....

Where fellow Yzmir heroes Akesha & Taru pass priority with an explicit after-you, Lindiwe & Maw exemplify the Yzmir ethos in different way: Lindiwe plays out her turn, then only once her opponent has revealed their hand does she sacrifice characters to juggle stats around such that she comes out ahead. The deck While you could arguably build a stronger deck by importing the strongest sacrifice cards into a standard Yzmir control shell, I’ve gone the route of building around Baba’s Isba (R)....