Altered is difficult for late-game decks by nature. An early-game progression is equivalent to a late-game progression, and once your opponent is within one expedition of victory, it’s very difficult to block them on both sides indefinitely.

Sakarabru is the only card in the game that can undo progress made by your opponent, but its high cost and low stats have historically meant that you’ll usually fall behind when you play it anyway.

Enter Eat Me Energy Bars. If Sakarabru (F) is played alone into an Eat Me Energy Bars expeditions, it will be gigantic. Thus its from-hand ability moves both expeditions facing it backwards. The best your opponent can do is to go 0-0 that day, though even that’s a tall order, since they’ll be facing down 8/8/8 worth of stats across both expeditions.

Eat Me Energy Bars lets Atsadi turn the corner: you can now afford to spend the early days of the game setting up with ramp and card draw because Sakarabru will recoup the expedition progress you lost and let you take over the late-game.

I brought this deck to the AWOL Season 2 Wednesday Weekly on 2025-03-19, where it went 4-2 for 17th of 61.

Notes

The last time I played this deck.

I believe Atsadi & Surge is a serious, competitive hero with the caveat that he’s very dependent on having strong uniques that either ramp or swing the game once you’ve ramped.

This deck will absolutely lose some games as a result of drawing all expensive characters and no ramp (see R1) or vice-versa (see R6).

You’ll want to set up the Eat Me Energy Bars (C) to stick around when you play your Sakarabru (F), you get the double-move. Ideally, you’ll play it alongside a character in a losing expedition so that it helps wins the other expedition but stays out for another day. Your opponent is incentivized to let you win its expedition so that it gets sent back to reserve, but don’t be afraid to take the win if they’re giving it to you for free. I’m not too unhappy if I don’t have a stronger start and have to run out Energy Bars on D1.

For my opening hands, I tend to prioritize in the following order: (1) D1/D2 ramp (2) D1 stats (3) expensive ramp (4) Energy Bars/Sakarabru.

The Energy Bars + Sakarabru combo makes this list surprisingly resilient against decks that plan for a specific game length. Sakarabru can prevent the game from getting within Small Step, Giant Leap (C) range. Similarly, it can stave off Grand Endeavor (R) until you find a Mana Eruption (R) or Geyser (C) to remove it.

I’m not sold on Valemon (F) and possibly even Demeter (F). Shenlong (R) might be the 6-drop of choice for how strong it is with Eat Me Energy Bars.

Card changes

  • Demeter (F): This felt natural to include since I’m already running three copies of Eat Me Energy Bars: a gigantic Demeter has two chances to remain eternal in forest.
  • Valemon (F): Relatively cheap, yet out of range of the many efficient removal spells. This will often be gigantic in the late-game. Some anti-synergy with Energy Bars.
  • Haven Warrior (R): If Atsadi is unable to ramp on D1, he needs to not fall behind. This is a solid character to play with an Energy Bars in the early-game.
  • Fire Rabbit (C): This plays well with large/gigantic characters, as it either lets you pass priority long enough for them to dodge removal or boost onto a gigantic character for double value. It activates Tiny Jinn (R) early like Chiron (C), and it gaining fleeting is less of a disadvantage since Atsadi’s hero ability can replenish cards. Three copies might be too many.
  • Geyser (C): As ramp, this is somewhat unreliable if you’re not going second on D2 and/or your opponent is going wide. Still I like that it doubles as ramp and removal, letting you spend other slots on proactive threats.

Uniques

My rating system

Kappa

Kappa: 6/7

Aja

Aja: 6/7

This Aja provides double-ramp on the front-end and triple-ramp on the back-end (one of which is symmetrical but benefits you more than your opponent). The underwhelming stats mean that this is more of a Mana Channeling (R) plus a card draw than a character that can block/advance, but Atsadi would absoutely run Mana Channeling (R) if it didn’t require him to go down a copy of the common.

The Hatter

The Hatter: 5/7

This provides some ramp and the first Atsadi trigger while also being a reasonable late-game threat due to its skewed stats. The when-leaves trigger unfortunately means it’s vulnerable to being slept to delay your ramp and have it potentially wake up in a forest region.

The games

R1 (L): Sigismar & Wingspan

What's the keep from this awkward opener?

  • I kept Eat Me Energy Bars (C), Sakarabru (F), and The Hatter (U). Tiny Jinn (R) would go 0-2 on D1 without another card to play alongside it and doesn’t get me to The Hatter (U) any faster.
  • No D1/D2 ramp or early 3-drop made the early-game difficult.
  • My D1 Eat Me Energy Bars (C) stayed out until I was on 11 mana.
  • Two copies of Anubis (R) forced me into awkward plays and ate my D2 gigantic Valemon (F), D4 gigantic Sakarabru, and D5 gigantic Aja (U).
  • I played two double-move Sakarabru (F)s thanks to my D1 Eat Me Energy Bars.
  • My late-game mana advantage due to The Hatter (U) and Aja (U) let me 2-0 and 1-1, losing an expedition in the latter only due to my opponent’s Sticky Note Seals (C).
  • The last gigantic Sakarabru (F) was a live draw to stabilize me and close out the game, but I drew into a Geyser (C) and a Fire Rabbit (C). My opponent sabotaged my Atlas (R), and I was left with no way to block in water.

R2 (W): Afanas & Senka

Once Atsadi gets enough mana, there's often a day where he's able to turn the corner.

  • Strong Mana Channeling (C) + Tiny Jinn (R) start.
  • My opponent was aggressive with their resources, earning a large early lead. They had to go down on cards to do so, however, in a way that left them vulnerable to a sabotage on their Bravos Bladedancer (F).
  • My D3 Kappa (U) double-ramped on two consecutive days while only going 0-1 and 1-1. I had 12 mana while my opponent was on 6.
  • My opponent was 2 expeditions from victory, but I drew into Eat Me Energy Bars (C) for a double-move Sakarabru (F). After that, they never progressed again.

R3 (W): Afanas & Senka

Early ramp means you can often afford to skip mana-ing early if your cards are important enough.

  • Another lucky Mana Channeling (C) + Tiny Jinn (R) start.
  • Atlas (R) earned a 1-1 on D2 while drawing me a card. The support ability let me steal an expedition with a double-boosted Fire Rabbit (C).
  • My Haven Bouncer (C) landed a key sabotage on a Kadigiran Mage-Dancer (R) when I was the first player.
  • On M7 with a hand of Eat Me Energy Bars (C) and 2x Sakarabru (F), I opted not to mana. I set up the Energy Bars that day, and two gigantic Sakarabru (F)s sealed up the game.

R4 (W): Lindiwe & Maw

Even if my opponent can block both sides today, they'll be moving back three regions.

  • My opponent had resource-light start, spending two cards on D1 and not seeing their Gift of Self (C)s until mid-game, when the tempo loss to play it was more costly.
  • I kept a Mighty Jinn (C) around instead of having it go into mana due to favorable regions and a resource-light start myself.
  • D4 and D5 Kappa (U) generated a massive mana advantage and drew me into my Aja (U).
  • On M16, dual Sakarabru (F)s moved my opponent back three expeditions while contributing enough stats to close out the game.

R5 (W): Fen & Crowbar

Sabotage on the Aloe Vera (F) prevents an anchored character. Eat Me Energy Bars (C) in a losing expedition sets up for Sakarabru (F) on the following day.

  • Aja (U) and Sakarabru (U) in hand let me feel comfortable keeping just a Mana Channeling (C) for D1.
  • A D2 and D3 The Hatter (U) with favorable regions into D4 and D5 Aja (U) gave me enough mana for the rest of the game.
  • My opponent generated card advantage with looped Magical Training (F)s but couldn’t compete with my 15-9 mana advantage.

R6 (L): Basira & Kaizaimon

Do you play the Haven Bouncer (C) here?

  • An opening hand of commons meant my most promising line was a D1 Mana Channeling (C) followed by a D2 Mana Channeling (C) into Eat Me Energy Bars (C). I would start down 4 progressions but in a great position for a Sakarabru (F) top-deck.
  • I passed in the screenshot above, figuring I needed the Energy Bars to stay out. It’s possible this was incorrect, as my opponent of course had another character, a Fire Rabbit (C), to 2-0 again.
  • I needed a Sakarabru (F) or large character on the final day, but I drew into a Chiron (C) and Mighty Jinn (C) instead. I miscalculated and put Chiron (C) into mana, but I would have lost to my opponent’s Mana Eruption (C) off their Axiom Salvager (U) regardless.