beyond-the-gates

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. Three copies of Hydracaena Hydracaena is a one-card win-condition if your opponent doesn’t have removal. Three copies means I can craft my gameplan around drawing one of these. Alarmingly few 1 and 2-drops My deck will not be able to reliably 2-0 in the early-game. It also won’t have the luxury of passing priority to see where my opponent plays. Bravos and Ordis are more valuable just because they provide 2-3 on-rate 1 and 2-mana characters. Axiom is shallow and weak This is a blessing, since it made me feel comfortable discounting Axiom entirely. Bravos is very deep Including Bravos gives me access to well-statted 3-drops, reasonable removal spells, and my pool’s best 1 and 2-drops. A healthy amount of sabotage Sabotage is strong in limited. 2x Tanuki (C), Haven Bouncer (C), Ordis Spy (C), and Tooth Fairy (C) all let me attack my opponent’s resources. Lyra + Muna anchored characters Lyra and Muna offer four cards that self-anchor: Aloe Vera (F), Coniferal Coneman (F), Dracaena (C), and Coniferal Coneman (C). Each of them gets double value out of the Teija & Nauraa boost. Two copies of The Hatter across Bravos and Lyra The Hatter’s support ability can turn my pool’s excess of 3-drops into a positive. It’s even better if any of the 3-drops have a Teija boost when they’re anchored. The deck I settled on Bravos-Lyra-Muna. Muna allows me to use Teija & Nauraa as my hero and gives me access to three copies of Hydracaena. Bravos is my deepest faction, which helps ensure that my 28th and 29th cards are still playable. A splash of Lyra gives me access to more sabotage and premium self-anchoring characters to boost with Teija’s hero ability. ...

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. Their gameplan is to stick an unassuming character in each expedition, then cycle through cheap spells to apply boosts towards whichever expedition the opponent commits to. ...

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). It provides you with an explicit after-you in addition to the implicit after-you of shifting around stats, letting you get the most out of your removal spells, including the 5-mana Kraken’s Wrath (R). ...

The deck This is a midrange deck that primarily tries to win the game by keeping overstatted 3-drops anchored as long as possible but can quickly pivot to a Lyra Festival (F) win if the opportunity arises. This build maximizes the “put a card from your hand in reserve” part of Rin’s hero ability by including as many instances as possible of the “target character with hand cost 3 or less gains anchored” support ability. If you win in forest early, you can put an anchor support ability into reserve which can snowball into more anchored 3-drops winning future expeditions. ...

I brought this deck to the Wednesday A.W.O.L. weekly on 2024-12-11, going 3-3 for 21th out of 48. Today’s event captured all the highs and lows of the deck: to play Nevenka, you have to embrace the fact that some of the games will be decided by the roll of the dice. I ran into an eclectic set of decks on the other side of the table, so even when my deck wasn’t the one going off, my opponents managed to pull off some pretty cool things! ...

I played a tweaked version of my spell-centric Fen deck at the Monday A.W.O.L. weekly on 2024-12-09, going 4-2 for 15th out of 56. The deck The last time I played this deck. I cut the Mighty Jinn (F)s from the previous build. There’s tension between wanting to play them as soon as possible for the ramp and sometimes not being able to go for a 0-stat character without letting your opponent through. As long as the build is running The Hatter (C) as another 4-mana mountain-forest character, I’ve decided there are better ways to use a rare slot. ...

Now that Robin Hood, the main offender of Waru & Mack, is no longer the problem it was on release, I hoped I could bring out Waru without making enemies on the other side of the table. What surprised me was how interesting the hero was to play due to the number of choices he offers over the course of a game. I took this deck to two online tournaments this week. At the Monday A.W.O.L. tournament on 2024-12-02, the deck went 5-1 in swiss for 3rd place out of 59 on strength of schedule. At the ACE Tuesday championship on 2024-12-03, it went undefeated in single elimination for 1st place out of 44. ...

The deck Where my last Fen deck was a character-centric midrange deck, this build aims to be a spell-centric control deck. The spells in question are the in-faction A Cappella Training (C) to starve the opponent of resources, joined by Yzmir imports Magical Training (F) and Off You Go! (F) to outcard your opponent and remove their strongest plays. Abilities that return cards from reserve to hand are a high priority. They allow you to use your reserve as a toolbox to recycle the cards that matter most in the matchup, while also letting you rescue cards that are stronger from hand if they get resupplied from Fen’s hero ability. ...