sealed

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 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: ...

This was the sealed deck I built for my first Trial by Frost pre-release. The pool First impressions: Fen & Crowbar are the generically strongest hero in my pool. Lyra is very light on playable characters, however, so I would need to support her with two other deep factions. Axiom is very deep. The quantity of strong 2 and 3-drops mean this is a faction I’m always including. The pool has four copies of The Nilam, Withered Tree across Axiom and Yzmir, and they synergize with each other. Along with the other gear and icebound permanents, Sierra & Oddball become a legitimate option. If I’m going Fen, my Bravos pairs naturally with her due to having several cheaper 2-drops and cards that play well with your reserve like Haven Seiringar (C), Bravos Trailblazer (C), and Arcolano Milk. Ordis isn’t quite as deep as it looks, but it has several strong cards, including a few strong 1-drops and two copies of Ebeneezer Scrooge (C). I saw two directions I could go: ...

Today’s weekly event at my LGS ended up being just me and one other person, so we decided to crack open some packs and play a few games of sealed as a send-off to Beyond the Gates. The pool Here are the first things I noticed about the pool I opened: Kojo & Booda are the strongest hero I have access to. Bravos offers a ton of strong 2 and 3-drops. Any deck I build will include Bravos. Muna offers some boost and anchor synergies, but no Teija or Arjun meant most of the cards wouldn’t be at their best. Yzmir has a couple of solid characters, but I need to work make the most of the Flamels: A Cappella Training (C) in Lyra and Beauty Sleep (C) in Muna motivate these two as support factions. (Also, four Kuwats is wild!) Ordis provides strong permanents but is lacking in characters. Sierra & Oddball could be viable thanks to the two Brassbug Hub (C)s and three Ordis Carrier (C)s. Her hero ability helps make up for the fact that Axiom and Ordis are light on characters. Brassbug Hive (C) and The Monolith, Ordis Bastion (C) are two strong 5-mana permanents. I saw two reasonable routes: ...

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 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. ...

It’s not every day you pull two Robin Hoods alongside three other solid bureaucrats in a sealed pool. I’m going to try not to play a ton of Waru & Mack in constructed, so I figured this might be my best chance to test them out! Uniques My rating system Ganesha - 3/7 While the cost of a card from your hand limits some of the more fun combos you can achieve with Mechanical Training (F), Parvati (R), and another Ganesha (F), the reduction in cost by from 7 to 5 makes it substantially easier to fairly reanchor your characters. Despite its mostly intact stats, the average rating is probably due to me thinking Ganesha (F) already requires too much mana and/or setup to get enough value out of the trigger. ...