sealed

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. ...