It’s been a massive year for TCG’s here in Australia. With the launch of Star Wars Unlimited, Disney Lorcana finally hitting our shores and the overwhelming release schedule of Magic: The Gathering showing no sign of slowing down, there are plenty of big, epic options when it comes to getting your card game fix. Curious, then, is the release of Altered, a brand-new IP that doesn’t have the nostalgic backing of Disney or Star Wars helping it along. Instead, it focuses on a modern fantasy universe, with lofty goals of a universally accessible experience, full of positive energy and an unknown world to explore.
On its website, it says that Altered is “aspiring to address the pitfalls that the trading card game market has faced over the last 30 years”, and with a successful Kickstarter campaign to the tune of $10 million AUD, obviously, this is an ethos that resonated a lot with players on concept alone. It’s also ambitious in different ways; Altered has an entire digital component, where you can scan cards into your digital collection, trade them online with other players and even print cards on demand to add to your physical decks. It’s a lot of neat ideas, perhaps too many, but from my time with Altered so far, its foundations are strong enough to potentially carry this high concept forward.
Altered is not combat-focused at all, removing it from its counterparts that have different twists on how characters interact with one another. Instead, the goal of the game is to have your Hero and your Companion progress through Tumult, and meet before your opponent does. This is represented by a mutual land in the middle, with markers on either side representing your Hero and your Companion. To progress on the track, you’ll need to send characters on Expeditions, and each character has three region types of varying values. The Expedition that has a higher value region between you and your opponent that also matches the region on the Tumult card moves one space toward victory.
This creates an interesting system that is instantly ripe with strategic options and important decisions. While any card can be turned into Mana, you’ll only be able to add one per day (starting with 3), so higher value cards that have bigger impacts will take time to build up to. It’s difficult to “win” both Expedition sides at once, so a push and pull comes into action where you need to decide which one to focus your efforts. Like Unlimited, you’ll take it in turns playing characters and abilities, so adapting to your opponent is crucial, keeping an eye on which Expedition they are trying to move forward in, while ensuring not to forget about your own goals.
“…Altered feels competitive and compelling from the first game, which is impressive.”
Another thing that makes Altered stand out is that characters are not permanent. This means you can’t simply stack them and get a strong lead on your opponent, like in other TCGs that sometimes lead to runaway victories. Instead, at the end of each day, a character goes into Reserve. You’re only allowed to have two Reserve characters at any given time, with the rest being discarded. These Reserve cards can be played, using Mana, just like the ones in your hand. But once they’re played a second time, their time is Fleeting, and they’ll be discarded completely at the end of the next turn.
The idea that characters aren’t permanent goes against the grain when thinking about how Magic: The Gathering has defined monsters since its inception. It adds another intriguing layer of tactics, as your top-tier cards need to be played at the right time to get the most value; but wait too long, and your opponent could get ahead. There are certain abilities as well that can only be triggered if a character is played from your Reserve, too, and the Mana cost is different, so the Reserve brings a lot of possibilities to switch things up in exciting ways. There are permanent Landmarks as well that add buffs or ongoing repeat characters onto the Expedition fields, too.
I was impressed with how it all came together to make for a riveting battle against my opponent, even without direct combat being a factor at all. We both were inching closer to our Hero and Companion meeting up, smartly blocking each other’s progress where possible while making on-the-fly decisions about how to maximise the characters in our Reserve. While other new TCGs have taken an expansion or two to achieve the tactical depth I was craving as an experienced TCG player, Altered feels competitive and compelling from the first game, which is impressive.
Get that satisFaction
Deckbuilding in Altered comes down to Factions, each with its own playstyle and Hero types that lean into that style, that form the six available Starter Decks at launch. We checked out Axiom, with the renowned engineer Sierra able to construct powerful machines. They use technological tools to generate robots into Expeditions that can make a real difference. We also played with Ordis, who focus on order and structure in their environment, capitalising on soldiers to overwhelm your opponent with many characters able to tackle Expeditions at once.
The other Factions offer some more creative opportunities; Muna looks to have cards that nurture and boost one another, while the artists in Lyra seem to be chaotic and free-spirited, using dice rolls, cheeky disruption spells and other twists that will make their gameplay harder to predict and prepare for. Unlike other TCGs, Altered deckbuilding rules require you to only use a single Faction, and how they interact with one another will be interesting; from our game, Ordis and Axiom seemed balanced, but we haven’t built decks from the other four factions to form a proper opinion, yet.
What I can say is that the visuals of these cards are polished, and delightful. I love the aesthetic of the Lyra Faction in particular, with bright pink vibes making way for some gorgeous neon artwork. The mysterious Yzmir Faction also feels quite magical, in contrast with the wholesome creature-filled tone of Muna. Borderless cards in particular look an absolute treat, and tapping into fairytales has allowed for some clever interpretations of existing fictional and real-life characters, like a Tanuki spirit flying on a leaf, the Three Little Pigs living their best lives as adorable engineers or the notorious Amelia Earhart based on the American aviation pioneer from the 1930s and even historical champion Joan of Arc.
This willingness to dart between real-life history and fairytales is exciting when it comes to future possibilities of cards; Altered will be releasing its first expansion in January 2025, with the following expansions every four months thereafter as it settles into a regular release cycle. It’s a shame, then, that the visual aesthetic of these beautiful cards is somewhat muted by the big ugly QR code in the corner of each of them. A necessary evil for a TCG that is focused on digital ownership as one of its primary differentiators, perhaps, but I can’t help but wonder if there might have been a more elegant way to incorporate this feature than the big black-and-white monstrosity that we’re mostly used to seeing everywhere at restaurants to order our food.
An intriguing digital future
Card ownership in a digital sense is an interesting prospect, and Altered has a companion app that lets you scan your cards, to then be traded with other players via a virtual marketplace. Then, once traded, you can pay to have those cards physically delivered to you as a print-on-demand service. So far, the functionality of the marketplace and print-on-demand isn’t live, so I can’t say for sure how effective this all is in reality. The process of scanning your cards is relatively simple and can thankfully be done in bulk, and I do like having my collection on hand in the app to assist with deckbuilding ideas, which is a nice touch.
Another unique idea with Altered is that you won’t be getting Foil versions of cards in boosters. Instead, you’ll be getting generic “Foiler” cards, which you can then apply digitally to a card of your choice, to then be printed and sent to you. It removes the excitement of pulling an amazing card from a booster pack, which has been a hallmark of TCGs for a long time now, and a big factor for collectors who are constantly buying boosters to build their collection of super-rare cards. Whether this has a big impact on the community in the future, time will tell, but it does make the idea of buying boosters a little less thrilling.
With some truly interesting ideas that I haven’t seen in a TCG before, Altered is certainly coming in hot. Our early battles have proven to be exciting, and there’s a lot of potential with the various Factions to build some strong and rewarding decks. I’m not fully sold on the digital aspect, mostly because we can’t literally try it out yet, but the gorgeous artwork and fresh feeling have me excited to be on the journey. Altered might not have the heavy familiarity of Disney, Star Wars or Magic, but it has gusto and creativity that I hope propels it forward regardless.
Altered is available now at all good gaming and hobby stores.
Altered Starter Packs and Boosters were provided by VR Distribution for the purpose of this coverage.
About the Author
Luke Mitchell
he/him
Luke spends his time making radio, playing video games, binge-watching TV, getting unreasonably invested in wrestling, hosting bear events and hanging out with his beautiful pets.
