Altered TCG: November Review - news, changes, updates and more!

Hello, everyone!

"Newcomer" Altered TCG is certainly bringing a lot of innovations to the Trading Card Game world! Even though it's just a little over 2 months old, some aspects of the game have proven to be really challenging and, at times, even controversial.

Therefore, today we are going to review all the big news that happened during November/2024, and keep you up to date with everything that happened in the world of Altered. Let's go!

November 3rd - Tournament in France - “Ludotrotter Royaume du TCG” - 512 Players

On november 3rd, Ludotrotter organized, during the “Royaume du TCG” event in Paris, a Standard format tournament, which had 512 participants!

After 9 rounds of Swiss, there was a cut to Top16 (which was broadcast live), continuing with elimination rounds. In the end, Etigma became champion with his Waru & Mack deck:

The tournament was once again dominated by the bureaucrat hero, Waru, who claimed 9 spots of the top16 (we even had a Waru mirror match in the finals of the event). This hero had already dominated two other previous major tournaments, the “Altered Open” early October, in France, and in the “Grand Tournament”, mid-October, in the USA.

It's hard to say it wasn't a dominant performance, but alas it was short lived. Not long afterwards, the entire “meta” of the game would change…

November 14th - Robin Hood's rework

On november 14th, Equinox (the company responsible for the Altered TCG) announced an important and deep change to one of the strongest - and most frustrating - cards in the game so far.

Robin Hood proved to be, within a short time of the game's existence, one of the most controversial cards. The idea, similar to the legendary archer's “flavor”, is that he “taxes” his opponents' wealth, making everything cost 1 more mana to play.

Combined with the fact that it has the “Bureaucrat” type, the character was abused in Waru & Mack decks, which could keep him on the board throughout several turns, and, in practice, stop the opponent from playing the game at all - especially when one managed to stick two or more “Robins” on the table at the same time (since the effect was cumulative - the cards would cost 2 more, 3 more, etc.).

Partly taking advantage of Altered having a digital component that dictates the physical component of the game, the developers/designers announced a rework on the “Robin Hood” card effect - in order to avoid “bans” or any other restrictions to use

the card in events, it was decided to change its effect and thus maintain its validity/legality for use.

The change was largely backed by community feedback, and especially focused on improving the gameplay experience for new players.

Equinox was very transparent in addressing the issue, sharing several options analyzed by the designers and how they received and responded to the feedback concerning future issues with the existence of the Robin Hood “taxing” effect in the game.

In the end, the rework was, of course, greeted with both praise and criticism.

Time will tell whether this “rework” may have weighed heavily in terms of players' confidence in Equinox's balancing of the game, or whether in fact the longevity and positive new player experience of the game was preserved, despite the dissatisfaction of some of the playerbase.

The fact is that, since the “rework”, the game's tournaments and events have become much more diverse, although there hasn't yet been a really big event that could serve as a reference for metagame analysis.

November 26th - Announced Delay on "Print on Demand" and "Marketplace" services

Since its launch, Altered has been announced as a cardgame different from any other. One of its caveats is the combination of both digital and physical collecting - so much so that, affectionately, it is called a “phygital” game.

To support this aspect of the game, Equinox had announced two important services that all players would have access to through the game's official app: Print-On-Demand, or sometimes “PoD”, and “Marketplace”.

The idea is that, through the “Marketplace” in the “Altered.gg” app, anyone could find and trade or buy any card with anyone else in the world, as the transaction would happen in digital form, through cards registered to one's account via QR Code, allowing “digital ownership” of the card to be instantly transferred.

In turn, the “Print-On-Demand” service would allow you to transform your digital-only collection into physical copies - allowing you, for example, to receive cards in any language of your choice. It would also be an excellent way to replace damaged cards, lost cards, etc. - as long as you had the digital property in your collection, you could continue to request physical print of the cards for a fee.

Thus, the official announcement that these services are delayed until at lease the beginning of 2025 was certainly met with a lot of grief.

Once again, it is important to praise Equinox's transparency on the issue, since they made clear all the challenges involved in promoting these services to players. Logistical issues with printing and shipping the cards, legal issues with buying/selling in foreign currencies and international transactions, and even issues like Google and Apple receiving fees for the commercial transactions within the game's app, all contributed to the decision to delay the launch of services to bring something more reliable and stable to players.

Although transparency is always welcome, the fact is that the delay of these services brings a burden to the playerbase that eagerly awaits everything that was promised by Equinox to make the game viable on an international level.

A stable buying/selling environment to make transactions - since most of the prices seen today in the secondary market are purely speculative and with a huge variation depending on the country and currency used - is fundamental to any Trading Card Game business model . And, of course, the PoD service would be indispensable to make use of cards you purchased - especially when you think about transactions occurring between players in different countries, which has logistical difficulties due to international shipping.

Conclusion

November was, without a doubt, a full month of news and “rearrangements” for Altered TCG and its playerbase.

Equinox has shown that it is willing to make changes that bring longevity to the game, which is positive, but if these are frequent or very deep, they will undoubtedly affect players' confidence in the company's ability to bring a balanced and fun game upfront.

The delay in the promised services also raises a few eyebrows, but for now there is nothing much to do except wait for further statements from the company - and hope that the new deadlines are met.

Altered is just over 2 months old since its “official launch”, so it is still consolidating itself both among players and within the TCG market. Pax Unplugged, USA's prestigious gaming event, is being widely hyped as the “arrival party” for Altered to the North American public, which takes place in early December. We'll keep an eye out for news to be announced there!

And you, what did you think of this busy November for Altered?

What excites you most about the future of the game? Share with us!

Hugs, and see you next time!