Cardboard Corner: Review of Altered TCG

Magic: The Gathering has been a smash hit. Inspiring dozens upon dozens of similar games, it brought about the Golden Age of expandable card games. But interest waned, the market moved in new directions, and the model faded. But it didn't disappear. A tiny number of such games stood strong while new ones appeared and disappeared like fireflies. It's now 2024 and a new wave of expandable card games is hitting the market. We're in the middle of a second Golden Age. Putting a horse in that race is Altered TCG (2024), which automatically generates questions. Does it have a unique edge to distinguish itself from the dozens and dozens of similar games releasing now? Does it have a chance at outlasting the Age—of being one of the few still standing once the sun has set on the second age? Let's check the horse's teeth.

I would (and will in a moment) argue that Altered has a truly unique edge. But at its absolute core, Altered does not upset the collectible card game apple cart. Two players bring pre-prepared decks comprised of units, spells, and permanents to battle it out in a head-to-head duel. These central concepts of CCGs remain the same. What lies beyond, however, is where things get special.

The win condition of Altered is a special place to start. It's not bashing and slashing away. It's not knocking hit points to zero. And it's not dueling magicians. It's a race. Located between players is the Expedition: a modular terrain divided into eight zones. Each player controls two tokens: their hero and their hero's companion. These tokens start at opposite ends of the Expedition and the players' goal is to move them closer together through card play, zone by zone, until the two tokens occupy the same Expedition space. First player to do so, wins.

Yes, you're right. Games like Magic: The Gathering, Flesh and Blood, Star Wars: Unlimited, etc. are also a “race”, i.e. to be the first to knock the opponent's hit points to zero or some such thing. Altered TCG, however, offers a race wherein the player controls the location of the finish line without the need for combat and violence. This makes for a refreshing take on CCG win conditions—a difficult thing to do with literally 100+ CCGs in the wild. Almost needing to be played to be understood Altered nevertheless brings a new perspective to winning duels.

Given how it drives dynamic non-determinism every game of Altered, it's worth going one level deeper into the Expedition. As mentioned, the track is modular. The two outer Expedition cards are fixed, but the three central cards are shuffled and placed face down before every game. As players' tokens advance, the cards are flipped to reveal the terrain types. There are four possible types: forest, mountain, water, and some mix of these three. Analogous to this, all unit cards have stats related to terrain types. Some units are better in water than forest, some better in mountains, some good all around, etc. In other words, the optimum card to play each turn is dependent on where your tokens are on the Expedition and in relation to the cards the opponent has and could play. In other-other words, there is healthy triangle of elements the player must take into consideration during play that is slightly different each game.

The second special aspect of Altered, one which is literally and figuratively unique, is the unique-class cards.  Commons are commons, rares are rares, but uniques are literally one-of-a-kind.  If you own a unique, you are the only person who owns that card - a one of one with its own, singular card abiliites.  Nobody else in the world will be able to play X and do Y.  This is based on a bit of the technology from Keyforge.  An algorithm ensures that each cycle of cards released contains the standard cards from the set (i.e. repeated) but also an excellent spectrum of uniques.  Nowhere near as rare as the One Ring in Magic, these unique cards can be found in one of every three or four booster packs.

The other excellent aspect contributing to Altered's dynamism is the lack of table permanence. Unless they have the Anchored keyword, all units disappear from the Expedition at the end of a round. They can be placed in a player's Reserve and paid for in the next round to appear again, but only two cards can be retained in this fashion. All other cards are discarded. On top of ensuring each round is fresh, it also makes for an interesting bit of open information to tease the opponent with. For example, playing cards from Reserve early to make the opponent guess what cards you have in hand. Conversely, you can leave a card in Reserve, i.e. visible, as a threat to be played at any time, which in turn can influence an opponent's decisions. Opposite of Anchored, there are units with the Fleeting keyword. Such units are discarded at the end of a round, no chance at the Reserve. These are generally overpowered—a bigger jolt of power, but it's a temporary jolt which can only be played once. All in all, when and how long cards stick around makes for a fun, fluid game space. It is one of the central pillars of gameplay, and one the elements contributing strongest to engagement. It's worth noting this aspect of Altered bears some resemblance to Legend of the Five Rings LCG, a game which likewise thrived on having a dynamic, evolving game space.)

There are six factions in Altered, and each has its own identity. Ordis is the straight-forward faction interested in overwhelming with sheer numbers. Yzmir wants to mess with their opponent's plans through sabotage and ambush. Axioms starts small but slowly builds dominating presence. Bravo doesn't have a lot of units, but what units it does have are big and powerful. Muna wins games by persistence, by having anchored pieces sticking around longer than other factions. And Lyra is the most luck-based faction given how its victories (and losses) often hinge on dice rolls—the only faction or aspect of the game which uses dice.

Altered falls in the 'charming fantasy' vein of visuals. The art is spectacular. There are a few pieces I have questions about (e.g. the pumpkin companion with an electric guitar?!?!), but all in all Altered cards have the artistic pedigree of the best games on the market—Flesh and Blood, Lorcana, (modern) Magic, and others. But it is done in the style of Dixit, Seasons, and other such Lilibud games. Add to this the foils and elegant framing and formatting, and the game is a visual feast.

I have two issues with Altered. The first is inconsistency in the game's motif. Again, the art is phenomenal; individual cards truly pop—color, saturation, balance.  Collectively, however, the art is non-heterogeneous. Altered is set in its own fantasy world, and accordingly, the heroes and lore are unique. But not all of the game is novel. It also contains creatures and people from our world, both real and fictional. The tooth fairy, Baba Yaga, the frog prince, Mowgli, Mulan, Joan of Arc, the three little pigs, and other well known figures appear regularly. In other words, the familiar intrudes upon the unfamiliar. The fantastically unknown is disrupted by the well known.

From the perspective of motif, I dislike this. It's a kitchen sink mentality—an anything-goes mindset that results not in a kaleidoscope of original colors but a mixed brown. The player becomes immersed in the game's fantasy world only for the three little pigs to pop in and cause the player to question where they are. Our world? The game's world? Or worse yet, somewhere liminal? I assume not everyone will be bothered by this, but be aware the game's motif has inconsistencies. It bears repeating: each art piece, regardless of a known or unknown character, is terrific.

But this milieu has a knock-on issue, the second discussed here.  It's linked to the way factions are designed and cards printed.  According to the deckbuilding rules, players may use only cards from one faction to build a deck.  Ok, normal, no problem.  Given each faction has a strong identity, great.  The issue is that Equinox chose to print many, many non-faction cards in other factions - so called fable, or cross-faction cards.  Brassbugs, for example, are a token element of the Axiom faction.  Brassbug = Axiom.  Only when it doesn't.  All the other factions have cross-faction cards which generate brassbugs.  Granted, these cards are rare or unique, which limits the numbers, it nevertheless serves to dilute the idenity of each faction.  Given how many cards each faction has, not to mention the strength of the identity of each faction, I'm left wondering: why? It makes the mixed brown described a moment ago even more muddled.   

The third and final issue I have is that Altered doesn't dig into its racing win condition as much as it could have. The concepts of distance, speed, motion, or chase are almost entirely lacking from card effects and mechanics. Instead, units and spells function similar to Magic, i.e. facing off across a board. For example, designers could have incorporated modes of travel (boats, cars, zeppelins, etc.), different types of propulsion or fuel (steam, wind, fire, solar, diesel, etc.), and different objects people associate with racing or travel (switches, levers, tickets, smoke, wings, etc). Yes, units' statistics are based on terrain types, but it is highly abstracted. There is nothing else in the area of decisions and actions to remind the player they are participating in a race, or even the reunification of a hero and their companion. To be clear, the game succeeds despite this relative lack of theme. But I do think it is a missed opportunity. Embedding racing in the game's units and spells would only have distinguished it further.

No review of Altered would be complete without mentioning the business model. At your FLGS, it is the same as all other CCGs: cards are sold in booster packs, booster boxes, and starter sets, and all cards are available at common, uncommon, rare, etc. with fixed rarities per pack/box. But at the digital level, Altered brings something to the table no CCG ever has. All cards have a QR code in the lower right corner. Players scan their cards into the Altered app to define ownership. He who owns the QR code, owns the card, regardless paper or virtual.  If that person wants to sell/trade one of their cards, they can do that the old-fashioned way on the secondary market. But they can also offer it for sale or trade in the Altered app as a digital item. And here is where things get singular. Once sold, the seller transfers the card's QR code to the purchaser. The purchaser then requests a copy be printed and mailed by Equinox/Asmodee—the publishers of Altered. There is no need for the physical card to be exchanged between players. Both players can have a copy, but only the player who owns the QR code actually owns it.  In other words, both seller and purchaser can play the card kitchen table casual, but only the purchaser/owner can take that card to a tournament. Given all players must register their cards/decks in the app in order to play in tournaments, there is no chance cards are ”duplicated”. These QR codes offer an NFT-type product without being NFTs, or having the cultural and commercial baggage that NFTs do. Players can buy and play cards as they please, the same as Flesh and Blood, Magic, or any other TCG. But the digital trading platform, accompanied by the print-n-play aspect of buying cards, makes for a huge amount of potential for the game's business model. Time will tell how the digital ownership works. Exploitable? Successful? Or somewhere in the middle?

Let's bring this review full circle before closing. Is Altered worth playing? And, does it have staying power on the market for those interested in collecting? Having played +/-100 games of Altered, there is a better than average chance this game survives more than three years. The primary mechanisms are rock solid, the flow of game play is fluid and fun, and it does stick its nose above the crowd of CCGs by offering something unique in the form of the win condition. The six factions offer a distinct variety of gameplay that seems to have room for further exploration. And lastly, the studio has the backing of Asmodee, which means there will likely be good marketing and support beyond just developer's twitter accounts and word of mouth.

Out of all the new CCGs released the past year or two, this is the best one I've played. I have gripes about the theme, but bottom line the game is rich, engaging fun with depth. Once you go beneath the innocent veneer, the game offers significantly more than the other two big CCGs to hit the market recently, Lorcana and Star Wars Unlimited. Where those two games play things too safe (i.e. CCG 101), Altered takes some risks, risks that pay off. The true wild card here is the business model in the QR codes and digital ownership. On paper it works, but time will tell if it actually works. This one has a chance of surviving the second Golden Age...