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I'm in AZ and Gamers Guild is the only major presence running Altered. Sadly not in my area. For me I have about 4 people at my LGS who will play a game. I have a box of all common decks to give away and have been offering learn to play after One Piece when I go. Going to bring a box in to have some packs to giveaway too. Really a fan and the people who have played all seem to like it, just need to hit a big enough critical mass to get people playing regularly.

Speaking on opening packs and getting uniques. The lgs I play at weekly, we all agree that there aren't as many good uniquea for certain factions as there are for others. Example, collectively, four of us (not Kickstarter backers) have pulled more Ordis uniques from boxes we've purchased than any other faction...

The promo packs are awesome. The adventure pass is awesome. I've been to 13 events and always walked away with at least 1 new unique. I feel well-rewarded for simply playing the game, which I didn't feel from other card games.

I talked to one of my LGSes and they are making a conscious decision not to support Altered until the marketplace is available. They want to see Equinox make good on their promises because they have been burned by other hyped kickstarter games in the past. Perhaps other LGSes in N.A. are wary because Altered in a kickstarter funded game too.

I'm in fort Wayne, Indiana which is a fairly big city in Indiana and there's literally nothing here and there's pretty much a scene for every single other competitive card game. I have to drive over 2 hours to get down to Indianapolis if I want to play

I think another issue in the USA is/was the lack of support from Equinox. While it seems to be getting better now, it's really clear that the experience in general is not quite up to snuff in the Americas compared to the E.U. The local game stores in the US also seem really hesitant to get into the game but maybe that will change as it gains popularity. It's been a lot of fun at my LGS (I've been one of the lucky few with a store about an hour away that I can play at)

So far, Philadelphia’s scene seems to at least be growing. Have two stores nearby that sell, one of which is going to be running games soon with another shop thats a bit farther (40min+ drive) that’s starting to do locals with about ~6ish players.

We have a local Discord and had a lot of hype going into release which fizzled out so quickly. We have three, maybe four stores that carry product. It mostly sits on the shelves. I believe the one store where I help organize is the only one that sees semi-regular play, which isn't even once a week. Draft tends to pull in the most people at six. Woo! And I think that points to one of the biggest issues with the game: We don't have a good secondary market. More importantly, we don't have the official Altered market. What my locals keep expressing frustration around is not being able to have a playset of the rares they need for the deck they want to play. And that's totally fair! Opening the product is a pretty awful gamble when you just want to complete one or two decks. Or want to build to one faction but don't open any of those rares (me with Bravos after four boxes). I am hopeful that once the official market is online our scene will pick back up, assuming folks haven't just given up and moved on by then.

In kalamazoo Michigan USA we have about 15 players we have an average of 8 10 every week we have found lots of couples playing together maybe that's a gate way

I am from Germany Cologne its a very big town and not a single store runs it hers. There like 3 stores in 1h30min reach and then alot more beyond that. But its like you guys said its like the same 4-8 people rotating these stores with like 2-3 different people depending which you go to.

It's definitely really strange to see Altered doing SO well in France and doing, ok, elsewhere. It makes sense being a French game but I was sad to see after the 1000 player plus tournament the one in US the following week wasn't even 10% of that. Equinox definitely has an uphill battle with "the big 3" as Trickster put it and more recent games with massive IPs that are a pull on their own. I don't know how they tackle that, it's a big positive to see them at the events though and that will help build some grassroots but I'm not sure how I would sell someone on the game without just sitting them down to play it. BGA can definitely be a part of that but I think digital card games is not something they want to get into a big fight with as that opens up a whole other can of worms. The game itself is fantastic though, I'm yet to play any limited formats but am excited for that too. The OP packs are great but you need to understand the game to see their value first. I will always do my part at the low level, be up for showing people, bust out starter decks for a balanced first experience etc. I just hope anyone watching this that is ever in that position does the same but Equinox definitely need to think of something else. Perhaps store championships, perhaps some more launch style events with fairly low entry fees and potential high winnings to show **value**.

Along with NA market getting into the Asian market is huge been seeing more Thai players these days. That may become a hot spot hopefully

Decent scene of 8-12 in Augusta, GA

In the US in Michigan, we play at Draw 7 games. At the time of they are 1 of 2 stores is the whole state. Unlimited is dieing quickly, as is Flesh and blood. Top 3 games 1mtg, 2pokemon,3 lorcana, 4 one piece. In America people fall into 1 of 2 groups. 1 master set collectors. They want every cards. 2 competitive tcg players, I play in a locals in Michigan with players like Brain Courtade. People in the US hate they can't get every good card. I personally love the game of Aldtered, and I'm constantly going early to leagues to demo the game!

In SE Wisconsin, we have a group of 8-12 that have been getting together weekly, so it has been alright here. It definitely helps that we have players and stores that will champion the game though.

In 🇺🇸 NWArkansas there is no place to play in shop. Just one called pack wars in MO

I did/do some local outreach for Texas and it always surprises me when a store owner replies with "I have never heard of that" ... Maybe I am just too obsessive of a person but if I owned a card shop I would definitely be keeping up with TCG news as much as humanly possible haha. Great conversation!

I have had a pretty hard time getting it going in Vermont. I have found one store willing to promote it. I finally got them to do an event Friday the 15th. I like playing in person more than online so I am pushing to grow it.

Locally, we had a solid turnout for the first few weeks, but the lack of tournament software made the lgs just run “casual events” that were people sitting around being bored.

i have been using proxies for my digital uniques. i play more locally than on BGA.

Set 2 release is Jan 31st 2025

I'm hoping it picks up more, but honestly worried. I'm in a mid-sized city and one store does has product and ran 4-5 events from release through Nov. 1st. Sadly only 1-2 other people other than me have attended and my LGS has not created anymore events since November.

great topic. before i watch i want to know if anyone experiences much higher unique prices from eu sellers than NA sellers lol

hear me out: gilded format. all uniques. 2-3 factions allowed

Layra Chronical is better....440...on the right Terrain it can bring you Forward and block the other side...also with hatters anchored it is a 4 strengh. ....for 3 mana she will win in most cases in non start Terrain and bring you Forward in start Terrain (but with zero she can mostly not block

How many cards does the deck wallet hold?

The big issue I have with the discussion about the marketplace’s influence on the availability of uniques is that eBay and Facebook already exist with a large access to uniques

Cool stuff I did and saw in draft : Subash with the draw power from Yzmir and Ordis. Fen with Haven bravos bastion. Lyra festival with Muna and Ordis for extra anchored / sleep effects. The format has SO much potential, it is crazy fun to explore.

Would like to try an Oops! All Rares format. No Rare Limit 15 Unique Limit 3 Common Limit

I've also been cooking up a strategy with Kaibara and other big cards in pink. Though I took the Auraq and Kibble with Mind Apotheosis approach instead of using Nevenka to hopefully anchor. It's so fun to cheat out a hydracaena or a small step giant leap!

Thanks for covering limited formats, I did ask for that so although you said there's been no mailbag submissions you kind of did mine :D Too broke to go to my LGS this week, so it's BGA for my Altered fix, but I'm definitely thinking of talking everyone into some sealed this month.

I think altered is just the perfect game for cube building because the physical cards will hold so little value once pnp is a thing. it'll be so cheap and easy to have a single physical copy of every common and rare in the game.

Auraq I think is better for the big monster deck. The bastion always seems to break tempo when I play it so I dropped it.

I think I have an interesting topic. Let me move the game a few expansions in the future: would you rather the game have a standard rotation like Magic: the Gathering, have the core set always in standard and rotating expansions like in Hearthstone or have all cards available in standard like in Flesh and Blood? I love the podcast, please keep doing more episodes!

Yay so excited to listen to this 🎉

I think going forward if uniques get out of hand they can always put some type of retirement system in play. Whether that is simply if it wins X amount of tournaments it's retired. Or Unique cards get some kind of points system and gain points for being in winning decks. ( every time you win in a tournament that card gets X points and is retired at x points. Like FaB Heros) I think they have a few cogs to play with within their creation of unique cards. So I don't think it should be a real problem within the game if they manage it correctly.

I don't think that some uniques can just automatically win you the game, they can be strong but i think that it's part of the game to stay prepared for the opponent's uniques since they are the most unpredictable and potentially powerful cards. I think it's really cool.

Great discourse re: the main topic--in particular, noting the scarcity of named cards atm and how chase values may shoot up higher than we've ever seen for such a young card game, as well as how current cards that may seem unbroken may turn out to be in future seem worth bearing in mind; but then Trickster is right that, fundamentally, the issue is that Uniques atm are being overstatted (rather than just providing the possibility of unique deck construction for potential archetypes)

Just getting into the game and have been loving the content you guys are pulling out, but please Trickster, put some of your tournament winnings towards a poster for your wall!! 😅

the easy and hardest way to balance Unique Cards is to ban them from high level competitive tournaments :D

I definitely think there's a bit of a potential for uniques to be "bad" for the game, but I really doubt they're going to have a negative effect on the average player. The way I figure it is that grinders, the highly competitive players will accept and pay the cost to get their 3 perfect uniques. For everyone else you'll play what you have and be fine playing at locals. I do have a question for @TricksterCG. Do you believe you had the strongest uniques at the Phoenix event? A more narrow ask would be: Do you think you still would have won the event with other uniques? I think uniques definitely can matter, but I do think overall that they won't be the definitive value in winning or losing.

I tried playing with Afanas without much success until I played vs someone on BGA with a unique that returns spells on dusk. I deleted my deck and gave up on Afanas forever at that point. I can't compete with those uniques. And look at some of the winning decks, like that one 4th place Lyra deck. He had 3 uniques with removal spells stapled on them. I've also played someone with a similar unique, like a 4/4 kappa with 3/2/4 stats with arrow - discard a guy with cost 3 or less. I lost the game so very bad. 2 days in a row were easy double moves for my opponent and there was nothing I could do. I have no idea how much a unique like this would cost since I have never, ever seen something like these for sale in the past month of checking multiple sites/discords every day. 800 dollar each is probably right.

There are a small number of uniques that are super powerful and mostly obvious so. However there are also some that are more subtly powerful (like the Yzmir uniques that pull back spell cards to hand). I think there's also a bunch of uniques that will get better over time. I guess we;ll see but it will be exciting to find out.

The game is 45 days old. I think that it is normal if the average player doesn't have three perfect uniques for their deck yet ! Personnaly I have one very good unique that will be hard to upgrade and two other that are just fine. And that's good, I know I will eventually get better ones one day. That's the thrill :) PS : You are right, Afanas is the best

It is a tough spot to be in when it comes to getting another box. I need more rares and would like new uniques. Do i drop $150 on a box to get a bunch of throwaway commons, not all the rares i need, and possibly pull no uniques i want or can trade? Or use the $150 to complete my rare playset and get a unique or two that i can use? Or spend the $150 on one or two uniques to greatly increase the strength of my deck?

The devs seem to have put certain restrictions on uniques of a particular character as well. For example, all Kraken uniques appear to lack gigantic.

Im glad that trickster points out that Ordis cards are just flat out better than other factions. Ozma was a good example.

Sadly the uniques are being a gamebrake, It's cool but players are monopolyzing that, if you have money you can get the good uniques :/

Cool revieW ! Need the other factions now please 😁

Uniques can work depending on the limiters set into place but given some of the UNQ I saw, the competitive balancing is going to be a nightmare. I saw UNQ that allows for an EASY DRAW 3 (at dusk draw 3) and that is a mind blowing mistake. Why is there a draw 3 effect in the algorithm so early in the game? Draw 1 is already strong and draw 2 VERY strong, but draw 3 is ridiculous in a game where card management is much more important than other tcgs. Yes, only 3 UNQ in a deck, but they should never be super swingy on their own.