Cards in the collection will be used as your library to play on BGA against other people, which is an idea I really like! Also, there will be only 3 sets per year which is less agressive than most TCG.
If you are looking for deep compelling theme (I am not), check out the lore written for Altered- it is as extensive as any I have seen. The game play is well above average. What reeled me in is the digital ownership of cards, which makes the marketplace easy and fun. And being able to play with decks made from your collection on BGA (coming soon) is fantastic for someone who lives far from any game store.
I think this is one of the better collectible card games out there. It's a unique win condition on top of some unique mechanics, like the reserve rules etc. I think it's really good
@@RvLeshrac I mean I agree. I'd prefer LCG format but as we see with MTG, Star wars unlimited, flesh and blood and a few other niche CCGs, people love the collectable nature of them and just opening blind but packs. I quit buying a single FFG LCG after I got into netrunner, Warhammer 40k conquest, Star wars LCG and AgoT 2nd edition and they were all cancelled so I have totally given up supporting their crap
Conquest and Android: Netrunner were cancelled due to IP disputes, but publishers can't indefinitely support a game, they need a sustainable profit margin. That's not crap, that's life.
I thought the comment about Altered feeling like a TCG designed by a designer who doesn't work in the TCG space was interesting. Because the game that Altered most reminded me of was Blue Moon (Legends) by Knizia. It has a similar tug of war vibe, competing back and forth across the different elements (2 in BM, 3 in Altered).
I still love Star Wars Unlimited, but this will find a home alongside it. This game has been crazy fun and will have digital support really early on Boardgame Arena.
@@Schlagathor78 I gave up on SWU because just like lorcana, they didn't produce enough cards in set 1 and I'm not going to try and play catch up with collectible games
"Robin Hood and Tinkerbell don't draw people in like Disney and Star Wars." On a surface level, very true. But people like myself that find lore and narrative compelling will dig into what Altered is doing with these mythical/historical figures as they exist alongside people in the "real world" of the game. The Maindeck channel did a nice lore series and pointed out some interesting interactions. The Lady of The Lake was a nice addition in particular.
Gee, I hope Asmodee never gets hit by a ransomware attack such that they can no longer support this game digitally............ ..........Like THAT would ever happen.
@@HALOX30 The whole point is that your physical cards aren't actually what's worth, but rather the "code" on it (to the point that they have a "print-on-demand" model for trading). Having the physical cards is worthless in tournaments unless you actually own the QR Code as well.
@@scottwallbank4794 What are you talking about? There was a website and I think even an app where you would scan the QR codes from the decks that you own and then record the wins and losses with those decks.
Zee - there is a hell of a lot of lore and background to the game. Its a shame that the starter rules don't really give you all that as the one sentence you describe isn't even correct.
This review honestly feels a bit in bad faith at some points. Saying the IP and lore are weak and shallow because you only read a one sentence synopsis is a bit unfair. Saying the game doesn’t bring anything that sets it apart outside of uniques completely ignores the turn structure, how cards are played, and how the game is won being completely different from any other TCG out there. For finding the cards you need and looking at cost, I’ve seen a lot of people get from this review that it will be expensive, but it is actually one of the most consumer friendly games on the market. There are only 3 rarities, common, rare and unique. You can only have 15 rares and 3 uniques in your deck which by itself limits the cost of a deck. Rares are also not wildly better than commons, and are sometimes just different to fit different niches. As for Uniques, they are not as much of a balancing nightmare as you might assume. They have internal balancing for the uniques and you are limited to 3 per deck, so you may not even see a particular one in a game. And since they are only around for 1-2 turns, a broken unique cannot win you a game. Mythics, legendaries and secret rares in other games are far more costly and game breaking. As for the IP, it’s fine to say it doesn’t immediately catch your interest, but to judge it on the whole so harshly and call it misguided after 1 sentence and no further research into the actual lore just feels unfair
@@zyjinn8596 yea if you don’t care about crazy meta uniques this will be the cheapest tcg on the market. The fact you can print cards on demand of ones you have means you really only need to get you hands a single copy of a card and you are able to print the rest. I think they said a single card would be like 30 cents.
It's the games job to present it's setting. If it fails to do that, thats a fair critique. It's not on the reviewer to go and look up external sources for it. Gonna go out on a limb and guess you backed in on Kickstarter?
@@IdlestHands so magic should tell the story clearly in the set, not in the 4 books/ blogs they post between each set. Got it! I’ll be sure to let WOTC know.
Haven't even finished the video, but I already feel like this could have just been an LCG. There's no reason for this to be a TCG outside of being physical micro transactions and to take advantage of whales who will gamble their money away.
This. The art is gorgeous, and I would've loved to play a "euro-y tcg" of sorts, but it feels like it's a TCG for the sole obvious reasons you already pointed out, so I'm out. And I believe this will flop hard, exactly because of this. You see, the people that would like the type of gameplay this offers, are people that are more towards the board game side of things, and will not engage with it because they don't want to deal with typical TCG bullshit. And the people who usually put up with TCG bullshit, will not be particularly interested in the type of gameplay that it has. It's like they're trying to have their cake and eat it too, and it will blow in their faces.
@@ThorAxiun I'm sure we will see lots of single cards going for several hundred dollars and then a few months to a year later they won't even be worth the paper they are printed on. Other TCGs have done exactly what this has done with the real world NFT aspect putting collectability first and foremost; hardly any of those games last. Look at MetaZoo which kicked this whole thing off or Wonders of the First which continue to keep this scam going.
It's a veeery expensive model, for the consumer. I support only one TCG at the moment and it's only one set per year... Still pricey of course. Though Altered does do things a bit differently from what I hear.
I decided to pass on this. I’m still enjoying Star Wars Unlimited and can’t fully invest in both games at this time. Maybe I will try out a couple starters to see about it but we will see.
So if this is coming to BGA, will I as a BGA member be able to play it without owning any of the physical cards? I’m always down to try new card games, especially if there is a way to do it without really jumping in first.
The starter decks have actually been free to play on BGA for the last several months, so you can go try it out now. It's great and well worth giving a go to see how you like it.
You haven't talked at all about the combo potential in this game. How do the cards interact with each other? As you do not build up a board in traditional sense, cause all played cards go to reserve, I don't think that you combo much - which would make the game boring to me.
If you're doing TCG reviews now, I really think you should take a look at Grand Archive. The next set is due out in a month, with any luck you could get your hands on the new starter decks and have a go at it. Its a good game that deserves more attention.
In my opinion the gameplay is deeper than it is given credit for here. Here is a list of mechanics I appreciate the most: - Starting with 3 mana keeps first turns from feeling samey and offers some decision space right from the get go - Back and forth gameplay combined with the objective of lane pushing makes 1 and 2 cost cards really interesting because they allow you to put them out and then pass back (if you pass without playing anything, you pass for the whole round) to your opponent without committing too much resources to a single lane. Then you can wait and see where and what your opponent commits and react accordingly. - Drawing two cards every turn (then optionally putting any card from hand into mana) gives you enough options - you almost never end up with an unplayable hand - The reserve is a wonderful addition to the game, basically extending your options of playable cards while being visible to your opponent and vulnerable to the "sabotage" keyword, letting your opponent get rid of your most attractive reserved cards (normally you want to go second in a round to see where your opponent commits his cards but if you want to "sabotage" a reserve-play, being the first player offers this advantage) - Multiplayer (2vs2) has potential because passing after every card-play keeps downtime lower compared to other TCGs.
This game is a better version of Star Wars unlimited mixed with 40k conquest/blood bowl team manager. Sure the theme is meh but that reserve mechanic adds a lot to the game.
What do you think makes it better than SWU? I was big on Altered and played a lot of it but then started playing SWU and feel like SWU is just better in every aspect. Has much more interesting decision making, more interaction, better meta, more affordable for collecting, etc. I'm planning on just selling off all Altered content.
@@icydeadpeeps one of the tough decisions i made playing swu was what card to play as a resource. This game has that and more. It also plays to two diff areas but this game you need to be concerned on what to play in an area because of the terrain types and you aren’t pigeon holed by unit type. Also the reserve mechanic is amazing. It’s like having a second hand and almost every card is really two cards in one. I don’t think prices for this game are crazy at all compared to swu. I’ve seen booster box preorders for 93 dollars shipped on eBay and that’s 36 packs. Swu booster boxes are only 24 packs and cost more. Also this game you can have the company print extras of the cards you own which is way cheaper as you really only need one copy of any given rare and then you can print the rest.
@@icydeadpeeps now is the best time to sell while the hype is there, you can always buy in after like a month as with all TCGs, the prices will go down. I think it is slightly better than SWU, but both are similar so at the end it is up to your tastes. It is also just the first set, and even there it has a lot going for it. I like the reserve mechanic and the rarity limits per deck. It will probably be a budget game to play, especially casually as you don't need to own the cards digitally there
This just seems like a pretty average run of the mill modern card game where the main point of differentiation is it's unique approach to the business model. Which I am certainly not even close to sold on. Unique cards sound like a balance nightmare for competitive play, and the whole feature of ordering more cards direct from the company and sending in foilers sounds like it won't be remotely feasible for most areas of the world. If it picks up and continues long term it would likely become more complex and interesting, like all card games inevitably do, but I don't such much reason to get into this over any other current game, especially those that already have established communities of players (the REAL live or die for a tcg)
So many comments here about how "nooo the lore is actually so deep!", but lemme tell you guys, if they didn't even notice that the lore was there, no, it's not.
The problem is, the lore might be all the deep you want, but most people didn't appreciate Urza's Saga because of the novels - they did because the cards, with their tone and flavor and outright depictions of events, were a story on its own! And that's ON TOP of the fact that, even with all of the flavor of the Urza block, MTG would have never become this big had that been a first release(s) in a competitive market. MTG has thrives because of having been the first - and, by being so, it managed to become an IP on its own: it has a following that must be convinced that their new sets are cool, and, if convinced it is, that following will spread the world to the people not playing it. In a position where MTG had to directly (with no pre-established following to help them) convince other people, who not only are not inherently interested but worse may be already playing something else, that their game was cool and worth trying, it would have never had the huge following it has today (most likely, it would have died in a few year). And _that's_ the position Altered is in right now. That's why marketing is important. Just telling people with no inherent interest in your game that "Trust me, this game has such an interesting lore... if you read the supplementary lore pamphlet that can be downloaded from the game's website" isn't gonna cut it.
I played it recently with a few friends and thought it was excellent. We each bought one of the different 6 precons and each kind of flip flopped between them. We thought it was really fun, and simple enough that once you understood the phases, it was easy to jam out quick games. I enjoy it and am hopeful to see the future of it
Altered tcg is the best tcg ever played. The reasons Are so clear When you have a deeper look: the old fashioned way of buy the Meta Card Deck and win is over. constructed Format is limited with 3 uniques and 15 rares per Deck. The uniques Are that what there named: one single Part is UNIQUE on this planet On the online Platform BGA you can only Play with cards you own, so there Are Not hundred of players copied the Meta Deck and Play it against. 120 Bucks for 36(!) Booster packs ? Expensive? Lol Its from Europe- Why Not? So much scrap comments here omg
Really? Disney Lorcana is available at every Walmart in my area. It's not hard to find at all. Outside of a few high priced single cards, most of the cards can be bought individually on the secondary market for a dollar or two.
Don't feel too bad. just do a little bit of research on Disney as a company and you will feel much better about not being able to give them your money.
Never seen one of your videos. From the comments, I thought this was gonna be a kinda amatorial, janky video that would get the point across but with a sort of "unprofessionality" to it... instead, you presented all of your points very neatly and with good arguments, and the audio quality wasn't bad! It was a great watch! The only criticism I share is that, while the video flewd perfectly... that's because I had it on 2x. '|D And it's not a pacing problem, it's just the slow talking... you definitely have the Tolarian Community College problem! Besides that, though, great job! I'm absolutely checking the rest of your stuff, and if it satisfies me, I'm subscribing!
This review feels so weird to me, they critique stuff only from the view of starter decks (atleast it seems that way). No mention of deckbuilding and differences in factions/rarities or the unique aspects of the game. To me this game has so much potential and it fixes many problems I have with most card games. The play 1 card, oppenent plays 1 card turn structure for example... I don´t know if they wanted it to come across this way, but it feels like they just looked at everything included in the starter, didn´t question it any further and just ran with the review.
Riftforce and its expansion can be picked up for a very low price, it includes 18 unique factions you can draft, and it all fits in the expansion box. You can get all of Riftforce for the price of two starter decks of Altered. I think Riftforce is absolutely a much better deal for your money. If you're looking for interesting card-based lane battler games I highly recommend Radiant Offline Battle Arena or ROBA, specifically the Championship Edition. It includes 18 heroes, with players drafting 3 each including a MOBA-style pick and ban phase, after which you combine all 10 cards in each hero's deck to create a unique deck. You also secretly pick equipment, location, and God cards to further customize your playstyle and strategy. ROBA is an excellent hidden gem; it's a little more expensive than Riftforce IIRC but you're getting a complete game that's well balanced internally and doesn't require buying any more packs of cards to stay ahead of power creep.
i dont like this review at all. I honestly believe that throwing words as misguided is just a no no for me. Specially when it is blatantly not true. Specially when it is a world that starts on page one of a book you might say. The first page of a book is also weak maybe but you cant judge a book by it's first page. All the characters have backstories which you can look up just like Magic and even Magic started like this. And then Tom said something about the shroom cards and it pushing the limits. Exhibit A: Magic the gathering. they have been there as well and nobody bats an eye. Why is it a negative here? I actually applaud them for doing an unique IP. People complain about Star Wars being plastered on everything and now a new IP is out and it feels like companies can do no good. For me this is a breath of fresh air. specially as wizards of the coast is causing bloat to their franchise. Also the colour issue that was brought up as you deckbuild, i can tell you that later on there wil be rules to add cards of different colour to decks. That was stated by the company so that should not be an issue in this review. actually this company is doing everything right. From the kickstarter to the roadshow where you could play with decks before the kickstarter came out and get a promo. You could print starterdecks before they were finalised as a way for people to get to know the game....and so many more stuff. Also no mention about the differences in the starterdecks in the review And yes i am biased but i still stand by my critiques of the review. This is an 9 for me and i can see it going up in time. Even replacing magic for me.
I like your point about IP. MtG was bland at first, for years and even some today, pulling in historical and known fictional characters (Ali Baba, quotes from the Bible, Socrates in the Assassins Creed Set). But it was a game that evolved due to love of the game. It wasn’t (always) a cash grab to milk whales (although nowadays it feels like it more and more). At its heart, it was a game that was given time and love. If Asmodee looks at the sales after a few quarters and decides it is not worth the effort, it will flounder immediately. Dropped like a bad habit. This is what makes me wary of TCGs. I’ll support an LCG any day over a TCG, unless it really pulls me in. I tried F&B at GenCon, and the guy demoing the game did not sell it well. I was very disappointed.
Yep. This was a really bad review. They needed to do a lot more research. His comments about the lore, needing to buy tons of packs. No mention of the coming marketplace, the already existing trading functionality, playing on BGA with YOUR cards. Really uninformed review.
That one-color restriction and making rares so clearly better than commons just sounds apalling, and such a money grab. The incentive is to get people to buy so many dang packs, but in reality it just sounds like I would never buy anything but singles.
@@sylinmino? Ok? How is that different from literally any other TCG in existence? Yeah you should probably be running the powerful cards in your deck, that’s just a given, but no one is making you. And let’s not blow things out of proportion here. Most rare variants are literally just a single stat line better (i.e. +3 instead of +2), it’s the altered “one of a kinds” that you seem to have a problem with that are only allowed 1-of in a deck. And those shift entire stat lines to hyper focus on certain aspects of a card. Taking away from other aspects of the card making it hyper unoptimized for general play.
@@ryanbolson23 in a TCG, one single stat difference is often huge, so I wouldn't slight it like that. And in this case it's different from other TCGs because the less restrictive colors/aspects mean you can be way more flexible with what you build, and so when you open packs there is way more value in there per each deck. It also means lower cost/rarity substitutions are more widely available. It also means that you build decks *around* the rares, rather than adding rares *because* you have to.
@@sylinmino so… you’re talking from experience playing the game? Or just making it all up? Because our LGS is playing it for weeks now and no one has had any of these problems. It’s not a problem at all. You’re moving the goalposts. First it was the fact the game was built around rares, to it’s that small buffs can mean a lot (which meh not really, heart of the cards and having it when you need it matters far more especially when the board wipes every round), to now pack opening building decks around the rares? As if (once again) players don’t already do that in other TCG games.
Great game! Please research more before commenting on certain aspects, lore for one, there is a TON of lore on the website. No way it could fit into the paper rulebook they give you in the starters. This was the best KS I have ever backed.
They reviewed the game based on the introductory products they have experienced. If the game wanted to put more lore forward they could easily have included a mini lore pamphlet in the starter decks.
I am sorry, but if the lore was a selling point, they should have better incorporated it into the cards. Who cares if the world has got deep lore, if I have to go out of my way to see it? When you're convincing people to buy your product, the job of committing a new player on the game is on you, not on the would-be customers. As it is currently, I am just gonna assume that all this "rich lore" is, by making a comparison to MTG, more akin to the novels of the original Legends set rather than the told-through-cards-and-tone approach taken from the Weatherlight block onward: a side-product for those who enjoy it, but not integral to the IP.
@@drakegrandx5914 The lore actually is on the cards, kind of. It doesn't take up space on the actual physical cards themselves, but when you collect the cards digitally, which you'll have to do if you actually want to *own* the card in a meaningful way, you get to see the flavor-text-like lore blurbs associated with the card, and it gets quite deep. Each hero card has their own little short story about them, and the writing is pretty good.
@@HALOX30 "If you don't lock your newly-acquired physical cards inside a chest, only taking them out once away from prying eyes to register them on the magical app, otherwise people might steal them by making pictures and you won't be able to use them in official events ever again" doesn't sound like such a winning, player-oriented business model...
I have a beef with Asmodee. They shelved Fallout Shelter instead of taking advantage of the TV series' popularity and make an expansion with the show's characters.
you can't expect anyone to read a few hours of the lore before playing a game, that is just for lore junkies there. At most, most people will read the lore on cards
"Please take few hours to read Altered history/ mythology." Hum... sorry, no, that's not how that works. First you sell me on the product, _then_ I go out of my way to engage with it. If lore was supposed to be a selling point, it should have been on the cards (through flavor, mood, or actual depiction of events) like MTG has been doing since Weatherlight.
They say you can only have one color, but there is some context missing. there are rares in the game that will allow you to play out of faction cards in your deck. In one deck I built, I am playing almost all of my rares (15 allowed per deck) as the out of faction rares.
@@Schlagathor78 I see your point, but having to track these rare "faction shifted" cards down isn't 't quite the same as just taking two (precon) decks apart and making a new one. I really like what Star Wars unlimited did: out of faction cards cost more. I'm just gonna get the 6 starters and play them against each other.
Star wars is definitely the better game. The issue is can't find product. Can't play or grow if you can't get your hands on cards. Same issue with Lorcana set 1. Game had a ton of hype at launch and then everyone quit because you couldn't find cards. I feel like this one will be easier to find cards because the theme is generic and it's not a game that will attract the hard core competitive players like other games do because it's too simplistic for that crowd.
@@rodneyhenry9835 We got Altered over here in Belgium. I hope you'll get some prooduct soon. Lorcana set 1 was wild! I've heard it compared to how it was with Magic, back when Alpha-Unlimited came out.
@@rodneyhenry9835"this one will be easier to find cards because the theme is generic and it's not a game that will attract the hard core competitive players like other games do" Counterargument: that's exactly what will make this game harder to find, because let's be honest, which LGS worth its money (specifically, a small amount that barely allows it to survive) will ever go out of its way to order a product most people are likely not gonna buy? Even worse than products that all players want, are products that no sellers want.
Taken from the latest comprehensive rules book. "[I]n constructed play, all cards in a deck must belong to the same faction; in limited play, all cards in a deck must belong to a maximum of three different factions." So yes in draft or other alt formats this is possible, otherwise no you are limited to one faction.
@@Schlagathor78 If you're playing with the physical cards just do whatever you want. That's always been the main advantage of tabletop gaming for me, the only true rules are whatever the people at the table decide on. Does seem like a bad move if there's any sort of competitive environment, but for casual play there's nothing wrong with going "oh that rule sounds dumb, let's just ignore it."
You can play up to 3 factions in draft and/or sealed. Limited thus has a very different feel compared to Constructed, which is imo one of the strengths of the game
Cards in the collection will be used as your library to play on BGA against other people, which is an idea I really like! Also, there will be only 3 sets per year which is less agressive than most TCG.
If you are looking for deep compelling theme (I am not), check out the lore written for Altered- it is as extensive as any I have seen. The game play is well above average. What reeled me in is the digital ownership of cards, which makes the marketplace easy and fun. And being able to play with decks made from your collection on BGA (coming soon) is fantastic for someone who lives far from any game store.
I think this is one of the better collectible card games out there. It's a unique win condition on top of some unique mechanics, like the reserve rules etc. I think it's really good
The problem is that it's a Collectible Card Game. They need to die out. They're very literally just gambling, and they're stupidly overpriced.
@@RvLeshrac I mean I agree. I'd prefer LCG format but as we see with MTG, Star wars unlimited, flesh and blood and a few other niche CCGs, people love the collectable nature of them and just opening blind but packs.
I quit buying a single FFG LCG after I got into netrunner, Warhammer 40k conquest, Star wars LCG and AgoT 2nd edition and they were all cancelled so I have totally given up supporting their crap
Conquest and Android: Netrunner were cancelled due to IP disputes, but publishers can't indefinitely support a game, they need a sustainable profit margin. That's not crap, that's life.
@@RvLeshrac They will never die out lol. Get real
@@RvLeshrac Dude, 3 rares a pack, cards will be crazy cheap, don't be a crybaby
I thought the comment about Altered feeling like a TCG designed by a designer who doesn't work in the TCG space was interesting. Because the game that Altered most reminded me of was Blue Moon (Legends) by Knizia. It has a similar tug of war vibe, competing back and forth across the different elements (2 in BM, 3 in Altered).
I still love Star Wars Unlimited, but this will find a home alongside it. This game has been crazy fun and will have digital support really early on Boardgame Arena.
@@Schlagathor78 I gave up on SWU because just like lorcana, they didn't produce enough cards in set 1 and I'm not going to try and play catch up with collectible games
This imo is a better version of Star Wars unlimited.
@@Clappincardboard how so? Both seem very different from one another
I didn't expect you guys to have good opinions when it comes to TCGs, based on your past opinions, and I got exactly what I expected.
"Robin Hood and Tinkerbell don't draw people in like Disney and Star Wars."
On a surface level, very true. But people like myself that find lore and narrative compelling will dig into what Altered is doing with these mythical/historical figures as they exist alongside people in the "real world" of the game. The Maindeck channel did a nice lore series and pointed out some interesting interactions. The Lady of The Lake was a nice addition in particular.
Funny choice of characters, since Robin Hood and TInkerbell are of course both Disney characters in Lorcana.
For me its an awesome tcg
First one playable on BGA with your deck thats insane.
And the cost its more cheaper than others.
Gee, I hope Asmodee never gets hit by a ransomware attack such that they can no longer support this game digitally............
..........Like THAT would ever happen.
It is not a digital game. people still have their cards.
@@HALOX30 Tell that to the original KeyForge players.
@@HALOX30 The whole point is that your physical cards aren't actually what's worth, but rather the "code" on it (to the point that they have a "print-on-demand" model for trading). Having the physical cards is worthless in tournaments unless you actually own the QR Code as well.
@@Wh0isTh3D0ct0rHuh? Keyforge was NEVER officially supported online.
@@scottwallbank4794 What are you talking about? There was a website and I think even an app where you would scan the QR codes from the decks that you own and then record the wins and losses with those decks.
Zee - there is a hell of a lot of lore and background to the game. Its a shame that the starter rules don't really give you all that as the one sentence you describe isn't even correct.
"Robin Hood and Tinker Bell do not draw the same people in as Disney"
ROFL 👍
BGA just released the Altered deck building sync between physical cards and digitial cards to play with on BGA. What's your thought on this?
This review honestly feels a bit in bad faith at some points. Saying the IP and lore are weak and shallow because you only read a one sentence synopsis is a bit unfair.
Saying the game doesn’t bring anything that sets it apart outside of uniques completely ignores the turn structure, how cards are played, and how the game is won being completely different from any other TCG out there.
For finding the cards you need and looking at cost, I’ve seen a lot of people get from this review that it will be expensive, but it is actually one of the most consumer friendly games on the market. There are only 3 rarities, common, rare and unique. You can only have 15 rares and 3 uniques in your deck which by itself limits the cost of a deck. Rares are also not wildly better than commons, and are sometimes just different to fit different niches. As for Uniques, they are not as much of a balancing nightmare as you might assume. They have internal balancing for the uniques and you are limited to 3 per deck, so you may not even see a particular one in a game. And since they are only around for 1-2 turns, a broken unique cannot win you a game. Mythics, legendaries and secret rares in other games are far more costly and game breaking.
As for the IP, it’s fine to say it doesn’t immediately catch your interest, but to judge it on the whole so harshly and call it misguided after 1 sentence and no further research into the actual lore just feels unfair
@@zyjinn8596 yea if you don’t care about crazy meta uniques this will be the cheapest tcg on the market. The fact you can print cards on demand of ones you have means you really only need to get you hands a single copy of a card and you are able to print the rest. I think they said a single card would be like 30 cents.
It's the games job to present it's setting. If it fails to do that, thats a fair critique. It's not on the reviewer to go and look up external sources for it. Gonna go out on a limb and guess you backed in on Kickstarter?
@@IdlestHandsyeah, because if you backed it on Kickstarter you’re not allowed to actually like it.
@@IdlestHands so magic should tell the story clearly in the set, not in the 4 books/ blogs they post between each set. Got it! I’ll be sure to let WOTC know.
🎵Staaar Waaars, Nothing but Staaaar Waaars🎶
The one thing I love about Altered is the open play promo booster pack. The fact that there's a 40% chance of getting a unique is great.
Got to play a demo with a rep. It had a board game feel to it. Which I see as a positive.
Haven't even finished the video, but I already feel like this could have just been an LCG. There's no reason for this to be a TCG outside of being physical micro transactions and to take advantage of whales who will gamble their money away.
This. The art is gorgeous, and I would've loved to play a "euro-y tcg" of sorts, but it feels like it's a TCG for the sole obvious reasons you already pointed out, so I'm out. And I believe this will flop hard, exactly because of this. You see, the people that would like the type of gameplay this offers, are people that are more towards the board game side of things, and will not engage with it because they don't want to deal with typical TCG bullshit. And the people who usually put up with TCG bullshit, will not be particularly interested in the type of gameplay that it has. It's like they're trying to have their cake and eat it too, and it will blow in their faces.
Agreed. I don't care how much fun the game is, I am so so so over the TCG model
@@DiegoDeschain When profit is put before fun, the whole game suffers.
@@ThorAxiun I'm sure we will see lots of single cards going for several hundred dollars and then a few months to a year later they won't even be worth the paper they are printed on. Other TCGs have done exactly what this has done with the real world NFT aspect putting collectability first and foremost; hardly any of those games last. Look at MetaZoo which kicked this whole thing off or Wonders of the First which continue to keep this scam going.
It's a veeery expensive model, for the consumer. I support only one TCG at the moment and it's only one set per year... Still pricey of course.
Though Altered does do things a bit differently from what I hear.
I decided to pass on this. I’m still enjoying Star Wars Unlimited and can’t fully invest in both games at this time. Maybe I will try out a couple
starters to see about it but we will see.
Qr codes should be used to play in AR or VR bringing to life those creatures!
So if this is coming to BGA, will I as a BGA member be able to play it without owning any of the physical cards? I’m always down to try new card games, especially if there is a way to do it without really jumping in first.
The starter decks have actually been free to play on BGA for the last several months, so you can go try it out now. It's great and well worth giving a go to see how you like it.
You haven't talked at all about the combo potential in this game. How do the cards interact with each other? As you do not build up a board in traditional sense, cause all played cards go to reserve, I don't think that you combo much - which would make the game boring to me.
@@larshoffmann2594 lots of combo potential. Many cards interact with the reserve.
This game should have been an LCG/ECG
If you're doing TCG reviews now, I really think you should take a look at Grand Archive.
The next set is due out in a month, with any luck you could get your hands on the new starter decks and have a go at it.
Its a good game that deserves more attention.
100%. I only played the prerelease events on discord for the 1st set but enjoyed it a lot
It's probably too "anime" (whatever that means) for them
Tom, are you going to cover the new overpower kicketarter??
@@madthinker7777 I’d be shocked if they don’t at some pt.
Wait so theres combat in this game? The character designs looks like they wouldnt even hurt a fly 😂
it is not much of combat, but more like a race, the characters at most hinder the other players in this race
In my opinion the gameplay is deeper than it is given credit for here. Here is a list of mechanics I appreciate the most:
- Starting with 3 mana keeps first turns from feeling samey and offers some decision space right from the get go
- Back and forth gameplay combined with the objective of lane pushing makes 1 and 2 cost cards really interesting because they allow you to put them out and then pass back (if you pass without playing anything, you pass for the whole round) to your opponent without committing too much resources to a single lane. Then you can wait and see where and what your opponent commits and react accordingly.
- Drawing two cards every turn (then optionally putting any card from hand into mana) gives you enough options - you almost never end up with an unplayable hand
- The reserve is a wonderful addition to the game, basically extending your options of playable cards while being visible to your opponent and vulnerable to the "sabotage" keyword, letting your opponent get rid of your most attractive reserved cards (normally you want to go second in a round to see where your opponent commits his cards but if you want to "sabotage" a reserve-play, being the first player offers this advantage)
- Multiplayer (2vs2) has potential because passing after every card-play keeps downtime lower compared to other TCGs.
The problem is almost every single thing you listed is also done in Star Wars Unlimited, but better.
This game is a better version of Star Wars unlimited mixed with 40k conquest/blood bowl team manager. Sure the theme is meh but that reserve mechanic adds a lot to the game.
What do you think makes it better than SWU? I was big on Altered and played a lot of it but then started playing SWU and feel like SWU is just better in every aspect. Has much more interesting decision making, more interaction, better meta, more affordable for collecting, etc. I'm planning on just selling off all Altered content.
@@icydeadpeeps one of the tough decisions i made playing swu was what card to play as a resource. This game has that and more. It also plays to two diff areas but this game you need to be concerned on what to play in an area because of the terrain types and you aren’t pigeon holed by unit type. Also the reserve mechanic is amazing. It’s like having a second hand and almost every card is really two cards in one. I don’t think prices for this game are crazy at all compared to swu. I’ve seen booster box preorders for 93 dollars shipped on eBay and that’s 36 packs. Swu booster boxes are only 24 packs and cost more. Also this game you can have the company print extras of the cards you own which is way cheaper as you really only need one copy of any given rare and then you can print the rest.
@@icydeadpeeps now is the best time to sell while the hype is there, you can always buy in after like a month as with all TCGs, the prices will go down.
I think it is slightly better than SWU, but both are similar so at the end it is up to your tastes. It is also just the first set, and even there it has a lot going for it. I like the reserve mechanic and the rarity limits per deck. It will probably be a budget game to play, especially casually as you don't need to own the cards digitally there
This just seems like a pretty average run of the mill modern card game where the main point of differentiation is it's unique approach to the business model. Which I am certainly not even close to sold on. Unique cards sound like a balance nightmare for competitive play, and the whole feature of ordering more cards direct from the company and sending in foilers sounds like it won't be remotely feasible for most areas of the world.
If it picks up and continues long term it would likely become more complex and interesting, like all card games inevitably do, but I don't such much reason to get into this over any other current game, especially those that already have established communities of players (the REAL live or die for a tcg)
So many comments here about how "nooo the lore is actually so deep!", but lemme tell you guys, if they didn't even notice that the lore was there, no, it's not.
The problem is, the lore might be all the deep you want, but most people didn't appreciate Urza's Saga because of the novels - they did because the cards, with their tone and flavor and outright depictions of events, were a story on its own!
And that's ON TOP of the fact that, even with all of the flavor of the Urza block, MTG would have never become this big had that been a first release(s) in a competitive market. MTG has thrives because of having been the first - and, by being so, it managed to become an IP on its own: it has a following that must be convinced that their new sets are cool, and, if convinced it is, that following will spread the world to the people not playing it. In a position where MTG had to directly (with no pre-established following to help them) convince other people, who not only are not inherently interested but worse may be already playing something else, that their game was cool and worth trying, it would have never had the huge following it has today (most likely, it would have died in a few year).
And _that's_ the position Altered is in right now. That's why marketing is important. Just telling people with no inherent interest in your game that "Trust me, this game has such an interesting lore... if you read the supplementary lore pamphlet that can be downloaded from the game's website" isn't gonna cut it.
@@drakegrandx5914 except it does.
I played it recently with a few friends and thought it was excellent. We each bought one of the different 6 precons and each kind of flip flopped between them. We thought it was really fun, and simple enough that once you understood the phases, it was easy to jam out quick games. I enjoy it and am hopeful to see the future of it
Altered tcg is the best tcg ever played. The reasons Are so clear When you have a deeper look:
the old fashioned way of buy the Meta Card Deck and win is over.
constructed Format is limited with 3 uniques and 15 rares per Deck. The uniques Are that what there named: one single Part is UNIQUE on this planet
On the online Platform BGA you can only Play with cards you own, so there Are Not hundred of players copied the Meta Deck and Play it against.
120 Bucks for 36(!) Booster packs ? Expensive? Lol
Its from Europe- Why Not?
So much scrap comments here omg
I want to get into Disney’s Lorcana. but it is simply too expensive and too hard to find unless I want to pay exorbitant amounts.
Really? Disney Lorcana is available at every Walmart in my area. It's not hard to find at all. Outside of a few high priced single cards, most of the cards can be bought individually on the secondary market for a dollar or two.
Don't feel too bad. just do a little bit of research on Disney as a company and you will feel much better about not being able to give them your money.
Never seen one of your videos. From the comments, I thought this was gonna be a kinda amatorial, janky video that would get the point across but with a sort of "unprofessionality" to it... instead, you presented all of your points very neatly and with good arguments, and the audio quality wasn't bad! It was a great watch! The only criticism I share is that, while the video flewd perfectly... that's because I had it on 2x. '|D And it's not a pacing problem, it's just the slow talking... you definitely have the Tolarian Community College problem!
Besides that, though, great job! I'm absolutely checking the rest of your stuff, and if it satisfies me, I'm subscribing!
This review feels so weird to me, they critique stuff only from the view of starter decks (atleast it seems that way).
No mention of deckbuilding and differences in factions/rarities or the unique aspects of the game.
To me this game has so much potential and it fixes many problems I have with most card games.
The play 1 card, oppenent plays 1 card turn structure for example...
I don´t know if they wanted it to come across this way, but it feels like they just looked at everything included in the starter, didn´t question it any further and just ran with the review.
Well, we didn't.
Is this actually any better than the very affordable card-based lane battlers that already exist though (Omen, Riftforce, etc.)?
Riftforce and its expansion can be picked up for a very low price, it includes 18 unique factions you can draft, and it all fits in the expansion box. You can get all of Riftforce for the price of two starter decks of Altered. I think Riftforce is absolutely a much better deal for your money.
If you're looking for interesting card-based lane battler games I highly recommend Radiant Offline Battle Arena or ROBA, specifically the Championship Edition. It includes 18 heroes, with players drafting 3 each including a MOBA-style pick and ban phase, after which you combine all 10 cards in each hero's deck to create a unique deck. You also secretly pick equipment, location, and God cards to further customize your playstyle and strategy. ROBA is an excellent hidden gem; it's a little more expensive than Riftforce IIRC but you're getting a complete game that's well balanced internally and doesn't require buying any more packs of cards to stay ahead of power creep.
@@rain1224 much better, yes.
@@ObsidianKnight90 I picked up ROBA on your recommendation, thanks, I'll check it out with my brother this week
You guys are overlooking drafting and sealed. Where they do 3 colors
Something about this game just does not grab me. I can’t even sit through a tutorial about it.
Yeah when he said "The night time phase" I wanted to fall asleep. It looks ultra boring to me lol
I'm suprised you haven't checked out Sorcery TCG
@@CrosswaIk they mentioned it in a ks starter vid and basically called it a cash grab without doing any research on it.
@@Clappincardboard wow. they couldn't be more wrong about Sorcery lol
The should, it's way more fun than this turd in my opinion.
i dont like this review at all. I honestly believe that throwing words as misguided is just a no no for me. Specially when it is blatantly not true. Specially when it is a world that starts on page one of a book you might say. The first page of a book is also weak maybe but you cant judge a book by it's first page. All the characters have backstories which you can look up just like Magic and even Magic started like this. And then Tom said something about the shroom cards and it pushing the limits. Exhibit A: Magic the gathering. they have been there as well and nobody bats an eye.
Why is it a negative here?
I actually applaud them for doing an unique IP. People complain about Star Wars being plastered on everything and now a new IP is out and it feels like companies can do no good. For me this is a breath of fresh air. specially as wizards of the coast is causing bloat to their franchise. Also the colour issue that was brought up as you deckbuild, i can tell you that later on there wil be rules to add cards of different colour to decks. That was stated by the company so that should not be an issue in this review. actually this company is doing everything right. From the kickstarter to the roadshow where you could play with decks before the kickstarter came out and get a promo. You could print starterdecks before they were finalised as a way for people to get to know the game....and so many more stuff.
Also no mention about the differences in the starterdecks in the review
And yes i am biased but i still stand by my critiques of the review. This is an 9 for me and i can see it going up in time. Even replacing magic for me.
I like your point about IP. MtG was bland at first, for years and even some today, pulling in historical and known fictional characters (Ali Baba, quotes from the Bible, Socrates in the Assassins Creed Set). But it was a game that evolved due to love of the game. It wasn’t (always) a cash grab to milk whales (although nowadays it feels like it more and more). At its heart, it was a game that was given time and love. If Asmodee looks at the sales after a few quarters and decides it is not worth the effort, it will flounder immediately. Dropped like a bad habit. This is what makes me wary of TCGs. I’ll support an LCG any day over a TCG, unless it really pulls me in. I tried F&B at GenCon, and the guy demoing the game did not sell it well. I was very disappointed.
It's a weak IP. The other aspects are neat, and it's not bad IP, just not very evocative.
Yep. This was a really bad review. They needed to do a lot more research. His comments about the lore, needing to buy tons of packs. No mention of the coming marketplace, the already existing trading functionality, playing on BGA with YOUR cards. Really uninformed review.
Kind of lame that decks are one color only, meaning you just can't put 5/6 of your cards in there.
Have you ever reviewed Flesh and Blood?
That one-color restriction and making rares so clearly better than commons just sounds apalling, and such a money grab. The incentive is to get people to buy so many dang packs, but in reality it just sounds like I would never buy anything but singles.
You are restricted on how many rares you can have in a deck, so the fact rares are better doesn’t matter, because you can’t just run all rares.
@@ryanbolson23 yes but that means that you better have 15 rares, and all of that color.
@@sylinmino? Ok? How is that different from literally any other TCG in existence? Yeah you should probably be running the powerful cards in your deck, that’s just a given, but no one is making you. And let’s not blow things out of proportion here.
Most rare variants are literally just a single stat line better (i.e. +3 instead of +2), it’s the altered “one of a kinds” that you seem to have a problem with that are only allowed 1-of in a deck. And those shift entire stat lines to hyper focus on certain aspects of a card.
Taking away from other aspects of the card making it hyper unoptimized for general play.
@@ryanbolson23 in a TCG, one single stat difference is often huge, so I wouldn't slight it like that. And in this case it's different from other TCGs because the less restrictive colors/aspects mean you can be way more flexible with what you build, and so when you open packs there is way more value in there per each deck. It also means lower cost/rarity substitutions are more widely available. It also means that you build decks *around* the rares, rather than adding rares *because* you have to.
@@sylinmino so… you’re talking from experience playing the game? Or just making it all up? Because our LGS is playing it for weeks now and no one has had any of these problems. It’s not a problem at all. You’re moving the goalposts.
First it was the fact the game was built around rares, to it’s that small buffs can mean a lot (which meh not really, heart of the cards and having it when you need it matters far more especially when the board wipes every round), to now pack opening building decks around the rares? As if (once again) players don’t already do that in other TCG games.
Great game! Please research more before commenting on certain aspects, lore for one, there is a TON of lore on the website. No way it could fit into the paper rulebook they give you in the starters. This was the best KS I have ever backed.
They reviewed the game based on the introductory products they have experienced. If the game wanted to put more lore forward they could easily have included a mini lore pamphlet in the starter decks.
I am sorry, but if the lore was a selling point, they should have better incorporated it into the cards. Who cares if the world has got deep lore, if I have to go out of my way to see it? When you're convincing people to buy your product, the job of committing a new player on the game is on you, not on the would-be customers.
As it is currently, I am just gonna assume that all this "rich lore" is, by making a comparison to MTG, more akin to the novels of the original Legends set rather than the told-through-cards-and-tone approach taken from the Weatherlight block onward: a side-product for those who enjoy it, but not integral to the IP.
@@drakegrandx5914 yeah, using the internet in 2024 is quite a chore.
@@drakegrandx5914going to the web site to read lore is “out of your way?”
@@drakegrandx5914 The lore actually is on the cards, kind of.
It doesn't take up space on the actual physical cards themselves, but when you collect the cards digitally, which you'll have to do if you actually want to *own* the card in a meaningful way, you get to see the flavor-text-like lore blurbs associated with the card, and it gets quite deep.
Each hero card has their own little short story about them, and the writing is pretty good.
These QR code seem like a big hassle, as Zee is hiding them really carefully, so the cards don't get "Stolen" :D
If you dont scan them in your rofile on the site then yes but else it can not be stollen
@@HALOX30 "If you don't lock your newly-acquired physical cards inside a chest, only taking them out once away from prying eyes to register them on the magical app, otherwise people might steal them by making pictures and you won't be able to use them in official events ever again" doesn't sound like such a winning, player-oriented business model...
I have a beef with Asmodee. They shelved Fallout Shelter instead of taking advantage of the TV series' popularity and make an expansion with the show's characters.
TCG = cash cow for publisher AND money grave for players
The card text being in 1st person is weird.
Please take few hours to read Altered history/ mythology. After that you won’t say there is now deep story
Good lore grips you in an instant. It oozes from details, little things. This does not have that.
you can't expect anyone to read a few hours of the lore before playing a game, that is just for lore junkies there. At most, most people will read the lore on cards
I'm not reading hours of lore for a TCG.
Take a few hours? lol
"Please take few hours to read Altered history/ mythology."
Hum... sorry, no, that's not how that works. First you sell me on the product, _then_ I go out of my way to engage with it. If lore was supposed to be a selling point, it should have been on the cards (through flavor, mood, or actual depiction of events) like MTG has been doing since Weatherlight.
Wow, less deckbuilding options than Lorcana. That's Altered's biggest weakness in my book.
They say you can only have one color, but there is some context missing. there are rares in the game that will allow you to play out of faction cards in your deck. In one deck I built, I am playing almost all of my rares (15 allowed per deck) as the out of faction rares.
@@Schlagathor78 I see your point, but having to track these rare "faction shifted" cards down isn't 't quite the same as just taking two (precon) decks apart and making a new one. I really like what Star Wars unlimited did: out of faction cards cost more. I'm just gonna get the 6 starters and play them against each other.
Star wars is definitely the better game. The issue is can't find product. Can't play or grow if you can't get your hands on cards. Same issue with Lorcana set 1. Game had a ton of hype at launch and then everyone quit because you couldn't find cards. I feel like this one will be easier to find cards because the theme is generic and it's not a game that will attract the hard core competitive players like other games do because it's too simplistic for that crowd.
@@rodneyhenry9835 We got Altered over here in Belgium. I hope you'll get some prooduct soon. Lorcana set 1 was wild! I've heard it compared to how it was with Magic, back when Alpha-Unlimited came out.
@@rodneyhenry9835"this one will be easier to find cards because the theme is generic and it's not a game that will attract the hard core competitive players like other games do"
Counterargument: that's exactly what will make this game harder to find, because let's be honest, which LGS worth its money (specifically, a small amount that barely allows it to survive) will ever go out of its way to order a product most people are likely not gonna buy? Even worse than products that all players want, are products that no sellers want.
Sorcery > Altered…in every way possible
No joke. This game looks so incredibly dull.
meh
Someone is having too much fun! Haha
Why are you guys wearing hats inside?
they live in Florida
You can deck build using 3 different factions, you're not confined to only one color.
I think that is only for the draft environment. Is that not the case?
Yes this is only during draft formats. Regular constructed format you’re limited to one faction only.
Taken from the latest comprehensive rules book. "[I]n constructed play, all cards in a deck must belong
to the same faction; in limited play, all cards in a deck must belong to a
maximum of three different factions." So yes in draft or other alt formats this is possible, otherwise no you are limited to one faction.
@@ShamankingZutyyeah, this was a big concern for me when I saw the KS campaign. Seems like a bad idea...
@@Schlagathor78 If you're playing with the physical cards just do whatever you want. That's always been the main advantage of tabletop gaming for me, the only true rules are whatever the people at the table decide on. Does seem like a bad move if there's any sort of competitive environment, but for casual play there's nothing wrong with going "oh that rule sounds dumb, let's just ignore it."
It makes drafts dumb and impossible. Having only one color decks will kill it fast. As dradrafting is the most fun part to donwith friends.
Someone pointed out below that draft format has different deck construction rules allowing up to 3 colors they said.
You can play up to 3 factions in draft and/or sealed. Limited thus has a very different feel compared to Constructed, which is imo one of the strengths of the game
Meh