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Where to begin
Getting started with Altered couldn’t be easier. There are 6 starter decks available, 1 for each of the different factions, and I definitely recommend picking up at least one of these to get you started. Not only do they come with a full deck to get you started, but also include the rules, a foiler card (see below) and a playmat to help you get a feel for card positioning. But what if you aren’t sure which starter deck to get? Or not sold completely on the game yet? Well the good news is the game is entirely playable on Board Game Arena, where you can try out each of the starter decks to see which feels right to you. Then, later, when you’ve started to build your own decks, you can connect your BGA and Altered accounts and use your own custom decks on BGA too!
Boosters and Rarity
For both players or collectors, what you can find inside a booster pack is important information, so let's take a look. Please note that I am exclusively talking about standard boosters here, and not promo packs or kickstarter boosters as those have different ratios. Before we look at the ratios however, I’ll quickly go over how rarity works in Altered, as it’s a bit different than most TCGs.
Card rarity
There are three different levels of rarity in Altered; Common, Rare and Unique. Unlike other TCGs, each character card comes in all three rarities, whereas spells and permanents come in common and rare versions. While each card belongs to a specific faction, it should also be noted that a rare card can also have an out-of-faction variant for a different faction, and if that card is a character, the unique versions can also be the same out-of-faction version.
Common cards
The base version of all cards. Features the normal art, card borders and a white gem.
Rare cards
The enhanced version of all cards. Features slightly different art, no border and a blue shining gem.
Unique cards
A unique version of character cards. Every unique card you pull is what it says on the tin, unique. It will have a cost/ability/power combination different to any other version of that card which exists.
Foiler cards
Altered has a system where you scan the cards to gain digital ownership of it. When you scan foilers, whatever the rarity, you gain the ability to create a digital foil version of 1 card of the same rarity. Eventually you will be able to place orders to get these foiled versions sent to you. This means you can save your foils for only the cards you want!
Token cards
Several of the factions use token cards as part of their decks, such as Ordis Soldiers or Axiom Brassbugs. These are just copies of these so you have plenty on hand. The art can vary slightly.
-- In and out of faction image --
Booster packs
Each booster pack (at the time of writing) costs somewhere around £4, so cheaper than some others. But cost is only part of the equation, what do you get inside it?
You get:
1 Hero card
8 Common cards
3 Rare cards
In 1 in every 8 packs, a unique card will replace one of the rare cards.
1 Token card
In 1 in every 4 packs, a Foiler of a random rarity will replace the Token card.
And there we have it, all you need to know to get started with Altered. It really is something unique in a market where there are a lot of TCGs to go around. But I think this has found its place and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. The integration with digital cards and playing it on BGA is especially nice, and I hope to bump into some of you there.