Translated from French by Moira from an original article by Moira.
Hi Nahmaa
First of all, congratulations on reaching the top 8 in Angers! Before we get into the technical stuff, tell us a bit about yourself: how did you discover Altered? Is this your first TCG and what convinced you to take the plunge?
I discovered Altered at the beginning of March 2024 (missed the Kickstarter 🥲) thanks to Dandy and Irex, who I’ve known for several years. We used to play YuGiOh together, and often travelled to WCQ (100-250 player tournaments) and YCS (2000+ player tournaments) in Europe. I didn’t really like the current YuGiOh format any more and I missed travelling to Europe with friends. After watching a quick game between Dandy and Irex, I watched a 10-minute video explaining the basics of the game and then played 2-3 games with the basic decks, and the adventure was on!
How did your preparation for the tournament go? Did you achieve what you set out to do? I hope you had a great weekend!
My only online games with the full set came in the Top 8 Grand Final of the ExAlts tournament. Before Angers, we travelled quite a bit in physical tournaments: 1 to 2 tournaments a week since the official release. That’s how I trained. My goal was to reach the Top 64, and I’ve more than achieved it 🙂. The weekend with the ExAlts team was really cool!
You’ve played a hero who’s already shown his strength (and who continued to show his robustness in Angers), was it an obvious choice for you to play Waru?
I’ve been playing Waru since the full set arrived. I’ve always liked control decks that win over time, so yes, it was a bit of a no-brainer. I liked the deck quite quickly and haven’t let it go since I first picked it up.
Let’s get down to the heart of the matter: what was your decklist and game plan for this tournament? What do you think is special about your deck?
I played a lot of T1s. The aim was to go 1-1 on turn 1 by putting a bureaucrat to sleep as well. Without falling behind in the early rounds, Waru is virtually unbeatable in the late game. Frog rare also allows you to set up without losing tempo the turn it’s played (loss of 1 mana). Rare slots are expensive and Quetzacoatl didn’t deserve its place in my opinion; it very often does the same job as Common Thoth. Fen scared me in the tournament, which is why I added 2 Baba Yaga rares to the deck.
Did you have any surprises during the tournament? Any match anecdotes to share?
Teija was a lot weaker than I thought. I don’t remember any particular anecdotes. Maybe the INTENTIONAL DRAW in the last round. There could be 2 players at 8-1-1 who don’t make the top 16 if all the tables at 8-1 decide to draw. Sokoi is going to play his game (bad goal average, he loses round 1), so there’s only one potential 8-1-1 player left who won’t go through. I think my goal average is high enough to allow me to Draw, 3 games will finally be played, so all the 8-1-1s go Top! Thanks Sokoi 🙂.
What advice would you give to a player who wants to progress with Waru and improve their deck?
In my opinion, you need to be patient to appreciate and play the deck well.
Thank you very much for taking the time to answer all these questions! Do you have any final words to add?
Thank you to Team Exalts for the discovery and the great time we had, we look forward to doing it again 🙂
Thanks to Sokoi for the loan of the foundry mechanic.
Thanks to JRG for the long-term loan of the Computer Spy.
Thanks to Aran, Moira and all the others for investing in the team!
And a special thanks to Irex and JRG, the Rennes Teammates, for the deckbuilding discussions. My list wouldn’t have been as good without our discussions.
If you want to learn more about Nahmaa’s decklist, here is an interview (in french) and presentation of the cards he played :
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