Welcome to this focus on one of the 18 heroes from Altered’s core set (Beyond the Gates). We will review the hero power of this Axiom Exalt. I will then present some cards fitting well with this hero and finally different types of deck we can build around it.
If you haven’t read it yet, you might be interested to know more about the Axiom Faction and their overall mechanics with the Adventuring Through Axiom Article. Sierra is the typical Axiom Hero, and that’s probably why she is the starter hero for her Faction.
Hero Power
Sierra’s power is :
When you play a Permanent with Hand Cost 3 or more — You may exhaust me
to create a Brassbug 2/2/2 Robot token in target Expedition.”
At first sight, two things seem clear : playing Sierra is playing with Permanents and Brassbug. And that’s cool because Brassbug and Permanents are two of the main strengths of the Axiom Faction.
Cards that fit well with this playstyle
In Altered, playing a permanent implies a general a huge slowdown and often letting your opponent taking advance in the Expedition. That’s precisely why Sierra’s power is useful : even if you play a Permanent, you get a Character to play for free in one of your expeditions!
The rare Hive is the obvious choice for a Sierra Deck. It is often the winning condition for this hero and you often deckbuild around it.
Cards with cost reduction for permanents are also very interesting. They offer the opportunity to play those slow cards easier and sooner. With Sierra’s power, the delay in expeditions become therefore nearly imperceptible.
Cards that synergize with Robots are also good choices when building Sierra as her hero power create Robots regularly.
Archetypes around Sierra
An improved starter deck
Starter decks are a good way to introduce yourself to the game but because of the few rares in them, they often lack raw power against custom decks. The idea here is to stay as close as possible to the starter deck while switching some commons to rares. This way, the deck should stay affordable to make if you already have the starter.
This starter is focused on landmarks and aims to synergize as much as possible with Sierra power. Most of the characters are here to reduce permanents cost and synergies with them as well. As always with Sierra, the Hive is a key card here to win.
Hero
Character
Spell
Permanent
Dig for the Hive
The idea here is to get your hives as soon as possible by drawing/resupply as much as possible. Ada Lovelace, Rare Reprocessor, the Salvagers are clearly there for that. Rare Hooked is a good control tool and also help you draw your key cards. Inari and Mechanical Training are flexible and you can use them to search for your hives or to create Brassbug when you are set up.
Hero
Character
Spell
Permanent
Wait for my Hive
With this deck list, you want to slow down the beginning of the game until you have set up your hives.
All the spells are here to control your opponent’s play. The Heaven Bouncer and the Tinker Bell are also here to slow down your opponent and make him burn his resources. The other card are facilitators to play the Hives as soon as possible as they are Sierra’s winning condition.
Hero
Character
Spell
Permanent
Thank you for reading this focus on this Exalt. We hope you read some stuff that might interest you and you’ve found some lists that enhance your will to play this awesome game.
We remind you that these lists are just hands on and are not optimized, we really encourage you to try things on your own with what you have and want to play. That way you’ll find some interesting stuff that suits you great!
If you like this article, feel free to check out our other articles
You can also check this video (in French) to learn more about Sierra :
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