Welcome to the fourth in a series of faction guides! Each of these articles will take a dive into one of the six factions within Altered. We will begin with an overview of the central mechanics in each faction, analyze their biggest strengths and weaknesses, and then look at each of the three heroes currently available alongside some sample decklists.
Muna
The Muna are a decentralized group who believe that everything in their world is intrinsically connected through the force known as Mana. They live in harmony with their environment, developing a deep understanding of their own impermanence and smaller place in a greater world. Their values exemplify inner peace, balance, and unity.
Mechanics
In alignment with the faction’s philosophical unity, Muna has a few major mechanics that permeate throughout the entire faction. Here are the mechanics which are most important to Muna:
Anchored
Every mechanic in Altered appears in multiple factions, but Muna nevertheless has a near-monopoly on the anchored mechanic. A creature that is anchored remains in the expedition zone for an additional round. While creatures with anchored do not always come with amazing stats, their ability to provide these stats over two rounds gives them incredible utility. Muna has many creatures which gain anchored on play, as well as ways to give creatures anchored via spell or support effects. One creature may be able to stay in the expedition zone for three rounds, four rounds, or even more!
Boosts
Boosts were covered earlier in this series as part of the Bravos article. Boosts may be more intrinsically tied to Bravos, but Muna has its own unique ways of synergizing with them. The most obvious example is the aforementioned anchored mechanic. Adding a boost to an anchored creature effectively gives you two boosts, one during each of the rounds the creature stays in play. Muna even has some creatures such as Dracaena which give themselves boosts at noon, allowing them to continue growing every time you give them anchored again.
Plants
Plants are a classic example of what is often called a typal mechanic in games such as Magic: the Gathering. A sizable portion of Muna creatures have the plant trait, and this allows them to synergize with cards that care about this type. There are not a ton of these effects in the game so far, but Altered’s base set provides enough to build a deck around at least, and there will assuredly be more of these effects added to the game over time.
Strengths
A major strength of Muna is the flexibility offered by anchored. Starting a round with one or several creatures already in play allows you to control the pace of the game, putting your opponent on the backfoot before they even get to make a decision. If your opponent pulls far ahead in a round, using a card play to give a creature anchored makes it easy to make up for the loss.
Another strength of Muna is the size of its creatures. Muna has many good options for power plays at the top of the mana curve. Son of Yggdrasil and Hydracaena are the best examples – the former can often win two lanes at once when combined with boosts, and the latter can grow indefinitely to become an unstoppable force if left unchecked. Even among its cheaper creatures Muna often gives up utility effects for additional stats on creatures, which especially early game can be better for ensuring a quick lead to a game.
Weaknesses
Muna is quite limited in its ability to generate card advantage. At common there are a handful of effects which let you draw cards or resupply, but many less than are found in other factions. This is meant to be counteracted by the utility of anchored, but this also leaves the faction especially vulnerable to opposing removal. If you are relying on a single boosted anchored creature to carry you over two rounds, a well-timed answer from your opponent can set you back immensely.
On that note, Muna also lacks a lot of good tools to answer opposing creatures. The common removal spells Mana Reaping and Beauty Sleep are powerful, and most Muna decks will end up playing these to ensure that they have some sort of response to the biggest opposing threats. Beyond these cards Muna will have to use rare slots in order to interact with anything beyond its own expedition zones.
Heroes
Muna’s overall strategies are straightforward, but its heroes give you many different paths to specialize in. This section will give a brief overview of the main playstyle of each hero, along with a sample decklist.
Teija & Nauraa
Hero
Character
Spell
Permanent
Teija is one of the simplest heroes in the entire game on the surface, with a hero ability that is super easy to take advantage of. Teija gives the first creature you play every afternoon a boost, ensuring you will have consistent value every round of the game. The most obvious way to take advantage of these boosts is with anchored creatures, doubling the overall value you are gaining from the increase in stats.
As most of the anchored creatures in Muna are plants, this deck leans into the plant synergies to supplement the hero ability. Bountiful Meadow is here to make it easier to play multiple plants in a turn (or get out your Hydracaena earlier). Yong-Su should be consistently triggering for full boost value considering how many of your plants stick around for an extra turn. Overall this deck is a nice option for midrange-aggressive players who want to put difficult to answer threats down turn after turn.
Rin & Orchid
Hero
Spell
Character
Rin is the only hero in the game (and one of only a few cards) to care about a specific expedition statistic. Holding true to Muna’s nature roots, she rewards you with an additional card draw every time you advance via the forest stat. Muna traditionally struggles with generating card advantage, so having access to this ability lets you plan out your game in a way that is quite distinct from the other two heroes.
To ensure we are winning expeditions early, this deck heavily emphasizes creatures with high stats over other utility. Mowgli, Inari, and Cernunnos may not be the most exciting cards, but they give you the best chance of stringing multiple card draws together to keep the engine humming. Because Rin dumps cards from hand directly into reserve, we are also playing cards that are better when played from reserve specifically. The three creatures just listed are all cheaper from reserve, allowing for some effective mana cheating if you skip their hand cost. Kodama and Daughter of Yggdrasil can skip their (sometimes) detrimental hand effects.
Once you have a big-statted creature in play, you have many support effects which can give that creature anchored for zero mana, giving you flexibility to develop the rest of your cards how you see fit. This deck can be a little fragile to removal, but is a really fun way to push Muna’s cards in a way that the faction doesn’t normally support.
Arjun & Spike
Hero
Permanent
Spell
Character
Muna already has many ways to gain anchored, but Arjun ensures that you have access to anchored effects every single turn. Effectively he can give any card in your deck the support effect that appears on cards such as Muna Druid. Because we know we can keep the same creatures in play turn after turn, we want creatures that can persist in gaining value. Inari, Aloe Vera, and Dracaena all demand removal from the opponent, otherwise they will dominate the game all on their own. The Spindle is played to further punish opponents for trying to remove these creatures as well as allowing them to grow even further.
We also want to make sure we have proper fuel for Arjun’s effect. Not only does he discard an additional card from your reserve every turn, but the constant anchoring means there are less cards going into your reserve by default. Harvest is amazing for replenishing your reserves all at once, while Axiom Reprocessor gives Arjun consistent food every turn. This deck is a great option for players who enjoy a “voltron” style of play where you build up a single creature over the course of a game.
Conclusion
I hope you have enjoyed this analysis of Muna! This faction exemplifies the nuances of the Altered turn cycle and expedition movement in ways barely matched in the rest of the game. Next up in this series will be Ordis!
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