Translated from French by Moira from an original article by Moira.
Hi Spykkee
First of all, congratulations on your 7-3 in Angers! Before we get into the theoritical 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?
Thanks a lot! I discovered Altered at the beginning of 2024, shortly before the kickstarter, thanks to several Youtube videos presenting the game, and also by playing a few games with the demo decks on BGA I think at the time.
It’s the first physical TCG I’ve been so involved with (LGS, tournaments, team…), I’d mostly played Hearthstone, and a bit of MTGA / Runeterra. For some time now, I’ve been hearing more and more about certain TCGs, but I didn’t want to jump in after the start so as not to be too overwhelmed. So discovering Altered even before its official release convinced me to invest in it fully!
You had big ambitions for this tournament. Are you satisfied with yourself even though you didn’t make the top 16? And in general, did you have a good weekend?
My ambitions for the tournament weren’t that high, as it was my first tournament and I was mainly hoping to discover the atmosphere of a big tournament, while trying to perform as well as possible since I played the game a lot.
The rewards were pretty generous for all the participants, so it wasn’t until the top64 or top32 that there started to be a real gap, so that was potentially what I was aiming for if the start of the tournament went well. That’s what happened, because I started 6/0, telling myself that anything was possible, but unfortunately I finished 7/3, just outside the top64 (67th). But I particularly enjoyed the weekend, especially for putting a face on a lot of people whose pseudonyms I only knew.
You chose to play this Fen for Angers: a deck that’s become very popular recently. Why did you choose to play it? Had you considered another deck?
I hesitated a lot about the deck I wanted to play for the tournament: I played a lot with the Axiom faction, which is one of my favourites. First with Treyst, then Subhash because Waru was becoming more and more present and is too big a counter to Treyst in general. Then I also found Fen interesting and a lot of fun thanks to the alternative victory condition of the Lyra Festival.
The uniques I was able to get by opening boosters or via trade, or even via purchase (at very reasonable prices) were the deciding factor in choosing the faction in the end. I didn’t have any good Ordis uniques, despite the Waru deck, which I identified as one of the best currently available.
Let’s get down to the real heart of the matter: what was your decklist and game plan for this tournament? What do you think is special about your deck?
My decklist with Fen doesn’t contain the Lyra Festival, it’s a rather control list with a lot of cards that allow you to give fleeting (2 unique cards out of 3 allow you to give fleeting to the entire opposing board), as well as Off you Go! to control the opposing board.
As these spells don’t cost much from hand (Off you Go! but also Magical Training), it seemed obvious to play with cards that allow you to recover cards from the reserve in your hand (common Hathor and rare Inkcaster for its reserve effect, which is also very useful). I’m also playing with characters with solid stats (Cernunnos, Anansi) and Fen’s key card: Aloe Vera, which can be anchored thanks to the Hatter. I don’t play Kodama any more, even though they can be anchored with a support effect, so I decided to use a single card that had this support effect, had good stats and could give me a card advantage if I was good at dice (you have to assume you’re playing Lyra, though :p). What’s special about my deck compared to other Fen decks I’ve seen are these uniques which allow me to give fleeting to the entire opposing board, and bring up small spells which give me card advantage, thus allowing me to play a plan to exhaust the opposing economy even more clearly since Fen is already giving me card advantage thanks to its power.
After these ten games, what advice would you give to a player who wants to progress with Fen and improve their deck?
Aloe Vera is really a key card in Fen, so I’d advise all players of this hero not to play it too quickly, and to watch out for potential removals from the opponent. I lost too many games early on against Sigismar, for example, when he played Cadet Ordis and I tried to play Aloe Vera anchored straight away, then he played Teamwork Training, taking a 2/0 and leaving me without Aloe Vera for the next turn. This immediately makes the rest of the game very complicated.
To improve your deck with Fen, I think you need to choose cards that can still be used from the reserve, as Fen will tend to resupply rather than draw. As you can’t choose which cards you resupply, you also need cards that allow you to bounce cards back into your hand, so that you don’t suffer too much from this randomness.
Thank you so much for taking the time to answer all these questions! Do you have any final words to add?
I hope that this little feedback from a new TCG player will motivate others to join the Altered adventure and spend some quality time with other players around these colourful little pieces of cardboard!
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