So we're finally approaching our 'new official' Canadian release (October 4th delayed from September 13th) for Altered TCG's Set 1, Beyond the Gates, and we're already getting the official announcements from Equinox for Set 2, Trial by Frost, set to drop on January 31, 2025.
Don't get us wrong, this is definitely exciting news, it just feels a bit early as we haven't really had the chance to enjoy set 1 yet. I guess it's really just a Canadian problem, but since the wait has come and gone we'll forgive Equinox for the delays and be optimistic about the future of Altered.
Let's take a look at the previews for Trial by Frost, based in Cais Adarra, where you'll traverse through the new terrains of winter conditions.
New Adventure cards will be available in booster packs (1 in every 5 packs), each featuring hostile environments of ice and snow. The artwork is very vibrant and looks much different from the original terrain we're used to. It's great to know that we can expect new Adventure cards from every set, to be able to switch up and 'customize' our playing boards over time - you could even mix adventure cards from various sets as long as you include the complete set of combinations.
So far in the preview we have three cards featuring some new mechanics, let's check them out!
Gear, or an Expedition Permanent is a new type of card being introduced, where the permanent is played into one of the expedition zones instead of the landmark zone.
With Arcolano Milk, you can replay the Gear from reserve if it successfully helped your expedition move forward that day. This could be a great card to include in an aggro style deck, where boosting characters from reserve that were going to gain fleeting anyways, or an aggro card like Bravos Tracer that gains fleeting when played from anywhere. For 1 mana it's definitely something to consider in the right deck, and it leaves us thinking what the rare will look like.
Eternal, while a rare effect, it's not a new one. With Demeter, the character stays on the board while on a Forest expedition, of which there are only 3 along the way that don't contain Forest. Chances are that players will be able to extract value for at least one, if not multiple days from this powerful effect. It also synergizes well with Muna Hero Rin & Orchid, where you're looking to advance in Forest expeditions to gain card advantage.
We'll be waiting to see if more cards will contain Eternal, or if it will remain quite limited like it did with just Hydracaena in Beyond the Gates. Also, what faction will get access to Eternal though the OOF (Out of Faction) rare - will it be Lyra again?
Lastly, we have an effect that leave us with a lot to think about and speculate - exhausted cards in Reserve. We'll have to wait and see actual cards with this effect, but surely there will be at least a few variations to warrant Moth Larva in the first place. Given there's enough support that provides enough value to slot into a deck, this could be a good addition to Yzmir as a decent 1 drop with upside.
Given this character is an Animal, we could speculate that Muna may see it as an OOF rare. Or perhaps it could be Axiom, where 'exhausting' or tapping cards is a common theme, it's even the featured mechanic in 2 of the 3 Hero's.
That's about all the info we have so far, it will be interesting how Equinox continues to approach rolling out info for future expansions. You can be sure that this will be an episode of discussion on our podcast series, join us on the Top Shelf Experience: Diving into Altered.
In the mean time we're working towards building the go-to Altered TCG community in Canada, so join the conversation on our discord server; we look forward to see you there!
