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Altered Trading Card Game

How to play Altered TCG?

What exactly do all those symbols and concepts on the cards mean, how do you actually win and what do you have to do? want to know for your first game of Altered? You will find answers to all those questions and more on this page.

Preparation

Both players have their own (starter) deck consisting of 1 Hero and 39 other cards.

Take a set of three Tumult cards, shuffle the cards and place them with the short side as shown against each other between the players.
Place the Hero region card and Companion region card on either side of the Tumult cards.
Both players place their Hero Expedition marker and Companion Expedition marker on the region cards.
It is recommended that both players play with a play mat to make the game as clear as possible hold. Place the mats opposite each other on both sides of the Tumult.
Both players place their chosen Hero card on the designated space of the playmat.
Randomly determines which player will start the game, for example by selecting the First Player marker flip, and place the First Player Marker on that player's Hero card.
Both players shuffle their deck (without any tokens) and place the deck face down in the Deck Zone of the play mat.
Keep the Rules reminder cards nearby while playing and you're ready to start!

A day of discovery

Altered is played over several rounds. We call these rounds a Day of Day. Every day consists of five steps. Morning, Noon, Afternoon, Dusk and Night. For the first round, both players take their starting hand of six cards. From this they both choose three cards to place as Mana Orbs in their Mana Zone. These cards are used to play the other cards from your hand. Cards cannot be removed from the Mana Zone are achieved. A Mana Orb that is upright is Ready, turn the card 90 degrees sideways to show as this Exhausted, or used that turn.

Step 1: Morning

If this is the first round of the game, skip this step and go straight to the next step (Noon). Otherwise, follow these steps:

The other player gets the First Player marker.
Ready all your Mana Orbs and other exhausted cards.
Take two cards from your deck.
The player with the First Player marker chooses to use a card from his or her hand as a Mana Orb in the Mana Zone. Then the other player does the same.

Step 2: Noon

Optional: activate cards with "At Noon triggers".

Step 3: Afternoon

Starting with the first player, the players now take turns to play a card. Here it is It is important that as soon as one player plays a card, the other player immediately takes his turn. Like this players continue to the next step (Dusk).

Quick Actions

Before you play a card you can take as many Quick Actions as you can or want to take. There are two types of Quick Actions. Exhaust abilities of Hero and Permanent cards that require you to Exhaust the card to use it. Support abilities can only be used if the card is in your Reserve. Discard the card from you Reserve to use the ability. Remember: Quick Actions do not count as card plays This does not end your turn.

Play a card

To play a card, Exhaust that much Mana Orbs as the cost of the card. Are you playing a Character? Then choose in which Expedition the card will be played. If you play a card from the Reserve: (see "The Reserve"). Are you playing a Spell of Landmark: (see "Other card types").

Pass

If you can no longer (or do not want to) play a card, the player must to fit. If you have passed, you can perform more actions. The other player continues to take turns until this one also fits. When both players have passed, they continue with the next step: Dusk.

Step 4: Dusk

During this step, players compare their Characters' stats to determine which Expedition markers can be moved forward and which ones cannot. Start with one of the Expeditions (Hero or Companion) and do the following:

Check the region type(s) (Forest, Mountain and Water) of the region where the Expedition Marker is located this moment.
Add together the stats of your Characters in that Expedition by type (Forst, Mountain and Water).
If at least one of those totals is higher than your opponent's, you get Expedition Marker one box further. Otherwise your Expedition marker will remain there.

Then do the same for the other Expedition (Hero or Companion).

Your total must be higher than 0 to move forward.
You can only advance one step per Dusk phase per Expedition.
When an Expedition marker moves forward to a face-down Tumult card, it is turned over.
You always compare your Hero Expedition with your opponent's Hero Expedition, it doesn't matter find out where the Hero markers are located. The same goes for the Companion Expeditions.

Step 5: Night

Rest

All Characters in your Expeditions go to the Reserve. If the Characters are Fleeting then they go to the Discard instead (see The Reserve).

Cleanup

If you have three or more cards in your Reserve you must choose two to keep and the throw away the rest. Do the same with your Landmarks (see Other Map Types). After this you continue to the new one round and start with the Morning phase.

End of the game

The first player to get their Hero and Companion together in the same Region wins the game.

Draw

If both players have their Hero and Companion together during the same Dusk phase then it will be checked whether one of the Expedition markers has gone further than necessary. If not it In that case, an extra day (round) will be played in the arena. Both players play a normal round. The statistics from both expeditions are added together and whoever manages to win at least two of the three win, win the game. In the unlikely event that it is still the same, it will be a new day started in the arena until there is a winner.

The Reserve

The Reserve is a zone of cards that actually serves as a second hand of cards, but face up instead of closed.

Play a card from the Reserve

Cards in the Reserve can be played during your turn just like cards from your hand, but

- You pay the Reserve Cost instead of the Hand Cost.
- A card played from the Reserve gets Fleeting (unless it is a Landmark).

Fleeting means: If a card with Fleeting would go to the Reserve, it goes to the instead discard pile.

Cards in the Reserve are not "controlled". This means that abilities do not apply and the cards can only be the target of an ability that specifically mentions the Reserve. For example a map that says "Discard target Character" cannot discard a Character in the Reserve, but a card that says "Discard target card in a Reserve" is possible.

Other card types

Spells

When you play a spell, you first perform all the effects of the card. Then the card goes directly to your Reserve. If you play a spell from your Reserve, the spell gets fleeting and you discard it immediately after performing the effects. Spells that naturally have fleeting occur immediately after play to the discard.

Permanents - Landmarks

When you play a Landmark, place it directly in your Landmark zone. Stay there the card for the rest of the game, unless a card specifically says it removes a permanent, or when you have played more than two landmarks.

Tokens

Token cards are not shuffled into your deck and can only be put into play by other cards. When a token leaves the Expedition zone it is completely removed from the game.

Deck building

Each Altered TCG deck consists of 40 cards from one faction. One card is your Hero and captain of the deck. You always start the game with your Hero in play. The remaining 39 cards must comply with the following rules. You may not add any card to your deck more than three times, regardless of that card's rarity. You may play a maximum of three Unique and fifteen Rare cards. So you can't put three commons and three rares with the same name in your deck.