Hello Realmrunners and welcome to something a little different from me this week in terms of competitive talks. With the Achroma 2.0 launch event a little while back now, they introduced something quite common in the TCG community, a draft-style format, which has been aptly named Realm Rift. If you wish to know the mechanics behind to perform the initial draft, the steps are listed on the website
here.
The entire premise of this format, much like in other games, is to build yourself a Palette solely from the cards you have drafted from the packs available. Whats exciting about this is, due to the fact the Chapter 1 boosters contain every realm within them, the rule that all your cards must come from the same realm is completely disregarded as well as the limitations on how many of the same name you can play; you are only restricted by what cards you see in your piles as they’re passed around the table. So, given the structure of cards in the booster packs plus the complete freedom you’re given with building your Palette, I thought I’d highlight some key pieces in each slot to keep an eye out for.
This is by no means an exhaustive ‘must pick’ list, but more of a summary of the key staples from all of Chapter 1. You could end up seeing cards that synergise well together which would benefit you more than picking a selection of uncooperative cards that just interrupt your opponent; don’t lose sight of your potential win-con just for a pretty card!
Commons
Among the commons of Chapter 1 you’ll find a fair amount of interaction, most it either locked to locations or with some restriction attached, such as Ritualistic Notion’s need to Sacrifice a card or Falling Stalactite only hitting Characters if they have a Shard Value of 4 or above.
You’ll also find a couple of fantastic cards to support any gain you might want in Abundance of Quintessence and Full Palette or even Vial of Quintessence to an extent, which benefits you similarly to the Action it shares a resemblance to but with the added flexibility of increase a Character's survivability when necessary.
Special mentions within the commons go to Bounce, which gives you a more generic answer to an opponent’s card, albeit not as permanently, but gets around Protection because of this; and Draco Graveyard which can give you some great recursion at a cost.
Uncommons
Here you’ll find a much wider variety of flexible interaction like Fireball or Breath of Fire, as well a couple other similar cards, which need no real explanation as to why they’d be highly sought after in a Draft environment.
Further to this there’s a couple of cards that can wipe an entire canvas, albeit with some restrictions on what it affects or how much it affects it.
There’s also quite a fair amount of card draw options in this rarity, whether that be straight forward drawing or utilising Find, Reveal, or even Research keywords to gain you card advantage.
Special mentions here go to Dr Hue’s Lab Coat, which has the highest possible Shard Value as an Object and also protects your shard bank for a full turn, and Corrupted Muon Trap which is debatably one of the strongest Objects, being able to pinch any Character off your opponent’s Canvas and, with a Shard Value of 3, often costs them something Erase it so they can get their character back.
Rares & Legendaries
As you pick these from a grouped pile I thought I’d address these collectively. A lot of these cards may appear to be designed to synergise with certain strategies which are harder to collect in a draft format. However there are several standout cards that can be generically powerful no matter your overal strategy.
Several straight up control abilities can be found in this slot that can turn the tide in a limited format. From powerhouse interactive cards from constructed format like Conjurer Otrix & Sorrono, to the more aggressive ones like Ignis and Umbra Igneus.
There’s also some very powerful Actions that can turn the tables whilst also being great Trade options when necessary.
Outside of this you’ll also find some generically powerful resolve effects attached to a few cards that can be real powerhouses without a difficult build requirement - just maintain a strong Canvas!
These are just a few examples of the standout cards you should be keeping an eye out for when playing the young Realm Rift format - but whose to say you won’t end up building around a certain strategy? Maybe you’ll pull a selection of powerful objects from all of the Realms along with Hex Clunker? Or maybe you’ll end up with all the little one-drop and Poisonous critters with Materno to give them Protection? Or possibly a Character-heavy Palette with Torstein the Mighty at the helm? The possibilities are almost endless, you’ll not quite know what you can build till you sit at the table and crack those packs!
That's all from me for now guys!
The Achroma store is currently doing an offer of 15% off with some heavily discounted bundles of The Warriors of Wishwell and their expansions ready for the next chapter, The Monsters if Norso! Plus every week they’re giving one lucky winner a limited graded 10 gem mint card for a limited time! Get ordering now to be in with a chance of grabbing these incredible collectors’ items!
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