Product Review - Boosters are finally here!
Hello realmrunners - today was a very special delivery day at Five Realms Gaming Lounge as, after much waiting, the new booster boxes for Achroma finally arrived. Realm Runner Studios very generously gave me a whole box to myself so I could give you guys a full account of just what you can expect out of it!
From first impressions it’s clear there’s been deeper planning behind this product than the initial run of boosters we received last year, which is great to see; the artwork is a lot more refined and the box itself is adorned with the realms’ symbols as well as a detailed blurb laying out the basic overarching story of Achroma, as well as a QR code which takes you to a Linktree for all the relevant Achroma pages related to the game. The boosters themselves are still made from paper but they look and feel far more refined than their predecessors.
But let’s move onto the main reason you’re buying these; what do you get from a full box? Each individual pack gives you 6 cards - of those 6 slots you get the following; 2 Commons; 2 Uncommons; 1 Rare or Legendary; and 1 varied slot which will have one the following - a Realmless Rare or Legendary card, an alternate art card or an extra Common or Uncommon card. This means from one box of 24 boosters you’re guaranteed to pull at least 48 Commons and Uncommons as well as at least 24 Rares or Legendaries along with extra copies of these rarities or alt arts depending on how lucky you are! (Spoiler alert; I unfortunately saw no extra Rares, Legendaries or alt arts in my box!)
So that’s enough of the factoids; what did I actually get from my first fullbox?! Well I’ve kept you reading long enough so here’s a breakdown of how it turned out based on what Chronicles, or sets, the cards came from;
Curse of Curdle Hill - 7 cards total, 3 of them Rares
Siege of Draco Temple - 9 cards total, 3 of them Rares
Fall of Flutterby - 13 cards total, 2 of them Rares and 1 Legendary
Warriors of Wishwell - 27 cards total, 3 of which were Rares
Rise of the Realm Runners - 88 cards total, 11 of which were Rares and 1 Legendary
From this it’s evident that there’s a skew towards the later released sets over the older ones when it comes to representation, especially Rise of the Realm Runners. Although if you focused on what realm, rather than the specific set, they’re from there is a closer to even split then. For those collectors among you my breakdown of First Editions was 7 of my possible 24 Rares and Legendaries. Not a terrible ratio and I did get a couple of my favourite cards like Achrom Converter and Gunnar of Brisgavi. For those interested in the not-so glossy cards, I did also spot a further 31 Common and Uncommon cards that were First Edition as well in the mix.
After analysing my pulls my only nitpick I can see, when considering these in a Draft setting as I suspect they will mostly be utilised, is that I saw only 19 Characters in my 24 packs. This would make building a viable Palette from a selection of the packs a real challenge without outside help or altering the gameplay rules to allow more versatile use of Objects, as they claimed a surprising 72 slots of the box. That being said let’s not forget this is only a single box we’re looking at here; there’s every chance mine may have just had less Characters and more Objects than most of the rest.
Outside of this though I can see these boosters providing clearer avenues towards prize support, which will hopefully mean the game can be picked up more in your closer LGS and grow further. As well as being a nice little way people can boost their collections, as well as scratch that pack-cracking itch a lot of us have and possibly even start a bit of a singles trading scene which the game has yet to really see outside of limited promo cards.
So for my final breakdown; who is this product best for? Well if you missed out on Rise of the Realm Runners but have a decent collection going already it’s worth grabbing some to get a hold of those cards. If you’re new to the game however and are looking to grab a good selection of cards to build your own custom Palettes, especially if you have a specific realm in mind, then I would turn your sights to the Deluxe Realm Boxes as they have everything you need from the first Chronicle of their respective realms as well as both of the expansions for that specific realm included in them already.
As a final little teaser, we’ve heard that all pre-orders of the new booster boxes will receive a currently undisclosed promo card as well as a unique role in the Discord just for extra gloat points so there’s definitely a bonus to getting your orders in for them now!
That's all from me for now guys - if you want to pick up any of the Achroma product currently available on the Five Realms website, don't forget to use the code ACHROMACRAIG10 when you checkout for 10% off your purchase! This includes pre-orders of your own booster boxes and the aforementioned Deluxe Realm Boxes as well!
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