What the hell is Altered TCG?! 

If they eventually develop a digital platform that allows everyone to play online using their digital collection, then digital ownership makes total sense.

One thing about Uniques, Alt-arts, and Promos, is that their reprintability is on a one year cooldown, so that it still feels valuable.

Really enjoy this style of video. It's a good way of getting more opinions from the team. I like hearing these slightly more informal discussions about new and old games as well as industry discussions. It's super interesting to me and the main reason i miss the old Dicebreaker podcast! More videos like this please and thank you!

This seems super neat! I love the concept and hope this succeeds

This is going to be either really special or completely forgotten about in five years. I'm looking forward to find out which

Heard about this before. Seemed like a neat little experience, always love to see unique takes on tcg's

The lane-based non-combat 'softer world' elements of this remind me immensely of the (very underrated) My Little Pony TCG, which worked in a similar vein. All of the strange technological elements have me VERY excited and interested: The idea of having fully-unique cards akin to Keyforge decks but with the option for foiling and reprinting via POD is super novel and has a lot of potential, and given the creator's long history with extremely successful and profitable games, I don't doubt they'll be able to put their money where their mouth is.

It's good to see more TCGs that aren't just dudes hitting dudes. Only other notable one I've heard of was Netrunner, and that was originally made in the 90s.

I'm very interested to see how this TCG develops. I think they have a very unique opportunity with the QR codes, the card printing, and the online marketplace integrated into their App. I personally like the art style of the cards, and am backing this product now after looking into it. Hoping to see more collectability aspects added, so all the cards aren't printed into oblivion, but we will see. (Obviously the printing ability is to make sure all cards are accessible, but the chase hopefully stays in tact)

a centralized digital marketplace is actually a really good idea (especially if they develop the game for a digital format). Allowing players to collect cards, upload them to a digital database, then sell the card without having to worry about shipping (even if the company takes a small cut) is just really cool

I’m really into a TCG that isn’t thematically about beating each other up! And I’m hugely into the idea of being able to build a deck without having to hunt on the bloated, wildly speculated markets.

First off, I want this game to succeed. I think they have some really cool ideas especially when it comes to physical/digital ownership of cards.... I don't know how I feel about the non-combat playstyle of this though. I personally just don't see it being a big hit, but I've definitely been wrong before. I will give it a shot, but that just doesn't seem appealing to me. Maybe I am just so used to playing MTG I can't fathom not destroying things.

Super excited to back this project.

It looks amazing!

If this game is draftable/cubable I'm super excited for it!

Trying real hard not to be snarky about this. This is 18 extra steps to solve "tcgs are too expensive" which was solved by Fantasy Flight's LCG system. The core problem is not that TCGs cost too much or that chase card is hard to get -- that's actually their biggest selling point. The feeling that your cards are worth something (they're really not, and I say this as someone who own a large mtg collection) is a huge driver of demand and interest, even among low-spend casual players. Making the physical cards worthless is just jettisoning the biggest selling point of your game.

The art of the cards really draws me in.

Really excited about getting cards into hand! Did demo the PnP and loved it!

I didn’t know how to feel about the digital assets until you mentioned completely unique 1 of 1 cards that the ownership of the code of could actually be a sweet business. I can imagine having an online shop with unique cards you have aquired that people can pay to have prints of. It feels like if nfts actually had functionality. I also like that the rarer versions are boosted versions of easy to aquire versions, and that part of deck building involves limitations on how many you can include yo avoid a pay to win model. Bravo

I ran a series of demos for the new Star Wars Unlimited TCG last week, and it has a few similar mechanics (namely the draw 2, play 1 as mana thing), and it plays extremely well. I agree that it seems we're entering a new era of TCGs, which I'm excited for. Before Star Wars Unlimited, I was thinking that Lorcana would be my new fixation, but SWU is even better. As for Altered, it certainly looks interesting! I appreciate the effort they're making into merging digital and physical in a way we've never seen before. But I have a feeling that the skill and effort required to get good at the game might be a difficult barrier to cross for most people.

Idk if i missed it int the video but would if I want them to reprint me some cards would they come out w/o a QR code? I'm worried about people getting scammed out of buying a bunch of cards but they just get the physical onces because the digital version is owned by someone else?

You did a really great job explaining this. Unfortunately i didnt discover this game until the KS was already over but ive been interested and trying to find out as much as possible. The problem though was that it was a bit confusing especially the concept of the uniques. This really helped me understand it better. That said, im curious about what if packs hold cards that are unsold, will those be lost to limbo, like imagine wanting and looking for a certain unique card but nobody has opened that pack yet so its just never appears. Or what if someone who doesnt care for all the digital stuff just never registers or does it and so you have this unique card out there or whatever that never shows up in the marketplace because the person who owns it just isnt that commited to the bit

Sounds like it has similar turn mechanics to legends of runeterra, that sounds awesome!

Physical cards being proxies will allow me to just order uniques from someone who owns them and just give a middle finger to tournaments. Or I can just ignore uniques in case they aren't fun and just use rares. No need to sleeve cards I can also reprint if I wanted to as well. If I do roll a unique, I can either share the proxy purchase while keeping the unique or sell the unique to someone playing in tournament and use my physical for casual play.

definetly need more info about how everything works and how much everything will cost to make a comment about it's success. Interesting idea, hope it works.

Super interesting - I'd be all up for never having to buy multiple copies of mythics just to build a deck

i missed the KS but am really excited for this. thr digital stuff is interesting, especially since it looks like theyre working on a digital play experience as well, but mostly im excited by the idea of a kid friendly TCG where i don't have to be so precious with cardboard

I have some very important questions. Can I buy proxy versions of cards from them as well? I don't plan on playing tournaments and want to experience the full game with little issue on my wallet. The economy for me will probably come from draft box pulls being sold digitally and made back to buy more boxes or other products. Can sets be reran if people want them enough and if not, can I simulate them with randomly generated proxies? I love draft/cube so being able to buy my favorite sets as draft reruns and cubes would be fantastic.

I think this is a good idea. Even if the game flops, the digital ownership idea is just a win for everyone.

How cool you guys are doing coverage on Kickstarter games. Is there an open situation, how does a publisher get their games on your radar?

I don't know if this is an accurate way of describing the game, but I really like the idea of the game literally evolving through survival of the fittest. Successful cards that get printed a lot have more opportunities to mutate and develop new versions. Cards that aren't successful and that don't get reprinted go extinct. That's a really fascinating idea to me....

I kinda like it, but also I'm concerned about the cost of getting cards printed by the company and limitations/costs of trading/selling the digital ownership set by the company as well. But it does seem nice to have a card game that "appears" to be accessible for player to get into

The uniqueness of it and the difference in game thematically will get a huge first day launch.Hope they can keep up the distribution of it..

Hi, I have a question which you maybe can answer me. When I understand you correct, you can give the order to print cards to Equinox and can play with these cards for fun. But when you go to a tournament, you must show in the App that you still own this card. What is, if you want to play the card you have in the deck multiple times. I think 3 times is the maximum for a card per deck. Do you know if you need that card than three times in your account or is it enought if you have it one time.

My question is, if digital ownership is all that matters for the purposes of organized play, why do I need to go through the company's printing service? Like, obviously if I'm going to use their printers to get my cards, they need to physically ship the cards to me, but let's say I just got a card I want to put into my deck and the tournament is tomorrow, so I need to wait for the card to get physically shipped to me? Why can't I just print out the cards at home and sleeve them like proxies? It's not like there will be anything to act as a card marking that way, and pretty much all TCGs require sleeves for organized play anyway. Like, I absolutely appreciate that this lowers the cost to build an effective deck, but and I can see, from the company's perspective why they'd want us to pay them to print more copies of the card, but I also feel if digital ownership is all that technically matters, I'd want to be able to not have to wait for the card to physically use it. Obviously in order to make money the company would want some kind of restriction in place, like you can only use the proxy card in so many tournaments before there's an issue, or if you provide a receipt showing you've ordered physical copies and they haven't arrived yet then you're good, but you either need a legit card or a receipt to use it. Ultimately, I think this is a very smart idea for monetizing a card game, it basically keeps their finger in the pie for all the aftermarket aspects of the game. They get money when a player buys a booster pack, they get money when a player sells a card to another player, and then they get money for every additional copy printed for that card. The only draw back is that it's likely rather expensive up-front to get the digital system functioning, to have the printers ready to keep up with whatever demand they might have, to keep their servers protected from hackers, etc. It kind of requires that they get a significant player base quickly, and then they keep that player base, almost more than any other new TCG trying to enter the market. I think with such a unique and innovative game design they have a chance to pull it off, since they offer a fundamentally different play experience compared to everything else. If they were just the latest Magic or Yugioh clone that'll be dead in three years and the distribution model was the only innovation, then they'd never be able to get off the ground properly. I'll definitely be keeping an eye on this, I've been looking for a new card game to get involved in since L5R died the second time, and this seems like an interesting option!

This game is a little more interesting than SWU, mainly because there’s more elements that’s new and fresh. (QR codes and marketplace and stuff) Both games have the cards as resources thing, and alternating actions instead of turns which already has very interesting potential in the future when it comes to design and strategy

Looks interesting, I wish it succeeds. Actually I wish more of these games succeed. I don’t share opinion of some that only 3-4 games may be successful at any given time. Thing is, virtually each of them seems to be repeating mistakes done in the past, overprinting, printing more sets a year than is sane, while only few selected games are able to repeat mistakes, once they have enough profit to allow for dark age to not bankrupt them.

This game reminds me of Chaotic. The QR codes are more convenient than typing an alphanumeric code. But card variants with a digital code to claim ownership. Definitely like Chaotic. Also feels like Marvel Snap. Claiming ownership of lanes while (for the most part) not directly attacking your opponent's cards. And there are lots of TCG that weren't like magic. Hundreds, if not thousands throughout the years. Only a few have lasted or are remembered.

I guess my question is: if you get a card through physical trade, are you still able to get the digital ownership? If my buddy gers a unique, and prints some copies to share with our group, am I able to register digital ownership and print more or use it in organized play?

Damn it, I literally came up with this very card game last night! 😅 literally I had the same idea behind merging our own canon with fantasy and mythology. I was gonna make it more similar to Yugioh tho, but still. I don’t even wanna keep up on my idea now because it’s already being done on a professional level 😅

The coolest aspect to me is that sounds like this will facilitate altered arts

I honestly hope that the game takes off and does well because it is a model that is extremely pro consumer. I think the largest challenge for this game will be how much the business model impacts physical game stores. Theoretically this game is great for kitchen-table casual play and potentially for big even competitive play. However, I am having a hard time envisioning a weekly Friday Night Altered event getting support from the LGS unless the demand for Uniques is absolutely insane. If Uniques are so powerful that they will support an ecosystem that allows for LGSs to reliable sell packs and/or crack packs to offer singles through a walled garden market place, I'm worried about how viable competitive play is. If Uniques are mostly okay I worry about how willing LGSs are going to be to support a game that doesn't have product moving off the shelf or out of the display cabinet.

Does the game have interaction? For example, are there cards that set your opponent exploration back while advancing your exploration? The reason I ask is, I'm personally not a fan of solitaire in TCG's or CCG's.

Huh the very beginning of the video altered tcg looks almost identical to fortnights intro where the characters are standing on a mountain overlooking the land

It feels a little bit like its more properly realizing the concept of Chaotic, minus the online game (for now?)

It just shows how much MTG has dominated the TCG field over the years that he makes so many references to MTG despite there being so many other TCG's out there. And there are quite a few that deviate from the MTG formula completely.

3:10 oh...like an alternative history

Literally one of the key drawing points of TCGs is summoning cool dudes and/or creatures and fighting. This is thus completely a miss for me. As far as games that do something a bit differently, we have Keyforge.

The non-battle element kinda throws me off... so you and your companion just tries to reunite faster than your opponent... everytime...? Are there going to be more terrains added, or just the card type/abilities that alter the effectiveness of your "travel/exploration" speed? Pokemon you're essentially the trainer, mtg a planeswalker etc. With Altered you are the hero with a pet that just wants to run through the terrain asap? I dont know...

The mana system sounds more like VS 2PCG with drawing 2 cards per turn and any card can be mana.

One issue that I see...You own the card digitally...until the company fails. I'm not saying they would, but with the fate of many TCGs right now, it isn't out of the realm. If that were the case, those that buy a bunch of cards from the company and then sell their digital card will have all of the value. Then on top of that, since there is no limit to how much a card can be printed, The rarity on the card really won't dictate the actual rarity of the card. I think the biggest issue, is that this won't bring in the collectors, which is a big chunk of the TCG community. I don't consider myself a collector, but the reason I have as many MTG cards as I do, is because of the potential value.

So maybe I’m misunderstanding something but if I buy a booster box crack all the boosters and get several copies of the same card, that’s functionally useless because digitally owning one copy of each is all you need?

I was reading through the kickstarter and as soon as I saw "unique" cards I was immediately turned off. While games like MTG and yugioh both have issues with the best cards of the format being way overpriced, at least they are theoretically obtainable by any player rather than one special one that can only ever be owned by one person. Although I am always interested to see new TCGs and how they develop, hopefully Im wrong and the game is great despite this.

I was starting to get interested when you were talking about the accessibility features like being able to print more copies of cards you own, and then it immediately lost me when you mentioned there are versions that are truly unique. That's just more artificial scarcity for the sake of it. It also just really sucks to see this awesome, colorful art marred by this terrible QR code taking up a quarter of the card.

Sidenote, why are almost all the card games fantasy-based? I would think modern / sci-fi / cyberpunk would also make for some great games, but there's only a few around and they really struggle.

I love the idea of unique cards. My biggest gripe with tcgs is that as soon as you play with any form of organized group, only a few decks are viable and they’re all using the exact same cards that they pulled from a tournament list. One of my favorite aspects of TCGs are theory-crafting and deck building, and trying to make something fun and new. While the core of a lot of decks will still probably remain the same, the small changes that uniques add will make it so everyone has to make individual tweaks to bring out their cards full potential. It reminds me of the yuhioh or bakugan anime where everyone has their own special dudes that are a staple to them. Even if it’s just by a little bit, making every deck unique is incredibly exciting to me. Also since they’re eliminating the secondary market and doing it themselves prices won’t get gouged by scalpers and that’s a plus

have they said how quick the turnaround will be on printing? Concept is cool, its like they separated the demand for casual and competitive. Those uniques are going to be HUGE money, even in paper. It's going to be pay to win so unsure if the competitive scene will grow.

The QR digital assets is an NFT. You describe it as a CS skin but skins were the original "digital asset". They're selling NFT the card game where the digital form is the only thing that has value Especially if official play only cares if you have the digital asset.

Dangit, I really wanted to get a Ramming Three Little Pigs, but Billy Bob's print run policy is awful. In all seriousness it seems like the physical cardgame is more proxies.

I love almost everything about this game, except the gameplay which I only just like. I hope this changes over time. I'm not an MTG buff either and I've been hoping for something like this to rock the market for a long time, the turn structure is amazing, but the gameplay itself to me feels awkward and sparce at the moment. I love Seasons it's one of my favourite games and I am not a big fan of Diceforge, the board games designed by the same people who makes this TCG, and I feel like this game does aspects of both. I see it deifferently on the notion that this game doesn't do combat though, in essence the whole game is a war on 2 fronts where you fight for superiority by land, sea and air (forest, water and mountain), even if you don't "attack" a card or person directly. A lot of this games structure seems inspired by Legends of Runeterra in terms of turn structure and Artifact / Elder Scrolls card game in terms of lane placement, but the card effects are very much seasoned by Seasons and that does excite me even if it will probably lead to lots of broken combos.

I think people are gonna crack so many packs looking for uniques that it's going to be great for the games life

So i guess the reprints either won't have the qr code or the code tells you you that the card is owned already? All they need is a digital version of the game to play with your owned cards as well. Looking forward to it, hope it succeeds.

The game deffo looks interesting, but I'm diverting my resources towards SWU. Hope they do well, though!

This is fascinating the mechanic are interesting though it's no the first game to do digital ownership in this way play fusions lightseekers & Age of sigmar champions was

I guess my only concern is the PSA stuff. Graded cards from this card came will be worthless in my opinion. What's the point of getting the Kickstarter exclusive boosters to "save" so you could potentially resell it at a collectors value? I get you don't have to, but the Kickstarter makes it feel like they're setting it up for that, if that makes sense

If I scan a card and order cards, do the cards sent have no QR code? Otherwise it's economically over already.

As both a tcg collector & table top gamer, this is more appealing as a board game than a tcg (which makes sense as creators of Dixit). Looks like it could be potentially fun to play, but for me, the qr code is a turn off in terms of card asthetic & art style could be hit or miss with some people. I could see this as a potential hit for the table top gaming scene, but hard to see it gain the mass appeal in the general public for collectability.

They will still make the same money Magic makes selling the booster packs - their model of print on demand after already selling the packs hood make more money for them. It puts them into the secondary market money - something Magic doesn’t really do.

If they have a good online play then I am interested. It is very hard for me to play physical card game nowadays

Procedurally generated cards were a clear next step after Keyforge. Happy to see this is being developed.

Ironically this digital ownership model is a solid use-case for NFT technology. Not the scam.jpg shit that was popularized during the pandemic.

I assume the fall of Magic is another cause for the new wild west of trading cards. It hasn't collapsed yet, but it's getting really close. And of its two main competitors, Pokemon doesn't hold the strategic depth or balancing, and Yugioh basically requires a tutor to get into. My childhood was nearly centered around TCGs, so it is with grim reluctance that I make the claim that the TCG genre is likely to collapse like the MMO genre. In its place, I predict Slay the Spire-type card roguelites or digital dueling clients like Hearthstone to take over (though, apparently Hearthstone isn't doing too hot right now either).

The game sounds unique and interesting, however the idea of uniques and ownership over them sounds weird for a competitive format. I’ve never played competitive in a TCG but I assume if you are someone who pours money into it and got a ultra strong unique that nobody else could ever get it would be a little pay to win. I’m not certain the impact uniques have on a card but it sounds like it could have flaws. As for casual play it sounds wonderful, being super cheap and accessible especially if you have that one friend that wants to get their buddies involved. Just being able to jumpstart their play with cheap physical re-prints sounds wonderful. I’ve actively avoided any TCG because booster packs and inflated prices made by the developers so this sounds like a better direction to take the format.

I think this sounds different but is ultimately the same as ordering from any card site, only that they make the price. Originally, I thought if I had a card digitally, I could print proxy copies at home and use them in the deck officially. Like this I still have to buy 3 different of, say, the same common with different codes, and them have them print it and ship it to me, which is probably still not gonna be cheap.

Would have been an auto-backed for me if they chose the publishing way like Keyforge...

Did you say there's a drag queen character? Can you confirm if this is true or just your speculation?

are there going to be like trillions of QRs? Not sure about how these work.. But what keeps me from scanning what ever card multiple times? I mean, to make money, they have to sell printed boosters. Every card would need its own QR. Then the server costs to keep all this data tracked. Wouldn´t it be like a lot? I dont know. It feels super cool and nice idea. It makes it much more accesable also to areas on this world, where the economic power is lower. And it would make a transicion to digital tcg so easy. But I would really like someone to enlighten me. How would this QR system work?

19:57 Chaotic also did something similar. always hoped someone would bring this back. cept with chaotic they had a videogame you could use them in. When i was younger i was making my own tcg and wanted to do something similar.

I live in Brazil, so no Altered for me.

I appreciate increased variability it tcgs and think it’s great to see a whole variety of thematic win cons. That being said I personally have no interest in a game that’s not about pinching my opponent in the face in one way or another

So is this a TCG Euro Game?

over $4mil in kickstarter funding

Looks like Gwent

The term 'token' is so weird to me, coming from board games. How can you call a card a token when there are already tokens in a game. :D One more check in the "MtG isn't for me" column. ;)

What age range is this TCG aimed at?

The sibilants in this video are very sharp. I could not watch it. Adjusting the eq should mitigate this issue.

So let me get this straight. I can get a super one of a kind card that literally nobody on earth has? And then if someone I play grabs their phone, takes the QR code and requests 1000 of that card and tries to sell them on ebay and then another person just scans the QR off the ebay website and requests 10000 of that card and then tries to sell them on ebay...I mean what's stopping this?

The reason there aren't any other TCGs that are innovating is because producing and selling those cards isn't worth it - so they make card focused board games, or online card games, like Marvel Snap or Gwent. Both of those feature lanes, have non-permanent board states, and you're even at a disadvantage by going first. It doesn't really matter that Altered lets your cards transfer into online ownership (probably a negative for most people) - people aren't interested in starting to play a NEW game which requires them to buy booster packs.

This is a board game with booster packs. Which is very different to a TCG and while this will success at been a board game it will fail been a TCG lol.

Never could get into TCG's...felt like a running on a money spending treadmill.

Initial positives given were either fluff or mechanics that aren't actually unique. The digital ownership idea isn't a bad one by default, but these definitely are equivalent to NFTs with how they've gone and created complete one-of-a-kinds. Competitive won't be taken seriously when it's powered by unique cards given arbitrary special effects that are intended to be massive sells on their marketplace. I guarantee the bulk of kickstarter support comes from that economic sentiment over any sort of passion about the gameplay. Feels like the next Metazoo, though it will likely die off sooner.

Lost me at “they’re not at conflict.” No battles… No fun.

Art looks like League of Legends.

Sadly it is not chained…

There’s a sustainability angle here that’s quite lovely, too. Less value in physical cards means less need for sleeves, which are a lot less good for the environment than paper products alone. There’s something cool here, I just can’t wait for the day when people stop being allergic to NFTs and learn to seek more meaningful ownership of their data

This game ALMOST brought me back into playing TCGs, but no. TCGs are just ECGs with extra steps to play.

its too long, the intro is too long i forgot the video was playing

Your video about a ks campaign is sponsored by a ks campaign. This hobby has just… I can’t. What?

the economics of the game are interesting but im not a fan of the clay looking LoL style art

So great player excess to pauper. And literally card monopolization on the unique cards incoming... the one oner will print it for pennies and sell the copies for the prize he wants. People wont join tournaments because they cant enter without the Digital ownership of the Version they want to play. Unique cards will be a bigger Problem than in every other tcg