Altered ushers in a new and unique digital era for TCG games

Changed is a new card game so packed with interesting innovations that it could usher in a new era of card games. Or it could be a spectacular flop. At its core, Changed — which hit Kickstarter in February with a record-breaking $6.7 million campaign — will hit retail in the United States on September 13. It brings back the same kind of fast-paced gameplay as Star Wars: Unlimitedwith bright and joyful vibrations Disney LorcanIt also offers some unique twists on the basic game mode that force players to think more about each turn.

But what makes TCG so enticing is the way it introduces several potentially paradigm-shifting innovations in the way cards are produced, printed, and distributed, all built around a free companion app with a direct-to-consumer print-on-demand system. The result is a game that stands out from a sea of ​​competitors all chasing a fraction of its popularity Magic: The Gathering Or Pokémon Trading Card Game commands, something truly new in an increasingly crowded field bloated by highly valued intellectual properties.

Main topics Changed are exploration and innovation that stand in direct opposition to similar games that focus on conflict and conquest. Players take on the role of a hero from one of six factions, each representing a different side of a post-apocalyptic society. After a magical storm known as Confluence raged across the planet, imaginations began to leak into the real world. ChangedFactions including Lawmakers, Artists, and Engineers have rebuilt human society around the Asgarth peninsula. Now, after 500 years of isolation, the six factions send expeditions into the wilds to see what lies in the mysterious Tumult beyond their home.

Tumult itself exists on the table between players as a series of cards drawn randomly to create a single line of five cards. Starting with one on each side of the line of cards, the goal of the game is to get your hero and his companion on the same card before your opponent. Much like planeswalkers in Magic: The GatheringEach hero and companion pair has their own style. Each hero and companion has a unique ability that aligns with the general ethos of their faction, but also provides individual strategy. Drone maker Sierra and Oddball specialize in creating robots, while engineers Treyst and Rossum collect scrap to eventually gain additional abilities. Tactical Sigismar and his gryphon Wingspan gather troops, while diplomat Waru and his companion Mack benefit from the introduction of Bureaucrats. Each faction provides its own approach to exploration, but each individual hero and companion also offers more play options and potential deck builds.

Characters and world Changed are bright and colorful, and some are pulled straight from the public domain. Amelia Earhart is a character of the Equinox faction, as are the Three Little Pigs and Dr. Frankenstein. The aesthetic is a deliberate choice to remind players that they are explorers of the unknown, not warriors. Think Star Trek: Strange New Worlds instead of the first season Star Trek: Discovery. Although there are warrior-type characters in the game, all of them focus on fighting the great threats lurking in uncharted territories rather than fighting each other.

Since the game is a race rather than a war of attrition like in other card games, strategy revolves around whether to try to focus energy and resources on both expeditions—effectively burning the candle on both sides—or to try to overwhelm your opponent on one particular side of the board. It’s usually not too difficult to advance at least one expedition during a round, but the key to victory seems to be knowing when to steal both sides of the board, not just one.

State of the board in Changed is usually fleeting, as the characters that appear in an expedition are fueled by the power of the imagination, although the cards do not necessarily disappear from play at the end of the round. Instead, players may choose to place character cards in the reserve area when they are shuffled from the expedition, so that they can be played again a second time. The use of the reserve adds another layer of strategy to the game, not only because players can redeploy characters they have already used, but also because some cards have abilities that only activate when played or discarded from the reserve.

Every modern collectible card game needs to take into account the fact that it will be viral and collectible in nature, which will help it sell subsequent sets of slightly different cards. ChangedThe solution to this need is that each pack you break has the potential to contain a unique card, a one-of-one variant that only one person can own. To achieve this, Changed has three different rarities for each card. For example, the common version of Amelia Earhart has no abilities, but her rare version gets a small numerical increase, making her more desirable. She also gets a slightly improved visual design. Other, easier-to-find variants can flip Earhart’s faction, making her legal to play in other decks. But players will also find unique cards, one-of-a-kind variants that have stats and abilities that can’t be found in any other version of the card. This means that each set has the potential to contain not just one Ring of Power, but dozens. Will these cards also be mechanically compelling? That depends on the community, but the potential for another Black Lotus to emerge organically is built in.

And when that one-of-a-kind trading card goes on sale, its provenance will be undeniable. That’s because players register their cards with a QR code when they open packs. They can then trade or sell the rights to those cards in the app. If you own the rights to a card (and remember, none of that involves blockchain), Equinox has a service that lets you print the card on demand, and you can even use foils from packs to give it a bit of that quintessential TCG shine. But each card is really a proxy. The cards are essentially meaningless, since everyone’s collection literally lives in the app and can be traded, bought, sold, or reprinted at any time. It’s also worth noting that the publisher gets a cut of every single sale. It’ll be interesting to see how the community reacts to this reality in practice, and how the technology itself holds up under pressure.

Changed brings a lot of hype and mostly lives up to expectations. The gameplay feels different enough from other card games that it doesn’t feel like a clone of a more popular game, the print-on-demand system could be a groundbreaking innovation, and I really like the fact that your turn is never limited to drawing a single card from the top of your deck and playing it. While the game state seems a bit too dependent on the app, the technology behind it seems far superior to other “official” apps for other games. If you’re a longtime TCG fan bored with the old standards, or a card game newbie intimidated by the rigid metagames and high entry costs of ever-popular games, Changed may be just for you.

Changed is available at local game stores and online via Asmodee. The game was reviewed using a retail product provided by Equinox. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, although Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased through affiliate links. Additional information on Polygon’s ethics policy can be found here.