Another week of Tumult Championships have gone by, with several more weeks on the way. HoosierDrummer shared their experience after their recent event at Comic Book World Louisville.

What was the atmosphere/energy like?

Perhaps due to the inclusive nature of Altered’s IP, the atmosphere was welcoming. Conversations between games were lighthearted. At no point did it seem like any participants were overtly frustrated during games, even when things were not going as expected either because of a rules decision or a play that affected their play that Day.

All of the participants were local-ish to the store for this event even though some of us had never met before for one reason or another. One player drove about an hour and a half to the store to participate.

What kinds of interesting play did you see?

Most Fen & Crowbar players I have played against use a low-to-the-ground build inching out victories with Fen’s card advantage. One Fen player at this tournament opted for a more explosive method of playing Mind Apotheosis during a key turn which was surprising and put me into an interesting decision matrix that was unexpected.

Another player had not prepared a deck for the tournament and instead decided to buy a booster box and built an Axiom deck around The Foundry, Axiom Bastion. I did not review their standings after the event, but they did appear to have a great time playing and I believe they achieved at least one victory over participants that came with constructed decks.

How did people represent their factions?

Across the board, it did not feel like anyone brought a specific deck because they felt like it was the “correct” deck to play. Some players, including myself, brought decks because it was a deck that they’re most comfortable playing and also represented a faction they wanted to win the Bravos Scout card for.

As participants checked in for the tournament, the organizer made a personal note of all of the factions that were represented. This was done primarily so that they did not have to ask each individual what they played at the end of the day before distributing faction-specific prizing. This also had the effect of positioning one player to change factions because Ordis had not been represented in the tournament at all. They shared that this decision was suboptimal for them even with the guarantee of the faction prize.

How did your matches go? What was a key play you felt good about?

While I did wind up achieving the top prize for the day, none of my games felt particularly easy. I represented Basira & Kaizaimon and my primary path to victory was using the Rare Akhlut to lock down my opponents reserve resulting in resource constraints and suboptimal play patterns due to the disruption.

How did the championship match go?

The final match was against a Fen & Crowbar deck that had a lot of sabotage disruption incorporated into the deck list. Toward the final turns of the games I found myself low on resources, but managed to navigate the battlefield using smaller characters to gain incremental advantage throughout the final Days.

One spicy play that I did not anticipate was my opponent pairing Eat Me Energy Bars with Amahle, Asgarthan Outcast. This card not only enabled the player to clean up exhausted cards from their reserve, but competing with a 5/5/5 on each side also proved difficult.

What did players think of the prizing?

Our local store was overly generous with their prizing. In addition to the standard event prizing, Comic Book World Louisville also gave all participants two packs of each of the latest set’s promo packs. They also split a box of the Trial by Frost for all participants with a weight toward the winners of the event.

Our tournament had 8 participants, which was nice because each player was guaranteed the foil Tumult cards. I think there could have been a bit of a feel bad if we had more than 8 players, but with the additional card pack prizing that the store offered, it would be hard to complain if a player missed out on those specific prizes.

What was your overall read of the experience?

For me, it was the first time I have played a card game competitively for an event that had a specific unique top prize. I had a fantastic time and appreciate the type of player that Altered brings into the community. Although players were concentrated during games, between games the conversations were very friendly and overall enthusiastic about the game.

Check out our reporting on the Tumult Championships, such as an interview with Cédric Leblanc, the new organized play director at Equinox. The Tumult Championships will be taking place between April 5-May 11, and operate as the culmination of the season’s Organized Play for Trial by Frost. Find championships near you by using the Tumult filter on the Event Locator page.