The UK Games Expo is one of the largest games fairs in the world after Essen SPIEL in Germany and Gen Con in the US. It is held on the weekend of late May and early June at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham. This is the second year that the Equinox team have attended the fair, with last year just being demos with the starter decks as the game wasn’t released until later in the year. This was the first year with organised play on top of the demo area, which was in a different hall.

I’m going to start off by saying that the Organised Play team did a fantastic job with all the demos as well as the tournaments. The Asmodee stand ran out of starter decks, so the conversion rate of people doing the demo and then wanting to get their own cards to play with was really good. So, a big congratulations to Morgane and the team in the demo area for doing such a bang-up job on the demos.

Day One – Friday

In the tournament area the first day found thirteen players playing in the constructed event, with six later playing sealed Whispers of the Maze. There was a great variety of decks and the top four ended up as Fen versus Sigismar with a very low to the ground Siggy deck taking home the prizing in the end.

Later in the morning there was a sealed Whispers of the Maze event with six players. The events team then ran a special extra sealed event in the afternoon for a couple of players who’d just had the demo, and they were still a little unsure on the rules. The Head Judge sat with them as the other events had finished and helped them with the new rules and interactions. It was so good seeing the players have fun and learn more about the game and this is the great attitude I saw amongst all the players throughout the weekend – helpful to each other and allowing little play mistakes to be corrected. It was so nice to see and unlike any other TCG that I’ve played in before.

There was some idiot wandering around as Asmodeus. The devil wanted his due (and a sexy playmat) so he challenged the mighty Lokiboss to a game of Altered. After all the one person who can deal with a Boss that cooks the odds is a devil who runs his own gambling house.

I couldn’t play with the claws, but I had my Arcolano Milk to pull me through and beat the Lokiboss.

Day Two – Saturday

The main constructed tournament on day two had twelve people playing with three Axiom decks (one of each hero) making the finals alongside an Akesha deck. The final ended up being Sierra against Akesha, with Sierra taking down the event in the end. It’s interesting to see Axiom so well represented at the constructed events for all the heroes and my personal theory is that the UKGE playmat for the event being Axiom must have had something to do with it. That, or we have some really good Axiom players here.

My own efforts in this particular event was going two and two, after going 0-2 initially and finishing up in sixth place. I must say that the prizing for the events was fabulous, and it was well worth playing and having fun at the same time. In the afternoon there was a sealed event at 2pm with another eleven players enjoying the new cards of Whispers in the Maze.

Day Three – Sunday

The final day had seventeen show up for the constructed event with five Axiom, four Bravos, two Lyra, three Muna, with a single Yzmir and a single Ordis player. Is it me or do us Brits seem to favour some Axiom action? The top 4 ended up being Treyst versus Kojo and a Rin festival deck against a Sierra deck. The finals ended up being Kojo versus Sierra in the finals with the Sierra player who won on the Saturday, taking down a second event.

Meanwhile I had the honour of interviewing Loki (this article will come later) and then played in the Whispers sealed event. I found it a lot harder to remember all the different triggers on my passive support abilities as having three factions they were all different. Still, it was a lot of fun playing with the new cards and seeing the new interactions despite the facts I could only achieve a one and two record.

Wrap Up

The weekend was a ton of fun, and it was great to meet and chat with all the UK players. The Organised Play people and the Judges (Saphire and Pepjin) were fantastic. They kept everything on track and helped players play better Altered throughout the weekend. I don’t think that the Organised Play staff and Judges get enough credit for all the hard work they do to make the event run so smoothly. You only really notice when things go wrong at other events just how good these people are to make it seem effortless. Trust me, it’s not, and they put a lot of hard work and time into this even before the whole thing starts.

Roll on UKGE 2026!