The Altered Re:Unon project by the community to keep the game going is moving onwards. The new Altered Re:Union logo was voted on this week and that is the header image for this post.

The committee has now had a couple of meetings with Equinox and there has been a lot of agreement on some of the way forwards for the game. On their discord they have put out a google docs statement on the productive elements that came from that meeting as well as their ideas for the future of the game. Feel free to join the Re:Union project if you want to have your voice heard! Rather than paraphrase the announcement, I will just replicate it here so that you can all read the progress of the team.

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Our meeting with Equinox went really well. We can rely on their support going forward. We are working on a report for the community but it will take a bit more time since we need to have it approved by them before release.

We want to thank you for being part of Re:Union, for contributing your time, ideas, work, content, and energy to the community and sharing our goal to keep Altered alive! It is a very ambitious project and can be difficult to manage as a group while ensuring everyone feels included and heard. We hope you will find your place and be able to speak up or reach out to anyone on the board if you have anything to tell us.

We need to share with all of our plans between now and May 20th, the announced date for the end of Altered services.

There have been a lot of questions, discussions and debates in Altered Re:Union and elsewhere concerning the future of the game on BGA and uniques ownership. Here is the board’s position and proposals on these topics.

Ownership

We are working closely with Equinox to preserve all ownership data, but for several reasons we are not yet ready to introduce game modes based on ownership: 

• Legally: We need to assess the situation with Equinox and, if needed, a legal advisor to understand what we are allowed to do with ownership, given that players paid for these cards. We want to avoid any misstep that could lead to legal issues. This is not an area we’re familiar with, so if you have relevant expertise or can point us in the right direction, please reach out. 
• Fairly: On the Re:Union Discord, opinions are split—some support keeping unique ownership, others are against it. We want to keep all options open and rely on genuine community votes to decide what comes next. For now, we’re not able to support ownership, but we’re working to address this as quickly as possible. 
• Accessibility: To keep the game alive, we need to support both current players and bring in new ones. Without boosters, QR codes, or online purchasing, accessing uniques would be very difficult for new players. That’s why making the game easy to join is our priority. 
• Economically: Supporting ownership also requires a way for players to trade cards, similar to the former marketplace. Rebuilding such a system is beyond our means—Equinox dedicated several months and a full-time team to it. We may explore simpler ways to transfer cards, but ownership only has value if it can evolve. How to distribute new uniques remains an open question, and we are actively working on it. 
• Technically: We need to build several systems—collection storage, an import tool for the data provided by Equinox, and updates to the deck validator to enforce ownership rules in the relevant formats. We also need a way to distribute cards once the community agrees on a model (tournaments, gameplay, account creation, or other), as well as a secure system to transfer or lend cards between players.  

For all these reasons, we are not able to support unique ownership at this stage. It will require more time, so we’ve chosen to focus on formats without it while continuing to work on the topic in parallel. Our priority is to ensure BGA remains operational after May 20th. 

Formats without ownership

Having multiple game modes is the ultimate way to ask players what they like and allow the game to evolve. But if there are too many the players will be split between them, and we will lose players if it takes too much time to find a game.

What is the sweet spot? Today on BGA, five game modes make the structure too complex, reducing both visibility and accessibility. 

• Beginner — Starter Decks
• Normal — Custom Decks & Starter Decks
• Whispers from the Maze (Demo Deck)
• Skybound Odyssey (Demo Deck)
• Seeds of Unity (Demo Deck)

With the upcoming Starter Deck Contest (see below), demo decks become redundant and add unnecessary clutter. Removing them would simplify the experience and improve clarity, allowing us to keep only the first two game modes. 

On the other hand, deck formats on BGA need to evolve in a no-ownership environment, as there are currently three formats available: 

• Standard
• NUC
• Singleton

Standard needs to be redesigned without uniques ownership if we want to keep it playable. NUC can remain unchanged, and Singleton can be integrated into the new Sandboox mode (see below).

This leaves us with a single starting point—NUC, which will initially serve as the format used in Arena. Most online card games keep a limited number of formats, even at scale. Our priority is to define a new Standard format, and to get there we want the community to test different options, with four formats as a reasonable starting point. 

Which formats should we keep? How can we make room for new ones, and how do we approach this in a fair, community-driven way? The Re:Union board proposal is designed to address these questions, which is why we will call for your contribution in the Formats Contest! (see below)

NUC, the first format

A format without ownership and uniques is the safest bet we can make. From a developer standpoint, we already have everything needed to run it without relying on Equinox. We’re confident this format will be ready on BGA as soon as altered.gg goes offline.

To recap:

• You will be able to build deck using community deckbuilders, then play it on BGA 
• No ownership required (all common and rare will be available to everyone)
• Only sets 1 to 5 are allowed, as set 6 is not yet implemented 
• We aim to keep changes to the current suspension list minimal, but anyone can propose adjustments—if there is enough support, they can be put to a vote 

Since NUC is the only format we can guarantee, it will be the default format for the Arena queue until the community agrees on a new competitive Standard format. 

Two formats with uniques created by the community

There have already been many discussions on how to handle uniques without ownership, and we appreciate all the ideas shared. The goal here is to focus the community’s effort on defining a format that stays close to what Altered is today, within current constraints, before exploring broader alternatives.

If we can use uniques without ownership, two key questions remain:

• Should all uniques be available, or should the pool be limited? 
• How do we handle broken combos to keep the game enjoyable on BGA?

There’s no single clear answer, and we won’t know what works best without testing. That’s why we’re launching a new community initiative: the Formats Contest. 

Here are the constraints for proposing a format:  

• Be a team of 5+ people. Yes, that means you must find at least 4 people to believe in your idea 🙂. You can’t be part of multiple teams.
• Design a format close to the current structure: 1 hero, 15 rares, 3 exalted, 3 uniques, 39+ cards. This constraint may be relaxed later, but we want to start simple. 
• Rely on a fixed pool of allowed cards, updated at most once per week—or secure dev support to build and integrate the tools you need by May 19th.
• No ownership for now (see above for details).
• Define a clear strategy for problematic cards. 

The two formats with the most votes will be implemented in BGA. They may not be ready by May 20th, but we’ll do our best.

Here are some examples of formats:

• only Set 4+ uniques
• a small pool of handpicked uniques
• ban Hunger and all problematic cards related to it (Hydra, Hive, Infinite Anchoring, etc…)

Sandbox, to brew new formats

Sandbox is not a real “format,” but the absence of one. You can build a deck with 1 hero and 99 cards, with no other restrictions—no limits on rarity, faction, or ownership.

Playing against random opponents in this setup may not make much sense. However, it allows tournaments to define their own rules freely, just as formats like NUC or Singleton (with a 15 rares limit) did before being implemented on BGA.

Anything becomes possible. The goal is to encourage players to experiment, create their own formats, and potentially submit them later. 

Even if your favorite format is discontinued, you’ll still be able to play it with friends in Sandbox for as long as you like. 

You talked about new formats replacing old ones ? 

Aside from Sandbox, all formats are subject to change. We plan to introduce a monthly community vote: the format with the fewest votes would be replaced by the new format with the most support. This creates a constant rotation, while still allowing formats to return later. 

BGA Starter Decks Community Contest

In parallel, we’re launching a new community initiative: the Starter Deck Contest. Full details will be shared in the coming days, but here’s the idea in short: everyone is familiar with the current starter decks, and we believe they present several issues: 

• Different rarities of the same card (common/rare) create confusion for new players 
• Decks are restricted to a single set and don’t reflect the current state of the game
• Power level is too low to compete with constructed decks

We want one per Hero, up to set 5. The goal is to gather multiple proposals and run a vote for each Hero to decide the final list of 27 decks. These will be available on BGA once altered.gg services go offline.

This is all for now, more information will come as soon as we have it and once again, please contact us if you want to help the Re:Union project.

Timeline

Thank you for reading and helping Altered survive!