With the influx of new players trying to work out what Achroma products to buy first, I thought I’d do an article covering what I consider to be competitive custom achroma palettes, built using just 2 products from Chapter 1: either 2 Unlimited faction palettes, or 1 unlimited faction palette and 1 Rise of the Realm Runners expansion palette. For simplicity, I’m not going to be looking at Limited Edition palettes here. For more on the differences between Limited and Unlimited Editions, check out this article.

Before getting stuck in to these builds, I’m going to take a look at the most powerful deck in achroma right now: Rayders. More details on this deck can be found here, but here’s the deck list for those who aren’t familiar with this behemoth. I’ve colour coded the cards in this deck by the faction or expansion that they come from:

Clearly Rayders is a deck for people pretty invested in the game, with cards coming from all 3 factions in Spirata Planum, as well as 3 Realm Runner expansions and a couple of promo cards. However, you can still build some effective custom decks with just 2 products. While I am focusing on the unlimited releases from Chapter 1, it is worth saying that a Limited edition product will give you card from 2 factions right off the bat, plus Chapter 2 releases Curdle Cove and The Last Snow Dragons contain a lot of powerful cards that are only available to buy as Limited Edition releases (at present). There is no doubt that the Salum and Draco decks I am showing below could be improved with the addition of some of these cards.

The first palette I’ve got for you is an achrom Salum Planum deck, using just the cards found in the Occultist Alliance faction palette, and the Phisto expansion:

This palette utilises mostly Occultist cards, however the addition of Phisto expansion cards pushes it to the next level. These cards are Corrupted Muon Trap, Achrom Blast, Alchemist’s Tincture, Achrom Converter, and Cintimani Stone.

I’ve included 10 characters, and 6 locations. These cards combined mean that you can set up some big plays from Achrom Blast, Occultist Influence, Sorceror Pifarius, and Countess Issadora herself. The addition of the Phisto cards gives this deck some much needed control through Corrupted Muon Trap, Alchemist’s Tincture (which can REVEAL the Trap), and Achrom Converter, which can play on any of the 6 locations. These complement one of the best control cards in the game, Hostile Takeover.

Next up, Draco Planum, and a chroma palette using the faction palettes Denizens of Arcus Via and Draco Defenders:

This deck uses a perfectly even split of cards, with 15 cards from each faction. 6 strong locations come from the Denizens, with the help from Monastery Nest and Mirror Sanctum thanks to Draco Defenders. Bear in mind Chroma Storehouse and Nest are heroic, but it is still absolutely worth packing two copies of each.

Control comes from Chromatic Extinction, helped out by Breath of Ice and Breath of Fire from the dragons. 6 dragons make up quite a small range of characters, but each one has either a strong resolve or ACTION. Lost Fairies are an economical choice of Legendary, and there are 4 actions with a cost of 4 or higher to make them worth it. Finally, a decent amount of RESEARCH tech helps feed your hand and hopefully set up a blowout Vast Volitarus play.

On to Spirata Planum, and I couldn’t resist doing 2 palettes for this realm. The first is an achrom deck using the Rise of the Realm Runners Hod expansion plus the Fallen Stone Pixies faction.

This palette uses 10 cards from the Hod expansion, with some handy objects and actions. The big card coming from this expansion though is the scary Achrom Breach. This deck certainly suffers from a lack of gain. I would normally include at least a Full Palette from Chroma Squadron. Nevertheless, it packs a punch, and so long as you can be economical with your shard usage, has a very high drain potential.

The chroma deck for Spirata utilises cards from the Chroma Squadron and Flutterby Faculty factions:

Getting full usage out of the biggest chroma hitters in the game, this palette contains a huge amount of gain provided by 9 fairy painters (including the inimitable Copper Joss). These cards are supported by Flutterby faculty Firetenders (who can find Defensive Position or Full Palette), Funguar for poison, and Dracon, which is a solid card and pairs very nicely with Blueprint Swirl. I’ve included a single Lost Property for a blowout attack turn thanks to Prismsprayer, and rounded out the build with some control thanks to Bounce and Giant Prism. Giant Prism also doubles up with Advance Scouting Party to provide some big trades when needed.

And finally, Norso Planum, and an achrom Samr Troll deck using cards from the Niimi expansion and Brisgavi Raiders faction palette:

The Brisgavi Raiders bring 7 strong characters to the game, which combined with Brisgavi Rage, plus Roll with the Punches/Enslave the Thrall from Niimi can leverage their strength and RAGE to control the opponent’s canvas. Solveig, Gunnar, and Brynhild are the powerhouse characters in the palette, but the Realm Runner cards help out with some much needed tech. You get extra drain with a single Brynhild’s Cookpot (not two as I’ve opted for the Niimi expansion rather than Hissano). Cave Expedition increases the chance of the Totem, Cave Dwelling (which can find Brynhild or Gunnar), or Brisgavi Falls from hitting the canvas. And finally the deeck has some much needed gain thanks to the incredible Orium Diamond.

Of course all these palettes could be improved with the inclusion of cards from additional factions, or with cards such as HAIM Shard Cache. However, if you’re just getting into the game and don’t know where to start, hopefully these palettes offer some inspiration as to what is possible with just two achroma products. As I’ve built all these palettes from the Unlimited Editions, all these proucts will always be available from the achroma webstore.

Thanks for reading!

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