Today marks the beginning of the next season of Achroma: Norso Winter. It’s been a little while since I’ve published an article so I thought I’d have a little run down if what’s happened over the last month or so in the world of Achroma.

Realm Modifiers:
To combat the most powerful deck in Achroma, Rayders, and to boost less popular strategies, Realm Modifiers were introduced in November of last year. I wrote an article about them here. These were positive and negative adjustments that were applied in games depending on what realm you were playing.

These modifiers were applied at the Grand Tournament on 16 December, which I wrote about on the day. While Rayders did not win, it still made it to the final of the event, and conversations with players from the day suggest that the “no double trading” modifier applied to Spirata was somewhat effective. However, other than a slight bump for Salum Prevent decks, the Realm Modifiers had an otherwise very minimal impact on the meta. Owing to fact they complicate play, and were unpopular with some players, the team at Achroma decided to set the modifiers aside, announcing the end of them on 28 December.

With the end of Realm Modifiers, and with nothing announced to replace them, Rayders is back to full power. While the deck can be beaten, it’s still a problem for competitive play, and needs to be fixed before the next major tournament.

Protection rules:
There was a lot of chatter last month about the impact of the way Protection works. This resulted in the following wording for this keyword:
“PROTECTION | A Card with PROTECTION cannot be Erased or Drained of any Shards by another player. This includes by Actions, Abilities and during Attacks, unless the opponent has POISONOUS.”

Previously Protected cards could be drained of shards, they just couldn’t be erased. Now, since Protected cards can’t be drained of shards, there are two key repercussions:

1. Protection on objects is much better. It used to be that a 2 shard object with protection on a 2 shard character would still be erased if dealt 4 damage, as the character would be erased, taking the object with it. Now, since the object can’t be dealt shard damage, and the character can’t be dealt shard damage until the object hits 0 shards, the character is immune. This was very timely for the arrival of Dexter’s Dragon Riders as the card Dragon Armour got a big boost.
2. The Club of Dagda infinite loop is back. I wrote about this in July, but a reminder: if you can get Club of Dagda on one of your characters, and give that character and an opponent’s character Protection, you can attack them an infinite number of times, giving you +1 shard every time, winning you the game. For a bit of fun, here’s a sample palette list, abusing this combo.

The idea with this build is to play a character with an achrom shard, arm them with the Club of Dagda, protect them with a Bothy, and protect the opponent with Delilah’s Concotion or Jamshid Orb. To find Dagda and Jamshid there is Hex Clunker and Alchemist’s Tincture, the latter which can be found with Replenishment. Replenishment also finds Delilah’s Concoction. Bothy can be revealed with The Veil Chaser’s Nest, though this may also reveal Hex Clunker instead, which is no bad thing. Rounding off the build is some draw (Restock), 5 shard trade cards (Dark Rainbow and HAI Shard Cache), and some control thanks to Fireball. And Kelby is there just for fun, or if you happen to be facing down a character that already has Protection.

This by no means is a competitive deck. I’ve tested it. It runs too low on shards against achrom, and the set up is too slow against fast chroma decks. But in longer multiplayer games, or casual play 1v1s, it’ll have a decent shot. Irrespective of the power of this deck, I find it slightly surprising that the Achroma team are happy that there’s an infinite loop in the game, but so long as it remains hard to set up it won’t be a problem for competitive play.

Secrets of Spirata pre-orders:
The next Spirata Planum release, Secrets of Spirata, is available to pre-order. There’s no official release date yet, but we expect it sometime in early February.

The names of the 6 legendaries have been spoiled, as have the abilities of 2 of the legendaries themselves in the above image. Out of the legendaries are cards called Sorrono, The First Mechanical Pixie and Morag, meaning our old favourite pixies are making a reappearance despite their loss in the Spirata Fall season. Preorders also come with a Secrets of Spirata promo, meaning already powerful pixie decks have access to two location promos instead of just one, and Draco Planum has already demonstrated how powerful that can be.

With this coming just around the corner, I look forward to seeing some more spoilers in the coming weeks.

Mystery Bags and Boosters:
Achroma have started selling booster packs of 10 cards from across all the Realms. These contain chapter 1 cards, and no promos. It’s a fun addition to the shop, and they have promised that all cards will always be available as preconstructed decks and not locked behind booster. I’m looking forward to trying out drafting with the packs, but don’t intend to buy them to flesh out my collectioin.

What I’m most excited about though is Mystery Bags. I was skeptical at first, but these products have ended up being exceptionally good value. In a bag you get a lot of the following:

• Guaranteed 1 Out Of 12 Unlimited Edition Palette Boxes (Random)
• Guaranteed 1 Out Of 8 Unlimited Edition Expansion Palette Boxes (Random)
• Alternate Art Cards
• Badges
• Palette Pouches
• Posters
• Newspapers
• Postcards
• Old Promo Cards
• Shard Cards
• Scrolls
• Booklets
• Achroma 10-Card Booster Packs

I purchased 2 bags for the cost of £45 altogether (with the discount code dracotemple), and got 4 unlimited boxes (Flutterby Faculty, Von Ruthro Society, Yana, and Phisto, each normally priced at £20 each), 6 alt art cards, loads of badges, a couple of palette pouches which I use all the time, postcards and a poster which are now decorating my classroom (I’m a teacher), 4 location promos, 5 seasonal promos, 2 shard cards, and 2 booster packs. If I were new to the game, I would seriously consider buying 4+ of these then trading or buying the missing palettes, rather than buying the palettes the normal way. If you want to get one for yourself, you can get them here.

Winter is Coming:
Norso Winter is here. All being well, every win will be logged for the next month, and whether it is a chroma or achrom win will shape the outcome of the battle between the Brisgavi and Lacringi tribes. Given that Dexter’s Dragon Riders has just landed, I thought I’d share my Draco achrom deck:

This is not a pure Drake tribal deck, but it is definitely a Drake-heavy achrom deck. It utilises the same backbone as my Draco chroma deck (The Valli Caves, double HAIM and Breath of Fire, double Draco location promos, Tarni River), but features rather more drakes. I like the inclusion of Crucial Discovery which will normally find Cintimani Stone plus a 4+ cost action. Also, all 4 rares are steal 2 cards. It’s a fun deck. It tends to lose to the most powerful Draco chroma decks, but otherwise is pretty solid.

That’s all for now. Enjoy the season, whoever you’re fighting for.

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