Last week, Achroma launched a new game mode, Realm Rifts, to go along with their new boosters. I thought I’d go over the pros and cons of the format and look at a couple of decks I’ve tried out so far.

First up though, the format. It’s very similar to typical Constructed Canvas Format, but without the realm restriction, meaning you can include any card from any of the 4 Realms in your palette, as well as Realmless cards. This gives players access to an enormous card pool when constructing decks. You still cannot have more than 1 Legendary, or more than 4 Rares, and you cannot have more than 2 of any given uncommon or common card.

The other difference from Constructed Canvas is that to achieve a chroma win you need to reach 40∆, instead of 30∆. You still start on 10∆, and an achrom win is the same. This is a sensible rule, as having access to the entire card pool makes it much easier to gain shards faster than ever before.

This format is a bit of a wild west of Achroma. Card power level is extremely high, and gains can be extraordinary. Achrom definitely has a tougher time as a consequence, even with access to the entire card pool. Also, this format does make life a lot harder for players who own fewer cards. If you invested in just one Realm, you could build one of the best palettes in the game for Contructed Canvas format, but you’ll only have a quarter of all possible cards for Realm Rifts, putting you at a disadvantage.

That being said, this format is a lot of fun, and mixes things up considerably. Here’s my first palette list for the format, combining Rayders with Norso Traders:

First up, since the Firetender/Full Palette and Ray restriction only applies to Constructed Canvas, you’re free to run double Firetender and double Full Palette with Ray again. After that, I’ve got the classic 8, 5∆+ cards in the deck, plus double Dark Rainbow, and Awaken the Guardians/Murky Manor simply as 6∆ cards.

This deck isn’t building a board state, so the Wincey, Blueprint Swirls and Dracons have been cut for Norso Trader cards Fishing Dock, Trader’s Pass and Trader’s Lifeline, as well as Cave Expedition to get those trading locations on your canvas quicker.

Also in the palette is the always powerful Jali, and of course Cintimani Stone, plus controversially two copies of Eirik of Lacringi. While he will be trade fodder in a lot of games, being able to pull a Cintimani Stone and a Dr Hue’s Lab Coat from your palette and dregs is an extraordinarily strong play. The trade value of the Coat more than pays for Eirik, and the play value of Cintimani Stone in a format where players’ dregs will likely be loaded with the most powerful cards in the game is not to be underestimated, plus of course simply trading those two cards for 11∆+ can easily win you the game.

As the power cards in the 4 Realms seem to be dominated by locations, I’ve put in two copies of Tempest to round out the deck. This card is game winning against many decks, it just requires good timing to make maximum use out of it.

My second deck is my attempt at making an achrom deck, though in practice this deck can easily win by chroma in this format:

The ultimate promo achrom deck; nothing really beats the promo locations for raw power in an uncommon, so as such I have 2 copies of all 9 promo locations, plus Scrapyard Barrens, making up 20 cards of my deck.

My legendary is the amazing Tenebris, included thanks to his huge ±3 and on play ability. My rares are the strongest I could think of: Peorth and Cintimani Stone of course, plus my personal favourites Murky Manor and Jali. The Stone may seem like an odd choice in a deck with only 2 characters, but it’s worth it to play on an opponent’s character just to get the ACTION if it’s going to win the game, or you can play it on an opponent’s character then steal it with Corrupted Muon Trap.

The rest of the deck is control: double Corrupted Muon Trap, Tempest, Hostile Takeover (Salum really does have the best control cards, and I don’t even have Fireball in there), plus Thisp as it’s got a -2 resolve AND a nice bit of on-play control (especially good against Ray) for just 3∆.

If you wanted, you could easily play this promo deck as a chroma deck, by swapping out control cards for some huge trade cards like Dr Hue’s Lab Coat and Advance Scouting Party to fund your promos. I’d still keep in the Tempest though, as tech against an opponent’s Tempest.

And that’s it. This is a really interesting and fun format, and despite my best efforts I haven’t yet found anything completely broken. Having to play to 40∆ seems to balance out the power level appropriately. For me, it’s never going to replace Constructed Canvas as the go-to format, but it’s nice to have as an alternative game mode to mix things up a bit.

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