Today I’ve got a couple of Achroma related things to chat about, neither of which I felt justified their own post, so thought I’d combine them into one article.

First up, a while back I mentioned that I’d got a few cards graded by Ace Grading. Bryntheaction had offered to take any more cards I wanted to get graded to Ace personally at the London Card Games Expo. In the end I decided I did want one more card graded: my copy of Limited Edition Ray.

Why Ray? Well, way back in May 2023, just a couple of weeks after Rise of the Realm Runners had launched, was the Achroma Community Showcase aka Achromacon. I’d been working on a palette of mine since Realm Runners had landed, and took the opportunity to try it out against unsuspecting team member Troy, as well as a few other community members. HAIM Shard Cache was released that very day and immediately two copies found there way into the palette. I won every single game with the deck, racking up 24 stright wins before finally taking a loss. The palette, of course, was Rayders.

This palette has been such a pivotal part of the game for me, and has influenced so much of competitive Achroma, including the creation of the Restricted List and the design behind later Grand Tourament winning deck, Draco Steal-cation. I thought it was appropriate to immortalise Ray, the Ray, the actual copy of the card that I played at Achromacon a year and a half ago and in many a game since, in an Ace slab. The card tells a story, so I wasn’t fussed about the grade. In fact, I expected a low grade considering how much play he’s seen. So I was very surprised when this arrived in the post:

I’m not exactly sure how a card that has seen so much play received a grade 9, but I’m very happy. And l love the Ace label the team created, pulling the colours in from the sunset as well as the horizon. Thanks again for Bryntheaction for making this a reality.

Next up, a design of my own. As many of you know, I run an Achroma Club at the school I work at. One problem I’ve had is having a good way to store and access decks. Sure, there’s plenty of products available online for storing regular cards, but I wanted something more Achroma appropriate. Enter the Deck Hex.

I wanted a storage solution that held several decks for easy access. This design is inspired by the Achroma Hex, and features 6 slots for vertically mounting decks. It’s been great so far, but there were a couple of issues with this version 0.1 design:

• I made an error in the width of the slots, making them far too long. The next iteration will consequently have a much smaller, shelf friendly, footprint;
• The 3D printer errored in the last few mm creating a visible step at the top. I look forward to the final version printed without this error.

I built the design in Tinkercad and asked a friend with a printer to print it for me .If anyone else is interested in printing their own copies, I have a few options below, in case anyone else has access to a 3D printer and wants to print their own. In terms of raw materials and electricity, it only costs about £5 to print (ignoring the initial investment in the printer itself).

Shallow version, base only
Shallow version, lid only
Tall version, base only
Tall version, lid only
Tall version, slightly narrower for smaller printers, base only
Tall version, slightly narrower for smaller printers, lid only

And that’s all for now. Watch this space for Monsters of Norso teasers and spoilers coming soon.

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Next time you’re ordering achroma products, please use the discount code dracotemple at checkout on the achroma webstore for 10% off all orders, including pre-orders. By using this code, you are also supporting me, as I earn commission on any sales using this code.