Today, Achroma posted a rules update (link to new rules here and article here). I thought I’d run through the changes, and their impact. I’m going to go through them in the order they appear in the rules reference, finishing with the removal of the Character Types List.

First player draining/stealing
A clarification here. Previously the rules stated that:
“You can’t Drain or Steal from another player’s Shard Bank until everyone else in the game has had their first turn.”
This has been updated to:
“A player’s Shard bank can’t be affected by another player’s Steal, Drain or any other effects or abilities until everyone has had their first turn.”

This is, at present, just to prevent a player deploying Niimi on their first turn for some sneaky pseudo-drain, but could easily apply to similar effects in the future.

Infest Update
This INFEST wording was actually updated unofficially back in June, and I did an article about the new wording back then. Click here for the full article.

Since June, there have been a few stylistic edits to this wording, but no real mechanical changes, so I won’t go over it again now. However, there is a minor addition since my article which does clear up some uncertainty:

“Card abilities that move Characters from one Canvas to another, such as CLAIM, may not target PARASITES, but may target the HOST. If a HOST moves Canvases, the PARASITE moves with them.”

I would also add that the words HOST and PARASITE are used instead of INFESTING and INFESTED, which certainly makes it (much) easier to read.

Mount Update
For this one, I’m going to show a diff:

Clearly the definition of this keyword has got longer. However, previously, there were a lot of questions surrounding MOUNT, especially for interactions during combat, which were all clarified unofficially. Now, all clarifications have been wrapped up in a neat and clear definition.

The key clarifications revolve around combat. It was always unclear where shard damage got dealt if a mounted pair survived, and whether riders could attack on the turn they were played if the mount had been played on a previous turn, or vice versa. Both questions are now clearly answered:
If a mounted unit are not erased by combat, no shard damage is dealt. So for instance if they have a combined shard value of 4, and you deal them 3 damage, they received no shard damage.
If either of the pair were played on a previous turn, you can attack with them.

One final minor change is that previously, according to the rules, you could trigger MOUNT on a rider to mount another dragon/drake even if they were already mounted. Now, you cannot. Once a rider is mounted, only actions specifically targeting MOUNT may unmount them.

Shield Wall Update
Shield Wall got a sensible change when Achroma 2.0 landed (see my article here). Now, one extra line has now been added to the explanation of what happens when you trigger SHIELD WALL:

“If you DEFEND the attacked character, the new Defender receives the additional Shard Value instead.”

As a character only gains shard value when a player declares an attack on them, without this line DEFENDERS were more vulnerable (as the opponent hadn’t technically declared an attack on them). Now, they too get to enjoy the boosted shard value that all your characters enjoy when being attacked.

Poisonous Update
Previously, the definition of POISONOUS stated that it only applied when attacking, i.e. not while defending. This was never the way this ability was played, nor intended. As such, this has been replaced with, “Erases any card on a canvas it deals Shard damage to during combat.”

This might be a good time to point out that the definition also says, “POISONOUS ignores PROTECTION and GUARD“, the latter being a keyword no-one’s seen in Achroma before, which is a nice little teaser.

New terms for the glossary
Additions to the glossary include COMBAT, MOUNT, MOUNTED UNIT, and HOST. These are all nice to have, and explain these terms succinctly.

Character Types List
This may be only a minor functional change, but is the one I’m most happy about. The Character Types List has been completely removed from the rules document.

To explain, Achroma 2.0 brought us a ruling about a number of 2-word character types being treated as a single unique character type, essentially for the purpose of MENAGERIE. While this had only a minor effect on gameplay, it sometimes required players to have to refer to a list of character types in the rules to correctly calculate MENGARIE effects, a demand that seemed to run contrary to the spirit of Achroma.

As this list and the rulings associated with it have been eradicated, the rule on character types is very simple: every distinct word in a character type is considered a new type.

The key upshot here is that MENAGERIE is ever so slightly more powerful. Previously, a Kodama was just 1 character type, Forest Spirit. Now it’s two, Forest and Spirit. Mechanical Pixies are now Mechanical and Pixies. This means that everyone’s favourite Hoff (Hoffel Brown) is likely to be worth about +1/2 extra per round. At the extreme end, here’s a dream canvas for you:

Previously, our character types would have been Mechanical Pixie, Forest Spirit, Mechanical Creature, Realm Runner (this one was unclear, as it wasn’t listed, but the lack of the comma implied Ray might have a single character type), Fairy, and Teacher. Hoffel would therefore represent a respectable +6.

Now, your character types are Mechanical, Pixie, Forest, Spirit, Creature, Realm, Runner, Fairy, and Teacher, for a handy +9. Not bad. Note that despite trying really hard to break Hoffel with an extreme example, I’m only pushing him up +3 shards per turn. That’s half the value of simply trading a Dr Hue’s Labcoat.

I could certainly see myself trying out MENAGERIE a bit more now, especially if Mechanical Pixies are worthwhile includes. I might even consider including Hoffel in Rayders. Previously, the cheap gain character slot was taken by Dracon. Hoffel could be better in many games. However, he lacks Blueprint Swirl synergy, forces you to play multiple characters in a turn when ordinarily you might be more inclined to play an Action and a location with the Dracon, as otherwise he has 0 gain. The fact this significant buff still doesn’t make the best MENAGERIE character an auto-include suggests to me that it was a good call.

Norso Sneak Peak
One thing I couldn’t resist mentioning. In the article was a small Norso Sneak Peak, showing a malcontent emaciated alopecian orc, who goes by the moniker, The Scavenger. Check out the article for the image. It’s a difficult character to asign ideas to with so little to go off, but I’m seeing neutral faction tendencies (scavenging certainly doesn’t imply evil/achrom), a low shard value, and perhaps a steal ability.

That’s all for now. No major functional changes, but a lot of solid clarifications and updates. Great work team.

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