Achroma just released an update to their rules, a copy of which can be found here.

Version 2.2.0 is mostly a tightening up of some wording that was a little unclear previously, however it does make two functional changes to the game that I’ll go through here.

HUNT
The biggest change to the rules revolves around the function of the HUNT mechanic. This ability has always been weak because it required your opponent to not only play characters to their canvas, but for those characters to stick around for a couple of rounds. Character driven palettes are most successful when you erase opponents’ characters, so this put HUNT in a tricky place.

The HUNT wording now states that, “Once per turn you may choose another Character on any Canvas, including your own, to HUNT”.

Since you can now HUNT your own characters, this ability can be much more consistently triggered. It does still of course require both target characters to survive a round, but you’ll no longer have to wait for the opponent to deploy a character, nor will you be in a quandary about whether to erase an opponent’s character when possible, or HUNT it and hope it, and the Hunter, survive.

Since HUNT is not used as an ACTION, you could now play these two characters and have them HUNT each other, reaping the rewards at the start of every subsequent turn they survive.

Deploying cards with card abilities
The only other functional change is a minor one, but one that makes me happy.

For a while now, the ruling on card abilities deploying other cards has been that only cards deployed “for free” didn’t count towards your 3 cards per turn limit. The rules have now been changed to state that, “You may Deploy up to three cards during your turn. This does not include cards Deployed due to other card abilities.“

This means that Parasitic Fusion has instantly become a much more playable card. You can now use it to deploy Cordyceps (for 3 more shards) on the opponent’s canvas, then play an expensive character with a good resolve/ability from your hand and claim back the shards, and then play a cheap character for Cordyceps to INFEST instead, all in the same turn.

I really hope we see a development of this “cards Depoyed due to other card abilities” mechanic in actions, and character/location abilities. There have been several cards that deploy other cards “for free”, but I’d love to see more Parasitic Fusion-like abilities in future, which let you tutor/dig key cards, but still make you pay shards for them.

That’s all for now. Happy autumnal equinox everyone.

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