I run an Achroma Club at my school, and today I asked my two keenest Achroma players to try out a simple Achroma Draft. The premise was simple: they each opened 4 booster packs of Achroma cards, and chose a card to keep and a card to pass from each pack. They then swapped and repeated until they had 24 cards each, from which they built a 20 card palette.

It was really interesting to see how they drafted. I know all the cards, so I can easily see which are strong cards and which would be odd choices. They, however, were very unfamiliar with many of the cards. When confronted with an Isaz or a Contaminated Ballistics Belt, they had to read the card and quickly make an assessment of its worth. Considering this, they mostly picked sensibly, and by the end they each had a nice set of 20 cards to play with.

The game progressed well. Their limited experience meant they missed some key plays, but they coped with the objects on canvas rule well. One of them completely decked out, which wasn’t much of a surprise given the low power level of cards, but that player soldiered on, and ended up winning after some close back and forth. This was the final canvas state:

That Double Trouble was a copy of Huxon, which did a lot of work, and the Contaminated Ballistics Belt and Wing Clipper kept the original Huxon well and truly neutralised. Also, the glee with which the winner played Niimi early game for essentially a steal 3 was heartwarming.

It did take a while for either player to get a character on the canvas, and ultimately the player who drew and played their limited set of characters first was able to control the board state much more effectively. However, it was really refreshing to see this form of play working so well with inexperienced players, and despite some curious plays, they both enjoyed it.

I’ve still got a few boosters left unopened, and I have plans for a set of custom cards to support the draft format. Watch this space, and in the meantime, here’s a sample of the support cards I’ve designed:

Enjoy the runup to Monsters of Norso everyone, which is due for release on Halloween!

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