Meet the Community #19 : Saphire

I was first introduced to Altered back in September 2023 when Thalia and Eric drove over to The Netherlands to introduce Altered to the Dutch retailers. Beforehand me and two others were given the presentation + learn to play as preparation so we could present and demo the game during the roadshow that would follow.

During that presentation I immediately fell in love completely with everything about the game! The biggest thing that pulled me in was the gorgeous artwork and the richness of Lore. The fact there is a whole world created specifically for Altered full of stories and endless things to discover brings it all to life for me.

What I love about the game mechanics itself is the "no bloodshed" aspect. Instead of mainly being focused on damaging or killing whatever your opponent plays, you're focussed on making your side of the expedition have better stats to move your expedition forward. The game feels friendly and kind and is focussed on a different kind of competition with your opponent, which I really enjoy.

Following my "Altered training" so to say from Eric and Thalia, I ran a lot of demo's at roadshows across The Netherlands and I’ve been playing my part in sharing the game across communities and game stores. During those roadshows I did everything in my power to spread my excitement about Altered with new players and introduce them to the game by immersing them into the Altered world with a Lore rich demo. As soon as we got our hands on our first Altered cards I also started bringing our spare commons and heroes with me to the roadshows or events to give out to players completely new to the game. This way I could help them to start off their Altered collection while the game wasn’t released yet, but I plan to keep doing it after retail release happens as well to keep spreading the joy of receiving your first Altered cards and helping/supporting newer players that way.

During the roadshows back in December I also got this crazy idea in my head "How cool would it be to actually have an Altered cosplay?!" As I really connect with Teija as a character and recognize a lot of myself in her, I started working on my first ever cosplay! This resulted in a Teija cosplay I'm extremely proud of already (and isn't even fully finished yet). To top this off I also got the absolute honor of being named Musubi Ambassador 2024 in the category for cosplay. I can't even begin to describe how grateful I am to receive this recognition for my contribution to the community.

The community definitely hasn't seen the last of me yet! Currently I'm very active and involved in the Dutch community, where I've even been sort of deemed the Altered wikipedia and I'm busy with roadshow part 2. I'm also planning many more projects with ideas floating through my head about more ways to immerse deeper into the lore and to create my own stories and characters within that world. So more is coming... Soon...

Muna! Without a doubt, during my learn to play I immediately grabbed the Muna deck when given the choice and I haven't strayed from it as my main faction since. I'm a Muna by heart personality wise and I just absolutely love the artwork and characters in Muna. The play style also suits me very well as it's not at all aggressive or focused on removal and interfering with your opponents expeditions, but mainly focused on literally rooting your characters and helping them grow, making the little guys big and strong! Doesn't make it a surprise that the Sneezer Shroom and Spindle Harvesters are amongst my favorite characters as they're a great example of little easy to play guys that can become worthy opponents when you help them grow big and strong.

For starters I’m really excited for OP to kick off and see how the community will evolve. I’m really looking forward to playing the game with others and engaging with the community. As I’ve loved helping and supporting players and events during the roadshows, I also hope to attend many more events in a similar role and would love to also become an official judge at some point to have a supporting role during big tournaments.

I’m also really excited to see what future sets will bring and add to Altered and to see the game grow. We’ll see what the future will hold for Altered and I’m definitely sticking around and in it for the long run!

• Instagram: @saphire_artandphotography
• You can find me on discord as Saphire#1063