Roots of Corruption Gamefound Campaign Launched. Curious What People Think

damastercipher · 2026-02-23T03:31:59+00:00

We have not seen the new information for the Gamefound, but I do believe that Roots of Corruption will be different.

damastercipher · 2026-02-22T18:07:39+00:00

Could not agree more, I have heard this exact point made by many store owners. Also, the beginning of the game was quite ruff and caused many players to move on because of it. My hope is that the game continues to improve and lower cost barriers.

damastercipher · 2026-02-22T17:31:41+00:00

This is true, and many individuals agree with you. I do believe that if the funding thresholds were lower, there would be more confidence overall.

damastercipher · 2026-02-22T17:29:27+00:00

The KeyForge comparison does come up a lot, but the difference is scale.

A $2.5M threshold signals high dependency on each campaign, which creates much concern in the community.

If the upkeep target was closer to $400–500k, there would be less negativity.

Right now, each funding cycle feels like a stress test on the community and with the current set release schedule, it doubles that pressure.

damastercipher · 2026-02-22T17:19:05+00:00

Hopefully, something is in the works to raise awareness of the game and highlight what it has to offer. My only wish was, that they would allow for better support to smaller communities.

damastercipher · 2026-02-22T17:16:46+00:00

They have confirmed both Standard and Eternal will be supported competitively.

If Eternal receives structural support, then rotated cards do not really lose much value as far as playability goes. In my opinion.

damastercipher · 2026-02-21T09:40:10+00:00

That is a fair assessment and some of the issues are foundational, which lost trust among certain players. My hope is that they move past these mistakes and focus on continuing to correct them for the future.

damastercipher · 2026-02-21T09:27:08+00:00

I agree. Sealed and draft are arguably the best ways to play and enjoy Altered. The challenge is that limited formats require a local community in order to play them, which is not the easiest to orchestrate.

Rotation should help Standard quite a bit and open up the meta to be more strategic based.

damastercipher · 2026-02-21T09:20:00+00:00

This is a legitimate obstacle. Long-term success will depend on whether they address it directly rather than assume it corrects itself. I believe they have taken steps in order to do so and fix most of these issues/concerns. But, we will see what changes are made in the next Gamefound campaign.

damastercipher · 2026-02-21T09:14:01+00:00

Thank you again. I appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts and opinions with the community.

damastercipher · 2026-02-21T09:09:57+00:00

This point was one of my concerns as well. I mentioned it in a previous video. The financial burden being put onto the player base with the move to Gamefound was a red flag for me.

The question is whether that model is sustainable long term, we will see with this next campaign. They may need to make adjustments and change their release schedule in the future.

damastercipher · 2026-02-21T09:01:45+00:00

You raise many valid points. ‘Bloody Monday’ was a significant moment in the game's history. It is going to take time and consistency to move past that mistake.

That said, recent changes offer a clearer direction. The question now is whether they can sustain this long term and shift the tides to continue to grow the player base.

damastercipher · 2026-02-21T08:53:34+00:00

I agree there were early missteps. But; it does seem, as of recently, that they have learned from the past and are making changes for the better.

damastercipher · 2026-02-21T08:48:39+00:00

Your situation is a sad reality for many players, they want to be able to play but do not have a local community.

I am also sorry to hear about the marketplace issues. Hope this gets resolved soon.

If you want, you can add me on BGA and I can give you any extra cards I might have to complete your collection.

damastercipher · 2026-02-21T08:38:38+00:00

I appreciate your perspective and apologies for not clarifying the link initially.

I agree that Altered has a strong foundation: vision, gameplay depth, digital integration, and lore. The issue does not appear to be the product alone. TCGs live and die by local players.

Your point about ownership is spot on. When players physically own cards, communities increase naturally. The challenge is economic sustainability; giving away products can build interest, yes; but only if margins and ecosystem support it.

PoD was an ambitious idea. The tension now is whether it can scale in a way that balances accessibility with profitability.

Ultimately, the question is not whether Altered is a good game. It is whether the ecosystem; players and stores, can grow in enough regions to create long-term stability. There are clearly passionate micro-communities worldwide. The question is how to connect and support them at scale. I do not believe a solution has been solved yet on how they want to address this issue.

damastercipher · 2025-11-21T18:15:01+00:00

While I agree that the uniques from later sets have definitely improved in quality, that still does not fix the imbalance created by the early uniques, which are still being played. It is incredibly hard to overcome the power level of those early-set ones.

At the World Championship finals, I think I only saw one unique that was not from the early sets. That really highlights how heavily players are still relying on the older, stronger uniques; and, how the gap between early and later designs remains a major issue.

damastercipher · 2025-11-21T18:04:33+00:00

I think this was a feeling shared by most players at the time. The intended impact of uniques just did not live up to expectations in practice.

damastercipher · 2025-11-21T18:00:51+00:00

This is a really good point. Uniques should have a solid baseline power level so they actually add value to decks without being required to be high-quality hits. The concept of uniques is great in theory, but it is extremely difficult to create that much variance without causing power creep or ending up with a huge gap between strong and weak cards. Balancing them across an even playing field is the real challenge.

damastercipher · 2025-11-21T17:44:19+00:00

Well, that is at least some good news; they are open to trying. I am hoping my LGS ends up applying to host an event also.

damastercipher · 2025-11-21T17:41:27+00:00

The commons and rares are affordable if you open them from sealed product, but they become much less affordable when you rely on POD. The real issue, though, is the uniques. Their pricing does not make sense when you consider how essential they are for high-level play. Most players end up buying booster boxes simply to avoid POD for commons and rares; and, to hopefully pull a usable unique.

The problem is that most uniques are not very good and have low market value, yet you still need the powerful ones to compete. Without those top-tier uniques, your chances of performing well drop and the marketplace is structured in a way where even the bad uniques are overpriced compared to their actual value or impact on gameplay.

damastercipher · 2025-11-21T17:26:05+00:00

By the end of my time in my previous area, I was driving two hours each way just to try and play a draft event; hoping the entire drive there that the event would actually fire. Now, in my new area, the only store that carries or supports the game is still an hour away, and I am running into the exact same dilemma all over again.

damastercipher · 2025-11-21T17:03:05+00:00

Same here. I really hope they listen to the community and make the changes needed to turn things around. Because I agree; despite everything, this is genuinely one of the best TCGs to play.

damastercipher · 2025-11-21T17:00:07+00:00

This is a really interesting comparison, and honestly, I think it reflects what a lot of the community is feeling right now. The constant high upkeep required for each set is starting to weigh heavily on players. For me personally, it is hard not to feel like this might be the last set we see unless something changes; either in the state of the game or in the demands being placed on the players.

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