I happened to notice that a new rules errata has been posted on the aristeiathegame.com website. The most interesting erratum was the bold emphasis that the two of four character cards that are chosen for each team character to make up the eighteen card deck is done secretly. This makes game for which a good part of its fun is unpredictability that much more unpredictable. I would be interested in any discussion that the play testers or developers may care to share. I have concern about how this will affect the AGL. The games might require a third party referee. It seems easy for an accidental error in deck building to occur.
It always was design to be done secretly: 'cos this is your secret plays. You know 10 of 18 cards from rival, but those 8 not, so what will you do with your 'No!' Will play it now, then, last round...? There are characters whose Tactics are more 'strategy' similar, but there are a bunch of them whose Tactics may vary their strategy -and so their team's-. About AGL, as many other card games, it will be important to have a referee to check deck building from players. Fortunately, deck building in Aristeia! is a lot easier to check.
Thinking about AGL Standard Tournament Carano Mod, which seems like the sort of event I'm most likely to host, I figured that the start of each game would require ach player to show the four character cards, face up, then shuffle and pick two, for each character in their team. In other Mod forms this would be a bit more time-consuming as you also have to build the team, make any adjustments for the Mod and then build the deck. But once you're familiar with your characters and have your deck well-organized, it should be easy enough.
