Ashes Big Announcements!
Violinist Errata, Draft Rules and What to Expect at Gen Con
Hello Everyone!
Isaac here with some more news on Ashes! Gen Con is only a few weeks away and it is finally time to make some announcements that I know you guys have been anticipating.
Ashes Errata
First we have to talk about the errata. For a while now I have been fighting against wanting to release something like this. I was hoping to find another solution than to have to change a card that we have already released. But in talks with many people I trust and seeing the community’s reaction to its effect on the game I finally decided that it was something that needed to be addressed.
We will be changing the Enchanted Violinist. As you can see below we have increased its cost to put the card in play and have also changed its ability effect to only work when your opponent discards cards. 
The reason for this change is because the card was simply too powerful. In organized play it was being seen as a card that a majority of winning players would include in their decks without question. We also found that there was no clear way to develop cards that would help combat that fact which would also be balanced and useful for other reasons outside of combating this card.
My goal with Ashes has always been to provide you with a quality product in which each card would be useful and interesting to play with. For this reason I chose not to simply exclude the Enchanted Violinist from Organized Play events but instead fix the problem so that players would continue to be able to use the full amount of cards they paid for.
This change will be enforced at all events hosted by Plaid Hat Games and required at any Ashes Organized Play Events in which an Organized Play Kit is used for prize support starting July 27th. Hosts at these events must inforce this ruling. This change will be in effect at all Gen Con events this year.
To help players have a reminder of this change, you may download the pdf here that you may print and sleeve to include in your deck. These proxies will be permitted at all tournaments until we can provide a more elegant distribution of the corrected card.
Click here to download the errata pdf and permission to print document.
All future copies of Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn base set that are printed will include the newest version of the Enchanted Violinist. We will also include an alt art version the Enchanted Violinist for each participant in the next Organized Play Kit that we produce.
The next print run of “Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn” as well as the next Organized Play Kit will take some time to produce, and it will be announced when they are closer to being released. Until then please make use of the pdf.
To all the Ashes fans out there I want to apologize for this errata. We do our very best to balance the game before it is printed and sent out to the public, but because of the shear amount of possibilities that this game has to offer, stuff like this can get through. As I have been informed by many this is something that is commonplace with these types of games. However I will continue to strive to make sure that errata such as this are as few as possible. It pains me to have to do this, but I hope you understand that it had to be done. For the good of the game it is important that the Ashes community stay healthy, creative, and ever evolving. We promise to help facilitate that the best we can by being attentive to the community, addressing problem areas with new releases, and making adjustment where needed if absolutely necessary.
Ashes New Draft Format
Now on to happier news. To those of you that have signed up for the Ashes Draft Tournament Events at Gen Con, surprise! We are going to be debuting our new draft format at these events! We are confident this version will provide players with the best draft experience for events larger than one box can facilitate.
Click here to download the new Draft Rules PDF.
Please remember that you must be familiar with these rules for the tournament that we will be running at Gen Con.
Ashes Tournaments at Gen Con Update + Prizes!!!
Speaking of Gen Con Events, I wanted to take this time to give you an update on them.
If you haven’t heard already, we will be running 4 events at Gen Con, 2 constructed tournaments and 2 draft tournaments. While we felt that a single 64-person tournament for constructed and a single 32-person Draft tournament would have been sufficient, we wanted to make sure we offered the most flexible schedule options for our fans at Gen Con. Details on the four events are as follows:
Ashes Constructed Tournament 1
Friday August 5th 9:00am to 2:00pm
64 slots – 64 tickets sold (this event is sold out)
Click here for more details on the Gen Con website.
Ashes Constructed Tournament 2
Friday August 5th 2:00pm to 7:00pm
64 slots – 19 tickets sold (45 tickets still available)
Click here for more details on the Gen Con website.
Ashes Draft Tournament 1
Saturday August 6th 9:00am to 2:00pm
64 slots – 34 tickets sold (30 tickets still available)
Click here for more details on the Gen Con website.
Ashes Draft Tournament 2
Saturday August 6th 2:00am to 8:00pm
64 slots – 5 tickets sold (59 tickets still available)
Click here for more details on the Gen Con website.
It’s great that we were able to not only meet, but exceed our expectations. But I think we can do better. It would be great if we could show Gen Con that we can fill events like this. It will make it easier for us to host these types of events in the future. Now that the new draft rules are available, I hope that more people will be interested in participating. Tell your friends, people!
And if that doesn’t sway you, maybe these prizes will!
Everyone participating in each tournament will receive the following:
1 Mist Spirit, 1 Dimona Promo Set, 1 Lulu Promo Set
Top 8 players in each tournament will receive the choice between:
1 Rin vs Brennen Player Mat
Or
1 Rin Alt art Phoenixborn card and 1 Brennen Alt Art Phoenixborn Card
Top 4 players in each tournament will receive
Ashes First Player token Crystal Emblem
2nd Place winner of Constructed Tournament will receive
1 life size card board cutout of a Phoenixborn
1st Place winner of Constructed Tournament will receive
1 life size card board cutout of a Phoenixborn
1 Champions Trophy
1 Sketch of Phoenixborn of Choice by Fernanda Suarez
1st Place winner of Draft Tournament 1 will receive
1 life size card board cutout of a Phoenixborn
1 Sketch of Phoenixborn of Choice by Fernanda Suarez
1st Place winner of Draft Tournament 2 will receive
1 life size card board cutout of a Phoenixborn
1 Sketch of Phoenixborn of Choice by Fernanda Suarez
Random prizes will be given at event for some lucky non-placing participants!
In conclusion, I hope this helps you understand what to expect at the Gen Con events. For those of you that have any additional questions, please post them below and we will edit this post-Q&A with any questions that we feel need to be addressed to all Gen Con event attendees.
Please make sure to share this announcement and any future announcements we may have between now and Gen Con. We will do our best to make sure all of our attendees are aware of any changes, but it will never hurt to have your help informing your friends.
Thank you all for attending and supporting the Ashes community. Every step forward with this game has been a dream come true for me and I am so happy to have all of you be a part of it!
Game on!
Isaac
Q&A
Q: Will Plaid Hat will be providing sleeves for the 3 Phoenixborn specific cards that you may choose to shuffle into your for the Ashes Draft Tournament?
A: Yes, we will be providing sleeves for each player to use in the draft for their Phoenixborn specific cards. You must return them to the event host when you leave the event.
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Written by Isaac Vega |
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