OPENING
We have a plethora of new reveals for you, today! Let's jump right in:
CHARACTER CARDS
"Oooohhh myyyyyyyy!"
Before I dive into the character card itself, I would like to point out that Alpha Trion's vehicle mode is actually original artwork by the Wizards crew -- something that I've spoken at length about being a fantastic sign of the longevity of Transformers as a card game. I certainly hope that more characters get original artwork in the future. Of course, all Battle Cards have original artwork -- but it seems that it's even more widespread than we thought! I can't wait to see where else they go with it.
But as for Alpha Trion himself, he's something of a "Baby Battlefield Legend", if you will. He can play a free Action -- albeit a specific color of Action -- when he attacks, and return an Action -- again, specific color of Action -- to your hand on Vehicle mode flip. I really enjoy the gameplay flow of Optimus Prime, so being able to play essentially two of them on the same team is just as welcome. You already favor a blue deck with Battlefield Legend, at least in many circumstances, so Alpha Trion fits exceptionally well into that mold. Even more than that, George Tak-- Er,
Alpha Trion can return the ever-useful Reckless Charge to your hand to power up Battlefield Legend's next attack even more than you already are naturally.
I really and truly do like Alpha Trion, but I do doubt his usefulness over Battlefield Legend in many circumstances. Battlefield Legend is arguably the best character card in the game, though, so that's not saying much; but it is an interesting idea. In many circumstances, Battlefield Legend's high point cost constrained the pool of potential partners for him. With Alpha Trion, you don't really have that problem; here, you can use two seven star characters, a six and an eight, or even a ten and a four star! You can use a lot more partners with Alpha Trion, and whereas your deck will likely have to be more balanced than you're used to to make full use of his abilities, you're going to get a lot of value out of him regardless.
All in all, I am extremely excited for Alpha Trion and his prospects. His utility is extremely high for an 11 Star character, and even moreso than that, you can use him in many more team combinations than Battlefield Legend. He's not perfect, and his stats are a little lacking, but with the right Actions, all things are possible. Look out for this guy!
"On T.R.O.O.P.S., all suspects are guilty. If they were innocent, they wouldn't be suspects, now would they?"
Prowl kind of sucks. Weapons don't really stick around for that long in Transformers, thanks to both Power Punch and Grenade Launcher both being mainstays of many decks offensive engine. Of course, with Battle Masters being a thing, you could
technically punish decks that rely on them for damage, but to be perfectly frank, there are an absurd amount of weapon-scrapping effects that would be better for that punishment.
As for his stats, he's rather lackluster in all but HP. His moderate offensive stats are average for his Star cost, and his defensive stats are mediocre at best. Prowl is a car, which is nice, but at a point, I would actually rather run Ruckus at a slightly higher point cost instead, and he's... Well,
Ruckus.
I get it -- he's a Common -- but it looks to me like the card is just as bad as the toy mold it's based on.
"How am I going to stop a mean Mother Hubbard from tearin' me a structurally superfluous behind?
The answer? I'm going to use a gun. If that don't work? Use more gun."
Cog is cool -- an expensive kind of cool. Cog is the first Weaponizer we've seen in the TFTCG, and with him come implications. Foremost of these being: Are we going to see more of them? I did a little digging, and I didn't come up with much in terms of the toyline, but with the unprecedented new artwork, who knows what could come next in terms of Weaponizers?
But that's beside the point. The main point is that Cog is a Weaponizer, and Cog is
very good. I can't put to words how excited I am at the prospects of pairing him with three Micromasters/Combiner parts and using his absurd Weaponizer ability to power up your entire squadron instantly. I'm also extremely excited the prospects of powering up a multi-weapon Razorclaw with the combination of Tooth and Claw and Cog, but I'm a sucker for Razorclaw so that shouldn't be a surprise.
I just wish that his stats in robot mode were better. Just four attack is a bit lackluster, but with his explosive ability in Weapon Mode, I find it hard to be disappointed. For instance, you could use him to soften something up for one of your other characters to finish off. Plus, he can still dumpster some Combiner Parts or Micromasters -- it's just going to be harder to find robot mode value against decks of normal stature.
Cog's stats aren't all mediocre, though; 12 is still a high number, and your opponent might be hard-pressed to KO him in one hit. It's for this reason that I can't help but to think about Heroism or Bravery, both being used to draw a second attack from your opponent away from one of your squishier targets for a second turn in a row. Simply put, your opponent doesn't want to have to attack Cog -- they'd rather leave him alone until all of your other characters have been KO'd so they don't have to deal with his Weaponizer effect.
This also lends itself to a potential entire team of Micromasters. Since all Micromasters have Stealth when untapped, your opponent can't target them on the first turn of the game. In other words, you're essentially forcing your opponent to attack Cog, and if he's still alive at that point, you can attack with him and force your opponent to waste another attack on him
again, only to power up your entire field.
I could go on about the nuance of Cog's playstyle, but I think I'll leave that to your imagination. Anyway, who do you think will be another Weaponizer? I haven't seen any
hardline Weaponizers in my research, but now that I think about it, Megatron could be a Weaponizer with his gun mode! Oh, my, the mental image of that makes me swoon. But enough dreaming! On to the next!
The new season of Black Bullet looks great!
Nightstick is... Well, he's
something, all right. On one hand, he's a playable Decepticon Specialist which is something of a commodity outside of Flamewar and Breakdown, but on the other hand, he's kind of dismal in his robot mode. His stats are agonizing at best, and whereas I realize you're supposed to play him with heavy black pips, you're probably going to swing for an astounding two damage on average.
I realize that most Battle Masters have two to three attack, but most of the time, they
do something to justify it, like draw a card, high Bold or have a high amount of Tough. Nightstick does neither of those things. Regardless, you don't play a Battle Master for their robot mode: You play them for their weapons!
So, as for Nightstick's, well...
Night-stick, it's actually an interesting weapon. With the influx of black pips, one could build their deck to accommodate it rather well. The offensive boost isn't the real reason you'd play him, in fact: It's the defensive boost combined with the hand control effect. I mean, just to put it in perspective, with Shockwave -- Cybertron Commander, you could attach Nightstick and when you attach a Multi-Mission Gear the next turn, you will end up with a
shocking five defense.
With that, you can even use the hand scrapping effect with Shockwave to deal chip damage -- it's almost like the two were made for each other! But, anyway, Nightstick might be used in select lists. But, with hand destruction not being as good in Transformers as it is in other games, I can't help but to feel like Nightstick's usefulness will be just about as limited as his robot mode.
"Who're you callin' pinhead?"
Needlenose? In Cybertronian form? Oho, if you couldn't have guessed, this is
entirely new artwork of Needlenose in Tetrajet form. The artwork for him blends seamlessly in with the other artwork for the other characters, and I can't help but to love the little things, like the asymmetrical guns in his vehicle mode.
Regardless, Needlenose is actually impressive in many different regards. For one, he's the cheapest character who can return an Action (or Upgrade, but who plays Star Upgrades?) to your hand, and on top of that, he can combo especially well with Leap of Faith and Bolt of Lightning, dealing a damage to an enemy of your choice for each. That powerful effect makes for an interesting conundrum: Just how many Star Cards would you play, and which ones?
Bolt of Lightning comes to mind to start -- being able to snipe for 4 directly is an immensely powerful effect, and it certainly makes up for his mediocre at best attack power. But, getting those specific cards into your hand when you need them is something of a crap-shoot. You never know when you're going to flip them during a battle, and then you need to use two of your Transform actions just to get it back and use it to its full effect, and all of this hoping that your opponent doesn't just, y'know,
kill him.
It's for that reason that I think that Leap of Faith must be played alongside Bolt of Lightning. I know, I know; you're playing six Star Cards -- a full character's worth -- you have to realize that you're probably doing more with your Leaps and Bolts than you could probably do with a six star character, anyway, aside from having them eat an attack for you. Plus, Leap of Faith can also trigger a Bolt of Lightning, dealing five damage instead of the normal four. On top of that, you can Brainstorm a Leap of Faith and a Bolt, and who knows what you can get off the Leap flips to compound that damage?
I digress slightly. Needlenose being eight stars allows you access to smaller teammates, making room in your deck for more stars. You deal a massive amount of pressure damage outside of combat with a deck consisting of mostly stars, but I can't help but to feel like his stats lack a bit of "umph" to push him that extra mile that he so desperately needs. Only 11 HP with only one defense is a bit lackluster, and in a format of increasing aggression, I worry that his frailty may cost you in the short run.
All in all, Needlenose is going to be a neat rogue deck. I don't think he'll be a mainstay in the mainstream metagame thanks to that frailty of his, but I do think that he'll be fun to play regardless.
Cutter no more.
Trail
breaker is back, guys! I was so excited to see the card's name, and then I looked at the card's effect. First, let me say, searching out a Force Field at the start of the game is actually kind of nutty. It confirms that your opponent will avoid Trailbreaker like the plague, and that means that he'll likely have full health going into your first turn. But, that being said, if you fill your team with Stealth characters other than Trailbreaker, you can force your opponent to attack into your Force Field on the first turn of the game, but after that you have a team of Micromasters that couldn't dent tin foil even if they tried, so perhaps that strategy is something of a miss.
Other than that, Trailbreaker has only a few things really going for him, and most of it revolves around having an Armor attached. But, as I've said before, Armor doesn't tend to stick around that long after Bashing Shield's advent. That makes him more of a liability than anything else, with his zero defense compounding the loss of your Force Field. Pretty much, if you ever lose your Force Field, you can preemptively notify his next of kin -- he's a dead man walking.
But that's kind of all he does. Sure, his five attack isn't bad at all, but there are plenty of cheaper options who do that, too. His Brave effect is good, don't get me wrong, and starting the game with a Force Field is very good, but if your opponent plays any Upgrade removal at all, you are going to get next to no value out of him.
"Damn it, Jim! I'm a doctor, not a mechanic!"
Let me preface this by saying that Ratchet is one of my favorite characters. The crotchety doctor is one of my favorite archetypes, with Bones being one of my favorite characters from Star Trek in general. The type of character that can do anything with a scalpel, and they won't be happy about it when you give them lip. Unfortunately, Ratchet just doesn't live up to that hype.
He's something of a byproduct of the times, sadly. Healing just doesn't have that much of an impact, and when you only deal +1 for each damage you heal, you're not getting much offensive power from it, either, and when he's an eight star character with zero defense, he's not going to give you back that much value in the long run. It's not that he's
bad per-se, in fact, if the format slows down a bit (or a lot) then his Medic! search will see a lot of value.
Until then, however, Ratchet's just too expensive for what he brings to the table.
It's poetry in motion / She's turned her tender eyes to me
Deeper than any ocean / As sweet as any harmony
Mm, she blinded me with science!
Wheeljack is really quite interesting. On one hand, he is completely lackluster compared to his previous iteration, but the idea of starting the game with a Brainstorm in-hand is definitely appealing. His stats are seemingly in-line with most other characters his cost, and his Car status could prove to boost him slightly, but in a Car list, wouldn't you rather play Wave 1 Wheeljack instead for his draw and Bold effects?
But either way, what are Siege Wheeljack's merits? Well, my favorite part about his kit is that he's an Autobot specialist, making him an available bachelor for the Red Heat Combo archetype. Early playtesting with Skywarp have been going very well, and I wonder how it would turn out, starting the game with a Brainstorm in-hand? Even more than that, his Autobot nature allows you to play the ever-useful Confidence, digging just a little bit farther into your deck for those Peace Through Tyranny. Something that's not as useful but still welcome is his draw effect in his robot mode, where you can try and refund some of your massive hand expenditure.
But other than in Combo, Wheeljack probably won't see much play compared to his Wave 1 iteration. His effects just aren't as useful as Wave 1's, and I don't see that changing any time soon.
"INJUSTICE RAAIINNSS FROM ABOVE!"
Visper is kinda freaky. I don't know whether I love him or despise him, but regardless of that, I know that his effect is good. Regardless of whether or not Visper is viable otherwise, his effect when built correctly is immensely powerful. Removing your opponent's hand on the first turn of the game is strong (albeit lucky) and in doing so, you're more or less confirming that your opponent will likely not be able to retaliate against your more important partners like Shockwave.
The biggest problem with hand destruction is that your opponent can always retaliate. This is no different, but when done early enough, you curb that until far later. Now, I realize you're also dumping your own hand, but that's what Work Overtime and character-based draw is for. Plus, if you're a magician or just really bad at shuffling, you can potentially draw three cards to replace the ones you've discarded if they all share the same name.
Not to say that he's going to be doing much after that, but Micromasters have always been one-trick ponies anyway and I'm not complaining. It's for that reason that I don't really care too much about his HP -- whereas your opponent has no hand, they probably won't find it too hard to one-hit the poor guy unless you flip well. Remember, they still get to draw at the start of their turns; they're going to be able to play
something. You should just hope that it's not a Grenade Launcher.
You could also potentially save Visper until mid to late game where you have a swarm of green pips in your hand, and potentially three of a kind. That way, you could scrap all three and get the full effect of Visper's ability. But at that point, the damage has kind of already been done by your opponent, don't you think? They've already been able to play most of their cards, and at that point, your characters are going to be wholly softened for them to swing into.
The problems I have with Visper are the same problems I have with hand destruction in general. He's not a bad pick, especially with the right partners, but the problem with him is more systemic than anything else to do with him specifically. I don't know. Maybe I'm being too critical of him, but until hand destruction is good, Visper likely won't be.
(A)(v)(^) (A)(v)(^)
Storm Cloud is the partner of Visper, and he's just as niche. He belongs in the same kind of list that Visper does, with more than a little green pips and a lot of luck. However, there is something that makes him instantly more viable than Visper: Early aggression paired with a tiny point cost. Storm Cloud is four Stars, and he can give one of your bigger, more powerful characters a lot of Bold on top of potentially the Bold they had to start with. You can even use him on the first turn of the game to give a staggering amount of Bold to a character to more or less confirm the KO on the first turn, in the same vein as Thrust. In fact, you could use him in concert
with Thrust to deal an astounding level of damage before your opponent even gets to take a turn -- something I'm actually quite a fan of.
I mean, I realize you're almost never going to be able to use him to his fullest on the first turn of the game, but still, Bold 3 is nothing to sneeze at before the game really begins. Take, for instance, this lineup: Ramjet at 10 Stars, Thrust at 9 and capping everyone off with Storm Cloud at 4, making a total of 23 making plenty of room for Missile Launchers to be flipped on the first turn of the game. You can stack oodles and oodles of damage modifiers on Ramjet, dealing upwards of approximately 15 damage with somewhat average flips (five orange and two white, not counting double pips) to whatever you want. Now imagine if you flipped
well.
Sure, you're tapped out afterwards, and if you don't get the OHKO you're probably going to be in a world of hurt, but it's an interesting concept nevertheless. Again, if you manage to pull a super hot hand out of your hat on the first or second turn of the game with all three copies of something in your hand, power to you. Other than that, though, just settle for the Bold 3 and have fun at your opponent's expense.
Hey, man, what the Flak?
Flak is actually better than Storm Cloud in early pressure, and you can't change my mind. Let me explain: With Storm Cloud, you need to build your entire deck around his features. Then, you add a variable amount of damage to a character that will then have to wade through your obnoxious green pipped cards to hopefully hit a double orange or two and after
all of that, you still don't have much in the ways of next turn.
Not with Flak. With Flak, you can play a Grenade Launcher on Thrust on the first turn of the game, then Thrust will add a total of 7 damage to Ramjet, totaling in 14 base damage before flips. There is less variation, less milling of resources and, yes, a plan for the next turn since Thrust now has a weapon on him. You could say the same thing about some other decks out there. For instance, you could, instead of playing Ransack/Chop Shop in Insecticons, you could play Flak. Flak could then add one of your many weapons to Kickback on the first turn, acting as something of a "baby Thrust".
Now, I know what you're thinking: "Well, Storm Cloud is four stars and he gives Bold, and I like Bold better than damage boosts!"
Well, first off, the difference between four and five stars is not the end of the world, and two, you could always add a Power Punch to one of your characters to essentially do the same thing -- while still discarding less cards from your hand. I realize that he's an Autobot, and that means you can't use Swindled, but a turn one KO might just be worth it regardless.
Plus, he's a Tank, and that means you can use him with Demolisher, Starter Megatron and Barrage to make three-wide aggro Tanks, drawing two cards off Demolisher and attaching up to three Armor cards with Hunker Down. It's probably not the best use of his abilities, but it's an interesting concept to explore nevertheless.
Regardless, I'm excited to see where he goes -- and I definitely think he'll be going
somewhere. Just where that is remains a mystery.
someBODY once told me / The world is going to roll me
I ain't the sharpest tool / in the shed
Mudslinger looks cool, but does next to nothing. You see, this is a fairly fast-paced game, and characters can't take a lot of punishment. Meaning, Mudslinger doesn't really have too much value to attain. I mean, if healing isn't good for Ratchet, how is healing one by
tapping a character worth it at all?
The answer? It's not. The only thing I can possibly think of is dealing one damage to Skrapnel to potentially make him a 2HKO, but as far as that goes, I'd rather just play a Zap. He's cool looking, but I'm afraid looks aren't everything.
"Go get 'em, tiger."
Some Battle Masters are kind of awful, in fact, most Battle Masters are. Most have mediocre offensive potential, and a middling weapon to boot. Lionizer is not most Battle Masters.
Having an innate Bold 4 is monstrous -- he swings about as hard as Demolishor does in an all orange build, and he might, against certain builds, take a hit to boot. His HP, his defense and his offensive potential are all high for Battle Masters, and his weapon is anything but disappointing.
Not only does his weapon, Firesteel Saber, transfer his Bold 4 to the Upgraded character, but he also adds in a solid Plan 1 to make things even better than initially thought. I adore that about him, and the thing I love about Lionizer the most is his versatility in lists. In many cases, the kind of Battle Master you play is dictated by the list you use, but in this case, Lionizer works in nearly every list.
I can't say enough good things about Lionizer. He's extremely versatile, and just as powerful.
BATTLE CARDS
Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words especially hurt me.
It's amazing how they made a blank orange and black pipped card!
All jesting aside, Rock Toss does just a bit more damage as actually tossing a rock at a card. You're not going to be doing much noticeable damage by playing the card, but you're going to like the pips in black lists. Something else that should be noted is that, as it stands, this is almost 100% better than Zap. Zap, whereas it can target anything, doesn't have that Pierce 1 effect -- and let's be frank here, you're probably not going to be targeting anyone with Zap other than than the thing you're about to attack.
My words are rather harsh, but I gotta be honest, I'm not even that against it. In a black deck, orange boosts are definitely a worthwhile consideration, especially if you happen to be named "Jazz and Omega Supreme". White/Black Omega Jazz is an archetype, guys -- you'll see!
There's not much else to say about it, so I won't.
"What do you have?"
"A knife!"
"NO!"
This Combat Dagger has merit in certain black builds, but not a lot. Something you need to realize about black builds is that Black/Orange in an orange core is probably not going to get you very far compared to other options. Although the concept of Black/Orange as an entire engine might actually have merit, the concept of splashing black cards into orange lists is somewhat useless since it doesn't really boost anything.
It's for this reason that Combat Dagger is niche. I love the black and orange pips, but only having Bold 1 isn't going to be doing you many favors for a weapon attachment. I can see playing it in Black/Orange OmegaJazz, or perhaps some other unseen Rakdos-colored decks, but outside of that, I can't really justify playing it in any other lists. There are just usually better weapons to play. That's not a bad thing per se, but it is worthy of note.
Either way, Combat Dagger will likely see play in black decks -- but outside of them, I really don't think that there's much of a spot for this butter knife.
GIMME THE JUICE
Well
that's a whole lotta pips! Fuel Cache is the first triple-pipped card we've seen in the game, and before I talk about what it really
does, I'd like to ask you something: How far will you go for pips alone?
I'm sure we've all put Improvised Shield or Handheld Blaster in our mono orange or blue decks, and those cards do literally nothing when played in their respective lists. We play Peace Through Tyranny in Predacons, even though we technically can't play the card even if we wanted to. There are just a few cards out there that effectively do nothing -- and yet we play them anyway, just for their pips alone.
So let me ask you again: Is it worth it? Now how about when it costs a star?
I'm pretty stingy when it comes to Star Cards. There aren't that many things out there that can even remotely compare to Leap of Faith, and when they do they usually involve drawing cards. I usually err on the side of Actions because you see their power quickly and easily, with Upgrades being more of a "slow build". Generally speaking, as a Star Card, Fuel Cache has to contend with not only Leap of Faith, but Universal Network Access as well as the respective extra double pipped cards for a spot in a list.
Speaking of which, let's talk about what Fuel Cache actually
does, aside from its pips. If you couldn't tell, it looks at the top three, and if their composite colors match or exceed one of each primary color, it ends up putting all three into your hand. If you whiff, well, you can kiss all three cards goodbye.
So, how is that better than drawing three cards with Universal Network Access? Or playing two out of three of them with Leap of Faith? It's not. Occasionally drawing three cards is definitely not a good effect compared to the other options vying for the same spot.
In fact, it reminds me of Recon System, a card I've been outspoken about being literally worse Bold and Tough 1. Is Fuel Cache literally not just the same thing but for draw? I can forgive it for its fantastic pips, but I just can't really justify it over some of the other options. In my opinion, so long as Leap of Faith is in the format, you can pretty much count on it being played over any other Star Card, likely regardless of pips.
But, that being said, if you're going balanced and you don't really care about Leap of Faith (say, for instance, you only have one star to play with), look no further than Fuel Cache. Its pips have plenty of merit, and I would definitely put money on not drawing it if it's a one-of.
REPRINTS
The following cards are all reprints, but they all have new, original artwork! Check them out below:
CLOSING
Well,
those were some reveals. I am especially excited about Alpha Trion, Flak and Lionizer. I really, truly think that both of those cards will see a lot of play in the future, and I can't wait to see what people do with them. Visper is another card to look out for in niche rogue decks (likely with Shockwave), and whereas I'm not the biggest fan of his, I can still appreciate what both he and his partner are capable of.
As for the reprints, they aren't going to majorly shift the format -- but they are going to shift around a few of the cards in my collection! The artwork is seriously fantastic, with Medic! being my favorite of the bunch. I really hope that they use this opportunity to push a plotline in the same vein as Magic has, using the card reveals, artwork and flavor text to push a story. I suppose I won't be seeing that any time soon, but a boy can dream, can't he?
In fact, in a recent interview, Drew Nolosco mentioned that they were, in fact, pushing a Siege plotline about the fall of Cybertron for the next sets. I'm actually all for that, in fact. Every story has to have a beginning -- and an end -- and generally, the best beginning for Transformers is on Cybertron.
What about you? Are you hoping they push the story elements further or are you happy with the artwork doing the talking for them? Are you excited about the plethora of Battle Masters and Micromasters coming into the game? Think George Takei will be proud of Alpha Trion's power level? Let me know in the comments below, and I'll see you next time!