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[Stargrave]

Autobots, Decepticons, and now, the Mercenaries! Newly revealed at the #NYCC2019 are some old familiar characters making their Siege debut marching under a new third flag in the War for Cybertron saga. We reported on these reveals HERE just the other day, but now we have live video from the showroom floor giving some nice up close shots of the new character and battle cards. And, since we're Seibertron, of course we have a bevy of card images now accessible in our galleries HERE. Click on any of the images below to head to the gallery and enjoy the video from #NYCC2019! Share your thoughts in the forum and as always stay tuned to Seibertron for the ultimate in Transformers news.

[Hydrargyrus]

Octone is a curious choice for those abilities. I'm kinda wondering why they didn't choose Doubledealer for that card.

Probably because Doubledealer typically has a Decepticon aerial mode and Autobot ground mode, so then it would be kind of counter-intuitive that he has a bonus against his own faction (I mean, maybe as a suprise attack, but you get the idea). I do expect he'll eventually make an appearance.

I made an earlier comment about wondering if Detrius' accessories will be available at some point. It seems that Mercenaries will be making an appearance later in Earthrise, so he might be seing release at some point (I got that info from official statements quoted by the TFWiki Twitter account, so take it with a grain of salt, but they seemed legit).

I'm also going to bump this up because it got buried pretty quickly:

Hey, Sideways, in addition to the stat typos you mentioned, it appears Six-Gun's weapon mode names are swapped (I vaguely remember them being the other way around on the toy's instruction manual).

Additionally, I keep a spreadsheet of all the cards, and I'm calling it now: Cards 22 and 25 of wave 4 will be Private Seawatch (Rescue Patrol) and Private Sunrunner (Battle Patrol), respectively (both common Micromasters).

Lastly, in https://www.facebook.com/notes/transformers-trading-card-came/nagles-notes-tight-cycle/2181892611932552/, it says:

In early prototypes, there was a bigger emphasis on position, adjacency, and distance between characters, but all this was scrapped for the simpler Melee, Ranged, and Specialist traits.

Does anyone know of any games that do this? I'm not very familiar with the TCG world and I find this very intriguing.

[#Sideways#]

Hey, Sideways, in addition to the stat typos you mentioned, it appears Six-Gun's weapon mode names are swapped (I vaguely remember them being the other way around on the toy's instruction manual).

Additionally, I keep a spreadsheet of all the cards, and I'm calling it now: Cards 22 and 25 of wave 4 will be Private Seawatch (Rescue Patrol) and Private Sunrunner (Battle Patrol), respectively (both common Micromasters).

Lastly, in https://www.facebook.com/notes/transformers-trading-card-came/nagles-notes-tight-cycle/2181892611932552/, it says:

In early prototypes, there was a bigger emphasis on position, adjacency, and distance between characters, but all this was scrapped for the simpler Melee, Ranged, and Specialist traits.

Does anyone know of any games that do this? I'm not very familiar with the TCG world and I find this very intriguing.

Interesting. That wouldn't surprise me, though -- the typos this set are way past normal. I mean, it makes you wonder what kind of process they go through when making cards so that they would forget so many pieces.

Good call on the other Micromasters! It would make sense that they're going to flesh out the rest of the Micromaster teams. I'm looking forward to seeing what the rest of the Air Strike Patrol does, and hopefully it'll make Planes a bit better as an archetype.

As for your last question, I've seen that happen quite a bit in terms of TCG development. In terms of making things less complicated (which their initial system would have been), I've definitely seen it happen time and time again when a development team tones down their grand aspirations for something a little more modest and, ultimately, easier to understand and play.

As for using the three different types of character traits, Pokemon does this quite often. For example, the Weakness and Resistance system. A Fire Pokemon is weak to Water Pokemon but Resistant to Grass, a Grass Pokemon is weak to Fire Pokemon and is resistant to Water, and Water is weak to grass but resistant to Fire. In less obvious terms, certain cards could be only used on Fairy Pokemon or other attacks could only affect a certain denomination of Pokemon, like GXs.

Creating a card game requires a lot of planning, and the finished product is seldom the same as the one you started with.

[Hydrargyrus]

It may be that I'm misinterpreting your answer, but it seems like I wasn't entirely clear: I was wondering if you (or anyone else) knew of a game in which there IS an emphasis on position, adjacency, etc.
Also, addressing you at the start of the post may have been a bad call on my part; if anyone has answers for me, I'm open!

[PerfectVision]

EDITED 01/07/22 A team i got wrong:
Novastar or Blurr-Redalert7-Ptera
Bashing or spare X 1
WorkO-Rollout-Press or focusF-BodyA or repair-Diagnosis-stealth or Epack-Reckless-Confidence-Kintensifier-Start-Bravery-Teamup-PowerS

Who want Pblurr exactly?Just altern him with Novastar.Mega12 can't use the press.

Optimus15 can be an alternativ to Elita with Prowl10,noble or pocketP X 1
Surprise-scoutingM-counterE or matrix-Anticipation-EMP or Scheckpoint-Turbo-Diagnosis-Epack-grenade-Bashing or reflexe-WorkO-Heavyhand-Eaxe

[ZeroWolf]

It may be that I'm misinterpreting your answer, but it seems like I wasn't entirely clear: I was wondering if you (or anyone else) knew of a game in which there IS an emphasis on position, adjacency, etc.
Also, addressing you at the start of the post may have been a bad call on my part; if anyone has answers for me, I'm open!

There's none I can think of, just off the top of my head as rules like that could big down thd flow of the game, as the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) approach is still King in card games (at least at first, later on as more rules are added it can be tricky to keep track of all the keywords/special summon rules).

Not to say people haven't tried (the card game I was making attempted such a thing, but such mechanics are best suited to table top miniature games)

[#Sideways#]

FLIPPING SIDES

So, this is going to be something of a doozy of an article. To put things in a nutshell, I've been granted to release a brand new card by the wonderful guys and gals over at Wizards of the Coast! That said, and with the frankly stunning amount of reveals we've had over the past week or so, I'm going to trim down this article to go over a few of the highlights instead.

But those highlights are a bit cherry-picked, you see, as most of the characters have the distinct pleasure of having at least minor synergy with the card that I am about to reveal. See if you can tell which ones! But, how can you if you don't know what the card is? Ready to see it?

I give you... Showing Off!

Flipping out.

I revealed this card on my YouTube channel, Nanomachines! If you'd like to hear my opinions on this card, or at least want something to listen to for the next few minutes, please check out the video below!

CHARACTERS

"Tank?" Ratchet and Ironhide said at once, one out of confusion and envy, and the other the product of Ironhide's poor hearing.

Crosshairs is a guy with a lot of potential on his shoulders.

Sure, Crosshairs doesn't have a whole lot of offensive punch for a guy known for his guns, but when you consider the Battlemasters we've had lately like Sights or Turbo Board, you start to see how his prowess is not defined by the offensive power of his guns, but in the thickness of his Armor.

This might seem obvious given the fact that he has, well, two Armor slots. But when you consider the fact that you could flood his team with characters like Nightstick, Sights, Vanguard or Turbo Board, all of which giving him +1 Defense at the least, you start to realize just how strong his defensive capabilities are.

Let's do some quick math. With Nightstick and Sights on his person, he gets +2 Defense from them alone. This, combined with the fact that he gets +2 Defense from his own ability, total in 4 Defense before your Armor. Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention: He has two Armor slots, and with his synergy with the ever-powerful Hunker Down, you can spam Armor on the guy like there's no tomorrow. I mean, with the newest Tank-exclusive Upgrade, Composite Armor (see in the Battle Card Section) which gives +3 Defense, combined with a Blast Shield, you have a total of 9 Defense before you flip, which is frankly nausiating.

Now, is that practical to set up? Probably not, to be frank. You're not doing too much damage to pressure your opponent out, which means your opponent is going to be able to take their sweet time while they build up something big to deal more damage to you than you're likely able to handle. Still though, with the use of Vanguard, Nightstick and friends, you can count on your defense being able to withstand most basic attacks.

Most.

You spin me right round / baby right round
Like a record baby / Right round, round, round

Spinister is very, very good. How? Well, let me jump into this guy by telling you why Battle Masters have such good value.

You see, when you play Transformers, you're usually not going to want to swing with a character in alternate mode. It's inefffecient, it's low damage and honestly it usually ends up putting one character at risk. Battle Masters turn that on its head. Given the fact that they start in their most efficient mode, and since they are effectively unpunishable when you KO them via an attack, you are free to just swing with them at will.

Since you can swing with them at will, you can transform one of your other characters beforehand, making your life easier in terms of crucial flipping time. That's also where Spinister comes into the picture. Given the fact that your first turn will usually involve flipping another character and swinging with a Battle Master, Spinister turns that advantage into an even greater one given his robot mode effect. I mean, just imagine on the first turn of the game, swinging with Lionizer for more damage than he already does. That's what makes Spinister so strong.

Making matters better, when your Lionizer (or whomever else you're playing him with) dies, you can attach them to Spinister, not only giving him a solid attack boost but also being the secondary weapon to whatever card -- like Grenade Launcher -- you wanted to play. This means that the clapback from KOing your Battle Master is even stronger than ever before, and I honestly cannot wait to see where Spinister will go.

"To punish and enslave..."

Barricade is freaking awesome.

So, simply put, he makes every blank pip in your deck infinitely more consistent. Given the fact that he can not only pull potentially bad cards out of your deck, making your deck more consistent flip-wise, but he can also use them on-demand. I mean, just think about it:

You have Barricade and Prowl alive after Wheeljack died a horrifying, early death. Now, you realize that you've probably lost the game in terms of staying power, but you also realize that your opponent is completely tapped out with Prowl being the only untapped character. Barricade has an I STILL FUNCTION! underneath him, and you realize that you can use the Start Your Engines in-hand to start off an impressive combo.

So, you play the Start Your Engines, untapping Barricade and flipping both he and Prowl to alt mode, activating their effects. You choose Barricade to activate first, bringing an alternate mode Wheeljack back from the dead, and Prowl's effect activates afterwards, giving all of them Bold 2. Then, you flip Wheeljack into robot mode and swing with him, Prowl and Barricade all at once, dealing disgusting damage to your opponent's field and their ego.

Sound like a fantasy? Not so. This is something you can pretty much count on happening with Cars, and was Cars' entire raison d'être, but the biggest problem was doing it all at once. Bumblebee from Wave 2 is oft regarded as the only out to this combo usually, as he plays an Action when you flip him, but now? Now there's a new sheriff in town, and this town isn't big enough for the two of them.

With 'Bee and 'Cade fighting for that same spot, it's easy to see their rivalry coming through even in the card game. But, with Barricade's lower point cost and higher consistency, I think there isn't much mystery on who my money's on.

Hooked.

Lockdown is really, really neat. He channels his inner Nemesis Prime while also having access to every Car card in the book. He might seem a bit difficult to pop off with, but I would put good money on that not being the case. Allow me to explain for a moment.

You see, when you use Lockdown with cards like Coup, Contract Contingency and Dual Wielding, you're going to start amassing cards beneath Lockdown farily quickly. Given the ease of such buildup, you'll find that you're also going to be drawing quite a few cards as well, which can facilitate that growth in much the same way, drawing into your Bounty-triggering cards and highly damaging cards like Dual Wielding.

I aboslutely adore the potential that Lockdown has, and at 10 Stars, we can tell that he's not exactly cheap, but he's not expensive, either. We can play several characters alongside him to promote his growth, and we can play him in several different archetypes. Whether you want him in a blue/black list or an aggressive list, you'll find that his powerful effects can only grow with time.

Lockdown has the potential to raw carry games, and when you consider the fact that he also opens up the use of certain Mercenary cards, you'll find yourself with more potential partners with him than you'll know what to do with.

"What a load of junk!"

Detritus is the first Rare Mercenary that we have in the game and... Well, he's sadly not that great. But he could be!

His stats, his point cost and now his effects just aren't that good. Mercenaries need to be able to do damage to characters in order to actually use their powerful Bounty effects, and unfortunately neither his damage, Star Cost nor his Bounty Effect are good enough to warrant his introduction into many -- if any -- roster.

But hey! He's the first Junkion in the game, and he's not carrying around Wreck-Gar's severed head yet, so let's give him a fair shake and see what bubbles to the surface. Given the fact that Detritus is a healing character with a likely defensive playstyle, one could play him in a defensive list, abusing the black pips that Mercenaries ever so adore to make him able to trigger his Bounty effect multiple times over the course of a few turns. Through the use of Contract Contingency especially, you'll find that Detritus can heal quite a bit.

Plus, when you consider that you could play him with cards like Dazzlestrike, Ratbat and other healing characters, you might be surprised how long he sticks around.

Healing is a tough balance to strike. Either you're like Pokemon and have intense healing cards that can be everywhere and can be oppressive at times, or you're like Transformers, where healing is pretty much the least used mechanic in the game outside of certain niche scenarios. Here, though, I think there might finally be a good balance between solid healing and fair tactics.

But, you have to ask the question whenever a healing card comes out: Is it enough? Personally, I don't think he has enough on his own to warrant it -- but hey! We'll get more healing cards later. Plus, it isn't like you don't have Team Up Tactics to help you out in the meantime.

"Octan Company is the greatest! They make gas, oil, news companies, security cameras, voting machines... Wait."

Octone is the first Mercenary Super Rare there is, and boy do I think he has some potential. Why? Well, for one, his stats are very solid, his abilities are good and his Bounty is good as well! Sounds simple enough? Well, there's actually a few other reasons that I like him.

You see, Octone can start the game in his most effective mode, his Truck mode, given how many Autobot-focused decks are running about these days. This mode gives you a powerful attack stat, powerful HP and moderate defensive capabilities to make him extremely hard to remove -- and hard to withstand -- from the get-go. Even if your opponent is running all Decepticons, you can flip him to his Plane mode to deal even more damage to them given the fact that your opponent has to ping one of their Decepticons for one damage. This can compound itself if you happen to activate his Bounty effect during the course of a game, sending two more damage their way.

Octone, best of all, doesn't really warrant a list one way or another. You could run him aggressively and use busted cards like Dual Wielding, or you could run him defensively to abuse his large health pool. The point being, it doesn't matter how you run him, just that he is strong no matter which one you choose.

That said, in terms of 13 point cards, I think we know someone else who has just as much value if not more value than Octone, do we not? Something, something, Battlefield Legend? Oh, yeah. Still though, he's a quite solid card. But you need to ask yourself if you'd rather run him or Battlefield Legend -- those 13 stars aren't going to choose for you.

"I dunno, Sprocket; I don't think ninjas are as stealthy as we think they are. Sprocket?"

Nightbird is a very strong promo card.

We haven't seen a good promo card yet, as the only one that came close was Omega Supreme and he's only usable in super niche concepts. But with Nightbird, we get not only a powerful vehicle mode effect, but a strong Bounty effect all wrapped up in the cheapest Mercenary on the market at the moment. By the way, did I mention that she's a Car? Because she's a Car.

Nightbird allows you to use a variety of Mercenary-exclusive cards, like Opportune Repairs, and can be splashed in various lists that need a Mercenary that isn't going to eat up most of their points. In fact, Nightbird has so much value in her that I think that, at the moment, she's probably the most useful Mercenary to have on your team.

Plus, if your opponent is playing a ton of Actions during their turn through Barricade, Brainstorm, Multi-Mission Gears and so on, she punishes their greediness by placing quite a few damage counters on your opponent's characters at will. Plus, when you finally soften up your opponents enough, you can play some extra cards with her Bounty effect.

In fact, in a Car setting, you can use her Car nature to untap her until you would attack with all of your characters at once. Then, while you do so, you get to use one of your opponent's Reckless Charge from their Scrap Pile to boost your next attack! Sure, it might not be the most reliable ability, but it's certainly the only one of its kind.

Truly, Nightbird earns her keep in many different ways. But personally? I'm just excited to have a promo that's actually good for once!

21!

So, remember when I said that healing in games are either great or awful? Blackjack is the epitome of the latter.

You see, when you use a team of Micromasters like Blackjack wants (much akin to Powertrain, in fact), you'll find that you're going to be fairly frail, regardless of if you're playing blue or not. I mean, your other Sports Car Patrol characters have either 6 or 7 HP and either 0 or 1 defense, meaning they're not going to defend much even if you try your very hardest, with Flamewar as an ally and a stockpile of armor.

I just can't help but to feel as though Blackjack's ability could have been better, especially considering Powertrain's effect turning his allies into DPS machines. Perhaps one could use Vanguard instead of Flamewar in an attempt to buy their safety through his effect instead of sheer willpower alone?

Looking at his robot mode, however, I could be persuaded to like his minor stat change over Powertrain's. Having more damage while still having 4 defense at maximum isn't exactly awful, and using Roadhugger's damage boosting effect isn't half bad either. But when you consider the fact that not only does Powertrain give his entire team Bold but also has synergy with more -- and better -- Battlemasters does it become apparent that Powertrain's Off-Road Patrol will be far more viable than Blackjack's Sports Car Patrol.

BATTLE CARDS

Armored to the Gills

Composite Armor is quite possibly one of the best Armors in the game. Not only does it give a monstrous +3 Defense, but it also gives +1 Attack and deals damage when you defend with it. I mean, sure, it scraps itself after you defend with it, but holy crap man. Hunker Down, obviously, would make this card not just easy to reuse, but also extremely powerful for certain characters. Let's go over some of those combos, shall we?

Lord Megatron is the first of these, as you can mill more cards from your opponent's deck when you use a Hunker Down, but you also have the effect of boosting your Attack when your opponent reshuffles their deck, as well. But, personally, I think one of the most powerful uses for this card is with Demolishor.

Demolishor, with his extra flipping effect, prizes having more defense when you attack. Let's show you this with an example. Let's say that you play a Power Punch on him for turn, and then play a Hunker Down to attach a Composite Armor. Demolishor already flips six cards when he attacks neutrally, but with a Composite Armor on him, you flip three more cards. Then, with that Power Punch, you'll end up flipping three more cards, putting him at a monstrous twelve cards in total, and that's not counting any white pips in your deck.

Did I mention that you already boosted his attack by +1 beforehand thanks to Composite Armor? Because you already boosted his attack by +1 beforehand.

Composite Armor is kinda insane. When you consider the implications of that absolutely disgusting +3 Defense, plus everything else about the card, there is absolutely no reason that you wouldn't want to run this card in every Tank deck you have at your disposal, regardless of the pip color.

Always read the fine print.

Contract Contingency is a downright necessary card for decks that run Mercenaries. You might find that Mercenaries won't be able to use their Bounty abilities all too often -- especially since it requires the death of a character to activate. Lockdown, Detritus and every other one won't pop off as hard if they can't use their Bounty effects, and Contract Contingency makes that possible.

Lockdown especially will find Contract Contingency even more of an auto-include than before. Given the fact that it not only allows you to build his stock of cards beneath him, Contract Contingency also boosts his damage whilst being a double black card, making the base 4 damage that easier to get. You'll be boosting Lockdown, healing Detritus, playing cards with Mudflap, poking with Octone and... Well, doing Mercenary things with your Mercenaries!

Contract Contingency is an auto include in pretty much any list that runs a Merc, and there's no two ways around it.

"Et tu, Brutè?"

Something else that might find its way into a few Mercenary lists is Coup. With Coup, you can use effects like Octone's or Lockdown's as a form of clap-back for one of your characters being KO'd. Certainly interesting when you consider how vital Bounty is to playing Mercenaries, but something a little more interesting is... Well, how it actually works.

See, this is a pretty non-controversial card. If you're playing some cheaper, more malleable Mercenaries like Mudflap or Nightbird, you'll like it because you're able to play more allies to make Coup use your Bounty effects more and more. But, something that I'm wondering about is when it can activate.

You see, the way Coup reads states that it doesn't matter whose character is KO'd -- just so long as a character is KO'd. This could even mean, from what I've seen here, that it could potentially activate on your own turn through your own KOing of a character, either yours or your opponents. Now, I could be misreading this thing (it wouldn't be the first time, amiright?), but my money is on my instincts and my instincts are telling me that I'm right.

So, where does that leave us?

Well, you could use Coup to bolster your own effects, like Octone, Nightbird or Lockdown when you KO one of your opponent's characters during an attack. If you'd like to be even spicier, you could potentially play Coup through Laserbeak's tap effect, allowing you to play Peace Through Tyranny to use one of your own characters to fuel Bounty triggers.

Of course, it might not work that way, but either way it still isn't an awful card to fuel some Bounty triggers on your opponent's turn, especially considering how important it is to certain characters like Lockdown. It might not see too much widespread play, especially if I'm wrong about it, but I'm still interested to see where it might end up in the long run.

"Never do with one gun something that you could do with two."

Shoulder Holster is actually really quite interesting in aggressive decks. Sure, it's a blue pip, but when you consider that certain cards like Jetfire can take full advantage of it, there could be some fascinating combos you can pull off with it. Let's go over some examples.

Like I said before, Jetfire can be something of a monster with both Shoulder Holster as well as Defensive Configuration as options, where you can get free Upgrades on him in either aspect. Now, regardless of optimal pip usage for the moment, we can still abuse Jetfire's ability to play Shoulder Holster in order to play a free weapon. This can open up your hand to play a second weapon on him, potentially stacking a second, heavily damaging weapon on him to deal a potentially disgusting amount of damage through potentially double stacking Grenade Launchers or Power Punch.

But the best deck that will love every moment of Shoulder Holster as well as Defensive Configuration is the always Upgrade-hungry Omnibots. Since you can play either card with Overdrive, you'll find that your first turn will have far more burst than you're used to, potentially exploding more Upgrades on the first turn to facilitate your characters board presence. I mean, there is always the chance that you whiff the extra Upgrade off the top of your deck, of course, but either way you're still getting an extra Weapon or Armor slot, y'know?

I really quite like both Holster and Configuration. They're inconsistent, of course, but when they're used in tandem with interesting cards like the Omnibots, things become more interesting. I mean, just think of how you could use Shoulder Holster to play a Multi-Tool! Sure, you're not exactly gaining anything stat-wise -- pretty much nothing at all, for that matter -- but you're getting Upgrades on the field to fulfill other effects like General Megatron or Equipment Enthusiast.

It might not have immediate gratification, of course, but its combo potential cannot be ignored.

"Cheers love! The cavalry's here!"

Dual Wield is the best Mercenary card. Period.

You like that Grenade Launcher on Lockdown? You do? Sick! Well, how about we give him another one from your Scrap Pile? Yeah, that sounds pretty neat to me. So not only does this open up the possibility to swing with two weapons at once, but it also opens up your Upgrade for turn to be something that's not a Weapon -- in other words, Force Field.

Dual Wield allows you to not only play it hyper-aggressively, but it also allows you to play it defensively as well. Remember, even though your extra weapon slot disappears at the end of your turn, if you only have one Weapon on one of your characters, it won't disappear with the slot if it's a weapon like Energon Axe. This means that you can use a scrapped Weapon from your Scrap Pile while also playing an Armor from your hand to buff a Mercenary to the gills in a single turn without breaking so much as a sweat.

I'm not exaggerating, and even though flexing my hyperbole muscle is one of my favorite pastimes, I'm dead serious when I say that Dual Wield will shape the Mercenary format.

Wow, the reboot of The Puppet Pals Show is really intense.

Crude Club is one of those super hot combo cards that you just know will be the centerpiece of a super neat strategy. When you consider the fact that Shoulder Holster, Extra Padding, Attack Drones and Dual Wielding can all increase Crude Club's effectiveness, you start to realize how strong this card can be in combo decks.

Crude Club does +1 for every Upgrade on that character. So, let's try to do as much as possible with some quick math: Three Extra Padding, one Shoulder Holster, three Attack Drones in one weapon slot, one Crude Club in another slot, and with a Brainstormed double Dual Wielding, we can play both of our other Crude Clubs in both other slots. This runs a quick calculation of the following:

3 + 1 + 3 + 3 = 10 Upgrades in total. Now, let's factor in the damage that those Upgrades can do on their own as well: +3 Damage for the Drones, +10 damage for each instance of the Crude Clubs, all pieced together to create an unholy final score of: +33 Damage!

Imagine getting that in a game. If you pulled this off against me, I'd be hard pressed not to just sign the match slip the moment it happened. I mean, you probably deserve the win at that point. In fact, I think you could probably do more damage thanks to more Brainstorm chaining and Cargo Trailers instead of the Shoulder Holster. Who knows? Maybe someone can come up with more impressive numbers using Predaking or perhaps Dreadwing? All I know is that Crude Club should not be underestimated, and I think, understated.

I don't think that it'll be practical to pull off, but Timmy's and Johnny's rejoice! A brutal combo card your way comes!

We three, we're not a crowd / We're not even company
My echo, my shadow, and me.

Wedge Formation is... Well, it's something all right.

To be perfectly frank with you, the effects of Wedge Formation has some of the least value I've ever seen on a card. On one hand, it's still not the worst card effect out there -- that Raspberry Award probably goes to Rest and Relaxation -- but it certainly does a whole lot of things to get nothing out of it.

I mean, sure, you're drawing a card, you could maybe heal something from one of your characters, and Plan 1 isn't necessarily a bad thing, but when you consider the fact that cards like Diagnosis does effectively the same thing but on a more neutral white pip, you can see how I'd be hard-pressed to find a spot for it on its card effects alone.

However, it should be clear enough at this point that this card's value clearly comes not from playing it from your hand, but using it in more niche strategies. With three pip colors on it, you'll find that cards like Blowpipe and Grapple want to play as many as possible in order to activate their effects. But, perhaps there is another reason to run it?

You see, Overwhelming Advantage requires you not just to have every color combination possible Upgraded on a character, but also flipping the same amount of colors on your attack. When playing at least one Decepticon on your team, you can use Overwhelming Advantage to Plan Wedge Formation on the top of your deck to make your flips that much easier. It would be all too easy to deal massive damage to one of your opponent's charactes.

Perhaps Overwhelming Advantage is simply too niche of a strategy to pull off correctly, but when you consider how easy it is to flip all of the colors in the game when three of them are taken up by Wedge Formation alone, I start to wonder if Overwhelming Advantage might just work after all.

Hot Rod and Octone's normally jovial Skype call suddenly got heated when Octone accidentally called Hot Rod "Hot Shot".

Valuable Contract is... Okay I guess? I mean, it's not going to win any awards, and Star Cards are strictly okay at best, but with cards like Contract Contingency and Coup, could this card actually be the start of an interesting combination? Let's dive in and find out!

So, with Valuable Contract, it might seem odd, but you don't need to use it on a Mercenary. In fact, it might be better not to use it on a Mercenary in order to get the full use out of your Bounty activations. Regardless, what would be the best use of Valueable Contract and how would you make the most of it?

Well, let's say that we can use cards like Coup and Contract Contingency to activate Valuable Contract's Bounty effect. If you do, you can grab far more Star Cards from outside the game than normal. In fact, you'll probably be able to do so almost every turn given proper draw support. What could you possibly grab with Valuable Contract's effect if you did manage to pop it or something similar off every turn? Well, let cut to the chaff and let me toss out a neat idea that I just had.

Okay, so, Hot Rod can be used to build up a slow yet powerful control effect when he gets a card beneath him, right? Plus, when he has full HP, he has Safeguard, making his bulk that much better. So, how do we capitalize on this? For one, we can use cards like Blast Suit to reduce your opponent's damage by an astronomical amount, but I think more importantly, you could also use Heroic Resolve turn after turn if you were able to stream Bounty effects and/or Unleash Potential. Plus, since it goes to the KO pile after using it, you could run an aggressive version of the deck and not have to worry about shuffling a bunch of blue cards back into your deck.

But what might make it viable is through the use of Needlenose. With Needlenose's damaging ability, we are able to ping our opponents for a bit of damage every turn since we are effectively trying to play one of those cards every turn, and to facilitate that end, Needlenose can also return Blast Suit and other Star Cards from your Scrap to your hand to be used again. The end result of this is by being mostly able to stream Heroic Resolve and Blast Suit every turn, increasing your survivability exponentially, especially considering Hot Rod's double Action ability.

I don't know, it's just an idea that I had randomly. But the point being, Valuable Contract is of cardinal importance to that combo, and I honestly wonder whether there are other combos out there with it or not. After all, Wizards keeps making more Star Cards and people still seem reluctant to play them. Perhaps at one point they'll end up making a broken one and cards like Valuable Contract will be the catalyst to another broken combo deck?

Who knows? It's just a thought.

"Oh, well there's your problem!"

Opportune Repairs is exactly the kind of repair card that I have been wanting. Healing one damage isn't great, healing two for the cost of a pip just feels awful, but Opportune Repairs healing three whilst still having a useful pip? Yes, please!

First off, I'd like to say why I love this card. Remember what I spoke about briefly in my last article? Safeguard is a very good effect, and when you play Safeguard Cars, or The Safety Dance as I'm starting to call it, you're going to have a lot Safeguard on the field to play with, and with it, more opportunities to heal off your characters.

See, that's what I love the most about it. Safeguard protects your character by capping the damage they would take from an undamaged state to (usually) three damage. Now, with that said, you can use healing cards like Opportune Repairs to heal off those three damage counters, reactivating Safeguard and giving that character another clean attack. So long as your opponent doesn't play any non-combat damage cards and you draw enough healing, Safeguard will keep coming back.

The Safety Dance can play several different Cars to take advantage of their Safeguard abilities, namely Hot Rod, Smokescreen and Greenlight, all equating to 24 Stars in total. But, since Opportune Repairs requires a Mercenary on the field in order to use it, you might want to play Deadlock, Nightbird or even Lockdown to fill that slot -- all piecing one little bit of their own power or utility to help out in your ultimate goals of outlasting your opponent.

Plus, they're all Cars, so... Yeah, it kinda works out.

Either way, I'm not quite certain that Opportune Repairs will be played in anything else that doesn't at least play instances of Safeguard. Safeguard is such a good ability, though, that Safeguard cards could be splashed into other lists rather easily, and if they are, you can bet that Opportune Repairs will be first on my list to try to work in.

"Are you Sarah Connor?"

Similar to Opportune Repairs, but lending itself to a startlingly great damage boosting Action, Opportune Offensive is a lot of power in a little package. It's like a better version of The Bigger They Are or Heavy Handed -- one that only requires your own team composition to grant Pierce and a damage buff. I mean, just off the bat it's a way better version of Leap Into Battle, and it even has better pips to boot. The question changes from "Should I use this card?" to "Who should I use this card with?"

In fact, the same characters that Opportune Repairs would want to play might be quite fine to play in a blue list alongside Opportune Offense, except perhaps playing Detritus as well since healing is almost always better in a defensive circumstance than an offensive one. Lending to that idea, the fact that Opportune Offense grants a Pierce buff alongside a blue/black pip coloration shows us that the best place for it is in a blue/black list.

So, to that, I simply have to say that it's kinda impossible to say what it's good with because it's such a universal card. I mean, what else do you want from it? It makes you do more damage and Pierce! It's great!

Sometimes the light's all shinin' on me / Other times I can barely see
Lately it occurs to me / What a long, strange trip it's been

Seven damage. Wow. That sounds like a lot, doesn't it? I mean, just think about it! You're doing so much more damage than you would otherwise, right?

Can you feel my sarcasm?

Okay, so this sounds like an amazing card, and for characters like Tote or his other Micromaster friends who start with two or three Attack, then 4-Wheel Drive seems like a strong addition to the deck, and it is. But, when you consider all of the other Trucks who start off at four or five attack, you're not going to get any value out of 4WD that you would otherwise get out of a Leap Into Battle of all things.

4WD may seem incredibly strong, but when you realize that playing a Leap Into Battle gets you effectively the same thing and you get to attack with that character in robot mode, I can't really get too much behind it outside of Powertrain or similarly small decks. Perhaps I'm just being overly critical and a bit of a pedant, but I just can't see this being used as well as Leap Into Battle or some of the other cards like Opportune Offense.

Again, maybe it's just me, but I can't help but to feel that there's less to this card than meets the eye.

CONCLUSION

As always, it is such an amazing feeling to help release cards to the public. I certainly love making all of this content for everyone, and getting to show off new stuff while I do makes me absolutely swoon. Thanks again to Wizards of the Coast for allowing me the opportunity to show it off, and thank you for reading and watching it!

As for the recent reveals, I'm sorry that I couldn't get to all of them in one article like last time. Honestly, though, it was kind of... Well, bloated. Like me. Oof.

Anyway, in all seriousness, I am absolutely ga-ga over the Mercenaries. I think they're a fantastic addition to the game, and they really spice up the dulled Faction system. I really hope that we get more reasons to play all Decepticons, Mercenaries or Autobots soon, though! With all of these faction-specific cards, though, I think that's closer than we think.

What do you think? Are you flipping out about Showing Off? Hooked on Lockdown? Or maybe you're ready to hit with Blackjack? Let me know in the comments below, and I'll see you next time!

[Stargrave]

Coming at you from the Transformers TCG Facebook page are some new Siege II (even Siege-ier) reveals! The main character cards already revealed so far in Siege II (Siege Harder) have been discussed in our previous articles HERE and HERE. These are just the Siege II (Rise of the Revenge of the Son of Siege) character reveals that have happened so far this week and are mostly Micromasters with an interesting and unique Action Master partner thrown in. Even if you don't play the game, the artwork is undeniably fun to look at. Be sure to share your thoughts in the forum and as always stay tuned to Seibertron for the ultimate in Transformers news!

[Stargrave]

This has certainly been a busy week of Transformers Trading Card Game reveals with characters being shown every day. Today we offer up the last of the Siege II character round up's thanks to the Transformers TCG Twitter with two new captains, Jetfire and Omega Supreme! The art on these cards is absolutely awesome especially showing off Omega's various modes.

Then flanking in from both sides are some Decepticon baddies, Apeface, Skytread, and Soundblaster!

Coming in from the ground and the skies, he's got better things to do tonight than die, the last character reveal for Siege II is none other than our favorite emerald centurion, Springer!

Enjoy the images and share your views with the Seibertron crew in the forum. As always stay tuned to Seibertron for the ultimate in Transformers news!

[william-james88]

Do you like premium box sets? Well, Transformers TCG just revealed one to celebrate the game's first calendar year. There are some new cards (art-wise) and 30 wave 1 boosters. This is also a way to now get Cliffjumper and Slipstream who were previously only available in the elusive SDCC 2018 promo pack.

Available 12/2 directly from Wizards of the Coast for $200, though no purchase link is available yet.

Below is an image of the tesseract premium set as well as the product information.















Each Energon Edition contains:
-6 of Wave 1’s most prized character cards, printed on heavy, semi-transparent plastic with exclusive, brand-new art by fan-favorite artists:

Optimus Prime, Battlefield Legend by Marcelo Matere
Megatron, Living Weapon by Marcelo Matere
Cliffjumper, Renegade Warrior by Dan Khanna
Slipstream, Strategic Seeker by Dan Khanna
Bumblebee, Legendary Warrior by Ken Christiansen
Nemesis Prime, Dark Clone by Ken Christiansen

-3 copies each of a Battle Card tied to each of the 6 characters (total of 18), printed on foil for the very first time with brand-new art!

Agility of Bumblebee
Bombing Run
Cargo Trailer
Fusion Cannon of Megatron
Ion Blaster of Optimus Prime
Start Your Engines

-18 Energon Cube Damage Counters

-30 Wave 1 Booster Packs, contained in two storage art boxes

The Character Cards, Battle Cards, and damage counters are all housed in a beautiful, foil Energon Cube box, the lid of which also allows for a display configuration for the character cards.

The Energon Edition is the most deluxe expression of the Transformers Trading Card Game ever, and a must-have for any collector and Transformers superfan.

Price & Availability
The Energon Edition will be available for $199.99 USD directly from Wizards of the Coast while supplies last beginning on Monday, December 2nd, at 12:00PM PST.

Stay tuned for a specific URL!

In most cases, shipping will either be free or subsidized, and include tracking.

Players in certain areas of the Asia-Pacific region will be able to order directly from Wizards, but will also be able to find the Energon Edition via a local partner to be announced soon.

Domestic Shipping:
• United States (Includes Guam and Puerto Rico)
* Includes AK/HI/APO and FPO

DDP: Taxes, Tariffs and Customs are Prepaid
EU:
• United Kingdom
• Netherlands
• Sweden
• Finland
• Ireland

Canada (the following Provinces):
* Ontario
* Nova Scotia
* New Brunswick
* Manitoba
* British Columbia
* Prince Edward Island
* Saskatchewan
* Alberta
* Newfoundland and Labrador

CANNOT SHIP TO QUEBEC (damn language laws!!!!!!!!!!!!)

* Australia


DDU: Taxes are not paid, and a customer would be subject to paying them (some cases not) when it arrives in their home country.

New Zealand

[Rodimus Knight]

While i do like this set, I feel like $200 is a rather large price tag.

[Bumblevivisector]

While i do like this set, I feel like $200 is a rather large price tag.

Well, considering how much I've seen just Slipstream go for online, I'm actually considering this.

And now I'm wondering if next year will bring us a similar set with new artwork for Volcanicus.

[ScottyP]

I'd have much rather seen this be half the price with the wave 1 boosters left out. It makes it feel like one product going for two audiences that each only really need half of what's in the set.

[PerfectVision]

A good team for Venin,Kick6 and Apeface or Mega 10
PocketP or Enforcement X 1
MPF-PointP-counterE-EPC or fusionB-hold or fragg-SmokeC-newO-Idurability or grav-Callous-Bug-Scoundrel-ScoutingM-Markman
He's everything Bee6 should have been(pierce 2 instead of 1).Probably better than anything from Shock14.

Wheel3-Springer4 or Cosmo-Sidetrack
holomatter or escapeR X 1
hold-Rollout-Pep-NewD or UFO-cargo or acuteR-Bravery-ForceF-Matrix-Teamup-Ancient-Unleashed-multimissile or powerP-stepF
The Cclub is the worst blue weapon in the game with the thermal.

The best user of the Descape is the Wpatrol with Mirage7,Arcee5 is a better alternativ to Vanguard than Redheat most of the time.
Reflect or spyM X 1
DefensiveD or forceF-2B-Descape-brainstorm-Kconverter-2B-battleFR-sabotaged or hijack-dataB-stepF-infiltrate or stableC-intelligence-multimission
The bumper is unplayable.The hijack fights and helps the Descape ritual(the other is the overwhelming)at the same time.

[WreckerJack]

So what is finding a locals like? Seems all I can find on the site are magic events :/

[ZeroWolf]

Greetings Seibertronians! For fans of Wizards of the Coast's Official Transformers Trading Card Game, we bring you some big news! Wave 5 of the TCG has been revealed to be called Titan Masters Attack, seemingly based off the Titans Returns line of the Prime Wars Trilogy. The news was found via a pre-order listing found on amazon.com.





This is what the product description has to say about it.

Titan Master Characters: Mix and match heads and bodies to customize Titan Masters to fit your playstyle.
The Wreckers: The fan-favorite Autobot special-forces team make their debut in Titan Masters Attack. Led by Sergeant Kup, the Wreckers get the toughest jobs done, no matter what the cost.
Stratagem Cards: This completely new card type lets players customize characters on their team.
Fortress Maximus: Every sealed Titan Masters Attack booster display includes a Fortress Maximus Titan pack.

As you can also see from the booster box art, a version of Power master Optimus Prime may also appear in the set. The set is due to launch April 17th 2020

What do you think we'll see in this set? Let us know in the Energon Pub and stay tuned to Seibertron for all the latest news and reviews!

[ScottyP]

Not the theme I was expecting but should be fun to collect. Couldn't care less about the gameplay at this point, looks like this is at least two new mechanics to learn. I'd be ok with not having new game stuff every wave, but maybe that's not what the card game bros want.

[Lore Keeper]

Read halfway through the title, got excited, realized were not getting some new titan masters, got sad.

[TF-fan kev777]

Read halfway through the title, got excited, realized were not getting some new titan masters, got sad.

I wouldn't necessarily rule it out at this point. With Apeface in Siege, we are likely to see Snapdragon soon, so that would be at least 1 And if previous TCG reveals of a mercenary faction turn out true, some more Titan Masters could be a possibility, I'll be interested to see who is in the decks and whether they are all from Titans Return or if there are any new possibilities.

[Lore Keeper]

Read halfway through the title, got excited, realized were not getting some new titan masters, got sad.

I wouldn't necessarily rule it out at this point. With Apeface in Siege, we are likely to see Snapdragon soon, so that would be at least 1 And if previous TCG reveals of a mercenary faction turn out true, some more Titan Masters could be a possibility, I'll be interested to see who is in the decks and whether they are all from Titans Return or if there are any new possibilities.

I'm still holding out hope we might get the Takara only molds for the Headmaster characters.

[ZeroWolf]

Greetings Seibertronians! Following on from last week's reveal about Wave 5 of Wizards of the Coast's Official Transformers Trading Card Game Wave 5 expansion, the company have followed up with revealing the special cards they'll be giving to stores that sign up through their Wizards Event Reporter service to host launch events for the expansion. The reveal was made on the Wizards Play Network.

These include 25 copies of a character card that you will not be in the booster packs when they are available. That character is Titan Master Arcana, who in the TCG is aligned with the Decepticons by the looks of things! This could be a nod to Brainstorms status as a Decepticon double agent, as revealed during the run of IDWs Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye by James Roberts.



Stores will also get 15 sets of the three card combiner Tidal Wave, allowing you to amass your own dark fleet. Unlike Arcana, you can score Tidal Wave from booster packs of Titan Masters Attack.



The participating stores will also get two Titan Masters Attack posters to help advertise the event.

These are to help stores host their own casual launch parties and be used as give aways or prizes to support the trading card game.

What do you think of these reveals? Are you excited to get your hands on more of this expansion? Let us know in the Energon Pub and stay tuned to Seibertron for all the latest news and reviews!

[PerfectVision]

HIGH ATTACK WITHOUT BOLD 2B:Swarp8-Flamewar7-Aimless Or Lockdown
Scavenge or soldierB X 1
FieldC-2B-ExtraP-Laser-Pop or overheat anti Clob/1dampening-energized or grav-oportuneO-Cchemtrails-Debiilitating-MDR-2B or coop/1stableC-sabotaged/1infiltrate-steady
Only user of the energized.Lockdown requires the coop and sabotaged(Prowl10)+Swarp8,this is genius because he is unoriginal mostly.ExtraP's are harder to remove+1scavenge,no need of the hold but the 1overheat/1dampening/1temporal coexistence may be better than only the second(secondary endH for a 2O formation).The hiding is not indispensable,Flamewar will receive Aimless anyway,focus on a better defense.

BEST MAGIC DAMAGE 2B:Scream12-Skrap9 or Needle-Hyperdrive
Enforcement or bolt X1
Inverted-2B-backfire-infiltrate-ForceF or hold-2B-Smelt-Bug or inferno-Callous or piercingB-OB-OB-swindled-Nullray
Nemesis can use the bodyA,Skrap as well.Who can use it with the powerS?Redalert7!
The Eslingshot:BG limited to melee,nothing else than 2 magic damages every attack (from Blurr),3 under a condition:the target is already damaged.

ANTI BOLD OB:Scream13-Brunt or Blitzwing
EscapeR or masterP X1
Espionage-OB-Etransfert-Evasive or reckless+stealth-Sconsole or Kintensifier-OB-Mining-Leap-Dcrown-Markman-armedH-TPA-Bravery or erraticL
Zero draw for a strong character who can research.The Sconsole is stronger than the stratagem?A +3 of defense to 6 or 7,the other 13's receive nothing without search.Anti pierce and discard at least.The stealth can save Blitz so he can keep on attacking,a better attack with support.EDIT:I have read the review on Brunt exceptionally and it's very bizarre.An anti bold enabler+armor compared to the worst level 10?"sightly better''?!

W-OB-O-B-W-OB-O-B-W-?-?-?-?
This formation works for every combiners except Devastator,the enigma should be immune to discard at best.

BOLD MAXER TRIO:Trail-Lio-Flack or Chromia8
Pop or debilitating-2O-trithyllium-Bready-espionage anti bashing or Mbriefing-2O-junkC-Ebarricade-Bbag-EPC or mounted-erraticL-1smelt/1bashing/1enforcement-grenade
Flak can be more damaging than Chromia,she's needed to recover the forceF if you go second,i feel stupid for my very late notice.The EPC is a secondary Ebarricade-trithyllium for her or Trail differently,the P icon is not advantageous even for the Detritus conversion.For more actions:squish instead and ramming/1smelt,the searchable pop and espionage should be enough.

BEST REPAIR PB:Optimus11 or Detritus-Tracks-Mudslinger.Concurrent:Wheel1 of Optimus,best user of the metal:an incoming effect would have been better,the matrix doesn't give enough pierce.
SoldierB or counterE X1
WorkO or head on-steady-heroism or piercingB-fusionB-MPF-pointP-4wheel or device-scootingM-forceF-scout-unflinching-teamup-valuableC
Detritus is more resistant to anything with a lot of defensive upgrades,Optimus mainly for his bold because the body version will always be more endurant.Muds can attack with bold1 or the scout and 4wheel-head on,a secondary leap,steady or reckless:it's as simple as that.I suppose that the device (anti weapons) goes through the spare+overwhelming,not the vandalize,the valuableC gives you that or a Bsuit (forceF-MPF).
This W action:if you have at least 5 utilities in your scrap pile:workO or 2 specialD like a secondary teamup or something.

GLOBAL DAMAGE OB:Ultra or WhirlHS-Sandstorm
UMA or holomatter X 1
Sjavelot-OB-tackle-cybertonium-hold or Cengine-OB-Scrounge-Battering anti brave or multimissile-debilitating-Shock-teamup-ghost or heroicT-ArmedH
The hold can compensate the lose of the UMA,the spare is only for the overwhelming,the ghost is usable and stronger(Sand can take it,not the anti removal).
I have imagined this WG trap:if you have at leat 5 Oactions and 5 Bactions in your scrap pile,choose one:1)play it at the beginning of his turn,the opponent cannot increase his attack by any mean outside of battle flip,.2)inflct 3 damages to an attacker level 7 or less before the fight.More incentive to use the OB's and more concurrence to the hold at the same time,fiou!

HIGH ATTACK 20:the quadrio of insect is largely powercrept by the patrols,Chop6 and Barrage are reusable but that's all.Kick5 has a lot of concurrence with Flame-Clob-Arcee5+inverted focusF-Demo-Lio who are only the most similar,Jazz-Smoke-Green-Hot for Scrap7,his DF with him as the sacrifice but his allies have bad attack if they don't convert.You can increase his HP and Kick should attack first in that case.
PocketP or hold X 1
ForceF-2O-1Bbeam/1enforcement/1bashing-swindled-Idurability or plasmaH-2O-blade-reckless-fragg-erraticC-Etransfert or Bready-swarm-EPC or scrapper
Chop uses more easily the scrapper and the Bready-blade as a secondary reckless,avoid extra bold because it can be shutdown.Ravage+Barrage is stronger than Kick if needed,the targets of the double damage are Thrust+Rascent and Rbuster+ERP.

HOW I WOULD REPLACE THE DOUBLE ICONS:limit them to factions,keep the rollout,crystal for the with an extra P,same for the matrix.
2B:inspiring-Battitude.2O:swindled-HV
2B:compact-repurpose.2O:confidence-turn or specialD
The swindled is too good,the confidence is bad,read carefully:no gain of card,only mill.The best global damages are from .

THE PURE P ARMORS ARE BAD:there is the PDS+hunker on TwinFlint and that'a all.Maybe the Idurability on Skrap7 who is half bad.I bring the air/ground duality at the same time:flying is a pseudo trait for interested cards.
Only for those with a truck or tank form,no stats,inflict 3 damages to an attacking character who flies (his alternative mode is a plane,copter or ship),the other is for them and affect those on the ground (any other form).A pure G action that allows you to play one of them from the scrap pile:Springer13 takes one copy of each,maybe Octone too.

A new action for beasts, and could be micromasters,i don't know,you can't play the same team twice in a row:that's a necessary rule to expand the characters.This Btrap:tap one of your untapped beasts who converts into it and receives provoke10+though2 (Apeface).
EXAMPLE OF DOUBLE TEAM PLAY:on the next page,i have written Rbuster-Ratchet or Chrom9-Brawn5 or 6,''BEST REPAIR WITH DOUBLE ATTACK"
PRIME Knockout:if one of your characters flips a repair card:he receives pierce2.A conversion,double flip that uses one of them from your scrap pile.You don't replace Ratchet:you add him in your second team with 7 extra cards in the sideselection. Mega is a MM 5:he may attack with the pierce or be tapped for a variable amount of upgrade and you get a specialD for each type,powercreep of repairs by the way.Primal would consider actions and traps for a +2P like a secondary Laserbeak,Roadhugger already gives +3A.

[PerfectVision]

Shock11-Sparkstalker or Thunder8-Caliburst
? X1
EscapeR or MPF-2O-Disrupt or computerS-Epack-Callous-2O-Squish or ramming-Multimission-System-Bbeam-Underhanded-UFO-Brainstorm

The core of the magic damage is the system,i have talked about Springer4,i see Cosmo as an alternative to him.

I learnt than the press is banned but not the espionage?They have mentioned the Battitude...They are certainly LYING,they certainly KNOW the right reference IS the espionage(Better with anti bold character who are decepticons for no reason obyiously).Second time i say it by the the way.The alternative is the focusF,no other choice now.I will admit that these TWO cards are very dominants.

This game won't last long or shouldn't.Goodbye.

[ZeroWolf]

I think the game is doing well enough, though the competitive scene will be hurt by the covid crisis.

[ScottyP]

Fans of the Transformers Trading Card Game from Wizards of the Coast have bad news to wake up to this Monday morning, as a post on the game's official website reveals that the recently released Titan Masters Attack wave was the game's last. To put it another way while borrowing a classic "Furmanism", the Transformers TCG is over - finished! The text of the news release and the accompanying image posted on the game's Facebook page may be seen below.

TITAN MASTERS ATTACK IS THE TRANSFORMERS TCG FINAL RELEASE
For over two years, Wizards of the Coast has worked to create a great action TCG brand with the Transformers TCG. While the retailer and player community continued to grow, our product offerings didn’t meet the expectations of the broader fan base to engage further with the brand. Additionally, the current global situation posed by the COVID-19 pandemic presented additional hurdles. As such, Titan Masters Attack released on May 29, is the game’s final TCG release.

We are informing our players and retailers so they can make the best decisions regarding event participation and product ordering. The Transformers TCG team wishes to recognize the tremendous effort that fans and retailers put into building a great community.

“The Transformers TCG was truly a labor of love for the Wizards team, and we saw that enthusiasm and love echoed by players across the world,” said Drew Nolosco, Wizards of the Coast Global Brand Manager. “We are grateful to our fans, content creators, retailers, and distributors for the enthusiasm they brought to the game. The greater Transformers TCG fan community is perhaps the best TCG community I’ve had the privilege of working with.”

‘Til all are one.

To editorialize for a moment, as a collector of the product that appreciated the art and generally enjoys trading cards on their own, I'll be a little sad to see it go. While I wasn't active in actually playing the game, those that were tell me it was a really great and well crafted game. It seems anything that isn't toys has a hard time making headway with us Transformers fans, but that's just what I think, let us know what you think by replying to this post on our Energon Pub Forums.