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HMW: Campaign for Cybertron - Extinction - Round 3 [Prologue]

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I find a nice Chardonnay goes best with wholesale slaughter.

Its a new year!! Have you all sobered up yet? Pretty sure I haven't, but with the festivities of the holidays over it's time to get back to what we all do best - bringing you the best in quality violence!

Today WPNN are live at the Sonic Canyons, Gates of The Inferno, and bringing you an update on the battle against the Reavers, those extra-planar wankers assaulting Cybertron by turning Prowl into an even bigger asshat than he was previously.

We don't know much about these guys, but as a reminder we've put together a rundown of what has happened so far in this war.

• The Reavers came from a dimension they refer to as the 'Dead Space', and using biting alt modes, began to infect Cybertronians with a mind - altering virus.
• The virus, called The Brood Virus, invades the mind of whoever it infects, turning them into a drone soldier in their army, known only as 'The Brood'.
• We have a lead to a cure but no ability to vaccinate ourselves from it, yet.
• There were 12 'gifted' Cybertronians out there that likely hold the key to eradicating this virus, but many are currently MIA.
• We know nothing about the ‘Dead Space’, or if it has any connection to the Dead Universe, only that an artefact called 'Throne of Vir' once held them there, until it was destroyed in an unknown event by unknown people.
• These ‘Brood’ forces, currently comprised mostly of infected NAILs but also a growing number of infected Autobots and Decepticons, were massing at the edge of the Sonic Canyons but have begun to mobilise. Appearing to have no obvious leader, reports state that they are swarming towards the Decepticon-held region of Kaon and it's Darkmount fortress, currently under the command of Starscream.
• Our combined forces in the Sonic Canyons are led by a uneasy truce between Ultra Magnus and Soundwave, with Ironhide and Sixshot leading the Cybertronian armies in the field with some success, until now.
• Nothing has been heard from the self-titled 'True Reavers' since Apostate's recent ultimatum.
• Lastly, the Autobots chief tactical officer Prowl has been confirmed as 'compromised' and is to be considered an enemy, but has not yet been spotted on the battlefield.

There is some good news though!
Down at the front lines of the battle, we've caught up with the Autobot interrogations specialist's who have been speaking to one of the creatures that escaped from the Dead Space, and we have their report here; over to you Autobots!

That scheming rabbit over at Traitors-R-us wrote:"Ah, yes, uh, thanks Zombi. My name is Abyssal. I am assistant Autobot Parole Officer assigned to Bun-Bun (and company's) 'rehabilitation' and as such I will be relaying the information his group has learned."

"And I'm Killerpunch, Bx2's Intelligence Officer and sometimes Zombi Cheerleader Digital cosplayer ('Sup babe) here to help this no-charisma, nerdy, mouth-piece for "The Man" with color commentary."

What? That isn't what I was told. Bun told me you'd just be standing by if we had 'techincal issues'"

"Well your typical-Bot complete-lack-of-personality is technically an issue for us."

*sigh*
"Yes, whatever, anyways...
The 'creature', well, uh, first of all, does not like being referred to as 'creature' as some of my colleges could tell you..."

"... if they weren't still in CR. Darn thing has a taste for ex-Cons it seems."

"As best as we've been able to translate, with the surprising help of the team's resident, uhm...

"...Abomination, Sin-Against-Nature,..."

"...erm, "Recycled Cybertronian", Kludge, with whom it seems to feel some kinship, it refers to itself as a Drnarbyt, perhaps a time-corrupted form of Dinobot, and seems to belong to one of two tribes."

" Yeah, 'Ugly' & 'Uglier' "

"stop it."
"When asked why it came here it communicated "Trapped was. Not now. Fly some, easy leave. Not some."

"When asked why it talked like an idiot it bit my hand off. Sensitive little varmit."

*sigh*
"Asked it's intentions toward the Autobots & Decepticons it seemed confused and did not answer, though the ongoing CR situation seems to point to it disliking the former Decpticons in our group more than the Autobots. It seems it has some sense after all."

" What exactly do you mean by that poindexter?"

"Nothing!"
"Moving on...
We then presented it with a recording of the Reavers last transmission, the being became highly agitated & attempted escape. Though the injuries were extensive we were able to subdue the creature... "

"Kludge sat on it"

"...but have learned little since."

"Except that it's flatter & smells funny now."

"WILL YOU GET OUT OF HERE!
*kicks KP offscreen*
"sorry about that"
"Ahem...From this limited interogation & general observation we can posit the following:

Abyssal's actual report wrote:- They seem to have the ability to transform. Some obviously can fly but there are others that cannot. All of them seem to have a terrible bite weapon. Perhaps an adaption to their harsh environment.

- These creatures seem to have been trapped in the Dead Universe for a very long time and may be ancient cybertronians or at least their descendants.

- This one at least seems at somewhat predispossed to Autobots, but this may not be the case for all of the escaping beings.

- The now-destroyed Throne of Vir had up until this point prevented these creatures, and who knows what else, from returning to Cybertron.

"You know what I think, this is all an elaborate coverup for genetic & pathogen experiments run by Prowl & Ultra Magnus at the behest of their Primalist Masters"

"... really"

"Yup, they made up this whole Reavers thing just so they could use us as guinea pigs and gain more control with 'Emergency Powers'. Otherwise they'da just built a big ol' forcefield around the place to keep them Ill Reaver/Drnarbyts out and make Cybertron grea..."

"THAT'S IT! REPORT OVER"
*Cue 'Yakkety Sax' as Abyssal chases Killerpunch around the studio trying to hit him with the mic stand*

<>

Uh... Meanwhile, our own energon-drinking ‘interrogation’ agent has been let loose on the Autobot escapee’s counterpart believed a member of an ancient primitive tribe called the T'rra'cons. We have a copy of her report here.

Parasite's Interrogation Report wrote:Subject 'CT1' was reluctant to speak upon capture. Having demonstrated its offensive capabilities by biting Hazard in half and flying away, it was soon brought down by a combination of us concealing Zombi's Sharkticon 'pet' and tying Nemesis Wheelie up as bait.

Interrogation began with the standard questions, but revealing little. The language used by the subject is an old Cybertronian dialect, and a dermal plating sample placed it as originating from the Prototronic era, meaning that its imprisonment within the Dead Space happened before the Heavy Metal War era began and modern armour alloys were created. Still refusing to answer any questions, I invaded its mind to extract the data forcefully using my specialist fluid-extraction fangs (which are not, as Zombi likes to call them, 'Emo Twilight Teeth'), and this is where we had our first breakthrough. Having spent unknown milennia exposed to radiation and viral-nanotech simply by being in the vicinity of the Reavers, Subject CT1 ‘supplied’ us with a complete CNA-snapshot of the virus nanites. Being a neural-control specialist myself, I was able to identify and isolate a pristine sample of the virus. We now know creating a cure is possible and how, the details of which have been passed to the Senate. Establishing any weaknesses within the Reaver's was far easier. Having realised that he was unable to lie once I had infected him with nanobots of my own, and he quickly revealed that the negative radiation from the Dead Universe has been seeping into these True Reaper’s sparks and slowly poisoning them, the driving force behind their assault on our universe. If the correct radiation technology can be applied and weaponised, we will have an effective weapon against the both Reavers and Brood that shouldn’t do any permanent damage to any infected Cybertronian. Again, extensive research and testing is required and the details have again been passed to the senate. Subject CT1 interrogation completed, his altmode schematics have been uploaded to the master database along with those of his Autobot-captured counterpart, and he is now back in the cells until his mind and energon fluid levels have recovered so Chompy can finish eating him... Are you even listening Zombi?? Ugh. She's taken her head off and replaced with a lamp!? I hate Headmasters. I can't work under these conditions! I QUIT!!

Finally! ...and for those of you who also fell asleep during that, Vlad the Interrogator there just discovered 3 things:

- There is a cure, the composition of which is being checked by the Senate.
- We have discovered a weapon type that may be able to defeat the Reaver control allowing us to capture and cure any infected Cybertronians, however more field research is required.
- We are running out of time. The Brood armies are already on the move towards Kaon, and we have no idea who we can and cannot trust.

Arm yourselves and prepare for the hunt, the cure and a way to take down the Brood and develop a way to stop the brood have been given to us on a plate, but we have to pick our moment.

Stay tuned to WarPorn News Network for updates!!

Future information about Round 4 and 5 wrote:Round 4 is a secret round, the details of which will be released later.

Round 5 is an Elimination round.
- You will be fighting for your lives against the Brood.
- There will be special missions for this round, and only scores and results in these missions count.
- Everyone not signed up is considered part of the ‘Brood’.
- When your character is killed by someone in the Brood, it is infected.
- Infected characters count as Brood until killed by a special weapon (when it is eliminated) or cured (returns to the game).
- There will be other ‘complications’ to be announced closer to the time.
- Last faction with surviving players wins.

Detailed rules will be released closer to the time, this is just so you know what the weapons and cure do.

Official Transformers TCG Metroplex Theme Deck Card Reveals

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#Sideways# wrote:So here he is, the star of the show: Metroplex's city form. It shows us how everything works in terms of deploying his three small dudes, and it shows us the first 25 star character in the game. In this case, you have to transform him from his robot mode to vehicle form to deploy one of three characters: Slammer, Scamper and Six-Gun. You can go from one character, to four characters in a game -- tall, to wide.

You'll notice two things about Metroplex straight off in terms of his stats: He has abysmal attack, moderate defense and an unbelievably high HP of 35. This makes him the absolute thickest transformer in the game, having 14 more HP than the previous record holder of Cosmos, with 21. But just being hard to kill isn't the name of the game; if that was the case, Insecticons wouldn't be the best deck in format, now wouldn't it? More on that later.

In short, this is the most unique character we've ever seen, and it's not just because his card a nearly a foot tall. Metroplex is the first "deployer" character we've seen, and it makes him very good at doing one thing: Showing how Soundwave or Blaster might work in the future.

Now, you might think that Metroplex is really good, that you'll get out a ton of small dudes and rush down your opponent. The problem with that theory is that you can only transform once in a turn, meaning you have to have a Rapid Conversion or Roll Out in your hand every single turn of the game or you'll fall behind. Trust me when I say, this is not a feasible thing.

This mode is the bread and butter of Metroplex, contrary to what you might think given his robot form.

#Sideways# wrote:Here's the big man himself in his robot form, and his stats only slightly improve. His defense drops, sadly, and his attack is boosted to an average six, but the biggest thing one might notice about him is his ability: Flip two of each pip and your opponent's characters are all force tapped, dealing one damage to each of them in the process.

That sounds powerful.

It sounds powerful.

When you have all three of your small characters out, it is, for sure, but that will seldom happen in a game. But here's the thing: Tapping all of your opponent's characters compared to tapping just one (ala Skrapnel) is bad. When you have all characters on a single side tapped, then the side with characters still untapped have to attack -- in this case, you. All of your characters will then attack at once, leaving your opponent to attack with a character of their choice next turn.

This helps your opponent more than it hurts them. In a deck that plays heavily damaging characters and support characters alongside them, for instance Optimus Prime -- Battlefield Legend with two support cars, you want to attack with the heavily damaging character the most. By tapping all of your opponent's characters, you're allowing them to untap all their characters at the beginning of their turn including their highly damaging characters.

If it simply tapped one or two characters, then you would be denying them an attack with that high damaging character while simultaneously leaving it open to attack -- tapping all characters means they still get to attack with their damaging character over and over again.

But that wouldn't be a problem if you had a higher attack stat. With such a low attack (and defense), you won't be able to take too much ground despite your high HP and ever-increasing numbers. Now, why is that? Let me explain by showing you the rest of what comes in the Metroplex set to support him.

#Sideways# wrote:Come on and SLAM! And welcome to the JAM!

Ahem.

First up we have another super unique card, and that's Slammer. Slammer isn't a Transformer, especially since he doesn't have a robot form, but he is useful. Slammer spreads one damage when you deploy him from beneath Metroplex, but more importantly, gives Metroplex Bold 1 passively.

But that's not all about him that makes him interesting: With Slammer, you might notice four things: One, he has the lowest HP in the game, but he also has some of the upper echelon of defense in the game as well -- but neither of those are the most important. The most important things about Slammer is that he is a Tank, and that he is four stars. This means that you can play him, Demolisher and Megatron -- Living Weapon all in the same deck and capitalize on Tank synergy.

Slammer's most use might just come from Megatron, instead of the city from which he came.

#Sideways# wrote:There isn't too much to write home about with Scamper's vehicle mode, but there are two things that I really like about this. One, he gives Metroplex Bold 1 -- which is almost never a bad thing -- and two, he is a four star Car. This makes him an easy fill-in for wide Car lists, allowing you to play four Cars and to take advantage of Turbo Boosters as well as Start Your Engines. Of course, in a Metroplex deck I wouldn't advise over-emphasizing Scamper's Car status, but in a Car list, he's an easy fit despite his abilities only activating if you have Metroplex.

#Sideways# wrote:His robot form is also something that only activates with Metroplex, but the effects he has are very, very good. Scrapping a weapon or armor is an excellent ability to have in your pocket, especially with how important Force Field is to swinging entire games. Scrapping weapons isn't as important (especially seeing as Grenade Launcher scraps itself after use), but I'd rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it.

His stats are, again, nothing to write home about, but you wouldn't expect him to carry games, anyway.

#Sideways# wrote:"No one dared to make a slip..."

So Six-Gun is probably my favorite character out of this whole thing, simply because he has the most useful abilities out of all three of his comrades. Moreover, he has the best stats out of all his comrades.

His gun mode has the ever-useful ability of indirect damage, he has four stars, and the highest HP out of all his friends. But this really isn't the business end of this guy. Even though his indirect damage is useful, his robot mode is actually slightly better.

#Sideways# wrote:"... The ranger there among them had a big iron on his hip."

With four damage as his base attack, he's the highest damaging character of Metroplex's three small deployers. Sure, he has zero defense, but if there's one thing I've figured out, nine times out of ten, all three of them are going to get fragged in one hit anyway. One of the best parts about him, though, is that he can be the exception to that rule through the use of Force Field. He is the only one that has five HP, meaning that Force Field will be able to activate and save him from certain demise.

Of course, don't expect his four attack to save the game for you -- it's just useful to have a guy who won't instantly detonate as soon as your opponent gets a good look at him.

But one of the more interesting abilities on this card is his Bold ability, giving Metroplex Bold 2 when you transform Six Gun. Of course, you might notice some themes here -- stacking Bold to improve on Metroplex's damage potential and to pop his ability. This is even more more apparent with Height Advantage, the next card we're going to look at.

#Sideways# wrote:It's over Anakin -- I have the high ground!

Height Advantage is essentially Supercharge but for Titans, with a blue pip instead of the more useful Orange pip. This card is essentially a middle ground between Dino Chomp and Supercharge, and it definitely belongs in your list if you're playing a Titan

#Sideways# wrote:"I've got a lot of plans to do tonight, and dying isn't one of them!"

This card is strictly okay. It's essentially a Heroism with more moving parts, which makes me dislike it, but if you're playing a list with plenty of orange, you can't really go wrong. Plus, redundant cards in lists isn't actually a bad thing, especially with low draw power. I prefer playing Heroism on Metroplex instead of multiple of Protected By Metroplex on my smaller characters, but the end result is similar enough that it doesn't really matter.

#Sideways# wrote:"Alla till mig!"

Rally The City is one of my favorite cards to come out of this set. When you have this card in your hand at any time, you can use it to replace itself at worst. At best, you can use it to draw four(!) cards. This is a powerful, powerful card when you have enough time to set it up, and the premiere draw support with Metroplex.

#Sideways# wrote:So, all in all, I would say that Metroplex is niche. It seems super powerful, but the problem is the set up time. It doesn't send everyone out at once when you transform Metroplex, it just sends one at a time. This makes it very easy for your opponent to punish your slow play by dominating each one of your small characters as soon as you put them on the battlefield.

Another problem Metroplex has is that 35 HP isn't actually all that much when your opponent can attack you several times more than you can, especially early game when Metroplex is alone.

What it has going for it is the Dinobot levels of damage that you can potentially pull off when you have all of that stacking Bold. But then, wouldn't playing Dinobots just be easier? Stacking Bold, dealing a lot of damage, tanking a lot of damage, that all sounds familiar, doesn't it?

There are such things as redundant cards in the game, but when it comes to redundant decks, I often find that the most consistent one takes the cake -- or the one that can do more damage more consistently, and that would be Dinobots.

I mean, you even play a card that is essentially Dino Chomp in Height Advantage. Maybe it's just me, but it just seems like Dinobots with more moving parts and less consistent draw.

Playing an all blue deck doesn't make it any better, either, since all of that Bold is doing absolutely nothing. You'd live forever, but you're trying to kill your opponent with the firepower of a low-battery flashlight. But all of that is my opinion, anyway, what's yours? Let me know in the comments below!

The Great Alt Hunt: Battle for Autobot City

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