Inferno revealed for Wizards of the Coast's Official Transformers Trading Card Game

Kyleor wrote:Oh man, I just want posters of some of that sweet card art.

Hasbro wrote:PAWTUCKET, RI AND RENTON, WA–SEPT. 7, 2018 – Hasbro, Inc., a global play and entertainment company, and Wizards of the Coast, a subsidiary of Hasbro and the publishers of the seminal trading card game Magic: The Gathering, provided more details today about the METROPLEX Deck, the first expansion for the TRANSFORMERS Trading Card Game.

“The character METROPLEX is a Titan – he converts into an entire city and towers over most of the other giants of the TRANSFORMERS universe. Keeping that in mind, we knew that METROPLEX deserved an even bigger card than the game’s standard oversized character cards,” said Drew Nolosco, TRANSFORMERS Trading Card Game Brand Manager. “The METROPLEX character card is 200mm tall – almost 8 inches. Whether in bot mode or alt mode, METROPLEX is one of the biggest TRANSFORMERS characters around, and now he has a suitably Titan-sized trading card.”

The METROPLEX Deck will see the AUTOBOT Titan enter the TRANSFORMERS Trading Card Game’s ranks for the first time, but he won’t be alone. During the game, players will be able to use the METROPLEX character card to deploy his three component bots: SCAMPER, SLAMMER, and SIX-GUN.

Transformers TCG Facebook Page wrote:Here are a couple of brand new Battle Card reveals, with some commentary from Case Kiyonaga, one of our amazing game designers!

"Are you having trouble dealing damage in your defensive deck? Energon Axe will give you a nice boost and will still do a bit of damage even if it’s blocked!"

"Grenade Launchers got you down? Is your friend attacking for 12 at a time? Do you have a surplus of d4s? Then I have the card for you! Force Field is here to keep your bots whole, hale, and (mostly) healthy! Be careful though: you never know when it might get scrapped!"

Transformers TCG Facebook Group wrote:Here are a couple of brand new Battle Card reveals, with some commentary from Case Kiyonaga, one of our amazing game designers!

"Are you having trouble dealing damage in your defensive deck? Energon Axe will give you a nice boost and will still do a bit of damage even if it’s blocked!"

"Grenade Launchers got you down? Is your friend attacking for 12 at a time? Do you have a surplus of d4s? Then I have the card for you! Force Field is here to keep your bots whole, hale, and (mostly) healthy! Be careful though: you never know when it might get scrapped!"

Transformersofficial wrote:Autobots beware, Megatron // Living Weapon is ready for action! Find this Rare @TransformersTCG card exclusively in booster packs! Stay tuned for our final card reveal next week!

#Sideways# wrote:The robot mode is rather lackluster compared to other robot modes for similar prices. But I'd like to bring your attention to the fact that he has Bold 2 built in to this mode. If you recall, Bold, Tough and Pierce all stack -- meaning, if you attached a Null Ray of Starscream to him, he would get both the +2 attack and the Bold 2 on the Null Ray, giving him a total of Bold 4 with a base attack of 6. This is good, but is it worth it compared to other options? More on this below.

#Sideways# wrote:The vehicle mode for this Starscream is the most interesting of the two. If you have three Planes in play when you flip to his vehicle mode, you get to put three (!!) damage on one of your opponent's characters. This is solid damage (a third of a small character's health), and you haven't even attacked yet. This allows Starscream to bolster other character's damage without attacking, himself. This ability is great, but we simply don't have the proper support for it yet to get a full idea of how powerful this archetype will be, and the biggest problem is the point values we have thus far.

The Plane support we've seen thus far has been titillating, but we can't have a full team of Planes -- at least not yet. See, we have yet to see Thundercracker, Skywarp or anyone else that could fill that point requirement. You see, this Starscream (if you noticed his Vehicle Mode below) has 11 points. That's fine, it's a common point value. But Slipstream -- often regarded as necessary for the archetype -- is eight points. That puts your point total to 19 out of 25, leaving only six points left over to work with.

The other big problem that this archetype has from my personal playtesting is a lack of draw power. When compared to Autobot Cars, we realize that card advantage is a very important thing. It allows you to draw into your Grenade Launchers, Force Fields and in this deck, your Bombing Runs.

Unfortunately, we just don't have that draw power yet. Maybe we will with the introduction of Skywarp or Thundercracker. Or maybe not. Not every archetype has to be broken, or even playable. As with all Trading Card Games, it's a simple fact of reality. C'est la vie.

#Sideways# wrote:Finally, we have Jaws of Steel which make Dinobots frankly ridiculous. It is a Utility that gives Dinobots Bold 2, and mind you, Bold stacks. So, let's do the math real quick here.

Every character starts with two flips from the top of the deck, and the first time a white pip is flipped, you flip two more cards. You then attach a Power Sword to give yourself Bold 3. Then, you attach a Jaws of Steel to give yourself 2 more Bold, bringing it to Bold 5. Then you play a Dino-Chomp! and give yourself BOLD 10 and you flip ten more cards from the top of your deck. This, combined with the white pip and the first two gives you a total of 14(!?!?) cards out of your deck to deal more damage to your opponent!

I am utterly flabbergasted. Dino-Chomp alone can give you some big numbers. But all this combined... Well, let's just say that it makes me glad that Force Field exists.

The Transformers Trading Card Game FaceBook Page wrote:Check out a brand-bitin' new Battle Card reveal from our Design Lead, Ken Nagle!

"All the Dinobots can BITE, so I designed this signature Upgrade extra-sharp metal teeth Utility. I gave Jaws of Steel the Bold 2 ability and orange icon so that Dinobots love biting into foes with orange battle icons. CHOMP!"

YoungPrime wrote:Not really into cards but at least it isn't Bumblebee like 80% of the other topics here.

#Sideways# wrote:Life, uh... Found a way.

So Grimlock is naturally very great for the Dinobot Archetype. You use his vehicle mode to add on to the already massive amounts of Bold given to your Dinobots through Jaws of Steel, Power Sword and Dino-Chomp! and give them Bold 13. This means you will be flipping a rough estimate of 17 cards off the top of your deck when you attack with a fully upgraded Dinobot.

These damage numbers give me diabetes.

His Robot mode is also fantastic, as he has Trample -- the ability to still use overkill damage. When you're flipping an ungodly amount of cards from the top of your deck, you're going to overkill something sometime, and this makes good use of that. Especially when your opponents have access to low HP characters, like Cars or Insecticons.

Sludge also adds to his survivability, which brings me to my second point: You can play a team of Dinobots. Grimlock is 10 points, and with Sludge at 8 and Snarl at 7, you come in with the best all-around Dinobot team at exactly 25 points. It even has draw power.

Mark my words, Dinobots will be one of the major meta-defining archetypes coming out of this first set. Even if it does require setup time.

#Sideways# wrote:This card is insane. It's an instant staple in almost every deck, except for certain decks that play only a handful of upgrades. But this is one of the few cards that, interestingly enough, give you more cards in your hand. Almost every card that draws cards ends up essentially replacing itself. Take, for instance, Inspiring Leadership.

Inspiring Leadership draws three cards and discards two from your hand. But Inspiring Leadership itself is a card that discards from your hand, leaving you at a stagnant hand size. This card can draw you a massive amount of cards, raw drawing three, four, five, or even more cards.

Enthusiast is really a great card that gets better over the course of the game. Not great at all at the start, but late in the game can really pack a punch.

#Sideways# wrote:Photon Bomb is the spicy, tattooed punk sister of Plasma Burst. Thus, I, being a fan of those, am very interested in this card. But even better, this makes playing Tall just a little more playable. If your opponent has four Characters in play, you're essentially doing eight damage without even attacking for the turn. Of course, you're taking damage too, but if you're playing Tall (two characters), you're taking minimal damage. If you, yourself, are using a Wide setup with three or more Transformers in play... Well, might want to rethink putting this card in your deck.

Another thing that this card does is allows you to set up damage on your characters for cards like Energon Axe or Swoop's ability, both of which requiring you to have damage on you already to properly use them. Naturally, this is a double-edged sword -- but what tortoise ever got anywhere without sticking its neck out first?

Scott Van Essen wrote:"Getting overrun by motorcycles? Swarmed by Insecticons? Want to blow up all the things? Photon Bomb’s the answer to so many questions you have yet to ask.

You might be surprised to see no battle icons on a card with a symmetrical effect. Believe me when I say that this notionally “fair” effect can be used in very unfair ways. To begin with, it is quite powerful in a “Go Tall” vs “Go Wide” matchup.

Photon Bomb is more subtly strong in low-armor, high-health vs. high-armor, low-health matchups, and can be situationally very impactful when you use it to unexpectedly KO one (or more!!) of your opponent’s heavily damaged characters.

Photon Bomb is the kind of card that designers love. It’s exciting to read, you know immediately what it does, and it has a major impact on the board. Yet, as you play with it, you discover depths of nuance and strategy that are not initially apparent."

steve2275 wrote:so when is the USA release?

#Sideways# wrote:Chromia is -- oddly -- the leader of the FemmeCycle archetype and the last femme we're going to be seeing from the game until next wave. She, unsurprisingly, is a Motorcycle Specialist, which is slightly unnerving given that we don't have much in the ways of exclusive Specialist support or Motorcycle support, but one great part about her innate abilities is that she is a Leader, which means she can take advantage of the Matrix of Leadership. Any deck where you can play that card to its fullest potential doesn't just have my attention -- it has my curiosity.

She has some interesting abilities, chief of which is the ability to return white-pipped cards from your discard pile to your hand. You can use this to find Actions you have already played or even better, return used Force Fields from the discard pile to play. This alone makes her formidable and a necessity to the fragile Motorcycle archetype.

Her robot mode is also great as it allows you to draw two cards more or less every time you attack with her. Despite her draw power, attacking in this mode is a risk -- she has zero defense, and if you don't have a Force Field on you already, you're going to have a bad time.

All in all, she's a good card that definitely has a place in the Motorcycle archetype. But outside of that, I wonder what other interesting combinations one might have to capitalize on her potential not just as a defensive character but as an offensive one. Perhaps, even, ironically playing her with Shockwave, constantly reusing and abusing System Reboot to deal indirect damage.

#Sideways# wrote:This card is really, really great.

I don't think you understand just how great this card is. This doesn't just transform one character like Rapid Conversion does; this transforms ALL of them. Sure, it's only from Bot to Vehicle mode and sometimes you want to keep someone in their robot mode, but either way, this card is utterly fantastic for decks like Insecticons or Motorcycles that play a large amount of characters that will all be transformed to Robot mode one by one.

But here's the kicker.

This allows you to use all of their effects at once. Most Transformers have an effect when you transform them to their vehicle mode, and this transforms EVERYONE. But to make matters even better, this is the only other card we know of that has both blue and orange pips on it -- so in other words, there's almost no downside to play this card.

Of course, not every deck wants to play this card -- but believe me when I say that most will.

Matt Smith wrote:"What would you think of an Action card that grabbed a weapon from your scrap pile then gave your character pierce 2 and Bold 1 until end of turn? How about one that bounced all of a character’s upgrades, repaired all of your characters for 1 then drew a card?! I was hoping you’d do all that and more when I designed ROLL OUT!"

#Sideways wrote:These cards are very healthy cards. They reward building decks with both blue and orange cards instead of a few rogue ideas of playing nothing but orange and white. Naturally, they have to get the exact same amount of blue and orange pips for their effect to work, which brings me to my second point.

One of these cards is strictly not good.

I know what you're thinking. "B-but Sideways, what the scrap is your problem, these function on the same principle! Are you crazy?" And you'd be right. But you'd be wrong about them being the same. Cybertonium Bow is a Weapon, whereas Shock Absorbers is an Armor.

The weapons we have seen outclass Cybertonium Bow in almost every way. Grenade Launcher adds more consistent, more powerful damage, Power Sword gives you the much better Bold effect to deal potentially more damage and frankly, milling your deck is better for you than you might think. There are more examples of better weapons, but let's be honest, you're not going to read them all.

Cybertonium Bow is inconsistent and relies on a lot of luck to pull off. It would be one thing if it just said, "count blue pips as orange pips", but it says that you have to flip the exact number of blue pips as orange pips. It doesn't even give you bold to help with this goal. Almost any other weapon is better.

But Shock Absorbers are the second best Armor we've seen, period. Nothing will dethrone Force Field as Armor King, but looking at the other Armor cards, do you notice something? They all only give +1 Armor or Tough 1. Which is why Shock Absorbers is a great Armor card -- it gives +1 Armor, but has the potential to add so much more.

If there were better armor cards, sure, then Shock Absorbers might fall into disuse, but until then, this is the second best armor we have.

#Sideways# wrote:This card is really frickin' insane. You see, in this card game, three defense can be a buggar to get any meaningful damage through. My boy Darkmount gets FIVE defense against ranged foes. Sure, you have a low HP for a high cost, but chances are, you're just not going to have almost any headway against this guy.

As far as vehicle modes go, Strax--Er, Darkmount has a pretty darn good one too. Sure, it scraps a card from your hand, but scrapping one card matters very little in the long -- and short -- run. You simply have a large enough hand or a hand with enough redundancy that you won't care. So, simply put, you get free damage that you can then double down on with Plasma Burst. Oh, and you haven't even attacked yet.

He is also one of the few Tanks we have coming into the game. This means you can use a full team of Tanks, with Demolishor, Megatron and Darkmount all tanking a lot of damage.

Hehehe.

Ahem. Anyway, because you're running three tanks, that means you can use Demolishor to his fullest potential, drawing two free cards since you're running two tanks other than him. Oddly enough, a deck that runs Megatron can take full advantage of Roll Out and be a frankly massively formidable foe on the battlefield.

All in all, Stra--DARKMOUNT is amazing. He also is cheap enough that he can be fairly splashable if you're trying to figure out where nine points should go in your team.

#Sideways# wrote:What can one say about ya boy Ransack? He's got a frankly mediocre set of stats and an ability that damages himself? Crummy, right?

Wrong.

This guy is actually very good for certain lists, Insecticons obviously being the forefront of these. Insecticons are frail and cheap, so naturally he fills in those quota, but consider, he heals one of your teammates by two damage, saving them from death and simultaneously boosting his own. That's right, he adds to his own damage for every damage on him already. This guy is cheap and a sick addition to any Insecticon list.

Insecticons, after all, are surprisingly hard to squish. They have a lot of healing for such a frail archetype, through Swarm and their own healing abilities, and this helps even more with that. Skrapnel sits pretty with a built-in Force Field and tanks several attacks while your opponent can do nothing but sit and watch while you heal off all their hard work. You can pretty much be rest assured, Skrapnel at least will not be dying so long as another Insecticon is on the field, especially with Ransack heading up his backline.

Ransack can also hit fairly hard as well, capping out at around seven base damage without any modifiers. This is very nice, especially with Force Field allowing him to reach such numbers. This can make him a fairly hard-hitting late game finisher, if a bit of a glass cannon.

Matt Smith wrote:"When designing the Insecticons I wanted to ensure you could run a 4 character team to emphasize the Swarm! nature of the bad guy bugs. Ransack is one piece of that puzzle. Ransack is meant to play support, tanking hits with above average defense on the bot mode, messing up your opponent’s plans with his damage movement ability, then getting in a really good hit while on the brink of KO.

Ransack requires some careful sequencing, but can provide a lot of value to any team when handled with caution."

#Sideways# wrote:Let me get something out of the way: I don't like Pierce in small numbers. You're almost always hitting for roughly three to five damage in the early game. You don't need Pierce to get through that unless you're facing off against Tanks, which I can understand, but since Tanks are fairly fragile on the health side of things, one doesn't need too much Pierce to do much meaningful damage. There's a lot of Pierce to go around, too, mind you.

But against any normal matchup, you just won't be needing it. So when I saw that this card came out, I didn't know what to think. On one hand, it seems like a worse Leap Into Battle, which always gives +3 attack no matter who is using it. On the other hand though, if you're playing Wide like Insecticons and always seem to be punching above your weight, this thing can give slightly less base attack, but gives Pierce 4 along with it. That's a good amount of damage and remember, that can be stacked with other amounts of Pierce on your field.

In my opinion, this card is a good card -- but an overly situational one that will find very few homes in decks. After all, you're not always going to be facing someone bigger than you -- and you don't want to be on the wrong footing when you face someone your own size.

#Sideways# wrote:"Stop right there lawbreaker!"

I really don't think that this is a very good card. Sure, you're disrupting your opponent, and they usually have to discard their one or two Upgrades they've been holding, but wouldn't you just rather use a System Reboot? The only thing this card has going for it is the double Blue pips -- those double pipped cards are very good cards to splash into lists.

But this card is... I don't really know what to think about this card. On one hand, it seems really good in Shockwave lists because there's a chance you're going to discard several cards from your opponent's hand to do some nice indirect damage. But on the other hand, there's always a chance that they won't have any upgrades at all. It's just an interesting card. Maybe it's good, maybe it's situational, but I'd frankly look elsewhere for a spot in your deck.

#Sideways# wrote:Deja Vu / I've just been in this place before / Higher in the streets / And I know it's my time to go

Heck yeah, more Car support! Like all Car support, Start Your Engines is really insanely good. Not only is it a straight-up better Ready for Action, it's also a Roll Out! all "rolled" into one. You, like Roll Out!, get to use all of your Car's abilities such as Mirage's, who can play a free Action. Sure, it only targets Cars so you won't play this in any other deck that isn't primarily a Car deck, but it's utterly jaw-dropping in decks that can take advantage of it.

It has everything that makes Roll Out! good, and more. See, Cars is all about controlling where your opponent attacks next, and then attacking with all three cars at the end of your opponent's attacks. Biding your time is all the easier when your opponents can only attack what you want them to. This helps with that because not only do you untap your Cars, it also sets them up to abuse Cliffjumper's ability even more than you already do, as you draw a card whenever you transform a Car to Robot Mode.

But the question is, would you play both in your Car list? Well, frankly, probably. Roll Out! is a very good card, and so is this one. I guess it's just down to space constraints.

#Sideways# wrote:Blast Shield is strictly okay. Sure, it has its uses, but if we're being completely honest, as a counterpart to Grenade Launcher, I wish it had more in terms of Defense. It's a one-time use, and of course nothing with ever take away Force Field's spot as the best Armor out there, but I wish this one came close.

You would definitely use it on Stra--I mean Darkmount, because seven defense is stupid, but aside from him and Demolishor, I can't really see putting this in lists over Force Field. Of course, you can play both if you really like defending, but in most cases you'd just be better off playing Shock Absorbers since they're likely to give you similar Defense numbers.

#Sideways# wrote:Speaking of better Armor, here's one right now!

Ah, yes, the Specialists finally have their day. Multi-Mission Gear is one of two Specialist-only Upgrades that I have for you today, but this one is probably my favorite, if for no other reason than I love the artwork. But in all seriousness, the effects on both cards are fantastic. More on the second one in its own section below.

Multi-Mission Gear allows you to play a free Action just for giving yourself more Defense.

You read that right.

"Free Action card" are my three favorite words in this game, and this is no different. Sure, it's only on Specialists, but when that type of character is already so prevalent in the game, Multi-Mission Gear can be easily splashed into whatever deck you're already playing it in.

Imagine, in a Shockwave deck, you play a System Reboot and discard your opponent's hand of five cards. Your opponent draws four and so do you. You then happen to draw into another System Reboot and a Multi-Mission Gear. You can figure out what happens next.

Or even moreso, you can use this card to play a New Designs, which plays another Upgrade for free, which you end up making a second Multi-Mission Gear, which can then play another Action for free and the cycle continues until you've completely burned out your brick of a hand.

There's an absolutely filthy combo you can use with this to draw a frankly ridiculous amount of cards, and I'll elaborate on it below, but until then, just know that this card is insanely good.

#Sideways# wrote:Did someone call for more Specialist support?

The last card I've got to show you today is one of my favorites, Multi-Tool. It's one of my favorites because of the combos you can pull off with it. Sure, it's not the best of Weapons, but it has a great support effect that is perfect for Specialists: Playing another Upgrade. Now, you're sitting there saying, "Then what's the point of playing this one if you're just going to play another one?" and I'll tell you what I tell everyone: How dare you speak to me.

Anyway, if you didn't notice, it also gives the Specialist +1 Attack, and perhaps more importantly, puts another Upgrade on the field. Sometimes, it doesn't really matter what the card is, but the real thing that matters is that it is. Let me elaborate.

Certain cards like having Upgrades on the field, no matter what they are, like Equipment Enthusiast, and when you can explosively put Upgrades on the field with this card, for instance, you can start powering up your characters and drawing what you need very quickly.

... Which brings me to my filthy combo. Well, it involves Sunstorm which I admit is not the best, but after Equipment Enthusiast came out I've been thinking (and playtesting) with him a lot more and he's been doing a lot better. But anyway, to the combo.

You would need to play a Multi-Mission Gear to play a New Designs. With that New Designs, you would play a Multi-Tool which in turn would play a Tandem Targeting System, which in turn would play another Tandem Targeting System from the Scrap Pile. That's four upgrades in play. And you know what that means? You get to draw four cards at least with Equipment Enthusiast, adding four cards to your hand.

Sure, you just burned a bunch of cards to do it, but you're also drawing them back and putting a load of Upgrades on the field while you do it. That's a lot in this game, and having Upgrades -- even small ones -- should not be underestimated. You could say that you never know when an Enthusiast might drop by.

Skritz wrote:Am I the only one stunned that frickin' Straxus is a card in a Transformers TCG and part of the initial release to boot? Because let's face it: he's not exactly the most famous TF villain.

Skritz wrote:Am I the only one stunned that frickin' Straxus is a card in a Transformers TCG and part of the initial release to boot? Because let's face it: he's not exactly the most famous TF villain.

Emerje wrote:

Skritz wrote:Am I the only one stunned that frickin' Straxus is a card in a Transformers TCG and part of the initial release to boot? Because let's face it: he's not exactly the most famous TF villain.

Straxus was a surprise, but Machine Wars Soundwave appearing on the last card just blew my mind!

Emerje

Randomhero wrote:

Emerje wrote:

Skritz wrote:Am I the only one stunned that frickin' Straxus is a card in a Transformers TCG and part of the initial release to boot? Because let's face it: he's not exactly the most famous TF villain.

Straxus was a surprise, but Machine Wars Soundwave appearing on the last card just blew my mind!

Emerje

That’s Stalker

Skritz wrote:Am I the only one stunned that frickin' Straxus is a card in a Transformers TCG and part of the initial release to boot? Because let's face it: he's not exactly the most famous TF villain.

Skritz wrote:Am I the only one stunned that frickin' Straxus is a card in a Transformers TCG and part of the initial release to boot? Because let's face it: he's not exactly the most famous TF villain.

Skritz wrote:Am I the only one stunned that frickin' Straxus is a card in a Transformers TCG and part of the initial release to boot? Because let's face it: he's not exactly the most famous TF villain.

#Sideways# wrote:Jazz is really good bang for your buck, I'm not gonna lie. At six stars, he's a fantastic deal for being an Autobot Leader Car. First, let's go over his stats. Something you might notice if you're paying attention is that he has zero defense in both modes. Yikes. It would make sense in his vehicle mode, but let's be honest here, his Robot mode is a liability.

His stats aren't that great. In fact, Starter Bumblebee -- who's spot in lists Jazz is competing for -- is seemingly better at attacking than Jazz. One thing that Jazz has going for him that Bee does not is access to Pierce in his robot mode, but with such a low defense, it would be a huge risk to put him in that mode. The real power here lies in his vehicle mode, and being able to take an unbelievable amount of hits.

Jazz's vehicle ability is the best part about his kit, and it makes him hotly contest Bumblebee's spot in a lot of decks, most prominently of these being Autobot Cars. You hit for negligible damage (though you have Pierce in robot mode), but you're a Car that can take advantage of the Car support and that alone makes him viable. More importantly, he's going to be in his Car mode when he gets inevitably KO'd, meaning he's more fuel to his buddy -- Cliffjumper.

He and Bee are interchangeable, but in this case, I think Jazz is probably better in Cars than anything else.

#Sideways# wrote:"Thunder only happens when it's raining / Players only love you when they're playing..."

Thundercracker is a pretty good Plane, and is a very good card for the Plane archetype. He's got an average amount of points and a -- frankly -- overly average set of stats, but if we judged everyone by their stats we wouldn't have a game, now would we?

If you haven't guessed it already, his abilities are what gives him the real power. His vehicle mode gives him a fantastic ability work in tandem with Slipstream, Bombing Run and the indirect damage playstyle of Planes. Naturally, you can only use that ability on Melee characters, but let's be honest, everyone has Melee on their team somewhere.

What I like about characters that can damage as an ability is that they can still support other characters outside of combat. It allows them to prove their worth when you've already attacked with them, to be more than a big attack. Thundercracker is good at that, which is good in my book.

Speaking of big attacks, Thundercracker can surprisingly give some pain when necessary. If you play an Action, he gets +1 automatically. That means that you can play Bombing Run to move damage from yourself and your Plane allies, transform and attack with even more damage. Of course, you can also use Leap Into Battle as a pseudo-Grenade Launcher... Only to attach another Grenade Launcher and deal +8 damage, on top of his base 5 attack.

Thundercracker has the potential to hit very hard under certain conditions.

One thing to note, though, is that Skywarp needs to have either 6 or 7 points in order to play a team of entirely Planes. Common Starscream being 10, Thundercracker being 8, leaving 7 left over for Skywarp. If you use the Rare Starscream, that leaves even less points for Skywarp. Here's hoping he fits the bill!

#Sideways# wrote:More support? Tank you!

Oof. That pun. Anyway, this card is fantastic. Almost all Tank characters have at least 3 to 4 defense, meaning you can upgrade them to deal even more Pierce. Megatron, in particular, already has Pierce 3, so attaching this will give him Pierce 6 at the least. This card is great for bulky tanks like Megatron and Darkmount, but sadly, Demolishor can barely use it.

Since he has 0 base attack, Pierce is almost wasted on Demolishor unless you flip plenty of attacking cards when you attack. Just something to keep in mind when you play the only three tanks in the game thus far.

#Sideways# wrote:"Heyyy, duck in cover!"

This card is absolutely insane. Arguably one of the most powerful cards I've ever seen out of this game thus far, and it's not hard to see why. This card has all the power of Roll Out in Tank decks and more. Hunker Down is so powerful that it's insane. Let me explain.

You can only attach one Upgrade in a turn. Generally, it's going to be a Weapon or Utility -- mostly because it's generally better to attach a Grenade Launcher than an Armor card -- but Hunker Down? Hunker Down gives you free Armor so you can have your cake and eat it too. Not only that, but you get to put Force Field in play after it has been used.

That's utterly fantastic.

But not only that, but Darkmount deals two damage when you flip him to his vehicle mode, Megatron scraps an Upgrade on your opponent's field and Demolishor will draw two cards all when you play this card. AND you get to put three upgrades in play for free. I cannot stress to you enough how much this card makes Tanks not only playable but very good.

Even moreso, you might be wondering -- if I'm going to be attaching these Armor cards early, how will I draw into them? How will they be in the Scrap Pile? Well, that's where Demolishor comes in. He mills your deck at a startling rate thanks to his Robot mode ability. You mill the Upgrades with him, and you get to put them in play with Hunker Down. Truly, an amazing combo, and one you should definitely be on the lookout for.

Another interesting fact about both tank support cards is that they were designed by someone who worked on actual tanks:

Ken Nagle wrote:I want my TANKs to have lots of Armor then turn it into offense. I've designed software for the actual M1A1 Abrams tank; now I've designed tank cards, too. Introducing Hunker Down & Crushing Treads!

#Sideways# wrote:Now I know what you're thinking: Did he fire six shots or only five? You gotta ask yourself a question: "Do I feel lucky?"

Well, not with this card I don't. This card is pretty okay, but its niche uses sorely limit its play. Sure, you could put it on Ironhide -- the same that you get in the Starter Set -- and he could deal a surprising amount of damage. But that's kind of all he'd be there for, and there are simply better support picks for your buck.

But the real niche use here is in decks that play cards like Ransack, which thrive on damaging themselves. Decks like Energon Axe, and they certainly like getting to play them with little investment. More importantly, you can amplify Ransack's damage quite easily with this card.

It's a very limited use card, for sure, but I suppose everything can be used somewhere, if you look hard enough.

Scott Van Essen wrote:One of the fun parts of designing the Transformers TCG was making signature upgrades for classic characters. While only Optimus Prime can use his Ion Blaster, Ironhide is happy to share his Static Laser. Just make sure you read the fine print.

We've already shown several ways to connect cards to specific Transformers. We can hard-lock to a character like Ion Blaster of Optimus Prime, while cards like Null-Ray of Starscream can be used by anyone but are better on the named character.

Static Laser of Ironhide is a variant of the second, where instead of a base effect with a bonus for the named character, it's a larger effect with a downside that turns off for the named character.

Cards with downside effects tend to be cool and fun only if they're used sparingly, so we like to save them for when they really take the card concept to the next level.

In this case, I love that Static Laser of Ironhide cements itself as a powerful and dangerous weapon while also highlighting just how tough Ironhide is.

#Sideways# wrote:Wanna bet?

So "I Still Function!" is really, really good. It's essentially an extra turn, an extra attack, an extra threat. "I Still Function" allows you to use a lot of things to your advantage. For instance, Peace Through Tyranny allows you -- with some Multi-Mission Gear maneuvering and hand contents allowing -- to take extra turns ad infinitum by KOing the character you just resurrected.

Moreover, you can resurrect Ransack and put him at 1 HP, giving him 7 base damage instantly. Then, you can use a Bug Bomb on him, which activates as soon as your turn is over. Frankly, I love everything about this card. You can even bring back a problem card for your opponent and attack with them one more time, just to make things worse for them.

Matt Smith wrote:While testing Wave 1 I would often focus my deck around a single powerful character *Cough* Sunstorm *Cough*. Inevitably my dastardly opponent would KO that character and I’d be left to despair. I just couldn’t have that so I reminded my quarry that I STILL FUNCTION!

#Sideways# wrote:Why throw away your life so easily?

Well, that's a question you should be asking yourself. I'm not joking -- this card is a slightly worse version of Plasma Burst and Photon Bomb. If Photon Bomb is the tattooed punk sister of Plasma Burst, than One Shall Stand is the sadistic younger sister of Plasma Burst.

This card would be very, very good if it didn't decrease your health by a quarter or a third depending on the characters in question. Now, you're reducing your opponent by the same, but this card can bite you just as easily as it can help you -- and gets wholly worse as the game goes on. I suppose that this card would be better in Tall decks than Wide, but either way, this card's playability is in the air for me.

Of course, this card has the 100% best artwork of any other card I've seen thus far, but that only gets you so far in my book.

#Sideways# wrote:I knew I shoulda gone with the turbo.

Supercharge is pretty much a bad card in all but niche decks. I'm not going to lie, this card is very subpar to another card in terms of damage output. That card I'm talking about? Leap Into Battle. Leap Into Battle gives one of your characters +3 Damage, which is essentially the best case scenario for Supercharge. There's almost no reason to play Supercharge over Leap Into Battle.

But I did say "almost". Nemesis Prime likes having Bold, and with Bold 3 on a Power Sword and Supercharge giving him another Bold 3, Nemesis Prime is one of only a few decks to play this card effectively. But other than that? Pretty much a hard pass.

#Sideways# wrote:Make it a double, I guess?

Cards that say "draw" on them make me happy. They help cycle your deck and help you get the cards you need. But these should not be considered "draw cards" in the purest sense. You see, these cards are disruption cards first -- but are never dead cards in your hand.

Usually, disruption cards have their situational uses (Security Checkpoint comes to mind) and when that window has passed, become useless (dead) cards in your hand. When cards draw a card after outliving their usefulness, they are essentially never "useless" in a situation. Sure, there can be better cards to play in certain situations, but when you have nothing left at your disposal, you can play one of these and draw a card.

They're not bad. Are they worth a spot? Well, Drill Arms might. With the advent of Force Field and more Armor cards messing with your math, Armor scrapping is more and more valuable. If you ever have an extra spot -- or just really hate Armor -- Drill Arms will do all you want and more.

Transcription wrote:Drill Arms: Weapon -- When you put this on a character ---> Scrap an Enemy Armor. If you can't, draw a card. +1 Attack.

Scrapper Gauntlets: Armor -- When you put this on a character --> Scrap an Enemy Weapon. If you can't, draw a card. +1 Defense.

ScottyP wrote:The more I see of this, the more it looks like a Transformers game made for card game fans and not a card game made for Transformers fans. There's Transformers art and... that's about it.

ScottyP wrote:The more I see of this, the more it looks like a Transformers game made for card game fans and not a card game made for Transformers fans. There's Transformers art and... that's about it.

Nexus Knight wrote:

ScottyP wrote:The more I see of this, the more it looks like a Transformers game made for card game fans and not a card game made for Transformers fans. There's Transformers art and... that's about it.

Is that too bad of a thing, tho? Many fans will probably buy it because it is Transformers, and we may get a bigger player base of non-TF fans get into it.

ZeroWolf wrote:You got the starter set already? There's no combiners yet, and I'm not sure how they'll do them outside of special decks like Metroplex. Also the things you mentioned are hardly mentioned outside very specific media basically, Wizards have done the best they could with what they got without bogging the cards down with effects so no one could see the art. I remember complaints about text heavy cards on MTG, things that slow gameplay down are not good at all.

Nautica would have a few things to say about a gun shooting different coloured lasers out depending on faction

#Sideways# wrote:The ends justify the means, hm?

Well, it would in Prowl's opinion -- and looking at his abilities, I can't say that I disagree. Remember when I said that cars were pretty interchangeable in their usefulness? This is one of those useful guys. I would even go as far as to say that he's one of the best value for Cars we've seen.

No, he may not hit for high numbers, but through his vehicle mode he gives all of your characters Bold 2.

Yes. All of them.

When you have Cars, you're constantly untapping your characters, which means you're almost always going to be attacking with all three at the end of the turns. Now imagine all of them with base Bold 2, plus whatever Weapon they're already holding. If you don't think that's very good, think again.

But that's not all. His vehicle mode is a Specialist, meaning that he can use Multi-Mission Gear to play free Actions and Multi-Tool to play free Upgrades. But that's not all; his robot mode also has a fantastic tool for Cars to use.

Cars is all about control and outlasting your opponent by forcing them to attack where you want. Your cars are almost always going to be damaged. So when you have Prowl in play, and one of your Cars get finished off, you can use him to heal one of your other Cars so you don't get snowballed out of the game.

Prowl has a lot of value in a very small cost. If you ever want to play Cars, I would heavily consider playing Prowl in your list.

#Sideways# wrote:"Let's do the Sky Warp agaaaaain! It's just a jump to the left!"

And two steps to the ri... Erm, anyway, Skywarp makes me happy. No, not because you get to look at the top card of both player's decks to gauge your next attack to make wiser decisions, and no, it's not his great defensive ability... It's that he is six stars.

Yes, that seems shallow. But listen, you can play the most expensive Starscream, Thundercracker and Skywarp all in the same list, and how can I not be happy about that?

But about the character card himself, he's fairly average across the board. Plus, he's one of only a few characters that don't get either a defensive or offensive buff from transforming. He's one of those characters you play because of his innate abilities -- like being a Plane -- and his abilities.

Skywarp's vehicle mode ability is an almost useless one, but it still gives you information you can somehow use. You see, you get to look at the top card of both players decks -- and whereas that sounds good, you have to realize that when you attack AND defend, you discard at least the top two cards of your deck. So you can't use it to plan out your next turn at all, but you can use it to plan out your next attack.

If you see your opponent has an overly defensive card on the top of their deck, you can play a System Reboot to force them to draw it. If you see that your attack is likely to do a lot of damage, you can use a higher damaging character to attack next. It's all about planning, but compared to other abilities, his seems a bit lackluster.

His robot mode, however, has a very interesting ability. You see, you get to redirect damage that would be dealt to him to another character. With eight HP, it isn't that hard to see why you would want to do that, but more importantly, you can use it to set up Bombing Run plays as well as avoid instant death. Remember, if one of your other characters is close to being KO'd, you can sacrifice them instead if Skywarp would be hit with an absurd amount of damage.

He's a cool character that definitely will see play in Planes, but outside of that, not much. He may be a mostly one-trick pony, but surviving is what he's good at, and that's good in my book.

#Sideways# wrote:"Ever heard of Movie Magic?"

Wheeljack is another amazing card for Cars. He has draw power, utility, survivability and a startling amount of damage potential. Sure, his point cost is a bit steep, but you can play him in a lot of Car lists due to their low point costs. Before we ramble, let's get to the basics.

His stats are kind of average in his vehicle, and above average in his robot mode, but like most characters, the real magic is in his utility. In his Car mode, he is a Specialist that can use Multi-Mission Gear and Multi-Tool, while also being a Car so he can abuse Turbo Boosters and Start Your Engines. His ability also allows you to draw cards and cycle your deck easier, which is awesome anyway, but in a deck like Cars that relies on an Upgrade for its central strategy, this is invaluable.

He also has a startlingly good ability to have Bold 3 if you have a weapon in the Scrap pile. Since you're going to be flipping cards anyway, the likelyhood of that is quite high indeed. Plus, you can use a Grenade Launcher and confirm that you will. Wheeljack then can use another weapon to give himself potentially even more damage potential.

One thing to think about, though, is his lackluster defense stats. If he gets attacked, you probably won't instantly get KO'd, but let's be honest, you'll come close. That's why it's important to attach a Force Field to him when you attack with him, since he'll be likely a high-priority target for your opponent.

All in all, Wheeljack is a good card for Cars lists that want certain layers of support that Cliffjumper and Mirage can't give. Remember how I said they were pretty interchangeable? Yeah, you're starting to see that, right?

#Sideways# wrote:Speaking of Wheeljack... And oddly not Brainstorm?

This card is bananas. It's bananas dipped in chocolate, crusted with Pop-Rocks and doused with a can of Four Loko. Very few cards get me this excited. Imagine the potential of this card with Optimus Prime -- Battlefield Legend, or perhaps Multi-Mission Gear! You're playing so many free upgrades that it's just...!

Okay, time to calm down and explain why I'm so exited. Remember how you can only play one Action in a turn? Well, this doubles that. You get to play Inspiring Leadership, draw a Leap Into Battle and play it with no repercussions. You can even use another Brainstorm to indefinitely chain Brainstorms so long as you keep drawing into them.

I adore the implications of this card, and you should, too. It is slightly worrying that, if a deck manages to draw into them effectively, that a potentially broken strategy might arise, but that's just the potential of this amazing card.

All in all, Brainstorm should be in a lot of lists. But something that you should consider is that Brainstorm is only good if you can use it effectively. In a deck without a lot of draw -- or a lot of Actions -- you won't be able to use let alone chain Brainstorm.

It's not for every deck, but man does it make me wish that it was.

#Sideways# wrote:Another one.

But here's the thing about this Bumblebee: He's Wave 1's second and final Super Rare. A little pretext about Super Rare cards, they have a 1-79 pack pull ratio, making them a one-per-two boxes of product rarity. This is a really, really rare card and should be sleeved or protected as soon as you open him. There's no telling how much value they'll end up having, but with a ratio that low, it's a good idea to protect them.

So, anyway, this card is pretty darn good. He's less of an add-on, though -- he's kind of the start to his own version of the Car archetype. Cars can be pretty interchangeable, but when it comes to having a proper team composition, I find that the strategy should usually revolve around one character. Nemesis Prime is supported by his teammates, Shockwave by his, Megatron is your main damage dealer in Tanks... You get the picture.

BumbleJumper can definitely be one of those archetypes. With the advent of Jazz and Prowl (revealed below), you can fulfill your full team of cars in a lot of different ways with that leftover seven points. It's a very versatile list that will likely have several iterations with several different characters before someone finally figures out the optimal way to play it.

But more on Bumblebee. This little guy is a thick, thick boy and can take a lot of punishment at an astounding 15 HP. The biggest Optimus Prime has 14 HP, for reference. He can also put out a lot of punishment at the end of a game with his loner ability amplifying his already moderate stats to something worthy of the greats. But his vehicle mode has one of the most interesting abilities I've seen thus far, being able to attack characters before they, themselves, have attacked.

This means that you can always pick off the weak links on your opponent's field, and more importantly, can target them down before they get to attack you. Goodbye, Ransack, it was nice knowing that you could have attacked this game. What's better is that he can fully take advantage of Start Your Engines in the latter stage of the game. Allow me to explain. It functions as a way to use that car mode's ability to give him the option to attack something that's untapped, then manually transform him to Robot mode to give himself the boost of damage.

It's a frankly great ability that makes him a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield. Oh, and he can also carry the Matrix of Leadership, just in case you wanted another reason to like him.

#Sideways# wrote:Deadlock gives you very little for his high point cost. I'm not joking, this guy is a big disappointment when it comes to abilities -- even moreso when you consider that he's fighting for space in a Car list.

He's less lackluster in the stat category -- actually having some of the highest when it comes to Car standards -- but it's the fact that he has no utility that makes him a hard sell when compared to the likes of Mirage, Wheeljack and Cliffjumper. Deadlock has draw over them, sure, but Deadlock's ability only activates when you flip to your Car mode, and only when you're going to KO someone.

That's wholly underwhelming, if you ask me, especially when you can compare him to his peers. Wheeljack draws when you Upgrade a car, Mirage can just straight play an extra Action, Cliffjumper draws when you Transform which is as broken as it sounds... He's too much points for too little utility.

I would very much consider him if he costed six stars, but other than that, the only thing this bounty hunter is hunting for is a way to stay out of my bulk bin.

#Sideways# wrote:This card is kinda nuts. Being able to do indirect damage is already pretty good, but being able to spread it amongst your opponent's entire field is another thing altogether. There are a lot of reasons to like this card, and a lot of decks that will be using it. For instance, you can play this in Planes which already likes indirect damage.

You can use it to soften up Tanks, laugh at the foolish Motorcycles that want to try swarming you and try setting up KOs on Cars. But one thing you should watch out for is using this against Planes, who absolutely love it when their characters take minimal spread damage since it allows them to use Bombing Run to both heal them and deal that damage back to you.

#Sideways# wrote:You'd think this card would be good, wouldn't you? Well, in most cases, you might be right. But in this one? No. There is so much Upgrade scrapping in this game that it is simply better to use those cards, like Drill Arms, Crusher Gauntlets, Ramming Speed... The list goes on.

Why is it better to discard than to put it back into its player's hand? Well, that should be self-explanatory. It is functionally the same for board state, but you force your opponents can't play them back down.

Now, that doesn't mean that this doesn't have its niche uses. Shockwave wants to stack as many cards as possible in his opponent's hand so that he can discard them. But remember, this is an Action, not an Upgrade. That means you're unlikely to play both a Disarm and a Security Checkpoint/System Reboot in the same turn. It's possible, but it's strenuous.

All in all, it's niche, but still kinda bad otherwise.

#Sideways# wrote:Literally just play Security Checkpoint. It discards both player's Upgrades, but you still get to play yours before you do. This is one of several "budget" versions of other cards that you might notice. Sometimes, though, they have attributes that makes them slightly better than their counterparts in certain instances.

This is not one of those points.

Security Checkpoint is a double blue pip, and that's as rare as it sounds. When I say, "just play Security Checkpoint", I mean it wholeheartedly.

#Sideways# wrote:This, however, I can see getting some play in certain decks. Right now there is no parallel for Disruptive Entrance, meaning it's the only card that can look in your opponent's hand and discard a specific Action.

I honestly think that this card is great for disruption decks, like Shockwave. Keep in mind, though, just discarding a card at random is not damaging -- but when you take away their only draw Action, that game-winning Peace Through Tyranny or their last "Dino-Chomp!" card, they'll be hurting.

Niche, for sure, but I still think it's way more viable than people might give it credit for.

#Sideways# wrote:I'm not really sure what I think about Emergency Repairs. Some part of me thinks that this could be pretty niche, like with the new Bumblebee, but let's be honest here, you could call almost every card in every game "niche" just because it fits in one deck, even if that deck is non-viable.

Emergency Repairs is just one of those cards that you look at and think, "hm, this could be good!" and then you read it a second time and think, "goodness, that's awful" and proceed to go back and forth until you pass out. It's not a bad card, but it's not a good one. It's just kind of... There, you know?

Repair Bay or "Medic!" is likely to suit you better, though I can't say that Emergency Repairs is without merit.

#Sideways# wrote:Fusion Cannon of Megatron is... An interesting card, mostly in the same vein as Null Ray of Starscream. It seems like a card you would instantly play in any deck that plays Megatron. Sure, there might be instances where you might outside of the Tank archetype, but I'm going to be perfectly honest with you: You don't need it.

Fusion Cannon is just an overglorified Piercing Blaster, which gives you Pierce 3 anyway. Megatron might like it, but no one else will, and when you already have Crushing Treads giving you plenty Pierce, what's the point of playing this card?

Sure, you can tech it in if you want your Tank list to have even MORE Pierce, but it really just seems redundant. Something I've found is that Optimus' Ion Blaster is the best exclusive weapon because it both gives a high damage buff and a defensive buff, making his stats even better than they already were.

Food for thought.

#Sideways# wrote:I absolutely love this card. It's not for every deck, but let me tell you, this card makes me so happy. Let me explain.

Your opponent can only attack tapped characters, right? That means you should generally attack with someone who can take a hit (more or less cannon fodder) first. This protects your valuable, more expensive characters from damage and gives you a little breathing room.

Heroism allows you to attack with your first, high damaging characters first. You get to attach it to your cannon fodder and fight with your big, beefy characters without any repercussions. Your opponents may be trying to attack your important units, but with such heroic nonsense on your side, your opponent can't attack what they want to attack and that makes this card frankly amazing.

Of course, it can be scrapped and your bold play can -- and will -- be punished, but let's face it, who ever got anywhere without risking something first?

#Sideways# wrote:Like Drill Arms and Scrapper Gauntlet before it, we come across our third and final "scrap x, else draw 1" card. I love these cards, a lot, but this one is sort of a middle child.

One one end, you have Drill Arms, which is the best of the three by far, and on the other end of the spectrum, you have Scrapper Gauntlets which are the worst (But are still good in Tanks!), and right in the "meh" area is Crushing Size.

It gives you Pierce, which is nice, but being able to scrap certain Utilities like Matrix of Leadership and Heroism is pretty handy, much handier than weapon scrapping. The problem is, Scrapper Gauntlets gives +1 Armor and Drill Arms gives you +1 Attack, both being very good, but Crushing Size gives you a measly Pierce 1.

Pierce 1 is terrible. Pierce 2 can have a case made for it, Pierce 3 and up is good, but Pierce 1? If you're having trouble doing one damage in a game, you're not going to win. That's kind of the thing with this guy; if you're playing a lot of Pierce, go ahead and play it. Otherwise, I'd probably look elsewhere for a spot in my list.

#Sideways# wrote:Yay, more Arcee artwork!

So, Combat Training is strictly "meh". Tough is decidedly not that great, and Bold 1 is okay when you have cards like Power Sword adding Bold 3 on that, but it seems like you're giving up a useful Utility spot for something approaching a filler card. I could be being a bit harsh on Combat Training, but in the highly competitive Utility space, there are just better cards to play, like Data Pad or Data Bank.

#Sideways# wrote:This is what I like to call a bad card. Your opponent gets to choose the Weapon they scrap (which will be a Drill Arms that has already outlived its usefulness), and they also choose the card in their hand to scrap. Sure, you're getting rid of an Upgrade attachment and in Shockwave you're dealing one damage, but even then, it's morbidly underwhelming in terms of playability.

But hey, not every card needs to be playable -- not every card has to be -- and I shudder at the thought of every card in a set being absolutely must-picks for a deck. Imagine what kind of horrible metagame THAT would be.

#Sideways# wrote:Now THIS is how you use Tough. Tough 3 is very good. No, it's not the best Armor, and you wouldn't play it in Tanks where Armor is kind of a necessity, but in decks that don't really play a lot of Armor, I can definitely see this one taking up a spot in a lot of lists. Sure, it's only attachable on Melee characters, but I can think of very few characters that aren't Melee in at least one of their modes.

Remember though, you're not confirmed to take less damage just because you have Tough. But decks that like taking less damage and cycling their deck a lot like Nemesis or Cosmos, this is a must-pick.

#Sideways# wrote:With a name like Cargo Trailer, I was really looking forward to being able to hold more Upgrades. Unfortunately, I was disappointed that it could not fulfill my desire. Then I read the card and was disappointed a second time.

Then I read the card a second time and I was floored by how FREAKING GOOD IT IS. Okay, after some calming breaths, I can explain why this card is so good.

Every instance of this card gives the damage buff, not just one. So, when you have one on your character, it will give +1. Then, when you attach another, you get +2. On each Trailer. This will give you a combined +4. If you attach all three, which is unlikely, sure, but if you do, you have a +9(!?!) damage!

Since each instance counts each instance individually, each card gives its own damage value. That means you can stack a lot of damage potential on your characters surprisingly fast. Optimus Prime, Nemesis Prime, Hound, Ironhide, the list goes on. But all of them want these trailers just as bad as the last.

You just really need to make sure you know who you want to stack them on before you do it.

#Sideways# wrote:Perfect Cell anyone? What, no one plays Dragon Ball Super in this place?

This card has great potential, but I doubt its usefulness in this card game. One thing I noticed about TFTCG is that you will have a normal hand size of roughly four to five depending on the deck you're playing. Sure, you're forcing your opponent to discard a couple of cards, but Cell Chain of Dragon Ball fame did the same thing -- and acted on it, by discarding the rest.

If you can figure out how to do that, you'll do great. Your opponents won't be able to upgrade their characters nor play any support Actions, but remember, a lot of cards have innate draw so it would be nigh impossible to keep them down indefinitely.

Definitely has potential, especially with a deck built around it.

#Sideways# wrote:Why?

No, really, why would you play this? You're almost never going to have the chance to attack with more than three characters at once, and you're not going to be able to stack these, so why not just play Leap Into Battle which gives you +3 on a single character?

Again, there are "budget" versions of cards, or cards that are similar but different for the merit of being different. This is one of the latter, I think.

#Sideways# wrote:Speaking of, why would you play this when System Reboot exists, which scraps BOTH player's hands and draws four cards each?

Well, for one, you might not want to give your opponent a better hand, or a hand at all in some cases, but let's be honest -- it's almost always better to disrupt your opponent's hand.

Then again, there's no rule in playing both this and System Reboot in the same deck. Have fun drawing your deck, I guess!

#Sideways# wrote:Agility of Bumblebee is pretty okay, actually. I would definitely play this card in Bumblebee-centric lists. For instance, decks that play the new Super Rare Bumblebee. If you're just casually playing the Starter Bee, I don't know if I would play it, but it's better than most utilities that you can put on the little guy.

Generally, I would rather put a Data Pad or a Matrix of Leaderhip on him, but if you have the extra space, then why not throw one or two of these cards in to supplement your draw? At worst, you can just attach it to someone else to give them another +1 to their damage through their Utility slot.

#Sideways# wrote:Now, if you know what Scrying is, you'll love this card. Sure, it's slightly worse than Scrying, but this does the job well enough. Planes have a distinct lack of draw power, and this doesn't really help to mitigate that, but it does let you discard the cards you want with your attack flips.

It's a good card, one that gives the Planes a distinct damage mitigation ability that they normally would not have.

#Sideways# wrote:Literally just play Plasma Burst. It's true that Plasma Burst doesn't have a pip and Zap does, but Plasma Burst is lightyears better than this card just because it does two damage instead of a silly one. And in my opinion? Photon Bomb is better than Plasma Burst, so that just shows you how useless Zap really is.

At least it makes a good proxy for Photon Bomb!

(Or Piercing Blaster, actually, since they have very startlingly similar card artwork.)

#Sideways# wrote:Swap Parts isn't that good in many lists, but it's very good where it counts. Trucks, for one, love this card because you can use it to move a misplaced Cargo Trailer. You can use it to move Heroism, as well, when things get a little too hot for your damage soaker. Most decks won't use Swap Parts, but the ones that do love it to bits.

Much like me and that, frankly, adorable artwork.

#Sideways# wrote:This seems like a budget Photon Bomb, and you're kinda right. But that also kind of makes me want to play it in Planes because when used in tandem with Armed Hovercraft, it makes for a Photon Bomb but just for your opponents. Not bad, if I don't say so myself.

Not too much to say about this card otherwise, since in any other deck it is a simply inferior Photon Bomb. Treat it as such, unless you're playing Armed Hovercraft.

#Sideways# wrote:Boy, is this card a doozie. Scrapping all upgrades seems to be a stiff cost to repair a little damage, but when you consider the healing as a side-effect, what you end up with is a powerful Scrapping card, especially against Trucks that will be having a lot of Upgrades on the field. Moreover, Tanks also has a love-hate relationship with this card since they don't usually play healing themselves, but hate to see all their hard-earned Upgrades go down the drain.

Salvage For Parts is a card that I can't see putting in too many lists as it doesn't really serve a purpose, but if you're ever thinking how much you hate Upgrades and really like long games, this card is for you.

#Sideways# wrote:Just play Body Armor, though? It's not overly bad, of course, it's just the equivalent to Flamethrower and Power Sword. One is better than the other most of the time, but the other isn't necessarily bad, either.

Let me be frank. Sometimes it's good to put in a bit of redundancy in a deck just because you mill yourself when you attack and defend, but that being said, you may find there isn't much room for redundancy in this game's deckbuilding.

It certainly isn't bad, but there are many other cards that you want to play in lists, making it hard to find room for redundancy. Remember, almost everyone has Melee sometime -- but for those who aren't, and want Tough, look no further.

#Sideways# wrote:I don't really know if "Medic!" has a place in many if any lists. Team Up Tactics does its job but better, Repair Bay does one less but it does a collective heal which is way better than single target in turn based games, even Emergency Repairs does "Medic!"'s job better than it. Emergency Repairs is more situational, of course, so your mileage may vary.

All in all, this is probably not going to find its way into almost any lists. Not unplayable, just is outclassed.

#Sideways# wrote:Now that's a lot of Arcee artwork.

I really like this card in both Dinobots and Tanks. Decks that play a lot of blue cards in general are going to love Thermal Weaponry since it compensates for that potentially lost damage you will face when you flip blue cards on offense.

This mitigates the effects of randomness and I definitely love it. Of course, in Dinobots, you might want a Power Sword anyway, but there's always room for a backup weapon.

#Sideways# wrote:So here it is.

This is our only search card in the game. Treasure Hunt discards the top four and puts any Upgrades into your hand, which is okay if you already have a large hand size, but in other cases simply playing a System Reboot would be better to just draw all the cards you're milling.

Of course, sometimes you'll just be drawing four cards as they'll all be upgrades. But I doubt it. There will be just as many times where you'll mill all Actions, but I suppose it comes down to pure deckbuilding at that point.

If your list can support Treasure Hunt well, look no further for the best card in your deck. If you're running a half-and-half Action/Upgrade or more on the Action side, you may want to rethink this card.

Then again, several lists want to use this card anyway, like Nemesis Prime or Cosmos, who don't care what they draw just so long as they burn their deck quickly. It's certainly something to think about when building your deck.

Otherwise, though, I think this card is a very good card that should belong in several lists. But not all lists are created equal.

#Sideways# wrote:Swap Missions is a very, very good card. Now you might say, "Hey, Sideways, isn't this a worse Ready For Action?" to which I would say, "How dare you speak to me. Also, not really."

So what makes this card so good? Well, in a word, Cars. Cars have the pleasure of having the most concentrated amount of untapping abilities in the game. This allows Optimus Prime -- Freedom Fighter and other expensive characters like Nemesis Prime, Megatron -- Living Weapon and Sunstorm to all have the ability to untap.

Optimus Prime in particular can straight up abuse this card as he gets to play it for free if you flip it on his attack flips. Plus, you have Team Up Tactics synergy with both he and his car friends. This is why you would want to play him with Cars. Since Cars have Turbo Boosters (which untaps Cars on an Upgrade) allowing you to Swap Missions with one of your newly untapped Cars to attack with Prime once again.

Swap Missions hasn't seen a lot of hype lately, but I think that they just don't see the potential that Swap Missions has to really become a huge card in several lists that play more expensive characters.

#Sideways# wrote:So, that's it. That's all the cards in this set, and for the moment, in this game. My fingers just started a workers riot for writing all of this in one sitting and my eyes are rebelling against me for doing it at two in the morning. I have opinions, okay? I just can't help when I can share them!

This game is very fun and has shaped up to be a very well thought-out game. Drew, Matt and all the other developers have done a splendid job at creating an addicting and fun game. I can't wait to get my hands on Metroplex this November, and I can't wait to battle in some tournaments.

But that's where you come in.

Wizards will only support competitive play if there is a large enough desire for it. The playerbase needs to be active enough that Wizards realizes that it is worth their time to hold sanctioned events. To help make this a reality, and if you want to play the game yourself, please, please stop by your Local Game Store and pick up some product. The game needs to thrive in Wizard's eyes if they're going to continue to produce it!

So, that brings me to myself. I do, in fact, have a YouTube channel that I will be using to cover this game. If you would like to check out some deck profiles (and other variety gaming content) in the coming days, don't hesitate to drop by Nanomachines, my YouTube Channel and say hi.

Thanks for reading my ramblings on this card game, guys, especially this one that's so... Well, long. See you in the Energon Pub!

#SW#

chuckdawg1999 wrote:Does anybody know if there's a one player option, like solitaire?

WreckerJack wrote:

chuckdawg1999 wrote:Does anybody know if there's a one player option, like solitaire?

I'm sure you can do that if you have 2 decks. I have done that with MTG and Yugioh back in the day. It's good to find holes in your strategy or weaknesses in your deck.