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[#Sideways#]

Sorry I'm late! My computer restarted mid-article and erased a good deal of work. But here's an article going over the previously revealed Wave 3 cards as well as a few new ones!

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The last time I had this much to digest, I had to get it delivered.

Oh, hello there! Fancy meeting you here. What have I been doing since the last set? Oh, you know, the usual. Work, sleep, ritualistic sacrifice of virgins to Sergeant Kup to bring bountiful offense and defense flips.

Yeah. The usual.

But unlike me, the guys over at Wizards of the Coast have been hard at work! This time, they started a new set with plenty of new mechanics including Targetmast-- Erm, Battle Masters and Micromasters! All of this information comes thanks to an exclusive article by IGN and a startlingly adorable Facebook note by the TFTCG page, in which they reveal juicy details about the next set -- from Secret Actions, Wave 4 announcement to several new cards!

Of those cards that they revealed, none could size up to the astounding shock, excitement and anticipation than the announcement that Soundwave will not only be in this set but that he will incorporate the new mechanics held within. My guess -- since we don't have a card of him to show just yet -- is that he is going to incorporate the new Battle Master mechanics with his cassettes. There is good reason for this, and I think the best way to tell you why is to show you.

CHARACTERS

"I am become death, destroyer of worlds."

Targe-- Battle Masters, rather, are fascinating and are seemingly infinite value. You start out in robot mode, and whereas at least Firedrive's stats leave something to be desired, you can at least deal chip damage with him before Firedrive inevitably becomes a powerful weapon to whomever you attach him to. You're more or less confirmed to get that value out of a Battle Master as your opponent can -- in a vacuum -- only KO one character per turn. This more or less confirms that you will have access to their weapon modes, and if Firedrive's weapon mode is anything to go by, they look like they're going to pack one heck of a punch.

An interesting thought to think about is using Firedrive with Thrust and another nine star partner. You can eventually attach Firedrive to Thrust, discard several cards from your hand to give Thrust a boost in damage and then pass that damage on to another threat for potentially massive damage.

Now, my favorite part about Firedrive in particular is that he's a Weapon. There is plenty of Armor scrapping nowadays, but there is virtually zero weapon scrapping cards that are played enough to threaten Firedrive, meaning that if you're careful, you can get several uses out of him once he's a weapon. That's fantastic value, to be perfectly frank with you.

Something else that I would like to touch on is that Firedrive is partnered -- in-universe -- with Hot Rod as his Targetmaster ally. I mean, even Firedrive's name is a sort of wordplay on Hot Rod. It would surprise me greatly if we did not see a Hot Rod card in Siege, just judging from WOTC's track record.

All in all, I love the idea of Battle Masters. More importantly, I love the idea that Soundwave's cassettes also being Battle Masters that turn into Cassettes to synergize with Soundwave once attached. They're really quite impressive, and I can't wait to play with them.

So... When is Erector happening?

Micromasters! Oh, goodness me, why didn't I see this coming? It seems so obvious in hindsight. So, for those who don't know card measurements, these Micromasters and Battle Masters are both the size of a standard Magic The Gathering card. This means that you pull them not as a replacement of a standard character, but alongside your battle cards. That's a good thing, too, because sometimes the Battle Card unpacking was a bit underwhelming compared to the character reveal.

Now, as for Red Heat, we can see that he has some rather interesting traits that can make him an interesting addition to a team. For one, he's a five star Truck which means he can use Truck-based support like Cargo Trailer, but perhaps more importantly he's a Specialist that is virtually untargetable by your opponent on the first turn of the game thanks to his innate Stealth whilst he's untapped. Even moreso, his utility in robot mode is some of the most fascinating abilities for a five star character I've seen to date. You have a fantastic -- and somewhat disconcerting given recent meta developments -- ability in your robot mode: A pocket Swap Parts.

So, here's a little context as to why I'm a bit disconcerted about this otherwise mediocre ability. Normally, Swap Parts is a slightly "meh" effect where you can perhaps move a weapon or an Armor. But here's the thing. Swap Parts and other "move" effects reactivates the "put" abilities of Upgrades, including things like Rapid Ascent, Cooling Vents, Drill Arms, but chiefly in recent days it was discovered that when you have a team of Specialists, you can move Field Communicators and Multi Mission Gears to play a stunning amount of free Actions and Upgrades from your hand and deck.

This playstyle promotes an infinite combo, where you can play both I STILL FUNCTION! and Peace Through Tyranny in the same turn to essentially gain a free turn, and with potent draw, you eventually begin taking infinite free turns. Using Swap Parts, you can pull this combo off consistently enough, but something that is astonishing to think about is how consistent it makes the combo when you can use Swap Parts more or less whenever you want using Red Heat. His ability to avoid all damage on the first turn of the game is extremely powerful given the deck's fragile disposition, and when you consider that he's also an Autobot Specialist to cap off a team of Autobot Specialists... Well, you can tell where this is going.

The only thing that I would say is a deterrent of playing Red Heat in Infinite is the fact that he is only five stars, not the minimum of six that Peace Through Tyranny requires. If you are certain that your other Autobot Specialist can take a hit, then by all means. In fact, you could try building your list around that concept and you might find that you become even more consistent.

I digress from the main point. As a general whole, Private Red Heat isn't the best card for most lists. You won't be getting the full use of his Swap Parts effect, and in a lot of lists White cards are far fewer than other colors. But, that being said, there is a silver lining -- we know that he is part of the "Rescue Patrol" as per his trait, and that means that his Micromaster partner, Stakeout, will also be printed. We can assume the same about other Micromasters that will be printed, and perhaps more importantly, possible synergy. But until then, I can only see one list to play him in and one alone: Infinite.

Something else worthy of note is that you can only use one "tapping" effect during your turn, like Red Heat's. This means that you can't untap him through Ready For Action and use him a second time in the same turn. Of course, this is neither bad news nor good news -- it's just news. Make of it what you will!

There's a man who leads a life of danger / To everyone he meets he stays a stranger
With every move he makes another chance he takes / Odds are he won't live to see tomorrow
Secret agent man / Secret agent man
They've given you a number and taken away your name

Shockwave is a Major in this prequel set, and he is majorly interesting. If you notice something about him, you'll notice that his cost is titanic -- just like his stats. He has the highest stats of any non-Combiner Decepticon, and the highest point cost as well. This high point cost definitely limit the potential partners you can play him with, but interestingly enough, if you play him with Shockwave -- Cybertron Commander, you get 25 points on the nose.

The synergy isn't just skin-deep, either -- Major Shockwave can "dig" farther into your deck to pull out Decepticon cards and/or Secret Actions. Certain of these cards -- Bad Attitude foremost of these -- can be used to facilitate your playstyle. If your playstyle is to deal damage outside of combat, then Bad Attitude will be your best friend with both Shockwave. But here's the thing about that -- other than Bad Attitude, Swindled and Scoundrel's Blaster, there aren't that many uesful cards that Major Shockwave can use.

I mean, sure, you could make the case that Decepticon Crown could be in certain offensive builds, but look at it this way: If Decepticon Crown was on top of your deck, it would end up in your hand anyway thanks to its green pip, and you could say the same about Scoundrel's Blaster. The Decepticon-only side of this guy seems a bit mediocre, to be perfectly frank, especially since they still take up your turn plays.

To be perfectly blunt, he just isn't good enough on his own to warrant too much investment of time into Double Shockwave. But that being said, there is a silver lining.

Secret Actions are something brand new to the set, and whereas I won't go into too much depth on their intricacies here, I will tell you that they breed a very disruptive playstyle that no doubt will eventually have discarding effects. At the time of writing, we have only seen one Secret Action, and it's included in the Battle Card section of this article.

But to close things off, Major Shockwave has a little potential, but his expensive nature is going to be a major turnoff for a lot of people looking to make decks out of him.

"If you're nothing without the suit, then you don't deserve to have it."

Major Magnus is, on the surface, extremely mediocre. His ability damages himself, his stats are lackluster save his monstrous HP and he's expensive to boot. He has Brave, which is cool, but with only one defense, he'll be toast, right?

Well yes, but also no.

His vehicle mode ability sucks in an Ultra Magnus Armor from the deck, and as a little spoiler alert for later on in the article, UMA is an armor card that gives him +2 attack and +2 defense and reduces all non-attack damage dealt to him by one. Sounds insane, right? Well, it would be if it also didn't cost two stars to put in your deck at all and even better if it couldn't be popped by Bashing Shield, but that's a discussion for later.

So, with these innate boosts to his stats, he deals a considerable amount of damage and has a considerable amount of tankiness. I mean, at three defense and eight attack with added effects, he just seems like a better Inferno. Now, say what you will about Inferno and his viability, but his attack of eight is still monstrous, and his survivability is also still extremely high. So, think about that but imagine if Inferno actually did something other than damage. In fact, imagine if your opponent had to attack into him turn one instead of one of your squishier teammates!

That's the power of Ultra Magnus. Your opponent effectively wastes an attack on the first turn of the game while you opt to go second, forcing your opponent to attack him with no response for his powerful armor. I realize he comes at a premium, but I can't help but to like this guy for that reason. Well, that and his spreading effects.

But I fear that if your opponent has Bashing Shield or other removal effects, he'll just fall by the wayside. After all, without his suit, he's just a worse, more expensive Inferno.

Hit or miss / I guess they never miss, huh?

Aimless is a Battle Master with a flair for the defensive. Coming from VectorSigma.info (or at least, that's where I got the picture after I couldn't find it online) we get our first look at Aimless! With an innate Tough 3 and a powerful ability in his weapon mode, he makes a strong first impression. Even with his mediocre innate defense, he still puts out a good amount of defense with his Tough 3. The only problem I see with him is his lackluster offensive power in his robot mode. Without Pierce, a Blue deck with attack numbers that low would be better off trying to defeat their opponents by boring them to death. He makes a good meat shield, but the trouble is getting value out of him other than that.

But there is a silver lining.

What he lacks in his offensive power in robot mode, Aimless more than make up for it with his powerful weapon mode. With the frankly silly ability to deal three damage regardless of attack damage or defense before dealing damage for his attack, completely bypassing Force Field, Skrapnel or other similar effects, he can make even the weakest character seem powerful. For instance, consider Demolishor in a balanced list -- he's not going to do anything on his own, but with Aimless attached, he can do a startlingly potent amount of damage given he will almost always trigger Demolishor's effect.

In closing, Aimless is a neat character that is tough to find early value with outside of being a meat shield. But, mid to late game, if you partner him with a character that has innate Bold or flips extra cards, you'll love him to death.

No, really, kill this guy quick to get his weapon!

BATTLE CARDS

Heavy boots of lead / Fills his victims full of dread
Running as fast as they can / Iron man lives again

Two stars.

Two stars and this is all you get?

Magnus' armor seems really powerful when placed on Magnus, and its pips are always welcome in any deck, but when you realize that the frankly ridiculous cost of putting it in your deck followed by the fact that you can't even attach it to non-Autobots makes its usefulness extremely limited. Okay, I get it -- having an Armor that adds both offense and defense as well as reducing incoming non-attack damage by one seems really good, and it is, but for those two stars, would you not just rather take a Leap of Faith or similarly priced star cards?

Remember, Bashing Shield is kind of everywhere in offensive decks, so you'll get to use this card on Magnus on the first turn of the game, but without Spare Parts you can kiss this suit goodbye. It's for this reason that you can't use it on non-Magnus characters as easily as you could, say, on Magnus who attaches it to himself at the start of the game. You don't have time to attach a Spare Parts when you have weapons to worry about, as well as your opponents disruption.

Heh. It's almost like the developers only wanted Magnus wearing Magnus' armor! Who'd have thought it?

Anyway, it's way too expensive for what it offers outside of Ultra Magnus builds. Only take it if you happen to have way too many stars to burn.

"You activated my Trap Card!"

Ever just want to play a totally harmless card face-down and make your opponent panic as to what horrible machinations you're planning? Ever wish that Incoming Transmission could rig cards defensively? Ever want to do both of those things at once?

No? Just me then? Well, uh... You're missing out, then!

Well, Secret Actions seem to be a weird mix of Trap Cards from Yu-Gi-Oh and Action Cards. Obviously, we can assume that Battlefield Report will be one of many Secret Actions in this set, and with the mechanic of triggering on your opponent's turn, we can assume the disruptive nature of the cards that you can use to mess with your opponent's turn.

But speculation aside, Battlefield Report seems to be a defensive Incoming Transmission that you can use after your opponent devoted resources to attack a character. This is good, too, given that you can opt out of putting more valuable double Blue cards on the top of your deck if your opponent is merely attacking a nearly KO'd character anyway. It helps you avoid wasting resources.

But, that's kind of it. It's not that great, to be perfectly frank. Drawing two then Planning one seems good, but there are just better draw cards out there. The only thing I can say to this is that it's good to see defensive Plan effects to make King Starscream even more viable than it already is.

It most certainly will not see play in many offensive decks, but in extremely defensive ones like Double Shockwave, Tanks or similar lists, I don't really see why you wouldn't play Battlefield Report unless space is an issue. It's not like they won't trigger the Secret Action effect, unlike I'm sure plenty of other cards we haven't seen yet. That said, I cannot wait to find out what other Secret Actions there are, and what they'll do! Imagine if there was a counterspell and how you might play around it! Well, a boy can dream.

SOME EDUCATED SPECULATION

You want to know a secret? I've always fancied myself a bit of a detective. I'm not going to lie, when I wrote a detective into a novel of mine, I ended up gleaning a few things from her. The first of which is to read into every detail, which is both a gift and a curse, and the second is to notice everything that's hidden in plain sight. So, when I saw the box that Siege is being carried in, I put those skills learned from a fictional character I created to good use.

From there, I happened to see a few figures on the side of the box. Intrigued and with a bit of a rush of adrenaline, I investigated a bit further. When I opened it up in GIMP, I did my best to scale, stretch and shear my way to answers, leaving me with a few clues on whom else is going to be printed in this set, character-wise:

From this picture it's pretty clear that we are going to be getting not just Hound, but it seems to be Sideswipe standing directly next to him! As it stands, we have no idea what they'll do. But, we at least know what they'll look like and that they're in the set!

Another thing that I noticed is that these characters have a peculiar naming convention. No, I'm not talking about "Major" Shockwave or "Private" Red Heat. I'm talking about, in the past, cards used to be "TITLE -- SUBTITLE" like Shockwave -- Cybertron Commander, or Optimus Prime -- Battlefield Legend. Now? Now they have multiple secondary names with Ultra Magnus -- Infantry + City Commander.

It's odd that there are multiple characters with "Infantry" in their subtitles, as well. It makes me wonder if this is a name at all, or if they're extremely well-hidden secondary traits for cards that state "for every character with Infantry in their name" or something similar. I dunno, I guess my tin foil cap is showing again, but I can't help but to see a pattern.

CONCLUSION

Boy howdy, do we have some nutty things happening. I'm not exaggerating when I say that this dwarfs the changes that Rise of the Combiners brought forward. Battle Masters and Micromasters both, Secret Actions and even more interesting mechanics from there. Whether or not Battle Masters will shift the meta is yet to be seen, despite their hype. Armor is easily removed, but so too are weapons. The problem was, no one really played cards to remove them because weapons were either discarded or they weren't as pressing of an issue that armor was.

Now that we have incentive to play anti-weapon cards, what will become of the metagame? Do you think that the age of Battle Masters and Micromasters are fast approaching? Will Erector ever get a card? I mean, I'd be happy with a promo card, even! Let me know what you think in the comments below, and I'll see you next time!

[Nathaniel Prime]

Via their Twitter, the Transformers TCG peeps at the Wizards of the Coast have revealed info regarding their upcoming launch event for the next wave of cards including a launch-exclusive card, and a new card for Wave 3. The former, a retailer exclusive, is “Private Smashdown” and “Airquake Hammerclaw”, are only available through an exclusive promo-kit, features both the robot and weapon modes of the upcoming weaponizer Smashdown from the War For Cybertron Siege line. The latter card, presumably available through usual means, is "Special Ops", featuring Soundwave ejecting his cassetticons that allows players to perform two consecutive secret plays.

According to the their page, these promo kits are only available for purchase through local WPN stores and those wishing to purchase them must contact their preferred retailers to have one ordered. For more details on the launch day event and the cards announced, check out their Twitter page at https://twitter.com/TransformersTCG?s=09

[PerfectVision]

The fog from the second wave is combinable to the Rascent for the seekers in wave 1,i can already say it fit this new Shockwave,as the bravery on his ally,this wave is not independant either.How to get 3 blue?By flipping a white in a 3B/1W formation,i usually put a minority but not with them,apparently.

[PerfectVision]

The spare can protect your new weapons.I rewrite the deck for Volcanicus,variant of Devastator.

Fling X 1
Cofidence-Scrounge-Mining for Sludge-Spare-Testify-Stealth-Electrified-DataB-Pep-Enigma-Master-Bravery-Rconversion.

[PerfectVision]

The authors has said they ban swapP because of an infinite,no more armedH+that,it's a nerf for the seekers.They really want to ban that?

Metroplex do armedH+sixshot+swap MISSION next turn instead,i suppose his special tap negate the opponent next attack ,so,it should be limited at one per game.

Right now,Redheat is the only character who can use the pierce icon cards.It's gonna be a 2P/1W/2B/1W formation.

[#Sideways#]

Got a news roundup article!

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Icarus, son of Daedalus, soared high on wings of wax...

Well, it happened. We lost a comrade. He burned bright, hot, and far too fast. If you don't know what I'm talking about, or have been keeping up with recent events with the metagame in the Transformers TCG, let me brief you on a little thing I like to call "Infinite Combo", or just "Combo" for short.

But first, let's talk a little about how the card game works to refresh your memory on this subject. Once each turn you can do four separate actions: Transform a character, play an Action, play an Upgrade, and then attack. There are certain cards that get around those rules in order to play more cards in a turn, such as Multi-Mission Gear from Wave 1 that allowed you to play a second Action when you attached it to one of your characters. Field Communicator is another example, which scraps the top of your deck, where you can then choose to play it if you would like.

But here's the thing: Whenever you swap or move Upgrades between characters, their "Put" effects reactivate. So, for instance, if you played a Field Communicator and flipped a Multi-Mission Gear, you could use that Multi-Mission Gear's effect to play a Swap Parts, reactivating both the Field Communicator as well as the Multi-Mission Gear.

To what end, you ask? Well, eventually you ramp up your upgrades and you begin to spam both Peace Through Tyranny and I STILL FUNCTION! in the same turn, being able to take infinite turns. You would then be able to play one Plasma Burst in the list, dealing chip damage over your effectively infinite turns to eventually win the game after your opponent has ideally only taken one or two turns in total.

Well, that's what could have happened. Earlier today, Wizards of the Coast made a Note on their official Facebook Page banning Swap Parts from Tournament Play effective on the 19th. This is the first time the game has been broken by the community, and the first time that Wizards has had to ban a card in the Transformers Trading Card Game.

What do you think? From my playtesting, Combo was effectively a hit or miss deck that could either be punished early into oblivion, or stomp things that weren't able to outspeed it. Insecticons had a good shot at it, same with Battlefield Legend. But, that being said, it rather ate Combiner decks alive other than Predacons. I realize the deck isn't exactly "interactive", as stated in their note, but I can't help but to think about how the deck might have been received by an older community, one with more cards at their disposal and a more established metagame. It's a controversial opinion, I know, but liking total control decks always is.

But, that's not all the news that we have today: The official Facebook Page, along with a Battle Card, revealed that all Battle Card artwork in Siege is actually original artwork made by the team, which is fantastic news!

This means that the guys at Wizards aren't just comfortable enough with their profit margins to put out their third and fourth set but also to use artists to add to their own stock of artwork instead of reusing comic artwork. I can't wait to see how that plays out with both potential stories to be told through the serialized artwork as well as what other projects might hold with that influx of funds by Wizards of the Coast!

But that's not all the information that we have. In fact, one might say that there was more to these reveals than meets the eye...

BATTLE CARDS

Back in black / I hit the sack
It's been too long / I'm glad to be back

Black pips are here, and now that they are, I can't help but to be excited for the prospects that they bring. If you didn't know already, here's a recap on black pips: Whenever you flip a Black pip, your character gains Pierce 1 for each instance of black pips that you flip, stacking on top of other instances of Pierce that you have. So, if you have a Noble's Blaster on one of your characters giving him Pierce 2, and during your attack you flip two black pips. That character would then gain Pierce 4 in total, combining the Pierce 2 you gain from your black pips with the Pierce 2 you have on your Noble's Blaster.

Now, whether or not RR Disruptor Blade is good given its reliance on black pips remains to be seen. Put it this way: In a blue list -- which one could say has one of the chief usage of Pierce in the game -- any pip that is not blue is one less defense that you're going to be able to flip. It's the whole reason playing a "balanced" list is usually frowned upon, with both orange and blue pips clogging the other's flips with the wrong color. So, with that ideology, would you not say that black pips belong in their own colored list? Or that playing the proverbial "Orzhov" black and white combo would be the way to go?

Well, that remains to be seen. I can definitely see it, especially in decks with Jazz, Mirage and similarly white-focused lists. But regardless of that, there is one thing for certain. If you are playing black pips, I don't see why you wouldn't want RR Disruptor Blade as an inclusion. Its damage output is high, and at worst case scenario, you can at least say that it's a slightly worse Grenade Launcher.

Oh, and one last thing, what on Earth does "RR" stand for? Rest and Relaxation? Are you killing your opponent with a blade that makes them tired? I am so confused.

"You're right -- this is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. All right, pass me the bomb."

I heard this card was the bomb!

Oh god.

Anyway, Erratic Energy Grenade is in the same vein as Bug Bomb is for Insecticons, but unlike the dud of Bug Bomb, Erratic Energy Grenade actually has a potential place in certain decks. It's wonky, and many lists will find its appeal discordant with their playstyle, but I think that a few decks will definitely like to have it on-board.

Now that I mention it, I'm actually really glad that Combo is now being pushed out of the format, because Erratic Energy Grenade would have likely been a great boon to its already high power level. I mean, think about it: During your turn, you would sometimes have to pass on playing a Plasma Burst because you ran out of Actions to play. With EEG being an Upgrade, you could play it easily on your turn, and since you're constantly KOing your own character through Peace Through Tyranny, you're able to deal a high amount of spread damage instead of Plasma Burst's "death of a thousand cuts" playstyle.

Of course, since Combo doesn't exist anymore, we have to ask ourselves if Erratic Energy Grenade is worth it in other lists. Well, in mainstream aggro lists, I can definitely see a case for it. Take, for instance, one of my favorite decks: Predacons.

I'm a sucker for their aggressive, yet nuanced playstyle, and their frailty is a natural side-effect of that. Their health pool is so low that they simply do not care about the damage over time that the EEG gives them, and Razorclaw certainly loves the concept of softening other targets for elimination. Insecticons could also make this case, as their similar glass cannon playstyle as well as their reliance on I STILL FUNCTION! to return to the field -- and to subsequently KO -- their characters could open up a consistent way to use EEG.

Now, with those examples aside, do I think that Insecticons or Predacons have the time to strap a grenade to their faces, or that enough space to force it into a list, especially when black pips do virtually nothing for them otherwise?

Frankly? Not really. Lists are very tight, and you'd have to be certain that Erratic Energy Grenade is worth it to put into your list. But that being said, I can definitely see it as an early game play, especially as an anti-Combiner tool.

"Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead." ~Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanac

This card might be good one day when we have more Secret Actions!

See, the problem with seeing what is essentially Brainstorm for Secret Actions is that we don't have any more Secret Actions revealed other than a simple draw and Plan effect in Battle Report. Of course, you could make the case that you could simply play two Battle Reports and draw more cards, but at that point, you're drawing the card you Planned, so what's the point?

Special Ops Mission will probably be as good if not better than Brainstorm is depending on the power of Secret Actions, but that's the thing: Unlike Brainstorm, Secret Actions only activate when your opponent does something. We can assume there will be other triggers than your opponent declaring an attack, but if there's not? Well, why not just play a similar Action card on your turn and use Brainstorm on your terms?

All of these speculatory questions won't receive much in the ways of answers. Yet, I can't help but to be optimistic. The prospects of disrupting your opponent on their turn has always appealed to me, and I look forward to seeing how Special Ops Mission helps with that.

CONCLUSION

This artwork really is fantastic. If you had told me that this wasn't from a professional comic or something similar, I wouldn't have believed you. You can really tell that this is a passion project for the guys over at Wizards, and I love what I'm seeing so far. Black pips, Secret Actions, Micromasters, Battle Masters... Well, what can I say, I'm a sucker for cool stuff.

Spoiler season is like Christmas for me -- and it can be for you, too!

What do you guys think of the black pips? Good? Bad? Almost virtually invisible on the card background? Let me know in the comments below, and I'll see you next time!

P.S. What does "RR" Disruption Blade even mean? Reid Richards? Rock n' Roll? Rainbow Rare? You're killing me, smalls!

[william-james88]

Fellow Seibertronian #Sideways# has made a rundown of the latest strategies and techniques in the Wizards of the Coast Transformers Trading Card Game with the addition of the Siege specific cards like Ultra Magnus along with the new classes/mechanics like Targetmasters.

You can read it below.

The last time I had this much to digest, I had to get it delivered.

Oh, hello there! Fancy meeting you here. What have I been doing since the last set? Oh, you know, the usual. Work, sleep, ritualistic sacrifice of virgins to Sergeant Kup to bring bountiful offense and defense flips.

Yeah. The usual.

But unlike me, the guys over at Wizards of the Coast have been hard at work! This time, they started a new set with plenty of new mechanics including Targetmast-- Erm, Battle Masters and Micromasters! All of this information comes thanks to an exclusive article by IGN and a startlingly adorable Facebook note by the TFTCG page, in which they reveal juicy details about the next set -- from Secret Actions, Wave 4 announcement to several new cards!

But, that's not all the news that we have today: The official Facebook Page revealed that all Battle Card artwork in Siege is actually original artwork made by the team, which is fantastic news! But not just that, several characters have completely original artwork making their debut in this set!

This means that the guys at Wizards aren't just comfortable enough with their profit margins to put out their third and fourth set but also to use artists to add to their own stock of artwork instead of reusing comic artwork. I can't wait to see how that plays out with both potential stories to be told through the serialized artwork as well as what other projects might hold with that influx of funds by Wizards of the Coast!

Of those cards that they revealed, none could size up to the astounding shock, excitement and anticipation than the announcement that Soundwave will not only be in this set but that he will incorporate the new mechanics held within. My guess -- since we don't have a card of him to show just yet -- is that he is going to incorporate the new Battle Master mechanics with his cassettes. There is good reason for this, and I think the best way to tell you why is to show you.

CHARACTERS

"I am become death, destroyer of worlds."

Targe-- Battle Masters, rather, are fascinating and are seemingly infinite value. You start out in robot mode, and whereas at least Firedrive's stats leave something to be desired, you can at least deal chip damage with him before Firedrive inevitably becomes a powerful weapon to whomever you attach him to. You're more or less confirmed to get that value out of a Battle Master as your opponent can -- in a vacuum -- only KO one character per turn. This more or less confirms that you will have access to their weapon modes, and if Firedrive's weapon mode is anything to go by, they look like they're going to pack one heck of a punch.

An interesting thought to think about is using Firedrive with Thrust and another nine star partner. You can eventually attach Firedrive to Thrust, discard several cards from your hand to give Thrust a boost in damage and then pass that damage on to another threat for potentially massive damage.

Now, my favorite part about Firedrive in particular is that he's a Weapon. There is plenty of Armor scrapping nowadays, but there is virtually zero weapon scrapping cards that are played enough to threaten Firedrive, meaning that if you're careful, you can get several uses out of him once he's a weapon. That's fantastic value, to be perfectly frank with you.

Something else that I would like to touch on is that Firedrive is partnered -- in-universe -- with Hot Rod as his Targetmaster ally. I mean, even Firedrive's name is a sort of wordplay on Hot Rod. It would surprise me greatly if we did not see a Hot Rod card in Siege, just judging from WOTC's track record.

All in all, I love the idea of Battle Masters. More importantly, I love the idea that Soundwave's cassettes also being Battle Masters that turn into Cassettes to synergize with Soundwave once attached. They're really quite impressive, and I can't wait to play with them.

So... When is Erector happening?

Micromasters! Oh, goodness me, why didn't I see this coming? It seems so obvious in hindsight. So, for those who don't know card measurements, these Micromasters and Battle Masters are both the size of a standard Magic The Gathering card. This means that you pull them not as a replacement of a standard character, but alongside your battle cards. That's a good thing, too, because sometimes the Battle Card unpacking was a bit underwhelming compared to the character reveal.

Now, as for Red Heat, we can see that he has some rather interesting traits that can make him an interesting addition to a team. For one, he's a five star Truck which means he can use Truck-based support like Cargo Trailer, but perhaps more importantly he's a Specialist that is virtually untargetable by your opponent on the first turn of the game thanks to his innate Stealth whilst he's untapped. Even moreso, his utility in robot mode is some of the most fascinating abilities for a five star character I've seen to date. You have a fantastic -- and somewhat disconcerting given recent meta developments -- ability in your robot mode: A pocket Swap Parts.

So, here's a little context as to why I'm a bit disconcerted about this otherwise mediocre ability. Normally, Swap Parts is a slightly "meh" effect where you can perhaps move a weapon or an Armor. But here's the thing: Swap Parts and other "move" effects reactivates the "put" abilities of Upgrades, including things like Rapid Ascent, Cooling Vents, Drill Arms, but chiefly in recent days it was discovered that when you have a team of Specialists, you can move Field Communicators and Multi Mission Gears to play a stunning amount of free Actions and Upgrades from your hand and deck.

This playstyle promotes an infinite combo, where you can play both I STILL FUNCTION! and Peace Through Tyranny in the same turn to essentially gain a free turn, and with potent draw, you eventually begin taking infinite free turns. Using Swap Parts, you can pull this combo off consistently enough, but something that is astonishing to think about is how consistent it makes the combo when you can use Swap Parts more or less whenever you want using Red Heat. His ability to avoid all damage on the first turn of the game is extremely powerful given the deck's fragile disposition, and when you consider that he's also an Autobot Specialist to cap off a team of Autobot Specialists... Well, you can tell where this is going.

Think Swap Parts is insane? Think it needs a nerf or a ban? Well, you might want to trudge around the latter part of the article for some good news on that front.

I digress from the main point. As a general whole, Private Red Heat isn't the best card for most lists. You won't be getting the full use of his Swap Parts effect, and in a lot of lists White cards are far fewer than other colors. But, that being said, there is a silver lining -- we know that he is part of the "Rescue Patrol" as per his trait, and that means that his Micromaster partner, Stakeout, will also be printed. We can assume the same about other Micromasters that will be printed, and perhaps more importantly, possible synergy. But until then, I can only see one list to play him in and one alone: Infinite.

Something else worthy of note is that you can only use one "tapping" effect during your turn, like Red Heat's. This means that you can't untap him through Ready For Action and use him a second time in the same turn. Of course, this is neither bad news nor good news -- it's just news. Make of it what you will!

There's a man who leads a life of danger / To everyone he meets he stays a stranger
With every move he makes another chance he takes / Odds are he won't live to see tomorrow
Secret agent man / Secret agent man
They've given you a number and taken away your name

Shockwave is a Major in this prequel set, and he is majorly interesting. If you notice something about him, you'll notice that his cost is titanic -- just like his stats. He has the highest stats of any non-Combiner Decepticon, and the highest point cost as well. This high point cost definitely limit the potential partners you can play him with, but interestingly enough, if you play him with Shockwave -- Cybertron Commander, you get 25 points on the nose.

The synergy isn't just skin-deep, either -- Major Shockwave can "dig" farther into your deck to pull out Decepticon cards and/or Secret Actions. Certain of these cards -- Bad Attitude foremost of these -- can be used to facilitate your playstyle. If your playstyle is to deal damage outside of combat, then Bad Attitude will be your best friend with both Shockwave. But here's the thing about that -- other than Bad Attitude, Swindled and Scoundrel's Blaster, there aren't that many uesful cards that Major Shockwave can use.

I mean, sure, you could make the case that Decepticon Crown could be in certain offensive builds, but look at it this way: If Decepticon Crown was on top of your deck, it would end up in your hand anyway thanks to its green pip, and you could say the same about Scoundrel's Blaster. The Decepticon-only side of this guy seems a bit mediocre, to be perfectly frank, especially since they still take up your turn plays.

To be perfectly blunt, he just isn't good enough on his own to warrant too much investment of time into Double Shockwave. But that being said, there is a silver lining.

Secret Actions are something brand new to the set, and whereas I won't go into too much depth on their intricacies here, I will tell you that they breed a very disruptive playstyle that no doubt will eventually have discarding effects. At the time of writing, we have only seen one Secret Action, and it's included in the Battle Card section of this article.

But to close things off, Major Shockwave has a little potential, but his expensive nature is going to be a major turnoff for a lot of people looking to make decks out of him.

"If you're nothing without the suit, then you don't deserve to have it."

Major Magnus is, on the surface, extremely mediocre. His ability damages himself, his stats are lackluster save his monstrous HP and he's expensive to boot. He has Brave, which is cool, but with only one defense, he'll be toast, right?

Well yes, but also no.

His vehicle mode ability sucks in an Ultra Magnus Armor from the deck, and as a little spoiler alert for later on in the article, UMA is an armor card that gives him +2 attack and +2 defense and reduces all non-attack damage dealt to him by one. Sounds insane, right? Well, it would be if it also didn't cost two stars to put in your deck at all and even better if it couldn't be popped by Bashing Shield, but that's a discussion for later.

So, with these innate boosts to his stats, he deals a considerable amount of damage and has a considerable amount of tankiness. I mean, at three defense and eight attack with added effects, he just seems like a better Inferno. Now, say what you will about Inferno and his viability, but his attack of eight is still monstrous, and his survivability is also still extremely high. So, think about that but imagine if Inferno actually did something other than damage. In fact, imagine if your opponent had to attack into him turn one instead of one of your squishier teammates!

That's the power of Ultra Magnus. Your opponent effectively wastes an attack on the first turn of the game while you opt to go second, forcing your opponent to attack him with no response for his powerful armor. I realize he comes at a premium, but I can't help but to like this guy for that reason. Well, that and his spreading effects.

But I fear that if your opponent has Bashing Shield or other removal effects, he'll just fall by the wayside. After all, without his suit, he's just a worse, more expensive Inferno.

Hit or miss / I guess they never miss, huh?

Aimless is a Battle Master with a flair for the defensive. Coming from VectorSigma.info (or at least, that's where I got the picture after I couldn't find it online) we get our first look at Aimless! With an innate Tough 3 and a powerful ability in his weapon mode, he makes a strong first impression. Even with his mediocre innate defense, he still puts out a good amount of defense with his Tough 3. The only problem I see with him is his lackluster offensive power in his robot mode. Without Pierce, a Blue deck with attack numbers that low would be better off trying to defeat their opponents by boring them to death. He makes a good meat shield, but the trouble is getting value out of him other than that.

But there is a silver lining.

What he lacks in his offensive power in robot mode, Aimless more than make up for it with his powerful weapon mode. With the frankly silly ability to deal three damage regardless of attack damage or defense before dealing damage for his attack, completely bypassing Force Field, Skrapnel or other similar effects, he can make even the weakest character seem powerful. For instance, consider Demolishor in a balanced list -- he's not going to do anything on his own, but with Aimless attached, he can do a startlingly potent amount of damage given he will almost always trigger Demolishor's effect.

In closing, Aimless is a neat character that is tough to find early value with outside of being a meat shield. But, mid to late game, if you partner him with a character that has innate Bold or flips extra cards, you'll love him to death.

No, really, kill this guy quick to get his weapon!

BATTLE CARDS

Heavy boots of lead / Fills his victims full of dread
Running as fast as they can / Iron man lives again

Two stars.

Two stars and this is all you get?

Magnus' armor seems really powerful when placed on Magnus, and its pips are always welcome in any deck, but when you realize that the frankly ridiculous cost of putting it in your deck followed by the fact that you can't even attach it to non-Autobots makes its usefulness extremely limited. Okay, I get it -- having an Armor that adds both offense and defense as well as reducing incoming non-attack damage by one seems really good, and it is, but for those two stars, would you not just rather take a Leap of Faith or similarly priced star cards?

Remember, Bashing Shield is kind of everywhere in offensive decks, so you'll get to use this card on Magnus on the first turn of the game, but without Spare Parts you can kiss this suit goodbye. It's for this reason that you can't use it on non-Magnus characters as easily as you could, say, on Magnus who attaches it to himself at the start of the game. You don't have time to attach a Spare Parts when you have weapons to worry about, as well as your opponents disruption.

Heh. It's almost like the developers only wanted Magnus wearing Magnus' armor! Who'd have thought it?

Anyway, it's way too expensive for what it offers outside of Ultra Magnus builds. Only take it if you happen to have way too many stars to burn.

"You activated my Trap Card!"

Ever just want to play a totally harmless card face-down and make your opponent panic as to what horrible machinations you're planning? Ever wish that Incoming Transmission could rig cards defensively? Ever want to do both of those things at once?

No? Just me then? Well, uh... You're missing out, then!

Well, Secret Actions seem to be a weird mix of Trap Cards from Yu-Gi-Oh and Action Cards. Obviously, we can assume that Battlefield Report will be one of many Secret Actions in this set, and with the mechanic of triggering on your opponent's turn, we can assume the disruptive nature of the cards that you can use to mess with your opponent's turn.

But speculation aside, Battlefield Report seems to be a defensive Incoming Transmission that you can use after your opponent devoted resources to attack a character. This is good, too, given that you can opt out of putting more valuable double Blue cards on the top of your deck if your opponent is merely attacking a nearly KO'd character anyway. It helps you avoid wasting resources.

But, that's kind of it. It's not that great, to be perfectly frank. Drawing two then Planning one seems good, but there are just better draw cards out there. The only thing I can say to this is that it's good to see defensive Plan effects to make King Starscream even more viable than it already is.

It most certainly will not see play in many offensive decks, but in extremely defensive ones like Double Shockwave, Tanks or similar lists, I don't really see why you wouldn't play Battlefield Report unless space is an issue. It's not like they won't trigger the Secret Action effect, unlike I'm sure plenty of other cards we haven't seen yet. That said, I cannot wait to find out what other Secret Actions there are, and what they'll do! Imagine if there was a counterspell and how you might play around it! Well, a boy can dream.

Back in black / I hit the sack
It's been too long / I'm glad to be back

Black pips are here, and now that they are, I can't help but to be excited for the prospects that they bring. If you didn't know already, here's a recap on black pips: Whenever you flip a Black pip, your character gains Pierce 1 for each instance of black pips that you flip, stacking on top of other instances of Pierce that you have. So, if you have a Noble's Blaster on one of your characters giving him Pierce 2, and during your attack you flip two black pips. That character would then gain Pierce 4 in total, combining the Pierce 2 you gain from your black pips with the Pierce 2 you have on your Noble's Blaster.

Now, whether or not RR Disruptor Blade is good given its reliance on black pips remains to be seen. Put it this way: In a blue list -- which one could say has one of the chief usage of Pierce in the game -- any pip that is not blue is one less defense that you're going to be able to flip. It's the whole reason playing a "balanced" list is usually frowned upon, with both orange and blue pips clogging the other's flips with the wrong color. So, with that ideology, would you not say that black pips belong in their own colored list? Or that playing the proverbial "Orzhov" black and white combo would be the way to go?

Well, that remains to be seen. I can definitely see it, especially in decks with Jazz, Mirage and similarly white-focused lists. But regardless of that, there is one thing for certain. If you are playing black pips, I don't see why you wouldn't want RR Disruptor Blade as an inclusion. Its damage output is high, and at worst case scenario, you can at least say that it's a slightly worse Grenade Launcher.

Oh, and one last thing, what on Earth does "RR" stand for? Rest and Relaxation? Are you killing your opponent with a blade that makes them tired? I am so confused.

"You're right -- this is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. All right, pass me the bomb."

I heard this card was the bomb!

Oh god.

Anyway, Erratic Energy Grenade is in the same vein as Bug Bomb is for Insecticons, but unlike the dud of Bug Bomb, Erratic Energy Grenade actually has a potential place in certain decks. It's wonky, and many lists will find its appeal discordant with their playstyle, but I think that a few decks will definitely like to have it on-board.

Now that I mention it, I'm actually really glad that Combo is now being pushed out of the format, because Erratic Energy Grenade would have likely been a great boon to its already high power level. I mean, think about it: During your turn, you would sometimes have to pass on playing a Plasma Burst because you ran out of Actions to play. With EEG being an Upgrade, you could play it easily on your turn, and since you're constantly KOing your own character through Peace Through Tyranny, you're able to deal a high amount of spread damage instead of Plasma Burst's "death of a thousand cuts" playstyle.

Of course, since Combo doesn't exist anymore, we have to ask ourselves if Erratic Energy Grenade is worth it in other lists. Well, in mainstream aggro lists, I can definitely see a case for it. Take, for instance, one of my favorite decks: Predacons.

I'm a sucker for their aggressive, yet nuanced playstyle, and their frailty is a natural side-effect of that. Their health pool is so low that they simply do not care about the damage over time that the EEG gives them, and Razorclaw certainly loves the concept of softening other targets for elimination. Insecticons could also make this case, as their similar glass cannon playstyle as well as their reliance on I STILL FUNCTION! to return to the field -- and to subsequently KO -- their characters could open up a consistent way to use EEG.

Now, with those examples aside, do I think that Insecticons or Predacons have the time to strap a grenade to their faces, or that enough space to force it into a list, especially when black pips do virtually nothing for them otherwise?

Frankly? Not really. Lists are very tight, and you'd have to be certain that Erratic Energy Grenade is worth it to put into your list. But that being said, I can definitely see it as an early game play, especially as an anti-Combiner tool.

"Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead." ~Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanac

This card might be good one day when we have more Secret Actions!

See, the problem with seeing what is essentially Brainstorm for Secret Actions is that we don't have any more Secret Actions revealed other than a simple draw and Plan effect in Battle Report. Of course, you could make the case that you could simply play two Battle Reports and draw more cards, but at that point, you're drawing the card you Planned, so what's the point?

Special Ops Mission will probably be as good if not better than Brainstorm is depending on the power of Secret Actions, but that's the thing: Unlike Brainstorm, Secret Actions only activate when your opponent does something. We can assume there will be other triggers than your opponent declaring an attack, but if there's not? Well, why not just play a similar Action card on your turn and use Brainstorm on your terms?

All of these speculatory questions won't receive much in the ways of answers. Yet, I can't help but to be optimistic. The prospects of disrupting your opponent on their turn has always appealed to me, and I look forward to seeing how Special Ops Mission helps with that.

SOME EDUCATED SPECULATION

You want to know a secret? I've always fancied myself a bit of a detective. I'm not going to lie, when I wrote a detective into a novel of mine, I ended up gleaning a few things from her. The first of which is to read into every detail, which is both a gift and a curse, and the second is to notice everything that's hidden in plain sight. So, when I saw the box that Siege is being carried in, I put those skills learned from a fictional character I created to good use.

From there, I happened to see a few figures on the side of the box. Intrigued and with a bit of a rush of adrenaline, I investigated a bit further. When I opened it up in GIMP, I did my best to scale, stretch and shear my way to answers, leaving me with a few clues on whom else is going to be printed in this set, character-wise:

From this picture it's pretty clear that we are going to be getting not just Hound, but it seems to be Sideswipe standing directly next to him! As it stands, we have no idea what they'll do. But, we at least know what they'll look like and that they're in the set!

Another thing that I noticed is that these characters have a peculiar naming convention. No, I'm not talking about "Major" Shockwave or "Private" Red Heat. I'm talking about, in the past, cards used to be "TITLE -- SUBTITLE" like Shockwave -- Cybertron Commander, or Optimus Prime -- Battlefield Legend. Now? Now they have multiple secondary names with Ultra Magnus -- Infantry + City Commander.

It's odd that there are multiple characters with "Infantry" in their subtitles, as well. It makes me wonder if this is a name at all, or if they're extremely well-hidden secondary traits for cards that state "for every character with Infantry in their name" or something similar. I dunno, I guess my tin foil cap is showing again, but I can't help but to see a pattern.

NOTHING LASTS FOREVER

Icarus, son of Daedalus, soared high on wings of wax...

Well, it happened. We lost a comrade. He burned bright, hot, and far too fast. If you don't know what I'm talking about, or have been keeping up with recent events with the metagame in the Transformers TCG, let me brief you on a little thing I like to call "Infinite Combo", or just "Combo" for short.

But first, let's talk a little about how the card game works to refresh your memory on this subject. Once each turn you can do four separate actions: Transform a character, play an Action, play an Upgrade, and then attack. There are certain cards that get around those rules in order to play more cards in a turn, such as Multi-Mission Gear from Wave 1 that allowed you to play a second Action when you attached it to one of your characters. Field Communicator is another example, which scraps the top of your deck, where you can then choose to play it if you would like.

But here's the thing: Whenever you swap or move Upgrades between characters, their "Put" effects reactivate. So, for instance, if you played a Field Communicator and flipped a Multi-Mission Gear, you could use that Multi-Mission Gear's effect to play a Swap Parts, reactivating both the Field Communicator as well as the Multi-Mission Gear.

To what end, you ask? Well, eventually you ramp up your upgrades and you begin to spam both Peace Through Tyranny and I STILL FUNCTION! in the same turn, being able to take infinite turns. You would then be able to play one Plasma Burst in the list, dealing chip damage over your effectively infinite turns to eventually win the game after your opponent has ideally only taken one or two turns in total.

Well, that's what could have happened. Just last week, Wizards of the Coast made a Note on their official Facebook Page banning Swap Parts from Tournament Play effective on the 19th. This is the first time the game has been broken by the community, and the first time that Wizards has had to ban a card in the Transformers Trading Card Game.

What do you think? From my playtesting, Combo was effectively a hit or miss deck that could either be punished early into oblivion, or stomp things that weren't able to outspeed it. For example, Insecticons had a good shot at punishing Combo's frailty, same with Battlefield Legend. But, that being said, it rather ate Combiner decks alive other than Predacons. I realize the deck isn't exactly "interactive", as stated in their note, but I can't help but to think about how the deck might have been received by an older community, one with more cards at their disposal and a more established metagame. It's a controversial opinion, I know, but liking total control decks always is.

CONCLUSION

Boy howdy, do we have some nutty things happening. I'm not exaggerating when I say that this dwarfs the changes that Rise of the Combiners brought forward. Battle Masters and Micromasters both, Secret Actions and even more interesting mechanics from there. Whether or not Battle Masters will shift the meta is yet to be seen, despite their hype. Armor is easily removed, but so too are weapons. The problem was, no one really played cards to remove them because weapons were either discarded or they weren't as pressing of an issue that armor was.

As for the artwork, it's really quite fantastic. If you had told me that this wasn't from a professional comic or something similar, I wouldn't have believed you. You can really tell that this is a passion project for the guys over at Wizards, and I love what I'm seeing so far. Black pips, Secret Actions, Micromasters, Battle Masters... Well, what can I say, I'm a sucker for cool stuff.

What do you guys think of the black pips? Good? Bad? Almost virtually invisible on the card background? What does "RR" Disruption Blade even mean? Reid Richards? Rock n' Roll? Rainbow Rare? You're killing me, smalls!

Now that we have incentive to play anti-weapon cards, what will become of the metagame? Do you think that the age of Battle Masters and Micromasters are fast approaching? Will Erector ever get a card? I mean, I'd be happy with a promo card, even! Let me know what you think in the comments below, and I'll see you next time!

[PerfectVision]

This is flooding at this point.You're paid for that?

Stop being a nostalgic noob also,it's new stuff for new stuff,some reveal are missing by the way.EEG for micromaster,it look like that right now.

Mshock with Nightstick,not Aimless.

No ban for Optimus13 and Mega13 and Nemesis?Why have they done nerfed version?(beginning at page15).

The swapP is originally for the armedH,ban only the infinite combo(the game is full of 2cards combo).

Alpha can use card out of his hand,so he can keep it big and get a strong firedrive+universal and fuel.I'll wait before to write a deck.Needlenose can be a variant of firedrive.

[ZeroWolf]

Flooding? I'm not sure I understand.

[#Sideways#]

This is flooding at this point.You're paid for that?

Stop being a nostalgic noob also,it's new stuff for new stuff,some reveal are missing by the way.EEG for micromaster,it look like that right now.

I am currently in the process of writing the next article, which has those reveals. It should be up by tonight! Thanks for reading, even if I can be somewhat nostalgic at times.

No ban for Optimus13 and Mega13 and Nemesis?Why have they done nerfed version?(beginning at page15).

The swapP is originally for the armedH,ban only the infinite combo(the game is full of 2cards combo).

Well, to be perfectly frank, neither Battlefield Legend, Nemesis nor Living Weapon were broken -- they all had interplay, unlike the Infinite Combo which had little interplay and interactive games. At least with Battlefield Legend, you can focus him down before he gets to attack again, same with the other ones. This is why Insecticons had a good to even matchup between the two, and why it kind of pushed Double Prime out of the meta.

After the advent of Bashing Shield, Double Prime was unable to keep up against the onslaught of bugs -- it was just too aggressive and the focus fire was simply too good.

Regardless of what Swap Parts was originally made for, the main point is that it was being abused. The developers went in detail on why they banned Swap Parts instead of having a "no infinite turns" rule on their Facebook page which you can check out HERE.

Alpha can use card out of his hand,so he can keep it big and get a strong firedrive+universal and fuel.I'll wait before to write a deck.Needlenose can be a variant of firedrive

Sounds interesting! I'm looking forward to seeing your list. Just remember, making a large article does not news flooding make -- I'm just trying my best to explain in depth the merits of each reveal. Hope you can understand, and thanks for reading!

[#Sideways#]

OPENING

We have a plethora of new reveals for you, today! Let's jump right in:

CHARACTER CARDS

"Oooohhh myyyyyyyy!"

Before I dive into the character card itself, I would like to point out that Alpha Trion's vehicle mode is actually original artwork by the Wizards crew -- something that I've spoken at length about being a fantastic sign of the longevity of Transformers as a card game. I certainly hope that more characters get original artwork in the future. Of course, all Battle Cards have original artwork -- but it seems that it's even more widespread than we thought! I can't wait to see where else they go with it.

But as for Alpha Trion himself, he's something of a "Baby Battlefield Legend", if you will. He can play a free Action -- albeit a specific color of Action -- when he attacks, and return an Action -- again, specific color of Action -- to your hand on Vehicle mode flip. I really enjoy the gameplay flow of Optimus Prime, so being able to play essentially two of them on the same team is just as welcome. You already favor a blue deck with Battlefield Legend, at least in many circumstances, so Alpha Trion fits exceptionally well into that mold. Even more than that, George Tak-- Er, Alpha Trion can return the ever-useful Reckless Charge to your hand to power up Battlefield Legend's next attack even more than you already are naturally.

I really and truly do like Alpha Trion, but I do doubt his usefulness over Battlefield Legend in many circumstances. Battlefield Legend is arguably the best character card in the game, though, so that's not saying much; but it is an interesting idea. In many circumstances, Battlefield Legend's high point cost constrained the pool of potential partners for him. With Alpha Trion, you don't really have that problem; here, you can use two seven star characters, a six and an eight, or even a ten and a four star! You can use a lot more partners with Alpha Trion, and whereas your deck will likely have to be more balanced than you're used to to make full use of his abilities, you're going to get a lot of value out of him regardless.

All in all, I am extremely excited for Alpha Trion and his prospects. His utility is extremely high for an 11 Star character, and even moreso than that, you can use him in many more team combinations than Battlefield Legend. He's not perfect, and his stats are a little lacking, but with the right Actions, all things are possible. Look out for this guy!

"On T.R.O.O.P.S., all suspects are guilty. If they were innocent, they wouldn't be suspects, now would they?"

Prowl kind of sucks. Weapons don't really stick around for that long in Transformers, thanks to both Power Punch and Grenade Launcher both being mainstays of many decks offensive engine. Of course, with Battle Masters being a thing, you could technically punish decks that rely on them for damage, but to be perfectly frank, there are an absurd amount of weapon-scrapping effects that would be better for that punishment.

As for his stats, he's rather lackluster in all but HP. His moderate offensive stats are average for his Star cost, and his defensive stats are mediocre at best. Prowl is a car, which is nice, but at a point, I would actually rather run Ruckus at a slightly higher point cost instead, and he's... Well, Ruckus.

I get it -- he's a Common -- but it looks to me like the card is just as bad as the toy mold it's based on.

"How am I going to stop a mean Mother Hubbard from tearin' me a structurally superfluous behind?
The answer? I'm going to use a gun. If that don't work? Use more gun."

Cog is cool -- an expensive kind of cool. Cog is the first Weaponizer we've seen in the TFTCG, and with him come implications. Foremost of these being: Are we going to see more of them? I did a little digging, and I didn't come up with much in terms of the toyline, but with the unprecedented new artwork, who knows what could come next in terms of Weaponizers?

But that's beside the point. The main point is that Cog is a Weaponizer, and Cog is very good. I can't put to words how excited I am at the prospects of pairing him with three Micromasters/Combiner parts and using his absurd Weaponizer ability to power up your entire squadron instantly. I'm also extremely excited the prospects of powering up a multi-weapon Razorclaw with the combination of Tooth and Claw and Cog, but I'm a sucker for Razorclaw so that shouldn't be a surprise.

I just wish that his stats in robot mode were better. Just four attack is a bit lackluster, but with his explosive ability in Weapon Mode, I find it hard to be disappointed. For instance, you could use him to soften something up for one of your other characters to finish off. Plus, he can still dumpster some Combiner Parts or Micromasters -- it's just going to be harder to find robot mode value against decks of normal stature.

Cog's stats aren't all mediocre, though; 12 is still a high number, and your opponent might be hard-pressed to KO him in one hit. It's for this reason that I can't help but to think about Heroism or Bravery, both being used to draw a second attack from your opponent away from one of your squishier targets for a second turn in a row. Simply put, your opponent doesn't want to have to attack Cog -- they'd rather leave him alone until all of your other characters have been KO'd so they don't have to deal with his Weaponizer effect.

This also lends itself to a potential entire team of Micromasters. Since all Micromasters have Stealth when untapped, your opponent can't target them on the first turn of the game. In other words, you're essentially forcing your opponent to attack Cog, and if he's still alive at that point, you can attack with him and force your opponent to waste another attack on him again, only to power up your entire field.

I could go on about the nuance of Cog's playstyle, but I think I'll leave that to your imagination. Anyway, who do you think will be another Weaponizer? I haven't seen any hardline Weaponizers in my research, but now that I think about it, Megatron could be a Weaponizer with his gun mode! Oh, my, the mental image of that makes me swoon. But enough dreaming! On to the next!

The new season of Black Bullet looks great!

Nightstick is... Well, he's something, all right. On one hand, he's a playable Decepticon Specialist which is something of a commodity outside of Flamewar and Breakdown, but on the other hand, he's kind of dismal in his robot mode. His stats are agonizing at best, and whereas I realize you're supposed to play him with heavy black pips, you're probably going to swing for an astounding two damage on average.

I realize that most Battle Masters have two to three attack, but most of the time, they do something to justify it, like draw a card, high Bold or have a high amount of Tough. Nightstick does neither of those things. Regardless, you don't play a Battle Master for their robot mode: You play them for their weapons!

So, as for Nightstick's, well... Night-stick, it's actually an interesting weapon. With the influx of black pips, one could build their deck to accommodate it rather well. The offensive boost isn't the real reason you'd play him, in fact: It's the defensive boost combined with the hand control effect. I mean, just to put it in perspective, with Shockwave -- Cybertron Commander, you could attach Nightstick and when you attach a Multi-Mission Gear the next turn, you will end up with a shocking five defense.

With that, you can even use the hand scrapping effect with Shockwave to deal chip damage -- it's almost like the two were made for each other! But, anyway, Nightstick might be used in select lists. But, with hand destruction not being as good in Transformers as it is in other games, I can't help but to feel like Nightstick's usefulness will be just about as limited as his robot mode.

"Who're you callin' pinhead?"

Needlenose? In Cybertronian form? Oho, if you couldn't have guessed, this is entirely new artwork of Needlenose in Tetrajet form. The artwork for him blends seamlessly in with the other artwork for the other characters, and I can't help but to love the little things, like the asymmetrical guns in his vehicle mode.

Regardless, Needlenose is actually impressive in many different regards. For one, he's the cheapest character who can return an Action (or Upgrade, but who plays Star Upgrades?) to your hand, and on top of that, he can combo especially well with Leap of Faith and Bolt of Lightning, dealing a damage to an enemy of your choice for each. That powerful effect makes for an interesting conundrum: Just how many Star Cards would you play, and which ones?

Bolt of Lightning comes to mind to start -- being able to snipe for 4 directly is an immensely powerful effect, and it certainly makes up for his mediocre at best attack power. But, getting those specific cards into your hand when you need them is something of a crap-shoot. You never know when you're going to flip them during a battle, and then you need to use two of your Transform actions just to get it back and use it to its full effect, and all of this hoping that your opponent doesn't just, y'know, kill him.

It's for that reason that I think that Leap of Faith must be played alongside Bolt of Lightning. I know, I know; you're playing six Star Cards -- a full character's worth -- you have to realize that you're probably doing more with your Leaps and Bolts than you could probably do with a six star character, anyway, aside from having them eat an attack for you. Plus, Leap of Faith can also trigger a Bolt of Lightning, dealing five damage instead of the normal four. On top of that, you can Brainstorm a Leap of Faith and a Bolt, and who knows what you can get off the Leap flips to compound that damage?

I digress slightly. Needlenose being eight stars allows you access to smaller teammates, making room in your deck for more stars. You deal a massive amount of pressure damage outside of combat with a deck consisting of mostly stars, but I can't help but to feel like his stats lack a bit of "umph" to push him that extra mile that he so desperately needs. Only 11 HP with only one defense is a bit lackluster, and in a format of increasing aggression, I worry that his frailty may cost you in the short run.

All in all, Needlenose is going to be a neat rogue deck. I don't think he'll be a mainstay in the mainstream metagame thanks to that frailty of his, but I do think that he'll be fun to play regardless.

Cutter no more.

Trailbreaker is back, guys! I was so excited to see the card's name, and then I looked at the card's effect. First, let me say, searching out a Force Field at the start of the game is actually kind of nutty. It confirms that your opponent will avoid Trailbreaker like the plague, and that means that he'll likely have full health going into your first turn. But, that being said, if you fill your team with Stealth characters other than Trailbreaker, you can force your opponent to attack into your Force Field on the first turn of the game, but after that you have a team of Micromasters that couldn't dent tin foil even if they tried, so perhaps that strategy is something of a miss.

Other than that, Trailbreaker has only a few things really going for him, and most of it revolves around having an Armor attached. But, as I've said before, Armor doesn't tend to stick around that long after Bashing Shield's advent. That makes him more of a liability than anything else, with his zero defense compounding the loss of your Force Field. Pretty much, if you ever lose your Force Field, you can preemptively notify his next of kin -- he's a dead man walking.

But that's kind of all he does. Sure, his five attack isn't bad at all, but there are plenty of cheaper options who do that, too. His Brave effect is good, don't get me wrong, and starting the game with a Force Field is very good, but if your opponent plays any Upgrade removal at all, you are going to get next to no value out of him.

"Damn it, Jim! I'm a doctor, not a mechanic!"

Let me preface this by saying that Ratchet is one of my favorite characters. The crotchety doctor is one of my favorite archetypes, with Bones being one of my favorite characters from Star Trek in general. The type of character that can do anything with a scalpel, and they won't be happy about it when you give them lip. Unfortunately, Ratchet just doesn't live up to that hype.

He's something of a byproduct of the times, sadly. Healing just doesn't have that much of an impact, and when you only deal +1 for each damage you heal, you're not getting much offensive power from it, either, and when he's an eight star character with zero defense, he's not going to give you back that much value in the long run. It's not that he's bad per-se, in fact, if the format slows down a bit (or a lot) then his Medic! search will see a lot of value.

Until then, however, Ratchet's just too expensive for what he brings to the table.

It's poetry in motion / She's turned her tender eyes to me
Deeper than any ocean / As sweet as any harmony
Mm, she blinded me with science!

Wheeljack is really quite interesting. On one hand, he is completely lackluster compared to his previous iteration, but the idea of starting the game with a Brainstorm in-hand is definitely appealing. His stats are seemingly in-line with most other characters his cost, and his Car status could prove to boost him slightly, but in a Car list, wouldn't you rather play Wave 1 Wheeljack instead for his draw and Bold effects?

But either way, what are Siege Wheeljack's merits? Well, my favorite part about his kit is that he's an Autobot specialist, making him an available bachelor for the Red Heat Combo archetype. Early playtesting with Skywarp have been going very well, and I wonder how it would turn out, starting the game with a Brainstorm in-hand? Even more than that, his Autobot nature allows you to play the ever-useful Confidence, digging just a little bit farther into your deck for those Peace Through Tyranny. Something that's not as useful but still welcome is his draw effect in his robot mode, where you can try and refund some of your massive hand expenditure.

But other than in Combo, Wheeljack probably won't see much play compared to his Wave 1 iteration. His effects just aren't as useful as Wave 1's, and I don't see that changing any time soon.

"INJUSTICE RAAIINNSS FROM ABOVE!"

Visper is kinda freaky. I don't know whether I love him or despise him, but regardless of that, I know that his effect is good. Regardless of whether or not Visper is viable otherwise, his effect when built correctly is immensely powerful. Removing your opponent's hand on the first turn of the game is strong (albeit lucky) and in doing so, you're more or less confirming that your opponent will likely not be able to retaliate against your more important partners like Shockwave.

The biggest problem with hand destruction is that your opponent can always retaliate. This is no different, but when done early enough, you curb that until far later. Now, I realize you're also dumping your own hand, but that's what Work Overtime and character-based draw is for. Plus, if you're a magician or just really bad at shuffling, you can potentially draw three cards to replace the ones you've discarded if they all share the same name.

Not to say that he's going to be doing much after that, but Micromasters have always been one-trick ponies anyway and I'm not complaining. It's for that reason that I don't really care too much about his HP -- whereas your opponent has no hand, they probably won't find it too hard to one-hit the poor guy unless you flip well. Remember, they still get to draw at the start of their turns; they're going to be able to play something. You should just hope that it's not a Grenade Launcher.

You could also potentially save Visper until mid to late game where you have a swarm of green pips in your hand, and potentially three of a kind. That way, you could scrap all three and get the full effect of Visper's ability. But at that point, the damage has kind of already been done by your opponent, don't you think? They've already been able to play most of their cards, and at that point, your characters are going to be wholly softened for them to swing into.

The problems I have with Visper are the same problems I have with hand destruction in general. He's not a bad pick, especially with the right partners, but the problem with him is more systemic than anything else to do with him specifically. I don't know. Maybe I'm being too critical of him, but until hand destruction is good, Visper likely won't be.

(A)(v)(^) (A)(v)(^)

Storm Cloud is the partner of Visper, and he's just as niche. He belongs in the same kind of list that Visper does, with more than a little green pips and a lot of luck. However, there is something that makes him instantly more viable than Visper: Early aggression paired with a tiny point cost. Storm Cloud is four Stars, and he can give one of your bigger, more powerful characters a lot of Bold on top of potentially the Bold they had to start with. You can even use him on the first turn of the game to give a staggering amount of Bold to a character to more or less confirm the KO on the first turn, in the same vein as Thrust. In fact, you could use him in concert with Thrust to deal an astounding level of damage before your opponent even gets to take a turn -- something I'm actually quite a fan of.

I mean, I realize you're almost never going to be able to use him to his fullest on the first turn of the game, but still, Bold 3 is nothing to sneeze at before the game really begins. Take, for instance, this lineup: Ramjet at 10 Stars, Thrust at 9 and capping everyone off with Storm Cloud at 4, making a total of 23 making plenty of room for Missile Launchers to be flipped on the first turn of the game. You can stack oodles and oodles of damage modifiers on Ramjet, dealing upwards of approximately 15 damage with somewhat average flips (five orange and two white, not counting double pips) to whatever you want. Now imagine if you flipped well.

Sure, you're tapped out afterwards, and if you don't get the OHKO you're probably going to be in a world of hurt, but it's an interesting concept nevertheless. Again, if you manage to pull a super hot hand out of your hat on the first or second turn of the game with all three copies of something in your hand, power to you. Other than that, though, just settle for the Bold 3 and have fun at your opponent's expense.

Hey, man, what the Flak?

Flak is actually better than Storm Cloud in early pressure, and you can't change my mind. Let me explain: With Storm Cloud, you need to build your entire deck around his features. Then, you add a variable amount of damage to a character that will then have to wade through your obnoxious green pipped cards to hopefully hit a double orange or two and after all of that, you still don't have much in the ways of next turn.

Not with Flak. With Flak, you can play a Grenade Launcher on Thrust on the first turn of the game, then Thrust will add a total of 7 damage to Ramjet, totaling in 14 base damage before flips. There is less variation, less milling of resources and, yes, a plan for the next turn since Thrust now has a weapon on him. You could say the same thing about some other decks out there. For instance, you could, instead of playing Ransack/Chop Shop in Insecticons, you could play Flak. Flak could then add one of your many weapons to Kickback on the first turn, acting as something of a "baby Thrust".

Now, I know what you're thinking: "Well, Storm Cloud is four stars and he gives Bold, and I like Bold better than damage boosts!"

Well, first off, the difference between four and five stars is not the end of the world, and two, you could always add a Power Punch to one of your characters to essentially do the same thing -- while still discarding less cards from your hand. I realize that he's an Autobot, and that means you can't use Swindled, but a turn one KO might just be worth it regardless.

Plus, he's a Tank, and that means you can use him with Demolisher, Starter Megatron and Barrage to make three-wide aggro Tanks, drawing two cards off Demolisher and attaching up to three Armor cards with Hunker Down. It's probably not the best use of his abilities, but it's an interesting concept to explore nevertheless.

Regardless, I'm excited to see where he goes -- and I definitely think he'll be going somewhere. Just where that is remains a mystery.

someBODY once told me / The world is going to roll me
I ain't the sharpest tool / in the shed

Mudslinger looks cool, but does next to nothing. You see, this is a fairly fast-paced game, and characters can't take a lot of punishment. Meaning, Mudslinger doesn't really have too much value to attain. I mean, if healing isn't good for Ratchet, how is healing one by tapping a character worth it at all?

The answer? It's not. The only thing I can possibly think of is dealing one damage to Skrapnel to potentially make him a 2HKO, but as far as that goes, I'd rather just play a Zap. He's cool looking, but I'm afraid looks aren't everything.

"Go get 'em, tiger."

Some Battle Masters are kind of awful, in fact, most Battle Masters are. Most have mediocre offensive potential, and a middling weapon to boot. Lionizer is not most Battle Masters.

Having an innate Bold 4 is monstrous -- he swings about as hard as Demolishor does in an all orange build, and he might, against certain builds, take a hit to boot. His HP, his defense and his offensive potential are all high for Battle Masters, and his weapon is anything but disappointing.

Not only does his weapon, Firesteel Saber, transfer his Bold 4 to the Upgraded character, but he also adds in a solid Plan 1 to make things even better than initially thought. I adore that about him, and the thing I love about Lionizer the most is his versatility in lists. In many cases, the kind of Battle Master you play is dictated by the list you use, but in this case, Lionizer works in nearly every list.

I can't say enough good things about Lionizer. He's extremely versatile, and just as powerful.

BATTLE CARDS

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words especially hurt me.

It's amazing how they made a blank orange and black pipped card!

All jesting aside, Rock Toss does just a bit more damage as actually tossing a rock at a card. You're not going to be doing much noticeable damage by playing the card, but you're going to like the pips in black lists. Something else that should be noted is that, as it stands, this is almost 100% better than Zap. Zap, whereas it can target anything, doesn't have that Pierce 1 effect -- and let's be frank here, you're probably not going to be targeting anyone with Zap other than than the thing you're about to attack.

My words are rather harsh, but I gotta be honest, I'm not even that against it. In a black deck, orange boosts are definitely a worthwhile consideration, especially if you happen to be named "Jazz and Omega Supreme". White/Black Omega Jazz is an archetype, guys -- you'll see!

There's not much else to say about it, so I won't.

"What do you have?"
"A knife!"
"NO!"

This Combat Dagger has merit in certain black builds, but not a lot. Something you need to realize about black builds is that Black/Orange in an orange core is probably not going to get you very far compared to other options. Although the concept of Black/Orange as an entire engine might actually have merit, the concept of splashing black cards into orange lists is somewhat useless since it doesn't really boost anything.

It's for this reason that Combat Dagger is niche. I love the black and orange pips, but only having Bold 1 isn't going to be doing you many favors for a weapon attachment. I can see playing it in Black/Orange OmegaJazz, or perhaps some other unseen Rakdos-colored decks, but outside of that, I can't really justify playing it in any other lists. There are just usually better weapons to play. That's not a bad thing per se, but it is worthy of note.

Either way, Combat Dagger will likely see play in black decks -- but outside of them, I really don't think that there's much of a spot for this butter knife.

GIMME THE JUICE

Well that's a whole lotta pips! Fuel Cache is the first triple-pipped card we've seen in the game, and before I talk about what it really does, I'd like to ask you something: How far will you go for pips alone?

I'm sure we've all put Improvised Shield or Handheld Blaster in our mono orange or blue decks, and those cards do literally nothing when played in their respective lists. We play Peace Through Tyranny in Predacons, even though we technically can't play the card even if we wanted to. There are just a few cards out there that effectively do nothing -- and yet we play them anyway, just for their pips alone.

So let me ask you again: Is it worth it? Now how about when it costs a star?

I'm pretty stingy when it comes to Star Cards. There aren't that many things out there that can even remotely compare to Leap of Faith, and when they do they usually involve drawing cards. I usually err on the side of Actions because you see their power quickly and easily, with Upgrades being more of a "slow build". Generally speaking, as a Star Card, Fuel Cache has to contend with not only Leap of Faith, but Universal Network Access as well as the respective extra double pipped cards for a spot in a list.

Speaking of which, let's talk about what Fuel Cache actually does, aside from its pips. If you couldn't tell, it looks at the top three, and if their composite colors match or exceed one of each primary color, it ends up putting all three into your hand. If you whiff, well, you can kiss all three cards goodbye.

So, how is that better than drawing three cards with Universal Network Access? Or playing two out of three of them with Leap of Faith? It's not. Occasionally drawing three cards is definitely not a good effect compared to the other options vying for the same spot.

In fact, it reminds me of Recon System, a card I've been outspoken about being literally worse Bold and Tough 1. Is Fuel Cache literally not just the same thing but for draw? I can forgive it for its fantastic pips, but I just can't really justify it over some of the other options. In my opinion, so long as Leap of Faith is in the format, you can pretty much count on it being played over any other Star Card, likely regardless of pips.

But, that being said, if you're going balanced and you don't really care about Leap of Faith (say, for instance, you only have one star to play with), look no further than Fuel Cache. Its pips have plenty of merit, and I would definitely put money on not drawing it if it's a one-of.

REPRINTS

The following cards are all reprints, but they all have new, original artwork! Check them out below:

CLOSING

Well, those were some reveals. I am especially excited about Alpha Trion, Flak and Lionizer. I really, truly think that both of those cards will see a lot of play in the future, and I can't wait to see what people do with them. Visper is another card to look out for in niche rogue decks (likely with Shockwave), and whereas I'm not the biggest fan of his, I can still appreciate what both he and his partner are capable of.

As for the reprints, they aren't going to majorly shift the format -- but they are going to shift around a few of the cards in my collection! The artwork is seriously fantastic, with Medic! being my favorite of the bunch. I really hope that they use this opportunity to push a plotline in the same vein as Magic has, using the card reveals, artwork and flavor text to push a story. I suppose I won't be seeing that any time soon, but a boy can dream, can't he?

In fact, in a recent interview, Drew Nolosco mentioned that they were, in fact, pushing a Siege plotline about the fall of Cybertron for the next sets. I'm actually all for that, in fact. Every story has to have a beginning -- and an end -- and generally, the best beginning for Transformers is on Cybertron.

What about you? Are you hoping they push the story elements further or are you happy with the artwork doing the talking for them? Are you excited about the plethora of Battle Masters and Micromasters coming into the game? Think George Takei will be proud of Alpha Trion's power level? Let me know in the comments below, and I'll see you next time!

[DerrikDGreat]

Anybody else notice that Alpha Trion’s alt mode is the Daedalus from Robotech?

[Hydrargyrus]

On Weaponizers:
I’ve been thinking about a gun-mode Megatron for a very long time, and you might be right about a Weaponizer being the way to do it.
Additionally, Siege Brunt and Sixgun (whose design is used in the Metroplex deck version) are the other Weaponizer toys we know of. I’m not sure if that’s the info you couldn’t find, but there it is.

Thanks for the analysis. I always enjoy reading them, and I don’t even play the game (although I’m thinking about trying it, as it seems to be getting more interesting).

[Ultra Markus]

DerrikDGreat not really the front looks similar to the Prometheus the other ship

[#Sideways#]

On Weaponizers:
I’ve been thinking about a gun-mode Megatron for a very long time, and you might be right about a Weaponizer being the way to do it.
Additionally, Siege Brunt and Sixgun (whose design is used in the Metroplex deck version) are the other Weaponizer toys we know of. I’m not sure if that’s the info you couldn’t find, but there it is.

Thanks for the analysis. I always enjoy reading them, and I don’t even play the game (although I’m thinking about trying it, as it seems to be getting more interesting).

I didn't see Brunt at all! I did a bit of digging around on TFWiki, and it looks like the pages I did the digging on (mostly the page on the C.O.M.B.A.T. mechanic) weren't updated with Brunt. He could be the Decepticon one! Good eye!

Six-Gun might actually be really interesting for weaponizer purposes, but I wonder how that might work with the one with Metroplex? After all, the two are somewhat joined at the hip, or the, uh... Everywhere considering the G1 toy.

But yeah, those could definitely work. I really hope that they do go with the Megatron idea, though -- Megatron needs more gun modes!

Thanks for reading! I'm glad you're thinking of checking it out; it's a great game, and I'm really excited to see how far it's come, especially from its grassroots beginnings.

[ZeroWolf]

Okay so I'm looking at taking the plunge in this game soon but have no idea what the current meta game is, what the best way to start is or what. Will the bee vs Megs starter set be a good place to start?

[Counterpunch]

snip

First off dude, I really appreciate you doing these reviews. Well done.

Without commenting on the whole thing, I think I disagree about Ratchet. His star cost is less than Wheeljack with one more life. The 0 health thing is bad, but like you said, it's an environment that favors attacks.

What I would argue is that healing is not necessarily a way to endure or to play defensively, but rather a way to force the opponent into an extra attack that would otherwise have been a confirmed kill. Most bots are either a one shot or two shot death. Using the math of the moment to extend that can really unbalance the tempo of the turn order.

This is all theory craft of course as we have not had an opportunity to use healing in a meaningful way. Medic aside, the more versatile "Team Up Tactics" comes to mind. Pair him up with Trailbreaker and Arcee, use the extra star slot for a Leap of Faith and there may be something brewing there as a resilient build.

Could it stand up to Cars, Bugs, etc? Probably not. But I think something may be in the mix.

[#Sideways#]

Okay so I'm looking at taking the plunge in this game soon but have no idea what the current meta game is, what the best way to start is or what. Will the bee vs Megs starter set be a good place to start?

I think that it'd be a great place to start! You get an array of staples that you can place in your decks in the future. However, the Wave 1 starter set might give you more value, character-wise. If you'd like to jump in the deep end and start with combiners, you should try either the Predacons or Devastator -- either are good starts. You can also check out Metroplex if you're in for something a little more unorthodox.

As for the meta, again, it favors aggro rather well. If you'd like to check out some deck profiles, check out my channel. It has a few decks that'll get you started.

First off dude, I really appreciate you doing these reviews. Well done.

Without commenting on the whole thing, I think I disagree about Ratchet. His star cost is less than Wheeljack with one more life. The 0 health thing is bad, but like you said, it's an environment that favors attacks.

What I would argue is that healing is not necessarily a way to endure or to play defensively, but rather a way to force the opponent into an extra attack that would otherwise have been a confirmed kill. Most bots are either a one shot or two shot death. Using the math of the moment to extend that can really unbalance the tempo of the turn order.

This is all theory craft of course as we have not had an opportunity to use healing in a meaningful way. Medic aside, the more versatile "Team Up Tactics" comes to mind. Pair him up with Trailbreaker and Arcee, use the extra star slot for a Leap of Faith and there may be something brewing there as a resilient build.

Could it stand up to Cars, Bugs, etc? Probably not. But I think something may be in the mix.

Thanks! I'm glad you like them.

As for Ratchet, I do agree that Trailbreaker is a good partner for him, but instead of Arcee I might try out Skrapnel, since Trailbreaker is for 10, Ratchet for 8 and Skrapnel for 7. I think the main thing that really excludes healing in general from other lists is that defense isn't as good as it could be. Put simply, it doesn't defend enough to make the healing that impactful, even to make two shots into three shots.

I think, however, you might be on to something with Trailbreaker. With the Skrapnel and Force Field effects being as it may, one could use Stealthiness as well as Bravery combined with Trailbreaker's own Brave to effectively force your opponent into attacking Skrapnel and/or into Force Field, where you can then heal it off. Essentially, a less luck-based OmegaJazz but with healing.

[ZeroWolf]

Thanks Sideways I'll have a look at those options, I know I can still get the first starter set for a good price. I'll have to look into your channel as unlike magic, I've got no idea on how to build decks

[Counterpunch]

I think, however, you might be on to something with Trailbreaker. With the Skrapnel and Force Field effects being as it may, one could use Stealthiness as well as Bravery combined with Trailbreaker's own Brave to effectively force your opponent into attacking Skrapnel and/or into Force Field, where you can then heal it off. Essentially, a less luck-based OmegaJazz but with healing.

I've had a really rough time running Skrapnel outside of his theme. I think people are really aware of how to play around him at this point, but he remains effective in Bugs because he gives just enough cover for them to get at least 2 really nasty attacks in (prior to the untap).

[#Sideways#]

Thanks Sideways I'll have a look at those options, I know I can still get the first starter set for a good price. I'll have to look into your channel as unlike magic, I've got no idea on how to build decks

Yeah, right? When I first started out, I put so much unnecessary draw in my earliest lists. In Pokemon, the game I mostly played before Transformers, you had to have a draw card every turn otherwise you ended up losing the game. In Transformers, building your deck is usually focused on redundancy -- something I wasn't really used to until recently.

For instance, you need to play multiple weapons, multiple copies of each of them, and likely multiple damaging Actions as well. That, and the double pips. It's really an interesting game.

I've had a really rough time running Skrapnel outside of his theme. I think people are really aware of how to play around him at this point, but he remains effective in Bugs because he gives just enough cover for them to get at least 2 really nasty attacks in (prior to the untap).

I have actually heard of a few decks taking him and placing him with Battlefield Legend alongside Arcee. Mostly for his tapping effect, yes, but still, your opponent is wholly unlikely to one-hit him. Which is the reason I like him with Ratchet; Skrap's ability being as it may, your opponent is really not likely to one-hit him. With potent healing and Trailbreaker having essentially innate Brave, you can force your opponent to never one-hit your characters pretty much ever.

I dunno, maybe. It's a thought, at least.

[ZeroWolf]

I used to play pokemon back in the day (the day base set 1 released, swiftly followed by Jungle and Fossil) it seems like such a different beast since then

[Wolfman Jake]

The Transformers Trading Card Game by Wizards of the Coast is showing no signs of slowing down any time soon. If collectible card games are your thing, fellow Seibertronians, then enjoy these reveals of new cards joining the line-up! First, we have "Raider Road Hugger," a classic G1 Micromaster. You can check out some strategies and information on this card from designer and creative lead Matt Smith's Facebook page. Next up is fan favorite "Private Arcee!" Designer Scott Van Essen shows off this new card on his Facebook page, along with tips and tricks to getting into the Transformers Trading Card Game if you're so inclined, but feeling a bit lost with all the information and options out there. Finally, design lead Ken Nagle shows off two new Star Cards, "EMP Wave" and "Full Loadout," on his Facebook page. His article, linked here, explains the basics on what star cards can do for you and your deck strategies. Check out the pictures of all four of these new card reveals below!

Are you excited to add these new cards to your Transformers Trading Card Game decks? Have the articles from the designers above inspired you to take the plunge into collectible card gaming? Let us know in the comments below, and stay tuned to Seibertron.com for the latest news on all things Transformers!

[Rodimus Knight]

That image for full loadout looks like wheeljack is either fitting prime for a bra or in the middle of sexually harassing him.

[The_Cryptid_Person]

That image for full loadout looks like wheeljack is either fitting prime for a bra or in the middle of sexually harassing him.

To be fair, that could definitely be a Brestforce drone partner.