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Thanks to consistently accurate leaker Jtprime17, by way of our own Seibertronian EvasionModeBumblebee, we have a list of what may be all of the Studio Series retail releases for 2025. No, that's not a typo, it's the end of February 2024 and we already know what's coming out next year. Once the shock wears off there's some really interesting things listed here. For one we seem to be going back to the Bayverse movies in a pretty big way! Hatchet seems to have found a new home after the Target release was canceled, Que is finally getting a new figure, Age of Extinction Optimus Prime is getting updated at last and the Stinger mold might be coming back with a retool as the unused concept fembot "Widow Maker".
Gamer Edition is continuing with the expected Starscream repaints and Ironhide. Studio Series 86 looks to be giving us the first four members of the Constructicons in a mix of Voyagers and Deluxes (the rest will surely be coming in 2026), and package refreshes of Grimlock, Perceptor and Jazz. We've also got a few listings for TF:One, Rise of the Beasts and another A Level Optimus Prime.
Full list can be seen below and be sure to discuss it in the Energon Pub forums!
EvasionModeBumblebee wrote:We have Studio Series 2025 listings from JTPrime, and there's some very exciting stuff!
Tra Gen Studio series A level DLX TFONE B-127
Product Number: G0619
Tra Gen Studio series A Level DLX DEV Optimus Prime
Product Number: G0620
Tra Gen Studio series Deluxe TF7 Double Punch
Product Number: G0533
Tra Gen Studio series Deluxe TF3 Hatchet
Product Number: G0539
Tra Gen Studio series Deluxe MV6 Bumblebee
Product Number: G0564
Tra Gen Studio series Deluxe 86 Perceptor PR
Product Number: G0565
Tra Gen Studio series Deluxe TFONE Starscream
Product Number: G0566
Tra Gen Studio series Deluxe TF3 Que
Product Number: G0567
Tra Gen Studio series Deluxe 86 Bonecrusher
Product Number: G0568
Tra Gen Studio series Deluxe 86 Jazz PR
Product Number: G0569
Tra Gen Studio series Deluxe 86 Scavenger
Product Number: G0570
Tra Gen Studio series Deluxe WFC Autobot Soilder
Product Number: G0571
Tra Gen Studio series Deluxe TF4 Widow Maker
Product Number: G0857
Tra Gen Studio Series Voy WFC Skywarp
Product Number: G0534
Tra Gen Studio series Voy TF7 Optimus Prime PR
Product Number: G0536
Tra Gen Studio series Voy WFC Ironhide
Product Number: G0559
Tra Gen Studio series Voy TFONE Sentinel Prime
Product Number: G0560
Tra Gen Studio series Voy WFC Thundercracker
Product Number: G0561
Tra Gen Studio series Voy 86 Scrapper
Product Number: G0562
Tra Gen Studio Series Voy 86 Mixmaster
Product Number: G0563
Tra Gen Studio series Ldr TF7 Apelinq
Product Number: G0480
Tra Gen Studio series Ldr TF4 Optimus prime
Product Number: G0482
Tra Gen Studio series Ldr TF3 Shockwave PR
Product Number: G0483
Tra Gen Studio series Ldr 86 Grimlock PR
Product Number: G0485
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Those looking to bolster their decks with the king of the Sentinels for a fraction of the price the time to act is now because there's no word on how long this amazing sale is going to last. Click the images for the jump to Lootvault and let us know your thoughts in the forums. As always stay tuned to the Seibertron news feeds for the latest in Transformer news!
With these reveals, the last cards of Siege 1 have come along with them! Oh god, why are there so many!? Now, this isn't going to be the last article I'll be doing -- not by a long shot! -- because I have a lot more to talk about including tournament reports from the larger events. Of course, you can find all of that content and more on my YouTube channel, Nanomachines!
Anyway, enough with this sordid affair! Let us get to the meat of the article!
TO ORIGINS AND BEYOND
Origins Game Fair was just last week, and there was a solid turnout of over 150 unique players over the course of the week, ending with an invitational where the top 32 players over the course of the week play in single elimination rounds to play for a prize pool of $10,000.
On the first day, we had roughly 30 players. I was in a frankly in an unknown metagame, with little idea outside of my own observations, my locals and a few articles to base any meta call on. To that end, I decided to play Insecticons because it is one of the most consistent decks out there with some of the best ability to beat random riffraff outside of the meta. When you play in an event, especially large ones, this is imperative. The first round or two when playing rogue can pit you against another rogue deck that just so happens to utterly dumpster your deck, potentially ruining your tournament.
With my deck chosen and my fate sealed, I ended up placing 3rd with a final record of 3-0-2 after tying against Planes and IDing against mirror into cut! I managed to face off against and meet several fellow content creators like Wreck 'N Rule and a couple of guys from VectorSigma.info, and it was really awesome to put some faces to the names and names to the faces!
With my Top 8 finish on the first day, I ended up more or less a spectator for the remainder of the tournament. To warm myself up to the idea of playing against a frankly absurd amount of hate for my chosen deck after literally half of the first day's Top 8 was made up of Insecticons, and to get a few more tickets for the prize wall, I played a bit on Saturday. This was mostly to test the meta after it evolved over the week, but I then dropped after deciding to stop grinching people like a huge jerk.
The next day, I played in the big finals. After I decided on playing Insecticons again, I was fully expecting to hit a horrible matchup on the first game and then dying instantly. Instead, I faced Cars which is even at its worst and great at its best thanks to their relatively low defense and average HP. I ended up winning and moving on to Top 16, securing my place in the Energon Invitational at Pax Unplugged!
The Top 16 matchup was definitely not as good of a matchup as Top 32, but Aerialbots was something that I expected to face. In fact, I knew that it was such a poor matchup in a vacuum that I decided to devote most of my sideboard to beating it with the most unlikely of cards: Repair Bay and Bad Attitude. Aerialbots deal chip damage to eventually KO multiple characters at once to win, and low chip damage over time gets stopped by Repair Bay and gets dumpstered by Bad Attitude. To make things even better, I ended up sideboarding Chop Shop for his reuse of Bashing Shield, Weapons, his unique draw ability and, yes, his potent healing.
Saying the words "Repair Bay" and "Bad Attitude" in a tournament setting brought tears to my eyes.
But, as I moved on to Top 8, I noticed something: Five out of the eight were all playing the same deck, and it was possibly my worst matchup. You see, Sentinels is a good matchup despite Sentinel's controlly, hand-destruction playstyle. However, their rather awful defensive capabilities and their orange list make them easy pickens for Insecticons to simply play their topdeck and attack.
Three Wide Prime, shorthand for Optimus Prime: Battlefield Legend, Flamewar and (usually) Hot Rod, is an awful matchup because they can both remove your hand as well as reduce your damage.
Reduce it by a lot.
But Insecticons, my list especially, have a habit of topdecking Weapons and Actions that increase your damage by quite a bit. The most important things about the matchup is target priority and saving your resources when you can and blowing them all at once when you need to.
Optimus Prime is a big guy, but so is Kickback with a Grenade Launcher and a Reckless Charge flipping the top ten cards of your deck.
The long and short about it is that Three Wide is your worst possible matchup, but it is by no means an autoloss. For Three Wide, it's an easy matchup to win. But, it's just as easy to lose as well. This is a lesson my Top 8 opponent, Kent Summerour, unfortunately learned the hard way, as I took the match after a hard-fought victory.
As I did, however, I looked to my right in bewilderment. Nearly all of my opponents were Three Wide, and it wss nearly impossible based on bracket position for me to face the winner of the game to my left. This, of course, came to fruition when my next round opponent, Steffon Pinckney, played me with his Hot Rod-based Three Wide. Kent had opted to use Motormaster, and with my Insecticon list not opting to play direct damage outside of Swarm, Motormaster struggled to find value. Hot Rod, however, is frankly disgusting when paired with Flamewar and was even worse to take out because he could ping Skrapnel with his KO Pile Ability to make math worse when it counted.
We ended up going 1-1 after I Swarmed him for the KO. Then, at the final turns of the final game, I misplayed. I ended up playing an Upgrade before using Backup Plan, where I would have drawn into an I Still Function and a Force Field to secure the game against his lone Prime. Without the Force Field, Chop Shop was KO'd and my Top Cut run came to a close.
But the story does not end there. You see, Steffon is a super cool guy (He also runs a YouTube channel, too! Check it out HERE!) and he ended up going into Top 2 with Dan from VectorSigma.info, where the two ended up splitting the prize pool and playing for the title. The mirror match was hard-fought, but Steffon eventually came out on top and claimed the title as the first ever Origins Open winner!
He made out with $1,250 after splitting the prize pool, an invitation to the Energon Invitational, a box of Siege, a fully paid Pax Unplugged badge and a signed crystal cube with Transformers etchings. He humbly accepted these gifts and our champion was crowned.
Me? Oh, I made off with a few things, myself. The Pax badge, the invite, $750 and a full box of Siege all came my way, with the latter being something I opened on my channel in a recent video. But honestly? The experience and the validation is really what matters the most to me; I started playing the TFTCG by myself in my room with proxies before the game even came out, and to come all this way in the first ever tournament? Well, I can't think of a better prize.
Well, that and the money.
If you're interested in the list I used, have no fear! I've included it below, including a deck profile that Steffon did himself on his channel, SDotAkuma:
2 Backup Plan
2 Bashing Shield
3 Erratic Lightning
2 Flame Thrower
3 Force Field
3 Grenade Launcher
3 I Still Function!
3 Improvised Shield
2 Mining Pick
3 Peace Through Tyranny
3 Power Punch
3 Reckless Charge
2 Static Laser of Iron Hide
3 Supercharge
3 Swarm!
Sideboard
Chop Shop - Sneaky Insecticon
3 Bad Attitude
2 Emergency Maintenance
1 Flamethrower
1 Mounted Missiles
2 Repair Bay
1 Static Laser of Ironhide
Speaking of Siege, I daresay that I haven't broken down the rest of the cards yet! Let's jump right in on that!
CHARACTERS
"Top of the Shot to you!"
Top Shot is the little Micromaster that could. He has a surprising amount of value for a 4 Star character, and he has a solid amount of value to be seen out of his innate traits. He's a bit of a wonky type of Micromaster, where he gets more use out of his innate abilities than his tap effect. This is a good thing, given that -- by not using a tap effect to get value out of him -- you're essentially opening up more options in terms of other Micromasters on your team. In fact, one could even say that you could perhaps play Top Shot as the main support of a Micromaster/Small Guys team!
Allow me to explain. Top Shot is the leader of the Battle Patrol, and that carries over into his innate effects where he is a Leader. This, plus his Autobot nature, opens up the option to use him along with the Matrix of Leadership. The Matrix of Leadership gives all of your characters +1 and Pierce 1 so long as it's attached to an Autobot Leader; in other words, Top Shot. That way, you can give your team of smaller characters a way to deal more damage instead of, well, none at all. Being able to boost the damage of your team with a Matrix can be surprisingly potent given the fact that Top Shot is only 4 Stars, and a Tank no less!
Speaking of which, you can also run him alongside Flak, Demolishor, Starter Megatron and have plenty of room for three star cards, like Full Loadout. You can do a ton of damage with Demolishor and Megatron, and Top Shot adds his layer of power to that to create a formidable combination. Since they're all Tanks, Demolishor can draw three cards for his transformation effect, and perhaps more importantly, Hunker Down allows you to play a frankly disgusting amount of Armor on the field.
You can even use a Force Field on Top Shot, thanks to the fact that he has 5 HP, not 4. Meaning, he can take a solid amount of punishment as a "meat shield" if that's what it comes down to. Why a sacrificial lamb and not an offensive character? Unfortunately, even with his good utility, his offensive stats are not the best and thus if you're going to do anything with him, tapping him is the better option.
Besides, his draw + plan effect is still not bad no matter how you look at it, and that utility still translates well to a solid damage boost to your next attacker when you have a double orange in your hand. That being said, there are better draw options, but not at that cost and not for that pip color -- pretty much, if you're looking for a "universal" orange Micromaster, look no further!
"I'm here to kick gum and chew butt and I'm all outta butt!"
Triggerhappy is interesting. On one hand, I would say that he'd make a defensive plane list happy being a Pierce attacker. On the other, I would say that he would make an aggro deck happy given that he can recycle the used Grenade Launchers for later use. The question is, which one suits him best? To answer this question, we need to take a look into his stats.
With Triggerhappy's high Pierce, he seems to be quite formidable, yes? No, that's not quite the case, now is it? You see, when you have a high Pierce, you can assume that you're able to deal all of that damage. Usually, that assumption would be true. This is not a usual case. With Pierce 4 and only two attack, you need an offensive boost to make use of him offensively, and his defense is not high enough to warrant too much investment on that front, either. So in defense, it's a rather awkward thing to put him in there because he necessitates the weapon in order to be effective.
So, if not the defense, then perhaps the offense? Well, let's decipher that for a moment. On one hand, his weapon recycling effect is always welcome in any list. But, his offensive stats are abysmal, and whereas you'll be more or less confirmed to swing for your Pierce 4, there are just better offensive options to run on that end. At that point, you're just a weapon reanimator -- which is fine -- but you need to balance the rest of your team to support him just as much as he's supporting you. The question is, can you really afford to devote that many stars to occasionally getting a weapon back?
I don't think so.
Triggerhappy is just too expensive for what he offers, and I think that there are just better options to run. Even using Reclaim and a small character with draw like Dead End seems to be the same value with more flexibility. I mean, sure, using Bombing Run in a defensive list seems good to keep him and his friends alive, but I just don't see Triggerhappy being that solid in defensive or offensive comps. I just can't justify him compared to the other options.
"Lemme axe you a question..."
Pteraxadon is kind of great, not gonna lie. His cheap points only add to this, and he really fits well in a sideboard to fight against highly defensive decks.
Now, being a Battle Master, his stats are going to -- I'm just gonna say it -- suck. It's just the way the cookie crumbles in terms of Battle Masters, of course, with his awful defense and just "meh" offensive capabilities, but the general shtick of Battle Masters is that they don't have their value in their robot modes anyway, so this should not be a deal breaker.
As for his alternate mode, it is honestly one of if not the most powerful Battle Master effects I have seen. Reducing your opponents Base Defense (the defense printed on the card, for those who needed clarification) to 0 is a very, very powerful effect that crushes a lot of characters. For instance, Demolishor, who has his 4 Defense that he normally uses to keep himself alive suddenly becomes an easy target. Headstrong, Darkmount, Inferno, the list goes on with who Pteraxadon can counter. Now, that being said, it does not reduce whatever blue pips your opponent flips -- but really, who cares? It's more damage!
He's splashable, his effect is solid, and on top of that he still gives you a +3 attack boost! To be frank, I can't think of many Battle Masters I would rather put in a list. He's got a lot of value in an aggro list -- especially with Quartermaster allowing you to reuse him -- and you don't really lose much for tossing him in.
They say "you have to save the best for last". With Pteraxadon, I can't think of a better phrase to describe him.
BATTLE CARDS
A double-edged sword.
W5 Gyro Blaster, despite not having any pips whatsoever, is honestly one of the nuttiest cards I have ever seen. Remember, it doesn't just stop Bold -- it stops Tough, Kickback, Demolishor, white pips and everything in between.
Gyro Blaster allows you to play both offensively and defensively with it, dealing higher damage to characters with Tough and taking less damage against characters with Bold. Take Devastator for instance. You, for example, might play him in a blue list with a really slow, grindy playstyle and eventually you build up enough Tower to combine and have a really massive amount of HP. That's when you attach a Gyro Blaster to him and sit promptly on your 2 Defense and 10 Attack (or 11, rather, with the Gyro Blaster) not even counting any Armor you've attached prior.
Your opponent can't deal with that without using high base attack, and even then they have to deal with your defensive flips. Their Bold won't work, and when you swing at them, their Tough won't work either. The power of the W5 Gyro Blaster is just too massive to ignore, and when used in conjunction with Secret Actions like Infiltrate and Blue pips... Well, let's just say that any aggro deck in your area is going to have a bad time.
Like, a really bad time.
Thicker than a bowl of oatmeal.
Point Defense System is a neat little Armor that deals with a very, very specific problem.
So let me give you a quick recap, yeah? Siege 1 introduces black pips, including blue/black cards that can create a surprising amount of damage potential in blue decks, all without sacrificing that defensive power. In fact, black pips actually make Bold not horrible. Remember, certain characters have Bold innately, like Superion, and it would initially mill your deck and your resources. Black pips make that Bold actually worthwhile.
That's where Point Defense System comes in.
In the mirror blue/black matchup, your opponent is going to have roughly two to four Pierce at any given point in time through their Upgrades and through their black pips. This means that, even with your powerful defensive capabilities, you won't be able to block them when they have their Pierce. With Point Defense System, you're able to reduce that potential damage by a surprising amount given the nature of Pierce Upgrades, potentially tipping matchups like Aerialbots in your favor.
That being said, it really does depend on whether or not your local meta is more defensive or aggro-focused to whether or not you mainboard this card. If you want my personal opinion, I would probably just sideboard it in most cases -- three cards from your sideboard aren't too likely to be drawn when you need them, and I can only assume that most decks won't be as reliant on Pierce as Blue Black is.
Be that as it may, you should definitely sideboard Point Defense System if you're afraid of Pierce-heavy matchups. You'll find no stronger counter than this!
"Must have been my imagination." ~ Whiterun, Decepticon patrol. Last words.
Going invisible seems pretty fun, but it's all fun and games until a Specialist loses an optic.
There are three of these kinds of armors, and nearly all of them are honestly pretty fantastic. I can tell where they were going with all of these with each of the innate triangle (Specialist, Melee, and Ranged respectively) defending against a different member of the triangle. In this case, it's Melee against Specialists and unfortunately we have to start off with the weakest link.
Covert Armor is a Melee armor that defends against Specialists, which, so I can preface, is not that great because Specialists seldom have enough offensive power to threaten other characters and if you're playing armor in a list, you more than likely playing it with a primary and secondary Armor cards already. This means that Covert Armor is so niche that it will only really counter Motorcycles, the only real Specialist-focused deck, which might not even be that popular given their low stats.
The point I'm making is this: It's kinda useless to have an Armor that only protects against a very niche thing, and it probably won't be able to make it into your Sideboard given the plethora of other options and probably worse matchups to fix.
That being said, though, it is a very consistent card being a green pip, and it blends very well in a blue list given that it is, well, a blue pip. There are a lot of benefits to these cards, and getting +2 defense is frankly stupid good on many different levels, which is why the others have such good power in them.
"Might as well jump! (Jump!) / Might as well jump!
Go on and jump! (Jump!) / Go ahead and jump!"
As I said, there are definitely good cards in this trio. Reflex Circuits are definitely one of these, having the ability to get a freakishly good +2 defense against the rather prolific Melee class. The fact of the matter is, this has every bit the power of Covert Armor but in a more meaningful way.
I mean, when you consider how powerful this could be attached to someone like Superion (or just the Aerialbots in general, to be fair), things get a little gross especially with how players afraid of the Aerialbots can sideboard in Warpath to stop you from using your Tough abilities. Reflex Circuits allow you to defend through Warpath, Stunticon Swagger or whatever else they throw at you, like Gyro Blaster. The simple fact that you can get +2 defense on an Upgrade should not be ignored, especially for the normally defensive Ranged character roster.
The best defense is a good defense.
To be perfectly frank with you, this is another miss for me, but at least not as much as Covert Armor.
Let me explain. When you have a Specialist, you expect to put one of two things on it: Field Communicator and Multi-Mission Gear. Multi-Mission Gear is still as powerful as it was in Wave 1, and it's still just as dependent on Specialists to... Well, work. The best part about that card is that it still gives you +1 Armor, and when you put it on a character like Skydive or someone similarly as defensive like Flamewar, your opponent is going to have a tough time clearing them from the board.
Whereas Sturdy Armor seems like a great inclusion on these characters, I wouldn't put Sturdy Armor anywhere near my mainboard and instead hold it on the side as a big maybe. Why? Well, let's dig in to that.
You see, Ranged Characters normally have quite low attack, save some outliers like Optimus or Megatron. The simple fact is, the Tank or the Plane is the best "average" Ranged character baseline: Defensive, middling attack stats and relying on Pierce and direct damage to do their dirty work for them. When you have a card like Sturdy Armor, you're trying to defend against something that doesn't even do high base damage that instead deals its damage through Pierce -- it's not possible.
Pierce is getting another big buff in Siege 1 thanks to the introduction of black pips, and Ranged characters are the big winners of that thanks to their already high reliance on Pierce to do their damage. Again, there are outliers that don't, but the "base" Ranged character normally does, and adding defense just doesn't matter when, well, it doesn't matter.
That being said, it is a nice counter to Optimus Prime -- Battlefield Legend amongst other things, but I would only include this if you're really, really afraid of him.
"Oh, that's a little Bobby Dazzler! A real top-pocket find!"
Metal Detector is a great little engine that will definitely benefit lists like Blurr, Cars, Motorcycles and pretty much anything else that really likes playing extra Upgrades and can attack multiple times. When you have a Metal Detector on a character that attacks, you get to look at and play any Upgrade on your topdeck, and when you build your list accordingly it effectively makes that a done deal.
Blurr especially gets a load of value out of Metal Detector, as he untaps and attacks twice in one turn, effectively turning Metal Detector into a Brainstorm or Leap of Faith but for Upgrades! Of course, this doesn't confirm just what you'll get on the top of your deck (though you can try rigging that with Plan effects), but I often find that playing pretty much any Upgrade is generally a positive with few exceptions, like playing an Improvised Shield instead of just scrapping it.
Either way, Metal Detector doesn't give any stat boost, just a utility boost, making playing it somewhat of a "feels bad moment" like playing a Data Bank or your first Cargo Trailer. But, I think it'll offer much more value than one might expect, much like Scrounge. Anything that extends your hand can powerful, but it necessitates a list to support it.
The question is, is it worth the effort?
I think so.
"Michael Knight, a lone crusader in a dangerous world. The world... of the Knight Rider."
Similarly to Metal Detector, Anticipation Engine is like a Multi-Mission Gear but for everyone and I love it to bits. I truly and honestly think that it's one of the most powerful Upgrades out there for Cars, Motorcycles and honestly just about anything else that plays a billion Actions in their decks and wants to play more of them. You can imagine someone like Blurr being able to play a tremendous amount of Actions during your turn including cards like Marksmanship, Leap Into Battle, Leap of Faith and loads more.
The fact that Actions have and always will be more powerful than Upgrades makes Anticipation Engine thus more powerful than Metal Detector. I could go into just why Actions are better than Upgrades, but to be perfectly honest I think I go over that in every article to be perfectly frank with you, so I don't think I'll go over it again this time just to save my sanity.
Unfortunately, with that power there must also be something to rein it in and Anticipation Engine has its fair share. Whilst you have a powerful effect, it's still a Weapon that takes up any other spot for weapons. That means that whatever you're attacking with, you won't be able to deal too much -- or any -- damage at all when you use it on a lesser powered character. That, and it's a white pip, not a green pip like Metal Detector. Unfortunately, this makes Anticipation Engine far less consistent than its Upgrade sister card and thus less powerful.
It's an odd balance with Anticipation Engine. On one hand, the effect of playing multiple Actions in one turn while not needing a Specialist in order to do so seems extremely powerful. On the other, though, you'll effectively be crippling yourself in terms of damage output. In that case, I don't think it'll see much play given that it doesn't give any stat boosts. The Weapon slot is so imperative to winning the game, that I struggle to justify taking it up with something that doesn't really give you anything in terms of power. That being said, perhaps you could fill your deck with damaging Actions to make Anticipation Engine essentially do more damage than none at all.
I dunno. It's a bit tin-foil-cappy, to be sure, but I'm confident that the list made to support this card would be so niche and oddly built that I'm not quite sure that it could function normally.
"Extra Padding"? Same, Red. Same.
Extra Padding is simply not that great at being an armor, but it is great at getting more of itself in play which can be quite the boon to certain cards. So, let me explain.
You see, since Extra Padding is a stacked Upgrade, Equipment Enthusiast can draw a net more cards than normal. Three upgrades in one slot can give you essentially more potential value for Equipment Enthusiast. But, that's not all. You see, Armor is a potent yet fragile slot thanks to Bashing Shield. Being that Extra Padding is a stacked Upgrade, Bashing Shield can only remove one layer of Armor.
This makes Extra Paddimg an effectively invincible Armor, since playing Bashing Shield to simply remove one layer of Extra Padding would be a frankly abysmal expendiature for extremely little value. That said, Extra Padding is also a lot of effort to play during your turn, and it also has little payoff for the required resources.
I mean, think about it. You're almost never going to get all three, and if you do, you'll find that it's simply just as potent as a Reinforced Plating or Body Armor with double or triple the effort to play. That said, having an invincible armor isn't a bad thing, even if your opponent can play a Security Checkpoint and prevent you from playing it to begin with.
Either way, I think there are just better cards to play during your turn, but it's a cool little card regardless.
It's like half of a Flamethrower. So, like, a Smokethrower?
Basic Combat Protocols is a worse Flamethrower. I realize that, as a Utility, you're essentially adding on more Bold than you would normally, but you're losing that Utility value while also potentially losing weapon value.
Consider my Insecticon list. Did you see any Utilities? It's because aggro decks don't have the time to attach something that only gives them Bold 1. In fact, Tandem Targeting System is straight better because it attaches multiple Upgrades at once for effectively the same amount of damage.
Further, if you're playing Aggro, you'll find that when everyone untaps, they'll be unlikely to have any Upgrades whatsoever. Many aggressive decks use Upgrades like Grenade Launcher and Power Punch to deal damage, and this is no different. The simple fact is that Basic Combat Protocols is just a worse Flamethfower, making it a "feels bad" card that simply gives no value in the short run.
Problem is, Aggro is the only kind of deck that'd really benefit from this outside of Metroplex and Aggro decks live in the short run.
"You are an idiot! Do you need a second opinion? You are also ugly!" ~ The Medic, Team Fortress 2
You know, I've learned to consider all the options. I learned that certain cards are way better than they might seem. I learned that certain things just take the right matchup. I mean, this even replaces itself!
Under normal circumstances, I would tell you to move on. I would tell you, "A single damage counter isn't worth it" and just go on to the next card.
These are normal circumstances. A single damage counter isn't worth it. Just go on to the next card.
"YEET!"
Frag Toss is... Actually really solid. It reminds me of Swarm to many degrees since your opponent chooses where the damage goes, which is not necessarily a bad thing per se. Because of this consistent damage output, you can assume it will almost never go where you want it. That said, it is actually a very solid Decepticon card to play in Shockwave because that's kind of his whole playstyle.
Something else I'd like to point out is that this card is actually kind of amazing in Insecticons. Not only is it essentially "baby Swarm", but it is also a white pip instead of One Shall Stand's zero pips. It's honestly a very good card to look into when it comes to Insecticons and Shockwave, and I think this isn't the last time we've seen Frag Toss.
"Go ahead. Make my day."
This card is very bad.
However, since it is a Decepticon card, you will be able to use it in Shockwave, especially since it has a black pip for the undoubtedly blue/black list.
That said, those are really the extent of the rewards you'll find with it. I think this one is niche at best. Move along!
You know, I think I'm beginning to understand why Shockwave is "hand" control.
Shockwave kinda needs a hand.
Heh.
But truly, any Shockwave composition seems a little lackluster when compared to others, especially when you consider how hand destruction is usually a secondary effect rather than a full game plan. Shockwave usually deals a lot of damage at once through a burst of hand destruction, at least according to his Wave 1 iteration and the theme of LV Gamma Disruptor Launcher. With that in mind, we can pretty well assume that Major Shockwave and W1 Shockwave are going to be played in the same list because Gamma Disruptor is both a Decepticon card as well as a defensive hand destruction card.
But there's a problem.
When you consider the fact that hand control is a kind of "all or nothing" burst effect with often not a lot of payoff, this card gets a little worse. Consider Sentinels, for example. Sentinels really enjoy discarding your entire hand on the first turn of the game, and it works very well. However, when you consider that now that your opponent has no hand, you realize that you won't be able to discard any more cards to get any more value out of W1 Shockwave. That makes LV Gamma Disrupter Launcher just a tad bit worse, as well.
But is it bad?
Oh heavens no. Discarding a card from your opponent's hand while giving Shockwave a much-needed damage boost to the point that it reaches a permanent Grenade Launcher after two are attached? That's amazing. Especially when you consider the fact that, usually, after a Security Checkpoint your opponent is going to have only one card in their hand, an Action. When you use LV Gamma Disruptor, you can discard that last card and still boost your damage by quite a noticeable margin. Since it's also a Decepticon card, Major Shockwave can also effectively dig further into your deck to pull it out and use it against your opponent, making it a far more consistent card than most especially if you happen to use Reclaim to rig your topdeck to use any accidentally flipped ones.
Will this make Shockwave suddenly a nutty composition? I don't think it will, at least not particularly, but I do think that LV Gamma Disruptor is a necessary and welcome step in the right direction for Shockwave. I think it'll be a fantastic boost to Shockwave compositions, and I can't imagine a future without more to come.
Even Soundwave must pet the kitty cat. All must pet the kitty cat.
Micro Capacitor is a kind of, well, very good.
You see, in a team with Micromasters (or in certain cases a team full of Micromasters) you will have a lot of options when it comes to tapping effects. Sadly, you'll find that your opponent will often target down the most useful of these effects. With that in mind, we either simply had to bite the bullet and let it happen, or use Stealthiness or Bravery to attempt to redirect that damage. Micro Capacitor effectively forces your opponent to attack where you want them to, while also giving you the added bonus of untapping your Micromaster for later use.
I think that any deck that values its Micromaster will love this card more than life itself. I mean, imagine getting to use Red Heat twice before he's KO'd, or even Detour or Flak! You can get a lot of value out of your Micromasters when you use them at the right time; you can get even more value out of them if you get to use them twice.
Mark my words, Bolster will be of one of the best cards in the set.
Allow me to explain. In a defensive list, you have one big enemy that you will fear until the end of time, and that card is named Bashing Shield. Bashing Shield can remove your armor and make your characters take way more damage than they initially would (or should) and effectively deny your Armor upgrade for the turn. In fact, most defensive lists play cards like Espionage just to remove Bashing Shield when they see an opponent pick one up using its green pip.
That's where Bolster comes in.
You see, when Bolster activates, your opponent will not have the chance to remove any Force Field, Reinforced Plating or any other powerful Armors that you might have. But perhaps more than that, you can get ahead on the Upgrade arms race or use to disrupt your opponent, including using cards like Scrapper Gauntlets to remove potentially awful weapons before they have an effect.
In fact, I actually quite think that will be a very good use for Bolster. But just imagine all of the potential you can use with it! If your opponent overinvests into an attack, simply Force Field and deny them that play. If they underinvest, then you can use cards like Multi-Mission Gear to play more Actions or Scrapper Gauntlets to punish their board state.
Bolster is honestly one of the best cards I have seen in Siege, and I am ecstatic to see where it goes from here.
Defensive Formation is a less hand-based version of Bolster, at least in the defensive respects. Think of this like playing an Armored Plating on one of your characters with a Bolster -- it's just not that strong as a defensive card when compared to Bolster. But, when you consider that it is markedly better against hand destruction-based lists like Sentinels... Well, I guess you could find a place for it in a sideboard.
But in a mainboard? I mean, sure, it makes all of your characters have +1 defense, but why? This isn't like Battle Ready where it makes all of your characters have +1 attack for each Upgrade on them -- this is just straight +1 defense on an orange pip no less.
I'm confused, disappointed and I'm ready for the next card!
RIP Viewfinder
It's basically Vaporize that can't target Utilities. It's at least good for decks that want to play a lot of black pips, but more than that I can't say I'd see using it over Ramming Speed, Vaporize or any of the other anti-Upgrade cards -- even Device Virus is better.
Either way, it's a middling card that will likely see play in black lists. More than that I cannot say.
However, it is worth noting that Reflector is actually featured on this card artwork! Plus, with a coy response from game designer Ken Nagle when I asked him at Origins about possible character inclusions, I'd wager that we'll be seeing a card or two based on everyone's favorite camera-based trio coming out next set. After all, why make new artwork to feature a character that will never come to be?
Skywarp quickly realized the easiest way to win in a Battle Royale game was to hide -- earning him the ire of his friends and the anger of his opponents.
Hiding Place is a very, very good card for Tall decks.
So, lemme explain. You see, when you have a Tall deck, you're only sitting there with two characters. It's easy -- especially for aggressive decks like Insecticons -- to focus down one of your characters with mass attack. So, with Hiding Place, you can effectively force your opponent not to do that by giving the character they wish to focus down Stealth. This is an incredibly good effect for a powerful composition like Double Primes or even Three Wide Prime, as redirecting your opponent's attacks in a defensive build is never not good.
Now, in most other lists, this won't help much. But, in lists like Sideswipe, Tall decks and various defensive compositions, you'll find that Hiding Place is invaluable.
Drawing a blank.
Being a +3 attack weapon, one could say that EM24 IR Laser Launcher is a good weapon -- one could even say that it has no downside like Erratic Lightning!
One would also be super, super wrong.
You see, being a blank pip effectively cuts back on that value by quite a large margin. You're effectively losing consistency in your list in terms of pip strength, something I am not a fan of. In fact, I cut One Shall Stand, One Shall Fall from my Insecticon list simply because it had no pips to flip during Kickback and other, equally as Bold characters' attacks.
The same could be said here. Laser Launcher still has a bit of power in it, sure, but I would never put more than one in a list that already had cards without pips like I Still Function. Even if I were to put this in a list, I would be far more likely to play One Shall Stands simply because of the out of combat damage that it could provide instead of the in combat damage that Laser Launcher provides.
One thing that Laser Launcher has over One Shall Stand, of course, is the lack of recoil. But is that truly a reason to play a subpar weapon over your other options?
I just keep "droning" on.
This card is a not great card, much like its two sister cards. Aside from Device Virus, Chop Shop and, well, dying, there really isn't many ways to scrap this card from one of your characters to scrap an already usually unimportant Utility from your opponent. Plus, you're not getting any healthier as the game goes by -- there just isn't time to play and scrap this card.
Of course, Personal Targeting Drone does have a green and white pip, so at least you can put a white pip into your hand if you desperately need one for Red Heat, Stakeout or other, similar effects. There's not too much reason to play this, otherwise, though.
Well I guess I need another name to roast Basic Combat Protocol with.
Think about Flamethrower, and then put a black pip on it, and then you have Smokethrower.
In orange/black decks, you're effectively able to play six copies of Flamethrower while still not losing any of your orange or black cards. In fact, in white/black lists like Omega Supreme/Jazz, you're going to be needing something like Smokethrower in order to actually deal a relevant amount of damage. It's not exceptional, no, but it does it's job and I think that's pretty much as much as you could ask for.
"I have mastered the ability of standing so completely still that I become invisible to the eye. Watch."
Urban Camo is actually much better than Basic Combat Protocol.
So, Tough 1 is super small, yes, but when you consider that you can use it in tandem with Flamewar, General Optimus and an Armor, that Tough 1 can stack very quickly. Keep in mind, Urban Camo is a Utility -- not an Armor -- so you can play it alongside other cards like Reinforced Plating or Body Armor. Plus, being a Blue pip, you can still flip it and not feel awful about yourself.
It's kind of a feel bad card to play on your turn, but if you're playing defensively you're able to have enough time to take full advantage of Urban Camo, unlike Basic Combat Protocol in aggro lists. Either way, I think it's a great card for defensive lists in the highly underutilized Utility slot -- and I couldn't be happier.
CLOSING
Origins was a dream for me. I drove down with a friend of mine and ended up staying in an Air BNB with a great group of friends, having one of the first vacations I've had in a matter of years. Escape Rooms, literal knights in shining armor, film festivals and interesting eats all made the tournament at Origins not just any tournament, but an experience. I can't tell you how much I enjoyed my time at Origins -- and I think the best way to explain it is simply to tell you to go to the next tournament, yourself, and see. If you'd like to hear more things about my thoughts on my placement and my run, you can check out an interview with me that Cameron Ehteshami did on his channel, Arbitrary Hero!
I had an utterly awesome time at Origins, and it was even better to meet all the people that I have spoken to online about this card game we all love to play, and meeting new friends was even better. Plus, winning third was a nice bonus -- it was far greater than I had even hoped to place! I had hoped to get this article out beforehand, which is why it's so long, but I ended up running out of time and had to put it out after I got back from Columbus a week after. Sorry about that!
Speaking of those reveals, what do you think? I think that Bolster is one of my favorite cards in the set, and I think that the abilities that Bolster is bringing will be far and away one of the most impactful cards to be added to the game.
Or maybe I'm wrong. Who knows? Lemme know in the comments below what you think!
'Cause I'm a cowboy / On a steel horse I ride
And I'm wanted / Dead or alive
So many reveals so little time. But before we get into them, I think we should probably address the elephant in the room -- or to be more specific, the cassette player in the room!
If you couldn't tell from the teaser up top, we're going to be getting Soundwave as well as his cassettes this wave! Now, it is currently unknown what they're going to look like given the line "drastically altered their appearance", but we can guess that they're going to look something like their Siege incarnations. We also have literally no idea how they're going to work given that the guys at Wizards have stated that they had a specific playstyle that was unlike anything we've seen before.
My mind is reeling this early in an article? Criminey Christmas! Someone, start the spoilers, quick, before I start speculating... And hey, what's with this cassette deck on the table? I thought those were out of style since... Bah. Let's get to the reveals!
CHARACTER CARDS
I, for one, look forward to the Robo-Smasher card.
Arcee is an interesting, and a surprisingly competent, character. This is the second Arcee card we've gotten, with this form being in the form of her G1 design. With her comes Focus, a new type of keyword-based ability. Let's dig into that, shall we?
Focus, when used, is a pre-attack ability similar to Plan where you look at the top card of your deck and decide whether or not to keep it. Basically, just think of Aerial Recon where you can Surveil the top card of your deck to hopefully make your next attack better. But here's the thing. I've said this time and time again, even with Recon System: Focus and other attack-based effects like it, if you really think about it, are just worse versions of Bold.
Put it this way; which of the two would you rather do?
Focus: Look at the top of your deck, decide you don't like it and scrap it. Then, you flip the next two cards, with the end result being you seeing the top three cards of your deck with the standard two flips.
Bold: Flip three cards. The top card of your deck wasn't what you wanted, but the other two were. The end result is that you see three cards off the top of your deck with Bold 1 and and the standard two flips.
If you think those things are anything other than exactly the same, then you're fascinatingly wrong.
But here's the thing: If they're the same, then what makes Focus worse? I must have been exaggerating, right? Well, let's take a look at that same scenario again but let's change the top of the deck to something we want to keep instead of something we want to scrap. Let's see what happens:
Focus: You look at the top card of your deck and you decide to keep it. This means you won't be seeing another card off the top card of your deck, and this means you're only seeing two in total and you're doing the damage that would entail.
Bold: You flip three cards, including the card you wanted to keep, dealing more damage than Focus would allow.
Empirically speaking, Focus is worse than Bold. Now, this is not to say that Focus in itself is bad per se, in fact, I'd much prefer Arcee to have Focus instead of being vanilla, but you have to understand that unless it's in extremely high numbers, Focus won't do much for you outside the first turn or two.
Now, where does that leave Arcee? Well, since we know that having Focus is better than nothing, we can safely say that her vehicle mode lands solidly in the "somewhat mediocre" slot. Hey, it's better than "bad" or "unplayable", right? I may be harsh but I'm not heartless!
But what of her robot mode? Well, my friends, that's where I'm actually slightly excited. Now, I am an excitable person, but in balanced builds Arcee might actually see value. You see, we're in an anti-Armor meta with Bashing Shield making aggro decks extremely powerful against their more defensive opponents. It's why Force Field isn't as powerful as it could be.
So, when I saw that Arcee could retain Tough with only a weapon, I was intrigued. There is no anti-Weapon cards that are played to any notable degree with the innate lack of permanence that many of the most powerful weapons have. So, you could make whatever armor you have on you far more potent, or you could play her in an all-blue list to make her mediocre defensive stats higher.
But here's another reason to be excited for Arcee in aggro lists, as well: She makes every weapon attached to her provide Bold 1. You could use a Power Punch to give her Bold 3, stacking with her innate ability to give her a thick total Bold 4. Which reminds me, if you manage to put a Superior Blaster or Lionizer's weapon mode, you can give her a monstrous Bold 5 not even counting any Actions you've played.
Of course, one could make the argument that one could just play Wave 1 Wheeljack. He has Bold 3 innately, after all. Naturally, I agree. If it's one or the other, Wheeljack is definitely the better option. However, I wonder if she won't have a claim to a spot alongside him instead of Wave 2 Prowl thanks to her Tough and higher HP adding to her survivability?
Who knows? I just write here.
All in all, she's interesting. I can definitely see her getting played in certain balanced lists for her Bold/Tough split, but I can also see a case for her use in Cars. I wouldn't count on it, of course, but she certainly has potential.
Can we please get more Flamewar toys? Other than BotCon exclusives, that is.
Flamewar has as many cards as her toys. I really don't have that much to follow that up with, but I just thought it was an interesting point at how we have a hilarious lack of Flamewar representation in the toyline. But, is her card just as dismal as her representation?
Well, not really. Somewhat. Kinda. That'll take some explaining.
Firstly, I've spoken at length about low numbers of Focus and how it's basically just Bold but with more steps and less payoff. Now, with Flamewar's Focus 2, you can still look at the top of your deck to arrange them however you want or scrap them. Something about Focus that I didn't exactly touch on is that the high number of Focus (say, for instance an Upgrade gives you Focus 3 plus the innate Focus 2) you can potentially arrange not just the next attack but potentially the defense afterward. I'm not saying that this is confirmed to happen, but it would be fascinating if it did.
I mean, you could pair it with Plan 2 to put two cards for Flamewar's attack on the top of your deck after arranging the next two cards for defensive purposes. I don't know if that's viable given Flamewar's... Rather dismal defense to say the least. Arcee could get away with it with her Tough 1, but Flamewar isn't so lucky. Of course, you could always try out the Plan combo I was talking about to hopefully rig the topdeck to your defensive purposes, but that only goes so far.
But enough about Focus! Let's talk about the stats of everyone's Decepticon waifu: Flamewar! If you couldn't tell, Flamewar is a cheap-ish Motorcycle, which means she can finish out a full team of Motorcycles worth 25 Points with Chromia at 8, Wave 1 Arcee at 5, Wave 1 Flamewar at 5 and using those 7 points, Specialist Flamewar to round out the whole list.
Now, is there any point to a full Motorcycle list other than the novelty of saying that you, in fact, have four Motorcyles on the field?
Not anymore. You remember Swap Parts, right? The banned card? Yeah, that card was kind of important for the Motorcycle's explosive playstyle given the Specialist support that the archetype relied upon. It kinda stinks because Motorcycles were seemingly about to get their hayday with a fourth Motorcycle Specialist to join their ranks and more cards to use in their combo. Now that Swap Parts is banned, who knows if they have the power to be viable anymore?
Who knows? Either way, I just know that Specialist Flamewar will be played in the list. Will she be played anywhere else? Probably not. She doesn't have the amount of power that other seven starred characters have, and despite her Stealth in vehicle mode, not that much bulk to back up the opposite end of the spectrum.
Let's just agree that Ironhide is basically the Doomslayer but with a Southern accent.
Something about Infinite Combo being uncounterable?
Let's be honest, here, this is the epitome of a hard counter to the Infinite Combo. Ironhide can't take non-attack damage, which is kinda the entire win condition of the Combo deck, and his stats are high enough that we can pretty well say that Combo can't pull off the KO on him pretty much no matter what. Remember, Combo is not dead -- it's just more complicated. Red Heat makes it a competent composition, albeit a more counterable one.
But Ironhide? Ironhide counters it in the same vein that Acid Storm counters Dinobots. His very existence means that, in all likelihood, you will be able to punish their flimsy composition. This is not to say that it's an autowin, but you're guaranteed to at least have Ironhide alive and likely at nigh full HP when their combo inevitably ends. When it does, Red Heat is going to be tapped, and as such, you can more or less annihilate him and his flimsy stats, likely ending the combo for good.
Ironhide can also do a good bit of work against Aerialbots and similarly geared direct damage decks. These aren't played as much as other decks, but it's nice to know that Ironhide is roughly impervious to their entire deck in the same vein that Motormaster makes the rest of his team effectively invincible to direct damage.
Of course, there is more to Ironhide than his vehicle mode. His robot mode is something of an interesting novelty. With the weapon trading effect, you can retrigger weapon effects like Armed Hovercraft, or swap an Armed Hovercraft for a more potent weapon like Energon Axe. Sadly, this happens before flips, meaning you can't swap a Bold weapon with a damaging weapon after the Bold triggers.
Regardless, the Armed Hovercraft combo is something that I'm fascinated by. I've always loved Armed Hovercraft and cards like it such as Photon Bomb, and his synergy with them is titillating. I just wish that it could be with any weapon, not just blue weapons. That way you could put a Superior Blaster on him, bypassing the Tech Research stipulation.
Either way, Ironhide is an interesting little Rare card. I'm not quite sure if we'll see him out in the field thanks to his middling stats and above average cost, but in his own deck or maybe partnered with Ultra Magnus? Now you're cookin' with gas.
Contrary to popular belief, he's not much of a hugger.
Roadhugger is basically baby Thrust and I love him.
I know, I know, I said the same thing about Storm Cloud, but let's be fair here. What you lose in a single point for playing Roadhugger, you could say that you're gaining consistency. Instead of requiring you to discard three green pips (in some cases three of the same green pip), you need only to discard a single blue pip to get roughly the same value. If you consider that most of the time Bold is just +1 damage (not counting extra white pips, blanks or double orange cards), you're effectively getting the same value for a much more manageable cost.
Roadhugger, however, does require you to play blue cards in an orange deck and I am not super in love with that. However, there is a silver lining. There are cards like Matrix of Leadership or Roll Out which have one of each, as well as playing Backup Beam or Scoundrel's Blaster to have a green pipped green that doesn't really make you lose out on damage with their being weapons.
Plus, he's a Car, which means that you can untap him in a car deck rather easily to be used again (if he survives)! All in all, I think Roadhugger might replace Storm Cloud in most lists that don't care about alternate modes. In decks that want to field a lot of planes, Storm Cloud's your guy, but if you don't care about that single point and you don't mind having a car... Well, look no further.
Can we all just agree that Laserbeak was the main antagonist of DOTM?
Hey, wait a minute! Laserbeak? Where's your...? Ah, nevermind.
Laserbeak is both amazingly good and amazingly worrying at the same time. On one hand, you have Laserbeak's horrible stats in both modes. On the other, however, you get to play a "free" Secret Action during your turn as well as a little extra draw support with his neat little draw ability in alternate mode. Now, this would be even better if we knew what kind of things we could look forward to in terms of Secret Actions. But, as it stands, we have no idea other than a simple Draw + Plan card as to what we're going to have access to.
But, to be perfectly frank with you, Laserbeak was probably not meant to be played alone. Even though he actually could be competent in terms of his Secret Action engine, he's basically just a slightly worse Micromaster at that point. Why do I say this, you ask? Well, look closely: He's a Micromaster in all areas except the most important: Stealth.
On the first turn of the game, Laserbeak has a great many chances to get annihilated by any and every aggro deck you ever have the displeasure of facing. I gripe, of course; with proper blue support, you have just as many chances at survival, as well, but I can't help but to be worried about the little guy.
In closing, Laserbeak may be frail, but he brings unquestionable utility with his Secret Action ability. We don't know all of those Secret Actions, or any beyond the first to be exact, but playing free Actions never hurt anybody.
"Check out my mixtape, man, it's pretty catty!"
Ravage is surprisingly good, and he makes up for Laserbeak's less-than-stellar offensive power and bulk by being... Well, both of those things. In terms of five star cassettes, he's going to be able to take quite the beating in his alternate mode. But that's not all that this little bugger can do: In his robot mode, he can do a bit of chip damage here and there, and start pounding on some more dense targets.
I do realize that his chip damage makes him a bit lackluster in many (most) compositions, but do keep in mind that his chip damage actually turns out to be a bit useful in certain scenarios. For instance, he can turn Skrapnel into a 2HKO, and he can pop Six-Gun for one damage to negate the Force Field. Sometimes one damage is all you need, and whereas I still stand by Zap being one of the worst Actions in the game, I can still find justification for Ravage's abilities seeing as he's always there and not a constant threat of cluttering your hand.
Now, the down side. His stats are nothing to write home about other than his high defense in cassette mode, and his survivability in robot mode is actually markedly worse than Laserbeak's. In fact, Laserbeak is actually better at attacking than Ravage could ever hope to be with his innate Pierce 2, but with any luck Ravage won't need to be doing any head-on attack damage, anyway.
All in all, I think that Ravage will probably be passed up on in most compositions outside of cassettes. Laserbeak is just better value for his point cost, including the ability to deal two damage to a high-armored target through Pierce. Plus, there are just better Micromasters, including Roadhugger, in defensive lists for the same cost.
Okay but real talk: We can now have just an entire team of cats. Lionizer, Rampage, Razorclaw and now Ravage. There is literally no actual reason to have that team other than the fact that they are all cats, but like... You have an entire team of cats.
The big question is, does he have a good Constructicon matchup?
Soundwave? Wait... Soundwave? Hey, wait a minute... Where'd that cassette player go?
Oh. Well, my own blindness aside, let's peel apart the mystery and see just what Soundwave can really do!
Looking over his stats to start off, we see that he is 11 Stars -- not bad, but still not that great for having three five starred characters paired with him. But there's more to him than meets the eye. You see, he also has two abilities directly tied to another team keyword: "Spy Patrol". These are undoubtedly his cassettes (see below) and both of his abilities are equally as powerful.
First, I think I can safely state that giving passively +1 Defense to your cassettes is absolutely insane. Now, sure, your opponent is probably not going to use much effort in KOing them and instead focus on Soundwave given their high defense (especially Ravage), but it's a very interesting idea to transform Laserbeak to robot mode on the first turn and attack with Ravage, forcing them to attack into his monstrous defense. After all, Soundwave can use his robot mode the next turn to completely refund that entire transaction.
How? Well, when he attacks, he untaps your cassettes. Thus, after you've tried to punch your opponent with a literal cassette tape turn one, you can prevent Ravage or Laserbeak from being double targeted and reuse their tap abilities to boot. You probably don't need me to tell you this, but this effect is extremely powerful.
Something else that is worthy of note is that Soundwave doesn't have any innate effects to force you into playing orange or blue. Thus, I would probably say that the best way to play Soundwave is defensively so that Ravage or Laserbeak can survive their first hit, and Soundwave can get more value. This lower attack in the blue version is mitigated by Ravage being able to put out some surprising amounts of damage on heavily armored targets. Now, I realize that he's not going to be winning any awards or dominating any games, but adding on a little bit of damage on a turn where you can't or don't want to play a Secret Action with Laserbeak can't be understated.
But finally, something that I want to touch on slightly is this: Soundwave and his cassettes are entirely 21 stars. This means that, unless you wanted to play four Star Cards, you could play Storm Cloud or perhaps -- and no, the irony is not lost on me -- a Constructicon. Now, again, we don't have all the facts. Buzzsaw could be revealed tomorrow, Ratbat the next day, or perhaps Frenzy, Rumble or even Overkill. There are so many options to fill that fourth spot, but the big question I want to ask is... Just who could it be, and just what could they do?
I think I'll leave that question unanswered for now. But I for one welcome Soundwave. He might be janky, but you can't deny that his monstrous 15 HP and his cassettes' utility is not to be understated. I worry about his low damage output, but perhaps there could be Secret Actions to save him from that fate? Or perhaps a third cassette? Until we know, there's no way to tell. But that being said... I can't wait to see how Soundwave does in the meta. I think we're going to see a lot of him, jank or otherwise.
STARTER SET
So, I might have forgotten to show off the starter set when it came out, but I figured I might drop them here and share my opinions on them anyway just to get the news out there! Remember, you can buy the starter set in stores now, and it's a good start to teach people how to play the game!
Just as a disclaimer, my opinions below only reflect the constructed competitive mentality, not from a new player, casual mentality. The set is still a good start to get people into the game, but I fear that may be the only use for it.
_______
"Another one."
No.
Just say no.
There are just so many better options, like W2 Prowl, Hot Rod, Sunstreaker... Well, you get the picture. He might make a good proxy back, though!
"Curiously enough, the only thing that went through the mind of the bowl of petunias as it fell was: 'Oh no, not again.' "
One day we'll get a good Windblade. One day.
So, I suppose one could make the argument that she is an Autobot Plane who also happens to cost a solid 5 Stars. Now, that's actually quite something, isn't it? Of course, we could try putting her in a five-wide Autobot Plane list, essentially cutting Alpha Bravo from the Aerialbots and making a passing attempt at pulling off the fabled Photon Bomb + Bombing Run combo with five Planes in play. Of course, it's hard enough to pull that off with the Aerialbots on the regular that I daresay that it wouldn't be any easier taking out one of the Aerialbots -- a Specialist at that -- and replacing him with someone who is essentially a vanilla.
To make matters worse, Aerialbots get a lot of power out of Superion, especially on the turn of combination.
I just can't imagine her in anything else, and it sucks because I do love Windblade as a character. Hopefully, one day, she'll have her moment in the sun; but for now, it looks like she'll just have to keep having her moment in the tsun tsun.
Remind me to never make that pun ever again.
"Big things from small beginnings..."
Megatron might actually have some potential. Think about this: Demolishor has 6 points. Flak has 5. Warpath has 6. Those tanks total 17 points, and you know what that means? You can fit a fourth Tank in that list.
Now, quad tanks might be lacking in quite a bit of defensive power, but consider for a moment the idea of running offensive tanks, with Demolishor being the mainstay. You can Hunker Down your whole field with Force Field as well as Bashing Shields to make your life easier, and your spare Armor could be Scrapper Gauntlets to draw even more cards than you already will with Demolishor. You can even play a Full Loadout with your spare Star to make Demolishor hit even harder.
And, backing him up, is Megatron. Megatron can be used in tandem with Full Loadout, Attack Drones or Flak to boost his damage to similar levels that Thundercracker has. Megatron can boost his damage to startlingly high levels for his point cost when you crank out several Upgrades at once.
The Bold in his vehicle mode won't do you much good, sadly, given his measly 2 Attack. But, at least he is a tank. Demolishor couldn't be happier for it.
But, that being said, I could also see playing him alongside Megatron -- Living Weapon. You can use Living Weapon's alternate mode to boost Baby Megatron's damage, with the two Upgrades from that alone boosting his attack to a very respectable 5, not counting the weapons. Plus, you can use Flak to put a third Upgrade on him, boosting his damage to 6, still not counting the Weapons. Fully stocking him with Upgrades certainly sounds nice, though I do worry for his staying power given his mediocre stats otherwise -- I mean, it always sucks to put all of your eggs in one basket; sucks even more to do it twice. But, he might just have the power necessary to have the payoff.
In total, Megatron alone might make this set purchaseable. He can be used as a nice backup attacker, something similar to Baby Buzzwole in the Pokemon TCG in many fighting decks. Good as a one-and-done, but has diminishing returns. Whether he's in as a fourth member to a Tank list or as a backup to someone double his size, Megatron has a lot of value in a little package.
Same song, second verse.
Starscream might have potential. Stop laughing, I'm serious.
Okay, so, remember when I talked about how Megatron could fit into a quad list? Or Windblade in a five-wide? You could say the same thing about Starscream, here, except he has something extremely powerful going for him that Windblade doesn't have, and that Megatron can't take advantage of in the same way:
His name is Starscream.
So if you remember, way, way, way in the past -- around September -- you might remember a Starscream being released that had Bold 2 innately, but more importantly had a very special vehicle mode ability tied to how many Planes you had on the field. Now, back then, the Planes list was something of a misfire. Starscream loved having Planes, but he couldn't get the right planes.
Thundercracker just didn't belong in the list despite his vehicle ability, and Skywarp was... Well, W1 Skywarp was W1 Skywarp. Thus, Starscream rather fell into the wayside for other lists. I still tried to keep the dream alive with more and more variations, but all fell rather flat on their faces.
So, then, how does Baby Starscream help with that?
Well, for one, he has five stars. This means you can play Starscream -- Air Commander at 11 stars, Starscream -- Decepticon Lieutenant at 5, Storm Cloud at 4 and Fireflight at 5 to round off the list with a solid Brave effect to keep both Starscream safe. This means you have four Planes on the field, which means you can use Starscream -- Air Commander's vehicle mode effect to its fullest potential of a good three damage. I don't think you'll be progressing too hard in the direct damage route for this build, though, and that's for good reason.
Reason being, you now have two Starscream in the list. Meaning, you can make full use of Null Ray of Starscream to add a whole mess of damage to Air Commander as well as making Baby Starscream's competent four attack an astonishing 5 base with Bold 2 stacked on. Just imagine Storm Cloud getting involved in that mess with his Bold effect, too!
Now, I realize Baby Starscream is about as frail as one can be, likely being in an all orange list to make your Bold deal the most it can, and his Tough 1 can't make his 7 HP last through a soul-shattering 0 Defense. But that being said, you will likely get a lot of value out of him before he falls, potentially one-hitting many threats out there.
Don't mark this guy up to binder bait just yet. I think he might just have a bright future ahead of him.
BATTLE CARDS
Shortly thereafter, Optimus put together an " Avoiding Sexual Harassment Class", to which Wheeljack was invited.
Full Loadout is kind of nutty. Not only is it a double orange pip -- a blessing in aggro decks with one star to spare -- but it has an effect that is quite ridiculous in many decks.
So, I want you to imagine something. You're sitting there across from a Megatron -- Cybertronian Tyrant and you just went first. You think that your Battlefield Legend is safe, and you decide to swing into their Warpath with just enough to KO them. Not a bad start, and Megatron is too slow to possibly get up enough Upgrades to threaten you on the first turn of th-- Surprise! He is completely powered up with three Upgrades, boosting his damage to 6 base plus a Grenade Launcher and his level of damage and survivability go through the roof with his Force Field and Data Pad.
Battlefield Legend is nearly one-hit out of nowhere.
Now, the effects of Full Loadout are a bit amplified on my cherrypicked Baby Megatron scenario, but playing three Upgrades for essentially free should not be understated in its usefulness, especially if it's on a double orange pip. Now, again, you need to have the Weapon, Utility and Armor in your hand in order to get the full effect of its power and that means you're highly unlikely to get it off on the first turn of the game. But, later on, you can get some shocking comebacks by exploding upgrades on a character out of nowhere.
As for which is better between Mounted Missiles or Full Loadout, I think that should be fairly obvious. Mounted Missiles is neat, but they've never had that powerful burst that you really need to justify playing them on your turn. Sure, you can play it in a Utility or Armor slot, but really, wouldn't you rather just play a regular weapon? Or rather, wouldn't you rather play a Weapon, a Utility and an Armor?
Just saying.
Everyone at the ice cream eating contest was quite confident until the third bowl produced some unforeseen consequences.
This card is lying to you.
EMP Wave taps all characters, both yours and your opponents. So, what happens when all characters are tapped? Everyone untaps. This means that you are untapping all characters on the field going into your opponent's next turn, effectively giving them their choice of whomever they want to attack on their turn. You don't get to attack with one of your characters -- instead, you're forfeiting that last attack to tap everyone.
Now, there is actually merit to doing so if you happen to be behind in the character trade or the untap game. If, say, you face cars and they're -- per usual -- more or less completely untapped during the turn where you would be completely tapped out, you could potentially play an EMP Wave to negate your opponent's trademark Car Dogpile where they get to attack you with all of their characters.
But, to be perfectly frank, is that worth the star? Maybe. I don't really like Energized Field that much, especially given that it flat out begs you to play orange cards in a blue deck, and EMP Wave's limited use is probably better than Energized Field's practical disuse. Regardless, it's an interesting card. Whether or not it'll see play for its effect or just its pip still remains to be seen, but I think we'll probably see it over Energized Field regardless.
Gives a whole new meaning to getting a "Ram Truck".
Battering Ram is not the best at everything, but it does its job very, very well. Now, you might be asking, "Hey, what is that job, exactly?" and that is a good question, and I'm afraid it has a simple answer.
Combiners hate Battering Ram because they really, really like being able to combine during a game. Battering Ram not only slows Combiners down to a crawl, but in some cases outright denies combination in general. I mean, think about it. Every time you attack with your truck, you keep undoing their hard-earned flips and it stalls their combiner for another turn.
Wasting turns combining is the kiss of death for many Combiners, and I can definitely see running Battering Ram for the combiner mirror in many decks. Take Stunticons, for instance, who have two Trucks that can use Battering Ram, with Motormaster being effectively unpunishable in his robot mode. You could also say the same for a control-based Sentinel list, though that is played to a lesser degree.
Battering Ram, however, can also be something of a double-edged sword. Take, for example, Metroplex. People love giving Metroplex a seizure and flipping him multiple times in a turn. With Battering Ram, you effectively give them a free transformation into Base mode, spitting out another one of his smaller characters.
This isn't the only case, either. Like, for instance, Megatron -- Arrogant Ruler can play a free Upgrade when Battering Ram swings into him, or returning a non-pipped card from your Scrap to your hand in terms of Skywarp. A double-edged sword, it is.
But, honestly? I think Battering Ram's usefulness against Combiners more than makes up for its peculiarity against other lists to include it in any Truck-based deck. I could even see a case for it in non-traditional "Truck" decks, like Nemesis Prime. After all, slowing your opponent down is something that Nemesis will always enjoy.
"Yes. My perfect plan. The virus will be on the computer, and the only clue they'll have to the infection is the giant Decepticon logo on the background! I am a genius!"
Device Virus is coming from fellow content creator "TCG Roll Out!" on Twitter, and I have to say, Device Virus is probably the best black-pipped Action we have by a large margin. Everything else is either split colors with a black pip with a lackluster card effect when you play it, but Device Virus is different.
It's basically Super Energy Removal, something you'll remember if you played Pokemon during the fledgling years. Of course, there's a big difference between Energy and Upgrades, but it's pretty much the same effect. But, when you realize that you can combo Device Virus with other Upgrades, things start getting a little interesting.
You see, Device Virus has the potential to remove three Armor cards in one turn when used in tandem with Bashing Shield. You can play a Bashing Shield, scrap an Armor, then Device Virus the Bashing Shield to scrap two more Armor. You could say the same about Weapons with Enforcement Batons or Utilities with Crushing Size.
Of course, such an effect necessitates playing all of those things, so it really depends on what your deck looks like and what matchups you want to beat with it. But, if you're afraid of decks like Predacons which bust out the Upgrades -- usually weapons -- quickly, especially when combined, Device Virus might be for you.
At the end of the day, though, it's a black pip and we still have yet to see how good it is in a blue/black or mono black deck. But, if the black pips we have yet to see are anything like Device Virus, I think we're going to be seeing a lot more of them in lists.
"Thinking quickly, Wheeljack constructs a homemade megaphone using only some string, a squirrel and a megaphone."
Repurpose is the only black draw card we've seen thus far, and I can't mention too much about it because it's nothing too much to write home about. It's a very basic cycling card that replaces itself and one other card in your hand with the top two cards of your deck, essentially.
It's a black pipped card that also happens to draw cards. I mean, in a black deck, do you really want too much else out of it? Let's be fair here. You won't play it in any other deck that doesn't play black pips, but if you play black, then you'll be needing this.
CONCLUSION
Can I just say this?
Soundwave.
That is all.
But in all seriousness, I can't wait to see how Soundwave will be playing out in this meta. Perhaps more than that, I can't wait to see how his cassettes will fare under stress. The whole composition just seems a bit frail from my perspective, but I haven't really touched it in physical form (yet) and I suppose we won't find out for sure how good he is until we see him in action.
The other characters aren't too much to write home about save the Ironhide. Being able to dance Armed Hovercraft makes me happy, and having an effective autowin against Red Heat Infinite is a brilliant thing to have just as an alternate mode.
As for his female compatriots, Focus is an interesting new mechanic, as well. I think, if we get effects for high Focus, we may very well see balanced decks other than Metroplex make a comeback in the game. Until then, however, just give me Bold and call it a day, hm?
As for the Battle Cards, there were a ton of reveals. I can't say that some of them were overtly good or overtly bad, but I can definitely say that many of them had a ton of potential like Device Virus.
What did you like the most? Roadhugger? Soundwave? W2 Starter Bumblebee? Maybe not that last one. Let me know in the comments below, and as always, thanks for reading! If you want to check out more of my content, go to my YouTube Channel, Nanomachines, where I do deck profiles and other competitive content.
You never know... Something interesting might happen there in the next few days. Who knows?
Yesterday, we revealed the newest combiner to hit Wizards of the Coast's Official Transformers Trading Card Game Wave 2: Rise of the Combiners, Volcanicus(also the newest combiner to hit Transformers fiction in general!)
Well today fellow Seibertron user, #Sideways#, has prepared a full in-depth look at the combiner, and all his components, his special enigma card and a few other reveals...
"Whenever Earth settles, God chucks a stone at it. And believe me, he's winding up."
W-Wait, is that the--? The Beast!? Wait, what? It's Volcanicus? Oh, thank God. I thought I was going to have an aneurysm.
Anyway, the Transformers Trading Card Game group is back at it again with the reveals. This time, they've revealed an entire team of Combiners -- and they're all rare! That, and they teased the reveal of something even further beyond our imagination, with a Battle Card that references a "Sentinel". Let's dive in!
__________Character Cards__________
"Watch me swooce right in!"
Swoop here is actually really good, and I'll tell you why in a few seconds. But first, let's take a look at the stats. His attack is low, his defense is abysmal, his HP is good but with his low defense it will burn through pretty quickly, but something that I'd like to point out about Swoop is the fact that he is, in fact, a Specialist. Specialists in this set have gotten a good boost with Field Communicator. Field Communicator can play a lot of "free" cards, and has a power level in my opinion close to Multi-Mission Gear in terms of usefulness, and decks that can run are always the better for it.
But there are plenty of Specialists in the game, and two of them are Dinobots already! So, by now, it should be obvious why this card is good, then. You see, his robot ability has the effect that puts extra Green Cards in your hand. Like all Green Cards, you have to choose who you're going to let in. To your hand, I mean.
Unfortunately, you can only choose one Green Pip to put into your hand, and as such, if you happen to have -- for instance -- a Focus Fire and a Dinobot Enigma in your top flips, you can only choose one to put into your hand. The good news is that Swoop can put them both, and without discarding a card to do so. That is a great effect, as the discarding effect generally forces you to discard things you might not want to.
Now, when we compare him to his previous iteration from Wave 1, we see that whereas his stats are slightly better in some regards, he's also one more star in order to play, which kind of defeats the purpose of playing Swoop in your Dinobot list. Let's be clear, here -- playing Swoop in a Dinobot list is really only viable when you're trying to cut points in order to play a Mounted Missiles Upgrade or something similar to put those nice pips in the deck. Since this guy is a 7-Star and not a 6-Star, I can't really recommend playing him outside of the Volcanicus list.
All in all, I don't think that he'll ever replace his previous iteration -- but I do think that the Volcanicus lists that can play him, probably should if for no other reason than his Specialist support.
Always the bridesmaid, never the bride.
This version of Slug isn't as full of cesium salami that his previous iteration was, but let's be fair here, this version isn't that great either. Looking at the stats alone, we have a large point count with rather mediocre stats. I mean, he has great defensive abilities, for sure, but when you have a low attack along with it, you aren't going to be dealing a lot of damage at all.
But, there is a silver lining. His robot mode ability does give you a "soft" Bold effect when you flip a White pip, which can add to his damage moreso than not having that ability, but let's face it, he's a Dinobot, and that one extra card that you're going to see off the White pip isn't going to do much. It is nice, though, to combine it with your high Bold numbers that you're sure to run in a Volcanicus deck.
But what about outside of a Volcanicus deck? Well, in short, being 8 Stars could make him interesting to play instead of Sludge, but Sludge is so good at keeping your Grimlock and Snarl alive that you're kinda crazy not to play him. Sludge is just that good -- he's even a Specialist! -- so it's not that Slug is an overtly bad card, it's just that there are so many better options that it's not worth it to try and fit him in a list.
I mean, you could try making a list without Grimlock, but at that point, why are you even playing Dinobots in the first place?
"Draw, you yella-bellied low-life!"
Hey, what'ya know, it's the draw power of this archetype! In all seriousness, however, you can definitely tell that this card is "get out of jail free" card that you use after using a Dino-Chomp. Out of all the newly revealed Dinobots, this one synergizes the best with a Dino-Chomp. See, whereas your stats are low like all Combiner bits, you have that draw ability which gives you a way out of your potential "dead draw" mode after discarding your hand with a Dino-Chomp, all the while dumping raw power into your attack to deal much-needed early damage before you combine.
You see, the combination game can be volatile. Once you combine and you don't win by a decisive margin, to be perfectly frank, you're probably going to end up losing. You need to defeat several characters on your opponent's field (depending on what they're playing, of course) before you combine, unless you want them to gang up on your combiner. This is accentuated with the low defense of The Bea-- Er, Volcanicus' combined form.
I think that playing Dino-Chomp is the only way you're going to get that value in the early game, and who better to use it than a guy that draws you two cards when you do?
So, what about Sludge outside of the Volcanicus list? Well, I doubt you'll find too much use out of him. Wave 1 Snarl is just better value in terms of both offensive power and draw power, and Sludge is 8 stars to Snarl's 7, so there is very little reason to take him over Snarl. Sadly, the only home he has is in Volcanicus -- and Volcanicus is all-too happy to have him.
Well, hit or miss, I guess you never miss, huh?
This Snarl is straight up better than the previous Snarl. Why, you ask? Why do I think that this folded potato chip is better than the best Dino in Dinobots? Well, let's make like Lucio and break it down.
Okay, so this Snarl has one less attack than the Wave 1 Snarl in both modes, and lacks the draw ability that the previous Snarl had, but when you look at the draw power that he had before, you begin to realize that you are seldom going to be at zero cards in hand, especially with a Data Bank in play. Beyond that, Snarl from Wave 1 had essentially Plan 1 without the keyword -- and this Snarl has twice that, with Plan 2.
Early game, you're making more use of the less useful cards in your hand with his Planning effect, and making the most out of the cards in your hand before a Dino-Chomp makes me happy. The other Snarl almost discorded with Dino-Chomp in a few ways, being that his Dinosaur mode was the only thing that you can use to draw with, and that you're generally going to want to invest a Dino-Chomp in a higher attack target like Grimlock, it meant that most of the time you were Transforming and attacking with Grimlock instead of having the time to set up a Snarl draw play.
So, for that reason, I like this Snarl better than the previous one. You just make more use out of him early on than the other Snarl, and in this fast-paced game, you really need early value, and that goes for both Volcanicus and standard.
"And I shall call him... 'Mini-Me'."
This tiny version of Grimlock is one of the most fascinating cards I have ever seen.
First off, you might have noticed something. All of these Dinobots can combine into Volcanicus, and despite that, you can't play all five Dinobots on the same team. How is this possible, you ask? Well, look no further than Grimlock -- Powerful Commander.
You see, Combiners don't really care whether or not you've been killing all of their friends. Just so long as they're in robot mode, you can combine all the same. Sure, you're still going to have the damage carry over, but you're combining all the same. So, when you use Grimlock's ability to put some Dinobots outside the game -- i.e. His missing teammates -- you get to combine, albeit damaged, without having to play all five Dinobots in the same list.
That makes this Grimlock not only the most important character in the list, but also one of the most powerful. Looking at his stats, you have a considerable HP stat and some of the most powerful attack stats of his brethren, being tied with Snarl at 4. Of course, his defense is actually the worst out of his teammates, but, uh, we don't talk about that.
Of course, that means you probably won't get too much longevity out of him, but that's what I STILL FUNCTION! is for, right?
Speaking of, I would like to point out that it says "Dinobot" not a specific Dinobot card. Meaning, you can put one of the Wave 1 Dinobots in your KO zone, which brings up some fascinating -- and in some cases, absolutely absurd combos. For instance, you can put Grimlock into the KO zone and I STILL FUNCTION! him into play for some potentially game-winning Trample plays with his effects.
Of course, there is an even more absurd and -- dare I say broken? -- combo that you can pull off, but more on that later.
You can also put this guy into non-Volcanicus lists. You can deal small amount of damage in terms of his bigger brethren, but you can put some cool I STILL FUNCTION targets into the KO Pile to mess around with which makes that deck archetype even more interesting than it already is. But perhaps another interesting way to play him is to play him without any of his Volcanicus friends, and play a standard Dinobot list that, with his effect putting his Volcanicus friends into the KO zone, you can potentially combine with your other Dinobots on the field.
Unlikely, for sure, as it requires attacking with him four times in a row at least, but still an interesting thought.
So in closing, I'll leave you with two questions: One, what I STILL FUNCTION! combos can you think of? And two, why the heck does he have an Autobot logo on his, uh... Codpiece?
"I think a lot about meteors. The purity of them. BOOM! The end. Start again. A world made clean for a new man to rebuild."
This combiner is super nutty, and I like him way better than Predaking at least thus far. Predaking is probably a "baseline" combiner, with very little special happening with him (in terms of combiners, that is). Volcanicus, however, is the antithesis of that, with the most interesting way to combine. But here's the thing: They all have the same end result.
Predaking has a strategy that essentially follows the rhythm of "transform, attack, die" until you eventually combine into Predaking to take your last KO or two. Thing is, Volcanicus takes that and dials it up to 11. See, when you combine, your orange Battle Cards are all essentially treated as double, with each orange card you flip dealing extra damage indirectly to your quarry. You can do so much damage with that single attack that I'm not sure anything can survive it.
Volcanicus also has access to the staggering support of Dinobots, being a Dinobot himself. You can use Dino-Chomp! and Jaws of Steel -- heck, you can use I STILL FUNCTION! to return a Grimlock -- Dinobot Leader to the field and Transform him, giving you more Bold! Obviously that's probably a bad idea, but you get what I'm saying here. You can pull off some absurd numbers if you happen to have a card that allows you to play multiple Actions in a turn.
Here's the thing, though: Volcanicus has zero defense, and all damage from your composite parts remain on the finished product. That means your monstrous 56 HP isn't going to last too long when you're probably already sitting at 40 Damage when you combine. Remember, at least two of your characters are going to be KO'd when you combine thanks to Grimlock's effect, and that's not counting the potential one to two other characters that will be joining them before you get a chance to combine.
So, the end result is that you're going to be at a very high damage when you combine, and with zero defense, you're probably going to end up taking one KO anyway before you get a retaliatory KO, whether a Force Field is there being a big player in his survivability.
But there is a remedy for that problem, and it relies on Baby Grimlock (i.e. Volcanicus Grimlock) bringing in someone pretty special: Sludge from Wave 1.
How Sludge's healing works is that when you Transform him to Dino mode, you can move as much damage from your Dinobots as you want to him -- even if you go over his 12 HP. So, that being said, you can end up using an I STILL FUNCTION! to return him to play, and Transform him while he's in play to move all of the damage from Volcanicus to Sludge and completely heal off all 56 HP on that behemoth.
That's freaking insane, and it means that your opponent is probably going to scoop to you when that happens because there is no way they're going to be able to chew through 56 freaking HP. To put it in perspective, Metroplex has 36 HP. To say that Sludge healing off this guy is absurd if you can pull it off is a bit of an understatement.
Granted, pulling off that combo is unlikely, especially if the board state doesn't allow you to have that kind of leeway. In some cases, it's just better to bring out a Big Grimlock and hit somebody with him like a beatstick, just to avoid all of your opponent's characters from ganging up on Volcanicus. But to be frank, if you haven't killed something by the time you combine, you've probably lost anyway.
I could go on talking about this guy for ages, with so many different ways you can play him, but I think I should boil down my thoughts so you don't die of old age before I get to the point: Volcanicus is very good, and Baby Dinobots should not be underestimated. You deal a lot of damage early game with these Dinobots, and when you combine into Volcanicus, you are almost gifted a free KO with how much damage he can do. He's the definition of a glass cannon, so you're probably going to end up combining to take your last KO or two, but with spicy effects like Sludge, you can potentially combine and remain on the field almost indefinitely.
All in all? I'm terrified of this mad lad. This absolute unit has unbelievable potential in the metagame and I can't wait to see where he goes from here.
__________Battle Cards__________
"Life... Uh, finds a way."
There isn't too much to write home about when it comes to Enigmas. I mean, they do what you expect them to do -- like Spirit Links from Pokemon, they allow certain larger strategies to be played effectively, and the Dinobot Enigma is no different. But one thing I love about these Enigma is that even after you've combined with them, that they still serve a purpose after you're done using them.
Predacon Enigma allows them to attach another Upgrade, essentially a Green-pipped New Designs which is welcome in my book. This, however, is a slightly worse Supercharge, which makes me a little less excited. You see, when you live in the world of Dino-Chomp!, Supercharge and Focus Fire, Bold 2 just seems too small on an Action Card!
But it's not like you're playing this card for this secondary effect -- playing three Enigma in almost all circumstances we've seen at the time of writing is a big mistake, as they will just end up cluttering your hand and flips too much near the end of the game. We're at the point where we see something fascinating in terms of list building: A one-of.
Unlike Pokemon, there are no Prize Cards in this game that pull cards out of your list and put them in an unreachable state. There are no cards that disrupt Green Cards that we know of, so a one-of simply makes sense. I mean, you are a deck that still stacks Bold, here -- you get to mill your deck so easily that you're bound to find the Enigma when you need it. Of course, that's just a theory -- things could be different in practice, but again, theorycrafting is my job here.
All in all, it's just kind of... An Enigma card. I don't really expect anything out of these cards, so when I get something, I'm always glad.
This card is like me at parties -- just kind of... There, you know?
This next card is coming straight out of VectorSigma.info with a great dive-in on the card from Scott Landis. He puts some good effort into his math for this card. We don't agree on this card's playability in certain regards, but if you have the time you should definitely check his article out as well as he has some good points he brings up.
Anyway, despite having arguably the coolest artwork out of all Star cards, I would probably wager that this card is the worst Star card of the bunch. You might look at the pips and say, "Boy howdy, this is the maddest lad of the bunch! Another orange/blue split!" and I would agree that it's always nice to see color combos in this game, but let me ask you, when you read this card, does it seem good?
You might say "yes", and that's fine. But look again. Doesn't this seem, I dunno, familiar? Look at it a third time. You're flipping an extra card on your attack and on your defense... Sounds like Bold and Tough, dunnit?
I have a very strong opinion on this card in particular, but for the sake of this article's length I won't bore you with the details. Well, most of them, anyway.
So let's look at this in terms of what it's meant to do. When you attack, you flip your three cards and you find that one of them is, in fact, not the color you were looking for. You scrap it, and you wind up with an optimal flip. Then, on your defense, you do the same, right?
Well, that's not exactly the case. You see, in this fast-paced game, the general gist is you should typically keep to a mono-color deck -- either orange or blue -- with very few decks playing the mix well or effectively. Metroplex gets away with it, but only barely, and he can't use this card thanks to his massive point pool.
Put it this way, when you attack, sure, you're going to make use of that Bold effect. But when you defend, you're flipping an extra card that could have been drawn or flipped later. In defensive lists, you're milling more cards than you need to on the attack flips. It's like attaching a Power Sword in a blue list -- not very helpful unless you're digging with Battlefield Legend Optimus Prime, right? That's what this card does in mono-color decks.
It's really not that great in them, and honestly, I would rather just attach a Weapon or an Armor in a balanced list. This meta is very fast-paced, so when you spend a turn attaching something that is essentially a combo of Bold 1 and Tough 1, it's just a "feels bad" moment like attaching a Data Bank, but unlike Data Bank, you aren't seeing that much return on your investment in the long run.
It's just better in your deck to flip, and in that case, wouldn't you just rather play a Mounted Missiles to flip and give yourself +2? Or even attach it to also give yourself +2? There are so many better Star Cards that I can't in good conscience recommend playing this card unless you have a very specific list in mind, and even then.
Cool artwork, good pips, bad card. Simple as that. But hey, they can't all be winners, right?
Okay, okay, why is Optimus crossing the Delaware!?
This card is brought to us by Wreck N' Rule, another YouTuber-in-arms of mine who also produces TFTCG content. If you'd like to check out their channel and their thoughts on this card, check their video out with that link!
There has been so much discussion around this card that it's actually a little startling. So many people have so many different ideas -- it's tough to keep track of them all. There are so many implications for this card alone that made people lose their minds for a 12-hour period.
Basically, the gist of it is, first off, that you put it on "Sentinels only" which is baffling since we have no idea what a "Sentinel" is or what that would be. This brought up several instances of lore digging, with several bringing up that Omega Supreme was part of the Omega Sentinels, who could be described as "Sentinels" in the card game.
Something that discounts this is the artwork, which has Victorion in the background. This might bring forth the idea that the Torchbearers could be renamed into the Sentinels, but that's the only evidence one way or the other in that regard.
Another thing that brought up massive discussion was the fact that it mentioned flipping your robots in the KO pile to Robot, then back to vehicle. This could imply that effects when characters Transform in the KO pile still take into effect, like Battlefield Legend's Action recycling ability. Or perhaps it's a simple effect for these enigmatic "Sentinels" we keep hearing about. Either way, if it's for combination, that simply won't do much for the archetype unless someone's ability is actually broken. Remember, transforming into robot mode is the optimal end result.
All in all, I can't pass judgement on this card because its mere existence brings up more questions than concrete answers. It's interesting, that's for certain! But other than that, I can't say one way or another. It's fascinating, and I find myself agreeing with George R. R. Martin when he remarked, "The question is usually more exciting than the answer."
Be careful not to build yourself up, for you may be preparing yourself for a fall of disappointment.
__________Conclusion__________
TFTCG Wave 2, Rise of the Combiners keeps getting more and more interesting. Whereas I don't think Predaking will make it into the metagame without better support, I do think that Volcanicus will take the meta by storm. I firmly believe that -- without playtesting, mind you -- that Volcanicus has massive potential to be a mainstay and a real contender for the top decks.
We have more questions than answers, though, in terms of Combiner support, and whether certain interactions with the KO pile make them better or not remains to be seen. Heck, certain KO Pile interactions still remain to be seen for that matter.
So, what do you think? Will Volcanicus take over the metagame? Will he be a niche deck that will be straight to the bargain bin? What are Sentinels? Let me know what you think in the comments below, and stay tuned for my next breakdown of the next Transformers TCG reveals, and be sure to check out MY CHANNEL for deck profiles and competitive discussion. Thanks for reading!
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What do you think about these new cards? Will you be playing them? Let us know in the Energon Pub and stay tuned to Seibertron for all the latest news and reviews!
With Angry Birds 2 being announced just recently, the Transformers version of the Rovio mobile game has also received some updates: the latest adds a number of new features, such as the new floating sentinel robots, called in to assist by wielding fireballs, lightning storms, and 40 or so skills, which you can create in the Crafting lab. The second big update of potential interest for Transformers fans, is the addition of The Blues playing two different characters: Bluestreak and Prowl! Check out the animation below showing them in action!
_____________________________________________ 5. Make Toys Sale!
Make Toys Sale! Quantron, Trash Talk & Cogwheels & Armageddon Kit! Order Quantron & Green giant and get bonus savings! Plus get FREE US Shipping on orders $150+! Check out the sale here:
Now up for Preorder - APS-01U Asia Premium Series - Optimus Prime - Ultimate Edition!Update! APS-01U Will include a mini die-cast Allspark Cube & Metal Card w/ Serial #. These bonus items will be included for free when you preorder at TFSource here:
New Toyworld Car Combiner - Preorders Up! 6 cars together form one mighty combiner! Note: Each vehicle sold separately! Preorder yours at TFSource here:
Also instock - Ultimetal Optimus Prime! For all that preordered we'll be reaching out regarding the balance of payment, all preorders are spoken for but if you are interested in this piece sign up for product assistant and we'll notify you if more become available!
Now Up For Preorder - BCS-01 Lonewolf! This figure forms the main body of the Combiner Wars Stunticons figures and stands 22CM/8.7" tall. Preorders up at TFSource here:
New preorder up - DMY Studios - D-06 - FPJ Intimidator - Add-on-Kit! All the add-on parts needed to upgrade your Intimidator! Preorders up at TFSource here:
Now up for preorder - Iron Factory - IF-EX04 - City Commander! The IF-EX04 City Commander figure is legends scale and is scaled to work with Generations Metroplex. Preorders up at TFSource here:
KFC Clearance Sale! We're having a clearance sale on several KFC figures, including KFC - EAVI METAL Phase Three: A - Citizen Stack, KFC - EAVI METAL Phase Three: B - Dai Stack, KFC - CT-02 Tempest , KFC - Mugan Scope and more! Check out all of the sale items here:
New Preorder up - Unique Toys - Y01 - Provider! Provider stands 21CM/8.2" tall in robot mode and changes from an airplane to a tanker truck, to robot and back. Preorder yours at TFSource here:
TFsource restock! We've restocked UT's War Lord figure, save almost $200 off the MSRP on this figure and this time the figures are all packaged! On sale at TFSource here:
Now up for preorder - FT04T & FT04X Limited Edition! This revised color scheme for scoria comes in two variations and is up for preorder at TFSource here:
Now up for preorder - Play Arts Kai Variant - Wild West Timeless Batman! Two icons that represent America come together in this VARIANT series when wild west meets DC Comics! Standing 10.6" tall preorder this figure at theToySource here:
Now up for preorder - Star Wars Black 6" 2015 - Wave 1! Set Includes: EP4 Han Solo Stormtrooper, EP6 Emporer Palpatine, EP4 Luke Skywalker Stormtrooper, EP2 Clone Captain Preorder yours at theToySource here:
New Kotobukiya Preorders! We've listed preorders for new Kotobukiya items like Age of Ultron the Hulk and Hulkbuster Iron Man, Cardfight - Vanguard Omniscience Regalia Minerva, Kancolle Fubuki and Amagi Brilliant Park Isuzu Sento Ani Statues! Check out all of the new preorders at theToySource here:
New preorder up - D-arts Zero Type 2! Set includes 3 sets of Z-Saber blades, interchangeable powered-up Zero Buster cannon parts and more - up for preorder here:
New Bandai Tamashii Preorders Up! We have a bunch of new preorders from Bandai Tamashii including Metal Build - Gundam Astray Gold Frame Amatsu Mina, TAMASHII BUDDIES - Sailor Mars, Figuarts Zero - FROZEN - Anna and Elsa, Armor Girls Project - Kancolle Musashi Kai, and many more! Check out all of the preorder goodness here:
NEW SOURCE REVIEW! Check out Peaugh's review of Fansproject's M.A.D.L.A.W. here on TFSource. Simply click the play button to watch, and you can check out TJ's video review as well! http://tfsource.com/fansproject/madlaw/
NEW SOURCE REVIEW! With our early review sample Peaugh is at it again with a review of DX9 Toys D05 - Chigurh! Check out his video review on TFSource here: http://tfsource.com/dx9/d05-chigurgh/
_____________________________________________ 16. Newest Preorder items at TFsource
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_____________________________________________ 17. Newest Instock items at TFsource
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Have you signed up for Source Points yet? Earn points with every purchase towards Freebies! Accumulated points and want to redeem them? Click the following link to enroll or redeem your points today! Source Points - TF Source
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Become a fan of TFsource on Facebook! We've spent years building TFsource into an online resource for TF fans, and now we have created a page on facebook for our fans. We'll keep you updated on new releases and TF info, as well as any contests or promo's we run, some of which will be exclusively through facebook.
Also we want to hear from you, what do you like about TFsource and what can we improve. So log into facebook and become a fan of TFsource today!
Hi folks, and welcome to what will hopefully become a weekly feature here on Seibertron.Com as we showcase the creativity of our many members each week.
Gen1. shows off his 3D modelling skills with a rendition of IDW's Classic G.I. Joe Volume 14 cover, a solo pic of Masterpiece Megatron, and a behind the scenes look at how it all came together.
Our Photo Blitz forum has been pretty quiet except for one thread, as Godzillabot Primal struggles to keep up with the many requests he's had for his digibashing skills. Check out Godzillabot's Digibashes for all of his creations and make your own requests.
And that folks, is the weekly round-up of our creative forums. We encourage you to check them all out, give feedback to our artists and if you're brave enough, start posting your own creations!
XBox 360 has the add-ons you need to make your Avatar as big of a fan as you are. Using your XBox Live credits, you can pick up several DOTM additions for your digital persona. Choose from a range of apparel and companions, including a little Laserbeak. Want to push the Decepticon cause? Pick up the Megatron recruitment t-shirt. Hoodies, hats, t-shirts, and even Shockwave and Sentinel helmets are available at the XBox 360 Marketplace.
Follow the link and scroll down to check them out.
Seibertron Staff Member and man about Youtube Jon 3.0 has reviewed the Wii version of the Dark Of The Moon game.
Dark Of The Moon: Stealth Force Edition
System: Wii
Price: $49.99
I love Transformers... I love games but other than War for Cybertron, I don't normally care for Transformers games. Stealth Force Edition for the Wii isn't any different. There are so many flaws with this game that it was difficult to find GOOD things about the it.
As the name implies, this game is pretty much all Stealth Force mode missions. The names AND voices have been changed and not in a good way. Q is now Wheeljack but sounds like Perceptor, Soundwave sounds cool but is not Frank Welker. The Decepticons have much cooler character voices than the Autobots. Oh, and Dino is now named Mirage. Peter Cullen is better in this game than in the movie and some other familiar voices appear as well: Jess Harnell as Ironhide and Steve Blum (the voice of Starscream from Transformers Prime) as Starscream, Crowbar and additional voices. Besides a handful of actors, the voice acting is pretty standard videogame voice acting - overuse of phrases and actors being pitched to sound cooler or more menacing or just trying too hard to sound like giant robots.
The one thing that I thought would be good in this game is the graphics, but this is the Wii version. The graphics are very simplistic but even worse, the cut-scenes - which are the only reward for playing the game besides the satisfaction of beating it and enjoying the gameplay - are basic 2-D flash animations. Not to mention, you can't skip cut-scenes that play before the missions start. Even the Cyberverse Missions on YouTube are better animated.
The missions are far too easy to play and take far too long to complete. It's basically drive around and shoot things. If you get the feeling that the entire game feels like a commercial for Stealth Force toys, it's because it is.
Gameplay is basic and you will use the left-hand nunchuck a lot more than usual to drive normally, but the Stealth Force mode takes some getting used to because switching to Stealth Force mode also switches the driving controls to the controller and the nunchuck becomes the controls for strafing. The fire and Stealth Force-to-vehicle buttons are easy to use. The coolest control feature is the A button which causes you to do a 180 degree turn which really helps in both vehicle and Stealth Force modes because it's difficult to make normal turns with the regular directional controls. The game does not make full use of the Wii controls like Star Wars: Force Unleashed does. It is nearly impossible to miss a target and you have to actually try to get killed to fail a mission. In fact, most levels can be completed by driving around the maps in circles without actually facing any enemies. Oh, and enemies can be killed by running over them without taking any damage to yourself. You can play as both the Autobots and Decepticons which is a plus. Also Lockdown is very cool in this game, my favorite character in it, and it's nice to see him in action since we don't in the film. His vehicle mode has a slight touch of an Echo-1 sound from Ghostbusters when driving which gave me a little joy... and that was pretty much ALL that gave me joy. The game auto-saves at certain points in the missions in case you die or run out of time which makes it very easy to complete the missions.
One thing that games these days have that can give the entire game a boost is multiplayer. This game doesn't have it BUT it does have co-op missions using a split-screen... doesn't help. The co-op missions are a co-flop. Boring and repetitious like everything else about this game.
The story is nothing spectacular but works for what is obviously a game targeted at the under-12-year-olds. Sentinel doesn't make an appearance and "Operation: Pillar" is briefly mentioned but no major movie spoilers. If I were a kid/pre-teen, I would really love this game but even a casual Transformers fan or gamer will not really enjoy this game... hardcore fans and gamers will HATE it. It felt more like a DS game.
The music is good but monotonous just like the rest of the game and the sound effects are far less than impressive.
Overall, I would give it a 1.5 out of 5 because a 2 is way too good for it. In the words of the great Optimus Prime, this game "must be stopped... no matter the cost." Avoid it like cosmic rust.
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