Transformers Game News on Seibertron.com

Transformers Trading Card Game Celebrates their first Year with a TCG Wave One Energon Edition

Date: Tuesday, November 5th 2019 10:47pm CST
Categories: Game News, Collectables
Posted by: william-james88 | Credit(s): Transformers TCG

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Views: 60,617

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

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

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















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

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

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

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

-18 Energon Cube Damage Counters

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

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

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

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

Stay tuned for a specific URL!

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

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

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

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

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

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

* Australia


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

New Zealand

Transformers Earth Wars Event Trick and Treat

Date: Wednesday, October 30th 2019 11:00am CDT
Category: Game News
Posted by: Stargrave | Credit(s): Space Ape

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Views: 42,513

Some scary fun coming in this weekend's event Seibertronians along with a free gift from Space Ape. Make sure to close your Earth Wars app and click the link in the update for some free crystals. The bonus game available this weekend has dialogue from none other than Simon Furman so expect some chuckles along with your spooks. Also available now are the classic Earth Wars soundtrack, the G1 soundtrack, and now a G.I. Joe soundtrack. Happy hunting out there everyone and maybe team Seibertron will see you on the battlefield!

Transformers: Earth Wars New G.I. Joe Inspired Vehicle Modes Shown

Date: Thursday, October 24th 2019 10:39pm CDT
Categories: Game News, Digital Media News
Posted by: Bounti76 | Credit(s): Space Ape Games; Seibertron on YouTube

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Views: 52,188

If you're a fan of Transformers: Earth Wars, then you'll likely know that G.I. Joe is being incorporated into the game!

"The G.I. Joe franchise is making its debut in Transformers: Earth Wars. Players will get the chance to unlock Joe team vehicle versions of Autobots Hound and Jetfire, and Cobra versions of Decepticons Soundwave and Skywarp. A pair of the new characters are scheduled to be released the week of October 21st."

And thanks to our friends at Space Ape games, we have a new video, posted to Seibertron's YouTube channel, that shows off the first efforts of that collaboration, Soundwave as a H.I.S.S. tank and Hound as a G.I. Joe V.A.M.P. complete with transformations back and forth, as well as the totally radical 80s soundtrack. Check it out below, and while you're at it, peruse Seibertron's YouTube channel and see what other awesome Transformers content there is!

Transformers TCG Reveals Captains Jetfire and Omega Supreme

Date: Friday, October 18th 2019 5:59pm CDT
Category: Game News
Posted by: Stargrave | Credit(s): Transformers TCG on Twitter

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Views: 32,688

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

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



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



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

GI Joe and the Autobots battle Cobra and the Decepticons in Transformers Earth Wars game

Date: Thursday, October 17th 2019 12:51pm CDT
Categories: Game News, Digital Media News
Posted by: Seibertron | Credit(s): Space Ape Games

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Views: 52,155

Our friends at Space Ape Games just sent us a message to let us know some extremely exciting news for fans of the Transformers and GI Joe franchise. The Joe characters are teaming up with our favorite Cybertronians in their battles in the Transformers Earth WarsTransformers Earth Wars mobile gaming app[/url]. Cobra teams up with the evil Decepticons to battle GI Joe and the heroic Autobots ... an alliance many Transformers and GI Joe fans alike love to see happen. Check out the information below from Space Ape games along with the launch trailer for GI Joe's debut in Transformers Earth Wars.

Knowing is Half the Battle.

Flesh and metal collide as a group of elite fighters armed with state-of-the-art technology merge with the world of Autobots and Decepticons.

The G.I. Joe franchise is making its debut in Transformers: Earth Wars. Players will get the chance to unlock Joe team vehicle versions of Autobots Hound and Jetfire, and Cobra versions of Decepticons Soundwave and Skywarp. A pair of the new characters are scheduled to be released the week of October 21st.

Accompanying the new Bots in the Showroom and in-game Dialogue, will be appearances by G.I. Joe characters Duke, Scarlett and Snake Eyes as well as Cobra Commander, Baroness and Storm Shadow from Cobra.

The new characters will not only make a stunning visual addition, but fans will also get to enjoy some of their favorite G.I. Joe tracks, as the new release is bolstered by the original G.I. Joe Soundtrack.

Now you know.

Here are some screen captures featuring some of the awesome scenes from the trailer.

Transformers Earth Wars Event Under Heavy Fire

Date: Wednesday, October 16th 2019 9:14am CDT
Category: Game News
Posted by: Stargrave | Credit(s): Space Ape

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Views: 34,210

It's an individual totalizer this week gang with tons of tool boxes and shards to win at your own pace, no alliance effort required. There's also a preview included in the update which shows off some of the new bots they've had in the wings, a few favorites that have new higher star versions. Enjoy the update and be sure to look up team Seibertron. Who knows, maybe we'll see you out there on the battle field! Wreck n' rule and be sure to stay tuned to Seibertron for the ultimate in Transformers news!

Transformers TCG Siege II Character Roundup with Micromasters Galore

Date: Saturday, October 12th 2019 12:58am CDT
Categories: Toy News, Game News, Collectables
Posted by: Stargrave | Credit(s): Transformers TCG on Facebook

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Views: 46,625

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

Transformers Earth Wars Event Barren Lands With Free Bundle Gift for all Players

Date: Wednesday, October 9th 2019 11:19am CDT
Category: Game News
Posted by: Stargrave | Credit(s): Space Ape

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Views: 31,369

It's an alliance totalizer this weekend with super XP for all players! Also, don't forget to close out your app and reload it for a free gift from Space Ape including 5x Bronze Power Core Chip, 3x Silver Power Core Chip, 1x Gold Power Core Chip, 5,000 Spark, and 2,000 Premium Shards! Again this is a free gift to all players so just close out your app and reload the game to claim your prize! Happy hunting this weekend and maybe team Seibertron will see you on the battlefield. Share your thoughts in the forum and as always stay tuned to Seibertron for the ultimate in Transformers news!

"Flipping Out" -- TFTCG Reveals and Strategies

Date: Wednesday, October 9th 2019 9:29am CDT
Categories: Toy News, Site Articles, Game News
Posted by: #Sideways#

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Views: 65,593

FLIPPING SIDES

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

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

I give you... Showing Off!



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

CHARACTERS

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

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

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

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

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

Most.



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

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

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

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



Barricade is freaking awesome.

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

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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



Nightbird is a very strong promo card.

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

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

BATTLE CARDS

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

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

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

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

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



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

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

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



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

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

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

So, where does that leave us?

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

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



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

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

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

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

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



Dual Wield is the best Mercenary card. Period.

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

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

Who knows? It's just a thought.



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

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

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

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

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

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



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

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

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



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

Can you feel my sarcasm?

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

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

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

CONCLUSION

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

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

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

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

#NYCC2019 Image Gallery and Video of Transformers Trading Card Game Siege II Reveals

Date: Friday, October 4th 2019 11:40pm CDT
Categories: Event News, Game News, Collectables
Posted by: Stargrave | Credit(s): Seibertron at #NYCC2019

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Views: 56,341

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