Transformers Collectables News on Seibertron.com

New Starscream Card Revealed For Official Transformers Trading Card Game And In-depth Analysis

Date: Sunday, February 10th 2019 6:18am CST
Categories: Game News, Collectables
Posted by: ZeroWolf | Credit(s): #Sideways# from Seibertron, Official Transformers Trading Card Game Facebook page

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While we revealed [url=h]the two newest Combiners to hit the Official Transformers Trading Card Game yesterday[/url], today we have some new (and old) characters getting in on the action! These come couresty of contributor and fellow Seibertron user, #Sideways#, who also provides in-depth analysis of these and Superion and Devesator.

Without further ado, over to you #Sideways#!

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There is a massive amount of news to go over this time, including TWO new Combiner teams, but even more than that we have some extremely exciting news!

First off, let's get to the thing that I know a lot of people are awaiting news on: Competitive. You heard me right, we have a bit of news on that front. Before, the brand managers have been extremely open about having zero plans for tournament support, but as of a surprisingly under-the-radar podcast/interview with Drew Nolosco, we now have a revelation in the fact that they are currently working for support down the line! In fact, most recently, local game stores have been finding a reporting system to register players for Transformers at their stores to keep track of active players.

Why would they do that if they weren't going to make Competitive? Drew was tight-lipped on specifics, and stated that "large tournaments with large prize support is more of a convention thing", but noticeably avoided discussion of Friday Night Magic-esque tournaments. This means that they are at least considering the possibility, which is lightyears more than having no plans for competitive at all.

The podcast as a whole was a good peek into the mindset of the developers, and is a good watch if you're interested. Drew mentions Soundwave and how he was meant to come out in this set, but that his playstyle (shockingly not mentioned as a "deployer" like Metroplex) was discordant with Rise of the Combiners, where he will be pushed back to a later date even though Drew himself is a massive fan of Soundwave.

Drew also mentioned directly that "you guys haven't even seen triple-changers yet" when talking about the contents of Rise of the Combiners, which confirms that we will be seeing them in this set! I, for one, cannot wait to find out who they will be. Blitzwing, anyone?

Speaking of upcoming characters, let's dive right in to the massive roster that was revealed!





Bombshell is coming out of another reveal from VectorSigma.info, and I couldn't be more confused at whether or not this card is good. I mean, I don't really think it will be meta, but I think it will be as niche as Cosmos is right now. Cosmos is actually a fantastic simile, as both live and die based on their teammates that support them and how their abilities pop off. Bombshell has absolutely abysmal offensive and defensive stats but an HP that makes me swoon, and he even has a draw ability in his alternate mode.

But the real Cosmos comparison comes from his robot mode ability, which has the capability to KO literally every character in the game in one hit. Of course, one-hitting Optimus Maximus is about as feasible as getting the Pope to do the Fortnite default dance, but KOing smaller characters like Skrapnel, Thrust and even Optimus Prime? Well... That's a bit more doable.

So, what exactly does he do and how can you facilitate that effect? By discarding as many cards as you like from your hand, if you discard an equal amount of cards as your defender's stars, they are instantly KO'd. This means that your hand becomes a valuable resource, which makes playing cards from your hand even less of a good idea than in other, similar hand-based builds like Sunstorm. Your entire team has to facilitate hand growth to hit those magical numbers, and it's a fascinating prospect to think about.

There are a few partners for him, including Chop Shop and Skrapnel for a fascinating defensive Insecticon concept, but that's just theorycraft for the moment.

Now, it's hard to appreciate the amount of effort it takes to get to 13 stars -- let alone 25 in the case of Combiners and Metroplex -- especially in a game like Transformers where draw is few and low in number, so the feasibility of pulling off large discarding attacks with Bombshell will forever be in the realm of variance. Some days you hit all of your Data Bank and you draw half your deck, but other days you don't draw any of them. It's always a coin flip, I find, when it comes to hand-based decks like this, and it's unfortunate considering how interesting their playstyles are.

Although, that being said, he is a Specialist, and being able to play multiple Equipment Enthusiast or Treasure Hunt in a turn via Multi-Mission Gear or Field Communicator is always a good thing. To what end in the realm of interplay remains to be seen, but I can't help but thinking that it's all pie in the sky.

Trust me, I've been trying to get Sunstorm to work since he was first seen as a blurry picture from Gamestop. High numbers are usually a pipe dream. But smaller numbers, like 8, for instance, is actually surprisingly doable. That alone makes him better than Cosmos, in my opinion, and the two share the same point cost. Being able to KO smaller characters without the massive setup requirement from Cosmos makes Bombshell's matchups against Combiners and Insecticons way better than Cosmos' ever could be, and having the eventual option -- albeit an unlikely one -- to be able to KO Battlefield Legend Optimus Prime automatically makes him better than Cosmos, who cannot no matter what.

Of course, this is all theorycraft. I could simply be talking out of my exhaust pipes here -- Bombshell could be really good, or he could be simply be a nice thought. I'm leaning toward the latter.




A mech known for his bad comedy routines rivaling that of modern day Saturday Night Live, Starscream is the second Super Rare Transformer coming out of Rise of the Combiners and goodness me, this guy is actually kind of insane.

Before we get into why, let's go into his stats as I try to justify his 13 Point cost to you. Firstly, his high HP makes me happy as most Planes have been known to be rather frail, but the real juice comes from his high attack stats in both modes. You won't be attacking in vehicle mode, though, because his robot mode has one of the most powerful damage boosting abilities I have seen in this game thus far.

High praise, I know, but let me explain.

So, if you recall, Decepticon Crown is a Utility that has a green and white pip. Its effects are slightly lackluster, though sometimes being able to Plan on anyone is better than not being to Plan at all, but it was an interesting card that made certain decks happy to play it. Not an extremely noteworthy card, to be frank, but a pleasant one to consider for certain lists.

But what other decks might find less than useful, Starscream finds as his life-blood. You see, whenever you flip a Decepticon Crown when attacking or defending, you gain a stat boost of +3 in both attack and defense stats. That's fantastic when you consider that he starts out at 6, and when you boost to 9, you are going to start seeing a lot of value coming out of him when he hits some ridiculous numbers through the use of Null Ray orange pips. But that's not all -- he's also going to be a bugger to take down thanks to a potential 4 defense. Sure, you aren't going to be able to find a Crown each defense, but you will if you try and help him along with some Reinforced Plating or perhaps some Evasive Maneuvers.

But that's not the best part. Since you can use the Crown's green pip, you can use one of many Plan effects to return it to the top of the deck to use again, practically permanently boosting your offensive stats. In fact, if we happen to have an Armor that has a Plan effect, you can practically stay at four defense indefinitely, but that's just speculation.

But most of all? You can potentially hit multiple of these off larger Bold flips, making his damage skyrocket to even higher ludicrous numbers. But you might be saying, "Won't that discard the other Crown?" and you would be right, but when you Transform Starscream into vehicle mode during his down time, you get to return a card with the keyword "Plan" to your hand -- which includes the Crown!

Something else that I would like to point out is that you can also return Mining Pick and certain Action cards, as well, making the ability to put a Crown on the top of the deck that much easier. I shudder to think about using Plan 2 on a Mining Pick to put two Crown on top of the deck.

All in all, I would be extremely surprised if Starscream didn't become a mainstay in the meta almost instantly. The amount of combos you can pull off with the potential partners is actually insane, and I can't wait to see where he'll end up next. Let's just hope it won't be a pile of ash on the floor.




Dirge (revealed HERE) is really, really niche and if not that then
he's really, really terrible. The problem with him is that he requires his opponents to be nearly dead in order to get value. Sure, you can play him with Thrust to maybe make a magic number or two, but wouldn't you just rather just one-hit them? Or play a Car, who can untap and deal markedly more damage than Dirge?

But that's the thing, right? His effect of untapping himself is too weak of an effect to justify basing your strategy on that. But the problem is, his vehicle mode ability is only good against combiners and only then before they Combine.

Dirge is unfortunately not the best, and that's a shame. But it makes me wonder if we're about to see an 8 Star Ramjet in this set. I don't know if the set numbers allow for that, but it would be interesting if Ramjet allowed some interesting plays with his other conehead brethren.




Did I mention that we have Aerialbots? Because we have Aerialbots.

So Silverbolt is the leader of the Aerialbots, and we already see a bit of what they're going for in terms of win condition: Direct damage. You see, Planes have always been about the non-attack damage as part of their archetype. Armed Hovercraft, Photon Bomb, Thundercracker, Starscream, Slipstream, Bombing Run... They all deal damage to their opponent before they attack. The same is true here with the Aerialbots and that will become evident as we go through them together.

See, Silverbolt is actually one of the weakest of the bunch in terms of both attack value and defensive potential, but he makes up for that with being able to supplement other attacks and your amount of spread damage that you'll be doing.

Now, his vehicle mode ability is actually one of my least favorite for this team. In any other team being able to get an extra transformation seems utterly fantastic, but when you consider that the Aerialbots will actually be a primarily defensive team, you realize that playing orange-pipped cards in your list will become more of a liability. Of course, you could always play Roll Out or the Matrix of Leadership to attempt to give options to Silverbolt, I find it's better all around to build a list for consistency. Of course, a balanced list might end up working -- but I push back at that given what Superion actually does and how much damage you can do through your Actions and Upgrades.

Silverbolt, if you build a balanced list, will definitely benefit your combination speed, but in a purely defensive list he can also be transformed outside of combat to supplement someone else's attack which -- in my opinion -- is for the best. This might change, of course, but I honestly do believe that defense is the best way to play Aerialbots from the get-go.

Why? Well, that's for a few reasons. Such as...




I find that Combiners with someone that has Brave are instantly all the better for it. Certain lists like Devastator and Stunticons are incredibly weak to being attacked on the first turn of the game for massive damage to their important combiner parts, and an early (albeit lucky) KO would mean a severe handicap throughout the remainder of the game.

Predacons and Aerialbots both have a built-in remedy to this problem in Headstrong and now Fireflight, who have built-in Brave in their vehicle modes. This is so, so good for the consistency of the list as it forces your opponent not just to waste one attack, but potentially two attacks on the Brave character. In Predacons that usually means that they lose the game because you get more attacks than them, but in this one, it means you have more ammunition to use with Bombing Run and you have more power in Fireflight's offensive capabilities.

Sure, his stats are low -- but if you're playing all blue, your opponent will have a tough time KOing this guy on the first turn of the game. Whereas his robot mode ability seems lackluster, and it is, but being able to use Piercing Blaster or Noble's Blaster on him turns him into some good chip damage once he's used up his usefulness.

Something that's perhaps even better than that is that it makes your Predacon matchup much better, since Razorclaw won't have the option to KO a defenseless untapped character like he normally could because Fireflight is on the field with Brave. In this matchup and in similar matchups like Cars with the SR Bumblebee, it's best to leave him untransformed if your opponent might be gearing up for some untapped KO plays.

Being that he is a Plane and five stars, you can also splash him in certain Plane lists to take the heat off your more important Planes. He won't be making any big plays, but his presence on the battlefield shouldn't be discounted when considering building any Plane list. Whereas it's likely better to simply take Acid Storm and beat Dinobots more or less outright, it's an interesting thought to play Fireflight to abuse that Brave ability in certain lists. Food for thought.




Skydive is my favorite Aerialbot, and I'm not just talking about this archetype. Back in the mystical era of 2007, I had this DS game for the Transformers movie and I loved it dearly. It was a big sandbox in most regards, with story-based missions to fight Decepticons, blow up "robot" tanks and romp around a wide-spread city-scape, climbing around buildings and suburbs. It had some great G1 voice talent in it, but it also had the best voice for Barricade in anything ever and you cannot fight me on this. Keith David is not only the Arbiter from Halo, but his silky tones just made Barricade the best.

Anyway, your self-insert character had a final form, and that final form was "G1" Skydive in the Autobot version where the Decepticon game had "G1" Starscream. He was the only jet that the Autobot game had, and he was basically my favorite from then on. He still is my favorite Aerialbot, and this game changes very little about that opinion.

Why? Well, his stats aren't anything to write home about, and his Specialist nature -- whereas that makes me extremely happy to see in any archetype because of their utility -- isn't exactly special given the next character we're going over, but the fact that he has built in Tough 2 is actually insane. You're going to be playing a lot of Armor in this list, including Reinforced Plating, and that will quickly boost him to Tough 4 and that makes him withstand a ton of punishment right off the bat.

Skydive also has the ability to heal off an Aerialbot, but that doesn't really matter all that much given Bombing Run already does that for you and you'll want him to stay in his vehicle mode given his high levels of Tough.

Of course, given that he is a Specialist, you have access to Multi-Mission Gear and Field Communicator both, and in this archetype having that Specialist support is impressive given that you can use Photon Bomb and Bombing Run in the same turn, moving four damage counters from your characters to one of your oppponent's. In fact, so long as we're talking about Narnia and other impossible things, if you Brainstorm a Photon Bomb and you happen to have two Bombing Run in your hand with a Multi-Mission Gear, you can deal 10 damage in total to an opponent's character without attacking (2 from Photon Bomb, 4 from one Bombing Run and 4 from the other).

Skydive definitely won't be played outside of Aerialbots, but being a tough Specialist means you're almost definitely going to get the Specialist value out of him during the game. Plus, when your opponent two-hits your Combiner pieces, your opponent is automatically in a bad spot since they're putting so much effort into KOing one of five others. It's just a poor trade and you'll eventually come out on top in that value, at least that's the hope.

Now, you might be wondering why I say that you're only going to be getting four damage out of Bombing Run at maximum. It could be that I'm simply thinking about your opponent being able to KO Fireflight, but that isn't the case -- I'm actually thinking about how one of your Aerialbots isn't even a plane at all.




Hey, a helicopter! Fascinatingly, this is the first Helicopter we've seen out of this game, and that's a good thing! It means that the potential for him, Blades, Vortex and Springer to potentially get support is pretty high, and that makes me happy. The rest about him is pretty lackluster, if I am to be perfectly honest.

Alpha Bravo is another Specialist, which is definitely a good thing, and it almost confirms you'll be getting the 'ol Multi-Mission Gear combo off sometime during the game, but the rest about him is a little underwhelming. First off, he does chip damage to opposing Planes which can definitely backfire given Planes' damage moving abilities, and his stats are pretty abysmal.

Something that is worthy of note is his Pierce is actually really good, and can combo with Energon Axe to give him an unblockable Pierce 5. That's great, and since you'll be using Photon Bomb to set up some Bombing Run plays, Alpha Bravo will be damaged enough to use it almost off the bat. Whereas this is a small victory for the Little Helicopter That Could, the rest of his kit can really only be useful against opposing Aerialbots where that single damage will be meaningful to their -- and by extension, your -- low health pools.

He can also be used as a counterpick against Aerialbots if they become a big part of the metagame. You run the risk of powering up their Bombing Runs a bit, but hopefully with him on a standard, non-Combiner list you can definitely have the offensive power to capitalize on the weakened states of the Aerialbots. It's an interesting thought to think, and I can definitely see him teched in to certain lists for that reason alone. It remains to be seen if Aerialbots will take over the metagame, as with any new card reveal, but it is nice to know that Alpha Bravo will be there just in case they do.




Air Raid is kind of that guy you send into combat with a smile and a "good luck" because deep down you know you'll never see him again. This guy is going to get dumpstered by everything. He'll hit pretty hard, sure, but with zero defense he'd be extremely lucky to make it out intact. Naturally, you can improve his defensive capabilities with your Armor cards, but I wouldn't waste my resources on that aspect to his kit. I would be much more likely to attack with him with a weapon like an Energon Axe to get the most value out of him as possible before he inevitably goes down.

Fireflight also makes him more survivable if (likely when in some cases) he survives your opponent swinging at him if you went first. Air Raid can survive attacking, yes, but it just isn't likely enough to warrant too much defensive resources being used on him. That being said, offensive resources is something that our boy in black can use to the fullest extent. With a Leap Into Battle and a Noble's Blaster on him, it boosts his damage to a healthy 9. With the setup damage you've been (hopefully) doing through Armed Hovercraft, Photon Bomb and Bombing Run at this point, 9 becomes a massive threat to a lot of characters.

You're going to be using him to trade KOs more than likely, and that's definitely fine in my book. On top of that, you get to scrap an Upgrade when you damage your opponent. I am unsure if that means that Force Field will be scrapped before it takes effect, but it's an interesting note if it does which opens up even more options.

From the start of this, you might have thought that I was going to be talking extremely negatively of Air Raid. You couldn't be farther from the truth -- whereas he will be instantly vaporized by your opponents, the best part about his kit is that he capitalizes on the damage you set up, and he even scraps an Upgrade while he's at it. This is a great card, to be honest, and he adds in a good level of punch into the mid to late game for the Aerialbots, though I wouldn't expect much longevity from him.

In other lists, Air Raid can also be used as an Upgrade scrapping character, but there are better options to take care of those. He won't serve you better than -- say -- Flamewar, Alpha Bravo, Arcee, Torox or even Headstrong/Fireflight, but as a five star tech in certain lists, he could be used somewhat effectively to scrap certain upgrades before your larger characters swing. He can be useful, which is more than most other combiner pieces can say.




Superion is freaking insane. He's huge, bulky and he is one of the most defensively inclined Combiners in the game. With a built-in Tough 2, you can plop an Armor on this guy and he becomes an even bigger version of Skydive. More than that, you can target three damage on an opponent when you combine, potentially finishing off a KO after the setup damage you've done over the course of the game.

In fact, you can transform Silverbolt last, using his damage ability to compound with Superion's, dealing 4 damage instead. Then, you get to use an Armed Hovercraft and spread even more damage -- a total of five on one character in one turn. After that big turn of non-attack damage, you get to double down and attack with an albeit middling attack stat, but with Pierce he confirms at least three more damage on a character.

Superion can one-hit Skrapnel with that damage. With four damage from simply combining and transforming Silverbolt, then following up with Superion's attack, you can clean out a completely fresh Skrapnel who is a known harasser of Combiners thanks to his damage mitigation ability.

But beyond that, you do have Bold 1, but I wouldn't pay too much mind to it unless you're playing balanced. It's a bad idea to go full Orange with this guy just because of that one instance of Bold. Whereas it might get you somewhere against non-defensive lists, you're going to be ramming your head against a wall if you face an all-defensive list.

With his Pierce 3, you can even use a Noble's Blaster, Piercing Blaster or Energon Axe to boost it to even larger numbers of Pierce to make him threaten even defensive lists. That, combined with the fact that he's incredibly hard to take down with his Tough Stacking, your opponent is going to be on a clock when facing him.

The only problem I see is that Bombing Run really necessitates using your Planes in vehicle mode, and combining requires all of them in robot mode. It's unfortunate that the two discord, but when you realize that certain matchups necessitate not combining, it becomes an option and not a strategy. Most Combiners want to combine as soon as possible, but in this case, I can't say one way or another. Superion is a beast, yes, but sometimes just using Bombing Run is just better.

It's up to you whether or not you want to combine, but I find that having the option to combine into someone as beefy as Superion is almost never a bad thing. I could be wrong here; I never said that I'm always right -- in fact, I once said that Metoplex was terrible, but he ended up being a top deck. Theorycrafting this guy, however, has simply brought me to the conclusion that he's mostly an option, not an end-goal. But, it cannot be ignored that having Tough 4 with a Reinforced Plating is extremely powerful when you use him to finish off your early game set up damage.

Aerialbots really seem to be a great archetype in my opinion, and it feels like he will swoop down on the unsuspecting like a vast predatory bird. I can't wait to see if I'm right.




Scrapper isn't too much to write home about in the stat territory, but he has a ton of usefulness with the exclusive mechanic to the Constructicons, the "Tower" card. We have no idea what this looks like -- or if it will look like anything at all, to be frank -- but we do know that his robot ability will facilitate its growth from even the KO pile. This makes it easy to grow your tower even if Scrapper gets KO'd on the first turn of the game, for instance, by a Battlefield Legend Optimus Prime or a very angry Insecticon.

Scrapper also has one of the highest HP from his comrades, so it's best to keep either him or Hook alive as long as possible before you combine into Devastator. But before you do, there are a few things to note:

Every character other than Scrapper grows your Tower the same way, by attacking in their vehicle mode. Scrapper combos that by allowing them to be KO'd, building your Tower even higher. More than that, you can even use I STILL FUNCTION! to "force" your Tower higher by KOing one of your Constructicons again after using them to attack from the grave. Scrapper doesn't value the lives of his workers at all, and when you see the final result in Devastator, you'll see why.

The general strategy for the Constructicons is to attack with three Constructicons in vehicle form while transforming three others to robot mode, then attacking with the rest while transforming the KO'd three. This allows you to pretty much always get Devastator off at a rather tall tower, coming in at 8 when only Scrapper remains. Any plays with I STILL FUNCTION! before hand can give you more wiggle room in terms of robot mode attacks, and it also builds your tower taller since it triggers Scrapper's effect a second time.

So, speaking of these composite parts, just what am I talking about when it comes to their Tower building effects?




Mixmaster is extremely expendable. His vanilla robot mode with zero changes to his stats make him a perfect candidate for a first attack role, with his vehicle mode ability building your Tower even higher. Then he dies. Simple as that. He's a small guy, and he will do a mediocre amount of damage, but with an all orange build with a weapon, he can do some considerable numbers, especially five other guys following suit. He's also four stars, which is the same for all other members of this team other than Scrapper, which means that they could be used as a better point filler than Metroplex's deployers. Food for thought.

Other than that... Well, he's just kinda vanilla. Not much else to say about him.




Don't believe his lies -- he's not Tough at all. You might say that allowing him to take a hit in robot mode allows you to dig deeper in your deck for your Enigma, but that's what I like to call being wrong. You have five other attacks, not even counting Supercharge, Flamethrower and white pips -- you're going to hit your Enigma.

Something worthy of note is that he -- like all but Bonecrusher -- has above 4 HP, which means you can continue to offset your opponents offensive power by putting a Force Field on him to save his life. It's almost always a good thing to do in a Combiner list, and having multiple living Constructicons at the time of Combination is always a good thing.

But other than that, just swing with him in his vehicle mode and be done.




You'd think with the run of bad luck Long Haul has, he would have gotten another short end of a stick, but in this case, he's one of the best members of the team. Since he has an innate Bold 1 in his Robot Mode, you can stack that with Flamethrower and Supercharge to do a massive amount of damage to unsuspecting foes.

Long Haul is one of three characters you will be wanting to put into Robot Mode when they are alive, and you would be severely missing out if you allowed yourself to attack with his vehicle mode. He deals so much damage considering the power level of his comrade that, with his other comrades having attacked before him, he can more than likely eliminate weakened threats rather easily.

But, again, he won't be living through it unless you have a Force Field, but that's to be expected. More fuel for the fire, or rather, the Tower.




Bone Sa-- Bonecrusher I mean is another one of your team you'll have in Robot Mode at the start of the game. He's especially useful against high defense teams with his Pierce 2, but Long Haul remains the king of damage in that regard. He has his uses, but sadly, his death is all but confirmed thanks to his dismal 4 HP. Not even a Force Field can save him from himself.

But, that's not why you play him, after all. Fuel for the Tower!




Hook is the only Ranged member of this crew, but it matters little. You won't be doing too many things with that, but it does mean that Thundercracker can't place damage on you. He has that going for him, but the rest of him screams "backline" with his zero defense and abysmal damage stats.

Sure, dealing Pierce is good, but one Pierce? Yikes.

But the good news is that he has 7 HP, which means you can save even more HP for Devastator when you combine, and believe me, you'll need it.



Devastator is a freaking huge boy who only gets bigger. You were wondering why we were building that tower? How does dealing 10 damage sound? How does healing 10 damage sound? Sound nutty? You'd be right.

Simply playing the deck out without any I STILL FUNCTION! or Rapid Conversion to speed up your Combination allows you to come into 8 total Tower points, healing him by 8 and giving him Bold 2. That is why it is so important to use I STILL FUNCTION! to get higher Tower early, to heal off more damage and to put him at a towering 10 attack base.

As you have Scrapper or Hook as the last member of your team alive, you can Combine and heal off 8 damage, putting your HP at 15. A 15 HP Combiner off the bat! That is extremely impressive. If you manage to build up to a 10 tall Tower, you have access to a 17 HP titan of a mech.

It is here where you can claim some real damage out of him, potentially one-hitting some of the largest characters in the game by brute force alone. At an average 8, you have Bold 2, and with a Flamethrower or Power Punch (look in the Battle Card section), you can put that to much higher Bold numbers and much higher damage numbers. If you have ten attack, it's staggeringly powerful from there, too.

But the best part about him is that your opponent will almost definitely not be able to retaliate. For instance, if you swing at the same guy all game with your Constructicons, you will inevitably KO it before you Combine. Then, you Combine into Devastator and likely one-hit another character, leaving your opponent with likely one character that will likely never burn through your 15 HP and two defense. At that point, their defeat is not a question -- it's an inevitability.

That being said, Aerialbots kind of eat him alive. You dominate regular lists in certain regards, but when they start putting damage on you without attacking, you get a little scared. Aerialbots can one-hit most of your characters by chaining Photon Bombs and Armed Hovercraft, and there is very little if anything you can do to stop them from doing that. That matchup seems pretty unwinnable, but Aerialbots are unproven in the meta anyway, so you never know if they won't fall through the cracks.

But Devastator? I honestly don't think he will. I honestly believe that Devastator is a strong archetype that should not be underestimated. From my experience, it's a scary thing to face down a Combiner, an inevitable end in certain cases. I really hope Devastator lives up to my hype for him. After all, he's the best Combiner character, anyway. I mean, who else can pull off lime green and purple?






Hey, look, it's a card that does something! To be perfectly honest, it's best not to have too many Enigma in a list, but in Devastator I might make an exception. This card, after Combination, can finish off your Tower and potentially put you at 10 to practically win the game. Unfortunately, you can't recombine Devastator to get that healing effect again, but honestly, at 10 attack, there isn't too much else you need.

But other than that, it's an Enigma. What else do you need it to do?




Hey, look, it's a card that does less things! This card can help you finish off some characters an inch from death, but that's also what Armed Hovercraft and Photon Bomb are for too. I suppose it's just -- after combination -- a more consistent Strafing Run, but it's honestly a worse Photon Bomb in most cases.

I'll give this one a solid: "Enigma/10"

I mean, it's an Enigma. What else do you want from it, right?




Aerialbots like having Aerialbot Formation, but not a lot. Almost at all. It might seem like a Grenade Launcher in certain regards, but it's really not anything close to it. Whereas it is a Blue pip that lends itself to the Aerialbot defensive playstyle, it also highlights another weakness of Combiner lists by showing off the frailty of their composite parts.

Let me explain. Remember my boy Air Raid? Remember how he blows someone up and then goes down himself? That's what I mean. You attack, and then you die. Of course, in Aerialbots you're probably going to tank a hit pretty hard with your characters and defense-centric list, but the problem is that your opponent is not going to allow your Aerialbot Formation to reach its fullest effect. They will either double target or play direct damage abilities to soften you up. Of course, you have Bombing Run to add to your survivability slightly, but not by a lot. In fact, since you're going to be damaging your own characters with Photon Bomb in all likelihood, you're going to be even weaker than before.

All of this culminates into Aerialbot Formation not receiving the full benefit. There are so many better weapons to play, in my opinion, and Superion can't even use it. I'm not quite sure if I would play it for that reason, in fact. Quite sad indeed.




Bumpers comes out of the Team Covenant Webcast, and this card makes me extremely happy because it allows Cars to be able to beat back Aerialbots. Motormaster already does this for Stunticons, and Bumpers makes it an even better matchup. Stunticons already are a defensive, denial type of deck, and Bumpers allow them to not instantly die to Planes as soon as Motormaster goes down, and he will go down eventually. Bumpers makes it even harder for your Stunticons to go down to them, and that makes me extremely happy because I know that -- no matter what -- there will be a bad matchup for something.

I'm always excited when I know that there are bad matchups for something that is a little bit hyped because I know that it will never be able to be the best deck. Of course, I don't know if Aerialbots are going to be super good -- or good at all for that matter -- but either way, it's always good to know that things aren't invincible.




I'm going to combine my thoughts on this card with the thoughts on the next card. Read below!




Bravery and Stealth are pretty darn okay, but I do wonder whether or not Heroism isn't just a better card. I mean, I get it, Heroism doesn't count the defensive stats of the character that it's attached to, and Stealth is a big "no button" that says that your opponent can't attack you at all, but both require that character to be tapped (or targetable in general) in order to be of use. Heroism does not.

This is one of the reasons a character with Brave on their alternate mode is so good, because at the start of the game your opponent has to attack them. If it's an Upgrade, then it might be too late because the Brave and Stealth will only be useful when two or more characters are tapped.

I don't know if these are going to see play, especially over Heroism, but when you see that Stealthiness has an Orange pip, I can definitely tell the potential here.

For some food for thought, consider what Stealth would look like on a Metroplex. Also, just think about Metroplex trying to be Stealthy.




Power Punch is freaking insane and I love it. It's just another Grenade Launcher! I'm being serious when I say that Power Punch is probably going to be a staple in Orange decks like Insecticons, Predacons and other, similar lists. Power Punch does similar levels of damage, especially if a character has innate Bold like Long Haul or Metroplex, same with the entire list of Dinobots.

Power Punch makes me so happy. Now, that being said, it is not good against anything that plays Acid Storm. Once Acid Storm hits the field, this becomes a blank card. It's sad, to be frank, but I do love that level of interplay to make you question if you should play certain cards in your list lest you face a certain deck.

It's a great, great card that I am almost certain is going to be a staple, but Acid Storm makes you wonder for how long.




One damage? One damage? A single damage. You deal one, and you heal one but only if you KO someone? Dear god, this is one of the worst cards I have ever seen.

I am not exaggerating here. Even Zap is more playable in offensive lists like Insecticons because it has an orange pip.

I'm sad.

So, the biggest problem about it is that you have almost zero payoff to its effect. You have to put someone at 1 HP, and that is extremely difficult, and when you play this card to only heal a single damage counter and only when you KO them, wouldn't it just be better to play something like, I dunno, MEDIC! or perhaps Emergency Repairs? If you need healing, play some healing!

This is not healing. This is a fool's errand.




Inferno Breath (revealed from THIS INSTAGRAM POST) is so freaking good for Aerialbots. Aerialbots have always been about that non-attack damage, and when you use it in conjunction with Silverbolt to deal four damage to something, I get a little weak in the knees. It also boosts Aerialbot Formation, but it's already established that that card is not the best anyway.

Now, all of that being said, it also allows some powerful combos with Brainstorm, as well, actually one-hitting Skrapnel and other 7 HP characters without attacking. How? Well, you Brainstorm a Photon Bomb and an Inferno Breath, then you attach an Armed Hovercraft, then you Transform Silverbolt to deal a total of 7 damage to a single target and 3 to all others.

That combo sounds absolutely disgusting and I am actually super spooked about the possibility of Aerialbots outright abusing this card to its maximum potential. It's not a Star card, though we don't see the bottom of the card, but it's honestly pretty much as good as one.




Defensive Driving, a card first revealed HERE isn't the best at stopping Aerialbots, but it certainly prevents Silverbolt, the Enigma and Armed Hovercraft from taking over a certain character on your field. I could see attaching this card to Bonecrusher, in fact, to attempt to make him survive a turn against the Plane Onslaught, but the problem is finding it, and attaching it while still finding value out of your other characters.

I don't know about this card. It's okay, but honestly sometimes you should just bite the bullet and accept a bad matchup for what it is.




These new Combiners are magical. I seriously wonder if they won't be a major part of the metagame, especially the Aerialbots. Devastator is also extremely unique and if you don't think I won't be building it and probably bringing my G1 Devastator with me to tournaments we can't be friends.

But in all seriousness, almost all of these cards have merit in many different degrees. I absolutely love what they're doing with this game, and I can't wait to find out what's next.

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this article, please check out my YouTube Channel where I go over deck profiles and other meta discussion regularly. Check it out if you have the time (and to be fair, if you have read this far, you have more time than most!) and let me know what you think in the comments below!

Thanks for reading guys, and as always, I'm going to go to sleep for the next 18-32 hours after writing this behemoth of an article.


__________

What do you think about these reveals? Excited by them? Let us know in the Energon Pub and stay tuned to Seibertron for all the latest news and reviews!

Blurr and more revealed for Wizards of the Coast's Official Transformers Trading Card Game

Date: Friday, January 18th 2019 6:59pm CST
Categories: Game News, Collectables
Posted by: ZeroWolf | Credit(s): #Sideways#, Wossy Plays and Wreck n' Rules from YouTube

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Views: 29,207

It's that time again folks, thanks to the hard work of fellow Seibertron user, #Sideways#, we have more reveals for Wave 2: Rise of the Combiners to share with you all!

Wave 2: Rise of the Combiners is the newest set for Wizards of the Coast's Official Transformers Trading Card Game.

Todays reveals come from:
Wossy Plays YouTube channel, Wreck'n'Rules YouTube Channel
Now let's give the floor to #Sideways#!

#Sideways# wrote:Ah yes, the proverbial "cats and dogs" as it were, the Autobots and Decepticons follow a very gray, very thin line between friend and foe in the Transformers Trading Card Game. In fact, one of the most prolific decks at the moment is Optimus Prime fighting alongside Nemesis Prime, which is ironic in every sense of the imagination.

There aren't many mechanical problems with this, game-wise -- after all, your opponent is the enemy, not a faction of "bad guys". But flavor-wise? It's like mixing Pepsi and Coke (or as I like to put it, making Pepsi slightly less awful), shrimp on pizza, orange juice in milk.

So, Wizards had three options. One: Make a rule change to force mono-faction builds. Two: Make "fake synergy" where you have no other choice but to play mono-faction builds. Three: Make mono-builds enticing with special cards but not to the point that they nerf the multi-faction builds.

Thank god they chose the third option.

_________BATTLE CARDS__________




"Who's scruffy lookin'?"


Scoundrel's Blaster is a card that certainly has a name that plays the part. I mean, when you play a card and you get to say the word "scoundrel" in an unironic sense, you're going to have a good time. But is the card as good as its name?

Well, it's kind of... Meh. The green pip makes it at least viable, but at the end of the day, it's a Primary Blaster that can give a very situational Pierce 2. As you may have heard me say before, I don't like low Pierce damage. There isn't too much point to it in most instances of the game -- if you're hitting for low enough damage to need that low of a Pierce number, you probably shouldn't be playing the characters you are.

The only thing I can think of that would definitely make use of this is a Combiner list. Combiners -- as per my playtesting -- have very, very low damage in the early game and even well into the mid-game. Without proper support, they will sit there doing very little for you.

With this, their low damage output becomes at least tolerable until you can combine them all and potentially have multiple instances of this card on them. But again, that's just pure conjecture at this point.

All in all, it's an okay card. I don't think it's bad; I just think that most lists won't be making too much use of it.



"The question you have to ask yourself is, 'do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya? Punk?"


As with the Scoundrel's Blaster, this card has a baller name -- that isn't very well backed up by its stats.

I'm not going to go into much detail on this one as it's not that relevant given it's roughly the same card as the Scoundrel's Blaster. But, that being said, it should also be noted that Decepticons have a heavily armored deck in Tanks, where smaller damaging lists like Combiners would have a rough time dealing any damage whatsoever to them. You could potentially play Noble's Blaster in an Autobot Combiner list to try making that matchup better, or other similar lists.

But the thing is, that's just one example. I don't think it will be prolific enough of a deck to be overly meaningful in the long run to play these cards, but they're very cool cards to have at the back of your mind just in case you think it might come up.



"This is bad comedy."

Decepticons, oft looking longingly at the Matrix of Leadership to light their darkest hour, simply couldn't compete with the utility it provided for Autobot decks. In general, the community couldn't really think of many things to remedy this idea -- the Dark Spark, perhaps, with a defensive boost instead of the Matrix' offensive one?

Well, look no further than the Decepticon Crown to answer those wishes. This card might not seem like much at first, but being a White/Green pip makes this a very interesting card combo that will definitely make its way into almost every Decepticon Combiner deck and several Decepticon mono-faction builds like Insecticons.

What's that I hear? "What is this over-glorified Data Pad doing on my screen?" Well, get out of here. How dare you denounce this great card to my face? Let me explain why I like this so much. Not only does it give the bearer Plan 1 (essentially a topdeck rigging effect, where you can flip what you want when you attack), but it gives your entire Decepticon team Plan 1. That makes me swoon. Too easy it is to sit on a huge hand and have nothing to play, with everything you need in your deck. This way, you pad out your attacks to hopefully increase the odds of you drawing what you need, and you also add a lot of potential damage to your attacks.

I mean, how often have you drawn Peace Through Tyranny or Improvised Shield and not played them? This seeks to curb that effect. Definitely a card to watch.



There's confidence, and then there's foolishness. Knowing the difference makes all the difference.


So this card is really, really good. Not gonna lie, when I read this card, I thought it was even better than I think it is now. I had the same reaction to Brainstorm that I had with this, and the big difference? I think I'm right about this one.

See, Brainstorm is simply "play two more Action cards", which you need to have in your hand if you want to make the most of it, whereas Confidence is "draw and discard two cards and play another Action". Sure, you're taking a net loss in cards in hand, but you're using this card to dig for the card you need right then instead of having to wait until the next turn.

Ever had a moment where you say, "God, where are my I STILL FUNCTION! or Dino-Chomp! right now?" With Confidence, you get to dig for it, and then when you draw into it, instantly play it. It's so, so good. Heck, you can draw into another Confidence and chain Confidence if you really want to dig for something specific.

Seriously, I can't say enough good things about this card. It has such good synergy with Optimus Prime -- Battlefield Legend, Dinobots and Cars just off the top of my head. I can't wait to see what you can do with this card with a Combiner, or even a Titan.



Rumor has it that Swindle once sold someone to themselves.
Oddly enough, he ended up overvaluing that trade.


Swindled is the second of faction exclusive Actions, and is arguably the veeeery slightly worse of the two. Like above, I love this card's draw effect, but the big difference here is the New Designs effect where you get to attach an extra Upgrade.

Honestly, the only thing that makes this slightly worse than Confidence is that there are just so many good Action cards in the game that Upgrades need to have a lot of punch in order to be worth the investment of your Action card for the turn. I mean, would you rather draw an extra card during your next turn with a Data Bank or resurrect the dead?

Yeah, I thought so.

But that being said, this is a very good way to attach an early Data Bank. Early Data Bank is never to be trifled with, and I honestly love the card very dearly in many of my lists. So, with that thought in mind, Swindled is a very good card to skip the "feels bad" turn of playing a Data Bank to no effect, since the turn you play it you don't get any rewards.

You can't chain it like you can if you get lucky with Confidence, but then again, you probably won't need to. If you play this card during your turn, you probably have a target for your Upgrade in mind, and in-hand.

All in all, this card is pretty much just as good as its sister card -- but perhaps "good" isn't the word to be using when comparing them. They're both good; it's just that they're different.



Thunderbolt and lightn-- Wait, I already did this joke!
... I guess I stole my own THUNDER! HA!


Erratic Lightning is a very good card, especially for a common. This is the first we've seen of a negative effect that reduces your armor instead of perhaps damaging you in recoil -- looking at you, Static Laser of Ironhide. But this effect? This effect is waaaay better than Static Laser, and for very good reason.

See, a lot of aptly nicknamed "Orange Crush" decks rely very little on defense to win the game. Insecticons come to mind at this thought, with one to zero Armor being the average. To say that Skrapnel -- who has zero Armor -- doesn't care if his Armor drops at all is an understatement.

Most instances of decks that would want to use this card won't really care about the defensive drop, but here's the thing: This card is more unflattering for defensive decks than Static Laser. A defense drop can be more lethal than predamaged characters in certain lists, and it further polarizes the playstyles and card pools which is, in my opinion, a good thing. It makes people have to be more inventive, and defensive decks can't just be defined as "Orange, but slow this time."

Keep an eye on this one. It's going to be one to watch.



"Ah, yes, I see the design flaw. It's especially weak to repeated, blunt physical trauma."


Hooooooooooly crap. This card is so, so good. Most games have a natural flow, a natural progression of events. Generally, characters get slowly upgraded with slowly give their players a growing advantage in the game. This card, revealed by Wossy Plays on YouTube just dumpsters all that hard work your opponents put in to their field.

Now, it should be noted that it doesn't say Armor, Weapons and Utilities -- it says "or". But generally speaking, discarding all of a certain Upgrade is almost just as good as discarding all of them depending on the board state. In fact, early board state is generally homogeneous in terms of Weapons or Armors, so that puts even more power into this card.

I love this thing, probably more than I should given I haven't playtested with it yet, but in theory, this card is absolutely nutty in the right circumstances.

_________CHARACTERS__________




"OHMYGODOHMYGODIFINALLYGETACARDINTHISGAMEITSABOUTTIMEIWASWAITINGAGES
TOFINALLYGETACARDANDWHYISMYROBOTMODEVANILLANOTHATSNOTGOODWHYDOYOU
HAVETODOTHISTOMEATLEASTMYCARISCOOLIGUESS"


Well, Blurr said it himself -- and I couldn't agree more. But in case you can't read or don't want to read Blurr's speech pattern, let me spell it out for you: His robot mode is awful, but his vehicle mode is really, really interesting.

Blurr, coming out of the Wreck N' Rule YouTube channel , shows us something we haven't seen before: Dual Attacks. That's right -- when you attack with Blurr in his vehicle mode, he generally gets to attack again. Now, he has three attack in this mode, but that doesn't necessarily mean he can't deal moderate damage, especially to undefended targets that your opponent would likely be saving, like Arcee.

He does "meh" damage in his vehicle mode, but thanks to the fact that he's a car, you can kinda go ham with him with all of their support. Turbo Boosters and Start Your Engines make him far more consistent than you might think upon first glance, and that makes his vehicle mode effect frankly fascinating to try and pull off.

But if I could ever put my finger on what might push him out of the run for viability, it would be his frankly dreadful point cost. It's 12! It's so high! This limits your team to very, very few options. Even if you wanted to run Thrust with him to give him that extra edge in his vehicle mode, you would end up running Scamper to play that third character and believe me when I say that it never feels good to play a Metroplex character without Metroplex.

But that being said, he isn't without friends, and there are plenty of six to seven star Cars to go around. Perhaps I haven't found the right companions for our speedy friend yet, or perhaps they haven't been revealed, but I can forgive everything about him because of one simple fact: He's a Common, and you can't expect the meta to form around one of them.

This guy probably won't see too much play, but there are definitely going to be people to try him out because of his popularity alone.


_________CONCLUSION__________


Nearly everything here reinforces my statement about Wizards knowing what they're doing when it comes to faction balance. They really seem to have their wherewithal about them, a plan, a direction they want it to go. Everything is very well thought out, and I can't help but to smile when I think about how well balanced it really is. Though there were some rough patches throughout Wave 1, Rise of the Combiners really livens up the metagame and I can't be happier for it.

Thanks again for reading my article, and as always, check out my YouTube channel to hear my thoughts on varying deck archetypes! I'd love to have you!

Now that we've seen quite a few cards, what has been your favorite thus far? What do you hope to see in the future? Are you happy with the game balance or do you want to see it go in another direction? Let me know in the comments below!

What do you think about these reveals? Let us know in the Energon Pub and stay tuned to Seibertron for all the latest news and reviews!

Super Rare Bumblebee And The Last Cards Revealed For The Official Transformers Trading Card Game

Date: Friday, September 28th 2018 11:19am CDT
Categories: Game News, Collectables
Posted by: ZeroWolf | Credit(s): #Sideways# from Seibertron, Official Transformers Trading Card Game Facebook

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Views: 39,630

Well the 28th September is upon us, and that means, in America at least, Wizards of the Coast's Official Transformers Trading Card Game has launched! To mark the occasion, the last few cards from Wave 1 have been revealed over at the Official Transformers Trading Card Game Facebook page and we are sharing them with you, courtesy of fellow Seibertron user, #Sideways#, who also shares his thoughts on these.

To start with we have the last announced super rare card for the set, Bumblebee/ Legendary Warrior.

Bumblebee/ Legendary Warrior

#Sideways# wrote:Another one.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Deadlock

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

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

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

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

Armed Hovercraft

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

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

Disarm

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

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

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

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

Disruption

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

This is not one of those points.

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

Disruptive Entrance

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

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

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

Emergency Maintenance

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

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

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

Fusion Cannon of Megatron

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

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

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

Food for thought.

Heroism

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

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

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

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

Crushing Size

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

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

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

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

Combat Training

#Sideways# wrote:Yay, more Arcee artwork!

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

Collateral Damage

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

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

Body Armour

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

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

Cargo Trailer

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

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

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

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

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

Computer Sabotage

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

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

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

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

Battle Ready

#Sideways# wrote:Why?

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

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

Backup plan

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

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

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

Agility of Bumblebee

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

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

Aerial Recon

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

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

Zap

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

At least it makes a good proxy for Photon Bomb!

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

Swap Parts

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

Much like me and that, frankly, adorable artwork.

Strafing Run

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

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

Salvage for Parts

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

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

Reinforced Plating

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

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

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

Medic!

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

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

Thermal Weaponry

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

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

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

Treasure Hunt

#Sideways# wrote:So here it is.

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

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

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

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

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

Swap Mission

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

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

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

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

#Sideways# Final Thoughts

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

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

But that's where you come in.

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

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

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

#SW#

Will you be playing this game then? Let us know in the Energon Pub and stay tuned to Seibertron for all the latest news and reviews.

New upgrade card reveals for the Official Transformers Trading Card Game

Date: Wednesday, August 15th 2018 4:02pm CDT
Categories: Game News, Collectables
Posted by: ZeroWolf | Credit(s): Official Transformers Trading Card Game Facebook Group, #Sideways# from Seibertron

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Views: 17,839

With it's release in a few scant weeks, theOfficial Transformers Trading Card Game Facebook Group has been at it again (Following reveals here and here!). Thanks to a tip off from fellow Seibertron user, #Sideways#, we now have three Upgrade cards to show from the forthcoming base set, and one featuring everyone's favourite Seeker (oh and an appearance from everyone's favourite wannabe scriptwriter, if you been following IDW)

Without further ado:

Turbo Booster (As modelled by Sunstreaker)




Null Ray of Starscream



Bombing Run (As modelled by Thundercracker)



Planning on building a seeker deck? Join in the comments below and stay tuned to Seibertron for all the latest news and reviews.

Q&A on the Transformers Trading Card game Instagram and Shockwave Alt mode reveal

Date: Thursday, August 9th 2018 3:45pm CDT
Categories: Game News, Collectables
Posted by: ZeroWolf | Credit(s): Transformers Trading Card game Instagram, #Sideways# from Seibertron

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Views: 22,211

We've got two pieces of news on the Official Transformers Trading Card game to share.

The first is another Question and Answer session from the Transforms Official Trading card game Instagram account, dealing with a few basic questions about the forthcoming Wizards of the Coast Transformers Trading Card Game! One of the questions asked however is the identity of two of the rarest cards in this first set, and they are Nemesis Prime// Dark Clone and Bumblebee// Legendary Warrior, both being Super Rare.













The second, comes from the Transformers Trading Card game group on Facebook, and is brought to our attention from fellow Seibertron user #Sideways#. This is the reveal of Shockwave's Alt mode in the Trading Card game and it's effect. This is the latest in a series of card reveals, as reported here and here!.



This helps to further cement Shockwave as having abilities to strengthen hand control.

Let us know in the comments what you think of Shockwave and if you are going to be playing this game when it launches!

Stay tuned to Seiberton for more news and reviews!

Arcee and Demolisher revealed for the Official Transformers Trading Card Game

Date: Tuesday, August 7th 2018 4:28pm CDT
Categories: Game News, Collectables
Posted by: ZeroWolf | Credit(s): #Sideways# from Seibertron

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Views: 21,255

Following on from the recent batches of card reveals from Gencon (Here and here!) We have the last few cards to be revealed at the gaming convention courtesy of fellow Seibertron user #Sideways#.

This time the reveal focuses on two different characters, Decepticon Demolisher and Autobot Arcee. We also have a look at a very useful looking upgrade card, that will certainly some play.

Demolisher:



Here's Demolisher's effect, for those who wish to know.

Bot mode: "When this is attacking --> Flip extra battle cards equal to his [Defense]."

Alt mode: "When you flip to this mode --> Draw a card for each of your other Tanks."

A very Prime looking Arcee (Bot mode):


Arcee (Alt mode)



Data Bank:



So will these be making their way into your decks when the game hits? Let us know in the forum and stay tuned to Seibertron for more transformers related news!

Transformers X Street Fighter II Figures In Hand Images! Ryu vs M. Bison, Chun-Li vs Ken

Date: Saturday, May 26th 2018 5:00pm CDT
Categories: Toy News, Collectables
Posted by: WreckerJack | Credit(s): twitter.com

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Views: 22,958

Fans of Street Fighter and Transformers will be thrilled to see these in hand images of the new figures. These were posted by twitter user Taogal. A quick thanks to Sabrblade for tracking them down. First we see a set with Hot Rodimus as Ken Vs. Arcee as Chun-Li. The other set below is Convoy as Ryu Vs Megatron as M. Bison. It is a little chopped off in the first photo but there are awesome pictures of the figures out of the box if you scroll, we promise! Have a look through the photos below, and let us know what you think of them now that you have seen them in hand. Do you think that they fit the characters that they made to represent?

Full Colour Image of Imaginarium Art Transformers Arcee Statue

Date: Wednesday, May 23rd 2018 2:50am CDT
Categories: Toy News, Collectables
Posted by: Va'al | Credit(s): Imaginarium Art

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Views: 29,859

Directly from the Facebook page of the officially licensed statue and replica makers Imaginarium Art, we have a full colour shot of their latest project in the Transformers statue line: G1 esque pink warrior, Arcee!

Posing with both gun and sword - taking on attributes from her first incarnation and some Animated and IDW slants in there, much like the Generations transforming toy - you can see her in a suggested rendition: the page talks about potentially removing some lines from her face, as it's still under licensor (Hasbro) consideration for now. You can check out the image below, and let us know what you think in the Energon Pub discussion boards.

Herocross G1 Transformers Head Statues

Date: Thursday, October 19th 2017 2:10pm CDT
Categories: Toy News, Collectables
Posted by: Tyrannacon | Credit(s): Herocross' Twitter

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Views: 20,978

Herocross' Twitter posted some pictures of the upcoming G1 Transformers head statues. The lineup for the Autobots includes: Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, and Arcee. While the lineup for the Decepticons includes: Soundwave, Starscream, and Devastator. Check 'em out below:







Let us know what you think in our Energon Pub forums!

#HASCON Early Look at Hasbro Transformers Area, plus All Exclusives Display

Date: Friday, September 8th 2017 6:31am CDT
Categories: Toy News, Event News, Collectables
Posted by: Va'al | Credit(s): Mark Rosewater

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Views: 20,532

There will still be some time before any actual content appears from Hascon in Rhode Island - the first multifranchise event directly organised by Hasbro in their on back yard - but some members of staff and press did get an early preview of the show area if nothing else, and posted the images on social media. The most relevant to us come from Magic The Gathering's Head Designer Mark Rosewater, which not only shows more of the Hascon exclusives (including the early access Arcee/Ultra Magnus set seen here), but also the Transformers area for the show, featuring some Allspark Tech and heavy The Last Knight merchandise and props. Take a look below!