Take it away #Sideways#!
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Hey everyone! #Sideways# here again with another article going over some new reveals! Warpath was already spotted, but I thought I might share him again to go over what he does, how best to play him and my general thoughts on him! All that and more down below!
"Tanks but no Tanks" couldn't be more accurate.
Warpath (previously revealed HERE) is another Rare coming out of a set already stacked to the brim with Rares. From Acid Storm, Venin and even the entire Dinobot roster, Rise of the Combiners is pretty well stuffed with Rares and something tells me that there's even more awaiting us in this set.
As for Warpath himself, let's start off with the stats. Firstly, we have a modest two defense in his Tank mode and an average four attack. This makes him one of only a few Tanks that actually have two defense, which isn't the best given Tanks' heavy reliance on defensive stats to win the game, with Crushing Treads even working with the defense stat directly.
His HP is actually quite abysmal for this reason. I realize that his Robot Mode is going to be his primary mode, but I gotta say, I fear for him on the first turn of the game, especially against decks like Double Prime who would see him as both a juicy target and priority #1 given their reliance on Tough to stay alive. Remember, Battlefield Legend Optimus Prime has a base attack of 8 -- your flips better not whiff if you want to live, and that's not even counting when Prime flips a Leap Into Battle.
There's a chance he's going to be targeted down before he can get his usefulness in, but if you manage to keep him alive, you get to take advantage of the second anti-keyword effect we have in the game thus far. Whereas Acid Storm prevents the use of Bold, Warpath prevents the usage of Tough in his Robot Mode. This anti-Tough effect isn't as important as Acid Storm's anti-Bold as Bold is far more pervasive in the meta (especially in the case of Dinobots), but he still has his usefulness against Double Prime, Tanks and other decks that would dare call themselves "overly defensive".
This is even more impressive when you consider his Tank mode's effect, which deals up to six(!?) damage if your opponent has all six of their double Blue pipped cards in their Scrap Pile. This isn't going to be the case for the majority of the game, of course, but there is a good chance you'll get three damage or so out of it, which isn't bad at all, especially against hyper-defensive decks. He has a tremendous potential to do some serious damage indirectly -- heck, even plop an Armed Hovercraft on him and spread even more indirect damage to everyone. He can do some serious punishment if the matchup allows.
Naturally, if the matchup happens to be overtly offensive, Warpath can only make use of his solid three defense and Pierce 2. He's frankly feeble against largely offensive decks like Insecticons, Predacons or Dinobots. His abilities don't matter in those and similar matchups, leaving everything to his rather average stats to hopefully carry him to victory, which shouldn't be the plan when picking characters for a team. That being said, an interesting combo would be Warpath on a team with Acid Storm so that they might cover the other's weaknesses, both of which making your opponent extremely sad that they decided to play the game that day.
Either way, Warpath is a six star character, which makes him always a viable pick if you're concerned about extremely defensive decks in your area. I could definitely see picking him in place of Demolisher in a Tank deck to make use of Warpath's frankly far more useful abilities, but again, Warpath is to defensive decks that a Silver Bullet is to Van Helsing -- great at killing werewolves, for sure, but what happens when you come across a vampire?
Silver Bullet cards like Warpath make me glad that we don't have a Sideboard in this card game. Could you imagine the game where in between games you could make a swap or two and whip out a card that completely polarizes the matchup? The whole metagame would fall apart. But then, perhaps that's a good thing. Food for thought.
So, in closing, Warpath is someone I'm looking forward to seeing in the metagame. Whether he's with a mixed bag of "hate bears" where your list is nothing but answers to the big decks of the time or perhaps in a Tanks list, I can't wait to see where he goes from here. I don't think he's better than Acid Storm from the sheer number of decks that rely on Bold to do its fair share of damage, but I still think he has potential to be a spicy tech against Double Primes and similar decks.
A penny saved is a government oversight.
Saving is a theme with Grapple. His entire playstyle revolves around keeping a large hand and dumping it on a massive attack. This is actually a reference to the personal life of one of the developers, as Drew Nolosco -- one of the chief game designers of the TFTCG -- had to save his pennies to purchase a Grapple back in the 80's as one of his first "big" purchases. It's a touching story, but does it translate to value for Grapple?
The short answer? Maybe.
The long answer? Maaaaaaaybe.
So here's the thing: He requires his entire team to be built around him to have success with his abilities, and for you to save cards in your hand to build up to his Truck mode ability. This would be fine if it weren't so hard to save up cards in your hand in this game. It seems that everyone has some sort of hand-scrapping effect now, and you need to continuously play Upgrades to stay in the game.
All that aside, I can think back to Sunstorm and his grindy playstyle and I can't help but to think that Grapple might be a spiritual successor. Questionable viability of saving cards in your hand notwithstanding, his effects if you do pull it off make him quite interesting in terms of offensive and defensive power. You should generally play a mixed list, of course, but with a lot of Green to supplement his defensive ability's trigger effect.
Whereas it's easy to power up a character offensively, even Grapple with the Plan and Bold effects making his offensive ability generally pop off most times when boosted by Bold, I can't help but to wonder if that would be the extent of it. But then I am reminded of Evasive Actions and Body Armor and I am relieved -- he can use both of these to not only escape an early grave thanks to his abysmal starting zero defense, but to potentially bolster your hand even further with Green Pips.
I don't know whether Grapple will be good enough to be in the meta, though. I see cards like Inferno, whose stats are roughly the same as Grapple and his lack of play and begin to doubt whether or not Grapple will follow suit to his mold-mate. He requires an investment to pull off, but even if you do, would it be worthwhile? Would it really? Or would it not simply be better to play Inferno instead and get the same value for less investment?
I tend to lean to the latter, myself, but Grapple's vehicle mode makes me question that assumption with its ability to drop four damage on something. Sure, at the cost of your hand, but hopefully you've set up before you did something so drastic. The thought of using a One Shall Stand on somebody and then plopping four more damage to make a total of seven makes me shudder. But then, that might be a pipe dream -- and besides, wouldn't it just be better to save all of those ever-so important cards in your hand and, you know, use them?
Food for thought, but I guess I have always been an offense-centric player myself.
All in all, Grapple is fascinating. He would require teammates to draw plenty of cards to supply him with the materials he needs to pop his effects, but I wonder if he's worth the investment, or if he would simply leave us all with a sense of buyer's remorse.
__________CLOSING__________
I don't know what to think about some aspects of these guys, but I know one thing, I don't think that this is the last we'll see of Grapple or Warpath. Their existence means someone will try them, and that means one thing: If you happen to be playing defensively at a tournament, you might want to watch your back, and more importantly, your Double Blues.
As for me, I will be uploading more thoughts on the second wave of Transformers to my YouTube channel, Nanomachines. If you'd like to check it out, I would greatly appreciate it!
What are you liking about these guys? Are you just excited to see more love for Warpath? Or perhaps you're looking forward to breaking the bank with Grapple? Let me know in the comments below!
