Date: Wednesday, September 25th 2019 8:21pm CDT
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Posted by: #Sideways# Discuss This Topic · Permanent Link
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Planes, Trains and Automobiles
So, lately, if you hadn't noticed, there were a few cards that were revealed over the past week or so. Not only were there literally dozens of cards that were revealed, but there were also several things that happened over the past week -- including the European Energon Invitational!
At that Invitational, the meta almost completely shifted from the aggro-dominant to a more aggro neutral meta, with a seemingly even balance between aggressive as well as defensive decks. This far more varied meta is a welcome one, especially given the fact that defensive decks usually have to be far more inventive in terms of dealing damage than the more simplistic aggressive ones. It makes for a far more interesting viewing experience in most cases, at least.
That said, the defensive decks that did extremely well were almost entirely comprised of Major Shockwave decks that out-consistency'd their opponents through the use of his intensely defensive compatriots and supporting them with defensive Secret Actions. As it so happens, the deck that eventually won was not aggressive, however.
You see, even though four of the top eight were Major Shockwave decks, the winner of the overall tournament was that of a Blaster/Firedrive combination that used Blaster's knack for playing extra cards and Steeljaw's innate Bold effects to combo together damaging Actions, Upgrades and everything in between to deal a shocking amount of damage. Of course, with Blaster you can also run Ramhorn to add a nicely defensive side to the deck, playing free Force Fields.
As far as the development of the late Siege meta, I've noticed something of a pendulum swing in terms of deck styles. First, it started off with everything being defensive all the time. Second, everyone remembered "Oh hey, Battlefield Legend is pretty strong" and then the whole format went orange. But now, it seems everyone has realized just how strong defense is again -- and how good aggro is as well. In this peaceful harmony, it seems that defensive and aggressive decks can get along with the swing card becoming Press The Advantage.
Press, as I've mentioned in the past, is one of the strongest cards and one of the biggest reasons that the aggressive metagame came to be. The question isn't
if an Autobot deck can make headway against a Decepticon deck, it's
how much.
Will these reveals change that? Let's find out!
CHARACTER CARDS
People all over the world / Join hands
Start a love train / love train
Astrotrain is kind of insane in almost every single way. I absolutely adore this guy -- not only can he completely carry a game, but he can also survive far and away longer than most. Let me explain by going through the basics of what the developers no doubt intended for him: Pokemon.
Pokemon involves evolving a Pokemon from Basic, to Stage 1, to Stage 2 over the course of three turns while using Energy Cards to power up a character little by little. The more Energy, usually the stronger the character. When we look at Astrotrain, though, we get the sense that Astrotrain follows that same game curve. On the first turn, you're going to have the ability to attach one Upgrade to him, activating his Spaceship effect. Then, on the next turn, you are supposed to attach a second Upgrade to activate his second effect. Then, when you use a third Upgrade to activate his Robot Mode.
At least, that's what you're
supposed to do. See, there happens to be a very, very strong card by the name of Extra Padding. Extra Padding creates a nutty, nutty combination, being that you can place them all at once, or at least come close. When you do hit that magic number -- and you
will hit that magic number -- you will be blessed with a four defense, nine attack behemoth in a defensive deck that will make him defend even farther. Mind you, that's pretty much comparable or in some cases better than Nemesis Prime after reshuffling your deck.
The best part about it, though, is that he's also a Decepticon Leader. That means that you can use Callous Leadership to move 5 damage counters from him -- effectively making him live far longer than normal, especially with a base attack of four and whatever Armor you've slapped on him. This isn't even counting whether or not you're playing Flamewar and/or Ravage alongside him, boosting him to heights never before seen.
He swings for a massive amount, and can take even more. Astrotrain is a character with boundless potential, and I don't think that it's a question of
if we will see him, but
when.
You won't be taking the Brunt of your opponent's attacks! Right? Right?
Brunt is... Interesting. On one hand, he seems to be a fantastically defensive card by all but turning off Bold, but on the other, he seems uniquely suited to being offensive as well. I would say that he would be fantastic in a balanced composition for that reason, but when you consider the state of his stats being as mediocre as they are, you begin to wonder if his cost begins to outweigh his benefits.
But that's not what Brunt is here for, right? How about his gun mode... Gun
modes?
If you couldn't tell, this is the first dual-piece Weaponizer. You can choose to spread them around however you wish, with either one or both upgrade forms of Brunt on one of your characters. It is with these pieces that we begin to understand a few things. With once piece, we see that Brunt is not just an effectively permanent Grenade Launcher with his Weapon form, but also literally the best Armor in the entire game with not just a permanent Blast Shield, but also the added benefit of having Tough 1 on
top of all of that. When you realize that you can attach both pieces to one character, however, one realizes the power level of Brunt is actually astonishing.
Let me put it this way. Have you played Overwatch at all? If you have, then you know about Ana, the support. She has an Ultimate ability called Nanoboost, where you can power up one of your characters so much that they sweep the entire enemy team. Brunt is the same way. You can use him to power up a character to the point that they become effectively unstoppable, giving them an astronomical attack boost and an almost insurmountable defense at the same time.
The only question at that point is, logically, who would be the best partners for him?
One could say that Battlefield Legend could be interesting, and by putting both Weapons onto him, he could be come effectively unstoppable. But I think that might be a little short-sighted, or at least a little obvious. I just don't think that a Weaponizer could do well in a Tall setting, but be sure to mark down this quote in your notebook because I might end up wrong later.
Nay, I think one of the better way to play this is in an aggressive list with the most oft-forgotten cards in the game at the moment: Demolishor. Demolishor loves having both three attack and Bold 1, but more than anything else, he loves having an Armor that gives him +2 Defense. Since he flips extra cards for each defense that he has, you will flip over Kickback-levels of cards whilst having one of the highest defenses possible in an aggressive deck.
The best part is? He's only 6 stars.
Brunt will only be usable in the kind of list that can support him to his fullest, if it wasn't obvious enough already. Since he's so radically different than everything else, you'll want to use him to his full power level. Admittedly, I don't know for sure if Brunt will ever see play if Cog's lack of usage is anything to go by, but when you consider that Brunt has potentially more value than Cog in the short run, it gets just
slightly easier to see him in a team.
But just slightly.
![Transformers News: Re: Wizards of the Coast Transformers Trading Card Game Thread]( "Transformers News: Re: Wizards of the Coast Transformers Trading Card Game Thread")
Hell hath no fury as a Weapon removed.
Dazzlestrike is not good.
Not only does Dazzlestrike completely suck at dealing damage in her(?) robot mode, but she also isn't exactly special in her alternate mode in terms of damage, either. Unfortunately, whereas she heals her user, she also damages them back to where they were whenever she's inevitably removed via an Enforcement Baton or something similar. Since it's in your best interest to attach a Battle Master near the start of the game, you'll find that the character that you're attaching her to won't be damaged.
This makes her effectively a negative to attach to anyone who cannot keep her, as whenever your opponent discards her from play they will effectively get to deal three damage for free off the play of an Enforcement Batons.
Now, remember when I said that she's not bad on a character who can hold on to her? Well, for your consideration, I give you Greenlight:
![Transformers News: Re: Wizards of the Coast Transformers Trading Card Game Thread]( "Transformers News: Re: Wizards of the Coast Transformers Trading Card Game Thread")
"Sombra, online."
Greenlight is... Interesting. Making use of her Safeguard isn't exactly difficult, but her green pipped ability is deceptively strong. Since it doesn't matter if it's an Action or an Upgrade, you get to play both to boost her attack to a formidable six while also playing two of the most powerful cards in recent memory: Bashing Shield and Press The Advantage.
Given that there are also other cards that can be used with green pips, there are potentially higher damaging combinations through the use of Focus Fire. Since you get to play three of them at once, you'll find that playing a Bashing Shield and your Focus Fire all at once will get you a solid eight attack and Bold 6.
Of course, the hardest thing about that strategy is, y'know, staying
alive long enough to actually use it. With her Safeguard, you're almost guaranteed two turns to pull it off, but we both know that's not enough. You see, in her alternate mode, she has the effect that her Upgrades can't be scrapped from her. With this in mind, we know that we can attach a Force Field to her with absolute impunity. But, perhaps moreso than that, we can use Dazzlestrike to heal her just enough to use Safeguard again, and you can't be punished by removal effects until you're ready to pop off with her in her robot mode.
Is this a viable strategy? I don't know. Probably not? It just seems too tech-y to be pulled off, but who knows? I guess we'll never know unless we get the
green light from the rest of the set!
![Transformers News: Re: Wizards of the Coast Transformers Trading Card Game Thread]( "Transformers News: Re: Wizards of the Coast Transformers Trading Card Game Thread")
"Can we Fixit? Yes we can!"
Fixit is one of, if not the best 4 Star character on the market. Period.
His extremely powerful, effectively universal draw mixed with competent stats (for a Micromaster, that is) make his value off the charts in almost every way. The simple fact of the matter is that, if you're running a deck that needs to dig for something in particular, or perhaps even moreso in a deck that runs more white pips than most, I can think of no better character to play for your money. He's just universally good -- he can scrap your opponent's useful green-pipped card -- like a Bashing Shield, Enforcement Batons, Enigma or all of the above -- on-demand, while also having the ability to net you a new hand of cards to play with.
Oh, yeah, all of this is without using your Action for the turn. Which brings me to the thing I want to touch on:
Since he's universal, there aren't that many decks that
wouldn't want to take him along for that added consistency. But, there is a deck that can only work with him on-board, and that's W1 Shockwave. Shockwave needs to chain as many hand-scrapping effects as it can in order to place as many damage counters as possible. When you realize that Fixit can use his ability alongside a System Reboot for your turn, you realize that you can force your opponent to take roughly 8 damage for effectively free, not counting any card effects like Testify to put more cards in their hand.
With proper use of Bravery and similar effects, Fixit will be safe from attacks and Shockwave will be able to spread the love (by which I mean damage) far faster and far more consistently than anyone thought possible.
![Transformers News: Re: Wizards of the Coast Transformers Trading Card Game Thread]( "Transformers News: Re: Wizards of the Coast Transformers Trading Card Game Thread")
I'm so ready to see some Anime Transformers fights again. I was born ready.
Is he good or just cool? Because I'm not so sure that he's good.
You see, he's got the look, and he's definitely got a sick power level in terms of raw stats, but when you consider the fact that he's
15 freaking stars, you gotta start to wonder if he's worth it or not. Metroplex, for example, has a lot of attention on him because of his even larger stats, but I've personally played him quite a bit and trust me, 35 HP sounds like a lot, but when your opponents swing for 13 a piece you start to wonder how long you're going to last.
Now, this General Prime -- typically called "Galaxy Prime" by most -- can avoid some of this by attaching Energy Pack (usually for free) and cards like Urban Camo to keep yourself alive more. But it begs the question, and I ask myself this question a bit too much from time to time, but consider this:
Is it enough to survive? Or do you want to live?
That wisdom is something I chew on in my own life, but with cards, it takes on a different meaning. What is "living" in a card game? Isn't remaining on the board enough?
Well, no. Galaxy Prime may stay on the field for a while, but he's so big points-wise that he'll likely be the only competent attacker on your team, making him not just priority #1 for your opponent but when he goes down, you'll lose the game almost instantly. Remember, he's got similar offensive power to Battlefield Legend, and Battlefield Legend only has 13 stars compared to Galaxy Prime's 15.
But, as a whole, I don't think that matters as much as I make it out to. Galaxy Prime has a lot of power in his kit, and I think he'll definitely be a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield, but in an innately Balanced deck, can you really count on him to pull through?
![Transformers News: Re: Wizards of the Coast Transformers Trading Card Game Thread]( "Transformers News: Re: Wizards of the Coast Transformers Trading Card Game Thread")
Somehow I just don't see an SUV making a high jump.
Highjump confirmed my suspicions! Given the fact that Highjump is a 4 Star character, the pattern of Micromasters holds true! That means that you can play the full team of Off-Road Patrol members, with the total cost of all four of them coming to a solid 18 Stars. That said, we know now that Powertrain can reach those high stats that we so desperately crave, and can also be played with a 7 Star friend.
But what about Highjump? Is there any place for him anywhere else?
Well, I mean, you can play him in a heavily black list to draw some cards, I guess, but why play him when you could play someone like Fixit? Regardless, he's a black-pipped card that can still make some use out of its inclusion if you have the black pips to support him.
But again, I ask you this: Why not Fixit?
![Transformers News: Re: Wizards of the Coast Transformers Trading Card Game Thread]( "Transformers News: Re: Wizards of the Coast Transformers Trading Card Game Thread")
"Impactor? I barely know 'er!"
Impactor is probably bad. But, when you consider that he could be used in Aggro Tanks alongside Demolishor, Flak and Starter Megatron, he becomes a little less awful. You see, since you can use the highly underutilized Hunker Down to flip your characters all at once, you get the benefit of Demolishor's draw and Impactor's momentary Bold 1.
Of course, since he also has Bold 1 in his robot mode, he'll be a little bit easier to have deal damage, but beyond that his usefulness comes to an end. In fact, you can't really justify using him as someone to spread a lot of Bold 1 when you realize that Flamewar would be straight better. I mean, she does the same thing but for 5 Stars, after all!
Why are all of these Wreckers so bad, anyway? I mean, Springer was bad in W2, Kup was bad in Wave 1 and now Impactor is bad in W4! The Wreckers are getting wrecked.
![Transformers News: Re: Wizards of the Coast Transformers Trading Card Game Thread]( "Transformers News: Re: Wizards of the Coast Transformers Trading Card Game Thread")
Just in case you forgot that the Insecticons are good.
Kickback is insane. On one hand, his vehicle mode is the reciprocal of his Wave 1 iteration, being a busted force for defense on a blue Bugs team, but on the other hand, his robot mode makes standard Bugs even better.
First, the concept of Blue Bugs, the version of Insecticons with, well, blue. With bugs. There have actually been several potential candidates for Blue Bugs over the past few sets, most notably W1 Bombshell, Ransack and Chop Shop to name a few, but to make a long story short they focus mostly on tanking the damage instead of spastically run over your opponent as quickly as possible.
That's where this Kickback will surely find his footing the easiest, using both of his abilities to assist his allies. But what
of his other abilities? Well, let me tell you a secret: His robot mode ability is actually super strong in a fully orange Bugs.
Why? Well, let me tell you.
You see, Kickback states that when one of your Insecticons flips at least one blue pip, you get to ping the defender for 1 damage. That doesn't mean that the pip you flip has to be exactly one blue pip. You could, for example, play Roll Out in your Bugs list to facilitate this ability. Having both blue and orange pips on the same card, Roll Out doesn't bog down your flips with any unnecessary blue cards, and you can still deal the free damage that Kickback is looking to pass out with them included.
Even better, Roll Out isn't even a bad card in your deck given the powerful effects of Skrapnel, Chop Shop and Ransack upon flipping to their alternate modes. Given that he's an alternate 6 Star to include, you're likely to drop Ransack in your list for him. But something that I think is worth experimenting with, however, is dropping Barrage for him, instead. This allows you to play a Full Loadout, as well as getting
just a little ahead on the Transformation game through attacking with Ransack in his alternate form first, transforming Kickback to take full advantage of him from the get-go.
Of course, that's just a spitball -- but it's still an interesting idea regardless.
![Transformers News: Re: Wizards of the Coast Transformers Trading Card Game Thread]( "Transformers News: Re: Wizards of the Coast Transformers Trading Card Game Thread")
"Yesss..."
Lord Megatron will dominate any sealed event ever. With half decks, Megatron will get to activate somewhere close to every single round, sometimes more than once. He'll get to deal a frankly disgusting amount of damage at a similarly sickening pace. Remember, if you use weapons that boost his Attack stat, he'll get to deal more damage when your opponent reshuffles!
The thing I don't like about this guy, though (aside from the misprint saying that his alternate mode's attack stat is 5) is that his alternate mode is actually a bit useless. Milling your opponent is okay, for sure, but when you're milling your opponent for a maximum of five cards it's just... Underwhelming. That said, he is a Tank, which means in a non-sealed format, you can use Hunker Down to flip Megatron and mill your opponent for free, while attaching the ever-useful Armor.
As it so happens, though, Lord Megatron gets markedly worse in a constructed format. Given the fact that your opponent will have a far larger deck to play with, you'll have a far harder time finding value out of him unless your opponent is playing frankly moronic amounts of Bold and milling themselves regardless of Megatron's abilities.
I guess that's the real reason to run Megatron. Not as a strategy per-se, but perhaps as a deterrent. I mean, if your opponent realizes that they have to effectively KO one of their characters when they reshuffle their deck, don't you think that they might hold off on playing a Bold card or two?
Just a thought.
![Transformers News: Re: Wizards of the Coast Transformers Trading Card Game Thread]( "Transformers News: Re: Wizards of the Coast Transformers Trading Card Game Thread")
"I don't like sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating. And it gets everywhere."
Sandstorm is sadly not as strong as his opposite, Astrotrain. Whereas Astrotrain makes his value known through sheer defensive willpower, Sandstorm seems to be a Jack of All Trades, Master of None.
He's got a little of everything, and a little
for anything. His whole game plan is to be exactly what he needs to be for as long as it takes. I am certain that there will be games where you'll just keep him in his Car mode, or his Helicopter mode, or even flashing his robot mode here and there.
Simply put, I love the idea of running a deck that's incredibly versatile, where you can tech your deck or sideboard to counter everything. To that end, I'd like to point out that the Reflex Circuits, Covert and Sturdy Armor can all be attached to Sandstorm through careful planning of his alternate modes, giving you outs to more defense than your opponent will likely be used to, especially in Helicopter mode.
Unfortunately, his robot mode leaves much to be desired (much like the missing attack and defense icons on the bottom of the Helicopter mode) in terms of versatility and usability. Maybe it's just me, but I wish that it did something more than just ping someone for one damage. I realize that it's better than nothing, and that Major Shockwave is slowly becoming a
Major meta mainstay, but other than him most Specialists are just supports instead of major threats.
Something I just realized, though, is that he's basically doing Springer's job from Wave 1, except way better -- and on a Common no less! I mean, think about it; Springer was supposed to be a Jack of All Trades as well, but he kind of sucked at his job a bit given the fact that he relied on Bold and Tough. Sandstorm, however, doesn't deal with any such things.
I guess it really is true what they say: Jack of All Trades, Master of None, but still better than a Master of One.
Even here I get sidetracked.
Fixit may be the king of white, but Sidetrack is most certainly the king of orange. But, you might ask, didn't I just say that Fixit was the undisputed king of all Micromasters ever? What makes Sidetrack the best orange-based Micromaster and why doesn't Fixit simply take that cake?
Well, consider for a moment how many white pips you need to play in your deck to make Fixit anything close to consistent, and now consider for a moment just how many orange pips you might play in an aggressive deck. If you realize now how many orange pips are in your deck and how often they are going to be in your hand, you're going to realize how consistent that Sidetrack is going to be.
Plus, Fixit discards your hand, whereas Sidetrack can help build it instead. Sure, you are going to miss out on any Actions on the top of the deck, but honestly, who cares? They're going to be back in the deck after just a little while, anyway, and the short term benefits of putting a bunch of Upgrades into your hand shouldn't be discounted.
The only thing I actually dislike about Sidetrack is his extremely unfortunate HP. If you notice, he's only set up with 3 HP -- making him an ideal candidate for your opponent to play a One Shall Stand to take a free KO. You may think that people might not play it, but consider for a moment the fact that One Shall Stand has become an increasingly prevalent card in the metagame after Battlemasters came out.
This increasingly relevant and prolific card has become something of a mainstay for the metagame, and when your opponent can take a KO for effectively free on their first turn, you aren't exactly favored in that matchup, simply put. So with that said, is Sidetrack good at all?
Yes, still, he is a powerful utility for decks with the points to spare, especially in an aggressive Tank deck that wants to play Demolishor to his fullest potential. But beware -- your opponent might be just as glad that you're playing Sidetrack as you are.
Okay, I'm just gonna say it: Flamewar with rocket-powered angel wings is one of the raddest things I've seen thus far.
Wasn't Sights an Autobot originally?
Anyway, Raider Sights is kinda mediocre. Sure, we basically shouldn't talk about most Batlemasters in terms of their robot modes because of how "blah" they are with few exceptions, like Aimless or Lionizer for example, but Sights just feels uniquely mediocre. I dunno, maybe I've just gotten a bit jaded to this kind of thing. But the real reason you play a Battlemaster (at least, usually) isn't their robot mode, it's their alternate mode.
Which is also kinda mediocre.
Focus 2 isn't really a sought-after effect, even worse given the fact that it takes 6 Stars off your team in order to run it, and the benefits that it provides outside of that aren't exactly amazing, either. I mean, sure, boosting defense on a Utility is pretty neat since you still get to use an Armor to do so, and in Blue/Black lists you wouldn't mind taking advantage of Focus in order to do your Pierce damage, so it's not that Sights is bad per-se, it's just that he's not as great as some other Battle Masters that boosts Attack and Defense for the same cost like Nightstick.
One thing that I should probably touch on, though, is using Sights on Siege Flamewar like the artwork advises us to do. Since she has an innate Focus 2, you can use Sights to boost that to Focus 4, making a balanced deck show you effectively whatever flips you want whenever you want them. It honestly doesn't even seem half bad, and with Pop A Wheelie making Motorcycles have a reason to exist, I don't think it would be a bad idea to use Sights if you had the spare points. But, that's the extent of what I'd expect to use him in, frankly, given the other options.
"Go ahead. Make my day."
Six-Gun is kinda really neat. He's the kind of Weaponizer that I really enjoy -- the ones that force your opponent to deal with them, the ones that get so much value out of their robot modes that your opponents have to focus them -- which in turn activates their Battle Master or Weaponizer effects, and the clap-back from a suped-up character is painful at worst.
Six-Gun epitomizes this by having an extremely powerful character trait of being able to boost his own attack, comboing with other weapons already attached to him and Actions played from your hand. In total, you can create a massive amount of value out of his robot mode, and the best part is, you want your opponent to deal with him as well because his weapons are still powerful.
In fact, Six-Gun isn't likely to focus his Upgrades on the same character given the nature of Pierce and the powerful effects therein. Oh, and did I mention the fact that the Guided Missile Launcher can be placed in a Utility slot, meaning you can pair it with another weapon. This creates powerful combo potential in itself, and the Anti-Gravity Cannon also creates wondrous opportunities for smaller characters to deal damage to larger ones.
All of this being wrapped in a little shell of only 9 Stars makes Six-Gun a wonderful little package. Now, whether or not that will make him see play is still beyond me, but I can't help but to feel that Six-Gun is going to have a lot of potential value from his robot mode alone.
"Purple haaaaze..."
So let's talk about Safeguard Cars for a minute.
Safeguard Cars (Safecars, if you will) kinda fixes the biggest problem I've found with Cars since launch: They lose when they die. Now, I realize that sounds a bit obvious, but let me explain. You see, Cars as a general idea is a simple one: Don't die, untap, attack at once. This strategy dies almost instantly when it faces something more aggressive than it, something like Bugs who can effectively OHKO one of your characters from the get-go. You see, you can't untap or attack with something that's, well,
dead as it turns out, and it plunges your damage output through the floor.
That's why I love Safecars so much. You still deal similar amounts of damage through use of Press The Advantage, Grenade Launcher, all that ilk, but you are all but confirmed to survive whatever your opponent throws at you so that you can untap your characters how you wish. Plus, to make matters better, you'll still have enough HP to take full advantage of Force Field, with Greenlight being able to take its advantage to the fullest with her alternate mode ability.
Now, as for Smokescreen, I think he's an obvious addition to this archetype. Having 4 Attack in his alternate mode and potentially 5 Attack in his robot mode for the cost of 7 Stars makes him an easy inclusion for the archetype, despite not too many interesting things happening with his kit. This is not to say that other Safeguard Cars will be revealed, and perhaps they will be better than Smokescreen, but until that time I think Smokescreen is a great character to run for the archetype, even if his use is limited outside of it.
I just can't think of any puns to CRACK, y'know?
Thundercracker is pretty neat.
So, Thundercracker makes something of a splash when you consider how much Pierce Power has been in Siege 2 thus far, his abilities are far more consistent than you might think. But, truly, is scrapping cards from your opponent's hand even that great? And is it worth basing an entire deck around when you're only doing Pierce damage? And who do you even play in such a deck?
Well, take for example the idea of playing Thundercracker, Nova Storm and Nightstick on the same team -- now that we have double black pips and more useful black cards, we can use their abilities far easier than initially thought. See, since Thundercracker chooses a card from your opponent's hand and scraps it, you can choose exactly what you want to scrap -- and Nightstick scraps another one afterwards. Then, afterwards, you can use Nova Storm's ability and Thundercracker's ability to move several damage counters from each of your characters at once. Plus, you'll have plenty of stars left over that you could use on Leap of Faith, or perhaps something like Pincer Maneuver.
Now, with all of that said, does Thundercracker have potential outside of that niche composition? Maybe. You see, since he has only 9 Stars, you can use him alongside a smorgasbord of smaller Planes where you can use Photon Bomb to set up a potentially disgusting amount of damage to be moved to one of your opponents. Let me explain with an example.
Thundercracker is 9 Stars, Storm Cloud is 4 Stars, Visper is 5 Stars, and we can toss in Skydive to flesh out the whole squad. Now, let's say for example that you start by going first and you just transform Thundercracker and swing with him. Then, after your opponent swings at you, you can use a Photon Bomb, spreading two damage to each character. That dealt a lot of damage to your opponent, eh? Well, how about a little more? Because, you can transform Thundercracker and reveal one of many double black pips in your deck to move every single damage counter on your characters (8 in total) to one of your opponent's character for a total number of 10 damage on one of their characters for an easily done combo.
Mind you, that's enough to KO a Bug or a Car for effectively free. What's not to love?
I think this isn't the last we've seen of Thundercracker. He's got a lot of potential in his alternate mode as well as his robot mode, and I think that it's going to be interesting to see whether or not those combos can come to fruition.
EDITOR'S NOTE: It has come to my attention that I appear to have misread this card, skipping over "one of" in terms of his flip ability. My apologies for the confusion, as this does change quite a bit of power in this Thundercracker and rather invalidates many of my points. Now, as it happens, I still stand firm on his potential in terms of damage movement and the new double black pipped cards that you will see at the end of the article; moving two damage from one of your characters shouldn't be taken lightly, and I do think that there is a significant level of potential with running him with Nova Storm given her damage movement abilities. That being combined with Bombing Run, you suddenly have a very deadly combination. Plus, you can't deny the usefulness of Bombing Run combined with Photon Bomb in terms of damage potential, especially in a four-wide setting.
You too can stand up the Vanguard!
Vanguard is busted.
There are no two ways about it -- this guy is on the verge of being broken. Giving not just one, not just two, but
all of your characters an effective Force Field that never goes away is just insane. I mean, sure, you need to flip a white pip, yada, yada, who cares? Just play more white pips if you're worried about it. The point being, you can block any useful amount of damage from someone by flipping one of many white pips that you'd play in your deck for a simple five stars.
To make matters better for defensive decks that might want to play him, you get a free +2 defense when your opponent inevitably targets him down. But here's the thing: Do you want to play him in a defensive deck at all? Because I'm actually quite certain that you'd want to play him in an aggressive deck given the circumstances. I mean, effectively turning all of your characters into Skrapnel certainly doesn't seem to be a bad thing, and pinging one of your opponent's characters for a bit more damage doesn't seem half bad, eh?
I mean, even with Decepticons -- the more defensive faction, oddly -- can benefit from this guy because of Callous Leadership. It and Vanguard both have the magic number of 5 damage to make use of their abilities, making Callous Leadership into something of a Max Potion for your Decepticon Leaders. The simple fact of the matter is that Vanguard enables literally everything to be live forever; Autobot or Decepticon.
That means that your opponent will invariably try their hardest to focus him from the get-go. Our little R2-D2 here certainly doesn't like being in the spotlight, and his stats reflect that, but when you consider the use of Stealthiness or Hiding Spot in order to protect him throughout the game, you're looking at a Battle Master that will only die when you want him to.
I think that Vanguard is busted enough to be warranted in any deck that can fit him. Literally any deck that can run him effectively probably should. I mean, who wouldn't want to live longer, right?
Augly Reflexes.
Acute Reflexes isn't that great.
You don't see it as a boost to your attack, and Focus 1 isn't a stellar boost to consistency, and the defense side of it could also be just an Urban Camo to serve the same job. I don't see this getting much play outside of maybe some decks that play a crapload of white cards, with Vanguard or Fixit for example.
I dunno. I could be wrong. But until someone proves that to me, I think I'll just binder it and move on.
Back in black / I hit the sack
I've been too long / I'm glad to be back
Double black pips, boyos! Double black pips are not only real, but there are three different ones, meaning you can put a total of nine double black cards in your deck for your flipping pleasure. I think that this is exactly what black needed as a concept, since Pierce 1 here and there simply wasn't enough to warrant playing it overall. But now that we have full double black pips, I'm ecstatic to see where it goes. Will the black or blue pipped Bold cards see play to get to those astronomical numbers of Pierce that only Arcee could dream of? Who knows!
But until we find out, we need to take a look at the cards in their individual rights and see if there are any that you could actually play on your turn and not feel awful about.
Let's start it off with Crowbar, which has the nice effect of being a Grenade Launcher -- if that Grenade Launcher was terrible. I mean, you're going to be playing this for the pips, but really and truly, if you're attacking Crowbar during your turn instead of anything else, you're probably in a bad spot. I mean, Primary Blaster is a better weapon than this and it's, well, Primary Blaster. But, it's still good to know that if you draw it, you're not going to be exactly
losing anything, unlike drawing an Improvised Shield in an orange deck, because you can scrap it so easily that it'll be back in your deck before you know it.
As for Minor Medic Kit... I think that it exists, and that's certainly not a bad thing. It's not going to exactly give you the "
Wow!" factor that attaching something like Energy Pack or something similar is going to give you, but it's at least something, especially in a defensive deck. Unfortunately, if you attach it, you're not exactly going to have too many chances to scrap it outside of replacing it or letting the upgraded character die, which is
kinda the opposite goal of the game in most cases.
As for Designated Target, it's everything I wanted and more. Given the fact that it has Pierce 2 in the deck as well as in your hand means that you're not losing any Pierce power by drawing into it, and you're still playing it from your hand to be reshuffled into your deck afterwards. Designated Target is also excellent in decks that can attack more than once in a turn, like with Cars or perhaps Motorcycles, given the fact that you are giving your entire
team Pierce to play with. Of course, it is an Action, and there are certainly better Action-based damaging cards to play on your turn, but as far as double black pips go? I can't think of a better one to have in a deck.
Double black pips are fantastic news for the future of the color. I've been trying to get as many versions of black to work through the use of orange or blue counterparts, but many times I've felt that the black pips were simply a random side-effect that didn't give enough power to warrant its inclusion outside of a few niche character effects. Now, not only can you use those niche character effects easier, but you can also rest easy knowing that you'll have the amount of Pierce that you want, pretty much whenever you want it.
I mean, around a quarter of your deck will be made up of double black pips, y'know?
Flipping out.
Triplechangers, for the most part, haven't been stellar. They've either been too goofy to pull off like Blitzwing, or they've been too inconsistent to be powerful, like Springer. But, the worst sin of them all, was that most of them had one useless -- or at least incredibly niche -- mode.
For Springer, it was usually regarded as his robot mode. For Blitzwing? Also his robot mode. For Sandstorm, his robot mode fits that bill perfectly, having a one-and-done effect that will leave you either defenseless to attacks or pillow-fisted for your next attack. At least, that's what it seemed like, until Conversion Engine came along.
You see, that's what Conversion Engine seeks to repair: Mode consistency. Let's take Sandstorm, for example. On one hand, you have a dismal robot mode with a useful alternate mode, each with their own advantages for separate versions of characters. Normally, you'd try to avoid his robot mode like the plague; but with Conversion Engine, you can consistently transform him to Robot Mode and then back to one of his more useful modes afterwards.
But, I think Bliztwing is one of the better ones to take advantage of this. Given the fact that you're not only hoping but
praying that your top cards activate his flip effect as not to leave you high and dry in his frail robot mode, Conversion Engine allows just a little bit of leeway to allow you to flip him back to one of his alternate modes. It's just a little bit of consistency, just a bit easier to work with than it was before.
Now, does this card instantly make Blitzwing, Springer or anyone else instantly meta? No, probably not. In fact, Astrotrain could care less about this card, to tell you the honest truth. But does it mean that I won't be thinking just a little more about the Triplechangers of yesteryear? You bet your tailpipe I will.
"Congratulations on your promotion, Admiral."
Involuntary Promotion is absolutely insane. It's basically an "I STILL FUNCTION!", but also...
Not an ISF. It's a bit wonky, but it has the same if not more implications that ISF has.
Let me explain: Involuntary Promotion isn't just a one-and-done like ISF is, where it brings someone back, you usually attack with them, and then they go away. In this case, you get to bring someone back in total, while keeping the upgrades from the previous character. This means that, in decks where you have a very specific character that holds the entire deck together (Wheeljack in Cars, for example, where you could swap him with Bumblebee), you can simply swap out a lesser useful character for them and continue on your way.
It's a great card already, but the fact that it keeps your previously attached upgrades after the swap makes it even better for defensive decks. For example, you can, potentially, reuse Flamewar after she's KO'd, or you could bring back a character like Headstrong -- Upgrades already online thanks to your previous character.
Something else that I'd like to mention is the fact that you can use it alongside the Constructicons to boost your Tower. Let me explain this through an example: Your opponent goes first, and they happen to one-hit your Hook. That's when you laugh to yourself, give them a wry grin and tell them that they're a second-rate duelist with a third-rate deck, capping off your bravado by bringing back Hook and swapping him with Bonecrusher. In this scenario, you are not only bringing back Hook, a character with 7 HP, in exchange for a character like Bonecrusher, a character with 4 HP, but also boosting Devastator's HP by 3, potentially. But that's not all -- since you're KOing Bonecrusher, you're also building your tower by one level because it KO's Bonecrusher.
I'm always trying to find ways to make Constructicons meta. Does this fit the bill to push Constructicons ever-closer to being meta? Well, uh, yeah. It kinda does, actually -- but can it alone make Constructicons good? No. But can it make them
better? Abso-freakin'-lutely.
"This never happens, I swear!"
Now, I'm not gonna lie -- when I first saw this, I thought it was kinda awful.
I figured, "Oh, hey, look -- it's another card that doesn't realize that aggressive decks don't actually use more than one Upgrade!"
It took me more than a moment to realize that this card is not actually
meant to counter offensive decks. You see, when you realize that defensive decks usually stack quite a few Upgrades upon them, you start to realize that this deck is for defensive Decepticons during the mirror match -- especially against decks that happen to be playing cards like Extra Padding, where they stack upon each other.
With Backfire against a fully-loaded character, you're going to be dealing a solid three damage to them. Against a character with Extra Padding upon them, however, you're going to be dealing an extremely powerful
five damage to them. Now, your opponent could play into this and simply not attach their Extra Padding, to which I ask you, is that not a win in itself? You are forcing your opponent not to play their most powerful cards simply out of the simple threat of a card that you might not even have in your
sideboard!
The simple threat of it is what I love about it. Your opponent will be wary of making the mistake of putting down a card that they cannot remove from themselves, and you will reap the rewards.
H A C K E R M A N
Decipher is a really, really weird card. There are specific sideboard cards like Backfire, there are specific mainboard cards like Bashing Shield, and then there are specific character-hate cards like Decipher. If you hate Major Shockwave with a fierce, burning,
immolating passion, then Decipher is the way to go.
See, Major Shockwave can put out his fair share of Secret Actions, and he's incredibly defensive. That's where Decipher can make your opponent's day sour. Not only is Decipher a black pip, "Pierce"ing Shockwave's "major" defenses, but it's also a green pip. Since you can consistently put it into your hand when you need it, you can abuse your opponent's Secret Action play pretty much all game.
It's a mean, green, niche machine that won't do much against pretty much anything other than Major Shockwave. Take that for what you will, but if you're really,
really afraid of that one matchup, then by all means, Decipher will have a sweet spot in your sideboard.
Crosshairs officially doing more here than he did in The Rebirth.
Okay, so hear me out: This card
could be good in a defensive deck.
Don't let that orange pip fool you into thinking that it doesn't belong! Even though it's the same thing as putting a blank pip in your deck, you gotta realize that being off-color doesn't necessary denote inconsistency. I mean, just look at it from the angle of you putting a blank pip into your deck and you'll be fine. But, all of that being said, when you look at the rest of the card, things start to get a bit spicy.
So, in a defensive deck that plays plenty of Armor, you can play a Defensive Configuration. Before you ask, no, you aren't really expecting to get the free Armor off the top of your deck: In fact, you're more after the second Armor slot -- the free Armor is just extra. I mean, have you seen a Dreadwing with a Reinforced Plating and an Extra Padding on him? How'd you like to have that on any character?
That's my point. But, with that said, I wouldn't be comfortable playing this alongside another blank pipped card. You're just flooding your deck with inconsistent cards at that point, so you'll have to decide between using Defensive Configuration or a truly blank pip in your deck. After all, Tough is the best way to get defensive value at the moment, and putting non-blue cards in your deck mustn't be taken lightly.
All of that said, Defensive Configuration certainly isn't for everyone. I mean, aggro decks won't like it at
all, and Galaxy Prime might not find as much value out of it as people might think. But, in defensive decks like Major Shockwave, I think a dark horse might just be riding from the abyss.
As a side note, can you imagine a Dreadwing deck with two of these things on him? Four Armor slots, my guy.
Four.
Armor.
Slots. Nightmare fuel, man. Nightmare fuel.
Putting the "hide" in Ironhide.
So, this is basically the defensive form of Erratic Lightning, and it's kinda missing an important piece of the puzzle that made Erratic Lightning so good: The blue pip.
Okay, yeah, sure. You just read my Defensive Configuration piece and now you're scratching your head, but hear me out. On one hand, Defensive Configuration is an orange pip -- effectively blank in a defensive deck -- but it also has an extremely powerful effect that can bolster your defenses even further than before. But, get this: It doesn't actually make you
lose anything for playing it. It's just a boon. Sure, it might take you a turn to get that boon, but you're still getting there.
Guarded Posture kinda feels like the opposite of that. With Guarded Posture, you're actually losing a bit of the ever-important attack stat. If you've played a defensive deck, you'd know this by heart: Your cards don't do any damage whatsoever. Sometimes, dealing damage comes down to one point of damage between defenses and when you decrease it, you're making your job a lot harder -- certainly harder than Erratic Lightning ever did for aggro.
Which brings me to the second problem I have with this card: Aggro doesn't care about its defense. Most characters in an aggro deck have one or two defense, and they most certainly don't care about getting OHKO'd. Guarded Posture cutting your attack makes your only win condition (i.e. KOing your opponent's characters) way, way harder to pull off, and that gives your opponent time to eventually overpower your defenses. Something, mind you, that is easier now that you play non-blue pips in your deck.
That's my biggest problem with it. If it had one of the two stipulations, either an orange pip or an attack decrease, it'd be busted. But since it has both, I can't help but to think that we have a better secondary Armor option that rhymes with Schblast Schield.
Judging from the barrage of weaponsfire, I'd say that "hidden" part isn't going so well.
This card is broken.
I'm not joking. Hidden Fortification just made defensive decks way, way better, and Major Shockwave is chief of these. It'd be good if it was only Tough 2, but at Tough
3 you can combine it with your Armor to drown out any pathetic attempts at damage your opponent throws at you. The best part about it is, though, is that it's also a blue pip. The fact that it gives Tough 3 along with a blue pip makes it just insane. The fact that it's a common, too, makes it incredibly readily available for anything from a constructed deck to a sealed deck, as well.
I can't actually write much here because it's so universally good for blue that there really isn't a defensive deck that wouldn't want to play it. I'm serious; look out for this one.
Pictured: Me telling my unsuspecting coworkers about the conspiracy of Skinwalker Ranch for the third time that day.
Jam Signals is another in a vast sea of defensive cards that have an orange pip. Some believe that this is meant to counter defense, and whereas it's a nice concept, playing effectively counterspells in an aggressive deck is almost never good. Simply put, you're already using all of your space for more aggressive cards, so you won't have the time nor space to play Jam Signals.
So, the question becomes: "Who does?" In a word? Defense. You see, it isn't uncommon to play a line or two of blank pips in your deck for their powerful effects. So, why not play an orange pip in its place if its effects are better than the other blank pips that you could play, especially if it helps you beat mirror matchups?
That's why I don't mind the idea of putting Jam Signals in a defensive deck's sideboard. Since many defensive decks can use cards like Heavy Handed or The Bigger They Are in order to deal damage to you, you can use Jam Signals to effectively remove that potential threat from play. I am a big fan of making my opponents regret existing, and Jam Signals helps with that.
But, I can't help but to wonder if it'll see any play whatsoever. Infiltrate sees some play, but I can't help but to see this card as being the odd, kookie uncle to a solid card. I mean, there will definitely be people willing to try it out, but I think at the end of the day, it'll likely be bindered.
"I just invented perpetual motion!"
Kinetic Converter is a somewhat odd card that made me realize how Apeface is probably going to be the only one to want to use this (or the next) card. But, since we have no idea what Apeface will actually do, I'll go ahead and remark a bit solemnly about what uses that Kinetic Converter has, by which I mean it doesn't have any.
I mean, sure, you're effectively playing less cards in your deck when you look at it from the angle of you're playing a card to draw a card, but when Upgrade attachments are so, so important in this game, simply using Kinetic Converter to draw a single card is going to be firmly in the "inefficient" category.
Now, I'm being a bit harsh, here. That isn't to say that it doesn't have at least a little potential with some more niche concepts. For example, Metroplex is known to flip several times during a turn, meaning Kinetic Converter could draw you a fair amount of cards. Bluestreak and Blitzwing, too, flip themselves over per their attack, and thus you could use Kinetic Converter to facilitate draw; Cosmos could use it to draw cards after using a UFO; Cars, finally, can use it in tandem with Cliffjumper to get even more draw than normal.
So, where do these few limited cases leave us with Kinetic Converter? Isn't Data Bank just straight better despite being a white pipped Utility that draws you consistent cards in roughly the same amount of time for less commitment regarding your flips?
Yes, yes it is.
"Throw me the idol and I'll throw you the whip!"
Kinetic Intensifier Whip is a similar card to Kinetic Converter in that it requires the use of your flips in order to get value out of, and the times where you can flip more than once can actually make this into a formidable card.
Let's put this in the context of Metroplex, for example. With Metroplex, you have the use of Escape Route to give you an extra transformation during your turn. You can use that to, from your robot mode, flip yourself to your alt mode in order to spit out another small guy, but for this example, let's say we spit out Scamper. This single flip has given Metroplex a Bold 2 from the Kinetic Intensifier Whip, but also given him Bold 1 thanks to Scamper. So, what next? Well, we simply transform him back to robot mode, giving him another Bold 2 thanks to the whip, and thus giving him a total of Bold 5 for simply playing an Action with a green pip.
That seems pretty good to me.
Remember, you also get the +1 Attack from the Kinetic Whip as a base, so you're actually going to be swinging really,
really hard in the right deck. I mean, just think about Cars. With a Start Your Engines and a flip for turn, Wheeljack can suddenly gain Bold 7 in total -- utterly monstering anyone that turn. The same could also be said for aggressive Tanks through the use of Hunker Down and Impactor.
I think that the little whip that could is a little beast of a card, and I think that there's a pretty good chance that we're going to be seeing a lot of this little Common rather soon.
Pictured: A brave Springer player futilely wades through an ocean of Insecticon players during the height of the Rise of the Combiners Meta.
What an interesting card. I am really not quite sure what to make of it, but Pincer Movement has immense potential in general.
Okay, sure, it has to be in a deck with three extra spaces to be even remotely consistent. But, when you consider the fact that you can pair it with All Out Attack or (depending on the deck) Pop a Wheelie, you're going to realize that you're going to have a lot more in the ways of multiple attack options than you used to. This seems like a generally strong deck concept given the nature of aggressive decks, especially the ones that use Battle Masters, that can't really take early KOs on untapped characters that well.
Now, in terms of specific decks that Pincer Movement would be useful in, I can't say that I have many ideas. On one hand, one could say that playing the new Kickback in place of Barrage in Insecticons could free up a spot for Pincer Movement, but the odds of you drawing that on any consistent basis is low at best, and Barrage already brings a solid amount of power to the list anyway, making his usefulness far greater that any single copy of Pincer Movement is going to give you.
In terms of other decks, there always is the idea of Motorcycles. Motorcycles, through the use of All Out Attack, Pop a Wheelie and now Pincer Movement could use all of these cards to target down opponent's characters early, hopefully removing them before the inevitable retaliation wipes the fragile bikes from the field. Pincer Movement helps with that because you're likely to be playing both Flamewar, and getting an extra attack is almost never a bad thing. Of course, you'd have to change the list to drop Chromia or Arcee for someone cheaper in order to play Pincer Movement effectively, but that's for you to decide on whether it's worth it or not.
In total, I think that Pincer Movement is a solid addition to the Star Card roster. Unfortunately, I
do think that it will be inherently limited in its play given the nature of Star Cards in general, but that being said, isn't that exactly what you could say about literally every other Star Card in existence? Food for thought.
It's called Point Position because they are pointing at a position.
This card is utterly nutty for blue/black decks. Given the fact that Point Position is a blue/black pip combination, this should be obvious. But, do you want to know a secret about blue/black decks? Most of them require the use of Bravery in order to function. The fact that you can play two separate versions of Bravery in your deck just makes me swoon.
Of course, it's not a
direct reprint of Bravery since Bravery works all the time, and Point Position only works when tapped. But, that's pretty much the same thing, anyway, and you're probably going to draw a Bravery later on enough to replace it anyway. It's a consistency card, a redundant system that makes the plane just
slightly safer to fly. It also helps that it's both a blue pip and a black pip, making both sides of the equation slightly more consistent.
It makes me wonder at whether or not we're going to see Omega Jazz come into the meta a little. Its most prevalent problem was getting your opponent to attack where you wanted them to, i.e. Jazz, and it also felt a little pillow-fisted when I played it. Perhaps the black pip and Point Position can make Omega Jazz' dreams come true! Or maybe the fact that black pips
exist could also push it out of the meta altogether.
Who knows? But regardless, I think that Point Position is certainly a great card to keep your eye on. It'll surely be played in janky, defensive rogue decks left and right, and it might just make blue/black a bit more consistent than you were expecting.
CONCLUSION
There are so many good cards that have been revealed, and so many of them can start their own archetype. We haven't even seen the full set yet and I'm already ecstatic for the future. The only thing that I'm currently concerned with at the moment, however, is the health of the Sealed Format. Remember, it was just revealed that players will have to play a full three rounds of Sealed at the Energon Invitational, testing our mettle, creativity and maybe just little of our luck.
What about you, then? Are you looking forward to Lord Megatron potentially making the name "Lord Megatron" a household name? Or are you as smugly happy as I am at the thought of playing an Optimus Prime that happens to look like something very familiar out of the golden age of Transformers, the Unicron Trilogy? You can't fight me on this! It was the best!
But in all seriousness, I think that we're about to see more than a few archetypes rise out of this set, with Astrotrain being the one I'm looking at the most at the moment. He just seems like a wall of value to me, and even if he's half as good as I think he is, I think we'll see him as a meta contender for sure.
Let me know in the comments below what you thought as I slowly dip my hands into a large bucket of ice water so that they may simmer down. I mean, is anyone else's fingers currently burning and numb, or is that just me? I'm sure it's fine, and not the onset of carpal tunnel.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed and I'll see you in the next article!
Date: Wednesday, September 11th 2019 6:57pm CDT
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SIEGE II -- THE SIEGENING
Well, I did it. I awoke from a few months in cryo-sleep just a few minutes ago and the right side of my face has never looked or felt better! The left side is probably still asleep.
Probably.
Anyway, I haven't been
completely dormant for the past few months -- in fact, I've never been busier testing, grinding games and theoryforming my way into a few great ideas and a whole
legion of bad ones. I'll get into it in later articles, but first, let's go over the newest reveals instead:
CHARACTERS
![Transformers News: Re: Wizards of the Coast Transformers Trading Card Game Thread]( "Transformers News: Re: Wizards of the Coast Transformers Trading Card Game Thread")
7.8/10 Doesn't inadvertently kill an allied Optimus Prime.
Hot Rod is -- for the lack of a better term -- super freaking hot. Hot Rod is not only a Car, which means he can take advantage of all of the busted Car support, but he can also take advantage of multiple Action combos as well as having a surprisingly moderate offensive capabilities as well as potent defensive ones as well.
Okay, I'm getting ahead of myself. So, what exactly does Hot Rod do? Well, that's simple enough to explain. You see, we are getting a new keyword alongside Revenge, which is Safeguard. Safeguard is effectively the same thing as Skrapnel's effect, except it only takes effect when they're undamaged (and with a name like "Safeguard 3" on the card, one can only assume that we'll see different numbers like "Safeguard 5", "Safeguard 1", etc.).
Safeguard allows Hot Rod to excel at getting his deck to reshuffle since he lives for so long. But, not just that, since he's a car, you can effectively attack with impunity with him. In other words, you can attack with his car, and then untap him to then attack with another character. But, to make matters even better, you can combo him with W1 Prowl to not only do extra Bold damage, but to use Prowl to heal Hot Rod back to zero when your opponent KOs one of your other, and less important, cars.
This will allow you to take another hit and use his Safeguard effect, and it will also allow you to effectively force your opponent to either side in damaging Actions from their sideboard, but to potentially waste attacks on him. Remember, you can use Prowl's healing more than once, and "I STILL FUNCTION!" can trigger it, too, making Hot Rod effectively invincible so long as you can heal him.
Of course, his Safeguard mode isn't the best part about him. In fact, his robot mode is where you're likely to get most of his value given the fact that you can play multiple Actions during a single turn for effectively free. You can use this to your advantage in many ways. For example, you can use a Supercharge as well as a Reckless Charge at the same time to give him a frankly disgusting amount of damage, or you can use multiple ISF to bring back your entire team -- and heal off Hot Rod afterward. Perhaps, too, you could use him to draw a sinful amount of cards from your deck by using multiple Equipment Enthusiast during the same turn. Perhaps a mixture of both! Multiple Actions means multiple options, and I'm looking forward to seeing what kind of combos people will come up with using him.
As for the downsides, though, he is only 12 HP, and his defense goes down to 1 in robot mode. His damage isn't great to start with, and he's rather expensive for a Car. He's got the same stats as Barrage, but two stars more for not the fastest of value. In fact, it takes quite a bit of time to start getting value out of him, kind of in the same vein as Nemesis Prime or Cosmos, and he doesn't have the draw power of Cosmos or the defense of Prime to get himself there, either.
That said, though, Hot Rod might actually work well with either of the other Reshufflers, so there's that thought, at least. Regardless, Hot Rod has a massive amount of potential and you can get a lot of value out of him if the deck is right. I'm looking forward to seeing where he goes from here.
![Transformers News: Re: Wizards of the Coast Transformers Trading Card Game Thread]( "Transformers News: Re: Wizards of the Coast Transformers Trading Card Game Thread")
"Black and yellow, black and yellow, black and yellow... Yellow and black! Let's mix it up a little!"
Nova Storm is here, and she's a she! This shouldn't come as too much of a shock, but I adore female transformers, and I have been kind of sad that the only female Seeker, it seemed, was Slipstream. That said, though, I wish that they had given Nova Storm more visual signifiers to signify the contrast, given the fact that she looks effectively identical to Sunstorm.
Regardless, she's a bit of a wonky character, sadly. She has a lot of synergy with black pips, which aside from making me hope that this signifies a bit of a boost to black pipped cards, also effectively makes her usability a bit... Limited. Sure, at 7 stars, you can use her with Acid Storm and Ion Storm to put the three Rainmakers at 25, but why? Ion Storm and Acid Storm love the inclusion of Flamewar to make their defensive trifecta as bulky as possible, and there's little room for the inclusion of someone who is more of a DPS than a wall, and someone who uses pips that probably won't even be included in the list to be perfectly frank.
So, where does she go, then, if her teammates don't need her? Well, I'd wager that the best place for her is -- aside from a bulk bin -- a plane deck that focuses on Action and Upgrade-based damage, not outright damage. You see, since she can move a damage from herself to one of your opponents, she can combo rather well with Bombing Run. Her moderate to high damage can make her potent in an aggro list that runs Air Commander Starscream from Wave 1, and her damage movement ability pairs well with his. You would need a six star character to pair with them, still, and it would likely be a Micromaster plane like Storm Cloud or a Bravery plane like Fireflight, but the long and short of it is that there is a potential home for her.
Nova Storm's Pierce 3 is nothing to shake a stick at, of course, and orange/black cards are most certainly a thing, but I do wonder if she'll struggle to make her way out of the bulk binder to show it off. Either way, I like yellow, planes and female Transformers so I guess this makes her the best card that has ever been printed. Aside from that, though, I doubt her usefulness.
![Transformers News: Re: Wizards of the Coast Transformers Trading Card Game Thread]( "Transformers News: Re: Wizards of the Coast Transformers Trading Card Game Thread")
"It's simple. We, uh, kill the Rat Man."
Ratbat is actually kind of insane. He's not the best in monochrome decks, of course, but in blue/black decks or balanced decks, he's rather invaluable. You see, in defensively-geared decks, healing is kinda busted, and whereas he's going to be Priority Numero Uno on your opponent's hit list when they realize how powerful he is at keeping his friends alive, you're still going to get at least one or two heals out of the guy when you pair him with Major Soundwave.
Major Soundwave in general is full of untapped potential, mostly thanks to Ravage being about as useful as an umbrella made out of toilet paper. But, when you create a colorful deck that caters to the defensive capabilities of Soundwave's massive HP and moderate defense alongside Ratbat's healing and Laserbeak's consistency, you start to realize how potent that they could be as a team.
Soundwave not only boosts Ratbat's "meh" survivability in his starting mode, but untaps Ratbat so that you may use his healing ability a
second time before the untap phase and that's without even considering the use of Micro Capacitor. If you build your deck with enough Blue/Green, Blue/Black and Orange/Blue cards, Ratbat will be incredibly consistent in his healing, allowing you to survive far longer than you would have initially thought.
Of course, this is not infallible. You still need to do damage, and on a team with Laserbeak, Ratbat and Soundwave, you're looking at one (
maybe two if you consider Laserbeak's Pierce) attacker that you're going to be riding on. You still need to kill stuff, you know! You are also sitting at a cringe-inducing 22 stars, which of course opens up the use of three Fuel Cache to potentially use on Ratbat, but it also means you're lacking the ever-important Flamewar that you should be playing as a defensive deck.
Is it worth it? Probably. Does it have potential? Of course. Is it
good?
I have no idea.
![Transformers News: Re: Wizards of the Coast Transformers Trading Card Game Thread]( "Transformers News: Re: Wizards of the Coast Transformers Trading Card Game Thread")
How'd he get so strong? "Train"ing.
Powertrain is actually kinda busted when you think about it. Okay, let's be clear, here. Tote and Mudslinger have already been released and they're four and five star Micromasters, respectively, and High Jump hasn't been revealed yet (but they said that he was in the set on Twitter!), but we can make a few assumptions.
Given the fact that every Micromaster Team seems to be made up of one five star Micromaster and one four star Micromaster, we can assume that this release will be no different, with High Jump being a four star Micromaster. With that in mind, we can make some assumptions about Powertrain as well as how you can run him.
So, since Powertrain gives all of your Off-Road Patrol characters Bold 1 (which is insane), we would obviously want to put as many Off-Road Patrols on the same team as him, and assuming that High Jump is four stars, we can fit all four of them on the same team with seven stars left over. This means that you have four characters with room for a seven-star fifth, and in an aggro deck, I could think of no other character that I'd rather have than Lionizer.
Since Lionizer has Bold 4 to be shared with one of your characters, we can stack that alongside Powertrain, or use it on him. You see, that's the best part about Powertrain -- you get to stock him up with some powerful tools because, after everything is said and done and all of your other Off-Roaders are in the KO pile, Powertrain becomes something of a beast. With all three KO'd, he has a base 5 Attack and 5 Defense, making him one of the highest defense characters in the game, tying with Darkmount.
But that's not all that Powertrain brings to the table. Since Powertrain, along with all other Micromasters, has Stealth, you effectively force your opponent to attack Lionizer on the first turn of the game, which is always a good thing in my book.
Unfortunately, that's where his usefulness ends. You see, since he only boosts Off-Road Patrol, you can't effectively use him in... Well,
anything. He's an Autobot Leader, yes, but so is Top Shot. You're not going to get the same value out of Powertrain as you're going to get out of Top Shot in anything other than Off-Road Patrol decks. But, in those Off-Road Patrol decks, no character is better.
As a side note, I can definitely see Off-Road becoming something of this game's Night March, which is a deck from Pokemon that was known for being extremely cheap to build and noticeably powerful in the right format. Whether that comes to fruition remains to be seen, but I don't think that this is the last time we've seen Powertrain.
BATTLE CARDS
![Transformers News: Re: Wizards of the Coast Transformers Trading Card Game Thread]( "Transformers News: Re: Wizards of the Coast Transformers Trading Card Game Thread")
"Previously on AMC's The Walking Dead..."
Relentless Invasion seems actually busted. Well, at least it seems that way. I'm not going to pretend like I think that this one card that you get to play once in five games is going to change the meta, but, you have to admit that it's kind of insane value.
But more than that I cannot say. Since they're clearly including Trypticon-influencing cards in the main set, I can't make a proper judgement call on how potent Trypticon will be. I'm not super in love with the whole idea, and I rather figured that Trypticon would be more damaging when you considered what kind of character he is. Although, the concept of deploying based on an Action instead of flips
does put a smile on my face.
I simply refuse to give any more thought to the matter until we've seen more of the set. As it stands, though, I think Trypticon is unique enough that people will play him regardless of what they actually think of his potency. He just seems incredibly inconsistent, and frail, to me -- but I could be wrong.
CONCLUSION
Siege II reveals are well underway, and the introduction of offensive Micromasters as well as powerful battle cards like Relentless Invasion make me swoon for the reveals yet to come. I'm looking forward to seeing whether Trypticon shapes up, or if he flops like I'm tentatively thinking he might, but I do know one thing: If he can make headway in this aggro metagame, I'll be impressed.
Since Hot Rod revealed Safeguard, however, I cannot help but to be a bit more excited about the pace of the game potentially slowing down with no doubt more characters and potentially Upgrades with Safeguard on them. I'm ecstatic to learn whether or not we'll be getting effectively Force Field 2.0, and I'm cautiously optimistic that we'll get one.
What about you? Are you looking forward to playing Hot Rod? Are you looking forward to figuring out where Nova Storm will fit in to a Rainmaker composition? Let me know in the comments below, and I'll see you next time!
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