Transformers Game News on Seibertron.com

Transformers Earth Wars Event Trick and Treat

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

Discuss This Topic · Permanent Link
Views: 42,702

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

"Planes, Trains and Automobiles" -- TFTCG Siege II Strategic Analysis

Date: Wednesday, September 25th 2019 8:21pm CDT
Categories: Site Articles, Game News
Posted by: #Sideways#

Discuss This Topic · Permanent Link
Views: 52,530

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

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.




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.




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:




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!




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.




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?




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?




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.




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.




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.




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.




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.




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.




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.




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.




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.



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?




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.




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?



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.




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.



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.



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.




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.




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.




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.




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.




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.




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.




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.




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!

Cavalcade of Card Reveals for the Transformers Card Game With Brunt, Impactor, Astrotrain, Six Gun

Date: Friday, September 20th 2019 12:33pm CDT
Categories: Game News, Collectables
Posted by: Stargrave | Credit(s): Unicron.com, TFW2005.com, Comicbook.com, Transformers TCG official, 425suzanne@Twitter, Vectorsigma

Discuss This Topic · Permanent Link
Views: 24,955

Well it's certainly been a huge week of reveals for the Transformers Trading Card Game (TCG for short) and today we have another deck's worth to share with you. These are from various sources revealed over the last two days, each source is listed above each image. Even if you're not an active player these cards are spectacular to collect and admire for their artwork and foil effects. Enjoy the views and share your thoughts with the Seibertron crew in the forum. As always stay tuned to Seibertron for the ultimate in Transformers news.
First up we have Sergeant Thundercracker and some battle cards via the Wizards of the Coast official Transformers TCG site:









Next we have Private Greenlight and Conversion Engine via @425suzanne on Twitter:





Ah here we go, now here's a fun triple changing Captain Astrotrain card along with some more battle cards through the WTF@TFW Podcast at TFW2005.com. What a beauty. They also revealed the battle cards Backfire, Involuntary Promotion, and Pincer Movement with a cool Insecticon tag team up.










Tough as nails comes Captain Impactor from Unicron.com



Then we've got Private Sidetrack on vectorsigma.info


Just in from Comicbook.com is the new Six Gun card showing off his three modes:


Then there's Private Fixit via Powered by Primus on Youtube:


And lastly, and quite to be quite blunt, we have the violence in violet, the footsoldier named Brunt from Big Comic Page:

Images of all Transformers on Show Floor at #SDCC2019 Preview Night with Unicron, Rung and More

Date: Wednesday, July 17th 2019 9:47pm CDT
Categories: Movie Related News, Toy News, Event News, Game News, Collectables
Posted by: Stargrave | Credit(s): #SDCC2019

Discuss This Topic · Permanent Link
Views: 80,780

Greetings and happy San Diego Comic Con 2019 fellow Seibertronians! Our top agents are on the floor grabbing pics of everything worth seeing from just about every angle imaginable.

You will see reveals for:
-The entire upcoming Siege line including Thundercracker, Galaxy Upgrade Optimus Prime, Impactor, Springer, Omega Supreme, Micromaster Combiner team, Micromaster Frenzy and Ratbat, Astrotrain, Spinister, Ape Face, Crosshairs, the Micromaster ten pack, Jetfire, Mirage, Barricade and Battlemaster Rung.
-New Bot Bots Series 3 assortments.
-Transformers Generations Selects exclusives Galactic Man Shockwave (he even has it written on himself), Red Wing, and Lancer.
-Super Cyborg clear action figures.
-Cyberverse Spark armor Optimus Prime, Cheetor, and Bumblebee.
-Cyberverse Prowl, Alpha Trion, and Grimlock.
-Rescue Heroes Mega Mighties Bumblebee and Hot Shot.
-Masterpiece Movie Megatron.
-MP10 Optimus Ecto-35 mashup.
-G1 Reissue of Soundwave with Cassettes two packs of Frenzy/Laserbeak and Rumble/Ravage.
-Rescue Bots Rescue Crew 4 pack with Whirl, Hoist, and Hot Shot.
-New Studio Series Figures on their way such as car mode Bumblebee Dropkick, Dark of the Moon Hightower and Long Haul, and Leader class Dark of the Moon Optimus Prime with jet trailer.
-Haslab's Unicron from multiple perspectives.
-The new Transformers Trading Card Game Blaster vs. Soundwave decks and the convention exclusive Omnibots pack.
-Also take note of the Gilson snowboard and ski manufacturer's exclusive 35 pairs of skis and 35 snowboards each with G1 classic art work, and 3A's dark chrome Decepticon repaint of BumbleBee Optimus Prime.

And that's just to start! There's plenty to see from all aspects of our amazing hobby and fanfamily. We will continue to keep posting new images from each of the Transformer subseries and various properties as news comes to light.

Enjoy the views and share your thoughts in the forum and be sure to stay tuned to Seibertron for the entire length of the #SDCC2019 for all the latest in Transformers news!

Transformers: Earth Wars This Weekends Event: Team Up!

Date: Wednesday, June 12th 2019 2:30pm CDT
Categories: Event News, Game News, Press Releases, Digital Media News
Posted by: Stargrave | Credit(s): Space Ape

Discuss This Topic · Permanent Link
Views: 55,631

Greetings and Happy Wednesday fellow Seibertronians! By the almighty amalgamations of Nexus Prime it's time for a Team Up! Direct from Space Ape we have the rundown of this weekend's event, Team Up! offering all manner of amazing alliance rewards. New G1 power ups, new league titles, and of course, the TITANS!

If you played last weekend's anniversary event you no doubt earned a few bot power ups. Well now it's time to put them to the test.

Grab your mobile devices and log in this weekend and play a few rounds with your digital Transformers collection.


Bah-weep-graaaaagnah wheep nini bong!
5 Star Shards event this weekend! And find out what Prime League is!

Team Up!

Gather your Alliance members and take part in this weekend's event to win guaranteed prizes:
- Up to 600 5-Star Crystal Shards
- Up to 900 4-Star Crystal Shards
- Up to 1200 3-Star Crystal Shards
- Up to 3000 Premium Shards
- Up to 3,000,000 Energon and Alloy
- Up to 30,000 Spark
Event type: Alliance Totaliser
Start Date: 14/06/19 10:00 UTC
End Date: 17/06/19 10:00 UTC
Prestige Allowed: 60
Bonus Experience: Triple XP!
How to Participate?

• Reach HQ Level 4 and Join an Alliance!
• Tap the Event button!
• Select an Event Battle Zone to fight in!
• Win your battle and gather Battle Points!
• Collect prizes!

Event Battle Zones

Totaliser Prizes


New War League: Prime League

Later next week we will be introducing a new war league Prime League above the current highest Cybertron League.
This league is a bit different than the current leagues. The difference is that in every war battle in this league, special effects will apply to the defenders' buildings. Effects that can vary from an increase in HP or DPS to increased speed, or range of the defences.
The League effects will usually change every other month and will be clearly displayed in the war declaration screen and in the Battle/Scouting screens.
We will also be tracking the war wins for Prime league separately, to highlight how alliances are handling this new challenge and who is the best at it. You will be able to see these wins in the Alliance Info Page and also as a new field in the Wars Won leaderboard.

We are also planning on having a seasonal tally and highlight which alliances have won the most Prime League wins during that season. These seasons will match the change of League effects and will be clearly communicated in advance before they start. More details on this later.
League Promotion
Since we know that this additional challenge is not for everyone, we will not be automatically promoting alliances to this new League after winning in Cybertron. Instead, the Alliance's officers will get the option to promote to Prime League after winning a war in Cybertron.

In the Alliance war screen, officers will now see the above, with information of the Prime League’s effects and the option to Promote or continue fighting in Cybertron. This promotion option will only be available to go into Prime League for now. The rest of the leagues will still use the automatic promotion system based on wins.
The new Prime League will go live next Thursday on the 20/06!
War History
With the newly updated war league, we also wanted to bring a much-requested feature. The ability to check the war history of the alliance.
On the Alliance info screen for each alliance, you will get an extra War History tab. In this tab you can check the wars this alliance has taken part in the last 15 days, with details about the opponents and which league the war took place in.

Also if this is your own alliance, you will be able to tap on each war and open the alliance leaderboard for that war with detailed information of member attempts and scores. This feature will be available this Thursday with the content release.
For more details on this new League join us in our Stream this Thursday!

Titans: Hall of Fame

The great cityformers known as The Titans bounded into Raids last week and you rose to the occasion! We hope that you enjoyed the introduction of these devastating new foes as an exciting new addition to Raids!
Congratulations to the alliances below who exerted the least amount of attacks to take down the mighty Titans and have earned a spot in our Titans: Hall of Fame!
Autobots
1 - Prime Union
2 - Primus
3 - TF Cybertron Ops
4 - TF ILLICIT OPS
5 - PRIME DINOBOTS
Decepticons
1 - Scorched Earth
2 - SCORCHED MOON
3 - Darkness Within
4 - Scorched Unicron
5 - stonecutters

New G1 Power Cores

Starting later this week, the following bot duplicates have a chance to drop the newest G1 Power Cores.
Each of these G1 Power Cores will give them a classic look and unique abilities!


G1 Laser Optimus & G1 Armada Megatron:
Give these G2 Leaders an exclusive G1 look! Also increases their Special Ability damage and generates a shield which absorbs 20% of all damage for 15 seconds.

G1 Silverbolt:
Boosts Regular Attacks damage and every 20 seconds your attack stuns your target for 5 seconds.

G1 Drag Strip:
Increases Special Ability damage and on attack, makes a decoy that has 30% of your health.Triggers every 15 seconds.

G1 Skydive:
Damage Reduction from Laser Turrets and Beam Lasers. While attacking, every 15 seconds you disappear in a halo and restore 7% health.

G1 Nightbird:
Increased health. While attacking, every 15 seconds you do a retreating backflip and restore 7% health.


G1 First Aid & G1 Hook:
Increases the power of your Heal Beam and gives you a 25% Move Speed boost.
The challenge battle to get a taste of these new G1 Power Cores will be available via in-game newsfeed!

Under investigation

Here are the issues reported that we've been investigating:

Game will sometimes crash after doing a raid attack
This issue is caused by using the last boost of a certain type in a previous battle and then immediately after that try to scout a base. The boost will still be available in the next battle that you go in and the game will crash you out at the end of that battle, invalidating your attack.

Slash/Rippersnaper is following OP bots, that are not near them after coming out of their ability

• Reports on Skylynx & Blitzwing not able to do combo an explosion when a target is still under the effect of Plasma Shroud
  We have seen mention of this issue but would like to get some more reports so that we can investigate.

These are just some examples of the reports that we've received from you and we continue to work hard to improve your experience with the game every day.
We would like to thank you for your time and patience, and if you have any issues to report, please get in touch with us here: support@transformersearthwars.com. Alternatively, you can reach out to us in game via Menu > Community > Contact Support.

Bug Fixes

The following fixes went live!

Star Saber & Deathsaurus didn’t cause damage with their ability to Shock towers and the Shield Generator
This issue was fixed on Monday with a content push

5 star Rodimus Prime’s special Ability VFX now looks the same as other level’s.
This issue was fixed on Monday with a content push

• Bots would sometimes walk away from buildings after doing one attack.
  This issue was also fixed this Monday

Twitch

Transformers: Earth Wars is about to get Prime! Oil up your metal-punching bag of knuckles because this week we are talking about Alliance Wars.
Join Ioannis, Deb, Fabien and Jairo who will be talking about game improvements, new features, upcoming bots and more!
Next stream will be LIVE Thursday, June 13th @4pm UTC!
Follow us on Twitch



Twitter
Facebook
Instagram
YouTube
Twitch
Please keep in mind that any of the information in this newsletter could be subject to change without notice.
Copyright © 2019 Space Ape Games. All Rights Reserved.
TRANSFORMERS and all related characters are trademarks of Hasbro and are used with permission.
© 2015 Hasbro. All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy | Terms of Service | Unsubscribe

Megatronus Joins Kabam's Transformers: Forged to Fight Game

Date: Thursday, September 27th 2018 7:23pm CDT
Categories: Game News, Digital Media News
Posted by: D-Maximal_Primal | Credit(s): Kabam

Discuss This Topic · Permanent Link
Views: 34,300

Kabam studios has announced the newest member of their Forged to Fight crew is ready to join the battle: Megatronus! This version of Megatron is based on his Machinima Power of the Primes body, and features a new never-before-seen Jet mode. Check out the intel report below.

BOT INTEL REPORT – MEGATRONUS
Add Megatronus to your ultimate squad in October 4th at 10AM PDT!
ABOUT MEGATRONUS:
Faction: Decepticon

Class: Demolitions

One of the Thirteen Primes created by Primus himself to defeat Unicron, Megatronus is a being of unparalleled strength. His quest for greater power led him to betray his fellow Primes, resulting in a millennia of banishment. That banishment has ended, and his presence again looms large through the cosmos.

STATS AND ABILITIES:
2-Star:

Health: 2,012
Attack: 162
Max Rating: 609
3-Star:

Health: 4,940
Attack: 341
Max Rating: 1,443
4-Star:

Health: 12,839
Attack: 884
Max Rating: 3,948

BASIC ABILITIES: RELIC OF FURY, RELIC OF PRESERVATION, POWER STEAL, LIFE STEAL
Passive

Now in the possession of powerful Relics, Megatronus does not generate power as normal, he instead passively generates 1.2% of Max Power every second.
Megatronus begins the fight with the Relic of Fury active, each time he gains a Bar of Power he alternates between the Relic of Fury and the Relic of Preservation.
Relic of Fury

The Relic of Fury grants 30~50% Attack Rating and reduces the opponent’s Block Proficiency by 20%.
Relic of Preservation

The Relic of Preservation grants 40~50% Damage Resistance and limits the amount of damage Megatronus can receive in a single blow to 20% of his max Health.
Relic of Immortality

Once per fight, when Megatronus hits 10% health he activates the Matrix of Immortality in addition to his other Relics for 10 seconds. While the Relic is active Megatronus is Indestructible and immune to all damage. This ability will not activate if Megatronus begins the fight with 10% Health or less.
Last Hit of a Light or Medium Combo

+40% Critical Chance.
Heavy Attack

100% chance to apply Dark Burn, dealing 40% of Attack as instant Energy Damage.

SIGNATURE ABILITY – RELIC OF OBEDIENCE
The Relic of Obedience weakens enemy abilities and may completely prevent them from activating.

When Filling a Power Bar

When Megatronus gains a Bar of Power, he has a 15~65% chance to activate the Relic of Obedience, preventing opponents from activating Buffs or Debuffs for 8 seconds. Additionally, when the Relic is not active, Buffs and Debuffs the opponent activates are 20% weaker.

SPECIAL ATTACKS:
Special 1 – Grip of Power

Infinite power to fuel infinite wrath.

60% chance Megatronus applies a 30% Armor Break for 8 seconds.
If the Relic of Fury is active, 100% chance to Steal 20~30% of the opponent’s Current Power.
Special 2 – Beyond Measure

All fall before his might.

The last hit of this attack is Unblockable and has a 30% chance to Stun the opponent for 3 seconds.
If the Relic of Preservation is active, 100% chance to Steal Life from the opponent equal to 6~15% of Max Health.
Special 3 – Truly Prime

Your final days are at hand.

100% Chance to apply Dark Burn, dealing 200% of Attack as instant Energy Damage.
If the Relic of Fury is active, 50~64% chance to Steal 20~30% of the opponent’s Current Power.
If the Relic of Preservation is active, 50~64% chance to Steal Life from the opponent equal to 6~15% of Max Health.

SYNERGY BONUSES:
Mutual – Allies – Cyclonus, Galvatron
+2~8% Armor
Mutual – Enemies – Optimus Prime
+2~8% Attack
Outgoing – The Fallen – Megatron, Megatron (RotF)
All Decepticons on your team gain +2~5% Armor while fighting Decepticons and +5~20% Power Rate while fighting Autobots.

STRONG MATCH-UPS:
Everyone – There is no bot that Megatronus cannot overpower.
Megatron – Megatron will find his namesake needs no buffs to be formidable.
Optimus Prime – If Optimus is relying on help from his Chief Medical Officer, the Relic of Obedience will put a stop to that notion.

WEAK MATCH-UPS:
No One – No one stands as a serious challenger to him that is the embodiment of power.
Rhinox – Rhinox’s Power Lock will keep this mighty Decepticon from switching modes.
Shockwave – Repair Block and Power Drain will help keep this Prime from tapping into his true power.

RECOMMENDED MODULES FOR MEGATRONUS:
Robot Resource – One cannot even fathom the carnage Megatronus could inflict with a second source of power.
Prime Module – The Prime Module will help this mad god stay in the fight longer and increase his stats to match any higher level contender.

Bonanza of Card Reveals for the Official Transformers Trading Card Game

Date: Tuesday, September 25th 2018 8:06am CDT
Categories: Game News, Collectables
Posted by: ZeroWolf | Credit(s): #Sideways#, Official Transformers TCG Facebook, Unicron.com, You've got the Touchcast Podcast

Discuss This Topic · Permanent Link
Views: 24,580

With only a few days to go till the card game hits the shelves, card reveals have been ramped up! The reveals themselves come from different sources, so let's get started shall we!

As before, fellow Seibertron user, #Sideways#, has shared his thoughts with us.

These first reveals come from the Official Transformers Trading Card Game Facebook page.

Autobot Jazz:

#Sideways# wrote:Jazz is really good bang for your buck, I'm not gonna lie. At six stars, he's a fantastic deal for being an Autobot Leader Car. First, let's go over his stats. Something you might notice if you're paying attention is that he has zero defense in both modes. Yikes. It would make sense in his vehicle mode, but let's be honest here, his Robot mode is a liability.

His stats aren't that great. In fact, Starter Bumblebee -- who's spot in lists Jazz is competing for -- is seemingly better at attacking than Jazz. One thing that Jazz has going for him that Bee does not is access to Pierce in his robot mode, but with such a low defense, it would be a huge risk to put him in that mode. The real power here lies in his vehicle mode, and being able to take an unbelievable amount of hits.

Jazz's vehicle ability is the best part about his kit, and it makes him hotly contest Bumblebee's spot in a lot of decks, most prominently of these being Autobot Cars. You hit for negligible damage (though you have Pierce in robot mode), but you're a Car that can take advantage of the Car support and that alone makes him viable. More importantly, he's going to be in his Car mode when he gets inevitably KO'd, meaning he's more fuel to his buddy -- Cliffjumper.

He and Bee are interchangeable, but in this case, I think Jazz is probably better in Cars than anything else.

Thundercracker

#Sideways# wrote:"Thunder only happens when it's raining / Players only love you when they're playing..."

Thundercracker is a pretty good Plane, and is a very good card for the Plane archetype. He's got an average amount of points and a -- frankly -- overly average set of stats, but if we judged everyone by their stats we wouldn't have a game, now would we?

If you haven't guessed it already, his abilities are what gives him the real power. His vehicle mode gives him a fantastic ability work in tandem with Slipstream, Bombing Run and the indirect damage playstyle of Planes. Naturally, you can only use that ability on Melee characters, but let's be honest, everyone has Melee on their team somewhere.

What I like about characters that can damage as an ability is that they can still support other characters outside of combat. It allows them to prove their worth when you've already attacked with them, to be more than a big attack. Thundercracker is good at that, which is good in my book.

Speaking of big attacks, Thundercracker can surprisingly give some pain when necessary. If you play an Action, he gets +1 automatically. That means that you can play Bombing Run to move damage from yourself and your Plane allies, transform and attack with even more damage. Of course, you can also use Leap Into Battle as a pseudo-Grenade Launcher... Only to attach another Grenade Launcher and deal +8 damage, on top of his base 5 attack.

Thundercracker has the potential to hit very hard under certain conditions.

One thing to note, though, is that Skywarp needs to have either 6 or 7 points in order to play a team of entirely Planes. Common Starscream being 10, Thundercracker being 8, leaving 7 left over for Skywarp. If you use the Rare Starscream, that leaves even less points for Skywarp. Here's hoping he fits the bill!

Crushing Treads

#Sideways# wrote:More support? Tank you!

Oof. That pun. Anyway, this card is fantastic. Almost all Tank characters have at least 3 to 4 defense, meaning you can upgrade them to deal even more Pierce. Megatron, in particular, already has Pierce 3, so attaching this will give him Pierce 6 at the least. This card is great for bulky tanks like Megatron and Darkmount, but sadly, Demolishor can barely use it.

Since he has 0 base attack, Pierce is almost wasted on Demolishor unless you flip plenty of attacking cards when you attack. Just something to keep in mind when you play the only three tanks in the game thus far.

Hunker Down

#Sideways# wrote:"Heyyy, duck in cover!"

This card is absolutely insane. Arguably one of the most powerful cards I've ever seen out of this game thus far, and it's not hard to see why. This card has all the power of Roll Out in Tank decks and more. Hunker Down is so powerful that it's insane. Let me explain.

You can only attach one Upgrade in a turn. Generally, it's going to be a Weapon or Utility -- mostly because it's generally better to attach a Grenade Launcher than an Armor card -- but Hunker Down? Hunker Down gives you free Armor so you can have your cake and eat it too. Not only that, but you get to put Force Field in play after it has been used.

That's utterly fantastic.

But not only that, but Darkmount deals two damage when you flip him to his vehicle mode, Megatron scraps an Upgrade on your opponent's field and Demolishor will draw two cards all when you play this card. AND you get to put three upgrades in play for free. I cannot stress to you enough how much this card makes Tanks not only playable but very good.

Even moreso, you might be wondering -- if I'm going to be attaching these Armor cards early, how will I draw into them? How will they be in the Scrap Pile? Well, that's where Demolishor comes in. He mills your deck at a startling rate thanks to his Robot mode ability. You mill the Upgrades with him, and you get to put them in play with Hunker Down. Truly, an amazing combo, and one you should definitely be on the lookout for.

Another interesting fact about both tank support cards is that they were designed by someone who worked on actual tanks:

We also have the thoughts of Design Lead Ken Nagle to share about Crushing Treads and Hunker Down.

Ken Nagle wrote:I want my TANKs to have lots of Armor then turn it into offense. I've designed software for the actual M1A1 Abrams tank; now I've designed tank cards, too. Introducing Hunker Down & Crushing Treads!

Static Laser of Ironhide

#Sideways# wrote:Now I know what you're thinking: Did he fire six shots or only five? You gotta ask yourself a question: "Do I feel lucky?"

Well, not with this card I don't. This card is pretty okay, but its niche uses sorely limit its play. Sure, you could put it on Ironhide -- the same that you get in the Starter Set -- and he could deal a surprising amount of damage. But that's kind of all he'd be there for, and there are simply better support picks for your buck.

But the real niche use here is in decks that play cards like Ransack, which thrive on damaging themselves. Decks like Energon Axe, and they certainly like getting to play them with little investment. More importantly, you can amplify Ransack's damage quite easily with this card.

It's a very limited use card, for sure, but I suppose everything can be used somewhere, if you look hard enough.

Card Designer Scott Van Essen gives insight on his creation here.

Scott Van Essen wrote:One of the fun parts of designing the Transformers TCG was making signature upgrades for classic characters. While only Optimus Prime can use his Ion Blaster, Ironhide is happy to share his Static Laser. Just make sure you read the fine print.

We've already shown several ways to connect cards to specific Transformers. We can hard-lock to a character like Ion Blaster of Optimus Prime, while cards like Null-Ray of Starscream can be used by anyone but are better on the named character.

Static Laser of Ironhide is a variant of the second, where instead of a base effect with a bonus for the named character, it's a larger effect with a downside that turns off for the named character.

Cards with downside effects tend to be cool and fun only if they're used sparingly, so we like to save them for when they really take the card concept to the next level.

In this case, I love that Static Laser of Ironhide cements itself as a powerful and dangerous weapon while also highlighting just how tough Ironhide is.

I Still Function

#Sideways# wrote:Wanna bet?

So "I Still Function!" is really, really good. It's essentially an extra turn, an extra attack, an extra threat. "I Still Function" allows you to use a lot of things to your advantage. For instance, Peace Through Tyranny allows you -- with some Multi-Mission Gear maneuvering and hand contents allowing -- to take extra turns ad infinitum by KOing the character you just resurrected.

Moreover, you can resurrect Ransack and put him at 1 HP, giving him 7 base damage instantly. Then, you can use a Bug Bomb on him, which activates as soon as your turn is over. Frankly, I love everything about this card. You can even bring back a problem card for your opponent and attack with them one more time, just to make things worse for them.

Card Designer Matt Smith created this one and shares his thoughts here.

Matt Smith wrote:While testing Wave 1 I would often focus my deck around a single powerful character *Cough* Sunstorm *Cough*. Inevitably my dastardly opponent would KO that character and I’d be left to despair. I just couldn’t have that so I reminded my quarry that I STILL FUNCTION!

The next batch of reveals was shared by Unicron.com (via their Facebook page.

One Shall Stand, One Shall Fall

#Sideways# wrote:Why throw away your life so easily?

Well, that's a question you should be asking yourself. I'm not joking -- this card is a slightly worse version of Plasma Burst and Photon Bomb. If Photon Bomb is the tattooed punk sister of Plasma Burst, than One Shall Stand is the sadistic younger sister of Plasma Burst.

This card would be very, very good if it didn't decrease your health by a quarter or a third depending on the characters in question. Now, you're reducing your opponent by the same, but this card can bite you just as easily as it can help you -- and gets wholly worse as the game goes on. I suppose that this card would be better in Tall decks than Wide, but either way, this card's playability is in the air for me.

Of course, this card has the 100% best artwork of any other card I've seen thus far, but that only gets you so far in my book.

Supercharge

#Sideways# wrote:I knew I shoulda gone with the turbo.

Supercharge is pretty much a bad card in all but niche decks. I'm not going to lie, this card is very subpar to another card in terms of damage output. That card I'm talking about? Leap Into Battle. Leap Into Battle gives one of your characters +3 Damage, which is essentially the best case scenario for Supercharge. There's almost no reason to play Supercharge over Leap Into Battle.

But I did say "almost". Nemesis Prime likes having Bold, and with Bold 3 on a Power Sword and Supercharge giving him another Bold 3, Nemesis Prime is one of only a few decks to play this card effectively. But other than that? Pretty much a hard pass.

Lastly we have two reveals courtesy of the "You've Got The Touchcast" podcast.

Drill Arms and Scrapper Gauntlets

#Sideways# wrote:Make it a double, I guess?

Cards that say "draw" on them make me happy. They help cycle your deck and help you get the cards you need. But these should not be considered "draw cards" in the purest sense. You see, these cards are disruption cards first -- but are never dead cards in your hand.

Usually, disruption cards have their situational uses (Security Checkpoint comes to mind) and when that window has passed, become useless (dead) cards in your hand. When cards draw a card after outliving their usefulness, they are essentially never "useless" in a situation. Sure, there can be better cards to play in certain situations, but when you have nothing left at your disposal, you can play one of these and draw a card.

They're not bad. Are they worth a spot? Well, Drill Arms might. With the advent of Force Field and more Armor cards messing with your math, Armor scrapping is more and more valuable. If you ever have an extra spot -- or just really hate Armor -- Drill Arms will do all you want and more.

Transcription wrote:Drill Arms: Weapon -- When you put this on a character ---> Scrap an Enemy Armor. If you can't, draw a card. +1 Attack.

Scrapper Gauntlets: Armor -- When you put this on a character --> Scrap an Enemy Weapon. If you can't, draw a card. +1 Defense.

With the 28th ever closer, let us know in the comments if you plan on playing this game and stay tuned to Seibertron for all the latest news and reviews.

Cyclonus Flies into Kabam's Transformers: Forged to Fight

Date: Monday, September 10th 2018 5:21pm CDT
Category: Game News
Posted by: ZeroWolf | Credit(s): Kablam! Studios

Discuss This Topic · Permanent Link
Views: 28,934

Kabam! Studios have reached out to us to let us know that Cyclonus has arrived in their Transformers: Forged to Fight mobile game! He is modelled on his recent toy as released in the Generations Combiner Wars line.

"Kablam! Studios wrote:
About Cyclonus:

Faction: Decepticon

Class: Tactician

Resurrected by the same dark energies as his master Galvatron, Cyclonus leads a mighty armada provided by Unicron himself. Loyal, patient, and skilled, Cyclonus is ultimately the counterbalance to Galvatron’s chaotic rule.

Stats and Abilities:

2-Star:

Health: 1907
Attack: 149
Max Rating: 544

3-Star:

Health: 4682
Attack: 315
Max Rating: 1294

4-Star:

Health: 12169
Attack: 818
Max Rating: 3520

Basic Abilities: Dark Energy, Dark Field, Discipline

Gain a Bar of Power
- Each bar of power grant’s Cyclonus a Dark Energy Charge, increasing
Attack Rating by 22~30% for 6 seconds.

Dark Field
- When Cyclonus gains Dark Energy or completes a full Melee Combo with Dark Energy active, his Dark Field pulses.
- The Dark Field inflicts Dark Burn, dealing 20% of Attack as instant Energy Damage and has a 60~76% chance to Nullify an enemy buff. If the opponent is Unstoppable this chance increases to 100%.
- If an opponent with an Unstoppable buff Dashes toward Cyclonus, he instantly gains Dark Energy, Nullifies the Unstoppable buff, and inflicts Stun for 1.5 seconds.

Discipline

- After being struck 5 times by Melee Attacks, Cyclonus gains a 18~28% Physical Resistance Buff for 7~9 seconds.
- After landing 6 Ranged Attacks, Cyclonus gains a Ranged Bonus, increasing damage from Ranged Attacks by 15~25% and Projectile Speed for 5~7 seconds.
- After landing 10 Melee Attacks, Cyclonus gains a Melee Bonus, increasing damage from Melee Attacks by 15~25% for 5~7 seconds.

Signature Ability – Dark Servitude

Pledging loyalty to Unicron has imbued Cyclonus with unimaginable power.
- Dark Burns inflicted by the Dark Field deal 20~120% more damage.

Special Attacks:

Special 1 – Cosmic Edge
- A blade, honed and deadly as its wielder.
- 100% Armor Piercing.

Special 2 – Galaxy Gun
- A blast of cosmic proportions.
- 100% chance the last hit of this attack is Unblockable.

Special 3 – Interstellar Ride
- Cyclonus takes a precisely calculated trip through the center of his opponent.
- Cyclonus Gains Dark Energy and begins to automatically pulse the Dark Field for 10 seconds.

Synergy Bonuses:

Mutual – Allies – Kickback, Tantrum
+2~8% Armor

Mutual – Enemies – Ultra Magnus, Arcee, Blaster
+2~8% Attack

Outgoing – Hand of Chaos – Galvatron
- All Decepticon Special Attacks gain +2~15% Special Attack Damage and +2~15% Critical Damage.

Strong Match-ups:

Motormaster
- Motormaster’s Unstoppable will become a disadvantage when fighting against Cyclonus and his Dark Field.

Optimus Prime (MV1)
- Cyclonus’ sword will pierce even the toughest armor, stopping the Autobot leader from making his epic last stand.

Weak Match-ups:

Galvatron
- The master of chaos, Galvatron, will be able to deal most of his damage at range, avoiding the Dark Field. It is also important to note that Galvatron’s Unstoppable cannot be Nullified.

Shockwave
- Shockwave can ensure that Cyclonus never reaches a bar of power to gain his Dark Energy.

Recommended Modules for Cyclonus:

Robot Resources
- Robot Resources will push Cyclonus to gain Dark Energy faster.

Harm Accelerator
- Not taking damage from Cyclonus will be a rare occurrence, add another constant tick of damage and watch the opponent wilt.

Will you be using Cyclonus? Let us know in the comments and stay tuned to Seibertron for all the latest news and reviews.

Transformers: Earth Wars Event - Face to Face

Date: Saturday, July 29th 2017 8:13am CDT
Category: Game News
Posted by: william-james88

Discuss This Topic · Permanent Link
Views: 21,062

 Bah-weep-graaaaagnah wheep nini bong!

Battle for Survival! 

Snarl and Hun-gurrr continue their mission on Quintessa.

With the danger passed their temporary truce fails. Their missions resume and Death seems inevitable, but who will be the first to fall?
 




Face to Face

Snarl and Hun-gurrr successfully repelled the seemingly endless waves of hungrySharkticons!

After narrowly avoiding a painful dismemberment and death, the odd duo appreciates each other a bit more. But orders are orders and they both must face their next goal: mission accomplishment at any cost!

After all, Quintessa is no place for friendship...
 Start Date: 28/07/2017 11:00 UTC
End Date: 31/07/2017 11:00 UTC
Prestige Allowed: None
Bonus Experience: Earn DOUBLE XP in Event Battle Zones!
 
How to Participate?

• Reach HQ Level 4
• Tap the Event button!
• Select an Event Battle Zone to fight in!
• Win your battle and gather Battle Points!
• Collect prizes! 

Event Battle Zones



Event Prizes





Who are the Quintessons?

Here's a great description from the Transformers Wiki to get you up to speed:

The Quintessons are a bizarre and ancient race, whose dark history and shadowy machinations are bound up with the history of the Transformers, with connections to both Primus and Unicron. They are known galaxy-wide as traders, entrepreneurs and businessmen, but their dealings are very rarely on the level, often laced with intrigue and betrayals.

They prefer subtle manipulation, scheming, and advanced technology over brute force, but if those don't work, they can fall back on the legion of deadly Sharkticons and Allicons at their command and a fleet of battle-ready spaceships as well. However, the Quintessons themselves have zero fighting abilities and are absolute cowards if they have nothing to hide behind. For example, they are seen to be powerless against a Sharkticon revolt.



Under Investigation



Here are some of the issues reported that we've been investigating:

Reports are coming in regarding bots having a strange 'snap' transformation animation:
We're looking into this one, and improvements will be coming in an upcoming build.
 
• Various reports that squads are getting mixed up with other bots or are getting wiped.
  This issue is currently being investigated, and we'll have an update soon.

• We've had reports that Optimus Prime and Megatron's Special Ability is not working as intended.
  We're currently investigating this and would kindly ask you to let us know if you're experiencing this yourself.

These are just a few examples of the reports that we've received from you, and we continue to work hard to improve your experience with the game every day.

We would like to thank you for your time and patience, and if you have any issues to report, please get in touch with us here: [url=mailto:VIP@transformersearthwars.com]VIP@transformersearthwars.com[/url]. Alternatively, you can reach out to us in game via Menu > Community > Contact Support.

Premium Transformers-themed Monopoly from Winning Solutions Games #HasbroToyFair #TFNY

Date: Tuesday, February 21st 2017 5:24pm CST
Categories: Event News, Game News, Collectables
Posted by: Seibertron

Discuss This Topic · Permanent Link
Views: 48,348

Directly from the Javits Convention Center showroom floor at New York Toy Fair 2017, site owner Seibertron has posted a gallery of an extremely limited premium edition set of Transformers Monopoly. Winning Solutions, a premium games company that has collaborated with Hasbro in the past, is working with the Transformers brand team to produce a high-end, G1-themed edition of one of America's oldest board games. Previous premium games from Winning Solutions include popular games such as Monopoly, Clue and Scrabble.

At first glance, the set appears to be framed artwork - suitable for hanging thanks to a friction locking system - featuring a laser etched aluminum 'frame' with classic robotic detailing, and The Transformers: The Movie inspired art by Marcelo Matere. The frame unfolds to become players' money and property trays, revealing a sleek Monopoly board with touches designed to entice fans' sensibilities:

• Traditional Monopoly properties represented by classic Transformers characters
• Houses & Hotels represented by teal & pink Energon cubes, respectively
• Custom money and Chance/Community Chest cards
• Diecast player tokens, including: Megatron (Gun mode), Soundwave (Walkman mode), Starscream (Vehicle mode), Hot Rod (Vehicle mode), Grimlock (Dinosaur mode), Optimus Prime (vehicle mode), Matrix of Leadership, and Unicron (planet mode).

While many details are as of yet unconfirmed and subject to change, Winning Solutions projects an early summer 2017 release date, with a prospective run of 500 sets and suggested retail price of $499. Additionally, each set will likely be hand-numbered and possibly signed by artist Marcelo Matere.

What do you think of this set? Up your alley, not your cup of tea? Please let us know your thoughts in the forums below!