Here’s our final look at our most anticipated characters coming out in Siege II, which drops next Friday (11/8)!
rj – captain jetfire
In the year plus that this game has been out, and through the three other waves that we’ve been through thus far, I cannot remember being as excited for a card – battle card or character card – as I am for Captain Jetfire. Now, it certainly helps that Jetfire has always been one of my favorite characters. One of the earliest, if not the earliest, episodes of G1 I distinctly remember watching was “Fire in the Sky” and Jetfire has had a soft spot in my heart ever since. I thought I was a super knowledgeable Transformers fan growing up because I knew that he was originally called Skyfire, and then last year I met Brian and I am ashamed of how little I actually know.
Editor’s Note: RJ is being too kind here. I specifically recall going to Botcon in 2000 and being blown away by how little I knew about TFs compared to other people, especially during panels about the Japanese toyline/cartoon and by a presentation showing a bunch of trivia that was essentially top secret back then (the GI JOE style “lessons” that were created for the end of cartoon episodes, some of the storyboards for the animated movie featuring additional scenes from the battle of Autobot City, etc.
The actual card is, in a word, bonkers. I am generally not good at identifying when cards are good or “bad” as I generally want to try all of them out, but I knew that as soon as this was revealed that this is an insanely powerful card. You may initially balk at the 16* cost and say “wow, that’s way too much to commit to a single character that isn’t Metroplex, your teammate options are limited” and in some respects you may be correct. I think the power level on this guy far outweighs that specific “drawback.” His abilities, both on bot side and alt side, are direct counters to Major Shockwave. When you flip to his alt mode, you get a better Treasure Hunt revealing the top 5 cards of your deck and bringing all upgrades into your hand and scrapping all actions. Theoretically, by turn two, you could have 9 cards to your opponent’s 3. Then, in his bot mode, every time he battles you draw a card and if you reveal an upgrade, stack the deck and gain Bold 1 or Tough 1 depending if you’re on the attack or defense. Not only do you draw a card, again as a hard counter to Major Shockwave, but you smooth out your hand by getting rid of your Improvised Shields, Handheld Blasters, etc.
Off the top of my head, and not really having a ton of time to dive too deeply into the new stuff since I just started a new job, I feel like Jetfire wants to be in a mixed pip deck. He essentially has focus on bot side, so the mixed pips are beneficial for him to see what you want when you want. You could run something like Aerial Recon (made popular by our own Kevin Arnold) to take extra advantage of his focus/draw ability – call out that you are using the Aerial Recon ability first, and if it isn’t something you want to draw, scrap it to see the next card instead. You’ll have to take the next card no matter what, but you have the option of seeing an extra card if you want to. I think the initial thought is running him with the new Sergeant Six-Gun, and now maybe two-wide might be viable again, but I’m more interested in pairing him with a 5* and 4* and go from there. Maybe pair him with Private Vanguard and the 4* Micromaster of your choice, preferably ranged, and see what you can do with that team. I can’t say enough how excited I am to pull Jetfire, and sleeve up a deck and team around him!
tom – Sergeant six-gun
One of the things I like about this game is that new mechanics are introduced in each wave to keep it interesting. We went from combining cards in Wave 2 to make bigger characters all the way to breaking down our comrades and using their dead bodies as weapons in Waves 3 and 4. Six-Gun comes in at 9 stars (what I think may be a little under costed, but we shall see) with a stat line of 4/10/1. His ability lets you scrap a weapon when he attacks and add that attack value to his until the end of turn. The dream of playing an Energon Axe and then scrapping a Grenade Launcher is very much a possibility with playing a Treasure Hunt beforehand.
When Six-Gun is KO’ed he splits into two weapons (I know I wish it was six too), one of which gives Pierce 4 and +1A, while the other gives +3A and can be used in an armor or utility slot. The Pierce 4 is no joke and buffing a character with two upgrades giving +4 can be deadly, the issue lies in the fact that these upgrades are vulnerable to removal and there is currently no way to bring them back into play. My initial build for Six-Gun is going to be blue heavy and pair with Private Greenlight and a partner to be named. This ensures that my upgrades stay on the board and I can try to do as much piercing damage as possible with other cards like Surprise Attack & Calculated Strike. My other option at the moment is to pair him with General Prime2, hopefully play testing can begin soon so I can tell if Six-Gun is the real deal or not.
tom pt. 2 – galaxy optimus prime
::slaps hood:: This bad boy can fit so many utilities – (Brian insert that meme for comedic effect)
Editor’s Note: Sorry, Tom. As of editing, tonight was full of trick or treating and subsequently trying to convince a sugared up 4 year old to go to bed. No time, buddy.
Boasting off-the-wall starts of 7/21/2 & 8/21/2, Galaxy Prime is a one-man army. He has three utility slots and after he strikes for a base of 8 damage in Bot Mode, if you happened to flip and orange and a blue you can play a flipped upgrade, so you can set Prime up for another attack run or one of your supporting characters. Flipping to Alt Mode lets you reveal the top card of your deck and play it if it’s an action, and free actions are always a good thing. The question that remains is: who do you pair him with? At 15 stars there isn’t much room left for partners. Will you go two wide with a Bumblebee or Jetfire or will you take a 3 wide approach with Flamewar and Fireflight? Either way Prime is going to be a force to be reckoned with, with the high attack and being able to cheat both actions and upgrades he is going to hit harder than Vontaze Burfict on a defenseless receiver…ouch.
Editor’s Note: I don’t know what that means.
kevin – lord megatron
Often in that other big TCG that WOTC sells, they try to tell a story across the cards in a set. Cards’ images or flavor text may tell two sides of a story, or have some deeper meaning that reveals what’s really going on. And more than the stats, more than the great abilities he has, the thing I can’t wait to see is what happens next with the story that this card tells. Because the Decepticons just won the siege.
Don’t believe me? It’s right there in his title. Lord Megatron: Conqueror of Cybertron. And you don’t get a fancy chair and new title because you lost the war (well Starscream or Cobra Commander might, but that’s different). Now to be fair, the Transformers timeline has always been a little nebulous; so who knows if this is supposed to be what prompts the Autobots to flee in the Ark back before G1, or if this takes place further along in the war (although if it is before G1, then where was Kup)? We’ll have to wait for a future set to see just where this story goes.
But beyond telling a great story, Megatron backs it up with great stats and an even better ability. Because while some players are moving towards mixed decks, most tend toward all blue or orange; and they tend to use cards which will allow them to flip the most number of those cards. Which is exactly what Megatron wants. Flip 10 cards. Flip 20. Hope your opponent fills their hand with as many cards as they can. It only makes it easier for him to hurt them. Because the more often your opponent has to reshuffle, the more damage he’s doing to them. And at 12 stars, he leaves plenty of room for an old friend like Wave 1’s Shockwave or for new friends like Raider Caliburst (check out Wreck N Rule’s article on Uncommon characters for my thoughts on him) and Raider Needler; who each can help Megatron hurt your opponent in different ways and finally make them say: “All Hail Megatron”
brian – trypticon
I’ll be honest. I have no idea what I’m doing with Trypticon yet. All I need to know is that he is a city robot dinosaur that likes to kill his own dudes, then bring them back to life, only to kill them again. So, obviously, I’m all-in. To be continued!
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