Today, we wrap things up by taking a look at the action cards from War for Cybertron: Siege II that intrigue us the most. Thank you for reading our thoughts over the past couple weeks!
Editor’s Note: There were a bunch of random song lyrics posted mysteriously in the Google Doc that we used to collaborate on the article. They have been transcribed here for historical purposes. We have no idea who added which lyrics or why.
Hello? Is it me you’re looking for?
RJ – Swerve
In terms of most played cards in decks, I think this wave will rival Wave 1. I went through the actions, just like I went through the upgrades and characters before them, and thought “this should see play; wow, I forgot about this one, this is definitely good!; wait this does WHAT?” and on and on. Wave one has all your staple cards: your double pips that don’t cost a star, your Grenade Launchers, Energon Axes, etc. I think Wave 4 will have the same effect; there are just too many cards that seem really good right off the bat.
I am unsure if Swerve will see a ton of play competitively, but I do know that I am excited to try it out. Hiding Spot was one of my favorite cards from last wave – you got to send an unsuspecting foe into someone they weren’t prepared to go into. That card won me at least one event that I can think of, if not multiple. Swerve works kind of similarly. The battle card is a white/black Secret Action and reads, “When one of your characters defends in bot mode, flip that character to alt mode.” This card won’t “work” on every character, but it’s a super neat card when you are able to pull it off.
I don’t think it’s any surprise that characters oftentimes have more attack in bot mode while sporting less defense compared to their alt mode side. It makes sense, in theory what should hurt more: a head on “attack” from a truck or a giant, alien robot ripping you apart with his axe whilst screaming “I’ll take you all on!”? Swerve allows you to attack in your more powerful mode while still setting up for defense, and ideally your next turn, all at the same time. The first character where this really jumps out as a good use is Optimus Prime Battlefield Legend. By this time, we are all aware at what he does in both modes. When an opponent attacks into OPBL with Swerve on the battlefield, not only do you (if you choose) get to flip Prime into alt mode for more defense, potentially saving him, but you get to trigger his ability in that you get to return an action from your scrap back into your hand and in turn, set up your following turn. I can’t tell you the amount of times where I needed to flip Prime back to get something into my hand to play, yet missed out on a KO because that was my flip for the turn and I wasn’t able to utilize it anywhere else, or even flip him to his better side for attacking. With Swerve we don’t have to worry about that anymore!
The list of characters that can make use of this card would probably be an entire article on it’s own and that’s why I am most excited about this action in general. Whether or not it will see a ton of play is yet to be seen, but if you’re playing me, I would wager that I am running at least one of them in my deck!
Hello, yeah it’s been awhile. Not much, how ’bout you? I’m not sure why I called, I guess I really just wanted to talk to you.
Kevin – daring escape
I think a lot of people have slightly overreacted about this action and its Decepticon mirror Overwhelming Advantage. Slightly. I’m not saying these cards aren’t good, but they probably won’t #ReDeFiNe ThE mEtA™. But they do provide some interesting and fun deck building opportunities. I know I will definitely be trying out both of them in different future decks.
One of the places I could see Daring Escape fitting into would have to be Joe’s Anticipation Cars deck. I know in a game on our YouTube channel against Frenchie, he was able to untap and attack enough times in one turn he actually ran out of battle cards to flip.
But hey, maybe you don’t want to run cars today. That’s fine.
There’s plenty of other ways to run this card. If you wanted to try a more defensive deck, Kyle’s favorite team Aerialbots would be another great way to run this card. With 5 characters to start the game, an early play would net an eighth of your deck gone. Now granted, you would potentially be losing some of your important battle cards (it’s kinda hard to combine without the Aerialbot Enigma) but hey, things can get left behind when you’re trying to make a Daring Escape to freedom! And living to fight another day is always the better part of valor. Or at least that’s what Optimus would probably say. Feel free to leave a comment with your favorite time Optimus has said something about it being okay to retreat down below, while I make an escape out of this article.
I don’t know why you say goodbye, I say Hello. Hello, Hello.
tom – hidden fortification and designated target
Hidden Fortification stands out to me because there have not been many ACTION cards that give Tough, in fact I believe this is only the second with Heat of Battle being thefirst (more or less). We have here a Secret Action with a single blue pip that gives one of your defending characters Tough 3, oh and did I mention that it’s a common? This card is sure to cause some frustration when you start stacking Tough with armors. Being at Tough 3-5 plus your initial defense flip could leave you blocking your opponent’s entire attack.
I’m going to start out by testing this in an all blue pierce cars deck, pairing Sgt. Mirage and Sgt. Chromia with some yet to be determined bots. Mirage gets Tough 2 on his Bot Mode when a secret action is on the table so that’s Tough 5 with Hidden Fortification and then any armors (especially the ones you can play for free off Chromia’s flips) that can add to that total are going to make him hard to kill, playing the armors as a bonus off of Chromia’s flip to alt mode.
As I was writing the above, I remember another card from the spoilers that interested me, Designated Target. This card is again a common and boasts a double black pip and gives ALL your characters Pierce 2 until the end of turn. Being a common card and having a double black pip seems like it would be most useful in a sealed environment but here I am going to slot it into this piercing cars deck I am trying to cook up.
As you all know cars have those great support cards that allow them to un-tap, playing your turns right can lead you to have multiple attacks on a tapped-out opponent where Designated Target will do the most damage. The tag team of Mirage and Chromia leaves me with 11 stars to fill; I think I am going to use six of them for Bumblebee, Brave Warrior. He has Tough 1 on his Bot Side which works out nicely with all of defense you will be flipping, but when you flip to alt mode each of your characters will get Pierce 1. So, play your cards right and combine it with a Designated Target and everyone gets Pierce 3, Bee being a leader also opens Matrix of Leadership to get an additional Pierce 1 for your team. Those low attack values will put in work when they keep piercing over and over when that Anticipation Engine gets rolling. We will talk about who fills in that remaining 5 stars. For now, Ii’m thinking Dead End, or maybe a Battlemaster? open to suggestions here.
I think Pierce decks will make a strong showing in Wave 4 at least in those decks that don’t try to pull off a Daring Escape or hit you with an Overwhelming Advantage, now let’s see how many of the other guys picked Heroic Resolve….
Excuse me can I please talk to you for a minute?
Uh huh sure, you know you look kinda familiar
Yeah you do too, but I just wanted to know, do you know somebody named…?
You know his name
brian – head-on collision
Head-On Collision is not flashy in any way. With that said, I wrote a manifesto about a variety of ways it could see use back when we first revealed the card.
Another way to look at it is that it’s a white pipped version of Leap Into Battle (limited of course to attacking while in alt mode). With many lists, though, it’s something that’s likely to happen. I was having trouble finding white pipped cards to run in my aggressive orange builds, especially since Force Field has lost significant power in the age of Bashing Shield. Head-On Collision is an easy addition to those types of list.
On top of that, with five new Triple Changers (four of which are Commons), Head-On Collision will definitely get some decent mileage (especially in Sealed, where you’re relatively likely to pull a Triple Changer and at least one copy of Head-On Collision).
Octone especially is going to be a beast with it, and he’s going to be seeing a lot of use (assuming people are lucky enough to pull him as their SR). If you have him flipping into the correct mode and attacking the correct target and playing Head-On Collision, he’s pinging out some indirect damage to someone, then swinging for 11 ATK, and that’s before you factor in any weapon he has equipped or orange pips that get flipped.
good luck with your wave 4 pulls!
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