With Wave 5 completely revealed, we’ve rounded up the herd of robo-cats that is the Wreck ‘n Rule crew and jotted down some thoughts about the cards that we’re most excited to get onto the table.
We’re not saying that these are the most powerful cards or that they’ll become meta staples, but these are the cards that we’re most excited to sleeve up and get onto the table for our first few games with Wave 5.
Let’s begin by taking a look at our most anticipated COMMON character cards.
RJ – Brawn
This one was difficult for me as I am excited for almost all of the common characters. His art, similar to all art in the set as a whole, is fantastic. Brawn is cheap to play and is extremely useful in both of his modes. We all know that I am not the most competitive player in the world, but even I can see that he is going to be at a lot of tables more often than not. He obviously thrives in a mixed list but it’s not difficult to craft a list that benefits him and the rest of your team.
Let’s assume you go first and attack with Brawn in alt mode and flip a Precision Fire (orange/black) and Matrix of Leadership (orange/blue). You haven’t played a single card, and on your very first turn of the game you are getting in for five pierce four. That’s not an outlandish scenario in the least bit to open the game up putting four damage on whichever character you choose. In fact, I’m willing to bet it’s one of the more likely scenarios out there. Now, going into that Major Shockwave staring at you with three defense, or that Galaxy Prime with two defense on your first turn doesn’t seem as pointless as it once did.
His bot mode ability is just as good, though (and here’s my first hot take of the set) I think his alt mode ability will prove to be more useful overall as things shake out, and that’s why you’ll end up playing him. Brawn is going to be a staple moving forward as you can slot him into just about any deck and team and he will be a more than solid addition. I know I’ve personally been waiting for them to add Brawn since Wave 1 and they finally did and they certainly didn’t disappoint!
Kevin – Wingspan
So one of the hardest things about running a blue deck is that there are so many upgrade (and more specifically for blue, armor) removal cards now in the game. It can be disheartening to finally get your Sparring Gear onto a character just to watch it be Bashing Shield-ed it off and deal a ton of damage to your guys. Now they have to be more cautious with how they do that, because Wingspan’s ability is awesome.
The best part is that you don’t necessarily need to run him blue either. Run him in an orange deck with Grenade Launchers, Crowbars, and RR Disruptor Blades, and build up your own defenses.
Plus with the stratagem, he’s able to look after all those under his wings. Put a Force Field on one of your big attackers and send them; and when the Force Field pops, Wingspan gets the bonus. My only fear would be that his ability is too powerful, and you’ll run out of Grenade Launchers and Force Fields in your deck, because he ate them all.
Brian – Bludgeon
Let’s begin with the fact that Titan Masters Attack is a beautiful fever dream for people who are fans of the 1987-1988 lineup of characters, who got some time in the spotlight in the Marvel G1 comics, but were largely forgotten by most forms of media over the years. As a robot samurai skeleton, Bludgeon was one of the most visually striking of the end-of-G1 Decepticons. He’s also one of the breakout stars for those late G1 years in terms of showing up in subsequent series. Thankfully, most future iterations of the character ditched the Pretender suit and just made him a tank who transforms into a robot with a skull helmet.
In-game, Bludgeon comes in as an 11 star support/centerpiece character, similar in some ways to Wave 3’s General Optimus Prime (except he’s there to debuff the enemy as opposed to buffing his team). I’ve only gotten in a handful of test games, but it seems like you want to keep Bludgeon in robot mode and attack with your other characters first, using various direct damage effects to lower the opponent’s DEF for your supporting characters, then flipping back to Tank mode on his own attack to get the benefits of Pierce and higher DEF/built-in Tough in case he’s targeted after the untap. Ideal partners for him are probably RANGED characters (to get mileage from Armed Hovercraft/Sturdy Javelin/Marksmanship) or characters with built-in direct damage effects (like Horri-Bull). At the same time, we’re getting a plethora of direct damage battle cards in this wave, so the right deck might be able to take other characters.
Another intriguing possibility might be the Battle Patrol (using their damage ping when tapped to trigger Bludgeon’s ability). Add in Nitro Boosters (and see them early enough in the game) and you’ll likely be able to ping for enough direct damage on someone dangerous so that Bludgeon can finish them off on his attack.
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