Greetings, Transformers TCG-land. I bring you dark tidings. The Transformers Trading Card Game is dead…
DEAD SET ON CONTINUING DESPITE BEING CANCELED BY WOTC!
Turbo Revving Old Punks, in collaboration with members of Bayformers and The Ark, are releasing a spooky Halloween themed mini-set, which you can check out by looking in their Facebook group. As of me writing this, roughly half of the characters have been revealed, and they include werewolves, skeleton ninjas, and mad scientists.
Let’s add a Frankenstein’s creature-esque fusion of two fan-favorites!
For those of you who didn’t grow up reading the original Marvel US G1 comic book run, Megatron and Ratchet were fused together when Ratchet sabotaged a transdimensional time portal and tackled Megatron through it.
SPOILER: He doesn’t stay dead.
Nightbeat has been trying to search for Ratchet in the space-between-dimensions, and eventually succeeds. Unfortunately, what steps through the portal is a horrifying fusion of Ratchet and Megatron, which proceeds to rampage through the Autobot shuttle.
This forces Optimus and the other Autobots to make some really tough decisions (saving Ratchet also meant saving Megatron).
I’ll be honest, I find Furman’s self-doubting Optimus Prime to be a little too wishy-washy for me, but in this case, I think it enhances the storyline rather than detracting from it. He vacillates between wanting to save his old friend and trying to find the determination to put an end to an enemy who has killed countless numbers of his troops.
Off the bat, we see some neat elements in alt mode. For one, we can use the respective Truck and Tank cards to boost some of the direct damage capabilities and healing capabilities that are available to those alt mode tribes. With 15 stars left to spare, you can also fill out the rest of your team with additional Tanks and/or Trucks to get more mileage out of them.
Beyond that, you’re also able to take advantage of all the various Ranged cards in order to enhance the direct damage capabilities too.
In bot mode, the ability to switch off enemy repairing is interesting. However, as a huge fan of Pierce since Wave 1, it’s the Pierce 1 for each different green-pip upgrade that catches my eye the most.
You can eke a little more utility out of Noble’s Blaster and Scoundrel’s Blaster, since they can now effectively grant you 3 Pierce.
On top of that, every single green-pipped Armor or Utility also gives you the bonus of Pierce 1 on top of their typical use or abilities.
In particular, Toolbox allows you to now repair 2 when you flip into alt mode, while also granting you Pierce 1 when you’re back in Bot mode.
Although I haven’t been active in playing the game for most of the past year, I did some digging into a few of the TROP, Bayformers, and Ark cards to see what tickled my fancy.
Enhanced Fusion Cannon from the first phase of TROP cards counts as a Pierce 3 weapon in this case.
Vamparc Ribbon from Ark Wave 1 builds upon Meg/Ratch’s desire to damage enemies while healing himself (themselves?).
Angolmois Surge from BFA World|Strike is also a tempting addition, pumping Meg/Ratch to 9 ATK in bot mode before you take any additional bonuses from upgrades into account.
You can conveniently find links to Bayformers, The Ark, and TROP cards on the Bayformers site and check out the plethora of options yourself.
Keep an eye out for the official release of Monster Menagerie on October 31st! Make sure you join the TROP Facebook group and Discord server!
Wreck 'N Rule 