With Wave 5 of the Transformers TCG, Titan Masters Attack, coming on Friday, we thought we’d do a run-down of our highlights from the newest set for our favourite giant robot card game. Stay tuned also for the winner of our Lockdown giveaway contest AND how to earn yourself some shiny Transformers TCG goodies (well, baddies) of your own!

This set brings Titans, the Wreckers, a brand new mechanic in the form of Strategems

So obviously the BIG reveal is the Titans right? Well, sort of. We’ve already got Metroplex and Trypticon, after all. However, we do get the biggest, greatest, most legendary of Titans… Fortress Maximus!

Fort Max is the box topper for this set, so you’re guaranteed to get him along with Cerebros and Emissary.

Because as we all know, that’s a titan master with a titan master of his own! OBViously…

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New card rotations make it really easy and intuitive to see how the body and head(s) stack up.

Boosters, after all, come with 6 battle cards and either a body and a head, or a character and a stratagem.

The mix of bodies is really interesting; here’s some personal favourites:

I had this toy. It was rubbish. I loved it. The card is so perfectly fluffy – the design team has nailed it once again. Topspin’s in there too, to complete the spring-loaded madness.

Really interesting to see how the big fellas come to bear in this set. Optimus continues to feel mechanically right, with in-built card draw, but its particularly interesting to see repair coming up again as this isn’t an especially common mechanic.

I mention this grumpy fella mostly to point out that he’s part of a trend this set – there’s a LOT of beasts for the Cons. I just hope that’ll keep the Beast Wars fans at bay…

Most heads run to 2 or 3 stars, so they are tiny but mighty, but you need to have a body to have a head. However, there’s nothing to stop you mixing and matching – indeed it’s positively encouraged!

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Typically, heads add either core ability (Tough, Pierce, Focus, Bold, Stealth) or a couple of points to a stat.

And these tiny heads survive the destruction of the body to be surprisingly nasty little beasts.

The Wreckers are here as a sub theme not just of the Titan bodies:

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Pretty nice, not essential, obviously appealing to a core fandom. I have mixed feelings about SRTs at the best of times but, on balance, I think it’s the right call here.

I have to just mention that the fact that my favourite G1 Autobot gets a card and fabulously fluffy mechanic makes me happy as a seagull on chips.

Cons get some love too, though to my mind their characters feel a bit more obscure this set.

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Mechanically, however, they’re extremely interesting, maximising using cards “underneath” as a resource.

Who doesn’t love more card draw?

Let’s talk a bit about stratagems.  These lovely new 1-star cards begin in play, but change up the game environment in all sorts of interesting ways.

They might buff some… underpowered characters:

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Allow some thematic silliness…

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Or reward you for playing pure bots or cons…

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Of course you can go the whole hog, use the whole lot and… combine.

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Let’s not forget about those battle cards.

There’s the usual mix of buffs and nerfs.

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And a bit more emphasis on Black, as we’ve seen, especially double-pipped:

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Did we say double? Yup, that’s a triple, and not even a * card.

And that’s not the only one…

The exciting new battle card mechanic can be seen here, with pips only working dependant on the user’s traits.

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Don’t worry, it’s not all black…

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It’s all about enhancing and encouraging thematic play. And as a dedicated jankytank player, Hull Down is going to see an awful lot of play by me. No secrets there!

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So there you have some of our highlights from the set –get yours ordered from your FLGS today, and get A HEAD (sorry) of the game.

Tell us what you’re most looking forward to in this wave, and we’ll send one lucky winner a BCP goodie bag!

Oh, and the winner of our Great Big Lockdown contest is… Ben Hague! Congratulations and get in touch within 30 days to claim your prize!

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The Writer of this piece was: Sam Graven
Article Archive: Geeking Out
You can follow Sam on Twitter

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