Transformers TCG review: Fast, fun and with potential to grow
By Nick Tylwalk
The Transformers TCG takes some of the aspects you’d expect from trading card games and gives them a nice twist that fans of the brand will appreciate.
Disclosure: Hasbro provided FanSided with a free Transformers TCG Autobots Starter Set and several booster packs for the purposes of this review.
Considering that Hasbro owns Wizards of the Coast, the creators of the most popular and enduring trading card game of all time, it’s actually surprising we haven’t seen things like the Transformers Trading Card Game more often, marrying that know-how with one of the company’s iconic brands. Maybe it was just a matter of figuring out how to make it work.
By “it,” we mean the nature of the Transformers themselves. While fantastic characters with a rich history across many forms of media, they’re often tricky to use in games of any kind because there needs to be a way to have compelling reasons for them to be in both their bot and alt forms. Video game designers have come up with a number of different ways to approach this dilemma, and the Transformers TCG has a good solution of its own.
It does it by making the bots the stars of the show, featured on oversized Character Cards that are double-sided, with a foil treatment on the robot side. Transforming in the game is a core mechanic, one of the things each player can do to one character on each turn. Not only can a bot’s attack and defense stats change when you decide to flip them, the advanced rules also allow for a number of interesting strategic possibilities because abilities can change from form to form, as well as the keywords at the top of the card (changing from a melee to ranged attacker, for instance).
Before you even dive into those kinds of details, the Autobots Starter Set allows you and a friend to learn the basics with two bots each and a shared set of 40 Battle Cards, which unlike the characters, are the size you’d expect from a TCG. The basic game plays quickly and introduces a mechanic that carries over to the advanced game, which is that the Battle Cards influence combat by way of colored symbols in their upper-right corner that can make attacks more powerful or defenses sturdier depending on what you flip. That adds an element of randomness that every good game should have.
Playing with all the rules opens up many more layers to the strategy. The goal is still to knock out all of your opponent’s bots, but there are team-building considerations now as well, since you can pick any number of characters whose total star values add up to 25 or less. Our review cards ranged from 6 to 10 stars, so even with just eight characters total it was easy to see what kinds of choices you could make.
Each player in the advanced game has their own deck of 40 or more Battle Cards, which serve as both combat enhancers and as cards you play in the traditional TCG style. There are action cards which can be played instantly and have any number of different effects, as well as upgrade cards to add weapons, armor or utility effects to your bots. In just a few games, you’ll find many familiar TCG concepts alive and well, things like cycling cards from your scrap (discard) pile, forcing your opponent to discard cards, ways to get damage through your opponent’s defenses and much more.
With a relatively modest starting set of 80 Battle Cards, it’s possible we could see many more ideas brought to life down the road. In the meantime, the fact that booster packs guarantee a character card in addition to seven Battle Cards ensures that Transformers fans might want to try out a few just to enjoy the Character Cards, which are visually impressive even if you don’t plan on playing the game all that much.
The Transformers Trading Card Game is available now in the U.S., with the Autobots Starter Set (which includes four Character Cards, 40 Battle Cards, damage counters and a card explaining the basic rules) selling for a suggested $14.99 and booster packs carrying a suggested retail price of $3.99. Much more information, including an entertaining series of how-to-play videos, can be found at the official Transformers TCG website.