With the unfortunate news that the Transformers TCG was canceled, groups immediately sprung up to keep things going with new fan made cards. This is understandable, as people rightly feel the game can get stale without new content (and frankly the stuff people are putting out is pure awesomeness - see my card spoilers for The Ark's set) But what if we looked at things differently and instead changed the deck building rules to allow fresh new decks? This series suggests some new modes to try. And the first format in my series is a 7, 8, 10 star character draft, where players bring their own battle card decks to the draft.
The Mode: 7,8, 10 Bot Drafting
Explanation: With no more packs being made, the old sealed booster game will eventually be impossible. When playing constructed, sometimes it sucks to have to play against someone who has all the cool cards. For this mode, you will put a pool of characters in the middle and take turns drafting to fill your team. The draft order is: 1, 2, 2, 1, 2, 1 to reduce the advantage of picking first. If someone prefers to draft two 7 star bots instead of an 8 star, that is allowed. This may be desirable for players who want to squeeze a star card into their battle deck (or maybe they they just like the 7 star characters better). For simplicity's sake, Stratagems are not allowed. I have a suggested pool of draftable bots below, but you can alter this list as you see fit. The key is to have equal numbers of cool cards to choose from and not have one character be overpowered. I have chosen only common and uncommon bots as a proxy for this, plus you are less likely to get nervous about someone else drafting one of those cards and playing with it (because it isn't worth as much and you may have multiple copies of it).
Why the Draft format? There are some wizards at constructed formats. We will never beat them. But this mode prizes smart drafting and flexibility. There can be no 'magic deck' that can crush everyone in this format, because it changes every game. Each player makes their battle card deck in advance of drafting, so you would have to make battle card decks that are flexible because you don't know in advance which bots will be using them. Plus, if you see what the your opponent is going for, you can try to stymie them. If you play fantasy sports, you know drafting is fun.
Common/Uncommon 3 Bot Pool: For this pool, each player will have a 7, 8, and 10 star bot from a pool of common and uncommon cards (or two 7 star cards). Here's who I suggest for each pool, but this can be adjusted.
7 star pool
- Smokescreen: Safeguard is a decent ability to have in a team you can't plan in advance.
- Gears: I don't think anyone will draft him, but I see no reason why he can't be in the pool.
- Crankcase: His draw power could make him a high draft pick
- Snarl: I haven't used him in forever, but his ability to draw cards and stack the deck could be useful. Plus...Dinobot!
- Nova Storm: If you have black pip cards in your deck, she could be helpful. She heals and gets pierce from them.
- Sergeant Chromia: Like Nova Storm, someone with a lot of blue in their pre-made deck will like her ability.
-Specialist Flamewar: She's nowhere as useful as the other Flamewar, but she does have Focus 2 in bot mode, which could come in handy, especially if you have a mixed pip deck.
- Sergeant Kup: HE HAS TO BE IN THE POOL! No one will take him, but HE HAS TO BE THERE. One potential tweak to the rules is you get his stratagem for free if you draft him because ... HE'S KUP! The ultimate vanilla card! To make this alteration, before the draft, one player has to declare it's a Kup match, and the stratagem gets placed with Kip for drafting.
Not included on purpose: Quake seems too overpowered, Battle Masters don't really fit the format.
8 star pool:
-Autobot Hound: Perfect bot for a deck with white pips, which give him a +1 ask/def boost and help him draw cards.
- Bluestreak: There's very little chance his ability will be drafted, because you have to hit on three pip colors. But maybe paired with Flamewar he could be worth a look.
- Deadlock Bounty Hunter: Another guy I never use, but his ability isn't overpowered so he's in the pool. He has to KO someone to trigger it and draw two cards, which could be useful but may be hard to pull off.
- Dinobot Sludge, Military Stomper: Really only works on Dinobot teams, but if you draft Snarl, you could give him a go.
- Mudflap: Like Deadlock, I've never really been into trying to trigger bounty abilities. He's a truck so that could come in handy depending on your deck.
- Greenlight: As was the case with Smokescreen, I could see her safeguard ability being useful in this format.
- Private Arcee: Focus could be useful if you have a mixed pip deck.
- Private Sideswipe: I think Sideswipe is more useful in wider decks, because he has abilities that trigger when your teammates are KO'd.
- Dirge: The opposite of Sideswipe. He does better when there are KOd bots in his opponent's area.
- Triggerhappy: Great flip ability to retrieve weapons from a scrap pile to hand, which could combine well with grenade launcher, which I assume will be a staple in battle card decks in this format.
Not included on purpose: I left out Wingspan because I don't know if his upgrades will be scrapped as often when people build decks without knowing who they are going to draft. I left Ratchet out because I'm trying to avoid characters who require a certain battle card in their deck The Firecons work better together and probably need their battle card, so I tossed them out.
10 star pool:
- Apeface: Triple changers are fun, and his abilities aren't really tied to teammate synergy.
- Megatron Arrogant Ruler: His messing around with upgrades could be cool, and if someone comes in with an upgrade heavy deck, he could be a high draft choice.
- Major Prowl: He doesn't get much play, but in a system where you need a 10 star bot, there are worse ways to go than 2 damage every time you attack someone with a weapon.
- Lockdown Bounty Hunter: I've never really played with him, but his ability seems like the kind of thing worth trying if you don't have a honed team/deck.
Not included on purpose: I am leaving Jetfire out, because I think he'd be too powerful in this format. I'm leaving Trailbreaker out, because his ability is dependent on having Force Field in your deck. Crosshairs is excluded since his ability is Battle Master dependent.
Final Thoughts: I'd love to hear your thoughts on the bot pool and what battle card decks you'd come into the draft with. Drop a comment or hit me up on Twitter!
Hopefully this game mode will be better than this movie.
