This is the second post in my series proposing new ways to play the game using the official cards (the first was a 7, 8, 10 star character draft). There are a lot of awesome fan made sets out there, but this is a way to breathe new life into the cards we all own.
Rules: The rules to this mode are brilliant in their simplicity (Note: I am not calling myself brilliant, I just like that phrase). Each team is made up of:
- 50 total stars
- 1 oversized Titan sized extra large character, a 5/6 character Combiner, or the three card combiner Omega Supreme
- The same star rule applies for minion cards (like Metroplex, Trypticon)
- You can either use your stars to include combiners that don't normally fit (combiner Dinobots, Sentinels) or treat them as they are handled in a regular game to save your stars.
- All members of the team must be of the same faction (plus mercenaries)
Why? Expanding the star count allows you to deploy some bots to help support your titan or combiner. In the show, the 'regular' characters would be fighting and then the Constructions would combine and start crushing the Autobots until Omega Supreme popped and duked it out with Devastator. This kind of awesomeness just hasn't been possible to recreate in the card game ... UNTIL NOW!
Requiring a Titan or combiner should encourage the use of Trypticon, Omega Supreme, Metroplex, and the combiners who are not used because they usually bite it before they can do anything. Requiring all the members be of the same faction makes it feel like it is a real battle that could have happened, while providing a little structure to build teams around.
This would open up new strategic decisions during team building. Is it better to use a titan, who is ready to start pounding on people right away or do you go with the benefits of being wide with a combiner and risk failing to combine? Do you support your big guy with a few powerful bots, or do you go as wide as possible? Can you come up with a team that actually fought together in an episode?
Would this actually do anything to make playing with these guys more fun? I am not a numbers guy, but I think having more characters would give combiners more time to dig for an enigma. It would give Trypticon more time to find the cards he needs to deploy his minions. The right teammates could enhance Metroplex's deployable buddies. What is the maximum number of heads you can get to pop in a game if you combined Fortress Maximus with some body/head teammates? Heck, I bet we could even see Loot Crate Omega Supreme get used to take advantage of his smaller star count for a titan.
What kinds of matchups might we see? I don't think we could go wrong with Optimus and the Aerialbots against a Megatron led team featuring the Stunticons, flipping the Autobots are cars, Decepticons are planes paradigm. I'd love to see a Kup, Hot Rod, and Metroplex team against the Insecticons and Devastator (a scene right out of the movie if Metroplex is autobot city, which I've never figured out). How about a team of wave 1 and wave 2 Dinobots against Trypticon and pals to form a true jurassic battle?
Conclusion: This mode not only forces you to use some characters that aren't meta competitive, it also makes them more viable. This also opens up new potential synergies, as you can now look at the Combiner/Titan powers and see if they mesh well with characters they've never been able to be paired with before.
Hit me up in the comments or on twitter with your epic squads!
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