Yes kids, the wait is over!  For months now we have been seeing previews of both the new Hero Cards and Battle Cards for Wave 2 of Transformers: Trading Card Game, the wave entitled Rise of the Combiners.  People have been anxiously awaiting to get thier hands on these cards to see if they are as good, or even better, than the excellent cards that were released in Wave 1 last year.

Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast have been kind enough to send me a box of the new Booster Packs from Wave 2, in order to review in much the same way I did the Metroplex Pack last year and the Dirge Reveal several weeks ago.  Once again, it must be stated that I have not been paid to do this review nor have either company tried to dictate the contents of this blog.  www.bigangrytrev.com would like to thank both Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast for the opportunity to examine these cards.

Now, as you may have noticed from the title of this blog post, this is Part 1 of a review of these booster packs.  Why am I doing it over more than one post?  Because in recieving a box of the Booster Packs, each box holding 30 packs which in turn contain at least 8 cards, it means I now have over 200 cards on my billiard table (er… I mean gaming table) with at least a hundred of them different!  That’s a LOT of cards to look at and a pretty big undertaking!  So in Part 1 we will be examining Drop Rates, new types of cards, Combiners and new Hero & Battle Cards.  In Part 2 we will look at how they perform in gameplay.

The Packs Themselves

Each Pack contains 7 Battle Cards and 1 Hero Card or 1 Pair of Combiner Character Cards.  We will look at the likelihood of doubles near the end of this review.

The Cards Themselves

Note: At the end of each discussion of the new cards I will be popping in their Drop Rate.  This is to signify how many times I was able to find these cards from the 30 packs contained within a single box of Booster Packs.

Combiner Cards

Whereas Hero Cards have the robot on the front and the alt-mode on the back, Combiner Character Cards come in pairs.  On one card you will find the robot mode and the other the alt-mode.  On the back of the cards you will find artwork to join together to make the Combiner itself.

There are 5 different Combiners to make from the Booster Packs: Volcanicus, Optimus Maximus, Predaking, Superion and Menasor.

I was lucky enough to find from the one box all 5 sets of Character Cards in order to make Menasor.  I look forward to bringing you a review of just how he goes in actual gameplay.  I was also able to form what could be termed a Mini-Combiner:

First revealed exclusively by Ozformers, this pair of Decepticons – Dreadwind and Blackwing (formerly Darkwing) combine to form the Dreadwing Sky Destroyer Jet.  This was a smart move on the part of the game makers, as it means you have a greater likelihood of making a Combiner sooner rather than later since he only needs two Character Card pairs instead of 5 or 6.

Drop Rate: Both the side of the box and the official website say the drop rate for Combiner Character Cards is about 50%. When opening multiple packs I was pleasantly surprised to find, for me at least, it surpassed that promise.  Out of the 30 packs I opened, 20 of them had Combiner Character Cards.  So rather than a drop rate of 50% it was a drop rate of 66%.  That’s great considering most Combiners are made up of 5 or 6 different characters you have to collect.

Hero Cards

As well as the Combiner Cards, we have the same sort of Hero Cards that were released in Wave 1.  There are quite a few new characters getting a showing, and many of the most famous characters, such as Megatron, Bumblebee and Starscream, have been released again but with new artwork and stats

I got a mix of characters I had other versions of from Wave 1 along with a good dose of new guys.  I was particularly pleased I was able to get Dirge since www.bigangrytrev.com was given the exlusive reveal of Dirge earlier in the year.  Some Character Cards have their special abilities blank, such as Novastar and Ruckus.  I have yet to figure out exactly why this is and how it will affect their gameplay value.

Drop Rate: Those packs that don’t come with a Combiner Character come with a regular Hero Card.  I found the drop rate to be one in every 3 packs, which doesn’t sound great but actually is if you are after the Combiners specifically, which I believe most players will be actively seeking.

Drop rates for Ultra Rare cards are described as 50:1.  You’ll note I got a King Starscream which is indeed Ultra Rare.  So I got one at a ratio of 30:1 but its entirely possible I could buy 20 more packs without finding another.

Battle Cards

Before we had Battle Cards that came in a few different colours based on their ability to attack and defend, with some cards overlapping.  Rise of the Combiners see’s some new categories introduced.

Star Battle Cards

This cards are definitely going to be a game changer!  Big time! Got a team which only uses up 22 or 23 or the 25 Star allowance.  Well now there are Battle Cards that have stars!  That means you can put them in as part of your team.  Valued at 1 Star apiece, these are perfect for rounding up your team.  I can see Bolt of Lightning being very useful but it’s Vandalize, where you can scrap all enemy Weapons, Armour or Utilities, that blows me away!  I can’t think of many instances where that wont be invaluable!

Drop Rate: There are 7 Star Battle Cards, in 30 packs I obtained 6 of them.

Enigma Cards

So you have all your characters needed to create a Combiner.  But you need one more thing – an Enigma Card.  There is an Enigma Card for each Combiner.  Being Green (discussed shortly), these cards can be rescued from the discard pile which saves a lot of heartache.  The Enigma Card is used to make your Combiner Character cards join together, even if some of those characters have been previously KO’ed.

Drop Rate: In 30 packs I was able to get all 5 Enigma’s as well as a couple of spares.

Team Specific Cards

There are specific cards that you can use with each team but no others.  They can be placed on only one member of this team.  I have yet to see if they can be retroactive – for instance I have a Dinobot Swoop card from Wave 1, but it does not make up the Volcanicus Team.  Can I use my Electrified Spikes card on that old Swoop since he is a Dinobot and the card talks about Dinobots, not Volcanicus?  Stay tuned for future reviews to find out!

Drop Rate: I was able to find cards for four of the five teams within 30 packs.

Green Battle Cards

If you get a Green Battle Card, it means that you are able to retrieve it from the discard pile.  You can only do this with one card per turn.  Whilst this sounds good but not game changing, it can be of extreme importance given what some of these cards (such as the Enigma’s) do.

Regular Battle Cards

We have a slew of new Battle Cards in already established catagories, so many it would take too long to list them all.  Some of them we have already seen in exclusive reveals, such as those made by Lisamaree on the Life with SPROGS site, like Inferno Breath and Surprise Attack.   I was a little disappointed to not get a Defensive Driving card but don’t believe it will take me long to obtain one.

Drop Rate: Well you are guaranteed 7 Battle Cards per pack.  I was very heartened that I never got the same two cards in the same pack.

So there ya go, a not-so-short synopsis of the new cards on offer from the Wave 2 Transformers Trading Card Game Rise of the Combiner Booster Packs.  I was very pleasantly surprised that I only got two doubles of characters (Dead End and Mirage) out of the 30 packs, which made this undertaking even bigger!  Stay tuned for Part 2, where we test these bad bots (now available in selected stores) out with some serious gameplay!

Related Articles:

ROTC Booster Packs.  Part 2 – Gameplay

Exclusive Cards Reveal: Dirge & Defensive Driving

Metroplex Pack: Transformers TCG