With the Rise of the Combiner Booster Packs hitting shelves all over the country, it is nearly time for the first dedicated ROTC Box Pack to hit the shelves. Due for release on March 29, this pack will have arguably the most popular and recognizable of all the Transformer Combiners – Devastator! And once again bigangrytrev.com had been lucky enough to be given a pack in advance so as to bring you all the goss regarding these new cards.
Before we continue, the usual spiel: This pack has been given to bigangrytrev.com for review purposes by Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast. Neither company has paid for this review or tried to dictate the content of this blog. Bigangrytrev.com would like to thank both companies for their ongoing generosity.
Despite the average rate of finding a Combiner Character card to be 1 in 2, a lot of people have been struggling to make their first combiner, even when purchasing a whole box of the Booster Packs. Personally I was able to make Menasor and Dreadwing right off the bat but many others have not been so fortunate. So with the release of the Devastator Pack, it is going to bring a lot of joy to those yet to make one of these colossal characters! In the Devastator Pack you will find not only all the cards to go with it, but all the characters you will need. So no endless searching – all your Constructicons can be found in the same place – right here! Lets take a look at them:
Oh and another note, like when looking at the Combiner Booster Packs, there is SO MUCH information to be shared here, this will most likely be another 2-part Blog, with part one being information and the second one gameplay.
Constructicon Character Cards
Scrapper
Leader, Melee
5 Stars
Hook
Surgical Engineer, Ranged
4 Stars
Mixmaster
Materials Fabrication, Melee
4 Stars
Bonecrusher
Demolitions, Melee
4 Stars
Long Haul
Transport, Melee
4 Stars
Scavenger
Mining & Salvage, Melee
4 Stars
So we are noticing a few things straight off the bat. Firstly Scrapper as the leader has 5 stars but the rest only have four. Whilst this makes them fairly weak characters, it does mean you get to have all 6 Constructicons on the board at once. Also you will only have one ranged character, Hook, whilst the rest are melee. All characters have the same amount of damage, health and shield points in both their modes, making no difference in stats whether you be rocking a robot or construction vehicle.
Now to their special abilities. Again, nothing staggering either offensively or defensively. Bonecrusher has the best offense capability with Pierce 2 in his Robot Mode, with Hook sporting Pierce 1 and Long Haul Bold 1. The only character to be sporting anything defensively is Scavenger with Tough 1 in his robot mode. So what are nearly all the other special ablitities geared towards? Towards your Tower Card, which is going to be crucial when playing as Devastator.
The Tower Card
This seemingly innocent little card is going to dictate so much of your gameplay when playing with the Devastator Deck. It has made me extra glad that this is the first Transformers TCG pack that has come with instructions included. Unique among the Combiner Characters, Devastator’s abilities are tied directly to the height of his tower. And your individual Constructicon’s abilities are aimed towards building that tower as much as possible before combining. As well as powering up Devestator, the height of your Tower will also affect the strength of some other cards which we shall look at a bit later.
Scrapper’s abilities are both directly tied to the Tower. His alt-mode means you put your tower into the KO area at the start of the game (which you get to do anyway) and having him in robot mode means that every time a Constructicon gets KO’ed, you get to add another height counter to the tower.
All 5 other Constructicons have the same ability for their Alt-Mode
So this makes your individual Constructicons geared primarily towards construction, making that tower as big as possible! Of course there are other cards to assist them offensively and defensively, several of them exclusive to the Devestator Pack, and some of these too are geared towards your tower.
Exclusive Cards
Note: The pack contains 3 of each card.
Builders Tools
Can be used by Constructicons only. Gives you an extra counter on your Tower whenever a character sporting the card attacks. This makes this card very good to put on Bonecrusher in particular, as well as being one of only two cards that you can use to build your Tower further after combining.
Reclaim
Lets you access the scrap pile for upgrades, but if your Tower is 3 or higher then you get an extra card as well.
Heavy Landing
Gives you an extra point of damage to deal, but if your Tower is 6 or higher then you do 3 damage instead.
Work Overtime
The only exclusive card that does not involve the Tower, it allows you to draw extra cards until you have four in your hand. This makes this card very useful for most any deck you construct!
Constructicon Enigma
Like the Enigma cards for the other Combiners, you need this card to form Devestator and all your Consturcticons need to be in Bot Mode. Unlike the other Enigma cards however, this card does not immediately become redundant after combining. If played when you already have Devestator on the battlefield, you get to Repair 1 damage to him, as well as putting a height counter on your Tower.
Devastator
Towering Warrior, Melee
25 Stars
Here he is, the big guy! No searching through endless booster packs, you get him in one shot! His stats are similar to the likes of Metroplex and Menasor.
As you can see, his special abilities are directly related to his tower:
* When you first combine him you get to remove an amount of damage from him equal to the height of your tower. This means that you can allow your individual Constructicons to get pummelled to a certain extent, because as long as you keep that tower going higher and higher, by the time you form Devastator a lot of that damage will disappear!
* If your tower is 6 or higher you get Bold 2
* If your Tower is 10 or higher, your attack rating goes up from 6 to a whopping 10!
It is for the above abilities I highly recommend you do not combine Devestator until you have a minimum of 6 height on your Tower, because once Devestator is formed you cant make it any higher, unless employing another enigma card.
Other Cards
This pack comes with 9 other types of card, both common & uncommon and ones we have already seen before. The one of most use to you will definitely be Rapid Conversion, since you have 6 separate characters you need to get into bot mode. I find it funny we got Scrapper Gauntlets, since it doesn’t seem to be Scrapper sporting them. You get two to three of each of these 9 cards.
So is the Devestator Pack worth getting?
Yes, oh my yes! Not only do you get to make a Combiner Character in one go without having to search through endless Booster Packs, but it comes with a ton of exclusive cards that you cannot purchase anywhere else. Add to that the unique playstyle the Tower brings to the game and this really is a purchase that I can’t see any big Transformers TCG players bypassing. I highly recommend going out and picking yourself up a pack when they come out at the end of this month!
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