Non-UR Event SR Cards
Event Raid & Reward Tier color-code
Continuing the discussion from the last post [1], this one will be about the Pre-Ultra Rare Event Raid/Reward Super Rare cards. This will encompass Fatal Furies, Unleash the Beasts, Cold Delivery, and Countdown to Extinction, focusing on the horrendous deck creep from event to event. For questions on the rationale behind the Tiers and the deck creep, please read the previous installments.
Also, please note that the colors in the chart are a little different. They're set up to reflect the tier that an Event SR card falls into in relation to other cards from other events in the same Tier, not a distinct stat grouping. For example, Episode Slipstream is a Tier 3 Raid Card, the same as Episode Divebomb, Episode Scourge, and Episode Red Alert, in regards to stats and means of acquisition (you'd have to finish in the third reward tier to receive thse cards). Likewise, Episode Firestar is a Tier 4 Reward card and shares that disctinction with Episode Rippersnapper, Episode Cosmos, and Episode Reflector while Episode Chromia, Episode Twinstrike, Episode Jetfire and Episode Starscream are Tier 2 cards.
Now, the definition of Reward and Raid Tiers here is different from what I put forward for the C, UC, R, and non-event SR cards. These Tiers represent how a player must finish in an event in order to receive the respective Reward card or the relative stat totals of the Raid cards. This allows for an examination of the stat increases from event to event based upon the growth within each Reward/Raid Tier.
And so, let's look a little more closely:
Fatal Furies
This event introduced the "Super Rare Cards Only" for both Raid & Reward cards. Episode Slipstream is a relatively weak SR Raid card, beating the Tier 4 Reward cards for all of the events in this post but losing out to all the other Tier 3 Raid SRs. Likewise, Episode Flamewar is relatively weak as a Tier 2 Raid card, but is equivalent to a low-end Tier 2 Reward card. However, she is a full 2,742 MTM points weaker than Episode Autobot Jazz from Robots in the Sky, marking one of the few times that Mobage actually decreased the stats of a card tier in a subsequent event. Don't let Gloria Allred know that Flamewar is female, though.
Episode Firestar (my first Trans-scanned SR, btw...not that it matters) is the first Tier 4 Reward card, but MTM stat-wise is (ironically) equivalent to the non-event Arcee. In short, she became the weakest SR Event card ever awarded. Ouch. Episode Arcee got a 7,046 MTM point boost from her non-event incarnation (Arcee) as the Tier 3 reward, which puts her equivalent to Elite Shockwave. Just sayin'.
Episode Chromia's MTM stat total is respectable for a Tier 2, as it's 1,254 higher than Episode Skywarp. However, given the increase for Tier 2s in subsequent events you'll see how she quickly becomes obsolete. Oh, and her stats are higher than the previous event's Tier 1 reward card (Episode Thundercracker). Episode Elita One's stats make her more than 11k higher than her male counterpart (Elite Optimus Prime, FYI...read her bio), and unsurprisingly establishes her as the strongest card in the game, at the time, with an increase of almost 7k more MTM total points than the previous event Tier 1 reward card.
Unleash the Beasts
I'll admit it: I b!tched on the Mobage Facebook page about this event. The Terrorcons?!? WTF? At least Episode Divebomb and Episode Razorclaw made an appearance. Divebomb was a healthy upgrade as the Tier 3 Raid card, while Razorclaw increased his MTM point total over Episode Flamewar by 6,628. In short, a big upgrade from the previous event raid cards.
The Reward cards were a bit confusing. Episode Rippersnapper and Episode Hun-Gurrr were obvious carry-overs, but Episode Blight and Episode Twinstrike were apparantly renamed versions of Blot and Sinnertwin (see http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Terrorcon_(G1) for details). However, these reward cards were upgrades across the board, by an average of 4,064 MTM points from their Fatal Furies counterparts.
Cold Delivery
This was the first event that got serious money out of me. I freakin' HAD to have Episode Jetfire, and while I wanted Episode Omega Supreme I knew there was no way to compete for Tier 1. Anyway...
Episode Scourge and Episode Cyclonus were actually MTM stat decreases over the previous event Tier 2/3 Raid cards, with Scourge losing 1,345 points while Cyclonus lost 588. No love for these two, apparantly. On top of that, their weapons were high-defense, low attack. In short...they sucked.
However, Episode Cosmos and Episode Sky Lynx were moderate upgrades over the previous event Tier 3/4 Rewards. They were yawners compared to Episode Jetfire and Episode Omega Supreme, however. Jetfire improved by ~2,600 points over the previous event Tier 2 Reward while Omega Supreme increased the Tier 1 stats by over 8,600! (and rightfully so, IMHO).
Countdown to Extinction
Featuring 2/3 of Autobot Lamborghinis (no Sunstreaker?!?) as Raid cards while throwing in the unanimous "most boring" Decepticon, one of Soundwave's tapes (sans Soundwave, of course) and Mr. Egotistical Seeker himself, this event also featured a mid-event twist of adding a fourth boss...Episode Megatron.
Episode Red Alert and Episode Sideswipe each were ~2.5k increased in Raid card MTM totals, and were just plain cool. I paid for these two, as well. Both were decidedly good buys, as Red Alert increased the MTM total 1,100 over Divebomb (since Scourge was such a disappointment) and Sideswipe was ~2k over Razorclaw. Not bat, but still unbalancing.
Episode Reflector beat Cosmos by a mere 819 points, yet his 40,700 total meant that this event was the first time in which all of the Raid/Reward cards had MTM totals above 40k. That's right...better than half of the non-event SR cards. But I'd still like to note that Refector sucks.
Episode Decepticon Rumble, in addition to winning "The Longest Character Card Name in TF:L", also was a decent upgrade of 1,255 points over Sky Lynx from the previous episode. Again, not a good thing.
Episode Starscream narrowly beats out Episode Jetfire in Tier 2 stats (I see what you did there, Mobage!) by 471, but Episode Megatron takes the cake as the most powerful card in the game, at the time, with a combined MTM score of 79,814, or 3,885 over the previous event Tier 1. That's right, he's more powerful than Omega Supreme...who kicks his a$$ with one shot in the comics. But whatever.
Summary
These four events saw a dramatic increase in overall SR card strength within their respective Tiers from event to event. And in reality, there is no good reason for that to have happened except to further the desire for "deck creep" to prevent players from acquiring ueber-decks. There is NO relative capability between character cards...Rumble should not be more powerful than Sky Lynx, nor should Sideswipe be more powerful than Jetfire. Not to mention how these event cards relate to the non-event SRs. This trend will only continue and, unfortunately, accellerate with the introduction of Ultra Rare cards.
Next: The introduction of the Ultra-Rares (Day of the Dinobots, Part 2 through The Bee Team)