Nemesis Risiing through War Dawn
Evolution Cards
Event Raid & Reward Tier color-code
In this post I’ll be continuing my discussion of the Event/Episode Super-Rare (SR) cards that I began previously, but I figured I would go ahead and add in a separate discussion on the new Evolution cards.
You’ll notice some additional colors in the chart to the right. The tiers scale was discussed in the last post, but here’s a bit more detail:
Raid Card Tiers: Dark Blue = Tier 3; Dark Green = Tier 2; Maroon = Tier 1, non-UR
Reward Card Tiers: Blue = Tier 4; Green = Tier 3; Yellow = Tier 2; Orange = Tier 1; Red = UR
"Okay DutchRits, all you did was state what was in the chart."
Yes, but here's why. Those Tiers are meant to represent the relationship between the respective Raid/Reward Tiers. That is the ONLY means of comparing cards between events, as they don't fit into the standard tiers. In other words, you can't fit Raid Cards into Reward Tiers, and vice versa.
You’ll also note that there are some blanks in the chart. Ahem.
With that said…
The collective despair of the players over The Bee Team was turned into excitement over Nemesis Rising. Introducing the Aerialbots (well…three of them, at least) combined with Nemesis Prime, Onslaught and Brawl injected some much needed excitement into the fan base. Including Dr. Arkeville as a Tier 2 Reward was a bit of a head-scratcher…in my case I deliberately avoided finishing in Tier 2 for this event so I wouldn’t have his ugly mug in my deck…but the overall response to this event was positive.
Deck creep hit this event like a hammer, however. The average increase in stats over the previous event was +3,887 MTM points, with a low of +712 (Dr Arkeville over Beachcomber) and a high of +8,825 (Nemesis Prime over Bumblebee). The Bee Team, Nemesis Rising, and Road to Ruin all stopped the trend of offering an UR Raid Card, and Mobage had advertized that Rodimus would be the “last one” in All Hail Galvatron. That was a nice change, IMHO, although I wish they would have increased the availability of the Tier 1 Raid Cards in the space bridge, too.
Episode Air Raid continues the trend of Tier 3 Raid Cards with over 50k MTM stats, placing them well above anything you get from the non-event space bridge. Interestingly, he is weaker than Episode Slingshot even though his appearance in the classic comics, War for Cybertron, and Fall of Cybertron would indicate that he is A) more powerful than Slingshot, and B) more popular. Adding to the confusion is that Slingshot’s card bio clearly states that he is insecure “…over being the smallest and weakest Aerialbot,” which is also backed up over at the TF wiki ([1]). IMHO, these two should have swapped Tiers & stats.
Episode Silverbolt is an excellent upgrade over Venom, and his stature is fitting for the leader of the Aerialbots. His MTM stat total makes him the mightiest SR card in the game (as of this event), surpassing Dr Arkeville’s stats as the Tier 2 Reward Card. In fact, he’s even better than Episode Rampage, who makes his appearance in the next event, Road to Ruin. He also has an excellent weapon that is in use by characters far after Silverbolt dropped from everyone’s team.
Brawl (1) is the “typical” Tier 4 Reward Card, but is still a 1k MTM point improvement over gears. I would have figured him to be a bit more powerful, from a “relative capability” standpoint, as his placement here seems to equate him with minibots like Gears & Huffer or pansies like Gnaw (he’s weaker than Gnaw, btw) and Reflector. Incidentally, I’m not a fan of his alt-mode card art, either…the UC card art is way better, IMO. If it were up to me, I would have put Dr Arkeville here and moved Brawl and Onslaught up a spot.
Episode Onslaught is a HUGE improvement over Huffer, but a whopping 6.9k MTM points. If you disregard that Huffer was a 2.8k MTM point decrease from Scourge in the previous event and compare Onslaught to Scourge he was still a 4k point increase. Given that he was so relatively weak as a UC card, his stats here whet many players’ appetites for how the rest of the Combaticons would stack up once they were introduced (in War Dawn, it turns out).
Episode Dr. Arkeville is a modest improvement over Beachcomber by 712 MTM points, but when you consider that Beachcomber was a 2.2k decrease from Episode Cyclonus 2, you get a better idea of his context. I just don’t get why he was included as a character at all, though.
Episode Nemesis Prime blows away previous UR cards; he’s a full 8.8k improvement over Bumblebee (I approve) and he remains the 2nd most powerful card in the game as of the time I write this. In short, he’s everything that’s wrong with UR cards.
Adding the remaining Predacons (Headstrong, Tantrum and Rampage) to the game as Episode SRs was an interesting take for this event. On the one hand, you have Decepticons that transform into animals not known for speed chasing down four of the fastest Autobots. And on the other hand, these three Predacons are vastly superior to Episode Divebomb and Episode Razorclaw from Unleash the Beasts, yet they are all “downgrades” from the Aerialbots from the previous event. Adding Smokescreen, Windcharger and Silverstreak was a nice surprise, as was adding another Jazz (albeit as a UR card).
From a deck creep standpoint, this event saw an across-the-board cut in total MTM stats by an average of -1,471 MTM points. The exceptions were Episode Smokescreen, who was an 800 point improvement over Brawl and Episode Tantrum, who was a 629-point improvement over Slingshot.
Episode Headstrong was a slight downgrade from Air Raid, but only by 705 points. Conversely, Episode Tantrum was a small upgrade over Slingshot while Episode Rampage took a whopping 2.8k point cut from Silverbolt, but features the highest SR MTM Attack value in the game. Period.
Episode Smokescreen was a small upgrade, as discussed earlier, while the remainder of the Reward Cards were downgrades from the previous event. I don’t understand why Episode Windcharger is better than Smokescreen in this event; Smokescreen is superior to Windcharger as a Common Card, which makes sense given that Windcharger is a “minibot” compared to Smokescreen. Episode Silverstreak is a decent addition, although he is both a downgrade from Dr. Arkeville and sacrifices offensive firepower for defense. In fact, his defense is the highest of any card in the game, as of this event. Even now, only Autobot Hound (2), Evolve Hotspot and Episode Mirage have higher defense values, and Mirage is an UR while Hotspot is a an Evolve card…and just has an insane defense value.
Finally, Autobot Jazz (4) is a necessary downgrade from Nemesis Prime, yet he is an improvement over Bumblebee. And he’s just awesome. ‘Cause he’s Jazz.
Be honest…after you got over your initial excitement over Jetfire, Hound and Warpath your next reaction was, “who the hell are these bosses?” I addressed this a bit in Part 7 (last post) in my discussion of Episode Bombshock, so I won’t beat a dead horse. This event re-introduced the UR Raid Card in the form of Episode Jetfire 2. I tried to get one. I didn’t even get one Robot/Alt. And I spent a lot. Not that I’m bitter or anything.
Episode Warpath made for a nice upgrade over Headstrong by 1.8k. Mobage must’ve been very proud of him…I ended up with four MTM’d versions of him. I find it funny that his ATK is so relatively now, however. He has the lowest Raid Card MTM ATK power since Fatal Furies…and he’s a tank. I guess that’s reflected in his Health and DEF.
Autobot Hound (2) got no love from Mobage in the form of a 7.2k point decrease from Tantrum. I would say that they just don’t like Jeeps or off-road vehicles, but Swindle gets a nice boost in the same Raid Tier in the next event. I’m confused on this one.
Episode Jetfire 2 is quite awesome…but he’s weaker than Jazz, Nemesis Prime, Ironhide, and Bumblebee while being superior to Galvatron, Rodimus, Grimlock and Shockwave. Go figure.
Growl (1) gained 2.9k over Smokescreen while Episode Tracer took a rather significant 1.8k hit from Windcharger. That’s right…he’s a micromaster, but he’s even weaker than one of the least well-known minibots. Tracer’s card was pretty sweet looking, though, IMHO. Episode Dropshot was a HUGE boost as a Tier 2 reward, gaining 9.3k over Silverstreak, 6k of which was in attack.
Finally, Bombshock (1) quietly became the strongest card in the game, surpassing even Nemesis Prime. Yep…a micromaster. One that most Transformers fans hadn’t heard of prior to this event. I scoff in the general direction of the developers.
Completing the SR Combaticons while introducing Trailcutter, Blurr and Cliffjumper to the SR world, this event followed up Covert Operations. I bring this up because the Evolve Cards from that event had significant impact upon the flow of this event (specifically Evolve Soundwave, discussed below). However, it was all-in-all a pretty decent event, character card wise. This event also has the notorious distinction of being the first event in which all of the Raid/Reward cards are superior to ALL of the non-event space bridge SR cards. At least they were sane enough to NOT make Blastoff a UR card.
From a deck creep perspective, the average MTM point change was -132 when compared to the Raid/Reward cards from Full Assault. I’m not comparing them to Covert Operations for a reason, which you’ll see.
Episode Vortex took a 3,564 point dive from Warpath(!). His attack and defense compare favorably, but the biggest limitation was his health. Episode Swindle improves upon Hound’s stats, as previously noted, and his appearance was greeted with a near-universal “well, it’s about time!” Does anyone know why he wasn’t included as a C or UC card to begin with?
Blast Off (1) boasts some hefty firepower and stats, even though he’s a 339-point downgrade form Rampage, two events prior.
Episode Trailcutter has the weakest MTM ATK value since Episode Rippersnapper, making his attack the third lowest of all the Episode/Event SR cards. However, his defense is rather nice (I would have expected higher, given what they gave Hound and Silverstreak) and his overall MTM total is 2.3k higher than Growl. Still, it’s kind of a slap-in-the-face to one of the more iconic characters from the old cartoon. Then again, he was Trailbreaker in those, as well as the old comic. I suppose the world of trademarks ([2]) is evident here, again.
Blurr (1) piqued my interest. I noticed that his MTM ATK was on-par with Episode Jetfire from Cold Delivery. Jetfire enjoys a significant advantage in Health, but Blurr is equivalent in most other respects. That means that a Tier 3 Reward Card is approaching the MTM total of a previous Tier 2 Reward Card. Granted, Jetfire enjoys an 8k lead, but the comparison is notable. In fact, Blurr has the highest ATK of a Tier 3 Reward Card…in the game…by at least 4k over his next nearest Tier 3 competitor, Episode Windcharger.
Episode Cliffjumper 2 does not belong here. He’s another minibot that had one memorable scene in the 80s Transformers Cartoon followed by an inauspicious debut in Transformers: Prime. Granted, he was in Transformers Fall of Cybertron, but let’s acknowledge the fact that that role should have gone to Mirage instead. In short, he’s a reckless Bumblebee re-skin. And we all know how I feel about Bumblebee. I haven’t even discussed how there’s no freakin’ way he’s more powerful than any of the other Tier 2-3 characters. I’ll give him Reflector, though. I’m pretty sure he can take ‘im. However, as of this event Cliffjumper is the most powerful SR card. Mind….blown.
Episode Mirage has ~500 fewer than UR Jazz but ~850 more than UR Bumblebee. That sounds about right. Oh, but he gives up 9.2k to Bombshock. WTF?!?
EVOLVE CARDS
Mobage threw everyone for a loop with Covert Operations. This “Campaign Event” introduced the Evolution Cards, beginning with Evolve Laserbeak, Evolve Ravage, Evolve Soundwave, Evolve Eject and Blaster (1). I’ve discussed my observations of this event here, so I won’t rehash any of that. I will, however discuss their stats. But first….
To confuse matters even more, Mobage included two Trans-Scan Reward cards as the Tier 1/2 Rewards (Episode Nightbeat and Episode Prowl). Nightbeat was a small decrease from Dropshot, but otherwise follows the trend for Tier 2s. Prowl, on the other hand, blows away previous SR Tier 1s. He’s less than 5k from matching the MTM stat total of UR Shockwave (3)!
In discussing the stats for the characters in this event, my first inclination is to compare the Evolve Campaign Cards (Laserbeak, Ravage & Soundwave) to previous event Raid Cards. Laserbeak’s MTM total compares favorably to Ratbat (1)Episode Ratbat, which is rather fitting when you think about it. Ravage compares to Episode Razorclaw or Cyclonus (2), but both he and Laserbeak are relatively “weak” in comparison to traditional Tier 2/3 Raid Cards. That’s why you really can’t equate them to Raid Cards, especially when you have Evolve Eject and Blaster (1) filling those roles.
Speaking of which, Eject & Blaster are absolute beasts as Raid cards. In fact, they both surpass every Raid card to date with MTM stat totals above 81k and 85k, respectively. They even surpass Nightbeat as the Tier 2 Reward Card. Evolve Soundwave is, surprisingly, more powerful than even these over-powered raid cards, and is 2.3k stronger than Blaster. It’s almost as if Mobage was giving away near-UR cards, given the relative ease in which you could acquire him. Personally, I have two.
The easily overlooked aspect of this event was the inclusion of R Soundwave and SR Elite Soundwave as the Tier 3/4 rewards, respectively. While I applaud this decision by Mobage, it would have been better to lower the threshold a bit to, say, rank 20k-30k for these and include two more reward SR cards (as I mention in the post I linked to above).
The bottom line for this event is that you CAN’T compare it to the previous “Boss Events,” simply from the standpoint of the cards not falling into the Event/Episode Raid/Reward Tiers. They are a unique beast all their own.
Mobage appeared to learn its lesson from Covert Operations and made some interesting changes. But in general they took the concept of deck creep in the “Boss Events” and simply applied it to the “Campaign Events.”
Evolve Autobot Streetwise is virtually the same as Laserbeak, except that his defense is higher at the expense of his attack. Evolve Blades is a 1.5k upgrade from Ravage but compares nicely. Evolve Hotspot is where Mobage made the biggest change, reducing his MTM stats 9k from Soundwave. However, Hotspot features the highest Defense in the game…including URs!...with a stat just over 9k. Consequently, his attack is actually worse than Blades, although his weapon makes up for it.
Evolve Dirge and Episode Thundercracker 2 are both more than 1.2k improvements over their predecessors, Eject and Blaster, which means they are crazy, insane Raid Cards. I didn’t pay for either of ‘em, so congrats to those who did.
Episode Inferno surpasses Nightbeat by 1.3k, and just edges out Episode Silverbolt (for context reasons). He’s actually not that far behind Dropshot.
Autobot Ratchet (3) is pretty laughable. As of now, he is the most powerful SR card in the game, beating Episode Prowl by 1.4k MTM points. Oh, and his ATK is 500points better than Prowls. And given what I said about Prowl, Ratchet is now only about 3k points away from the MTM total of Shockwave (3). ‘Nuff said.
Like the episode before it, the Tier 3/4 Reward Cards are R Optimus Prime (the best R card) and Elite Bumblebee (the worst non-event SR card). I don’t know why…but there you have it.
Summary
After reading the last couple of posts and this one, I hope you can see how Mobage took a minor bit of “super-sizing” the SR cards and hit the accelerator with each subsequent episode. The resulting deck creep makes comparisons based on “relative character capability” next to impossible, resulting in wild increases in the MTM stat totals. If you include the non-event SR cards, the range of MTM stat totals goes from a low of 28,505 (Elite Bumblebee) to a high of 91,863 (Autobot Ratchet (3)). That’s freakin’ ridiculous. Throw in the UR cards, and things get REALLY out of whack.
Beginning with the next post, I’m going to outline my plan for fixing this game by rebalancing the SR cards into the Tier system that is so readily apparent in the C, UC, R and non-event SR cards. From there it’s a simple jump to rebalance the UR cards while preserving their obvious advantages over other cards in the game.