For those mavericks of the Transformers TCG community who guessed the Card of the Week would be Lugnutz // Road Scholar, the renegade Mercenary from Org Wave 9: War|Void, you’re a real one! And Lugnutz has some real street knowledge to teach your opponent, namely two lessons: battle flips should run free, and their faction-based mechanics aren’t cool, man.
The road is a harsh teacher, and Lugnutz throws the book at enemies with an array of abilities specifically aimed at strategies built around Oppress or factioned battle cards. Wave 8’s Oppress keyword has always been somewhat of a niche ability that occasionally rises up to punish metas that threaten to go heavy on Bold or Tough. Indeed, Wave 8’s Sentinel Prime // Legacy of the Primes has been known to put an orange thumb in the eye of many Bold and Tough decks.
Lugnutz throws a spanner into those plans in two ways. When he flips to alt mode, he can set up one of your characters to flip two extra battle cards after revealing its first ⬜️ battle icon. His Touring Lounger station also protects its occupant from your opponent’s Oppress. Go ahead and hang loose with Power Punch and Supercharge – no one’s going to slow you down now!
Supported community releases have also continued to expand the game’s faction mechanics, with Quintessons in Wave 6, Junkions in Wave 8, the Unicron faction in Org Wave 9, and the Maximal and Predacon factions announced for Org Wave 10. As a result, factioned battle cards have become increasingly common across those releases, giving Lugnutz’s Bounty ability plenty of potential targets.
When Lugnutz earns that Bounty, he can look at your opponent’s hand and choose up to two cards with a faction. For each one, your opponent must either scrap that card or take 1 damage to an enemy. That can punish faction-heavy decks hard. There is also a chance that the Bounty will have little or no effect against many established decks that run few or no factioned battle cards, so consider the matchup before asking Lugnutz to join your team on the highway of battle.
Consider, pupil, the deck list below: “Mirage on the Water.” Lugnutz’s alt mode flip sets up extra battle flips after the first ⬜️ battle icon is revealed, making it even easier for Wave 1’s Autobot Mirage // Lone Wolf to trigger his bot mode untap ability.
With Wave 6’s Crashbash + Mind Control Helmet and the Kneel Before Us stratagem giving Crashbash Brave, Lugnutz and Mirage gain valuable protection while they set up repeated attacks and untaps. A healthy number of Opportune Repairs cards in the deck will help keep Mirage out of the KO area even longer!
For next week’s Card, consider a Wave 2 card that can make one of your characters seem to shrink into nothingness, so small as to go unnoticed. What Card is it?
MIRAGE ON THE WATER
CHARACTERS
Autobot Mirage // Lone Wolf (9★) - Wave 1
Crashbash // Ocean Terror (6★) - Wave 6
Lugnutz // Road Scholar (8★) - Org Wave 9
Mind Control Helmet (1★) - Wave 6
STRATAGEM
Kneel Before Us // Mind Control Helmet (1★) - Wave 6
BATTLE CARDS
1x Bashing Shield - Wave 2
2x Bellicosity - Org Wave 9V, Jumpstarter Update Booster
3x Debilitating Crystal - Wave 1
3x Erratic Cannon - Wave 4
2x Escape Route - Wave 2
3x Fight For Position - Wave 4
3x Flamethrower - Wave 1
3x Force Field - Wave 1
1x High Beam Headlights - Wave 8
2x Hold the Line - Wave 5
3x Improvised Shield - Wave 1
2x Incoming Transmission - Wave 1
3x Kinetic Intensifier Whip - Wave 4
3x Opportune Repairs - Wave 4
3x Supercharge - Wave 1
3x Take the Shot - Wave 8, Jumpstarter Update Booster