This was originally posted on the transformerstcg.org Medium page.
November 24th, 2024 update: Since this article was published, the transformerstcg.org Team (the community successor to Team Bayformers) no longer recognizes either transformers.cards or its associated Discord, “Transformers TCG Community,” as community authorities to overall Transformers TCG balance due to their policies of exclusion and censorship. The decisions that transformers.cards makes are applicable to the .cards environment and that environment alone. Additionally, any edits transformers.cards independently makes to transformerstcg.org content such as Wave 6: World|Strike and Wave 8: Waste|Lands are made without our authorization, license, or participation, and may differ from content distributed in its intended and supported state by transformerstcg.org. The transformerstcg.org Team is currently working on constructing a balance council that includes tenured players from across the community, regardless of favored play style, guild, or in-group.
It’s March, and Spring is about to spring. We have an update on Team Bayformers and our continuing work with the Transformers TCG!
Encounter 6 nerfs
After a lengthy pause, organizers from the transformers.cards team announced the last Encounter of what was Waste|Lands Tournament Season 2 — now simply called Season 2. With the announcement came the announcement of two new upcoming nerfs. One was a proposal for Autobot Countdown, Aerospace Commander from Wave 6. Another for Detritus, Now With Sleek, Sexy Handling! from Wave 8 hasn’t manifested in a formal proposal yet, though Detritus is on the event’s ban list, along with a note promising a future nerf.
Opinions on these upcoming nerfs in the Team’s conversations with insiders and players have largely varied from mixed to negative. One player’s take (paraphrased to protect their identity):
“They’re suddenly proposing changes at a machine-gun pace and I hate it. It’s unprecedented for them to nerf cards based on results from a single beta event with a stilted list of decks favoring those beta cards. What happened to the Garrus-9 process used during Season 1 and early Season 2?”
Another player that was looking to play at the event (also, paraphrased):
“I know for a fact that Detritus and Omega Supreme + Autobot Countdown decks have answers in the meta. It feels like certain highly ranked players that are also in the transformers.cards team are actively manipulating the meta in unscrupulous ways. Why are they moving so fast?”
We in Team Bayformers are pro-nerf — and we recently wrote an article supporting this philosophy. However, our opinion of the nerfs associated with Encounter 6 aligns with the perspectives voiced by players. In truth, the Team has growing concerns about the increasing lack of respect towards existing standards and precedent shown in the decision-making of the transformers.cards team in the past year. The Team will address this issue, along with others, with a formal response soon — and an announcement.
TFcon Los Angeles and Toronto
Sadly, the Team will be missing TFcon Los Angeles this year — but we plan to be in Toronto! We hope to show more of everything we’ve been working on this year during the show in Toronto — and that means even more giveaways, events, and teasers.
Rolling out
That’s everything from the Team for now. Look forward to a refreshed Wave 9 booster pack in upcoming days, along with insider stories related to Transformers TCG community waves. And, of course, the upcoming Wave BFC, now in pre-alpha — which, incidentally, now has a new identity…