Release date: November 18th 2022
Latest points change at the time of writing this - The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth
Throughout my set reviews I use '~' to denote the subject card.
Throughout my set reviews I use '~' to denote the subject card.
Greetings earthling,
This is my Transformers 7point Highlander Set Review. These cards were released within The Brothers' War set, which is appropriate because many fights have been had between brothers over who gets to play with what transformer. I'd be interested to see the sales data on Autobots Vs Deceptacons. Transformers, amongst countless other franchises really hammered the 'good vs evil' narrative into us. Training the population to accept war against the bad guys. What does this have to do with which cards I should buy in case I want to add them to a 7point Highlander deck though? I dunno. I'm tired.
Someone should make her into an emote for the server.
~ is essentially suited to Rakdos Aggro decks which incidentally run several artifacts. Shocking insight.
Typically you'll cast her converted, hit for two (cause ain't no one blockin'. Pretty hard to set up a road block for a renegade motorbike) and then you dump your hand ASAP to pick up the intel cards. To simplify, ~ is a beater that draws multiple cards for just 3 mana collectively. She's good.
~ has lots of nuance:
- She is not a creature on their turn, allowing her to dodge creature sweepers and Wrenn and Six.
- She is an artifact for delirium and Urza's Saga.
- If you cast her converted she is a noncreature spell so she triggers Dragon's Rage Channeler, again tying into delirium.
- She sacrifices artifacts to turn on revolt, i.e. Fatal Push
- She discards cards, which has all kinds of applications.
All the above add up to make ~ a very flexible card. All she asks is that you that you dump your hand and run several artifacts.
Watchwolf that draws cards.
Kind of amazed that I haven't see anyone cast ~. I suppose Winota, Joiner of Forces is more powerful and she asks that all your humans be as big as possible, whereas ~ asks that they all be 1mana or ≤3mana with haste.
~ can't be cast off Cavern of Souls/Unclaimed Territory/Secluded Courtyard naming "Human", and therefore he is realistically limited to 3colour decks. Furthermore, if the opponent has sorcery speed removal or removal that can't kill a 3toughness creature, then it will be your 1drop that dies. With that in mind, I think ~ is best in Jeskai where you have access to the haste humans:
Ash Zealot
Feldon, Ronom Excavator
Robber of the Rich
Mantis Rider
Reckless Stormseeker
Rem Karolus, Stalwart Slayer
Tajic, Legion's Edge
to compliment the 1drops:
Benevolent Bodyguard
Champion of the Parish
Esper Sentinel
Mother of Runes
Recruitment Officer
Soldier of the Pantheon
Grim Lavamancer
Monastery Swiftspear
Soulscar Mage
If you're casting 3mana haste humans then you'll want Gitaxian Probe and Mishra's/Urza's Bauble to convert ~ back to draw a card again next turn. Additionally, creature decks naturally want the powerful equipment so I think the deck calls for an artifact subtheme:
Urza's Saga
Weathered Wayfarer
Dragon's Rage Channeler
Inventor's Apprentice
Skullclamp
Umezawa's Jitte
Stoneforge Mystic
Metallic Mimic
Trinket Mage
Amazing with artifacts that sac themselves for value:
Black Lotus
Lodestone Bauble
Mishra's Bauble
Urza's Bauble
Chromatic Sphere
Chromatic Star
Terrarion
Wizard Rockets
Conjurer's Bauble
Darkwater Egg
Mossfire Egg
Skycloud Egg
Shadowblood Egg
Sungrass Egg
Trinket Mage
Ingenious Smith
Tinker
There are plenty more, but not as efficient. You want roughly 11 eggs to have one reliably on turn 3. That's a lot of eggs. Probably means you'll have a low land count so that you don't flood on lands. Good news is that you will easily meet artifact synergy requirements. You'll definitely be running Tolarian Academy, Urza's Saga, Mox Opal.
So many eggs makes Second Sunrise a possibility.
If you're running some broken combo, the high egg count enables Scheming Symmetry.
~ has a dichotomy: You want to play a grindy game where you draw lots of cards with him over time and remove any big blockers the opponent might have for the 2/4 body. However, a grindy game gives the opponent more chances to draw Null Rods. Also, to enable ~ you need to run a tonne of eggs, which is better for a combo strategy and can lead to flooding late game. Finding a happy middle ground will take lots of testing.
A sweet trick you can do with ~, is that if the opponent tries to kill him with creature removal in their turn, you can gain life in response with something like Cling to Dust or Seed of Hope, and that will convert him into a vehicle to save him.
The wiki for Slicer has a few gems:
"Following the Rebirth, Slicer followed Breakdown to Earth, where he landed in Toulon, France. Due to a malfunction with his Neuro-Centre Control Unit, his vocal processor got stuck with the local accent. "
"Prepare to be sliced! Oh-hoh-hoh...". Definitely announcing that one whenever I cast ~!
Wiki shitposting is premium humour.
You can run ~ in red stompy. Most of the time you'll cast him as car and keep flipping him like a crêpe in their upkeep. If there's an opening with no blockers, then casting him front side will be worth the retaliatory 6damage.
~ is also a solid beater in aggressive Mishra's Workshop decks.
You need to be sure that you can take the monarch back before even putting ~ in your deck. ~ is very risky for this reason and you'll probably sideboard him out a bit. Having said that, if you make him work he hits for 2 immediately, then 4, then 6, plus 2 more for any extra card draws you snuck in whilst you were the monarch.
If you can somehow give ~ double strike then you can give the opponent the monarch with first strike damage and take it back in the same combat, which also means you'll get the front side life lose trigger the same turn. Pretty cool.
Annnd that's it! Just 5 transformers that I would run.
Roll out,
Mulch
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