There’s been a lot of activity since the end of March for the Transformers Trading Card Game. Wave 3 Transformers TCG news has already starting to trickle out AND a new starter box set featuring Bumblebee and Megatron was announced.

But most importantly, the six-bot combiner, Devastator, was released in his very own box set.

What’s in the Box?

So big, he needed his own box. (Image: Anthony Karcz)

The Devastator Deck contains the six Constructicons that combine to form Devastator, the largest combiner in Wave 2, Rise of the Combiners. Also in the box are 40 battle cards, with 15 unique to the Devastator Deck. You also get a Tower card to help track the Constructicons’ special ability.

There’s an advanced rule book with a few extra additions for Devastator-specific play, plus the usual damage counters. These aren’t nearly as necessary now that the app is out, but you can’t track combiner health in the app and you’ll need extra counters for your tower, so keep them handy.

Build ‘Em Up

Build! That! Tower! (Image: Anthony Karcz)

As I mentioned when the set was announced, the Constructicons themselves are fairly puny as individuals. With middling health between 4 and 7 and little to no defense, their purpose is to attack, maybe once, in alt-mode so that you can add a height counter to your tower. Then you just hope they survive your opponent’s retaliatory attack so you can flip them to bot mode and combine them from the KO pile.

Make sure you’re in bot mode if you’re attacking solo. (Image: Anthony Karcz)

The exception to this is Scrapper: Constructicon Foreman. With him on the battlefield at the beginning of the game, you get to place your tower. Then, whenever one of your Constructicons is taken out of play, even if it’s Scrapper himself, you add a height counter to your tower. This continues to work even when Scrapper is in the KO pile. So as your team gets whittled down, you should still end up with six or more counters on your tower when Devastator combines.

Surprisingly useful in other decks. (Image: Anthony Karcz)

The new battle cards are an interesting mix. There’s only one upgrade that fuels your tower building, Builder’s Tools. Reclaim and Work Overtime are handy for getting your Constructicon Enigma into your hand (or for any deck that needs to cycle through lots of cards). Heavy Landing, while not being a Constructicon-only card, might as well be since its ability to do 3 damage to an enemy is only available if you have a tower with six height counters, otherwise it’s just a 1-damage action.

And Knock ‘Em Down

It’s the main event! (Image: Anthony Karcz)

The star of the show is, of course, Devastator himself. In their combined form, the Constructicons have a deep health pool and do at least six damage. The height of your tower when you initially combine determines how much health you get to recover (since all damage carries over). It also determines how hard Devastator can hit. With at least six counters he get Bold 2, letting you flip additional cards while attacking.

If you have ten or more counters on your tower, ol’ Devy’s base damage jumps to a gobsmacking 10 points. Add a Heavy Landing action to a turn where he attacks and you can easily one-shot another character.

How Does It Play?

For a little classic Transformers: The Movie action, I decided to pit Devastator against Metroplex (well, in that he really just punched a hole in the city-bot instead of fighting him…potato/Cyber-potatoe). I was a little concerned that the big bot was going to make short work of the team.

This is going to go poorly for some of you… (Image: Anthony Karcz)

The Achilles Heel of Metroplex is that he’s slow. He’s got hit points for days, but it takes six turns to get all of his support characters deployed. Before that, the Constructicons have Metroplex on numbers alone.

Yeah, not gonna lie, this hurt. (Image: Anthony Karcz)

But they’re also squishy little bots. If you’re going to attack with one in alt-mode to build your tower, it better be during your extra attacks while you push the numbers advantage. If you try to one-on-one the big guy with anyone, he’s going to be KO’d well before you have a chance to flip him to bot mode (no bot mode, no Devastator).

All this means you’re going to have a lot of damage when you do finally combine, but luckily with Scrapper’s ability, you can build your tower enough so that you can heal a good chunk of that immediately upon combining.

Without any healing capabilities, Metroplex is vulnerable for the later half of the game. He might hit hard, but you can hit harder (and continue to get stronger if you can make it to 10 or more on your tower).

This battle ended much like the movie did – with Devastator flying off victorious and Metroplex nursing his wounds.

Where Can I Get It?

Devastator is the only 6-team combiner in the game and he’s a ton of fun to play. With cards that can easily be repurposed for your other decks, there’s no reason to leave this set on the shelf.

The Devastator Deck Box Set is just $19.99 and available now wherever you find the Transformers TCG. Don’t have local game store? Amazon has the set for just a little more than MSRP. You can pick it up here.