After complaining a bit in my review article about seeing tons of duplicates in my first “War for Cybertron: Siege I” box, the Transformers TCG team offered to send me a fresh booster box for my troubles (that was hopefully not “Mostly Hounds and some other guys”).

The mother-load! (Image: Anthony Karcz)

When I opened up the FedEx box though, I got a lot more than I expected! Not only was there the SDCC exclusive Blaster vs. Soundwave 35th Anniversary set (which I’ll cover in-depth soon), but I found the exclusive booster pack containing all three Omnibots!

Omni-who?

Just as adorable in person. (Image: TFwiki.net)

The G1 Omnibots were mail-order exclusives that cost $5 for shipping and four robot points each (man I miss the days of loyalty points doing something). Camshaft, Downshift, and Overdrive were all Autobot cars with simple transformations and cool pop-out weapons and wings in alt mode (think M.A.S.K. or James Bond). For mail-order toys, they were pretty awesome.

SDCC Exclusive Team

Spoiler, dear reader. I opened it. (Image: Anthony Karcz)

The revival of the Omnibots in the Transformers TCG is just as elusive as their G1 counterparts. An SDCC exclusive, this 25-star team is ready to gear up and tear through your opponent’s clutch King Starscream deck.

A bad time to have all actions in your opening hand (Image: Anthony Karcz)

Right at the start of the game, you’ll be able to leverage a huge advantage. If you have a weapon, armor, and utility in your hand, you’ll be able to play each one on one of the Omnibots. Especially if you go first, you’ll start the game way ahead of your opponent (since you’re limited to what cards you can play in the first round, usually).

Upgrade, upgrade, upgrade! (Image: Anthony Karcz)

This synergy continues in bot mode and encourages you to upgrade all of your Omnibots fully. Your upgraded characters get additional Tough, Bold, or Focus points based on how many of your Omnibots have Armor, Weapon, or Utility upgrades.

So what does this mean for deck construction? You’ll want to load up on upgrades! Having all three types of upgrade in your starting hand is crucial, so go heavier than you usually would. I’m not saying to ignore actions altogether… but definitely go lighter on them (and focus on ones that let you Plan or search your deck).

I love getting teams like this that have strong card synergy (it’s why I’ve enjoyed my Soundwave/Spy Patrol deck so far in Wave 3). Here’s hoping we’ll see more like the Omnibots in the future!

If you’re at SDCC this weekend, I highly recommend swinging by the Hasbro booth and grabbing a copy of the booster pack (it’s just $5). If you can’t make it to the con, there will be limited copies online at Hasbro Pulse after the convention.