Rules Roundup 2019-03-15

I had Electrified Spikes on Volcanicus and Wheeljack attacked. Wheeljack did enough damage to kill me but I also flipped 2 orange battle icons and Wheeljack was my opponent’s last character. Which character would be KO’d first?

If the damage from Electrified Spikes KO’s the attacker, no attack damage is dealt during that combat. If that attacker was your opponent’s last character, you would win the game.

Megatron - Arrogant Ruler’s ability says "If you flip to this mode you may play an upgrade”, Does this include all Superior Upgrades? (Jetpack, Plating, Cannon, etc.)

Yes, but only if you’ve already played Tech Research. Megatron’s ability doesn’t get around that requirement.

I’ve heard that a Combiner can keep the skills of the characters its used to combine. Is this true? E.G. Alpha Bravo can give pierce 3, does Superion also get pierce 3?

This would not apply to Alpha Bravo, as he has a static ability of pierce 3. However, any effects effecting one of the Combiner pieces will continue to affect the character once they are in Combiner mode for the duration of that affect.

Can I use Hunker Down to retrieve a Superior Plating from my scrap pile and play it on a bot (bypassing the Tech Research requirement)?

Yes. Hunker Down doesn’t ask you to play the card, so the requirement from Tech Research does not apply.

Can someone explain Skywarp's wave 2 ability? If a card with no battle icons is flipped by Skywarp or another one of your characters, it boosts his attack and defense stats by three. If he flips into his other mode, does he retain the stats? When you state end of turn on a card, does it mean the end of the character’s attack or the end of all characters’ attacks in that round, which would result in all characters untapping and the start of the next round?

If Skywarp gets the +3 attack and defense until the end of turn bonus and then flips to his alt mode, he’ll keep that bonus for the entire turn. Any effect that lasts “until end of turn” or “this turn” lasts the entire turn, meaning your attacks are done and your opponent’s turn is about to begin.

We were having a debate at the local draft on when cards such as Bumblebee - Trusted Lieutenant says: When this attacks -> You may scrap an Action from your hand. If you do, draw 2 cards. Our question is about flipping. Is tapping to attack put the flip cards on (basically all Transformers state: When this attacks/or defends -> flip 2 battle cards) This isn’t stated specifically in the rules, but with cards like Dinobot Snarl allowing you to plan 2, you could very easily want to flip then place 2 defensive cards on top (or if you utilized Plan prior to the attack). We have all been playing it is before the flip, but since it isn’t stated anywhere that we could see officially, we’d love a clarification.

Any ability that just says “When this attacks” and doesn’t look at what you flipped happens before you flip battle cards.

So on Spare Parts it says after each battle you may swap 1 card from your hand with one of your flipped green pip cards, is this just a printing of the base rule, or a card effect that lets you swap out a second green pip?

That’s just reminder text for anyone who may have forgotten how the green battle icons work.

If Chop Shop in bot mode attacks and moves a Grenade Launcher from another character to him, those the Grenade Launcher sack itself?

Yes.

If Chop Shop in bot mode attacks, and moves a Bashing Shield from another character to him, does the effect of Bashing Shield activate?

Yes.

Since Dreadwing has two upgrades slots, if I have Bravery equipped, can I choose to play another utility to get it off it, or does it get equipped?

If a character has an open upgrade slot, new upgrades won’t cause you to scrap any existing upgrades.

Let's say I have Shockwave in bot mode and when my opponent flips for an attack, they flip a card with a green icon (For this example, let's say Tech Research). They then swap a card from their hand to take said Tech Research. Would that swap count as scrapping the card, and therefore trigger Shockwave's ability?

No. Green battle icons do not cause a “scrap”, they cause a “swap”, causing the card to go into the played area. It will be scrapped at the end of the turn with the other cards flipped during that battle.

What happens if I attack with Optimus Prime - Battlefield Legend in alt mode with Power Punch attached, and I hit a Swap Parts and move the Power Punch to a new bot. What happens to the Power Punch? Also, what about a card like Erratic Lightning? if I move it on Optimus with Swap Parts would his attack bonus stay the same?

Power Punch stays on the other character. Erratic Lightning gives Optimus +3 attack.

Megatron - Decepticon Leader in bot mode has a total of Pierce 6 due to his ability and the upgrade equipped (Crushing Threads) and attacks with a total of 5 regular attack damage. Prowl has (Force Field) equipped and defends for a total of 2 because no blue pips were revealed. Force Field does not trigger because the attack damage did not exceed the 5 and higher damage limit. Is this right? Does he take 3 regular damage or 6 pierce damage?

Because Megatron has Pierce 6, he would do 5 attack damage (remember that attack damage can’t be higher than the character’s attack, even with pierce). This causes the Force Field to trigger, so instead, he’ll do 4 damage and the Force Field will be scrapped.

Had an interesting situation occur last night. Had Thundercracker on defense with 4 health remaining equipped with a Crash Landing. Autobot Hound was attacking who only had 2 health remaining. Hound had enough attack power after flipping to take out Thundercracker. Both were the last bots on each side, would Crash Landing still go off, creating a Draw?

Hound will KO Thundercracker and win the game before Thundercracker can Crash Land and KO Hound.

What does ‘each battle’ entail regarding green icons? For example, if my opponent has 3 attacks on my one character, every time I flip a green battle icon for each individual battle that turn, I can add one green icon for each battle, totaling 3?

Yes. You can get one green battle icon per battle.

When does Security Console trigger? Before or after my opponent flips their battle cards for their attack?

Security Console triggers before your opponent flips their battle cards.

Hello. I have a question about green pips and turns with multiple attacks. When does the card exchange happen? After each attack? After all attacks are resolved? If it is after all attacks are resolved, do you only exchange for one card, or do you exchange for each attack? In the rules it used the term battle and I was not sure if that meant each attack or all attacks.

You can swap for a green battle icon card after each attack has finished. If there are multiple attacks in a turn, you can swap for one green battle icon card after each of those attacks, I.E. attack, swap, attack, swap, and so on.

If I attack with Starscream - Decepticon King in bot mode and flip multiple Decepticon Crowns, does his effect trigger multiple times on the same attack?

Yes. Starscream gets his bonus for each crown flipped. It is the most Starscream of all Starscream moves.

Let's say I have Bombshell - Decepticon Psy Ops equipped with a Data Pad. When he attacks, would I trigger Data Pad's effect or Bombshell's skill first? Or do I get to choose the order they trigger in?

You may choose the order because they are both attack triggers on your cards.

For Grapple's abilities: Does he need exactly 4 different battle icons, all with different colors or just amongst all battle icons flipped/scrapped does need to be exactly 4 colors?

You can scrap any number of cards with any number of icons from your hand, they just need to contain four different colored battle icons among them. Grapple’s ability would work if you only scrapped a Roll Out! and a Spare Parts, for example.

In regards to reprints of wave 1 cards in wave 2, are they considered separate cards? Can I put up to 3 copies from each card in a deck?

You can only play three cards with the same name in your battle deck, so the Wave 1 and 2 cards are interchangeable in that respect.

Following up on this ruling:
"Based off the I Still Function! Ruling, would I be able to transform Razorclaw to bot mode, then combine into Predaking but retain his flip ability to attack untapped characters since he's part of the Combiner?
Yes."
Does this mean that if I flip Rampage into bot-mode and combine into Predaking that turn, will Predaking carry over the ability to repair 1 damage to all my Predacons if Predaking KO's an enemy character?

Rampage’s ability has not triggered yet and would not carry over as it does not specify the duration of “this turn” like Razorclaw’s ability does.

What occurs if I attack with Volcanicus the turn I combined while also playing Steamroll that same turn (assume I used a Brainstorm or Multi-Mission Tool on Divebomb) and flip enough Orange pips to KO the defender with Volcanicus' ability. Do I still calculate my total ATK damage to determine what (or if) Steamroll's damage would be?

In this case, Volcanicus has KO’d the defender before actually doing attack damage to it, so the attack will end with no attack damage dealt. Thus, Steamroll’s effect would not apply

While in bot mode, Sunstorm's attack is equal to number of cards in hand. If he is equipped with a Mining Pick and you start with, let's say 6 cards in hand when the attack is initiated. You Plan 2, dropping 2 from your hand to the top of your deck, bringing you down to 4 cards in-hand with a plus-4 total from the Mining Pick, for a total of 8 attack before battle flips? Or would it check for the 6, giving you your base attack, then you can Plan from there, starting you with a base of 10 in the same aforementioned situation. I guess my question is, when does his ability check for cards in hand? The second he is tapped then go on from there? Or at the end of battle flips then check hand size and calculate from there?

Sunstorm’s attack is always checking your hand size, so the damage he does in an attack comes at the very end of the attack.