Rules Roundup 2019-06-28

Questions

• If you have no cards in your scrap pile and play a weapon to replace an already existing weapon on a character, does the replaced weapon immediately go to your scrap pile, or does it hit the scrap pile at the end of your turn? Asking because of Wheeljack's bot mode ability requiring a weapon in the scrap pile to give him the bold 3 effect.
  Immediately.
• Are cards flipped during battle the only ones that don't hit the Scrap Pile until the end of a turn?
  Actions that are played (including Secret Actions), cards you flipped during battle, and other cards you flip due to cards like Swarm!, for example, are all scrapped at the end of turn.
• Can you opt out of flipping a Secret Action, even if it triggers? For example, if Infiltrate is on the field and your opponent plays an orange Action, could you choose not to negate it and hold Infiltrate's negate effect for -- hypothetically -- a second action that they use through other means?
  Revealing Secret Actions is optional. A little while back, we had answered a question pertaining to this issue and said revealing Secret Actions was mandatory. After testing and reflecting on this internally, we’ve decided to reverse that decision. If additional game actions occur after the event that would have revealed the Secret Action, the player whose Secret Action it is will be considered to have elected not to reveal it. Note: This doesn’t mean you should play fast in order to try and trip your opponent up. If your opponent has played a Secret Action, you should give them a reasonable chance to reveal it.
• What happens when you Special Ops Mission two Infiltrates and your opponent plays an orange Action?
  You can choose to reveal one Infiltrate and leave the other one facedown to reveal later. You are allowed to reveal both, but the first Infiltrate would make the second one ineffective.
• I have a question about the interaction between Anticipation Engine and the Enigmas. Let’s say Silverbolt has an Anticipation Engine equipped and the Aerialbots are all in bot mode. He attacks and flips the Aerialbot Enigma. What happens now? If the Aerialbots combine to form Superion does the attack continue, and if so, what is the base attack used to compute damage? Is it Superion’s attack or Silverbolt’s?
  The attack continues, except now Superion (untapped) is attacking the target Silverbolt was previously attacking. Superion’s attack will be used to calculate damage.
• And to go one step further, as the Enigma is revealed by Anticipation Engine and not as part of the attack, is it correct you can’t take advantage of the green pip to send it to hand?
  That is correct. The card revealed by Anticipation Engine’s ability is not considered a card flipped during battle, so its green battle icon would not work.
• Since Wave 2 Grimlock is capable of grabbing duplicate characters from outside the game, including copies of himself, what happens if I have a Grimlock in my KO area and one on the battlefield when I play the Dinobot Enigma to combine into Volcanicus? Do I get to choose which Grimlock is used in the combination, or does the game default to the one on the battlefield?
  You can choose either one.
• If I can keep the original Grimlock on the battlefield, what happens then, if I use him to collect another set of Wave 2 Dinobots and play another Enigma? Does the first Volcanicus get Bold 2? Do I assemble a second Volcanicus?
  Yes, you can assemble multiple versions of Volcanicus. In the extraordinarily unlikely event that you are able to assemble multiple iterations of Volcanicus on the battlefield before your opponent either defeats you or flips the table over, they would each get bold 2.
• If I have two full sets of Wave 2 Dinobots between my Battlefield and KO area and I play the Dinobot Enigma, do I get one Volcanicus or two?
  One per enigma played.
• What is the plural of "Volcanicus" anyway?
  More than one Volcanicus is known as a Volcanicatrix. This is canon. Trust me. Don’t look it up.
• Does Leap of Faith get around requirement cards (Tech Research, Ancient Wisdom) like Hunker Down does? If I flip a superior equipment, can I play that without the Tech Research?
  Leap of Faith gives you the ability to play a card, but that card’s requirements must still be met.
• Say I have Autobot Hot Rod (Sentinel) in the KO area and Cliffjumper in play in alt mode. When I flip Hot Rod in the KO area to bot mode, does it trigger Cliffjumper’s ability to draw a card? Since Cliffjumper’s ability doesn’t stipulate the Car has to be in play, it would seem like this would be valid, right?
  No. Card abilities do not affect and are not affected by cards in the KO area unless specifically stated on the card.
• When my opponent plays Decepticon Shockwave and plays System Reboots to make me discard, say, 10 cards, if I have a Defensive Driving card attached to one of my characters, can I choose all 10 damage to be dealt to that character and make it all to zero since Shockwave ability reads as deal 1 damage to it?
  Yes, Shockwave’s ability triggers individually per card discarded, so each instance of 1 damage would be reduced to 0 because of Defensive Driving.
• When I play Steamroll on Grimlock, does the "spillover" damage occur twice?
  No. Both abilities are practically identical, so one of them will apply (you can choose), but then the other one will not apply.
• If I play a Device Virus and select one of my armors to scrap but I have Backup Bag on that character and it scraps instead, would my opponent have to scrap armors or utilities?
  Your opponent would have to scrap the type of upgrade you chose with Device Virus.
• Is it legal to have a copy of Swap Parts in my Side Board that I never put into my actual deck?
  No, it is not legal. It is so not legal in fact, that it is illegal.
• My opponent has Wheeljack untapped and I have Skrapnel untapped. It's my turn and I flip Skrapnel to alt mode, then play I Still Function! to bring back Ransack in bot mode from the KO area. Then I attack with Ransack to Wheeljack, and after the flip of battle cards, Ransack is KO’d. Does Skrapnel’s ability trigger because of Ransack getting KO’d and make Wheeljack tap, letting me attack with Skrapnel?
  You can do either, but not both. If you want to tap a character using Skrapnel’s flip trigger, you must KO Ransack before he can attack. If you want to attack with Ransack, it will be too late to flip Skrapnel to utilize his flip trigger.
• I would like to ask a question regarding the effects of the All-Out Attack. It says that all Transformers can attack, but does it only attack tapped characters or both tapped and untapped characters? There are cases where in situational events like brave or stealth, etc. happen. The purpose of this is to settle local disputes in a local event, so I would like to have it explained to not be falsely exploited.
  We usually only settle regional disputes and larger, but we’ll make an exception here. The only thing All-Out Attack does is allow each of your characters to attack during the turn rather than the usual one character. It doesn’t change any other rule about what characters can or cannot attack or which opposing characters can or cannot be attacked. Your tapped characters still cannot attack, and Brave and Stealth still apply.
• Hey team, I already know how this ruling works but I have run into many arguments about it, so I have to get you guys to put it out there so everyone understands. Unless I’m really the one who is clueless, but I’m 90% sure I’m right.
  You were right!
• Cog is equipped to a bot which dies while Scavenge the Battlefield is in effect. Will Cog transfer to another bot or will he leave the Battlefield first and end up in KO area?
  Yes, Scavenge the Battlefield allows you to move Cog in his Weapon mode to another character on the Battlefield.
• Cog is equipped to a bot who has a Micro-Capacitor. I use Red Heat to move Cog to another character: Does the Micro-Capacitor trigger first, therefore scrapping and untapping the bot, or does the swap happen first?
  Micro-Capacitor must be attached to the character when you use its Tap ability in order to trigger. Unless Micro-Capacitor is attached to Red Heat in your example, Micro-Capacitor’s ability won’t trigger at all.
• If I have Emergency Defense Field and Recon System attached to my character, and it’s attacked, can I choose which battle card to scrap (Recon System) after both player’s cards are flipped, to try and trigger Energy Defense Field?
  Yes, you can choose which card to scrap. The attacker always flips first, then the defender. Since you’re defending, you’ll know what the attacker flipped when you have to decide for Recon System.
• If a card says reveal does it come into play or go back to the top. Example if I have Anticipation Engine and I reveal an upgrade does it stay in the play area until the end of turn, or go to the top of deck?
  Just revealing a card doesn’t cause it to move.
• What exactly happens when I attack using...
  1. Dreadwing with 2 Anticipation Engines and 2 Metal Detectors?
  2. Predaking with 3 Anticipation Engines?
  With multiple Anticipation Engines and/or Metal Detectors, you handle the abilities one at a time. If you have an Anticipation Engine and a Metal Detector, you must specify which one you are using before revealing the card. If the card you reveal doesn’t match the type of card you’re looking for, it just stays on top of your deck. The next ability will reveal the same card, so choose wisely.
• When you play a secret action, is it considered playing a card with no icons? Because you are playing it face-down?
  Yes, it is!
• Question on Captain Ironhide’s ability. His ability in bot mode states, “When this attacks, and has a weapon-you may swap that weapon with a (blue pip) weapon from your hand.”
  Do you declare Ironhide is attacking, then you get to swap the weapon with a (blue pip) weapon from your hand? And I assume the original weapon won’t have anything to do with the attack now.
  Example, If I had a Grenade Launcher and swapped it with a Battering Ram, Captain Ironhide only gets the +2 from Battering Ram, and not the +4 from Grenade Launcher. Just trying to better understand when triggers happen in Transformers TCG. Thanks!
  You declare that Ironhide is attacking and what Ironhide is attacking. This causes his ability to trigger. If you swap weapons, you do so before Battle Cards are flipped and before damage is done. This means that the attack value of the original weapon won’t apply, but the new weapon will. However, if the original weapon also has a triggered ability that triggers when Ironhide attacks, that ability will still work, even if that weapon is swapped before you handle that ability.