Transformers Deck-Building Game: Clash of the Combiners
Transformers Deck-Building Game: Clash of the Combiners Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Contents
- 27 Main Deck Cards
- 10 Ruin Cards
- 8 Boss Cards
- 5 New Damage Cards
- 6 Giant Character Cards
- 31 Courage/Wrath Cards
- 6 Giant Standees with base
New Cards
Combiners
First introduced in Dawn of the Dinobots, Combiner characters are playable characters with a larger card and standee than other characters, and which have 'Team' and 'Combiner' modes instead of 'Alt' and 'Bot.' Any reference to Bot Mode in this expansion or in previous sets also applies to Combiner Mode. Likewise, any reference to Alt Mode in the rules or game text also applies to Team Mode.
New Starters: Combiners come with their own unique set of Wrath/Courage cards that replace their usual counterparts in their starting decks (1 for 1). If you are playing with War on Cybertron, swap out an equal number of Bold cards instead. Otherwise, these characters are treated the same as other characters in previous sets.
Team Mode: You start each game in Team Mode. Team Mode represents the 5 or 6 individual robots that form your Combiner, each of which are featured on one of your unique Starter cards. While in Team Mode, you can access special "Team" effects on those cards, which follow the "Team:" game text. These provide additional abilities for your character that are not available to you while in Combiner Mode. However, you can convert to Team Mode anytime to gain access to them.
Note: Some Team Starter cards have game text with an immediate effect, like Computron's Nosecone or Menasor's Motormaster, that are triggered when the card is played, so you would need to be in Team Mode when playing them for those effects to resolve.
Combiner Mode: While in this mode, most Combiners have 1 or 2 Power at Range 0, as well as 1 or 2 Move. This inherent Power may only be used to buy or battle cards during your turn, not to Assist. Once spent, it's gone for the remainder of your turn. If you spend your Combiner's Move in either mode, place a "-1 Move" token on it. This reduces the available Move on the reverse side as well. Additionally, like other characters in Robot Mode, Combiner Mode has a special ability and access to powerful Energon abilities.
At the start of your turn, if you are in Combiner Mode, you must lose 1 Energon. If you have none to lose, you must flip your character to its Team Mode side. This forced flip does not count as Converting.
Converting: Just like other character modes, you can Convert to Team or Combiner Mode by paying 1 Energon or by playing a card that says, "You May Convert." However, the act of Converting to Combiner Mode (by any means) also causes you to lose 1 additional Energon if you have it. Not having an Energon to lose does not prevent you from Converting.
Special Damage
There is a new Damage type called Overclocked which is put into play in front of you when gained. It has a Start of Turn effect that forces you to discard a non-Damage card if you are in Bot/Combiner mode. Add all 5 of these new Damage cards to the game, shuffling them into the Damage stack.
Ruins
Ruins are cards that slowly spread their destruction across the Matrix as you battle Adversaries, showing the toll that these giant robots are taking on the landscape and making navigation more challenging. They also provide an opportunity to gain some valuable Energon.
The 10-card Ruin deck should be shuffled and placed facedown next to the Matrix at the start of the game.
When an Adversary Robot or Boss is defeated, immediately fill that space with the top card from the Ruin deck and flip it faceup. Per the reveal effect, any characters in that space must move to an adjacent space of their choice (for free) or gain Damage, as specified.
If a Ruin is cleared, place that Ruin in a discard pile next to the Ruin deck, but do not refill the empty space until the End of Turn Phase.
Note: Unlike other Ruins, Impenetrable Debris cannot be cleared, but may be destroyed.
If the Ruin deck is ever empty, shuffle the discard pile to create a new deck. If all non-destroyed Ruins are in the Matrix at the same time, the game ends immediately: Proceed to end of game scoring.
Note: Ruins are always faceup in the Matrix and cannot be flipped facedown. They can only be cleared, destroyed, or relocated (such as from Dreadwing's Start of Turn effect). If a Ruin is destroyed, remove it from the game.
If playing with the War on Cybertron standalone set, use only the 10 Ruins from this set or the 10 Ruins from War on Cybertron, not both.
Customizing Your Game
This expansion cannot be played on its own, but the cards included here can be integrated with whichever standalone Transformers Deck-Building Game sets you have, and may be combined with other smaller expansions as well. You are free to customize your main deck to tell the story you want to play.
To do so, simply swap out any number of Bosses, Robots, Technologies, Maneuvers, Sites, Allies, and/or Relics with cards from this expansion that have a similar card type and cost. For example, you can replace a cost 5 Maneuver card from the Core Set with a cost 5 Maneuver from this expansion.
As playable characters, the 6 Combiners included in this expansion can be used in the same manner as regular characters from your standalone game belonging to the same faction. You just need to swap out 5 or 6 of your normal Courage, Wrath, or Bold cards for that character's unique set of Starter cards.
Important: When choosing a character and mode to play, take care to choose a character that can be effective in that mode. Victorion, for example, is well-suited for TvT or 1vM (given that her abilities are geared toward hampering Adversary players and acquiring Relics), but not an ideal option in a Cooperative game that has neither.
While Combiners are generally balanced when playing against non-Combiners, they tend to be stronger overall, especially when Ruins or Sites like Mining Outpost are available as a plentiful Energon source (the lack of which is the Combiner's main weakness). So, when including playable non-Combiners in a TvT game, you should have one Combiner on each team or use the 1vM mode. For details on how to play TvT and 1vM, refer to the next two pages.
Team Versus Team
TvT mode can be played by combining cards from this expansion with any combination of standalone Transformers Deck-Building Game sets, offering players a chance to play on opposing teams. Players choose a faction and team up to battle the opposing faction in a 1v1 or 2v2 contest.
Important: If you own War on Cybertron and plan to use it as the base set, follow the normal setup instructions and rules as outlined in the rule book for that game. If you own the Core Set and A Rising Darkness, follow the normal TvT setup instructions as outlined in A Rising Darkness, but feel free to swap out cards with this expansion as explained on page 4, and add the Ruins in a facedown stack next to the Matrix.
Otherwise, if you only have access to the Core Set, or if you don't plan to combine the first two sets, follow the steps below:
TvT with a Single Base Set
- Choose whichever standalone game you have to play with. You will use all the tokens, cubes, Basic, Encounter, Starter, and main deck cards from that game and set them up as usual. Leave Schemes/Initiatives in the box.
- Customize your game by swapping out any number of Bosses, Robots, Technologies, Maneuvers, Sites, Allies, and/or Relics with cards from this expansion (and from any other game you have) of a similar type and cost. For example, you can replace a cost 3 Technology from the Core Set with a cost 3 Technology from this expansion. Feel free to swap out Robots with similar cards that have subtypes your characters care about (Dinobots, Mini-Cassettes, etc.).
- New Rule: Shuffle and place the 10 Ruins in a facedown stack next to the Matrix.
- If playing with only the Core Set, you will need to add 3 Autobot Bosses from this expansion. Likewise, if you are playing with only A Rising Darkness, you will need to add 3 Decepticon Bosses from this expansion. Note: There are two Level III Bosses to choose from for each faction.
- Follow the normal setup rules for shuffling in Bosses, but add 2 Boss cards per stack, 1 from each faction.
- Shuffle in the 5 new special Damage cards (Overclocked) with the existing Damage cards and place the stack facedown. If you are playing with A Rising Darkness or other expansions, be sure to also include the 5 special Damage cards from those sets as well. You may add these in without swapping out existing cards.
- Teams must consist of an even number of players: 1v1 or 2v2. Players choose 1 character from their chosen faction, along with 10 Starter cards. Note: If playing with only one game, both factions will use the same set of Starter cards from the available game, with the exception of swapping out Starters for any playable Combiners.
- Decepticon and Autobot players sit in alternating positions, so turns alternate between factions when going in clockwise order.
TvT Rules
Most of the rules for a Competitive game apply here, with the following exceptions:
- Only the Active Player gains the reward when defeating an Adversary. Assisting players earn nothing.
- Adversary players can play "defensive" Assists to aid their faction's Boss who is under attack (see more on defensive Assists on the next page).
- Similar to Co-op mode, your teammates can always assist you regardless of Damage. Unlike Co-op mode, Assists are played facedown.
- Standard Damage does not force Assists to resolve.
- If playing with both the Core Set and A Rising Darkness, then only Decepticon players may purchase Rise Up! and only Autobot players may purchase Roll Out!. Otherwise, any player can buy either Basic card, whichever is available.
- If a single player ever controls 5+ Damage (including special Damage like Overclocked), the game ends immediately and players calculate their combined team VP to determine the winning team. If the player who controls 5+ Damage is the active player, then their team loses 3 VP.
- Otherwise, the game ends when 1 team has defeated all 3 Adversary Bosses, the main deck is empty when a card needs to be drawn from it, or all 10 Ruins are either destroyed or in the Matrix.
- Then the team with the most VP wins!
Defensive Assists
During the Assist step of a Confrontation (not battling Robots), Adversary players within range may play a "defensive" Assist, facedown, to defend their Boss by adding their card's Power to the cost of the Boss being battled by their opponents. Defensive Assists are played facedown during the same step that offensive Assists are played, all in turn order, except that they always resolve automatically after the Encounter's Confrontation text, just before offensive Assists are resolved.
For example, if an Autobot player is confronting Abominus (a Decepticon Boss), a Decepticon player could place a Firepower or Artillery facedown to assist Abominus. After the Encounter's Confrontation effect resolves, the Firepower card (with 2 Power) would increase Abominus's cost by 2 before any Autobot players resolve their own Assists.
All defensive Assists are discarded in the same manner as offensive Assists, regardless of the battle's outcome. Negative Power when battling Adversaries in Alt Mode also applies to defensive Assists.
One Versus Many
In 1vM mode, 2-3 players can battle against a single player (typically the Combiner character). This mode is set up in the same manner as TvT above, and follows the same rules, with the following modifications:
- The single player's starting hand size is 6 in 2v1 and 7 in 3v1. The "many" players' hand size remains 5.
- The single player's Damage threshold is 7 instead of 5.
- The single player goes first, and turn order is clockwise as usual, with each player getting one turn per round. In a 4-player game with 1 Decepticon player, that would be Decepticon - Autobot - Autobot - Autobot - Decepticon, and so on.
Note: Combiners are well-suited to be the single player in 1vM, particularly against non-Combiners. However, if you choose to play a non-Combiner as the single player, it's worth considering one with some bonus Power or card draw ability. You won't have other players' Assists to help you take down Bosses, whereas your opponents can still play defensive Assists to make it even more difficult. Therefore, not every character will be viable in this mode.
Clarifications
The Golden Rule
If a card's text contradicts these rules, the card takes precedence. Consider every rule in the game to also have the text "unless a card says otherwise." If two cards contradict each other, the "can't do it" takes precedence over the "can do it."
Bruticus (Character): If you activate his 2-Energon ability, you can place a new Ruin in an empty space in the Matrix and gain the Energon reward listed at the bottom of that card (if any). The new Ruin remains in the Matrix until it's subsequently cleared or destroyed by another action, at which time the card's reward (if cleared) can be gained again.
Computron (Character): If you activate his 1-Energon ability, you may keep any cards in your hand and save them for your next turn (instead of discarding them). However, when you draw cards at the end of your turn, you cannot exceed your starting hand size. So, if your starting hand size is 5, and you retain 3 cards with his ability, you only draw 2 at the end of your turn.
Darkmount: You need to be on Darkmount at your start of your turn in order to benefit from its Start of Turn effect. If you are, you can choose to resolve any beneficial Start of Turn effects before resolving this one, then avoid any negative Start of Turn effects that resolve after.
Dreadwing: If no Adversary characters are on a card other than Dreadwing itself, then you can ignore this effect. If more than 1 Adversary character is in a space that swaps with Dreadwing, all Adversary characters in that space are ambushed. You cannot move Dreadwing to his own space (a non-move), nor to an empty space that has no card to swap, nor to a space where no Adversary character is present.
Optimus Maximus: The active Adversary player cannot play a card with the same card type as another card they already played that turn. So, if they played a Maneuver, they cannot play another Maneuver during the same turn. However, they can play multiple Starter and Damage cards without restriction.