Transformers Deck-Building Game: Infiltration Protocol Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Customizing Your Game
• Objective
• Infiltration Phase Variant (IPV)
  • IPV Setup
  • IPV Rules
  • Game End and How to Win / Lose
  • Alternate IP Variant
  • Example of Play: IPV in a TvT Game
• Team Versus Team Mode
  • TvT Setup with a Single Base Set
  • TvT Rules
  • Defensive Assists
• One Versus Many Mode
• New Cards
  • Triple Changers and Six Changers
  • Special Damage
• Specific Card Clarifications
  • The Golden Rule
• Card Inclusion Reference Chart

Contents

• 31 Main Deck Cards
• 9 Oversized Character Cards
• 5 New Damage Cards
• 8 Bosses (including 2 Phase-Sixers)
• 6 Sixshot Deck Cards
• 12 Infiltration Phase Cards
• 2 Special Sites
• 6 Player Standees with bases

Customizing Your Game

This expansion cannot be played on its own, but offers new cards that can integrate seamlessly with whichever standalone Transformers Deck-Building games you have. To customize your game, 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 Ally card from the core game with a cost 5 Ally from this expansion.

Note: A Decepticon Phase-Sixer Boss has no direct equivalent, but can be substituted for any Level III Decepticon Boss for an added challenge.

For playable characters, any of the 3 Autobots and 3 Decepticons included in this expansion can be used in the same manner as those from your standalone game belonging to the same faction. So, Springer can team up with Bumblebee as readily as Bludgeon can join forces with Starscream.

Objective

The printed page 3 heading reads "Objective"; the bullets below are the expansion's setup changes, transcribed as printed.

• Remove all Allies and set them aside in a separate stack. They'll be seeded later in the setup.
• If playing with Decepticons, set aside (within reach) all Level III Autobot Bosses in their own facedown stack, as well as the special Site Metroplex.
• If playing with Autobots, remove all Level III Decepticon Bosses. Set aside (within reach) the Decepticon Phase-Sixer Boss cards in their own facedown stack, as well as the special Site Siege Armature. Keep the 6 Sixshot Bot/Alt Mode cards nearby in a facedown stack as well (with purple back, see the Specific Card Clarifications on page 7 for more information).

Infiltration Phase Variant (IPV)

The IPV is a unique version of the game you play with the 6 special Infiltration Phase cards for your faction, each offering objectives to complete for the Decepticons (Infiltration Protocols) or schemes to thwart for the Autobots (Infiltration Schemes). These cards do not go into the main deck. They are numbered with Phases 1 thru 6, using identical names for each faction, such as Phase 1: Infiltrate.

You can play this variant in Co-op, Competitive, or TvT mode (see page 5). Set up the game according to the rules for your chosen mode and base game, but with these modifications:

• Remove all non-Infiltration Schemes/Initiatives. They won't be used.

IPV Setup

1. During Step 2 of normal setup, draw cards from the shuffled main deck equal to the number of cards it would take to fill the Matrix, minus 2 (i.e., 14 cards in a 4-player game). Then add 2 random Ally cards to these, shuffle them again, and use them to form the Matrix according to your player count.
2. During Step 3, add 2 random Allies into Stack 1, 1 Ally into Stack 2, and 1 Ally into Stack 3. Remove the rest of the Allies from the game without looking at them.
3. Do NOT add any Level III Bosses into Stack 3, but add Level I and II Bosses as normal.
4. Set out the Infiltration Phase cards in a facedown stack next to the Matrix. They should be ordered Phase 1 thru 6, with Phase 1 on top:
   • If playing with Decepticons (any mode), set out the Infiltration Protocol cards.
   • If playing with Autobots (any mode), set out the Infiltration Scheme cards.
   • If playing with both factions (TvT mode), place both of these facedown stacks side by side.

IPV Rules

• Decepticons always go first. In TvT, turns alternate as usual.
• If the top Infiltration Phase card for your faction is facedown at the start of your turn, flip it faceup and activate its Start of Turn effect (if any). This reveal happens before any other Start of Turn effects are resolved. However, once the card is revealed, if there are multiple Start of Turn effects to resolve, you may choose in which order to resolve them.
• Only Decepticon players are affected by Protocols and only Autobot players are affected by Schemes. These cards provide an Ongoing or Start of Turn effect for those players, and a method to either complete the Protocol objective or thwart the Scheme.
• If a Protocol objective is met or if a Scheme is thwarted, place that card in the active player's Vault, facedown. If both factions are present (TvT), then destroy the corresponding active Protocol/Scheme with the same Phase number. In the rare instance where the corresponding card has not yet been revealed, reveal and destroy it. Do NOT flip the next Infiltration card faceup, as that only happens at the start of the turn for players belonging to that faction.
• When vaulted or destroyed, Protocols and Schemes are no longer active. Destroyed cards cannot be scored, whereas most vaulted cards offer end game points.

Game End and How to Win / Lose

When either the Phase 6 Protocol objective is completed or the Phase 6 Scheme is thwarted, the game ends. In Co-op, your team wins! Or, if you fail to complete or thwart Phase 6 (defeat the final Boss), you lose as a team. In other game modes you calculate VP as usual and that determines the winning player or team. Other game ending conditions also apply based on which mode you're playing, such as controlling too much Damage in Co-op and TvT.

Alternate IP Variant

If you have played the IPV many times and want a new challenge, you can randomize the order in which Phases 1 through 4 appear in the game. During setup, place Phase 5 and 6 at the bottom of the stack, as usual. But for Phases 1 through 4, shuffle their order. Do this for any mode you wish to play. This could result in some Phases being particularly difficult or easy depending on when they are revealed, but the tradeoff gives added variety to the gameplay. In TvT, make this one modification to the rules: do NOT destroy the corresponding card for the other faction. The challenge becomes more of a race to Phase 6.

Example of Play: IPV in a TvT Game

Bludgeon and Onslaught are facing off against Springer and Kup, and it's mid-game. On Bludgeon's turn, the faceup Infiltration Protocol card is Phase 4: Penetrate, which has the Start of Turn effect of flipping the card in your space facedown or else gaining a Damage, as well as an objective to meet: flip all the cards in the Matrix faceup. The Decepticon players have been flipping cards faceup for 2 rounds now, and have only 2 cards left to go, which they hope to accomplish before the Autobots can thwart their corresponding Phase 4 Infiltration Scheme. The turn unfolds as follows:

1. The card in Bludgeon's space is already facedown, so he gains 1 Damage.
2. Bludgeon then spends the 1 Move from his Alt Mode to flip the card in his space faceup. It's a Maneuver, which he wants to buy since Maneuvers offer him Power bonuses while he's in Bot Mode. He is short on Power, however, so he decides to wait.
3. He then Converts into Bot Mode, which allows him to Teleport to an adjacent space, putting him 1 space away from the final facedown card.
4. Next, Bludgeon plays Hunt to flip that card faceup. It's an Ally card, Reapers.
5. Since he has now completed his Phase 4 objective, he places the Infiltration Protocol card into his Vault, facedown, which will score his team 2 VP at the end of the game. Bludgeon also destroys the corresponding Phase 4 Infiltration Scheme: It's no longer active and therefore cannot be thwarted by the Autobots. Bludgeon does NOT flip the next Protocol card in the stack faceup. That will happen on Onslaught's next turn.
6. Instead, Bludgeon spends 1 Move to return to the Maneuver and pays 2 Energon to activate his Bot Mode ability to gain that card and place it in his discard pile. He then ends his turn by refilling the empty slot where the Maneuver was, allowing Springer to go.
7. At the beginning of Springer's turn, the next Infiltration Scheme is facedown, so he flips it faceup. It's Phase 5: Siege Mode, which tells him to place the special Site Siege Armature into the Matrix like a Boss. He locates that card and chooses to place it in the same space as Reaper, which destroys Reaper.
8. He then selects a random Decepticon Phase-Sixer Boss card and shuffles it into the top 5 cards of the main deck. He returns the remaining Decepticon Phase-Sixer Boss to the box, unseen.
9. Springer proceeds to take his turn with the goal of thwarting the current Scheme before the Deceptions can accomplish their next Protocol objective. (The printed text reads "Deceptions"; transcribed as printed.)

Team Versus Team Mode

TvT mode can be played by combining cards from this expansion with either the core Transformers Deck-Building Game or Transformers Deck-Building Game: A Rising Darkness (or both), offering players a chance to play on opposing teams: Autobots vs Decepticons. Players choose a faction and team up to battle the opposing faction in a 1v1 or 2v2 contest.

If you own both standalone games, you should follow the normal TvT setup instructions as outlined in A Rising Darkness, but feel free to swap out any number of cards with cards from this expansion of a similar type and cost. Be sure to shuffle in the new Damage cards (T-Cog Jam) into your Damage stack as well. Otherwise, if you only have access to one of the two games above, or only want to play with one game instead of both, follow the steps below:

TvT Setup with a Single Base Set

1. Choose whichever standalone game you have to play with, either the core Transformers Deck-Building Game or Transformers Deck-Building Game: A Rising Darkness. 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.
2. Customize your game by swapping out any number of Bosses, Robots, Technologies, Maneuvers, Sites, Allies, and/or Relics with cards from this expansion of a similar type and cost. For example, you can replace a cost 3 Technology from the core game with a cost 3 Technology from this expansion.
3. If playing with only the core Autobot game, you will need to add all 3 Autobot Bosses from this expansion. Likewise, if you are playing with only A Rising Darkness, you will need to add all 3 Decepticon Bosses from this expansion.
4. Follow the normal setup rules for shuffling in Bosses, but add 2 Boss cards per stack, 1 from each faction.
5. Shuffle in the 5 new special Damage cards (T-Cog Jam) with the existing Damage cards and place the stack facedown. If you are playing with A Rising Darkness, be sure to also include the 5 Short Circuit cards. You may add these in without swapping out existing cards.
6. 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.
7. 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 below).
• 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 Autobot game 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 Short Circuit and T-Cog Jam), 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 or the main deck runs out. In either case, the team with the most VP wins!

Defensive Assists

During the Assist step of a Confrontation (not battling Robots), Adversary players within range of the Boss being Confronted 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, and activate their game text when resolved, 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 Thunderwing (a Decepticon Boss), a Decepticon player can place a Firepower facedown to assist Thunderwing if they are within Firepower's Range of 1 of the Boss. After the Encounter's Confrontation effect resolves, the Firepower card (with 2 Power) would increase Thunderwing'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 Mode

In 1vM mode, 2-3 players can battle against a single player. 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 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: When choosing a character for the single player in 1vM, 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. Sixshot is well suited for it, but other characters (like Megatron and Optimus Prime) are also worthy of consideration.

New Cards

Triple Changers and Six Changers

Sixshot and Springer are playable characters with multiple Alt Modes. They work like any other character, except you have more than one Alt Mode to Convert into. When starting the game, you can choose any of their Alt Modes to begin the game in. When Converting, place the current active mode faceup on top of the other cards. You may Convert between Alt Modes, not just from Bot Mode to Alt Mode and vice versa.

When Converting from one mode to another within the same turn, any "-1 Move" tokens on your character persist and continue to reduce your available Move for subsequent modes. For example, if you spend 2 Move while in Sixshot's Winged Wolf mode, you would only have 1 Move left to spend in his Offroad Vehicle mode (which normally has 3 Move), or no Move left if you Converted to his Tank (which normally has 1). Move will reset at the beginning of your next turn.

Special Damage

There is a new Damage type called T-Cog Jam, which is added to your discard pile when gained. When you play it, it prevents your character from Converting. Add all 5 of these new Damage cards to the game, shuffling them into the current Damage stack. If you add it to the core Autobot game, you will now need to flip that stack facedown so you'll never know which Damage type is coming your way.

Specific Card 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."

• Doubledealer: When in play, this Ally gives you the option to defeat a Robot belonging to your own faction instead of buying it. If you do, place the card in your Vault like you would an Adversary. Conversely, you may also buy Adversaries instead of defeating them, and place them in your discard pile. This card does not change the nature of a Robot card for any other purpose. If another player wants to gain Doubledealer, they may spend 4 Power and steal the card from you. This can happen any number of times.
• High Voltage Electrical Canon: This card allows you to intentionally gain Damage in return for a Power boost to the card. However, in a Co-op, TvT, or 1vM game, if this ability causes you to control 5+ (or 7+ in 1vM) Damage, the game will end immediately, before any battle or purchase resolves, so it's risky to gain too much Damage in hopes of defeating a Boss or buying a Relic. Likewise, you will also lose 2 VP in this case per the game text on the card. When activating this card's game text, draw and resolve each Damage card one at a time.
• Local Resistance Fighters: This Ally must already be in play in order to Assist. To use this card for that purpose, simply declare that this Ally is Assisting instead of playing an Assist, and keep the card faceup. As such, the Power and Range you are providing will be public information. If this Assist is used defensively, it will resolve automatically with any other defensive Assists. Otherwise, if the battle requires at least 1 Assist or if the Active Player controls 1+ Damage, this Assist must be the first offensive Assist resolved. Either way, the card is discarded, even if it is not resolved.
• Octopunch: When you use this card's Energon ability, you must draw and resolve an additional Boss Confrontation before resolving the battle. You do not need to reshuffle the Encounter deck.
• Onyx Triptych: When playing this card, you have 3 possible card effects to choose from. Declare which (if any) of the 3 effects you wish to activate as soon as this card is played.
• Sixshot (Decepticon Phase-Sixer Boss): This Boss comes with a separate 6-card deck known as the Sixshot Deck, each representing a different mode of attack, and should be placed just outside Matrix, facedown. When you draw a Sixshot alt or bot mode card as part of this Boss's Start of Turn effect, the effect is resolved immediately and then the card is reshuffled into the Sixshot Deck. However, if the card has an Ongoing effect (Spaceship, Offroad Vehicle), it stays in play in front of the active player until the end of the current turn, and only then gets reshuffled into the Sixshot Deck.

Card Inclusion Reference Chart

The reference chart below is a helpful guide to quickly determine which cards to add to your game during setup based on the mode of play. When you see (A) and (D), it refers to Autobot and Decepticon, respectively. Robot, Technology, Maneuver, Site, and Ally cards are always included.

Mode	Decepticon Bosses	Autobot Bosses	Decepticon Schemes	Autobot Initiatives	Co-op Schemes	Relics
Competitive (A)	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	Yes
Competitive (D)	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes
Cooperative (A)	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	No
Cooperative (D)	No