Yeah, that is the case.
I must say I think bots who transform into action cards is a much cooler gimmick (in the context of a card game!) than combiners.
Another preview of a card from series 3 - Private Trailbreaker, who can automatically begin the game with a forcefield battle card (if you have one in your deck). The forcefield card means you will only end up sustaining a maximum of 4 damage, and if you are in robot mode at the time, your opponent must attack this character, pretty much neutralising the attacking ability of your opponent while Trailbreaker is alive, and you have forcefield cards in your hand to use. (it has also been noted that this was a battle card in the first series, with the same instructions, but different art - something that was considered odd because re-released battle cards in series 2 had the same art but different card numbers and noting it as part of wave 2)
Scrolling down that news posting, we also see that there is a new colour icon - black... which from the two examples shown, appear to be useful items, that can come with a cost. The Erratic Energy Grenade appears to be a suicide bomb, which does your bot damage while you have it as a utility upgrade, and only does damage to your opponents when your character dies (KOed).... so it should only be added as an upgrade just as your character is almost dead. Like the expression goes, if you are gonna go, take out as many of your enemy as you can in the process.