Wizards of the Coast Transformers card game

[griffin]

It really amazes me that there are people spending so much time on this game, that they are able to construct battle decks to include just the right cards to compliment certain character cards... and even teams with specially constructed battle decks, for competitive gaming.
But in realising that, it doesn't surprise me that with the hundreds of different cards with different functions now out for the Transformers TCG, it is possible to create "God decks", or near-invincible team/deck, that has the designers resorting to the drastic action of retiring (prohibiting) the use of a Wave 1 card in competitive gaming, due to its role in a chain of cards, that in almost all situations, creates an infinite attack that prevents your opponent from even having a turn before they are defeated. (it was noted that there are some exceptions, but it was deemed rare, and an infinite attack scenario spoils the fun of this game.

The card in question is Swap Parts, and on its own it isn't that significant, but played in conjunction with other upgrade and repeat cards, it made it possible to play out a scenario that the designers didn't originally foresee, but of the various options at hand, it was deemed that the least confusing option was to retire/prohibit one of the key cards in this attack pattern.
There is a bit to read, but it is worth the read for being quite fascinating to get an insight into the inner workings of the game - it originally came from facebook but was mirrored at that link, so that it doesn't disappear later when the facebook post or page disappears.

[Raider]

So I was finally going through some of the cards that my son has and realised that they have used the same card a couple times across Waves 1 & 2. For instance, Wave 1 34 Handheld Blaster is exactly the same was Wave 2 34. Wave 1 38 Improvised Shield is exactly the same as Wave 2 36. Has anyone else noticed this? I was wondering if there was a reason known for this? Seems lazy to me.

[griffin]

So I was finally going through some of the cards that my son has and realised that they have used the same card a couple times across Waves 1 & 2. For instance, Wave 1 34 Handheld Blaster is exactly the same was Wave 2 34. Wave 1 38 Improvised Shield is exactly the same as Wave 2 36. Has anyone else noticed this? I was wondering if there was a reason known for this? Seems lazy to me.

A number of the more basic function/battle cards are carried over to later series, for those people who are new and might not have bought an earlier series, or weren't interested in it while it was still available. And with so many specialty cards to easily fill out a person's battle deck, a lot of those simpler cards that are repeated are really just padding for the blind packs, that most people probably don't use because of the limited number of battle cards you can have in your battle deck.

They could have gone to the trouble of giving those re-release cards new names and new art, but there isn't really any point if they are only there to cover the simpler, basic battle elements. I think I recall that they did generate new art for series 3 on any function cards that were re-released... but I'd have to look at my cards to see for sure.