Magic: The Gathering

Magic: The Gathering is a trading card game created in 1993 by Richard Garfield of Wizards of the Coast. Players take on the role of Planeswalkers, powerful beings who can travel the multiverse at will, and do battle with rivals by casting spells, manifesting magical artifacts and enchantments, and summoning minions — and even other Planeswalkers — to do their bidding.

In 2017, Wizards of the Coast began experimenting with the concept of creating Magic cards depicting characters from outside the world of the game's story, beginning with a set of promo cards released at HasCon 2017 based on other Hasbro properties. Starting in 2021, this became Magic: The Gathering Universes Beyond, an expansive series of Magic cards based on other IP, including The Walking Dead, Warhammer 40,000, Fortnite and The Lord of the Rings. Universes Beyond cards have been made available through limited-time online "drops", pre-built decks, and as pack-ins with existing booster packs.

Gameplay

Magic: The Gathering is a collectable card game in which players build decks of cards and use them to battle each other; the primary goal is to reduce the opponent's life total, which usually starts at 20 or 40 depending on the game format, to zero. Players will draw a random hand of seven cards from their libraries and play them to achieve victory, drawing new cards at a rate of one per turn.

Mana and color

Megatron's colors are red (aggression), white (order), and black (power). "Peace through tyranny", if you will.

Perhaps Magic: The Gathering's most iconic attribute is the color wheel, or "color pie". Magic cards are cast using mana, which is divided into five colors, each representing a different philosophy and form of gameplay.

• White (W) represents peace, morality and order. It lays down the law to restrict what its foes can do, and uses defensive tactics and creatures that work together to become stronger.
• Blue (U) represents logic, caution, and deceit. It likes to make use of trickery and manipulation by drawing extra cards, countering opponents' spells, and evading enemy blockers.
• Black (B) represents power, death, and self-interest. It's willing to pay any price to win, liberally spending life and sacrificing minions to gain the advantage.
• Red (R) represents emotion, freedom and destruction. It prefers immediate solutions to problems, using aggressive tactics and direct damage to deal with its foes.
• Green (G) represents instinct, connection, and nature. It makes use of powerful creatures and effects that help them grow even stronger to trample enemies into submission.

Each color has its own strengths and weaknesses, the latter of which can be mitigated by combining multiple colors into a single deck; however, the more colors that are used, the harder it is for a player to have the correct mana to cast their spells, making for a tactical trade-off.

Magic cards

Arcee has the supertype legendary, the types artifact and creature, and the subtype Robot; her reverse face has the supertype legendary, the type artifact and the subtype Vehicle.

Magic divides its cards into multiple different card types. Instant and sorcery cards are used to create one-time effects, while other cards, known as permanents, remain in play until they are removed. Permanent card types include lands, representing locations across Magic's multiverse, which produce mana to cast other cards with and can be played at a rate of one per turn; artifacts, representing magical or mundane objects, which can typically be activated to produce effects; enchantments, representing lingering magical effects, which usually provide an ongoing effect to the game; and creatures, which can be used to attack opponents and block incoming attacks. Each creature has a power, representing the damage they can deal each turn, and a toughness, representing the damage they can deal each turn.

Permanent types can be combined, most notably in the form of artifact creatures (representing inorganic creatures and mechanical constructs) and enchantment creatures (representing inherently-magical creatures and spirits); these follow the rules for creatures, but can be affected by abilities and effects that target artifacts and enchantments, respectively.

Cards can also have subtypes. Creature subtypes can represent species (such as Human, Zombie and Merfolk) or roles (such as Warrior, Scout and Wizard). Other permanents can have subtypes that define mechanics of the cards; for instance, the artifact subtype Vehicle is used on cards that can become creatures under certain situations, typically when "crewed" by other creatures with a certain total power. Supertypes can be applied to cards of any type; the most common is Legendary, which prevents players from controlling more than one permanent of that name. While most cards have the same card back, unchanged since Magic's debut in 1993, certain double-faced cards (DFCs) have two playable sides, often representing two states of the same creature or interlinked magical effects. Some of these cards can change which side is in use once they've already been played, via the Transform mechanic.

Lastly, there are tokens, representing permanents that aren't part of their owner's deck; instead, they are created by other cards. Tokens act the same way as other permanents, but if they are removed from the battlefield (such as being returned to their owner's hand or sent to the graveyard), they cease to exist.

Magic and Transformers

HasCon 2017

Me Grimlock tribal commander!

The first Transformers-themed Magic card was a double-faced Grimlock card included in the HasCon 2017 Magic promo set, along with fellow Hasbro-themed cards "Nerf War" and "Sword of Dungeons and Dragons". As a silver-bordered card, Grimlock is not legal in officially-sanctioned events but is fine for casual play, and as such gets a bit silly with its rules; "Grimlock, Dinobot Leader" can become "Grimlock, Ferocious King" by "converting a Transformers toy you have to its other mode". Both sides of Grimlock are Legendary Artifact Creatures, with the front face using the newly-introduced "Autobot" subtype, and the back using the pre-existing "Dinosaur".

Notably, Grimlock "becomes" his other form rather than using the existing "transform" keyword, per ongoing Hasbro efforts to protect their trademark.

• Grimlock, Dinobot Leader / Grimlock, Ferocious King (Red/Green/White)

Heroes of the Realm

"Autobots, turn permanent to other face and roll out!"

Part of the Heroes of the Realm series of commemorative cards, made by Wizards of the Coast for their employees as rewards for work on specific projects, the 2018 "Optimus Prime, Inspiring Leader" card was given to the team behind the Transformers Trading Card Game.

"Optimus Prime, Inspiring Leader", like "Grimlock, Dinobot Leader", is a Legendary Artifact Creature with the Autobot subtype. Uniquely, Optimus Prime is a Magic card on the front side, but a Transformers Trading Card Game card on the opposite side. Thanks to this, unlike other Transformers cards, he doesn't function as a double-faced card; instead, his alternate mode is represented by the ability to temporarily change subtype to "Construct" and gain increased power and toughness, while granting other creatures the "trample" ability. He also has the ability to "Turn target permanent you control to its other face", which could theoretically be used on himself, though how that would work is anyone's guess.

As with all Heroes of the Realm cards, "Optimus Prime, Inspiring Leader" is not legal to play in any format; the cards are novelties designed to be read, rather than played.

• Optimus Prime, Inspiring Leader (Red/White)

Universes Beyond: Transformers

Ironically, not actually a Scout. Or an Ally, for that matter.

Announced at Hasbro Pulse Con 2022 as part of the dedicated Universes Beyond series of cards that brings other IPs into the Magic: The Gathering game, Transformers (expansion code BOT) is the first Universes Beyond set to be available in booster packs for a premier Magic set; Transformers cards are have a roughly 12% chance of being found in packs of The Brothers' War cards, thanks to their thematic parallels. Unlike previous Transformers-themed cards, the Universes Beyond cards are legal for play in the Commander, Legacy, and Vintage formats.

Universes Beyond: Transformers consists of fifteen double-faced cards, each of which is a Legendary Artifact Creature on the front and a Legendary Artifact with the Vehicle subtype on the back (with the exception of Soundwave and Blaster, who lack the Vehicle subtype for obvious reasons). It also includes two Artifact Creature Tokens representing Ravage and Laserbeak, created by Soundwave. Rather than "Autobot", the Universes Beyond cards use the more generic "Robot" subtype, introduced in the Unfinity set the previous month.

Universes Beyond: Transformers introduces the mechanics More Than Meets the Eye, which allows a double-faced card to be cast with its back face up, and Living Metal, an alternative to the "Crew" mechanic that allows Vehicles to become artifact creatures on their user's turn. It also includes Convert, a renamed version of the Transform mechanic, for legal reasons.

Each Transformers card is available in two variants: one with art inspired by the Generation 1 cartoon and one based on Shattered Glass, with the exception of "Arcee, Sharpshooter / Arcee, Acrobatic Coupe" and the Ravage and Laserbeak tokens, which only have Generation 1 versions available. The color alignments, names and mechanics remain the same regardless of if the character is their original or Shattered Glass incarnation. All card art for the Transformers cards was provided by Volta Creation, with art direction by Sara Pitre-Durocher.

Introducing newcomers to the sacred Magic art of debating whether White can be bad ad nauseam.

Generation 1 Prowl, Stoic Strategist / Prowl, Pursuit Vehicle (White) Ratchet, Field Medic / Ratchet, Rescue Racer (White) Jetfire, Ingenious Scientist / Jetfire, Air Guardian (Blue) Blitzwing, Cruel Tormentor / Blitzwing, Adaptive Assailant (Black) Starscream, Power Hungry / Starscream, Seeker Leader (Black) Slicer, Hired Muscle / Slicer, High-Speed Antagonist (Red) Arcee, Sharpshooter / Arcee, Acrobatic Coupe (Red/White) Blaster, Combat DJ / Morale Booster (Red/Green) Cyclonus, the Saboteur / Cyclonus, Cybertronian Fighter (Blue/Black) Flamewar, Brash Veteran / Flamewar, Streetwise Operative (Black/Red) Goldbug, Humanity's Ally / Goldbug, Scrappy Scout (White/Blue) Megatron, Tyrant / Megatron, Destructive Force (Red/White/Black) Optimus Prime, Hero / Optimus Prime, Autobot Leader (Blue/Red/White) Soundwave, Sonic Spy / Soundwave, Superior Captain (White/Blue/Black) Laserbeak (Blue) Ravage (Black) Ultra Magnus, Tactician / Ultra Magnus, Armored Carrier (Red/Green/White)

Shattered Glass Prowl, Stoic Strategist / Prowl, Pursuit Vehicle (White) Ratchet, Field Medic / Ratchet, Rescue Racer (White) Jetfire, Ingenious Scientist / Jetfire, Air Guardian (Blue) Blitzwing, Cruel Tormentor / Blitzwing, Adaptive Assailant (Black) Starscream, Power Hungry / Starscream, Seeker Leader (Black) Slicer, Hired Muscle / Slicer, High-Speed Antagonist (Red) Blaster, Combat DJ / Morale Booster (Red/Green) Cyclonus, the Saboteur / Cyclonus, Cybertronian Fighter (Blue/Black) Flamewar, Brash Veteran / Flamewar, Streetwise Operative (Black/Red) Goldbug, Humanity's Ally / Goldbug, Scrappy Scout (White/Blue) Megatron, Tyrant / Megatron, Destructive Force (Red/White/Black) Optimus Prime, Hero / Optimus Prime, Autobot Leader (Blue/Red/White) Soundwave, Sonic Spy / Soundwave, Superior Captain (White/Blue/Black) Ultra Magnus, Tactician / Ultra Magnus, Armored Carrier (Red/Green/White)