This week’s previews for the new MetaX TCG expansion, Green Lantern are painting the town red, and may cause a little bit of rage.

Red Lantern’s were previewed on the Panini Games blog yesterday, and to help expand upon the playstyle they are setting up, we are revealing our tied in spoilers.

First up, the ferocious feline, Dex-Starr. This cute little kitty can add some serious leverage to aggressive Red Lantern builds to continue building card advantage during your battle step. He can even help in the mirror match as his effect is a field effect no restricted to your own Red Lanterns, so you could defend with himself and Bleez to continue the card advantage.

Dex-Starr gives more control type builds headaches to deal with, and as more players look to build deck’s using constant effects to gain more value out of their characters in play, he can help build more on aggressive builds to push through defenses. His only counter plays are decks that run General Zod, and characters like Black Canary who negate effects.

To help build on the aggressive nature of Red Lantern decks, you could also look at including this amazing Event. Black Hole can potentially give you one of the biggest single instance card draw effects in the game. For this, the cost of 4 MP is justified, but not too heavily weighted to make it unattractive for deck building.

This card could feature in not only aggressive decks, but those with large potential for board control via KO effects. A potential outlets for this card would be builds like Firestorm who would gain a draw 2 off this ability without any further input. It could also act as a good bait/bluff for your opponent to leave some of your attacks undefended to save potential KO’s during combat where there can be anywhere up to 6 potential draws at the end of turn.

And lastly, this amazing 4 Strength Battle Card for Red Lantern builds, that features some sweet art of Atrocitus.

Being a Strength battle card, the only currently previewed Red Lantern’s that can directly access it are the three from the Panini Games blog, but it doesn’t need to be used by a Red Lantern. So you could add other aggressive focused Characters to your Red Lantern deck that can access a Strength 4 battle card, and save your amazing ongoing effects like Dex-Starr and Bleez.

After looking at these cards, and their potential combo’s with other Red Lanterns and existing Justice League cards, you could be seeing red. Just don’t surrender to the rage inside like these Red Lanterns.

Check back again next week for some further Green Lantern previews!

Game On!
– Trent and Kyp

While most of your deck in Meta X will be made up of characters and battle cards, it’s also important to add events to help smooth out your game play. Events offer extra ways to advance your strategy, either by creating a powerful effect that would have synergy with your characters, or maybe even help you search out the right card that you need that turn.

We’re looking at three events today that offer some pretty powerful effects, but they each have their own place within different deck archetypes.

“Knockout” will cost you half of your maximum MP, but this card is definitely one to look at in a range of different decktypes.

Because you are controlling the effect, you can swing this to your favour as best you can on the turn you want to create the most impact. If you have a full board of three characters, it might offer you the chance of KOing a character with damage attached for something in your hand that might be more important in the current gamestate.

It also gives you another outlet to clear your opponents board, when matched with characters like Zatanna and Deathstroke. And with a range of characters that can shut you down with some of their constant effects, like John Constantine who was revealed today on the Panini Games blog, you can expand the ways you deal with your opponent’s strategies.

Our next card will please anyone who is looking at the Team Attack mechanic to build their deck around. “Don’t Go It Alone” offers a

huge bonus for no MP, so if you are feeling a little resource starved in your Nightwing Team Attack deck it offers a way to surprise your opponent for a team attack they may not have planned to deal with.

By allowing the team attack link at no cost, it also offers aggro or midrange decks a little more ammunition during mid to late game if they need to push through a VP.

And our last event card for today’s reveal is a resource monster, but if you build your deck to help mitigate its cost, you’re rewarded quite well.

“Microscopic Victory” is anything but small in its impact. At a cost of 9 MP, you’ll be wanting to use this card sparingly. But if you have an engine to help build MP quickly, think Poison Ivy and Shazam, you’ll be maxing out your MP within a couple of turns again.

Even one VP can swing the tide of the game, as the chess game of

play and counter-play unfolds between the characters on the board. You could also look to add it to decks that take advantage of Harley Quinn’s effects to gain you VP outside of unblocked attacks.

Hopefully these cards will give you a little bit more of an idea of the balance between cost and effect that event cards play.

Don’t forget to check out our Learn to Play series on YouTube, and keep up to date on all the information about the game on the Panini Games website.

Game on!
– Trent and Kristel

Our Dragon Ball Z TCG Perfection previews continue with an appropriately themed red style card in honour of Valentine’s Day. Make sure you keep up to date with all the reveals on other fan sites, including our friends at Next Level Z, Dragon Ball Z TCG Wiki, Retro DBZ, DBZ Top Tier, Fanatics Gaming Network and more.

Trent takes a look at Red Sword Stab:

The promise of a new deck archetype awaits with the launch of Perfection – Sword decks. The introduction of Aggressive Sword Drill places emphasis on styled and freestyle cards needing Sword in their title.

Red Sword Stab, when examined alone, looks underwhelming. It only raises your anger 1 as an immediate effect. The damage, while decent, doesn’t match up to the potential of a successful Red Shattering Leap. But when you combine it in a deck that takes advantage of the new sword mechanic, it can be a great tool.

If you can keep these in your deck to search out with Aggressive Sword Drill when required, Red Sword Stab can give you access to some decent damage to supplement the other attacks in your hand. With the Red Ruthless Mastery and getting Red Sword Stab in hand for a +1 card advantage, you could really push for some big damage in a single combat.

The endurance on the card also assists to provide some mitigation against critical damage into the deck. Overall, Red Sword Stab should see play in Red Sword decks as potentially a 2-of inclusion to help supplement damage.

To stay up to date with the latest TAK Games Perfection reveals and analysis, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @TAKGames_au.

Game on!

– Trent (@TAKGames_Trent) and Kyp (@JustKyp).

The excitement for the next Dragon Ball Z TCG expansion Perfection is building rapidly with the reveal of Master Roshi with some nice callbacks to the original Score game on display. Make sure you keep up to date with all the reveals on other fan sites, including our friends at Next Level Z, Dragon Ball Z TCG Wiki, Retro DBZ, DBZ Top Tier, Fanatics Gaming Network and more.

Trent‘s analysis follows:

The Red Ruthless Mastery has given a new lease on life to Red style decks after the release of Evolution, with Red Ruthless Turles and Ginyu impacting on the environment. Red Chest Pierce, with its banish after use requirement, offers these players a way to help manipulate their discard pile to set up for the use of the Red Ruthless Mastery within combat. Its big bonus, however, lies with its hit effect.

Red Chest Pierce’s secondary effect allows you to look at your discard pile and strategically choose to remove those cards at the top preventing you from achieving maximum potential damage in your next action. While the damage this attack generates is unlikely to bother your opponent, even if modified by Red Ruthless Mastery, the hit effect means it becomes a must block for nearly every other deck in the current environment.

The ability to get rid of threats in your opponent’s discard pile helps to limit your opponent’s options when using cards like Visiting the Past. It can also help against pesky named cards (bye, bye, Krillin’s Destructo Disk) and allies waiting to be brought back into the game. It also assists in managing your own discard pile – with only styled cards to call on, you don’t need to delay entering combat to help take advantage of Red Ruthless Mastery‘s When entering… effect.

For our second reveal, we’ve asked Harry, a Victorian player from Team Power Up Gaming to help weigh in with a second perspective. His analysis of Red Chest Pierce follows:

Red Chest Pierce is an interesting toolbox card for Red Ruthless Mastery decks. With the ability to banish unwanted cards in your discard pile, coupled with the fact that it is banished after use, it is ideal for setting up the next attack you wish to reuse.

Furthermore, the hit effect is great not only for removing all the non-styled cards that would affect the when entering effect of RRed Ruthless Mastery, but can get rid of those annoying Piccolo’s Weighted Clothings, free style drills and other named cards in the opponent’s discard pile The downside is the same for you, so this card should be used sparingly in ruthless Krillin or Piccolo. Finally, the damage may only be four stages, but coupled with the mastery, it increases to a straight six. Playing Turles – Shadowy bumps this to eight. Ultimately, Red Chest Pierce is a handy tech card for setting up the right attacks at the right time, while providing discard advantage. Though not a staple, running one or two could mean the difference between winning and losing a game.

To stay up to date with the latest TAK Games Perfection reveals and analysis, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @TAKGames_au.

Game on!

– Trent (@TAKGames_Trent) and Kyp (@JustKyp).

Red needed more love this set, and it’s been getting it. Lots of it, in fact, to the point where there is perhaps a little overcompensation going on. Time will tell…

In today’s preview, Red Mule Kick, we can see Red receiving some answers to the perceived problems in this style. First, with an Endurance of 2, this adds a little more damage prevention that most Red style players were begging for. While its damage is on the mediocre side, this card is far more useful for its secondary effects.

It nets you one anger, but also provides a much needed answer for both heroes and villains alike for cards like Wall Breaker, which can put a serious halt to a Red style deck’s plans. The fantastic part is the attached card is banished so you don’t have to worry (unless you’re playing against a Black style deck) about that copy coming back to haunt you.

If the attached card is Red, you have another kicker of using a critical damage effect, netting you another anger in the process. Red style has already received some interesting interactions with using anger to pay for effects; this further reinforces Red receiving additional bonuses for previous plays and setups. It will be interesting to see what further Red attach cards could yet be in store…

To stay up to date with the latest TAK Games Movie Collection reveals and analysis, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @TAKGames_au.

Game on!

-Trent (@TAKGames_Trent) and Kyp (@JustKyp).