Bah-weep-Graaaaagnahwheepnini bong, gamers, and welcome back to another article about Transformers: TCG. Way back between Wave 1 and Wave 2 of the game, Wizards of the Coast released, via the now-defunct LootCrate, the second of their oversized character cards, the Autobot space-base, Omega Supreme. This promo card was initially quite easy to get, but with LootCrate now out of business and no more of the card being shipped, it has become a rarer sight. Now, in Wave 4, Wizards has provided to us an alternative Omega Supreme in the form of a 3-card combiner.

Now that we have two different versions of Omega Supreme, we can take a hard look at the different versions, comparing pros and cons in an attempt to figure out which of these you should bring to your table if you feel the need. We'll also talk about some deck strategies for each, and what you'll have to be on the lookout for.

Omega Supreme, Autobot Defense Base

Coming out between Waves 1 and 2, this promo version of Omega Supreme is a single, titan-sized card coming in at a hefty 19 stars. With a solid flip ability on his alt-mode side, and a decent damage mitigation ability on his bot-mode, he's definitely making an effort to justify his rather high cost, but is he really worth it? Let's give him a rundown and see how he stands up to some serious scrutiny.

Pros:

Synergy is this version of Omega Supreme's biggest advantage. Sporting both Tank and Spaceship traits, this version of Omega Supreme has access to a good amount of fairly high-powered cards that he can utilize to maximize his inherent abilities. For his Tank trait, you have access to the absolutely fantastic Hunker Down and Crushing Treads to not only pull some protection from the scrap yard to your Omega, but also to allow for some guaranteed damage. New in Wave 4, you also have access to Composite Armor which is simply fantastic when paired with Crushing Treads. For some easy hand disruption, you can also include the very handy Two-Pronged Attack. Sure, you won't get the benefit of doing two damage to an opposing character, but scrapping cards from an opponent's hand is not something that should be overlooked.

On the Spaceship side, you benefit from Unconventional Flying Object to set up for Omega Supreme's alt-mode abilities. If Omega is in his bot mode at the start of your turn, getting his card draw or damage ability twice in one turn can really help turn the tide of the battle. As we've discussed in the past, card advantage is a major piece of the winning puzzle in just about any game.

Another point in this version of Omega's favor is his star cost. At 19, there are a fair number of very good 6-star characters that he can team up with. For maximum synergy, however, you'll probably want to look at teaming him up with another tank. Both Demolisher and Warpath are solid options for team building, and for my money, I'd go with Demolisher. His alt-mode flip ability synergizes well with both Hunker Down and getting a 2-card advantage since Omega Supreme is also a tank.

Cons:

The biggest con to this version of Omega Supreme is also his star cost. At 19 stars, we're going to be putting yourself at an extreme disadvantage versus wide teams, such as cars or combiners. He's going to immediately be a big target, and while his bot-mode ability to protect your other characters from harm is nice, it can become a bit of a liability if we rely on it too much. Being 19 stars up front also means you're only going to have one other character on your team, and due to the current code's star costs, it means you'll have to forgo having any of the star-costed battle cards in your deck as well.

Captain Omega Supreme, Transport - City Defender

Wave 4's Omega Supreme comes in 3 parts, and under the right circumstances, can combine into the main man himself. Because all the promo images for him are so tiny, I'll give a brief rundown of what all the different parts of this version of Omega Supreme do.

Omega Supreme (Tank) [7 stars]: When this attacks, You may scrap 2 cards from your hand. If you do, do 1 damage to an enemy.

Omega Supreme (Spaceship) [7 stars]: When this attacks, you may scrap 2 cards from your hand. If you do, scrap an enemy upgrade.

Omega Supreme (Base) [8 stars]: When this defends, do 2 damage to the attacker. Your opponent scraps the top 2 cards from their deck.

Captain Omega Supreme (Combined): Pierce 4. When this attacks, you may scrap 4 cards from your hand. If you do, scrap all of the defender's upgrades, then do 1 damage to each enemy.

Both the Spaceship and Tank parts also have the ability to initiate the combination when your opponent shuffles their deck.

Pros:

Immediately we can see one up-side to this version of Omega Supreme, and that is that he is his own team. Clocking in at 22 stars, this team leaves you open to including a good number of starred battle cards in your deck as well, letting us get access to such tools as Leap of Faith. You also now have more characters to help spread out your attacks, and not get overwhelmed against wider decks.

Unfortunately, that's about all you're going to get on the positive side out of this version of Omega Supreme.

Cons:

Let's start with the individual characters themselves, and the fact that they individually have no bot modes. Sure, one of them is a spaceship, but with no modes to switch between, the only card that supports spaceships becomes useless to us. The same goes for the singular tank in our build, and the fact that while you can get some benefit out of Hunker Down or Crushing Treads, overall those cards aren't going to be any use to you late game once your Omega combines, and will just be dead cards in your hand.

The other major downside of this version is that all but one of the abilities these characters have relies on scrapping cards from your hand while attacking, and it's two per ability until you combine. Then that cost jumps to a whopping 4 cards to activate. With no card draw mechanics on any of the characters in any form, in order to reliably pull off these abilities, you're going to have to build a very specific deck type that is going to be very susceptible to your opponent's hand disruption effects.

Another major con is that not all of your characters can initiate the final combination into Omega Supreme. If both the Tank and Spaceship parts of the team are KO'd before your opponent reshuffles their deck (not an unlikely scenario with the current game's power level) then you simply lose out on the ability to join into the full version of Omega. You'll also only be left with the Base, which has zero attack, and thus leaves you at an immense disadvantage.

Once combined, Wave 4 Omega Supreme packs a decent punch, but you lose the benefits of the individual pieces of the team. Instead you've got a steady Pierce 4 and an ability that requires you to have at least 4 cards in hand on each attack to benefit from. You're also now very vulnerable to any deck with more than 2 characters remaining in it. With close to the same stats as bot-mode promo Omega Supreme, the extra 3 stars don't really seem worth the abilities that you're losing out on.

Conclusions...?

All things considered, I personally would take the promo Omega Supreme over the Wave 4 version if one were too absolutely need to play one or the other. The Wave 4 version can work, in the right deck, but just feels like too large of a liability.

Agree with my points? Disagree entirely? Simply a fan of the big man? Post in the comments, and join us next week for another exciting article, where I rebuild my Runabout and Runamuck deck into a bold machine!