Transformers TCG Reveal – Private Mudslinger
by William Noetling
So here’s our Pojo exclusive Character Reveal, Private Mudslinger! He’s a 5 star Micromaster truck, who is a melee character and he is a core member of the off-road patrol sub-group of Autobots. A character like this proves WotC is doing a fairly deep dive into some obscure characters, as Mudslinger was a sub-group team member at the very tail-end of the G1 toys, and only exists in this one incarnation. He makes very few appearances in any TF media save for a couple of issues of the Marvel G1 comics, and cameos in subsequent IDW books. As such, his character isn’t all that well defined.
According to the TF WIki he’s ” He’s got a chip on his shoulder bigger than his monster tires, and a need to prove his toughness to the world.” And that’s really about it in terms of personality. So does his newly revealed TCG Character card reflect those traits? Let’s take a look:
Nominally his alt-mode of a monster truck is more combat ready than his alt mode. He gets an attack of 3 as a truck, while it’s only 2 as a bot. His ability is that he gets Stealth while untapped reflecting the “infiltration” portion of the covert-operations nature of the off-road patrol.
Now that I think about it, who thought that having a team of four off-road vehicles is a good idea for a covert team? It’s not easy to keep a monster truck quiet as it’s tearing around terrain.
He’s only got 7 health, but his bot mode ability may make him able to last more than a couple of rounds, given that he can tap and move one damage counter from any team member (including himself) onto an enemy.
Having low cost trucks in the game will never be a bad thing, I’m sure Mudslinger will have his niche in some upcoming decks where he can lie in stealth mode until the time is right to strike.