SDCC 2018: Interview With Transformers Trading Card Game Brand Manager Drew Nolosco

During 411’s trip to the 2018 Comic-Con International, we had the chance to speak with Wizards of the Coast designer, Drew Nolosco. Nolosco has worked with many top brands for the company, such as Magic: The Gathering. Currently, Nolosco serves as Brand Manager for the new Transformers Trading Card game at Wizards of the Coast. This is a new two-player competitive card dueling game in the style of Magic, except with Transformers characters. The game is set to launch later this year, and Hasbro was displaying some of the new card sets during the convention. Here is what Drew Nolosco had to say about the new game for the Transformers franchise.

Jeffrey Harris: What was the impetus of starting a trading card game for Transformers?

Drew Nolosco: Transformers is such an awesome franchise that has a ton of characters that really express themselves in a way that lended to be a trading card game. We knew that we wanted to make a trading card game for children and adults, and that IP because of how long and established it is really fit very closely. So, we talked with the folks at Hasbro. They talked with us, and we developed a really good working partnership. And we wended up with this.

Jeffrey Harris: Was this your idea?

Drew Nolosco: It was the result of a lot of people discussing this.

Jeffrey Harris: It’s OK if you want to take the credit, Drew.

Drew Nolosco: I can take the credit for a lot of cool things. That one was really a group decision. One of the things that came out of those group discussions was, why do trading card games have to have the same size cards? There’s two sizes of cards in the Transformers Trading Card Game. All of the character cards are this size. They all convert from alt-mode to bot-mode.

Jeffrey Harris: I also like that you have a Cosmos card here. He’s a fan-favorite of mine.

Drew Nolosco: One of the cool things about a trading card game is that we print so many cards that we can pull in well known characters like Optimus Prime and Bumblebee and Ironhide from the starter set. But we can also start pulling in a lot of fan-favorite characters; perhaps characters that haven’t had a toy in a while. So for example, you pulled out Cosmos, who actually is a super interesting character in the game, but we can also pull things like the convention edition, which features Slipstream. Slipstream is somewhat of an obscure character before now. She’s the Decepticon Air Commander, sort of the mirror image of Starscream. That’s one of the things we embrace. We’re not starting with just one-off characters. We’re starting with one-off characters and fan favorites.

Jeffrey Harris: As a competitive card game, what’s the general object of the game, and how do you want to play?

Drew Nolosco: You’re going to build a team of Transformers characters. Every character has a star value. You can build 25 stars or less. Your opponent has the same. Then, you build a deck of 40 battle cards. The object is to KO all the characters on your opponent’s team.

Jeffrey Harris: Do you want a team strictly made up of Autobots or Decepticons, or can you mix and match?

Drew Nolosco: You can totally mix and match. It’s up to you. Here’s an example of why you might want to mix and match. One of the deck-building strategies is there are synergies for the alt-modes. So for example, Starscream Air Commander gives bonuses to other clean characters. So, you’re going to want to grab a bunch of Decepticon jets, but you also might want to put Jetfire in there as well. We’ve layered that in a bunch of places.

Jeffrey Harris: Will there be chase cards or characters for the game?

Drew Nolosco: There are chase characters in the game. We’ve revealed only one of them so far. That character is Nemesis Prime. I can tell you that [the other one] is a version of Bumblebee.

Jeffrey Harris: How did you come up with the artwork for the card game?

Drew Nolosco: This art and the game itself is from the Generations line of toys, so it’s the evergreen line of Transformers. This [card game] pulls art from across the Generations line. As we roll out products, we’ll also be creating new Generations-style art to represent characters and versions of characters that may not have had existing Generations toys.

Jeffrey Harris: How would you say the feedback has been on the game so far?

Drew Nolosco: It’s been really, really good. It’s been super, super positive. Transformers fans are reacting really well to the idea of being able to collect a very wide selection of Transformers in one unified art style. Youngsters have been really enjoying slamming pops into one another.

Jeffrey Harris: Since you work with Wizards of the Coast, what are your thoughts on digital card games, and maybe doing that with Transformers?

Drew Nolosco: It’s funny that you mention that because previously at Wizards of the Coast, I was the lead designer on Magic for iOS, Xbox and Steam. So, I have a lot of experience with digital card games.

Jeffrey Harris: So, what are the chances of this game getting a digital format version?

Drew Nolosco: Anything’s possible. Would you want to see it on digital?

Jeffrey Harris: Yeah, I would. Don’t leave that money on the table. I’m fine with analog too because it’s nice to have a physical card set to collect as well.

Drew Nolosco: It is nice to have physical things that you can hold. There’s something very visceral about that. It’s also nice to be able to sit down with someone that you care about, who also loves Transformers. We’ve designed this so that the core rule system is graspable by a youngster, but the strategy is driven by the interactions between the cards. So, this is something for a lot of people our age who grew up with Transformers and are raising youngsters who care about Transformers.

Thank you to Drew Nolosco for taking the time to speak with us. The first Transformers Trading Card game set is coming out on September 28 for an MSRP of $14.99. There will also be booster packs that contain one random character card and seven of the battle cards for $3.99. The card game will be released later on in other markets around the world.