Power Rangers RPM: Get In Gear Review

Back when I first reviewed Power Rangers: The Deck-Building Game, I commented on how aggressive the game could get. A bit of luck and some ferocious synergy can lead to matches where a lot of endgame material might never be seen. This is something that subsequent expansions have iterated upon with different mechanics or encouraging new playstyles. Power Rangers RPM: Get In Gear is notable since it the first expansion created by the original game's designer, Matt Hyra. It also adds more complexity to the game while adapting one of the darkest seasons of the show.

What Is In Power Rangers RPM: Get In Gear?

Picking up Power Rangers RPM: Get In Gear will get you ten new character cards, complete with their own Signature Item and Zord/Master card. The Heroes are the RPM Team: Dillon, Flynn Mcallister, Scott Truman, Ziggy Grover, and Summer Landsdown. As for Villains, you have General Crunch, General Shifter, Kilobyte, Tenaya 7, and the Venjix Virus. It also includes 36 brand new cards to add to The Grid, a new double-sided Megazord card, a stack of Nitro Blaster cards, and 24 RPM tokens.

First, it must be said that adding RPM: Get In Gear's new material into a game is very streamlined. Since there are five heroes and villains, there is no need to mix and match Master or Zord cards with any of the large box expansions; just put the new cards in their locations and you're good to go. Furthermore, building The Grid is a lot more straightforward compared to Omega Forever.  The latter had you pick small handfuls of cards from the main deck based on cost and type, as well as making you choose what Location cards to put in. Alternatively, this expansion tells you to imply remove all duplicate cards from the main deck, then shuffle in the new cards. It's a much faster set-up which is greatly appreciated.

What new mechanics are in Power Rangers RPM: Get In Gear?

The biggest unique selling point of Power Rangers RPM: Get In Gear has to be the new mechanics it introduces. First, there are the RPM tokens. Most of the new cards in this expansion generate these tokens, which sits on your character card. The idea is that once you use an Attack, you then declare how many tokens are on your character. If the attack is blocked, the defender then loses health equal to how many RPM tokens they have. All tokens are discarded once the Attack is resolved no matter what. Some of the new cards even have benefits tied directly to RPM tokens like Operator Series Blue, Corinth, Cloud Hatchet, and Go-Onger. With this in mind, it makes each Attack feel more strategic. Do you go in for a kill, or do you hold off for resources?

The second major mechanic is stealing energy. On the surface, it is a simple addition: deplete the opponent's energy then increase yours by the same amount. Furthermore, like RPM tokens, this mechanic is seen across multiple cards like Energy Siphon, Venjix Drone Bots, and Grinders.  However, its implementation in Power Rangers: The Deck-Building Game leads to something miraculous; there's greater tension throughout each match.

My very first game with Power Rangers RPM: Get In Gear illustrates this perfectly. I was playing as the Heroes and managed to buy some great cards early on, and basically went into battery-building autopilot. But about halfway through the match, I was starved for resources because of the overlapping energy drain my opponent was able to whip up. Suddenly, it didn't matter if I had a complete Zord Bay and a ton of powerful cards, I didn't have the energy to use them. It was the closest match I had in this game, and it made me want to play more.

What new Heroes and Villains are in Power Rangers RPM: Get In Gear?

Of course, all of the new cards in this expansion have to be built around the new Heroes and Villains, and there are some great twists to the formula here.

Starting with the Villains, General Crunch can make an Attack unblockable for a single turn. If he gets empowered, he can do this for all attacks in a single turn at the cost of energy. Alternatively, General Shifter encourages defense, with his scheming side letting you draw a card when you block an attack, and his empowered side dealing damage based on how many block cards are attached. Kilobyte is all about resource control. He heals every time you destroy or battle a card in The Grid while scheming, and when empowered he has a powerful swing attack if you have no starter cards in your discard pile. The Venjix Virus starts small, his scheming side letting you steal energy when playing certain cards, but can turn into a terrifying bruiser in his empowered side, dealing tons of damage as well as extra card draws.

The big bad highlight however must go to Tenaya 7. Since she's the human-looking infiltrator for Venjix's robot army, her scheming ability allows her to buy Heroes from The Grid and attach them. Not only is that a great way to adapt the character, it makes Tenaya 7 the most untapped potential for builds and strategies. This even snowballs with her empowered side, which allows you to just gain Hero cards from the main deck discard pile under the right circumstances.

As for the Heroes, they manage to keep things interesting as well. Dillon has a mechanic where he starts the game with Stuns in his deck, but once he's morphed he has an attack that lets you put those Stuns into the opponent's deck. It can lead to a slow early start, but the pay off is worth it. Scott is great at filtering cards, allowing you to discard and then draw a card at the start of your turn. This pays off when he's morphed where you can detach cards and inflict damage equal to its cost. Flynn is a resource generator, gaining RPM tokens at the start of the turn. When he morphs, you can spend energy to gain even more RPM tokens, which encourages synergy.

Ziggy can actually manipulate the main deck and The Grid to an extent. Whenever you battle a card in The Grid, you can shuffle that card into the top ten cards of the main deck then draw a card from your deck. This pays off when Ziggy is morphed, where he deals serious damage for every card you battle during the turn. This means if you can stack the deck with low-cost Villain cards then take them out before your opponent buys them, you can deal a lethal blow. Finally, Summer encourages variety with her abilities. When unmorphed, you can draw an extra card if you play at least three different types of card on your turn. When morphed, you deal damage equal to how many different card types you control. This can ramp up nicely, but might be too situational for some players.

Should I Pick Up Power Rangers RPM: Get In Gear?

If you are looking for some extra gameplay complexity in Power Rangers: The Deck-Building Game then I highly recommend Power Rangers RPM: Get In Gear. If you also want to experience the post-apocalyptic team of Power Rangers attempting to stop a robot apocalypse at your table, complete with snide jokes about spandex and genre cliches, definitely pick this expansion up.

The copy of Power Rangers RPM: Get In Gear used in this review was provided by the publisher.