A Tactical Analysis of Beast Wars Mutating Card Game Characters

     The average score of a character in the BW Card Game gives a pretty good
idea of its ability to win a fight, but doesn't tell the whole story, since
several characters have one really high or really low score to throw the
average off.  So, for each character, I'll present data in the form:

Character: Beast (Low/Average/High), Robot (Low/Average/High).

     A character with a Low score far from its Average is likely to be
slightly tougher in general than the Average implies, such as Rhinox and his
low Speed.  A character with a High score far from its Average is likely to
be slightly weaker overall than the Average implies, but have a small chance
of kicking serious booty.  Characters with a wide spread overall are
unpredictable, while those with a small spread are pretty reliable.
     Generally, if the difference between an extreme score and the Average is
more than 2, that counts as "far from."
     For example, look at the Beast mode scores for Rhinox and Cheetor.  They
have the same averages and high scores, but Rhinox has a lower low score.
This means his numbers besides the 2 are a little higher than Cheetor's, so
he's a little more likely to win a battle (losing with a 3 or with a 2 is
about the same, really).

MAXIMALS

Optimus Primal: Beast ( 6 / 6.83 / 7 ), Robot ( 10 / 10 / 10 )
Rhinox: Beast ( 2 / 4.3 / 7 ), Robot ( 3 / 7.17 / 10 )
Cheetor: Beast ( 3 / 4.3 / 7 ), Robot ( 5 / 7.3 / 10 )
Razorbeast: Beast ( 3 / 4.3 / 6), Robot ( 4 / 6.5 / 10 )
Polar Claw: Beast ( 2 / 4.17 / 6 ), Robot ( 4 / 7.3 / 9 )
B'Boom: Beast ( 3 / 4.3 / 7 ), Robot ( 6 / 7.3 / 9 )
Dinobot: Beast ( 2 / 4.17 / 6 ), Robot ( 5 / 7 / 9 )
Wolfang: Beast ( 2 / 4.17 / 6 ), Robot ( 5 / 7 / 9 ) [Same stats as Dinobot,
     possible misprint?]
Airazor: Beast ( 3 / 4.3 / 7 ), Robot ( 5 / 6.17 / 9 )
Rattrap: Beast ( 3 / 4.17 / 5 ), Robot ( 5 / 6.67 / 8 )
Tigatron: Beast ( 2 / 4.3 / 6 ), Robot ( 3 / 6.17 / 8 )
Armordillo: Beast ( 3 / 3.83 / 6 ), Robot ( 4 / 5.5 / 8 )

Maximals as a group: Beast ( 2 / 4.44 / 7 ), Robot ( 3 / 7 / 10 )
Maximals minus Optimus Primal: ( 2 / 4.2 / 7 ), Robot ( 3 / 6.73 / 10 )
     Note that four have at least one 10 in Robot mode.
     
PREDACONS

Megatron: Beast ( 7 / 7.3 / 8 ), Robot ( 9 / 9.83 / 10 )
Scorponok: Beast ( 3 / 4.5 / 6 ), Robot ( 5 / 7 / 9 )
Transquito: Beast ( 2 / 4.3 / 7 ), Robot ( 4 / 6.83 / 9 )
Snapper: Beast ( 3 / 4.3 / 6 ), Robot ( 4 / 7 / 9 )
Tarantulas: Beast ( 3 / 4.5 / 6 ), Robot ( 6 / 7.17 / 8 )
Waspinator: Beast ( 3 / 4.3 / 6 ), Robot ( 6 / 7 / 8 )
Inferno: Beast ( 3 / 4.3 / 6 ), Robot ( 4 / 6.17 / 8 )
Blackarachnia: Beast ( 4 / 4.3 / 5 ), Robot ( 4 / 6.3 / 8 )
Buzz Saw: Beast ( 3 / 4.3 / 6 ), Robot ( 5 / 6.3 / 8 )
Iguanus: Beast ( 3 / 4.3 / 6 ), Robot ( 5 / 6.17 / 8 )
Terrorsaur: Beast ( 4 / 4.3 / 6 ), Robot ( 5 / 6.3 / 8 )
Insecticon: Beast ( 3 / 4.3 / 6 ), Robot ( 4 / 5.3 / 7 )

Predacons as a group: Beast ( 2 / 4.61 / 8 ), Robot ( 4 / 6.79 / 10 )
Predacons minus Megatron: Beast ( 2 / 4.36 / 7 ), Robot ( 4 / 6.52 / 9 )
     Note that Megatron is the only one with any 10's.

     So, as you can see, whether or not the leaders are present, the Maximals
have a slight advantage in a robot-to-robot fight, Predacons have a slight
advantage in beast-to-beast fighting, and in a robot-to-beast fight the robot
usually wins.  Of course, all of this ignores the Energon and Secret Weapon
cards, which each come up about 1/6 of the time, conferring enough benefit
on the average to wipe out the factional advantage if you draw one and your
opponent doesn't.

     Dave Van Domelen, had too much time on his hands tonight....