Wizards of the Coast is to launch a Transformers trading card game later this year, the Magic: The Gathering publisher has announced. On general sale in the United States from 28 September, the card duelling TCG will see two players build teams of iconic Transformers characters and power them up with a customisable deck of battle cards.

The Transformers TCG’s cool twist is that each of your Transformers can, well, transform – twice the size of standard playing cards, the character cards can be flipped from ‘bot mode to alt mode and back during the course of a battle.

The launch day Autobots Starter Set will contain enough cards for two players and include Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Ironhide and Red Alert. An accompanying range of booster packs will each feature one new Transformers character and seven battle cards, initially drawn from a pool of 40 character cards and 81 battle cards.

Visitors to this month’s San Diego Comic Con, next month’s Gen Con and the Hasbro Toy Shop online store after those conventions will also have the chance to snag the limited edition Transformers TCG Convention Edition, which comes with two exclusive character cards (‘Cliffjumper – Renegade Warrior’ and ‘Slipstream – Strategic Seeker’) and battle cards (‘All-Out Attack’ and ‘Tandem Targeting System’).

“The TCG format lets us pull Transformer characters from across the brand’s massive history. From Bumblebee to Sunstorm – the game is digging deep into the Transformer lore,” said Drew Nolosco, brand manager for the new game. “We can even focus on different aspects of the same character. Optimus Prime, for example, is immensely powerful in combat, but he’s also a master tactician. The Transformers TCG will let players explore the characters’ depth through engaging and tactical gameplay.”