I’ve been a Power Rangers fan for most of my life. Ever since the Heroes of the Grid cooperative board game was released from Renegade Game Studios (and while it was in development) it has been one of my favorite games to play with my kids. Between the excellent gameplay mechanics and how even small details from the source material are represented, it really is a love letter to longtime fans. I’ve been lucky enough to stay up to date with expansion products, and this latest batch of expansions really add some depth to an already great game. Let’s go over one of these expansions and how it adds to the gameplay experience.
Dino Thunder Pack
Designer – Jonathan Ying
Publisher – Renegade Game Studios
This team pack introduces characters from Power Rangers Dino Thunder. Obviously. Eagle-eyed fans will notice that the Dino Thunder Black Ranger is not included in this pack. That’s because that Black Ranger was already released in the Legendary Ranger: Tommy Oliver Pack. It will be interesting to see how well the Black Ranger gels with the abilities of the rest of the team, given there was about a year and a half in between release dates. So, first, let’s look at the Rangers included in this pack.
Dino Thunder Red – Conner McKnight is a soccer player, and a few of his cards reference this (Swift Striker and Corner Kick). As a former soccer player myself, this brings me joy. This Red Ranger’s cards are focused on two things. 1.) Countering enemy cards with the FAST keyword. 2.) Deciding how to allocate damage AFTER making an attack roll. His go-to combo looks to use his Swift Striker character ability with his Extreme Speed combat card. This lets another Ranger attack an enemy card with an extra die before the first enemy card has a chance to resolve. Conner will have to pay that -1 die penalty on a future turn, but it’s well worth the tradeoff.
It’s worth noting that his combat card, Thundermax Saber, has high potential to be exploited. Red, Blue, and Yellow Dino Thunder Rangers all share this card, as it is their team weapon (similar to the original Mighty Morphin Rangers’ Blade Blaster). Whenever a card would add a die to this attack, at gains an extra die as well. Extreme Speed, as we mentioned above, and his Zord, the Tyrannozord, are ways he can add dice to attacks.
Dino Thunder Blue – Ethan James is the quintessential nerd. He loves computers, video games, and sci-fi movies. He does have a moral gray area, as his history as a hacker proves. The Blue Ranger focuses on drawing cards and having just what you want in your hand. His Shield Bash combat card returns to your hand after use if you discard a REACTION card. Half of the cards in his deck are REACTIONS. His character ability, Clever Solution, lets any single player draw a card if an attack has a ‘miss’ face. And this can be activated once per attack. This gives you a chance to draw another attack after an ill-timed critical miss.
All of that, plus his Tricera Shield and Improvise! combat cards can add dice to attacks. All to further exploit that Thundermax Saber.
Dino Thunder Yellow – Kira Ford is one of my lesser-known favorite Rangers. She’s the lead singer/guitarist of a band. Her Ptera Scream and Harmonize combat cards take cues from her singing experience. This Yellow Ranger is great for picking off smaller enemies, clearing the way for other Rangers with big attacks. Rapid Spin offers up all-but-guaranteed damage and Ptera Scream reduces an enemy’s health by 2 before resolving an attack. Six of her ten combat cards have a play cost of 0 energy. Of those 6, 2 of those gain energy for you (Flying Kick), and 2 of those can pull cards from you discard pile back to your hand (Harmonize). Add in the fact that her character ability says, “Once per attack, whenever you roll a [double burst face], gain 1 energy”, and she’s a great asset for contributing to a team’s total energy. Her zord, the Pterazord, is essentially a more prolonged version of her Ptera Scream combat card, while offering up an energy for the team.
Her signature weapon, Ptera Grips, is on a 3-dice attack. That’s her strongest attack. But it does allow any Ranger to immediately play another card. If it is an attack, she adds a die to it. It’s her only way to contribute to the team’s Thundermax Saber, but it’s something.
Dino Thunder White – Trent Mercer is the classic evil Ranger turned good guy. After shaking off the evil powers, he operates as a loner before being fully welcomed by the rest of the team. Because of that, he’s a damage dealing machine. He’s good at big attacks and crowd control. He’s a bit of an energy hog, but he can bring down a freight train. His character ability and Laser Arrows combat card both allow you to deal additional damage to enemy cards adjacent to your target. Arrow Shot is a straightforward 3 dice attack that allows you to ignore the GUARD keyword. His strongest attack is Drago Strike, which there are 2 of in his deck, and it attacks with 4 dice. The real trick is to make sure Drago Strike is in your discard pile when you play his signature weapon, 3 cost Drago Sword: choose an attack card in your discard pile, play it for free and add 3 dice to it.
His zord, the Dragozord, is just another means to splash damage to adjacent cards when an enemy is defeated. He really doesn’t have a means of synergizing with the other Dino Thunder Rangers much, except for the Yellow. Trent can really benefit from the energy that Kira can help generate as he can easily get himself in to trouble, having only 4 combat cards with 0 energy cost. This is extra thematic because Trent and Kira have a romantic relationship by the end of the series.
Even though he’s not in this team pack, I want to look at the Dino Thunder Black Ranger’s cards and see how he might work with his newly released teammates.
Dino Thunder Black – Tommy Oliver is more familiar to many of you as the Mighty Morphin Green and White Ranger. Some years later Tommy is the mentor to a new group of Rangers, and eventually gets his own new powers of the Brachiosaurus to formally join the team. Right out of the gate, Tommy’s character ability allows him to simply add a die to a Ranger’s attack once per battle. That ability alone takes Red, Blue, and Yellow’s Thundermax Saber from a 2 dice attack to 4 dice. Other than that, there’s no specific combos that jump out at me. His Fire Strike lets the next Ranger to attack reroll any of their dice, but that’s not team specific. That’s just good teamwork in general.
It’s also worth noting that the Black Ranger’s signature Brachio Staff is VERY similar to the White Ranger’s Drago Sword. Drago Sword lets you choose one attack from your discard with a cost of 2 or less and play it for free while adding 3 dice to the attack. Brachio Staff lets you choose 2 attacks from your discard and play them both for free, but they must cost 1 or less and no dice are added. It is a nice touch that the 2 non-core Dino Thunder Rangers have signature weapons that function very similarly. Again, I just want to emphasize that Dino Thunder Black is NOT included in this pack.
Evil Dino Thunder White (Monster) – Do you remember above when I said that the Dino Thunder White Ranger was evil before he later joined the team? Well, here he is in his evil Ranger-battling form. Trent is actually a pretty tough in his Monster role. His most vicious card by far is his PASSIVE, Brutal Persona. Whenever a Ranger discards a card for defense, they also lose an energy. From a design aspect, I love this because one of the heroic Dino Thunder White’s distinguishing features is that he uses a lot of energy. Even as a bad guy, he can still use up a team’s energy. His Zord Control card has the GUARD keyword and is multiplied by the number of zords you have in play. This is a direct callback to the show as Trent messed with how the Rangers were able to use their zords while he was evil. His final 2 cards are counterparts to cards in his heroic combat deck: Drago Sword and Laser Arrows. Drago Sword is actually more similar to the Drago Strike combat card. Drago Strike is a 4 dice attack and has a bonus effect if the card happens to be revealed for defense. The evil Drago Sword deals 4 damage and reduces the amount of shields on cards revealed for defense. So not only do they do similar damage amounts, but they both have a caveat with cards being revealed for defense. The next is Laser Arrows. The heroic combat card allows you to spend X energy to roll X+1 dice for an attack. The evil Dark Laser Arrow card simply counts up the amount of energy the Rangers have shared together and deals an equal amount of damage. In both instances the amount of damage is dependent on energy shared among the Rangers.
Final Thoughts
Do you need to buy this expansion?
I think there are 2 major selling points for this. The first being the core Dino Thunder Rangers: Red, Blue, and Yellow. They offer a cohesive team that can compound attack buffs in a way not seen in the game so far. They aren’t critical to enjoying the game, as no new mechanics are added, but as a group they are fun. As a Power Rangers fan, Dino Thunder is not among my favorite series in the franchise. They are very true-to-source characters, as their cards represent them and their traits in the show well. But this isn’t a team I was waiting to be brought to Heroes of the Grid. Unless Dino Thunder was a childhood favorite, I don’t think you’ll be missing these core Rangers in your gaming experience. I’d say these characters are just fun, but that can come across as a backhanded compliment. I don’t love these characters, but I appreciate their gimmick.
The second major selling point, however, is the Dino Thunder White Ranger. Both his good and evil versions I would rate as must haves. The parallels between the cards in his two forms is a great design choice. As an enemy he provides a hard hitting challenge. As a hero he provides a deck that allows you to roll massive amounts of damage at a time. Playing with a team of Rangers that help set the stage, and serve up a boss card on a silver platter is just so satisfying with the White Ranger allowing you to roll up to a maximum of 8 dice before factoring in buffs from other Rangers.
So, do I recommend this expansion? Yes. I think the Dino Thunder Pack is a worthwhile purchase for fans of Power Rangers Heroes of the Grid.
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