Harry Potter Trading Card Game: Ten Transfiguration Cards Worth Adding to Your Deck
by Mona Morsy
The clock strikes midnight. You don your school robes and walk out into the dark halls of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Wand in hand, you are preparing for a duel with a fellow witch or wizard. You have your wand ready, and as you walk through the corridors, you’re trying to remember everything your professors have taught you in class. With only a short distance between you and victory, you take with you just a few key Lessons that you feel confident with. It’s important to have the right information in your mind in order to defeat your opponent. Which Lessons will you be keeping close?
In the Harry Potter Trading Card Game, Lesson card management is imperative to winning; each player has a 60-card deck with their starting witch or wizard face up on the table. Each deck has a combination of various cards ranging from Lessons (which are required to play most other card types) to Creatures, Spells, Potions, Items, Locations, and more. The objective of the card game is to defeat your opponent by reducing their deck to zero cards by way of doing damage to them. When damage is done, the cards from a player’s deck are then placed in their discard pile.
In this five-part series, I will be sharing with you my top ten cards from each of the five Lesson types: Transfiguration, Potions, Charms, Care of Magical Creatures, and Quidditch. Each Lesson type has a plethora of cards that are helpful in both attacking opponents and aiding you while you work your wand tirelessly against the witch or wizard in front of you. This list is compiled of some of my favorites, but by no means are they the only ones worth playing.
For Part 1, we will begin with Transfiguration.
1. Steelclaw
Steelclaw is a great card to use in conjunction with Creatures since the card reads, “All your Creatures do damage to your opponent.” Historically, Care of Magical Creatures and Transfiguration have been the more popular combination of Lesson types for building a deck. Many Transfiguration cards work directly with Creatures in order to add more of a hit to the damage they do while in play.
With a Creature and Transfiguration deck in hand, your goal is to pile up your Creature as fast as you can. Your Creatures will stay in play and continue to do damage to your opponent each turn. Once you have a decent lineup of bad beasts, you can bring out Steelclaw and have each Creature give it their all for one huge attack, which can be the fatal bite needed to finish off your opponent.
2. Picking on Neville
Getting rid of the cards your opponent plays can be a real setback for them and can advance you in the game. If your opponent plays an Item, Lesson, or Creature, you could use Picking on Neville to choose one of these cards and discard it. The unique thing about Picking on Neville, however, is that your opponent can object to the card choice and discard two instead of the one you chose.
For example, if your opponent has a strong Creature in play that they piled up Lessons for, such as Fluffy, they may be hard-pressed to discard Fluffy if that’s the card you chose. So they may instead choose two Lessons they have, or one Lesson and one smaller-hitting Creature, in order to save Fluffy. Picking on Neville is similar to another very popular card in the HPTCG called Dobby’s Disappearance, which we will evaluate next.
3. Dobby’s Disappearance
You may read this card and think that Picking on Neville is still slightly better. However, the thing that makes Dobby’s Disappearance so popular is that you get to return a card to your hand for free. Dobby’s Disappearance gives you one extra Action during your turn, so after choosing one of your opponent’s cards in play (other than their starting Character) and returning it to their hand, you can immediately have your Action back.
In the HPTCG, Actions are a priceless part of the game; players need to spend time strategizing how to use the two Actions they are given each turn or which cards to add to their decks that will allow them more. So when you are allowed extra Actions during your turn, the odds will be in your favor.
4. Vanishing Step
Piggybacking off the importance of Actions that we learned while looking at Dobby’s Disappearance, Vanishing Step will strip your opponent of one of their Actions, leaving them with only one for that turn. This is a great advantage for you since you know that your opponent cannot play any Adventures or other Characters with only one Action. Additionally, if they had a two-hit combo lined up, you’ve just bought yourself more time to get to them first!
5. Lost Notes
Just as Actions are imperative to the win in this game, you can’t do much without playing your Lessons. Lessons give you the knowledge needed to play the Spells, Items, Creatures, Matches, or Locations you have at your disposal. When Lost Notes is played, you have the option to discard either a Lesson or an Item from your opponent’s deck. I almost always choose a Lesson because, with the Lesson still in play, your opponent can place another Item on the playmat. However, by getting rid of their Lesson, you’re reducing the chance they have of advancing their next turn.
Although they can still play Adventures and Characters without Lessons needed, I would still like to reduce their chance of getting those Lessons out if I can; remember, it’s the knowledge they need in order to play their cards. What your opponent doesn’t know will hurt them!
6. Pigley Dudley
Pigley Dudley is a great card that allows you to get rid of Characters or Creatures that your opponent has in play. However, the card doesn’t ask that you discard it or even put it back in your hand; you are to put it on the top of your opponent’s deck. You could play this card as a combination card with a Spell that does damage. This would make your opponent return the Creature or Character back to the top of their deck and then take whatever amount of damage your Spell does, immediately discarding the card.
If, for example, your opponent plays Madam Pomfrey during their turn, and you return the card to the top of their deck without getting rid of it, your opponent will play this card again. In this scenario, Madam Pomfrey’s ability will have been reset and can be used a second time. This is a card that has to be set up with great precision so as to ensure you’re not doing your opponent any favors; this is a duel, after all.
7. Madam Malkin’s Robes
Madam Malkin’s Robes is pretty straightforward. Since this game is a race to the bottom of your opponent’s deck, dealing damage is the main source of that win. Whether your opponent’s Spells or Creatures do damage, taking one less hit can be extremely helpful. This isn’t the most ideal, but hopefully, you’ve got some heavy Creatures or Spells coming their way that minimize any advantage this card gives them.
8. Porcupine Robe
Although the damage isn’t done directly to your opponent, this card can get rid of their Creatures pretty quickly. Most Creatures have fairly low health, so when Porcupine Robe does damage to the Creature that did damage to you, it could kill off that Creature in just a couple of turns.
9. Good Night’s Sleep
When I am choosing a starting Character, I am looking at their ability more than anything else. If I am playing Professor Minerva McGonagall, whose ability says, “Once per game, you may discard the Adventure your opponent has played. (You don’t get the reward),” I only get to only use this one time. Good Night’s Sleep allows players to use an ability like this for a second time. This works on any Character you have in play, whether it be starting or not, which could allow you to have very unique gameplay if used at the right times.
10. History of Magic Homework
I really like the History of Magic Homework card since it allows you to not only search your deck for a Lesson but also put it into play right away. This can differ from other Spells that do something similar since they may have you put the Lesson card into your hand. This means you would either keep it there until your next turn – allowing your opponent to get rid of your hand, if possible – or use your second Action just to play the Lesson. History of Magic Homework is another card that is fairly cut and dry but can be a game changer when you’re needing those Lessons in play.
This list is not in any particular order, and I have simply chosen cards that I enjoy playing with from the wonderful Transfiguration Lesson type. There are so many ways to go about building a deck and choosing the cards you want to go with the Lesson types you favor. Take some time to build the deck that best suits you and see if any of this list makes the cut.
Keep an eye out for Part 2, where I’ll give my top ten Charms cards! For more information on the Harry Potter Trading Card Game, check out my YouTube channel, Into The Floo, and follow me on Instagram @harrypottermorsy.