Slaughter Wheel - Hecatomb

Some history first. Back in the day, Wizards of the Coast tried publishing more games besides Magic the Gathering. One such product was Hecatomb. The main gimmick featured was five-sided plastic cards. Four of the sides were a clear plastic that allowed players to stack cards and easily see the text underneath. I've heard no complaints about the game, and it actually seems rather innovative. The problems though are in practicality. You needed special sleeves, boxes, and pages if you wanted to store cards. The cards as I said were plastic, which made them more durable but was also a more expensive material. I can only imagine how the sheets were even cut. Hecatomb was a neat concept that was sadly too much of a drain on collectors and manufacturers to keep being produced, receiving only two expansions.

But enough with that, let's have a card.

Bob the Builder finally has his revenge.

Hecatomb had a Magicesque cost system, with four different colored types. Blue was Deceit, gray Corruption, red Destruction, and green Greed. This guy belongs to Deceit. What exactly is deceitful about a steamroller is lost on me.

Actually, the art on this reminds me of the original Juggernaut from Magic the Gathering. A huge wheel crushing people underneath it. This subsequently reminds me of Malefic Steamroller, from Wizards miniatures game Dreamblade. While Hecatomb was a horror game, it delved a bit into black comedy, hence the humorous imprints on the wheel. My only real complaint art-wise is that the color scheme is pretty much one color, making it harder to pick out any details, especially in the background.

One final comment is the subtype, Animate. The Wheel here falls along similar veins as Christine, an animated vehicle trying to kill you. This has the bonus of being able to power up its Animate brethren. Stephen King, write a sequel where Christine teams up with a homicidal steamroller.