Sharing is Caring

This month's deckbuilding challenge provided me with an opportunity to use a class of character I barely think of - Mercenaries!  It all starts with one of the characters in the challenge - Axor:

Axor lets you move a weapon or armor from another character when they battle, and if that character is a Mercenary, you get to trigger their bounty ability.  This is great because one of the problems I've consistently had with Mercenaries is how hard it is to trigger them.  Editor's note: I had no idea who Axor was, and upon doing some research apparently he's from the live action movies and the IDW comics? And sometimes he's known as Axer?

Characters/Stars:

Axor (Bayformers World Strike) 8: Axor is here to trigger bounty abilities by taking weapon or armor upgrades from his teammates after they battle.

Lockdown Bounty Hunter 10: His bounty ability involves putting a card beneath him.  Each card beneath him gives him +2 attack in bot mode.  As a bonus, when he flips to vehicle mode he also draws a card for each card under him and for each upgrade he has.  While you scrap that many cards from your hand, it does allow you to sift for the cards you really want.

Bug Bite (Bayformers Wastelands) 7 - Bug Bite is pretty cheap at 7 stars and his bounty ability is nice.  He scraps a card from the opponent's hand and that card will either repair one of your team or damage the other team by one.

Battle Cards (pip)(number)

Official Cards:

Contract Contingency (BL,BL)(3): This action gives a character +2 attack.  If it is used for a Mercenary and the attack does 4 or more damage, you can use the character's bounty ability. 

Dual Wield (BL, BL)(3): This card gives a character a extra weapon slot until the end of the turn.  When it is played for a Mercenary, you are able to play a weapon from the scrap pile on it.  This is a great way to dig a weapon out, use it on a mercenary, and then shift it to Axor before the 'extra slot' expires.

Opportune Offensive (BL, B)(3): This card can be played because I have a Decepticon (Axor) and Mercenaries on my team.  I can play it on Axor to get +3 ATK and Pierce 3 until the end of the turn.  

Enforcement Batons (OG)(3): Scraps an enemy weapon when put on a character.  Since it says "when you put this on a character" I am thinking/hoping it will trigger when I put it on my Mercenary and again when I put it on Axor after the move.

Scrapper Gauntlets (O)(3): Same reasoning as above.  If moving to Axor counts to trigger "when you ut this on a character" then I get to scrap another weapon.

Shoulder Holster (BL)(3): If you've been paying attention you've noticed I have used a ton of weapons in this deck.  Shoulder Holster gives me an extra weapon slot, which Axor may need if he's going to keep taking weapons from my Mercenaries.  The nice thing is, when I put it on a character, if the top card on my deck is a weapon, I can play it on the character as well.  Hopefully I don't need to use this, but given the weapons I have in my deck, it could come into play.

Valuable Contract (BL)(1):  Odds are I won't be using this, but if I manage to knock a character out, I can use this card's bounty ability, which lets me bring in a star card from outside the game and add it to my deck.

Mining Pick (O)(3): Just a cool weapon, letting you plan 2 and giving an atk bonus when you do.

Ghost Armor (O)(3): This armor can replace a character's existing armor to give that character +3 Defense.  This could be handy if I keep moving defensive cards to Axor (I think I'd have to put an armor on a Mercenary, move it to Axor.  Put another on the mercenary.  Cover it with Ghost Shield, then move Ghost Shield to Axor).  Will that happen?  Probably not, but it does have an orange pip so there's that.

Bayformers Wastelands:

38 Amp Ionic Plate (BL)(3): Armor that gives Mercenaries pierce 1 on top of its defensive abilities.

Bayformers World Strike:

Black mail (BL)(3): If this armor is on a Mercenary and the character takes damage without being KOd, it shifts one damage counter to the opponent.

Dutch (W)(3): This weapon gives Mercenaries an extra card flip when a white pip is flipped to pair with an additional +1 attack.

Ark Wave 1:

Tsunami Blaster (OG)(3): This weapon gives bold 1 for each card under it. Given the machine I am trying to set up where Axor takes cards from Lockdown and triggers his ability to put a card under him, this can potentially be a powerful card.

Cloaking Screen (B, G - ranged only)(3) - I need some more armor upgrades to get the Axor/Mercenary bounty machine going. This one has the advantage of giving stealth, which can come in handy if I'm trying to keep someone alive.

Strategy: 

The plan is simple.  Get lots of weapons and armor on Bug Bite and Lockdown.  Battle with them first, triggering Axor's ability to take those items, which triggers their bounty ability.  I'm probably focusing on using Lockdown first to get as many cards under him as possible.  Bug Bite is going second, guaranteeing there is someone who can take advantage of his heal bounty ability if the person scraps an action.

Axor doesn't flip, so I can focus on flipping the other characters if need be.  But I have to be careful to make sure they are in position to use their bounty ability after they attack, so I'm probably not flipping very much.

Matrix Revolutions

The following deck was crafted as part of a deck building challenge (Double Truckin' Trouble).  It doesn't really have a tie to a particular episode, so rather than give you a deep dive into G1 lore, I'll give you a brief overview of what I'm going for and after each card, I'll explain why it made the list.  My deck is built around having three leaders who can all enjoy the Matrix of Leadership.  I then tried to use each of the character's vehicle modes (2 cycles, a car/truck) to do some fun things.

Characters (stars)

Rodimus Prime Worthy Leader - Ark Wave 1 (12) - Rodimus has a cool ability to dig Matrix of Leadership cards out of the scrap pile.  He also gets a nice bump in bot mode when he has the Matrix on him.

Chromia Special Ops (8) - She's a leader, so she can enjoy the Matrix.  She can dig out white cards from scrap when she flips, which would help get Rapid Response Cycle, Nothin's Gonna Stand in Our Way, and Pop a Wheelie into my hand. 

Wreck Gar Junction Leader - Ark Wave 1 (5) - When he flips, you can return an upgrade from the scrap pile to your hand. In alt mode, you can scrap an upgrade and choose one of three actions (pierce, defense, repair).  As a leader, he too can enjoy the Matrix of Leadership.

Battle Cards

Ark Wave 1

Racing Stripes (B)(3) - Motorcycle armor that gives defender +def equal to number of different color pips flipped rounded up, then does that much damage to the attacker

Nothin's Gonna Stand in our Way (WG)(3) - Gives a character Pierce 1, allows you to play another one.  If you play 3, you can untapped a character with 12 or fewer stars.  Chroma's flip ability lets you dig for these cards and if you get three you can untap Rodimus, who is conveniently on the card.

The Touch (OB)(3) - action where Autobot Leaders Bold 4 when attacking, and if they have the matrix of leadership, repair 3.

Bayformers 1

Universal Greeting (O)(3) - Choose an Autobot and Junkion and can chose to give them Bold 1, Pierce 2, or Repair 1.

Dual Smokestacks (O BL)(3) - When put on a truck, requires opponent to do 1 damage to each character or 2 to an enemy of your choice.  Seems like a good card to put on Rodimus since he's a truck.

TROP1

Rapid Response Cycle (W)(3) - Utility that gives another character the motorcycle trait, +1 Def, and when defending against someone with more stars +1 Def.

Official Set

4 Wheel Drive (B)(3) - Can't hurt to give Rodimus a base attack of 7 for a turn.

Battering Ram (B)(3) - This can help if there's a bot whose mode is bothering me.

Cargo Trailer (B)(3) - Being a Truck, Rodimus can use these.

Matrix of Leadership (OB)(3) - Two pips, all my bots are leaders, key to Rodimus' power.

Medic's Protective Field (W)(1) - As a white upgrade, Wreck Gar or Chromia can get it when they flip. 

Pop a Wheelie (W)(3) - I like having the option to squeeze an extra attack out of one of my motorcycles.  If I get Rapid Response Cycle on Rodimus, this card can be huge because he can attack again.

Roll Out (OB)(3) - Two pip colors plus flipping helps all my bots.  Their abilities all grab me cards from the scrap pile, which is super helpful.

Start Your Engines (B)(3) - This is here to untap Rodimus and flip him so I can keep digging out Matrix of Leadership.

Team up Tactics (B)(3) - This is the coolest card for Rodimus because his car/truck duality lets you repair 2 damage from him and draw two cards.

Wheelie Say Find Friends Today

Transformers: The Movie introduced a slew of new characters (while killing even more, which for some reason I keep making decks about - see Passing the Matrix, Heroic Nonsense, and Oh, how it pains me to do this).  Unfortunately, recreating a lot of epic moments from this landmark film remained frustratingly out of Transformers TCG players' reach because the game failed to make cards for guys like Wheelie and the Sharkticons (and Kranix - somebody get on that) ... until now!  Thanks to fan sets, we now can recreate even more G1 goodness in deck form. 

This entry into the Turbo Revving Old Punks Deck Tech Challenge - King of the Road focuses on the movie sequence taking place on Quintessa. Hot Rod, the dinobots, and Kup crashed on a water planet filled with dangers. Kup got his arm broken off and tried to woo the Sharkticons with the universal greeting of friendship - ba weep gragna weep ninni bong. That didn't go so well and he and Hot Rod got captured to be tossed in the Sharkticon pit because they were "innocent" (I never figured that part out). Meanwhile, Grimlock and the other dinobots met a little dude named Wheelie who speaks only in rhymes. They broke into the Quintesson lair and bossed them out to the point that Slag said "excuse me" when he straight up crushed a Quintesson. How polite.

At the end of the day, the Autobots showed enough dominance over the Sharkticons that they turned on their masters when self appointed new king Grimlock said "Me Grimlock say execute them!"

This deck takes us to that special point in time when Hot Rod, Wheelie and the gang harnessed the power of the Sharkticons!

Characters - set (stars):
Savage Wheelie - Bayformers Worldstrike (6)
Sharkticon X3 - Ark Wave 1 (4 = 12 total)
Autobot Hot Rod  (7)

Battle Cards - broken down by set (number)(pip)

Ark Wave 1
Death to the Weak (3)(no pip)
Sharkticon Mace (3)(BL)
Dare to Believe (3)(O-cars, B-truck)
Bayformers Worldstrike 
Guilty or Innocent (3)(O-Melee, BL, BL)

Bayformers Wastelands

Razor Wings (3)(O)
Official Cards

Body Armor (3)(O)

Emergency Maintenance (3)(O)

Energon Slingshot (1)(B)

Erratic Lightning (3)(O)

Grenade Launcher (3)(O)

Improvised Shield (3)(OO)

Opportune Repairs (3)(O,BL)

Start Your Engines (3)(BL)

Turbo Boosters (3)(O)

Why these characters:

I would have loved to work Grimlock into this deck, but his star count and abilities just didn't mesh with Savage Wheelie.  So, I populated Wheelie's team with the Sharkticons he shared Quintessa with and Hot Rod because he changed the paradigm by crash landing on the planet (and getting Prime killed but whatever).  I also liked Hot Rod because he has a ping ability of +1 damage whenever he flips in the KO pile.  I haven't built a deck with the horde Skarkticons yet, so this was a fun challenge.  With Horde, you can have up to three of the same named character on a team, which is very thematic to the movie since the Sharkticons swarmed in a mass group.  These dudes have a nasty little Revenge ability that let you untap a tapped Sharkticon (or draw a card) when they die.  

Why these battle cards:

Lets start with the easy one.  Energon Slingshot is here because Savage Wheelie gets it added to my hand before the game starts.  That makes it easy to give it to him (and get the 1 ping damage that comes with adding it) very early in the game.

Wheelie also likes blue cards if he's attacking and orange cards when he's defending.  Instead of trying to have it both ways, I went heavy on orange, figuring I'll leave Wheelie in alt mode where each orange I flip reduces the attack of the bot who is attacking by 1, up to the number of orange they flip.  I figure most opposing decks will lean heavy on orange which will give me a fair amount of utility for this power.  To this end, I have 28 orange pips. Speaking of orange pips, Turbo Boosters is great because it allows cars to untap when it is placed on them, which will help me get an extra attack out of the cars on my team, Wheelie and Hot Rod.

As befits their mercurial nature, the Sharkticons are mercenaries, which allows me to use Opportune Repairs, a cool card I haven't gotten to use very often because there are so few mercenaries.  This will come in handy in keeping Hot Rod and Wheelie Alive (as will Emergency Maintenance).

Wheelie and the Sharkticons are melee, so I added orange pipped Razor Wings (which does 1 damage to each tapped enemy when placed on a melee character) and Body Armor (which allows them to flip 3 more cards on defense and will go great with Wheelie's ability). Improvised Shield does the same thing, but is only Tough 1, which is ok given the fact that it has two orange pips.

Having stocked my deck with cards Wheelie likes, I included some that go great with horde Sharkticons.  Guilty or Innocent allows me to choose to render a defender's Defense 0 or remove tough.  Sharkticon Mace is a neat weapon - if it is placed on a Sharkticon, after it attacks, it gets removed ... and put on another Sharkticon.  In this way, you can cascade one mace down the line as each Sharkticon attacks.  Then as they are killed off, they can untap each other as well.  If my opponent doesn't want to tangle with them (or they are down to 1 HP), I can use Death to the Weak to KO them. This triggers their revenge ability and allows me to repair 3 damage from another character.  Weapon wise, this is also the first time I've been able to use Erratic Lightning - it's -1 Defense won't hurt the Sharkticons who already have 0.

Once Hot Rod dies, I want him to flip to chip in damage, so Start Your Engines was included.  This card is awesome because it also allows me to untap one of my cards (Hot Rod or Wheelie)

Finally, this deck is pretty heavy on orange, so Dare to Believe's bold 1 will help get more of those orange cards out (plus it has Hot Rod on it, so there's that!).

Strategy:

This deck is built around getting lots of extra attacks in, like a swarm.  I'd lead with Hot Rod to try to get him killed first, which seems likely since he's the best bot on the team. Since none of the other characters will be flipping, I'll just flip Hot Rod every time to ping 1 dmg.  Wheelie gets his slingshot and can do some early damage as well.  Meanwhile, I'm loading my Sharkticons with weapons so they can go down in a blaze of glory.  My goal is to make the most of their few attacks (the guys only have a 2 ATK in alt mode, so they'll need some teeth to make a dent).  Attacking with them back to back will allow me to make use of their revenge ability.  With a five wide team, the Sharkticon revenge ability and Start Your Engines, I hopefully will have enough attacks to swarm my opponent even though the individual characters are weak.

I Thought They Were Extinct!

This deck harkens back to an episode I wrote about earlier (see Date Night Action), The Search for Alpha Trion, in which Shockwave exclaimed "Female Autobots ... I thought they were extinct!"  It turns out they are not extinct, and now, thanks to the continuing efforts of the fan community, they are even less extinct than ever. 

I don't know who the bot in the middle is, but we can either pretend it is Windblade (it isn't) or just gloss over that and enjoy the fact that there was an episode with three female Autobots and now there is a deck with three female Autobots.  Let's see if these ferocious female Autobots can show Shockwave what not being extinct means ... in Transformers TCG battle!

Characters (Wave if other than official) Stars:
Windblade Camien Champion (Ark Wave 1) 10
Sergeant Chromia 7
Private Greenlight 8

Battle Cards (Set if other than official)(Number)(Pip)
Sturdy Armor (3)(BG)
Emergency Repair Patch (3)(B)
Matrix of Leadership (3)(BG)
Noble's Blaster (BG)(3)
Roll Out (3)(OB)
Start Your Engines (3)(B)
War of Attrition (3)(BG)
Wedge Formation (3)(O,G,BL)
Master Plan (1)(BG)
Camien Grace (Turbo Revving Old Punks Phase 1)(3)(O)
Stormfall Sword (Ark Wave One)(3)(W, Melee Green)
Scan the Vaults (Ark Wave One)(3)(BG)
Vamparc Ribbon (Ark Wave One)(3)(OG)
Nothin's Gonna Stand in Our way (Ark Wave One)(3)(WG)
Contemplation (Turbo Revving Old Punks Phase 1)(3)(W)

Why These Characters: 

This is a deck built around one of the custom cards from the Ark Wave One set.  Windblade Camien Champion is a versatile character.  She's a plane and a leader, and she flips from melee to ranged.   Her abilities are also interesting.  When you flip her to alt mode, you get to look at the top five cards of your deck and pull one action and one upgrade into your hand, scrapping the rest.  This gives you a great way increase your hand and pull the cards you really want.  When she defends in bot mode and you flip four colors, she takes half the damage, which is a great way to get around the omnipresent pierce that comes with black pips.  The 10 star cost leaves enough room to build around.

If you read this blog, you know I like theme decks.  In this case, my theme was lady Autobots (not extinct!).  Sergeant Chromia, who is somehow a car now instead of a bike, was selected because she's the best value for a female Autobot.  I considered Arcee, but while I loved her 5 stars, her 9 health and 1/2 attack just didn't do much for me.  Plus, Chromia likes blue pips, which gave me possible synergies with Windblade needing 4 colors to trigger her ability. 

Finally, I've never even thought of using Greenlight before.  But since I was trying to get multi pip cards, I noticed that many of the blue ones had green with them.  This made her  natural pair for Chromia, which makes sense since they appeared together in the cartoon - I wonder if this is just luck or of the game designers planned it this way.

Why These Battle Cards:

Windblade likes flipping four pip colors, Greenlight likes green, and Chromia likes blue, so I tried to get as many double pip cards as I could.  The next priority was cards that let me flip more or manipulate the deck (tough/bold/focus/plan), so I could trigger these different color abilities. 

Let's start with the custom cards because you may not be as familiar with them and there are 18 of them in the deck.  Camien Grace provides focus 1 for Chromia and Windblade (along with Novastar and Nautica if you use them).  Given that all three characters on this team like certain things to happen with pip colors, this seems like a good tool to have in the toolkit.  Stormfall Sword is a Windblade helper in that it gives her tough 1 to go along with Pierce 2.  It also has two pip colors (one being effective if a melee character flips it, which Windblade is in bot mode), which will further help trigger Windblade's four pip power.

Scan the Vaults is a two pip card that helps me get cards into my hand.  It is handy because Greenlight likes green cards and Chromia likes blue so it helps them both.  Contemplation is useful because my team is all Autobots, which let's me plan 1 - this will really help me get the colors I need for my characters.  Nothin's Gonna Stand In Our Way is another two pip card that has the neat effect of untapping a character if I can play three of them.  Finally Vampiric Ribbon has two pips and allows me to repair the character if I can do 4 damage.

Turning to the official cards, Chromia has an ability that lets you play a blue armor, so I added Sturdy Armor. It has the bonus of having a green pip to help Greenlight and it even has a female Autobot (looks like Chromia but I'm not sure) on the card.  It's fate! Emergency Repair Patch was added to increase the odds I have a blue armor in my hand.  War of Attrition is a neat card for this deck, with a blue green pip mix and the ability to do chip damage and possibly heal your own character.  Matrix of Leadership has two pips and it would be cool to see what Windblade (she is a leader) can do with it.  Noble's Blaster isn't the best weapon, but it also has a blue and green pip, so it is useful in this team.  Roll Out has two pips and will allow Windblade to flip (which is necessary to trigger her ability) so it's included.  Wedge Formation is awesome here.  It's got three pips, so Windblade loves it.  It has different effects for Melee (Windblade bot), Ranged (Windblade alt) and Specialist (Greenlight, Chromia) so I'll be able to trigger two of the effects at once.

Start Your Engines is only a blue pip, but it allows you to untap a car and I have two cars on this team.  Untapping is a huge help on a three wide team, especially against five wide squads who can eat you alive with more attacks. I only included one copy of Master Plan because six cards is kind of a drain on my hand, even though it helps set up a big play and it is my coveted blue-green combo.

Strategy:

Flipping Windblade allows me to get cards into my hand.  I want to find a blue armor, so I can make use of Chroma's alt ability.  Otherwise, she's staying in bot mode to help build my hand.  Greenlight is chilling in alt mode until I am ready to play a green card, at which time I'll flip her and make use of her ability.  In the meantime, while she's hanging out, her safeguard ability will come in handy.

Being able to manipulate my battle card flips gives me flexibility to use whichever character fits the cards in my hand best. In terms of flipping, Windblade is probably getting the most action since she helps fill your hand with an action and upgrade.  Getting armor and the Matrix of Leadership attached to the team is essential to staying alive long enough to do some damage.

Get to Da Choppa

This deck, which I built as part of the Turbo Revving Old Punks deck building challenge,  is a departure from my normal approach because I'm using fan set cards.  I am including pictures of the fan cards so people who aren't familiar with those sets can see some of the cool stuff people have been making to keep the game alive.  Thanks to their efforts, I can finally make a helicopter deck! 

THE DECK

Characters (set)(stars)

Highbrow Appallingly Astute (TROP 1)(9)

Whirl (Wave 5)(12)

Tracer Ambitious Scout (Ark 1)(4)

Battle Cards (Pip)(Number)

Evasive Action (TROP Wave 1)(O - plane only)(3)

Arial Superiority (ARK Wave 1)(no pip)(3)

Trithyllium Drill (TROP Wave 1)(B)(3)

Armed Hovercraft (B)(3)

Brainstorm (B)(3)

Cooling Vents (O)(3)

Drill Arms (B)(1)

Energon Axe (B)(3)

Matrix of Leadership (OB)(3)

Roll Out (OB)(2)

The Bigger They Are (B)(3)

Tripwire (B)(3)

War of Attrition (GB)(3)

Anticipation Engine (W)(2)

Crystal of Power (BL)(1)

Why these characters:

The first thing I thought when I saw Highbrow was "Finally, another helicopter.  It's time to get to da choppa!"  (Bonus points if you get the deck title reference).

When I started looking at helo options to pair with Highbrow, a character I've never been able to build around due to his high star cost jumped out - Whirl.  At 12 stars, he's too expensive given that he's really not good enough to be the focus of a deck.  He inevitably ends up in tall teams (a few big bots), which I find tend to get eaten alive by wide teams (many smaller bots).  But it turns out he pairs quite nicely with Highbrow.  Highbrow's alt ability is to ping his attacker for 1 damage if he flips two blue cards when defending.  Whirl also loves blue pips - when you hit one while attacking, he pings each non-defending enemy.  This is a great way to counteract wide teams and make the most out of my blue card strategy.  

It would have been impossible to find a fitting third character before the fan made sets (and I've never really liked using star battle cards or stratagems that much).  The official cards are very light on helicopters, and none had 4 stars (This was especially frustrating given the potential for Tidal Wave to deploy a 4 star helicopter but I digress).  Alpha Bravo was the closest helo option at 5 stars but he obviously wouldn't fit.  Tracer is admittedly nothing to get too excited about, but he fits the stars, fits the theme, and packs a little punch at 3 attack.  His stealth ensures he can stay alive long enough to pick the best time to use him.

Why these battle cards:

This is a helicopter team so I tried to follow that theme first and foremost.  Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of helicopter support cards, so I'll take what I can get. Thankfully, the fan sets save the day once again, providing three cards for the deck.  While it doesn't have a pip, Aerial Superiority is pretty beast for helicopters (+4 attack and pierce) ... but only if they face tanks, cars, or trucks (I guess boats are impervious to planes!).  I'll take my chance that I face at least one those on the other team.  This would be a great card for Tracer to use to make his turn worth something.

 

Evasive action is a nifty little card that reduces attack damage to helicopters (and planes and spaceships) by two.  Normally its utility as a secret action is weakened by the fact that it goes away if the trigger doesn't occur, but in my case, someone will always be attacking a helicopter so it will always come into play. 

For the rest of my deck, my strategy was to use blue cards to trigger my characters' abilities.  I tried to pick cards that also had something to help offset the fact that I don't really have orange cards in this deck.  

Trithyllium Drill is a blue card weapon that has a plan ability.  This will only come into play in a few circumstanced given my deck, but when I use the ability my character gets +1 pierce.  Armed Hovercraft is a blue card that goes on either of my ranged characters (Whirl or Highbrow) which has the nice side effect of adding another ping damage when it is placed. Brainstorm allows me to play two actions, which can trigger Highbrow's bot mode ability if I need it. Drill Arms give me plus 1 attack, but more importantly it weakens my opponent by taking out their armor (or giving me a card if they don't have any armor).   Matrix of Leadership is mostly there to sneak some orange into my deck while maintaining near certainty that I'll flip blue every turn.  I don't have a leader on this team, but the +1 attack from a utility spot helps my two Autobots. Roll out is another orange blue card that is mostly there for pips, but you never know when a flip card will come in handy.  The Bigger They Are is there for Tracer, who will always be attacking a bigger bot and love getting pierce 4.  Hopefully he lives long enough to enjoy this card. Tripwire is another source of chip damage, and if I'm facing a wide team (which could cause this relatively tall squad problems) it will help even the playing field by tapping a 5 star character.  War of Attrition is usually hard to make use of because you really need to snag three to take full advantage of its chip damage, but since this deck is pretty low on attack power, I figured it's worth the risk.  Energon Axe is a beasty weapon and its blue pip is a bonus. 

Anticipation Engine is a white pip card (which shouldn't hurt my blue pip flipping because it allows me to flip more cards).  What it brings to the table is the ability to play an action card if that's on top of my deck.  With Highbrow's bot ability, I can set it up to make sure this happens (and this deck is pretty heavily weighted to actions anyway).  These actions help offset my lack of orange pips in the deck.

Cooling vents is an orange pip armor card that repairs one damage from ranged characters when placed on them.  This can help Highbrow and Whirl stay in the air.  Crystal of Power is just cool so I had to add it.

Strategy:

This deck is all about pinging damage with blue cards. I'm likely using Whirl first - he's guaranteed to nail everyone on the other team and it gives me time to collect some cards for Highbrow to potentially use with his bot mode ability.  If I get Brainstorm and some actions, I'll flip Highbrow, but otherwise, I like him defending in helicopter mode.  Tracer is lying in wait hoping I get some cards that can help him make his life worth something - like Aerial Superiority, The Bigger They Are, or Crystal of Power (which goes away when he uses it anyway so it doesn't matter as much if he dies).  Defense and healing cards are funneled towards Whirl if the opposing team is wide - if he can make it 4 turns he can really hurt a team of five star bots.  If the opposing team is tall, I'd consider propping up Highbrow because he stings the opponent every time he is attacked.

Will this deck win?  Who knows, but if you are losing, you can always ruuuuuun...goooo....get to the choppa!
 

Friendly Fire

The glory days of Transformers TCG featured deck building challenges held by the community.  Well, those days are back thanks to the Energon Hustlers.  This challenge involves using either Inferno or Private Red Alert and either Salvage for Parts (Wave 1) or Step Forward (Wave 4).  While the challenge only requires one of each, I took it upon myself to work them all in because I found the perfect episode to base my deck on.

Red Alert serves as the security director of the Autobots and is "paranoid."  Inferno is "fearless" which is kind of the opposite of being paranoid.  Despite these differences Red Alert and Inferno are described as "close friends" and actually have teamed up in quite a few Transformers episodes.  Maybe it has something to do with the fact that they are both fire vehicles or maybe it's a case of opposites attract.  Either way, they are featured in so many episodes together (see Dinobots Island, The Revenge of Bruticus, Blaster Blues), I had no choice but to work with them both even though the challenge only required one.  But which episode would form the basis of the perfect deck?  After extensive research and my inability to fit a Dinobots into the team stars wise, I settled on the perfect episode: Auto Berserk.

In Auto Berserk, the Autobots thought it would be a good idea to create a super-weapon creatively called the Negavator (which I will work in as many times as I can because it is fun to say).  As literally anyone could predict, they were attacked by the Decepticons who tried to steal it.  Buddies Inferno and Red Alert stayed behind to guard the Negavator while the rest of the squad met the Decepticons in battle.  Inferno got lured away to help fight (not sure why they didn't just use the Negavator if it was so legit, but whatever).  The Decepticons lost, but in their retreat they managed to injure Red Alert.  His logic chips were screwed up, making him more paranoid than usual.

When the Autobots set out to take the Negavator back to headquarters, the Decepticons attacked again.  The Autobots beat them and the Decepticons booked out a second time, except Megatron ditched Starscream because he's kind of annoying.  Optimus asked some pretty reasonable questions about Red Alert's inability to detect a completely predictable attack, but Red Alert's paranoia caused him to run off.  This is where Starscream comes in.  He was able to bond with Red Alert by probing the depth of his Megatron insecurities.  The two erstwhile enemies were able to bond over their common ground, which is kind of heartwarming if you step back and think about it.  They decide to become bros and steal the Negavator and teach their respective horrible bosses a lesson.

The dynamic duo managed to snag the Negavator.  Megatron caught up to them and Starcream wussed out and said he was tricking Red Alert to get the weapon for Megatron (Starcream has a habit of doing this).  Then he shot Red Alert with his patented Null-Ray, which seems like a crappy thing to do, but it ended up stabilizing his logic circuits (kind of like when you hit someone on the head and they get amnesia and then hit them again and they are cured).  This is where Red Alert's original bro comes in, as Inferno saved Red Alert from being crushed.  Everyone apologized for their role in this fiasco and the world is all good again.

In addition to the rules of the challenge, I constrained myself to using official game cards to enable me to build the deck using the app.  The fortressmaximus.io visual depiction of the deck is included at the end of this article.  Behold, Friendly Fire (see what I did there with the name? It's very nuanced).

Characters (Stars):
Inferno (12)
Private Red Alert (7)
Starscream Decepticon Lieutenant (5)
Mounted Missiles (1)

Battle Cards (number)(pip):
Data Pad (3)(W)
Drill Arms (3)(B)
Field Repair (3)(O)
Hand-To-Hand Combat (3)(B)
Increased Durability (3)(BL)
Kinetic Converter (3)(W)
Mining Pick (3)(O)
Rapid Conversion (3)(W)
Ready For Action (3)(none)
Roll Out (3)(OB)
Salvage for Parts (3)(none)
Security Checkpoint (3)(BL)
Step Forward (3)(B)
Mounted Missiles (1)(OO)

Breakdown: 11 Orange, 18 Blue, 9 White, 3 black, 6 blank.  24 Actions, 6 Utility, 7 Weapons, 3 Armor

Why these characters: Well, to be honest, there doesn't seem to be a lot of synergy between Inferno and Red Alert. But they are buddies, so I had to keep them together.  I needed a Starscream to be Red Alerts new best friend, and the only one that can fit stars wise is Decepticon Lieutenant.  With these mismatched bots smashed together on a team, I had my work cut out for me with my battle cards.

Why these battle cards:  Red Alert has two abilities.  The first is pretty lame.  You need to flip at least an orange, white, and blue to get him a +3 attack.  That isn't very likely but I did try to have a fair amount of each color to give me a chance in case I wanted to go for it. I also added cards that let me stack the deck to give me a better chance - Data Pad, Field Repair, Mining Pick. 

Red Alert's other power is better (and more thematic for a fire chief's car).  When you flip, you get to repair one damage.  This led me to add a bunch of flip cards, as I now perceived my best chance at success as crafting this as a healing deck - Rapid Conversion and Roll Out give me good chances I can flip Red Alert a few times for some healing.  Field Repair and to a lesser extent Increased Durability also help. 

It turns out all this flipping is potentially good for Inferno as well.  His bot mode has no powers, but flipping to alt-mode allows you to return a characters upgrades to their owners hand.

I decided to add cards to my deck that interacted with upgrades. Drill Arms allows me to scrap an owner's armor. That's kind of duplicative of Inferno's powers.  But the kicker is, if there are no armor to scrap, then I can draw a card.  This would allow me to flip Inferno to knock off an enemy armor, and then play drill arms to snag a card.

Salvage for Parts and Hand-to-Hand Combat also has some interesting synergy potential with my healing deck and Inferno's ability.  First, I use Inferno's flip to knock off one of my enemy upgrades - the one with the most upgrades gets targeted.  Then I use Hand to Hand Combat on one of my weaponless characters to attack a different defender, giving me +3 attack and knocking off their weapon.  In the alternative, I can use Drill Arms to knock off an enemy armor.  With these upgrades gone, I can play Salvage for Parts on my next turn.  This card scraps ALL upgrades, and gives a +1 healing for each upgrade scrapped.  In this case, I have reduced the healing from my opponent while getting the maximum healing for my team.  Because I'm knocking off my own upgrades, I included cards that get me more cards such as Data Pad.  Kinetic Converter is there to help gain additional benefit (a card) from all the flipping I'll be doing.

Inferno also loves Security Checkpoint.  After Inferno returns a character's upgrades to their owner's hand, I can play this card to force them to scrap them all, ensuring they won't simply be added back on.

Ready for Action is included to try to squeeze the most out of Red Alert (or Starscream if need be).  Step Forward is there for one purpose.  Sneaky Starscream is pretty weak, so if someone is going to come after him, this would allow me to route the attack to one of my Autobots. This fits the theme of the episode - Starscream is using Red Alert for his own nefarious purposes.  

Strategy: Starscream's team up with Red Alert means you try to keep him alive as long as possible but once he's done, Red Alert can be free to reunite with Inferno.  This has nothing to do with strategy and everything to do with theme.  Starscream has to be the guy who bites it first if you are trying to follow what happened in the episode.

Your first move will probably be dictated by what cards you draw.  If you get healing cards, you're going to probably flip Red Alert first to set him up to heal when he flips back.  If you get some of the card that work with Inferno, you'll want to flip him first to take advantage of them the next turn.  Field Repair only works on Autobots, so if you have that, you may want to route the attacks towards the Autobots if you get that card in the early going.

If you manage to collect a ton of cards and you have some of the 'plan' cards in the deck, you can try for Red Alert's orange, white, blue attack bonus.  This would be a nice surprise if you can get it, but I wouldn't count on it happening as you form your strategy.

Ideally, you can get both Red Alert and Inferno into bot mode when you have Roll Out, which allows you to flip both of them at once, taking advantage of both of their powers.  How cool would it be to have Starscream get KO'd and then they reunite for a cool heal and upgrade stripping combo move?

Conclusion: While Inferno and Red Alert's cards, like their characters' personalities, don't seem to have much in common, this deck sets up some opportunities for some cool combo moves. You might not win, but you do have the opportunity to make a lot of fire quips when you attack - like "Fire in the hole!" "Where there's smoke, there's fire!" and when you KO someone "You're fired!" If you like this deck, you may like some of my other Starscream decks: Starscream's Ghost, Oh How It Pains Me To Do This, and Starscream's Brigade.  This deck has a lot of flipping.  For a deck with literally NO flipping, check out Un-Transformers.

Un-Transformers

One of the defining traits of the Transformers is how they ... transform.  The card game is so excellent because the flipping mechanic effectively stands in for the transformation. But some characters in our beloved TCG actually do not flip at all.  Battlemasters and Weaponizers are one example, as they only change when they are knocked out.  But the game also has some characters that don't even do that - Brunt Artillery Drone and Slammer Combat Drone never change into anything - the back of their cards doesn't even have anything!  The challenge in this article is to build a deck around bots that don't transform.

For purposes of this exercise I am limiting my cards to official TCG cards (wave 1-5).  There are a lot of excellent fan cards out there, but since not everyone has or can get them, I'll stick to the ones everyone is familiar with.  The fortressmaximus.io visual depiction of the deck is included at the end of this article.

Characters:
Brunt Artillery Drone (4)
Slammer Combat Drone (4)
Private Smashdown (5)
Raider Blowpipe (5)
Private Turbo Board (7)

Battle Cards (Number)(Pips):
Ancient Wisdom (3)(o)
Bravery (3)(b)
Composite Armor (3)(o, bl)
Emergency Maintenance (2)(o)
Immersed in Shadow (3)(o, bl)
Peace Through Tyranny (2)(oo)
Point Position (3)(bl, b)
Precision Fire (3)(o, bl)
Quartermaster (3)(w)
Stealthiness (3)(o)
Step Forward (3)(b)
Unleash Potential (3)(b)
War of Attrition (3)(bg)
Wedge Formation (3)(o, bl, g)

Breakdown: 25 actions, 3 armor, 12 utility.  24 Orange, 15 Blue, 3 White, 6 Green, 15 Black.

Why these characters:

Brunt and Slammer are two of the lamest characters in the game, but that's the whole point of this deck.  I then tried to pick battle masters that would complement them and each other. Smashdown and Blowpipe likes having lots of colors being flipped. Turbo Board rewards flipping a blue and orange pip when you flip.  These three guys seem to play well together (as a side note, they'd really be a killer team with Brawn)

Why these battle cards:

Quartermaster is easy - since my team sucks, I'll need to reclaim Smashdown, Blowpipe, and Turbo Board (in their alt forms) from the KO pile if they get scrapped.  Because I want them to die first so they can become upgrades, I am using stealth and bravery (Stealthiness, Bravery, Immersed in Shadow, Point Position, Step Forward) for probably the first time.  I also tried to get cards with multiple pip colors. The best of these for this deck is Wedge Formation, which has three colors and rewards the fact that I have melee (Smashdown), Ranged (Brunt, Slammer, Blowpipe), and Specialist (Turbo Board) characters on my team.  Both of my main characters are tanks, so Composite Armor seemed like a good choice, especially since it has two pip colors.  Given the fact that my guys are going to die fast, I thought Emergency Maintenance would help.  Peace Through Tyranny gets me two orange pips and also allows me to KO Turbo Board if I want to get him into upgrade mode.  Finally, I am a sucker for the Ancient Wisdom/Unleash Potential combo. I tried to get plenty of blue and orange pips to help with the three battle master powers.  When Turbo Board is in Anti-Gravity Turbo Pack mode, he allows you to play an orange or blue card you flipped, so I leaned pretty heavy into actions.  Since Smashdown and Blowpipe turn into weapons, I didn't really put any into my battle card deck.  This may be a dumb move.

Strategy:

Well, at least you don't have to figure out who to flip... This deck feels cool because I pulled off the gimmick, but you have only 31 total team health and 12 ATK (prior to upgrades) so you are pretty much going to get blasted.  If you get a bravery battle card, use it on the battle masters. If you get a stealth card, use it on Brunt or Slammer.  Maybe if you convince your opponent before the game to try a game where neither of you flips any characters you might win.  Either way, you can revel in the fact that you made the most un-transformers Transformers TCG deck possible.