A Storm is Coming

(Movie Bumblebee not included in this deck)

You may not have realized it until this very second, but there are a lot of Transformers with 'storm' in their name.  I guess that makes sense - storms are violent and uncontrollable, which makes them good reference points for Decepticons ... and theme decks.  Editor's note: the official internet dictionary definition of a storm is "a violent disturbance of the atmosphere with strong winds and usually rain, thunder, lighting or snow."  The official Marvel Encyclopedia defines Storm as a member of the X-men. See? This blog is educational! 

As always, the fortressmaximus.io visual depiction of the deck is included at the end.

Characters:
Acid Storm (6)
Sunstorm (11)
Nova Storm (7)
Indestructible Sword Card (1)

Battle Cards (Pip)(Number)
Data Pad (W)(2)
Enhanced Power Cell (BL)(3)
Escape Route (WG)(3)
Fusion Borer (BL)(3)
Hazardous Shield (BL)(1)
HV Electron Breacher (BL)(2)
Increased Durability (BL)(3)
Kinetic Converter (W)(2)

Rapid Conversion (W)(3)

RR Disrupter Blade (BL(3)
Metal Detector (BL,G)(2)
Pocket Processor (G)(3)
Testify (O)(3)
Treasure Hunt (O)(3)
Work Overtime (W)(3)
Indestructible Sword (BL, BL)(1)

Breakdown: 6 orange, 13 white, 8 green, 19 black. 15 actions, 9 weapons, 4 armor, 12 utility.

Why these characters:

Not including the custom sets, there are so many characters with 'storm' in their name that they can't fit on a standard 25 star team.  Storm Cloud, Brainstorm, Sandstorm, Ion Storm ... but the three I picked worked best because they are all Decepticons and I think their powers can be complementary.  Acid Storm can prevent bold, Sunstorm likes cards in hand because his attack number is set by the number of cards in hand, and Nova Storm likes black upgrades.  I think I can accomplish using all three skills with a careful battle deck build.  

It also doesn't hurt that their names are particularly fierce.  A storm of acid would be pretty bad unless you had an acid-proof umbrella (which as far as I know isn't a battle card yet).  At first blush, a storm of suns doesn't really make sense, unless it is like a solar flare which can be pretty nasty.  And the Chevy Nova was a pretty beast car, so you can imagine that a bunch of them flying around in a storm would be more intimidating than a Sharknado.

Why These Battle Cards:

I tried to build my deck in two piles, cards that help Nova Storm and cards that help Sunstorm - recognizing that they could help each other (i.e. drawing cards for Sunstorm can help play a black upgrade on Nova Storm). 

Sunstorm pile - Card Draws: Treasure Hunt (which can help find those black upgrade cards), Testify, Pocket Processor, Kinetic Converter, Work Overtime, and Data Pad. In addition, Indestructible Sword returns to my hand if scrapped.

Nova Storm pile 1 - Black upgrades: Enhanced Power Cell, Fusion Borer, Electron Breacher, Hazardous Shield, Increased Durability, Meal Detector and RR Disrupter Blade all will be helpful if I can attach them to Nova Storm.

Nova Storm pile 2 - Conversion cards: These cards help Trigger Nova Storm's ability to move a damage counter to an enemy if she (I think its a she) is equipped with a black pip upgrade. Escape Route and Rapid Conversion can help.

You could also consider adding some plane or Decepticon specific cards if you'd like to take advantage of the team makeup.

Strategy:

I have no idea if this deck will hit what it needs since I'm trying to find different things for different characters. I'm probably leaving Acid Storm in bot mode to turn off bold. That coupled with cards like Enhanced Power Cell can help keep my team alive.  I'm looking to get a black upgrade on Nova Storm and flipping her back and forth to move damage to an enemy. She'll probably attack first so she can get some damage on her to move back when she flips.  I'm waiting until I have a good stack of cards in hand to unleash Sunstorm.

Final Thoughts: The best part of this deck is it gives you the opportunity to declare "I feel a stormfront coming!" every time you attack.  That kind of catchphrase ability is worth its weight in common cards. If you haven't tried "Oh how it pains me to do this!" yet, you haven't lived.  I kind of feel bad for the other Stormy crew for not making it into this deck.  Not because I think the deck will win a lot, but because I've never really worked any of them into a deck before.  If this deck is well received, perhaps I can create A Storm is Coming ... Again deck!

New Game Mode: Clash of the Titans

Titans. Remember them?  I sort of do, but I can't remember the last time I played with them.  I find they are hard to use because they take up all your stars and they get wrecked by wide teams.  Plus, they aren't always fun to build decks around because you are mostly just stuck with them and the minions that they came with. UNTIL NOW!

This is the second post in my series proposing new ways to play the game using the official cards (the first was a 7, 8, 10 star character draft).  There are a lot of awesome fan made sets out there, but this is a way to breathe new life into the cards we all own.

Rules: The rules to this mode are brilliant in their simplicity (Note: I am not calling myself brilliant, I just like that phrase).  Each team is made up of:

- 50 total stars

- 1 oversized Titan sized extra large character, a 5/6 character Combiner, or the three card combiner Omega Supreme

- The same star rule applies for minion cards (like Metroplex, Trypticon)

- You can either use your stars to include combiners that don't normally fit (combiner Dinobots, Sentinels) or treat them as they are handled in a regular game to save your stars.

- All members of the team must be of the same faction (plus mercenaries)

Why?  Expanding the star count allows you to deploy some bots to help support your titan or combiner.  In the show, the 'regular' characters would be fighting and then the Constructions would combine and start crushing the Autobots until Omega Supreme popped and duked it out with Devastator.   This kind of awesomeness just hasn't been possible to recreate in the card game ... UNTIL NOW!

Requiring a Titan or combiner should encourage the use of Trypticon, Omega Supreme, Metroplex, and the combiners who are not used because they usually bite it before they can do anything.  Requiring all the members be of the same faction makes it feel like it is a real battle that could have happened, while providing a little structure to build teams around.  

This would open up new strategic decisions during team building.  Is it better to use a titan, who is ready to start pounding on people right away or do you go with the benefits of being wide with a combiner and risk failing to combine? Do you support your big guy with a few powerful bots, or do you go as wide as possible? Can you come up with a team that actually fought together in an episode?

Would this actually do anything to make playing with these guys more fun? I am not a numbers guy, but I think having more characters would give combiners more time to dig for an enigma.  It would give Trypticon more time to find the cards he needs to deploy his minions.  The right teammates could enhance Metroplex's deployable buddies.  What is the maximum number of heads you can get to pop in a game if you combined Fortress Maximus with some body/head teammates?  Heck, I bet we could even see Loot Crate Omega Supreme get used to take advantage of his smaller star count for a titan.

What kinds of matchups might we see?  I don't think we could go wrong with Optimus and the Aerialbots against a Megatron led team featuring the Stunticons, flipping the Autobots are cars, Decepticons are planes paradigm.  I'd love to see a Kup, Hot Rod, and Metroplex team against the Insecticons and Devastator (a scene right out of the movie if Metroplex is autobot city, which I've never figured out).  How about a team of wave 1 and wave 2 Dinobots against Trypticon and pals to form a true jurassic battle?

Conclusion: This mode not only forces you to use some characters that aren't meta competitive, it also makes them more viable. This also opens up new potential synergies, as you can now look at the Combiner/Titan powers and see if they mesh well with characters they've never been able to be paired with before.

Hit me up in the comments or on twitter with your epic squads!

Titanic Trypticon

Metroplex is the Autobots' huge transforming city.  Having a city sized teammate is a legit advantage, so naturally the Decepticons came up with one of their own.  In The Five Faces of Darkness (aka the episodes after the movie that weren't very good), the constructions created Trypticon out of a human city.  Trypticon was laying waste and taking names until Metroplex got his 'transforming cog' back and transformed into robot mode.  He picked up Trypticon and threw him in the ocean.  Trypticon did the wise thing and headed to Dinobot Island to chill out and lick his wounds (see episode Thief in the Night).  Metroplex ends up tossing Trypticon in the ocean again (Don't worry, Trypticon still didn't die, but he got played by Ghost Starscream in the episode Ghost in the Machine).  Sadly, Trypticon has met a similar chump-like fate in the TCG card game as well, since it is much harder to deploy his mini bots than it was to manipulate the toy when I was a kid.  

Can the wave 5 battle cards help out the poor Titan? As always, the fortressmaximus.io visual depiction of the deck is at the end of the article.

Characters:
Trypticon (24)
Brunt (4)
Wipe-Out (4)
Full-Tilt (4)
Villainous Spotlight Stratagem (1)

Battle Cards:
Ancient Wisdom (O)(3)

Battlefield Incursion (G)(3)
Data Bank (W)(3)
Energon Axe (B)(3)
Energy Pack (O)(3)
Grenade Launcher (O)(3)
Heavy-Handed (B)(3)
Height Advantage (B)(3)
I Still Function (no pip)(2)
Increased Durability (BL)(3)
Squish Them Like Bugs (O)(3)
Staggering Might (W)(3)
Unleash Potential (B)(3)
Relentless Invasion (WOB)(2)(star cards allowed by Villainous Spotlight)

Breakdown: 14 Orange, 14 Blue, 8 White, 3 Green, 3 Black.  22 Actions, 6 Weapons, 3 Armor, 9 Utility.

Why these characters:
Unfortunately, when you run a Trypticon deck, you are restricted on who you can use.  So the characters are set and the question becomes - why do a Trypticon deck?  Well, that is obvious - he's a giant robot T-Rex!  There is no possible reason not to want to make a deck with him in it.  He also happened to be the one huge Transformer toy I had as a kid.  Man, he was sweet.

Why these battle cards: 
I used the Villainous Spotlight stratagem to get two extra star cards, which I used to get two copies of Relentless Invasion into my deck. Relentless Invasion is needed to make the most use of my little minion dudes.  I added two I Still Function cards to my deck to bring them back and die, triggering that minions revenge ability (Wipe-Out and Full-Tilt's are the best in my opinion, depending on whether you need cards or chip damage). 

I doubt it will work, but since the Relentless Invasion card is so helpful, I added the hard to pull off Ancient Wisdom/Unleash Potential combo so I can maybe snag another.  I then picked the cards that go with high star totals/titans: Heavy Handed, Hight Advantage, Squish Them Like Bugs, and Staggering Might. Increased Durability (armor) and Energy Pack (utility) are there to keep Trypticon going since everyone is going to gang up on him.  Data Bank is there to help dig for Battlefield Incursion cards. 

Strategy: The plan is simple and yet complicated: 1. Keep Trypticon alive 2. Dig for cards. 3. Use card digging to find Relentless Invasion, Battlefield Incursion, and I Still Function! to get the minions out.  When a minion is out, attack with him and hope he survives an attack (unless he's resurrected by I Still Function) so Trypticon can eat him, triggering the minion's KO revenge ability and Trypticon's 3 attack or 3 health ability.  The minions don't hit very hard, so throwing a weapon on them can't hurt.  Grenade Launcher seems perfect, since they aren't long for the battlefield anyway.

The titan/high star cards should help.  Staggering Might gives Trypticon Bold, Tough and Attack 1, which could take advantage of my mixed pip deck and increases the odds of finding a green pipped Battlefield Incursion. The same goes for Height Advantage.  Squish Them Like Bugs is guaranteed to hit one of each of your opponents since everyone has fewer stars than Trypticon - and it would be particularly helpful against wide teams. Heavy Handed can help deal some damage.

My Trypicon!

Analysis: Ultimately, Staggering Might and the Villainous Spotlight stratagem are the reasons why I think this deck might work where my prior build attempts have failed.  Worst case scenario, I get to talk about how Trypticon got thrown in the ocean when I lose.

On the Prowl

For some reason, I've gotten into building decks around different versions of the same character (See my Shockwave deck, Shock and Awe and my Bumblebee deck, Swarm of Bees).  The next character to get the treatment is a bot I don't really use very often - Prowl (He is part of my Daring Escape deck, Fury Road but that's about it).  Not only are there multiple versions of him in the game, but he's also featured on a lot of battle cards.  Let's see what a Prowl deck looks like and if it lives up to the intelligent labels all the cards ascribe to him.

As always, the fortressmaximus.io visual depiction is included at the end of the article.

Characters:
Prowl, Military Strategist (6)
Prowl, Strategic Mastermind (7)
Major Prowl, Infantry Strategist (10)
Mounted Missiles x2 (2)

Battle Cards (Pip)(#): 
Anticipation Engine (W)(3)
Compact Shield (BL)(3)
Confidence (O)(3)
Data Pad (W)(3)
Diagnosis (W)(3)
Emergency Repair Patch (B)(3)
Enhanced Power Cell (BL)(3)
Increased Durability (BL)(3)
New Orders (BL)(3)
Primary Laser (B)(1)
Start Your Engines (B)(3)
Steady Shot (B)(1)
Swap Missions (B)(3)
Team Up Tactics (B)(3)
Mounted Missiles (OO)(2)

Breakdown: 7 Orange, 14 Blue, 9 White, 13 Black.  19 Actions, 6 Utility, 9 Armor, 6 Weapons.

Why this character:
According to the dictionary, the word prowl means "to move about or wander stealthily in or as if in search of prey."  I'm not sure how that applies to the strategy and mastermind descriptors the cards give him, but Prowl is awesome...at least he was until he got wrecked in Transformers the Movie (see theme deck, Heroic Nonsense).  His alt form is a police car and he has cool wing-thingies on his head, which I always thought was awesome.  This clearly makes him worthy of a deck.

Why these battle cards:

Let's get this out of the way: I picked every card I could find with Prowl on it first, then tried to make the best of the rest of the deck.  I realize this isn't the best way to build a competitive deck, but it will be fun to have Prowl flip a card he's on.  Like "Hey, it's me!"  Maybe this will give him the confidence he needs to win. This is why Anticipation Engine, Compact Shield, Confidence, Primary Laser, Steady Shot, and Swap Missions are in the deck.  Since all Prowl's are cars, I added Team Up Tactics (to draw cards) and Start Your Engines (to untap one of them).  The other cards are an attempt to make the best of my remaining spots: New Orders (to untap the 6 star Prowl), Diagnosis (to heal and draw a card), Emergency Repair Patch (heal), Data Pad (draw cards), Enhanced Power Cell (add health), and Mounted Missiles (double orange pip and adds some kick by giving an attack boost in an armor or utility slot).

Strategy:

First turn, I'm flipping Military Strategist to get I'm in position to take advantage of a teammate KO.  I'm attacking with Strategic Mastermind because once he dies, he gets a KO pile flip ability. Second turn, I'm flipping Major Prowl.  If my opponent has a weapon, I'm attacking with him to get the +2 damage bonus. Any health and armor upgrades go to Military Strategist, as I want him to live long enough to take advantage of other Prowls dying. Once Strategic Mastermind dies, he can flip to scrap opponent weapons.

Fun Prowl Fact: Prowl is a 2010 American horror film directed by Patrik Syversen and written by Tim Tori and starring Courtney Hope, Ruta Gedmintas and Bruce Payne. This has no bearing on the Transformers Trading Card Game.

New Game Mode: 7, 8, 10 Star Character Draft

With the unfortunate news that the Transformers TCG was canceled, groups immediately sprung up to keep things going with new fan made cards.  This is understandable, as people rightly feel the game can get stale without new content (and frankly the stuff people are putting out is pure awesomeness - see my card spoilers for The Ark's set)  But what if we looked at things differently and instead changed the deck building rules to allow fresh new decks?  This series suggests some new modes to try.  And the first format in my series is a 7, 8, 10 star character draft, where players bring their own battle card decks to the draft.

The Mode: 7,8, 10 Bot Drafting

Explanation: With no more packs being made, the old sealed booster game will eventually be impossible.  When playing constructed, sometimes it sucks to have to play against someone who has all the cool cards.  For this mode, you will put a pool of characters in the middle and take turns drafting to fill your team.  The draft order is: 1, 2, 2, 1, 2, 1 to reduce the advantage of picking first.  If someone prefers to draft two 7 star bots instead of an 8 star, that is allowed.  This may be desirable for players who want to squeeze a star card into their battle deck (or maybe they they just like the 7 star characters better).  For simplicity's sake, Stratagems are not allowed.  I have a suggested pool of draftable bots below, but you can alter this list as you see fit.  The key is to have  equal numbers of cool cards to choose from and not have one character be overpowered. I have chosen only common and uncommon bots as a proxy for this, plus you are less likely to get nervous about someone else drafting one of those cards and playing with it (because it isn't worth as much and you may have multiple copies of it).

Why the Draft format? There are some wizards at constructed formats.  We will never beat them. But this mode prizes smart drafting and flexibility.  There can be no 'magic deck' that can crush everyone in this format, because it changes every game.  Each player makes their battle card deck in advance of drafting, so you would have to make battle card decks that are flexible because you don't know in advance which bots will be using them.  Plus, if you see what the your opponent is going for, you can try to stymie them.  If you play fantasy sports, you know drafting is fun.

Common/Uncommon 3 Bot Pool: For this pool, each player will have a 7, 8, and 10 star bot from a pool of common and uncommon cards (or two 7 star cards).  Here's who I suggest for each pool, but this can be adjusted.

7 star pool

- Smokescreen: Safeguard is a decent ability to have in a team you can't plan in advance.

- Gears: I don't think anyone will draft him, but I see no reason why he can't be in the pool.

- Crankcase: His draw power could make him a high draft pick

- Snarl: I haven't used him in forever, but his ability to draw cards and stack the deck could be useful. Plus...Dinobot!

- Nova Storm: If you have black pip cards in your deck, she could be helpful.  She heals and gets pierce from them.

- Sergeant Chromia: Like Nova Storm, someone with a lot of blue in their pre-made deck will like her ability.

-Specialist Flamewar: She's nowhere as useful as the other Flamewar, but she does have Focus 2 in bot mode, which could come in handy, especially if you have a mixed pip deck.

- Sergeant Kup: HE HAS TO BE IN THE POOL!  No one will take him, but HE HAS TO BE THERE. One potential tweak to the rules is you get his stratagem for free if you draft him because ... HE'S KUP! The ultimate vanilla card!  To make this alteration, before the draft, one player has to declare it's a Kup match, and the stratagem gets placed with Kip for drafting.

Not included on purpose: Quake seems too overpowered, Battle Masters don't really fit the format.

8 star pool:

-Autobot Hound: Perfect bot for a deck with white pips, which give him a +1 ask/def boost and help him draw cards.

- Bluestreak: There's very little chance his ability will be drafted, because you have to hit on three pip colors. But maybe paired with Flamewar he could be worth a look.

- Deadlock Bounty Hunter: Another guy I never use, but his ability isn't overpowered so he's in the pool.  He has to KO someone to trigger it and draw two cards, which could be useful but may be hard to pull off.

- Dinobot Sludge, Military Stomper: Really only works on Dinobot teams, but if you draft Snarl, you could give him a go. 

- Mudflap: Like Deadlock, I've never really been into trying to trigger bounty abilities. He's a truck so that could come in handy depending on your deck.

- Greenlight: As was the case with Smokescreen, I could see her safeguard ability being useful in this format.

- Private Arcee: Focus could be useful if you have a mixed pip deck.

- Private Sideswipe: I think Sideswipe is more useful in wider decks, because he has abilities that trigger when your teammates are KO'd.

- Dirge: The opposite of Sideswipe.  He does better when there are KOd bots in his opponent's area.

- Triggerhappy: Great flip ability to retrieve weapons from a scrap pile to hand, which could combine well with grenade launcher, which I assume will be a staple in battle card decks in this format.

Not included on purpose: I left out Wingspan because I don't know if his upgrades will be scrapped as often when people build decks without knowing who they are going to draft.  I left Ratchet out because I'm trying to avoid characters who require a certain battle card in their deck  The Firecons work better together and probably need their battle card, so I tossed them out.

10 star pool:

- Apeface: Triple changers are fun, and his abilities aren't really tied to teammate synergy.

- Megatron Arrogant Ruler: His messing around with upgrades could be cool, and if someone comes in with an upgrade heavy deck, he could be a high draft choice.

- Major Prowl: He doesn't get much play, but in a system where you need a 10 star bot, there are worse ways to go than 2 damage every time you attack someone with a weapon.

- Lockdown Bounty Hunter: I've never really played with him, but his ability seems like the kind of thing worth trying if you don't have a honed team/deck. 

Not included on purpose: I am leaving Jetfire out, because I think he'd be too powerful in this format. I'm leaving Trailbreaker out, because his ability is dependent on having Force Field in your deck. Crosshairs is excluded since his ability is Battle Master dependent.

Final Thoughts: I'd love to hear your thoughts on the bot pool and what battle card decks you'd come into the draft with.  Drop a comment or hit me up on Twitter!

Hopefully this game mode will be better than this movie.

The Ark Wave 1 Spoilers!

Spoilers?  Isn't the Transformers Trading Card Game canceled?  While Wizards of the Coast is no longer making new cards, the Transformers TCG community has stepped up to keep the game alive. I am excited to preview two cards from Wave 1 of a set of custom cards being released from The Ark. In this article, I'll reveal the two cards I've been given to preview.  I'm happy to report that these guys really know what they are doing - both of these cards are stratagems that really help make otherwise forgotten characters usable in a deck.  In a future article, I'll try to build some fun decks using them.

Such Heroic Nonsense

History lesson: Heroic Nonsense refers to a line Megatron coldly delivered in Transformers the Movie. While the (spoiler alert from a movie from the 1980s) death of Optimus Prime gets most of the press, this one was the scene that really got me as a kid when I saw the movie in the theater.  For more historical context check out my previous Heroic Nonsense decklist writeup.

Why this card is exciting: Looking beyond its awesome name, this is a stratagem card for Megatron, who has consistently been underpowered in the game.  Any card that makes him more usable is welcome. As an added bonus, the card helps all tanks by getting a tank card into your hand easier.  Thanks seem to be underused so this is should encourage some tank squads.

What does this card do? For the price of a star, Such Heroic Nonsense essentially adds a green pip to the Hunker Down battle card if you have Megatron, Decepticon leader on your team.  This is a small change that doesn't break the game, but definitely helps. Hunker Down is a great card for tanks, as it allows each of them to fetch an armor from the scrap pile.  The problem with the card is, without the green pip, you will often frustratingly see the card pass you by in a battle.  This stratagem helps balance that out.  The best part is, while Megatron has to be on the field, this stratagem applies regardless of who is battling.

Hunker Down's flipping ability works well with Megatron, Decepticon Leader.  You will likely want to fight with him in bot mode (which somehow has more attack than his tank mode?), but when you flip to tank mode, you can scrap a card from your hand to scrap an enemy upgrade.  Scrapping an armor isn't so bad when you can retrieve it from the scrap pile with Hunker Down.  If you couple this card with some card drawing and flipping abilities, you could really drive your opponent nuts.

What kinds of decks will this card be useful in? While my full deck idea will be featured in a separate article, I think this stratagem not only helps Megatron, Decepticon Leader, but multi-tank decks.  My first instinct is to go with a tanks team of Brunt, Artillery Drone (4), Megatron (10), Demolisher (6), one of the (4) star battle patrol tanks, and this card (1). Demolisher would draw a lot of cards, which Megatron could discard to scrap enemy upgrades.  If you are willing to go with one less tank in exchange for an all Decepticon squad, you could swap out the battle patrol for one of the 4 star deception car or plane patrol bots.

Bust Some Deceptichops!

History lesson: A perfect card to pair with Such Heroic Nonsense, because Ironhide is who Megatron said it to in the movie.  While it is lacks the emotional gut punch of that card, the phrase has become Ironhide's trademark catch-phrase.  Is it clear what exactly Deceptichops are?  Not really, but that makes it even more awesome.

Why this card is exciting: Remember all those decks you made using Ironhide, Veteran Autobot?  Probably not, because he's the vanilla starter that you stopped using as soon as you bought your first booster pack (unless you wanted to run my Vanilla Trucks deck for some reason).

What does this card do?  For the low low price of one star, this card adds a whopping 4 health to Ironhide, making him an 11 health bot for the total price of 7 stars.  But wait, there's more!  This card also gives Ironhide a huge +2 bold and tough if he's fighting a Deception. All of a sudden, a lame card with no abilities has a chance of being helpful in a fight.

What kinds of decks will this card be useful in? While my full deck idea will be featured in a separate article, this card really helps revive the otherwise unusable Ironhide.  You don't get any fancy tricks or gimmicks, just a solid across the board increase in stats that doesn't create an unfair gamebreaking advantage.  I haven't played around a lot with combos yet, but my first impression is Ironhide + this card could be a good 7 star filler in a truck deck, especially if you know you are going up against Decepticons.  There are a lot of Autobot truck options, including Optimus. the off road patrol, Brawn, Gears, Outback, Hound, Trailbreaker, Inferno, Grapple, Ultra Magnus, and ... wait for it ... KUP!  Throw in 3 copies of 4-Wheel Drive, Battering Ram, and Cargo Trailer and let the mayhem begin.

Siege Conversion (Netflix Spoilers)

Spoilers for season 1 of Netflix's War for Cybertron series below.

This deck is based around Decepticons who saw the light and became good guys on the Netflix Transformers War for Cybertron Series. WARNING: Read no further if you haven't watched the show yet.  Seriously, stop reading and go watch it now. It's pretty good!

As always, the fortressmaximus.io visual depiction of the deck is included at the end.

Characters:
Captain Impactor (7)
Jetfire Air Guardian (10)
Specialist Ratchet (8)

Battle Cards (Pip)(#):
Armed Hovercraft (B)(2)
Composite Armor (O, BL)(2)
Crystal of Power (BL)(3)
Defensive Configuration (O)(3)
Emergency Repair Patch (B)(3)
Energon Axe (B)(3)
Enhanced Power Cell (BL)(3)
Escape Route (WG)(3)
Ghost Shield (O)(3)
Grenade Launcher (O)(3)
Junk Cannon (O)(3)
Medic! (no pip)(3)
Medic's Protective Field (W)(3)
Rapid Conversion (W)(3)

Breakdown: 14 Orange, 8 Blue, 9 White, 3 Gren, 8 Black. 9 Actions, 14 Weapons, 6 Utility, 14 Armor

Why these characters:

In the show, Jetfire starts out as Megatron's #1.  He seems like a pretty honorable dude, but he's got Starscream needling him.  When Megatron's nastiness becomes too much, he switches sides (which is a notable difference from the original cartoon origin, as depicted in this TCG deck).

Impactor is also a bad dude when we meet him, but Ratchet finds him all blown up and repairs him.  He decides to pay it forward and help him around the hospital.  When Ratchet gets drawn into the conflict, Impactor comes along to make sure his buddy Ratchet is ok.  He eventually makes the conversion complete and joins the good guys (though it is questionable how well that works out for him).

Why these battle cards:

Medic and Medic's Protective Field seem like required cards with Ratchet, and he gets to start with a Medic card in is hand. Jetfire's flip ability lets me retrieve an Armor or Utility from the scrap pile and put it in my hand.  So, I loaded up on them (Defensive Configuration, Emergency Repair Patch, Enhanced Power Cell, Medic's Protective Field, Crystal of Power).  Defensive configuration allows me to have more armor slots, which could be helpful with Jetfire continuously digging for them.  Composite Armor helps Impactor (I'm not sure if Jetfire's ability let's me play it on him, though I think there was a ruling somewhere about it). Ghost Shield allows me to upgrade my defense if I have taken up all my armor slots.  Because Jetfire needs to flip to retrieve cards, I added Rapid Conversion and Escape Route.  Energon Axe only works on damaged characters, which seems to fit the theme given Ratchet's repair job on Impactor. 

Strategy:

Now that the gang is all together and on the right side of the war, it's time to fight.  Ratchet starts out with Medic! in my hand (which is one reason he's fun to put in healing decks).  Impactor goes first, flipping to bot mod to get his bold 1 bonus.  Given the number of upgrades in this deck, there is a decent chance those three cards I flip (or four if I hit a white pip) will include an armor or utility.  If so, Jetfire transforms and snags it from my scrap pile.  Ratchet transforms and uses Medic to heal Jetfire or Impactor (to be TV show accurate, you should tell your opponent they have to attack Impactor).  That gives him +1 attack to go along with healing.  He then stays in bot form, while Jetfire pretty much flips back and forth to collect upgrades.

Looking for more War for Cybertron fun?  Here is a spoiler filled examination/discussion of the Netflix show's first season.

Shockwave and Awe

What's better than Shockwave?  Only one thing ... TWO Shockwaves. This deck teams up Shockwave with the one character he can count on ... himself.  Interestingly enough, they have a chance to work together quite nicely.  Note, the fortressmaximus.io visual depiction of this deck is included at the end of the article.

Characters:
Decepticon Shockwave (11)
Major Shockwave (14)

Battle Cards (Pip)(Number):
Brainstorm (B)(3)
Collateral Damage (B)(3)
Computer Sabotage (O)(3)
Disruptive Entrance (B)(3)
Energy Pack (O)(3)
Espionage (WG)(3)
LV Gamma-Disrupter Launcher (B)(3)
Rapid Conversion (W)(3)
Scoundrel's Blaster (BG)(3)
Security Checkpoint (BB)(2)
Squish Them Like Bugs (O)(3)
Swindled (O)(2)
Unconventional Flying Object (B)(3)
Underhanded Tactics (B)(3) 

Breakdown: 11 Orange, 25 Blue, 6 White, 6 Green.  31 Actions, 6 Weapons, 3 Utility.

Why these characters:

You can't really make a double Shockwave deck without two Shockwaves.  Plus, Shockwave is awesome. He was the main guy Megatron left on Cybertron to keep stuff under control.  He has a laser thingy instead of a hand.  He has a cool voice.  He has one glowing eye. He's purple.  He thought female Autobots were extinct.  Well, I guess the last part isn't so cool, but nobody's perfect.

Why these battle cards:

Let's start with the easy - Shockwave has his own weapon card.  A card I owned three of before I managed to get a copy of either Shockwave card.  I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO FIND A WAY TO USE THOSE DARN CARDS FOREVER.  LV Gamma-Disrupter Launcher, you are in!  Shockwave also gives an opportunity to use the card that is made for spaceships but is never really used - Unconventional Flying Object - along with other cards that maximize flipping like Rapid Conversion.  Shockwave loves to flip!  Both versions let you draw cards and one makes your opponent scrap one.  Squish Them Like Bugs has a decent chance of being useful because both Shockies are pretty big.  I have a ton of action cards in here, and with all the extra card drawing, I need Brainstorm to let me use them. In an attempt to trigger Decepticon Shockwave's ping damage, I really got into having cards that scrap my opponent's deck, with Espionage, Collateral Damage, Disruptive Entrance, Computer Sabotage, and Security Checkpoint. 

Strategy: 

This deck is geared around flipping repeatedly to get actions into my hand, and then playing those actions to mess with my opponent's hand and add some ping damage.  Since this is a 'tall' deck, I'm hoping I can make some hay with my cards and limit my opponent's damage by keeping their hand size low.  I probably am getting Decepticon Shockwave into bot mode to set up his ping ability.  Then I'm repeatedly trying to get Major Shockwave in and out of spaceship mode.  This makes my opponent scrap a card, which magically triggers the other Shockwave's ping damage.  Then I play one of my scrapping action cards and ping again.  See? These guys love each other!

A Star(Card) Is Born

The Needlenose back of the binder challenge is particularly difficult for me because Needlenose doesn't appear in an episode of the show. This means I am robbed of my normal theme deck article structure.  The best I could do is share this Dinobot-a-riffic comic cover:

Even without the benefit of TV, the power of the internet reveals that his slogan is "Get hip or get hit!" That is worth something! He is apparently cool and trendy, which means I have to come up with a deck befitting his attitude.  Does this deck do the trick? Sure!

Characters:

Needlenose (8)
Nightracer (5)
Flamewar (5)
Raider Laserbeak (5)
Villainous Spotlight Stratagem
Stealth Mission Stratagem 

Battle Cards (Pip)(Number):
Ancient Wisdom (O)(3)
Armed Hovercraft (B)(3)
Cooling Vents (O)(3)
Crystal of Power (BL)(3)
Data Pad (W)(3)
End Hostilities (B)(3)
Energon Mace (B)(3)
Grenade Launcher (O)(3)
Grenade Launcher (O)(3)
Hold the Line (WG)(3)
Pocket Processor (G)(3)
Spymaster's Ruse (BL,BL,G)(3)
Unleash Potential (B)(3)
Even the Score (OO)(2)
Mounted Missles (OO)(1)
Pincer Movement (OB)(1)

Why these characters:

One key ingredient to the Needlenose back of the binder challenge is ... Needlenose.  His abilities both trigger on star cards, so my goal was to get as many as possible into my deck.  My first stop was Nightracer, as she (along with her stratagem) brings two star cards into my deck.  Villainous Spotlight is a means to two more star cards, so I needed to make sure I had all Decepticons on my squad (I could have gone with Beachcomber, but I couldn't find a partner to make his abilities work).  With my ten remaining stars, I picked the always versitile Flamewar and Laserbeak, because he's awesome.

Why these battlecards:

The only star card that works with Nightracer is Even the Score.  To hide which secret action I play, I added Hold the Line (which gives some healing and damage limits), End Hostilities (which will help my orange skewed deck defend agaisnt orange decks).  To make the best use of these cards and Nightracer's abilities, I added Spymaster's Ruse, which will keep them in play.

Since Needlenose is hip to star cards, I added Unleash Potential and Ancient Wisdom to bring some more into my deck. I admit I am kind of obsessed with this combo, and I haven't really gotten it to work, but there's a first time for everything!  I also added cards to help draw cards to get these into my hand, Pocket Processor, Data Pad.

Strategy: 

The goal is to get secret actions and star cards into my hand.  When this happens dictates when I play Needlenose.  I'm probably flipping Flamewar into bot mode and keeping her there to help everyone defend.  If I can get star cards into my hand, I'm Needlenose is doing all the flipping, which lets me do 1 damage when I play a star card and then retrive it when I flip him.

Swarm of Bees

Bumblebee.  If he isn't the most popular Transformers character, the Transformers people think he is.  He's got a ton of Transformers TCG cards (5 plus a battle card).  He's got his own movie. He's in the new War for Cybertron Series on Netflix. And now, he has his own deck.  And by own, I mean literally because he's the only one in it. Bonus points if you catch the references in this post.

Note, the fortressmaximus.io deck visualization is at the end of the post.

Characters:

Bumblebee Brave Warrior

Bumblebee Courageous Scout

Bumblebee Legendary Warrior

Battle Cards (#)(Pip Color):

Agility of Bumblebee (3)(O)

Attack Drone (3)(WG)

Data Pad (3)(W)

Diagnosis (3)(W)

Emergency Repair Patch (3)(B)

Energon Axe (3)(B)

Force Field (3)(W)

Fusion Borer (3)(BL)

Grenade Launcher (1)(O)

Last Stand (3)(BL)

Peace Through Tyranny (3) (OO)

Start Your Engines (3)(B)

Treasure Hunt (3)(O)

Turbo Boosters (3)(O)

Stats: 16 Orange, 9 Blue, 3 Green, 12 White, 6 Black. 15 Actions, 10 Weapons, 6 Armor, 9 Utility.

Why these characters: What's better than one Bumblebee?  Two Bumblees!  What's better than that? Three Bumblebees!  Luckily, none of the Bumblees talk via poorly edited radio snippets.  And the best part is ... no Agent Burns! 

Why these battle cards: I have three Bumblebees so I need three Agility of Bumblebee cards to make them ... agile.  After that, it helps to look at the character abilities.  Legendary Warrior likes being the last bot standing.  Peace through Tyranny and Last Stand can help with that by sacrificing Brave Warrior. Courageous Scout likes to flip and get white cards.  Start Your Engines helps with the flipping (and gives us an untap). Emergency Repair Patch is a white Autobot healing card, along with the defense of Force Field, the draw power of Data Pad, and the stackable attack of Attack Drone.  Turbo Boosters is added because all these dudes are cars.

Strategy: We start by flipping Courageous Scout.  Brave Warrior better be brave, because we are attacking with him first. Once he gets some damage on him, we canmake him fodder for Peace Through Tyranny or untap him with Start Your Engines to squeeze some more value out of him.  Courageous Scout flips back to car mode to snag a card and plan.  Then it is time for Legendary Warrior to do his thing. Legendary Warrior gets first dibs on armor because odds are it will be up to him to win the match.  If you can pull this off, you will stay alive and graduate to head of the Bumblebee class.

Random Bumblebee Musing: Volkswagen Bumblebee > SportscarBumblebee.  This cannot be debated. Volkswagen Beetles were known as 'bugs.'  Bumblebees are bugs.  It just fits.

Random Bumblebee TCG Musing: Bumblebee might have the strangest subtitle names:

1. "Least Likely, Most Dangerous" - Objectively false because that card isn't very dangerous at all.

2. "Brave Warrior" AND "Legendary Warrior" - I guess you can be brave and legendary, but neither really fits Bumblebee.

3. "Trusted Lieutenant" - As opposed to an officer you don't trust? He may not be very good at anything, but at least we can trust him!

Random Bumblebee Fact: Approximately 1/3rd of the food we eat is the result of honeybee pollination.