Cosmotrain!

When two characters or celebrities get together, there is a tendency to smush their names together to create a newer better moniker. Cosmos and Astrotrain are two spaceship characters that tangled with each other a few times in the original Transformers cartoon, which is pretty amazing given how few episodes they were both in.  Can these two spaceships look beyond their differences and co-headline a deck that I call Cosmotrain? It's worth trying, if only to break me from my tendency towards faction specific decks (See Starscream's Brigade, Passing the Matrix, Colorful Windblade, Vanilla Trucks, Oh How it Pains Me to Do This).  Before we dig into the deck (which is shown in fortressmaximus.io visual form at the end of this post), enjoy some Generation 1 Cosmotrain history, broken down by episode:

Blaster Blues

In Blaster Blues, Blaster attended a rock concert with Spike and Carly.  Blaster, totally the third wheel, sat between them.

The music was so legit that Blaster started broadcasting it to all the Autobots, music royalties be damned.  Cosmos dug the tunes floating around in space.  The reverie was broken up by yet another Decepticon plot.  This time, the baddies stole the "Voltronic Galaxer."

Blaster and Cosmos were sent to search outer space where they found Astrotrain and some other Decepticons chilling on the moon.  Being Blaster and Cosmos, they got caught and incorporated into the plan by being forced to block all radio signals on Earth.  Talk about your all time backfires!

Luckily the Autobots have another spaceship.  Omega Supreme took some more Autobots to the moon to rescue Blaster and Cosmos, where he was attacked by Astrotrain.  While Astrotrain and the Decepticons were busy with Omega Supreme (who pretty much chased them off) Cosmos and Blaster trashed the Voltronic Galaxer and saved the day, going from chumps to heroes!  Pay no attention to the fact that it was Omega Supreme who did all the dirty work.

The God Gambit

Astrotrain and Cosmos tangled again in The God Gambit. Astrotrain shot down Cosmos, who crash-landed on Titan.  Fun fact 1: Titan is the sixth moon of Saturn.  Want to learn more? Check out NASA's website!   Cosmos' body was discovered by Titan's natives, who just happened to be discussing whether their "Sky Gods" were real.  Fun fact 2: Aliens don't really live on Titan.

Astrotrain, who was pursuing Cosmos saw how gullible the Titan people are and pretended to be the supreme god so he could enslave them.  Fun fact 3: These Titans are basically people, not Titan Master Transformers of Wave 5 TCG fame or the large Transformers like Metroplex or Omega Supreme.  Astrotrain propped up the unconscious Cosmos in their temple to serve as an idol and turned to harvesting energy crystals, because apparently crystals have tons of energy.
  Luckily, a Titan named Talaria was lurking around and she used Cosmos to call Optimus Prime.  Cosmos woke up just in time to save her from Decepticon induced death, but he was once again knocked out by Astrotrain.  Astrotrain snatched Talaria and decided to sacrifice her to further his control over the other Titans.  As was the case in Blaster Blues, Omega Supreme showed up and basically saved the day by scaring the Decepticons off.  But Cosmos was there so he's a hero too, right?!

The Secret of Omega Supreme

Cosmos kind of got the better of Astrotrain in The Secret of Omega Supreme.  Cosmos figured out that the Decepticons were mining an asteroid.  Needing proof, he sneaked onto Astrotrain to steal a piece of the ore (which turned out to be like an egg and the asteroid had a giant alien inside).  Even though he slipped and fell, Cosmos made a clean-fish getaway.  When things got real and the alien bug started wreaking havoc, Omega Supreme showed up to defeat the alien and save the day.  Editor's note: I'm sensing a pattern here.  Have you seen the movie Twins?  It's like Omega Supreme is Arnold  Schwarzenegger and Cosmos is Danny DeVito.

Characters: Autobot Cosmos (11), Astrotrain (12), Orbital Strike Stratagem (1), Fuel Cache (1)

Battle Cards (Pip Color)(Number):
Acute Reflexes (W)(2)
Anticipation Engine (W)(2)
Attack Drone (WG)(3)
Combat Training (W)(2)
Data Pad (W)(2)
Equipment Enthusiast (W)(3)
Quartermaster (W)(3)
Bolster (O)(3)
Extra Padding (BG)(3)
Increased Durability (BL)(2)
Terrifying Resilience (O, BL)(2)
Sabotaged Armaments (B)(1)
Scavenge the Battlefield (B)(1)
Mining Pick (O)(2)
Minor Medical Kit (BL)(2)
Special Delivery (BL)(2)
Squish Them Like Bugs (O)(2)
Swap Missions (B)(2)
Fuel Cache* (WOB)(1)
Breakdown: 11 Orange, 7 Blue, 6 Green, 18 White, 10 Black.  18 Actions (5 Secret), 7 Weapons, 7 Armor, 8 Utility,  1 Star Card

Why these characters: I've been toying with Cosmos decks since I started playing the game. Cosmos was the first card I spent real money on because I loved the toy back in the day and the idea of instant knockouts seemed cool.  Unfortunately, the star cap on his ability limited his effectiveness.  With the reveal of the Orbital Strike stratagem that boosts the star cap, I wanted to give him another try.  Astrotrain gets the sidekick job due to the number of episodes he shared with Cosmos.  Plus, it just seems right to have two spaceships on the same team.  Given what repeatedly happened in the show, Omega Supreme should be here too, but star count wise that just isn't happening.

Why these battle cards: I'm trying to get as many upgrades on Astrotrain while burning through cards to trigger Cosmos' KO ability.  This led me to look for white upgrade cards. Since this is a two wide deck, I only picked two of each upgrade except for Attack Drone because I can stack three in one slot.  Acute Reflexes is a great card for white pip decks because it gives a white card bonus on attacks and defense and allows focus to help trigger that.  If I have any chance of winning, Astrotrain will have lots of upgrades, so Combat Training helps both in defense and offense.   Data Pad has a draw card/plan action that might help me get the right cards in an attack. Finally, Anticipation Engine lets me look at the top card of my deck and play it if it is an action.  Given my deck makeup, I have around a 50-50 shot of this happening, depending on what other cards my bots are equipped with that might help me manipulate my deck.

I then moved to white actions, focusing on cards that allow me to draw.  Equipment Enthusiast should reward Astrotrain for the upgrades I put him him and help run through my deck, which helps Cosmos. Quartermaster could help me move a Cosmos upgrade to Astrotrain. This strategy also helped me narrow down my star card to Fuel Cache. It has a white pip, but can also help in battling with its orange and blue pips, while cycling through three more cards if I play it.

With the white pip cards I liked exhausted, my next question was whether to focus on damage or defense.  I decided with two bots, I should try to keep them alive and focused on adding some nice armor to my deck.  I hedged my bets where I could with armor pips that could help in battle.  Bolster is an orange pip secret action that allows me to play an armor onto the defender.  I decided I needed to have more armor than usual so I could stand a good chance of having one to play.  I figure people will try to knock Astrotrain's upgrades off, so you can never have enough.  I had to pick Terrifying Resilience because it has Astrotrain on it. Plus, it's orange and black pips can't hurt. Increased Durability is a black pip card that adds four health. I picked three Extra Paddings because they can stack onto one armor slot.

To avoid letting my opponent figure out that Bolster was in play, I added a Sabotaged Armaments and a Scavenge the Battlefield secret action to the deck.  The latter could come in handy if Cosmos is about to be knocked out while he has upgrades.

Given the needle I am trying to thread by hitting white pips but still doing some damage, I added mining pick to help with deck manipulation and Minor Medic Kit to try to keep my dudes alive.  I added Special Delivery to try to shift some damage from my characters and a Squish Them Like Bugs to take advantage of the likelihood that my stars will exceed the stars of my opponent's bot.  Cosmos is pretty weak as an attacker , but has significantly more health, so Swap Missions should allow me to keep attacking with Astrotrain, or allow me to swap over to Cosmos if my deck is close to running out.

Because these guys don't really need to flip, I did not include the one spaceship specific battle card, Unconventional Flying Object, which is kind of a shame.

Strategy: Cosmos doesn't really need to flip once he gets into bot mode, so I can focus on flipping Astrotrain as he gets upgrades.  Hopefully, the white cards help me get through my deck so I can use Cosmos' KO ability.  Being able to hit people bigger than 12 stars makes Cosmos more viable against tall decks. Cosmos has high health and no attack, while Astrotrain has less health but a pretty hefty attack.  They make an odd couple, but hopefully I can find a way to get them to work together to maximize their strengths. Cosmos basically flips once to bot mode to gain +1 attack and the chance to use his shuffle ability.  Astrotrain transforms as he gets more upgrades.

Note: If anyone has any extra Equipment Enthusiast cards, let me know. I don't actually have any so I can't try this deck out in practice yet!