Biker Girlz

This deck has no basis in Transformers history, as I can't recall a time when these four characters would have hung out.  It features four female motorcycle specialist Transformers out to take over the world. Could they conquer Cybertron (or the Energon Open)?  Doubtful.  But I’m curious to see what you think of the Biker Girlz*.  The visual of the legal version of the deck from fortressmaximus.io is available at the end of the article (or you can just click here).

Characters: Arcee - Skilled Fighter (5), Flamewar (5), Specialist Flamewar (7), Chromia - Special Ops (8)

Battle Cards (Pip Colors)(Number in Deck):
Attack Drone (WG)(x3)
Combat Training (W)(x3)
Data Pad (W)(x3)
Defensive Formation(O)(x2)
Field Communicator (W)(x3)
Grenade Launcher (O)(x3)
Heat of Battle (W)(x1)
Mining Pick (O)(x2)
Multi-Mission Gear (O)(x2)*
Multi tool (B)(x1)*
Pop A Wheelie (W)(x2)
Ready for Action (None)(x3)
Repair Bay (O)(x2)
Rest and Relaxation (G)(x3)
Rock Toss (O, BL)(x3)
Roll out (OB) x1
Sturdy Armor (BG) x3
Breakdown: 16 Orange, 4 Blue, 9 Green, 15 White, 3 Black. 17 Actions, 9 Weapons, 5 Armor, 9 Utility.


*Update: Some eagle eyed readers have noted that Multi-Mission gear is banned.  If you want to run a legal deck, take those two out and replace them with two more Multi-tools.  If you do that, the breakdown changes to: 14 Orange, 6 Blue, 3 Armor, 11 Weapons.  I'm open to other suggested replacements.

Why these characters?  If they are going to make enough female transformers to form a 4 wide team, someone should create a deck with them. These ladies are also all specialists, which made using cards catered to that type easier to include. Finally, they are all motorcycles, and a Transformer motorcycle gang is just cool.  Biker Girlz is also a good excuse to use Pop a Wheelie cards.  It seems like these characters have a decent shot of working together to keep each other alive.  Arcee heals everyone else when she flips.  Flamewar gives everyone Tough 1 in bot mode.  Chromia can help pull cards into your hand.  Flamewar Special Ops is there because she fits.

Battle card reasoning: My overall goal was to keep these bots alive as long as possible. The deck has 16 orange pips, 4 blue, 9 green, and 15 white.  So how am I keeping anyone alive with so few blue pips?  I focused on actions that had powers that healed or added tough.  Combat training adds Tough 1, Defensive Formation adds +1 Defense, Field Communicator lets me draw a card when I attach it and play it, which can be helpful if I draw a healing card.  Heat of Battle gives Tough 3, Mutli Mission Gear* not only adds defense but lets me play an action.  Repair Bay heals one from everyone. Rest and Relaxation heals 1 from one character. Sturdy Armor helps against ranged enemies.  The 15 white pips are there to help Chromia trigger her abilities.  I tried to pick enough white cards to trigger Chromia's bot mode attack power of drawing cards while having good cards with white pips to end up in the crap pile for her flip to alt mode grab ability. 

This team doesn’t hit very hard, so the remaining cards are meant to deal damage.  In addition, I tried to pick cards that allow me to get extra attacks in, since the bots don’t have high attack stats.  Pop a Wheelie flips triggers Arcee’s healing effect and Chromia’s white pip card pull.  It also gives everyone Bold 1 from Flamewar.  Because there’s an extra attack this turn, this would result in two characters getting an extra bold attack. Roll out would have a similar effect, without the extra attack.  Ready for Action lets me squeeze out another attack by untapping someone.  Rock Toss either chips in a free damage point, or gives me pierce on the flip.  These cycles need some heavy weapons to overcome 2, 3, and 4 attack, so they have attack drones, grenade launchers, and mining picks.

Strategy: I think you have to flip Flamewar first to get everyone else tough.  The first attack would probably Specialist Flamewar.  She’s the most expendable and I want to attack with Chromia when she’s in bot mode.  She would be my only tapped character, which would overcome her stealth.  Second turn, I’d flip Chromia and attack with her.  Now she would be the character people have to fight, which spreads the damage around.  Third turn, I’d flip Arcee and attack with Flamewar.  Fourth turn, I’d either transform Arcee back to heal everyone else or transform Chromia to pull a Pop a Wheelie out of the scrap pile. Arcee's healing is crucial to keep my team afloat.

What do you think about this squad?

*Biker Girlz is a reference to the 2003 hit (?) movie, Biker Boyz.