Heroic Nonsense

Let's go back to one of the most shocking moments of Transformers the Movie, a scene that kind of scarred me as a youngster ... and it doesn't even involve Prime dying (but I have a deck based on that too - see Passing the Matrix).  Early in the movie, Optimus dispatched a shuttle to Earth piloted by four core characters - Brawn, Ironhide, Prowl, and Ratchet.  Thanks to Laserbeak, Megatron and the gang intercepted it and used it as a trojan horse to get past the Autobot defenses on Earth.  Rather than tie them up and allow their inevitable rescue as he had done countless times before, he straight up murdered them.  No one died in the show (heck, even Jetfire was brought back right after he crashed into the ice) and these were main characters!  Even worse, each death was more shocking than the next.

This deck recounts the last stand of Brawn, Ironhide, Prowl, and Ratchet.  At least they went down fighting.  The fortressmaximus.io visual depiction of the deck is included at the end of the article.

Characters:
Specialist Ratchet (8)
Prowl, Military Strategist (6)
Ironhide, Veteran Autobot (6)
Brawn (5)

Battle Cards:
4 Wheel Drive (B)(3)
Cooling Vents (O)(3)
Diagnosis (W)(3)
Emergency Maintenance (O)(3)
Emergency Repair Patch (B)(3)
Field Repair (O)(3)
High Five (G)(3)
Medic (1)
New Orders (BL)(3)
Ready for Action (3)
Repair Bay (O)(3)
Rest and Relaxation (G)(3)
Static Laser of Ironhide (O)(3)
Toolbox (G)(3)
War of Attrition (BL, G)(3)
Breakdown: 15 Orange, 9 Blue, 12 Green, 3 White, 3 Black. 31 Actions, 3 Weapons, 6 Armor, 3 Utility.

Why these characters: I've been waiting for Brawn for 3 waves to be able to make this deck. These dudes got killed, and in increasingly disturbing ways.  Brawn got blasted right off the bat.  Prowl got shot so bad fire came out of his eyes and mouth. Is that even possible? Ironhide and Ratchet put up a fight but didn't really get anything accomplished due to impossibly bad aim before they were taken out.  I don't know what is worse, being the first transformers to die, or getting killed by Starscream.  Ironhide survived the initial barrage only to be straight up shot in the face by Megatron at close range.  That one really got me.  Such heroic nonsense indeed.  This is the one chance these unfortunate Autobots have to change history.

Why these battle cards: Since these guys got smashed by a sneak attack, I decided to focus the deck on Ratchet's healing ability to see if they could recover.  Ratchet's attack increases by the amount he heals, so I threw in all the healing cards I could, especially the ones that also have other benefits like Cooling Vents and War of Attrition.  I only included one copy of Medic, because Ratchet starts the game with it in his hand, but it doesn't have any pips. To make the most of this ability, I added Ready for Action to hopefully untap Ratchet and use his ability again (and it has Ironhide on it).  Aside from all the healing cards, I added Ironhide's laser to give him a chance to defend himself.  Three of these guys are trucks, so I added 4 Wheel Drive to account for the fact that I don't have a lot of upgrades to deal damage.  While Brawn isn't the focus of the deck, my pip distribution gives him a chance of hitting multiple pips for his ability. I also included New Orders because the rest of my squad is 6 stars or less so maybe they'll get in an extra attack before they bite the dust.  It also gives Brawn a chance to hit a black pip.



Strategy: This deck is all about trying to keep your dudes alive through healing.  If it is played right, Ratchet can use that to increase his attack significantly, which is needed due to the lack of firepower on this team and in the deck.  Prowl is pretty useless because everyone else on this team is a truck, so he's probably attacking first.  Ironhide would prefer to attack when I find his weapon.  Ratchet only has to flip once to get him in position. Try to use Ratchet when you are able to do the most healing, so you definitely don't want him to go first.  Hopefully, your opponent will get tired of almost killing your guys only to have them heal up and leave the shuttle to concoct another plan.  But, if you get beaten, you can always say you lost on purpose to be true to the movie.

Secret Warriors

The Secret Warriors are a Marvel Comics superhero team.  But now they are also a Transformers Trading Card Game deck built around their not so secret (because it is written on their cards) shared love of secret actions.  Secret Warriors, come out and plaaaaaay!*

The fortressmaximus.io visual depiction of the deck is included at the end of the article.

Characters:
Pounce (8)
Sergeant Skywarp, Black Ops Seeker (8)
Nightracer (5)
Raider Nightflight (4)

Battle Cards:
Aerial Recon (O)(1)
Backfire (B)(3)
Battlefield Report (B)(3)
End Hostilities (B)(3)
Enhanced Power Cell (BL)(3)
Grenade Launcher (O)(3)
Hold the Line (WG)(3)
Increased Durability (BL)(3)
Mining Pick (O)(3)
Minor Medic Kit (BL, BL)(3)
Reflect Damage (G)(3)
Special Ops Mission (W)(3)
Spymasters Ruse (BL, BL)(3)
Stable Cover (BL)(3)
Breakdown: 7 Orange, 9 Blue, 6 White, 9 Green, 21 Black.  24 Actions (21 Secret), 6 Weapons, 3 Armor, 7 Utility.

Why these characters:  Pounce, Skywarp and Nightracer all make secret actions more useful.  Skywarp allows me to draw cards when I play a secret action in bot mode and return 2 secret actions to my hand in plane mode.  Pounce's bot mode ability is another way to get a secret action into my hand and arrange the deck.  This ensures I'll always have a strong hand full of secret actions. Nightracer gives a bold or tough bonus for secret actions played for the whole team and I'm pretty much guaranteed to play one every turn.



The biggest question I faced was whether to go with Nightracer's stratagem and add more star cards or to go with another character.  At the end of the day, I decided I'd be better off with another character because I don't really like the star card options for this deck.  Nightflight is just a warm body whose stars fit, but I guess it can't hurt to have two characters with 'night' in their name.

Why these battle cards: Spymaster's Ruse is the key card in this deck, with Special Ops Mission coming a close second.  It allows a secret action to hang around until it is triggered.  Having secret actions on the table is key for Nightracer's and Pounce's alt mode abilities.  As I noted above, I wasn't too enamored with the star card secret actions that Nightracer's stratagem could have gotten me.  I had considered playing it and Villainous Spotlight, but I felt I wasn't getting much utility out of the extra star cards.  The secret actions I chose deflect or reduce damage in interesting ways.

Grenade Launcher and Mining Pick are there to deal some damage. Aerial Recon fits two of my characters and gives them some defense and the ability to manipulate the deck a bit when battling. Enhanced Durability, Enhanced Power Cell, and Minor Medic Kit are there to keep the Secret Warriors alive.  I'm hoping these cards will work well with the defensive powers of the secret actions.

Strategy: These characters like to flip a bit, but their powers are good on both sides. If I am going first, I'm strongly considering flipping Pounce and leading with Nightflight since I can't play a card anyway.  This gives me a chance to get some secret actions into my hand and let's me plan Nighflight's attack.  Nightflight becomes the tapped target which saves my other dudes.  After Pounce, Skywarp likely transforms to trigger his draw ability and get him in position to snag some secret actions from the scrap pile on his flip back. Nightracer's job is to support the rest of the squad, depending on whether bold or tough is needed.  If I can get multiple secret actions on the table, using Spymaster's Ruse or Special Ops Mission, Pounce will flip to alt mode and ... pounce with a pretty boss ATK that will likely get through thanks to all the black pip cards in the deck.  Bonus points if you say "Can you dig it?!" when you flip your secret actions.*

* This is a reference to the classic movie, The Warriors.  It isn't really that good, but you should probably watch it anyway.

Hitchcock's Revenge

Alfred Hitchcock is one of the greatest filmmakers of all time.  He's dead now, so he can't make any more movies.  But, through the hourglass of time, we can see that he predicted the emergence of the Transformers Trading Card Game and embedded a team suggestion in one of his most famous movies:


How did Hitchcock know that by wave 5, we'd have enough birds to form a scary squad of Decepticons flyers?  They don't call him the Master of Suspense for nothing!  He can't follow through and make the deck, so I made it for him.



First, I gave you a team of horns, now I take to the sky! Behold!  Hitchcock's Revenge!  Note: The fortressmaximus.io visual depiction of the deck is at the end of the article

Characters:
Wingspan (8)
Raider Sights (6)
Raider Laserbeak (5)
Buzzsaw (5)
Strategic Airlift Stratagem (1)



Battle Cards:
Armed Hovercraft (B)(3)
Crystal of Power (BL)(3)
Energon Axe (BL)(3)
Energon Mace (BL)(3)
Force Field (W)(3)
Frag Toss (W)(3)
Fusion Borer (BL)(3)
Grenade Launcher (O)(3)
Peace Through Tyranny (OO)(1)
Pocket Processor (G)(3)
Quartermaster (W)(3)
Regenerative Core (G)(3)
Reprocess (G)(3)
The Bigger They Are (B)(3)
Breakdown: 5 Orange, 12 Blue, 9 Green, 9 White, 6 Black.  9 Weapons, 3 Armor, 3 Utility, 25 Actions.

Why these characters: Um. They are all birds.  That's pretty much it.

Note: Despite being left out of the attack on Autobot City (and my cassette squad deck memorializing it), Laserbeak is still a valued member of the crew.

Why these  battle cards: The Strategic Airlift makes Wingspan's ability much more useful. Buzzsaw lets you play a blue weapon when he attacks, so I included Armed Hovercraft, Energon Axe, and Energon Mace.

Wingspan takes scrapped upgrades and turns them into defense.  So, I tagged upgrades that self scrap - Force Field, Fusion Borer, Crystal of Power, Grenade Launcher, Regenerative Core, and Reprocess.  There are some other card combos that could pull this off, but I liked the idea that these had other good effects in exchange for losing the upgrade.

I chose Frag Toss because the team is all Decepticons.

Since these dudes are low on stars, I added The Bigger They Are.

Peace Through Tyranny is included to KO Sights and turn him into upgrade.  And honestly, I finally go one copy of the card so I want to try it out.

Finally, Pocket Processor is there to try to get Quartermaster/Peace Through Tyranny, in my hand to bring KO sights if need by and then bring him back if he gets scrapped.

Strategy: The strategy here is to get upgrades on as many dudes as possible. Sights attacks first in an attempt to turn him into his upgrade mode.  I'd keep Buzzsaw in stealth mode until I get a blue weapon in hand, then go ahead and use him. While I don't have a ton of upgrades, the fact that they are self-scrapping will get them under Wingspan.  The best strategy also includes a lot of bird puns to distract your opponent.

Mess With The Bull, You Get The Horns

This deck is not based on a Transformers episode.  No, it is based on a simpler concept, a phrase that has taken many incarnations.  You mess with the bull, you get the horns.  Naming a deck You Mess With The Bull, You Get The Horns implies that your deck is tough and fearless and by extension, YOU are tough and fearless.  It exudes confidence.  The deck name alone serves as a warning to your opponent to give up before things get really bad for them.



Note: The fortressmaximus.io visual depiction of this deck is provided at the end of the post.

Characters

The Bulls: Torox (5) and Horri-bull (6) with Grax (3)
The Horns (Rhinos): Ramhorn (5), Headstrong (5)

Battle Cards:
Energon Axe (B)(3)
Enhanced Power Cell (BL)(3)
Escape Capsule (O, BL)(3)
Escape Route (WG)(3)
Force Field (W)(3)
Hit and Run (W, BL)(3)
HV Electron Breacher (BL)(2)
Increased Durability (BL)(3)
Medic's Protective Field (W)(3)
Metal Detector (BL, G)(3)
Minor Medic Kit (BL)(3)
New Orders (BL)(3)
RR Disruptor Blade (BL)(1)
Special Delivery (BL)(3)
Indestructible Sword (BL, BL)(1)(Star Card)
Breakdown: 32 black, 12 White, 6 Green, 3 Orange, 3 Blue.  12 Actions, 12 Utility, 9 Armor, 7 Weapons.

Why these characters: It's simple.  I have two bulls on this team (Torox and Horri-bull).  I needed more horns to keep people from messing with them.  Who has a cooler horn than rhinos? No one.  Still not convinced?  Rhinos may be the origin of the unicorn myth.  Top that, other animals with horns! So Ramhorn and Headstrong joined the squad.  Grax is there to give Horri-bull health...and a head.

Why these cards: When Ramhorn defends, I can play a white armor.  I therefore added Force Field and Medic's Protective Shield. Horri-bull's body mode pings 1 damage (to him and an enemy) for each black pip card played.  So I stocked up on black pips.  Some of these cards are geared at keeping him alive - Enhanced Power Cell, Hit and Run, Increased Durability, Minor Medic Kit, and Special Delivery.  Indestructible Sword is cool because if it gets scrapped it goes back into my hand, where I can play it again.  New Orders can untap anyone on my team but Horri-bull so it is useful to squeeze in some extra attacks. Escape Capsule is just cool and I want to try it out.  Given my plan to give upgrades to Horri-bull it would be nice to keep them when Grax pops off. Finally, I need Horri-bull to flip every so often to send some of that damage he's accumulated to an enemy. Escape Route should help with this.  I also must recognize my failure as a deck builder for not including plasma horns.

Strategy: Ramhorn has stealth so he's staying hidden until I snag a white armor in my hand.  Most of my flips will be centered around Horri-bull.  He flips first to get into body mode so the black pip ping damage can start.  He'll want to keep transforming to bleed that off.  Most of the other characters don't need to transform much.  Headstrong has brave and defense of 3, but that is less useful now that there is so much pierce, so he may want to transform to ditch the brave.  Torox is happy to prevent healing in bull mode, but his stats are better in bot mode and he lets you plan when you transform.

Will this deck dominate your opponent? That is unclear.  What is clear is, someone in your match is getting the horns ... the question is, who?

Unboxing: Better Late Than Never

In PART ONE, I previewed what I was hoping to get out of my booster box.  Now that I finally have my box in hand, let's see how I did.

First pack.  Like an expansion team in sports, it was exciting to open a pack, even if it wasn't a winner.  Brawn is cool though, so I was feeling ok, even though the odds of being able to use the stratagem were minimal.

A few packs in, I nailed a sweet combo, with Skyshadow and Brisko as my first rare cards.

Megatron gave me my first 'head matches the body' pack.



The very next pack was notable because I got the infamous 'no stars' Topspin and my first duplicate character.  Are two Megatron heads better than one?



Halfway through and aside from half a Skyshadow, it was pretty uneventful ... until this.  I got a SRT and nailed one of the two I wanted most.  Nightracer may not be the best SRT, but she gives me a good excuse to try secret action cards.  I also got her stratagem so I was very happy:



I pulled the second half of Skyshadow, but I still needed the head and the stratagem to put him together.  Spoiler alert, I never got them so I suppose I'll have to scour the secondary/trade market for them. It really is daunting to try to pull four rare pieces together.



Here is the last pack I opened.  I was happy to nail one of the rare cards I really wanted and I got the awesome looking Kup head.  I don't think Nautica is the best character by any means, but I like unique cards and boats are prtty rare so far.  I'm definitely going to work on a boat themed deck:


Overall, here is the breakdown of my box:
SR (1): Nightracer
Rare (5): Sky Shadow Plane, Sky Shadow Tank, Nautica, Kup, Fangry
Rare Heads/Stratagems (5): Flintlock, Grax, Brisko, Better Things To Do Than Die, Bike Gang

Getting cool cards is the fun part of opening a box.  But the dark side is getting multiple copies of stuff you aren't so excited about.  I got 6 stratagems I have little or no chance of getting to use because they go with super rare cards.  At least they look cool.  And if I ever get lucky enough to snag one of the SRTs in wave 5, I'll have the stratagem ready to go.


I didn't get as many duplicates as I would have expected, but unfortunately I jinxed myself by talking trash about Crankcase.  I got stuck with three extras of him and two extra copies of his stratagem.  Next time I'll talk smack about a super rare!

I don't know how this box stacks up with what people are seeing, but I am quite excited about it.   Interestingly, I missed a few uncommon characters - Apex, Quake, and Wolfwire.   My priorities going forward are Skullsmasher, Ominus, Orbital Strike and Skyshadow Sync. That's not too bad.  By my informal internal happiness scoring system, here's how I did:


HITS:
1 SRT with extra credit for Windcharger or Nightracer
Rares: Skullsmasher, Nautica, Fangry, Kup or Skyshadow (almost)
Heads: Brisko, Grax, Flintlock

FAILS:
Maximum of 2 of any common character - Curse you Crankcase!
No more than 2 stratagems I can't use - if you are going to miss, miss big.  I got 6!
3 of Orbital Strike, Heroic Spotlight, Villainous Spotlight, More Guns, or Bike Gang stratagems - I really wanted Orbital Strike, but Bike Gang is a decent replacement because I can try to work it into my Biker Girlz deck.  I tend to use faction decks so Heroic Spotlight will be useful.
Belligerence battle card - No dice.  

Leave a comment or hit me up on Twitter with your thoughts!

Unboxing Preview

I've always enjoyed unboxing videos for some unexplainable reason.  They have literally no relevance to my life, or the cards I will get when I open my box.  And yet, there is something oddly comforting in watching someone else's joy when they get a good card. This year, due to the added anticipation caused by COVID-19 and the UPS delay of my box, I found myself watching even more than usual.

Now that my box is confirmed to arrive tomorrow, I have decided to do an unboxing article.  I realized I could never do a video as well as the people doing them (and the results of my twitter poll skewed towards a write up).  Plus, I haven't seen many articles about box openings, so maybe I'm helping an underserved market!

The Night Before

As I mentioned, my box has been delayed so I've had plenty of time to think about what I want in my box.  Here are my 'night before' wishes, with criteria to help gauge how happy I'll be with my box:

SRT: I'm hoping my box has one, so I won' be picky.  If I got to pick, Windcharger is the one I am hoping for the most.  I need him for a theme deck I am planning.  Plus, I really like his +3 first attack bonus and the fact that he is an affordable car.  My second choice is Nightracer.  I don't use secret actions, and she (and her stratagem) might be the incentive I need to try.  Plus she's 5 stars.  If I get a SRT, I'm happy.

Rare Bodies: I have no idea who Skullsmasher is, but he's a robot alligator, so he's first on my wish list.  Skyshadow looks fun, but he'll take two rare cards to get (three if you count his head Ominus plus a stratagem), so it may not be worth getting my hopes up.  Therefore, I'll put Nautica next on my list so I can work on a boat deck.  My third draft pick is Fangry because he's a bat and there seems to be a bat themed deck that could be built with him.  It doesn't get any deeper than that.  Kup would be a solid consolation prize because ... he's Kup y'all!  The over/under on pulling my four preferred or rares or Skyshadow is 3.

Rare Heads: Brisko is my first choice.  He has a cool name and I like the +3 health. Grax is second.  His name is almost as cool, but he also has +5 health.  Flintlock is third because his head is Kup's head and I think it looks the most distinct of the rare heads.  The over/under for pulling my preferred rare heads is 2.

Common I don't want 1000 of: I'm excited for Beachcomber, Brawn, and Gears so getting a couple of extra wouldn't enrage me.  For some reason, I'm just not that into Crankcase.  I'm not familiar with the character and he isn't very distinct. I don't see myself using him and perhaps he enrages me because if you don't look carefully you may confuse him for Ruckus.  Rather than pick on poor Crankcase, I'd be ecstatic if the most of any one common character I got is 2.

Stratagems: The big thing with Stratagems is you need the character on the card to use them.  So, as much as I'd like some of these cards, I don't have Blitzwing or Windblade, so their cards aren't useful for me.  The same goes for the SRTs I don't pull in my wave 5 box.  I do have a fun Cosmos deck to try out, so I am most excited for his Orbital Strike stratagem.  My second, third, and fourth choices are Villainous Spotlight, Heroic Spotlight, and More Guns as I have the best chance of working them into a deck.  Consolation prize is Bike Gang because it could be worked into my Biker Girlz deck. The over/under on stratagems I can't use is 2.  The over/under on preferred stratagems is 3.

Battle Cards: Belligerence seems to be the best card out there. I also like Escape Capsule (great art, seems fun to try out).  Otherwise, I'm pretty cool with anything.

How did the box turn out?  Click HERE to see my box's breakdown!