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.