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.