A Storm is Coming

(Movie Bumblebee not included in this deck)

You may not have realized it until this very second, but there are a lot of Transformers with 'storm' in their name.  I guess that makes sense - storms are violent and uncontrollable, which makes them good reference points for Decepticons ... and theme decks.  Editor's note: the official internet dictionary definition of a storm is "a violent disturbance of the atmosphere with strong winds and usually rain, thunder, lighting or snow."  The official Marvel Encyclopedia defines Storm as a member of the X-men. See? This blog is educational! 

As always, the fortressmaximus.io visual depiction of the deck is included at the end.

Characters:
Acid Storm (6)
Sunstorm (11)
Nova Storm (7)
Indestructible Sword Card (1)

Battle Cards (Pip)(Number)
Data Pad (W)(2)
Enhanced Power Cell (BL)(3)
Escape Route (WG)(3)
Fusion Borer (BL)(3)
Hazardous Shield (BL)(1)
HV Electron Breacher (BL)(2)
Increased Durability (BL)(3)
Kinetic Converter (W)(2)

Rapid Conversion (W)(3)

RR Disrupter Blade (BL(3)
Metal Detector (BL,G)(2)
Pocket Processor (G)(3)
Testify (O)(3)
Treasure Hunt (O)(3)
Work Overtime (W)(3)
Indestructible Sword (BL, BL)(1)

Breakdown: 6 orange, 13 white, 8 green, 19 black. 15 actions, 9 weapons, 4 armor, 12 utility.

Why these characters:

Not including the custom sets, there are so many characters with 'storm' in their name that they can't fit on a standard 25 star team.  Storm Cloud, Brainstorm, Sandstorm, Ion Storm ... but the three I picked worked best because they are all Decepticons and I think their powers can be complementary.  Acid Storm can prevent bold, Sunstorm likes cards in hand because his attack number is set by the number of cards in hand, and Nova Storm likes black upgrades.  I think I can accomplish using all three skills with a careful battle deck build.  

It also doesn't hurt that their names are particularly fierce.  A storm of acid would be pretty bad unless you had an acid-proof umbrella (which as far as I know isn't a battle card yet).  At first blush, a storm of suns doesn't really make sense, unless it is like a solar flare which can be pretty nasty.  And the Chevy Nova was a pretty beast car, so you can imagine that a bunch of them flying around in a storm would be more intimidating than a Sharknado.

Why These Battle Cards:

I tried to build my deck in two piles, cards that help Nova Storm and cards that help Sunstorm - recognizing that they could help each other (i.e. drawing cards for Sunstorm can help play a black upgrade on Nova Storm). 

Sunstorm pile - Card Draws: Treasure Hunt (which can help find those black upgrade cards), Testify, Pocket Processor, Kinetic Converter, Work Overtime, and Data Pad. In addition, Indestructible Sword returns to my hand if scrapped.

Nova Storm pile 1 - Black upgrades: Enhanced Power Cell, Fusion Borer, Electron Breacher, Hazardous Shield, Increased Durability, Meal Detector and RR Disrupter Blade all will be helpful if I can attach them to Nova Storm.

Nova Storm pile 2 - Conversion cards: These cards help Trigger Nova Storm's ability to move a damage counter to an enemy if she (I think its a she) is equipped with a black pip upgrade. Escape Route and Rapid Conversion can help.

You could also consider adding some plane or Decepticon specific cards if you'd like to take advantage of the team makeup.

Strategy:

I have no idea if this deck will hit what it needs since I'm trying to find different things for different characters. I'm probably leaving Acid Storm in bot mode to turn off bold. That coupled with cards like Enhanced Power Cell can help keep my team alive.  I'm looking to get a black upgrade on Nova Storm and flipping her back and forth to move damage to an enemy. She'll probably attack first so she can get some damage on her to move back when she flips.  I'm waiting until I have a good stack of cards in hand to unleash Sunstorm.

Final Thoughts: The best part of this deck is it gives you the opportunity to declare "I feel a stormfront coming!" every time you attack.  That kind of catchphrase ability is worth its weight in common cards. If you haven't tried "Oh how it pains me to do this!" yet, you haven't lived.  I kind of feel bad for the other Stormy crew for not making it into this deck.  Not because I think the deck will win a lot, but because I've never really worked any of them into a deck before.  If this deck is well received, perhaps I can create A Storm is Coming ... Again deck!

New Game Mode: Clash of the Titans

Titans. Remember them?  I sort of do, but I can't remember the last time I played with them.  I find they are hard to use because they take up all your stars and they get wrecked by wide teams.  Plus, they aren't always fun to build decks around because you are mostly just stuck with them and the minions that they came with. UNTIL NOW!

This is the second post in my series proposing new ways to play the game using the official cards (the first was a 7, 8, 10 star character draft).  There are a lot of awesome fan made sets out there, but this is a way to breathe new life into the cards we all own.

Rules: The rules to this mode are brilliant in their simplicity (Note: I am not calling myself brilliant, I just like that phrase).  Each team is made up of:

- 50 total stars

- 1 oversized Titan sized extra large character, a 5/6 character Combiner, or the three card combiner Omega Supreme

- The same star rule applies for minion cards (like Metroplex, Trypticon)

- You can either use your stars to include combiners that don't normally fit (combiner Dinobots, Sentinels) or treat them as they are handled in a regular game to save your stars.

- All members of the team must be of the same faction (plus mercenaries)

Why?  Expanding the star count allows you to deploy some bots to help support your titan or combiner.  In the show, the 'regular' characters would be fighting and then the Constructions would combine and start crushing the Autobots until Omega Supreme popped and duked it out with Devastator.   This kind of awesomeness just hasn't been possible to recreate in the card game ... UNTIL NOW!

Requiring a Titan or combiner should encourage the use of Trypticon, Omega Supreme, Metroplex, and the combiners who are not used because they usually bite it before they can do anything.  Requiring all the members be of the same faction makes it feel like it is a real battle that could have happened, while providing a little structure to build teams around.  

This would open up new strategic decisions during team building.  Is it better to use a titan, who is ready to start pounding on people right away or do you go with the benefits of being wide with a combiner and risk failing to combine? Do you support your big guy with a few powerful bots, or do you go as wide as possible? Can you come up with a team that actually fought together in an episode?

Would this actually do anything to make playing with these guys more fun? I am not a numbers guy, but I think having more characters would give combiners more time to dig for an enigma.  It would give Trypticon more time to find the cards he needs to deploy his minions.  The right teammates could enhance Metroplex's deployable buddies.  What is the maximum number of heads you can get to pop in a game if you combined Fortress Maximus with some body/head teammates?  Heck, I bet we could even see Loot Crate Omega Supreme get used to take advantage of his smaller star count for a titan.

What kinds of matchups might we see?  I don't think we could go wrong with Optimus and the Aerialbots against a Megatron led team featuring the Stunticons, flipping the Autobots are cars, Decepticons are planes paradigm.  I'd love to see a Kup, Hot Rod, and Metroplex team against the Insecticons and Devastator (a scene right out of the movie if Metroplex is autobot city, which I've never figured out).  How about a team of wave 1 and wave 2 Dinobots against Trypticon and pals to form a true jurassic battle?

Conclusion: This mode not only forces you to use some characters that aren't meta competitive, it also makes them more viable. This also opens up new potential synergies, as you can now look at the Combiner/Titan powers and see if they mesh well with characters they've never been able to be paired with before.

Hit me up in the comments or on twitter with your epic squads!

Titanic Trypticon

Metroplex is the Autobots' huge transforming city.  Having a city sized teammate is a legit advantage, so naturally the Decepticons came up with one of their own.  In The Five Faces of Darkness (aka the episodes after the movie that weren't very good), the constructions created Trypticon out of a human city.  Trypticon was laying waste and taking names until Metroplex got his 'transforming cog' back and transformed into robot mode.  He picked up Trypticon and threw him in the ocean.  Trypticon did the wise thing and headed to Dinobot Island to chill out and lick his wounds (see episode Thief in the Night).  Metroplex ends up tossing Trypticon in the ocean again (Don't worry, Trypticon still didn't die, but he got played by Ghost Starscream in the episode Ghost in the Machine).  Sadly, Trypticon has met a similar chump-like fate in the TCG card game as well, since it is much harder to deploy his mini bots than it was to manipulate the toy when I was a kid.  

Can the wave 5 battle cards help out the poor Titan? As always, the fortressmaximus.io visual depiction of the deck is at the end of the article.

Characters:
Trypticon (24)
Brunt (4)
Wipe-Out (4)
Full-Tilt (4)
Villainous Spotlight Stratagem (1)

Battle Cards:
Ancient Wisdom (O)(3)

Battlefield Incursion (G)(3)
Data Bank (W)(3)
Energon Axe (B)(3)
Energy Pack (O)(3)
Grenade Launcher (O)(3)
Heavy-Handed (B)(3)
Height Advantage (B)(3)
I Still Function (no pip)(2)
Increased Durability (BL)(3)
Squish Them Like Bugs (O)(3)
Staggering Might (W)(3)
Unleash Potential (B)(3)
Relentless Invasion (WOB)(2)(star cards allowed by Villainous Spotlight)

Breakdown: 14 Orange, 14 Blue, 8 White, 3 Green, 3 Black.  22 Actions, 6 Weapons, 3 Armor, 9 Utility.

Why these characters:
Unfortunately, when you run a Trypticon deck, you are restricted on who you can use.  So the characters are set and the question becomes - why do a Trypticon deck?  Well, that is obvious - he's a giant robot T-Rex!  There is no possible reason not to want to make a deck with him in it.  He also happened to be the one huge Transformer toy I had as a kid.  Man, he was sweet.

Why these battle cards: 
I used the Villainous Spotlight stratagem to get two extra star cards, which I used to get two copies of Relentless Invasion into my deck. Relentless Invasion is needed to make the most use of my little minion dudes.  I added two I Still Function cards to my deck to bring them back and die, triggering that minions revenge ability (Wipe-Out and Full-Tilt's are the best in my opinion, depending on whether you need cards or chip damage). 

I doubt it will work, but since the Relentless Invasion card is so helpful, I added the hard to pull off Ancient Wisdom/Unleash Potential combo so I can maybe snag another.  I then picked the cards that go with high star totals/titans: Heavy Handed, Hight Advantage, Squish Them Like Bugs, and Staggering Might. Increased Durability (armor) and Energy Pack (utility) are there to keep Trypticon going since everyone is going to gang up on him.  Data Bank is there to help dig for Battlefield Incursion cards. 

Strategy: The plan is simple and yet complicated: 1. Keep Trypticon alive 2. Dig for cards. 3. Use card digging to find Relentless Invasion, Battlefield Incursion, and I Still Function! to get the minions out.  When a minion is out, attack with him and hope he survives an attack (unless he's resurrected by I Still Function) so Trypticon can eat him, triggering the minion's KO revenge ability and Trypticon's 3 attack or 3 health ability.  The minions don't hit very hard, so throwing a weapon on them can't hurt.  Grenade Launcher seems perfect, since they aren't long for the battlefield anyway.

The titan/high star cards should help.  Staggering Might gives Trypticon Bold, Tough and Attack 1, which could take advantage of my mixed pip deck and increases the odds of finding a green pipped Battlefield Incursion. The same goes for Height Advantage.  Squish Them Like Bugs is guaranteed to hit one of each of your opponents since everyone has fewer stars than Trypticon - and it would be particularly helpful against wide teams. Heavy Handed can help deal some damage.

My Trypicon!

Analysis: Ultimately, Staggering Might and the Villainous Spotlight stratagem are the reasons why I think this deck might work where my prior build attempts have failed.  Worst case scenario, I get to talk about how Trypticon got thrown in the ocean when I lose.