Get to Da Choppa

This deck, which I built as part of the Turbo Revving Old Punks deck building challenge,  is a departure from my normal approach because I'm using fan set cards.  I am including pictures of the fan cards so people who aren't familiar with those sets can see some of the cool stuff people have been making to keep the game alive.  Thanks to their efforts, I can finally make a helicopter deck! 

THE DECK

Characters (set)(stars)

Highbrow Appallingly Astute (TROP 1)(9)

Whirl (Wave 5)(12)

Tracer Ambitious Scout (Ark 1)(4)

Battle Cards (Pip)(Number)

Evasive Action (TROP Wave 1)(O - plane only)(3)

Arial Superiority (ARK Wave 1)(no pip)(3)

Trithyllium Drill (TROP Wave 1)(B)(3)

Armed Hovercraft (B)(3)

Brainstorm (B)(3)

Cooling Vents (O)(3)

Drill Arms (B)(1)

Energon Axe (B)(3)

Matrix of Leadership (OB)(3)

Roll Out (OB)(2)

The Bigger They Are (B)(3)

Tripwire (B)(3)

War of Attrition (GB)(3)

Anticipation Engine (W)(2)

Crystal of Power (BL)(1)

Why these characters:

The first thing I thought when I saw Highbrow was "Finally, another helicopter.  It's time to get to da choppa!"  (Bonus points if you get the deck title reference).

When I started looking at helo options to pair with Highbrow, a character I've never been able to build around due to his high star cost jumped out - Whirl.  At 12 stars, he's too expensive given that he's really not good enough to be the focus of a deck.  He inevitably ends up in tall teams (a few big bots), which I find tend to get eaten alive by wide teams (many smaller bots).  But it turns out he pairs quite nicely with Highbrow.  Highbrow's alt ability is to ping his attacker for 1 damage if he flips two blue cards when defending.  Whirl also loves blue pips - when you hit one while attacking, he pings each non-defending enemy.  This is a great way to counteract wide teams and make the most out of my blue card strategy.  

It would have been impossible to find a fitting third character before the fan made sets (and I've never really liked using star battle cards or stratagems that much).  The official cards are very light on helicopters, and none had 4 stars (This was especially frustrating given the potential for Tidal Wave to deploy a 4 star helicopter but I digress).  Alpha Bravo was the closest helo option at 5 stars but he obviously wouldn't fit.  Tracer is admittedly nothing to get too excited about, but he fits the stars, fits the theme, and packs a little punch at 3 attack.  His stealth ensures he can stay alive long enough to pick the best time to use him.

Why these battle cards:

This is a helicopter team so I tried to follow that theme first and foremost.  Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of helicopter support cards, so I'll take what I can get. Thankfully, the fan sets save the day once again, providing three cards for the deck.  While it doesn't have a pip, Aerial Superiority is pretty beast for helicopters (+4 attack and pierce) ... but only if they face tanks, cars, or trucks (I guess boats are impervious to planes!).  I'll take my chance that I face at least one those on the other team.  This would be a great card for Tracer to use to make his turn worth something.

 

Evasive action is a nifty little card that reduces attack damage to helicopters (and planes and spaceships) by two.  Normally its utility as a secret action is weakened by the fact that it goes away if the trigger doesn't occur, but in my case, someone will always be attacking a helicopter so it will always come into play. 

For the rest of my deck, my strategy was to use blue cards to trigger my characters' abilities.  I tried to pick cards that also had something to help offset the fact that I don't really have orange cards in this deck.  

Trithyllium Drill is a blue card weapon that has a plan ability.  This will only come into play in a few circumstanced given my deck, but when I use the ability my character gets +1 pierce.  Armed Hovercraft is a blue card that goes on either of my ranged characters (Whirl or Highbrow) which has the nice side effect of adding another ping damage when it is placed. Brainstorm allows me to play two actions, which can trigger Highbrow's bot mode ability if I need it. Drill Arms give me plus 1 attack, but more importantly it weakens my opponent by taking out their armor (or giving me a card if they don't have any armor).   Matrix of Leadership is mostly there to sneak some orange into my deck while maintaining near certainty that I'll flip blue every turn.  I don't have a leader on this team, but the +1 attack from a utility spot helps my two Autobots. Roll out is another orange blue card that is mostly there for pips, but you never know when a flip card will come in handy.  The Bigger They Are is there for Tracer, who will always be attacking a bigger bot and love getting pierce 4.  Hopefully he lives long enough to enjoy this card. Tripwire is another source of chip damage, and if I'm facing a wide team (which could cause this relatively tall squad problems) it will help even the playing field by tapping a 5 star character.  War of Attrition is usually hard to make use of because you really need to snag three to take full advantage of its chip damage, but since this deck is pretty low on attack power, I figured it's worth the risk.  Energon Axe is a beasty weapon and its blue pip is a bonus. 

Anticipation Engine is a white pip card (which shouldn't hurt my blue pip flipping because it allows me to flip more cards).  What it brings to the table is the ability to play an action card if that's on top of my deck.  With Highbrow's bot ability, I can set it up to make sure this happens (and this deck is pretty heavily weighted to actions anyway).  These actions help offset my lack of orange pips in the deck.

Cooling vents is an orange pip armor card that repairs one damage from ranged characters when placed on them.  This can help Highbrow and Whirl stay in the air.  Crystal of Power is just cool so I had to add it.

Strategy:

This deck is all about pinging damage with blue cards. I'm likely using Whirl first - he's guaranteed to nail everyone on the other team and it gives me time to collect some cards for Highbrow to potentially use with his bot mode ability.  If I get Brainstorm and some actions, I'll flip Highbrow, but otherwise, I like him defending in helicopter mode.  Tracer is lying in wait hoping I get some cards that can help him make his life worth something - like Aerial Superiority, The Bigger They Are, or Crystal of Power (which goes away when he uses it anyway so it doesn't matter as much if he dies).  Defense and healing cards are funneled towards Whirl if the opposing team is wide - if he can make it 4 turns he can really hurt a team of five star bots.  If the opposing team is tall, I'd consider propping up Highbrow because he stings the opponent every time he is attacked.

Will this deck win?  Who knows, but if you are losing, you can always ruuuuuun...goooo....get to the choppa!
 

Friendly Fire

The glory days of Transformers TCG featured deck building challenges held by the community.  Well, those days are back thanks to the Energon Hustlers.  This challenge involves using either Inferno or Private Red Alert and either Salvage for Parts (Wave 1) or Step Forward (Wave 4).  While the challenge only requires one of each, I took it upon myself to work them all in because I found the perfect episode to base my deck on.

Red Alert serves as the security director of the Autobots and is "paranoid."  Inferno is "fearless" which is kind of the opposite of being paranoid.  Despite these differences Red Alert and Inferno are described as "close friends" and actually have teamed up in quite a few Transformers episodes.  Maybe it has something to do with the fact that they are both fire vehicles or maybe it's a case of opposites attract.  Either way, they are featured in so many episodes together (see Dinobots Island, The Revenge of Bruticus, Blaster Blues), I had no choice but to work with them both even though the challenge only required one.  But which episode would form the basis of the perfect deck?  After extensive research and my inability to fit a Dinobots into the team stars wise, I settled on the perfect episode: Auto Berserk.

In Auto Berserk, the Autobots thought it would be a good idea to create a super-weapon creatively called the Negavator (which I will work in as many times as I can because it is fun to say).  As literally anyone could predict, they were attacked by the Decepticons who tried to steal it.  Buddies Inferno and Red Alert stayed behind to guard the Negavator while the rest of the squad met the Decepticons in battle.  Inferno got lured away to help fight (not sure why they didn't just use the Negavator if it was so legit, but whatever).  The Decepticons lost, but in their retreat they managed to injure Red Alert.  His logic chips were screwed up, making him more paranoid than usual.

When the Autobots set out to take the Negavator back to headquarters, the Decepticons attacked again.  The Autobots beat them and the Decepticons booked out a second time, except Megatron ditched Starscream because he's kind of annoying.  Optimus asked some pretty reasonable questions about Red Alert's inability to detect a completely predictable attack, but Red Alert's paranoia caused him to run off.  This is where Starscream comes in.  He was able to bond with Red Alert by probing the depth of his Megatron insecurities.  The two erstwhile enemies were able to bond over their common ground, which is kind of heartwarming if you step back and think about it.  They decide to become bros and steal the Negavator and teach their respective horrible bosses a lesson.

The dynamic duo managed to snag the Negavator.  Megatron caught up to them and Starcream wussed out and said he was tricking Red Alert to get the weapon for Megatron (Starcream has a habit of doing this).  Then he shot Red Alert with his patented Null-Ray, which seems like a crappy thing to do, but it ended up stabilizing his logic circuits (kind of like when you hit someone on the head and they get amnesia and then hit them again and they are cured).  This is where Red Alert's original bro comes in, as Inferno saved Red Alert from being crushed.  Everyone apologized for their role in this fiasco and the world is all good again.

In addition to the rules of the challenge, I constrained myself to using official game cards to enable me to build the deck using the app.  The fortressmaximus.io visual depiction of the deck is included at the end of this article.  Behold, Friendly Fire (see what I did there with the name? It's very nuanced).

Characters (Stars):
Inferno (12)
Private Red Alert (7)
Starscream Decepticon Lieutenant (5)
Mounted Missiles (1)

Battle Cards (number)(pip):
Data Pad (3)(W)
Drill Arms (3)(B)
Field Repair (3)(O)
Hand-To-Hand Combat (3)(B)
Increased Durability (3)(BL)
Kinetic Converter (3)(W)
Mining Pick (3)(O)
Rapid Conversion (3)(W)
Ready For Action (3)(none)
Roll Out (3)(OB)
Salvage for Parts (3)(none)
Security Checkpoint (3)(BL)
Step Forward (3)(B)
Mounted Missiles (1)(OO)

Breakdown: 11 Orange, 18 Blue, 9 White, 3 black, 6 blank.  24 Actions, 6 Utility, 7 Weapons, 3 Armor

Why these characters: Well, to be honest, there doesn't seem to be a lot of synergy between Inferno and Red Alert. But they are buddies, so I had to keep them together.  I needed a Starscream to be Red Alerts new best friend, and the only one that can fit stars wise is Decepticon Lieutenant.  With these mismatched bots smashed together on a team, I had my work cut out for me with my battle cards.

Why these battle cards:  Red Alert has two abilities.  The first is pretty lame.  You need to flip at least an orange, white, and blue to get him a +3 attack.  That isn't very likely but I did try to have a fair amount of each color to give me a chance in case I wanted to go for it. I also added cards that let me stack the deck to give me a better chance - Data Pad, Field Repair, Mining Pick. 

Red Alert's other power is better (and more thematic for a fire chief's car).  When you flip, you get to repair one damage.  This led me to add a bunch of flip cards, as I now perceived my best chance at success as crafting this as a healing deck - Rapid Conversion and Roll Out give me good chances I can flip Red Alert a few times for some healing.  Field Repair and to a lesser extent Increased Durability also help. 

It turns out all this flipping is potentially good for Inferno as well.  His bot mode has no powers, but flipping to alt-mode allows you to return a characters upgrades to their owners hand.

I decided to add cards to my deck that interacted with upgrades. Drill Arms allows me to scrap an owner's armor. That's kind of duplicative of Inferno's powers.  But the kicker is, if there are no armor to scrap, then I can draw a card.  This would allow me to flip Inferno to knock off an enemy armor, and then play drill arms to snag a card.

Salvage for Parts and Hand-to-Hand Combat also has some interesting synergy potential with my healing deck and Inferno's ability.  First, I use Inferno's flip to knock off one of my enemy upgrades - the one with the most upgrades gets targeted.  Then I use Hand to Hand Combat on one of my weaponless characters to attack a different defender, giving me +3 attack and knocking off their weapon.  In the alternative, I can use Drill Arms to knock off an enemy armor.  With these upgrades gone, I can play Salvage for Parts on my next turn.  This card scraps ALL upgrades, and gives a +1 healing for each upgrade scrapped.  In this case, I have reduced the healing from my opponent while getting the maximum healing for my team.  Because I'm knocking off my own upgrades, I included cards that get me more cards such as Data Pad.  Kinetic Converter is there to help gain additional benefit (a card) from all the flipping I'll be doing.

Inferno also loves Security Checkpoint.  After Inferno returns a character's upgrades to their owner's hand, I can play this card to force them to scrap them all, ensuring they won't simply be added back on.

Ready for Action is included to try to squeeze the most out of Red Alert (or Starscream if need be).  Step Forward is there for one purpose.  Sneaky Starscream is pretty weak, so if someone is going to come after him, this would allow me to route the attack to one of my Autobots. This fits the theme of the episode - Starscream is using Red Alert for his own nefarious purposes.  

Strategy: Starscream's team up with Red Alert means you try to keep him alive as long as possible but once he's done, Red Alert can be free to reunite with Inferno.  This has nothing to do with strategy and everything to do with theme.  Starscream has to be the guy who bites it first if you are trying to follow what happened in the episode.

Your first move will probably be dictated by what cards you draw.  If you get healing cards, you're going to probably flip Red Alert first to set him up to heal when he flips back.  If you get some of the card that work with Inferno, you'll want to flip him first to take advantage of them the next turn.  Field Repair only works on Autobots, so if you have that, you may want to route the attacks towards the Autobots if you get that card in the early going.

If you manage to collect a ton of cards and you have some of the 'plan' cards in the deck, you can try for Red Alert's orange, white, blue attack bonus.  This would be a nice surprise if you can get it, but I wouldn't count on it happening as you form your strategy.

Ideally, you can get both Red Alert and Inferno into bot mode when you have Roll Out, which allows you to flip both of them at once, taking advantage of both of their powers.  How cool would it be to have Starscream get KO'd and then they reunite for a cool heal and upgrade stripping combo move?

Conclusion: While Inferno and Red Alert's cards, like their characters' personalities, don't seem to have much in common, this deck sets up some opportunities for some cool combo moves. You might not win, but you do have the opportunity to make a lot of fire quips when you attack - like "Fire in the hole!" "Where there's smoke, there's fire!" and when you KO someone "You're fired!" If you like this deck, you may like some of my other Starscream decks: Starscream's Ghost, Oh How It Pains Me To Do This, and Starscream's Brigade.  This deck has a lot of flipping.  For a deck with literally NO flipping, check out Un-Transformers.

Un-Transformers

One of the defining traits of the Transformers is how they ... transform.  The card game is so excellent because the flipping mechanic effectively stands in for the transformation. But some characters in our beloved TCG actually do not flip at all.  Battlemasters and Weaponizers are one example, as they only change when they are knocked out.  But the game also has some characters that don't even do that - Brunt Artillery Drone and Slammer Combat Drone never change into anything - the back of their cards doesn't even have anything!  The challenge in this article is to build a deck around bots that don't transform.

For purposes of this exercise I am limiting my cards to official TCG cards (wave 1-5).  There are a lot of excellent fan cards out there, but since not everyone has or can get them, I'll stick to the ones everyone is familiar with.  The fortressmaximus.io visual depiction of the deck is included at the end of this article.

Characters:
Brunt Artillery Drone (4)
Slammer Combat Drone (4)
Private Smashdown (5)
Raider Blowpipe (5)
Private Turbo Board (7)

Battle Cards (Number)(Pips):
Ancient Wisdom (3)(o)
Bravery (3)(b)
Composite Armor (3)(o, bl)
Emergency Maintenance (2)(o)
Immersed in Shadow (3)(o, bl)
Peace Through Tyranny (2)(oo)
Point Position (3)(bl, b)
Precision Fire (3)(o, bl)
Quartermaster (3)(w)
Stealthiness (3)(o)
Step Forward (3)(b)
Unleash Potential (3)(b)
War of Attrition (3)(bg)
Wedge Formation (3)(o, bl, g)

Breakdown: 25 actions, 3 armor, 12 utility.  24 Orange, 15 Blue, 3 White, 6 Green, 15 Black.

Why these characters:

Brunt and Slammer are two of the lamest characters in the game, but that's the whole point of this deck.  I then tried to pick battle masters that would complement them and each other. Smashdown and Blowpipe likes having lots of colors being flipped. Turbo Board rewards flipping a blue and orange pip when you flip.  These three guys seem to play well together (as a side note, they'd really be a killer team with Brawn)

Why these battle cards:

Quartermaster is easy - since my team sucks, I'll need to reclaim Smashdown, Blowpipe, and Turbo Board (in their alt forms) from the KO pile if they get scrapped.  Because I want them to die first so they can become upgrades, I am using stealth and bravery (Stealthiness, Bravery, Immersed in Shadow, Point Position, Step Forward) for probably the first time.  I also tried to get cards with multiple pip colors. The best of these for this deck is Wedge Formation, which has three colors and rewards the fact that I have melee (Smashdown), Ranged (Brunt, Slammer, Blowpipe), and Specialist (Turbo Board) characters on my team.  Both of my main characters are tanks, so Composite Armor seemed like a good choice, especially since it has two pip colors.  Given the fact that my guys are going to die fast, I thought Emergency Maintenance would help.  Peace Through Tyranny gets me two orange pips and also allows me to KO Turbo Board if I want to get him into upgrade mode.  Finally, I am a sucker for the Ancient Wisdom/Unleash Potential combo. I tried to get plenty of blue and orange pips to help with the three battle master powers.  When Turbo Board is in Anti-Gravity Turbo Pack mode, he allows you to play an orange or blue card you flipped, so I leaned pretty heavy into actions.  Since Smashdown and Blowpipe turn into weapons, I didn't really put any into my battle card deck.  This may be a dumb move.

Strategy:

Well, at least you don't have to figure out who to flip... This deck feels cool because I pulled off the gimmick, but you have only 31 total team health and 12 ATK (prior to upgrades) so you are pretty much going to get blasted.  If you get a bravery battle card, use it on the battle masters. If you get a stealth card, use it on Brunt or Slammer.  Maybe if you convince your opponent before the game to try a game where neither of you flips any characters you might win.  Either way, you can revel in the fact that you made the most un-transformers Transformers TCG deck possible.

No Pips, No Shoes, No Problem!

Pips are an essential element to the game. They are the mechanism by which you inflict or block damage in the attack phase of the game. We all need them in our lives.  Or do we?  This deck uses two color-blind transformers who say "Pips? I don't need your stinkin' pips!" 

Note: This deck and article has been unearthed 'from the vault.' I was working on it during wave 4, so I haven't updated it to reflect the new cards from wave 5.  I'd love to hear your thoughts on how to improve it given the new cards that have come out since I started this way back in August of 2020 (including the fan made cards) - if I get enough feedback, I'll do a write up on the revised deck.

As always, I have included the fortressmaximus.io visual depiction of the deck at the end of the article.

Characters: Skywarp Teleporting Seeker (10), Sergeant Barricade (7), Raider Trigger-happy (8)

Battle Cards (Pip Color if any)(Number):
Anticipation Engine (W)(2)
Bad Attitude (3)
Crash Landing (2)
EM24 IR Laser Launcher (3)
Emergency Defense Shield (3)
Fling (3)
Grenade Launcher (O)(3)
I Still Function (3)
Medic (3)
Proton Bomb (2)
Plasma Burst (3)
Ready for Action (3)
Steamroll (1)
Strafing Run (3)
W-5 Gyro Blaster (3)
Breakdown: 3 Orange, 2 White. 8 Weapons, 3 Armor, 5 Utility, 24 Actions.

Why these Characters:  Two of these bots have cool abilities that rely on no-pip cards.

Skywarp's is arguably the coolest.  In bot mode, when you battle and flip a no-pip card, you get +3 attack or defense. By limiting our deck to mostly no pip cards, we almost guarantee he is going to have 6 attack and 3 defense in this mode. But he has another bonus - when you flip to plane mode, you can return a no pip card to your hand.  So, if you see a cool card come out in the battle, you can snag it with ease next turn.

Skywarp is cool, but his no-pip abilities were't enough for me to overcome the impact a no-pip deck had on other characters.  Then Barricade came along and gave him a no-pip partner in crime.

In bot mode, after you battle you can tuck a no-pip card underneath him instead of sending it to your scrap pile.  When you flip to car mode, you can play that battle card.

Triggerhappy was the best 8 star card I could find to fit what I am trying to do.  As a plane, he can use some of the same battle cards as Skywarp.  He's a Deception so I can use tribal cards.  He has decent stats.  His flip ability to return a weapon from the scrap pile could be handy given the grenade launchers and crowbar I loaded up on. 

Why these battle cards: Transformers TCG is very well balanced.  The tradeoff that comes with having no pips is you get super cool upgrades or powers. This deck attempts to take advantage of the upside of the cards while using Barricade and Skywarp's abilities to reduce the no-pip downside.  I Still Function lets you bring a character back and get one last attack with him.  Ready for Action lets you untap a character with 10 or fewer stars (all of these qualify). Bad Attitude, Fling, Medic, Photon Bomb, Plasma Burst, and Strafing Run all have some combination of healing and/or direct damage.  I included one steamroll in case there is an opportunity to pass excess damage to another enemy.  Without pips, this may not be incredibly likely based on the attack value of the characters, so I only included one. Based on the number of planes on this team, I added two Crash Landing cards.


Strategy: This deck could be ok against wide teams, with Ready for Action/I Still Function giving extra attacks and Strafing Run and Photon Bomb dealing a spread of damage.  I would start by transforming Skywarp into bot mode and attacking with him.  His +3 no-pip defense should keep him alive. Then I'd transform Barricade and attack with him to get a card under him.  Depending on the cards flipped so far, I could either flip Skywarp or Barricade to activate their power, or transform Triggerhappy to get his pierce 4 and set up his weapon recovery ability on his flip back to alt mode.  When either of my planes go down, I'd love to set up a combo where I use I Still Function to Resurrect them, then place Crash Landing on them for their attack, which would give a nice going away present when they went back into the KO pile.

What do you think of this deck?  Did I miss a no-pip loving bot, or can Triggerhappy contribute enough to make this work?

Microbots

If you are looking for a classic TV show episode to build a Perceptor deck around, look no further than Microbots.  Perceptor was doing his nerdy scientist thing, working on a shrinking-enlarging device.  Brawn was making fun of him for not being a fighter (which really made me feel bad for my fellow nerd Perceptor).  On the Decepticon side of the aisle, Megatron got his hands on "The Heart of Cybertron" which increased his power when it was installed on him.  Perceptor came up with a genius plan to shrink himself, Brawn, and Bumblebee down to microscopic size to infiltrate Megatron's body to disconnect the device - straight out of Innerspace y'all! And yes, I recognize that I am dating myself with that movie reference - google it!

This deck reunites this micro-dream team.  Will they shrink in the face of adversity, or rise to the occasion?  Note: The fortressmaximus.io visual depiction of the deck is at the end of the article

Characters:
Perceptor (8)
Convex (4)
Brawn (5)
Bumblebee Brave Warrior (6)
Heroic Spotlight Stratagem (1)

Energized Field Star Card (3)

Battle Cards (Pip)(Number):

Agility of Bumblebee (O)(1)

Confidence (O)(3)

Escape Capsule (O, BL)(3)

Escape Route (W)(3)

Field Repair (O)(3)

Hold the Line (WG)(3)

Matrix of Leadership (OB)(3)

Noble's Blaster (BG)(3)

Rapid Conversion (W)(3)

Regenerative Core (G)(3)

Repair Bay (O)(3)

Roll Out (OB)(1)

Swap Missions (B)(3)

Wedge Formation (O, BL,G)(3)

Energized Field (BB)(3)

Breakdown: 22 Orange, 18 Blue, 9 White, 15 Green, 6 Black.  27 Actions, 3 Weapons, 6 Armor, 7 Utility

Why These Characters: Let's be real.  The image of a mini Brawn, Perceptor, and Bumblebee riding on some sort of micro virus is amazing.  Perceptor was one of those characters that was always hanging around on the fringes, but he didn't have too many episodes focused on him.  On the other hand, he managed to survive the carnage of Transformers the Movie, so he's definitely worthy of a deck!  Speaking of the movie, it's nice to build a deck around a Brawn story he didn't get destroyed in (see my tragic Heroic Nonsense deck).  This team left me with some extra stars, but not much I could do with them, so I added the Heroic Spotlight Stratagem and some star cards. 

Why these battle cards: The theme of these battle cards is escaping and healing, which fits nicely with the Microbots episode.  Bumblebee is in the house, so we need at least one copy of his agility with Agility of Bumblebee to help zip around the microverse.  This particular Bumblebee also is a leader, so I threw in Matrix of Leadership (it's like of like the Heart of Cybertron ... not really...but close enough to stand in for it in this deck).  

The micro squad are all Autobots, so I tossed in Noble's Blaster.  Perceptor is a body, so I included Escape Capsule.  I threw in Escape Route, Rapid Conversion, Roll Out, and Swap Missions to take advantage of Perceptor's and Bumblebee's flip abilities.  Brawn likes flipping different color pips, which I think will be helped by my pip distribution.

I had three extra stars to use so I gave Energized Field a try. That seems to fit with the weird micro thingy our heroes rode in the episode.

Strategy: This would be an awesome deck to run up against a Megatron, thematically
at least.  The goal is to use Perceptor's flip ability as often as I can.  The pip color distribution should help make Brawn useful in the meantime.   If Perceptor dies, we can still make use of the flip cards with Bumblebee - when he flips each other character gets pierce 1 until the end of the turn. 

Starscream's Ghost

One of the most epic scenes in Transformers the Movie is Starscream's coronation.  After years of scheming to take over the Decepticons, Starscream finally made it to the top.  Megatron was dead (see my deck, Oh, How It Pains Me To Do This) and he was taking over...until Megatron came back as Galvatron and blew him up.  But you can't keep a good character down and the following season of the TV show brought ol' Starscream back in the form of a ghost in the episode appropriately named "Starscream's Ghost."  In that episode, Starscream's ghost was awakened by Octane (who we TCG players know as Octone) and mischief ensued.

 Thanks to the Ark fan set, we can finally relive the evolution of Starscream.  While I used a new fan-made character card, I limited my deck to official battle cards for folks who aren't familiar with the Ark fan set -which is totally free by the way!  If you haven't seen the Ark Wave 1 set, here is the new Ghost of Starscream:

Characters:
Starscream Decepticon King (13)
Ghost of Starscream (7)(Ark Wave 1 card)
Starscream Decepticon Lieutenant (5)

Battle Cards:
Decepticon Crown (WG)(3)    
Escape Route (WG)(3)
Conversion Expertise (W)(3)
Roll Out (OB)(3)
Kinetic Converter (W)(3)
Data Pad (W)(3)
Treasure Hunt (O)(3)
Improvised Shield (O)(2)
Inspiring Leadership (B)(3)
Mining Pick (O)(3)
Secret Dealings (WG)(3)
Reinforced Plating (B)(3)
Rapid Conversion (W)(3)
Bombing Run (B)(1)
Null-Ray of Starscream (O)(1)
Summary: 14 Orange, 10 Blue, 9 Green, 21 White.  19 Actions, 4 Weapons, 5 Armor, 12 Utility.

Why these characters: 

You can't have Starscream's Ghost without him dying first, and you really can't built a deck around him dying unless you have the King.  I considered other 5 star characters to round out the deck (The Ark's 5 star Rumble would have fit the theme since I recall he was playing the trumpet at the coronation).  At the end of the day, I went with the 5 star Starscream to maximize my chance of getting the Ghost to come out and play, and to take advantage of his Tough 1 bot ability, which will allow me to cycle through more cards.  But let's be real - the biggest draw is I can have a team full of Starscreams!

Decepticon King is the initial focus of this deck (because Ghostie starts off on your KO pile) and he has two powers that largely drive this deck.  First, he needs to be able to dig cards to find the Decepticon Crown, which gives him +3 ATK/DEF if he flips it while battling.  For this reason, I've loaded the deck with cards that help me dig for cards when fighting: Conversion Expertise, Improvised Shield, and Reinforced Plating add to the number of cards I draw while fighting, which gives a better chance of flipping Decepticon Crown.  Mini Starscream (the five star one) can have his Null Ray (you kind of have to have at least one in the deck, right?), which lets us see two more cards when he attacks (but don't put it on the King!).  Having 21 white pips will cause us to see a few more cards as well.

Drawing cards is great, but King Starscream relies on another ability to stack the deck.  When he flips to plane mode, he can return a card that lets him plan from the scrap pile and put it in his hand - this includes Decepticon Crown and Mining Pick, which is the weapon we HAVE to get on King Starscream.  The Crown can plan too, but we'd rather have that ready to flip during a battle.  Data Pad also has a plan like ability and can be put on the King if you haven't seen Mining Pick yet, but it only works when attacking.  Getting that plan card is key, because it allows us to stack the deck to ensure we hit the Crowns when he fights.   As such, flipping him is important to get the card, but we want to flip him right back to take advantage of his powers.  So I added Rapid Conversion, Escape Route and Roll Out (whose pips are nice too).

Planning really helps if we have the Crown in our hand. While it is a green card, the best way to maximize our chance of finding it is to draw a lot of cards.  Inspiring Leadership and Kinetic Converter help get cards in hand.  Secret Dealings lets you draw a card as well as plan one.

Finally, since this deck is basically two wide planes (until one Starscream dies), I threw in one copy of Bombing Run to try to keep them alive. Plus it's a plane card so it made sense!

You may notice I don't have a ton of upgrades.  This is partially by design, because when one of my Starscreams dies, his upgrades go to the Ghost.  In that way, I don't need to fill my deck with enough upgrades for three bots, only two.  I do have a lot of utilities, but remember I'm not going to put the Crown on anyone, so they don't really count.

Strategy:

Unless you get really lucky with your initial draw you are probably leading off by attacking with mini-Starscream to help you build your scrap pile and possibly see a Crown before using the King.  Plus, this ensures you can avoid a round of attacks against your big guy.  We may want to flip King Starscream in the first round to get him in position to flip back once we find a Mining Pick or Crown.  If there's no reason to flip, he's better in bot mode anyway.  Ideally going forward, we'd flip Starscream to plane mode, grab a Decepticon Crown, and use a transforming action card to flip back to bot mode.  Aside from Starscream's Null-Ray, you will spend most of your upgrades on King Starscream.  Just remember, we really want the Mining Pick on the King and we probably want to avoid attaching a Crown to a character, at least until the King dies.

The nice thing about having Starscream's Ghost is, if the other player goes after the King early, you can keep all his upgrades when the Ghost comes out.  This will take some of the sting out of losing your big gun.  On the other hand, if they knock out the softer target first, you can pair the Ghost, who is actually better than the bot he is replacing, with the King - a paradox perhaps, but a good team.  Either way, by the time Ghost comes out, he will quite possibly be the only undamaged bot in the game.  

Ghostie's best ability is his tap ability.  If you are outnumbered (which seems likely in our two wide squad), he helps level the playing field by tapping an enemy when he attacks.  This will cut down on the number of hits your guys take from wider teams.  Since it says 'you may tap an enemy' you likely also get to decide who is tapped.  This can open up a bot to attack on the next turn, or waste the opponent's best attacker's turn before he can attack you.  These strategic decisions will make you excited when a Starscream is KOd and he gets to come out!

Random Musing: I don't recall if there is a character who starts out in a mode where he benefits from someone being KO'd (Quake's KO ping ability is triggered in body mode).  If there is, it would be interesting to see if pairing him with Starscream's Ghost would trigger that ability at the start of the game (He is technically KO'd before the game, so we'd need a ruling from the rules overlords).

New Game Mode: Frankenstein Combiners

 Combiners are pretty neat in concept, if not necessarily meta relevant. Unfortunately you are kind of locked into a set squad of characters to use them.  What's the fun in that?  This is why I am proposing another new game mode to use the five waves of official game cards - Frankenstein mode! 

But what exactly IS Frankenstein mode?  Glad you asked.  Frankenstein mode allows you to combine parts from any of the combiner teams.  The rules are as follows:

Game mode allows 27 Stars to account for higher cost combiner parts, but the two extra stars can only be used to fit bots on your team and not star cards.

Five and Six bot combiners:

* Can use any set of arms and body, with the following limitations.  First, the section of the combined bot that has box spelling out its power must be consistent such that you can read the text.  This means in practice you are likely using legs from the same team.  Second, the pieces must line up to the right spot (right arms, left arms, bodies).

* Combining can be accomplished by using any enigma on your team, which allows you to get more enigmas in your deck.  This has the advantage of making it easier to combine.

* Frankenstein takes the traits and affiliation that is visible on the card of the combined bot (usually the left side of the card).  For example, Air Raid is the card that says Superion, Aerial Bot, and Ranged, so if he is part of your team, your Frankenstein becomes Superion when you combine.  At that point, only the Aerialbot enigma would help you.

* Frankenstein can keep upgrades that were specific to other factions/groups when it combines.

Two character combiners:

* Can be mixed and matched, with the combined bot taking the characteristic in the text box (the bottom bot).  The only limitation is, you must use a top and a bottom and not two bottom characters.

* 2 star combiners can be combined by as if the second character name replaced the natural partner in the combining instruction box. 

* Unless it wouldn't work (see Sky Shadow combination), either bot's transforming method can be used.

Let's take a look at how this might work and what amazing fun can be unleashed.

Frankenstein Deck 1

Scavenger (4 - Leg)

Scrapper  (4 - Leg)

Silverbolt (5 -Body)

Rampage (5 - Arm)

Sunstreaker (7 - Arm)

Battle Cards:

3 Aerialbot Enigmas (G)

3 Constructicon Enigmas (G)

3 Predacon Enigmas (G)

3 Sentinel Enigmas (G)

3 Builder's Tools (O)

3 Reclaim (B)

3 Heavy Landing (B)

3 Heavy Handed (B)

3 Squish Them Like Bugs (O)

3 Emergency Repair Patch (B)

3 Energy Pack (O)

3 New Orders (BL)

3 The Bigger They Are (B)

1 Rapid Conversion (W)

How this plays out:

First, as you can see, we now have 12 enigmas in our deck of 40. This maximizes our chance that we can get these guys to combine and I have added a Rapid Conversion to help get your team lined up to do so.  You WILL combine! At that point, you will be huge, so I added Heavy Handed and Squish them Like Bugs to the deck.  Your only chance to use them will be if you are the first to combine.  This could lead you to try to combine fast, or you may want to remain wide to keep your opponent from ganging up on you.  This adds another element of strategy. If you want to hedge your bets, you can use New Orders to untap anyone but Sunstreaker.  This deck also has The Bigger They Are to hedge your bets in case your opponent combines first.

Our combined bot will become Optimus Maximus, Leader, Sentinel, Ranged, thanks to Sunstreaker being on our team.  After combining, only the Sentinel Enigma would trigger.  

But we also follow the powers of Devastator and have his 6 attack, 33 health, and 2 Defense.  Thanks to the text box that controls the bot, the Constructicon Tower comes into play.  This is  why I added three copies of Builder's Tools and Heavy Landing to the deck.  The individual pieces are interesting as well. Sunstreaker can flip when he's in the KO pile to help you draw a card.  Silverbolt adds chip damage when he flips.

With the near certainty that our big guy will come to life, we can use Energy Pack (he'll be more than 11 stars) and Emergency Repair Patch (he'll be an autobot) to keep him alive.

Frankenstein Deck 2

Sky Shadow Tank (7)

SkyTread (Tank) (6)

Sky Shadow Sync (1)

Captain Impactor (7)

Private Sidetrack (4)

Ominous (outside game)

Battle Cards: 

3 Composite Armor (O, BL)

3 Crushing Treads (O)

3 Escape Capsule (O, BL)

3 High Five (G)

3 Hull Down (O)

3 Hunker Down (B)

3 Last Stand (BL)

3 Peace Through Tyranny (OO)

3 Hiding Spot (BL)

3 Point Position (BL, B)

3 Stealthiness (O)

3 Armed Hovercraft (B)

3 Anticipation Engine (W)

1 Energon Axe (B)

How this plays out: Per the Stratagem under these adapted rules, when your Sky Shadow tank is KO'd you can combine him with Ominous and your bottom character, in this case Skytread.  If you had chosen a different top teammate, Skytread's Revenge ability could make you combine, but if you did so, you would be headless.  Because Ominous is on the squad, I added Escape Capsule.

What has our Frankenstein gotten us?  Well, it allowed me to shape a tank deck around a combiner because all my characters are tanks.  In addition to helping create a tank team, I get the Skytread power on the combined bot.  It also lets me bring in Ominous from outside the game to help. In addition to Crushing Treads, Composite Armor, Hunker Down, and Hull Down I added High Five because everyone shares at least one trait.  Go tanks!  This team is heavy on ranged characters, so I included Armed Hovercraft.

I also added cards to help kill Sky Shadow to trigger the combination.  Stealthiness, Hiding Spot and Point Position are geared towards funneling damage to him. Last Stand lets him go down swinging and Peace Through Tyranny give you an extra turn as a bonus for combining via ko.

What fun Frankenstein Decks can you come up with?