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This month's deckbuilding challenge provided me with an opportunity to use a class of character I barely think of - Mercenaries!  It all starts with one of the characters in the challenge - Axor:

Axor lets you move a weapon or armor from another character when they battle, and if that character is a Mercenary, you get to trigger their bounty ability.  This is great because one of the problems I've consistently had with Mercenaries is how hard it is to trigger them.  Editor's note: I had no idea who Axor was, and upon doing some research apparently he's from the live action movies and the IDW comics? And sometimes he's known as Axer?

Characters/Stars:

Axor (Bayformers World Strike) 8: Axor is here to trigger bounty abilities by taking weapon or armor upgrades from his teammates after they battle.

Lockdown Bounty Hunter 10: His bounty ability involves putting a card beneath him.  Each card beneath him gives him +2 attack in bot mode.  As a bonus, when he flips to vehicle mode he also draws a card for each card under him and for each upgrade he has.  While you scrap that many cards from your hand, it does allow you to sift for the cards you really want.

Bug Bite (Bayformers Wastelands) 7 - Bug Bite is pretty cheap at 7 stars and his bounty ability is nice.  He scraps a card from the opponent's hand and that card will either repair one of your team or damage the other team by one.

Battle Cards (pip)(number)

Official Cards:

Contract Contingency (BL,BL)(3): This action gives a character +2 attack.  If it is used for a Mercenary and the attack does 4 or more damage, you can use the character's bounty ability. 

Dual Wield (BL, BL)(3): This card gives a character a extra weapon slot until the end of the turn.  When it is played for a Mercenary, you are able to play a weapon from the scrap pile on it.  This is a great way to dig a weapon out, use it on a mercenary, and then shift it to Axor before the 'extra slot' expires.

Opportune Offensive (BL, B)(3): This card can be played because I have a Decepticon (Axor) and Mercenaries on my team.  I can play it on Axor to get +3 ATK and Pierce 3 until the end of the turn.  

Enforcement Batons (OG)(3): Scraps an enemy weapon when put on a character.  Since it says "when you put this on a character" I am thinking/hoping it will trigger when I put it on my Mercenary and again when I put it on Axor after the move.

Scrapper Gauntlets (O)(3): Same reasoning as above.  If moving to Axor counts to trigger "when you ut this on a character" then I get to scrap another weapon.

Shoulder Holster (BL)(3): If you've been paying attention you've noticed I have used a ton of weapons in this deck.  Shoulder Holster gives me an extra weapon slot, which Axor may need if he's going to keep taking weapons from my Mercenaries.  The nice thing is, when I put it on a character, if the top card on my deck is a weapon, I can play it on the character as well.  Hopefully I don't need to use this, but given the weapons I have in my deck, it could come into play.

Valuable Contract (BL)(1):  Odds are I won't be using this, but if I manage to knock a character out, I can use this card's bounty ability, which lets me bring in a star card from outside the game and add it to my deck.

Mining Pick (O)(3): Just a cool weapon, letting you plan 2 and giving an atk bonus when you do.

Ghost Armor (O)(3): This armor can replace a character's existing armor to give that character +3 Defense.  This could be handy if I keep moving defensive cards to Axor (I think I'd have to put an armor on a Mercenary, move it to Axor.  Put another on the mercenary.  Cover it with Ghost Shield, then move Ghost Shield to Axor).  Will that happen?  Probably not, but it does have an orange pip so there's that.

Bayformers Wastelands:

38 Amp Ionic Plate (BL)(3): Armor that gives Mercenaries pierce 1 on top of its defensive abilities.

Bayformers World Strike:

Black mail (BL)(3): If this armor is on a Mercenary and the character takes damage without being KOd, it shifts one damage counter to the opponent.

Dutch (W)(3): This weapon gives Mercenaries an extra card flip when a white pip is flipped to pair with an additional +1 attack.

Ark Wave 1:

Tsunami Blaster (OG)(3): This weapon gives bold 1 for each card under it. Given the machine I am trying to set up where Axor takes cards from Lockdown and triggers his ability to put a card under him, this can potentially be a powerful card.

Cloaking Screen (B, G - ranged only)(3) - I need some more armor upgrades to get the Axor/Mercenary bounty machine going. This one has the advantage of giving stealth, which can come in handy if I'm trying to keep someone alive.

Strategy: 

The plan is simple.  Get lots of weapons and armor on Bug Bite and Lockdown.  Battle with them first, triggering Axor's ability to take those items, which triggers their bounty ability.  I'm probably focusing on using Lockdown first to get as many cards under him as possible.  Bug Bite is going second, guaranteeing there is someone who can take advantage of his heal bounty ability if the person scraps an action.

Axor doesn't flip, so I can focus on flipping the other characters if need be.  But I have to be careful to make sure they are in position to use their bounty ability after they attack, so I'm probably not flipping very much.

Matrix Revolutions

The following deck was crafted as part of a deck building challenge (Double Truckin' Trouble).  It doesn't really have a tie to a particular episode, so rather than give you a deep dive into G1 lore, I'll give you a brief overview of what I'm going for and after each card, I'll explain why it made the list.  My deck is built around having three leaders who can all enjoy the Matrix of Leadership.  I then tried to use each of the character's vehicle modes (2 cycles, a car/truck) to do some fun things.

Characters (stars)

Rodimus Prime Worthy Leader - Ark Wave 1 (12) - Rodimus has a cool ability to dig Matrix of Leadership cards out of the scrap pile.  He also gets a nice bump in bot mode when he has the Matrix on him.

Chromia Special Ops (8) - She's a leader, so she can enjoy the Matrix.  She can dig out white cards from scrap when she flips, which would help get Rapid Response Cycle, Nothin's Gonna Stand in Our Way, and Pop a Wheelie into my hand. 

Wreck Gar Junction Leader - Ark Wave 1 (5) - When he flips, you can return an upgrade from the scrap pile to your hand. In alt mode, you can scrap an upgrade and choose one of three actions (pierce, defense, repair).  As a leader, he too can enjoy the Matrix of Leadership.

Battle Cards

Ark Wave 1

Racing Stripes (B)(3) - Motorcycle armor that gives defender +def equal to number of different color pips flipped rounded up, then does that much damage to the attacker

Nothin's Gonna Stand in our Way (WG)(3) - Gives a character Pierce 1, allows you to play another one.  If you play 3, you can untapped a character with 12 or fewer stars.  Chroma's flip ability lets you dig for these cards and if you get three you can untap Rodimus, who is conveniently on the card.

The Touch (OB)(3) - action where Autobot Leaders Bold 4 when attacking, and if they have the matrix of leadership, repair 3.

Bayformers 1

Universal Greeting (O)(3) - Choose an Autobot and Junkion and can chose to give them Bold 1, Pierce 2, or Repair 1.

Dual Smokestacks (O BL)(3) - When put on a truck, requires opponent to do 1 damage to each character or 2 to an enemy of your choice.  Seems like a good card to put on Rodimus since he's a truck.

TROP1

Rapid Response Cycle (W)(3) - Utility that gives another character the motorcycle trait, +1 Def, and when defending against someone with more stars +1 Def.

Official Set

4 Wheel Drive (B)(3) - Can't hurt to give Rodimus a base attack of 7 for a turn.

Battering Ram (B)(3) - This can help if there's a bot whose mode is bothering me.

Cargo Trailer (B)(3) - Being a Truck, Rodimus can use these.

Matrix of Leadership (OB)(3) - Two pips, all my bots are leaders, key to Rodimus' power.

Medic's Protective Field (W)(1) - As a white upgrade, Wreck Gar or Chromia can get it when they flip. 

Pop a Wheelie (W)(3) - I like having the option to squeeze an extra attack out of one of my motorcycles.  If I get Rapid Response Cycle on Rodimus, this card can be huge because he can attack again.

Roll Out (OB)(3) - Two pip colors plus flipping helps all my bots.  Their abilities all grab me cards from the scrap pile, which is super helpful.

Start Your Engines (B)(3) - This is here to untap Rodimus and flip him so I can keep digging out Matrix of Leadership.

Team up Tactics (B)(3) - This is the coolest card for Rodimus because his car/truck duality lets you repair 2 damage from him and draw two cards.

Wheelie Say Find Friends Today

Transformers: The Movie introduced a slew of new characters (while killing even more, which for some reason I keep making decks about - see Passing the Matrix, Heroic Nonsense, and Oh, how it pains me to do this).  Unfortunately, recreating a lot of epic moments from this landmark film remained frustratingly out of Transformers TCG players' reach because the game failed to make cards for guys like Wheelie and the Sharkticons (and Kranix - somebody get on that) ... until now!  Thanks to fan sets, we now can recreate even more G1 goodness in deck form. 

This entry into the Turbo Revving Old Punks Deck Tech Challenge - King of the Road focuses on the movie sequence taking place on Quintessa. Hot Rod, the dinobots, and Kup crashed on a water planet filled with dangers. Kup got his arm broken off and tried to woo the Sharkticons with the universal greeting of friendship - ba weep gragna weep ninni bong. That didn't go so well and he and Hot Rod got captured to be tossed in the Sharkticon pit because they were "innocent" (I never figured that part out). Meanwhile, Grimlock and the other dinobots met a little dude named Wheelie who speaks only in rhymes. They broke into the Quintesson lair and bossed them out to the point that Slag said "excuse me" when he straight up crushed a Quintesson. How polite.

At the end of the day, the Autobots showed enough dominance over the Sharkticons that they turned on their masters when self appointed new king Grimlock said "Me Grimlock say execute them!"

This deck takes us to that special point in time when Hot Rod, Wheelie and the gang harnessed the power of the Sharkticons!

Characters - set (stars):
Savage Wheelie - Bayformers Worldstrike (6)
Sharkticon X3 - Ark Wave 1 (4 = 12 total)
Autobot Hot Rod  (7)

Battle Cards - broken down by set (number)(pip)

Ark Wave 1
Death to the Weak (3)(no pip)
Sharkticon Mace (3)(BL)
Dare to Believe (3)(O-cars, B-truck)
Bayformers Worldstrike 
Guilty or Innocent (3)(O-Melee, BL, BL)

Bayformers Wastelands

Razor Wings (3)(O)
Official Cards

Body Armor (3)(O)

Emergency Maintenance (3)(O)

Energon Slingshot (1)(B)

Erratic Lightning (3)(O)

Grenade Launcher (3)(O)

Improvised Shield (3)(OO)

Opportune Repairs (3)(O,BL)

Start Your Engines (3)(BL)

Turbo Boosters (3)(O)

Why these characters:

I would have loved to work Grimlock into this deck, but his star count and abilities just didn't mesh with Savage Wheelie.  So, I populated Wheelie's team with the Sharkticons he shared Quintessa with and Hot Rod because he changed the paradigm by crash landing on the planet (and getting Prime killed but whatever).  I also liked Hot Rod because he has a ping ability of +1 damage whenever he flips in the KO pile.  I haven't built a deck with the horde Skarkticons yet, so this was a fun challenge.  With Horde, you can have up to three of the same named character on a team, which is very thematic to the movie since the Sharkticons swarmed in a mass group.  These dudes have a nasty little Revenge ability that let you untap a tapped Sharkticon (or draw a card) when they die.  

Why these battle cards:

Lets start with the easy one.  Energon Slingshot is here because Savage Wheelie gets it added to my hand before the game starts.  That makes it easy to give it to him (and get the 1 ping damage that comes with adding it) very early in the game.

Wheelie also likes blue cards if he's attacking and orange cards when he's defending.  Instead of trying to have it both ways, I went heavy on orange, figuring I'll leave Wheelie in alt mode where each orange I flip reduces the attack of the bot who is attacking by 1, up to the number of orange they flip.  I figure most opposing decks will lean heavy on orange which will give me a fair amount of utility for this power.  To this end, I have 28 orange pips. Speaking of orange pips, Turbo Boosters is great because it allows cars to untap when it is placed on them, which will help me get an extra attack out of the cars on my team, Wheelie and Hot Rod.

As befits their mercurial nature, the Sharkticons are mercenaries, which allows me to use Opportune Repairs, a cool card I haven't gotten to use very often because there are so few mercenaries.  This will come in handy in keeping Hot Rod and Wheelie Alive (as will Emergency Maintenance).

Wheelie and the Sharkticons are melee, so I added orange pipped Razor Wings (which does 1 damage to each tapped enemy when placed on a melee character) and Body Armor (which allows them to flip 3 more cards on defense and will go great with Wheelie's ability). Improvised Shield does the same thing, but is only Tough 1, which is ok given the fact that it has two orange pips.

Having stocked my deck with cards Wheelie likes, I included some that go great with horde Sharkticons.  Guilty or Innocent allows me to choose to render a defender's Defense 0 or remove tough.  Sharkticon Mace is a neat weapon - if it is placed on a Sharkticon, after it attacks, it gets removed ... and put on another Sharkticon.  In this way, you can cascade one mace down the line as each Sharkticon attacks.  Then as they are killed off, they can untap each other as well.  If my opponent doesn't want to tangle with them (or they are down to 1 HP), I can use Death to the Weak to KO them. This triggers their revenge ability and allows me to repair 3 damage from another character.  Weapon wise, this is also the first time I've been able to use Erratic Lightning - it's -1 Defense won't hurt the Sharkticons who already have 0.

Once Hot Rod dies, I want him to flip to chip in damage, so Start Your Engines was included.  This card is awesome because it also allows me to untap one of my cards (Hot Rod or Wheelie)

Finally, this deck is pretty heavy on orange, so Dare to Believe's bold 1 will help get more of those orange cards out (plus it has Hot Rod on it, so there's that!).

Strategy:

This deck is built around getting lots of extra attacks in, like a swarm.  I'd lead with Hot Rod to try to get him killed first, which seems likely since he's the best bot on the team. Since none of the other characters will be flipping, I'll just flip Hot Rod every time to ping 1 dmg.  Wheelie gets his slingshot and can do some early damage as well.  Meanwhile, I'm loading my Sharkticons with weapons so they can go down in a blaze of glory.  My goal is to make the most of their few attacks (the guys only have a 2 ATK in alt mode, so they'll need some teeth to make a dent).  Attacking with them back to back will allow me to make use of their revenge ability.  With a five wide team, the Sharkticon revenge ability and Start Your Engines, I hopefully will have enough attacks to swarm my opponent even though the individual characters are weak.

I Thought They Were Extinct!

This deck harkens back to an episode I wrote about earlier (see Date Night Action), The Search for Alpha Trion, in which Shockwave exclaimed "Female Autobots ... I thought they were extinct!"  It turns out they are not extinct, and now, thanks to the continuing efforts of the fan community, they are even less extinct than ever. 

I don't know who the bot in the middle is, but we can either pretend it is Windblade (it isn't) or just gloss over that and enjoy the fact that there was an episode with three female Autobots and now there is a deck with three female Autobots.  Let's see if these ferocious female Autobots can show Shockwave what not being extinct means ... in Transformers TCG battle!

Characters (Wave if other than official) Stars:
Windblade Camien Champion (Ark Wave 1) 10
Sergeant Chromia 7
Private Greenlight 8

Battle Cards (Set if other than official)(Number)(Pip)
Sturdy Armor (3)(BG)
Emergency Repair Patch (3)(B)
Matrix of Leadership (3)(BG)
Noble's Blaster (BG)(3)
Roll Out (3)(OB)
Start Your Engines (3)(B)
War of Attrition (3)(BG)
Wedge Formation (3)(O,G,BL)
Master Plan (1)(BG)
Camien Grace (Turbo Revving Old Punks Phase 1)(3)(O)
Stormfall Sword (Ark Wave One)(3)(W, Melee Green)
Scan the Vaults (Ark Wave One)(3)(BG)
Vamparc Ribbon (Ark Wave One)(3)(OG)
Nothin's Gonna Stand in Our way (Ark Wave One)(3)(WG)
Contemplation (Turbo Revving Old Punks Phase 1)(3)(W)

Why These Characters: 

This is a deck built around one of the custom cards from the Ark Wave One set.  Windblade Camien Champion is a versatile character.  She's a plane and a leader, and she flips from melee to ranged.   Her abilities are also interesting.  When you flip her to alt mode, you get to look at the top five cards of your deck and pull one action and one upgrade into your hand, scrapping the rest.  This gives you a great way increase your hand and pull the cards you really want.  When she defends in bot mode and you flip four colors, she takes half the damage, which is a great way to get around the omnipresent pierce that comes with black pips.  The 10 star cost leaves enough room to build around.

If you read this blog, you know I like theme decks.  In this case, my theme was lady Autobots (not extinct!).  Sergeant Chromia, who is somehow a car now instead of a bike, was selected because she's the best value for a female Autobot.  I considered Arcee, but while I loved her 5 stars, her 9 health and 1/2 attack just didn't do much for me.  Plus, Chromia likes blue pips, which gave me possible synergies with Windblade needing 4 colors to trigger her ability. 

Finally, I've never even thought of using Greenlight before.  But since I was trying to get multi pip cards, I noticed that many of the blue ones had green with them.  This made her  natural pair for Chromia, which makes sense since they appeared together in the cartoon - I wonder if this is just luck or of the game designers planned it this way.

Why These Battle Cards:

Windblade likes flipping four pip colors, Greenlight likes green, and Chromia likes blue, so I tried to get as many double pip cards as I could.  The next priority was cards that let me flip more or manipulate the deck (tough/bold/focus/plan), so I could trigger these different color abilities. 

Let's start with the custom cards because you may not be as familiar with them and there are 18 of them in the deck.  Camien Grace provides focus 1 for Chromia and Windblade (along with Novastar and Nautica if you use them).  Given that all three characters on this team like certain things to happen with pip colors, this seems like a good tool to have in the toolkit.  Stormfall Sword is a Windblade helper in that it gives her tough 1 to go along with Pierce 2.  It also has two pip colors (one being effective if a melee character flips it, which Windblade is in bot mode), which will further help trigger Windblade's four pip power.

Scan the Vaults is a two pip card that helps me get cards into my hand.  It is handy because Greenlight likes green cards and Chromia likes blue so it helps them both.  Contemplation is useful because my team is all Autobots, which let's me plan 1 - this will really help me get the colors I need for my characters.  Nothin's Gonna Stand In Our Way is another two pip card that has the neat effect of untapping a character if I can play three of them.  Finally Vampiric Ribbon has two pips and allows me to repair the character if I can do 4 damage.

Turning to the official cards, Chromia has an ability that lets you play a blue armor, so I added Sturdy Armor. It has the bonus of having a green pip to help Greenlight and it even has a female Autobot (looks like Chromia but I'm not sure) on the card.  It's fate! Emergency Repair Patch was added to increase the odds I have a blue armor in my hand.  War of Attrition is a neat card for this deck, with a blue green pip mix and the ability to do chip damage and possibly heal your own character.  Matrix of Leadership has two pips and it would be cool to see what Windblade (she is a leader) can do with it.  Noble's Blaster isn't the best weapon, but it also has a blue and green pip, so it is useful in this team.  Roll Out has two pips and will allow Windblade to flip (which is necessary to trigger her ability) so it's included.  Wedge Formation is awesome here.  It's got three pips, so Windblade loves it.  It has different effects for Melee (Windblade bot), Ranged (Windblade alt) and Specialist (Greenlight, Chromia) so I'll be able to trigger two of the effects at once.

Start Your Engines is only a blue pip, but it allows you to untap a car and I have two cars on this team.  Untapping is a huge help on a three wide team, especially against five wide squads who can eat you alive with more attacks. I only included one copy of Master Plan because six cards is kind of a drain on my hand, even though it helps set up a big play and it is my coveted blue-green combo.

Strategy:

Flipping Windblade allows me to get cards into my hand.  I want to find a blue armor, so I can make use of Chroma's alt ability.  Otherwise, she's staying in bot mode to help build my hand.  Greenlight is chilling in alt mode until I am ready to play a green card, at which time I'll flip her and make use of her ability.  In the meantime, while she's hanging out, her safeguard ability will come in handy.

Being able to manipulate my battle card flips gives me flexibility to use whichever character fits the cards in my hand best. In terms of flipping, Windblade is probably getting the most action since she helps fill your hand with an action and upgrade.  Getting armor and the Matrix of Leadership attached to the team is essential to staying alive long enough to do some damage.