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.