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. 

Swarm of Bees

Bumblebee.  If he isn't the most popular Transformers character, the Transformers people think he is.  He's got a ton of Transformers TCG cards (5 plus a battle card).  He's got his own movie. He's in the new War for Cybertron Series on Netflix. And now, he has his own deck.  And by own, I mean literally because he's the only one in it. Bonus points if you catch the references in this post.

Note, the fortressmaximus.io deck visualization is at the end of the post.

Characters:

Bumblebee Brave Warrior

Bumblebee Courageous Scout

Bumblebee Legendary Warrior

Battle Cards (#)(Pip Color):

Agility of Bumblebee (3)(O)

Attack Drone (3)(WG)

Data Pad (3)(W)

Diagnosis (3)(W)

Emergency Repair Patch (3)(B)

Energon Axe (3)(B)

Force Field (3)(W)

Fusion Borer (3)(BL)

Grenade Launcher (1)(O)

Last Stand (3)(BL)

Peace Through Tyranny (3) (OO)

Start Your Engines (3)(B)

Treasure Hunt (3)(O)

Turbo Boosters (3)(O)

Stats: 16 Orange, 9 Blue, 3 Green, 12 White, 6 Black. 15 Actions, 10 Weapons, 6 Armor, 9 Utility.

Why these characters: What's better than one Bumblebee?  Two Bumblees!  What's better than that? Three Bumblebees!  Luckily, none of the Bumblees talk via poorly edited radio snippets.  And the best part is ... no Agent Burns! 

Why these battle cards: I have three Bumblebees so I need three Agility of Bumblebee cards to make them ... agile.  After that, it helps to look at the character abilities.  Legendary Warrior likes being the last bot standing.  Peace through Tyranny and Last Stand can help with that by sacrificing Brave Warrior. Courageous Scout likes to flip and get white cards.  Start Your Engines helps with the flipping (and gives us an untap). Emergency Repair Patch is a white Autobot healing card, along with the defense of Force Field, the draw power of Data Pad, and the stackable attack of Attack Drone.  Turbo Boosters is added because all these dudes are cars.

Strategy: We start by flipping Courageous Scout.  Brave Warrior better be brave, because we are attacking with him first. Once he gets some damage on him, we canmake him fodder for Peace Through Tyranny or untap him with Start Your Engines to squeeze some more value out of him.  Courageous Scout flips back to car mode to snag a card and plan.  Then it is time for Legendary Warrior to do his thing. Legendary Warrior gets first dibs on armor because odds are it will be up to him to win the match.  If you can pull this off, you will stay alive and graduate to head of the Bumblebee class.

Random Bumblebee Musing: Volkswagen Bumblebee > SportscarBumblebee.  This cannot be debated. Volkswagen Beetles were known as 'bugs.'  Bumblebees are bugs.  It just fits.

Random Bumblebee TCG Musing: Bumblebee might have the strangest subtitle names:

1. "Least Likely, Most Dangerous" - Objectively false because that card isn't very dangerous at all.

2. "Brave Warrior" AND "Legendary Warrior" - I guess you can be brave and legendary, but neither really fits Bumblebee.

3. "Trusted Lieutenant" - As opposed to an officer you don't trust? He may not be very good at anything, but at least we can trust him!

Random Bumblebee Fact: Approximately 1/3rd of the food we eat is the result of honeybee pollination.