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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.

Ninja Robot Revenge

Siege II has a cool promo character named Nightbird.  But who exactly is Nightbird, where did she come from, and can we build a deck around her story?

One time in the Transformer cartoon, in an episode creatively titled "Enter the Nightbird," this scientist guy made a female ninja robot named Nightbird.  While Dr. Fujiyama built the robot for good, the Decepticons stole her, which is a very Decepticon thing to do.  Bombshell put some sort of chip in her that reprogrammed her into a total badass under the Decepticons' control. Editor's note: Apparently Bombshell can do this using mind controlling "cerebro-shells."


Nightbird then broke into Teletraan 1 (because that's what ninjas do) and stole "the World Energy Chip" from the Autobots, who spent the rest of the episode trying to catch her.  In one particularly moving scene, Optimus prevents Cliffjumper from shooting her and makes a failed attempt to reason with her.  The Autobots eventually (spoiler alert) managed to subdue the super ninja using an electro mesh prison.  While she was placed in storage to prevent her from being used for evil, the episode's ending left hints that she would be back.  Sadly, she didn't appear in the G1 cartoon again, but I believe she showed up in some of the comics.  Regardless, she finally gets her due with this deck!

Note: I have updated this article by adding the fortressmaximus.io visual depiction of the deck at the end of the article.

Characters: Nightbird (7), Prime Autobot Leader (7), Bombshell Psy Ops (11)

Battle Cards (Pip Color)(Number in Deck(:
4-Wheel Drive (B)(1)
Bashing Shield (OG)(1)
Battlefield Report (B)(3)
Cargo Trailer (B)(3)
Contract Contingency (BL,BL) (3)
Cooling Vents (O)(3)
Coup (BL)(2)
Data Pad (W)(1)
Energon Axe (B)(3)
Energy Pack (O)(1)
Escape Route (WG)(2)
Increased Durability (BL)(3)
Kinetic Converter (W)(2)
Matrix of Leadership (BO)(2)
Mining Pick (O)(2)
Opportune Repairs (O, BL)(1)
Pep Talk (B)(1)
Pocket Processor (G)(1)
Rapid Conversion (W)(1)
Roll Out (BO)(1)
Treasure Hunt (O)(2)
Valuable Contract (BL)(1)
Breakdown: 13 Orange, 14 Blue, 4 Green, 6 White, 13 Black.  17 actions, 5 weapons, 7 armor, 11 utilities.

Why these characters: Bombshell is the one who implanted her with the mind control chip, so he's got to be here.  Prime represents the Autobots trying to catch her, but he is also included because he tried to reason with her instead of shooting her, which seems like a very Optimus Prime thing to do.  Beyond the theme of trying to stick with what happened in the episode, Prime has a draw card flip ability and Bombshell is trying to collect cards to trigger his KO ability.  I also wanted to try to have one character from each faction to represent her position between the two teams.

Why these battle cards: First, since I had Nightbird, I wanted to use as many bounty hunter battle cards as I could (Contract Contingency, Coup, Opportune Repairs, Valuable Contract).  Bombshell needs cards to trigger his ability, so I then prioritized cards that either help me build a hand (Treasure Hunt, Pocket Processor, Pep Talk, Kinetic Converter, Data Pad) or flip characters, which can also get cards into my hand (Rapid Conversion, Escape Route, Roll Out).  I loaded my deck with upgrades to try to make the most of Treasure Hunt (23).  I picked some card that go with Optimus (4-Wheel Drive, Cargo Trailer, Matrix of Leadership, Energy Pack, Opportune Repairs since he is my only Autobot on this team) and some cards that hopefully would keep my team alive a bit longer (Increased Durability, Cooling Vents).  Finally, I wanted to try Secret Actions, as I rarely have used them in decks (Battlefield Report, Coup) and it seems a Ninja robot would use secret moves.  This deck is split pretty evenly between blue (14), orange (13), and black (13) pips.

General strategy: Flipping is the name of the game to trigger Optimus and Bombshell's draw ability.  Nightbird can hang around in car mode until she is about to KO someone, when she can flip to trigger her bounty ability (which ties well into her ninja thief past).  If playing against a wide team, Bombshell won't need as many cards to trigger his ability, but against tall teams, keeping him alive for a long time might be the challenge.

What do you think of this deck?  Are you captivated by the tragic tale of Nightbird?