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?

Secret Warriors

The Secret Warriors are a Marvel Comics superhero team.  But now they are also a Transformers Trading Card Game deck built around their not so secret (because it is written on their cards) shared love of secret actions.  Secret Warriors, come out and plaaaaaay!*

The fortressmaximus.io visual depiction of the deck is included at the end of the article.

Characters:
Pounce (8)
Sergeant Skywarp, Black Ops Seeker (8)
Nightracer (5)
Raider Nightflight (4)

Battle Cards:
Aerial Recon (O)(1)
Backfire (B)(3)
Battlefield Report (B)(3)
End Hostilities (B)(3)
Enhanced Power Cell (BL)(3)
Grenade Launcher (O)(3)
Hold the Line (WG)(3)
Increased Durability (BL)(3)
Mining Pick (O)(3)
Minor Medic Kit (BL, BL)(3)
Reflect Damage (G)(3)
Special Ops Mission (W)(3)
Spymasters Ruse (BL, BL)(3)
Stable Cover (BL)(3)
Breakdown: 7 Orange, 9 Blue, 6 White, 9 Green, 21 Black.  24 Actions (21 Secret), 6 Weapons, 3 Armor, 7 Utility.

Why these characters:  Pounce, Skywarp and Nightracer all make secret actions more useful.  Skywarp allows me to draw cards when I play a secret action in bot mode and return 2 secret actions to my hand in plane mode.  Pounce's bot mode ability is another way to get a secret action into my hand and arrange the deck.  This ensures I'll always have a strong hand full of secret actions. Nightracer gives a bold or tough bonus for secret actions played for the whole team and I'm pretty much guaranteed to play one every turn.



The biggest question I faced was whether to go with Nightracer's stratagem and add more star cards or to go with another character.  At the end of the day, I decided I'd be better off with another character because I don't really like the star card options for this deck.  Nightflight is just a warm body whose stars fit, but I guess it can't hurt to have two characters with 'night' in their name.

Why these battle cards: Spymaster's Ruse is the key card in this deck, with Special Ops Mission coming a close second.  It allows a secret action to hang around until it is triggered.  Having secret actions on the table is key for Nightracer's and Pounce's alt mode abilities.  As I noted above, I wasn't too enamored with the star card secret actions that Nightracer's stratagem could have gotten me.  I had considered playing it and Villainous Spotlight, but I felt I wasn't getting much utility out of the extra star cards.  The secret actions I chose deflect or reduce damage in interesting ways.

Grenade Launcher and Mining Pick are there to deal some damage. Aerial Recon fits two of my characters and gives them some defense and the ability to manipulate the deck a bit when battling. Enhanced Durability, Enhanced Power Cell, and Minor Medic Kit are there to keep the Secret Warriors alive.  I'm hoping these cards will work well with the defensive powers of the secret actions.

Strategy: These characters like to flip a bit, but their powers are good on both sides. If I am going first, I'm strongly considering flipping Pounce and leading with Nightflight since I can't play a card anyway.  This gives me a chance to get some secret actions into my hand and let's me plan Nighflight's attack.  Nightflight becomes the tapped target which saves my other dudes.  After Pounce, Skywarp likely transforms to trigger his draw ability and get him in position to snag some secret actions from the scrap pile on his flip back. Nightracer's job is to support the rest of the squad, depending on whether bold or tough is needed.  If I can get multiple secret actions on the table, using Spymaster's Ruse or Special Ops Mission, Pounce will flip to alt mode and ... pounce with a pretty boss ATK that will likely get through thanks to all the black pip cards in the deck.  Bonus points if you say "Can you dig it?!" when you flip your secret actions.*

* This is a reference to the classic movie, The Warriors.  It isn't really that good, but you should probably watch it anyway.