The Ark Wave 1 Spoilers!

Spoilers?  Isn't the Transformers Trading Card Game canceled?  While Wizards of the Coast is no longer making new cards, the Transformers TCG community has stepped up to keep the game alive. I am excited to preview two cards from Wave 1 of a set of custom cards being released from The Ark. In this article, I'll reveal the two cards I've been given to preview.  I'm happy to report that these guys really know what they are doing - both of these cards are stratagems that really help make otherwise forgotten characters usable in a deck.  In a future article, I'll try to build some fun decks using them.

Such Heroic Nonsense

History lesson: Heroic Nonsense refers to a line Megatron coldly delivered in Transformers the Movie. While the (spoiler alert from a movie from the 1980s) death of Optimus Prime gets most of the press, this one was the scene that really got me as a kid when I saw the movie in the theater.  For more historical context check out my previous Heroic Nonsense decklist writeup.

Why this card is exciting: Looking beyond its awesome name, this is a stratagem card for Megatron, who has consistently been underpowered in the game.  Any card that makes him more usable is welcome. As an added bonus, the card helps all tanks by getting a tank card into your hand easier.  Thanks seem to be underused so this is should encourage some tank squads.

What does this card do? For the price of a star, Such Heroic Nonsense essentially adds a green pip to the Hunker Down battle card if you have Megatron, Decepticon leader on your team.  This is a small change that doesn't break the game, but definitely helps. Hunker Down is a great card for tanks, as it allows each of them to fetch an armor from the scrap pile.  The problem with the card is, without the green pip, you will often frustratingly see the card pass you by in a battle.  This stratagem helps balance that out.  The best part is, while Megatron has to be on the field, this stratagem applies regardless of who is battling.

Hunker Down's flipping ability works well with Megatron, Decepticon Leader.  You will likely want to fight with him in bot mode (which somehow has more attack than his tank mode?), but when you flip to tank mode, you can scrap a card from your hand to scrap an enemy upgrade.  Scrapping an armor isn't so bad when you can retrieve it from the scrap pile with Hunker Down.  If you couple this card with some card drawing and flipping abilities, you could really drive your opponent nuts.

What kinds of decks will this card be useful in? While my full deck idea will be featured in a separate article, I think this stratagem not only helps Megatron, Decepticon Leader, but multi-tank decks.  My first instinct is to go with a tanks team of Brunt, Artillery Drone (4), Megatron (10), Demolisher (6), one of the (4) star battle patrol tanks, and this card (1). Demolisher would draw a lot of cards, which Megatron could discard to scrap enemy upgrades.  If you are willing to go with one less tank in exchange for an all Decepticon squad, you could swap out the battle patrol for one of the 4 star deception car or plane patrol bots.

Bust Some Deceptichops!

History lesson: A perfect card to pair with Such Heroic Nonsense, because Ironhide is who Megatron said it to in the movie.  While it is lacks the emotional gut punch of that card, the phrase has become Ironhide's trademark catch-phrase.  Is it clear what exactly Deceptichops are?  Not really, but that makes it even more awesome.

Why this card is exciting: Remember all those decks you made using Ironhide, Veteran Autobot?  Probably not, because he's the vanilla starter that you stopped using as soon as you bought your first booster pack (unless you wanted to run my Vanilla Trucks deck for some reason).

What does this card do?  For the low low price of one star, this card adds a whopping 4 health to Ironhide, making him an 11 health bot for the total price of 7 stars.  But wait, there's more!  This card also gives Ironhide a huge +2 bold and tough if he's fighting a Deception. All of a sudden, a lame card with no abilities has a chance of being helpful in a fight.

What kinds of decks will this card be useful in? While my full deck idea will be featured in a separate article, this card really helps revive the otherwise unusable Ironhide.  You don't get any fancy tricks or gimmicks, just a solid across the board increase in stats that doesn't create an unfair gamebreaking advantage.  I haven't played around a lot with combos yet, but my first impression is Ironhide + this card could be a good 7 star filler in a truck deck, especially if you know you are going up against Decepticons.  There are a lot of Autobot truck options, including Optimus. the off road patrol, Brawn, Gears, Outback, Hound, Trailbreaker, Inferno, Grapple, Ultra Magnus, and ... wait for it ... KUP!  Throw in 3 copies of 4-Wheel Drive, Battering Ram, and Cargo Trailer and let the mayhem begin.

Heroic Nonsense

Let's go back to one of the most shocking moments of Transformers the Movie, a scene that kind of scarred me as a youngster ... and it doesn't even involve Prime dying (but I have a deck based on that too - see Passing the Matrix).  Early in the movie, Optimus dispatched a shuttle to Earth piloted by four core characters - Brawn, Ironhide, Prowl, and Ratchet.  Thanks to Laserbeak, Megatron and the gang intercepted it and used it as a trojan horse to get past the Autobot defenses on Earth.  Rather than tie them up and allow their inevitable rescue as he had done countless times before, he straight up murdered them.  No one died in the show (heck, even Jetfire was brought back right after he crashed into the ice) and these were main characters!  Even worse, each death was more shocking than the next.

This deck recounts the last stand of Brawn, Ironhide, Prowl, and Ratchet.  At least they went down fighting.  The fortressmaximus.io visual depiction of the deck is included at the end of the article.

Characters:
Specialist Ratchet (8)
Prowl, Military Strategist (6)
Ironhide, Veteran Autobot (6)
Brawn (5)

Battle Cards:
4 Wheel Drive (B)(3)
Cooling Vents (O)(3)
Diagnosis (W)(3)
Emergency Maintenance (O)(3)
Emergency Repair Patch (B)(3)
Field Repair (O)(3)
High Five (G)(3)
Medic (1)
New Orders (BL)(3)
Ready for Action (3)
Repair Bay (O)(3)
Rest and Relaxation (G)(3)
Static Laser of Ironhide (O)(3)
Toolbox (G)(3)
War of Attrition (BL, G)(3)
Breakdown: 15 Orange, 9 Blue, 12 Green, 3 White, 3 Black. 31 Actions, 3 Weapons, 6 Armor, 3 Utility.

Why these characters: I've been waiting for Brawn for 3 waves to be able to make this deck. These dudes got killed, and in increasingly disturbing ways.  Brawn got blasted right off the bat.  Prowl got shot so bad fire came out of his eyes and mouth. Is that even possible? Ironhide and Ratchet put up a fight but didn't really get anything accomplished due to impossibly bad aim before they were taken out.  I don't know what is worse, being the first transformers to die, or getting killed by Starscream.  Ironhide survived the initial barrage only to be straight up shot in the face by Megatron at close range.  That one really got me.  Such heroic nonsense indeed.  This is the one chance these unfortunate Autobots have to change history.

Why these battle cards: Since these guys got smashed by a sneak attack, I decided to focus the deck on Ratchet's healing ability to see if they could recover.  Ratchet's attack increases by the amount he heals, so I threw in all the healing cards I could, especially the ones that also have other benefits like Cooling Vents and War of Attrition.  I only included one copy of Medic, because Ratchet starts the game with it in his hand, but it doesn't have any pips. To make the most of this ability, I added Ready for Action to hopefully untap Ratchet and use his ability again (and it has Ironhide on it).  Aside from all the healing cards, I added Ironhide's laser to give him a chance to defend himself.  Three of these guys are trucks, so I added 4 Wheel Drive to account for the fact that I don't have a lot of upgrades to deal damage.  While Brawn isn't the focus of the deck, my pip distribution gives him a chance of hitting multiple pips for his ability. I also included New Orders because the rest of my squad is 6 stars or less so maybe they'll get in an extra attack before they bite the dust.  It also gives Brawn a chance to hit a black pip.



Strategy: This deck is all about trying to keep your dudes alive through healing.  If it is played right, Ratchet can use that to increase his attack significantly, which is needed due to the lack of firepower on this team and in the deck.  Prowl is pretty useless because everyone else on this team is a truck, so he's probably attacking first.  Ironhide would prefer to attack when I find his weapon.  Ratchet only has to flip once to get him in position. Try to use Ratchet when you are able to do the most healing, so you definitely don't want him to go first.  Hopefully, your opponent will get tired of almost killing your guys only to have them heal up and leave the shuttle to concoct another plan.  But, if you get beaten, you can always say you lost on purpose to be true to the movie.