Siege Conversion (Netflix Spoilers)

Spoilers for season 1 of Netflix's War for Cybertron series below.

This deck is based around Decepticons who saw the light and became good guys on the Netflix Transformers War for Cybertron Series. WARNING: Read no further if you haven't watched the show yet.  Seriously, stop reading and go watch it now. It's pretty good!

As always, the fortressmaximus.io visual depiction of the deck is included at the end.

Characters:
Captain Impactor (7)
Jetfire Air Guardian (10)
Specialist Ratchet (8)

Battle Cards (Pip)(#):
Armed Hovercraft (B)(2)
Composite Armor (O, BL)(2)
Crystal of Power (BL)(3)
Defensive Configuration (O)(3)
Emergency Repair Patch (B)(3)
Energon Axe (B)(3)
Enhanced Power Cell (BL)(3)
Escape Route (WG)(3)
Ghost Shield (O)(3)
Grenade Launcher (O)(3)
Junk Cannon (O)(3)
Medic! (no pip)(3)
Medic's Protective Field (W)(3)
Rapid Conversion (W)(3)

Breakdown: 14 Orange, 8 Blue, 9 White, 3 Gren, 8 Black. 9 Actions, 14 Weapons, 6 Utility, 14 Armor

Why these characters:

In the show, Jetfire starts out as Megatron's #1.  He seems like a pretty honorable dude, but he's got Starscream needling him.  When Megatron's nastiness becomes too much, he switches sides (which is a notable difference from the original cartoon origin, as depicted in this TCG deck).

Impactor is also a bad dude when we meet him, but Ratchet finds him all blown up and repairs him.  He decides to pay it forward and help him around the hospital.  When Ratchet gets drawn into the conflict, Impactor comes along to make sure his buddy Ratchet is ok.  He eventually makes the conversion complete and joins the good guys (though it is questionable how well that works out for him).

Why these battle cards:

Medic and Medic's Protective Field seem like required cards with Ratchet, and he gets to start with a Medic card in is hand. Jetfire's flip ability lets me retrieve an Armor or Utility from the scrap pile and put it in my hand.  So, I loaded up on them (Defensive Configuration, Emergency Repair Patch, Enhanced Power Cell, Medic's Protective Field, Crystal of Power).  Defensive configuration allows me to have more armor slots, which could be helpful with Jetfire continuously digging for them.  Composite Armor helps Impactor (I'm not sure if Jetfire's ability let's me play it on him, though I think there was a ruling somewhere about it). Ghost Shield allows me to upgrade my defense if I have taken up all my armor slots.  Because Jetfire needs to flip to retrieve cards, I added Rapid Conversion and Escape Route.  Energon Axe only works on damaged characters, which seems to fit the theme given Ratchet's repair job on Impactor. 

Strategy:

Now that the gang is all together and on the right side of the war, it's time to fight.  Ratchet starts out with Medic! in my hand (which is one reason he's fun to put in healing decks).  Impactor goes first, flipping to bot mod to get his bold 1 bonus.  Given the number of upgrades in this deck, there is a decent chance those three cards I flip (or four if I hit a white pip) will include an armor or utility.  If so, Jetfire transforms and snags it from my scrap pile.  Ratchet transforms and uses Medic to heal Jetfire or Impactor (to be TV show accurate, you should tell your opponent they have to attack Impactor).  That gives him +1 attack to go along with healing.  He then stays in bot form, while Jetfire pretty much flips back and forth to collect upgrades.

Looking for more War for Cybertron fun?  Here is a spoiler filled examination/discussion of the Netflix show's first season.

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.