New Game Mode: 7, 8, 10 Star Character Draft

With the unfortunate news that the Transformers TCG was canceled, groups immediately sprung up to keep things going with new fan made cards.  This is understandable, as people rightly feel the game can get stale without new content (and frankly the stuff people are putting out is pure awesomeness - see my card spoilers for The Ark's set)  But what if we looked at things differently and instead changed the deck building rules to allow fresh new decks?  This series suggests some new modes to try.  And the first format in my series is a 7, 8, 10 star character draft, where players bring their own battle card decks to the draft.

The Mode: 7,8, 10 Bot Drafting

Explanation: With no more packs being made, the old sealed booster game will eventually be impossible.  When playing constructed, sometimes it sucks to have to play against someone who has all the cool cards.  For this mode, you will put a pool of characters in the middle and take turns drafting to fill your team.  The draft order is: 1, 2, 2, 1, 2, 1 to reduce the advantage of picking first.  If someone prefers to draft two 7 star bots instead of an 8 star, that is allowed.  This may be desirable for players who want to squeeze a star card into their battle deck (or maybe they they just like the 7 star characters better).  For simplicity's sake, Stratagems are not allowed.  I have a suggested pool of draftable bots below, but you can alter this list as you see fit.  The key is to have  equal numbers of cool cards to choose from and not have one character be overpowered. I have chosen only common and uncommon bots as a proxy for this, plus you are less likely to get nervous about someone else drafting one of those cards and playing with it (because it isn't worth as much and you may have multiple copies of it).

Why the Draft format? There are some wizards at constructed formats.  We will never beat them. But this mode prizes smart drafting and flexibility.  There can be no 'magic deck' that can crush everyone in this format, because it changes every game.  Each player makes their battle card deck in advance of drafting, so you would have to make battle card decks that are flexible because you don't know in advance which bots will be using them.  Plus, if you see what the your opponent is going for, you can try to stymie them.  If you play fantasy sports, you know drafting is fun.

Common/Uncommon 3 Bot Pool: For this pool, each player will have a 7, 8, and 10 star bot from a pool of common and uncommon cards (or two 7 star cards).  Here's who I suggest for each pool, but this can be adjusted.

7 star pool

- Smokescreen: Safeguard is a decent ability to have in a team you can't plan in advance.

- Gears: I don't think anyone will draft him, but I see no reason why he can't be in the pool.

- Crankcase: His draw power could make him a high draft pick

- Snarl: I haven't used him in forever, but his ability to draw cards and stack the deck could be useful. Plus...Dinobot!

- Nova Storm: If you have black pip cards in your deck, she could be helpful.  She heals and gets pierce from them.

- Sergeant Chromia: Like Nova Storm, someone with a lot of blue in their pre-made deck will like her ability.

-Specialist Flamewar: She's nowhere as useful as the other Flamewar, but she does have Focus 2 in bot mode, which could come in handy, especially if you have a mixed pip deck.

- Sergeant Kup: HE HAS TO BE IN THE POOL!  No one will take him, but HE HAS TO BE THERE. One potential tweak to the rules is you get his stratagem for free if you draft him because ... HE'S KUP! The ultimate vanilla card!  To make this alteration, before the draft, one player has to declare it's a Kup match, and the stratagem gets placed with Kip for drafting.

Not included on purpose: Quake seems too overpowered, Battle Masters don't really fit the format.

8 star pool:

-Autobot Hound: Perfect bot for a deck with white pips, which give him a +1 ask/def boost and help him draw cards.

- Bluestreak: There's very little chance his ability will be drafted, because you have to hit on three pip colors. But maybe paired with Flamewar he could be worth a look.

- Deadlock Bounty Hunter: Another guy I never use, but his ability isn't overpowered so he's in the pool.  He has to KO someone to trigger it and draw two cards, which could be useful but may be hard to pull off.

- Dinobot Sludge, Military Stomper: Really only works on Dinobot teams, but if you draft Snarl, you could give him a go. 

- Mudflap: Like Deadlock, I've never really been into trying to trigger bounty abilities. He's a truck so that could come in handy depending on your deck.

- Greenlight: As was the case with Smokescreen, I could see her safeguard ability being useful in this format.

- Private Arcee: Focus could be useful if you have a mixed pip deck.

- Private Sideswipe: I think Sideswipe is more useful in wider decks, because he has abilities that trigger when your teammates are KO'd.

- Dirge: The opposite of Sideswipe.  He does better when there are KOd bots in his opponent's area.

- Triggerhappy: Great flip ability to retrieve weapons from a scrap pile to hand, which could combine well with grenade launcher, which I assume will be a staple in battle card decks in this format.

Not included on purpose: I left out Wingspan because I don't know if his upgrades will be scrapped as often when people build decks without knowing who they are going to draft.  I left Ratchet out because I'm trying to avoid characters who require a certain battle card in their deck  The Firecons work better together and probably need their battle card, so I tossed them out.

10 star pool:

- Apeface: Triple changers are fun, and his abilities aren't really tied to teammate synergy.

- Megatron Arrogant Ruler: His messing around with upgrades could be cool, and if someone comes in with an upgrade heavy deck, he could be a high draft choice.

- Major Prowl: He doesn't get much play, but in a system where you need a 10 star bot, there are worse ways to go than 2 damage every time you attack someone with a weapon.

- Lockdown Bounty Hunter: I've never really played with him, but his ability seems like the kind of thing worth trying if you don't have a honed team/deck. 

Not included on purpose: I am leaving Jetfire out, because I think he'd be too powerful in this format. I'm leaving Trailbreaker out, because his ability is dependent on having Force Field in your deck. Crosshairs is excluded since his ability is Battle Master dependent.

Final Thoughts: I'd love to hear your thoughts on the bot pool and what battle card decks you'd come into the draft with.  Drop a comment or hit me up on Twitter!

Hopefully this game mode will be better than this movie.

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.

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.

Shockwave and Awe

What's better than Shockwave?  Only one thing ... TWO Shockwaves. This deck teams up Shockwave with the one character he can count on ... himself.  Interestingly enough, they have a chance to work together quite nicely.  Note, the fortressmaximus.io visual depiction of this deck is included at the end of the article.

Characters:
Decepticon Shockwave (11)
Major Shockwave (14)

Battle Cards (Pip)(Number):
Brainstorm (B)(3)
Collateral Damage (B)(3)
Computer Sabotage (O)(3)
Disruptive Entrance (B)(3)
Energy Pack (O)(3)
Espionage (WG)(3)
LV Gamma-Disrupter Launcher (B)(3)
Rapid Conversion (W)(3)
Scoundrel's Blaster (BG)(3)
Security Checkpoint (BB)(2)
Squish Them Like Bugs (O)(3)
Swindled (O)(2)
Unconventional Flying Object (B)(3)
Underhanded Tactics (B)(3) 

Breakdown: 11 Orange, 25 Blue, 6 White, 6 Green.  31 Actions, 6 Weapons, 3 Utility.

Why these characters:

You can't really make a double Shockwave deck without two Shockwaves.  Plus, Shockwave is awesome. He was the main guy Megatron left on Cybertron to keep stuff under control.  He has a laser thingy instead of a hand.  He has a cool voice.  He has one glowing eye. He's purple.  He thought female Autobots were extinct.  Well, I guess the last part isn't so cool, but nobody's perfect.

Why these battle cards:

Let's start with the easy - Shockwave has his own weapon card.  A card I owned three of before I managed to get a copy of either Shockwave card.  I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO FIND A WAY TO USE THOSE DARN CARDS FOREVER.  LV Gamma-Disrupter Launcher, you are in!  Shockwave also gives an opportunity to use the card that is made for spaceships but is never really used - Unconventional Flying Object - along with other cards that maximize flipping like Rapid Conversion.  Shockwave loves to flip!  Both versions let you draw cards and one makes your opponent scrap one.  Squish Them Like Bugs has a decent chance of being useful because both Shockies are pretty big.  I have a ton of action cards in here, and with all the extra card drawing, I need Brainstorm to let me use them. In an attempt to trigger Decepticon Shockwave's ping damage, I really got into having cards that scrap my opponent's deck, with Espionage, Collateral Damage, Disruptive Entrance, Computer Sabotage, and Security Checkpoint. 

Strategy: 

This deck is geared around flipping repeatedly to get actions into my hand, and then playing those actions to mess with my opponent's hand and add some ping damage.  Since this is a 'tall' deck, I'm hoping I can make some hay with my cards and limit my opponent's damage by keeping their hand size low.  I probably am getting Decepticon Shockwave into bot mode to set up his ping ability.  Then I'm repeatedly trying to get Major Shockwave in and out of spaceship mode.  This makes my opponent scrap a card, which magically triggers the other Shockwave's ping damage.  Then I play one of my scrapping action cards and ping again.  See? These guys love each other!

A Star(Card) Is Born

The Needlenose back of the binder challenge is particularly difficult for me because Needlenose doesn't appear in an episode of the show. This means I am robbed of my normal theme deck article structure.  The best I could do is share this Dinobot-a-riffic comic cover:

Even without the benefit of TV, the power of the internet reveals that his slogan is "Get hip or get hit!" That is worth something! He is apparently cool and trendy, which means I have to come up with a deck befitting his attitude.  Does this deck do the trick? Sure!

Characters:

Needlenose (8)
Nightracer (5)
Flamewar (5)
Raider Laserbeak (5)
Villainous Spotlight Stratagem
Stealth Mission Stratagem 

Battle Cards (Pip)(Number):
Ancient Wisdom (O)(3)
Armed Hovercraft (B)(3)
Cooling Vents (O)(3)
Crystal of Power (BL)(3)
Data Pad (W)(3)
End Hostilities (B)(3)
Energon Mace (B)(3)
Grenade Launcher (O)(3)
Grenade Launcher (O)(3)
Hold the Line (WG)(3)
Pocket Processor (G)(3)
Spymaster's Ruse (BL,BL,G)(3)
Unleash Potential (B)(3)
Even the Score (OO)(2)
Mounted Missles (OO)(1)
Pincer Movement (OB)(1)

Why these characters:

One key ingredient to the Needlenose back of the binder challenge is ... Needlenose.  His abilities both trigger on star cards, so my goal was to get as many as possible into my deck.  My first stop was Nightracer, as she (along with her stratagem) brings two star cards into my deck.  Villainous Spotlight is a means to two more star cards, so I needed to make sure I had all Decepticons on my squad (I could have gone with Beachcomber, but I couldn't find a partner to make his abilities work).  With my ten remaining stars, I picked the always versitile Flamewar and Laserbeak, because he's awesome.

Why these battlecards:

The only star card that works with Nightracer is Even the Score.  To hide which secret action I play, I added Hold the Line (which gives some healing and damage limits), End Hostilities (which will help my orange skewed deck defend agaisnt orange decks).  To make the best use of these cards and Nightracer's abilities, I added Spymaster's Ruse, which will keep them in play.

Since Needlenose is hip to star cards, I added Unleash Potential and Ancient Wisdom to bring some more into my deck. I admit I am kind of obsessed with this combo, and I haven't really gotten it to work, but there's a first time for everything!  I also added cards to help draw cards to get these into my hand, Pocket Processor, Data Pad.

Strategy: 

The goal is to get secret actions and star cards into my hand.  When this happens dictates when I play Needlenose.  I'm probably flipping Flamewar into bot mode and keeping her there to help everyone defend.  If I can get star cards into my hand, I'm Needlenose is doing all the flipping, which lets me do 1 damage when I play a star card and then retrive it when I flip him.

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.

 

Fury Road: Daring Escape Cars

Taking a break from Gen1 themed decks, this is my attempt at a Daring Escape deck (which is admittedly hard when I only have two copies of it).  I have no idea if it would work, but it was fun getting to use some cards I haven't been able to use in a deck yet.  The fortressmaximus.io deck depiction is included at the end of this post.

Characters:
Cliffjumper (8)

Sunstreaker Bold Warrior (7)

Prowl Military Strategist (6)

Private Stakeout (4)

Battle Cards (Pip Color)(Number):
Daring Escape (BG)(2)
Diagnosis (W)(3)
Energon Axe (B)(3)
Escape Route (WG)(3)
Grenade Launcher (O)(3)
Increased Durability (BL)(3)
Kinetic Converter (W)(3)
Pep Talk (B)(3)
Pocket Processor (G)(3)
Rapid Conversion (W)(3)
Repurpose (BL)(2)
Roll Out (OB)(1)
Start Your Engines (B)(1)
Team Up Tactics (B)(3)
Treasure Hunt (O)(2)
Turbo Boosters (O)(2)
Breakdown: 8 Orange, 13 Blue, 8 Green, 12 White, 5 Black. 23 Actions, 6 Weapons, 3 Armor, 8 Utility.

Why these characters: I finally got Cliffjumper from the Energon Edition and was looking for a way to try him out. He looks great as a leader of cars, so I then tried to go wide and cram as many Autobot cars as possible into his team. Once I decided to combine his flipping car teammate ability with Daring Escape, Sunstreaker was my next choice.  I chose Prowl because his bot ability can help keep his fellow teammates alive when one goes down and his car mode gives them a nice flip Bold 2 bonus, which can help dig for Daring Escape cards. Stakeout's 4 stars fit, but even better, I can toss a white card (there are 12 in the deck) and flip another character if I want to trigger an ability (such as Sunstreaker's draw card ability).

Why these battle cards: I'm trying to thread the needle between having a good fighting deck but trying to trigger Daring Escape's win condition.  So, most of my cards are geared around drawing cards, even if I never use them, if they are in my hand, they won't be in my deck or scrap pile. Drawing cards include Diagnosis, Kinetic Converter, Pep Talk, Pocket Processor, Repurpose, Team-up Tactics (because this squad is all cars), and Treasure Hunt.

Because Cliffjumper and dead bot mode Sunstreaker reward flips, I included Escape Route, Start Your Engines, Rapid Conversion, and Roll Out.

In the likely circumstance I don't pull off that Daring Escape, hopefully the cars specific upgrade Turbo Boosters, Increased Durability, Grenade Launcher, Energon Axe, and Diagnosis can help.

Strategy: This deck is all about drawing cards and flipping ... to draw cards.  or the first turn, Prowl flips, triggers Cliffjumper draw power, and Sunstreaker attacks.  I don't mind if Sunstreaker dies because he can still flip and draw cards for me.  Second turn, I'm flipping stakeout (to trigger Cliffjumper's draw ability) and attacking with Stakeout.  If Sunstreaker is then killed, I can use his KO flip/draw ability.  If my opponent takes out Stakeout instead, Prowl heals Sunstreaker (or whoever my opponent attacked first if they went first).  Cliffjumper can chill out in car mode until he's the last man standing, at which time he will flip and take advantage of +3 attack for each of his dead car buddies. 

In the meantime, each time I play a Daring Escape, I can KO cards on the top of my deck.  If I get one early enough, this could be 3 or 4 cards.  Combining that plus my draw cards and abilities, and I just might be able to escape before my team dies.  Then again, being on an Autobot Shuttle isn't what it is cracked up to be, especially for Prowl (see Heroic Nonsense).

Note 1: I only own one copy of Roll Out and Start your Engines and two copies of Daring Escape. Would you recommend playing more in this deck?

Note 2: This deck was largely completed before Wave 5.  Would you swap in any Wave 5 cards to improve this deck?