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?

Microbots

If you are looking for a classic TV show episode to build a Perceptor deck around, look no further than Microbots.  Perceptor was doing his nerdy scientist thing, working on a shrinking-enlarging device.  Brawn was making fun of him for not being a fighter (which really made me feel bad for my fellow nerd Perceptor).  On the Decepticon side of the aisle, Megatron got his hands on "The Heart of Cybertron" which increased his power when it was installed on him.  Perceptor came up with a genius plan to shrink himself, Brawn, and Bumblebee down to microscopic size to infiltrate Megatron's body to disconnect the device - straight out of Innerspace y'all! And yes, I recognize that I am dating myself with that movie reference - google it!

This deck reunites this micro-dream team.  Will they shrink in the face of adversity, or rise to the occasion?  Note: The fortressmaximus.io visual depiction of the deck is at the end of the article

Characters:
Perceptor (8)
Convex (4)
Brawn (5)
Bumblebee Brave Warrior (6)
Heroic Spotlight Stratagem (1)

Energized Field Star Card (3)

Battle Cards (Pip)(Number):

Agility of Bumblebee (O)(1)

Confidence (O)(3)

Escape Capsule (O, BL)(3)

Escape Route (W)(3)

Field Repair (O)(3)

Hold the Line (WG)(3)

Matrix of Leadership (OB)(3)

Noble's Blaster (BG)(3)

Rapid Conversion (W)(3)

Regenerative Core (G)(3)

Repair Bay (O)(3)

Roll Out (OB)(1)

Swap Missions (B)(3)

Wedge Formation (O, BL,G)(3)

Energized Field (BB)(3)

Breakdown: 22 Orange, 18 Blue, 9 White, 15 Green, 6 Black.  27 Actions, 3 Weapons, 6 Armor, 7 Utility

Why These Characters: Let's be real.  The image of a mini Brawn, Perceptor, and Bumblebee riding on some sort of micro virus is amazing.  Perceptor was one of those characters that was always hanging around on the fringes, but he didn't have too many episodes focused on him.  On the other hand, he managed to survive the carnage of Transformers the Movie, so he's definitely worthy of a deck!  Speaking of the movie, it's nice to build a deck around a Brawn story he didn't get destroyed in (see my tragic Heroic Nonsense deck).  This team left me with some extra stars, but not much I could do with them, so I added the Heroic Spotlight Stratagem and some star cards. 

Why these battle cards: The theme of these battle cards is escaping and healing, which fits nicely with the Microbots episode.  Bumblebee is in the house, so we need at least one copy of his agility with Agility of Bumblebee to help zip around the microverse.  This particular Bumblebee also is a leader, so I threw in Matrix of Leadership (it's like of like the Heart of Cybertron ... not really...but close enough to stand in for it in this deck).  

The micro squad are all Autobots, so I tossed in Noble's Blaster.  Perceptor is a body, so I included Escape Capsule.  I threw in Escape Route, Rapid Conversion, Roll Out, and Swap Missions to take advantage of Perceptor's and Bumblebee's flip abilities.  Brawn likes flipping different color pips, which I think will be helped by my pip distribution.

I had three extra stars to use so I gave Energized Field a try. That seems to fit with the weird micro thingy our heroes rode in the episode.

Strategy: This would be an awesome deck to run up against a Megatron, thematically
at least.  The goal is to use Perceptor's flip ability as often as I can.  The pip color distribution should help make Brawn useful in the meantime.   If Perceptor dies, we can still make use of the flip cards with Bumblebee - when he flips each other character gets pierce 1 until the end of the turn. 

Starscream's Ghost

One of the most epic scenes in Transformers the Movie is Starscream's coronation.  After years of scheming to take over the Decepticons, Starscream finally made it to the top.  Megatron was dead (see my deck, Oh, How It Pains Me To Do This) and he was taking over...until Megatron came back as Galvatron and blew him up.  But you can't keep a good character down and the following season of the TV show brought ol' Starscream back in the form of a ghost in the episode appropriately named "Starscream's Ghost."  In that episode, Starscream's ghost was awakened by Octane (who we TCG players know as Octone) and mischief ensued.

 Thanks to the Ark fan set, we can finally relive the evolution of Starscream.  While I used a new fan-made character card, I limited my deck to official battle cards for folks who aren't familiar with the Ark fan set -which is totally free by the way!  If you haven't seen the Ark Wave 1 set, here is the new Ghost of Starscream:

Characters:
Starscream Decepticon King (13)
Ghost of Starscream (7)(Ark Wave 1 card)
Starscream Decepticon Lieutenant (5)

Battle Cards:
Decepticon Crown (WG)(3)    
Escape Route (WG)(3)
Conversion Expertise (W)(3)
Roll Out (OB)(3)
Kinetic Converter (W)(3)
Data Pad (W)(3)
Treasure Hunt (O)(3)
Improvised Shield (O)(2)
Inspiring Leadership (B)(3)
Mining Pick (O)(3)
Secret Dealings (WG)(3)
Reinforced Plating (B)(3)
Rapid Conversion (W)(3)
Bombing Run (B)(1)
Null-Ray of Starscream (O)(1)
Summary: 14 Orange, 10 Blue, 9 Green, 21 White.  19 Actions, 4 Weapons, 5 Armor, 12 Utility.

Why these characters: 

You can't have Starscream's Ghost without him dying first, and you really can't built a deck around him dying unless you have the King.  I considered other 5 star characters to round out the deck (The Ark's 5 star Rumble would have fit the theme since I recall he was playing the trumpet at the coronation).  At the end of the day, I went with the 5 star Starscream to maximize my chance of getting the Ghost to come out and play, and to take advantage of his Tough 1 bot ability, which will allow me to cycle through more cards.  But let's be real - the biggest draw is I can have a team full of Starscreams!

Decepticon King is the initial focus of this deck (because Ghostie starts off on your KO pile) and he has two powers that largely drive this deck.  First, he needs to be able to dig cards to find the Decepticon Crown, which gives him +3 ATK/DEF if he flips it while battling.  For this reason, I've loaded the deck with cards that help me dig for cards when fighting: Conversion Expertise, Improvised Shield, and Reinforced Plating add to the number of cards I draw while fighting, which gives a better chance of flipping Decepticon Crown.  Mini Starscream (the five star one) can have his Null Ray (you kind of have to have at least one in the deck, right?), which lets us see two more cards when he attacks (but don't put it on the King!).  Having 21 white pips will cause us to see a few more cards as well.

Drawing cards is great, but King Starscream relies on another ability to stack the deck.  When he flips to plane mode, he can return a card that lets him plan from the scrap pile and put it in his hand - this includes Decepticon Crown and Mining Pick, which is the weapon we HAVE to get on King Starscream.  The Crown can plan too, but we'd rather have that ready to flip during a battle.  Data Pad also has a plan like ability and can be put on the King if you haven't seen Mining Pick yet, but it only works when attacking.  Getting that plan card is key, because it allows us to stack the deck to ensure we hit the Crowns when he fights.   As such, flipping him is important to get the card, but we want to flip him right back to take advantage of his powers.  So I added Rapid Conversion, Escape Route and Roll Out (whose pips are nice too).

Planning really helps if we have the Crown in our hand. While it is a green card, the best way to maximize our chance of finding it is to draw a lot of cards.  Inspiring Leadership and Kinetic Converter help get cards in hand.  Secret Dealings lets you draw a card as well as plan one.

Finally, since this deck is basically two wide planes (until one Starscream dies), I threw in one copy of Bombing Run to try to keep them alive. Plus it's a plane card so it made sense!

You may notice I don't have a ton of upgrades.  This is partially by design, because when one of my Starscreams dies, his upgrades go to the Ghost.  In that way, I don't need to fill my deck with enough upgrades for three bots, only two.  I do have a lot of utilities, but remember I'm not going to put the Crown on anyone, so they don't really count.

Strategy:

Unless you get really lucky with your initial draw you are probably leading off by attacking with mini-Starscream to help you build your scrap pile and possibly see a Crown before using the King.  Plus, this ensures you can avoid a round of attacks against your big guy.  We may want to flip King Starscream in the first round to get him in position to flip back once we find a Mining Pick or Crown.  If there's no reason to flip, he's better in bot mode anyway.  Ideally going forward, we'd flip Starscream to plane mode, grab a Decepticon Crown, and use a transforming action card to flip back to bot mode.  Aside from Starscream's Null-Ray, you will spend most of your upgrades on King Starscream.  Just remember, we really want the Mining Pick on the King and we probably want to avoid attaching a Crown to a character, at least until the King dies.

The nice thing about having Starscream's Ghost is, if the other player goes after the King early, you can keep all his upgrades when the Ghost comes out.  This will take some of the sting out of losing your big gun.  On the other hand, if they knock out the softer target first, you can pair the Ghost, who is actually better than the bot he is replacing, with the King - a paradox perhaps, but a good team.  Either way, by the time Ghost comes out, he will quite possibly be the only undamaged bot in the game.  

Ghostie's best ability is his tap ability.  If you are outnumbered (which seems likely in our two wide squad), he helps level the playing field by tapping an enemy when he attacks.  This will cut down on the number of hits your guys take from wider teams.  Since it says 'you may tap an enemy' you likely also get to decide who is tapped.  This can open up a bot to attack on the next turn, or waste the opponent's best attacker's turn before he can attack you.  These strategic decisions will make you excited when a Starscream is KOd and he gets to come out!

Random Musing: I don't recall if there is a character who starts out in a mode where he benefits from someone being KO'd (Quake's KO ping ability is triggered in body mode).  If there is, it would be interesting to see if pairing him with Starscream's Ghost would trigger that ability at the start of the game (He is technically KO'd before the game, so we'd need a ruling from the rules overlords).

New Game Mode: Frankenstein Combiners

 Combiners are pretty neat in concept, if not necessarily meta relevant. Unfortunately you are kind of locked into a set squad of characters to use them.  What's the fun in that?  This is why I am proposing another new game mode to use the five waves of official game cards - Frankenstein mode! 

But what exactly IS Frankenstein mode?  Glad you asked.  Frankenstein mode allows you to combine parts from any of the combiner teams.  The rules are as follows:

Game mode allows 27 Stars to account for higher cost combiner parts, but the two extra stars can only be used to fit bots on your team and not star cards.

Five and Six bot combiners:

* Can use any set of arms and body, with the following limitations.  First, the section of the combined bot that has box spelling out its power must be consistent such that you can read the text.  This means in practice you are likely using legs from the same team.  Second, the pieces must line up to the right spot (right arms, left arms, bodies).

* Combining can be accomplished by using any enigma on your team, which allows you to get more enigmas in your deck.  This has the advantage of making it easier to combine.

* Frankenstein takes the traits and affiliation that is visible on the card of the combined bot (usually the left side of the card).  For example, Air Raid is the card that says Superion, Aerial Bot, and Ranged, so if he is part of your team, your Frankenstein becomes Superion when you combine.  At that point, only the Aerialbot enigma would help you.

* Frankenstein can keep upgrades that were specific to other factions/groups when it combines.

Two character combiners:

* Can be mixed and matched, with the combined bot taking the characteristic in the text box (the bottom bot).  The only limitation is, you must use a top and a bottom and not two bottom characters.

* 2 star combiners can be combined by as if the second character name replaced the natural partner in the combining instruction box. 

* Unless it wouldn't work (see Sky Shadow combination), either bot's transforming method can be used.

Let's take a look at how this might work and what amazing fun can be unleashed.

Frankenstein Deck 1

Scavenger (4 - Leg)

Scrapper  (4 - Leg)

Silverbolt (5 -Body)

Rampage (5 - Arm)

Sunstreaker (7 - Arm)

Battle Cards:

3 Aerialbot Enigmas (G)

3 Constructicon Enigmas (G)

3 Predacon Enigmas (G)

3 Sentinel Enigmas (G)

3 Builder's Tools (O)

3 Reclaim (B)

3 Heavy Landing (B)

3 Heavy Handed (B)

3 Squish Them Like Bugs (O)

3 Emergency Repair Patch (B)

3 Energy Pack (O)

3 New Orders (BL)

3 The Bigger They Are (B)

1 Rapid Conversion (W)

How this plays out:

First, as you can see, we now have 12 enigmas in our deck of 40. This maximizes our chance that we can get these guys to combine and I have added a Rapid Conversion to help get your team lined up to do so.  You WILL combine! At that point, you will be huge, so I added Heavy Handed and Squish them Like Bugs to the deck.  Your only chance to use them will be if you are the first to combine.  This could lead you to try to combine fast, or you may want to remain wide to keep your opponent from ganging up on you.  This adds another element of strategy. If you want to hedge your bets, you can use New Orders to untap anyone but Sunstreaker.  This deck also has The Bigger They Are to hedge your bets in case your opponent combines first.

Our combined bot will become Optimus Maximus, Leader, Sentinel, Ranged, thanks to Sunstreaker being on our team.  After combining, only the Sentinel Enigma would trigger.  

But we also follow the powers of Devastator and have his 6 attack, 33 health, and 2 Defense.  Thanks to the text box that controls the bot, the Constructicon Tower comes into play.  This is  why I added three copies of Builder's Tools and Heavy Landing to the deck.  The individual pieces are interesting as well. Sunstreaker can flip when he's in the KO pile to help you draw a card.  Silverbolt adds chip damage when he flips.

With the near certainty that our big guy will come to life, we can use Energy Pack (he'll be more than 11 stars) and Emergency Repair Patch (he'll be an autobot) to keep him alive.

Frankenstein Deck 2

Sky Shadow Tank (7)

SkyTread (Tank) (6)

Sky Shadow Sync (1)

Captain Impactor (7)

Private Sidetrack (4)

Ominous (outside game)

Battle Cards: 

3 Composite Armor (O, BL)

3 Crushing Treads (O)

3 Escape Capsule (O, BL)

3 High Five (G)

3 Hull Down (O)

3 Hunker Down (B)

3 Last Stand (BL)

3 Peace Through Tyranny (OO)

3 Hiding Spot (BL)

3 Point Position (BL, B)

3 Stealthiness (O)

3 Armed Hovercraft (B)

3 Anticipation Engine (W)

1 Energon Axe (B)

How this plays out: Per the Stratagem under these adapted rules, when your Sky Shadow tank is KO'd you can combine him with Ominous and your bottom character, in this case Skytread.  If you had chosen a different top teammate, Skytread's Revenge ability could make you combine, but if you did so, you would be headless.  Because Ominous is on the squad, I added Escape Capsule.

What has our Frankenstein gotten us?  Well, it allowed me to shape a tank deck around a combiner because all my characters are tanks.  In addition to helping create a tank team, I get the Skytread power on the combined bot.  It also lets me bring in Ominous from outside the game to help. In addition to Crushing Treads, Composite Armor, Hunker Down, and Hull Down I added High Five because everyone shares at least one trait.  Go tanks!  This team is heavy on ranged characters, so I included Armed Hovercraft.

I also added cards to help kill Sky Shadow to trigger the combination.  Stealthiness, Hiding Spot and Point Position are geared towards funneling damage to him. Last Stand lets him go down swinging and Peace Through Tyranny give you an extra turn as a bonus for combining via ko.

What fun Frankenstein Decks can you come up with?

A Storm is Coming

(Movie Bumblebee not included in this deck)

You may not have realized it until this very second, but there are a lot of Transformers with 'storm' in their name.  I guess that makes sense - storms are violent and uncontrollable, which makes them good reference points for Decepticons ... and theme decks.  Editor's note: the official internet dictionary definition of a storm is "a violent disturbance of the atmosphere with strong winds and usually rain, thunder, lighting or snow."  The official Marvel Encyclopedia defines Storm as a member of the X-men. See? This blog is educational! 

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

Characters:
Acid Storm (6)
Sunstorm (11)
Nova Storm (7)
Indestructible Sword Card (1)

Battle Cards (Pip)(Number)
Data Pad (W)(2)
Enhanced Power Cell (BL)(3)
Escape Route (WG)(3)
Fusion Borer (BL)(3)
Hazardous Shield (BL)(1)
HV Electron Breacher (BL)(2)
Increased Durability (BL)(3)
Kinetic Converter (W)(2)

Rapid Conversion (W)(3)

RR Disrupter Blade (BL(3)
Metal Detector (BL,G)(2)
Pocket Processor (G)(3)
Testify (O)(3)
Treasure Hunt (O)(3)
Work Overtime (W)(3)
Indestructible Sword (BL, BL)(1)

Breakdown: 6 orange, 13 white, 8 green, 19 black. 15 actions, 9 weapons, 4 armor, 12 utility.

Why these characters:

Not including the custom sets, there are so many characters with 'storm' in their name that they can't fit on a standard 25 star team.  Storm Cloud, Brainstorm, Sandstorm, Ion Storm ... but the three I picked worked best because they are all Decepticons and I think their powers can be complementary.  Acid Storm can prevent bold, Sunstorm likes cards in hand because his attack number is set by the number of cards in hand, and Nova Storm likes black upgrades.  I think I can accomplish using all three skills with a careful battle deck build.  

It also doesn't hurt that their names are particularly fierce.  A storm of acid would be pretty bad unless you had an acid-proof umbrella (which as far as I know isn't a battle card yet).  At first blush, a storm of suns doesn't really make sense, unless it is like a solar flare which can be pretty nasty.  And the Chevy Nova was a pretty beast car, so you can imagine that a bunch of them flying around in a storm would be more intimidating than a Sharknado.

Why These Battle Cards:

I tried to build my deck in two piles, cards that help Nova Storm and cards that help Sunstorm - recognizing that they could help each other (i.e. drawing cards for Sunstorm can help play a black upgrade on Nova Storm). 

Sunstorm pile - Card Draws: Treasure Hunt (which can help find those black upgrade cards), Testify, Pocket Processor, Kinetic Converter, Work Overtime, and Data Pad. In addition, Indestructible Sword returns to my hand if scrapped.

Nova Storm pile 1 - Black upgrades: Enhanced Power Cell, Fusion Borer, Electron Breacher, Hazardous Shield, Increased Durability, Meal Detector and RR Disrupter Blade all will be helpful if I can attach them to Nova Storm.

Nova Storm pile 2 - Conversion cards: These cards help Trigger Nova Storm's ability to move a damage counter to an enemy if she (I think its a she) is equipped with a black pip upgrade. Escape Route and Rapid Conversion can help.

You could also consider adding some plane or Decepticon specific cards if you'd like to take advantage of the team makeup.

Strategy:

I have no idea if this deck will hit what it needs since I'm trying to find different things for different characters. I'm probably leaving Acid Storm in bot mode to turn off bold. That coupled with cards like Enhanced Power Cell can help keep my team alive.  I'm looking to get a black upgrade on Nova Storm and flipping her back and forth to move damage to an enemy. She'll probably attack first so she can get some damage on her to move back when she flips.  I'm waiting until I have a good stack of cards in hand to unleash Sunstorm.

Final Thoughts: The best part of this deck is it gives you the opportunity to declare "I feel a stormfront coming!" every time you attack.  That kind of catchphrase ability is worth its weight in common cards. If you haven't tried "Oh how it pains me to do this!" yet, you haven't lived.  I kind of feel bad for the other Stormy crew for not making it into this deck.  Not because I think the deck will win a lot, but because I've never really worked any of them into a deck before.  If this deck is well received, perhaps I can create A Storm is Coming ... Again deck!

New Game Mode: Clash of the Titans

Titans. Remember them?  I sort of do, but I can't remember the last time I played with them.  I find they are hard to use because they take up all your stars and they get wrecked by wide teams.  Plus, they aren't always fun to build decks around because you are mostly just stuck with them and the minions that they came with. UNTIL NOW!

This is the second post in my series proposing new ways to play the game using the official cards (the first was a 7, 8, 10 star character draft).  There are a lot of awesome fan made sets out there, but this is a way to breathe new life into the cards we all own.

Rules: The rules to this mode are brilliant in their simplicity (Note: I am not calling myself brilliant, I just like that phrase).  Each team is made up of:

- 50 total stars

- 1 oversized Titan sized extra large character, a 5/6 character Combiner, or the three card combiner Omega Supreme

- The same star rule applies for minion cards (like Metroplex, Trypticon)

- You can either use your stars to include combiners that don't normally fit (combiner Dinobots, Sentinels) or treat them as they are handled in a regular game to save your stars.

- All members of the team must be of the same faction (plus mercenaries)

Why?  Expanding the star count allows you to deploy some bots to help support your titan or combiner.  In the show, the 'regular' characters would be fighting and then the Constructions would combine and start crushing the Autobots until Omega Supreme popped and duked it out with Devastator.   This kind of awesomeness just hasn't been possible to recreate in the card game ... UNTIL NOW!

Requiring a Titan or combiner should encourage the use of Trypticon, Omega Supreme, Metroplex, and the combiners who are not used because they usually bite it before they can do anything.  Requiring all the members be of the same faction makes it feel like it is a real battle that could have happened, while providing a little structure to build teams around.  

This would open up new strategic decisions during team building.  Is it better to use a titan, who is ready to start pounding on people right away or do you go with the benefits of being wide with a combiner and risk failing to combine? Do you support your big guy with a few powerful bots, or do you go as wide as possible? Can you come up with a team that actually fought together in an episode?

Would this actually do anything to make playing with these guys more fun? I am not a numbers guy, but I think having more characters would give combiners more time to dig for an enigma.  It would give Trypticon more time to find the cards he needs to deploy his minions.  The right teammates could enhance Metroplex's deployable buddies.  What is the maximum number of heads you can get to pop in a game if you combined Fortress Maximus with some body/head teammates?  Heck, I bet we could even see Loot Crate Omega Supreme get used to take advantage of his smaller star count for a titan.

What kinds of matchups might we see?  I don't think we could go wrong with Optimus and the Aerialbots against a Megatron led team featuring the Stunticons, flipping the Autobots are cars, Decepticons are planes paradigm.  I'd love to see a Kup, Hot Rod, and Metroplex team against the Insecticons and Devastator (a scene right out of the movie if Metroplex is autobot city, which I've never figured out).  How about a team of wave 1 and wave 2 Dinobots against Trypticon and pals to form a true jurassic battle?

Conclusion: This mode not only forces you to use some characters that aren't meta competitive, it also makes them more viable. This also opens up new potential synergies, as you can now look at the Combiner/Titan powers and see if they mesh well with characters they've never been able to be paired with before.

Hit me up in the comments or on twitter with your epic squads!

Titanic Trypticon

Metroplex is the Autobots' huge transforming city.  Having a city sized teammate is a legit advantage, so naturally the Decepticons came up with one of their own.  In The Five Faces of Darkness (aka the episodes after the movie that weren't very good), the constructions created Trypticon out of a human city.  Trypticon was laying waste and taking names until Metroplex got his 'transforming cog' back and transformed into robot mode.  He picked up Trypticon and threw him in the ocean.  Trypticon did the wise thing and headed to Dinobot Island to chill out and lick his wounds (see episode Thief in the Night).  Metroplex ends up tossing Trypticon in the ocean again (Don't worry, Trypticon still didn't die, but he got played by Ghost Starscream in the episode Ghost in the Machine).  Sadly, Trypticon has met a similar chump-like fate in the TCG card game as well, since it is much harder to deploy his mini bots than it was to manipulate the toy when I was a kid.  

Can the wave 5 battle cards help out the poor Titan? As always, the fortressmaximus.io visual depiction of the deck is at the end of the article.

Characters:
Trypticon (24)
Brunt (4)
Wipe-Out (4)
Full-Tilt (4)
Villainous Spotlight Stratagem (1)

Battle Cards:
Ancient Wisdom (O)(3)

Battlefield Incursion (G)(3)
Data Bank (W)(3)
Energon Axe (B)(3)
Energy Pack (O)(3)
Grenade Launcher (O)(3)
Heavy-Handed (B)(3)
Height Advantage (B)(3)
I Still Function (no pip)(2)
Increased Durability (BL)(3)
Squish Them Like Bugs (O)(3)
Staggering Might (W)(3)
Unleash Potential (B)(3)
Relentless Invasion (WOB)(2)(star cards allowed by Villainous Spotlight)

Breakdown: 14 Orange, 14 Blue, 8 White, 3 Green, 3 Black.  22 Actions, 6 Weapons, 3 Armor, 9 Utility.

Why these characters:
Unfortunately, when you run a Trypticon deck, you are restricted on who you can use.  So the characters are set and the question becomes - why do a Trypticon deck?  Well, that is obvious - he's a giant robot T-Rex!  There is no possible reason not to want to make a deck with him in it.  He also happened to be the one huge Transformer toy I had as a kid.  Man, he was sweet.

Why these battle cards: 
I used the Villainous Spotlight stratagem to get two extra star cards, which I used to get two copies of Relentless Invasion into my deck. Relentless Invasion is needed to make the most use of my little minion dudes.  I added two I Still Function cards to my deck to bring them back and die, triggering that minions revenge ability (Wipe-Out and Full-Tilt's are the best in my opinion, depending on whether you need cards or chip damage). 

I doubt it will work, but since the Relentless Invasion card is so helpful, I added the hard to pull off Ancient Wisdom/Unleash Potential combo so I can maybe snag another.  I then picked the cards that go with high star totals/titans: Heavy Handed, Hight Advantage, Squish Them Like Bugs, and Staggering Might. Increased Durability (armor) and Energy Pack (utility) are there to keep Trypticon going since everyone is going to gang up on him.  Data Bank is there to help dig for Battlefield Incursion cards. 

Strategy: The plan is simple and yet complicated: 1. Keep Trypticon alive 2. Dig for cards. 3. Use card digging to find Relentless Invasion, Battlefield Incursion, and I Still Function! to get the minions out.  When a minion is out, attack with him and hope he survives an attack (unless he's resurrected by I Still Function) so Trypticon can eat him, triggering the minion's KO revenge ability and Trypticon's 3 attack or 3 health ability.  The minions don't hit very hard, so throwing a weapon on them can't hurt.  Grenade Launcher seems perfect, since they aren't long for the battlefield anyway.

The titan/high star cards should help.  Staggering Might gives Trypticon Bold, Tough and Attack 1, which could take advantage of my mixed pip deck and increases the odds of finding a green pipped Battlefield Incursion. The same goes for Height Advantage.  Squish Them Like Bugs is guaranteed to hit one of each of your opponents since everyone has fewer stars than Trypticon - and it would be particularly helpful against wide teams. Heavy Handed can help deal some damage.

My Trypicon!

Analysis: Ultimately, Staggering Might and the Villainous Spotlight stratagem are the reasons why I think this deck might work where my prior build attempts have failed.  Worst case scenario, I get to talk about how Trypticon got thrown in the ocean when I lose.