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ampedupkaon · 6 years ago

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Character Upgrade Hint?

You may have noticed in your deck building that there are certain upgrades for characters or teams (Null Ray of Starscream, Ion Blaster of Optimus Prime, Stunticon Swagger etc.) Well, I think that the pip in the corner of the upgrade is a hint on how to build the deck for that character or team. That isn’t to say that you can’t build an all blue Starscream deck, or an all orange Optimus deck; it is just a hint after all. Since I’ve mentioned him… Let’s start with the Ion Blaster of Optimus Prime.

A blue pip. And as luck would have it; Optimus does suit blue decks (They’ve been topping the meta recently). Battlefield Legend (yes, him again) has such high base attack that he doesn’t care if the whole deck is blue. He’s likely to do four or five damage each attack; even against a blue deck! The other Optimuses (or should that be Optimi?) also have relatively high base attack as well; so can function quite nicely in an all blue deck. Since we started with Optimus; let’s look at his rival’s Upgrade next.

A blue pip again. Tanks do work quite well with an all blue deck (all of the Megatrons are tanks) and also get the added bonus of Hunker Down (another blue pip that gives all unarmoured tanks some armor from the scrap pile). It also gives Megatron Pierce; meaning he’ll swat the enemy for at least 3 damage every swing. Combo that with Living Weapon (who can wield 2, or even 3 at once) and you’ve perhaps got a guaranteed nine damage each swing. Which is very nice. Speaking of nice; let’s look at Agility of Bumblebee next.

An orange pip. Which suits cars just fine. They’re going to be attacking lots with help from Turbo Boosters (an orange pip that untaps a tapped character when put on them) and Start Your Engines (a blue pip which untaps a car after flipping all of your characters to car mode). It allows you to draw when Bumblebee attacks as well; so you can restock your hand and get rid of that pesky blue sitting on top of your deck. Now from nice to nasty.

An orange pip again. Which does suit Air Commander Starscream; but (in my opinion anyway) not Decepticon King Starscream. But, then again, Decepticon King prefers the Mining Pick to the Null Ray; since it lets him stick a crown or two on top of your deck to flip. Air Commander with a Null Ray has 5 attack and Bold 4 (which is huge!). Since he’s Bold anyway in bot mode; he wants an orange deck; so the Null Ray is a good fit for him. Now on to the final named character card from Wave 1; Static Laser of Ironhide.

An orange pip. Funnily enough; Ironhide was the only character you could get an upgrade for that you couldn’t get in a pack. But; then again, he didn’t see play anyway; being vanilla on both sides. This card saw play in the Insecticon deck that also dominated the meta around that time; purely for the +3 attack. The Insecticons didn’t care if they were taking 2 damage when they attacked; they were likely to take down the opponent before they got hit anyway! Anyway, does this card suit Captain Ironhide? Maybe; since the swap is optional on bot side. But only time will tell if people use it or not. Now on to Wave 2 and the Combiner upgrades. Let’s start with Aerialbot Formation.

A blue pip. And sure enough; blue Superion works rather well. Just give him a Piercing Blaster and he does a guaranteed 6 damage every turn. With Tough 2 as well; it definitely suits Superion! Funnily enough; Aerialbot Formation actually doesn’t go in an Aerialbot deck (purely because there are better Utilities for Superion to use.) but it is good indicator of what deck might be good for him. Now on to Stunticon Swagger.

Which doesn’t have a pip on it. So lord only knows how we should build this deck. What it does however; might give you a few hints. It switches off Bold and Tough; so the opponent can only flip, at most, 5 cards (Counting abilities like Wave 2 Slag, or Spinner Rims), and that’s only if they flip a white. The question with this one is; do you go orange to take advantage of the opponent not having Tough, or blue because they don’t have Bold? That is down to the player themselves. Now on to Combat Commands.

A white pip. Which helps out Optimus Prime, Gleaming Commander; since he wants you to flip orange, blue and white when he attacks, so he can flip his team mates in the KO area. My head tells me that I’d build this deck with an equal number of orange and blue; with a spattering of white (including this card). This card also flips one character in the KO area to alt mode; then bot mode again. So they can go off again, whether that be drawing you a card; giving everyone Pierce 2 or scrapping an enemy Weapon. And speaking of Weapons, let’s look at Tooth and Claw.

An orange pip. Which; let’s face it, how else would you build Predacons? Predaking can hold 5 weapons (6 if he has this Upgrade!)so why wouldn’t you want them to be Grenade Launchers, Flamethrowers and Power Punches? He’d flatten anything with Upgrades like that! From one orange build to another; let’s look at Electrified Spikes (the Dinobot upgrade for this set).

An orange pip. Dinobots have always been an orange deck though, haven’t they? Jaws of Steel was an orange pip as well and gave Bold 2. You also had Dino Chomp (a blue pip which gave Bold 5 to a Dinobot in exchange for your hand being scrapped) that played into an orange heavy deck. Volcanicus himself wants an orange deck; so he can do as much damage as possible when he attacks the turn he combines! Now on to Builder’s Tools; the last combiner team Upgrade.

Which is also orange. And that does suit Devastator (10+ attack if the Tower is tall enough!) since he’s quite the power house. It also means the ‘Structies can be in robot mode and still build up the Tower. Or that Scrapper attacking can also build the Tower. Which means when you combine to Devastator; he’ll heal lots of damage and then dish out lots to the enemy. After which point; you can scrap the Builder’s Tools for something more useful (like a Data Pad, perhaps) and get the orange pip back. Now on to wave 3; and the 3 new character Upgrades. Let’s start with LV Gamma-Disruptor Launcher.

Which is blue. And Shockwave (both of them) would suit a blue deck. It helps out Cybertron Commander since he takes a while to set up. It also gives him a bit of clout; since he only has 4 attack in bot mode. And both he and Major Shockwave have good base defence; meaning in a blue deck, they might not get hit at all. Now on to Firecon Flame.

Which is orange. Good thing too; since all of them seem to want an orange deck! They all rely upon flipping orange when battling; so this is probably a good thing for them. It even helps Cindersaur and Sparkstalker get their abilities off; as it gives each of them Bold 1! Now last, but by no means least, Ultra Magnus Armor.

Which is orange and blue. Good; since Magnus himself wants to flip 2 orange and 2 blue when attacking. So if you want to get his ability off; you’re going to want to build an orange and blue deck. If Magnus (or any other Autobot for that matter!) is wearing his armor; he doesn’t get hit, so that’s fine. He also can’t be hit by Shockwave (or any other character that likes doing 1 damage from abilities).

Anyway, that’s the last of them. Hope it gave you some new ideas about deck building!

#transformerstcg #deck building

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