Skittles

"Grenade Launcher isn't a common," my opponent said during testing.

Why sure it i-oh no. No it is not.

So that happened.

Fortunately, since this happened during testing and I didn't have to worry about having an illegal deck at the tournament. I tested with Crowbar but I wasn't entirely happy with that. Not unhappy but it's no Grenade Launcher.

So after a few more adjustments, this is what I went with:

Upgrades
3 Escape Plan
2 Kinetic Intensifier Whip
3 Improvised Shield
2 Basic Combat Protocol
3 Enforcement Batons
2 Erratic Lightning
1 Bashing Shield
2 Kinetic Converter

Actions
Repurpose 3
Ready For Action  2
Frag Toss 2
Head-On Collision 2
Defensive Formation 2
Battlefield Report 2
Brainstorm 3
Leap Into Battle 3
Escape Plan 3
Surprise Attack 3
Swindled 3

And I went 1-3.

First things first: I had a lot of fun in the games I played and I very much have a notion where to take this in the future. Just because I lost, doesn't mean I didn't have a good time! I learned a bunch and that is the most important thing.

Round One:
I was facing 5-wide team lead by Captain Impactor, with a heavy emphasis on bold. Game one I got run over. Game two I was able to stabilize but when even Private Tote is attacking for 11, that's just trouble.

Round Two:
I was facing a Dreadwing deck, supported by Bombshell! That was super cool and the matches were quite grindy, both of us eking out damage against the other. But I was able to hold off Dreadwing and eventually get the win. It was in this game that I was able to do things like one-shot Bombshell, something I couldn't do against the...not very defensive wide deck?

Sometimes, I do not understand this game.

Round Three:
This player was using Captain Astrotrain for damage and Sergeant Springer to draw a ton of cards. Against a two-tall team, I thought I had a shot, but I couldn't draw the cards I needed to heal, and I couldn't press any advantages. I figured out by game three that I had to take out Springer to keep the card engine from taking over, but the flips were not in my favor. Twice I flipped blues on attack, leaving my team vulnerable on the counterpunch-and leaving Springer with just one health left. One more orange pip and we untap with my two characters to his one but alas, that was not to be.

Round Four:
Another three wide team, this time using Optimus Prime-Freedom Fighter's innate bold ability to hit for a lot. Bold is a heck of a thing and it's helping me re-think how I build this deck. I was able to hit Optimus for eight in game two, letting me pull the victory out, but in game three I just couldn't get my deck going.

So what did I learn? In a big picture sense: I got distracted by shiny new cards (Reprocess, Defensive Formation) and forgot some basics that would've been a help. My biggest oversight was not including Forcefield in the deck, at least as a sideboard card. Bold attacks for 11 become a lot less scary when they hit for only four and I can heal one the next turn. But there were some specific things that I learned, too.

First: Repair Bay should've been in this deck, instead of cards with only black pips; as an orange card that heals the entire team, it fits perfectly. Second: I think I had too many white pips in this deck! Which is weird-the numbers say that generally one wants 9-11 white pip cards but I couldn't get consistent attacks and that might contribute. Third: more card draw (Incoming Transmission would've been fine) to assist Swindled could have helped, too. Finally, if there had been a way to incorporate New Designs, that would have been ideal. Card draw is huge (Kinetic Converter is excellent) but it needs to be followed up with pressure.

And that's it! Congrats to the winners and I'll have something better next time.

Beastmode

Here are the upgrades I've made to the deck for the tournament (updates in bold):

Upgrades
3 Grenade Launcher
3 Escape Plan
2 Kinetic Intensifier Whip
3 Improvised Shield
2 Basic Combat Protocol
3 Enforcement Batons
2 Erratic Lightning
1 Bashing Shield
1 Kinetic Converter

Actions
Repurpose 3
Ready For Action  2
Frag Toss 2
Head-On Collision 1
Defensive Formation 2
Battlefield Report 2
Brainstorm 3
Leap Into Battle 3
Escape Plan 3
Surprise Attack 3
Swindled 2

I leaned towards an aggressive build, eliminating Handheld Blaster for Grenade Launcher to increase the strength of the flips I would be making. Head-On Collision is there because I don't ever flip Raider Tailwind and Runabout's strongest attack mode is its bot mode, and a fourth copy of  Leap Into Battle is pretty good.

I also increased the green pip density for Raider Tailwind. Every little bit of offense or defense will help and while there isn't a ton of green pips, seven is still more than one.

The Sideboard is going to be
1 Stable Cover
1 Defensive Formation
2 Vaporize
2 Crushing Size
3 Crowbar

Motormaster, Stunticon Leader

Here's my reasoning:

Motormaster meets a critical point for my support character: it doesn't transform. Again: all the focus is going to be on Runabout and Runamuck for my flip actions, so the support card has to be solid as is.

And I chose Motormaster because of Private Sunrunner. Of the other Patrol teams, this is the only one who can do non-combat damage, which I think is a strong ability. While I expect the Air Strike Patrol to be a thing (they're the best Patrol at the moment) there aren't any real counters for what it does. I'm hoping to use the healing flips of Runabout to keep me in the game long enough to make an opponent's Raider Tailwind not matter.

But Motormaster takes a definite cut at Sunrunner's ability and that's what the sideboard is for.

Defensive Formation comes in vs the 4-5 wide decks, and if I can play it as my final action before they attack with two characters that would be ideal. Extra Stable Cover comes in against the black pip decks-I fully expect there to be a two-tall, heavy pierce deck. The characters and cards are there to support it, Raider Nova Storm can hit hard and I feel like it would be foolish to ignore the strategy.

Crushing Size and Vaporize are important because there are quite a few good Utility upgrades, especially ones that draw cards, and while Marshawn does a lot, it doesn't hit those very well or easily.

Crowbar is my wildcard at the moment: double pierce pips seem good against a heavily defensive deck. Is that a good idea? I don't know. But I'm not sure what else I should add in: more copies of Bashing Shield? Reprocess? I'm hoping to get a little testing in to help clarify things in time for Saturday.