Specialist Stratagies

After the last set of changes, there was only one more; remove Vandalize for Battle Ready.

I didn't want to take out Vandalize; equipment is too useful to ignore. However, because of Bashing Shield and Enforcement Batons, I knew I had some answers. Utilities are still going to be a problem, but you solve that problem by KOing the character, right? More orange pips means that Supercharge becomes far more useful.

So with the list done, how do I approach games?

First: I usually transform Sludge and attack with Shockwave. Shockwave's stats are far superior to everyone else's and if I'm on the play, there's nothing for me to do anyway. So it's likely to get in a good hit, while being able to withstand a decent amount of damage.

This can change if I know I'm going up against a highly defensive deck but generally leading the attack with Shockwave is correct. Sludge gets transformed because opponents usually want to take it out quickly and getting the repair bonus is always helpful.

Now, turn two is where this deck starts to shine. That can even happen if you're going second! Because one can frequently engineer turns where you play Multi Mission Gear or Field Communicator to get a 'full' turn, playing multiple cards. Because Specialists play a game of incremental advantages, getting to take more actions in the early game can help give them an edge. They can't blow an opponent out; you have to look for weaknesses in the armor and capitalize on them. The sooner, the better!

Similarly, don't be afraid to use up Repair Bay on just one character. Incremental advantages, remember? Plus, those orange pips don't do you any good sitting in your hand.

Swoop usually bats cleanup and is definitely the weakest link in the deck so far. Generally, it's great to put a Grenade Launcher on him but any equipment is helpful, even Multi-Mission Gear for defense and a bonus action. And if he's carrying the full load of utilities, Battle Ready means Swoop has a bigger bonus to attack than Grenade Launcher, getting +3 from the utilities, plus +1s from both Field Communicator and Multi-Tool.

If Swoop survives, though, using the alt mode ability to repair and ping for one isn't bad, especially since on the next attack, that will also repair a second point of damage.

Similarly, I have found it useful to play carefully so I have opportunities to use Shockwave's bot mode ability with System Reboot. This can frequently hit for three points of damage but against a deck trying to use a lot of draw, like Bombshell, Psy-Ops might, you could KO someone.

If you get the chance to untap with the full suite of characters, I've found that I'm usually in a better position than I think. Swoop often tempts opponents to go after it but all three characters can do quite a bit and if one character is gone, the other two can still close a game. It's a pretty balanced roster, at least for now.

The updated decklist is:

Characters:
Sludge/Mighty Stomper 8 stars   
Shockwave/Cyberton Commander 11 stars   
Swoop/Fearsome Flyer 6 stars

Actions:
Pep Talk 2
Treasure Hunt 2
System Reboot 2
Supercharge 2
Repair Bay 2
Battle Ready 2Zap 2
Brainstorm 3
Surprise Attack 1

Equipment:
Bashing Shield 1
Equipment Enthusiast 2
Improvised Shield 1
Grenade Launcher 2
Data Pad 1
Multi-Tool 3
Field Communicator 3
Leap Into Battle 3
Multi-Mission Gear 3
Scrapper Gauntlets 1
Spare Parts 1
Enforcement Batons 1

Cooperation

Shockwave, as it turns out, is a specialist. 6 attack, 11 health and 3 defense are pretty good stats, and it means that the Specialists deck can concentrate on making attacks instead of trying to get Cosmos to trigger. The concepts are pushing against each other and that's one reason it's not working.

"I don't like Disarm," Jason told me.

I had to agree, it is the glory of cool things. New Designs has also been underperforming for me.

"Leap Into Battle and Supercharge," he told me. It makes sense; giving a character +1 attack isn't tremendously helpful. Giving a character +1 attack and then either +3 or Bold 3, that could swing a game. 

After a few games, I recognized another problem.

The reason Swap Parts was banned was because it allowed Multi-Mission Tool and other equipment to retrigger for free and all at once, creating an overwhelming advantage. I was using Disarm to get those triggers but it never came together the way I hoped it would. Effectively, the power level of the deck just isn't high enough to make games interesting.

So the next logical step is to play other equipment, so I can reshuffle older equipment into my deck and get those free abilities again. In order to make sure I get that equipment, I'm using the green icon introduced in Rise of the Combiners. If I flip over Enforcement Batons, that's fine! I can swap it out and then play it to keep the free stuff coming.

One other thought might be Battle Ready for the damage boost instead of Supercharge. I have frequently found myself with characters carrying 2 or 3 upgrades; this damage boost might be better than bold is, because my deck has as blend of combat icons. Battle Ready guarantees a damage boost but Supercharge does not. At least it's worth testing. Salvage for Parts was also on my radar but without a battle icon, healing my characters just isn't worth it.

Sound And Fury

I played the Specialists against a couple different decks including Stunticons and the matchups...well they aren't relevant to what I learned.

Thanks to Wheeljack, I was able to filter the HELL out of this deck. Even when I wasn't, I was able to play free things via Multi-Tool or Field Communicator (which is BONKERS good) and keep going through my deck, playing more cards. Sure, it didn't click every time, but frequently I could make a lot of stuff happen on my turn.

The problem is, that stuff didn't do anything. I would have characters that would be suited up with multiple pieces of equipment, and a handful of cards to Brainstorm with and then...nothing. I showed off a lot of effects and when the deck did go off, opponents were always impressed by all the cards I got to play. It just didn't translate into changes in the board state: I wasn't taking opposing characters out, or forwarding a victory condition.

So I decided that maybe the deck needed some oomph and changed characters, adding in a victory condition: Cosmos, Recon & Communication. With this came Sludge and Swoop, chosen because they are specialists in both modes, unlike their car counterparts, and frequently hit harder, along with the removal of more car-centric cards like Turbo Boosters.

But it didn't help. Cosmos is only scary if the KO ability goes off and the ability isn't easy to trigger. Sludge and Swoop can do a lot of damage but weren't really as frightening as I wish they would be.

So the question becomes; now what?

Now we ask friends for help. What do I do with this deck?

The Specialists

So, here's a Transformers deck that I'm wanting to give a go to. A card database link for reference.

Character cards

Bumblebee Courageous Scout/9 Stars
Prowl Military Strategist/6 Stars
Wheeljack Weapons Inventor/ 9 Stars

Battle cards

Actions
Leap of Faith  1
Equipment Enthusiast   2
Vaporize  3
New Designs  3
Pep Talk   2
Treasure Hunt  2
System Reboot  1
Zap     2
Repair Bay 2
Disarm  2
Confidence  3
Brainstorm  3
Intelligence Mission   1

Upgrades
Turbo Boosters   2
Force Field   2
Multi-Tool  3
Field Communicator   3
Multi-Mission Gear  3

Some people may recall that the Specialist deck is the one that got Swap Parts banned. Since the consistency of that deck is gone, I wanted to know if Specialists could still make an impact.

Here's the premise: Specialists get gear that let you do free things. Free is a very good price. So play out all the things, and overwhelm the opponent's characters with more cards than my opponent can play. Make the game go long with Repair Bay to let characters last longer (for free!), use Brainstorm to enable more free plays, Zap for a free damage, with Treasure Hunt and Confidence to fill the hand, and keep playing more stuff. Turbo Boosters can untap my characters to give me extra attacks, or as a way to mitigate Intelligence Mission's drawback. Again: free stuff is free!

It seems awesome, so let's give it a go.