Hack the System
Your reasoning is hardly logical, but indulge yourself
Hey Friends! I wanted to lay out my thoughts on what's my absolute favorite Transformers deck. It checks all the boxes I was hoping for even prior to seeing any cards or knowing anything about the game. I wanted something sneaky, something that didn't rely on brute force, and it had to feature my boi... Shockwave.
Wave One Evolution
When I saw the concept of scrapping pop up in Wave One along with Decepticon Shockwave my wheels started turning. All the pieces for an insidious little engine were there though far from perfect. Wave One didn't lean super hard on the scrapping of opponents hands' yet but it was still a deck that few people expected to see hit the table when the early environment was still dominated by Bugs and Dinobots. And, while it didn't win me every game it was fun to play and interesting to watch opponents work their way through how to beat it.
At the time it consisted of Deception Shockwave, Demolisher, and Flamewar. Everyone's job was just to tank hits and toughen up Shockwave so he could slowly decay the opponent's hand and burn their team byte by byte. While it has some very strong wins against a lot of decks it still got a bloody nose from Dinobots and later Battlefield Optimus when that became the new hotness. I did a lot wrong with that deck at the time (like include Thermal Weaponry) but I started to learn what the main strengths and weaknesses of this type of deck would be.
The major strength was control. Few decks in Transformers can really pull off a win without access to a hand and if my Shockwave deck could eliminate their hand it put me in a very unique position. Not only did it deny them options but it also eliminated half of the opponent's turn (either their Action or their Upgrade play). Even Dinobots and Battlefield Legend Optimus Prime need cards to make the most out of their decks so when Hack the System was functioning properly it was very competitive.
That brings me to the big weakness. I was 100% reliant on my draws and because of that very unreliable. If I played a Brainstorm along with the right scrapping cards, sure I could neuter their hand for a time but it cost me my hand too. I was very often just as card poor as my opponents and that team didn't hold up in a straight fight. It evolved to include a little bit more draw and Skrapnel instead of Demolisher for a bit more reliable lasting power
Wave Two Evolution
Wave two is where a lot of the very interesting, somewhat situational, additions to the deck came in. Ancient Wisdom and Unleash Potential helped a lot with keeping my hand full and getting the right cards when needed.Sonic Scramble became the very heavy hit this deck needed and Green Pips made getting them in hand pretty easy task. Intelligence Mission is one of the greatest friends this deck has. Swinging with any of my guys was a wasted effort but giving them something useful to do other than attacking made things much more interesting. Fog of War and Espionage gave the deck that situational flexibility it needed too. It also gave be Decepticon Venin which was more interesting to me than Skrapnel. Let me hit hard if I needed too (complimenting the hand-emptying mechanic nicely) or I could keep him in Alt Mode and make his death costly o the opponent.
Strategy
Obviously, clearing out the opponent's hand is the name of the game here. That being said, you'll need to know what to get rid of and really become good at threat assessment. There's a lot of opportunities this deck provides for looking at your opponents' hands which means figuring out what their deck is all about via snapshots. Some decks are easy to read like Combiners or Battlefield Legend. Others, like Planes, Specialist Decks, and other more wacky combos are less intuitive. Either way, you have to scrap the right stuff in the right order and not jump the gun on getting rid of, say an Enigma of Combination, too early when you might be better off attacking more immediate threats.
You also need to keep Shockwave alive. There are some tricky situations like Razorclaw, "cheeky" damage from planes, and one-hit kills from Nemesis Prime or Battlefield Legend that can be a problem. The deck has enough blue for Shockwave to tank misplay or two that's it. Once Shockwave is out the deck's main strategy is still intact but gone is the "burn damage" he provided as a bonus to scrapping hands. Keep after their cards, let Venin be your heavy hitter, and hope for the best. If Venin goes down too you're in trouble. Flamewar is only there for the amazing support her abilities provide. She's not getting anything done on her own. (
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