Version 2.0 - The story of a deck's severe beating and the road to improvement
I'm too smart to die!
Hey my friends! Remember that Predacons deck I took to Origins and messy beating it received at the hands of all those talented folks? Well, I wanted to see what I could do to improve it and also to just have a jam session about what comes to my mind when thinking about rejiggering an existing deck. Join me on this journey of deep introspection as it pertains to five angry, orange, robot animals.
First, lets take a look at where this deck started.
You can certainly read the original article about Origins to get a sense of what I was thinking when I built this one but the long story short was just to hit the road with something very aggressive. And it wasn't horrible at that mind you. It could sure hand out its fair share of bloody noses but it was out aggro'd and struggled to crack the shell of anything super defensive. Sub-optimal in every way, shape and form. Than Siege Part One hit
Siege was interesting! Secret Actions! Black Pips! Upgrades that grant bold and live in the Utility Slot, Erratic Energy Grenades, METAL DETECTOR! My god, what a time to be alive! I added all the cool new toys and made a very heavy upgrade deck chuck full of Metal Detector and than went to bed firmly believing I'd just cobbled together the new Chosen One.
The next morning I threw on some Ghost Adventures (cause I watch garbage tv), poured a bowl of Honey Bunches of Oats and took a look at my prize creation. It's around that time I realized I created a monster and not one of the sweet kind like Frankenstein or KFC/Taco Bell combo restaurants. No, this was the bad kind. Zoobilee Zoo level nightmare fuel.
The issue is that the deck had some of everything in it. Aggro basics, defense tricks, scrapping sources, some direct damage sources. Everything I thought an aggro deck really needed dish out damage and last through till combination time. I drew a few test hands, solitaire'd it out a few times and came to the conclusion that the deck could do a bunch of neat things but only if the right cards set of cards came. And, what was actually happening is that I was drawing pieces of all a bunch of great decks and would never be able to lock down any consistency other than knowing I'd get good orange flip on the attack. I let this deck sit a while, occasionally plucking a card out, swapping this card for that and carefully pruning it down to a reasonable performer. Certainly not great by any means though.
After having a great deck testing/pre-GenCon prep session with the rest of the Teletraan-Fun team I came away with a lot of notes on all my new and old decks. Today I broke Predacons down to just the core aggro cards (double orange pips, sources of bold) and junked the rest. From there I sat back and asked myself what I want this deck to actually do. After thinking about it for a while I decided what I wanted from this deck was consistency. I wanted a deck where the aggro potential was there, where reliable combat tricks and sources of bold existed and where every card I drew actually mattered regardless of the board state. This is what it came down to:
All the orange pips and bold basics. The means to get those double pips on top of the deck and out of your hand. And sources of combat damage that flat numbers and not just bold flips. And, I allowed myself two copies of steamroll because a boy and dream. Out went all the things that relied on the odds like Treasure Hunt, Swindled and Metal Detector. Gone was the side gimmick of Plan and all its pieces like Mining Pick and Decepticon Crown. New Designs saw itself replaced with cards that did something concrete on the draw instead of depending on hand or board states.
Everything that became part of the equation I used when rebuilding this deck I owe to the community and my Teletraan-Fun team. I can't be trusted to build a good deck on the first go through. I build decks the way I go about a quick run into Target. I have a goal and instead I come out with basket full of random garbage and down $60 bucks. So instead of listening to my great wisdom on refining a deck let me pass on the wisdom that these fine people shared with me:
Stick to One Thing and do it Well
I'm always tempted to build in all these contingencies for this scenario or that. The need to be ready for anything is tough for me to resist. Instead, make your one theme push you to the finish line faster than your opponent can get there. If you're aggro, as I am in this case, be the fastest aggro you can be. You're blue with a pierce or Inverted win condition get there asap and skip the fancy stuff. If you're playing something outside the box like Shockwave burn than you better be scrapping their hand every turn without missing a beat.
If You're Putting in a Card Ask Yourself How Does This Help You Win
Good friend on the Teletraan-Fun team hammered this one into my head. If you put a card in your deck imagine a scenario where you have no cards in your hand and just top-decked the one you're considering adding in. Does it change the board state? Does it help you win? How much does it shrink the gap between where you are and the finish line? If you can't say this card alone pushes you closer to winning than you really need to step back and consider if it has a place in the deck. Does every card need to be a path to victory on its own, no. But, you can't afford to include to many cards where the answer to those questions isn't clear.
Does This Card Hurt Your Tempo?
I can sum up a lot of this point with a very lengthy conversation I had online with a few folks regarding Metal Detector. After playing a few games with the Teletraan Team I came back home and hit up the FB groups to ask what people thought about this card. To me, it seemed like such a no-brainer. I have an upgrade heavy deck, this cheats out upgrades so why not make this an auto-include. Turns out, the reason is tempo. Here's the scenario- on my turn, I play Metal Detector. Either it goes on someone I plan to attack with now, or in the coming turns. So either this turn I have a good chance at breaking even on my upgrade plays or I do in the coming turn. After that character attacks I either have one upgrade out (breaking even) or I missed the upgrade and wasted it. Now, I have another chance in the following turn but that means the character with Metal Detector needs to 1). still be alive, 2). needs to reveal an upgrade. It takes some luck to actually hit the point where the Detector has made you a "profit" in upgrade plays. And, to be consistent in hitting upgrades you have to sacrifice actions and actions are 50% of your turn.
In Transformers TCG the goal is to try and play two cards a turn. If you can't do that you're behind the curve. The more you're able to play two cards a turn that push your deck's agenda the better off you are. Cards that urge you to sacrifice one of those two plays for some potential benefit really really need to pay dividends (or have the deck itself built around them) otherwise it's just to risky.
Don't Have an Answer to Every Play, Only One for the Plays That Shut You Down
Some cards are fully capable of just breaking your deck. That's usually going to be Upgrades so make sure to have the counter to the cards that absolutely shut you down. For really aggressive decks like mine there's a lot of cards that can hamper or mitigate damage coming their way but nothing ruins a bold heavy deck quicker than a Force Field. So for me, Bashing Shield was an auto include. There's a lot of cards that kill upgrades but I wanted ones that helped on the flip and could be reliably pulled into hand when needed. Bashing Shield was the one answer to a play that in my opinion could really shut me down. Maybe for you that play might be Inverted or certain Battlemasters becoming weapons or whatever the case may be. Whatever your one silver bullet is, have a response card or two but make sure that response has some synergy with your deck or generic use.
Thanks everybody for taking the time to go through this with me! I hope it helps, I hope you enjoyed it and maybe have one or two good takeaways from it and I hope the Zoobliee Zoo picture wasn't too gross. If you have some tips or tricks worth sharing when it comes to revamping a deck than for the love of god please share them with me, I need it.
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