Starter Your Engines
The Premise
An idea came to mind after our Mini-Masters Tournament that I immediately brought to the attention of the Teletraan-Fun crew and I was proud to say that it wasn't an insane one. That idea: are the starter decks actually good? Everyone really jumped on the thought and after a few days of kicking it around we really found the core question that needed answering.
If you're new to the game what should you expect from the starter decks?
For me, starter decks were always how I got into card games. My Magic the Gathering starter was the gateway drug to gaming in general for me. From there, starter decks became amazing little appetizers that for the most part never failed to get involved in a game. Alien Vs Predator starters (Aliens for me, duh. Also, predator was OP and Marines sucked), Marvel's Overpower Starters (Deadly Foes deck, please!), L5R's Starter (gimmie that grimey ole' skeleton man's deck. Yogo Junzo's Army!) and on and on. So naturally, when I started with Transformers I was jumping in with a starter deck. However, I only had the one option at launch. As more and more players come on board my experience is going to become less common.
Today, people have six different options for jumping into the game with a pre-constructed deck. Metroplex, Bumblebee Vs. Megatron, Wave One Starter, Devastator, Sound Wave, and Blaster. What we wanted to do was figure out how these decks play against each other and to touch a bit on the deck tech that goes into each of them so players really knew what they were choosing. With that all nailed down we decided to do a little tournament with prizes and everything (it can be tough to get all of the Teletraan-Fun team in one place so, ya know... bribes). At stake were six packs of cards (four Siege and two Rise of the Combiners) and a tiny sports team starter hat that one of us found on etsy. Theme is important.
Keeping in theme, we made sure to have at least one completely new person involved in the game and one person who is an "arm chair" follower of the cards but not a regular player by any means. Then, four more folks (myself included) who are all regulars. Anything we could do to get as varied of input as possible we aimed for.
The Rules
We decided to go in blind. No one new what deck they'd run till game time when they were randomly assigned. Rounds would be decided by a single game. Reason behind that decision came down to timing and a desire not to get stuck in long rounds with decks that don't back a lot of surprises.
Otherwise, all other standard rules were in place. Decks were assigned out by rolling dice and once everything was in hand the games began.
The Predictions and the Results
So going into this everyone had some pretty strong feelings about what they thought was good and how things would shake out. Let's run through those gut reactions for a second, shall we?
Metroplex- Everyone thought this was a strong contender for the 1st spot. We all felt like this was a deck that built to be functional out of the box and a pretty decent about of anecdotal evidence over the past months supported that. However; there were concerns. Its missing a lot of the pieces it needs to pull off the Metroplex Smash with any consistency and that meant a lot of turns could be duds.
Blaster- Blaster has a lot of buzz going on right now and seeing some of the early results made us assume this deck was also a contender for first place. It just felt like such an aggressive pre-constructed deck and none of the other starters seemed like they could stand up to the barrage this could dish out.
Wave One Starter- This old girl. All of us were very familiar with this deck and what it was capable of. Red Alert's been in the news recently as a strong card that we often overlooked as a vanilla. Bee and Prime also have great support and the ability to do some heavy lifting as far as damage. We thought this was going to be the easiest to pilot and because it didn't rely on wacky gimmicks that gave it a very good chance of placing high, if not winning.
Bumblebee Vs. Megatron-So, i'll tell you, I was the only one that was remotely positive about this deck. The overall feelings by the team were otherwise pretty united; this deck lacked strong characters of nay kind. In fact, the only benefit we could see on the face of it was that it could go four wide with characters that were not likely to get one-shotted. No one was looking forward to getting this one assigned to them.
Soundwave- Kind of a sleepy deck, right? You don't see a lot of people talking about Soundwave and his mini-cassettes. Also, it has a lot of black pips and pierce effects in it and the Teletraan-One team tends to talk a lot of trash about those elements. So none of us thought much of it. We assumed it would be kinda durdley. Maybe it might be tanky with all the blue but that was about it.
Devastator- Now this is one I was pretty positive about and again I was alone on that front. I thought that if the tower mechanic worked out well this would be a deck that could weather hits and dish out one strong punch a turn. Everybody else felt this deck was going to get a solid beating and place somewhere in the middle at best. The overall feeling was that it just wasn't built to be as functional as Metroplex was and that meant wasting a lot of turns trying to combine and not doing much else in the meantime.
Now for the results of the tournament. I'm going to just come right out and share the winner here: Metroplex. That said, I think the results aren't nearly as interesting as how we got there. I'm going to touch on everyone's record below as well as present some of my thoughts and the thoughts of the team member that piloted the deck. After all, the goal is helping a new player get a feel for which deck they want to start the game with and how each deck placed in our little tournie is secondary for sure.
The Analysis
Bumblebee VS MegatronRecord: 1W 2L
Let's start with this deck. It was being run by our friend Chris who's a veteran card gaming and rules designer but not a regular transformers player per se. He follows the spoilers and takes strategy with us all the time though and very much gets the rules. Chris ended up getting dealt the BvM deck which and immediately the sour faces and groans from everyone began. However, Chris knows how to pilot a deck and I was very interested to see what he could make of it.
As it turns out though, not a bunch. After the tournament we chatted a bit about the deck and his consensus it was that winning or losing entirely depends on what you get in your opening hand. The characters themselves he said had little synergy with each other and with the deck itself. He managed to beat out Devastator in his Round One outing because the cards were flowing the way he needed. However, the deck folded against Soundwave and Wave One Starter because those lucky draws weren't there.
On the positive side he did have a few good things to say. First, he was able to get a lot of work done by making Megatron Brave and having Starscream be the beater. He said that's how he managed to deconstruct Devastator; by forcing the damage where he wanted it to go. He also said the deck had a good mix of basic keywords and abilities so if you're new to the game this deck would give you a little sampling of everything.
Devastator
Record: 1W 2L
This deck was in the hands of Ryan who, similar to Chris, is another card-gaming vet but it's fair to say he's less involved in the rules, spoilers and theory crafting. Ryan was our true "newbie" with only one or two previous games of transformers under his belt. He even brought along a handwritten cheat sheet to make sure he was doing everything right. Bless his heart.
Ryan's thoughts on the deck and his experience as a new player piloting a starter deck:
I ran the Transformers TCG: Devastator Deck and it was my first time seriously playing Transformers TCG, so I was not only learning the rules, but I was also learning a very specific card and character set. At first I was intimidated by having what seemingly felt like a more complicated starter deck, but as I played games I realized that this deck was a terrific entry into the game because it gave me two very specific goals to work towards: build Devastator and rack up counters on his tower. Having simpler goals like that allowed me to focus less on trying to learn every card and every combination which I think let me enjoy the game more and focus on playing and enjoying myself. I played Chris' deck first, I believe he had Bumblebee and Megatron starter, and he womped me because it was my first game and because I didn't know the two specific goals of this deck. The second game I ran against Garneau and he had the boombox character that spits bots out, and that game I won in a close round. The Devastator Deck comes very balanced so I had to survive a lot of bad flips and pips in order to do it, but I started my TCG journey 1-1. Finally I play Svi who had the Red Alert and Bumblebee deck and I very nearly beat him as well. Again, having two specific goals really helped me, but I made an amateur mistake of not remembering what a green pip does and let a construction enigma go into the junk pile by accident. I had a great time and I'm excited to take all the new cards my friends gave me and try to build my own deck from them.
Wave One Starter
Record- 2W 1L
This was a deck that kinda faded to the back of everyone's memory for a while only with Red Alert's recent inclusion in the winning Gen Con deck did any of us really start thinking about it again. Svi, one of our veteran Transformers players ended up getting this deck and I thought it would be super interesting to see what a seasoned gamer would do with it. He has a passion for trying outside-of-the-box deck concepts and has found some really strong bot teams that i'd never of considered.
This was also the first deck I ended up playing against (I had Soundwave) and I have to say I was completely surprised by Wave One Starter's punch. I completely underestimated that deck and it resulted in a narrow loss for me. Bumblebee and Optimus are super rude!
Svi was kind enough to share his thoughts on how this deck runs and what a new player taking it out for a spin should expect:
So, I rolled for the Wave 1 Starter, and wound up with a 2-1 finish(wins against Devastator and Soundwave, a loss to Metroplex). There were two big takeaways I had from the tourney: 1) HOLY F#& DOES RED ALERT HIT HARD; and 2) out of the box, I was impressed by the consistency of the starters, head-to-head. With the exception of Metroplex, all the games I played came down to the last turn or two. Even against the city lookin’ fella, if I had caught a couple of lucky draws—specifically a Plasma Burst and a Leap Into Battle—I’m fairly certain I would’ve won.
After you’ve been building a deck to do A THING, and making every inclusion and cut to be the strongest engine to do THAT THING, it was refreshing to get back to the basics of transform, upgrade, action, attack. When trying to keep up with the meta-game, it’s easy to forget how fun this game is when you just pick up and play.
Having said that, it also whetted my appetite to build a better deck and get back into the finesse of the game. The Wave 1 Starter rather eloquently suggests the power and fun of the deeper mechanics and dynamics that make TF so much fun to play. Even with two vanilla cards, transformations really mattered. The transformations always mattered—particularly on Red Alert and timing Bee’s pierce for a swing out. And the deck’s deficits reminded me of how important it is to fine-tune. A set of Brainstorms in that deck, and it would’ve been a bulldozer against the other starters. I also tend to build 2 or 3-wide, so it was fun to get back into the rhythm of a 4-wide build.
All-in-all, this tourney was my favorite by far. A lot of that, I think, came from the fact that it reintroduced a sense of discovery and wonder that is lost when you build a deck to perform a certain way and you either get bogged down in frustration when it doesn’t function that way or become obsessed with firing off the mechanics properly. If it’s been a while since you picked up a starter, you and a pal should sit down and give it a go.
After you’ve been building a deck to do A THING, and making every inclusion and cut to be the strongest engine to do THAT THING, it was refreshing to get back to the basics of transform, upgrade, action, attack. When trying to keep up with the meta-game, it’s easy to forget how fun this game is when you just pick up and play.
Having said that, it also whetted my appetite to build a better deck and get back into the finesse of the game. The Wave 1 Starter rather eloquently suggests the power and fun of the deeper mechanics and dynamics that make TF so much fun to play. Even with two vanilla cards, transformations really mattered. The transformations always mattered—particularly on Red Alert and timing Bee’s pierce for a swing out. And the deck’s deficits reminded me of how important it is to fine-tune. A set of Brainstorms in that deck, and it would’ve been a bulldozer against the other starters. I also tend to build 2 or 3-wide, so it was fun to get back into the rhythm of a 4-wide build.
All-in-all, this tourney was my favorite by far. A lot of that, I think, came from the fact that it reintroduced a sense of discovery and wonder that is lost when you build a deck to perform a certain way and you either get bogged down in frustration when it doesn’t function that way or become obsessed with firing off the mechanics properly. If it’s been a while since you picked up a starter, you and a pal should sit down and give it a go.
Blaster
Record- 2W 1L
Eric, another of our vets and a long, long, time Magic: The Gathering expert took Blaster out for a spin. Eric is a player that's always trying to think through the consequences of every play and be fully aware of what the odds are for certain flips. He's also an EI Qualifier as well (beat for the win in a truly heinous "flip for orange" tie breaker.) Blaster was also the new hotness around the time this tournament was in the planning phase so I thought it would be super insightful to see what a top notch player would do with the popular deck.
He gave his analysis of the deck and the matches here:
Fate bestowed upon me the Blaster deck, which, honestly, is what I was hoping for -- because A) it's a new toy and B) I'd seen Blaster place at some competitive events lately, which seemed cool. I mean, obviously this version of Blaster didn't place anywhere, but, I figured there was still some power in the basic deck that an adapted list had some heat to it.
When I really looked at the deck, I was surprised at how many blue pips were in there (it also seems weird to make Soundwave blue/black and Blaster orange/blue... out of the box that feels not quite balanced to me). But, in playing the deck, I was pretty delighted at how frequently I was able to get orange flips, especially double orange, through the deck's built in card manipulation. That's a pretty fun mechanic to play with (and it feels thematically correct I also enjoyed making choices about which of Blaster's liddle' buddies I would deploy. Being able to time a Recover Cassette for optimum effect was the most boss, although at least once after doing that, my opponent KOed Blaster with his poor child inside, so obviously I haven't figured out timing all that well yet.
But, playing the deck even straight out of the box was super enjoyable, and it gave me a nice taste of what a really pip-optimized Blaster deck could do. I'd definitely play him again with a better build and a lot more offense. I'd really like to see him and his boys do some damage.
When I really looked at the deck, I was surprised at how many blue pips were in there (it also seems weird to make Soundwave blue/black and Blaster orange/blue... out of the box that feels not quite balanced to me). But, in playing the deck, I was pretty delighted at how frequently I was able to get orange flips, especially double orange, through the deck's built in card manipulation. That's a pretty fun mechanic to play with (and it feels thematically correct I also enjoyed making choices about which of Blaster's liddle' buddies I would deploy. Being able to time a Recover Cassette for optimum effect was the most boss, although at least once after doing that, my opponent KOed Blaster with his poor child inside, so obviously I haven't figured out timing all that well yet.
But, playing the deck even straight out of the box was super enjoyable, and it gave me a nice taste of what a really pip-optimized Blaster deck could do. I'd definitely play him again with a better build and a lot more offense. I'd really like to see him and his boys do some damage.
Soundwave
Record- 1W 2L
This was the deck your humble author, Dray (First name is also Chris but we settled our multiple-Chris Issue long ago), piloted. When I was assigned this one I wasn't super sure how to feel. On one hand I'm always excited to play a Deception Deck because evil is cool. On the other hand, I hadn't heard any buzz about this one. On the other, other hand, none of these decks had Press the Advantage in them so that's a bonus! On the other, other, other hand we here at Teletraan-Fun do an obscene amount of trash talking Black Pips and Pierce so that didn't do a lot for my moral.
Overall, I was surprised by this deck. I did not anticipate the staying power these little cassettes had with the blue pips in the deck. I found it pretty easy to keep my guys on the board, get them tooled up and preserve Soundwave for as long as possible. I was also surprised by the synergy that was built into this. Everything was geared toward a very specific win-condition; chip-damaging your way to victory. Everything flowed into that paradigm. Do four to six damage per swing and match it with a Pierce of somewhere in the same range. And, it was shockingly easy to do.
The weaknesses were pretty clear too. You were never going to break that six ish damaging mark and more likely you were just doing four to five unavoidable damage per swing. That's actually a big deal. It means you're never going to be able to resolve a threat as quickly as you want. Every enemy bot on average is going to need about three hits before they go down. The other weakness is defense. While characters ended up being hardier than I expected they still can't weather heavy hits and this deck needs every possible swing.
If I was to buy this deck and start tweaking it on my own I'd suggest leaning into that bold-blue-piece mechanic as much as possible. That means getting Bigger They Are in there, loading up on Laser Cutlass, and RR Disruptor Blades. Also, Escape Routes! Get that in there and get your boys out asap. I think it also means dropping Pep Talk, Inner Groove, Blast Shield, Handheld Blaster, and Piercing Blaster. I don't think those cards go far enough toward getting you to the deck's win conditions.
Metroplex
Record- 3W 0L
The last deck up for review is Metroplex and was piloted by the last veteran member of our team and frequent Teletraan-Fun tournament winner, Joe. Joe's got a lengthy background in Magic The Gathering, rules design and board gaming. He's also the member of the team that agonizes the most over smart deck building. Everything that makes it into his decks has a very specific purpose and beat out a ton of other cards for inclusion.
I was really unsure of what to expect from this deck. My first impression was that it was far from being optimized for pulling off his special tapping effect and if that couldn't happen regularly all this deck had going for it was a big HP pool. Clearly, I was super wrong.
Joe had some outstanding thoughts about piloting the starter deck right out of the box:
When we started discussing this tournament, many of us ranked how we thought the pre-constructed decks should rank. I put Metroplex at number 1 with a bullet. My friends pointed out how well Blaster had just done in organized play, and how he should probably be first — but having not played with or against him him yet, I stuck by my guns, saying that I was confident in the Titan’s ability to come out ahead of the tournament. Through random selection, I got paired with the Autobot City himself.
It had been a long time since I piloted Metroplex, and I don’t believe I ever played him as-is, out of the box. But I knew the key to this deck was going to be my flips, getting more of my little bots out, and trying to dictate who is tapped and a target for attacks. In the first round I played the very deck our group thought could top Metroplex: Blaster, piloted by Eric. It was a good back and forth as we both started single-wide, taking turns to deploy turrets and tapes and tanks — oh my! We both ended up being four-wide, with all of our characters out. Blaster had a Force Field up, but only 3 health remaining — essentially making it useless. Unless, of course, he could heal — which Blaster does well by absorbing his tapes. Sure enough, Blaster popped Steeljaw back in, gained 2 health, and was sitting with 5 hit points remaining. So a single swing from Metroplex wouldn’t be able to take him down… unless I also triggered his bot ability (flip orange-orange-blue-blue-white-white during an attack to do 1 damage to all enemies and tape them), which I just so happened to do. That took down the big bot and mini-cassette inside him, leaving the last two tapes as mince meat for my mobile fortress.
In the second round I faced the Autobot pre-con, run by Svi. I was most worried about this team because the deck runs four decent-sized characters, none of whom I thought any of my little bots would be able to handle straight-up. I got lucky with our taps, however, and Svi was almost always swinging into my Metroplex, or possibly Slammer with an armor that gave him tough. After hitting Metroplex’s bot ability a couple times, the game tipped in my favor.
In our final round, I faced Blaster’s counterpart: Soundwave, piloted by Dray. Another match where we would both be racing to get more and more bots out on our side. Again, my opponent was able to take advantage of his character’s built in healing factor by deploying and calling back mini-cassettes. And this deck had the one mechanic that caused me the single biggest headache all evening: pierce. Slammer’s 3 or 4 defense did nothing to protect his 3 health if my opponent came at me with Pierce 3. Luckily, for the first time all tournament, I was able to draw and play Protected by Metroplex. So now, even when my little bots were tapped and able to be attacked, all the damage just got funneled directly to my walking, talking town that has 35 health. Not too shabby. Naturally, this match saw Metroplex gain the most damage of any of them, ending at around 26 damage taken. My two smaller bots not protected by Metroplex went down quickly. But, still, the Titan was able to take everyone down — thanks, yet again, to hitting orange-orange-blue-blue-white-white on the attack.
The Metroplex deck, out of the box, met my expectations. Between the characters, upgrades, and actions, it is clear the deck has one mission: get bold on Metroplex and trigger that ability. Lucky for me, everything I needed to do so was included. The takeaway for anyone staring down Metroplex from the other side of the table: you can’t beat city [hall].
It had been a long time since I piloted Metroplex, and I don’t believe I ever played him as-is, out of the box. But I knew the key to this deck was going to be my flips, getting more of my little bots out, and trying to dictate who is tapped and a target for attacks. In the first round I played the very deck our group thought could top Metroplex: Blaster, piloted by Eric. It was a good back and forth as we both started single-wide, taking turns to deploy turrets and tapes and tanks — oh my! We both ended up being four-wide, with all of our characters out. Blaster had a Force Field up, but only 3 health remaining — essentially making it useless. Unless, of course, he could heal — which Blaster does well by absorbing his tapes. Sure enough, Blaster popped Steeljaw back in, gained 2 health, and was sitting with 5 hit points remaining. So a single swing from Metroplex wouldn’t be able to take him down… unless I also triggered his bot ability (flip orange-orange-blue-blue-white-white during an attack to do 1 damage to all enemies and tape them), which I just so happened to do. That took down the big bot and mini-cassette inside him, leaving the last two tapes as mince meat for my mobile fortress.
In the second round I faced the Autobot pre-con, run by Svi. I was most worried about this team because the deck runs four decent-sized characters, none of whom I thought any of my little bots would be able to handle straight-up. I got lucky with our taps, however, and Svi was almost always swinging into my Metroplex, or possibly Slammer with an armor that gave him tough. After hitting Metroplex’s bot ability a couple times, the game tipped in my favor.
In our final round, I faced Blaster’s counterpart: Soundwave, piloted by Dray. Another match where we would both be racing to get more and more bots out on our side. Again, my opponent was able to take advantage of his character’s built in healing factor by deploying and calling back mini-cassettes. And this deck had the one mechanic that caused me the single biggest headache all evening: pierce. Slammer’s 3 or 4 defense did nothing to protect his 3 health if my opponent came at me with Pierce 3. Luckily, for the first time all tournament, I was able to draw and play Protected by Metroplex. So now, even when my little bots were tapped and able to be attacked, all the damage just got funneled directly to my walking, talking town that has 35 health. Not too shabby. Naturally, this match saw Metroplex gain the most damage of any of them, ending at around 26 damage taken. My two smaller bots not protected by Metroplex went down quickly. But, still, the Titan was able to take everyone down — thanks, yet again, to hitting orange-orange-blue-blue-white-white on the attack.
The Metroplex deck, out of the box, met my expectations. Between the characters, upgrades, and actions, it is clear the deck has one mission: get bold on Metroplex and trigger that ability. Lucky for me, everything I needed to do so was included. The takeaway for anyone staring down Metroplex from the other side of the table: you can’t beat city [hall].
Closing Thoughts
This was fun.
I really want to bring it back to what Svi said about this tournament. This really took us back to the basics, back to figuring out how to make the most of every play and being surprised by the impact certain cards have that otherwise have fallen to the wayside of the meta. It was different, it was fun and I hope it helps new players make a more informed decision when it comes to picking their first Starter Deck.
Looking to the future, Teletraan-Fun is already thinking about the next tournament and here's a hint... Black Pip.
Until then, I'd love to leave with you with a few pictures from that night and the team having a blast with these decks.
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