Greetings, fellow humans! I’m Ken Nagle, design lead for TransformersTCG. Our next expansion is Titan Masters Attack, which is Wave 5 of our releases.

Today I want to reveal a deck a built while playtesting the newest cards. There’s new characters, new Stratagem, and new Actions, and new Upgrades all showcased here.

It was all a Ruse

I want to begin with the reason for building the deck in the first place – the new battle card Spymaster’s Ruse:

This card came from the desire to make a “cycle” of battle icon cards – one for Specialist, another for Melee, and another for Ranged. Since Specialist is our keyword for “less about getting into the fray”, we needed a card that felt more like “I’m going to outsmart you” when our game all about fighting robots.

On a personal note, Spymaster’s Ruse is my favorite battle card in the upcoming Titan Masters Attack, and you can tell because I put all those battle icons on it. I really like frustrating my opponent’s plans. That is what Spymaster’s Ruse can help accomplish.

The Decklist

Characters :

1 [T05] Decepticon Pounce // Infiltrator

1 [T03] Major Shockwave // Applied Sciences * Scientist

Stratagems :

1 [T05] Infiltration

Battle Deck :

3 Handheld Blaster

3 Security Console

3 Anticipation Engine

3 Energon Mace

2 LV Gamma-Disruptor Launcher

3 Hold the Line

3 Battlefield Report

3 Hidden Fortification

1 End Hostilities

2 Lucky Dodge

3 Spymaster's Ruse

3 Security Checkpoint

3 Brainstorm

1 Special Ops Mission

1 Pep Talk

3 Work Overtime



Sideboard:

3 Infiltrate

3 Jam Signals

1 Overrule

1 Lose the Initiative

2 Reflect Damage

How to Play This Deck

Major Shockwave is here to allow Secret Action plays as well as Decepticon cards like the new Energon Mace or his own LV Gamma-Disruptor Launcher.

Pounce is here for the big hit that we prepare for around turn 3. Using the Infiltration Stratagem, we can get extra plays on Secret Actions to make sure Pounce’s attack hurts.

Battle Cards

We play mostly a base blue deck with defensive Secret Actions to frustrate the opponent’s attacks.

Sideboard

This deck can make use of the sideboard in a best-of-3 game better than most. Spymaster’s Ruse allows keeping up a Jam Signals or Infiltrate indefinitely so there’s no need to time it. There are other meta-dependent cards to pick from like Reflect Damage or Lose the Initiative if you anticipate what your opponents might bring to the table well enough.

Dark Intentions

If you find yourself battling opponents where you don’t need so many defensive cards (they are also a defensive deck), it’s possible to slant the battle deck towards black to get more piercing damage through. Some blue-black cards like Scouting Mission and Steady Shot is a start, and if you’re deep enough in black you can play Concealing Contrails to turn black icons into extra defense.

However, if you truly want to be a griefer, the most annoying card I’ve found to play with Spymaster’s Ruse is Lucky Dodge.

Almost by definition, Lucky Dodge will only work half the time. Spymaster’s Ruse all but guarantees your whiffed Lucky Dodge will eventually matter. Keeping it a little more secret should help you in your quest to see the frustration on your opponent’s face when “endless Lucky Dodges” happens to them.

Conclusion

That’s it for today’s deck tech. What do you think of Spymaster’s Ruse? How many smiles will you turn upside down with it? You can @NorrYtt me on Twitter to get me to post something there.

Thanks for reading my article. Titan Masters Attack goes on sale on May 29th. I can’t wait!

Until next time, may your ruses work out in your favor and be highly annoying to your enemies.