One thing I’ve learned over the years of playing trading card games is that you have to trust yourself. I’ve found that the more I play a game, the more my instincts tend to be correct about how good a deck is in a given metagame. It seemed that most of the community had moved on from Optimus Prime, Battlefield Legend. I wasn’t convinced.

Every time I played Mission Prime against the new Wave 2 decks, I was still winning. Against Starscream I could simply chain Security Checkpoints and constantly keep Decepticon Crowns out of the Starscream player’s hand. Against Aerialbots I could play incredibly aggressively with Prime, leaning on Swap Missions to deal high damage almost every turn. Against Sentinels, I just played the matchup like every other orange deck by taking it slow and saving Prime’s attack for later turns.

The power of Optimus Prime is in his flexibility. The deck offers its pilot a high number of choices every single turn, meaning that a strong understanding of your deck and what your opponent’s deck can do will give you a large edge in every matchup. More than that though, Mission Prime is my favorite type of deck: aggro-control. It has the ability to change roles from match to match and even turn to turn. Understanding when you need to take a defensive stance versus an aggressive one is crucial to doing well with the deck.

I wrote last week about the deck and several iterations it went through before arriving at a list that I liked. I said that I would play the list posted, and I followed through with that, not changing a single card for The Omega Event. This is the deck I played at the tournament:

Optimus Prime, Battlefield Legend

Autobot Hot Rod, Impulsive Fighter

Flamewar, Veteran Decepticon

UPGRADES:

3x Reinforced Plating

3x Data Pad

3x Handheld Blaster

2x Ion Blaster of Optimus Prime

2x Energon Axe

2x Noble’s Blaster

1x Sparring Gear

ACTIONS:

3x One Shall Stand, One Shall Fall

3x Leap Into Battle

3x The Bigger They Are…

3x Inspiring Leadership

3x Swap Missions

3x Security Checkpoint

3x Brainstorm

1x Vaporize

1x Espionage

1x Work Overtime

You can find this decklist and all of the top 4 decks over in the deck sections of the site here.

Round 1: Vinnie

Optimus Prime, BL/Prowl(Wave 2)/Arcee

Vinnie’s a strong player that I’ve played at tournaments before, so I was worried about this round 1 pairing. On top of that, he’s playing a rogue deck of his own, so I don’t know what battle cards he has in his deck. I won the die roll and thought for a moment before electing to go second. I could make some assumptions about what his deck did, namely that he was likely a heavy orange build with Prowl and Arcee in his lineup. I decided that going second would allow me to get two attacks on his Prime to his one on mine, which should let me K.O. his Prime before he could K.O. mine. I had a strong draw this game, as both of us were able to K.O. all of our supporting bots before my third turn (I used a combination of One Shall Stand, One Shall Fall plus a Hot Rod flip to pick off a six health Prowl). This left both of us with full health Primes, but as I planned earlier, I got two attacks to his one, K.O.ing his Prime. For the second game, Vinnie went first, giving me the ability to get two attacks on his Prime again. Unfortunately, my draw was weaker than my first one, leaving him with his bots alive as we approached the crucial third turn. Fortunately, Vinnie made one very critical error, as he forget to flip his Arcee when he pumped it up and attacked my Hot Rod. Hot Rod took zero damage from the attack, which proved to be extremely relevant in the last turns as I was able to use two One Shall Stands without putting any damage on my Prime to help me close out the game.

Round 2: Logan

Grimlock (Wave 2)/Swoop (Wave 2)/Sludge (Wave 1)

Logan’s playing a deck focused on combining Volcanicus, using Swap Missions and Ready for Action to untap his Grimlock to get more Dinobots in his K.O. area. I decided to be aggressive with my Prime, figuring if I pick off Grimlock quickly Logan’s entire gameplan would fall apart. Hitting a Swap Missions off of my first attack was pretty indicative of how this match was going to play out, as Prime just ran over a whole lot of dinosaurs. Game 2 was more of the same.

Grimlock no king!

Round 3: Chris

Skrapnel/Kickback/Barrage/Chop Shop

We draw as this will put us in the elimination rounds as the top seeds, playing on opposite sides of the bracket. Also it’s always sweet to draw with friends in the later rounds rather than play them early on. We play a few friendly games with him on the play for most of them, trying out various things for him to get some sort of edge. The big problem is that Skrapnel’s soaking ability isn’t great in this match, as you often are perfectly content to send in Flamewar to get a chip shot in, and Skrapnel is the perfect defender for this attack. On top of that, One Shall Stand plus a Hot Rod flip later let’s you K.O. Skrapnel from 3 damage.

Top 4: Jason

Skrapnel/Kickback/Barrage/Chop Shop

My memory is a bit fuzzy as to all the plays that happened in this match, but I do know I made one very big mistake in a game that Jason could have punished me for. He has a Skrapnel at 3 damage, and I have an untapped Flamewar and Prime. I spent a minute trying to figure out if I could get enough damage with Flamewar and a pump on his tapped Kickback to get Kickback to K.O. range with a One Shall Stand on a later turn. I can’t, so then decide my play here is to attack with no card plays into Skrapnel and use my K.O.ed Hot Rod flip to finish off Skrapnel. I flip my Prime and attack. I immediately recognize my mistake, as now his Skrapnel is still alive with six damage on it. He can punish me here with either a Peace Through Tyranny to give him an extra turn or even just flipping his Skrapnel to tap down my Prime and deny me an attack. Fortunately, Jason just attacks with his Barrage, giving me my turn, letting me flip Hot Rod to pick off his Skrapnel and a Prime attack to K.O. his Barrage.

Finals: Chris

Skrapnel/Kickback/Barrage/Chop Shop

It’s bugs all the way down. Good thing I’m packing plenty of Raid. I’m on the play for this game, and attack his Kickback with Prime. I flip four upgrades on the attack and grimace. I hope this isn’t going to be telling for the match. That zero action flip off Prime absolutely punishes me this game, and he takes a quick game 1. I’m on the play again for game 2, and attack his Kickback with Prime again. Fortunately on this flip I hit a Swap Missions and untap my Prime. He attacks with Kickback, not wanting to lose Kickback’s attack to a One Shall Stand. I have a One Shall Stand plus a weapon though, and this lets me K.O. both his Kickback and Skrapnel in alt mode. The rest of the game was pretty academic, as being down two characters before his second turn cripples his offense. I’m on the draw for game 3, which means a less explosive and more deliberate game. He manages to K.O. Flamewar and Hot Rod, but I have no damage on Prime and end up with a fully upgraded Prime against a full health Kickback and Barrage with eight damage on him. I can’t K.O both characters on my turn, so figure my best play is just to flip Prime to alt mode, returning Vaporize to scrap the Erratic Lightning on his Kickback and K.O. Barrage with an attack in alt mode. This play prevents him from being able to play the Bashing Shield in his hand for my Reinforced Plating and have a weapon for Kickback’s attack: he has to choose to either play a weapon or to play the Bashing Shield. He plays the weapon as it’s more damage, and has to try to K.O. a full health, fully suited up Prime in one attack. There’s just not enough damage though, and Optimus Prime attacks one last time for the match and the tournament!

One Shall Stand, One Shall Fall!

I wanted to give a big thank you to Nick Davis and Gamer’s Asylum for hosting and running the tournament. I’m looking forward to future tournaments and hope that the official Organized Play program from Wizards also helps to grow the game. And thanks again to everyone that has continued reading my articles. This site has enriched my enjoyment of the game, and all of the positive feedback has helped motivate me to continue writing about the strategy for the Transformers TCG.