We’ve all been there. You’ve taken the first step into a new game. Maybe you tried a demo at a convention, bought a starter product because it looked cool, or had a friend teach you. Whatever the path, you sampled the game and you loved it. Maybe you like the gameplay. Maybe you like having fun with the community. Maybe you enjoy putting yourself into the world. Maybe it’s all three. Whatever it is, it’s working for you. You’re in. So, what now?

Once you’ve made the leap from interested outsider to new player, it can be a little intimidating to figure out what the next step is. It can be scary building your first deck. Do I have enough cards? What is this deck trying to do? How do I turn a pile of cards into a cohesive deck? Who will play with me?

I’m writing today to help you out a bit with that. I’m going to share a couple of deck ideas to get you started. I’ve built these with a couple of guidelines:

They are made entirely of Commons and Uncommons, so you don’t need to worry about hard-to-find Rares and Super Rares.

They all started with a War for Cybertron: Siege II character, since we want to celebrate the new set.

They have a very strong theme, something that’s obvious and you can latch onto.

They care more about doing fun things than being the most powerful deck possible.

You can use these for whatever purpose you like, but here are a few suggestions:

If you’re a new player who doesn’t know how to build a deck from scratch, you can use them as the starting place for a new deck that you can tweak over time.

If you’re a new deck brewer, these can be an inspiration for a deck of your own.

If you’re an experienced player looking to bring people into your play group, you can build these decks (and decks of your own inspiration like them) out of your extra commons and uncommons.

If you’re a store looking to grow a community, you can have these as “in house” decks for people to try out when they move on from the starter decks.

I hope you have fun with these. Remember, these decks are only starting points. They’re not set in stone. Feel free to add or change whatever you want. Similarly, these are not about power, they’re about exploring a theme. So, feel free to tighten them up if you want to match their power level to other decks in your playgroup, or loosen them up if you want to have the widest possible array of experiences.

Get to the Choppa

Team

Specialist Ratchet

Raider Chop Shop

Fireflight

Flamewar

Actions

1 Medic

3 Repair Bay

3 Energy Transfer

3 Reckless Charge

3 Reprocess

3 Wedge Formation

3 Smelt

3 Swap Missions

Upgrades

3 Bashing Shield

1 Noble’s Blaster

1 Scoundrel’s Blaster

1 Soldier’s Blaster

3 Medic’s Protective Field

3 Kinetic Converter

3 Handheld Blaster

3 Armed Hovercraft

This deck focus on the synergy between Raider Chop Shop and Specialist Ratchet. Flamewar provides a team defensive bonus and Fireflight gives you some control over where your opponent spreads their damage. Try to get small amounts of damage on as many of your characters as possible using Reckless Charge and Energy Transfer, then swing big by flipping Raider Chop Shop and playing one of your healing actions to boost Specialist Ratchet’s attack. In the dream scenario, Ratchet could swing for more than 15 attack.

Spinny and the Weaps

Team

Raider Spinister

Private Lionizer // RS Firesteel Saber

Priavte Firedrive // Duo-Charge Electrostatic Photon Cannon

Actions

3 Reckless Charge

3 Equipment Enthusiast

3 Energy Transfer

3 Step Forward

3 Showing Off

3 Sabotaged Armaments

Upgrades

3 Force Field

3 Medic’s Protective Field

3 Improvised Shield

3 Spare Parts

3 Grenade Launcher

3 Bashing Shield

2 Kinetic Converter

2 Kinetic Intensifier Whip

Spinny and the Weaps is all-in on making Spinister the scariest attacker possible. Use Force Field and Medic’s Protective Field to keep Spinister from taking too much damage in the early game. Reckless Charge, Energy Transfer, and Step Forward give you control over when your Battlemasters get KO’d. Showing Off lets you double-up Spinister’s bonus attack on your Battlemasters, and does silly things with Kinetic Converter and/or Kinetic Intensifier Whip. When everything lines up, you can get to some really big numbers. It’s entirely achievable to get Spinister’s attack into the ballpark of 12 Attack, Bold 10. Let us know what the biggest damage number you get is.