Who remembers all the excitement back in March? Rise of the Combiners had just released, and everyone was excited to try and form Superion and Menasor. There was an innocuous little card that would later be banned because it would warp the entire format around its existence: Press the Advantage. There was also one of the worst play experiences that the game had encountered: The notorious Infinite Turn Deck. Do you remember now?
Being able to harness the power of being able to I Still Function back a character and then use Peace Through Tyranny on the same turn would create a loop that was unbreakable by your opponent. The card advantage avalanche provided by Leap of Faith, Field Communicator and Swap Parts was enough to keep the deck cycling and executing its combo. And then finding a way to win was easy. Solitaire is extremely off putting for both new players as well as veterans, and multiple changes were made to neuter the deck.
Until Now…
Enter Daring Escape:
The card says “win the game” on it. It demands some attention. However, all that attention is negative in my opinion. The game play is reminiscent of the aforementioned NPE (Negative Play Experience) that demanded swift action. 90% of the battle deck is the same as its neutered predecessor. The characters are new and obviously the route to victory is different. On the positive side, the deck needs to win on one large turn. So, you only need to sit and not interact for one large turn instead of multiple turns.
Let’s get into a list:
Captain Wheeljack
Private Red Heat
Private Stakeout
Private Fixit
2 Daring Escape
3 Leap of Faith
3 Brainstorm
3 Ancient Wisdom
3 Unleash Potential
3 Equipment Enthusiast
3 Testify
3 Pep talk
1 Confidence
1 Intelligence Mission
2 New Designs
1 Involuntary Promotion
3 Multi-Mission Gear
3 Multi-Tool
3 Field Communicator
3 Crushing Size
1 Drill Arms
The deck is extremely special…ist. Being able to capitalize of the full suite of tribal upgrades to get additional plays is incredibly powerful. Crushing Size and Drill Arms are there just as additional ways to power through the deck on the turn you are trying to Escape. Crushing size also has the highest upside of drawing instead of scrapping an opposing upgrade in addition to being white to help facilitate Red Heat. Everything else in the deck either puts cards into your hand or gives you additional plays to fuel your Daring Escape to victory.
The deck looks unassuming and underpowered to the untrained eye. Let us not forget this banned gem:
Unfortunately, we don’t get to use a full playset of Swap Parts. Instead we are blessed with a single copy and one-time use variation:
This is the most important character in the entire lineup and should never attack. After all, his ability is the same as a card that has been banned for being too powerful. It is possible to win without Red Heat, but who doesn’t like one big Easy Button? Being able to Swap 5 or 6 upgrades that also trigger multiple effects is too much to over come and catapults the deck into another realm. The entire goal of the deck is to draw/play the entire deck in a single turn and cap it off with a Daring Escape. (Remember that the cards you have played do NOT go to the scrap pile until the end of your turn)
The only way this deck can string together a critical mass of cards in a single turn is Brainstorm. It is truly absurd in this deck and Wheeljack allows you to start with one in your opener, GUARANTEED. His alt mode also combos quite well and will draw you an additional card at least once. You know what’s better than one additional action? Multiple additional actions
All these cards (and to a smaller extent Multi-Tool as well) are doing is breaking the rules of the game. Leap is the strongest which is why it has the starred tax. There are no restrictions. Just pure, unadulterated cheating raining down on everyone from the Combo Gods. If only there was a way to play even more Leaps…
Ancient wisdom is a nice filtering effect when it fails but it’s a better Pep Talk when it hits. Even when you only get a single card (of your choice), the real reason for its inclusion is to Unleash Potential. You can get ANY star card (not Ultra Magnus Armor) from limbo. the vast majority its there to fetch up additional Leap of Faiths, but every now and then, you may find a Universal Network Access. Unleash is also “free” to play after you play Ancient Wisdom, so it does not take up additional action plays within a Brainstorm chain. You can only play a single Unleash from Ancient Wisdom for “free”, but you do not need to play additional Wisdoms to tutor with future Unleashes.
This card acts as half of a Red Heat action. You can even kill off Red Heat himself to bring back Stakeout or Fixit and retrigger all the upgrades yet again. You always want to attack with Stakeout first and then Fixit in hopes that they die so you can Promote them the turn you are trying to Escape.
So how can you combat this deck since it just ignores character stats and strategic attack sequencing? In the biz, we like to call them “Hate Cards”
These are the only “effective” ways to combat the combo. There is a hierarchy to hate, however. Trust me, I would know…
Hijack is the best at stopping the combo. It is impossible to get all the cards out of the deck without drawing them.
Espionage is only good at taking a Brainstorm or Leap of Faith early
Jam Signals can stop a single Daring Escape, but there are two copies in the deck, and it can be reshuffled
Battlefield Scan and Tackle are good at tapping down Red Heat to Un-Stealth him and attack him before he can be activated.
All these cards are unreliable because you need one of them on the first turn you can play an action. Yes, they can Escape that quickly…
The characters are reliable because you will always have access to them from the start of the game. Once again, there is a Hateful Hierarchy
Private Turbo Board is unbeatable. Period. The deck simply cannot function playing fair.
Caliburst, Nightbird and Lord Megatron are all taxing damage effects. Megatron is the weakest. Realize the deck must shuffle a minimum of one time due to being attacked and being forced to flip for attack and defense, but there is no way to guarantee they will shuffle multiple times. The other two characters tax additional cards, either drawn or played. However, the player trying to Escape gets to distribute the damage with each situation. One of these characters is easy enough to ignore. You must have two of the three damaging characters in your lineup to pressure them enough. Even so, it may not be enough. So, the only TRUE way to stop the combo is with Private Turbo Board. He is the hero we need but loathe at the same time.
So, if the deck just loses to Turbo Board, how can it be any good? Well, we get to have this fun transformational sideboard play that calls down the Galactic powers of Optimus Prime…
2 Recon System
2 Energy Pack
2 Acute Reflexes
1 Security Console
1 Matrix of Leadership
1 Noble’s Blaster
1 Reflex Circuits
REMOVING:
Red Heat
Wheeljack
2 Daring Escape
3 Brainstorm
3 Leap of Faith
1 Intelligence Mission
1 Involuntary Promotion
That’s a big Boi! The name of the game is to keep the Galactic Commander alive long enough to kill every other character. Remember, one of them is the now useless Turbo Board. Try to kill him last so he is not able to pump up any other characters via his upgrade mode…
The other two characters standing alongside Optimus are purely cannon fodder to buy time to suit up Prime. Plain and simple. Unleash Potential can find other star cards now to help beef him up instead of their usual uses. Maybe you will need a Heroic Resolve to buy another turn…
This deck is insanely powerful and religiously consistent. Effective counter measures are few and far between. I feel that Private Turbo Board is the ONLY way to beat the deck’s primary game plan. However, with a solid transformative sideboard plan that effectively leaves your opponent with a useless character makes the deck poised for dominance. It is good enough that it should completely warp the meta game around these two cards. Those not in the know will have to sit through uninterruptable games that they have no shot at winning. Those who take the deck seriously either must play Turbo Board in their starting lineup or lose to the transformative sideboard plan if the Private resides in their sideboard. If you thought Press the Advantage pushed characters out of the limelight, you ain’t seen nothin yet!
Dark Confidence: Competitive TCG Analysis 