Jankyard | Optimal Repair Part 2 : Dino Stomping
Greetings fellow Cybertronians, and welcome back to Part 2 of Optimal Repair, where we go through builds utilising Optimus Prime, Legendary Warrior to repair your board. In this part, I look at having Optimus take on the guise of a Dinobot. I would like to give a shoutout to one of our local players in Singapore, Ang Kangsen, for coming up with this idea initially. Let's kick things off with the deck list as always.
Deck List
Link to Fortress Maximus deck list:
https://fortressmaximus.io/user/deck/optimal-repair-dino-stomping-rs1DmpzBMfW
Characters
Optimus Prime, Legendary Warrior
Clobber
Dinobot Sludge, Mighty Stomper
Stratagems
Me Grimlock, You Grimlock!
Upgrades
3x Emergency Repair Patch
3x Extra Padding
1x Holomatter Projector
1x Sparring Gear
2x Matrix of Leadership
2x Toolbox
1x Enforcement Batons
3x Ion Blaster of Optimus Prime
1x Noble's Blaster
2x Energon Axe
Actions
2x Belligerence
3x Diagnosis
3x Hidden Fortification
1x High Five
2x Hold The Line
2x I Still Function!
2x Sabotaged Armaments
3x Scouting Mission
3x Security Checkpoint
Sideboard
Raider Aimless, Air Force <> Weapons
1x Leap of Faith
2x Medic's Protective Field
2x Point-Defense System
2x Stable Cover
3x War of Attrition
Deck Tech
Characters
I've covered Optimus Prime, Legendary Warrior in Part 1 (found here: https://www.teamptsdsg.com/post/jankyard-optimal-repair-part-1-bug-banging) but to briefly recap, his usage is mainly for his body mode where he gets to heal one of your characters. Having a draw effect on his alt mode does help us when we are digging for cards too.
In this iteration, we are using Clobber as the head for Optimus Prime. As you've seen from the deck list, we have a very heavy Blue deck going, so why would I want the Bold you ask? Well, it's to help dig for all the crucial Green pips I have in the deck that helps me set up the healing. Any additional Orange pips flipped during this time would be an added bonus. But the main reason is for its stratagem - Me Grimlock, You Grimlock!.
We want Optimus Prime to gain the Dinobot trait. From what we have seen from past sets, the Dinobots are known to be heavy on aggro effects such as Bold for their cards, however this time we are looking at just one specific benefit of being a Dinobot, and that is granted to us by a character we have seen in Dinobot decks in wave 1.
Re-introducing Dinobot Sludge! In his alt mode, he allows us to move all damage counters from our Dinobots onto him. In his bot mode, when one of our Dinobots attacks, repair a damage from it. Hang on, repair a damage while attacking? That sounds like it stacks with Optimus's body mode ability! Now we're getting somewhere. With the Blue pips in the deck, we should be able to defend and take low amounts of damage, and with the attack back, we would be able to heal up all the damage we have taken.
Battle Cards
Emergency Repair Patch - Blue pip, one armor and the ability to repair one damage to an Autobot? Sounds ideal for this deck!
Extra Padding - This is meant for later stages in the game, when Sludge is dead and you are trying to keep Optimus from taking too much damage so that you can constantly repair him.
Holomatter Projector - This is a staple these days with all the non-attack damage flying around.
Sparring Gear - Just a backup armor from Extra Padding to have. Green pip is good.
Matrix of Leadership - For the later stages when you need to push damage instead of healing as much. The double coloured pips also does wonders on both offense and defense.
Toolbox - As mentioned in part 1, such a key card in this deck concept. The ability to heal an additional 1 health each time I repair damage is so crucial. This is a first to be equipped.
Enforcement Batons - Weapon removal. I don't want my opponent hitting me with big weapons like Energon Axe or Battle Masters.
Ion Blaster of Optimus Prime - Blue pip weapon for Optimus that boosts both attack and defense? Yes, please!
Noble's Blaster - Just a Green pip weapon that we can take back to hand should we not draw into anything else.
Energon Axe - With the damage we are taking, we should be able to equip this weapon and then heal up the character. 3 attack with pierce 2 and a Blue pip? I'll take this over Master Sword in this deck.
Belligerence - With the Bold we have from Clobber, Optimus may be able to go in for a big swing if we play Belligerence on a key turn.
Diagnosis - This has been a rarely played card that has been overlooked. As I'm in need of White pips in this deck, I stumbled upon this in my search of a suitable White pip that could repair my bots. 'Lo and behold, a card that allows me to not only repair a damage, but to draw a card if I started with Autobots.
Hidden Fortification - Tough 3 for more defense is good.
High Five - Now that both my bots share a Dinobot trait, they both get to heal. A Green pip allows me to guarantee this in my hand. If both of my characters have Toolbox equipped, all the better to have 2 health repaired each.
Hold The Line - A Secret Action that prevents small guys from dealing too much damage to my bots, plus a healing effect to boot? Hell, yeah!
I Still Function! - This card hasn't seen much play of late, but being able to bring a dead Sludge back to flip him into alt mode and completely repair Optimus can be such a game changer.
Sabotaged Armaments - I play this over End Hostilities because it is more frequently that my opponent would draw into a weapon instead of Belligerence to be played. Removing an opposing weapon can turn the game in your favour.
Scouting Mission - I chose this over Pep Talk for the versatility of being able to play this as one damage to an opponent if required, as well as the Black pip that comes with it for the off chance to pierce damage through.
Security Checkpoint - This is a staple in Blue decks. Double Blue pips and when played early on, this could cripple your opponent badly.
Sideboard
Raider Aimless seems like a good option with Optimus due to the Bold granted by Clobber. Healing should be focused on Optimus and to let Aimless be KO'ed as soon as possible even with all the Blue pips.
Leap of Faith - As mentioned in Part 1, my favourite star card. I love the ability to play more cards for free, but some may prefer Heroic Resolve instead.
Medic's Protective Field - Another armor option to repair damage and provide Safeguard. This can replace Diagnosis if you sideboard in more Actions.
Point-Defense System - To protect you from pierce decks.
Stable Cover - More protection from pierce.
War of Attrition - This is a situational card where you would require some burn damage and yet have a repair benefit.
Gameplay
With a 2-wide board, you would want to go second just to utilise the repair ability and be able to play a card to setup your board. Your opponent shouldn't be able to easily one hit KO your guys on the first turn, especially with the Blue pips in the deck.
You would want to flip Sludge first to keep him ready to flip back into alt mode, and also to have his repair ability active. Note that his repair ability is for the attacker, so if you would to use Optimus to attack, Optimus could heal himself using Sludge's ability and heal Sludge using Optimus's ability.
The overall plan is to just keep healing and annoy your opponents that they aren't able to kill your bots. Focus on your opponent's board one bot at a time and take down his board systematically. Keep Optimus alive with constant repairing. He will be your heavy hitter so try to set him up as fast as possible.
Conclusion
This is just a fun deck to poke around with. With so much Autobots hate going around, it would be tough to fully heal all the damage coming through, but it would definitely be a fun go at trying to do so. It's possible to tweak the deck to include more black pip elements, but that would compromise on the healing options available.
We have come to the end of Optimal Repair for now. Thank you for reading this article and I hope that you guys enjoyed this. Do give the concept a go and experiment with your own variants, hopefully you'll get a kick out of annoying opponents with all the repairing as I had. Till All are One, Azyrine out!