Battletech CCG

Trading Card Games

I first got into TCGs with Magic 4th edition. But the lack of competitive play soon made me bored. Over the years, I dabbled in some other CCGs to satiate the appetite for shuffling and playing a card game.

One of the best games I've ever played is the Battletech TCG. Sadly it got discontinued, but I still maintain a number of decks to play with. The good thing is, the cards are relatively cheap (the value of a good game maintains it's price) but not too cheap as like say, Digimon or Pokemon cheap.

The bad part is - well, there are only 3 top decks in the format. Playing with Box Powers and Alliances degenerates the game further, with the Free Deploy becoming very powerful if The Star League alliance is allowed.

Allow me to explain.

Most CCGs are designed to be duels between opponents. The basic strategy ofBattletech is to bring out 'Mechs and

Vehicles, and attack your opponent's Stockpile(deck). Each point of damage causes 1 card to be overturned into the Scrapheap(where played cards go). When a Player cannot draw anymore cards, he/she loses the game.

Unlike most other CCGs, Battletech's resource base is attackable by the main damage sources('Mechs). This turns a few things sideways - it is possible to lock your opponent down by destroying all his resources. Since a player is limited to playing 2 cards a turn(Deployments), if you can deal 7 damage twice per turn, it becomes impossible for a player to cope.

All CCGs have some limitations. Cards which allow you to get around these limitations are usually the powerful ones. For Battletech, the biggest limitation is that you can only play 2 cards per turn. Most decks are built around beating this and forcing decks that obey this limitation to cope.

The magic number is 7, because all of the main resource cards have 7 life. Thus, the Boomwolf, a deck which plays multiple fast 'mechs with 3 and 4 attack, is one of the strongest decks in the game. The deck plays like an aggro deck, bringing out 'Mechs every turn and slowly ramping up the damage with Missions.

BoomWolf

6 Dasher Prime
6 Fenris Prime
6 Phantom B
6 Phantom A

3 Pushing the Envelope
3 Superior Navigation
3 Trial of Grievance
1 Arrow IV Battery
1 Fog Shrouded Moors

8 Assembly
4 Munitions
5 Tactics
4 War Funds
2 Black Market Connections
2 Think Tank

Sideboard:
1 Arrow IV Battery
1 Fog Shrouded Moors
1 Evantha Fetladral
1 Vlad of the Wards
2 Trial of Grievance
2 Aerospace Fighter Mission

Pushing the Envelope adds 3 damage while Superior Nav has a 66% chance of adding 4, and a 33% chance of untapping the 'Mech. It is normally common to put a Dasher in play on turn 2 and kill a resource with Superior Nav. The whole deck revolves around hunting resources and slowly attacking the Stockpile. It is the classic Aggro deck.


Another strong archetype is the Big Mech. Most decks play only 2 resources per turn, making it hard to build big 'mechs early. The resource engine of Merchant Caste + Improved COnstruction Facilities gets around this restriction, making turn 3 Ryokens rather easy. Once enough 'Mechs have been brought into play, a resource sink called Double-Time Offense is played and you defeat your opponent in 1 big attack.

The Alliance'd version allowed you to mix cheap Wolf 'Mechs with the powerful Crossbows, but the non alliance'd version fares equally well as Ghost Bear. A deck like this would fall into the mid-range archetype.

Big 'Mech Deck

5 Dasher Prime
5 Dragonfly D
6 Ryoken Prime
4 Ryoken C

6 Merchant Caste
6 Improved Construction Facilities
5 Hidden Reserves
3 Double-Time Offense

4 War Funds
2 Black Market Connections
2 Think Tank
8 Logistics
4 Assembly


Now we take a look at one of the most degenerate decks. The whole deck revolves around the powerful card Sandhurst Royal Military Academy, which is NOT unique(Meaning you can have duplicates in play) and untaps after each mission. Basically, a powerful pump to all your Units. The trick with this deck is to flood the board with low cost Units , and then Play both a Treachery(forces your opponent to commit all his 'mechs to attack you next turn) and SRMA - the next turn, your opponent will have no Units blocking, and you drop a second SRMA and go to town.

Comstar Free Deploy

6 Cyrano
6 Hussar
6 Thorn
6 Spider Revised

6 Sandhurst Royal Military Academy (SRMA)
6 Hidden Reserves
2 Command Circuit
2 Treachery!

4 War Funds
2 Black Market Connections
1 Think Tank
8 Logistics
5 Politics

Note the word Free Deploy. This is a keyword on a few fragile Units from the Inner Sphere, whereby they do not count towards the 2 Deployment limit. Abusing this allows you to have 4-5 resources and the combo in hand by turn 5, whereby most decks would have only 1-2 blockers. When each Unit deals 5 damage, a simple swarm is sufficient to win. Sometimes, landing a 6 on the Command Circuit accelerates this even further.

Dealing with the Free Deploy decks are two cards - Rocky Gorge and Aerospace Fighter Mission. The former deals 2 damage to each attacking unit, forcing the opponent to play 3 SRMAs in order to negate that damage(1 more for +2 armor), while the latter divides 5 damage among units on the board. Since both the Cyrano and the Hussar have 1 life, you can wipe an entire board in just 1 command card, and continue to recycle the card with Black Market (which incidentally is usually the target of opposing Arrow IVs and Aerospace Fighter Missions).


Having a game based solely on damage and no alternate win condition results in control decks being forced to the sidelines. This game has no lockdown decks that frustrate you; which might be a good thing - but it does result in the steamroller effect, whereby a side that gains an advantage usually ends up winning because the only race is the damage race. Certain players prefer this while others dislike being unable to counter an early rush.

I will talk more about other CCGs I have played, but this remains my favourite.