What's Hot: Blue Defense

Obiwong May 4, 2020

Long live the Queen

This month we're going to look at the most popular cards in blue based defense decks. Just like last month for each of the popular cards, the stats we'll be lookin at this month are: the total amount of copies, average amount of copies per deck, the amount of decks that played that card and what percentage of blue decks played that card. The rankings are ordered by most copies played.

Characters

[[Flamewar Veteran Decepticon]] is the go to character for blue decks granting everyone on your team Tough 1. When [[Raider Aimless Air Force Weapons]] was spoiled I'm sure every blue deck player wanted to jam him in as well. The only surprise to me here is [[Sergeant Mirage Special Ops Spy]], I've yet to see a competitive secret based place well in a tournament, but then again, we're not exclusively looking at competitive decks here. A couple Aerialbots and Air Strike Patrol fill out the rest of the list with [[Major Shockwave Applied Sciences Scientist]] right in the middle and [[General Optimus Prime Galactic Commander]] rounding the list out. I thought [[Major Shockwave Applied Sciences Scientist]] would place higher, I'm curious as to if it's because he's an SRT. 

1. [[Flamewar Veteran Decepticon]] 278 copies in 22% of decks
2. [[Raider Aimless Air Force Weapons]] 104 copies in 7% of decks
3. [[Skydive Air Warfare Specialist]] 83 copies in 7% of decks
4. [[Raider Nightflight Air Strike Patrol Spy]] 73 copies in 6% of decks
5. [[Major Shockwave Applied Sciences Scientist]] 68 copies in 5% of decks
6. [[Raider Tailwind Air Strike Patrol Strategist]] 66 copies in 5%
7. [[Sergeant Mirage Special Ops Spy]] 64 copies in 5% of decks
8.. [[Nightracer Gunner]] 62 copies in 5% of decks
9. [[Fireflight Sky High Recon]] 61 copies in 5% of decks
10. [[General Optimus Prime Galactic Commander]] 61 copies in 5% of decks

Actions

Double blue battle icon [[Security Checkpoint]] takes the top spot and [[The Bigger They Are]] follows right behind to give supporting characters like [[Flamewar Veteran Decepticon]], the Aerialbots and Air Stike Patrols a nice boost in damage and pierce. I'm a little surprised that [[Smelt]] and [[Sabotaged Armaments]] missed out on the top 10. Maybe I overvalue [[Smelt]]'s green battle icon in my blue decks, I've found [[smelt]] more useful that [[Disarm]].

1. [[Security Checkpoint]] 2590 copies (2.8 copies per deck) in 903 (72%) of decks
2. [[The Bigger They Are]] 1096 copies (2.6 copies per deck) in 417 (33%) of decks
3. [[Pep Talk]] 919 copies (2.6 copies per deck) in 353 (28%) of decks¹
4. [[Leap Into Battle]] 904 copies (2.7 copies per deck) in 335 (27%) of decks
5. [[Steady Shot]] 888 copies (2.7 copies per deck) in 330 (26%) of decks
6. [[Marksmanship]] 876 copies (2.4 copies per deck) in 359 (28%) of decks
7. [[Brainstorm]] 764 copies (2.5 copies per deck) in 303 (24%) of decks
8. [[Vaporize]] 728 copies (2 copies per deck) in 355 (28%) of decks
9. [[War of Attrition]] 554 copies (2.9 copies per deck) in 187 (15%) of decks
10. [[Disarm]] 482 copies (1.7 copies per deck) in 285 (23%) of decks

Weapons

Again, blue staple [[Handheld Blaster]] is #1 with its double blue battle icons. [[Energon Axe]] giving your characters +3 damage and both [[Scoundrel's Blaster]] and [[Noble's Blaster]] making the list have been solid choice because of their green battle icon allowing you to grab a weapon when you need it.[[Laser Cutlass]] is a great option for your support characters but a little bit of a surprise is [[Grenade Launcher]]. I guess +4 damage is too much to turn down even for blue focused decks.

1. [[Handheld Blaster]] 2601 copies (2.9 copies per deck) in 892 (71%) of decks
2. [[Energon Axe]] 1539 copies (2.1 copies per deck) in 737 (59%) of decks
3. [[Armed Hovercraft]] 1061 copies (2.5 copies per deck) in 421 (34%) of decks
4. [[Sturdy Javelin]] 980 copies (2.5 copies per deck) in 398 (32%) of decks
5. [[Scoundrel's Blaster]] 802 copies (1.8 copies per deck) in 445 (36%) of decks
6. [[Laser Cutlass]] 728 copies (2.3 copies per deck) in 310 (25%) of decks
7. [[Noble's Blaster]] 478 copies (1.7 copies per deck) in 286 (23%) of decks
8. [[Grenade Launcher]] 434 copies (2.6 copies per deck) in 166 (13%) of decks
9. [[Attack Drone]] 263 copies (3 copies per deck) in 89 (7%) of decks
10. [[Piercing Blaster]] 255 copies (2.3 copies per deck) in 109 (9%) of decks

Armor

It took a while for [[Extra Padding]] to grow on me, basically replacing [[Reinforced Plating]] for me in my blue decks. [[Sparring Gear]] and [[Bashing Shield]] are both great options for blue decks despite their orange battle icons. I always thought [[Evasive Maneuvers]] would see more play but I guess it being a defensive card, it's just so much easier to play around unlike [[Grenade Launcher]] which you're more likely to get value from.

1. [[Extra Padding]] 1397 copies (3 copies per deck) in 470 (38%) of decks
2. [[Smoke Cloak]] 784 copies (2.7 copies per deck) in 287 (23%) of decks
3. [[Sparring Gear]] 677 copies (1.7 copies per deck) in 386 (31%) of decks
4. [[Force Field]] 672 copies (2.5 copies per deck) in 269 (22%) of decks²
5. [[Reinforced Plating]] 667 copies (2.5 copies per deck) in 258 (21%) of decks
6. [[Bashing Shield]] 293 copies (1.4 copies per deck) in 216 (17%) of decks
7. [[Improvised Shield]] 272 copies (2.6 copies per deck) in 103 (8%) of decks
8. [[Terrifying Resilience]] 246 copies (2.4 copies per deck) in 101 (8%) of decks
9. [[Evasive Maneuvers]] 176 copies (2.7 copies per deck) in 66 (5%) of decks
10. [[Reflex Circuits]] 157 copies (1.4 copies per deck) in 109 (9%) of decks

Utilities

Did not expect [[Matrix of Leadership]]  to take the top spot here. Another orange battle icon card [[Energy Pack]] makes it here as well as lots of card advantage like [[Pocket Processor]], [[Kinetic Converter]] and [[Data Bank]]. 

1. [[Matrix of Leadership]] 616 copies (2.6 copies per deck) in 234 (19%) of decks
2. [[Pocket Processor]] 546 copies (1.4 copies per deck) in 399 (31%) of decks
3. [[Field Communicator]] 422 copies (2.2 copies per deck) in 189 (15%) of decks
4. [[Energy Pack]] 354 copies (1.8 copies per deck) in 197 (16%) of decks
5. [[Point Position]] 295 copies (2.4 copies per deck) in 124 (10%) of decks
6. [[Shoulder Holster]] 225 copies (2 copies per deck) in 115 (9%) of decks
7. [[Conversion Engine]] 184 copies (2.3 copies per deck) in 80 (6%) of decks
8. [[Kinetic Converter]] 182 copies (2.1 copies per deck) in 88 (7%) of decks
9. [[Security Console]] 182 copies (2.1 copies per deck) in 85 (7%) of decks
10. [[Data Bank]] 162 copies (2 copies per deck) in 82 (6%) of decks

So that wraps up orange and blue battle icons! Hope you all enjoyed it and I'll see you all again next month!

¹ Editors Note: After running the numbers I realized there are 2 different prints for [[Pep Talk]] and I didn't combine them so this number is likely higher. Sorry!
² Same note as above except this time it's [[Force Field]]

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