By Zach Shephard

Mission-completion decks, by nature, are defensive. This can be largely attributed to their early lives as young decklings, constantly being bullied into insecurity by more aggressive decks (Terminators can be so cruel). They tend to have no intent of destroying the enemy vehicle – instead, their goal is to simply survive while breezing through missions in order to secure victory.

Survival can come at the hands of many support cards. Maneuvers, first and foremost, serve a dual-purpose: they can both complete missions, and provide much-needed speed on defense.

Still, maneuvers will only make up so much of a deck. With the out-of-control rule, a deck sporting nothing but maneuvers will either see many unusable cards throughout the game, or have to accept suffering penalty damage whenever they are played.

In the open slots of a mission-completion deck, I’d recommend the Thugz Defensive Package (TDP, henceforth). Thugz can hold enemy units at bay, slow down opposing maneuver decks, and be used in the construction of buildings (if “Brick” is what I think it is, anyway).

For my mission-completion decks, I try to leave twenty slots open for the TDP whenever possible. Those twenty cards are as follows:

4 Brick (or 4 Iced)
4 Garage
4 Playa
4 Roller (or 4 Gutter)
4 Block Access

The primary goal of the Thugz is to keep enemy units from getting to your vehicle, and the TDP does a great job of that. Garage takes a point of damage off of your units every turn, and getting two at one mission can spell certain doom for your opponent’s attacking force. Playa is one of the best anti-raid cards in the game, reducing the overall accuracy of your opponent’s entire army. Roller is included simply for the numbers – three armor and twenty speed for two cost is quite a bargain. However, if your deck can afford the extra power, you may consider going with Gutter – for only one more cost, you get an extra ten speed.

Brick is, basically, a tank. Get it on the table with a pair of local, friendly Thugz, and you just added five armor to your team – for only three power. This helps as insurance for the time your opponent breaks through with a massive attack and does a hefty helpin’ of damage. Brick should survive most attacks, giving an opportunity to recover with your Garages.

Similarly to the Roller/Gutter card slots, however, Brick is interchangeable with Iced. Iced may not provide the massive armor that Brick does, but it offers ten more speed and the opportunity to pull back destroyed Thugz units (Garage tends to be an excellent candidate). Being that Brick and Iced are both rares, feel free to mix and match depending on what you have available in your collection – just try to get a total of four between the two of them.

Last, and most certainly not least, is Block Access. This may well be the most game-breaking common in AATCG. The assortment of cards in this package is intended to be used in mission-completion decks, and such a deck that uses Block Access will have an edge over similar decks that do not. The key with this card is to make sure you hold it for the right time – don’t go around squandering these things; you’ve only got four. Drop a Block Access when it means the difference between your opponent completing a mission and you completing it on the following turn. This is a great early-game card, as it will often result in you completing both twenty-speed missions against another mission-completion deck. Starting down 0-2 is something that will not be easy for your opponent to recover from.

The beauty of this package is that it’s not confined to any one faction or class – the Thugz can be tossed into any sort of Biomek, Human, or Mutant deck. Get a hold of the aforementioned 20 cards, and you’re set for life.