FaB: Armory Deck Guide - Maxx 'The Hype' Nitro + Upgrade Guide!

Armory Decks are already great Flesh and Blood products. We've seen these decks significantly improve some heroes, upgrade their strategies, or even bring us a new hero.

These products made players very excited straight away, and the most recent one is no exception. It features a forgotten hero with a legion of fans: Maxx 'The Hype' Nitro.

Let's explore the Armory Deck of the biggest Metrix rebel, and see if the Hype is real.

Back in Bright Lights, Maxx 'The Hype' Nitro was one of the most exciting heroes because of his midrange game plan, so similar to Dash, Inventor Extraordinaire. This list also played one of the coolest finishers in all of Flesh and Blood: Construct Nitro Mechanoid, an Action that never really fit Dash, but was perfect for Maxx.

With High Octane, Maxx was part of a midrange-combo list that dealt a bit of damage early on as it built its Hyper Driver. With this mechanoid in play, all you needed to do was find High Octane and finish the game.

However, Maxx was never the best hero in Classic Constructed, once he often struggled against aggressive decks. Nonetheless, it was always viable in competitive tables. Then, High Octane was banned and Maxx lost his main win condition. He went from a viable hero to one of the worst heroes in the game.

However, in April, a new hope has come for this Mechanologist: an Armory Deck all of his own. Let's see what this new list has for this hero, and if that's enough to put him back in the ring.

The first thing to note is that, unlike all the other Armory Decks we've seen, this one brings an entirely new strategy. We'll leave Construct Nitro Mechanoid behind and focus a lot more on Hyper Driver and our weapon, Banksy.

New Cards

Let's unravel this strategy a bit more and explore the cards that show, perfectly, what this deck wants to do now.

Considering these new equipment cards, it's clear that they all focus on Hyper Driver (1). All of them give you a bonus for using Hyper Driver (1) from your deck, but some of them definitely stand out.

Breaker Helm Protos fixes your hand by discarding Hyper Driver and is a "Base", which means that we can equip Evos on it. Its name already suggests one of the best Evos we can use with it: Evo Circuit Breaker. This card is great defensively and also recycles banished Attack Actions to us through Boost.

Fist Pump is the best new equipment card because it buffs Banksy and, as we can use its effect more than once per turn, it will buff our weapon constantly as we banish more and more Hyper Driver (1).

Twintek Charging Station is a great addition because it creates a resource and gives your next attack three extra power. However, its main role is to return Hyper Driver (1) to your deck, and let you use all the effects of your equipment cards all over again.

Yet, the main stars of this precon are Clamp Press and Construct Bank Breaker. While Clamp Press makes Banksy more threatening (by the way, with Banksy's on-hit effect, you can keep Clamp Press on the board forever), Construct Bank Breaker definitely stands out because it creates a new weapon: Bank Breaker.

Bank Breaker is also a Wrench, costs 1 to attack, and has 3 power (just like Banksy), but we can attack with it twice in the same turn, and it gets Overpower and Go Again when we banish cards from under it. So, it is our main win condition.

The Game Plan

This Armory Deck has a "quest" game plan, so you'll need to fulfill a few steps until you get to your win condition.

First, you need to put three Hyper Driver in play (either from your deck or through your hero's ability). Then, create Bank Breaker with Construct Bank Breaker. Finally, put Clamp Press in play and deal as much damage as you can with your Wrench.

This list includes many great cards to help you execute this game plan:

Let's start with the 9 Hyper Drivers themselves, which are in this list so you can put all three of them on the board at the same time. Until now, using all of them in the deck wasn't the best strategy, but now, with so many new synergies, playing all nine copies of them is almost a requirement.

But we can't just put all those Hyper Driver in play and not keep them "alive" (considering that, when we Boost, they lose a counter). That's why this list plays Crankshaft (3) (all three colors) and Big Bertha (3) - because they'll help you keep the Drivers in play for longer.

As the Hyper Drivers create resources when we first Boost, a great idea is starting our turn with a zero-cost Attack, get a resource, and keep playing our turn many times without pitching. With this in mind, this deck plays nearly all the zero-cost Attacks this class has to offer, and each one of them has a powerful ability that will help us in some way.

But we need more than zero-cost Attacks to win a game. Some of the most efficient Attacks are also in this list, like Heist, which can recycle banished Hyper Drivers and put them in play.

Like all precons, there's always something we can do to upgrade this list and make it competitive.

Now, however, we can build Maxx in many different ways, considering we got an entire new archetype for him. Let's go through a few of the most "necessary" upgrades, and then move on to specific upgrades.

Ever since it was released in Dash I/O's Armory Deck, Fast and Furious (1) became a staple for this class. Besides its first effect, which activates when it is exiled through Boost (and which will let us keep Clamp Press and Hyper Driver in play for longer), you'll easily meet its condition to attack with 4 power, once Maxx gives Crank to the Hyper Drivers.

Gas Up (1), Re-Charge (1), and Gigawatt (1) all cost one and give an attack another 4 power. At first, they seem very similar, but their effects are actually quite specific. Gas Up (1) returns a Hyper Driver from the banished pile to you, Re-Charge (1) puts a counter on the Driver, and Gigawatt (1) buffs any Mechanologist Attack (including your weapon). These cards are excellent, particularly in a midrange list that wants to attack with a lot of power.

This class has just a few Attacks with disruption, so a card like Pulsewave Harpoon easily turns into a staple because it is an incredibly strong disruption. At times, it is even inevitable for your opponent. When used well, it will often put you back in the game.

Do you want to keep your many Hyper Driver (1) in your deck and set up a better end game? Hyper Scrapper and Moonshot can help you, particularly with Construct Bank Breaker. While Hyper Scrapper takes advantage of the items in your graveyard, Moonshot is often a finisher that takes advantage of the many items in play.

On the other side, if you want to take a more traditional approach, being aggressive and Boosting like there's no tomorrow, Maximum Velocity is your best bet. Considering how many resources this deck creates, you'll easily be able to fit this Attack with 10 power, and, as such, Twin Drive can help you meet the conditions you need to meet when you have less cards in hand.

The new plan is great, but the old one is still quite fantastic too. Leaning on Construct Nitro Mechanoid is still valid, particularly with cards like Supercell. This will help you create and keep Hyper Driver for longer in play. Galvanic Bender will grow your Mechanoid even more.

And we can't forget Teklo Foundry Heart, one of the best equipment cards in the game. Besides its excellent defensive value (Battleworn 2), it is also an "on demand" Fyendal's Spring Tunic. Another highlight is Hyper-X3, which, considering how many items are in this list, could be a lot of help, as its ability will draw you a card.

At a first glance, this Armory Deck doesn't seem impressive, even more considering the other precons, such as Dash I/O and Aurora, Shooting Star. However, it offers a new strategy for this hero, as well as a promising future.

The next set, High Seas, will also bring more support for Mechanologist. We might not see Boost anytime soon, but Maxx might get some new toys, and become a real Bank Breaker.

What did you think of this list? Tell us your thoughts in our comment section below.

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!