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The Sentry™
Card# MTU-017
While his stats aren’t much bigger than those of the average 7-drop, Sentry’s “Pay ATK” power can drastically hinder an opponent’s attacking options in the late game.
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| Semifinals: Russell Pippin vs. Bill Hodack |
| Danny Mandel |
| June 27, 2004 |
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 Bill and Russell will do battle to see who makes it to the finals.
Bill is playing Big Brotherhood. Russell is playing Fantastic Four beats with Fantasticars. His curve goes all the way up to the 8 cost Invisible Woman.
Bill and Russell exchange hellos. Russell wins the die roll and chooses to have Bill start with initiative.
Russell starts things off on turn 2 with (ain’t nothing but a) She-Thing (baby), and follows it up with her one-time boyfriend Thing. Bill follows up with Mystique on turn 3. Mystique brings in the da noise and da funk, but She-Thing dodges. Thing 1 and Thing 2 commence some poundings.
Russell adds Wolverine (from the New Fantastic Four) to the board while Bill counters with Blob. She-Thing and He-Thing team-up on Blob. Wolverine slices up Mystique just a little bit.
Bill’s at 27 endurance, Russell’s at 48.
Turn 5, Bill adds Quicksilver to the fun while Russell sends out a Signal Flare. Sure enough Mr. Fantastic, Stretch shows up. She-Thing asks for a Tech Upgrade and Stretch delivers her a shiny new Personal Force Field, which she promptly gives to her boyfriend.
Bill harnesses the power of Lost City and Avalon Space Station and starts going power-up happy with Quicksilver. The speedster stuns Thing before racing around to take out She-Thing. Blob smushes Wolverine and when the dust settles Thing and She-Thing are down for the count and Bill has cut the endurance lead to Bill at 27, Russell at 30.
It was a great turn for Bill! Russell’s board looked amazing and intimidating, but he made some nice attacks, came over for a ton of damage, and KO’d two characters and the Force Field.
On turn 6, all Russell can muster is Invisible Woman, while Bill recruits Magneto. Stretch attacks Quicksilver, but the Speed Demon is too quick, powering-up and Acrobatic Dodging. The attack ends with neither character getting stunned.
Wolverine attacks Quicksilver, triggering Wolverine’s power (cool!)
Bill takes 10, Russell takes 4.
B 17, R 26
Magneto and Blob team attack Stretch and Russell takes 5.
B 17, R 21
Wolverine is knocked out.
Another great turn for Bill.
Things are seriously looking grim for R.
Turn 7:
Bill recruits the little Sabretooth. (Little, ha!)
Russell Signal Flares for Hulk. Sadly all of his resources are face up.
He exhausts Invisible Woman to Tech Upgrade for a Fantasticar.
Hulk protects Stretch, who’s in the car. Invisible Woman is next to Stretch.
 Blob and Quicksilver team attack Invisible Woman.
Russell powers-up Invisible Woman, who, with Fantasticar, can now take down Quicksilver. But Bill’s got some Avalon Space Stationing to do. He gets back a Quicksilver and powers-up again, putting the speedster out of range of Sue’s now-8 ATK. The Invisible Woman powers-up again so she can trade with Blob.
Bill’s at 13, Russell’s at 17.
Bill has Magneto attack Hulk. (Man, they should write that comic) Mags ppp-powers up twice. Stretch reinforces. Sabretooth attacks Mr. F.
The turn ends with Bill at 9, Russell at 6
Can Russell turn it around?
Turn 7:
Russell recruits Ghost Rider (who’s pretty angry—the Penance Stare is online).
Bill uses the Space Station to get Magneto 7-drop and Magneto 5. He recruits the big one, and puts him behind Quicksilver. Sabretooth is in front.
Ghost Rider attacks Quicksilver putting Bill at –1, Russell at 6
Hulk smashes puny Sabretooth, knocking Bill to –15 and putting the game out of reach.
Russell wins!
Game 2:
Bill elects to start with initiative.
Bill keeps, R mulligans.
This game was nowhere near as close as the first. Russell’s first recruit wasn’t until turn four, and while he made it pretty close, Bill overwhelmed him with the Lost City and Avalon Space Station combo. Even though Russell made some insightful (if desperate) plays, the game ended decisively on turn 7.
Game 3:
12 Minutes remaining.
Unlike last game, Russell got off a blistering start while Bill missed his turn 1 and turn 3 drops. On turn 4, Russell plays Savage Land targeting Bill’s Blob and then Overloads him, which allows him to swing in with his whole team. At the end of the turn, Bill is at 21 and Russell is at 48. Is this one over already, folks?
Turn 5: Bill makes a valiant stand turning aside Russell’s assaults and surviving to his attack step only losing 4 endurance. He starts the long road back and brings Russell to 40.
Bill’s at 17, Russell's at 40.
Turn 6:
Bill recruits Mystique, Russell Signal flares for the Hulk.
Time is called. This will be the last turn. Or will it?
Bill, down 23 endurance, launches into his attacks. After a flurry of power-ups and combat tricks, Bill has cut Russell's lead to down to 7. Here’s where it gets crazy.
Magneto attacks Mr. Fantastic.
Magneto powers-u through Lost City. Bill flips a second Avalon Space Station and gets back Magneto to power-up a second time.
Magneto is 15/15 to stretch’s 9/12. If the combat ends now, Russell will lose 8 endurance and consequently the match by a single point of endurance.
Russell coolly Signal Flares for another Mr. Fantastic and powers-up reducing the breakthrough by 1. When the smoke clears both players are tied 17 to 17.
We’re going to extra innings, ladies and gentleman!
Turn 7:
Russel is out of gas: No recruits. He puts Hulk and Thing up front. A Fantasticar and two face down resources put Hulk at 15 ATK/13 DEF.
Bill also has no recruits. While he had Magneto in hand, he was forced to KO two resources last turn to flip multiple copies of his locations. He puts Blob up front and
Mystique in front of Magneto.
Russell has Hulk attacks Mystique. 15/13 to 12/12
He plays Savage Beatdown targeting Hulk. 19/13 to 12/12
And then Bill powers-up Mystique twice through Lost City.
Unable to muster enough offense to offset Bills imminent counterattack, Russell extends his hand.
Both players compliment each other on an extremely well-played match, and Russell wishes Bill good luck in the finals. |
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