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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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| Round 3 Feature Match: Mark Rassamni vs. Alex Etzel |
| Geordie Tait |
| July 24, 2004 |
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 This round was a barnburner between fresh-faced card shark Alex Etzel and Mark Rassamni, a precocious participant upon whose brow the dew of youth has not yet dried. Ever been beaten down by a player who isn’t tall enough to get on the Explodercoaster at Fun World? Alex Etzel certainly didn’t want to add his name to the short list of Rassamni’s victims, but could he stand in the path of this potent prepubescent punisher and emerge victorious?
Time for a New Brotherhood mirror match to see which is more powerful—youth, or extreme youth.
Game 1
Alex kicked off the festivities with Destiny in the back row. When Mark passed, started turn 2, and recruited Toad, the bug-eyed beater was the first character to get the Destiny treatment. Alex then recruited Pyro and went after Toad in an attempt to trigger Destiny. Mark returned Toad to his hand rather than take the 4-point hit.
On turn 3, Alex played a Toad of his own, and Mark responded with Quicksilver, Pietro Maximoff, who was immediately targeted by Destiny before the end of the build phase. With Destiny exhausted, Mark was free to activate Quicksilver and dome Alex for 5. Not to be outdone, Alex sent his squad of Pyro and Toad into battle with Quicksilver and stunned him (with Pyro taking it for the team), dealing 3 and triggering Destiny for an additional 4 endurance loss.
Life totals were Mark 40, Alex 36. Mark was on the initiative for turn 4 but could only muster the less-than-stellar Pyro during his own build, pretty much the international sign for “awful draw” when playing a New Brotherhood deck. Alex didn’t skip a beat and put the pressure on with the grotesque but useful Blob. With Mark having missed his 4-drop, Blob was too big for him to handle. Destiny ended the build step by predicting that Quicksilver would be drinking a nice tall glass of stun juice before all was said and done. And how right she was!
Mark, with the initiative, flipped up The New Brotherhood and launched a team attack on Blob, stunning the big man but losing Quicksilver as well, resulting in a hefty 7 endurance loss with Destiny factored in. Alex had no attack, but he did use Pyro to zap Mark for 3 points with the power of fire!
 With Mark now behind on life and facing down a superior force (with the initiative!) on turn 5, it seemed like he was pretty much cooked, and Alex must have felt the same way, because he went for the jugular with Quicksilver, Speed Demon. Mark could only come up with Toad.
The rest was academic. Alex's big Quicksilver attacked Mark's small one, stunning it. Blob oozed his way over to squash Pyro and was successful. Alex then sent Toad after Toad. Mark tried to get tricky by discarding two Toads to power-up his version, but was foiled by Savage Beatdown from Alex’s hand. Mark was down to 15, and Alex was approaching the big finale.
He returned the Toad from the Toad vs. Toad assault in lieu of stunning it, and then discarded it to ready Quicksilver, Speed Demon for another go, this time with no defenses at all in the way. Alex then flipped up Lost City and tried to power up to 11 ATK. Mark had Ka-Boom!, but Alex responded with Avalon Space Station, grabbing Quicksilver back and powering up again before Ka-Boom! had resolved on the chain. Quicksilver dealt 12 all told, and Pyro leisurely finished Mark off.
With the power of fire!
Alex Etzel 1 – Mark Rassamni 0
Game 2
Alex had the initiative this game and led off with Destiny, while Mark had nothing. He did lead off turn 2 with Toad, and Alex matched him Toad for Toad while also activating Destiny to make Mark’s early turns that much more inconvenient. Mark engineered a meeting of the Toads during his combat, and Alex allowed his to get stunned, while Mark returned his to hand to avoid the Destiny endurance loss.
On turn 3, the older player was on the initiative and busted out Quicksilver, to which Mark quickly added one of his own. Despite all the duplicate plays, however, the board wasn’t even—Alex had Destiny (who had predicted doom for Quicksilver at the end of that build phase) and Toad to go with his Quicksilver, whereas Mark only had a lot of empty space.
 It didn’t take long for Alex to turn the character disparity into an endurance advantage. He launched a team attack on the enemy Quicksilver, absorbing 5 damage from the activated ability, and Mark compounded his disadvantage by mistakenly dealing damage to Alex’s Quicksilver (with 4 DEF) with his own, when he had neglected to power it up with the one in his hand. Oops! Mark’s Quicksilver was stunned, and he lost 4 endurance to Destiny. Unless Mark could really turn things around on turn 4, this game was already looking unwinnable.
The lad did his best to rally, playing out the massive Sabretooth, Feral Rage, but he gained no ground, as Alex had his own copy of the carnivorous character at the ready, along with Destiny to predict the demise of Mark’s version. Mark wasted no time in squashing Toad with his 11 ATK beater, but payback would be vicious. Alex attacked his Sabretooth into its counterpart, dealing 12 with help from Destiny. The turn was closed out with both Quicksilvers activating and dealing 5 each. Endurance totals were 33–26 in Alex’s favor, and though the difference was only 7 points, Alex was firmly in control and looking to close things out on turn 5.
First, the older player announced five resources and flipped over Genosha to draw some cards, then dropped Pyro and Toad (recovered from being squashed by Sabretooth, apparently) onto the table. Mark likewise used a Genosha, and, finding himself without answers to the coming onslaught, used another. He didn’t come up with anything spectacular and instead had to content himself with a Pyro of his own, the second straight game where his deck had coughed up a meager 2-drop creature on turn 5.
With Mark struggling, Alex went to work. Destiny activated on Quicksilver at the end of the build phase, and then the men started rumbling across the table to attack. Sabretooth squashed Quicksilver to start, dealing a bonecrushing 13 points of endurance loss (reducing Mark to 13) with the help of Destiny, and then Toad got a running start and crashed into Mark’s Sabretooth, Feral Rage with the help of Savage Beatdown. Then Alex sent Quicksilver after Pyro and pulled some Lost City, Avalon Space Station ridiculousness to crash in for 10 even though Mark again had the Ka-Boom! waiting. That left Mark at 3.
Guess who finished him off?
That’s right. Pyro. With the power of fire!
Final Result: Alex Etzel defeats Mark Rassamni 2–0 (with the power of fire)
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