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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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So there I was, hanging out with Dave Humpherys (one of the taller Vs. developers) discussing the DC Comics set. The set was about midway through development, and we were still having trouble with the Batcave. You see, while the original design for the Batcave was very splashy, it violated the game rules in at least two major ways. I’d love to go into details, but I have high hopes that we’ll eventually figure out to make the card work, letting it find its way into a future set (albeit not as the Batcave).
 Anyway, Dave and I were sitting there and I was droning on and on about making the Batcave work. At some point in the middle of tuning me out, Dave said he’d been trying to come up with a way to make your opponent take his or her formation step before you took yours. Now, this comment didn’t really address the problems with the Batcave, nor was Dave trying to come up with an alternate mechanic for it, but I thought it was a cool idea and that if we could make it work, it might actually made a lot of sense for the Batcave. The way I see it, Batman always has a plan, a contingency plan, and a contingency plan for his contingency plan. Therefore, it seemed appropriate that with the cave’s many gadgets, gizmos, and wonderful toys, Batman should have the tactical edge on his opponents.
We knew exactly what effect we wanted for the cave (Dave had pretty much nailed it exactly); the only tough part in designing the cave was figuring out how to template the card to accurately and safely create that effect. (I say safely, because messing with the game’s turn structure can often be . . . bad). I stood up from my chair and declared:
“I’m going to go the bathroom for twenty minutes. When I return, I will have templated the new Batcave!”
And twenty minutes later, I had. (I won’t delve further into potty humor here. Just pretend I did.) The key was not messing around with isolating the formation step—instead, it consisted of going right ahead and just passing the initiative for the whole build phase. And that’s it. The card you see before you ended up pretty much exactly how Dave and I structured it from the beginning. That’s all I got for the design and development of the Batcave. But I’m not done yet! Now for some info on actually playing the card.
Everyone understands to some degree how important the initiative is. Some decks really want to start with it, some decks really don’t, and some decks are built to react to either eventuality. The main function of the Batcave is simply to force your opponent to complete his or her resource, recruit, and formation steps before you. In some ways, it’s a more powerful version of Storm, Weather Witch’s power that lets you move your characters at the start of the combat phase. While Storm just allows you to react your opponent’s formation, the Batcave also lets you see what was recruited, which could affect which character(s) you decide to recruit. In addition, while Storm probably won’t be making an appearance until turn 6, the Batcave is useable immediately.
In addition to giving you a heads up on your opponent’s formation, the Batcave has a situational but very cool secondary function. In the Marvel Origins set, there’s only one card that messes with the initiative: The Power Cosmic. While Doom is a reasonably powerful component of the current metagame, there were times during in-house development where we were really frightened not just of the Doom team, but specifically of The Power Cosmic itself. Countless games were neck and neck going into the final turn, and if Doom didn’t already have the initiative, he’d just steal it. Nowadays we refer to that time period as “The Great Power Cosmic Scare of '04”. Okay, that’s a lie.
Fortunately, the Dark Knight doesn’t need to worry about losing the initiative, because the Batcave is built in insurance against The Power Cosmic. (Warning: about to dive into some rules stuff.)
Bruce and Victor are playing a game of Vs. It’s Bruce’s initiative. He has the Batcave. Victor controls Dr. Doom.
At the start of the build phase, Bruce’s Batcave triggers. Bruce gives Victor the initiative. This also creates a continuous modifier that reads “At the start of the combat phase, the player who started the turn with the initiative gains control of the initiative.”
At some point during the build phase, Victor plays The Power Cosmic. It creates the continuous modifier “At the start of the combat phase, (Victor) gains control of the initiative.”
So what happens at the start of the combat phase? Well, I’ll tell you.
At the start of the combat phase, both continuous modifiers (the Batcave’s and The Power Comsic’s) trigger.
The player who currently has initiative (Bruce) puts his effect on the chain first (Batcave’s).
The next player (Victor) puts his effect on the chain (The Power Cosmic’s).
As always, the effects on the chain resolve last in, first out:
The Power Cosmic’s effect resolves, and Victor gains control of the initiative.
The Batcave’s effect resolves, and the player who started the turn with the initiative (Bruce) regains control of the initiative.
The moral of the story is that the Batcave protects you from The Power Cosmic. But the real question is what happens in a eight-player melee where every player has a Batcave of his or her very own? (The player with initiative ultimately gets to choose which of his or her opponents starts with the initiative during the build phase. And then he or she regains control of the initiative eight times at the start of the combat phase.)
Okay, I’m done now. For real. Really.
Questions or comments to dmandel@metagame.com.
For real.
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