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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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Sealed Pack Clinic: Alex Antonios

Rob Davis

July 15, 2006

Alex Antonios is outright the best player in Australia.

It's not really a matter of opinion at this point — it’s just a fact. He's won the last four PCQs, the most recent $10k in Brisbane, and now he is 4-0 in Adelaide. He’s the proverbial "Doogie Howser" of Vs. System Australia.

Nobody is beating him, he just isn’t losing games, and it’s certainly not for lack of trying. If he can't be beaten, then, by default, he's the best. So, how is he doing it?

Is he seeing something that the rest of us just aren't? Is there something we have all missed? We sat down first hand with the new star of Vs. Australia to find out just how he does quite so well all of the time.

Read on, and I'm sure you'll see what we mean.

Alex’s Pool was as follows:

1 Brainiac, Earth 2

1 The Monitor, Guardian of the Multiverse

1 Obsidian, Todd James Rice

1 Kilowog, Drill Sergeant

1 Jaime Reyes ◊ Blue Beetle, High-Tech Hero

CHECKMATE

1 Ahmed Samsarra, White King

1 Annihilation Protocol ◊ OMAC Robot, Army

1 Aspiring Pawn, Army

1 Harry Stein, King in Check

1 Roy Harper ◊ Arsenal, Knight

1 Sasha Bordeaux, Knight

1 Sasha Bordeaux, Autonomous Prototype

1 Valentina Vostok ◊ Negative Woman, Bishop

1 Checkmate Armory

1 Rook Control

1 Secret Checkmate HQ

1 Traitor to the Cause

JSA

1 Atom Smasher, Al Rothstein

1 Black Adam, Ruthless Hero

1 Carter Hall ◊ Hawkman, Eternal Champion

1 Charles McNider ◊ Dr. Mid-Nite, Golden Age Academic

1 Michael Holt ◊ Mr. Terrific, Renaissance Man

1 Prince Khufu ◊ Hawkman, Eternal Warrior

1 Superman, Earth 2

2 Ted Grant ◊ Wildcat, Golden Age Pugilist

1 Wesley Dodds ◊ The Sandman, Golden Age Gunman

1 Advance Warning

1 Double Play

1 Heroic Rescue

SECRET SIX

1 Fiddler, Isaac Bowin

1 Lex Luthor ◊ Mockingbird, Evil Exile

1 Ragdoll, Resilient Rogue

1 Scandal, Savage Spawn

1 It's Not Over Yet

SHADOWPACT

1 Blue Devil, Big Blue

1 Detective Chimp, Bobo T. Chimpanzee

1 Dr Fate, Hector Hall

1 Manitou Dawn, Spirit Shaman

1 Nightmaster, Jim Rook

1 Rose Psychic, Ghost Detective

1 Shazam, The Sorcerer

2 Zatanna, Showstopper

1 The Oblivion Bar

1 Abjuration, Magic

1 Collecting Souls, Magic

1 Mystical Binding, Magic

1 The Conclave, Magic

1 True Name, Magic

VILLAINS UNITED

1 Bizarro, ME AM BIZARRO #1

1 Deathstroke the Terminator, Lethal Weapon

1 Dr. Polaris, Force of Nature

1 Weather Wizard, Mark Mardon

1 Zazzala ◊ Queen Bee, Mistress of the Hive

1 Count Vertigo, Werner Vertigo

PLOT TWIST

1 Justice United, Team-Up

1 Target Acquired

1 Thanagarian Invasion

1 Watch the Birdie

LOCATIONS

1 Dr. Fate's Tower

1 Leslie Thompkins's Clinic

EQUIPMENT

1 Amulet of Nabu, Fate Artifact

1 Laser Watch

1 Tricked-Out Sports Car

Alex started off by sorting everything into teams, plot twists, locations and equipment. However, that's about the last conventional form of deckbuilding that you are going to see from the young pro. He makes his intentions clear straight away.

"I want this deck to go 3-0." He likes to go X-0 and he makes no bones about it. He explains that a conservative deck is generally aiming to go something more like 3-1 so he prefers to go for a more risky style.

"I love going for combos, and it just depends on how confident I am with the deck."

Alex elaborates further, explaining that it depends on how he is doing on the day. Since he is 4-0 currently he feels good about going with something a little more risky and fun.

When he opens his packs he is, like everyone else, looking for packs that are standout better than his opponent. It’s a natural expectation. However, what he really wants is for his opponent to be playing with decks that aren't too crazy — it means that he has a reliable metagame within the event that he can build against. With so many players focusing on conservative curve, Alex finds that the best strategy is to focus on what beats those decks and go from there.

So begins the challenge to build a deck that beats conservative curve.

At first, Ahmed and Science Spire seemed to grab his attention the most. However, with closer expectation there just isn’t enough Villains United to support it.

Looking at his cards, the other option to beat Curve is to go heavy with Roy Harper. With Tricked-Out Sports Car in the mix, and a lot of solid locations available, Alex considers this a definite possibility.

He considers cutting Ahmed due to concerns that there will be too much pressure placed on the 3-drop. He admits that cutting the potentially amazing 3-drop hurts, but decides that the loyalty and constant maintenance of the character are big issues and so Ahmed becomes a non-event.

He also notices that having neither Rann or Thanagar makes things a bit tougher than he would like. He says that he finds the two locations vital because they allow him to support his off-beat style.

"I usually try to just splash in more powerful characters into the mix, so Rann and Thanagar become a backbone to the deck. I generally try to play one Team-Up and then Thanagar or Rann.

"I wish I had a way to get Coercion," comments Alex, reinforcing that his strategy is clearly to give flexibility across the entire deck and unlock the more powerful cards unnaturally. He uses "Target Acquired" as an example for the power potential of the Coercion in sealed, and finds that it matches his style as it is gladly added to his deck.

Looking through his plot twists, he notices a copy of Advance Warning and says that the trick to the card is to make your opponent "play into the card". By attacking in a certain fashion he feels that you can encourage the opponent to swing back and trigger the entire 4 DEF of the plot twist. "It’s definitely a card that you need to plan your entire turn around," he explains. "If you have one powerful card in a deck then you can build an entire deck around it."

The card, in and of itself, is seemingly not just enough to go into JSA. However, the two copies of Ted Grant and Michael Holt give him great flexibility on turn 6 (and with only one copy of Superman at 6, this proves invaluable), and so he feels confident going into the team. He says that Black Adam, Ruthless Hero is also very strong, and with a clear majority of his cards falling into JSA he decides they are the best team to hybrid with his Checkmate foundations.

Roy still forms the backbone of his deck, and Alex comments that he likes the synergy between Roy and Advance Warning - but not in the conventional sense that you may expect.

"Both cards make your opponent attack differently. They can be used to predict your opponent's attack. They will always attack Roy first. They are always scared that you are going to Roy them." He likens it to "Good Guys", commenting how they will always attack Fire first in the same regard. He points out that when you know what your opponent is going to do, you can build accordingly and dictate how your opponent has to attack — you get to control your opponent, to a degree.

Traitor to the Cause is a potential last piece of the combo. He says that you can put a weenie up front, make them attack Roy and then use Traitor on them. In the end he decided that this strategy is great but puts too much pressure on the deck. Instead, he chooses Burning Gaze — a surprisingly conventional move, all things considered, and so the deck is finished.

Alex’s final build for Pool 2 of Day 1 is as follows:

CHARACTERS