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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 6: John “Bam Bam” Rich vs. Kory Walters |
| Jason Grabher-Meyer |
| May 14, 2005 |
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Kory Walters is a young but incredibly adept player from Indianapolis. Accustomed to hanging around players like Gabe Walls, Kory may appear inexperienced, but his seat at table two speaks for his skill.
Bam Bam is a staple of the online Vs. community, a member of Team Realmsworx, an all round nice guy, and the progenitor of Curve Sentinels as we know it.
 “Do you want to scoop to me and, ya know, have a good day?” grinned Kory as both competitors took their seats. “Well, let me think about that,” said Rich, also smiling, before declining.
“Aww come on, I’ll kiss your big toe!” offered Kory. Said Bam Bam, “You probably really don’t want to do that.”
Rich laughed. Comments were made about Gabe Walls’s feet. Hilarity ensued.
At that point, it was decided that a deck check was to take place, and both players quickly vacated their seats. “I am going to go harass Mr. Spears,” said Rich in a businesslike and finely measured tone, immediately scooting away from the table to go pester his table one teammate.
Checks concluded, Rich won the roll and took the odd initiative. Neither player had a 1-drop, but Tim Drake ◊ Robin, Young Detective managed to swing directly on turn 2. Rich still had nothing on turn 3. “One, two, three; zero, zero, zero.”
Rich grinned, though, saying, “Flame Trap is coming!” Walters dropped Dove with boost and cocked his head. “Are you actually playing Flame Trap?” Rich held up two fingers to indicate the quantity he was using and then got clobbered by a direct attack that he couldn’t stop.
Bam Bam finally had a drop on turn 4, recruiting a Mark V while Walters recruited Terra. All three of the tiny Titans piled into the blue behemoth, and Rich powered up twice. A power-up to Dove was enough to bring him down, though, and Terra swung directly.
Turn 5 didn’t go much better, as Bam Bam recruited Nimrod. It was a nice recruit, but Walters had Garth, prompting Rich to turn to the match reporter and declare, “I am so dead!” He laughed before sending Nimrod into Garth. Dove made a Heroic Sacrifice and kept Garth out of danger. The Mark V then swung on Terra, and she too went down. Walters opted not to press his luck, and play moved to turn 6. Walters lost Dove.
Walters recruited Roy Harper ◊ Arsenal and then Dawn Granger ◊ Dove. Rich winced and announced in a sing-song voice, “This is gonna huuuu-uuuurt!”
“I bet you have Whatshisnuts though,” stated Walters. “Well,” said Rich, “it’s more an issue of whether or not I want to play Whatshisnuts.” After brief thought, Rich decided to go for it and recruited Bastion into the center of an L protected by Nimrod.
Terra, Hawk, Dove, and Robin all attacked into Nimrod, but Rich Bastion-pumped Hawk once and then Overloaded him. Walters responded with Teen Titans Go! and exhausted Robin, Dove, and Terra to pump Roy. Harper then cracked off a shot at the Mark V, and after some thought, Rich let the Sentinel bite the bullet both proverbially and literally. Walters threw a Savage Beatdown on the chain and then passed priority. Robin stunned back, and Nimrod lost his counter. Popping the Beatdown so early seemed to be a mistake.
Garth then exhausted to make Roy a 12 ATK beast, and Press the Attack readied him. It was a huge risk, but Walter took a shot at Nimrod. Sure enough, Rich flipped Reconstruction Program, it resolved, and he took back three army Sentinels. He Bastioned three times, but Walters used Teen Titans Go! in response. Rich, however, had another Sentinel to win out on the chain. The Bastioning resolved, the Titans readied, and another flurry of exhaustions on Walter’s side and discards on Rich’s side left Rich needing two more cards. He popped Genosha, and sure enough, he had two more characters to discard. Walters paid 3 endurance to retrieve Teen Titans Go! and activated it again. It resolved, and Walter readied his characters and exhausted all but Terra yet again for more ATK bonuses. Roy’s shot finally resolved, and Nimrod stunned.
Bastion then swung into Robin and Walter lost 11—ouch. Rich was down a resource from where he wanted to be, though, and he was in trouble. “Who does that?” asked Patrick Yapjoco in mock-criticism of Rich, grinning as he and other Realmworx members came to watch Rich’s match.
 Rich’s recruit next turn was a boosted Mark V, met by a boosted Dove from Walter. With a board packed to the gills with small characters, Walter needed to do some more sniping to stay in the game. The problem was that if all he accomplished this turn was self-preservation, Rich would get to 7 resources next turn. Rich knew it and just started pressing where he could, first sending Nimrod after Dove. Dove exhausted to pump Roy and then went down. After some thought, Rich decidedly said, “Let’s get some effects out of the way and go after Roy Harper.” He attempted to swing with the Mark V, but Walter didn’t let the attack become legal. All four of Walter’s extra Titans exhausted to pump Roy, and Roy shot at Bastion. Walter crossed his fingers, and Rich pushed a face-down card across the table.
Walters picked it up and winced, seeing that it was a Reconstruction Program.
“It resolves?”
“Yeah.”
Rich used Bastion’s effect to get the Mark V out of harm’s way, and it and Roy went down to the double stun. Bastion then swung at Garth, and Walters offered the handshake before the attack could even be legal.
“Kory, you had me scared #$%^less,” Rich grinned and laughed, breathing for the first time in several minutes. The two discussed the match while departing from the tournament area, where Bam Bam scored a huge comeback after a doomed early game. |
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