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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: Paul Van Der Werk vs. Costa Kantzavelos
Rob Davis
 

Paul Van Der Werk is the co-owner of Aussie site VSParadise. He's also commonly referred to as "that ker-razzzy dude who wore a Wolverine costume to $10k Brisbane" and has taken his Villains United-centric build to 2-0 thus far.

 

Costa Kantzavelos is a South Australian player making the hometown proud with his similarly Villains United focused build. He's got some long time gaming roots in loads of other cards games, which should prove to be invaluable experience today!

 

Costa won the dice roll and selected odds.

 

Turn 1

Paul recruited Cheetah, Feral Feline and swung in for an early 2 damage.

 

Endurance

Costa:48

Paul:50

 

 

Turn 2

With no recruit, Paul had to pass. Meanwhile, an impressive Talia, Beloved Betrayer came out for Costa, and her large DEF forced Paul to pass his initiative.

Talia attacked Cheetah and Paul simply took the 3.

 

Endurance

Costa: 48

Paul: 47

 

 

Turn 3

Zazzala ◊ Queen Bee, Mistress of the Hive came out in the front row next to Talia and Costa passed over to Paul. The Calculator, Evil Oracle came out to join Cheetah but elected to hide in the concealed area.

 

Zazzala attacked into Cheetah and Paul simply took the 5. Talia snuck in for 3 and play passed over to Paul. However, with no great attack options, Paul went for a different tact. Coercion was flipped teaming up JSA and Villains, and then Calculator was exhausted to JSA Headquarters. Huntress was revealed and Paul sent Talia to the KO pile.

 

Endurance

Costa: 48

Paul: 39

 

 

Turn 4

Paul recruited Katar Hol ◊ Hawkman, Eternal Hero in the back row behind Cheetah. Over at Costa's side of the board, Bizarro, ME AM BIZARRO #1 was recruited behind Zazzala.

 

A copy of I Still Hate Magic! from Paul targeted Zazzala and she was taken down successfully by Cheetah. Her vengeance trigged and then Katar Hol swung some Nth Metal (!) into Bizarro. Realizing that he would be KO’ing Cheetah regardless, Paul used Calculator's amazing ability to return the Feline to hand and boost Katar Hol further. When Bizarro's vengeance resolved, Paul had taken no endurance loss while Costa had lost 7 endurance.

 

In a potentially game-breaking move, Calculator used Removed from Continuity on Bizarro. Paul was able to see Costa's entire hand (revealing Alexander Luthor, Diabolical Double, Black Adam, Teth-Adam, 2 copies of Annihilation Protocol ◊ OMAC Robot, Army) and a copy of Defend Yourself!). Paul then proceeded to search through Costa's entire deck!

 

Endurance

Costa: 37

Paul: 38

 

 

Turn 5

The previously revealed OMAC Robot came out for Costa, while Black Adam, Teth-Adam came to join Paul's JSA/VU hybrid.

 

Zazzala attacked into Katar Hol and a copy of Grand Gesture (returning Talia to hand and causing Paul to lose 2 endurance via Zazzala) turned the Eternal Hero into a 5ATK/3DEF. Zazzala then shot out a Burning Gaze to become a 6ATK/6DEF. Hoping to at least trade, Paul flipped Allied Against the Dark (teaming-up the same teams) and then used JSA HQ to exhaust his 4-drop and give it +1ATK in the process. They indeed traded stuns and Paul took 7 for Costa's 3. The OMAC then attacked into Black Adam, and Costa powered up the robot before passing.

Both characters traded stuns, and then The Calculator declared a direct attack.

He swung in, returning Katar to hand to bump himself to 7ATK in the process.

 

Endurance

Costa: 22

Paul: 21

 

 

Turn 6

On both sides of the board, Alexander Luthor, Diabolical Double came out in the front row, netting both players 2 cards.

 

Black Adam attacked into the OMAC Robot and Paul chose to pass — indicating that he wanted the vengeance ability to trigger. When the attack resolved, and both characters traded, Adam's amazing -3ATK/-3DEF ability was allocated to Costa's Alexander Luthor.

 

Paul's Lex attacked Costa's and with no trade Paul was in fine form. The Calculator then snuck in for another 5 directly. Without a +2ATK pump, Paul simply couldn’t combo Calculator for the win and play moved to turn 7.

 

Endurance

Costa: 4

Paul: 16

 

 

Turn 7

An under-drop in the form of Power Girl, Earth 2 seemed like somewhat of a non-issue for Costa, as Paul was now forced to consider not dropping a 7-cost character.

He decided to recruit Cheshire, Jade and Talia (also explaining that he hadn't actually managed to draw into a 7-drop anyway) and play moved to Costa's attack.

 

Lex attacked over Talia into Cheshire via a copy of Death from Above. The Calculator used his ability, returning Talia as to try and brick-wall the attack. Costa had the necessary Burning Gaze however, and was able to stun Cheshire. Coercion was then flipped by Costa to team up JSA and VU. Power Girl attacked Black Adam and Paul had to think carefully about reinforcing. With only 11 endurance, he decided to reinforce with Lex and gave Power girl the -3/-3. Annoyed that Calculator still couldn’t take down a character for the win, Paul simply exhausted the 3-drop to JSA HQ and put sand and Ted Grant into hand.

 

Endurance

Costa: 4

Paul: 6

 

 

Turn 8

Paul recruited a copy of Black Adam, Ruthless Hero, and suddenly realised that his 5-drop was going to be KO'd. Making the best of a bad situation, before the trigger had resolved, Paul returned the 5-drop to make Luthor 13ATK/16DEF.

 

Death from Above gave Alex Luthor +3ATK, and The Phantom Stranger came out for Costa making great use of the full 8 resource points. Paul’s Alex Luthor attacked Power Girl as an impressive 15ATK/16DEF, but Costa met him with Defend Yourself!. Both Characters traded and Paul took the lead, when Costa took 9 endurance. Paul had two options for his 7-drop Adam: Attack Lex, or attack The Phantom Stranger with Calculator. He opted for the team attack, taking a gamble that Costa wouldn’t be able to make The Stranger and Black Adam trade stuns. Baddest of the Bad from Costa targeted the stunned Power Girl and Costa got a copy of Black Adam from his deck (clearly trying to find something of more use).

 

When he had no other options, the Stranger and Calculator traded, bringing Costa down to -12 against Paul's -3. With a range-less Alex Luthor in the back row, Costa had no possible attacks and had to simply accept defeat.

 

Paul Van Der Werk takes a very close win and is now 3-0!

 
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