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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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Deck Clinic: X-Men Off-Curve

Anthony Justice

June 23, 2006

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Hello everyone! This is Anthony Justice, and I will be hosting the reintroduction of the Deck Clinic and hoping to turn your broken down decks from Trash to Cash. The first deck that I would like to address is one that many have tried to make work but that has fallen flat up until now—X-Men off-curve. Off-curve archetypes have received much attention as of late and rightfully so. Here is our jumping off point for reference:

Characters (26)
2 Archangel, Angel
2 Lockheed, Saurian Sidekick
2 Jubilee, Jubilation Lee
1 Forge
2 Cyclops, Slim
2 Dazzler, Rock Star
2 Nightcrawler, Kurt Wagner
2 Cannonball, Blast Field
2 Longshot, Hero of Mojoworld
2 Shadowcat, Katya
2 Bishop, Lucas Bishop
1 Jean Grey, Telekinetic Fighter
2 Wolverine, Logan
2 Beast, Feline Geneticist

Plot Twists (27)
4 Turnabout
4 Bamf!
4 Time Breach
4 Ultimate Sacrifice
4 Flying Kick
3 Fastball Special
2 SNIKT!
2 Ka-Boom!

Locations (6)
2 Birthing Chamber
2 Worthington Industries
2 Cerebro

Equipment (3)
3 Blackbird Blue

Notice that this build leans heavily toward team attacks to benefit from the bonus of Cyclops, Slim. To begin to revitalize this deck, we need to address category numbers. Many curve decks can get away with only twenty-six characters, but an off-curve deck needs many more. Typically, any deck that plans to recruit two to four characters per turn needs between thirty and thirty-five characters, so that number has a long way to go. This space has to be made at the cost of plot twists.

Looking at the distribution of costs among the characters, we see only seven 1-cost characters, fifteen 2-cost characters, and four 3-cost characters. One of the most underestimated advantages of the off-curve archetype is the ability to play a 1-drop on the first turn much more consistently than your opponent. Seven 1-drops do not provide enough edge in collecting this advantage. Also, when the deck is working at peak capacity, two or three 1-drops are used to flood the board on later turns. Lucky for us, the X-Men have a strong core of weenies that includes 1-drops. Longshot, Rebel Freedom Fighter is a great fit; as a 2 ATK / 1 DEF, he provides a solid body, and with a little work, his ability could be very useful to the deck. Dazzler, Alison Blaire is another great addition because Time Breach provides access to your choice of tools. Do not overestimate your opponent; with no knowledge of the deck, he or she will have targets every game. Forge has a strong enough effect for this deck that two copies should be included so that he is not gone for good once he hits the KO’d pile. Finally, I feel that Archangel, Angel is the best X-Man ever printed! I know that is bold, but in my opinion it is a fact, and the new X-Corp locations would love to find a home here. So this should be increased. That leaves us with:

4 Archangel, Angel

4 Longshot, Rebel Freedom Fighter

2 Forge, Cheyenne Mystic

2 Lockheed, Saurian Sidekick

1 Jubilee, Jubilation Lee

1 Dazzler, Alison Blaire

This brings us up to fourteen 1-drops; now we can hit one and begin to race more efficiently. Next, let’s skip the 2-cost characters (as they are very similar) and look at our 3-cost men, using 2-drops to fill out the character count afterward. Four 3-cost men is the right number, since without the power of Yellowjacket and Beetle, Armorsmith, we will be forced to play 3-drops more often to get the most out of our resource points. Off-curve decks face a plethora of hate cards; many decks like to say “Against off-curve, I use X and they can’t win,” where X is anything from Reign of Terror to Flame Trap to Total Anarchy. While these cards are powerful, they shouldn’t beat you unless they are well supported or you are under-prepared. With this in mind Sage, Xavier’s Secret Weapon is worthwhile over a second copy of Beast. Also, she will provide a slight cover until July 1, when Golden Age returns to Earth by slowing down Cosmic Radiation and Justice League of Arkham. So, we have:

2 Wolverine, Logan

1 Beast, Feline Geneticist

1 Sage, Xavier’s Secret Weapon

Now that we know of fourteen 1-drops and four 3-drops, we are looking for at least fourteen 2-drops to get up to thirty-two total characters. As I said earlier, these will all function nearly the same, so avoiding uniqueness is our largest concern.

3 Cyclops, Slim
1 Dazzler, Rock Star
2 Nightcrawler, Kurt Wagner
3 Cannonball, Blast Field
2 Shadowcat, Rock Star
2 Bishop, Lucas Bishop
1 Jean Grey, Telekinetic Fighter

The only choice in the numbers here is three Cannonballs against two Nightcrawlers. This is due to Cannonball’s Physical trait, which will be addressed. For now, we need to turn our attention to the locations for the deck. The deck now has four copies of Archangel, Angel, so the redundancy of Cerebro and Worthington Industries is uncalled for. One Worthington will be available for the few cases that we are short on characters. X-Corp: Hong Kong is a beautiful addition, providing an effect similar to Faces of Evil, and I was quite surprised to see it excluded from our initial list. Remember that X-Corp: Hong Kong can be used very liberally on what you hope to make the final turn, sacrificing resources to provide more pumps across the board. A single copy of X-Corp: Paris can allow Longshot, Rebel Freedom Fighter to give some serious card advantage; it works well with Jean Grey and is somewhat useful if drawn outside of those scenarios.

Beyond the locations with X-Corp versions, there are a couple of notable cards. Birthing Chamber has become a staple of the off-curve deck; simply put, a free card every turn can provide consistency in your late game and that extra bit of gas to finish an opponent off on turn 5. I believe that four copies are in order. Lastly, we have a gem that was probably forgotten when making our initial list—the Danger Room! This card is amazing for the deck, giving an additional +15 ATK over the course of the game and creating mutual stuns or saving a couple of endurance while defending. With no way to search for the Danger Room, we need to include enough copies to (hopefully) draw it early, but not so many that we choke to death drawing too many, because unlike Hong Kong, they are dead in multiples. Three sounds about right, then, leaving us with the following list of locations:

1 X-Corp: Paris

1 Worthington Industries

3 X-Corp: Hong Kong

3 Danger Room

4 Birthing Chamber

Twelve locations is a healthy upgrade, but not so much that we will lose with locations stuck in the hand (which is the worst feeling in the world). But the space for all this green has to come from somewhere; luckily, they provide many of the same bonuses as the plot twists.

Next, we have to look at the equipment. The X-Men have my sympathies—they were innocent bystanders punished by the now ironclad unique equipment ruling. Despite not being able to control two copies of Blackbird Blue simultaneously, we are very eager to find the first one. Also, if we face cards like Total Anarchy, Absolute Dominance, Fatality, and Roy Harper ◊ Speedy, we may be forced to play two different copies in a game. Given all this, three copies feels necessary. I feel that a single Flamethrower could also provide the late game finisher that every off-curve deck needs to have.

3 Blackbird Blue

1 Flamethrower

By my math, this leaves us with room for twelve plot twists. Pay close attention to the priority used here, because I feel that it applies to general deck construction (characters and locations followed by plot twists and equipment). As anyone who knows me will attest, I despise ATK pumps—their rewards are very shortsighted. An ongoing bonus is different and worthwhile, but simply pumping up one character once is nothing in my eyes. With that said, there is an ATK pump that has a place here: Mob Mentality. This card is my kind of ATK pump because its real effect is to guarantee that the character piloting the Blackbird Blue isn’t zapped by Cardiac, Hawkeye, Terra or Mikado and Mosha. These characters are a pain when they shoot away 3 to 5 points of ATK, but when they shoot down 15 points of ATK, the game is pretty much over. This is the reasoning behind more Cannonballs than Nightcrawlers.

The second plot twist, Time Breach, grants you access to your deck. I would love to see a study based on the number of times you shuffled your deck in a tournament and the number of games you won; I suspect that they are closely related. The last plot twist is open and should be used to fit your particular expected metagame. Expecting tons of curve decks? Fastball Special means you never get brick-walled or face a guy who is just too big. Too much Doom in the room? Try four copies of Null Time Zone. (It is hard to walk through Huntington West Virginia card shops without tripping on a Reign of Terror.) Lastly, if you expect lots of off-curve matchups like Faces of Evil, then Angel of Mercy will guarantee that you have more characters, which translates to winning the match. I think I would go with Angel of Mercy in an unknown field because it is the most useful in every game you play.

4 Mob Mentality

4 Time Breach

4 Angel of Mercy

This completes the deck. I would not expect it take the tournament by storm, but I bet it can get you over the hump and occasionally into the Top 8. Remember that off-curve is much more difficult to play and requires experience with your deck, a working knowledge of the threats in the format, and a plan against each. Good luck to everyone taking this deck out for a spin, and thanks for reading along. Please email me with all questions, comments, quips, quotes, criticisms, kudos, and decks to be considered for future articles at anfronyx@yahoo.com.

Final Deck

Characters (32)