My name is Rian, and I am a Sentinel player. Through the peaks and valleys of Vs. System’s first three years, that confession has meant many different things. In the spirit of old-school Marvel cardboard craziness, mechanical magenta is going retro—with some brand new kicks.
Let’s start with a shiny purple history lesson. In the beginning, there were Wild Sentinels. Since their team affiliation keys on Army characters, and since these chaotic little concoctions only cost 1 resource point, I fell in love almost immediately. Like tiny clockwork squirrels, my lowly Wild swarms were soon churning out miniature six-packs of non-unique power to create swollen Sentinel Mark IVs and bountiful Bastions. Covering the table with a blanket of colorized robots quickly became my Primary Directive.
In the comic books, the original, mythological batch of Wild Sentinels was initiated by Master Mold in the hidden jungles of Ecuador, and boy were they funky! New units were built from whatever materials could be scrounged up: discarded parts, faulty weapons . . . sometimes even junked vehicles. This particular type of shiny purple killing machine has always sported a wacky ragtag look. Wild Sentinels bust a fresh new style with every additional member of the crew.
In that spirit, my deckbuilding decisions have always been colored obsessively with that flavor. Although the win percentages can suffer greatly because of it, the fun factor is off the charts. Please indulge me this week. I’d like to take a little trip through the sweetshop of my own private Vs. System paradise.
Candy Corn
Knoxville Inaugural PCQ
May 8, 2004
Characters
20 Wild Sentinel
5 Sentinel Mark IV
4 Boliver Trask
3 Bastion
2 Nimrod
Plot Twists
4 Primary Directive
4 Reconstruction Program
4 Combat Protocols
4 Charge!
4 Savage Beatdown
3 Search and Destroy
3 Overload
That was the deck I took into battle for the first PCQ of all time. How did it hold up? Very, very well. As a tribute to the classics, I’ll reprint my ancient report for those of you who weren’t around in the glory days. Remember, back then each match was best of three, and Overload was still legal.
First round: I was nervous. (No one I knew thought the Sentinels even belonged in the tournament.) I faced a Fantastic Four beatdown deck. I learned that Search and Destroy really could dump two big Things into the KO’d pile on turn 3. I learned that Bastion absolutely loves to pump opposing characters up to Overload level. I also made my one big mistake of the day: I forgot that Personal Force Field reinforces. After splitting the first two games, I lost the third on endurance totals as time ran out.
Second round: I was confident. The swarm had done better than I expected against the Fantastic Four. To my surprise, I faced another Sentinel deck. It was the only other one in a field of 39 players. (It looked like the Senator Kelly deck that Matt Hyra published.) I lost one game to Underground Sentinel Base and won two games with Primary Directive.
Third round: I was rolling. I faced the X-Men. I learned that Bishop Overloads rather easily. In the deciding game, I saw my swarm’s worst nightmare when I used Search and Destroy: Wolverine, Berserker Rage was in the revealed hand. Since I had the initiative for turn 7 and had already gone off with Primary Directive, I fed him candy until he burst. I won the match 2-1.
Fourth round: I was grinning. I finally faced the all-beef big dog, The New Brotherhood. I was prepared. The match actually ended with Boliver Trask attacking directly for the final 2 endurance after being powered-up. Sweet! Another 2-1 victory.
Fifth round: I was having fun. I faced Matt “WarMachine” McLachlan from VSRealms.com. He is a terrific player and a great person, and we had talked all day. We’d joked earlier that it was inevitable for us to meet in the later rounds. We did. He had an original and effective Doom deck. I hate Flame Trap. WarMachine won 2-1 and took my spot in the Top 8 with him. Congratulations, Matt. You deserved it.
Sixth round: I saw fireworks. I faced another Brotherhood deck. In game 3, I had the initiative on turn 5. My opponent had Rogue, Anna Raven; Blob, Fred Dukes; and Sabretooth, Feral Rage in play. My swarm had two Combat Protocols and one Charge!. I had one Primary Directive in my resource row and one in my hand. I drew six cards after I stunned all three Brotherhood characters, and then I drew six more cards, finding the other two Primary Directives in the process. Including the two cards from the draw step, I saw 26 cards in one turn. I recruited Bastion on turn 6, and the rest is history.
It was also a very addictive experience. I started scheming ways to draw my entire deck. In those days, with only the Marvel Origins set to work with, it was not an easy assignment. Was my mission impossible? No way. I pulled it off within two tournaments.
Pygmy Piñata
Origins $10K
June 26, 2004
Characters
20 Wild Sentinel
4 Longshot, Rebel Freedom Fighter
4 Cyclops, Slim
1 Bastion
Plot Twists
2 Combat Protocols
2 Reconstruction Program
2 Cerebro
2 Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters
2 Base of Operations
4 Night Vision
4 Marvel Team-Up
4 Cover Fire
4 Fastball Special
4 Primary Directive
Equipment
1 The Blackbird
I must admit that I had more fun with that list than any other since. It is fragile and foolish, but when it works, there is nothing else like it in the game. In my final round of the day, facing Tony “Typhon” Burian, it clicked. On turn 6 I controlled Bastion, Longshot, Slim, and eight Wild Sentinels. Someone had a Blackbird, and Marvel Team-Up was in place. Thanks to the combination of Fastball Special and Primary Directive, I had 32 cards in hand. Tony was playing an equally bizarre Longshot deck, with his Mulletman calling Rogue and Magneto. Even against some strong Lost City tricks, the piñata spilled, and it was sloppy.
Just in case you are wondering if I am making all this up, I will now bring in an expert for an objective view. Ben Kalman is one of my oldest and dearest Vs. System friends, as well as one of the foremost historians of the game and its legends. He wrote a detailed breakdown of the early days of Sentinel play for the Wizard Superhero Gaming Special back in the winter of 2004. After Kergy’s second opinion, I’ll be back to talk about that upset stomach:
“The deck called Wild Vomit, built and named by Michael Thicke, became an immediate powerhouse when he took it to the quarters of the first California PCQ. Still, Brotherhood owned four out of eight spots, while Doom and Fantastic Four grabbed the other three—so the Sentinels were considered a fluke. Rian Fike was not among those laughing; he picked up the Sentinel mantle and wrapped it proudly around his shoulders. In fact, most people mistakenly thought that he created the deck, as he ripped across the Southeastern states, wowing all who witnessed it.
“However, it wasn’t Rian who made the initial surge into the money with the Vomit deck. He had decided to conduct risky experiments with other Sentinel lists: the Pygmy Piñata, which was built around Primary Directive and could successfully draw your entire deck if played properly; and the original Candy Corn, which actually drew 26 cards in a single turn at the very first PCQ of all time. It was Gabe Walls, at the Origins $10K, who played Wild Vomit and took it to the Final 4.
“Between Gabe’s success with Vomit and Rian’s unique card-drawing machine, there was renewed interest in Sentinels. It didn’t last long. Big Brotherhood and New Brotherhood were making way for Doom and Common Enemy, and Sentinels were banished to secondary status. Rian continued tooling around with Sentinels and announced that he would indeed play a Vomit variant at the inaugural PC. He was ridiculed from all directions. Some critics essentially said Sentinels couldn’t win and that he didn’t deserve to be on the Pro Circuit. Purple Pity was born, and it took 35th place at the original PC Indy. The $1,900 legitimacy that Rian earned with it remains the highest money finish of all time for Wild Vomit.”
Purple Pity
35th place Pro Circuit Indianapolis 2004
Characters
24 Wild Sentinel
12 Sentinel Mark IV
4 Senator Kelly
4 Longshot, Rebel Freedom Fighter
Plot Twists
4 Cover Fire
4 Reconstruction Program
4 Search and Destroy
Locations
4 Underground Sentinel Base
So simple, so silly—yet so effective. If you’ve never played with Wild Vomit, you really need to try it sometime. Mulligan for Longshot. Call Wild Sentinel and Sentinel Mark IV as long as you have an Underground Sentinel Base by turn 3. Switch out Senator Kelly for Combat Protocols if you like your beef with more beats and less heat. You’ll be glad you did.
One thing that has been missing from my adventures with Wild Sentinels is that artwork you just had your eyes on. Thanks to some of the most powerful Marvel masterpieces in the game, I finally get to go surfing on a Wave of Sentinels. My favorite Sentinel painting has been itching to ride for a long time.
Sick Kicks
Characters
18 Wild Sentinel
12 Sentinel Mark IV
4 Senator Kelly
4 Longshot, Rebel Freedom Fighter
2 Frankie Raye ◊ Nova, Optimistic Youth
1 Changeling
Plot Twists
4 Enemy of My Enemy
4 Reconstruction Program
4 Search and Destroy
3 Wave of Sentinels
Locations
4 Underground Sentinel Base
There are two Marvel characters in Vs. System that make ideal candidates for the sacrificial lamb trick we are seeking to employ. Someone needs to plant the kiss of death on the chosen defender so the Wave of Sentinels can begin. Changeling loves the kamikaze gig, especially when he gets to dress up as Senator Kelly and burn like the devil. He is not, however, nearly as cool as Frankie Raye ◊ Nova, Optimistic Youth in this spot. She has been running rampant all over the Vs. System metagame, and now she is turning her glow toward a large mass of Wild Sentinels. That girl is just so hot right now.
When I went to upgrade my version of classic Marvel Vs. System kicks, there was another card (besides Frankie Raye) that stood out from the pack of recent expansion sets: Enemy of My Enemy. These two cards are in a class by themselves when it comes to pure power. For better or worse, their marriage in Wild Vomit is another perfect example.
Whether you want to stay completely old school with a totally Marvel Origins list or accelerate the madness with Frankie and Enemy, I hope you enjoyed this stroll through the annals of twisted Vs. System history. It’s been a projectile pleasure to share it with you, and it will only get better from here.
Rian Fike is also known as stubarnes, and he really did paint his shoes like that. If you could see yourself kicking around with a table full of Wild Sentinels, send a request to: rianfike@hattch.com