Back in February, I had the pleasure of reporting on the $10K Hannover event in Germany. A lot of things impressed me while I was there. Champion Hans Joachim Hoeh’s ridiculously aggressive play, Maik Stich’s defensive Brotherhood deck, and the sheer presence of Kai Budde all gave me cause for awe. But the best, sweetest thing I saw all weekend was the wacky German tech. 

It was with childlike wonder that I, over the course of the day, witnessed many players reach turn 7 and then recruit Juggernaut. My response was that of someone who recognizes an old acquaintance in the fresh fruit aisle: “Hey! I remember that guy!” Heaving himself from the sad ranks of Mr. Sinister and Annihilus, if only for one weekend, was the angry, helmeted maniac I had so loved as a child.
 
And then I never saw him again.
 
Go figure. The North American and British metagames don’t seem to take too kindly to the concept of a character that can’t ready as normal if it attacks. To them I say, “Pish! Your well assembled logic and complete thought processes have no place within these walls!”
 
Okay, so I don’t really think that. Logic and well-supported strategic claims will hopefully enable me to argue for Juggernaut seeing some play in the near future. Despite the fact that he can’t ready in the recovery phase of the turn in which he attacks, this long maligned card is deceptively useful, and the current Golden Age environment is prime for his re-emergence from the back of your trade binder.
 
First up, the obvious stuff: Juggernaut has the biggest stats available at the 7-drop level, with the exception of Kalibak. Unlike Kalibak, though, he won’t net you 14 endurance loss if he’s stunned. He also won’t suffer from a decline in power if you’re splashing him. In short, Marko is the ultimate big beater for his cost. His effect, which basically gives him an automatic Blind Sided whenever he attacks a support row character, either forces your opponent to press everything to the front row if you have the initiative, or to curse and wail if you do not. Burn Rubber all you like—Juggernaut’s effect takes precedence and renders the defender impossible to reinforce.
 
The catch, of course, is that Juggernaut can’t ready during the recovery phase of any turn in which he attacks. The solution? Well, there are three. The first is just to end the game on turn 7. This is very doable if you control the initiative on even turns, as your opponent will probably form up with at least one support row character. Alternatively, you can have such a strong eighth turn that you don’t need Juggernaut to make more than one attack, or you can use Press the Attack to ready him. Different decks can deal with Juggernaut’s drawback in different ways.
 
Recruiting Juggernaut will do one of two things. First, he’ll function as a Lightning rod if you don’t control the initiative—nobody wants to take a hit from him, especially if a player has support row characters that he or she can’t move. A single Flying Kick turns Juggernaut into a 20 ATK bomb that will land on the head of your choosing, so it’s rather imperative to your opponent that he be taken out whenever possible. I don’t really care what you’re playing; ten to twenty endurance loss in the late game hurts. If you do have the initiative, then your opponent will probably break up his or her intended formation and sacrifice the ability to reinforce. Either way, you’ll be manipulating how your opponent approaches combat for turn 7. If Juggernaut becomes stunned as a defender, he can recover and ready as normal, giving you a massive turn 8 (provided the game lasts that long). Even if he does attack, he can still be a great wall.
 
What makes Juggernaut really playable right now is the fact that he has no team affiliation. Betrayal has been popping up everywhere lately, straying out of Boris’s and Alfred’s toolboxes and straight into Titans decks and other archetypes. While Magneto, Master of Magnetism has some of the best stats and one of the best effects available in Vs. System, he’s unfortunately been blowing up a lot of his purple buddies in recent PCQs and $10K events. Losing two or three characters on turn 7 hurts, especially for Curve Sentinels, since it normally has only three characters on the board at that point anyway. While Hounds of Ahab may give the deck a bit more resiliency against Betrayal, it seems naïve to assume one of the following:
 
1. My turn 2 play will be sticking around for five turns. I’m sure I’ll never want to attack with it into a character, right? And no one plays Flame Trap, Terra, Roy Harper ◊ Arsenal, or Overload anymore. Nope, that Hounds I recruit on turn 2 will be completely safe.
 
2. A Curve Sentinels deck will always relish the option of missing its curve in favor of lessening the impact of a marginally possible play on turn 7. The “Curve” part of the deck’s name is more of a suggestion, much like the straight white line in the middle of your local highway.
 
Not exactly convincing to you? Me neither . . .

While Juggernaut is fun in many different decks and may become more playable with the release of future sets, it seems as if the time is right to run him in Curve Sentinels. While the Magneto/Genosha combo has driven the deck to definite tier one status, it just loses too often to random Betrayals. As more and more players are starting to run two or three copies of Betrayal, that fact is getting difficult to ignore. Running Juggernaut for turn 7 and returning to Tri-Sentinel on turn 8 not only renders Betrayal a dead card, but it also eliminates Genosha from the deck. By removing Genosha, you kill the effectiveness of Global Domination, and the only thing remaining to retard your curve is Foiled! on Total Anarchy. While turn 7 is less of a sure thing without Genosha’s draw power, it’s far from a weak turn, and the game can still easily be won in most matchups. Essentially, you trade an incredibly strong turn 7 for a more consistent one, while also outwitting two important pieces of tech and protecting your curve. That’s pretty impressive for a card that can easily seem like a joke.
 
Despite its dependence on a relatively basic strategy, it is innovation that has brought Curve Sentinels to the forefront of today’s premier-level metagame. Magneto/Genosha, Nasty Surprise/Overload, Total Anarchy, and now Hounds of Ahab have all been major factors in the deck’s continued success. As absurd as it may appear on the surface, the next big thing for this deck just might be Juggernaut. Give him a try—the first time you punch through a support row character for 15 endurance, you’ll be hooked.
  
 
-Jason Grabher-Meyer
 
Got a favorite piece of tech that doesn’t get the respect it deserves? Drop me an email at Jason@metagame.com and tell me all about it!