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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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This weekly column by Matt Hyra of Upper Deck Entertainment’s Research & Development team will show you new ways to look at cards and decks, with occasional side trips into the Vs. System metagame. If you’re lucky, you might find some wicked clever ideas here. Use these tricks and combos at your own risk.
 So you’ve just torn open a few boosters of the Marvel TCG, and you’re probably seeing a few cards for the first time. Great—now what to do with them? Some cards, like Children of the Atom, make it easy on you by using a team stamp. Children of the Atom only works for X-Men characters, so the first thing most players will do is start thinking of all the X-Men that would make a great target for this powerful card. But I’d rather think of the best possible character to play it on, regardless of what team he or she plays for.
If you're playing a single team deck, your opponent will eventually have a very good idea of what tricks you’re likely to spring on him or her. But when you branch out and create an “all-star” deck, your opponents won’t know what to expect. While they spend their time fretting about all the combos you’re capable of, you’ll use your brainpower to optimize your formation step and attacks. Keep your opponent guessing, and you’ve already won half the battle. Ok . . . how about 10%?
Let’s get back to Children of the Atom. It's the best plot twist for recovering characters, to be sure, but what’s better than recovering a character? How about recovering a character that was a pain in the rear to take down in the first place! The X-Men have some tough characters, but we’re looking for something unexpected, so let’s take a look at Blob. He’s a Brotherhood character, and Children only recovers X-Men, but that is easily remedied with Mutant Nation or Marvel Team-Up. Once all your characters belong to both teams, Blob can protect everyone!
Since Blob has such a hefty DEF, it’s tough to take him down. There’s a good chance your opponent will have to team attack or spend an ATK-pumping plot twist to take him out, but when he does go down, the rest of your team becomes vulnerable. So here’s the plan: When your opponent declares his or her next attack, but before the attack actually starts, play Children of the Atom to recover Blob. Now your opponent's attack is illegal because Blob has to be taken down again first.
 A 9 DEF Blob is pretty good, but what would be better? Try equipping him with Unstable Molecules for a quick and free +1 DEF. That +1 DEF is annoying. I mean, c’mon, there's what, maybe one 4 drop that can take down a 10 DEF Blob alone. What’s worse is the other ability of the Unstable Molecules. If you KO it, the character gets +3 DEF for that turn. That +3 DEF is a defensive nuisance that can’t be overlooked. Chances are excellent that your opponent will have to team attack Blob to take him down, as he or she will have to assume that you’d rather KO the Molecules than let Blob get stunned.
Still with me? Ok, so let’s say everything has gone according to plan. You’ve got Blob equipped with Unstable Molecules in the front row, a few other characters in the support row feeling very safe, and Mutant Nation face up in your resource row, so all your characters are both Brotherhood and X-Men characters. Your opponent has, at most, four characters in play and has to team attack Blob with enough ATK to beat a 12 DEF, because if the attack hits for less than 12, you can KO the Molecules and Blob will survive. If your opponent does attack with with 12 ATK or more, don’t bother KOing the Molecules. However, your opponent might try to get tricky by making a 10 or 11 ATK attack, knowing that you’ll KO the Molecules to save Blob. Whether you do or not really depends on what other attackers your opponent has waiting in the wings. If you do, he or she might play a power-up or Flying Kick to beat Blob’s 12 DEF, but that’s fine. Sometimes you want to call your opponent's bluff and make him or her use up combat cards on the first attack, as you want to leave him or her without any options on his or her second attack.
Let’s say you’re forced to KO the Unstable Molecules, and your opponent manages to take down Blob anyway with a Savage Beatdown. Remember that your Unstable Molecules is still working for you. Do you see it? Stay tuned . . .
When your opponent is all set to make the next attack, ruin his or her day by playing Children of the Atom on Blob. He turns face up and now protects all your other characters once again. Chances are, your opponent doesn't have another 12 ATK lying around to make another team attack against Blob. And if you KO’d the Molecules during the first attack against Blob, he recovers with the bonus from the Molecules still in effect. That’s right! The +3 DEF lasts for the whole turn, even though Blob went down.
If all goes to plan, all of your characters will still be around once your attack step comes around and can attack (with range) or use their activated abilities (if they haven’t already). Unfortunately, Blob won’t get to attack, as he’ll still be exhausted from being stunned. This trick works best when you have initiative on the odd numbered turns, so you’ll be on the defensive for the even numbered turns (like when Blob first hits the board).
 There are several other great tricks and combos available when the X-Men and Brotherhood team up. Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters is a great card that gets even better when you look at low-cost Brotherhood characters. Take a look at Pyro and Quicksilver - Pietro Maximoff. If they become X-Men characters, they can each use their activated abilities twice per turn. Those two can cause a lot of endurance loss for their small costs. And Quicksilver will benefit greatly from the presence of an unexpected teammate: Dazzler. She can exhaust support row characters, so she sets up Quicksilver like a champ.
Another great X-Men/Brotherhood combo involves Savage Land. Using it on your average attacking Brotherhood character is a good way to cause a lot of endurance loss for your opponent, but it’s also a quick way to get your own character stunned. But take a look at Nightcrawler - Kurt Wagner and Cyclops - Scott Summers. They can’t be stunned while attacking, so you can use the Savage Land on them without fear of losing them. They can attack characters far larger than themselves with nary a thought of their own mortality.
Take a look at the deck below and see how I’ve incorporated all these combos into a single deck. There are some other combos in the deck that I haven’t even mentioned. See if you can find them. Better yet, build the deck and see if you can get the combos to go off as often as I’ve been able to.
So Many Tricks, So Little Time
2 Dazzler
2 Shadowcat
4 Nightcrawler - Kurt Wagner
4 Pyro
4 Quicksilver
2 Wolverine - Logan
4 Blob
2 Jean Grey - Marvel Girl
4 Cyclops - Scott Summers
1 Magento - Eric Lehnsherr
1 Colossus
2 Storm - Weather Witch
1 Magneto - Master of Magnetism
4 Base of Operations
4 Children of the Atom
3 Marvel Team-Up
4 Mutant Nation
4 Savage Land
4 Unstable Molecules
4 Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters
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