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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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Draft Profile: Jonas Skali

Mark Slack

November 18, 2006

Jonas Skali is a German player from Team Zissou who made the trip to Los Angeles to find fame and fortune as a TCG player. Vs. System immortality is within his reach—he can reach the Top 8 with a 3-0 performance here at table 1. Jason Hager, Ryan Jones, Anthony Justice, and Matt Oldaker, PC Top 8 performers all, along with $10K Detroit winner Loren Nolan and Vs. pros Guillarme Potvin and Milton Figueroa, are here to stop him.

1.1 Barbaric Brawl over Frankie Raye ◊ Nova, Soul Searcher; The Herald Ordeal; The Power Cosmic Unleashed

1.2 Sworn Enemies over Warskrull; Black Bolt, King of the Inhumans; Frankie Raye ◊ Nova, Soul Searcher

1.3 Dr. Doom, Richards’s Rival over Pressed into Service; Battleworld

1.4 Lieutenant Kona Lor over Doom Needs Only Doom; Armies of Doom; Shatterax

1.5 Elite Doom Guards over Bron Char; Mind Gem

1.6 Warskrull over Pressed into Service; Sub-Mariner, Illuminati; Silver Surfer, Righteous Protector

1.7 Alpha Primitives over Destroyer, Soulless Juggernaut; Remnant Fleet

1.8 Conquered Planet over Nega-Bands

1.9 Talla Ron over Ruul Warrior; Mole Man

1.10 Conquered Planet over Elite Doom Guards

1.11 Moloids over Mr. Fantastic, Doom’s Adversary

1.12 Armies of Doom over The Devil We Know

1.13 Mr. Sinister, Supreme Geneticist

1.14 Nega-Bomb

After pack 1, Jonas seemed to be uncomfortably in Doom. He started with a couple of generic plot twists, but a third-pick Dr. Doom, Richards’s Rival is too powerful a signal to ignore. He tried to sneak into Kree a bit, but the Doom cards kept coming. You can see Jonas’s reluctance to draft Doom in pack 10, where he takes a Conquered Planet instead of an Elite Doom Guards, but an astounding twelfth-pick Armies of Doom seems like too powerful a signal to ignore.

2.1 Lancer over Nega-Bands; Stargate; The Uni-Power; Admiral Galen Kor; The Herald Ordeal

2.2 Captain Att-Lass over Paibok; Doom Needs Only Doom; Armies of Doom; Dr. Doom, Sorcerous Savant

2.3 Paibok over Captain Att-Lass; Crystal, Elementelle

2.4 Sub-Mariner, Illuminati over Arsenal of Doom; Elite Doom Guards

2.5 Intergalactic Summit over Elite Doom Guards; Remnant Fleet; The Kyln

2.6 Sworn Enemies over Divinity; Elite Doom Guards; Mind Gem

2.7 Doom Needs Only Doom over Ruul Warrior; Mole Man, Moloid Master

2.8 Valeria Von Doom over Doom Needs Only Doom

2.9 Nega-Bands over Iron Man, Illuminati

2.10 Doom Needs Only Doom over Armies of Doom

2.11 Penal Colony over Sentry #459; Dorma

2.12 Elite Doom Guards

2.13 Maximus the Mad

2.14 Doom-Bot ◊ Dr. Doom

Having received that signal, Jonas tries to shift into a Doom-Kree mash-up, taking Lancer in pack 1 and Captain Att-Lass in pack 2. Paibok is a tremendous card for him if he can keep to what looks like an off-curve strategy so far, and if he happens across an Act of Defiance later, he could be in great shape. Sworn Enemies over Divinity is an interesting choice, but a blue plus a 7 ATK/7 DEF body is as good or better than that 9 ATK/7 DEF anyway. Jonas still seems to be avoiding Doom’s Army strategy, including passing an Armies of Doom for a Doom Needs Only Doom in pack 10. Currently, he doesn’t have any copies of Doom-Bot Corps, however, so the Army cards like Armies of Doom aren’t as powerful as they could be.

3.1 Dr. Minerva over Hala; Doom-Bot Corps

3.2 Nenora over Crystal, Elementelle; Hala; Dr. Doom, Sorcerous Savant; Lancer

3.3 The Lunatic Legion over Dr. Doom, Richards’s Rival

3.4 Pressed into Service over Sub-Mariner, Illuminati; Colonel Yon-Rogg; Mar-Vell ◊ Captain Marvel, Soldier of the Empire

3.5 Ronan the Accuser, Starforce over Mr. Fantastic, Illuminati; Penal Colony; Alien Insurrection

3.6 Technarx over Battleworld

3.7 Mind Gem over Elite Doom Guards

3.8 Magneto, Acts of Vengeance over Mr. Fantastic, Doom’s Adversary

3.9 Doom-Bot Corps over Korath the Pursuer

3.10 Remnant Fleet over Genetic Destiny

3.11 Litterbug over Universal Weapon; Doomstadt, Castle Doom

3.12 Supremor

3.13 Morg, Harbinger of Extinction

3.14 Master of Puppets

Jonas continued to push into Kree with his first five picks here, putting him solidly into an off-curve Doom-Kree deck. The Lunatic Legion in particular is good for him, and more than strong enough to take over another Richards’s Rival. That Technarx is a gift, as is the ninth-pick Doom-Bot Corps.

Jonas wasn’t too pleased as he built his deck. He told me that he is typically a Heralds or Inhumans drafter—he only drafts Kree occasionally and Doom not at all. He was not at all pleased that he was forced into it when he needs to 3-0 table 1 at the Pro Circuit to make the Top 8. He chose to stay away from the Armies of Doom in the first two packs because at the time he hadn’t seen a Doom-Bot Corps in either pack, nor did he have a good way to put characters into the KO’d pile. He thought his deck wasn’t especially good—“good cards, but not a good deck,” as he put it.

However, Jonas does have a solid pack of off-curve cards, a whole lot of tricks, and enough press characters to have a pretty ugly turn 5 or 6 with The Lunatic Legion. It’ll be tough, but that 3-0 is well within reach.

Jonas Skali – Draft 3

1 Doom-Bot Corps

1 Dr. Doom, Richards’s Rival

2 Elite Doom Guards

1 Lancer

1 Magneto, Acts of Vengeance

1 Moloids

1 Sub-Mariner, Illuminati