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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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| Quarterfinals: Gabe Walls vs. Neil Reeves |
| Patrick Sullivan |
| August 22, 2004 |
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 This Top 8 match featured two of the game’s biggest personalities, Gabe Walls and Neil Reeves. Since they tested together and were playing the exact same deck, they decided to run a pure split before the Top 8. Both believed that whoever won the initiative choice would win the match, since having the even initiative was a huge advantage.
Game 1
Gabe won the choice and took the even initiative. Each player had a turn 1 Boris, which Neil followed up with a She-Thing while Walls had no turn 2 play. Turn 3, Neil played Signal Flare, getting She-Hulk, Jennifer Walters, and Gabe had Darkoth. Neil sent She-Hulk into Darkoth and tried for an It’s Clobberin’ Time! Gabe had an Acrobatic Dodge, which left Darkoth ready to stun She-Hulk on the way back.
On turn 4, Gabe had the 4-drop Doom, flipping the Acrobatic Dodge back over, and activated Boris, searching his deck for Signal Flare. Gabe then flipped a Flame Trap, threatening to stun Boris and She-Thing. Neil had no response and no play for the turn. Gabe team attacked into She-Hulk, which Neil saved during recovery. Neil had another Flare on turn 5, this time getting Thing, Heavy Hitter. Gabe’s side of the turn took a while, prompting Neil to ask, “Need a little help?” Gabe made no play, and Neil sent Thing into Darkoth for the only attack of the turn.
Gabe’s sixth turn started with a Signal Flare, getting Hulk, and then flipping Common Enemy. Neil answered with Dr. Doom, Victor Von Doom. Gabe started by team attacking Doom and Darkoth into Thing. Neil responded by flipping Common Enemy, and Doom and Hulk traded. Gabe then followed up with Hulk on She-Hulk, but Neil had a Mystical Paralysis to exhaust the Hulk, and then a Reign of Terror to send Darkoth back to Gabe’s hand. Neil played a Signal Flare out of his hand, fetching a Sub-Mariner, which made up his turn 7 play. Gabe attempted to Signal Flare, but Neil responded with a Have A Blast!, destroying Gabe’s Common Enemy. Now without the option of getting a Sub-Mariner of his own, and with his 7-drop Thing already discarded to an earlier Signal Flare, Gabe was in a bit of a bind. Both players then started to discuss what Gabe should go get, with Neil suggesting that whatever Gabe chose, he should put it in the support row. Eventually deciding that he needed to prevent some amount of breakthrough, Gabe searched for and recruited Invisible Woman, Sue Storm. Neil started by stunning Invisible Woman with Thing, then 6-drop Doom hit 4-drop Doom. Gabe had a Doomstadt to prevent some breakthrough, but his position was quickly falling apart. Neil then sent Sub-Mariner into Hulk and played It’s Clobberin’ Time! from his hand.
Endurance totals started on the eighth turn with Neil ahead, 33-7. Gabe started by asking Neil, “Got an Apocalypse?” Neil shook his head before Gabe played an Apocalypse of his own. Neil had an 8-drop Doom, flipping Common Enemy, Mystical Paralysis, Signal Flare and It’s Clobberin’ Time! back down. With no way to survive the turn, much less push any damage through, Gabe conceded the first.
Neil Reeves 1, Gabe Walls 0
Game 2
Neil took the odd initiative and decided to send back his first four. Each player had a Boris on the first turn, while Gabe had She-Thing on the second turn to Neil’s nothing.
“Right on time.” —Neil Reeves, flashing his third turn draw: She-Thing
Neil played Darkoth on turn 3, and Gabe flipped Common Enemy, flipped Signal Flare, searched out a Darkoth of his own, and played him. On the fourth turn, Gabe flipped Doomstadt, activated Boris to get Faces of Doom, and then played the Faces, getting the 4-drop Doom. Neil wanted Gabe to go back, since he might have had a response to Boris, and when given the chance to do so, Neil responded by flipping his own Doomstadt, activating Boris to get a Have a Blast!, and then using it to destroy Gabe’s Doomstadt. Since he was no longer able to effectively use Faces of Doom (since he no longer controlled Dr. Doom with his Doomstadt destroyed), Gabe instead searched for Common Enemy, then played a Signal Flare, getting the 4-drop Doom. Gabe played Doom, flipping his Signal Flare back down. Neil’s half of the turn was a far more straightforward Invisible Woman, Sue Storm. Gabe used a Reign of Terror on Darkoth before team attacking Doom and She-Thing into Invisible Woman, stunning the Doctor and Invisible Woman. Neil then used a Signal Flare, searching for 7-drop Thing.
Neil then had Robot Destroyer on the 5th turn, while Gabe flipped a second Common Enemy and then Signal Flared, searching for Thing, Heavy Hitter and playing him. Neil then sent Invisible Woman into She-Thing, stunning her. Robot Destroyer stunned Darkoth, and Gabe sent Dr. Doom into Invisible Woman, with It’s Clobberin’ Time! to get the stun. Thing then stunned the Destroyer, and during recovery Neil Signal Flared again, this time for Hulk, before losing his Invisible Woman.
Gabe started the sixth turn with a Signal Flare for a Hulk of his own and played it. Neil then played 6-drop Doom
Gabe: “What did you search for?”
Neil: “I ripped it. We’re such masters.”
Neil was then able to use Mystical Paralysis to exhaust Hulk. Between the Doctor, the Doomstadt, and having his best creature exhausted, Gabe was left with a much more difficult attack. He eventually settled on Thing and Darkoth team attacking Doom, with Thing and Doom getting stunned. Then, Gabe used Dr. Doom and It’s Clobberin’ Time! to stun the Robot.
 At the start of turn 7, Gabe actually started laughing out loud and flashing the Sub-Mariner he had just drawn without another 7-drop in hand or way to search for it. Neil then played 7-drop Thing and flipped Common Enemy. Gabe answered back with his freshly drawn Sub-Mariner, but was stopped mid-recruitment by the judge when it was pointed out that he didn’t control Dr. Doom, since he had elected to recover Thing instead of Doom the previous turn. Instead, not only didn’t he have anything to recruit, but he also flashed the Ghost Rider that he just played into his resource row that he could have recruited that turn. Neil sent Doom into Thing, and when Gabe tried for the Dodge, Neil had a Dr. Doom in hand for the power-up. Then, Thing stunned Hulk.
On the eighth turn, Gabe played and flipped a Doomstadt, which let him recruit Sub-Mariner. Neil answered back with Apocalypse, getting an “Ewwwwwww” from Gabe. Highlighting the very casual nature of this match, when Neil went into the combat step to destroy two resources with Apocalypse, Gabe said, “Now you have to pretend like you don’t know this resource is Ghost Rider and this one is Reign of Terror.” While Gabe was working out the combat, he said out loud, “If you have a Have a Blast!, I’m dead.” Neil replied, “Seriously? Because I have two.” Once he showed them, Gabe extended the hand.
Final Result: Neil Reeves defeats Gabe Walls 2-0 and advances to the semifinals. |
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