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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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Last week, we began to look at the Web of Spider-Man set in Sealed Pack play. Our approach to the new set followed the twisty trail of its plot twists, focusing specifically on the eight common cards and why they’re so important. There are three times as many uncommon plot twists as common ones, and this week we will talk about the ones that should make your spider-sense tingle. We’ll also examine whether or not you should take them over the top commons, like No Fear, Crushing Blow, and Alley-Oop!.
Before we go any farther, though, I need to take a minute to give some coin where coinage is due. I spend a lot of time procrastinat—err . . . preparing for my articles by chatting online with Mike Flores. Unfortunately, Mike is not writing about Vs. System as much as he should be, despite having some sound theories to add to the growing metagame. In last week’s article, we talked about plot twists helping you to stun multiple characters on the same turn—the fundamental way to stay ahead in the game. Mike has coined the phrase “jumping the curve” to describe when this happens.
Jumping the curve is essential when playing a game of Vs. System for a simple reason: You are stunning multiple characters per turn, and this gives you a board advantage for later turns. You’ll have more options for team attack, reinforcement, and plot twists that require you to exhaust a character as part of the cost. This is what we are really looking for in a plot twist—something that helps us jump the curve, or effectively steal the initiative. Cards in the former category tend to be ATK-boosting plot twists, while the latter category covers cards that are more defensive.
Stealing the initiative is something I discussed last week. It is the reason that Acrobatic Dodge is a deceptively potent trick and that Blob can be such a devastating 4-drop when your opponent has the initiative. When you play Vs. System, you’re often just biding your time and hoping to live through your opponent’s active turns. When you can shut down his or her offense on those turns with a trick or a Blob-like monster, it’s as if you had the initiative for three straight turns.
These cards are presented in semi-pick order. Obviously your team affiliations will dictate which plot twists you pick, so based on your draft, you might juggle Spider-Friends–specific picks up and down with Sinister Syndicate themed ones.
 Tragic Loss is a devastating plot twist that plays as either Savage Beatdown on the attack or an Acrobatic Dodge of the highest level of difficulty on defense. You have to be playing Spider-Friends to pull it off, and if your team is hanging out at Peter Parker’s house, you want to take this card very highly. It is first-pick quality, although I would prefer No Fear first pick/first pack for the lack of team affiliation. This card is exceptional with evasion, as you can stun your own character and then KO it for the Tragic Loss. It is always difficult to KO one of your own characters, but there should be ample opportunities during a game where you can use this card to maximum effect.
Spider Senses has to be one of the best plot twists of the defensive ilk. If Acrobatic Dodge was a top pick, then this should be held in equally high regard if you are playing Spider-Friends. Maybe even higher regard. Dodge rarely allows you to also crush an opponent’s character, while this card offers no drawbacks to your character’s ATK. Not only do you get to survive an attack, you get to take down the attacker to boot. If your opponent was looking for a trade, he or she is going to get ripped off in that transaction. I would certainly take it over Crushing Blow and Alley-Oop!. I would probably take it over No Fear if I was sure I was Spider-Friends, but first pick/first pack, I would lean toward the more generic common.
Supernova comes at a high price—two cards unless you have one of a smattering of Fantastic Four cards to pitch—but it has a huge effect. It allows even a 1- or 2-drop to jump anywhere up the curve and take down a character as high as a 5-drop or a 6-drop. This can mean a big game swing and can be played by heroes or villains. Discarding two cards will not be a huge issue if you are clearing the path for your big guns to do big damage. I take this card pretty high, but the cost of discarding and the lack of breakthrough damage keep me from taking it over the better common plot twists. I would still pick it over most characters.
Unexpected Mutation will generally be a +3 ATK or so, but the “or so” is a pretty broad area that can be anything from +1 ATK / -1 DEF all the way to a game-breaking +7 ATK / -7 DEF. This is a solid card that helps you jump the curve and can be stored away behind glass that can be broken in case of emergency. If your opponent’s Alley-Oop!s threatening to foil your carefully planned attack, then an Unexpected Mutation could be just the thing you need to overcome his or her defensive plot twist. It’s a solid card that I would pick over most characters but not over No Fear or Spider Senses.
 Sadistic Choice is an intriguing card that many players at the Sneak Preview were running with various levels of success. I certainly would not select it over top commons, but it can be a nice late game card when both players tend to be playing off the tops of their decks and have few cards in hand when combat rolls around. It does let you KO a 6- or 7-drop if you can stun it and catch your opponent with fewer than two cards in hand. It also works well in multiples, punishing your opponent’s hand or curve in the early turns and setting up for the turn 6 or 7 KO when you flip up a second one.
Spider Slayers is a hot little card if you are Sinister Syndicate. All of your characters get a +2 ATK bonus when attacking the named character, but you can reset it by paying 4 endurance during your resource step. This card is an excellent curve jumper that allows you to make potent team attacks with your smaller characters. You don’t even need to be attacking Spider-Friends to make this card good—it is just as good when villains fight against other villains. Spider Slayers is a solid card and a high pick for the Syndicate player.
Sticky Situation is an interesting card that can be difficult to use but is well worth your exertions. This card mixes it up between both ideas we have been talking about over the last two weeks, as it lets you steal the initiative when your opponent tries to jump the curve. If your opponent attacks one of your bigger characters with a smaller one and then enhances it with power-ups and plot twists, you can sidestep all those tricks, and when your opponent’s character readies, it won’t be able to make the same attack again. Sticky Situation is an effective counter-measure to devastating ATK-enhancing plot twists.
How high do you pick it? Even if you are playing Spider-Friends, I wouldn’t pick it over the top commons, but I would certainly take it over an unexceptional character within the first few picks of a pack.
Sucker Punch goes up in value if you can reliably exhaust your opponent’s characters. Save it for the second pass and don’t shed any tears if it doesn’t come around.
Unmasked will occasionally be good and rarely be devastating. It does negate a power-up and force your opponent to waste a card. For the low, low cost of 2 endurance, your opponent won’t attempt another power-up for the rest of the game. I’m not taking this over any good combat tricks or high-pick characters, but I wouldn’t mind having one in my deck.
Pleasant Distraction can be useful but narrow. Because you can only play it during your attack step, it’s not very good at helping you steal the initiative. It can be okay curve filler for a missing drop but not something you really look for early—or late, for that matter.
Rejuvenation is nothing special, but if you’re playing the 7-drop Green Goblin, this can certainly support your strategy. You don’t need to devote any early picks to this card because it will come back around, and even if it doesn’t, you’ll find better ways to implement that approach to Sinister Syndicate along the way.
Fight to the Finish is one of those cards you need to read several times to make sure you understand it. I played it the first time I drafted the new set, and I was seriously disappointed with it. Great . . . we both KO our guys. I’m sure it’s good in certain situations. You can pick it up late and let me know how you did with it.
Pinned is another card that offers circumstances too narrow for it to be reliably useful. Skip it.
There are a handful of uncommon plot twists that offer library manipulation or card search. Cards like Twist of Fate, Costume Change, and Breaking Story all seem either underpowered in Sealed Pack or more suited to Constructed formats. I’ll pick them up late if I need to fill out my deck, but generally these cards are invisible to me.
There are a handful of other cards in the uncommon slot that offer reinforcement or protection tricks, or are specific to one of the lesser affiliations in the set. If they are not listed above, I had nothing relevant to say about them. Some of them are useful in narrow situations but are not anything you should be specifically looking out for when drafting.
 That leaves three team-up cards in the uncommon slot. Clone Saga, Forced Allegiance, and Sinister Six will all fix up a messy Booster Draft or Sealed Pack and can actually serve as fantastic combat tricks that allow you to hide a team attack or reinforcement face down in your resource row. Any of these can be first pick quality from the second pack onward. You will know when circumstances warrant it based on how your draft is going.
If you are dedicated to one team or another, then you don’t need to pay much attention to them, but if your squad is of divided loyalties—and demands loyalty for that matter—then you want to make these a priority. While they don’t offer you a free card like previous team-ups, they are also less demanding to play. Of the three, Forced Allegiance is the easiest to use and should be the most highly valued, but any of them can help a draft that has gone wrong.
They can also help a draft that has gone right if you want to play a powerful card that is not in one of the two major affiliations. With Forced Allegiance, you can make all your characters X-Men if you have drafted a card like Archangel. Archangel and cards like it would otherwise be dead in your deck, but now you can use them to game-breaking effect.
Next week, we will start to tackle the teams themselves and see where the individual character cards shuffle into our pick orders.
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