Last week’s article was the first of my series pinpointing ten of each team’s most noteworthy Sealed Pack cards from the Heralds of Galactus set. Last week I started with the Heralds of Galactus team. This week I will be taking a look at the Kree.
Almost every member of the Kree team is focused on the press mechanic. They have a secondary theme of cards that benefit from an opponent’s face-down resources, but as many Darkseid’s Elite cards of yesteryear have shown, this theme can be unreliable. So don’t be surprised when most of the Kree cards spotlighted below have something to do with press. Whether or not it is feasible to construct a good press Kree deck in Sealed Pack remains to be seen, but I will evaluate these cards as though there is a good possibility.
I played Ronan the Accuser, Starforce in my local Sealed Pack Heralds of Galactus Sneak Preview event recently and was very pleased with the card’s performance. With my opponents fearing even the slightest defensive trick, they sometimes had to forego making the optimal attacks, since Ronan locked away their resource row. A few of my opponents forfeited their entire initiative by making riskier attacks into my defensive tricks. When Ronan the Accuser, Starforce comes into play, his cosmic counter gets a big red bull’s-eye on it, but sometimes your opponent just can’t do anything about it. Play with or against this top-notch 4-drop and I’m sure you’ll agree. Most of the Kree team shares the press theme, but I imagine that in Sealed Pack, finding enough characters with the press keyword to build a deck around will be quite difficult. Ronan’s stats are great, and with range he can be protected while he threatens to attack back. All in all, Ronan, the Accuser, Starforce is a very strong option that won’t disappoint.
Speaking of 4-drops, Admiral Galen Kor, Lunatic Legion is my second Kree character that makes the top ten. Usually a character with multiple keywords or powers (or both) ranks higher than a character with fewer options, regardless of ATK and DEF values. Kilowog, Drill Sergeant is a perfect contrasting example. Flight and range on an 8 ATK / 7 DEF is usually quite tempting, but when team affiliation and irrelevant text-boxes get factored in, Kilowog falls to the bottom of the pile. Admiral Galen Kor’s press and reservist keywords are the keys to making the Kree team work. That, combined with his 8 DEF and 6 or higher ATK, will earn the Admiral his fair share of playing time.
As stated above, reservist, press, and a solid power make cards like Dr. Minerva, Starforce all the rage this season. I prefer to always have a few ways to manipulate or fix my draws in Sealed Pack. You’ll often hear me mention trying to “cheat on drops” a little bit whenever I get one or more of these types of search effects. Dr. Minerva might miss with her effect as she enters play, but chances are that when this happens, you needed to get that much closer to the next characters in your deck anyway. At 2 ATK / 3 DEF, Dr. Minerva may not be the best character for hand-to-hand combat with some of the 3-drops in this set, but she is still pretty handy.
Here we go again . . . Shatterax, Starforce is another Kree character with reservist, press, and a fine power. Shatterax will be good if you are able to press out a couple characters with him in play. The Kree team’s press mechanic has to rely on something to boost the swarm’s ATK power, and Shatterax is another good way to give all of those smaller characters more respectable stats. Of course, flight, range, and a 9 ATK / 8 DEF body are nothing to be ashamed of either.
Sintariis, High Kronamaster is the only rare that makes my top ten. As I have said many times, I enjoy fixing my draws and “cheating on characters” whenever possible. With a character like Sintariis, you might be able to get away with playing 18-19 total characters (instead of 20-21 characters), allowing you to squeeze in that extra plot twist you’re just dying to include. There is no drawback to Sintariis, easily making him one of the Kree team’s top cards.
I don’t think it is any stretch to say that Live Kree . . . or Die! is top notch. While playable in non-Kree decks, the potential of playing two 2-drops on turn 4, both of which can stun a typical 4-drop with the assistance of Live Kree . . . or Die! seems pretty hard to resist. With press, your recruits could be even more significant. Plot twists that jump curve as far as Live Kree . . . or Die! are a scarce commodity. Did I mention that this card can be played on an attacker or defender?
Hala seems like a perfectly decent location. Terraform is such a wonderful new mechanic that I just can’t get enough of it. If Hala only activates for +1 ATK each turn, similar to Rann, it is doing its job. If you do go off-curve, Hala will account for an even bigger combat pump, which makes the card a ticking time bomb. With each activation for +1 ATK, you can almost hear the ticking. Tick . . . Tick . . . Tick . . . Boom! +4 ATK! Being able to generate a devastating effect after asserting its presence throughout the earlier turns of the game makes this one of the Kree team’s more desirable non-character cards.
Just as all of the Infinity Gems can bounce back to your hand when their wielder stuns, Nega-Bands offers constant power that can be recycled as your turns progress. Prior to the Heralds of Galactus set, equipment cards always carried a small risk that, if recruited too soon, they would go to waste on an expendable low-drop. It seems there is little or no risk to bringing this equipment into play early and often. Nega-Bands gives its +2 ATK bonus all the time, unlike its cousin, the Power Gem. Of course, Nega-Bands is team-stamped, but if you’re playing Kree, I’m sure you’ll be happy to have a copy in your deck.
Starforce Strike just barely makes this list of the top ten most noteworthy Kree cards. There are a few other common Nasty Surprise-like plot twists in Heralds of Galactus, but the additional option to return the character is just what the Kree team needs. I’m sure that having an absolutely incredible recruit of six Kree characters on turn 7 won’t happen in Sealed Pack all too often, but this can help make it happen. Being able to return to your hand a character that you would normally KO during the recovery phase seems like a good way to maintain a few characters with press for the grand finale.
The Lunatic Legion will probably be played in all Constructed Kree decks. For Sealed Pack, I’m sure this effect will be game-breaking. With a threshold cost of 8, an on-curve strategy is limited to playing this card on turn 7 only. Because of the press mechanic and the big bonus your characters get from The Lunatic Legion, a final-turn, off-curve, swarm strategy is probably better. Of course, going off-curve on any turn is risky if you are not able to stun most or all of your opponent’s characters. You don’t ever want to hang a bunch of featherweights out to dry while your opponent clobbers you on your own initiative.
I’ll be back again next week to look at my ten picks from the next team. By the time this article comes out I will have already won my next Sealed Pack $10K (or will have miserably struck out . . . who knows?). With a win, I will probably break from this series to insert a recap of the event. Otherwise I’ll be right back here next week to continue the series.
Doug Tice’s accomplishments: Sealed Pack $10K NY 2005 – Winner, Constructed $10K Charlotte 2005 – Finalist, Sealed Pack $10K LA 2006 – Winner, Constructed $10K Austin 2006 – Winner, Pro Circuit San Francisco 2006 – Quarterfinalist.