|
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.
Click here for more
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
| Round 1 Feature Match: Chedy Hampson vs. Eric Suttle |
| Geordie Tait |
| July 24, 2004 |
|
|
| |
 This first round clash featured a name you may have heard—Chedy Hampson of VSUniverse.com notoriety. Having already garnered one of the many coveted PC “special” invites for his deep involvement in the Vs. community, the website magnate is at San Diego Comic-Con trying to add a high finish to his already unique resume. His opponent: Eric Suttle, a Carlsbad native who was participating in his first Vs. tournament at this event. Don’t let that fool you, though—Suttle is an experienced TCG player who is quite familiar with the rigors of high level play.
Game 1
Eric kept his hand in after thinking for about 0.5 seconds, give or take, and the reason was made clear in a hurry when he showed Chedy the dreaded turn 1 Longshot. The 2 ATK/1 DEF gamebreaker was used immediately to grab a duo of Wild Sentinels and a Sentinel Mark IV from the top of Eric’s deck, and Chedy had no play until his initiative on the second turn, when he played out Avalanche. The savvy Suttle was quick to respond with two Wild Sentinels (in “L” formation around Longshot), and Chedy brought the heat by flipping up both Savage Land and The New Brotherhood and bashing in with a 6 ATK man. Eric could only grab three more cards with Longshot and attack back for 2.
Eric’s next build phase was the typical Longshot-aided opening for a Sentinel Army deck—three more Wild Sentinels and a shift into a 3x2 formation with Longshot in the rear left. Chedy came back with Quicksilver, Pietro Maximoff. From there, it was attack time for Eric, and two of the “new” (2 ATK) Wilds went after the 4 DEF Quicksilver. Chedy powered-up once, but Longshot had provided Eric with plenty of power-up fodder, and he matched the move, stunning Quicksilver. The remaining 2 ATK Wild went after the now-lonely Avalanche, and both were stunned. Chedy had no play, and the endurance totals at the end of the turn were Eric 42, Chedy 39.
Turn 4 on the initiative can get quite interesting for Brotherhood decks, and Chedy didn’t disappoint when he recruited the massive Sabretooth, Feral Rage, discarding a redundant 5-drop Magneto. Eric, now with some big time opposition to think about, played one of the many Sentinel Mark IVs he’d been stockpiling in hand with the help of the utterly disgusting Longshot. With combat in his court, Chedy was looking to do some damage, and sent Quicksilver after the 9 ATK Sentinel Mark IV, pumping to 9 ATK with Savage Land. They stunned, with Eric taking a 7 point endurance hit. More importantly, Suttle’s defensive formation was opened up, and Longshot was made vulnerable to Sabretooth, who got a shot in for Longshot-haters everywhere to the terrible tune of 13 endurance loss. To add insult to injury, Longshot whiffed on his attempt to draw cards, turning over a useless assortment of Sentinel Bases and plot twists. No dice!
With his Mark IV stunned, Eric had no play, and the players moved on to turn 5. Eric had the initiative and pulled off the optimal turn 5 for his deck, recruiting a Mark IV and a Wild Sentinel, then flipping Underground Sentinel Base to move a second Mark IV from his resource row into his front row. Chedy was able to respond with Magneto, Eric Lehnsherr (with the fifth resource turning off his The New Brotherhood) and shifted him into place behind Quicksilver on the left, but things were about to get ugly. Eric kicked off by blasting Magneto from the skies with his first Mark IV, dealing 7 to Chedy, and then followed up by sending his next Mark IV after the comparatively pint-sized Quicksilver, who couldn’t get the job done even with the help of Chedy’s No Fear and a power-up—Longshot had stocked Eric’s hand with extra Mark IV’s to even the ATK and DEF tables. Quicksilver was stunned and Chedy took 10, reducing him to 16 life.
 Eric was far from done, too, and went into deep think mode. His board was 4x Wild Sentinel, Longshot, and Sentinel Mark IV, versus Chedy's Sabretooth, Feral Rage and a precarious 16 endurance. He sent the Mark IV after Sabretooth and then flipped up Combat Protocols (naming “Brotherhood”) to really bring the pain, powering-up once to counter Chedy’s own attempt to power-up his man. Though Chedy was doubtless wondering why he hadn’t cast the Protocols earlier in the turn, his puzzlement wasn’t any sort of adequate defense against the 16+ endurance loss that was headed his way from the Mark IV breakthrough, Wild Sentinels, and Longshot, so the weary webmaster had to scoop up his cards.
Eric Suttle – 1, Chedy Hampson – 0
In between games, Chedy asked Eric, a longtime player of other TCGs, if he had visited Brainburst.com, another Chedy Hampson production.
Eric: “Well, I don’t have a premium membership, but my friends just send me the articles.”
Ouch. It’s on now! The gloves are coming off!
 Game 2
Would Chedy get revenge for all the purloined Internet tech? It didn’t look good early on, as Eric Suttle again chose to keep his opening hand, deliberating for somewhere between 0.0001 and 0.0002 seconds before deciding not to mulligan. Sure enough, Longshot was the first card out of Eric’s hand, and Chedy was under the gun right off the bat, though he did launch an elbow to the neck with Surprise Attack before this reporter could even blink.
Longshot drew Suttle two Wild Sentinels and a Mark IV. Seems fair. He followed that bit of completely balanced play by dropping a couple of Wilds on his second turn, while Chedy returned fire by plunking down Pyro. A Wild Sentinel attacked Pyro and they stunned, and then the other Wild got in for 2 damage.
Then Eric Longshotted for the full four cards, three Wilds and a Mark IV. Not bad. Chedy came back on turn 3 with Quicksilver (in front of the ranged Pyro), and Eric played—you guessed it—three more Wild Sentinels. On the initiative as he was, Chedy wasted no time in flipping up The New Brotherhood and sending Quicksilver wading into the Sentinel horde. He could only roll his eyes when Eric activated Longshot before damage and drew three more Wild Sentinels and Mark IV. Fairly good.
Eric powered-up the defending Sentinel twice, and both characters stunned. Pyro was then able to sneak in and bash Longshot, and again, both characters were stunned. Eric attacked back with three of his four remaining Wilds, leaving back a 1 ATK straggler for use with his Orbital Sentinel Base after combat. It was KO’d, and the stunned Quicksilver also took the dirtnap.
On the initiative, Eric played one of the many, many Mark IVs in his hand. Shaking his head at the ridiculousness of Longshot, Chedy played out Sauron and passed it back, preparing to absorb the onslaught. Eric was quick to oblige with the expected attack, with the 8 ATK Mark IV attacking Sauron. Chedy reinforced with Pyro and both stunned, leaving the endurance totals at 32–27 in Chedy’s favor. With his remaining Wild Sentinels, Eric ran one into Pyro for a double stun, and KO’d another expendable 1 ATK dude in order to drop the dime on Sauron with Orbital Sentinel Base. Chedy had no play, but his turn 5 would be interesting to say the least.
Chedy played out his Magneto and passed, and Eric responded again with his optimal play of Mark IV, Wild Sentinel, flip Underground Sentinel Base, move another Mark IV up to the front row. Longshot, the weak link on defense, was placed in the lower right of the formation behind one of the Mark IV’s. Suttle was at 26.
Then things got crazy.
Chedy flipped up Savage Land and used it to pump Pyro up to 7 ATK, then flipped up a second Savage Land to KO his first one, reducing him to four resources and turning on The New Brotherhood. Pyro was now at 9 ATK. Chedy then attacked the Mark IV in front of Longshot (who was doubtless cowering like a girlie man) and powered-up once before also playing No Fear, to put Pyro at a massive 13 ATK! Both characters were stunned, Eric took 11 endurance loss, and Longshot was left defenseless.
Magneto time! Chedy used his second Savage Land to pump Eric Lehnsherr to a ridiculous 15 ATK and crashed in on Longshot, dealing exactly 15 points of endurance loss, winning the game in spectacular fashion.
Chedy: “I have to read back over that later to see how I won.”
Chedy Hampson 1 – Eric Suttle 1
Game 3
Time for game 3. Eric took a mulligan this time, and then led off the game with . . . Wild Sentinel. Chedy must have been mentally pumping the fist at that one—illicit article thieves are always easier to defeat when they aren’t drawing fifteen cards a turn. He came back with Destiny and flipped up The New Brotherhood right away to start the offensive. Eric drew, still no Longshot. He recruited two Wild Sentinels. Chedy busted out Pyro, and Eric crashed in with two Wilds so that Chedy had no chance to swing with his ATK-boosted men. The final Wild was exhausted to bust out Finishing Move on the stunned Destiny, cutting Chedy’s army in half.
Turn 3. Chedy unleashed Quicksilver. Eric played a single Wild Sentinel.
That’s what’s known as being out of gas. Oh Longshot, where are you?
When the dust settled, Eric had used a Combat Protocols to smack Quicksilver around, but had only a single Wild Sentinel left facing down Chedy’s force of Quicksilver and Pyro. A fourth turn 6 ATK Sentinel Mark IV didn’t look to impressive when compared to the Sauron that Chedy recruited, especially with the man from Charlotte on the initiative. Quicksilver bashed into the Mark IV with the help of No Fear, and then Sauron took to the skies to rip the nearest Wild Sentinel a new exhaust vent with an 11 ATK strike.
Eric was down to 23, and it was time for turn 5. He finally drew Longshot (too late!) and played him and a Mark IV, while Chedy got the points from his five resources and then activated Genosha, bringing him back to four resources and drawing two cards, simultaneously gassing up and enabling The New Brotherhood.
Time to count it down. Eric attacked Sauron with a Mark IV, and Longshot whiffed while trying to get some power-up fodder. Eric to 19. With Longshot now tapped, Chedy activated Quicksilver during combat when Eric sent the second Mark IV at it, reducing Eric to 14. He powered-up, Eric powered-up, and Chedy threw out a second Quicksilver to stun the Mark IV and reduce Eric to 10.
From there, it was a small matter of two Surprise Attacks to Eric’s face, each for the full 5. And that was the ballgame.
Final Result: Chedy Hampson defeats Eric Suttle 2–1
|
| |
| Top of Page |
|
|
|
|
|