Metagame.com - Take Your Game to the Next Level

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

Deckbuilding with Gerard Fabiano

Anand Khare

September 09, 2006

Gerard is a pro player from New Jersey who has enjoyed some success at the Pro Circuit. He took a break from the game a while ago, though, and is using this $10K as an opportunity to get back into it. The first thing Gerard did was lay out all of his cards, separated by type and by team. “I don’t have many tricks,” he said as he surveyed his plot twists. Shuffling through some of the unplayable cards in his pile, he pulled out The Infinity Gauntlet. “Discard six Infinity Gem cards . . .” he said, shaking his head and putting the equipment back in the pile. Gerard’s next focus was his characters. “I don’t really know which team I want to play yet. I probably want to have a 7- and 8-drop, if I’m not playing Kree. I want to have a good curve.”

After another pass, Gerard offered some insight on what he had to work with. “I don’t think my card pool is too good, but I don’t really know.” He began laying out his characters by cost, starting with Heralds and Infinity Watch. It was clear that this combination of teams wouldn’t be enough, though; he had only a single Moondragon at 4 and a single Red Shift at 5. Back to the drawing board. Gerard surveyed his Kree, Doom, and Inhumans cards for a possible splash. His card pool certainly had the tools to help him run a deck with several teams—Act of Defiance, Extended Family, Intergalactic Summit, and The Herald Ordeal were all available for inclusion. After another pass through, Kree hit the table. The result was four teams’ worth of characters, but his curve still had holes at 4 and 6. Mr. Sinister, Supreme Geneticist went into the play pile, along with Sub-Mariner, Illuminati. Invisible Woman, Flame On! joined Silver Surfer, Harbinger of Oblivion as a secondary 7-drop. Satisfied with his character curve, Gerard moved to plot twists and locations. He quickly counted out twelve, including three of his Team-Ups, and then went back to characters. Taking another look at Supremor, Gerard remarked, “This is terrible. You have to return a guy, and it doesn’t have flight or range?” The Kree 6-drop was summarily axed for Destroyer, Harbinger of Devastation. The 7-drop Silver Surfer was removed for Titannus—“This guy will be 17 ATK / 17 DEF a lot of the time”—and it looked like the deck was done.