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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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Up next on the list of Web of Spider-Man previews is Jackal, a Sinister Syndicate 4-drop who allows you to increase the number of characters you have in play and break the Vs. System uniqueness rule. The uniqueness rule only applies when a character is recruited; if a character finds its way into play by some means other than being recruited, then character uniqueness is not checked, and the “clone” version lives. But which version is the clone and which is the original? In the case of Jackal, we know the character he brings into play is the clone. Not that it really matters for gameplay purposes.
Jackal is the alter ego of Dr. Miles Warren, one of Peter Parker’s biology professors at Empire State University. (Man, does Pete have any mentors that don’t turn against him?) Anyway, with the unlimited funds that accompany every state-run school science program, Dr. Warren managed to become quite the cloning expert. Gwen Stacy, Peter Parker, and even the Doctor himself have been cloned in his lab, leading to all sorts of fun. Now he has the chance to bring that same kind of fun to the Vs. System game.
Keeping Jackal around and ready until the recovery phase will be no small task. When your opponent has the initiative, forget about it. When you have the initiative, you still might need to protect him with a plot twist when your opponent counterattacks. If you want to use Jackal’s activated power, you aren’t going to want to exhaust him by attacking. That will likely leave your opponent an extra character with which to attack, even though he or she doesn’t have the initiative. To ensure that you will be able to use Jackal’s activated power, keep him protected in the support row. Hiding Jackal behind Lizard and paying 4 to 8 endurance to keep him protected could work, and Unstable Molecules might also do the trick.
While Jackal’s power won’t allow him to get out the dreaded Dr. Doom, Diabolic Genius and Dr. Doom, Victor von Doom combo, there are several other characters that perform quite well when there’s more than one of them around. Shriek or the new Black Cat are two characters that immediately come to mind. Wait . . . I’m not supposed to talk about characters that haven’t been spoiled yet. Instead, let’s look at the current card pool for some characters that really pay off when you play them in multiples. We’ll assume that you manage to get a team-up card into play, or that you're playing Deathstroke to team up all your characters.
Madame Web’s triggered ability can certainly pay off handsomely with any endurance-gaining effect. With multiple Madame Webs, you’ll make a dent in your opponent’s deck two cards at a time and gain four endurance each time you use any character’s activated ability.
The Penguin can use his activated ability to ready locations even while he’s exhausted. That would make an excellent surprise, provided you have a location in need of readying during the recovery phase.
"Pinger" decks would love to have another copy of Electro in play. And any character that comes into play exhausted will be helped out moments later by readying at the end of the turn. There are plenty of new 1- to 3-drops in the Web of Spider-Man set that you’ll be itching to have more than one of.
As a common, Jackal will show up often in draft, though I suspect his 6 ATK and 6 DEF will keep him out of most decks. The chances of having the right character in hand at the right time are slim, but when it does work out, it certainly sets up the next turn so that Jackal’s side can dominate the board. Chances are good that your opponents will need to make up some ground after you play Jackal on turn 4.
Jackal will shine in Constructed decks, especially when players don’t “play him honest.” Finding ways to ready Jackal during the recovery phase, allowing you to activate his ability multiple times, is a great way to wreck your opponent on turn 5. Your opponent won’t be able to keep up with a couple of extra characters on your side of the board.
My guess is that it will take a while for any player to find a truly broken use for Jackal—but I’ll leave it up to the players to prove me wrong.
Questions or comments can be sent to mhyra@metagame.com.
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