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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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Risk Vs. Reward: The Curve of Death

Rian Fike

July 02, 2006

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In the World Cup this summer, one of my favorite sporting phrases got kicked around with abandon once again. Whether you call it soccer or football, you may have heard people talking about the “Group of Death.” This is a term reserved for the most skilled set of four teams that have been scheduled to face each other in the opening bracket. Only two teams from each group advance to the round of sixteen. This means that a pair of very competitive countries gets the early axe, in part due to their placement in the field.

In Vs. System, we place character cards by recruit cost. If your strategy is meant to play one character of each increasing cost per turn, then you are running a curve deck. If we were to build such a thing with the best character at each cost, we might be forgiven for calling it the “Curve of Death.”

Of course, there would also be some Fire and Brimstone thrown at the specific selections. There is surely no scientific or objective way to decide which character is the best at each cost. Vs. System is a game of wildly diverse play styles and personal strategies; your Number One character for each drop is probably different from mine. That’s the way it should be. It’s one of the reasons this game is so much fun.

Since I can take the heat, I’ll cook up some nominations for the Curve of Death. You can taste them for yourself and send me your screaming reactions to the extreme spice, along with your vote at each cost. I’ll compile a strictly unscientific but fairly statistical report for a future article. My email address is at the end of this column. I hope to hear from you soon.

Here we go. Who belongs in the Curve of Death?

1-drops:

I actually did some serious research for the Curve of Death nominations. Let me explain. I looked through each of the Top 8 decklists from our first two full seasons of the Pro Circuit. All of the nominations are character cards that have won sizable amounts of prize money on Day 3.

The 1-drop category is the biggest. It starts with two similar powerhouses in Boris and Alfred Pennyworth. Those two sidekicks really rock with their ability to fetch plot twists. They were there for the first Top 8 and they have made many future appearances. GCPD Officer is the only 1-cost Army character that made the nominations; it policed its way into two separate Day 3 semifinals. Longshot, Rebel Freedom Fighter was so strong in Wild Vomit that there was once a petition started to ban it. As the biggest potential card-drawing weenie in the game, the Mulletman is on the list. Special appreciation goes out to Michael Barnes and his Number One Dream in New York—I probably would not have written this article without it. Mikado and Mosha are a lock for their ubiquity and splashability. They have been a menace to 1-drop lovers since Pro Circuit Amsterdam and they are stronger now than ever. Dagger, Child of Light allows combined team affiliations like no other card in the game. She created and entire suite of cards that allowed wicked tricks from various team-stamped abilities to span the globe and shine. Boliver Trask engineered the most dominant deck in history; it also happens to be shiny purple. Roy Harper, Speedy has a boxing glove on the tip of his arrow, which is really cool. Ape X can grab the toy of your choice; this original equipment monkey is still the best. Joystick has big fun acting like a 3-drop when you empty your hand for her. Yellowjacket finds friends fast for filling formations. Mr. Mxyzptlk, Troublesome Trickster is the final and most recent addition, and he is a discarder’s delight.

How do you choose? I can’t answer that. Will you decide by sheer winnings? Will you use your own subjective analysis of card power? Will you throw out my entire list and choose another character card as a write-in vote? It’s all good; decide for yourself.

2-drops:

Remember, every one of the nominees has been featured on Day 3 of a Pro Circuit event. Yes, even Unus. Vidi Wijaya cemented “The Humiliator” into the Top 8 history books at Pro Circuit Los Angeles 2004. You can skip him if you wish. Puppet Master is prime, and he has been at the heart of nearly every serious stall deck ever. The Hounds of Ahab carried Dustin Pidgeon into the PC Top 8 in Holland, and they had a condition called “Hounds lock” coined in their honor. Lacuna is usually a last ditch effort to team-up in a combo deck, but she is one of the freakiest looking things in the world. Her ability may be the best translation of comic myth onto cardboard in all of Vs. System. Beetle, Armorsmith grabs the goods to settle the splashy swarm strongly. Poison Ivy, Deadly Rose is a lock for the list and the odds-on favorite in this category.

Let me reiterate the criteria. You should vote your conscience. The Curve of Death will be populated by some votes from the heart and some votes from the head. You can explain your decisions or just send your selections. Either way, it will be big fun. Especially as the characters get bigger.

3-drops:

I am not lying. There were seven Doom-Bots in Craig Krempels’s mono-Doom deck at the first PC. Add the fact that they have some of the best artwork ever to grace a trading card and you will know my vote on this one . . . unless I vote for my favorite fishbowl-head. Thank you Adam Horvath. $40,000 dollars could buy a lot of votes for Mysterio, but they might only count in Amsterdam. The Sentinel Mark II was golden against Teen Titans in its heyday, but now it is just purple. The other three on the list are as strong as any character in the game at any cost. This might be the tightest race. Is it better to suffer the slings and arrows of Roy Harper, Arsenal or get free weenies with Dr. Light, Master of Holograms? Or is Ahmed Samsarra’s ability just too good to pass up? Tough call. Good luck voting on that.

4-drops:

Unfortunately, Cassandra Cain ◊ Batgirl is just eye candy here. Although Sabretooth, Feral Rage jumped out to a very lucrative start on the competitive scene, his beef has been cooked by future generations of character cards. That leaves four contenders. One of them is meaner than the rest. Terra is stunning, but limited to Teen Titan team affiliations and green resource rows. Rogue, Power Absorption is hot but expensive. Hawkeye, Clinton Barton has won a great deal of money and his aim is true, but he is missing one thing: he needs the evil laugh. Yes, that’s right. I will say it. Flame Trap be damned, it’s obvious. Dr. Doom, Diabolic Genius is a slam-dunk for best 4-drop in Vs. System . . . Unless you convince me otherwise.

5-drops:

I was actually shocked to find only three dominant 5-drops in two years of Pro Circuit Day 3s. Garth has to win this, if my eyes are not deceiving me. You can double check, but it seems that the undeniable strength of individual character cards begins to fade drastically as their recruit costs gets higher. I don’t quite understand why that is. Maybe I am not looking at it right. Write me a note and we can figure it out together. I’ll have a theory or two cooked up by then.

6-drops:

Bastion

I already said I could take the heat. You don’t need to yell so loud. I searched the decklists, I searched my soul, and I still can’t add anyone to this list. The other 6-drops from the Pro Circuit Day 3s just don’t stand up to this monster, in my humble opinion. You are entitled to your own. I’d love to hear it. For now, he runs unopposed.

7-drops:

Magneto, Master of Magnetism can have this version abbreviated as MoM, and he may be the mother of all 7-drops. David Fielder actually got the big guy into Day 3 first by splashing him into Gotham Knights at the second Pro Circuit. I first heard of his inclusion in Curve Sentinels when I saw Dorian Cuellar playing the combo at a PCQ in South Florida. Within two months, the world had changed. This does not rule out Spidey, of course. Spider-Man, The Amazing Spider-Man had two separate archetypes built around him at Pro Circuit Amsterdam, and they both finished strongly on Day 1. If not for some sticky results in the Draft portion of that tournament, we could have had multiple Pro Circuit Champions with this card. Ian Vincent added the most powerful version of the web-head to his Deep Green deck and became Vs. System’s first non-American champion. That has to sway at least a few votes as we fill out our consensus curve.

8-drops:

The Curve of Death ends at 8. Apocalypse almost surely beats Anti-Monitor for the 9-drop spot, and those are the only two Day 3 9-drops in history. For the 8-drop final spot on the ballot, you have an interesting dilemma: is it better to stall out or beat away? As I said earlier, I can’t decide for you.

Write-in nominations are encouraged. Passionate arguments are appreciated. Discuss this amongst yourselves and cheer for your chosen characters on the forums. Vote for your candidates in the first ever Curve of Death campaign. July 4th is just around the corner, and there is nothing more patriotic than a popularity contest . . . Even if Captain America didn’t make the list.

Rian Fike is also known as stubarnes and he votes. Make your choice count by sending it to rianfike@hattch.com.

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