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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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| Round 5 Feature Match: Scott Gerhardt vs. Steve Griffin |
| Geordie Tait |
| July 24, 2004 |
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Steve Griffin is a ponytailed player out of the bustling burg of Jerome, Idaho. Scott Gerhardt is from the San Diego area. Now, their respective paths have crossed in the bustling feature match area of Comic-Con, where dreams are made and broken. Steve is with a Sentinel deck featuring the occasionally-used Senator Kelly. He insists that it not be called “Wild Vomit,” a request that I will honor. Scott is with Big Brotherhood, which, in this matchup, has to be on the defensive until the big beaters come out to play, backed by Lost City and Avalon Space Station.
 Game 1
Steve opened up the game with Longshot and immediately drew four cards with it, while Scott had the much less impressive “nothing.” He did have Toad for turn 2, though, and Steve came right back overtop of that by playing out two Wild Sentinels and activating Longshot again for another four cards.
“This is ridiculous!” —Scott
Undaunted, Scott attacked a Wild Sentinel with Toad, and had Overload ready when Steve powered up three times. Toad untapped as a result and renewed his attack on a second Sentinel. Steve wasn’t done—he powered up that Sentinel three times. Scott powered up his Toad once in order to salvage a stun out of the deal, but Steve showed him Reconstruction Program and pitched another two Wild Sentinels. Scott responded with Flying Kick, and the Wild Sentinel finally bit the dust in a double stun.
Steve took the initiative on turn three and activated Longshot to find some gas, but it was a swing and a miss. He sheepishly played a single Wild Sentinel, and Scott was very happy about that because he had no play at all. As if to prove that his draw was awful, Scott then unleashed Quicksilver on turn 4—timely. Steve was able to draw one of each Sentinel with Longshot and play out a 6 ATK Mark IV before putting all of his characters in the back row. Scott tried to solve this defense by sending Toad to crush the Wild Sentinel next to the Mark IV and then attacking the larger Sentinel with Quicksilver backed up by Savage Beatdown. Steve discarded three Mark IV’s to keep his man unstunned, but Scott had the Flying Kick to seal the deal.
The life totals were left at Scott 42, Steve 40 headed into the fifth turn. Steve was on the initiative and went crazy during his build phase despite missing with Longshot. His play? Recruit Mark IV, flip and activate Underground Sentinel Base, move Mark IV to front row, flip and activate Underground Sentinel Base AGAIN, move another Mark IV to the front row, recruit Wild Sentinel. He lined his newfound army up in the back row with Longshot in a corner, and prepared to unleash havoc.
Scott had . . . a Magneto, Eric Lehnsherr. Not so impressive.
Steve kicked off the invasion by crushing Toad with a Mark IV, then stunning Quicksilver, then stunning Magneto, and finally crashing in for 8 direct damage with his remaining forces, leaving the life totals at 36–19 in his favor. Scott had no play and went on to turn 6, recruiting Sabretooth, Victor Creed. Steve kept the pressure on with three Wild Sentinels, growing his Mark IVs to a sickening 12 ATK. Scott found himself in an unwinnable position. He exhausted and then attacked a Mark IV with Magneto, resulting in double stun. Sabretooth also knocked off a Mark IV, with a 10 endurance payment ensuring that Scott had a character back to defend against a direct attack but also reducing the Big Brotherhood player to 4 life.
The problem? Well, that still left one Mark IV, Longshot, and three Wild Sentinels alive. A team attack was enough to punch Sabretooth’s ticket and give Steve the victory.
Steve Griffin 1 – Scott Gerhardt 0
Scott: “Going first worked very well for you that game, I’ll let you try it again.”
Steve: “I’ll keep.”
Scott: “So you got Longshot in your opening hand?”
Steve: “Yes.”
Scott: “I don’t. I’ll mulligan.”
 Game 2
Steve opened this game with . . . you guessed it . . . Longshot. He immediately activated it and drew the full four cards, two Mark IVs and two Wild Sentinels.
Scott had no play of his own on either the first or second turns, and had to take beatings from a couple of Wild Sentinels while he waited to start developing his board. Luckily, Longshot missed the second time. Steve kicked off turn 3 with three more Wild Sentinels, and Scott played out Mystique, finally establishing some semblance of a defense. Longshot fueled up Steve’s hand with three more assorted Sentinels, and two of the 2 ATK Wilds went into team combat in an attempt to kill Mystique, but Scott was galvanized into action and turned up Lost City, powering up to bring Mystique to 7 ATK/6 DEF. Steve powered each of his Sentinels up once, but Scott had the other half of his combo in Avalon Space Station, which he used immediately, discarding Magneto to return a Mystique and power-up again.
Steve decided to try again and sent a combined 3 ATK of Wild Sentinels in another team attack against Mystique, who was stunned this time. Steve had one Wild Sentinel left over and flipped up Orbital Sentinel Base, activating it and KO’ing his man to KO Mystique and clear Scott’s board once again.
Scott recovered quickly with Sabretooth, Feral Rage, discarding the now-obsolete Toad. Steve had the 4-recruit in Sentinel Mark IV but missed with Longshot, turning over three Mark IVs but no Wild Sentinel to join them.
Scott: “I’m happy to see three Mark IV’s hit the bottom.”
Scott was quick to pounce on Longshot with his Sabretooth, dealing 11 endurance loss to the man from Jerome, Idaho. Wanting to rid himself of Sabretooth, Steve committed all but one of his Sentinels to a team attack, and both the 11ATK/7DEF monster and the Sentinel Mark IV were stunned, and Sabretooth was finished off by Orbital Sentinel Base. Before the end of the turn, Scott flipped up Avalon Space Station and started recovering his dead characters for future use.
On turn 5, Steve played out a Mark IV and had an Underground Sentinel Base (just one this time) to move another Mark IV onto the field, along with Senator Kelly. Scott responded with Magneto onto his empty board. This Magneto would prove to be quite a handful, as you’ll see!
Steve first tried to team attack Magneto with two 8 ATK Wild Sentinels, but Scott flipped up Lost City and used it in conjunction with Avalon Space Station to power-up his Magneto to a massive 18 ATK/18 DEF. Steve discarded two Mark IVs to try for the stun, but Scott had another Magneto to reach 21 ATK/21 DEF.
“Hmm . . . if I go for a win, Overload will wreck me.” —Steve
Steve’s Mark IV got stunned, and Senator Kelly then activated for 4 before getting stomped by Magneto. Life totals were at 34–20 in Scott’s favor, and he kicked off the next turn with a threatening Quicksilver, Speed Demon. Steve tried to play some defense with another couple of Mark IVs, but with the big characters ready to strike and many plot twists at Scott’s disposal (not to mention active Avalon and Lost City!), it was shaping up to be an impossible turn.
Scott started with the attack by exhausting a Mark IV with Magneto, then sending Quicksilver at another Mark IV. He used Avalon to return a Magneto and Quicksilver, and then powered up Quicksilver and unleashed Flying Kick to deal a big 12 damage. He then discarded the Magneto to ready Quicksilver. Staring down Magneto and Quicksilver, Speed Demon with lightweights like Senator Kelly and Longshot exposed and unable to be reinforced, Steve knew he was done and packed 'em up.
Steve Griffin 1 – Scott Gerhardt 1
Game 3
Scott started things out by praying for some sort of indication that Longshot would be absent from the early turns of the game.
Scott: “Don’t smile. Don’t smile. Don’t smile.”
Steve: “Mulligan.”
Scott: “Yessss!”
Steve didn’t get Longshot in his next four, either, and had to open things up with Senator Kelly, to the great relief of his opponent. The board was developed early on both sides, as Steve found Longshot on turn 2 (and started off with a miss), and Scott played out Toad and took a swing at Senator Kelly.
Things got interesting when Scott, playing turn 4 on the initiative, dropped Sabretooth, Feral Rage into play to go with his Mystique and Toad. Not to be outdone, Steve dropped out a Mark IV and then drew four cards with Longshot, two of each Sentinel. Steve started the offensive with Mystique on a Wild Sentinel, and when Steve tried to triple power-up, he had the devastating Overload. Mystique was readied and went after Senator Kelly next, dealing breakthrough damage and triggering 5 breakthrough endurance loss. Then Sabretooth traded off with a Mark IV after a ton of pumping (3x power-up, Reconstruction Program, 3x power-up again for Steve, Savage Beatdown for Scott), and the life totals were 35–27 in Scott’s favor. Scott ended the turn by having Toad beat up Longshot. Suddenly, Steve had no characters at all!
Never fear, though. In one of the more explosive comeback turns I’ve seen, Steve played a Mark IV, flipped two Underground Sentinel Bases, put two more Mark IVs in the front row, and then drew four cards with Longshot (two of each Sentinel) before playing a second Longshot.
Scott kept his curve up with Magneto, Eric Lehnsherr. Steve sent his Mark IV against Mystique, Scott powered up, Avalon’ed up a couple of guys, and powered up again, Steve powered up some more, and Scott had yet another Mystique to ensure the double stun. The two remaining Mark IVs went after Sabretooth, and there was another double stun, with both players taking 4, leaving life totals at 26–15 for Scott. Not a good position against Big Brotherhood with turn 7 coming and no initiative. As it turned out, there was no need for that turn—Magneto was still alive and well, and he flew over and absolutely annihilated Longshot (poetic justice) in an attack aided by Savage Beatdown and Flying Kick.
Match to Scott Gerhardt and Big Brotherhood.
Final Result: Scott Gerhardt defeats Steve Griffin, 2–1
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