Chamber Sentry – MTG Guilds of Ravnica Review

David
Fanany
Player
since
1995

Fun fact: Chamber Sentry has an unlabelled repeat of the sunburst mechanic from Fifth Dawn. That mechanic arguably fits even better in a multicolor-themed set than in an artifact-themed set, but Ravnica’s emphasis on two-color pairs means that any deck that wants to take advantage of it in a smaller card pool might not have quite the right tools around. The payoff is tempting, as the Sentry can not only shoot down creatures in a realistic impression of Walking Ballista, but also return from the graveyard at will. All of that is very mana-intensive and color-specific, so it might not be fast enough for competitive play, but there are plenty of five-color and pseudo-five-color decks in casual and Commander that will be interested in this card.

Constructed: 2/5
Casual: 3/5
Limited: 3/5
Multiplayer: 3/5
EDH/Commander: 3/5

Hello, bad Walking Ballista.

…okay, Chamber Sentry isn’t purely a “bad” Walking Ballista…and even if it were, Ballista is a fine card to be a bad version of! Sentry is very much a multi-color payoff card who wants you to be in as many colors as possible, particularly with its recursion ability asking for one mana of each color. Where this becomes a “bad” Ballista is that it needs to tap and pay mana to start shooting things, which definitely is worse!

That said, Chamber Sentry is serviceable enough in conjunction with cards like Doubling Season and Hardened Scales…and even the various modular creatures from the original Mirrodin block, and it is passable payoff in a five-color deck all the same. Stick with the Ballista unless you have a deck capable of making the Sentry better…they exist, but it’s definitely a card that asks for a lot of support.

Constructed: 3
Casual: 4
Limited: 3.25
Multiplayer: 3
Commander: 3