The time shall come when all mutants shall fall to the protective might of the Sentinels. That being said we need to look at the Sentinels on a card by card basis to make our decisions on what is good enough to make the cut in our Sentinels decks. The great thing about playing the

Bastion, Leader of Operation: Zero Tolerance

Recruit Cost: 6 Attack:12 Defense:12 Flight and Range

Ability: Discard a Sentinel character card from your hand>Target character gets +1Attack and +1 Defense for this turn.

One of the better cards for the beat down Sentinel decks is definitely Bastion. If you are playing a purely Sentinel only deck you have very few big characters to choose from so you will have to us this guy. His ability teamed with the South American Sentinel Base and Reconstruction will help you win the important combats. The key thing to remember about his ability is that it doesn’t end after your attack is over, it ends at the end of turn. The ability to pump any character is also good if you have to decided to make a splash in your Sentinels deck. I would definitely play at least two of these in a Sentinel deck.

Boliver Trask, Creator of the Sentinel Program

Recruit Cost: 1 Attack:1 Defense:1

Ability: When Boliver Trask comes into play, search your deck for an army Sentinel character card. Reveal that card and put it into your hand. Shuffle you deck.

I personally am very torn over how many of this guy to use in a purely Sentinel deck. The correct number in an aggressive deck is either three or four. His ability to search out a Sentinel Army character card can give you room for running a few less of the big Sentinels and fit in some of the valuable plot twist you will need to win the game with. The key thing to remember about using Boliver is that in most cases when you get him out early you want to make sure he doesn’t become a liability in combat. I tend to let him die as quickly as possible to keep the other army sentinels in play. The other thing of note when using him is to remember that you don’t always have to get your big hitter with him, don’t forget you can get those little Wild Sentinels to have an extra attacker early.

Master Mold, Sentinel Supreme

Recruit Cost: 6 Attack:10 Defense:14 Range

Master Mold cannot attack.

Your army Sentinel character get +2 Attack

Ability: Activate > Put an army Sentinel character card from your hand into your front row or support row. Use this power only during your recruit step.

The first thing that most people think when they read this card is why doesn’t this guy attack if he has range. He doesn’t need to attack. Remember that he doesn’t need to attack. Say it with me he doesn’t need to attack. Your opponent does have to get past him to attack you. He makes your average Sentinels much better and allows you to get guys for free. When you start teaming him with Reconstruction and South American Sentinel Base he will definitely get you into the game. When you can do get back as many as three to four Sentinel army guys in a turn, Master Mold can get your guys on the board and committing atrocities on your opponent in no time. As for the fact he doesn’t have range don’t forget that there are already existing cards in the set that are dependent on a character having range such as Cover Fire.

Nimrod, Mutant Hunter

Recruit Cost: 5 Attack:9 Defense:9 Flight Range

Ability: When Nimrod comes into play, if you control another Sentinel character, put a repair counter on Nimrod.

Ability: If Nimrod would become stunned, remove a repair counter from him instead. If you do, exhaust Nimrod and he is not stunned.

Much like Bastion he is one of the few heavy hitters that the Sentinels have and if you are able to you want to play at least three or four of him. His repair ability is one of your keys of defense and pretty much makes him like the equivalent of two characters. In Sentinel only decks you have no five recruit cost guys other than Nimrod so consider this if you expect to play them.

Senator Kelly, Anti-Mutant Advocate

Recruit Cost: 1 Attack:1 Defense:1

Ability: Activate > Target player loses endurance equal to the number of army Sentinel character you control.

This is the card that you don’t have to really consider whether your going to play him when building a Sentinel only deck, only how many you are going to play. I believe that you should play a full set if you are going to use him. His ability to cause endurance loss equal the number of army Sentinels that you control is amazing if you use it correctly. One of the keys using his ability is to remember that you can use his ability during the recruit step and then recruit another one of him to use the ability again and repeat it till you have no more of him left. If you make it turn eight you could potentially have his ability activated eight times by playing four of him and four Reconstructions. Admittedly activating his ability eight times would be very rare but I have activated his ability as many as four times in a game on a repeated basis. I will warn you that basing your game plan around this ability is a very tough path to follow but it is possible.

Sentinel Mark I

Recruit Cost: 2 Attack:2 Defense:2 Flight Range

Ability: Activate, stun Sentinel Mark I > Stun target character with a cost of 1 or less.

Okay the best thing about this Sentinel is that he has the army type. He is definitely the weakest link in the Sentinel chain. The ability he comes with has never been used by me at the time of this writing. As of right now there are only twenty one characters with a one recruit cost and only a small few of them are actually use full. I would still use the Mark I but I would use them as the majority of my army Sentinels.

Sentinel Mark II

Recruit Cost: 3 Attack:4 Defense:3 Flight Range

Ability: Activate, discard a Sentinel character card from your hand > Negate target activated character effect.

The Mark II is a definite upgrade in the Sentinel line. He doesn’t stand up to the other affiliations 3 drops but his ability will give you an advantage against several of the decks that depend on activated abilities. I would play these if you are worried about decks based around cards like Advanced Hardware, Human Torch hot shot, and other abilities that cause endurance loss.

Sentinel Mark IV

Recruit Cost: 4 Attack:5 Defense:6 Flight Range

Ability: Sentinel Mark IV gets +1 Attack for each other not-stunned army Sentinel character you control.

Here is your hitter to remember. I don’t play less than six of this guy in my deck. He is a massive attacker and against a lesser opponent can be a great defender. He is the reason you play so many Wild Sentinels and can be a serious issue for your opponents to deal with. If you can get multiples of these out your opponent can be in serious trouble.

Wild Sentinel

Recruit Cost: 1 Attack:1 Defense:1Range

Ability: When Wild Sentinel comes into play it gets +1 Attack this turn.

This guy is the feeder of the deck. He feeds the power of your Mark IV, Bastions ability, and Senator Kelly. I play about eight to ten of these in my deck and although they may seem really weak they can surprise your opponent when you have more than he or she can deal with. When using them make sure that you pay attention to if you have initiative or not to take advantage of comes into play ability. Don’t dismiss this Sentinel he really can help you in some out in the combat phases as well as making your Senator Kelly truly effective.

Combat Protocols

Threshold 2

Choose a team affiliation. Your army Sentinel characters get +2 attack while attacking characters of the chosen team affiliation this turn.

This card can be a game swinger for you if you use it properly. When you find yourself facing off against some of the better three recruit cost characters Combat Protocols will help you get rid of them. The main disadvantage is that it only good for attack and that limits its usefulness significantly. If your playing Sentinels, you can play this card to help out when its early and your opponent is out muscling you or late game when you need the help getting rid of the big nasty characters.

Micro-Sentinels

Threshold 3

Put a micro counter on up to X target characters that have no micro counter, where X equals the number of Sentinel characters you control.

Ongoing, At the start of the draw phase, KO each character with micro counters greater than or equal to that character’s cost. Then put a micro counter on each character with a micro counter.

If you are playing Sentinels you had better be playing this card. Many people don’t understand it but it’s once they do understand it they play it. This card allows you to get rid of multiple character if you play it right and can deal with some of the problem Sentinels enemies like Bishop. The great thing about this card is that it stays on the board and will work over time with other copies of Micro-Sentinels. Double the Micro-Sentinels is double the fun.

Orbital Sentinel Base

Threshold 3

Activate, KO a ready army Sentinel character you control > KO target stunned character.

This card is pretty dang good when your able to trade your Wild Sentinels for your opponents fatties. When you get this card and South American Sentinel base rolling it gets pretty nasty. I only run a couple of these because your only going to have so many guys to keep it active. Its not a necessary card for a Sentinel deck but I would discount it if you are playing straight Sentinels. A key thing to remember is that several good abilities and plot twist require stunning a character they control as a cost, so don’t forget to catch them with this card and KO that sucker.

Primary Directive

Threshold 5

If any of your opponents control no non-stunned characters, draw a card for each army Sentinel character you control.

This card is giving me fits right now. I look at it and know that the card advantage could be immense but using it when your opponent has no non-stunned characters is pretty hard. You have to assume that you will stun all of his guys in a turn and that can be pretty difficult. As a obviously late game card it might be worth exploring using two of them. The good thing about this card is it doesn’t require your army Sentinels to be non-stunned to count toward the amount of cards you draw.

Prime Sentinels

Threshold 1

Ongoing: Whenever and opponent plays a plot twist from his resource row, that opponent loses 1 endurance for each non-stunned Sentinel character you control.

This card is definitely a Doom players nightmare. I have watched it force and opponent to put characters in his resource row just so that he could keep plot twist in hand so he would lose endurance. I think if you know that people are becoming overly dependent on plot twist you should play two or three of these. The key to this card is to remember that it doesn’t stop them from playing plot twist it just hurts them for it so don’t let yourself get surprised.

Project Wide Awake

Threshold 2

As an additional cost to play Project: Wide Awake, exhaust a non-army Sentinel character you control. Ready target army Sentinel character.

The main problem I have with this card is that you have to exhaust a non-army Sentinel and that can be a problem. I am not currently running this card and don’t believe it can be that abused. If it could ready any Sentinel character it would be useful but it doesn’t so there. My advice on this card is to not use it. If you can prove that its worth playing let me know.

Reconstruction

Threshold 2

Return target character card or up to three target army Sentinel character cards from you KO’d pile to your hand.

This is the meat and potatoes of the Sentinel deck. I have actually noticed that I tend to win a lot more games if I draw this card. It fuels just about everything good in the deck. It gives you massive card advantage late game as well as early game. Reconstruction also allows you to do some massive endurance loss when teamed with Senator Kelly. If you intend to play Sentinels as you main affiliation then you better play a set of four of Reconstruction.

Search and Destroy

Threshold 3

As an additional cost to play Search and Destroy, stun a ready army Sentinel character you control. Stun target character with a cost of 3 or less. That character’s controller reveals his hand and discards all character cards of the same name.

This is you answer to the fact that your guys are so much smaller in the early game. You can use this card to take care of any number of problem cards. One of the main advantages to this card is also that you get to see the opponents hand. If you are planning a major attack this card will help you know what to expect in the form of power up and from the hand plot twist.

South American Sentinel Base

Threshold 2

Activate > Return target army Sentinel character card from you KO’d pile to your hand.

This is one of the better recursive cards in the Sentinel arsenal. You can use it to fuel your army with fresh bodies or you can use it to commit combat tricks aplenty. I am running three and would run less than two if you paid me. This card has helped me generate massive card advantage and combat superiority.

Underground Sentinel Base

Threshold 5

Activate > Reveal a face-down army Sentinel character card in your resource row and move it face up to your front row or support row. Use this power only during your recruit step.

This card is just plain good. If you get a light plot twist draw and have to an army sentinel in your resource row here is you card. Don’t forget that resource point are generated in the beginning of you recruit step, so you can have an Army Sentinel in your resource row and still use the point to recruit a fatty then use the Base’s ability. This may have a high threshold cost but it is well worth it. Abuse the Underground Sentinel Base at will.