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Pojo's VS System Card of the Day
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Hounds of Ahab
Marvel Knights
Date Reviewed: 04.18.05
Constructed Average Rating: 4.15
Limited Average Rating: 3.1
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale
1 being the worst. 3 ... average.
5 is the highest rating. |
Johnny Blaze |
Hounds of
Ahab
This card
saw a decent amount of play at Pro-Circuit
Amsterdam. It also surprised many people. This
is a nice little addition to the dreaded CS
Sentinel deck. It also has its uses in Modern
Age format.
Even though Hounds is a concealed character, you
are mainly using it as a built in Finishing Move
to go along with your Sentinels. You don’t
really want to use it to gain breakthrough
endurance anyhow.
Constructed: 3.5/5 – You want Hounds to have the
last attack or to at least attack when your
opponent lacks the capability to defend. As an
army character if you can get multiple Hounds
out then you are looking at major board control.
Limited: 2/5 – A little bit more shakier here as
you wont be able to reinforce and with the
prevalence of Shadow Creatures in this set
Hounds can be a major liability if faced up
against a monster such as Doop. lol
|
YGO
Player21 |
Today's Card
of the Day is Hounds of Ahab, the new Army
Sentinel character card released in the Marvel
Knights set.
This card is easily, and immediately
recognizable as a powerful card to help an
already popular and powerful deck, Curve
Sentinels.
Curve Sentinels is one of the most popular
Golden Age decks out there, and has seen a lot
of success in recent tournaments. It is
extremely highly played, and for good reason. It
has some of the best characters at each of the
drops (through 6), great synergy with incredible
Plot Twists, like Cover Fire and Reconstruction
Program, and is actually pretty easy to pilot.
Before Hounds of Ahab was released, one could
make the argument that the 2 slot is the
Sentinels weakest drop. With Sentinel Mark I,
who works extremely well with Total Anarchy, but
is only marginal otherwise, and Sentinel mark
III, whose ATK bonus is relatively insignificant
at best, the Curve Sentinels curve actually
became important at three, and not before.
Now, though, this card easily makes or breaks
the game. In the mirror match, the player who
hits his Hounds of Ahab will instantly have a
leg up in the match.
You might be wondering what exactly makes this
card so powerful.
Well, let's take a look at it.
The stats are average at 2 ATK and 2 DEF. It
doesn't have Flight or Range, so it doesn't work
with Cover Fire, and it can't fly over a
protected character to pick off a potential
reinforcer. So far, it doesn't seem apparent why
this card is seeing play at all. It must have
some great effect. Let's see:
"Concealed. (This character comes into play in
the hidden area.)
Whenever Hounds of Ahab attacks a player
directly, you may KO target stunned character.
If you do, Hounds of Ahab cannot cause
breakthrough this turn."
Wow. Not only does this character come into play
in the concealed area (meaning it's not a
liability with it's weak body, and will be able
to attack back, even if you don't start the turn
with initiative), if you can manage to stun
their entire board, you can attack directly and
KO the character of your choice, at the cost of
dealing no breakthrough endurance loss for the
turn.
That might sound like a difficult task, at
first. But it's really not. First of all, the
Sentinels characters typically have a decent
body for their drop. Stunning opposing
characters should not prove to be too difficult.
Second, because the deck curves out, you will
likely be able to match your opponent drop for
drop. That means that each turn, you'll each
recruit a character, and they'll lose that
character seemingly every turn.
That means you may be able to clear their board
EVERY turn. This will cause incredible loyalty
problems, and you'll have all the tools
necessary to deal massive breakthrough every
turn.
This card simply changes an already powerful
deck into a bit of a juggernaut.
The only downside to this card is that it's
pretty much dead if you're not able to stun your
opponent across the board. But the weak body and
the fact that it doesn't contribute to the Cover
Fire count are only slight drawbacks.
This card does not have loyalty, or a loyalty
based effect, meaning it can easily be splashed
into any deck, and still be just as good. That
makes it potent for sealed, draft, Marvel Modern
Age or Golden Age.
Marvel Modern Age: 3.5/5 – Without a team to
back this card up, it is not quite as effective.
It won't be able to team attack, but at least
you will have to deal with the inability to
reinforce as often, as it is concealed anyway.
Golden Age: 4.5/5 – Really makes the 2 slot
solid in a Curve Sentinel deck, and can easily
be the difference in the game. Would be a 5/5 if
it counted towards the Cover Fire count.
Limited: 3.75/5 – A great effect, and concealed.
I wouldn't hesitate to take this midway through
any draft pack, and I'd use it over most other 2
drops in a sealed deck.
|
Jason
Bunch |
Hounds of
Ahab
This week we'll be looking at cards in the
Marvel Knights set which may give some more
tools to Sentinels. If you look at tournament
reports though, Sentinels don't really need too
many more weapons, although today's card has
already made the Purple Mutant Eaters even more
formidable, as well as turning up in many decks
at PC Amsterdam.
Hounds of Ahab is a deceptively good card, a 2/2
for 2 is small for the drop, and Concealed means
it won't be blocking any attacks. However, if it
attacks directly, you can KO a stunned character
in lieu of doing damage. That takes the term
"board advantage"
to another plane of existence. If your opponent
misses their 1 and/or 2 drops, which is likely,
then Hounds will keep chewing up and spitting
out their stunned characters, while you keep
recovering your guys and recruiting more. That's
where being concealed helps out a lot more,
because there are only a few cards which will
allow them to attack the Hounds, and since
Hounds are Army characters, you'll be able to
have multiple copies out, ready to keep KOing
your opponents characters. Curve Sentinels has
already found room for Hounds of Ahab, and Hans
Joachim Hoeh made waves by splashing 8 copies in
his Sinister Syndicate lock deck in Amsterdam.
Swarm decks like Honor Among Thieves also love
the Hounds, as their smaller guys can still
power up enough to stun up the curve, leaving
the field clear for Hounds to mop up. This is a
card that works well in Golden and Modern Age,
and will be on decklists for months to come.
In Limited, this is a great pick. Opponents are
more likely to miss a drop, and copies of Good
Night Sweet Prince or Out of the Shadows are
harder to come by, so the Hounds will be safe
and sound in the shadows. War Wagon is a little
nicer KO effect because of the additional burn,
but Hounds can swing in as a regular attacker if
you need it, making them more versatile.
Very high pick in draft, and if you don't take
it, the person you passed to probably will.
Ratings:
Constructed (Modern) - 5/5
Constructed (Golden) - 4.5/5
Limited - 4/5
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Brad Pironciak |
CotD for 4/18
Ah, it's 'cards that may help the sentinels'
week! Today we're doing Hounds of Ahab, the
little concealed 2 drop from MK.
This card can be summed up pretty quickly. When
it attacks a player directly, the damage can be
negated, and if it is, you KO a stunned
character on your opponents side of the field.
If you hit your 2 drop and they don't, it's
almost a guarenteed Hounds of AHab lock.
COmpared to the current sentinel 2 drops, the
hounds are definitely worthy of that special 2
drop place in your heart... and your sentinel
deck. Furthermore, who said this guy has to stay
constrained to sentinels? The perfect example is
modern age, where the Hounds of Ahab DECK didn't
do half bad at PC Amsterdam.
Did ya hear that? He was even worthy of his own
deck name.
In limited, this guy's a beast and a half,
because if your opponent misses even one drop,
you can swarm their remaining guys and KO their
last hopes. Draft well.
Golden: 4/5
Modern: 4/5
Limited: 4/5
Art: 4/5 Not too shabby
|
Undefeated of the East
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Hounds of
Ahab
This card is insane. Its has all the making of a
very effective and efficient character. It is a
2 drop for
2/2 and those stats are on "curve." This
character has concealment and that allows this
character to be protected so it can't be
pummeled. The hounds are an army and gets
bonusesfrom being an army sentinel such as the
reinforcemnt from Mark V, and can be searched by
Boliver Trask. His ability to KO characters
early and big characters is insane. With no
sentinel related recruitment costs such as
loyalty, or reveal/discard another sentinel card
from hand makes this card very versatile. The
new term for Hounds of Ahab is called the
"Hounds Lock". This lock works because since the
Curve Sentinel deck curves and if you face
another curve oriented deck you can constantly
keep their board with one or none guys. In the
very common Curve sentinels mirror there are 2
kep points:whoever goes first and who can curve
with Hounds.
Golden Age: 4/5, splashable, protected, and
makes Curve Sentinels an even biggor factor than
before, it Hounds had range it would have been
5/5.
Modern Marvel Age: 3.5/5, splashable helps alot
since there are only about 3 sentinels in this
format, great effect and nice stats makes this
card very useful.
Limited:2.5/5, 2 drops do not win games by
themselves, and usually your opponent will play
at least a character a turn, so his efect won't
be that useful.
With marvel-teamup, midngith sons, and hypnotic
charms will allow these agents of ahab to
team-attack.
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