VS Deck Garage
Sentinel Deck
by Paul Hagan

07.13.04  Hey all and welcome to another edition of VS Deck Garage! I got a ton of e-mail this week, and I hope I helped out everyone who wrote in. If you want help with your deck, drop me an e-mail at Hagan0001@aol.com, and make sure to include every bit of information that you think that I need to know. Keep those e-mails comin’!

Before I get started this week, I have to point out an extremely underappreciated card. I received four decklists for the Sinister Syndicate this week and three last week, and in all but one of them, I saw at least three Sinister Salvo. In these same decklists, I saw no more than two Sadistic Choice. I have to tell y’all, the Sinister Salvo isn’t that hot! Sure, it does direct damage and adds range to your guys, but it doesn’t deserve a slot in your decks! Meanwhile, Sadistic Choice really is Sadistic! You get to either a) gain card advantage or b) gain board advantage. Either is amazing, and I think four Sadistic Choice belong in every Syndicate deck.

On with the real purpose of this article – fixin’ decks! This week, Adan has written in with his Sentinel deck. Adan mentioned that he can get most of the standard Sentinel cards, but the higher dollar rares, such as Savage Beatdown, are a bit out of his range. Below is Adan’s initial decklist…

CHARACTERS (36):
4 Boliver Trask, Creator of the Sentinel Program
4 Master Mold, Sentinel Supreme
3 Nimrod, Mutant Hunter
4 Senator Kelly, Anti-Mutant Advocate
2 Sentinel Mark II, Army
11 Sentinel Mark IV, Army
8 Wild Sentinel, Army

PLOT TWISTS (20):
4 Combat Protocols
4 Cover Fire
4 Ka-Boom!
4 Reconstruction Program
4 Search and Destroy

LOCATIONS (4):
4 Underground Sentinel Base

So, as usual, I’ll kick things off with…

WHAT LOOKS RIGHT:

I will say this: Adan isn’t playing a bad card anywhere in the deck. Every card should be in contention for any Sentinel deck (more on this later). He has the right plot twists, and the right location. No problems with card choice whatsoever.

WHAT NEEDS FIXIN’:

Where the real problem in Adan’s deck lies is with the card count. Unfortunately for our robot friends, Sentinels got the short end of the stick when UDE was handing out good characters. As good as Nimrod, Master Mold, and Sentinel Mark II seem to be at a glance, they just can’t hold their own in a serious tournament environment.

HOW WE DO IT:

In searching for the best way to make a Sentinel deck, I keep winding up looking at the build that involves almost entirely Sentinel Mark IVs and Wild Sentinels. I won’t go into what the popular name for this deck is (it’s dumb; don’t ask), but it seems to work. So, the first cuts in Adan’s deck are major:

-4 Boliver Trask, Creator of the Sentinel Program
-4 Master Mold, Sentinel Supreme
-3 Nimrod, Mutant Hunter
-2 Sentinel Mark II, Army

The Sentinel deck seems like it has to hit fast and hard to even have a shot at pulling out a win. Thus, we will completely ignore Master Mold and Nimrod – they are too expensive. Next, Sentinel Mark II is really too small to be a contender, no matter what his ability is. Think of it this way: how many other 4/3s for three resource points do you see wandering around the tournament scene right now? There is only one that I can think of, and at least Mystique can make use of Lost City. I’ll explain Boliver Trask’s absence shortly.

So, I’m sure Adan is wondering, with what do we replace those lost cards? Why, the two really *good* Sentinel cards: Wild Sentinel and Sentinel Mark IV!

+5 Sentinel Mark IV, Army
+12 Wild Sentinel, Army

This brings our total count up to sixteen Sentinel Mark IVs and a whopping twenty Wild Sentinel! But Adan needs to get to his Sentinels, right? He can’t have them sitting around in his deck, waiting to be drawn. That…is where Longshot comes in.

+4 Longshot, Rebel Freedom Fighter

Why play Boliver Trask to go get one Sentinel when you can use Longshot to get two or more? Although there are occasions where Adan will need to call a specific Plot Twist to finish the game, he will usually activate Longshot to draw up (1) Wild Sentinel and (2) Sentinel Mark IV.

As I said above, Adan has a great collection of Plot Twists, so I don’t really want to change much. Unfortunately, Adan has to make up eight slots to bring the card count down to sixty, so we have to lose some. I think the best call would be to cut…

-4 Ka-Boom!
-4 Search and Destroy

Search and Destroy is nice, but unnecessary; a swarm of gigantic Sentinel Mark IVs will be more than enough to remove any major threat to Adan’s wellbeing. Ka-Boom is also a great option, but if we want the best results for Adan’s deck, we must make sure it has focus – beat down the opponent through whatever means possible. Reconstruction Program will keep Adan’s hand stocked when he loses any battle. Cover Fire will help make sure his characters stay in the fight. Combat Protocols help make sure that his Sentinels have the punch to make the last push into a win. This means Ka-Boom and Search and Destroy have to go.

In the end, Adan’s decklist looks like this…

CHARACTERS (44):

4 Longshot, Rebel Freedom Fighter
4 Senator Kelly, Anti-Mutant Advocate
20 Wild Sentinel, Army
16 Sentinel Mark IV, Army

PLOT TWISTS (12):

4 Combat Protocols
4 Cover Fire
4 Reconstruction Program

LOCATIONS (4):

4 Underground Sentinel Base

I hope that helps you out, Adan and good luck in future tournaments!

As a quick finishing note, DC Origins comes out this week, so get out there and have fun with 220 new cards!

That about wraps it up for this week’s VS Deck Garage; I hope y’all enjoyed. Remember, if you want your deck in the VS Deck Garage, drop me an e-mail at Hagan0001@aol.com, and I’ll see what I can do.

-Paul Hagan
 

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