Hyper Sentinel Force

Sentinel's has been one of the most fun decks I've built to date. I've been working on this list for quite some time, but I may continue to add a few edits as the new meta unravels.

The list is pretty cut and dry but I'll explain a few of the one of's and why I think you should consider them. I'm sure this list is probably pretty on par to others as this set has been out for a good minute.

EDIT: -2 Monolith Guardian for +2 Stirring Sand Control has been a serious issue for me. The deck can kill pretty fast, but not fast enough and sooo many of our creatures die to Vanquish that any green variant control deck.. pretty much every control deck... can get to turn 5 easy enough to just harsh rule. Even if they don't rule on turn 5 you just increase your chances of a big board state being blown up. SAVE SAVE SAVE some of your explorers in hand if you can. It's not uncommon to have about 7-8 power by turn 4-5 with an unchecked board. Even if all your Explorers get wiped with an Orb out on turn 5-6 you should at least have about 6-7 power with power stone. That means you can toss out 2-3 explorers and using stirring sands to bring back 3-4 sentinels... this has been a huge change to the deck for me and in a great way!

Amaran Shoveler is a nice 3 of to have. It's not really an essential opening hand keep. One of the easiest mistakes to make with this card is keeping a low sigil hand with no power stones or trail makers. Shoeveler will help keep you in a tempo swing state when you already have a decent board and it eats silences pretty well. without propwer power in play all this card will do is mill away your sigils that you might need.

Family Charter is going to be a must 4 of if you plan on running 4 spelunker's and at least 2 guardians. I know guardian is a tempting 4 of, but there isn't much else you can cut to justify running a full playset. Charter is easy enough to get off the draw as well since we run 8 power accelerators.

Talir's Intervention has proven to be a nice addition as there are quite a few cards that are problematic even with torch and initiation as our pseudo removal cards.

I still think 2 Torch is decent enough. Aggro decks can be annoying and having at least one torch in your opener can make a big difference.

Amber Acolyte is a nice 3 of since getting Heart out on turn 5-6 is a very crucial tempo swing we need to have ways to ensure we have triple fire and time influence. It's also nice to have extra Explorer's for our Stirring Sands.

Mysterium Orb in my opinion is the true powerhouse of the deck. The potential acceleration is insane and a big weakness for the deck without them is just not getting enough damage through in time against decks that go wide. Orb is our way of closing out games against token and aggro decks.

1 Diogo is nice .I think two is just too many as most of the time you may mill away Diogo anyways with Shoveler. I try not to go to hard with Shoveler until we can get the Diogo in hand. The ultimate isn't super difficult to get off. It's really more a win more card to be honest, so it's not essential to the deck as your main way of winning is with Sandstorm Titan and Heart.

1 Groundbreaker is also very nice. Control is rough enough of a matchup, so having a way to mitigate lifegain at some point can turn the game in your favor. I haven't found it to be extremely difficult in most matchups to trigger the doublestrike either.

1 Shatterglass Mage is another pseudo control tech card. She comes in handy a lot of the time and with all the scouting and digging the deck does, warp is a very nice mechanic to have handy.

Then we have 1 Great-Kiln Titan he is pretty insane in general in this deck and has some nice synergies with Spelunker. Honestly Spelunker's Ult does not do much at all by itself so having an opportunity to get in two damage unexpectedly is very nice.

Play and Opening Hand Tips:

Any hand with 3 power and a single Power Stone or Trail Maker is an instant keep for me. If you have more than three power in hand without any ramp go ahead and toss it unless you have some pretty insane turn 3-4 plays.

Don't over extend your big drops while playing against control. Same goes with your explorer's. Try to poke in damage with Sandstorms and Spelunkers/Monolith while holding out at least 2 Explorers in your hand if you can. Recurring Heart and Sandstorm Titan's is going to be your best bet against control. If you have a really nice curved hand it's also worth trying to go all out, but if you don't draw into Charter or Shoeveler's by turn 4-5 it's going to be a hard game.

DO NOT use Intervention lightly. This card can and will win you games in tough spots if used right. the Silence is very crucial against a lot of cards and DO NOT just bounce a vanilla sentinel unless you have to. Bouncing Heart has won me quite a few games just with chip damage.

Interactions to look out for: Heart + Torch is 5 damage that will kill most threats. Spelunker + Great Kiln Titan with Torch is another good way to kill things. Try to maximize your value when you have Mysterium Orb in play. Both Heart and Titan's damage affects will still overwhelm remaining damage, so sometimes pinging something with 1 HP is not as bad as it may seem. Iv'e also had to use Heart + a sandstorm titan attack or spelunker attack to finish off some big creatures. Don;t forget how powerful Heart of the Vault can be.

I'm thinking about taking out the two Gaurdians and running a full playset of Stirring Sands, which could be the key to getting wins over on control. If you are going to run 4 Stirring Sands the instant you notice you are playing against control really try to preserve your explorers that way you can just slam your sentinels and resurrect them.

There are a lot of really neat relics you can try to add in, but relics I would Stay away from: Dig Site the bounce is decent, but it's very unlikely you will have 3-4 explorers in play and be able to slam 2 sentinels in one turn. It's honestly just a late game card for 3 mana and the best option for something like that is Orb.

Shepherd's Horn This relic is only good when you already have an orb in play. There aren't any Sentinels worth running that just have overwhelm on their own. So that means you have to play Orb on turn three, then play Horn on turn 4 to get value on turn 5... that's way too slow to have a 1 power reduction and the life gain is useless.

Xenan Obelisk is pretty slow. It might be a decent 1 or 2 of, but the value you get out of when the deck is just big dudes is not optimal so again I'd rather just run Orb.

Sentinels I'd stay away from: Wandering Forge Dies to Torch and it's 4 power YUCK. Parapet Sentry We already have 4 Sandstorm Titans. Although the card has been buffed stat wise the ETB ability does literally nothing. Not worth the card being 5 power. Lavablood Goliath too damn expensive even with power acceleration. Idol of Destran too vanilla for 5 power. Intriguing Ancient too slow even with Bond. Silence makes this card's value plummet.Emerging Colossus Provides no immediate value to your board state. It's 9 power... GROSS and dies to any card that says "kill" in it's text. No thanks, Novaquake Titan Another abysmally slow card. Sure it might win you a game when you play it, but Malaga does a much better job of being a win more card and adds way more overall value to your deck.Arcanum Monitor
screams SILENCE ME! and once it does get silenced you have a 5 power double influence card in play that is a 1/1... SUPER GROSS. Tempered Sentinel the charge is.. Okay? Very rare you will bond this out in due time with Orb in play to get any real value. Also dies to Torch. Many better options out there.

Explorers to stay away from: Oni Cavediver might seem pretty decent, but it doesn't have any immediate value potential and paying 2 to scout doesn't make it good enough sadly. Lucky Prospector This isn't an aggro deck and a card that is crap without a relic in play is not good. Gear Master way too slow for being a 3 power 1/1. Silence, kill spells, killer.. too many things make this card way too risky to run. Reliquary Raider is a somewhat better Gear Master. Still not good enough to warrant running. It's basically just a 3 power draw 1 card.. which is horrible.