The Good

Sai? What the hell happened? I go and complain that there are no good Sais and we get a good one. Complain about Naruto & Hinata and that gets errata'd too... starting to make me wonder if Bandai actually reads this blog! But no, clearly just a coincidence. We all knew a new Sai was coming this set and I was really surprised that A) This wasn't a Student Sai given his attire B) ... and it was good!

There's nothing much to say about this card. It's just all around solid. Setting up your draws every turn is a great way to get exactly what you need for turns 5 and more.

Also, the new Gurren Brigade cards are very good that were previewed over at TCGPlayer.com Gurren is very very good but I don't see her as super busted like everyone seems to. 6/4 that can be an 8/2 or 4/6 is okay for a turn 5. The real strength of this card is Jonin + Water Dragon + "Valid: Jutsu played by this Ninja cannot be negated." That's scary stuff. The turn 2 is very good but I'm unsure as of yet how it will impact the game. Negating any Ninja effect is huge. So-so stat pool isn't.

The Bad

Sakura. More specifically, the Shonen Jump Sakura Haruno that comes with Naruto Manga #48, one of the three exclusive promos that you need to get the Shonen Jump Championship promo. The card text apparently was leaked on Bandai according to MJM and I was told the following was the effect of the card:

Sakura Haruno
Leaf | Female | Chunin | Medical | Growth | Mental Power: 3
[True Allies]
When this Ninja is deployed, you can discard a card. In that case, search your deck for 1 "Naruto Uzumaki" with [True Allies] effect, show it to your opponent, and place it in your hand. Then shuffle your deck.

During your Mission phase, if you have another Ninja with [True Allies] effect, you can discard 3 of your chakras. In that case, you may heal all of your injured Ninja or draw 1 card.



Now, as you can see, that card isn't so hot like the Naruto SJC Promo (which is moderately playable but nothing compared to the starter). The most interesting thing about this card is actually 3 fold:

1. The Artwork (<3 <3 <3)

2. It's a Turn 2 Sakura (WTF!?)

3. Its stat pool is 2/2 Healthy, 0/3 Injured. (Even more WTF!?!?)

So I don't know how to feel about this card. If I have to play a Sakura because of busted Squad effects, this might be my go to one just cause ADP is such a terrible start anymore and turn 3s are bad compared to what else it shares drops with... although the new Starter Deck one has peaked my interest quite a bit. But like always, I guess I'll just go back to calling Sakura "Lacking Lady" since she's well... you know... not as good as other drops. Which is a shame :(

In other news, Queen Bee also gets an honorable mention on the "Bad" list. 2/0 2/0 wasn't good when Sasori (Childhood) had it, why the hell would it be good on a no name Ninja? Yes, the effect is pretty awesome especially since it's valid but the turn 2 Water Ninja that was just previewed out classes it... and on top of that, every other 0 drop kicks this one's butt. Going down the list...

1. Shino may be 2 combat but spams out another Ninja to make up for it.
2. Kiba may be 2 combat but spams out another Ninja to make up for it.
3. Naruto promotes hand advantage and is 3 combat.
4. Hinata promotes hand advantage and while her stats suck, she's part of the best card in the game. Probably the only commonly played zero that's worse than the Bee.
5. Kakashi is 3 combat. Rolls over the Bee.
6. Rock Lee is 3 combat. Rolls over the Bee.
7. Sasuke is 3~4 combat. Rolls over the Bee.
8. Anko is 3 combat. Rolls over the Bee.
9. Haku is 2 combat but if he dies you get a beastly Jonin super early.
10. Konohamaru is 3 combat and allows you to not give up BRs
11. Messenger Ninja turns into a lot of awesome Ninja dudes and sets up for the turn 2 Draw 3.
12. Choji is 3 combat. Rolls over the Bee.

Did I miss anyone? Outside of Messenger Ninja (whose effect I'd use as soon as I put him into play) and Konohamaru, Bee doesn't do anything out to most of those Ninja who naturally are stronger than him or equal to him.. To negate a guy late game, you have to have crap-tac-ular team power. Go go Bee + Yakumo curve since that's the only way I think this will get there :/

... And The Ugly

People want this card banned or errata'd already. Seriously? It's not even out yet. And it's not even that broken, if at all. It's just incredibly solid. You have to realize that this card A) Only works in combo B) You reap no benefits from it until turn 5 C) You put yourself in a situation to auto-lose because of how close you are to decking out and finally D) Your opponent gets at least one turn to shut you down. Outside of the NVS combo that Josh posted, or just recycling things like Tobi, I don't really get the big deal. It's good, but not an "every deck" card. It's just very solid.

This same effect exists in other card games and guess what? It isn't broken there. Why all the hate?

If anything, all the hate should be on this Andrew CARDis guy...

I don't care what anyone says... he's a scrub and the notion that he's the main character just cause he has Card in his name is preposterous. Everyone really knows that there are tons of other more qualified main characters: Josh cause he's Asian, Tsu cause he's the "feel good" story of the century, Nick Botchis for your romantic comedy stories, Gaara_ for the kids, Thomas Veazie for the frat boy "STFU"/anti-hero type people, Mike Alpers for the teen heart throb/screaming girl groups, Joe Colon for people who like "The Classics", and Amir for the people who prefer substance over a story line or plot.

Labels: random, The Good The Bad and the Ugly, tsu