wat

-Tsu

Labels: Set 24, tsu

"Temari, your curves are so perfect."

I believe Josh used this quote once to describe a preview of Temari of ours. While I wouldn't say our final preview has "perfect" curves (I'm one who doesn't always subscribe to the philosophy of "bigger is better"), she definitely has more bounce in her step than most, if not all the females, in the Naruto universe.

It should be obvious by all the bad jokes by now that I'm talking about Tsunade.

Yes, for one reason or another, I seem to have happened into another version of the Fifth Hokage. In Set 19 we had Leaf's Elite, which was pretty amazing with the stat buffs and a pretty decent effect although not strong enough for a 6 drop. Later in Set 22, I showed you Tsunade (Kimono) and promised you that she would see tons of play as a Wind version of Jiraiya...not to mention the already stellar version of The 5th Hokage in the same set.

I like Tsunade. I really do. She's one of my favorite characters to play in the Clash of Ninja games due to her slow but powerful (both in terms of physical power and mixups) fighting style. As a character I like her violent temper yet caring nature for that of her comrades. All around, she's definitely one of the more interesting females in the show for sure. But the problem lies in the fact that there's simply no good Tsunade... as awesome as Kimono was there wasn't any real jutsu threats to recursively play besides those that are banned or limited. And the "Infinite" heal effects don't really do anything unless tricked into play early ... drawing cards? Well Wind already does a ton of that so this isn't going to be anything new that breaks the mold.

Every other Hokage gets strong, unique effects that are game ending. Tsunade keeps getting the same rehash set in and set out and it's really disappointing.

Question: How do we make Tsunade good?
Shortest possible answer and Bandai's most convincing argument yet that Tsunade's strength is unrivaled

MAKE HER "OVERFLOWING"

Simply put: Make her unaffected by your opponent's cards.

This Tsunade, for lack of a better phrase, is a "Master Baiter" (or if you prefer a kiddy friendlier name: A "Lightning Rod"). She forces the chain by saying "Not only am I huge but if you don't play first Jutsu, I will rain down an ungodly (efffing) firestorm upon you! You're gonna have to call the United Nations and get a (what a beaver builds) binding resolution to keep me from (what mommy and daddy do) destroying you. I am talking scorched-earth, (motherlover)! I will massacre you! I will (expletive deleted) you up!"

*ahem*

So you may be saying "Well that's all well and good Tsu, but Wind still sucks. I can't rain down the fancy pants Jutsu in that deck!"

Did you notice she has the Lightning Symbol?
Surprisingly enough, this Tsunade is more effective in a Lightning deck than in a Wind deck. Not only do they have the Jutsu to back it up, but they also have the large team powers and aggression for this to be a perfect fit.

My only real gripe with the card?
Protection from Missions but only EOJ timing? What gives Tylar!?

Oh and one more thing cause I know you'll all ask this. I talked to Tylar about this card. "Cannot be the target" means if she's already targeted and then her combat becomes 10 or higher, she no longer becomes a legal target, thus causes her to be unaffected by all of those jutsu.

We hope you enjoyed our Set 24 previews! Please stay tuned for Set 25 previews when they come out. Oh, and for our 2 year anniversary this month, I think I might smell a contest... we'll see.

Catch ya later Bandai!

Labels: Chief Tsuzumiya Haruhi, Oppai Are OP, previews, Set 24, tsu

As of late, Missions cards have started to fall into a very specific category that determines if they see the light of day or not. Usually, a mission has to do one of the following two things in order to be considered for a slot in any deck,

Labels: previews, Set 24, Shino'sDad

So based on everyone being all riled up over the Topside thing, perhaps I might have to start marketing a new t-shirt.

Just think about it!

"Free Topside!" T-Shirts!

We can sell them @ $15 and make some cash with which the crew can then use to upgrade our streaming equipment (this stuff is not cheap) and travel to various Jumps and cover them. Brilliant idea isn't it?

Right?

. . .

. . .

. . .

*crickets*

(Disclaimer: I'm not actually serious here. If you actually think I am... you're just being ridiculous).

The actual point of this post was that I wanted to take the time to use this space to talk about a few things, specifically Tylar's Corner (1/31/12).

Is it about Topside?

No.

Well then what is it about?

Well... who knows? Maybe allanime will put this in his "review" thread at the end of the night?

Anyways, our last 2 previews hopefully don't disappoint! I wonder what they could be...

Tag ya later Bandai!

-Tsu

Labels: Chief Tsuzumiya Haruhi, Oppai Are OP, Set 24, tsu

Boa vinda a today' inspeção prévia de s de seu verdadeiramente na curva perfeita!

Agora com todo o hooting e hollering sobre o Topside, eu figurei I' d adapta e faz today' a inspeção prévia de s realiza duas coisas:

1. Topside can' cópia de t meu ahueaehuaeuhuuaha da revisão

2. It' s gosta de um enigma! Que sorte dos ajustes este cartão.

Porque este cartão, como esta inspeção prévia, confiará no oponente (leitor). Conseqüentemente, eu escondi inteligente 43 indícios durante todo este artigo para lig ao localizador de recurso uniforme para a imagem para este cartão. Aprovação, lá aren' t realmente 43 indícios, mas lá é bastante que o mais inteligente de você deve poder o figurar para fora… apenas como este card' efeito de s. Eu significo, eventualmente eu pude começ furado e apenas dar-lhe mais sugestões … mas… deve ser fácil bastante. It' s não como o vencedor está indo começ Canon Powershot g9 ou qualquer coisa.

Agora, Shikamaru [flexibilidade] era sempre um daqueles cartões que fizeram seu oponente ir " " do dammit do awwwwwww (castores); quando o viram. Se você didn' t tem a resposta, seu oponente apenas sentado lá com um ninja gigantesco do PM para começ BRs livre e para murá-lo o dia inteiro. Mas agora a resposta está em suas mãos… literalmente!

O Shikamaru fixo (etiquetado inteligente " Adaptability") é uma volta mais grande mas força agora seu oponente em fazer um Shikamaru' difícil; decisão de s. Se querem manter sua mão para fazer sob medida acima, a adaptação pune-os jogando o papel do cabo flexível. Se começam duramente carregar ou não usar recursos eficientemente, a terra tem todas as ferramentas para forçar descartes e whatnot para punir aquele.

Quando I' m não sure quanto jogo este cartão verá, it' s sempre uma opção a manter-se na mente quando you' re procurando um cartão que possa indiretamente beneficiar sua plataforma de várias maneiras.

-Josh

Tsu Edit: Always Kill, Never Die huehuehuehue

Labels: josh, previews, Set 24, viva brasil

Preface: I don't like to be that guy who calls people out, especially not publicly but I feel it needs to be said cause it's irked me and a lot of other people recently. The Hidan thread was the last straw.

If Topside reviews this card or any subsequent cards on our blog in the discussion thread, I'm pulling the article, the preview, and with holding our Set 24 Super Rare preview.

Why? Because he pretty much always says the same thing that has already been said before. On top of that, it's essentially just like him summarizing our entries and just putting it in the same thread. Let people actually read our work and form an opinion for themselves. Please don't just repost what we already posted...it just detracts from our posts.

Yes, I'm being mean.

Yes, I'm serious about this.

End Preface

Okay there now that that is out of the way I can actually proceed on with the talking.

So what is today's preview about you ask?

Well it mostly has to do with this guy. Surely you remember this guy, right? Our Set 21 preview turned a lot of heads because of his powerful effect....but he had no real support.

And until this day we still have a variety of Ink creatures.

There's Ink Summon, Ink Lion, Ink Leech, and Ink Snake for those playing at home. Of course Set 24 yields another Ink Ninja, the Ink Fish which has a stellar "Draw 1" effect and good turn 1 stats...but that wasn't "officially" previewed yet (just spoilered thanks to a poster on the message boards, posting up the newest Meijin kit)

But what does the deck actually DO?

Supposedly you put in play a bunch of dorks (that's small stat ninjas for the uninformed) and then you drop Sai [Virtuoso] on turn 4 and draw a ton of cards and then...

And then...

Psst, Tylar... I just drew 12 cards off Sai...what the HELL am I supposed to do with all of these cards?

The Ink deck doesn't actually do anything. Yes it draws cards. Yes it has lots of cheap spammable 1/1s and 2/2s, and while that may help you get a lot of BRs early with your multiple teams, everyone knows spamming out small Ninja doesn't exactly win the game without something like Scouting Party or Naruto Vs. Sasuke.

So what are you implying Tsu? An NVS for Ink Ninjas!?

I wish Timmy! Wouldn't that be awesome? No instead I offer something that is rather interesting and unexpected win condition for the Ink Deck.

A Burn Ninja

Ink Eagle is interesting in that he has the highest stats out of all the Ink Ninjas thus far and isn't terribly difficult to come into play. On top of that, his multi use effect allows you to detonate your entire field for a slew of Battle Rewards all in one go.

Speaking of "Detonate", I think you can already guess that this guy has a lot of Synergy with other free Battle Reward Ninjas such as Hidan (Curse Mode) & Deidara [Fiery Wrath]. Consider Andrew's strategy from our previous preview that nets 7 Battle Rewards in 1 turn. Now imagine if you actually had the Ink Ninja rush early game...it's realistically possible to net 10 Battle Rewards in one turn with this setup.

Problem? It doesn't seem entirely practical.

When I first saw Ink Eagle a week ago, along with Hidan, I originally thought that there might be some synergy with them but the problem was would I be able to cheaply spam out the Ink Ninjas in the early game? I get the idea of the deck is now to use Sai to generate a ton of chakra and spam out more ninjas to burn with Eagle but the chakra cost makes it incredibly difficult.

The card that makes it all easier? Monkey King Enma

Well at least it was Monkey King Enma until I realized the errata. Argh... if he hadn't gotten changed I think there might actually have been something really strong on our hands here. You could theoretically have a whole deck where you could drop Enma on 3 and then Sai on 4, draw a ton of cards and possibly spam out not only 4 or 5 Ink Ninjas but say a Kiba to tutor an Akamaru to get a free Double Headed Wolf, Shima to get Fukasaku or vice versa. In essence, I guess Enma got changed not only because of some pre-existing infinites and combos but some other decks in the future like perhaps the Ink Deck. Am I saying it's strong? Who knows...it seems weak on the surface but I think Eagle gives it a little something else that might make it be "sleeper OP" down the road.

I'm really hoping someone breaks this card because I still can't make heads or tails of the deck. It just has all these random weapons that are supposedly part of a bigger picture...or at least that's why Tylar keeps hinting at ever since he first gave me Sai [Virtuoso] to preview back in Set 21.

Honestly, I feel like he might be trolling me by slipping me Eagle but... you never know. There might just be more here than meets the eye...

Labels: Chief Tsuzumiya Haruhi, previews, Set 24, tsu

After not posting in forever I am here today to bring you what I believe to be the most awesome card in set 24. Now, I know this might seem to be a rather bold prediction, with Sage mode being shown but I honestly love this card, infact I would go as far as to say that from the art to the design this card is perfect. But what is this card you might be asking? Well I will tell you: Hidan (Curse mode). For those of you who just want to see the card, feel free to scroll down, because before I show the card I want to do a quick trip down memory lane.

Back in late march we revealed the first ever Hidan and Hidan (Cursed mode). I was involve with these cards because of how flavorful they were, but looking back these cards weren't very good. While Hidan (Curse Mode) had some cool combos, Hidan didn't actually do anything by himself. Not only did he need other cards to make him good, he needed cards that you normally wouldn't play, meaning he lacked synergy with previously existing competative cards in his colors. Couple all of that that with his tedious put in play requirements, and you just had a card that took too much effort to actually utilize reliably.

So, for those of you at home keeping track, the 3 main flaws with Hidan (Curse Mode) were:

1) Needed other cards to be good

2) Lacked synergy with previlent cards in his colors

3) Was difficult to actually play

So bandai needed to somehow overcome these 3 main factors in order to make the next Hidan (Curse Mode) playable...

Preview!

... And I think they did EXACTLY that.

Looking at the very first problem with the original, you can imediately tell that the problem has been solved with the newest iteration. Not only does Hidan have a built in win condition, he also has a second effect that helps him trigger his first effect. So, if for some reason you only had a Hidan in play, you would actually be capable of winning the game.

The second problem with the original was his lack of synergy with other cards, something this guy can't relate to. This guy is all about the synergy. Seriously, he actually plays perfectly into fire decks utilizing some of the cards from the new "Win Battle Rewards" theme. Also, his draw back of giving up battle rewards is easily rendered irrelivant by another heavily played Fire card.

The third and final problem was the difficulty to actually get him into play, but as you can see this guy can reinforce off of any Hidan, without the use of a ritual circle. The ability to use ANY hidan is very helpful, because while some of you are probably going to be playing this guy for his synergy, others will be running this guy because of his ability to shut down cards that would otherwise throw a wrench in your plans.

Last thing I would like to share is a bit of math with you guys:

Turn 6 Reinforce Hidan, activate effect- 1 BR

Use Hanzo- 2 BR

Sac Hanzo with Deidara- 4 BR

swing with a big team including Hidan, your opponent chumps, you Dragon flame- 5 BR

You are now unopposed during showdown- 7BR

Total- 7BR in a single turn with almost now effort, all before sage mode can even come into play. Seems pretty good to me.

-Andrew

Labels: Curse Mode, hidan, previews, Set 24, Zero

It's been a while right? :)

Sorry the site hasn't been updated but the last few months have been busy for all of us...and with a stale game state there hasn't been much to talk about.

That said, Invasion was a swimming success for Bandai in my opinion, and TP4 is just as awesome. I personally haven't been able to get any TP4 or Target Promos yet but oh well. I'm sure I'll get some shortly after I get paid.

That said, we've received FIVE brand new previews for the newest set, Sage's Legacy, including a Super Rare to make up for our lack of one in Set 23. We'll be trying to do something "old" with these previews by doing a more in-depth write up than usual if we can. There's some interesting things to talk about with a few of our previews and I'm really happy that they're not just "*insert trash card here that you can barely talk about*" like we (and many other sites) sometimes get. I think this is kind of a reflection on Bandai's card design as of late. Invasion had very few bad cards and TP4 as well. Normally I've been accustomed to Naruto sets being 50 to 80% unplayable cards. And while a lot of cards in those two newest sets may not see play, I don't necessarily feel a vast majority of them are useless as per usual.

As for SJC MA in March, I'll be traveling with GenCon Winner 2010 Squee up to the Motel Casa de Pena to have some fun and cover the event for you all. Tentatively, I'll for-go playing in the event to make sure we do this coverage and we do it right. The best coverage I've ever done has been on days where I haven't been playing, and ones where I have...well they've pretty much been a wash. Additionally, this time the live stream will be done with my desktop, which is a much stronger device than the typical laptop you see me stream on. (An i7 Quad Core is much more powerful then this wimpy dual core). I got the idea from a video game streamer who travels around the country to cover events. He uses a comparable desktop and has since forgone his laptop because it's simply better. Sure travel accommodations suck that way, but it will get the job done faster.

In fact, he uses the same software as me and even the same camera (for those complaining the camera I use sucks). Because of the stronger PC, we can get away with setting the camera to max 720p HD settings. Now all that's left it so to acquire the stand he told me to get for the camera (surprisingly only $10!) and for the venue to deliver with the Wi-Fi I asked and we'll be in business. Please don't let me down on the Wi-Fi part Saul! I can't take another event where I'll promise something and have to settle with my tethered cell phone. Ha ha.

But seriously this time we're going to do this shit.

And we're going to do it RIGHT dammit!

-Tsu

Labels: Chief Tsuzumiya Haruhi, Livestream, Massachusetts, previews, Set 24, Shonen Jump Championship, tsu