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

So I've decided today would be a good time to introduce a new reoccurring segment called "The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly" where I'd like to talk about, you guessed it, things that I think are Good, Bad, and just downright awful in the current state of the CCG.

The Good

Lightning. It's good. Really good. I'm pleasantly surprised that for the first time in probably 8 sets that Lightning is actually a viable element without the use of a dumb broken card.



. . . Okay maybe I spoke a little too soon but I was tired of having to play Lightning and it being awful because it lacked good missions besides just Box Lunch & Reunion. And I was also tired of having to play broken Narutos just to be "On Par" with other decks. That's not how you make an element "good" . . . what happened to having costly but powerful Jutsu? Where's my Pumps? And how about some Ninja not named Jiraiya that are worth a damn? Well with the new missions introduced in Set 16 such as Messenger Ninja, Group Lesson, and Succeeded Will of Fire, Lightning is a POWERHOUSE. It can quickly amass lots of chakra, powerful Ninja, and has devastating jutsu and that's a good thing. It's embarrassing that the main character's element has been the laughing stock of the game pretty much the entire time the game has been out. I mean, even Earth has had the same success or better with the help of the First Hokage and Yamato.

I'm very much looking forward to Lightning in set 17 and for once I'm happy to say the deck can stand on its own two feet without having to be paired for Fire or having to run an untouchable ninja just to make up for weak spots of having "decent" jutsu.

The Bad

Sai.

Let's face it.

He sucks.

And that's a shame considering what an interesting character he is in the manga & anime. What's even more disappointing than that is this:


Top 20 Ninja Effects Printed Ever. Easily.
That card...no matter how you look at it, is CRAZY GOOD. Negate any Ninja on your opponent's field, the ability to chain to pretty much everything under the sun, 6/4, 5/3 stats, Mental Power:5 + Female, Chunin, Medical... do I need to go on? And the worst part about it? It gets cycled out after GenCon.

The problem is two fold:
1. You have to give up in the best case a turn 0 and a turn 4 for another turn 4. Most squads come from turn 0 and turn 1 components that are played in competitive play.

2. If you drop Shino, but don't have Kiba, Shino is still good. Kiba is still good. Naruto is still good. Hinata not so much. Shion is still good. Sasuke is still good. Orochimaru is still good. Sakura is still good. Sai? He sucks.

It's almost unreal if you think about it. A card with this effect will NEVER see top tables simply because the ONE component of the Squad sucks on his own. Don't believe me? Let's just go through them all then.

Envoy - Everyone plays Michiru so blowing up your clients is awful. The only good play this card had with was Emi, who is no longer in block. Lightning has no use for him because of The One Who Lives Within and now Giant Eagle. 4/3, 3/2 stats are good, but are you going to play this guy over Sasuke? Baki? Father & Mother? Kakashi (Boyhood)? See where this going? It's not worth splashing anymore.

Singled Out - Arguably the best Sai simply because he doesn't count as a deploy. But that's only in Lightning. And it's damn hard to do it in that too. He's vanilla effect and guess what? He's the best one. So a 4/3, 3/2 with no effect is the best iteration of a Ninja? How sad. Still not playing it over Baki & Co.

Heartless Eyes - Okay so who comes up with the surnames? But besides that, you might think this guy is amazing because of his Mastery, but he's not. He has Kujaku stats on Turn 4, and Kujaku is a turn 3 and she has a reusable Temari Wind Scythe Effect. Guess what? She doesn't see play because her stats suck. "But Tsu, what about the Mastery?" Well that's AWESOME. So what can he play?

. . .

. . .

Paper Bomb? Giant Shuriken? Fireball Jutsu? A requirementless negation Jutsu like Wind Scythe?

So that's 4 cards? That seems awful. Well Lightning isn't going to play Shuriken or Paper Bomb anyway unless they're animals in which case why do you have Sai & Sakura in Animals? So, you want me to splash in him in Wind or Fire? Well... I'd rather play Kakashi, Baki, Puppets, etc.

Sorry to the Sai fans out there but he just... is bad.

. . . and The Ugly

This one comes as no surprise. If the following card surprises you in anyway, you should probably hit the X button on your browser right now:



Now before I go any further, it's going to get ugly from here on in so I figure I'll post the following disclaimer in hopes that many of you won't consider me an ***hole by the time this entire argument is done:



... cuz you asked for one ~cuz ya need it~

Got that out of the way. Are we good? Good.

I'm still not understanding what people don't get about this card and the fact that it is broken. Some players actually want this card banned or Errata'd. Why? Because we don't want this card dominating the SJC Season. I'm not a fan of going to travel halfway across the country just to get sacked by Naruto & Hinata every single round and lose because there was no way to come back since s/he went first and had this card.

For starters, this card is good in EVERY DECK. But if you build a deck that is meant to capitalize on the fact that your opponent missed a drop, it becomes all the more insane. I'm tired of people saying "I'll just chump block your next attack. It's no big deal." or "So I give you 1 to 3 Battle Rewards, it's no big deal." Now I'm going to assume that your opponent has at least taken 2~4 Battle Rewards in the first 2 to 3 turns because most players usually have given up at least 2 by turn 3 unless you just hit the nuts and your opponent did not.

1. Baki
The most likely thing that can happen is they skip your turn 3. Given the fact that you no longer were able to squad, you have a bunch of weak ninja in play. Your choices: Bunch up and I can swing around you for massive BRs. Split to avoid BR damage and just take a few chumps. Both are awful. One has you losing 60% of your life. The other has you losing all your Ninja. If they have Baki, it's even worse because since you split, you essentially gave up BRs, lost Ninja, and probably Baki locked yourself. How? Well since you only have 3 Ninja cause of Naruto & Hinata, I'm getting at least 2 cause I triggered Baki. The others you will either give me 2~4 for the attack, or get OV'd. Getting OV'd causes a Baki Lock. Giving me 2~4 means you have to split anyways otherwise you will lose. So... Baki Lock? Or lose to 10 BRs on turn 4~5?

2. "The Kankuro Push"
This one works with any deck but it shines the most in Wind. If at any point your hand contains: Naruto or Hinata, Kiba or Shino, Substitute, LAR or SOTRS or Kankuro or Ebizo + Puppet, you can pretty much assume you won. It's very easy in Wind to drop Naruto, then drop Kiba, then drop anything and sub it into Hinata. Then tutor or play Kankuro. Ideally you'll have a 5, a 5, and a 7 (Shino&Kiba, NaruHina & Akamaru, Kankuro & Sally). It doesn't happen all the time but you can build decks that will make it happen half of the time or so.

3. ShizTon Massacre
If I Naruto & Hinata you on turn 3, then Platoon into Shizune & Tonton and get Tsunade, how do you stop me? I didn't even deploy yet since I platoon'd Tonton. Now let's say I dropped Shikamaru Unwillingness. That's giving me 5 Battle Rewards right there, with a guarantee that I'm getting at least 2 more next turn. 7 BRs in 2 turns. If I took at least 2~4 in the first 3 turns like most decks do, you just lost. :/

4,5. Medical Ninja/SakuHina Massacre
Same thing as before only now I prevented you from dropping a female so I get a game push. Or a medical ninja so you can't block me.

6. Lightning Rasengan
Skip your turn. Swing out with Naruto & Hina, Jiraiya Childhood, and perhaps another team like Kiba & Akamaru. Again, 5~6 BRs, and if you block the Rasengan Jutsu will rain down on you and leave you with probably no field and no Ninja. If they have LAR in their hand? Baki Lock.

7. 10K
Swing with Oro Childhood. 10K. Naruto & Hinata them at the start of their turn. Self explanitory.

8. Chidori Stream
Not quite as devastating as others but curving Naruto then Hinata after a stream on block hurts.

9. Water Dragon
Drop Kankuro or a Jonin on 3, swing out, Water Dragon to destroy their board, then Naruto & Hinata them. (Edit: Because Tsu is dumb and doesn't read cards, scratch this one. Kankuro and Temari can't use Dragon. Still, you can do this later on for good damage)

10. Picture Book
If you Picture Book someone early so they have no hand,they usually have a hard time making drops. Naruto & Hinata after a successful picture book means your opponent should scoop.

Are we seeing a pattern here? This card is essentially "Cold Wave" from Yugioh only without the drawback of it effects you as well. Guess what? Cold Wave is limited to 1 in Yugioh and it has a drawback. This card is at 3 here. And it has none. And you can't restrict it. So what do you suppose we do? If you can't restrict it and you can't ban it... then you have to errata it or go back and allow bans.

Before anyone says these are all situational, yes that is true...but so are a lot of other plays. I will tell you what isn't situational though...and that's the consistency with which you can pull off the Squad.

With 3 Naruto & 2 Hinata in the deck as well as 3 Substitute & 2 LAR... going first... 48% of the time you will get your opponent with it on turn 2. But it's all the turn 3 plays that cause the real damage, which bumps up the percentage. But hey! I didn't draw cards with Tobi yet! Or my draw missions like Sakura's Decision or Ninja Info Cards or even Messenger Ninja. All of those cards propel the percentages way up. I've gotten in a test sample of 50 hands (Riffle Shuffle 3 times, Pile Shuffle, Riffle Shuffle 3 times, Pile Shuffle, Riffle Shuffle)... 84% of the time I locked my opponent down with Naruto & Hinata on turn 3. Of that 84%, about a little more than half of those I was in such great field position that my opponent couldn't help to come back unless he had crazy good Jutsu. I didn't even keep track if I had Jutsu in my hand.

So either I'm the biggest sack in the world, or this card is really broken. I wouldn't complain this much if there were answers to the card...but you know what? Only 3 exist. One requires you to give up 3 Battle Rewards and a Ninja...while I still have Naruto OR Hinata... just drop a Ninja and substitute. Some counter. Captivity? You give up a Ninja & 2 Cards from your hand just to be able to play another Ninja. I might as well have just made you miss your drop since you essentially just played a Substitute instead of making an actual drop. Granted, the other Ninja can be something like Orochimaru and you can 10K me, but you still gave up something and I can still do it again next turn with a tutor or just holding the other Naruto or Hinata in my hand. *shrugs* Lastly, Crying in Vain. Everyone goes to this for the sideboard. The ruling is you still get hit with the effect. Fine. I lose a guy. You miss a drop still and I'm getting first dibs on dropping the bigger guy. Again, I still have the advantage. *shrugs*

Now, I'm not trying to be a jerk with this segment but I really don't understand how people don't see this as a problem... There's a hell of a lot more dangerous plays than the ones I listed above for the card and I know a lot of people know them to (such as Team Chicago, Team Shadow, etc.)... just they're all keeping it quiet so they can use it at the SJCs in WA, Georgia, PA, VA, and the rest.

Labels: bandai, random, The Good The Bad and the Ugly, tsu, Will of Fire