Hey loyal readers, I would have posted TWO previews for you tonight, but one Mr. Andrew Kardis is being a cock smuggler and did not send me the email with the cards attached.

Instead, you will be pleasured with my now endless ranting and raving.

So what has Mr. Nick Botchis (Aka Shino'sDad) been up to? Well, aside from trolling Naruto in the newest chapter of, Naruto, I have been playing Pokemon White a lot and also testing decks for the upcoming Chunin at ATF in New Jersey. More importantly, I am smoothing out the last bit of planning for my trip to Flordia for the SJC at Fort Minor, I mean Fort Myers (omg lol ur not funny Shino'sDad). I will be accompanied by a rather exotic crew of players from New England, as compared to my normal CT Crew. Expect to see the likes of Joe Colon and possibly Eric Melone kicking it in the backseat of my car (But which seat should I take?!).

So until tomorrow when I actually have the damned cards to preview, I will drop a hint for you all. He may not be Picaso, but he has a solid foundation at least. And then another card too.

-Shino'sDad

[Insert Sig Pic Here]

Labels: Andrew Kardis dissapointed me, bandai, naruto ccg, Set 21, Shino'sDad, sjc

Labels: Chief Tsuzumiya Haruhi, naruto ccg, tsu, Videos, youtube

Labels: Boston, Chunin, naruto ccg, Scotty Doesn't Know

So, for those of you out there who don't know who I am, (Which I find completely impossible since I am, after all, one of the most important people in the Naruto CCG Community) my name is Nicholas Botchis, and I go by the handle Shino'sDad in pretty much any forum or site that has to do with the Naruto CCG.

I have been a sort of court advisor in the shadows to The Perfect Curve since it's creation, and up until now, have only been mentioned in context to discussions or tales of whimsy by the other members of the staff. Starting today though, I begin my “internship” as a writer for the blog itself. Zero feels that I require some sort of trial, a rite of passage if you will, to prove I am up to snuff, though he fails to realize that I pretty much write all of Tsukiyomi's content for him (Haha, joking.. I think.)

Back to the point, though, I have been playing the Naruto CCG since it's launch with Path to Hokage. Those halcyon days of believing that a Hand cost could be paid with any Element Symbol and that Zabuza Momochi [Demon of the Cloud Village] belonged in every single deck are long since over, and I now play competitively, playing in many Chunin level tournaments (multiple Top 8's and a “win”) in my time, as well as the Mist Kage in '09 (7th Place) and the Sannin Event at Gencon for the past two years (Moving on...). I am also a Meijin for my local game shop, if you call a 45 minute drive local that is. Forum wise, I am an active member or the Bandai Forum Community, as well as one of the founding members of my Team's forum, CT Crew Gamming (Shameless Plug-no-Jutsu!).

On a less Naruto-esque note, I am an avid gamer of all fields. I have at least tried nearly every MMO game to date, save for the more obscure Korean and Japanese exclusives (and even a lot of those), and was a full time player of both Everquest and Everquest 2 up until about two years ago. Table top RPGs are also another area of expertise of mine, ranging from Dungeons and Dragons to Vampire: The Requiem. And of course, I have shuffled and cut a deck of dozens of CCGs, including but most certainly not limited to: Magic: The Gathering, Pokemon, Magi Nation, Star Wars (Decipher), Vampire: The Eternal Struggle, Legend of the Five Rings, Dragon Ball (Score and Bandai), Bleach, and of course, Naruto (both the English game as well as the Japanese Shippuden CCG).

Less Talky, More Previewy

Now that introductions are out of the way, I am proud to have the pleasure of revealing and reviewing one of The Perfect Curve's previews for the week. Fitting in with our Taijutsu theme, I present to you the Raging Blue Beast himself, Might Guy!



So, right from the get go, we notice a few key things that make this Might Guy different from the rest. Sporting the addition of both Surge as well as Growth on his characteristic line this time, as well as a support value of 3 in his Healthy Status, along with maintaining his monstrous 6 Combat even when injured.

This Might Guy can play the role of both Head Ninja as well as Support, given that 3 is the golden number we look for in support Ninjas, as well as the fact that with Growth and Surge, he can be either a 6/3 6/0 (normally), 7/4 7/1 (growthed), or a 8/5 8/2 (surged). With the existence of Might Guy (Afro), he has plenty of backup copies to Growth from, or better yet to Surge with, and his effect makes all those extra copies even more useful. A valid effect that turns Surge into a reusable effect is not exactly game breaking, but with the right cards, you can produce some positive results.

Rock Lee (N-913) – Pro: Surge him multiple times with a plethora of useable cards in hand for that key Outstanding Victory. Con: Late game tech for a early game Ninja.

Leaf Hurricane (J-755 ) – Pro: Surge a Ninja multiple times and then pick them up with this Jutsu card to do it again or conserve Hand advantage. Con: Requires you to go relatively unharassed during the Exchange of Jutsu for maximum effectiveness (if you want to use the combination effect in tandem with a copy of this card in your chakra or discard already).

Advisor of the Sand (N-939) – Pro: Turn every copy of a Ninja you have in play already in your hand into a new card from your Deck. Con: As with Leaf Hurricane, this can be interrupted during the Exchange of Jutsu by your opponent, though...

Chiyo (N-942) – Pro: Gives much more flexible defensive control in case you need to surge off of the same Ninja in order to block a jutsu or two. Con: Another non-Taijutsu Ninja for what it seems it supposed to be a near Taijutsu pure decktype.

Overall, Might Guy [Gate of Joy] may not be the most incredible Might Guy ever printed, but he fits in as a key component of the Taijutsu deck for Path of Pain, as you will see once Zero posts his own preview in a day or two. Keep in mind both Leaf Hurricane as well as Advisor or the Sand for that one.

Labels: Might Guy, naruto ccg, Path of Pain, previews, Shino'sDad, Tylar

Haven't done a blurb in awhile. I'm currently sitting in school trying to type up an essay for my short stories class, but I figured I would take a break and post up some of my feelings toward some of the things going on in the narutoverse.

Now that Kakuzu (Courtesy of Naruto Shippuden live) and Hidan have been posted up there is a lot of talk on how they will fair in competitive play, and exactly how much they will be going for. I don't actually like Kakuzu, due to how slow he is, how conditional his burn is, and the minor benefit from using his effect on turn 7, though I'm sure he will end up seeing some play, or at worst end up like Obito did in BP.

Hidan I feel has a better chance of seeing play, simply because of his good stats and ability to force an action out of your opponent. Playing around with his curse mode leads me to believe that while it might not be the best deck in the format, it does go off and you do win when it happens, but it's still turn 7 and fragile. I still plan to keep tweaking with cursed mode, but I don't expect it to hit the top tables until post rotation.

Speaking about the current format, how about that Naruto/Hinata squad? There's alot of debate as to if it needs to be banned or not, and while most of you know my opinion, I though I would highlight the opposing arguments, simply to further prove how right I am. Here's a few of the responses as to why Naruto Hinata isn't broken and shouldn't be dealt with:

Naruto Hinata does give the player the upperhand but most players will(should) be smart enough to prepare for the worst and have some early game jutsu in their side decks to get rid of ninja's that can become potential squads.

Yeah, it isn't like NVS where we can side in like six cards and turn off their deck. It's one card, and by siding in card specifically to stop it, you are playing linear answers to one card, so that you can get steam rolled by their deck's actual threats. Not to mention the only answers to it are Shimon, Miroku, and Crying in Vain, one of which is rogued, and another is a turn too late, and the last is only available to water and pretty much just stops one card from happening.

ooooo scary naruto/hinata stops u from deploying for 1 freakin turn if u cant hold off for 1 turn well i guess ur deck needs fixed.

It's a freaking curve based game. Missing drops ALWAYS put's you behind the clock, and this one is done manually, while accelerating into a turn 2 4/3 7/3 ninja with 2 mental power.

Simply create a card that can remove a card in your reinforcement deck of your choosing actually I think there is a counter mission that allows you to draw 2 cards and remove a squad that is put in play from the game and plenty of cards that flat out stop squads from being summoned (shimon). Stop crying that you lose to 1 card and learn from it instead...easy.

Silver bullets are bad, and in every instance of their creation in this game they have either not worked (Control of the Nine-Tailed), or been ridiculous and ruined an aspect of the game (USF Ninjas, Miroku). There is a counter mission that blows up squads, but because it's a counter mission, you can't use it on Naruto/Hinata as it comes in on your opponents turn. Lastly, the only thing I've learned from Naruto/Hinata is that Bandai is even more ignorant when it comes to the impact of missing drops in a curve based game.

So for those of you who are on the fence and haven't really decided where you stand on the issue, all you need to do is look at the different arguments being presented, and it should become obvious to you. Just for the record though, I'm sure all of us would be happy with just an errata on Naruto/Hinata, though that's more retarded and less effective, but as it stands bandai has dug them selves into a hole with this card, and if we want the upcoming SJC season to not completely suck something needs to be done about Naruto/Hinata.

Last thing I wanted to talk about is that I will be transfering schools in the fall and It's quite a trip for me. I'll be going to UB (University at Buffalo) which happens to be 7 hours away from my home town. I haven't had a local store to play at in a long time, so if any one happens to know a store that isn't far I would gladly check it out. I actually don't know anyone going to the school or in the area, so I'm really going to be out on my own, which I think is for the best. I'm looking forward to moving, and hopefully I won't be too busy eating Buffalo wings to update this blog ;)

Until next time,

-Andrew

Labels: bandai, Blurbs, naruto ccg, Will of Fire, Zero

-Tsu

Labels: EDH, naruto ccg, tsu, tutorial, youtube