I came across this thread on my lunch break today. It's actually a pretty important concept. And I realize that yes, this article is written about Street Fighter, but honestly, it can be applied to anything.

You Get Better At The Game By Playing The Game

The moral of the story?

Play the game.

Don't log onto Bandai anytime you THINK something is broken and complain about it. Instead, you should spend your hard earned time to try to counter the same cards and tactics you're losing to. Find what works, discard the rest. People on the boards spend more time complaining and speculating than actually playing the game.

If you don't play the game, you won't get better at the game.

Theory crafting only gets you so far. Actually sitting down, sleeving up the cards in said "theory" and trying it out against other players will yield results.

Basically, get up off your @$$ and do something about it. Hydro Pump isn't broken. You're just too lazy and give up far too easy to find a way to deal with it. Sit down. Shut up. Shuffle up. Play. And if after weeks of hardcore testing, having exhausted every element and card combination, you still can't beat said broken card, then it's time to open up negotiations with Bandai.

Until then, stop crying.

Labels: Chief Tsuzumiya Haruhi, Not a Game Not a Game, theory, tsu, We Sitting Here I'm Supposed To Be the Franchise Player and We In Here Talkin Bout Practice, We Talking Bout Practice

As I mentioned in my previous article, one of the design issues currently plaguing this game is that of overpowered themes. This is largely a flaw of the individual designer process that Bandai uses - while it might lend more unity to the theme, it also drastically limits the influence of the consensus power level on the individual design.

One way to counteract this lack of a unified power scheme is demonstrated by Magic: the Gathering in its core sets. These sets are comprised mostly of reprints and a few new cards. The unifying theme behind these cards are that they are all fairly general, non-theme-specific cards that could fit into many decks of their color. This allows Wizards of the Coast to "set the tone" of design for the sets while that core set is in the format - the general power level of the format has been defined, designers should not delve too far beyond the bounds of it.

A similar solution could possibly be greatly beneficial to Naruto - like Magic, Naruto is based around a color/element pie. However, unlike Magic, Naruto's is all over the place (for example, Water gets everything...). The creation of a core set would force the designers to actually determine what each element excels at and implement that in their card selection. Then, ideally, the boundaries created by this process would restrict the design of the standard sets so one designers could not irresponsibly destroy the game with an overpowered theme.

Additionally, a core set would allow for the continued presence of utility, "soft engine"-type cards that make the game more fun to play. Cards that enable a diversity of decks or encourage diverse methods of play can only benefit the game, and should be kept in Block format for as long as possible.

To attempt to give more concrete detail of what I'm trying to get across, I'll list some of the cards that I feel warrant inclusion in a core set, and my reasoning for those cards.

(Note that I feel that each non-obscure ninja deserves at least one card in a core set - however, some of the best examples of these ninjas have effects that don't really fit their element. Thus, I have taken the liberty to "element-shift" these ninjas into a different element - a creative possibility that I hope Bandai will explore someday.)

Earth: "He wished for power, but not the strength to wield it."

Ninjas:
Asuma Sarutobi [For the Next Generation]
Choji Akimichi [Infuriation]
Choza Akimichi [As a Father]
Deidara [Plastic Arts]
Hinata Hyuga [Ointment]
Hizashi Hyuga [Why He Chose Death]
Ibiki Morino [First Proctor]
Ino Yamanaka [Easy-Going]
Inoichi Yamanaka [As a Father]
Neji Hyuga [Sealing the Anilities] (hopefully spelled right this time)
Shikaku Nara [As a Father]
Shikamaru Nara [Formation] (Eternal Rivalry)
The First Hokage [Supremacy]
Yamato [Creating a Forest From Underground]
Zetsu [Mysterious Existence]

Jutsus:
Cheating
Concentration
Disguise Jutsu (Coils)
Earth Style: Headhunter Jutsu (PTH)
Earth Style: Rending Piercing Fang
Howl
Knockout Blow (element-shifted)
(I'm having a lot of problem with Earth jutsus - they're either broken or completely trash for the most part - probably need to design some new cards to go here)

Missions:
BBQ
Cursed Fate (ER)
Earth Style: Rampart of Flowing Soil
First Chunin Exam
Hinata in Captivity
Intellectual Strategy (mental power battles one)
Kunoichi Battle
Shogi Match
Tears of Determination (element-shifted)

Earth is about controlling the flow of the game - things like coins on the field, battle rewards, ability to be sent out to battle or in battle, effect text - these are all under Earth's realm. Additionally, Earth is adept at mental power battles and has the ability to protect a lot of ninjas at once. Earth's weakness is that its removal is relatively weak, and has no pure card advantage/filtration.

Fire: "He wished for power, but not the patience to wait for it."

Ninjas:
Akamaru [Partner] (PTH)
Danzo [Hard-Liner]
Fugaku Uchiha [Representative of the Clan]
Genma Shiranui [Encounter Battle]
Haimaru Brothers [Triplets]
Hayate Gekko [Detecting a Plan]
Itachi Uchiha [Despair at the Clan]
Kakashi Hatake [Early Settlement]
Kiba Inuzaka [Man Beast Clone]
Nawaki [12th Birthday]
Ninja Dog Squad (All Gathered) [Howl]
Obito Uchiha [Hidden Strength]
Roshi [Lava Style Ninjutsu]
Sasuke Uchiha [Complete Opening of the Eyes]
The Third Hokage [Addressing Past Wrongs]
Tobi [Man of Mystery] (or whichever one the draw one is)

Jutsus:
Chidori (RnR)
Fear by Genjutsu
Fire Style: Dragon Flame Jutsu (LoL)
Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu (1F, deal 1 damage, next Fireball is free one)
Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu (kill a mission or client)
Lightning Blade (+7/+0 or negate a jutsu)
Mangekyo Sharingan (RFG and -2/-2 coin)
Reaper Death Seal (mill jutsu)
Sharingan Eye (PTH)
Suicidal Action
Tunneling Fang

Missions:
Disaster of the Nine Tailed Fox Spirit (element-shifted)
End of the Mortal Combat
Jonins' Intervention
Lone Avenger
Mission of Capturing the Missing Pet Tora (PTH)
Reconfirmation of the Mission
Shadow in the Moonlight
Stay Out of This!
The Symbol of the Proud Clan
Tsunade's Guess

Fire is the element of destruction - it excels at dealing damage, jutsu and mission negation, and burning cards in the opponent's deck. Its weakness is relatively weak early game options, and no way to efficiently draw cards.

Lightning: "He wished for power, but not the discipline to control it."

Ninjas:
Anko Mitarashi [Chase]
Aoba Yamashiro (vanilla)
Arashi Fuma (vanilla)
Idate Morino [Swift Runner]
Iruka Umino [Reward]
Jiraiya (Childhood) [Shown Signs of the Legends] (element shifted - Lightning only)
Messenger Ninja [Delivery]
Might Guy [Passion]
Naruto Uzumaki [Legacy of the Fourth Hokage]
Naruto Uzumaki [Pervy Sage's Training]
Naruto Uzumaki (Tailed Beast Mode) - the 5 drop one
Rock Lee [Eight Inner Gates] (CotS)
Rock Lee [Eight Inner Gates] (new one)
Sai [Singled Out]
Shion (Awakened) [Seal]
Tenten [Summoning Weapons] (element-shifted)
The Fourth Hokage [Lightning Speed]
The Fourth Hokage (Younger Days) [Savior]

Jutsus:
Leaf Hurricane (reanimation one)
Kunai (PTH)
Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu (PTH)
Naruto 2K Uzumaki Barrage
Nunchaku
Paper Bomb (Coils)
Rasengan (AW 2L - ping a ninja, if it dies: ping another)
Shadow Clone Jutsu (ER - errata'd: for each 2 cards discarded, the user gets +1/+1 - might still be too strong)
Shuriken (AW)
Unexpected Attack

Missions:
Being a Fool
Box Lunch
Broken Seal (Coils)
Dedication Ceremony
Here Comes Second Test Proctor Anko Mitarashi!
Just Like That Hero (element-shifted to Lightning only)
My Rule
Naruto vs Sasuke
Reaper Death Seal (element-shifted to Lightning only)
Retiring Character
Reunion with the Former Teacher
Tide of the Deadly Combat (element-shifted)
The One Who Lives Within

Lightning is the element of recklessness and resourcefulness. It's capable of generating many resources, but at large costs. It also tends to expend lots of resources at once (such as with big X chakra spells). Lightning is the most aggressive of the elements, and features high-risk, high-reward plays. Cards specific to the element include pump spells, card draw that emphasizes on burning through resources, "swarming" ninjas, getting stronger when injured, and recursion. Lightning's weaknesses are its weak late game and backfiring of its cards.

Water: "He wished for power, but not the wisdom to make use of it."

Ninjas:
Dosu Kinuta [Sonic Impact]
Haku [Creed]
Haku [Face Behind the Mask]
Kabuto Yakushi [Loyal Right-Hand Man]
Kabuto Yakushi [Prominent Medical Skill]
Kidomaru [Elite of the Sound]
Jirobo [Elite of the Sound]
Sakon [Elite of the Sound]
Tayuya [Elite of the Sound]
Kisame Hoshigaki [Cold Blooded]
Orochimaru [Forbidden Jutsu]
Orochimaru (Childhood) [Shown Signs of the Legends] (element shifted - Water only)
Princess Dusk [Wandering Ghost]
Raiga Kurosaki [Funeral of the Living]
Ranmaru [Life as Sensory Organs]
Sasuke Uchiha [Finishing Blow]
Three Tails [A Monster That Lives in the Abyss]
Yoroi Akado [Chakra Absorption]
The Second Hokage [The Hokage Level]
Zabuza Momochi [Bottomless Power]

Jutsus:
8 Trigram Divination Seal Spell Formula (element shifted, errata'd cost WW1, only ninja battling against user)
Fast Capture
Four Flames Formation (RnR)
Hidden Mist Jutsu (PTH)
Twin Snake Sacrifice Jutsu
Summoning Jutsu: Reanimation (RnR)
Water Prison Jutsu (PTH)
Water Style: Five Hungry Sharks
Water Style: Giant Vortex Jutsu (PTH - errata'd cost to WWWW)

Missions:
Assassination of the Kazekage
Bashfulness (element shifted)
Bingo Book
Flash Back
Gato Transport
Ghost Panic
Huge Difference in Ability
Ninja Info Card
The End of the Demon
Threat of the Tailed Beast (errata'd - 2 instead of 3)
Tragic Destiny (errata'd - Water only)
(a new card - some tutor for a 5 or 6 drop)

Water is the element of overwhelming power. Water's high drop ninjas are the strongest in the game, and it has the ability to both find them and protect them. It also has unique chakra control capabilities. Additionally, Water specializes in non-permanent removal - its removal bounces to either the hand or the deck, and its negation treats jutsus the same way. Water's weakness is that its card filtration only allows it to find ninjas, and its early game is the weakest in the game.

Wind: "He wished for power, but not enough."

Ninjas:
Baki [Cleaning Up]
Black Ant [Lifeless Warrior]
Chiyo [Retired Master]
Crow [Lifeless Warrior]
Ebisu [Repeated Defeat]
Gaara of the Desert [Conversation]
Gaara of the Desert [Reliance]
Gen Aburame [As a Father]
Kankuro [An Audacious Grin]
Katsuyu [Healer]
Kurenai Yuhi [Wits and Beauty]
Moegi [Rookie of the Leaf]
Sakura Haruno [A Double Personality]
Sakura Haruno [Reliance]
Sasori [Legendary Puppet Creator] (errata'd to have ambush)
Shino Aburame [Insect Warriors]
Shizune [Medical Kunoichi]
Shukaku (the new one)
Temari [Wind Charmer]
Temari [Gale Warning]
The Fifth Hokage [Establishment of Medicine]
Tsunade (Childhood) [Shown Signs of the Legends] (element-shifted - Wind only)

Jutsus:
Cliff-Climbing Training
Carrier Kite
Concealed Weapon
Coordination
Iron-Armed
Sand Cocoon (the new one)
Sealing Jutsu: Breaking the Lion's Roar
Secret Red Move: Performance of a Hundred Puppets
Wind Blade (errata - discard a ninja battling against the user)
Wind Scythe Jutsu (CotS)
Wind Style: Great Breakthrough
Unguarded Moment

Missions:
Arbitration
Barrier Preparation
Entrustment
Loss
Pass Permit
Puppet Fight: 10 vs 100!
Rules for Medical Ninja (element shifted - Wind only)
Sakura's Decision
Substitute

Wind is the element of serenity. Its card advantage/filtration is clean and doesn't come with the messy conditions and drawbacks of other elements. Its jutsus focus on wiping the board clean without any contingencies. As an element, Wind's strong points are its card advantage, ability to heal, and strong teams. Its weaknesses are that it has a lower overall power level (to counteract its drawing power) and while it is good at many things, is not exceptional at any. While this might lend itself to a role as solely a supporting element, its best jutsus are all extremely heavy on the Wind requirements - encouraging a Wind-heavy deck.

Multi-Element (incomplete right now):

Ninjas:
Naruto Uzumaki and Gaara of the Desert
Naruto Uzumaki and Shikamaru Nara [Reasonable Choice]
Sasuke Uchiha and Orochimaru [3 Years Later]

Missions:
Capture
Make-Out Tactics
Narrow Escape
Selecting the Strongest
The 9th Match

Squads:
Sasuke Uchiha and Orochimaru [Ambition and Desire]
Shikamaru Nara and Choji Akimichi [Leaf's Uncowed Elite]
Shino Aburame and Kiba Inuzaka [Reunion]

Clients:
Emina
Futaba
Sandayu Asama

This core set still needs some work (more Earth cards for example, and balance testing) but I think it gets across the general idea of what I'm trying to convey. Elements should define the themes - not the other way around.

-Josh

Labels: core set, design, josh, theory

A long time ago, in the days of curves only Ari could love, I wrote a blurb on Bandai about the importance of playing a frontloaded curve. My argument, though clumsy and not articulated clearly, was that it was important to maximize the value gained from each turn by making a drop. Missing a drop, I wrote, was akin to giving the opponent a free turn – a highly inefficient way to try to achieve victory.

This article is going to build on the basic theory advanced by the concept of a curve – or more specifically, the higher end of the curve. Too often, when people explain their decks, I see them categorize ninjas as “solid X drop,” where X is the particular turn cost of that card. That is particularly shoddy reasoning that leads to inefficient deck construction, and we all know inefficiency leads to game losses.

To illustrate what I mean, let’s take a look at some cards – a vanilla Sasuke and a 4^th Kazekage. Which card creates more value?

Well, taken at face value, of course the 4^th Kazekage is more powerful. It’s bigger, it has a stronger effect, it has a higher rank… and it only requires one wind card as a cost, right?

What must be remembered in this situation is that cards have more than one cost – turn cost is perhaps even more relevant than hand cost. When you play a card like the 4^th Kazekage, you aren’t just investing a ninja onto the board and a hand cost for it. You’ve already invested 6 turns into waiting to get it operational.

Barring any outside influence, your Kazekage will start accumulating value for you on turn 6. However, vanilla Sasuke can start accumulating value for you on turn 0. Intrinsically, the Kazekage has more value – but that assumes both start accumulating value at the same time. Of course, you’re going to see diminishing returns from your Sasuke each turn – but those returns come at a cost of just 1 turn and no hand cost, versus 6 turns and 1 hand cost. Thus your overall percentage return from that Sasuke could turn out much higher.

Furthermore, if you draw a Kazekage in your opening hand and the game ends on turn 5, essentially you received negative return on your investment. Not only did you not play your Kazekage, it also served as a pseudo-mulligan since you couldn’t play it. Basically you held the Kazekage for 5 turns in order for it to cost you a card.

This is why I never liked Gaara IP and the deck built around him. In the 40 card format, the deck often played 3 Gaara IP, 6 of his jutsus, 3 One Morning, a few other 4-5 drops, and some variant of Tsunade. In the 50 card format, it often went up to 9-10 jutsus as well as late game missions like Fellow and Loneliness. That means for the entirety of the deck’s existence, often 40% of the deck was composed of cards that required 4 turns of investment before they could come online – and even when they came online, they often required other cards to be useful.

So on paper, the deck looked super efficient, with Gaara IP not requiring a hand cost and all the aggressively-costed jutsus present in the deck. But in execution of a more detailed analysis, we find that 2 out of every 5 cards drawn don’t have any use until turn 4, and some won’t have any use without other cards. Thus the true cost of Gaara IP and his buddies was a lot more than just a 4 drop.

Does this mean we shouldn’t be playing 5 or 6 drops since they represent such variable return for such a huge time investment? Of course not – what this article is trying to explain is that for late game cards, you should only be playing cards that can win the game by themselves (or have Ambush, as Ambush gets around the problem of holding late drops in your hand). For example, cards like Itachi GiG, NVS, Jiraiya IOTHT, Yamato CBF, etc. – these are the types of game-winners that provide adequate return for the turn investment placed in them. Cards that provide the return of a lower drop but at the cost of a high drop should never be considered.

Going back to the beginning of the article, another concept I argued for back in those days was the concept of threat diversity – the idea that people should play ninjas with many different names in order to avoid missing drops (due to having a ninja with the same name in play). This was far more relevant in the 40 card format, but lessons can still be learned from it today. What’s important to understand about card costing is that each card also has an opportunity cost – putting card X into your deck means that hundreds of other cards won’t be put in instead. If card X has a comparable power level to those other cards, it might be worthwhile to diversify that drop. However, if card X is so good that the opportunity cost of playing it is minimal, you would want to maximize the copies of that card in your deck.

To summarize:

Turn cost is highly relevant when evaluating cards.

Don’t play a high drop if you can get the same value out of a lower drop.

Keep in mind the turn cost of jutsus. When will all those Trigrams and Mangekyos actually come online?

Don’t play too high a concentration of late game cards, unless you like drawing 6 card hands that are actually 4 card hands.

Your late drops should be game winners.

Threat diversity is important, but maximizing your best cards is more important.

-Josh

Labels: josh, ptw, theory

So I noticed a comment on my last post about my bad draw misadventures with Circus:

"that's why i don't like rush decks
It depends on what your opening hand is plus top decking twice as much as a regular deck"

That's one of the most common misconceptions about aggro. Let's break down the comment.

"It depends on what your opening hand is"

That is definitely the case for any deck - but in actuality, there is less of a probability of aggro getting a bad hand (since the curve distribution is skewed towards the low drops).

"plus top decking twice as much as a regular deck"

Ah but there's a flaw in assuming that topdecking is bad - assuming that topdecking means you've exhausted your hand, that should mean you're winning!

In Animals, topdecking usually means you've dumped a bunch of ninjas onto the board. In a deck like Hybrid NVS or Earth Tempo, that means you've hit them with some jutsus or Bashfulness in Earth's case. In traditional Tempo, that means you've played some free BR missions.

In all those cases, it means your opponent is under pressure and in a bad spot. In this case, your topdecking might actually be a superior situation to your opponent's full hand. You just have to draw something to blow the game open (I trust you ARE playing those... right? Shion, Baki, NVS, etc.). Your opponent, on the other hand, is forced to draw enough answers to the situation to answer the threat your deck is presenting - and then after that, they still have to actually win the game!

I've actually theorized a bunch of reasons why I prefer aggro decks... here's the whole list, conveniently typed in cliche form.

1. "You play to win the game!" - I would much rather prefer to force my opponent to interact with MY strategy rather than try to interact successfully with my opponent's strategy. The reason for that is...

2. "There are no wrong threats. There are only wrong answers." - When you play a deck predicated on reacting to the opponent's strategy, there are times when you'll be unable to answer your opponent's threats (whether due to not having the right answer or simply being unprepared for something you didn't see coming). I'd rather be on the side with the threats than the answers.

3. "My favorite combo is a ninja and Shadow Clone Jutsu." - There's an elegant simplicity that comes with savagely beating your opponent upside the head while they're trying to develop a board. Either they block and you blow them out, or they don't block and you take enough BRs to set up your kill shot.

4. "Better lucky than good." - If your opponent misses a drop, you will demolish them with an aggressive deck. And if you are more skilled than your opponent, forcing as many decisions on them as possible leaves them open to making more misplays. With an aggro deck, if they make the wrong call... they lose. Simple as that.

5. "Time is money." - Aggro (and swarm in particular) decks are ridiculously favored when going to time. Furthermore, playing a fast deck lets you get more downtime in between rounds to rest up.

6. "A bird in hand..." - Most decks are unprepared to face against a swarm or tempo strategy game 1 - rather, they rely on sideboarded cards to shore up the matchups in games 2 and 3. Here's the kicker though: they won't always draw those sideboarded cards, or you might be able to win through them (I won through Buying Time, Crying in Vain, and 2 Secret Meeting in one game at the Chunin). Furthermore, your opponent is no longer playing the optimal version of their deck. As an aggro player, provided you can win game 1, you only have to win 50% of the next 2 games. And if it goes to game 3, you know what hate they've brought in! You can do that, can't you?

And it just might be that aggro is easier to play and requires less testing. I am rather lazy, after all.

And a quick overview of the weaknesses of aggro, since it's not all rainbows and unicorns in Magical Christmasland.

1. "I'm Spartacus!" - Most decks will play most of the same early game ninjas (aggro just plays more of them). That means if your opponent hits their curve going first, you are going to need something extra to push for those first few BRs.

2. "Always a flaw in every plan." - When you don't get those early BRs, it becomes much, much harder to win with aggro. Your opponent's card quality is simply better than yours, and the longer the game goes on, the more those incremental differences add up.

3. "Circle of Protection: Red" - Every round against a competent player, you will see hate. Everyone good will have a sideboard against aggro. However, this will be true unless you play something completely out there. (Can't hate out Ninjaless Mill!)

4. Shino - yeah, that guy's a douche.

-Josh

Labels: josh, ptw, theory