December 18, 2012
We continue our week long review of Set
27, Hero's Ascension with my review of the Earth cards in the set.
I'll break down my thoughts on the element as a whole as well as give
you my impressions on what I feel are the five best cards for the
element. Check out the list after the jump.
Mini Research Tour: Keylyrics n' Shit
Last set, we were introduced to a whole
new set of keywords as a surprising and fresh start to the new Block
(Set 26 to 29), with each specific element receiving a special
keyword. Earth's keyword was Revitalize, which reads:
When
a card with REVITALIZE is moved to the Discard Pile from anywhere
(Village, Battlefield, Hand, etc) it will move to the bottom of your
deck instead.
This
is a replacement effect, and doesn't use the chain, as it isn't
triggered or activated, rather, it just happens in place of going to
the discard pile.
This
set, things were shifted around a little bit. Each element was given
the keyword of one of its closely associated elements. So while
Revitalize was sent off to try and do something useful in Wind, Earth
received Inherit from Fire. Inherit, for all of you out there, is the
following:
Valid:
When this Ninja would be discarded, remove it from the game instead.
In that case, target Ninja you control gets this Ninja cards effect
text (except Inherit) as long as it remains in play.
An
important thing to know is that Inherit will only apply if that Ninja
(which must be in play) is discarded. Getting outright removed from
game, or sent to another zone such as Hand or Chakra area will not
satisfy it's requirement. It only replaces an instance of that Ninja
being discarded either due to damage or a game effect that discards
it. Inherit is also mandatory, so when a Ninja with Inherit is
discarded, it is removed from play instead and then you must give its
effect to a target Ninja that you control.
In Fire, this effect was
on Ninjas that themselves had interesting activated effects, such as
Itachi Uchiha, who drew you cards for discarding Ninjas,
or Kakashi Hatake, who would negate a Jutsu and then Discard himself,
thus moving his Inherited effect onto someone else. It was a theme of
sacrificing a Ninja for a powerful effect, as well as being able to
pass that effect onto someone else.
Instead,
for Earth this set, Inherit focused on passing along Battle oriented
effects like giving extra Combat, giving growth coins, or giving
untargetable status to a Ninja. There were only three Earth Ninja
that received an Inherit effect, all of which were Entrance Cost 2 or
less. So while Fire was more often focused on higher turn Ninjas
passing effects down, Earth seems to be passing effects up.
I'll
get into which cards I think were the overall best that we've seen
from this element, save for the Super Rares, which I already reviewed
in Feudal Lord's Treasure Part 1, so instead, I will give you the Top
Five Earth cards, which is based on strength, playability, and
impact. Without further ado...
Set
27 Hero's Ascension Top Five Earth Cards
I'm
gonna do this reserve countdown style, starting with the “Not Best”
of the Five and working my way up, as an overall reverse of how MJM
did his list for Void in yesterday article, Comparative Strengths:
Set 27 Void.
Number
5: Overwhelming Hunger
This card squeaked in at the fifth position less because it is an Earth card, and more because of it's application and viability as a strong Side Board option in any Deck. For 2 of any Chakra (Which Must still have some kind of Symbol, so Chakra with no Symbols is not going to help us here), we get to kill Any Animal, be it ours (terrible plan), or our opponent's (good idea), even if that Animal is minding it's own business in the Village. As an added bonus, the user of the Jutsu gets healed. So what exactly is on the menu here in the Naruto CCG? Well, you can take a page from the recipe book of Ginkaku and Kinkaku and try a bite of Tailed Beast,
Or
as I like to call them, That Cat, The Monkey, The Sea Horse, and
Kabuterimon
Or,
if you're a fan of Cuisses
de Grenouille,
you have a hefty choice of amphibians to fill your gut,
Mull
to Four does not condone the consumption of sentient beings, even if
they are toads
Like
it or not (Wikipedia guide my hand) we can't forget the very real
occurrence of mutton
of the earth
or roof
rabbit,
which comes in plenty of varieties, from felines with the mark of
Lord Voldemort upon their brow, to mission blocking canines,
This
Jutsu is actually kind of sick, the more I think about it
And
we cannot forget the exotic sprinkling of multitudes of other
species, whether they be hand painted Fish or Birds, Centipedes,
Chameleons, Rhinos, Taijutsu wielding Ostriches, and
even the occasional Inuzuka clan member.
If
the popularity of the Tailed Beast decks maintains as it has since
Set 24, two of this Jutsu in your sideboard, or even three if your
local meta game finds the Deck extremely popular, will do nothing but
help you out. Just remember, next time you stop by Ichiraku Ramen,
I'd make sure I knew exactly what I was ordering.
The
4th
One: Power of the Trio
When
I originally started piecing together my Top Five list, this card not
been previewed yet. When I saw it, and read it over, and did a bit a
searching through Block Legal Ninjas that fit the criteria, I started
to warm up to it more and more.
Ino on the other hand has plenty of playable versions in [Power of Kunoichi], [Stalwart Mind], [Academy Training], and [Pressing]. Her father, Inoichi Yamanaka [Mind Destruction] is no slouch either. Despite being an estranged ginger relative, Foo [Body Transfer Trap] fits the criteria as well.
Shino'sDad
Secret Technique: The Human Path of Pain, who received a reprint this
set, has Mind too
As
for Shikamaru and his family, both Mom and Pops got a reprint in the
Set 25 Earth Starter Deck with Shikaku Nara [As a Father] and Yoshino Nara [As a Mother], and Shikamaru Nara himself has enough playable
versions to choose from for any type of Earth Deck you'd want to
play, between [Ouwit], [Shadow Barbs], [Supreme Strategist], or [Tactical Paragon].
The
make or break moment for this card is going to be just how many
'Food', 'Mind', or 'Shadow' Ninjas you plan to play in your Deck.
Earth already sees a lot of use in Shikamaru Nara [Outwit], and Ino
Yamanaka (Childhood) [Academy Training] is a card that many people
think is Too powerful now. Both see a lot of play in the Revitalize
version of Earth. On the Permanent Earth Deck front, Shikamaru Nara
[Outwit] again sees almost always three of status play, and Choji
Akimichi [Inner Strength] allows for some interesting plays when it
comes to dumping a BBQ that you might want gone. As for Mental Power
Earth, The Nara family can make full use of this Mission to curve out
their Ninjas starting on Turn 1.
Don't
forget that while rarer and rarer these days, there are still Ninjas
that trigger this Mission that have Growth, and growthing one of
those Ninjas will search for a Ninja as well. Squading into a 'Food',
'Mind', or 'Shadow' Ninja also works, so Shikamaru Nara & Asuma Sarutobi or even the Ino Yamanaka, Choji Akimichi, & Shikamaru Nara Squad will do the trick as well.
Although
the most popular Earth Deck right now it the Revitalize Deck, there
is still chance over the next few sets and all into next rotation to
see a new style that can benefit from a Mission that fills out your
Ninja curve without much effort.
Numero
Tres: Choji Akimichi [Power of Food]
This
is one of those three Earth Ninja that received Inherit this set, and
in my opinion, is the best of the three (the other two being Ino
Yamanaka [Abrasive Attitude] and Hinata Hyuga [Bashful Personality]
). Barring some sort of solid effect that either helps you stall a
bit in the early turns or draws you cards, Entrance Cost 0 Ninjas are
going to want to have four or more Combat. While Choji doesn't
technically always fit that description, his effect comes in handy by
allowing him to Attack as a 4/0 Ninja. Even when he is injured, he
still offers at least 1 Power to the Team as well, whereas all too
many Ninjas drop straight to 0/0 in injured (What we liked to call
Sasuke Syndrome back in the day). The real draw though comes from the
fact that his eventual death will not be without some benefit.
Unless
that Turn 0 Ninja has plans to try and survive to Turn 6 and go Super Saiyan like Jirobo (State 1), or has aspiring dreams of becoming that actor from Who's the Boss, they're going to sign up for chump
blocking duty around Turn 3 and head for the big Discard Pile in the
sky. The Ninja that is lucky enough to Inherit Choji's effect now
enjoys that +2/+0 boost on the Attack, and if you're attaching it to
any Ninja worthy of being a Head Ninja, this can give you that small
edge that you need to overpower your opponent and force them to play
the first Jutsu.
Number
2: Neji Hyuga [Genius of the Hyuga]
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Alright,
so there are a lot of good things going for this Ninja, and that's
why he is in the number two position. We've got a Turn 4 Jonin Ninja
with Solid stats and a relevant Combat Attribute. To top it all off,
he has an effect that is not only valid, but can be applied any
number of times per turn, and literally turns him into an unkillable
tank.
Neji's
effect is an replacement effect that allows you to, in place of him
taking any damage at any time, move up to the same number of Earth
cards in your Discard Pile to the bottom of your Deck. They target
him with Dragon Flame Jutsu? That's fine, two Earth cards to the
bottom of my Deck instead. He's still going to lose the Battle?
That's fine, one or two Earth cards to the bottom of the Deck. Only
hard removal of some kind such as something like Wind Style: Rasen Shuriken, Rasengan, or Double Lariat is going to put him out of
commission. So long as you have Earth cards in your Discard Pile,
Neji can soak any hit. If only we had a reliable way to keep cards in
our Discard Pile...
Neji
wants to tell you an Intriguing Story about how his best friend is a
little girl
That's
right, Ino Yamanaka (Childhood) once again swoops in to fill a very
useful niche. The two cards compliment each other perfectly. Ino
mills cards for Neji to put back, and Neji makes sure that you always
have cards to mill with Ino. An endless cycle that affords you not
only an extra card each turn, but a Ninja that cannot take damage at
all. While this strategy doesn't work too well in Revitalize, as your
main goal is to get to ten or less cards in your Deck by Turn 6 and
spam away with Spontaneous Tree Summoning, breakout variations of
Earth are bound to pop up eventually, and with the immense popularity
of Ino Yamanaka (Childhood), having a way to refill your Deck is an
important priority. Having an Ninja that can't be damaged is icing on
the cake.
Number
1: Asuma Sarutobi [Knockout Punch]
When
this card was previewed, people were still settling down from the
storm that was Jonin's Intervention (Which I will discuss on Saturday, unless of course the world ends on Friday). This card didn't help slow down
that storm, and only added to it. Interestingly enough, for those who
have been hip to the game since its early days, we've seen a very
similar Asuma before, sort of.
I
like to think of this card as “I'm never going to get to make any
use of my effect”-sensei
Twenty
three sets later, Asuma's discrimination has been widened to any
Non-Leaf Ninja, though having grown old and technically dead at this
point, he can only get in a single good punch on one guy, rather than
the whole lot of them. Of course, he also sits comfortably at Turn 4
with good stats that befit any mid-late game Ninja.
As
for the impact of his effect on the format, it all depends on the
Deck you're playing against. Earth
and Lightning have near complete immunity, with almost every Ninja
that sees play from either element being exclusively Leaf Ninja.
Fire
comes next, save for a few standout Ninjas such as Tsukado, Chainya,
and Bartender Cat, the former being a very popular card all around
for the aggro potential, and the latter two featuring prominently in
Tailed Beast Decks.
Wind
is third as they have a few Leaf Ninja that sit around Turn 2 in
Sakura Haruno [Identity Swap], and sideboard material Shino Aburame [Silence], otherwise Wind is populated in the lower drops by Sand Ninjas and Hotaru “Jugs” Katsuragi.
Water
will always have something to hit, ranging from Jirobo (State 1) to
make sure they never go State 2, Sea Monster who is just an annoying
wall, Karin [Absorption] who is an excellent target, as her effect is
relevant throughout the game, and beat stick Haku or troublesome
Suigetsu [Dehydrated] as well. Only the ever diligent Shimon Hijiri [Keeping an Eye] dodges Asuma's angry fist.
Lastly
we have Void, who is going to lose a Ninja from Asuma's effect every
time. A choice target might be Pain (Naraka Path), though by that
time they'll most likely have Heretical Icon out and ready to revive
Naraka Path on their next turn anyways. A solid target remains in
Giant Rhino though, who just gets stronger each turn, as well as
giving your opponent's Ninjas protection from effect negation.
Even
if you don't manage to drop this guy early with a Jonin's
Intervention, he gives you a substantial advantage when it comes to
field size over your opponent, especially if you go first, giving you
a possible five Ninjas to your opponent's now three Ninja. If you
happened to have broken one of their bigger Power Teams from
discarding one of their Ninja, that sets you up for a powerful Attack
during that turn, and Asuma is a perfect candidate for going in solo,
due to his 6 combat overpowering nearly any single Ninja in that
point of the game.
He also has Revitalize, which isn't incredibly relevant to the card itself or any real interactions that he has with other cards, but it means that if you happen to be playing a card like Ino Yamanaka (Childhood) in the Deck, you don't risk milling off all of your copies.
Be sure to check back tomorrow for MJM's review of both of our favorite element, Water.
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