December 14, 2012

Set 27: Hero's Ascension hits stores today and you should have seen all of the set. If you haven't, you can check out the whole set on the Card List. If you want some more insight on the cards found in Set 27, you're in luck. As you know, this past Wednesday, Shino'sDad put up the first part of the Super Rare Overview, which you can find here. I'm sure you're aware that this is Part 2. Next week we are going to go through every element and discuss the top five cards from Set 27: Hero's Ascension and discuss their impact on the game. But enough about that, I'm going to pick up where Shino'sDad left off and discuss the rest of the Super Rares in the set. Just as Shino'sDad did, I will be discussing the remaining Super Rares in the order they appear on the Card List.





The first Super Rare I have for you is another Madara Uchiha that shouldn't be Madara Uchiha. Before I continue, if any of the readers out there agree with the following post, you are free to skip on to the next Super Rare...


At first this card seems like it is really good, not for the exact reasons posted by the user in the above post, but just because of the fact that it can swarm out with Tailed Beast Ninjas or even The Nine-Tailed Fox Spirit. Once you get passed the fact that it's the highly anticipated Masked Man, who has Jonin, he's not that good. In the Tailed Beast deck you are most likely going to have your desired Tailed Beasts on the board before Turn 6, especially since Two Tails and Angering the Beast let you get them out earlier. But hey, what do I know? This guy seems to know how to play this card.


Despite the fact that he's not that good of a card, he does have some redeeming qualities; though these qualities are more aesthetic than they are practical. I like the fact that he keeps the Madara stats of a 7/3 5/3. Desperation was a nice touch, though I don't see anyone really using his effect more than once a turn considering he has a cost of three Chakra. Jonin, while I don't agree with, was, I'm sure, added by Tylar to give easy wins to the opponents of those who would use Masked Man with Jonin's Intervention. Akatsuki, an addition that is questionable, and Genjutsu were given mainly for playability. Overall, the card is not as good as it seems and will probably be worth money only because it's the Masked Man.


The only Facebook comments for this card were about his Sacrifice misspelling. No need to show you that.

When this guy was previewed everybody immediately jumped on the fact that you couldn't play it since it's name was "Kisame Hoshigake". Well thankfully he's gotten an errata before he was even released. Small matters aside, he's actually a pretty good card. He doesn't require you to go through hoops, like paying the Hand Cost with a Shark Skin Jutsu card or something, to play him. There really is no reason not to turn your Kisame into this guy. Kisame is the epitome of Chakra control and his effect reflects it; the ability to discard three Chakra, in most cases, on the Attack and the Block is crazy. Kisame in a team with The 3rd Hokage will almost always mean your opponent is never going to play Jutsu again. The only thing limiting his playabilty is the fact that he's a Reinforcement. There aren't too many good Kisame in format, most are decent. I'd rather play the reprinted Zabuza as a 5 Drop to bring back Haku and potentially go into this with them. However, he's still a solid card, despite what people on Facebook say.



Let's be honest, this was the card everyone, and I mean everyone, wanted to see. You didn't care about Killer Bee (Version 2) or Kisame Shark Mode, you wanted to see the new Kabuto. It's good that it didn't disappoint. This is, in my opinion, one of the strongest Super Rares in this set. It has great stats, keeping the 4 Support while Injured as well as Healthy, in addition to it's Mental Power of 5. Having Jonin means that you can abuse him as early as Turn 1 thanks to the new Jonin's Intervention. But before we continue, let me show you that there is hope in the world of the Naruto CCG.


This intelligent man has got it correct; we all know what the intent of Kabuto was, however the wording proves otherwise. I doubt this will affect his play, some sort of errata or clarification will be implemented and all will be well. Nonetheless, it is nice to see that there are some people who do read.

Back to what I was talking about, Jonin's Intervention is a very good card with this Kabuto. Not only does it act as medium to bring out even more Jonin or high powered Ninjas, but it can do this for the whole game. This means if you have a second copy in your Discard Pile, you can activate the effect by removing itself from game. Then, you can bring the second one into play, meaning it is no longer under the influence of Jonin's Intervention. Note that the Mission will stay in your Village until it is removed from play due to an effect or game mechanics.

Another way to abuse this card, rather, always have a Ninja to sacrifice, is with the Hidan from Set 25: Kage Summit. Since Hidan sends hiself to your Discard Pile when he would be removed from game, you'll always have a cost for Kabuto's effect if you give up a Battle Reward. This might be worth it, it might not. Just remember that you can only use Hidan's effect if his Entrance Cost meets your Turn Marker. 

Other than that there isn't much to complain about. His Stats, although very good, are still lacking when Injured, however this is a portrayal of his abilities in the anime/manga. The major reason why he doesn't have Water's keyword of Desperation is because it would get crazy with Hidan. Two Battle Rewards to play two amazing Ninja from your Discard Pile? That seems a little strong, especially every turn.


This card did not have many interesting Facebook comments.
Shino'sDad discussed the Starter Deck Deva Path with you and it's fitting that I take Sage Mode. This one is no way as good as the original and not as versatile as the promo, but it's just strong enough to be a unique Starter Deck Super Rare. The ability to negate the effects of three Ninjas and make them 0/0 for the turn, every turn, is pretty strong. This card is pretty one-dimensional; you play him, you disarm three Ninja, you repeat. The addition of Flashpoint is a nice touch that can make his effect lethal.

There are a lot of things that hinder his playability though. The first being his Entrance Cost. Most games are coming to a close at Turn 7, or it's clear who's going to be the winner; he just speeds up the process. The second is his card type. He's a regular Ninja, not a Reinforcement like his past two incarnations. While this is a pretty cool concept, he's too late to be of any real use. He's a solid card with a strong effect nonetheless.


Unfortunately, this card did  not have any significant Facebook comments either...

I'll admit, this is probably my favorite Earth card in the Set. The effect has never been done before, to this degree at least. Maybe I just like it too much because it reminds of Stock, a card I played back a few years back to combat the Kakashi Hatake [True Allies] that was limited to one. Overall, this card is very unique, which may actually be its downfall.

Critics will complain that it is heavily costed and it has a very small pool of users. This pool consists of, its original user Foo, Inoichi, the Ino/Shika/Cho Squad, and the newly reprinted Pain (Human Path). Now what this means is you can only deploy a Ninja from your opponent's Deck that has an Entrance Cost of 4 or less, unless you alter the User's Entrance Cost. In my opinion, the only thing holding back the playability of this card is the lack of good users.

Shino'sDad and I came to the conclusion that the most of this Set's Super Rares were given their Super Rare status because of their uniqueness or something along that line; this card is just that. Three Earth is not that bad of a cost, we play Dragon Flame, which also has a cost of three. This card will see more play in Earth when the circumstances are correct.

What do you mean MJM?

Well to answer your question, I'll call upon the previously mentioned card, Stock. Back then, I used the card, in my Sideboard, because of all the True Allies decks that were rampaging through the format. The card, once you read it, isn't really that good. I didn't have any cool combos with the card, and my only user was Karin, who I played three of and got every game since she was key to the deck. The reason why I played the card was because of the Rogue List. Kakashi [True Allies], one of the strongest cards in the True Allies Deck, was limited to one. Remember this was before people started using recursion in their True Allies, other than Kakashi of course. Stock was good because it got rid of their third [True Allies] Ninja, but not only that, it got rid of their only recursion Ninja. Kakashi was vital to that Deck's ability to generate Chakra and draw cards; now it was gone. If any limiting happens, Puppet Curse is definitely going to see play.



This is another one of those unique effects. Removal is nothing new, neither is giving up Battle Rewards, but putting them together in coordination with the Jutsu's actual effects makes for a hell of a card. I'll admit it, this card will not see play. The Requirements are too steep. The Users are only Turn 5 or 6 Ninja, unless you want to pay four Chakra to use it with the newly reprinted Fourth Hokage (Childhood). In addition, the cost is multicolored, which is counterproductive to Tylar's idea of going back to Mono-Colored Decks. Nonetheless, it's a very flavorful card and might be seen as a one-of in many decks, just for the pure surprise factor.

There are few cool combos with the card that might boost its playability. You can play this with Kurenai from Set 26. This combo denies your opponent from the Battle Rewards they would win after you remove their Ninjas from game. This means you just payed three Chakra to remove three Ninjas from the game. Not bad at all.



Water Prison Shark Dance Jutsu is the most underrated and my final card for you. This is one of those aforementioned unique effects that warrant Super Rare status. Many people immediately dismissed this card upon its unveiling. I honestly think this card a strong card that can see play.

Look at it this way, for two chakra, against any non-Water Deck, you now have a team that will win an Outstanding Victory against any other team, not accounting for Jutsu of course. But really, that wasn't even a perfect case scenario, think about it. This Jutsu makes it so the opposing Ninjas are 0/0. This can't be changed or altered. Usually stat changes aren't too good in the game, unless they have another effect that actually does something, I.E. Rasengan and Lion's Mane. This card is more than a stat change, you can pretty much see the card as this.


Assuming there are no Water Ninjas in your opponent's Team, you either get an Outstanding Victory, they chump block, or you get 2 Battle Rewards. If they block, either with a real team or with a single Ninja, you get to discard their Chakra with the aforementioned Kisame and 3rd Hokage, and with the latter possibly when a Battle Reward. This card should not be slept on. Although it can only be used by Kisame, Kisame is still a decent Ninja to play, especially since many of his incarnation in rotation have Ambush. This card, while attached to the newly reprinted Kisame, allows you to swing every turn with it alone and remove two of your opponent's Chakra from game. This card is not a bad card by any means.


Well, that's it for this article. I apologize for the briefness of this one as opposed to the length of Shino'sDad Part 1. He enjoys going into the inner workings of the card's rulings. Remember, we have elemental reviews all next week starting Monday, so stay tuned for that.


{ 1 comments... read them below or add one }

  1. Great commentary on those cards. Also enjoyed the tech you were playing during the true allies format.

    ReplyDelete

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