Mull to Four Gaming

It was the best of times, it west the worst of times. This game has been on a steady decline since around Set 16. The signs weren't obvious at first, but as the player base cried for better support of the game, the game continued to worsen. Cards were imbalanced, prize support was lacking, opportunity was scarce, and the player base was just awful. Yet, for some odd reason, we found hope in this declining card game; Bandai saw similar hope and pushed reform and change. But, despite all this, this game we all loved suddenly died. Died from what you ask? Simply put, a broken heart.

Before we continue, let's recount a few of the major events in history that has been associated with this day, May 1st.

• Adolf Hitler's Death
• Osama Bin Laden's Death
• Naruto CCG's Death
• MJM's AP United States History Final
• The May flowers caused by April showers

Hey everyone, sorry for not posting much over the past week or so. I would have been at the New York Jonin Event today, but the Shonen Jump at the same location is the following week, and rather than travel twice, I figured I would just wait for the larger event. Since I'm not there, I can't really do live coverage at all, but I can link you to the Facebook Page for the event itself where the Head Judge is posting round by round listings and you can discuss the event in full as well.


New York Jonin Facebook Page


Be sure to like the page to keep up to date with any notifications as well as make your predictions on who will end up topping the event or not. Currently there are 38 players present. This is also the first event where the free Bye system for winning a Chunin event is taking place, so we'll have to see if that prize helps or harms Saul Pena, Eric Hill, and Adrian Matuszewski. Be sure to check back occasionally. Currently they are in Round 2, and the highlight match appears to be Scott Holbrook (Genre) vs Saul Pena (Zbkillaz). This will be a pivotal match in deciding if Saul has any chance of achieving Top 8 or not.

So I know that I promised the final two parts of the Stormy Battle Series by Friday, but with the such rush of the Information Extraction happening, and a few other things occupying both staff member's time, we never were able to fully finish it. Regardless, I'll likely be posting an overall summary on Set 28 soon, as well a few articles on some new decks that have sprung up with the release of the new set.  I did have time to do a bit of interesting things last night though. Hit the jump to find out what...

First and foremost allow me to apologize for the lack of content on Mull to Four in the past week or two, I've been really busy with life in general. I'm aware we skipped the Stormy Battle segment last week. I'm not completely sure if we're going to  make it up or go on ahead, but we should know soon. However, today, I have for you something that makes up for all that. Hit the jump for "previews"!

Hello again readers, I'm glad you returned to Mull to Four today. I'm going to be going off of the assumption that you have our blog under your favorites or your bookmarks bar. If it is not in one of those locations, I highly recommend you do so now. But let's move on...

So far we've covered the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist, the Jinchuriki and their Biju, and everything that's happened to fall in between. Today, in this week's Stormy Battle, we'll wrap up the Jinchuriki theme—well, we'll really just do Kinkaku—and continue on to the four or five Ninja that has gotten everybody excited for this set. Hit the jump if you dare to enter this Stormy Battle!

So recently, I noticed a spike in traffic from two really odd locations.  One of them being Saiyan Island Forums, a place that talks about anime and manga and stuff.  The other was the Naruto Viz Forums, which is the forum that is directly connected to the Naruto.com website where you can watch week late subs of Naruto Shippuden. I thought to myself, why am I getting hits from such obscure locations that have nothing to do with the Naruto CCG? Investigating, I realized that it wasn't at all because of the Naruto CCG, at least not directly, but because of Ultimate Ninja Storm 3.

Apparently, ever since Bandai started posting previews on Facebook, the people who all are hyped up over the game have been using the previewed cards to help reinforce their speculation on the list of playable characters for the game.  That makes sense I suppose, since Andy did say that all the images were from the game, so if there is a Ninja card of a character, they're in the game in some form.  What I wasn't expecting was for there to be a large portion of forumites calling our exclusive previews out on being Fake. This sort of threw me for a loop.  Why would they be calling our preview fakes?  Apparently, because it wasn't posted on the official Bandaicg Facebook.  So, first, I'd like to thank Andy for not at least giving everyone a heads up via the Facebook page that there were going to be other previews on other Credible websites.  I can't be angry really, since I don't think anyone expected people to be so block headed as to assume "Not on Facebook not Real."  It isn't like other card games dispense previews to other websites that aren't Pokemon.com or Wizards.com. Oh wait, yeah they do.

I don't know why, but I felt obliged to take 10 minutes out of my day to make accounts on both forums and attempt to fill everyone in on how they were mistaken.  Saiyan Island seemed to take kindly enough to it, even though I was told not to talk off topic due to my post.  I don't know how the Viz Naruto forums have received my mind blowing revelation yet though, but I'll be sure to at least check maybe later.

The point being is this though, is this website not credible enough for sources of information?  Does our mere 34 Likes on our Facebook Page that I did offhand mean that we aren't popular enough to merit actually listening to what we have to say? (Or apparently even reading the part that says Exclusive Previews Given To Us By Bandai Directly).  What should I do to increase our credibility? Should I make posters and stuff?  Or would something as simple as asking Tylar or Andy to just say "Hey, places like Mull to Four and 2ezForums are legit sources of information about the game." Because apparently Pojo is official  even though they aren't specifically endorsed by Bandai either. Seems a bit hypocritical to me.

If you hadn't caught on, it's still technically Monday, which means that this was my Monday Rant article.  I'm going to happily link you to the forums I mentioned above, specifically to the pages that I discovered the dubious nature of human beings. Feel free to read them, and even make an account and let everyone know "Hey, Shino'sDad and MJM are cool guys who don't ever post fake cards" (At least not with the intent of saying These Are Real) [Ok I did that once or twice back on The Perfect Curve, but it was all in good fun].

You might have to read in a few pages for each to really get an idea of just how shallow these people can be, but it's worth it.

Saiyan Island Discussion about the Fake Mull to Four Previews 

Naruto Viz Forums Discussion about the Fake Mull to Four Previews 

After closer inspection, it seems that the same guy, -Haku Yuki- is the one decrying us in both instances.  Let's give him a large round of applause for being a shallow misinformed human being.

MJM had a rant, but he didn't finish it. Maybe next week. Until then, stay angry on Monday everyone.

So this week, the week of Sunday, January 27th, we've had some crazy previews. They revealed most of the Seven Swordsmen theme, it's strange we're missing one, the reanimator himself, and started to reveal the Jinchuriki and their Tailed Beasts. Hit the jump for the reviews.

Yes, Mondays are usually for rants, and MJM still may post a rant today, but I am instead going to ramble.  Don't worry, that's a good thing in this case, because I'll be going over everything that we have planned coming up on Mull to Four.


- Rulings Articles

I am currently working on a series of Research Tour articles that delve deep into the inner workings of the Naruto CCG and help explain a lot of the intricacies that will help make anyone a better player overall. Expect articles on effect types, timings, and overall interaction between cards.  My goal is to get the community informed and to help promote a better understanding of the game so that players can all enjoy playing competitively on a more even level or just are able to have fun and understand completely what their cards do.

- Deck Articles

MJM and I have been testing a bunch decks recently and comparing them to what the current meta is running at the moment.  Once we finalize our lists, we will probably post deck articles on some of them.  There are a few that we may want to keep secret for now, but for example, I plan to do an article on my version of the Shimon Field Control Deck very soon.

- Match Commentary

MJM and I have plenty of games that we can post commentary on, and we will be doing that as well.  Most likely, the videos will be tied into Deck articles that we post, unless we just want to commentate on random matches.  Once we get around to actual events, videos of live matches will be coming as well.

- PREVIEWS

Set 28, Ultimate Ninja Storm 3, was announced this weekend, and I wasted no time in securing that Mull to Four will be receiving previews.  I can't say just how many or what yet, as I don't even know, but hopefully we will receive some cards that we can discuss in depth and really offer some good insight on.

- Another (arguably easier) Contest

So, the last contest wasn't much of a contest because nobody won, that sort of made it an exercise in futility. The point in holding a contest after all, it for someone to win.  Our next contest that will be posted in February will not be a challenge of your Mental Power, but rather something else, which means someone is certain to win.  More to come on this about a week before the contest is actually announced.

- New Site Template

I know, I have been meaning to get around to this since the beginning of the year.  The black background is too much of a stark contrast to the normal paler background of most other websites, and I've found that after reading an article on Mull to Four, switching back to such a brighter screen can be jarring on the eyes.  I apologize for this and plan to remedy it shortly.


Well, that's mostly it for now. Be sure to check back daily for any updates, which we will be announcing both in our thread on the Naruto CCG forum Here, and our Facebook Page Here.

So the contest ended today, and I'd just like to thank everyone for their entries.  We received well over twenty or so entries for the contest, which I think was pretty good for the first one.  Interestingly enough, we received entries from all over the world for this contest, including places such as Chile, Mexico, Canada, Italy, and Australia.  Shout out to Kirax7 who submitted a really cool graphic flow chart as his answer, which came out really nice.  Obviously, this wasn't an easy contest in that it required a bit of thinking, which I can understand might be a turn off for some folks.  I promise the next contest will be much more user friendly.  Now, for the bad news...

We did not receive any correct entries.

Believe me, I wanted to give stuff away, I really did.  MJM and I have made a video explaining the correct answer below, and I go into detail on each individual step.

Giant Eagle was the main perpetrator of the whole thing, as many people did not understand how his effect is placed on the chain and has to resolve, rather than occurring right away.  Asuma was also point of contention as many folks thought he immediately discarded the top 2 cards of your deck when he triggered, which he does not.  Again, I go into detail in the video below.




In light of this all, I have decided that I am going to be doing a lot more Research Tour articles very soon, and will be going into greater detail about the different types of effects that exist in the game and the way their can be modified.  I am going to make it my duty to make sure that everyone will be able to tell an Optional Activated Effect with Condition from an Optional Triggered Effect with Cost by the time I am done.  

It had been recently announced that the tournament structure for the Naruto CCG was getting a major overhaul.  Chunins saw a major increase in prizing in the form of exclusive promos, Jonin events were announced to be returning and being better than ever, and Shonen Jump Championships are allegedly going to be amazing.  The first round of Chunin event locations have already been posted for Quarter One, and it is now just up to those venues to choose a date to hold their events.  Plan to start attending these new and improved Chunin Events by the end of the month and into February.

As for the Jonin events, the way those are working is that eight locations around North America (Not just the US? See below) who have had a consistent high attendance for their events were selected to have the chance to run a Jonin event during this year.  Those eight locations have been tentatively decided, and barring any problems from the venue side itself, these will be the eight locations for the 2013 Jonin events:


Carta Magica – Montreal, QC 

Currently the only venue outside of the United States that was chosen to receive a Jonin event.  If I am not mistaken, this is the home turf of 2012 Champion Kevin Perron.  It will be interesting to see who makes the trip up to attend this event.  Though, even if only Canadians attend this event, the number of players should be rather high.

Pandemonium Books & Games – Cambridge, MA 

New England as a whole has been known for their high concentration of players, centralized mostly around Massachusetts.  They proved that they definitely had the numbers to host and support a high level event when they were finally bestowed an SJC last year, which happened to have The highest attendance of all SJC that year (Gencon doesn't count) with 69 players.  They also happened to have held a 22 person Chunin event just recently in December.

EPIC Games– Tehachapi, CA 

A location that hosted an SJC last year.  I personally do not know much around the West Coast players or who still plays, but they fielded the second highest numbers last year, so the game must still be going on over there.

Redhawk Gaming – Mooresville, IN 

Indiana has always seemed to have a strong playerbase from what I have seen before.  While they were low on the attendance count this time around, it just made the cut it seems.  It should be noted that Indiana stands out a bit over other states due to having a large amount of active venues.

Heroes & Fantasies (Summit Pkwy) - San Antonio, TX 

Texas has a lot of venues, but it seems that Heroes & Fantasies was able to eke their way out above the rest by sporting a pretty solid amount of players for each of the most recent local events, as well as having a pretty successful Chunin recently.  San Antonia is pretty deep into the heart of Texas, but I believe that if every Texas player made the trip, they'd have a really solid turnout.

Game Parlor – Chantilly, VA 

Game Parlor has been the location for many an SJC over the past few years, and it really only makes sense that they end up being able to host a Jonin with the numbers they usually get for such large events.  The East Coast overall has been a good place to be for this game recently, and players are usually willing to travel up and down the coast to attend events, and Game Parlor Chunins have been pretty consistent as well over the year.

Mark’s Comics – Valley Stream, NY 

New York has had a lot of big events in the past, with venues that rotate in and out of existence as time goes on.  Mark's Comics has been a consistent location over the year it seems, including a special event that was held that garnered more than 30 people due to an extensive amount of special prizing that the Meijin himself put up for everyone. Otherwise the standard turn out appears to be between 11 and 15, sometimes reaching up into the low 20's.  I can't be completely certain because Austin should consider submitting all of his events rather than just 60% of them.

R.I.W Hobbies – Livonia, MI 

Kim Logie's personal venue.  They had an extremely successful SJC earlier in the year, while their second event later on faltered a bit with about half the attendance prior, It's still a good location overall that is accessible to a large variety of players.


As I said above, this is the preliminary list that was released, in other words the locations that currently qualify.  If you are the Meijin of any of these locations, I urge you to get in contact with Andy at doa@bandai.com on order to start making arrangements for when you are going to hold your event this year.  If you happen to be a player in that state or even know the Meijin of one of those locations, I also urge you to get in contact with them and make sure that they get in contact with Andy so that you can be sure that planning for the event can begin.  Things are looking up for the Naruto CCG in 2013 it seems.

Happy New Year everybody, I hope this year treats you better than the last. Last year we've witnessed many new feats in the Naruto CCG, design wise, and I'm sure there is more to come. Despite this great amount of design, good and bad, put into the past few sets, many people still do not like what we are getting. I'm 100% positive that this dislike stems from simple ignorance. This, my friends, is where the Picture Book segment comes in. Hit the jump to be educated in card design, theory, and everything else in between.