February 17, 2013
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...
Throughout this game's history, there have been several game mechanics that have been overlooked or taken for granted by many players. I'm not speaking of the big ones such as removing from game, squading, or anything of the sort. The first that comes to my mind—well, actually, the first that comes to my mind is the mechanic of Platoons and Platooning, but that's a different story for a differenet time—is that of organizing.
In this game team organizing is a crucial yet unimportant component of the Naruto CCG. Why is this? Well it's because organizing only matters when something has happened and you need to take advantage of it or mitigate the damage it will cause. What am I talking about? Let's use a common exchange found in tournaments of larger proportions as an example.
Player A: "Naruto." Deploys a Naruto Uzumaki Ninja card on top of a Team of Sasuke Uchiha & Sakura Haruno.
Player B: "Okay." Notices that he has technically organized.
Player A: "The Warhawk." Plays a The Warhawk Mission card and pays its Hand Cost.
Player B: "No. You organized."
See what I mean? Player A did technically organize by placing Naruto in a team with another Ninja, yet he never declared his intent to move on to the next phase of the game. Like I said, organization only matters when something is on the line.
Now, as we move on from the Research Tour-esque part of the article, it's funny how irrelevant organizing is yet we have tons of cards that allow for extra or more efficient organization. The first one was from Set 1. Anyone remember Specific Instructions? I doubt many of you actually will. The card is not very good at first glance, mainly because of its Symbol and Entrance Cost, however it was unique that it allowed Organization during your opponent's Mission Phase.
Years later we got what is considered to be the most relevant of all the organization cards: the Moving Ninjas. Yes it's true, a filler episode/arc resulted in decent copies of Naruto, Hinata, and Choji. Why where these little guys so good? Well they were all relevant Ninja in that they could be squaded off later in the game and, for the most part, they had decent/good stats. About four sets later we got their jacket as a Mission card. Unfortunately, this card did not see as much, or any, play.
Nonetheless, any player can tell you how great it was to be able to organize teams during your opponent's Mission Phase with the three little movers. Their effect was great in that it was attached to well stated, relevant 0 Drop. In essence, it was just icing on the cake.
The other overlooked mechanic is that of team size. For the most part, we all assume the maximum team size is three and move on with our lives. However, this limit has been broken by several card effects as early as Set 3. The effect being its namesake, Four Man Squads allowed you to organize Teams of 4, putting you at a big advantage, as far as Team Power goes, against your opponent.
A set later we got the first incarnations of the Four Sound Ninja, Kidomaru, Jirobo, Sakon, and Tayuya. Using the aforementioned Four Man Squads as a base, their effect allowed them to be in a Team of 4 if they were all in a team. The only problem was that they were all 3 Drops and were stated horribly, aside from Tayuya and arguably Kidomaru. Assuming you dropped them one after the other starting from Turn 3, you would have all four on the board by Turn 6. However, the strongest team power you could make was a 13...
Alright enough with this history lecture, let's get on to the preview. The preview today is actually a mixture of the two aforementioned, overlooked game mechanics; however it shares a name with one the previously stated Missions yet it keeps the symbol of the other.
It actually doesn't share the exact name because the "Squad" is plural in the aforementioned Mission...
At first glance you're likely to pass this card off as trash. Trust me I did the same thing. Then I actually realized the beauty of the card. Like Madara Uchiha, this card allows you to perform an undefined action within the midst of a Chain. What do I mean?
Well, you can place Madara's effect on the Chain. Once the Chain resolves, you can deploy a Void Ninja from your Hand ignoring its Sacrifice. The opponent has no idea what Ninja you are going to play. Likewise, with 4 Man Squad, your opponent has no idea how you are going to organize. Now why is this so great?
If there is any effect that would target a Team, you can just break that Team up. While these kinda effects are not very common in the game, they are bound to be present in upcoming sets. Even if this effect isn't here yet, 4 Man Squad is just a techy card that can allow you to go beyond the mechanics of the game and make big teams while organizing whenever you want, to an extent at least.
Also, 4 Man Squad is a great counter to our final, Super Rare Preview.
That's all I'll leave you guys with today. Come back next Saturday for another Stormy Battle segment and the following Sunday for our final Preview! See ya guys.
Also, 4 Man Squad is a great counter to our final, Super Rare Preview.
That's all I'll leave you guys with today. Come back next Saturday for another Stormy Battle segment and the following Sunday for our final Preview! See ya guys.
Hey there shino's dad, could you please make two versions of next exclusive preview? One with your tag, and one without it, cause we are apparently not allowed to post edited pictures of cards on viz anymore:(
ReplyDeleteFrom: shinyi2604 viz forums
This is MJM. We would like to distribute them without a watermark however it's just how things go right now. I'm sorry but we can't take the watermark off.
ReplyDeleteKay, well thank you anyway ;)
DeleteFrom: shinyi2604 viz forums