February 10, 2013
To all my fellow North Easterners, how are you holding up? I'm pretty much entirely snowed in thanks to a five foot wall of ice chunks in the front of my driveway, so I'm not going anywhere until I can get someone down here to clear it out. As for the Naruto related stuff, another Sunday means another round of
exclusive previews courtesy of Mull to Four! This week, we'll be
looking at two characters who have both not had very much screen
time, but none the less are somewhat important characters, I guess.
Hit the jump to find out more...
Our first preview is a familiar face
who's been getting a lot of attention recently for one reason or
another, and has not had too many cards made of himself.
Interestingly, his inclusion in this set means that he will be a
playable character in the video game Ultimate Ninja Storm 3. That
person is none other than everyone's favorite friend-zoned Uchiha,
Obito.
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| Don't let him fool you, if you're caught up on the manga, you'd know Obito is a big liar. |
Currently, we have three other Obito
Uchiha in format, [Stalwart] from Weapons of War, the reprint of
[Hidden Strength] in Tournament Pack 4, and the recent inclusion of
[Time of Action] from Hero's Ascension. Each of those Obito all fit
into a place within a number of different decks. [Stalwart] was used
primarily last rotation for his Fire effect in mill decks, while his
Wind effect has put him as the sole 3 Drop of the colloquially named
“Shimon Says” deck. [Hidden Strength] is a strong Turn 3 Ninja
for any build that includes Fire and wants to go aggro around this
time, especially when paired with Lightning, as Obito will negate any
Jutsu played by any Ninja currently in play at the time, and is a
user for Art of the Raging Lion's Mane. Now if only we had a reprint
of Sharingan Kunai before he rotates this fall. Even [Time of
Action] is seeing some play, as a Turn 2 Ninja who not only injures
an opposing Ninja, but grows by 3 Combat in doing so. Unfortunately,
a lot of people still don't understand how his effect works in
conjunction with Desperation, or just don't know that he isn't
actually Valid.
So where does this leave our newest
iteration of Obito? Not anywhere very useful at the moment. His
effect is one that thrives in a multi element format, which the Set
26-29 Block has seemed to heavily deviate from in the wake of the
heavily dual element Set 22-25 Block. 1 Chakra for a -1 in most cases
isn't really going to cut it, especially when that 1 Chakra can be
used for a card such as Subdue or Backstab that are both Fire cards
and end up doing a whole lot more. Against something like an early
Kisuke or Gama, he might actually put in some work, and interestingly
enough, he gets a whole -3/+0 on the Five Kages from Kage Summit.
Other than that, he feels like a very
Limited oriented card in a very Not Limited friendly set. My advice
to anyone who plans to run a Sealed Deck event on the release of
Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 would be this; Consider adding a couple packs
of either Avenger's Wrath or Hero's Ascension to the pool as well,
because from the looks of it, there are very few early turn Ninjas,
and far too many Ninja that require Sacrifice.
Our next preview is the current holder
of the wonderful title of Ms. Useless herself, Tenten.
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| Yes Genre, we know you want more Reinforcement and Squad cards |
So I am going to admit that when we
first received these previews, I scanned over most of them, including
this card at first, and just went about watermarking them so that I
could worry about the rest when I actually write the article for
them. Originally, my quick scan of this Tenten gave me the following
effect: “When this Ninja is deployed, move a Permanent Mission card
from your Chakra area to your hand” 'Neato' I thought, 'I can
recur a mission like Messengers or A Quiet Day that I just used as a
Handcost for my Student and Sensei if I happen to have done so. I
break even off the deploy.' Oh foolish Nick, maybe you should break
the Mull to Four curse and actually read common cards. (The aforementioned curse is untrue, as we here at Mull to Four actually know what all
the cards we talk about do, or at least make sure we do before
actually talking about them).
Anyways, you unfortunately have to
discard an Earth card from your hand in order to get a Permanent
Mission back. Luckily, due to the effect being a “Optional Trigger
with Cost”, you can discard a Revitalize card and still get to pick
up the Permanent Mission. Speaking of revitalize, she has that
keyword as well, along with a solid 2/2 stats on Turn 1. She also has
Mental Power: 2, making her a possible user for Mind Transfer Jutsu,
though it is very unlikely that you wouldn't be playing three Ino (Childhood), (...At least until the next Rogue List...) and
wanting to get her in play as soon as possible. This leaves poor
Tenten in the precarious position of not only competing against
herself in the form of Tenten [Endless Arsenal] from Tournament Pack
4, but also the aforementioned Ino (Childhood) (Until she gets
Rogued to 1), for a spot in any deck. Again, one of those cards that
probably won't see play, even though she is a cool recursion effect.
Be sure to keep an eye out for more
articles in the future, as well as the weekly Stormy Battle Preview
Review every Saturday and another exclusive preview on Sunday.
February 24th we will be happily showcasing a preview that
is quite Super. Be sure to check out our Facebook Page for updates
and discussion as well as the Youtube Channel for upcoming videos and
other stuff.
