Mull to Four Gaming

This is the moment you've all been waiting for it seems. After hyping up our final preview over the past few weeks, Shino'sDad is proud to finally show it off to everyone. Stormy Battle articles will continue on Saturdays until previews are finished, and then we'll likely do an overall look at the set as a whole and how it will effect the upcoming Jonin and SJC events for the next Format, as well as a look back at some viable deck types and new ones that have becomes possible with the release of the set. Now, it's time to see just who our Super Rare Ninja preview is...

... So if you've been following my hints that we've been dropping from the start of our previews and review articles, you likely have a good idea of who our preview is. We mentioned red hair at one point somewhere, and just recently I said that he was like Six Ninjas in one. While that statement is technically true, it likely isn't exactly what you expect. Regardless, I am proud to reveal the fourth Uzumaki that we've met, Nagato.

Like the rest of the [Impure Resurrection] Ninjas, Nagato has a Sacrifice of 1 Ninja, and his effect relies on other Nagato Ninjas cards existing in either player's Discard Pile. Sporting the relevant characteristics of Akatsuki, Mental Power: 2, and Rinnegan, as well as having a solid stat block of four Healthy support and three Injured support, he overall seems to be average. His effect though is rather interesting, and despite suffering from relying on extra copies, it is likely worth the investment.

At the start of your turn, you can remove from game a Nagato from either player's Discard Pile, and in that case, your opponent must separate all of their Ninjas into Teams by themselves. Unfortunately, this means the earliest you're going to be getting access to his effect is Turn 7, but the cost for his effect is a bit easier to fulfill due to the existence of Nagato (Childhood), who not only can be used for Nagato's effect, but does not conflict with having any copies in your deck compared with this Nagato. That means that it is possible to run a total of six Nagato in your deck, if want to, giving you on your own five possible uses for Nagato's effect. More likely, you'll play three copies of Nagato (Childhood), and two copies of this Nagato. That still gives you a better chance to hit the effect trigger, and you'll likely only need to use his effect once.

His effect is similar to the card End of the Immortal, which caused your opponent to separate all of their Ninjas from their Teams as well, as long as you had a total of 13 or more Mental Power in play. This can be a powerful effect, especially because it allows you to freely Attack with any number of Teams, and your opponent will have to give up Battle Rewards or chump block. With only 1 Ninja standing in the way of each of your Teams, any Jutsu in your hand that can remove a Ninja in some way will allow you to break through that thin line for 2 Battle Rewards. If you're playing Unlimited, you can pair this card with Sasori & Deidara, wiping your opponent's field for 3 Chakra. This would be a fun play, if it weren't for the fact that games don't often ever last that long in Unlimited.

For those of you who were worried about not having any use for Demonic Dragon anymore after the Nagato from Tournament Pack 3 rotated out, you now have your Turn 6 Nagato, though this Nagato's effect and that Jutsu don't really pair that well together.

That's all there really is to say about Nagato. Hopefully, we'll end up seeing some cards released either this set or the next few sets that will interact better with his effect in some way. Be sure to check out our Facebook Page for updates and other interesting tidbits. I'll likely try and find some time this week to post an article or two on something interesting, and I plan to have a contest prepared by the end of the month.