Stormy Battle: Preview Review Part 3 "Jinchuriki and Tailed Beasts and Ginkaku Oh My!"

February 9, 2013

So last week was the wrap up of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist and their Jutsu. This week was the revived Jinchuriki and their respective Tailed Beasts and signature Jutsu, as well as one of the Gold and Silver Brothers, Ginkaku. Hit the jump and dive into this week's Stormy Battle Review!

Shino'sDad Says: "Click on the images to make them larger!"

Yagura and the Three Tails

Last week we saw Yugito and the Two Tails, and more importantly, Cat Fire Bowl, which is probably one of the more powerful Jutsu to come out of this set so far, balanced only by the fact that it has only one user, and two cards in Block that fill that criteria. Unfortunately, or fortunately, one of those users is a Turn 3 version of the Two Tails. So, how did the rest of the Jinchuriki and their Tailed Beasts compare?

Like Yugito, Yagura sports the triple threat of Jinchuriki, Sharingan Eye, and Rinnegan. Unlike Yugito though, he is a Satoosa, but also a Turn 5. His stats are above average for a Ninja of his Turn Marker due to Sacrifice, and his effect is a mirror of Yugito, and come to find out, every Jinchuriki this set. As a Turn 5, that only puts him a Turn before his Tailed Beast, meaning you won't really be cheating him into play too early, as compared to Yugito's two turns early.

Isobu, the Three Tails himself, lowers his Entrance Cost if your opponent has eight or more Chakra, which can happen usually around Turn 4 if your opponent hasn't been playing Jutsu or using effects that cost Chakra. Additionally, he is a Chakra wipe if you cheat him into play either with Yagura's effect or through the effect of Tailed Beast Transformation, a preview located on the 2ezforums Blog. Water already has access to a few Chakra wipes though, so I don't see him making too much of a splash, even if he is a turtle.

Rough Sea Spume is somewhat odd in the sense that if you cheat Three Tails out, your opponent isn't going to have Chakra anyways. But if you happen to drop him early due to a large upswing of Chakra from your opponent, this Jutsu can cause you opponent to make some tough decisions. Do they grab two Jutsu and hope to cripple your field? Do they go for a Mission and a Handcost to rebuild their hand? Or maybe they just grab their next two drops for the following turns. This of course is all curbed by the fact that only Three Tails can use it, and he is a tough fit really anyways.

Roshi and the Four Tails

On a personal note, Roshi is probably one of my favorite of the Jinchuriki, along with Fuu, and I plan to use him a lot if I happen to pick up a copy of Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 in March. As for the card itself, he carries the same four special things that each other Jinchuriki have this set. I do want to note that I am upset that he was given Rock as his Village again, despite the fact that he is clearly Stone, and that according to the databooks, like Utakata, he is a Rogue Ninja. It isn't too important I suppose, but it's still somewhat annoying. As for his stats, he is a Turn 4 with a solid 7 Combat, making him above the stat curve.

Son Goku, aka the Four Tails, like the other Beasts before him, has two effects. One allows him to enter play earlier than usual, and the other triggers if he is put in play other than by deployment. Son Goku's early deploy effect is one of the easier ones to accomplish, and actually depends on how aggressive you're being, unlike Three Tails, who waits for a bunch of Chakra, or Two Tails, who will never go off. Interestingly, his second effect works well in tandem with his first effect, though you won't get it if you're just deploying him early. Regardless, if you can sneak him in on Turn 4 off of Roshi, you get to kill an injured Ninja of your opponent's, putting them behind a Ninja and you ahead a Ninja who happens to have an 8 Combat.

Great Blazing Eruption does two things in one. First, it discards a large portion of your opponent's Deck. This is usually good, but with Revitalize around, many people have deemed mill completely unusable. Maybe if there were a way to RFG cards instead of just discarding them, mill could make a comeback. As for the second part of this effect, every Ninja in play that shares a name with a Ninja card that happens to be discarded gets injured. This can either blow out of your opponent's field, or do absolutely nothing. In the case of two Decks with similar Ninja choices, this can hurt you just as much as well. Still, a somewhat cool card that could do some damage.

Han and The Five Tails

While Roshi and Fuu may be my favorite Jinchuriki, Kokuo the Five Tails is my favorite Tailed Beast. There is just something majestic about a giant Dolphin Horse thing that leaps through the air and then lands on you, detonating the ground below like a mine field (Watch the Tailed Beasts Unleashed trailer for Ultimate Ninja Storm 3).

As for Han, he is a a mere Turn 3, but hefts around a massive 6 Combat. What makes his Turn Marker so appealing if the fact that he is a much lower Entrance Cost than his Tailed Beast, meaning that cheating Kokuo into play on Turn 3 is actually rather appealing.

Speaking of the Five Tails, he somewhat breaks the mold of the other Tailed Beasts with his second effect. Rather than doing something interesting when he is put in play but not by normal deployment, instead he can Block any number of Teams he wants. This sets up for some interesting plays, such as Snake Swording all of their Teams, since they all are considered to be opposing him. As for how Blocking all those Teams works, you add up the total Team Power of each separate team into one total. They are still separate Teams in the sense that there are mutliple Head Ninjas, but they are all considered to be opposed by the Five Tails and his Team. Oh, and if you happen to be way behind or just have used a couple Warhawks, you can play Five Tails early, granted your opponent has Seven or more Battle Rewards.

Five Mountain Leap is the awesome attack I was talking about before, though the picture for the card is while he's in the air, not when he is crushing the enemy below his hoof. The Jutsu itself plays well into his early deploy effect, since if you're opponent has Seven Battle Rewards, this will return two of them, leaving them with five, which means you still have all your Desperation effects active. Ideally, this can drop your opponent down to four Battle Rewards as well. While a cool card that makes your opponent not winning as much anymore and gives you more cards in hand, it is still a tough fit, as I'd rather just use Snake Sword on all of their Ninjas when Blocking.

Utakata and The Six Tails

Utakata, who got his own filler arc and could have also had a pretty sweet piece of cake in Hotaru, were it not for the fact that he just didn't get the clue, follows suit with what Han started, in that he is a very low turn marker Ninja who brings out a very high turn marker beast. Coming in at an Entrance cost of 2, compared to the Six Tails' Entrance cost of 7, that is Five turns earlier if you happen to have the beast in your hand. Stat wise, he is really solid, with 3 support healthy and 2 support injured.

Saiken, the Six Tails is a Turn 7 Ninja who gets to come down early if your opponent is playing one of the multitudes of dual element Ninjas. Considering that you've got Kisuke, Gama, and Hotaru who are all double symbol Ninjas, Turn 0, and all highly played, along with the dual element Turn 2 Ninja from Kage Summit, and a handful of other Ninjas later on, it is very likely you could drop the Six Tails as early as Turn 3 with his effect. Or, you could always drop him on Turn 2 through Utakata or Tailed Beast Transformation, which will trigger his second effect. Coming into play not by deployment will lock a Ninja from Combat for a turn, which will also lock all the Ninjas in that Team as well.

Freight Bubbles is a negation Jutsu that hits all other Jutsu on the chain and negates them, and gives 1 Damage to their users. This can be good and bad, as it is likely to hit your own Jutsu and Ninja as well. There are not many times when a player is going to chain multiple Jutsu on their own anymore, as the days of Shuriken + Rasengan are long passed. This sort of places Freight Bubbles in the “Pass” section, as there are overall better Jutsu to play with Six Tails, such as an early Reverse Tetragram Sealing Jutsu.

Fuu and The Seven Tails

Fuu is a female Ninja who sports a strong 3 support in both Healthy and Injured status. She's also a Turn 2 Ninja, which is amazing because her Beast is a Turn 8, and is quite powerful.

Chomei, Lucky Number Seven, is very likely to get played very early in the game if you have Fuu out, so his early deploy effect isn't too important. It's also one of the hardest to fulfill, as your opponent will have to have 5 separate Teams during your Mission Phase. This actually isn't impossible, since a Stand-By effect Jutsu such as Gigantic Fan on your opponent's Turn will set you up for the requirements for at least three Teams, as it will split the opposing Team. What makes the Seven Tails amazing though is his effect. All Entrance cost 2 or less Ninjas that your opponent controls have their effects negated. This is reminiscent of Yamato [Control by Fear], which was a very powerful card when it was Block legal. Being able to stop effects such as Shikamaru [Outwit], Ino (Childhood), Pain (Naraka Path), and many more as early as Turn 2 is amazing, and I could totally see Fuu and Seven Tails being played in decks looking to shut down those powerful effects. Shikamaru's Decision will search out Fuu on Turn 2 and also draw you a card, so be prepared for some surprise 7/3 Valid Beetles appearing soon.

Phosphorus Blast is a double edged sword that will clear the field of any Entrance cost 2 or less Ninjas, and make any Entrance cost 4 or less still around a 0/0 for the turn. Dropping this early with Seven Tails after putting him in play with Fuu can possibly clear both fields, leaving just the Seven Tails ready to take on whatever your opponent drops next. Later in the game, it can clear chump blockers and render most other Ninjas helpless.

Gathering the Beasts and Tailed Beast Bomb

Gathering the Beasts is a strictly better upgrade to an old card Capture, which did the same as this card, but was a tun later, could only be used by Fire or Water Decks, and didn't have the bonus stipulation of getting to choose for yourself if you controlled a certain type of Ninja. Obviously, this card is a perfect tutor for any of the [Impure Resurrection] Ninjas, as you can simply search for all three copies of the same Ninja, be able to play it, and have 2 of the same Ninja in your Discard Pile, ready to fuel that Ninja's effect. Or, you can use it as a tutor for any of the Tailed Beasts, as you'll be able to pick which card you take if you happen to control 1 of the Jinchuriki, who all have the [Impure Resurrection] effect. Or, you can use it like Capture in any deck and just grab a bunch of good Ninjas, and still get one of them to your hand.

Tailed Beast Bomb received a Huge amount of hate when it was previewed. Not because it was a bad card, but because it was Too Good in the eyes of many people. A Snipe Jutsu that costs 2 of any Chakra, which also can negate a Jutsu instead, with a whole host of users. The problem that is going to occur is that Tailed Beast decks that run 3 of the Two Tails from Sage's Legacy are going to load up on 3 of this card and 3 Cat Fire Bowl Jutsu and just go balls to the wall aggro as early as Turn 2. Honestly, once rotation hits and we lose all of the low turn Tailed Beasts, It won't be nearly as bad. Until that point though, be on the lookout for a hyper aggressive Tailed Beast deck making its resurgence. It now has the Jutsu it needs to combat any sort of counter such as Mental Power effects, because it can just plow through them with Jutsu. A lot of people want this card on the Rogue list already, at least until after rotation, and I can understand why.

Ginkaku and Benihisago's Power

With the Tailed Beast and Jinchuriki all previewed, we move onto the rest of the revived Ninjas, starting with the Gold and Silver brothers of the Cloud Village, Ginkaku and Kinkaku. Today we got Ginkaku and a Jutsu that mirrors the power of the Benihisago, or Crimson Gourd.

“The Benihisago (紅葫蘆; Literally meaning "Crimson Gourd") is a giant brown-colored gourd with a red cloth around it. It is able to take a person's word soul (言霊,kotodama) hostage by saying the verbal command "record" (録音しろ, rokuonshiro). After the word soul has been drawn out by the Kōkinjō and then severed from their body by the Shichiseiken, it is absorbed into the gourd. Completing these conditions "curses" the victim; if they utter the word they have said the most during their life, they will be sucked into and trapped within the Benihisago. Saying a homophone of their most frequently spoken word, or even saying nothing at all for a certain amount of time, will also trigger the gourd's suction.” - Narutopedia

In the card game, the Jutsu Benihisago's Power somewhat mirrors the use of the Crimson Gourd in the anime and manga. For the cost of 5 of any Chakra (The Tools required a lot of Chakra), you get to make 1 injured Ninja opposing the user a Battle Reward. While 5 Chakra seems like a lot, all other similar effects that make cards Battle Rewards such as Kamui, Wind Style: Rasenshuriken, Sand Coffin and Double Lariat all cost triple of a specific element and also require a very specific user and are also all Super Rares. Compared to 2 more Chakra and the target having to be injured, but anyone can use, and a Common card, that makes the cost rather low in a way.

Ginkaku himself ties into the fact that he and his brother were once swallowed by the Nine Tailed Fox when trying to capture it. They survived for a couple weeks by eating the inside of the Nine Tail's stomach, and when it finally spit them out, they were saturated in its Chakra. This sort of made them psuedo-Jinchuriki, like Sora. This is reflected in the fact that if Ginkaku has 1 or more +1/+1 coins on him, he gains “Tailed Beast”. Not “Tailed Beast Form” Mind you, but legitimate full on “Tailed Beast”, making him an eligible user of Tailed Beast Bomb. If you can't get coins on him with something simple like Rock Lee or Nice Guy Pose, he can fill himself with coins through his own effect. Stats wise, he is quite strong, though really only when injured, a quality that many Nine Tails Chakra users share. What I am surprised at is his lack of Rank, even though he was purported to being one of the most powerful Cloud Ninjas of his time. I guess the Cloud just doesn't really care about Ninja ranks all that much, as evidence by Omoi, Karui, and Killer Bee as well.

That's it for now. Be sure to check back tomorrow for two exclusive previews for Set 28, Ultimate Ninja Storm 3. Also, make sure to check out the Facebook Page for more updates or the Youtube Channel for the occasional video.