Tide of Genin Pins - by JDragon (12/28/06)

The tournament report of JDragon's latest Genin success, complete with revamped Tide of Blossoms list!

Fire and Wind - by HayateGekko (12/21/06)

HayateGekko goes through the basics of deck construction for a Fire/Wind deck.

BuckeyeGal's European Odyssey - by BuckeyeGal (12/18/06)

Planning on going to Europe sometime? Hoping that Bandai will have the next Jonin-level event in a city like Paris or Rome? Be sure to read this!

Zero Drops Props and Slops: Vol. 1 - by Rae (12/13/06)

Rae goes over some of the one drops in the game.

Tide of Blossoms - by JDragon (11/27/06)

An updated look at Fire/Wind Control, built to abuse two of the most powerful missions in the game while retaining the consistency of Fire/Wind.

Seven Ways to Lose at GenCon SoCal - by Rae (11/24/06)

Rae explains what went wrong at GenCon SoCal.

Zero Drops - by kidsyndrome (11/22/06)

All you ever wanted to know about the most important stop on the curve.

Kidsyndrome's Kard Kombos (Kurse Edition) - by kidsyndrome (11/8/06)

It's baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!

Tide of the Deadly Combat - by Insanit (11/8/06)

Tide of the Deadly Combat is an amazing card. It heals all injured ninjas and injures all healthy ninjas. Its capacity as a reversal is eclipsed only by Wind Style: Great Breakthrough. However its great potential is rarely going to be used to its full extent. For all its glory and potential its far to situational to main deck more than one of these, its definitely a good SB card, and it makes Disaster decks cry all the way home. It's one of the cards that helps the fact that once your fat is in the fire its hard to pull yourself out. One of the things that I dislike about this card is that its a card you include when you are planing to be down, basically, including this card in your deck is betting against yourself, but then again you always want to have a way to escape when backed into a corner. (run on sentence from hell, sorry)

The fact that this card is fire is a great boon for there are many things that you can do with the 2 fire that sits in chakra after you use TotDC to further control the board. Fireball to pick off a ninja, Trigams for one off their ninjas you may have healed, maybe even the new Thousand Years of Death...Played the right way, TotDC will be more effective than Great Breakthrough.

The art is pretty bad-ass and is very appropriate for its effect. Played the right way TotDC will be devastating; however it's too situational to build a deck around. <Hmm, I would have thought this card would be the kind of card to build a deck around... -JD, having visions of "Living Death" type decks running rampant in Naruto>

-Insanit

Discuss!

The Road to GenCon SoCal: Intervention Combo - by JDragon (11/3/06)

So...you want to break Jonin's Intervention? Look here.

Baki - by HiddenEmperor (11/3/06)

Let's talk about Baki today kiddies. Is Baki good and if so why? Well, let's first check out his stats, they're weak to very weak for his drop (5/1 || 3/1), he has arguably worse stats than the 4 drop Zabuza for a drop later and a hand cost. OUCH! Man, that effect of his must pack a wallop to justify playing him. *reads Baki's effect... falls off of chair* Okay, so I guess that this effect is worth playing, but how do we take maximum advantage of it while minimizing Baki's relative lack of statistical strength? Well, here are a few things to consider.

1. As long as your opponent is only beating you (w/ ninja not named Zabuza: DoCV) they don't stop Baki's effect for that turn, just for future turns. Enter Iyashi. On element w/ Baki, check. Ridiculous healing effect that means Baki will be ready for your next attack phase provided he survives this one, check. If you can get a team just big enough not to be overwhelmed and send out Baki at the head this will eat up your opponents field FAST.

Problems with Iyashi: really just his stats. His total lack of strength combines w/ Baki's weakness to make it tough to not get overwhelmed by a large team.

2. Now, Baki's small for a 5 drop, if only there was a way to get him out earlier. While you could kick it old-school and pair wind with lightning for Konohamaru HG and Combat in Extreme Conditions to get the Bakinator out by turn 3 at best, or you can ride the wave of the future and Jonin's Intervention him into play as early as 1! Look, barring ridiculous circumstances turn 1 Baki is just the game. His inferior stats are irrelevant when he's the only big dog on the field, he can still bully your opponent and effectively negate their ninja drop each turn by doing so! Even if they do manage to wound him, they almost certainly spent a huge number of resources doing so before they have any big bad Jonin of their own. As an additional bonus, this combo negates the previous problems w/ Iyashi teaming up w/ Baki. On turn 2 NO ONE can realistically overwhelm a 5.

Problems with Jonin's Intervention: ummm... might be causing a need for a banned list soon? That's the only problem I can see with Jonin's intervention ;-). <well...it is quite inconsistent... -JD>

3. If only you could have more ninja on a team so Baki could hide and wreak havoc without jeopardizing the health of your whole team... Oh wait, 4 man squads does that! Baki on a team of 4 isn't adding much, but he doesn't need to because the other three ninja can pick up the slack. This can keep your man safe.

4. Everyone who has seen my Indy deck knows what a HUGE fan I am of Pass Permit. Obviously permitting sand master B to pass is effective, 2 BRs and one dead ninja for your opponent. Cheating Prevention with a sakura behind Baki will work most of the time as well, but CP is on its way out with the increase in decent MP ninja, especially for water. Still, unopposed BRs AND a dead ninja is a Gandalf's worst nightmare.

Problems with Pass Permit: umm... they're up to 2 cards that can stop it with the addition of the new Hayate (although that results in a dead ninja too!) People are more prepared to play against Pass Permit than they were when I abused it into the ground at Indy... but still the card is amazing.

5. Mission counter is on the ups so maybe some decent, low cost jutsu could save Baki. Hmmm... how about sending him out solo and then either sprinting him in the mist home or using the Path Disguise Jutsu to prevent a showdown that he'd probably lose. That way you get all the fun of killing your opponents ninja, with none of the mess of Baki bleeding all over the place.

Problems: jutsu counter is always desirable, most good decks have it, and if these tricks fail you better have a backup plan or its bye bye Baki.

6. Ok, hitting the bottom of the barrel now, If we make Baki impervious to damage for a turn that would let him attack with impunity, right? Well, oft overlooked (usually for good reason) Manji Battle formation does just that. For those of you who glanced at this card once and discarded it, it says the ninja can't receive damage this turn. Period. End of story. I'm sorry Mr. DoCV but Baki didn't take damage from your attack so he's not discarded... sorry. Not a great card in general, but Baki's effect might just be worth using it.

Problems with Manji Battle Formation: umm... if you don't have Baki this card is fetid. It's great in this combo, and theoretically with your Iyashi if someone NEEDS the heal, but odds are this card is a wasted slot outside of Baki considerations.

Whew, seems that Baki has more combos than the number of playmats that JDragon has sold after his tourneys. See for yourselves what combos you like, because Baki's worth using.

Discuss!

Baki - by Shin_Yagami (11/2/06)

The card i'm reviewing for this card of the week is the 2nd Jounin Wind has to offer, and the first Sand Jounin.

Baki is Wind's new "Power" .
I personally haven't had much opportunity to test him in a real scenario, since he was just released this weekend. But i've had time to go over the idea of it several times in my head. While Baki doesn't pack the BEST stats for a 5 Drop, his ability alone makes up for it. [Cleaning Up] is like a stepped up version of Zabuza [DoCV]. He doesn't have to do damage but he has to survive the combat. So send him out, maybe find the real use for Sprinting in the mist Jutsu by having him run in, and leave combat to discard one of their Ninjas.

The flaws, can be obvious. For one, his ability isn't Valid, *I'm also sure this is to balance him out* <ya think? -JD, rolling eyes>. Also the 5/1 || 3/1 Stats for a 1 card to chakra character is very very meh. <Note: Even if you damage Baki during combat, as long as he remains in play, his effect will trigger at end of turn. -JD>

The art itself doesn't inspire me any, personally i'm not fond of the character because he killed a character I was hoping would have a bigger role *tear*. Multiplayer doesn't really do MUCH for Baki since he needs to enter combat for it to work, and it doesn't help if two people are targeting you keeping the pressure on and making sure to damage him for the other person to come through him like a hot knife through butter. The being a Jounin helps his case quite a bit.

Overall
Positive:
Wind Jounin
Ability

Negative:
Non Valid <If he was...that's what we could call "broken" -JD>
Not the best stats in the big league.

Discuss!

The Road to GenCon SoCal: The Balrog's Revenge - by JDragon (11/1/06)

Revamping an old favorite that showed up at the last GenCon...

Baki - by Insanit (10/30/06)

Baki is Wind element's 1st hand cost ninja, and it's about time. Although his stats are tame, a 5/1 on turn 5, the wording on his effect is nuts - Zabuza type nuts <mmm...Demon nuts... -JD>. It basically means if you attack with him and if your opponent can't get him off the field they lose a ninja. I find it similar to Dosu in how it could severely influence combat. Alright now how can we abuse this...

*puts thinking cap on* <a colander, some string, and a cardboard box? -JD, first person to get this reference on the forum wins a prize>

The 1st thing that comes to mind was Pass Permit - free BRs and your opponent loses a ninja. Good old Giant Vortex is excellent with Baki too. There are a multitude of ways to keep him alive to abuse his effect with almost any element. Do not use this card with Survival in the Forest of Death, on first glance I thought his effect might have synergy with SitFoD however their effects do not mesh at all.

The art is kinda meh, but that doesn't matter too much. Despite his mediocre stats, his insane effect is more than reason enough to use him.

Discuss!

What to Trade For From Curse - by JDragon (10/26/06)

Wondering what to rip little kids off for from your release tournaments? Well, JDragon's got a handy dandy list of good cards from Curse...

(Note: Narucards does not condone the ripping off of little kids. Shame on you.)

Disaster of the Nine-Tailed Fox Spirit - by kidsydrome (10/26/06)

Of all the cards currently available for Naruto, Disaster is the most
heinous. No other card has the potential to swing a game like Disaster
does. Alas, all great powers have their price, and for Disaster it's that the
effect damages your ninjas as well as theirs.

Unfortunately there isn't a lot of opportunity to use Disaster with the cards currently available. As Rae mentioned on Monday the two best possibilities are running Lightning/Earth (which lacks powerful Jonin) or including it in a Mental Deck (deck becomes unreliable).

Even though Disaster doesn't have a lot of use right now, it will become a
nasty surprise in the future. Here are a few cards for each element that can guard against the lurking threat of Disaster:

Lightning:
Iruka [Reward] - a very limited counter as it only affects a single ninja
Ichiraku Noodle Shop - similar to Iruka, it only affects one ninja
Fire:
Lone Avenger - The second-best counter to Disaster, this card negates its effect
Water:
Senbon - Like both of the Lightning cards, this will only affect one ninja. It has the added utility of providing +1/+1, though
Wind:
None - Wind doesn't really have a counter to disaster. The best idea is to rely on your other element's counter to tide you through any matchups against a deck running Disaster
Earth:After the Battle - The best counter to Disaster, this will leave all of their ninja injured while healing yours

In terms of multiplayer Disaster would be an incredibly fun card to play. While far too hard to accurately predict what the effects of playing it will be with so many ninja on the board, any card that effects everyone is going to be fun to drop on your unsuspecting friends' heads!

As early as next set (with the release of the Fourth Hokage and other cards) we will begin to see Disaster's true potential. In the meantime we can only wait and hope FEMA is ready when Disaster strikes... okay, wow... that pun was so bad one of my eyes fell out... <the other one safely esconsced behind his monocle... -JD>

Discuss!

Resource Drain - by JDragon (10/25/06)

A soft lock deck that doesn't have what it takes using only cards from the current cardset gets a big boost from Curse of the Sand - and may even be a serious contender in the post-Curse metagame! Read all about it inside.

Genin Tournament *WINNER* - by Rae (10/23/06)

Rae writes about her experiences in a recent Genin tournament that she won. Also, in a Narucards exclusive, she reveals the Fire/Wind deck that's been ripping up all the tournaments she and Dave have gone to.

Disaster of the Nine-Tailed Fox Spirit - by Rae (10/23/06)

GENERAL
This Path to the Hokage (heretofore referred to as Path) Super Rare does one thing and one thing only: it wounds all ninja. Yes, all of them. Including yours. How is this card good? Well, it really wasn't. But it may be soon!

SETS 1 & 2
The problem with the first set that was released and this card is that there wasn't enough cards available that easily stabilized Disaster. In Path, there was the Earth mission After the Battle. This healed all ninja and seemed to be an obvious choice to throw in a Disaster deck. But the only late-game ninja Earth had to offer at this point was Asuma: Optimist. And he was terrible for this deck (not to mention being awful in general). Earth ninja are terrible when wounded and in a disaster deck, the point is to have better wounded ninja than your opponent. The only late-game ninja Lightning had to offer was Might Guy. Sure, you could splash in vanilla Kakashi and Kurenai, but then you throw off consistency. There was no consistency, no good ninja, and really no reason to play the card, except in hopes of the chance of pulling an After the Battle directly after setting off a Disaster. NOT worth the risk.

In the second set, at least you were given a viable reason to play Disaster: it supported Mental Power (MP) decks, because when playing MP, the game doesn't care if your ninja are wounded. But in order to use MP properly, you also had to use Wind cards like Sakura and Temari for MP and Kurenai for support (The only Lightning ninja that have MP at this point are Iruka and Anko). Including Earth, this leaves you with a 3 element deck. NOT consistent enough.

With the new healing cards, Iruka [Reward] and Senbon, the very strong Water element could also be paired with Lightning for a Disaster deck. The idea behind this deck would be to use Iruka and Senbon to heal your injured Jonin, and use the amazing Zabuza/Dosu combination with jutsu to pick off your opponent's already wounded ninja. However, without the guaranteed heal of After the Battle, and the possibility of not drawing your Zabuza, not to mention that Water ninja's stats for support are terrible when they are wounded, you were in trouble. NOT strong enough and too risky.

THE FUTURE
The third set offers incredible opportunities for Disaster. This is because of the release of the new Lightning ninja, the Fourth Hokage, who can heal all the ninja in your village by wounding himself. Wow. With the Fourth's incredible support, you can really pair Lightning up with any element in Curse of the Sand.

It is my guess that people who have three copies of the card (It IS a Super Rare from the first set) will attempt to build the deck. Until 97% of them lose a lot. This will be because they do not also have 3 copies of the 4th Hokage, cannot build the deck to make it consistent, or just simply can't play the deck well. Then they will switch to a different deck idea (probably Fire/Water). This is because Disaster isn't easy to set up for! You need to keep as many of your ninja healthy as possible, be great at stalling early game (this is a late-game deck), save your healing cards, and draw your big ninja. You need to have tech that works early, middle, and late game. You need to have more and better healing power than your opponent. Every card has a purpose in this deck and there is not a lot of flexibility, even if you are very good at the game. <Not to mention, Tide of the Deadly Combat completely wrecks the Disaster/Hokage combo. -JD>

CARD ART
The card image is incredible. Can we say huge beastly fox demon on a green/gold background kicking the butts of Konoha ninja? The card alone will strike fear into the heart of your opponent.

MULTIPLAYER
Virtually impossible to play multiplayer. Too many cards and factors can ruin your day in multi-player play. You need to get healing off first. If any of your opponents can heal before you can, you are in deep trouble.

CONCLUSION
This is one of my favorite cards in the game. It takes skill, awareness, and tech to make it work. But when it does work, the results are disastrous <Ha. Ha. Ha. -JD> for your opponent.

Discuss!

Basic CA Counting - by JDragon (10/20/06)

JDragon expands on kidsyndrome's article from yesterday.

Starving - by Insanit (10/20/06)

Permanent Mission

Effect: Both player's give one damage to 1 of their ninjas if they have 2 or less cards in their hand at the end of their turn. This effect cannon be duplicated.

Starving is a rarely used card with a possibly dangerous effect, right now seeing it used now is a long shot, but after Curse of the Sand it will be more useful. There are two types of decks that can benefit from this card more than others, Mental and Discard/Mill. Discard doesn't really exist as a decktype yet as there are no discard cards other than Byakugan that I can think of off the top of my head, and Mill has few practitioners and most of the current setups give your opponent more cards. Mental on the other hand could very well use this card effectively, and next set it will. After Mental has set up, it tends not to use many cards and with the new Shikamaru in the next set it will hang on to cards. With this in mind load this and other cards that reward you for hanging onto cards and cards that cause your opponent to discard, and your mental deck gains an extra dimension.

In a mutiplayer setup Starving is that much more useful and affects battle you don't even take part in - for example, if your opponents are fighting each other they might have to think about the consequences of playing or not playing a jutsu. Its art is a nearly perfect representation of (non-combat) Team Ten - Choji is eating, Ino is yelling and Shikamaru is throughly annoyed. <Reminds me of my brother, my mom, and me... -JD, somewhat nostalgic>

Starving is far from being a staple, but it's not trash and it will have a place.

Thumbs up or thumbs down?

Basic Card Advantage (Part 1) - by kidsyndrome (10/19/06)

kidsyndrome introduces a concept that's been around since the dawn of card games. A must read for anyone interested in game theory. JDragon's article tomorrow will be a companion piece for this - but clever users can find JDragon's article already posted today.

Rock and Roll - by JDragon (10/18/06)

No, not the music genre! JDragon takes a look at an interesting budget deck that gets a big boost from Curse of the Sand. In fact, Curse is the only thing that makes this deck playable.

Kakashi Hatake - by Shin_Yagami (10/18/06)

Card PR009, Kakashi Hatake [Sharingan Eye Kakashi], holds a soft spot in my heart, so I figured in my attempt for CoTW, I'd review this ninja.

Type: Fire
Deploy cost:5
Hand Cost: 1
Leaf Ninja/ Jonin/ Male/ Sharingan Eye
Genjutsu

[Sharingan Eye Kakashi]
This Ninja can use a Jutsu card without paying any Jutsu cost if your opponent has a jutsu Card with the same name as the Justu card *What the hell is a Justu? Nice typo again Bandai <3* in their Discard Pile. <In some versions of this card, he's actually Kakashi Hakate. Bandai even misspelled his name! Kakashi gets no respect. Except from Rae. -JD>

This card is easily outshined by his SR counterpart, but I prefer this one for casual play. He has the same stats as the other 5 Drop Kakashis, same hand cost, but what makes him different and unique is his ability to play Jutsus for free if your opponent has them in their Discard pile and you have the Jutsu in your hand. In Multiplayer this is HUGE!You have way more options that might come your way for action than in one on one where even if you have a deck built around him, they might play an element you don't even use like... lets just say Lightning. Well if you don't have any Lightning Jutsus, he kinda falls short of being useful. The art, in my opinion at least, is the most intimidating version of Kakashi so far. This one looks like he's about pull a line out of Dirty Harry's book "You've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?'....Well? Do ya, punk?" . The art alone, is crisp, and I'm almost tempted to always play him in my Fire hybrid decks. *That and the lack of SR Kakashi in my possesion ;_;*

Where he falls short is the fact that his ability is not valid, and half the time you run the risk of them not even having the Jutsus you play in their discard. Even if you run discard around him, the chances still aren't 100% which is a shame.

Pros:
Nice Ability
Balanced Stats
Sharingan Eye *you know you love it*
Multiplayer option *More options to abuse*

Cons:
Never guaranted to be able to use his ability to it's potential.
Non-Valid Ability

Thumbs up or thumbs down?

Seduced by the Dark Side - by Paizuri (10/17/06)

Paizuri goes over a few tournaments that he's been to in the past few days.

How Lucky - by JDragon (10/16/06)

JDragon went to two Genin events this weekend. One had some stiff competition, the other...not so much.

Wind Style: Great Breakthrough - by Sharingan92 (10/16/06)

Running a deck but Giant Vortex wont fit in there? No problem. Your solution has arrived:

Thats right, its Wind Style: Great Breakthrough! Card number J-079 of the Coils of the Snake set of the Naruto Card Game. This thing can really turn the tables around in your favor, if you play it right. I personally really like this card. And thats why I'm starting off with the Pros.

Pros:
Its effect!!!

Its effect says it all. It gets rid of all the ninjas! Some of you may think "What!? Thats HORRIBLE!". Not when you play it right it isnt. Just take a look at the example and you'll see why:

Player A has Kakashi (4 Drop), Sasuke (Anaylisis), and Naruto (Nine Tailed) in their village.

Player B has The Third Hokage (Village Governor), Kurenai Yuhi, and Kakashi (Early Settlement) in their village.

Player B attacks with The Third Hokage, Kurenai Yuhi, and Kakashi. Power: 6, 4, 6

Player A blocks the The Third Hokage with Kakashi.

Player A uses Wind Style: Great Breakthrough.

Player A and B send all of their ninja back to their hand.

It is now Player A's turn.

Player A plays Kakashi.

Player A attacks with Kakashi. 5 Power.

Player A scores 2 BR's.

See how Great Breakthrough left Player B wide open?? Player A scored an easy 2 BR's, not to mention, Player B may have had to discard some cards from their hand at the end of their turn from having too big of a hand. To make this card work, you need to play it on your opponent's turn. If you play it on your turn, you're screwed.

Ok, now this card is great and all, but this card has a lot of Cons.

Cons:
Costs 3 Wind and 1 Random Chakra
Requires Jonin or Higher Rank
Easily be negated
When used against you

First off, it costs 4 chakra total. Thats one of (if not, then it is) the most expensive (and by expensive I mean chakra cost) jutsu cards in the game! It can take awhile before you whip out this card. My next one is that it requires Jonin or Higher Rank. That means you have to wait 4-5 turns before you can actually use it. Some games can be decided by then. Also, this card can easily be negated. Sharingan Eye (J-007) is a perfect example. When the card is negated, you can be pretty po'd, with just paying 4 chakra and waiting to get out a Jonin. Also they can use Giant Vortex or 8 Trigram against the user, so then it will be double the trouble. Your whole team that included the user, or just the user if its 8 Trigram, goes back to your hand AND your card is negated! Also, like I said in my last article about Giant Vortex, the same goes for this card: When its used against you. Its a good card, but you can be pretty po'd if your opponent uses the card on your turn and you have nothing to negate it.

This card's potential for multiplayer is very, very good. Reason being its effect. Think about it: sending the other 3 (or 2) players ninjas back to their hand, and if your turn is next, just pull out a strong ninja and raise hell upon their decks. But there is a big risk of any of them having a Sharingan Eye (J-007) or Vortex or 8 Trigram in their hand.

In my opinion this cards artwork isn't that good - just seems sort of blurry. It's just Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto getting blowing by the wind.

This card is awesome when played correctly. More experienced players will have a better time with this card than beginners, since beginners may make mistakes and such. This card may be hard to pull off, but when you do, it's smooth sailing the rest of the game.

-Sharingan92

Thumbs up or thumbs down?

Fire/Water Review (Part 2 of 3) - by N6H (10/13/06)

Part 2 of N6H's overview of Fire/Water cards.

Giant Vortex Jutsu - by Sharingan92 (10/13/06)

Card number J-034 from the Path To Hokage set of Naruto, Water Style: Giant Vortex Jutsu is a great water card, and is commonly played by players with decks including water. This card has its pros and cons, and I'll start off with its Pros.

Pros:
Sends your opponent's team back to their hand (Potential of putting back three of their ninjas in their hand.

Its effect can be life-saving (or game-saving in this case). You can win games with this card. It's won me some games in my experience. For those of you who are new to the game, and probably don't understand why its such a great card, heres an example:

Player B has a team of Kakashi (Early Settlement), The Third Hokage (Village Governor), and Kurenai. Total Power: 13

Player A has a team of Kakashi (4 turn drop).

Player B sends his/her team out to attack.

Player A sends his/her team to block.

Player A uses Water Style: Giant Vortex Jutsu with Kakashi.

Player B's team is sent back to his hand.

And if the Player B didn't have any ninjas, you could play another ninja (hopefully with 5 or more power) and attack with Kakashi and the other to score 3-4 BR's! So it basically clears up the field (sometimes). Alright, I'm done complimenting this card. Now its time to talk about its cons...:

Cons:
Costs 3 Water Jutsu
Requires Jonin or Higher Rank
Can Easily Be Negated
When used against you

First off, it costs 3 Water Jutsu. Some of you will be thinking, "But Chris, 3 Water Jutsu is nothing! I get charge 3 water jutsu on my first turn!" Well, you charge too much. In a deck with many cards that can be played during certain turns and can be helpful on certain turns, 3 Water Jutsu can be hard to charge. It can take maybe a couple turns before you charge 3 Water cards you know you wont need. Second, it requires Jonin or Higher Rank. That means you probably wont be playing this card until later in the game (unless you have Konohamaru (HG) and Combat In Extreme Conditions). And by then, some games can be already be decided by the 3rd, 4th turn. Third, it can easily be negated. Sharingan Eye (J-007) can really suck if used against you to negate Water Vortex (If only Haku (Kekkei Genkai) were a Jonin or higher...). But what can suck even more is if you're opponent plays 8 Trigram on the user of Water Vortex, which can leave you open if the user of Water Vortex was the only one on your team. And last but not least, maybe the most annoying of the cons, is when its used against you. This card is especially annoying when used against you if you have a good team of 3 ninjas. <Wait, but doesn't that mean that it's good...? -JD, going around in circles>

Ok, I think I'm done bad-mouthing this card.

Water Style: Giant Vortex Jutsu can really be helpful in a game (like every other jutsu card, well, maybe not every other jutsu card <see: Keniko's CotW -JD>) and it just feels good to play it (while you're laughing at your opponent who is po'd at you, if you're that kind of player).

Thumbs up or thumbs down?

Byakugan - by Shin_Yagami (10/13/06)

Now I'm going to look at this card from every angle that I can think of. Okay, obviously it goes with Earth type decks, but the requirement there is a character with Byakugan, so far there is 2 at the moment. Hinata and Neji. Next set there will be a total of 4 people that can use it. Now the jutsu itself seems great in concept, but the problem is the order it comes in. Let's say you play Byakugan right at the start of the fight, the opponent has the option to chain with the ONE Jutsu card they probably have in their hand getting rid of it before you can discard it. Now that's a scenario that usually happens. While they use the Jutsu before you can discard it can be a bad thing, sometimes it's a good thing. Look at it this way, they used the card, but they burned down chakra. You still get too look at their hand either way (unless it is countered then GG sir) and prepare for later rounds. So I would just suppose most people play it to put pressure on the opponent to "Play it or Lose it" and while a good thing, I'm more for getting rid of the card before it even hits play. The other problem was well in the first 2 sets we have Hinata the 0/1 0 Turn character or the 3/0 Neji Turn 2 to play it. We have one "power" Character to work with, sending out Hinata in later game for a 1 support isn't the smartest, and Neji really isn't the "strongest" Genin even though injured and healthy he has the same power. Byakugan's best scenario is early game for the card mulling effect.

Pros:
Discard & Look at Hand
1 Earth 1 Colorless, not so much to ask for it.

Cons:
They have a chance to play the card you were going to discard, which could be good, or bad.
2 people so far can only use it (unless they use a mission to give it to another) and they aren't the most strongest ninjas around. (With Sharingan, Kakashi and Sasuke generally are more stronger and have higher survival rates later in the game)

Overall, Byakugan is mostly a theme deck card. I don't see it getting play in this metagame, at least until Hyuga Lee Taijutsu decks in the next set. Now if this card said "When you play this card freeze the chain to discard the mission or Jutsu" it would be ungodly good for Hyuga Clan decks, but it doesn't so it gives them more options, like deciding to Fireball your Neji for the effort (Possibly killing him and making you waste Jutsu for no benefit except them playing the jutsu earlier.)

Thumbs up or thumbs down?

3 Ways to be Successful at Genin Tournaments - by Rae (10/12/06)

Rae gives some helpful pointers to aspiring Genins. Good luck at your local Genin tournament! (and write a tournament report for Narucards) :P

Wind Scythe Jutsu - by Shadow_Clone147 (10/12/06)

Wind Scythe Jutsu is a must-have in any wind deck. It can negate your opponent's jutsu or make him/her lose 2 chakra. This particular card is what most players use as a Sharingan Eye in a wind deck. People in tournaments rave and rant about why it is a rare. Maybe this breakdown will help you realize why its a rare.

PROS:
Negates a jutsu
Takes only one wind chakra
Can makes your opponent discard at least 3 chakra

CONS:
Can be simply negated if your opponent discards 2 chakra
Every wind deck runs at least 1 (so dont be surprised if your opponent runs a wind deck and uses this) <Huh? -JD>

Thumbs up or thumbs down?

No Article Today - by JDragon (10/11/06)

The only article I have sitting in my to-edit folder is...er...less than optimal. If you've sent in an article that I haven't published yet, please PM me on the forums. I think I'm out right now. :(

Headhunter Jutsu - by Insanit (10/11/06)

Earth Style: Headhunter Jutsu is an amazing card, and possibly my favorite jutsu card in the game. For an average cost of (EARTH) (1) and a small restriction (user must be chunin or higher) you can remove the back ninjas from a team. With that effect you can make a victory into an outstanding one or maybe even make a defeat into a victory. Other things you can do rather than that ever so basic use is that you could counter a jutsu used by a back ninja and if you choose to use the new Neji there will be very little your opponent can do. Why stop there? Usually this jutsu is better used when defending as it splits up a team allowing you to attack wile your opponent’s defense is neutered, however if comboed with 8 Seal Trigams you can eliminate your opponents team entirely, like a ghetto Giant Vortex. In short:

Pros: Cheap (cost wise), variety of uses, room for excellent combos

Cons: Needs a Chunin or better, a little situational

It should be auto include for pretty much every earth deck. Plus the picture is of when Sasuke got owned by Kakashi. I hope you will use this card if you don’t already.

Thumbs up or thumbs down?

Just Ten Battle Rewards! - by Paizuri (10/10/06)

Paizuri goes over a deck designed to do one thing, and do it well: get ten battle rewards as quickly as possible.

Fanged Pursuit Jutsu - by Keniko (10/10/06)

JDragon: I attack you with my my Zabuza Momochi [DoCV] for 6.
Keniko: Dang! I only have Kiba and Ten Ten on my board. I'll block you. Any jutsu for you?
JDragon: Nope.
Keniko: I play Summoning Earth Style: Fanged Pursuit Jutsu! To get Akamaru on my team. Then I play Ninja Art of Beast Mimicry: All-Four Jutsu. My team is now a whopping 8!
JDragon: OMG! WTF mate.
Keniko: Pwned!

Yeah I did it (You did say any jutsu card JDragon... ). I'm going to review (IMO) hands down the worst jutsu (if not the worst card altogether) in all of the Naruto TCG. Well, lets take a look shall we...

Summoning Earth Style: Fanged Pursuit Jutsu
Earth/"1"
Target: 1 or 2 "Ninja Dog" Ninja(s) in your Discard Pile.
Effect: Put the target in play and make it/them the Back Ninja(s) of the user's Team. The number of Ninjas in the team cannot be more than 3.

Pros:
... (Cricket, cricket,...)

Cons:
Everything!

Seriously though. No one even uses "Ninja Dog" except for Sasori cus he can win with anything... j/k. <Sasori, if you use this as your reasoning for giving this CotW a good review, I will hunt you down and eat your spleen. -JD>

Second, why would they (Bandai) make such a bad card worse by making it follow the 3 ninja restriction?

It might work (Probably not.) if there were more ninja dogs besides Akamaru. o_O

I can't see this card getting play when there are just soo many better jutsu cards for Fire/Earth. 8 Trigram, Sharingan Eye (even the new ones), and Earth Style: Headhunter Jutsu, just to name a few.

Bottom Line: If your using this card you should think about not using it...

Thumbs up or thumbs down?

Three Player Rules - by kidsyndrome (10/9/06)

kidsyndrome has come up with a set of modifications to the rulebook for three player games. Take a look, it's very interesting!

Escape Jutsu - by Deidara-Senpai (10/9/06)

One of my favorite jutsu in the Path to Hokage series is the one, the only, the most common card of them all.....Escape Jutsu! Now you might ask, why does this card pwn? Well, 3 reasons.
1. First you have the killer card Lightning Blade. It can crit your whole team. But with one little chakra, you can negate it and make it so he can't add anymore power to that ninja for the rest on the turn!
2. Now, these type of cards are VERY annoying. Sexy Jutsu, Harem Jutsu and Water Prison. But yet again, with one chakra you can negate that pesky Sexy Jutsu or any of the other Jutsus similar to that.
3. After hearing all 3 of those reasons, how can you not say this card pwns? Think about it, this is a common card. Lightning Blade is a Super Rare. A common beating a Super Rare? Yeah, that pwns. <What happened to reason #3? -JD, mystified>

Now this card should be ran in almost every deck, or at least side decked. Think about it. You'll see it my way. ;)

Thumbs up or thumbs down?

HickoryCon *T8* - by slimgonewild (10/6/06)

slimgonewild writes about his experiences at HickoryCon.

How to Give Deck Help - by JDragon (10/5/06)

I've noticed a lot of people being very rude and unhelpful when giving advice. Here's the starting point for what you should be doing.

HickoryCon *T4* - by Deya Rae (10/4/06)

As if Deya Rae wasn't awesome enough what with the creating of our banner and all, here's an excellent report from her about her HickoryCon T4 experience.

Challenge - by Sasori (10/4/06)

Greetings everyone; in light of my angry posts ranting about how I'm better than everyone, I'm going to issue a challenge. You give me a play scenario, in play cards, decks (if they're archetypes commonly played), and the exact contents of your hand, and ask a question about what you should do/play and I'll give you the in-depth answer on why and how you should go about the game state. If you think you can stump me, be my guest and try. This is your chance to prove me wrong as the self-proclaimed "Professor" of Naruto.

Hell, go into deck designs to if you'd like. Why to play a certain card over another, whatever you want me to explain.

Post whatever question/challenge you have on the thread for this Challenge, and I'll respond shortly.

Good Luck,

Sasori

Basic Naruto Combos (Part 3 of 3) - by kidsyndrome (10/3/06)

kidsyndrome completes his epic trilogy. No Ewoks here!

CotW Lineup - by JDragon (10/3/06)

I'm pleased to announce three of our CotW writers: Deya Rae, kidsyndrome, and Sasori. There's still opportunities for three more writers though. PM your short article (one to three paragraphs) about ANY jutsu card you want to JDragon in the Narucards forums. The best two will be published this week and the best three writers will be invited to fill out the rest of the CotW lineup.

(Sorry about the lack of another article today guys, I'm a wee bit overworked at school and dropped the ball on this one -JD)

Control (Post Curse of the Sand) - by Sasori (10/2/06)

Sasori updates his control deck with Curse of the Sand cards.

CotW Lineup - by JDragon (10/2/06)

I'm pleased to announce three of our CotW writers: Deya Rae, kidsyndrome, and Sasori. There's still opportunities for three more writers though. PM your short article (one to three paragraphs) about ANY jutsu card you want to JDragon in the Narucards forums. The best two will be published this week and the best three writers will be invited to fill out the rest of the CotW lineup.

Basic Naruto Combos (Part 2 of 3) - by kidsyndrome (9/29/06)

kidsyndrome goes over a few of the combos that can be found in the Naruto CCG right now. A few of the obvious ones, and a few of the more arcane ones...

Card of the Week - by Deya Rae (9/29/06)

Deya Rae's thoughts on our card of the week - Cross-Shaped Shuriken.

Card of the Week - by kidsyndrome (9/29/06)

kidsyndrome's thoughts on our card of the week - Cross-Shaped Shuriken.

(If you missed the deadline for CotW this week, PM me for the new prompt for next week.)

Water/Fire Card Overview (Part 1 of 3) - by N6H (9/28/06)

Naruto_6th_Hokage lists and reviews some of the most commonly played Water/Fire cards from the set Path to Hokage.

Card of the Week - by Darkdealer (9/28/06)

Darkdealer's thoughts on our card of the week - Cross-Shaped Shuriken.

(Note: The second CotW I was going to put up today had some major problems, which I have asked the author to fix. And for the rest of the people who I sent prompts to...I'd appreciate those CotW articles soon.)

Fire/Wind Control - by Jin (9/27/06)

Jin goes over a Fire/Wind Control deck that he made.

Card of the Week - by Insanit (9/27/06)

Insanit's thoughts on our card of the week - Cross-Shaped Shuriken.

(Note: The second CotW I was going to put up today had some major problems, which I have asked the author to fix.)

The Zero Damage Debate - by Insanit (9/26/06)

Insanit chimes in on this debate over a ruling that has made Zabuza Momochi [Demon of Cloud Village] a lot stronger.

(Disclaimer: writer opinions are not necessarily those of Narucards)

Card of the Week - by Shadow_Clone147 (9/26/06)

S_C147's thoughts on our card of the week - Cross-Shaped Shuriken.

Card of the Week - by Sharingan92 (9/26/06)

Sharingan92's thoughts on our card of the week - Cross-Shaped Shuriken.

(Note: Due to the large amount of CotW submissions I've received, we'll be doing two a day and I'll let the readers discuss the best five in the forums)

HickoryCon Top 8 Decks - by JDragon (9/26/06)

Thanks to deltox for the results.

Decklists can be found here.

Tempo Redux - by Sasori (9/25/06)

Today we've got two excellent pieces by Sasori. In this article, he goes over a powerful deck concept based on a semi-hybrid between his Gencon Indy Top 4 deck and an old favorite...

Card of the Week - by Sasori (9/25/06)

Sasori's thoughts on our card of the week - Cross-Shaped Shuriken.

HickoryCon Results - by JDragon (9/25/06)

Thanks to deltox for the results.

Placing can be found here. Congratulations to Deya Rae and HiddenEmperor, two future Narucards writers, on their T4 and T8 finishes!

Decklists will be up as soon as we receive them.

Basic Naruto Combos (Part 1 of 3) - by kidsyndrome (9/21/06)

kidsyndrome goes over a few of the combos that can be found in the Naruto CCG right now. A few of the obvious ones, and a few of the more arcane ones...

Classics - Curve Aggro (Pre-Coils) - by JDragon (Reposted 9/21/06)

Narucards will be posting a few of the old topics from the Bandai forums that the creators of have given us permission to do so. The first of these "classics" is one of the first successful aggro decks created after the release of Path to Hokage - JDragon's Curve Aggro.