I thought I’d post the process by which I make a deck. Why? Well, first of all I thought it might help me sort out my thoughts. And second of all I’ve met some people who don’t seem to quite understand how it is that I build decks. I’m choosing the Naruto TCG, since I’ve been so inspired by their recent release…more specifically a mission that allows you two clients at once. A while back they released 2 clients that allow you to draw a card when you flip heads (client one) or tails (client two). My first thought: can I have two clients out at once? Well, now you can. Unfortunately, this deck probably can’t win many games. But it can draw cards. Lots of cards. But we’ll get more on that later. The second reason for building the deck is I have a friend who loves the original sound 3 and I think I can get him to play if I can make a good deck off of Kin Tsuchi [Hypnotic Sound].

Step 0: Know the Game; Know Your Theme; Know Your Weaknesses and Elements:

I call this “Step 0″ because you need to do this as you continue to play, play testing this particular deck or otherwise. Personally, I see the error of this deck in potentially too much draw power (drawing out is bad), too many coin flips and too many missions/clients. I will keep this in mind as I build my deck. The three elements best suited for this are Water, Air and Earth.

Step 1: Choosing Cards for your “Focus”

The first step involves getting your combo and inspiration cards, but not “theme” cards necessarily. So cards that directly help the cards that will make up your deck. In this example, I’m using coin flip cards. So I want cards that do things when you or in response to flipping coins, but nothing that just flips coins by itself.

Yukie Fujikaze – Makes any coin flip “heads”, and then discards herself.

Senta – Kinda the base of the deck so I shouldn’t forget him…

Bunzou – …or his …brother?

Kin Tsuchi – A core card for this theme.

Challenging Again – Getting to Reflip is Nice

Step 2: Choosing Cards to Support your Focus

These cards help your focus, but do not yet fully go into your “Theme”. In this case, these are cards that do not necessarily require coin flips, but help getting, keeping safe or otherwise “supporting” the above cards.

Shooting Star – A slightly easier way to get 2 (or even 3) Kin Tsuchi’s out. Lots of draw power. Also really nice with Ino (US Formation)…but she doesn’t fit the theme or focus of my deck.

Slicing Sound Wave – Works with Kin. And lets me flip lots of coins. And has a nice effect. Very tempting.

Gemma Shiranu – All those clients need a way to come into play…

Stubborn – Maxing out on clients assures free Yukie, Senta and Bunzous.

Temptation of Power – Great way to search for “Kin Tsuchi”, and (potentially) other cards.

Step X: Choosing Cards for your “Core Theme”

The first step I (and I can assume other Johnnys) take when making a deck is finding their “theme”. Note that I didn’t say “focus”, so cards that work well with cards in this theme do not count. I’m just looking for cards that fit the theme: in this case, coin flipping. Unfortunately, unlike Wizards “The Gatherer”, Bandai’s online card list is lacking a search feature. So I have to hit “View Page Source”, then use “ctrl+F” to Find cards that cause you to “flip a coin”. To make sure I don’t miss anything, I’ll look for every card with the word “flip” in it.

Here is every card in the Naruto TCG, as of this post, that allows you to flip a coin (separated into element and then type; ignore cards like “desperate persuasion”, since you want to do the flipping):

Around here I start to choose my element too…most importantly first and foremost is Jutsu (because of Kin).

Earth:

Ninja:

Shikamaru Nara , Shikamaru Nara – Obviously just for Mental decks…

Hinata Hyuga

Mission:

Look for the Rare Bikochu

Jutsu:

Shadow Strangle Jutsu , 8 Trigrams Palms Rotation , Last Resort: Eight Gates Assault , Honey Jutsu , Bee Bomb Jutsu , Multiple Attacks , Genjutsu: Infinite Darkness , Earth Style: Dark Swamp , Gentle Fist Style: 8 Trigrams 64 Palms

Water:

Ninja:

Kidomaru , Haku

Mission:

Orochimaru’s Den , Split Personality

Jutsu:

Fuma Ninja Art: Binding Mandala , Feather Illusion Jutsu , Sound of Bells , Silent Killing Jutsu , Slicing Sound Wave , Senbon Rainstorm

Wind:

Ninja:

The Fifth Hokage , Sakura Haruno , Sakura Haruno

Mission:

Millionaire , Information Gathering , Hex Crystal , Slot Machine , Lucky! , The Power of Shukaku

Jutsu:

Sand Shower , Larch Dance , Spider Bow: Fierce Rip , Double Sand Blade , Genjutsu: Sylvan Fetters , Loaded Needles , Ninja Art: Poison Fog , Attack on the Nervous System , Cliff-Climbing Training

Dual Elements:

Bikochu

Yukie Fujikaze

This is my last attempt at a competitive (quick) five pronged seal deck. I’m trying to get past that pesky errata with “Let’s Take this Outside” or “no. 1 rookie sasuke”.

Ninja:
3x Naruto Uzumaki [Legacy]
3x Sasuke Uchiha [No.1Rookie]
3x Sakura Haruno [ADP]

2x Rock Lee [HSM]

2x Kabuto Yakushi [IS]

1x Anko Mitarashi [both*]

Jutsu:
3x Walking on Water Training
3x Tree Climbing Training
3x Release of Chakra
3x Cliff Climbing Training
3x Five Pronged Seal
2x Ground Fissure

Missions:
3x Let’s Take this outside!
3x Bravado!

Clients:
3x Sandayu Asama

Elemental Balance:
Wind:15
Lightning: 15
Water: 5
Earth: 5
Fire: 9

*Side decking these in and out…I think Coil’s works better still given the lack of good water support.

Side Deck:
1 Anko Mitarashi
3 Invisible Attack
?????

Strategy: Ok, now that Five Prong Seal has been errata’d, it has 6 fundamental weaknesses:

1.) You need to get it off fast.
2.) It takes 5 elements.
3.) You are relying on a single card you can only have 3 of in your deck.
4.) Certain anti-FPS jutsu, including kite and counter jutsu, will stop it in its tracks. Combos like Garaa+Chouji and effects like Sexy no Jutsu also stop it dead, but I’ll get to that later.
5.) If the opponent doesn’t block, letting you get a couple battle rewards, he can delay until he has enough good ninja…and then you will probably lose (due to the errata).
6.) Certain permanent missions make it impossible to use.

Counting 1 and 2 is easy enough and FPS decks have been doing it for years. I counter-balance 3 with Sakura [ADP], lots of training (release of chakra + cliff climbing), and Bravado + Sandayu. Sandayu protects me against those pesky permanent missions that tend to just painfully spite this deck too.

#4 I’m trying to counter with Ground Fissure. Most turn 0-2 ninja will be Genin anyhow…Ninja effects I have to try to stop with my answer to number 5.

#5 is solved with No 1 Rookie Sasuke and Lets take this outside! Either (although lets take this outside is more reliable) will negate your opponent’s garaa and/or chouji cheese if you do it just right. Although “Let’s Take this Outside” negates your own Rock Lee [HSM], [HSM] is an alternative in this deck anyways and should be side-decked out between games.

I love open format (“Legacy”, kinda), non-competitive, random games of Magic.  Its not my favorite TCG, but its definately up there.  And somewhere down the line, as I was exploring various combos with my Meloku deck [pure Johnny FYI], I realised something: I love Magic because, out of all the card games I’ve played, its variety and creativity is as such a level (partially due to its age and stability), that (mechanically) you can do almost anything.  And that is just plain awesome.

Sure you probably won’t win many games with it (save for huge multiplayer matches or against similiar deck types), but when you do, your sure to get some classic responses.  Without further ado, I present to you my:

How I built my 60 Card Battle of Wits Deck:

For those of you who don’t know, Battle of Wits states:

“At the beginning of your upkeep, if you have 200 or more cards in your library, you win the game.”

For those of you that don’t know, playing with the fewest possible cards usually leads to being able to (naturally) draw the cards you need.  In terms of auto-win cards like Battle of Wits, decks usually need to be focused on getting out the Battle of Wits and getting a good amount of defense at the same time.  Having a 250+ card deck to fuel your Battle of Wits is generally considered either a joke or newbish (as you simply won’t draw it often enough).  However, I came to the conclusion that you don’t need a 200 card deck to win with a card that requires 200 cards in your deck to win with.  You don’t even need Battle of Wits in your deck!  What you do need, is an infinate loop.

Step 1: Intruder Alarm Engine: Intruder Alarm is one of those Johnny card that asks for combos.  Usually involving getting out an infinate number of creatures or the same creature over and over again.  A good and easy combo for this is Birds of Paradise + Shrieking Drake.  Tap the bird for U, use it to play the drake.  Bird untaps from Intruder Alarm, Shrieking Drake’s effect activates.  Return Shrieking Drake.  Rinse, Wash and Repeat.  Throw in a second bird for Infinate Mana, and the fun really starts.  You gotta make sure your opponent has no “Tap:” abilities on any of their creatures that’ll lead to your death by doing this though…I’ve had infinate loop wars, and they aren’t as fun as you might think.  Personally, I use Meloku, the Clouded Mirror with Sakura-Tribe Scout.  Which is usually better, since you’ll want Moonfolk support in this deck for the second part of the combo…note that I usually pack Orochi Leafcaller since I’m too cheap to buy a real Birds of Paradise.  But infinate mana is really needed for this combo to work best.

Step 2: Uyo, Silent Prophet Fuel: Once you get your intruder alarm loop going, you need a mix of 2 Sakura-Tribe Scouts, Budoka Gardeners or Skyshroud Rangers.

Step 3: Death Wish and a Big Collection of Cards: So now you have infinate Death Wish with Uyo looping.  Assuming no interuptions from that pesky person who sits across from the table looking at you (I think he’s called “the opposing player” or something along those lines), you now get to search for 5 cards you own from outside the game (after which you will have 1 life, and therefore would die from playing another Deathwish.  As Death Wish resolves down the stack, you can activate the cards you search for without letting all the Death Wish’s you’ve cloned into the stack resolve.  This means, of course, you can activate cards you get that were removed from the game (like, for example, a life gain card).  Then copy DeathWish again!  After getting about 500 random cards, +1 Battle of Wits and +1 Feldon’s Cane (note: usually my friends by now just let me pick up “invisible magic cards of no particular variety” rather than get out random decks I brought with me), I play the cane and the Wits (plus a few more combos for fun), then end my turn (discarding my massive hand, using the cane (or heck, 10 Canes), to reshuffle my graveyard into my deck, and waiting for one of my 20 Battle of Wits to resolve (note: Deathwish gets past that pesky 4 card limit; feel free to search for 200 plague rats and squeal  in delight as your opponent wonders if you’ve ever been near a forum near the release of Fifth Dawn).

But like I said, unlikely combo.  There are tons of interesting things you can do with this…including…Unglued.

Which reminds me.  While playing take Double Deal and play it, coyping it 45.5 billion times, declaring each individual on earth 7 times…and technically a game against yourself would count, right?  Like a practice match? Hmm…

That reminds me…next time I play you, I automatically win!

*You’ll get the joke after you read the site.

http://www.decipher.com/fightklub/blog

Kind of taking the old “CCGs are like Crack” metaphor to a whole new level…and no, despite the site design it doesn’t have anything to do with LunchMoney.
I’ll finish the Sannin Summons by Wednesday.  Hopefully tomorrow…but a lot happened over this weekend and as a result my body is killing me.  The taping of the Tabletop Gaming ad wasn’t bad…but moving furniture all weekend somehow wore me out (who knew that pretending to lose in Yu-Gi-Oh! was less tiring than taking apart, moving and assembling a desk?)  I’ll also post a review of a card from another Random Card Game (hint: it’ll be Magical), and do my Sannin Review part 2 on Thursday/Friday again.  I really want to write an article on Decipher’s new CCG, but I’ll wait for the Sannin Review to be (slightly more) complete…

Please note that I will be staffing the Tabletop Gaming Room at Anime Expo 2008, so if you see me there feel free to say “hi”.  I doubt I have any READERS yet, but…you know.

Errata/Edit: I finished the summoning article.  Yay.

I thought it might be fun to compare the 3 Sannin ninja cards in the Naruto TCG from Bandai (and partially Cardhaus).  Of course, I can’t write a full article on all these cards without splitting them up into the different aspects of these cards.  Each week I’ll post a new aspect of these cards to look over.  But this week, I will look over summoning.

What you use:

Snake: Snake have the best support when it comes to summoning jutsu…but that can be argued since you can toad-summon turn 0 if you get a good enough hand…Still you can’t look over the fact that any Jonin can use their Jutsu (I’m tempted to use the turn 3 water satoosa who can only block with this Jutsu…) AND it doesn’t look at entrance cost.  Amazing.  Only backdraw is the snake has the be the head ninja…of course given the stats of snakes there’s very little reason to not want to be head…

Toad: So the toads tie in support with the snakes if you look at their summoning Jutsu.  They have 2 different Jutsu to choose from, their jutsu can be used by 3 different Ninja (One being turn 0-1; they can also be used by the actual Toads, but you most likely will have to use a card that negates their text before they can use these Jutsu).  They can summon without looking at turn cost, but not as well as snakes (and only from your hand).  Personally I prefer the rare summon, since turn cost isn’t a big factor with toads.  Only problem: its a rare!

Slug: The worst of the three summons…I really hope they reprint a new Slug Summoning Jutsu.  This has the worst of all worlds: you have to have a specific ninja out (at least you can run 6 Tsunade in your deck thanks to the Fifth Hokage).  So like the Toad jutsu it requires you run specific ninja.  It also looks at the turn counter.  Plus the turn marker has to be dead on.  And it requires hand cost to be paid!?  Why did they give this card so many flaws?  Obviously its because Slugs are the strongest…or so you would think *snickers*.  The saddest part of all is this was the LAST of the three summons to be made.  You think Bandai would have looked at this and gone “wait…maybe we shouldn’t not only make this the least desireable of the three summon jutsu, but at least not give it an extra flaw.”  I wish I could have been a fly on the wall during that meeting.

What you Get:

Snake: So snakes get 1 “boss snake”, and 1 “teen snake”.  Manda has a huge backdraw, so unless you use Orochimaru [Reconnaissance] and Immortality Jutsu, don’t expect to get this guy out until turn 5 or 6.  When you do, he’s a beast (your team will have a power of about 12-13 given orochimaru’s normal support).  Of course, he starts eating your other Ninja after a while…that can get pretty annoying.  Giant snake on the other hand is a nice card.  I wish he was “non-unique” like ANBU, but we can’t wish for everything *shrugs*.  Either way, the fact he can be played in response to a pesky Jutsu targetting your head ninja means your Jonin with Summoning Jutsu are always safe.  Plus, if he dies you can always summon him back since he returns to the Bottom of the deck (as opposed to katsuyu).  Overall, two decent cards (but nothing to write home about).

Toad: Once again recieving the most support (mostly due to having the most air time on the anime), the Toads have 3 bosses, 2 teens and 3 minors.

Minor: The minors are the reason Frogs rule the “What you Get” competition.  Having a Turn 0 ensures more early table presence.  Which is good.  Having a turn 0 that can potentially summon if your opponent uses the more and more often used Shikamaru Nara [Formation] is even better.  Throw in the fact they lower the entrance cost of your high level toads, and its obvious why “Toad Decks” were at least a Tier 4 or 5 meta pre-”The Chosen”.

Notice though that I said there were 3 minors.  And that I said this was pre-”The Chosen”.  The 3rd minor has not been put up by Bandai yet, but his stats are as followed:

Wow.  Amazing.  So now if you get early battle rewards (easy to do as lightning given the high powered turn 0s like Naruto, Lee and Idate Morino, the Wasabi Runner.  And 2 battle rewards for a potential 9/0 that ignores the 1 ninja per turn restriction, has no hand cost and ignores turn!  Imagine getting that turn 2 or 3…of course if your opponent just uses Sexy Garaa or Over 9,000 your Gamabunta will disappear faster then you can say “I pass my priority”.

Teens: Frogs easily have the best “Teens” as well.  They have the only pre-Boss summon with support (good in a lightning deck that frequently lacks such things), and a teen that, unlike the snakes, has stats while injured.  Sure he is +1 turn cost…but that’s why we have Gamatatsu.

Boss: Gamabunta.  The big guy.  Ok, so he’s a 9 attack power.  That’s good.  His injured stats aren’t quite as good as manda, but he can use his own summon jutsu for that support frog if he needs it.  The first two Gama are unfortunately…rather crappy.  There’s so many ways to lower his turn cost, there’s no need to play a turn cost 5 unless your looking for a turn 1 gama that doesn’t require you to drop battle rewards.  And the ability to not get hit by opponent’s ninja effects that remove him from play makes the turn 8, despite his high turn counter, my favorite.  However, if your using one of the MANY platoons (ok, about 3…and there should be a new one in the set after chosen…), the turn 5 is the way to go.  The turn 7 one is rather…lame.  Needing Jiraiya out ensures your at turn 5 or 6 anyhow (maybe 3 if you got a really good hand), negating the usefulness of his second effect.  Plus if your playing against a slug or snake user, they won’t have their snakes or slugs out until turn 5 or 6 anyhow.

Slugs: Poor females in this card game treated worse than female characters in…well Naruto.  The slugs only get 1 summon.  Which shouldn’t be too much of a problem since you can’t use their jutsu before turn 6 anyhow.  But it is nice that they gave Katsuyu support.  13 team power nice.  And the fact she can attack without Tsunade in play assures that even if they defeat your Sanin, you’ll still have that 8 value slug to deal with.  And thanks to the new Shizune [Intensive Care], if Tsunade dies you should be able to get her back semi-quickly (in case Katsuyu dies and you want to bring her back, of course).  Having 0/4 support injured is very nice as well…not as nice some may say than the 7 power of the above summons, but Air has always been support based anyways.  Personally I’m mad that Bandai made Katsuyu turn 7 and not turn 6.  Sure Tsunade is turn 6 (without Konohamaru), but using Tonton [pet] to get out Katsuyu and Tsunade on the same turn would be oh so much fun.  I hope Bandai makes the other slugs soon…even if they are un-named, that didn’t stop “Gama” and “Ninja Toad” up there…besides, you could make them somehow “meld” into Katsuyu…that’d be neat flavor in my opinion (see the end of the article for the custom cards).

What They Can Do:

Snake: The snake only has one jutsu…its good, don’t get me wrong.  Very solid; but every one of the summons has these “Pay 2 to do 2″ kind of Jutsu.  What makes this card so good is the new Orochimaru can use this Jutsu…a turn 6 with no drawbacks that can do 2 Water for 2 damage…but this is looking into the Sanin Jutsu so…yeah…

Toads: The toads have the Standard 2 for 2 damage jutsu…but what’s this?  +7 attack for 1 Lightening!  That’s the cincher that makes toads the “winners” of the “What they can do” contest.  Sure your toad shouldd be big enough to deal with your enemies…but this ensures that they are REALLY big enough.  They also have “Bringing Down the House Jutsu”, which lets you pay 1 lightening to injure an animal or snake card.  But honestly…that’s a side-deck card at best (against Kiba and Snake decks).  Although, amusingly enough, it can take down The Nine-Tailed Fox Spirit.  Why did the Fourth have to sacrifice himself to seal away the Fox?  Seems like Gamabunta could have done it without his help…

Oh, but lets not forget their fire Jutsu…

Yeah, that’s right.  Destroys every enemy ninja.  2 Battle rewards please.  Well, ok, not outiright destroy.  But unless your opponent is playing Air (for Shizune, Garaa, some prevention cards, etc…) or some other defense-against-direct-damage (Neji save me!), your shit outta luck.

Errata: Division requires and targets “Katsuyu”, not “Tunade”*

Slugs: For once the slugs aren’t last place!  They are…second?  Ok, well the 2 for 2 is good.  And technically having another jutsu is better than not (options=good).  But…negating damage?  This card would be amazing if it could respond to ninja effects (take THAT Sexy Garaa…).  But that’s the problem with Division.  Sure its stops direct damage Jutsu (like the other summons Jutsu or Suicidal Action), but it only protects that ninja (so against Toad Firebombs, your other ninja are still dead), and your playing a TSUNADE DECK.  Tsunade is Medical and has some of the best Healing Jutsu in the game.  And even if your Katsuyu was going to die, its not like your going to miss her for long–she goes back to your HAND!  This card has some uses, but without the ability to stop most ninja effects (due to the priority issue reguarding the timing of ninja effects that is still not clarified very well on the bandai forums).  I personally think it needs an errata, since otherwise your Katsuyu is still affected by US-Formation Chouji + Shikamaru, or the substantially easier to use Gaara of the Desert [Tragic Name].  See the custom card section at the bottom for more.

*The misprint in early divisions makes me grin though.  Images of thousands of tiny tsunades jumping around…heehee.

Who They Can Group With:

Snakes: There are no “Snake” platoons as of this moment.

Ok, these platoons make me laugh very hard.  Mostly because the one on the left: that was released AFTER the one on the right.  Why:  I’ll never know.  Only rarely will you want to flip a coin instead of discard a chakra…and if your playing toads, you should have another oil out anyways.  Of course “Role Reversal” isn’t valid: so if he’s injured, he can attack each turn without Chakra, Oil or Flips.  Which is neat.  But the second platoon is much better.  The platoon can still be hit by Sexy-Garaa though…

I personally don’t know if you can platoon a platoon.  I don’t think so…but if you know the answer, please comment here and I’ll update my blog.

There is one more platoon that, for many, “makes” the toad deck viable in the next meta:

Naruto uzumaki and gamakichi
Lightning/wind
Turn:1
hand:0
Healthy:2/0
Injured:4/0
Leaf/genin/male/ninja toad/platoon
[Sons favor]
Valid: Any ninja toad ninja(s) in your hand get -3 entrance cost

Valid: Every in play ninja toad except this ninja gets +1/+1.
Rarity: C

Wow.  Isn’t that awesome?  Turn 1.  Can use Jutsu.  Decent stats.  Boosts your other Ninja toads.  AND -3 ENTRANCE COST!  That’s amazing.  Imagine the set up:

Turn 0: Naruto Uzumaki.

Turn 1: Platoon, Gamakichi.

Turn 2: Gamabunta!

The fact all these platoons, can use Naruto Jutsu (Rasengan, 2k Barrage, etc…) makes it all the tastier.  Plus, the next set (or set after) we should be seeing something very special…

Card Spoilers (in Japanese; From the Carddas site)

That platoon is gonna be awesome…

Slug: The slug has a really nice platoon.  Its no Gamakichi + Naruto, but its still very nice.  Its immune to sexy garaa.  It has 3 mental.  It has great support and attack.  Its medical and medicine.  Its Sannin, Female and …well immune to everything your opponent has, except missions.  Katsuyu’s division Jutsu is very nice with this card, but I still wish she got an equivalent to “Toad Sword” other than Tsunade’s Extraodrinary Power Jutsu (note: Gama+Naru has Rasengan, so hush!)…and playing it ensures you can’t summon any other Katsuyu and/or can’t use The Fifth Hokage or Tsunade.  But its usually a fair trade.

Support Cards:

The worst part about balancing these summons is that both missions that really are good to use with these cards in particular are LIGHTNING.  So, unless you want to multi-element, Toads still win hands down in this category.

Three-Cornered Deadlock really should be a Water/Wind mission…making it lightning just gives more support to the over-supported “Frog” theme.  Stormy Battle again is for whatever reason Lightning.  I guess it makes sense given the Nine-Tailed Fox is Lightning as well (another poor choice, but we’ll get into how off a lot of the elements in this game is later).  Stormy Battle isn’t really NEEDED in frog either, considering they have Fire-Bomb Jutsu…

And as long as you have 2 lightning missions, you might as well give Frogs a great exclusive mission too.  Yeesh.

There is 1 Jutsu that is great with Frogs too.  It lets them use Jutsu.  Meaning they can summon other Frogs.  Although it requires a Jounin, it lets you turn 3 Gamabunta without any of the Gamakichi cheese.

Frogs get an “ok” NInja support in the form of Naruto Uzumaki [Result of the Training].  But the best NInja Support is easily Orochimaru [Master of Every Jutsu].  His ability to use “Coiling Around” means Manda decks are the only summon decks with a “2 damage for 2 chakra” Jutsu that can be used by up to 6 non-Platoon Ninja in the deck.  Some will claim this just offsets the lack of Orochimaru/Manda platoons, but in my opinion it really does a lot more than that (given that now you can now split your “2 for 2 jutsu users” team).

Errata/Custom Cards:

First of all, make Stormy Battle Lightning/Wind.  After all, the card is referring to Gamabunta fighting Shukaku (although it can be argued that Gamabunta is Water…and Shukaku Earth…but ignore that).  I’d argue that Three-Cornered Deadlock should be Wind/Water, especially given that Toads get an exclusive “Draw 3 Cards” mission like that.

But what I really wanted to see was some more Slug support.  Mostly, some “baby” slugs.  So I made the following:

“Baby Slug”*

Wind

Turn: 1

Hand: 0

Healthy: 0/1

Injured: 0/1

Slug

[Piece of Katsuyu]

Can not be the user of Jutsu.  You may have as many of these Ninja in play as you wish.

*I know they gave one of the slug division’s a real name.  If anyone can remember it, please post here.

Giant Slug

Wind

Turn:4

Hand: 0

Healthy: 1/3

Injured: 0/3

Slug

[Piece of Katsuyu]

Can not be the user of Jutsu, except “Division”.  If you control no other Slug ninja, you may have 1 other Giant Slug in play.  If you have 2 Giant Slugs in play, you cannot have any other Slug ninja in play.

Division

Element: Wind

Cost: Wind/Wind

Requirements: Katsuyu or Giant Slug

Target: User

Effect: Return the user to its owners hand.  Then, search your deck for up to X “Baby Slug” ninja and place it as the back ninja in any of your team(s).  X=The entrance cost of the Target, divided by 2 (round down).

Reformation

Element: Wind

Turn: 3

Hand Cost: 1

Permanent (3)

Effect: As long as this card is in play, you may ignore the hand costs of Slug ninja.  Furthermore, once per turn, during the exchange of Jutsu, you may return any number of “Slug” ninja in the same team to your hand.  If you do, you may immediately place a single “Slug” ninja of your choice into play, in the same team (the entrance cost of that ninja must not exceed double the total entrance cost of the ninja returned +1).

From AEG’s Legend of the Five Rings, Crimson and Jade, Hidden Emperor 4, Fire and Shadow and more…

I believe in every gamer’s life there is a moment when they see something and instantly fall for it.  Whether its a powerful deck concept like “Recurring Nightmare/Survival of the Fittest” (Magic the Gathering) that just makes Timmy’s squeal in delight, or some needessly powerful creature like the “Nine-Tailed Fox Spirit” (Naruto TCG).  For me, and for reasons I’m more than happy to divulge, this card is Ryosei.

History Behind the Card (Menu)

Ryosei is the daughter of the daimyo of the fox clan.  Within the L5R game, you are given a choice of choosing from various clans.  Initially there were 8…then 10…then more than I care to count.  Currently there are only around 10 still playable (due to a old ruling when the edition changed from “Jade” to “Gold” standard, resulting in a mass banning of older cards and a new direction for the game).  What makes L5R so neat is the fact you get to vie for your clan–and not just in game.  You go to tournaments and, as a result, are allowed to vote for or even just yourself choose benefits for your clan (or just screw around with your enemies) in the constant struggle for the Throne of Rokugan!

The fox clan were pretty much unknown (a “minor clan” you couldn’t “play as”, making their cards as usable as unaligned personalities).  But eventually AEG printed the Yoritomo’s Alliance faction stronghold, bringing together the Fox, Dragonfly, Mantis, Wasp and others under a common banner.  Hurrah.  Unfortunately, due to storyline events some might even call partially connected to this very card, in the end the Mantis kind of took full control of the Alliance, and are now currently one of the eight major clans.  It would be about 8 rela life years until the Fox would be accepted back into the status of “playable faction”–because of Recent storyline events, the Fox have joined the Mantis.  A rather nasty bit of fiction for many old school fox players who loved Ryosei’s refusal of the Mantis champion’s proposal of marriage.  Ryosei is a shugenja (i.e. a spellcaster), as well as a warrior.  She became clan champion after her father left the clan to become the Walking Horror of Fu Leng (and bane to fox decks in casual environments everywhere circa 2000).  She was the first human (debateable) to view Volternuum before the War against the Shadow (what I consider the last “great” storyline event in which all of the empire banded together against some big-bad-evil-genius type).  Ryosei later died, having survived to be the oldest recorded clan champion…ever.

Card Mechanics (Meat)

The original Ryosei seemed rather bland…a 1 F/3 C Shugenja for 4 Gold, no honor requirement and 1 personal honor.  Of course, it is in her simplicity that she truly shined.  Normally even a 0 F/ 2 C shugenja would cost at least 3 Gold, but for 1 extra gold you get a clan affiliated, daimyo status Shugenja with +1F / +1 C more than the everyday-0/2-for-3 shugenja!  Sign me up!  To make matters better, the original Fox Stronghold added another +1 C to all Shugenja!  And it reduced all gold costs by 2 for Fox clan members!  But what’s that, you may ask, can’t you already pay 2 less to bring the personallity out without gaining honor?  That’s right!  She’s 0 for a 1 F/4 C Shugenja Daimyo!  Amazing!  To top it off, many fox decks can run 2 more cards that would reduce her cost by an additional 5, bringing her gold cost to a total of…well 0 (since you can’t go into negative costs).  So many times that’s 1 honor to boot!

One of her most popular uses was in the Kitsu Tombs “corrupt Lion” deck.  This deck required you to bow your Shugenja to keep you from losing honor/provinces when you bring out big Oni.  As Ryosei is one of the cheapest Shugenja in the game (with decent stats), she fills the roll perfectly.

Then something magical happened.  Ryosei grew up.

Wow, so now we have a 3 cost 2F/4C Shugenja with the ability to multi-cast your favorite Kiho!  Also awesome.  And if you play Doji Chomei, she’ll cost 0! (1 if you play Alliance.)  There’s so many uses for this card–multiple ranged attacks with Osano-Wo Bolts, multiple deck searches, multiple ring grabs or just lots and lots of power boosts (even a common kiho like sharing strength offers a +4 bonus…that’s damn nice, and twice as nice when used twice).

Her experienced 2 version is the only form of her that can’t be brought out with just the clan’s stronghold…but that doesn’t make it a bad card by any means.  The fox clan deck issue was the fact they had a great amount of gold (they could effectively use the port-marketplace-trade routes circle like the Crane), but that their personallities were so cheap they’d have extra gold each turn.  To make up for that, many of us used followers.  Swarms of them.  And this card just helps show the great support AEG gave the underused clan.  The ability to unbow 5 of your followers just by bowing a single unit?  That’s just awesome.  Ashigaru archers can shoot for another 5 (10 on Tsuruchi), Kitsune House Guard can bow for another Kiho, Acolytes can do another ritual and Ambush Strategist can give double its original bonus!

Backdraws to the Card (Potatoes)

First and foremost: neither the Fox, nor Yoritomo’s Alliance are clans anymore.  Meaning in the current game, these cards are both technically unaligned.  Now if you updated them to have them join up with the Mantis (or just used the old stronghold with older faction rules), you’d still not quite find yourself out of dodge yet (I reckon).

First and foremost she still is only a 3 force.  Although she is a caster (and should be ultimately unconcerned with her force), the fact she is from a clan that should have a fate deck filled with followers poses problems.  The fact her clan has no sword poses yet another issue (no Kuro’s fire + sword cheese here).  But most of all, just the fact that followers could be feared or wiped away with the right action (or heck, just a duel) meant that the idea of loading up on the little guys is itself systematically flawed (especially back in the day when 3 followers + Ryosei would add up to the same amount of force as a Single 0 cost Oni from the Corrupt Lion who removed its own backdraws).

Reasons I love the Card (Ice Cream)

This is the simple reason this card is “more important” to me than any other.  Years ago with my God-Father I used to play Bushido Blade for the PS1 (one of my first games for the play station might I add).  As a result, I fell in love with the Naginata.  Years later (and after finding Seung Mina on Soul Blade), I found this card (loving the art) and, trying to find an excuse as to why I didn’t play L5R anymore, told people “because AEG won’t print a Fox clan stronghold”.  However, one day I found out I was wrong…AEG DID print a Fox clan stronghold!  I learned more about the clan and fell in love–considering that L5R would later lead into most of my other card games, role-playing games, anime and (because of this card) my kitsune “obsession” my friends seem to think I have (don’t let the shirts, statues, posters, decks and wallpaper fool you!), this card and its simple, but sharp and very well done flavor has done more to shape my current nerdy existence then…well I wouldn’t say “more than anything” considering the chain of events that just lead to me looking at the card the way I did…

Decks I’ve Used the Card In (Platter)

Although I did use her in my old fox deck (follower based) and my current one (naga/creature focused), my favorite Ryosei deck was a result of a sale (a penny each) I encountered on this card.  If I can recall it correctly…it went something like this:

Stronghold: Kyuden Kitsune

Dynasty Deck:

Ryosei x30

Fate Deck:

Arrows from the Woods x21

Emergence of the Masters x3

Entrapping Terrain x3

The Fires That Cleanse x3

The Fury of Osano-Wo x3

I don’t think the deck needs an explanation…but before you hurt me (too much), please realize that I only used this with one of my close friends, and I think he still kicked my ass.

Variations of the Card (Toppings)

Magic:

Ryosei

1G

Legendary Creature – Human Kitsune Spellshaper

[G][G]T: Discard 1 card from your hand: Untap a number of green creatures equal to Ryosei’s toughness.

1/3

Naruto:

Ryosei

Earth

Turn: 0

Hand: 0

Healthy: 1/1

Injured: 0/1

Fox Clan/Fox Spirit/Genin

[Daughter of the Kitsune]

–

Ryosei

Earth

Turn:3

Hand: 0

Healthy: 1/2

Injured: 0/2

Fox Clan/Fox Spirit/Lord/Chunin/Growth

[Daimyo of the Fox Clan]

Immediately after Ryosei uses a jutsu that resolves successfully, you can discard a card.  The jutsu is returned back to your hand instead of being sent to your Chakra area.  You must keep this Jutsu revealed to your opponent at all times.  Jutsu revealed through Ryosei’s effect cannot be the target of this ninja effect.

–

Ryosei

Earth

Turn:4

Hand:0

Healthy: 2/4

Injured:1/4

Fox Clan/Fox Spirit/Lord/Jounin/Growth

[Successor of the Ki-Rin]

Immediately after another NInja effect resolves, you can discard 1 chakra.  The ninja’s effect can be activated one more time this turn.

Final Critique (Check Please):

I’m the most biased person you’ll find when it comes to judging any fox clan member (especially my mistress Ryosei-sama).  But that’s ok–everyone needs some bias.  Otherwise the world is just boring.  And whether your bias is towards the strongest card in the game, or just some vanilla common looked over by 90% of the players out there, you should try to find a place in your life for the things you love.  After all, you only get one life.  Well, ok, you get 20.  But that’s for another article.

Do you have any funky cards you consider your “most important card” for some reason?  Why?  A funny story perhaps…or just a great game experience.  Want me to critique this card by chance?