Beastly Mage

N-745 The First Hokage & Yamato [GENE MANIPULATION]
 
Man, my comp has been all screwy, so I apologize for how erratic I've been with both this and the sideboard...things have been...well, screwy.  I hope to get a new one up this sat, so hopefully that'll end up well.
 
Today's card is yet another misc rare from BP and another member of the "It'd be decent without a hand cost" platoons.  A cool card that isn't bad in most ways, let's take a look at it's stats, shall we:
 
T6 HC1 Water/Earth
Leaf | Male | Anbu | Satoosa | Mental Power: 4 | Platoon
7/5 4/4 CA: Tree
Set 16: Rare
 
A bunch of keywords there that are fun for the late game, probably the most unique thing on this card is a mental power of 4, which is pretty nice in this environment, as is allows a nice Shogi Match target.  Other than it's Tree CA, it doesn't have much else really worth talking about, as it's power is pretty standard for a plat of it's turn.  I think this guy should have gotten Mastery, at least so you could used it's effect as a blowout, but let's get to that now, shall we:
 
[GENE MANIPULATION]
During the Exchange of Jutsu, when any of your opponent's Ninjas become a Stand-by Ninja, give 1 Damage to that Ninja.
 
It's Chase in ninja form.  But with this card, you have to play a jutsu to make it really worthwhile, which is kind of substandard for such a late game plat.  Not being valid is really sad, and hurts this card more than it should.  It's really only abusable in it's on deck, and barely even there.
 
The worst part of this card is that it's not better than the two ninja it would replace, which is a pretty important part of both squads and platoons.  Without the hand cost or with Mastery, this might have seen play, but lacking both was just sad.  It's effect basically turns Wood Pillars into Fear By Genjutsu, and that role is already taken by...Fear By Genjutsu.  So yeah, not seeing play anywhere.
 
Limited: 1/5 Why?
Constructed: 1.5/5 The .5 is for having DFC in the format as well
Block: 1.25/5 Not goodArt: Why is Yamato on top?/5

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4/29/10 N-745 The First Hokage & Yamato [Gene Manipulation]
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Today's card is a very interesting team; Yamato and his predecessor/DNA Daddy, The First Hokage. For starters, this platoon is a little painful to pull-off since both ninjas already have hand cost so you'll lose four cards playing it (One for the ninja, one for that ninja's hand cost, then rinse and repeat for the platoon). Fortunately, Earth has some pretty decent draw power so this shouldn't be to bad of a problem and the new Tenzo/Yamato has no hand cost.

The other disadvantage of this card is that both ninjas have very good effects on their own. such as Yamato [CBF] or First Hokage [MH], but in a dedicated deck, this guy's effect can be just as brutal. Whenever any of your opponent's ninjas become a stand-bye ninja during the EoJ, you give one damage to those ninjas. This leads to many devastating combos. Four Pillars and DFC now become Fear By Genjutsu; using FBG with a Genjutsu ninja now eliminates a whole team. PtH Headunter is now Razor Chain.... One interesting combo for Earth/Fire (that will probably never happen) is this card and Itachi [Goal]. One chakra to remove a ninja, then that ninja takes one damage.

This card has a very deadly effect when used right, but it suffers from being somewhat hard to put in play.

Limited: 1/5
Constructed: 3/5
Block: 3/5 Less First Hokages in block, but [MH] is the main one you'll be using still.