Beastly Mage

Orochimaru

For the first time ever we have a Leaf Orochimaru. Dunno if that's a good thing. (insert "confused" smiley here) What is good is this guy's effect. It's basically a Baki for Water that discards the lowest entry cost Ninja. Add to that the fact that he's got Growth and you have a powerhouse to deal with. Thing is that if you play him right you could have him out at turn 5 or maybe even earlier. In limited, he could be good if you draft enough water cards. In a dedicated Orochimaru deck he can be quite deadly.

Ratings:

Limited: 3/5

Constructed: 4/5

Art: *Shivers!*/5

Orochimaru [Lurking Evil]

This card is freaking insane. The water version of Baki. But the difference between Baki and this card is that this card actually has good stats. With 4 support, itʼs easy to send a team with this card out to battle and beat up your opponent. The downside is the hand cost of 2 and the fact that you need specifically an Outstanding BR or Outstanding Victory. Itʼs a little bit harder to get a Oro-lock started but once it starts, thereʼs no stopping it. Water has great support so try to make a good deck for this card.

Orochimaru [Lurking Evil]

This entire week we will be continuing to look at Lineage of the Legends, the newest set of Naruto that released August 29th. Today, we will be looking at Orochimaru [Lurking Evil], which is unlike any of the other Sannin that are out there.

      Orochimaru is a leaf Ninja with Sannin, Male, Growth, and 3 Mental Power characteristics. In addition, he is a turn 5 Ninja with 2 hand cost, which is new like with all the Sannin in this set. He is the usual water characteristic and adds another threat to Water’s arsenal of turn 5 ninjas. His effect reads:

 If this ninjas team wins an outstanding victory or battle reward, then it gains the following effect: Valid:  At the end of this turn, if this ninja is in your village, select 1 ninja with the lowest entrance cost in your opponent’s village and discard it. He’s basically a form of Baki on steroids for Water.  His effect should give you field advantage most of the time when he is sent out to battle and it limits your opponents chump blockers they can use against you. It’s a pretty good effect overall. His typical 6/4 Power healthy is really solid and his injured stats are a little weaker than the normal turn 6 Orochimarus, but it’s still solid at a 5/2. Like Jiraiya and Tsunade, he has Growth as I said in my review of Jiraiya, I wouldn’t recommend killing your curve just so you can Growth your Orochimaru. It’s nice, but his stats without growth are still respectable.

      Water got a lot of support in this set, more so than Lightning, which could propel them up into the top decks and could rival Over 9000 in tournament play. As far as where Orochimaru fits in water, it’s hard to say because Water has a huge array of turn 5’s including: Kabuto, Raiga, Kisame, Zabuza, and now Orochimaru as the main ones. I am not sure if I would take Orochimaru over some of the other, I suppose it depends on what kind of Mono Water deck you are going to be running. Chakra Control would be running Raiga and Kisame more than likely. However, if you do run Orochimaru, it allows you to free up space for your turn 6 Second Hokage. Water can definitely be played as a Mono deck, and it is probably more suited to be one. It can be splashed into Water/X, but I think Water by itself is the best way to go.

Overall, Orochimaru adds more versatility to water’s onslaught of turn 5 Ninjas and with 4 support, it could be hard to pass him up. He is also still a leaf ninja, which opens him up to new things as well. In limited like with Jiraiya, the 2 hand cost hurts his playability, but once he hits the field, he is a powerhouse.

Constructed: 4/5

Limited: 3.5/5

Art: 4/5