Pojo's Naruto Card of the Day
On our
Naruto Message Board you can:
Trade Cards (with an eBay type rating system), talk about
your decks,
discuss upcoming and past tourneys, converse on
the anime &
more.
Ratings are
based on a 1 to 5 scale.
1 being the worst.
3 = average.
5 is the highest rating.
Beastly Mage
Welcome to
another Bonus COTD. Today's Bonus card: Zetsu!
This card introduces a new mechanic to the Naruto
CCG: Game Removal. During your mission phase you can
pick three Ninjas from either your discard pile or
your opponent's discard pile, remove them from play,
and give Zetsu a Growth Coin. Now, that's actually
good considering that this guy's combat stats are a
bit... well... weak! >.< 3/3 - 2/3 for a Jonin that
comes into play at turn 5 is good support-wise. Now,
give him two turns and he becomes a 5/5 - 4/5 (and
with yesterday's Bonus Card, he can become more).
Now remember, he can only have up to two coins due
to this effect. That means if you manage to give him
more coins due to other effects you can do so. I see
this card trumping such clients as Emina. Why? Emina
depends on having Ninjas in the Discard Pile, and
this guy eats them up (much like in the manga/anime).
On top of that he's got Ambush, a new standard for
bad guys in the game.
Happy Friday! We have another bonus preview card for
you, the first of the new Akatsuki cards, Zetsu!
Zetsu
[Mysterious Existence] (Should be nom nom nom…)
Yay for new ninja, yay for awesome effects. Zetsu as
you can see brings in a new level of gameplay,
Removed From Game! Now, a lot of people have been
whining on the boards about how a RFG zone will make
this more like that OTHER anime based card game…the
one with attack and defense values…yeah, that game.
Thing is, with Naruto, RFG won’t be a second
graveyard. Anyway, on to his effect. He eats things,
ninja specifically, before Emina can put them back
into a deck. Which deck relies heavily on Emina? OC!
That’s right, it’s an OC counter. Let them Shadow
Clone Jutsu you and mill their ninja, they become
food for Zetsu here, and he gets those nifty growth
coins. His effect can be used infinitely, even
though he can only get two growth coins. He’s a
whopping 5/5 4/5 in two turns of eating ninja.
Pretty decent if you ask me. Of course, as a villain
he has ambush, and I’ve never seen anyone complain
about that. I can only hope that we see another
ninja in this set that can eat jutsu from the
discard pile, to stop all the recycling in its
tracks. What sucks though about this card is the
lack of a valid effect, and that it says he was from
the Leaf Village. Well, we don’t know what village
Zetsu is from (and no, it’s not the Grass Village,
that’s just speculation because he is a plant) so I
just think Bandai should edit the card a bit and
remove that symbol. That, and make him valid.
Limited: Can’t say just yet. Depends what else is in
the set for this guy.
Constructed: 4/5 (If he were valid though…)
Art: Time for nom nom nom!
The
First Hokage
Today we continue our New Chronicle Previews.
Todayʼs card is Zetsu.
Zetsu first off seems like a really solid ninja.
Heʼs an Earth, Akatsuki, Rogue Ninja, Jonin, Male
with Ambush. Heʼs turn 5 with 1 hand cost. Right off
the bat he starts off with potential because Earth
needs all the help it can get in order to attempt to
make into the meta. Zetsu has stats of 3/3 healthy
and 2/3 injure which doesnʼt seem that good for a
turn 5 ninja, but his effect will make up for it.
His effect states: During your mission phase, you
can select 3 ninja cards from your discard pile or
opponentʼs discard pile, and remove them from game.
In that case, place a growth coin on this ninja. The
maximum number of growth coins due to this effect is
2. So when Zetsu comes into play, he can almost
automatically become a 4/4 and then a 5/5 on turn 6.
He seems like a great mini counter to the metaʼs
most popular deck in OC Lightning. If you remove
your opponentʼs ninja with his effect, your opponent
has less recycling power with Emina, so they could
indeed deck out if they do not play correctly. To my
understanding, Zetsu can use his effect once per
turn, and after he receives that last growth coin,
he can still use his effect, but will not get a
growth coin. Zetsuʼs effect is not valid, but I
guess thatʼs a good thing because his injured stats
are basically the same as his healthy, so once he is
pumped to a 5, heʼll also have a 5 support in
injured.
Overall, I can see Zetsu making an impact in Earth
decks. The only question that it poses for me is
that can we use his effect after the two times and
what other support earth will be getting.
My ratings:
Constructed: 4/5
Limited: 4/5
The Poo Toucher
So today we have a very special treat (no, not the
next installment of our top 10) today, we get a
super special (but known) preview, Zetsu from A New
Chronicle (set 12)
Zetsu has an incredibly unique ability. During your
mission phase you can remove up to three ninjas in
either your or your opponents discard pile FROM THE
GAME. Now why is this good?
As of right now, the Naruto OC decks (commonly known
as "Chain Lightning") rely heavily on self mill. By
using things like Shadow Clone Jutsu from Eternal
Rivalry (set 6), Naruto's ability-final valley, and
Shizune Medical Kunoichi from Approaching Winds (set
11) then using the client Emina from Lineage of
Legends (set 10) to recover 5 ninjas a turn along
with drawing you a card as well as using Jiraiya
Instructor of the Hidden Technique from Eternal
Rivalry (set 6) to pick up just about any of the
decks powerful jutsu on command (essentially drawing
3 cards a turn instead of 1) With Zetsu (who was
unexpectedly given the earth symbol) Earth has begun
to combat one of the tier 1 decks as if Zetsu "eats"
the opposing jiraiya, it's a crippling event.
Now if that wasn't enough...if Zetsu uses his
ability, he gets a GROWTH coin (+1/+1) and he can
get 2 (he can "eat" ninjas every turn however) so
this 3/3 2/3 becomes a 4/4 3/4 on the turn he's
deployed (but in earth, we all know what we're
throwing down for the caged bird, so ambushed is
proly a more accurate term) and then a 5/5 4/5 the
next turn (support wise matching the all mighty
fourth hokage!)
Zetsu goes perfectly in a well established earth
archetype that the good people here at Oregon have
been working on for a few sets now (being a turn 5
was a big deal to all of us) so if this is a taste
of what earth has been promoted to be in A New
Chronicle we can expect earth to finally be super
competitive.
Looking from the other side, Zetsu has many flaws.
He won't become a factor until 2 full turns after
the opponent drops his Naruto and 1 turn after
dropping Sasuke. A full 3 turns after Emina can
recover ninjas, so the turn to which this effect
greatly limits is effectiveness. He also will reside
in the village for a pretty long time as he isn't
valid, meaning a damage and you have just ended him
entirely.
Being limited to a support ninja is also a big deal,
earth has support ninjas, we need a head ninja
*looks for Yamato* and with no super playable earth
pump jutsu, his stats, while good leave a few things
to be desired....
Overall, he could be the savior of earth as a
symbol. Or, he could be just another card that we
all look at desperately wishing we could play him at
our chunin's but know it'd turn out bad. Only time
will tell...
Constructed: 4 out of 5. A lot to like, but being
earth makes me hug him at arms length.
Limited: 4 out of 5. Ambushed has shown to be a
major factor in limited.
Art: 3 out of 5. MOVE SIR!
Megamarik
Zetsu [Mysterious Existence]
Welcome Pojo'ers! Today, we're reviewing a new
Akatsuki, and he's earth! Zetsu [Mysterious
Existence]!
AMBUSH! SUPPORT! JONIN! Something earth needed! And
his effect is something the game needed too. He can
potentially be a 5/5 healthy, 4/5 injured by T6.
Who doesn't want that?
Removing 3 ninjas from the discard pile FROM THE
GAME. FOREVER. Sorry Emina, your engine is shut
down :) Hopefully, Bandai will not make the RFG
pile another discard pile like YGO. I have faith in
them however.
His combat attribute is ?, which is kinda
mysterious. Akatsuki for earth!
Great card, not amazing, but great.
Limited: 4/5
Constructed: 4/5
N. Jolly
Zetsu
Here's one of the new Akasuki we were promised this
set, and thankfully, he's earth, which mean earth
has a Jonin that's not Asuma! He's a T5, HC1, 3/3
2/3 ninja who just so happens to herald a new effect
into the game...that's right, removed from game!
During your main phase, you can "eat" three ninjas
in your opponent's discard pile and remove them from
play. If you do that, Zetsu get's a growth coin,
max of two coins. But maxing out on coins doesn't
stop his eating, so you can chow down on your
opponent's discard pile until it's bare of ninjas,
making Enima, and to a lesser extent, Boxed Lunch
worse cads.
Earth needed a card like this, and not just a card,
but a theme like this. I hope removed from game is
an earth ability only, because that'll give people a
reason to run it again, and make sure that it has
it's own identity again rather than just saying
"Hey, earth has Byakugan..shut up!"
Constructed:4.5/5 I really like this card, and Earth
is going to run it.
Limited:3.5/5 Less reasons to run it, but still a
huge support horse.
Art:Scary/5 Zetsu's coming to get you!
Saitsuof
leaves
Alright, to end the week, here's a card for an
element that needed something BADLY, and it finally
got it. Everyone, say hello to Zetsu, aka, the only
Akatsuki member not to fight yet in anime or manga.
Now the first thing you'll look at is his stats and
will be outraged, they are underwhelming for a turn
5. But his effect more than makes up for it. He
slows down Naruto OC by removing 3 ninja from your
opponents discard (or your own if you please), and
he gets a growth from it. That means by turn 6 (if
you were smart enough to do his effect when dropping
him) he's a 5/5 of death. Oh, and you can keep using
his effect, he just won't get his power up anymore.
For Earth, this is huge. It gives them even more
control of the game, and super support, and slowing
down Naruto OC is always good. We'll need to see how
it does later but for now, yay for Earth.
Constructed: 4.5/5 (only reason it's not perfect,
it's Earth)
Limited: 5/5 (from what I hear, Earth is huge this
set, so if you pull this, yay)
Art: I'm going to eat you!!!/5
