Archive for July, 2010

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Bandai’s New Release: Sakura Haruno

Huzzah! An article about NARUTO, News posted on July 20th, 2010 by

Yesterday, Bandai announced the third card from the new Naruto Target exclusive pack. This new Sakura Haruno card has the kunoichi acting as a medical ninja, thus reflecting her role in the Naruto: Shippuden saga. With a strong growth attribute, the card could probably be used in a number of playing styles, but seemingly would lend itself to expansionist tactics. With the right playing combination, a set like this could be able to take on even the strongest shinobi.

An expansion player might be able to link this new Sakura card to a number of others in their deck. Since so many medical ninja tactics involve having one team used for offense, and another for healing, it seems that a cagey player could develop a team around Sakura. Though the card seems relatively strong, it may actually be advantageous to place her in a team with stronger ninja.

Since she’s a growth card, she may take a turn or two to become developed. Therefore, she may need a guardian card to protect her during this growth phase. However, once Sakura is fully built up, she’ll probably be able to restore whole teams of shinobi. This can create a conveyor belt of ninja stopping to be healed before rushing back into battle, creating a no-win situation for an opponent.

Unfortunately, it’s impossible to play test these tactics at the moment. Until the card is released, I’m only able to speculate on how it might work. I generally think those are pretty decent assumptions on the card, but one can never be too certain without having tried them out in a game.

Bandai is expected to release more views of preview cards by Wednesday, July 21st. Perhaps these next cards will be fitting with the Sakura Haruno one, and maybe able to act as her escorts.

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Magic: The Gathering Featured in The Sorcerer’s Apprentice with the Enthrall Card

Huzzah! An article about Magic: The Gathering posted on July 19th, 2010 by

Were it to actually exist, this Enthrall card would actually be quite powerful. Really too powerful, when you think about it, which is probably exactly why it won’t be put into physical print but instead will be featured in the recently released Disney Movie, the Sorceror’s Apprentice. Despite a rather lackluster showing at the box office, I’m curious to see where exactly this plays into the movie (no pun intended).

Enthrall is actually one of four magic cards that make a cinematic appearance, and they are custom-made Drake Stone cards. It would be fun to see this in actual gameplay, although considering how many zero-cost artifacts there are out there, it seems likely that being able to wipe out almost the entirety of your opponent’s hand in one turn would be a bit much.

I’ll probably be going to see the movie anyway, but hey the card is something I will keep an eye out for.

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Stick your tongue out and play with frogs

Huzzah! An article about News, Yu-Gi-Oh! posted on July 18th, 2010 by

Groups of creatures of the same type in Yu-Gi-Oh are known as tribes.  Why should you restrict yourself to creatures of the same type?  There are cards such as Command Knight and Reinforcement of the Army which only affect a certain type of creature card.

Frogs are not an official card type of Yu-Gi-Oh; instead, they are a group of aqua-type water-attribute monsters that either have frog in their name or have a name replacement effect as an ability.

What are some vital components of the deck?  Check it out:

Substitoad – Substitoad acts as both a defender and a tutor for your deck.  By tutoring for Dupe Frog, you can have an invincible wall since Substitoad makes Dupe Frog unable to be destroyed by combat and Dupe Frog must be attacked in combat.  Substitoad works well with token generating cards, letting you trade those tokens for more permanent cards.

Dupe Frog – As mentioned before, when paired with Substitoad, Dupe Frog becomes a creature unable to be destroyed by battle.  Dupe Frog also excels when paired up with itself, preventing the opponent from attacking either frog.  While Dupe Frog is primarily a defensive creature, it counts as a Des Frog and can be utilized for Des Croaking or D.3.S. .

Des Frog – The most powerful non-fusion frog, Des Frog is a five star creature with a measly attack of 1900.  The real benefit of this card is its interaction with the other frog cards.

Des Croaking – Des Croaking serves as a way to clear the field of your opponent.  While having 3 Des Frogs may seem like a difficult task, remember some frogs like Dupe Frog count as a Des Frog.

Flip Flop Frog – Flip Flop Frog is one of the frogs you’ll play last.  It serves as a repeatable way to clear the opponent’s field.  Flip Flop Frog works excellent with cards such as Stumbling or The Dark Door to prevent creatures who are just coming into play from attacking.  Use this to seal the game against your opponent.

Salvage – Salvage serves as a way to recur your utility frogs like Dupe Frog and Substitoad.  Use it to counter board wipes by getting back the destroyed creatures.

When creating a frog deck, the basic idea is to stall until you can set up your field.  Once your field is set up, protect it through traps like Solemn Judgment or Dark Bribe.

These are the basics.  There’s various builds that are usable, such as Stumbling/Flip Flop Frog or D.3.S. Frog, so give them a go and hop along with frogs.

-burninglandbrawler

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Ways to Dominate with the Disguise Jutsu (J-018) Card

Huzzah! An article about NARUTO posted on July 16th, 2010 by

I was honestly surprised that they made this a foil card when it was first released, but the Naruto Path to Hokage series Disguise Jutsu (J-018) card is actually relatively rare. The effect isn’t bad either: neither team ends up taking damage when the Disguise Jutsu card has been played. On one hand, it does feature a child, but it’s important to remember something about them in Naruto: even the smallest of warriors has a chance at being the greatest.

In this way, the Naruto collectible trading card game follows the manga, and this is a point that can’t be repeated enough. So many people associate very young characters with weakness, and this makes it all the more satisfying to defeat them with such cards. Nevertheless, that’s not the only reason to play the Disguise Jutsu card.

Disguise Jutsu Naruto Trading Card

There are numerous ways to set up a proper defensive stance for a Shinobi team after playing this card has stalled a round. Likewise, it can be used to quickly duck out of a situation that wasn’t predicted. What if you had, say, three developed ninja in a squad that was suddenly facing an attack by a more expendable team? This is an oft-used tactic to eliminate a player’s most connected cards.

By playing a Disguise Jutsu card, this can be avoided, and though the expendable team won’t take any damage, they can easily be dealt with in the next round of combat. For that matter, in many cases the team that was saved by playing the card can dispatch the opposing squad. This is certainly invaluable for those times where you only have one card in a deck, and it’s about to be destroyed.

The Disguise Jutsu card usually isn’t too expensive, so it may be ideal for a one-on-one trade. Perhaps it can be exchanged for another relatively rare foil card.

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One-Sided Plague

Huzzah! An article about Magic: The Gathering posted on July 14th, 2010 by

Necrotic Plague is a card recently revealed as a member of the Magic 2011 family. At first it seems quite destructive for both sides, like a slow All is Dust for creatures. However, its true potential lies in the fact that it is an Aura.

The card that would work best in conjunction with Necrotic Plague is Simic Guildmage, as long as you have something like Reassembling Skeleton on your side. As soon as the opponent moves the Aura over to one of your creatures, use Simic Guildmage’s second ability, moving the Aura to Reassembling Skeleton. At the beginning of your turn, you sacrifice the Skeleton, and immediately bring it back, while sending the Aura back to your opponent.

For even better results, grab your Mirrodin block Isochron Scepter and the Tenth Edition Aura Graft. Now, you don’t even need Reassembling Skeleton or Simic Guildmage. Plus, you don’t lose any creatures! The moment your opponent sends Necrotic Plague to one of your creatures, simply tap and send it back.

To even further enhance this combo, go back to your Simic Guildmage and Reassembling Skeleton. Now, you add Savra, Queen of the Golgari. That’s right. Every time you sacrifice your Reassembling Skeleton, you gain 3 life, and your opponents sacrifices yet another creature.

You can add some other cards that care if creatures are sacrificed. Or maybe even a Reya Dawnbringer in combination with something like Pelakka Wurm.

That’s all.

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The Legend Problem

Huzzah! An article about News, Pokémon posted on July 9th, 2010 by

One of the most interesting things the new Legend set has introduced to us is the Legend card. Two “Pokemon” cards conjoined together to make one (or two) large beasts. The artwork on them is amazing and playing with one big card is pretty hause, however, are these Legend cards just all looks? Are they playable? The answer lies in the Legend box.
The Legend box allow the player to draw the top ten cards of their deck and if they can manage to find the “components”, meaning both halves of the Legend cards, they can take those cards and any energy found in the ten and put the cards on the player’s bench. The question is whether this is viable. Is the probability of finding the two halves in the top ten high enough to make the Legend cards playable? Perhaps the fact that I cannot find any energy with Interviewer’s Question, when having a 12 energy deck answers this question. I look at the top 8, and I barely can find ANY energy at all, now how is Legend box supposed to work with this?
The most legitimate solution would be Porygon Z Lv X. With Majestic Dawn still in cycle, as well as the new Porygons placed in the new Clash at the Summit set, Porygon Z Lv X’s pokepower Decode will give so much strength to the Legend Box. Decode allows the player to look though their deck and pick 2 cards of their choice and put them at the top of their deck. With this the player can find both halves and just Legend box the beast and ANY energy that comes along with the 8 other cards. Not only does Porygon Z allow the player to setup for the Legend, the new Clash at the Summit Porygon’s pokepower Dimension Transfer allows the player to get trainers back out of the discard on a coinflip. Unfortunately, this is somewhat bittersweet being that setting up for a stage 2 Lv X can be quite a pain, however, I think it might be worth it.
Palkia Dialga Legend
Palkia Dialga Legend is by far my favorite Legend card. Though none of their attacks do damage this cards definitely looks playable. For 2 metal energy and 2 colorless, P&D takes the top 2 cards of your opponent’s deck and puts them down as prizes. Once doing this the player has to discard 2 metal energies, HOWEVER, if the player has Heatran Lv X in play this can be bypassed. Just imagine it, adding 2 more to the opponent’s prize. With a whopping 160 HP as well as the option of putting Special Metals onto P&D, this gives the cards easily 2 or 3 turns of play. That means 6 extra prizes for your opponent.
Rayquaza Deoxys Legend
These already were my top two favorite legendary Pokemon, now they are a BA Legend card!?? RD wrecks shop with its attack Ozone Climax, a whopping 150 damage, however the player discards all fire energy. Fortunately, this can be remixed with the new Typhlosion Prime as well as the new draw engine Ninetales. Though setting all of this up may seem to be a hassle, in my head it seems that I would use Spiritomb to slow things dowwwwnn. First setting up Ninetales, then setting up Typhlosion, from there just plowing on the energy onto RD. I pretty much do the same thing with my Blastoise deck and it works out fine.

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Ascending to the Luminarch

Huzzah! An article about Magic: The Gathering posted on July 7th, 2010 by

Luminarch Ascension is a very powerful card indeed. Plus, if you get it early game, it is quite easy to activate.

This is one of those cards that work well within any deck containing white, since not losing life is a trait shared over all the colours. However, if we were to construct a deck with the purpose of having Luminarch Ascension as our win condition, we’ll have to build around the theme of getting lots of mana and preventing damage.

For these purposes, I think it would be best to use blue as the other colour. Azorius has quite a vast array of damage prevention, so that will work well to this effect.

Start off with a couple of walls, like Angelic Wall, Wall of Omens. In the Alara block, the powerful Wall of Denial fits our deck very well. Next up, some tapping and bouncing. If you can find Linessa, Zephyr Mage, add her. Even a Soratami Mirror-Mage would work, though it would slow you down somewhat. Rather a Tradewind Rider. Of course, some bouncing spells would work too, such as Unsummon. As for tapping, I find Azorius Guildmage to be quite apt.

In combination with your other cards, Palliation Accord works wonders to prevent damage. Finalize your deck with Prahv, Spires of Order.

Once you have Luminarch Ascension out, the fun can begin. Fill up your field with 4/4 Angels, but be sure to keep a Rebuff the Wicked in your hand.

That’s it. Hm.

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Full Magic 2011 Coreset Leaked

Huzzah! An article about Magic: The Gathering posted on July 6th, 2010 by

Well you knew it was bound to happen sooner or later, but as of last night thanks to one MTG player photographing the entire guide for the entire M11 core set, all of the surprises are out. You can check out the list over at Magic Salvation.

Now many players have been wondering whether the general power of cards will continue to rise as we’ve seen in previous years or whether Wizards intended to pull things back a bit. Early impressions seem to indicate that the “power creep” continues unabated, although it is slowing down a bit.

Time will tell whether the R&D department over at Wizard’s of the coast managed to put together a well balanced set that doesn’t introduce too many beefy cards that are easy to get a hold of, but the buzz is already starting.

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A look at the Duelist Toolbox starter deck

Huzzah! An article about Yu-Gi-Oh! posted on July 6th, 2010 by

Hey all,

The intent of a starter deck in any sort of card game is to give a new player the basic understanding and tools to play the game.  A good starter deck should be simple enough to comprehend after a few plays yet sturdy enough to be able to take down opposing decks.

Even an advanced player may find a gem card or two when looking through starter decks.  For a good example of this, look up how Umezawa’s Jitte exploded the price of the rat starter decks during Champions of Kamigawa in Magic the Gathering.

Duelist Toolbox is the latest starter deck for Yu-Gi-Oh players.  Check out the display:

Junk Destroyer

The display card of the starter deck is the synchro summon Junk Destroyer.  Here is a more in-depth look at the card:

Junk Destroyer

2600 ATK for an 8 star synchro monster seems to be overcosted until you consider its effect.  For each non-tuner monster you use to synchro summon this card, you can destroy a card on the field.  Fortunately, the required tuner for this card is Junk Synchron; he will bring back a level 2 or more non-tuner monster, leaving only a level 3 or level 4 monster left to summon the Destroyer.

Besides that, here is the rest of the contents of the starter deck:

The starter deck offers some good utility cards, such as Dust Tornado, Trap Hole, and Card Destruction.  If you’re fond of warriors, there are also good support cards in X-Saber Wayne, Reinforcement of the Army, and The Warrior Returning Alive.

One way to improve this deck is to add in Imperial Iron Wall and Mass Driver. With those two cards, Quillbolt Hedgehog and Junk Synchron to form a one-turn kill.  The combo works by repeatedly special summoning Quillbolt Hedgehog through its special ability.  Imperial Iron Wall prevents Hedgehog from being removed from the game, so you can continually use Mass Driver to inflict damage to the opponent’s life points.

Quickdraw Synchron is another card that can both help the combo and the deck overall.  It’s easy to get out by pitching Quillbolt Hedgehog to it, and the Hedgehog can be summoned in the same turn to get out a level 7 synchro summon.

Another way to improve the deck would be to add more warrior-type cards.  Marauding Captain and Command Knight make great additions to swarming the field with warriors.

Check out the Duelist Toolbox starter deck in stores now!

-burninglandbrawler

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FNM with Jund – what I sideboard and Why

Huzzah! An article about News posted on July 2nd, 2010 by

So I have posted my standard deck right now which is Jund, with Seigegang Commanders. I opted not to add the Borderland Rangers, instead going for more removal. I can’t find Raging Ravines right now, so I’ll be using Lavaclaw Reaches instead. I like them quite a bit, as I’ve opted to run three, because of the prevalence of Day of Judgment in my meta, as well as Planeswalkers.
I can deal with even a pumped Elspeth most of the time with one of these and maybe a Lightning Bolt if I have to, which saves my Maelstrom Pulses (I’m a huge fan of card advantage). So after playing around with my mana base, I’ve got a pretty consistent set up, but here is my sideboard for my mostly run of the mill Jund deck, and why I will be running what I am.
Bloodwitch of Malakir – In a meta filled with white removal and Wall of Denials she can come through big for me, and can often force a Day of Judgment on her own- I’ve got 3 in the SB
Great Sable Stag – These guys were big when Vamps was one of the really big decks along with Faries, as it has fallen out and faries has rotated, I am not as certain about them. My toughest matches today should be W/B tap out, Boss Naya and Vampires if either of the guys who play it decide to run it tonight. GSS does nothing vs Boss Naya and very little against W/B tapout – she may not see any play today at all. I’m going with 4
Seigegang Commander – great for reach and keeping more aggressive decks at bay. My match up against Goblins is a little rough, and there are Goblins in my meta, so I’ll be using him to block them and blow them up, 2 main 2 side atm.
Thought Hemorage – Yeah, this card is slick if you know how to use it, and against whom, can W/B Tap Out say good bye to Jace? We’ll see! I’m running 3 sb and I can’t wait to see if I can actually play them.
Duress – need I say more? Right now I’m thinking 3, but before game time I might cut something for a 4th.

Well everyone, I’ll be back tomorrow to list my results and mistakes!

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