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Pojo's Shaman King TCG Card of the Day

Gush of Flame

Type - Strike
Card Number - REI069

Card Ratings
Tournament- 4.60
Casual- 4.40
Sealed- 4.65

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale 1 being the worst. 3 ... average. 5 is the highest rating.

Date Reviewed - 05.13.05

 


Dan The
Timid

Reviewer: Daniel Roslan
Pojo nick: DanTheTimid

Gush of Flame
Strike
Type: Ranged
Cost: 2/0/1
Stats: 9/0
Effect: -1 Intercept --> +1 Force.
Flavor: "Hey little boy, want a piece of Candy?"

Am I the only one who finds that the quote on this card a little disturbing? And wasn't Lola just talking with a thick accent on Rail Bird? Eh, well anyway we finish Lola theme week with the card I've long considered the Range staple card of the innagural set. I see it in pretty much every ranged deck that has access to it. Is it worthy of the staple title, or is it being highly over estimated? Lets investigate.

Pros
- Insanely High Intercept
- Extremely versatile punshing effect

Cons
- Somewhat expensive
- Only ranged can use it

Overview: Here we have it, the king (or queen as it were) of swiss army knives when it comes to pure strike stats. Facing a massive 7-9 force, the king that many players spend alot of time and work building up to with the assumption it will be an auto hit? Blocked! Facing a 0-3 force dinky shot from some sort of eco card? Punished! Facing anything inbetween? Sufficient! Heh, ok so basically this card is best against really huge or really small attacks, if your blocking something in the 4-6 range with it it still works alright but if your in your green you might wanna consider focusing and looking for something cheaper.

Deeper Analysis: So what makes this card a staple? Its not just the versatility, but the sheer extent of the versatility for the relatively small price. The ability to potentially block a 9 is almost unparelled as of this first set, only 3 other card come to mind that can consitantly block a 9 and each of them either costs an absurd amount of furyoku or has some huge downside (those being: Smoldering Confidence, Titanic Summons, and Jaded Sphere). Gush of Flame really isn't THAT expensive, and actually has a positive effect, not a negative one. And as punishers goe Gush has some of the best potential in the game. They send a fetish frenzy at you, in your green its a 1/8 back at them (I've seen it happen before, its not too uncommon). If they some how send a 0, perhaps from using Lyserg the teamwork or maybe spirit aim/ward off in your red zone it could get as much as 9. And as we've just shown there are VERY few 9 blocks in the game (outside of the typless jaded sphere or paying up 4 red with eon crush I don't melee has access to any 9 or higher intercepts). Versatility and potential like that would probably even be worth 1/1/1, but you ony have to pay 2/0/1.

Uses/Combos: Well Faust makes it and even more Absurd 2/1/0, Turbine or Big Bill add another point onto the force or in big bills case could even let you block a 10 (though I admit outside of maybe a len or jeanne deck those are pretty rare). Although most of the x-law teamworks don't work very well with gush of flame, theres always Duncan, making your 0/9 have come uppance effect against a melee deck is basically an automatic hit. In general this card isn't meant to combo, its just meant to be an automatic stop no matter what size force your facing with out the worry of wasting furyoku (even against mid range strikes its really not that bad).

Final Stat Breakdown:
Constructed: 5/5 (X_X wow, two 5s in the same week, I think I'm getting soft... but I can't help it, this card is just that good)
Sealed: 5/5 (Can't think of any reason this card would lose anything in this format either other that that your less likely to see the really really big strikes)

andys
island

We finish Lola week with her firery strike, "Gush of Flame." This is the best current picture to see her spirit, which appears to be a soul. According to the Japanese Shaman King CCG (and hinted at in the anime and manga), there are 3 basic spirits. Human, animal, and soul spirits. Amidamaru would be human, Mic (Chocolove/Joco's spirit) would be animal, and Morphine/Chloe would be considered a soul. It's a pretty easy grouping system, when you stick to the basic spirits.

"Gush of Flame" is another ranged trait card. Also a rare, so a tad bit harder to get a hold of one. She has a cost of 2 greens and 1 red. Make sure you don't have too many red costs in your deck if you run multiples of this card.

Her base stats stand at a 9:0 ratio, that is 9 intercept to 0 force. That 9 will basically stop everything. You flip this, you will counterattack. That's a great plus. But no intercept is just giving your opponent a free turn, that no good. Luckily her effect is there to bail you out; an even trade for 1 intercept point to become a +1 force. When using this effect, always, always, always, bring your intercept right to the exact number as your opponent's force. The is no reason why you shouldn't always try to use this effect. If your opponent hits with a 5 force, you hit back with a 4 force. They hit you with a 3 force, you pound them back with a 6 force. This card can always be played (as long as you have furyoku for the cost), so it's great in all formats. A bit better in Tournaments since the chance of a higher force from your opponent is greater.

Casual: 4.4/5
Tournament: 4.7/5
Sealed: 4.4/5

 
Darth Vailo
Foreword

Bah, another week ends. I hope you all have a great weekend. Me? Ill be painting a house and prepping some more for the YGO Nats. (*as if I ever stop*)

Today we end the week with a pretty underplayed card. Read on

Card Advantages

Gush of Flame is one of those cards that people dont notice a lot of times. It is overlooked and underplayed as a result. But maybe we will change that today.

The best thing about Gush of Flame is the awsome effect. You are basically getting whatever kind of a strike you want. Whatever the need you can get the answer from this card. Being able to choose what this card will be is pretty cool. It makes this card very versatile and easy to splash. Most of the time you will make it 4/5. This is because 4/5 is the most stable you can get Gush of Flame. Which is not bad in my opinion.

Pros

Very versatile effect.

Card Disadvantages

The thing that kills Gush of Flames playability is the cost. Paying 2 green and 1 red furyoku is not something that you can call cheap. As I have stated in the past if you want to pay three furyoku then it should be on something that is giving you some sort of advantage over the opponent. Ala Point Blank. But the fact is that this card is not giving you any sort of advantage. Making this cards stats 4/5 is not going to score you any points. It may not even get you passed the green zone. So that makes the payment to high as far as Im concerned.

The next thing I do not like about this card is the fact that even if you use the effect you still are just barely going to avoid punishment. 4/5 or 5/4 are the two most commonly used stats. Neither of which is really all that amazing. And with all of those punishers running about that just makes this card a risk. And an unnecessary one at that.

Plus it is a rare so it is tough as nails to get. I still do not own one myself.

Cons

Punishable.

Rare.

High cost.

Franchised.

Summary

If it were me making a deck with a ranged Shaman I wouldnt bother. But that is only my preference. The card is average and can be useful. Maybe run 2 if you dont like Jaded Sphere.

Ratings

Tournament-3

Casual-3

Sealed-3.5

Overall-3

Feedback Information

 

If you have any comments, question, or suggestions here are some ways of contacting me,
PM me on the forums at my user name-Darth Vailo
E-mail me at-darthvailo@yahoo.com
I ll do my best to get back to you asap. Thanks to you guys again for the kind words.

^_^v Peace, Love, and may you never find yourself on Tilt!
 

BlankZero

Name: Gush of Flame
Number: REI_069
Cost (G/Y/R): 2/0/1
Type: Strike
Rarity: Rare
Trait: Ranged
Stats: 9/0
Text: "-1 Intercept => +1 Force"
Flavor Text: "Hey little boy, want a piece of candy?"
 
Well, we're finishing up the week with what I would consider to be the best defensive Ranged strike in this set. It's been fun reviewing for my first week, and I'll hopefully be back next week with more reviews. But enough of that; on to the review of Gush of Flame.
 
This card rocks because:
-It can defend against huge strikes
-It can punish weak strikes
-It makes certain other cards more versatile
-The cost is usually much worth the stats
 
Well, first off, this thing's just a defensive powerhouse. Only two other cards have an intercept of 9 or above; Smoldering Confidence, with 10, and Jaded Sphere with 9. But Ranged decks can't run Smoldering Confidence,  and Jaded Sphere is just plain bad. So this card is the Ranged shaman's defensive front. It can block almost any strike your opponent sends at you, excepting Ultra Cavalry Charge or a beefed-up Eon Crush. But those are hard to pull off, so the intercept of this card is more than good.
 
Now, with the effect, we see that the opposite can be true. If you're facing off against some crazy low force strike (Rush to Judgement and Fetish Frenzy are two that I see a lot), you can easily beef the attack up to impressive proportions. Against a one force Fetish Frenzy in the green zone, it's a 1/8. That's just crazy. It's like Volatile Exhumation, just without sucking. The effect makes it versatile, too. You never wind up with wasted stats, even though against 5 to 8 force strikes, it doesn't seem to matter much. But against a 4 or less force strike, you can just have fun pumping yourself up, getting anywhere from a 5 to 9 (9 would be extremely rare) force strike.
 
This card also increases the versatility of other cards. There's no Body/Ranged Shaman yet, so it can't use the intercept boosting advantages, but Lola has access to Big Bill, whose ability to add one intercept can be manipulated to beef up Gush of Flame instead. That's the only one I can think of off the top of my head, but it's still good.
 
Finally, this card's stats are usually worth paying for. If you need to block a huge strike, 9 intercept for 2/0/1 is a pretty good deal. Compared to 9/3 Jaded Sphere, it's excellent; Jaded Sphere costs 1/0/1, and gives your opponent another red, essentially putting you at a two red disadvantage. Not to mention, Jaded Sphere's force is always punishable. Against a weak strike, this card can offer an intimidating force, making it a 2/0/1 high force strike, which is usually worth paying for. When you get into the intermediate ranges though, you start to see the drawbacks...
 
This card sucks because:
-The ability is a lot less useful against high-force strikes.
-The cost of the strike gets a little high in the intermediate strike range.
-Traited to Ranged Shaman
-The flavor text is disturbing.
 
Well, let's face it. When you're staring down a nine force strike, the prospect of sending a zero force back at your opponent seems a little... lame. Defending against anything down from a 9 to a 6 is gonna send back a punishable force, and that's not really too cool.
 
And in the intermediate force range, this card seems a bit expensive. Defending against a 4 force strike with a 4/5, or a 5 force with a 5/4 for 2/0/1 is not really that great a deal.
 
And, of course, it's franchised to Ranged shaman. Because none of the Ranged shaman have Body advantages, the potential of this card is sort of limited for the time being, and in Sealed, your options are limited by this.
 
That last one was really intended as a joke, but it's true. I had nightmares the first time I read that flavor text. I don't really want to know why Lola's giving "candy" to children, I can only assume it's some obscure reference to illicit drugs. No, it's actually supposed to be a pun on her spirit ally's name, Candy, but it's more fun to act like UDE is corrupting children with drugs...
 
DANGER! Kids, don't try these combos at home:
 
Well, like I said about Rail Bird, it's a pity that there's no Body/Ranged shaman yet. This card would be so much better if it had access to the Body stat boosters, but...
 
This card can really shine in a Lola deck. Lola has the option of using Big Bill, whose ability stands to either make this a 10 intercept strike, a 10 force strike, or anything in between. Because Gush of Flame can convert its extra intercept to force, Big Bill plays a dual role with it.
 
Ward Off can sort of help it out, except if the extra intercept is converted to force, you may as well have played Spirit Aim. I'd only run this if you have nothing better to do; since Ward Off couples so well with other intercept-dropping Ranged Strikes, I could see it happening occasionally.
 
It's a shame, but I can't really think of any other good combinations. I'm probably missing a few, but Lyserg and Trey can't really have as much fun with this card.
 
Summary:
 
This card has a lot of versatility. It can be a very effective punisher, or it can be an extremely high blocker. It can occasionally be a bit costly, but it's still better than Jaded Sphere. And in Sealed tournaments, it offers a very nice intercept that can block almost any strike you'll see hanging around in that tourney format.
 
Rating:
 
Constructed: 4/5
Sealed: 4.5/5

 


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