aroramage |
Say, what would you say if I told
you there was a card that could get you any Pokemon you
wanted right now? "You mean like Ultra Ball or Master
Ball?" Right, but in the form of a Supporter. "Well that
sounds a bit silly, I mean it shouldn't be able to grab
just anything willy-nilly." Okay, what about just
Basics? "Oh that's fine, I guess." That includes
Pokemon-EX. "OHHHHHH NOOOOOOO!!!"
Enter Ninja Boy.
Basically, all he is is a trader of
sorts. You pick a Basic Pokemon in play, search your
deck for another one, and put the new one into play
while shuffling the old one back into your deck. What
makes this card interesting is that anything that was
attached or affecting the old Pokemon - things like
Energies, Tools, damage, Special Conditions, etc. - now
affect the new Pokemon, so it's a lot like you just
pulled off a Zoroark Illusion moment between the two.
Still, I imagine this is going to
be wildly abused to get out any Pokemon-EX in your deck
with ease. I mean outside of the Megas, they're all
Basic Pokemon, so unless it's something like Shaymin-EX
which would rather you play it from your hand, chances
are strong that whatever you put into play will benefit
wildly from what's happening. Say for instance you play
said Shaymin-EX to get a new hand - then you Ninja Boy
the Shaymin-EX for whatever Basic Pokemon-EX you're
going for, and you've just made a fantastic play into
whatever major Pokemon you wanted to get into. Or better
yet, why not just power up a Benched Basic with a bunch
of Energy and cards and then swap it out for the Pokemon
you want? After all, there's no restriction on what you
attach a Spirit Link to.
Yeah, you heard me. Just because
the Spirit Link cards only really work with one Pokemon
each doesn't mean you can't attach them to something
else. Keep that in mind as you start plotting your troll
Mega Ninja Boy deck.
Ninja Boy has a lot of hidden
potential, and I sincerely hope he's going to show up in
a lot of decks after rotation in order to make good on
his ninja way.
Rating
Standard: 4.5/5 (really the only
thing that holds me back on that perfect score is the
restrictions, and even then that's not a hindrance so
much as a limitation to work around)
Expanded: 4.5/5 (and given the
range of Basics to work with, that's easily done)
Limited: 5/5 (you just gotta
get...creative)
Arora Notealus: Maybe he'll grow up
one day to become the Hokage.
Next Time: But for now, that title
of "the best" goes to...
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Otaku |
Go ninja go ninja
go!
The runner up in
our top 10 picks from XY: Steam Siege list is
Ninja Boy (XY: Steam Siege 103/114).
This is a new Supporter with a familiar effect to long
time players: first you choose one of your Basic Pokémon
in play, then you search your deck for a Basic Pokémon
and swap them. So if you have Basic Pokémon A on
the field, you search your deck for Basic Pokémon B,
replace Basic Pokémon A with Basic Pokémon B, and lastly
Basic Pokémon A is shuffled back into your deck.
As the card itself makes clear, all attached cards
(Energy, Pokémon Tools, etc.) stay in play and
instantly go from being attached to Basic Pokémon A to
Basic Pokémon B. So do all damage counters and
Special Conditions. Even intangibles like turns in
play and other effects on Basic Pokémon A will now shift
over to Basic Pokémon B. The differences between
Basic Pokémon A and Basic Pokémon B can cause something
to be discarded or removed if applicable. Type
specific Special Energy cards will discard themselves
is Basic Pokémon B is the wrong Type. So will
Pokémon Tool F if you go from Pokémon-EX to
non-Pokémon-EX. If Basic Pokémon A has a Special
Condition, but there is an effect that would remove it
from Basic Pokémon B after the swap, then it gets
removed after the swap; for example if Basic Pokémon A
is not a Metal Type and is Poisoned while Steel
Shelter is in play, then you use Ninja Boy to
swap into Basic Pokémon B which is a Metal Type,
the Poison is removed after the swap completes.
Yes, that was the easiest example without going into
older cards or those pending release.
So is this worth
the cost? What about restrictions? If I
haven’t stressed it enough, this is your one
Supporter for the turn (barring certain taxing or no
longer legal combos), and it must be Basic
Pokémon for Basic Pokémon. No other Stages work;
BREAK, Restored, Stage 1, Stage 2, and Mega Evolutions
don’t count, even if the ones of those you can put
directly into play without Evolving via other card
effects. You cannot target the Basic
Pokémon under an Evolution, either. No official
ruling yet, but I do believe the game state recognizes
two copies of the exact same card as being different;
Basic Pokémon A and Pokémon B should be able to be two
cards with the same name, which is important as they
could have very different effects. Again no
official ruling yet, but as this involves a search
element, you ought to be able to allow the search to
fail (possibly also swap two completely identical cards)
if you needed to just “burn” Ninja Boy for
another card effect, like shrinking your hand before
playing Shaymin-EX (XY: Roaring Skies
77/108, 106/108) or so that Gallade (XY:
BREAKthrough 84//162) can the additional 70 damage
over its base 60 when using “Sensitive Blade”.
So… how is this
good? Those who played while Swoop! Teleporter
(EX: Team Rocket Returns 92/109) was legal
already know what to look out for and I just spent a lot
of time chronicling the minutiae before realizing I was
boring and even confusing myself a little. So let
me paint in broad strokes. First while
Swoop! Teleporter wasn’t a Supporter (just what we
would now classify as an Item), it also had targeting
restrictions so Ninja Boy is more a tweaked than
a nerfed version of it, because Ninja Boy works
with Pokémon-EX while Swoop! Teleporter did not
work with their predecessors (Pokémon-ex) from that time
period. This is a way to exploit certain
once-per-turn effects, especially if they are on
something not worth keeping around after the effect.
This is a way to sneak an Evolving Basic into play
without it actually having to have survived being in
play a turn. This is another way to recycle cards
like Shaymin-EX, extra important post-rotation
because Standard loses AZ and Cassius.
Swapping out a Shaymin-EX in play for something
else, search out that same Shaymin-EX with an
Ultra Ball, and odds are good you are no worse off
than if you had just bounced Shaymin-EX with
AZ (maybe you’re even better off). Ninja Boy
allows you to switch attackers on the fly; even if the
new one is as damaged as the old, it also inherits its
set up. That means Type matching is going to
change, in some ways being easier and in some ways being
more difficult.
Exploiting attacks
that work while your Pokémon is injured or afflicted has
become incredibly easy. I don’t expect it to
become the norm but Kyurem-EX (BW: Plasma
Blast 30/101) is just one more thing you’ll have to
consider when you attack something without scoring a KO;
its “Outrage” attack means a near OHKO on typical Basic
Pokémon-EX will give the opponent something that can
OHKO you back for just [CC]. For Fighting decks I
do expect them to make room for a copy of
Machamp-EX (and of course Ninja Boy); the
“Steaming Mad” attack on Machamp-EX should be
easy enough to meet on something you already had up,
Active, and attacking the turn before. The attack
does 20 damage per damage counter on Machamp-EX
itself, so even something like 90 damage counters on
Machamp-EX results in 180 damage wallop. It is
a little pricier, but if afflicted by a Special
Condition that doesn’t interfere with attacking,
Machamp-EX can unleash Crazy Hammer for 160 (80+80)
damage to not only hit hard but rid itself of the
Special Condition. Zygarde-EX was probably
already being used in such a deck, but now its second
attack for [CC] becomes more important; Machamp-EX
provided an answer for hard hits but this attack allows
Zygarde-EX to deal 60 damage for [FC] while
healing 30 damage from itself. For Standard play,
Fighting decks will have Focus Sash until
rotation, helping out such hijinks, and afterwards they
may have a need for added search as they lose Korrina.
Right now you’ve
got somewhat clunky tricks that hint towards future
uses, or perhaps current uses I have simply missed. Swoop!
Teleporter was best known because it allowed you to
exploit Jirachi (EX: Deoxys 9/107).
That Jirachi has a Poké-Power (like an Ability,
but not) that let you look at the top five cards of your
deck, add one to hand, shuffle the rest back into your
deck, and leave Jirachi Asleep, but it only
worked while Jirachi was Active. So decks
would use that Poké-Power and (provided Jirachi
had been in play long enough) then use Swoop!
Teleporter to replace it with an Evolving Basic,
Evolve said Basic, and attack. The closest I can
come to exploiting multiple aspects of Ninja Boy
is much less likely to see play, but it’s the best I can
do with the time I have. Genesect-EX (BW:
Plasma Blast 11/101, 97/101) a.k.a. Genesect-EX
[Plasma] is usually not the ideal opening Pokémon for
VirGen decks, an older archetype that was once the top
deck in Standard play and periodically shows up still in
Expanded. VirGen decks almost always prefer to
open with Virizion-EX, using its “Emerald Slash”
attack to start attaching [G] Energy to Benched
attackers like Genesect-EX [Plasma]. With
Ninja Boy, not only can you swap out a
Virizion-EX for an opening Genesect-EX
[Plasma], but before you do you can use Colress
Machine to attach a Plasma Energy to
Genesect-EX [Plasma]. Either before or after
the swap you can attach a Grass Energy and that
will allow Virizion-EX to use Emerald Slash right
away (unless it is the first turn of the game).
Again, this is not a killer combo example, just
an idea of what kinds of exploits to seek out with
Ninja Boy.
So for Standard and
Expanded play, this card should change how decks
operate; even decks not using it (and there will be
plenty that don’t) will need to be prepared for opposing
decks that do. After the rotation it will likely
become better, as it will allow you to shift gears if
your opponent locks down Abilities, Special Energy
cards, etc. and so you need an attacker not reliant upon
them (just remember to also run that attacker), as well
as due to the loss of other related, niche Supporters
like AZ and Cassius. Yes, Battle
Compressor leaving Standard hurts as it means
waiting to draw into Ninja Boy or running more
copies, but that applies to all Supporters.
For Limited play, this is a great pull. Only leave
it out if you risk running a +39 build, where you only
have a single Basic Pokémon in the first place.
This even shows up in Theme Decks, where it is one of
the highlights of what could otherwise be a frustrating
experience.
Ratings
Standard:
4.3/5
Expanded:
4.3/5
Limited:
5/5
Theme:
5/5
Summary:
Ninja Boy is at worst one of the new Supporters
you wish you could run but just could not make room to
include in your deck. I expect it to be a lose or
near staple, that card you literally just missed running
out, or that many decks do indeed include. It
could even become an actual staple. The swapping
mechanic is far less specialized than it looks, because
it allows you to shift tactics on the fly, keeping all
your current setup intact even if you’re stuck with the
damage as well. Plus Ninja Boy may even
given you a use for the damage. All that before
you get to more specialized tactics: the above score is
a composite of Ninja Boy general usage value
and decks that rely heavily upon it.
Ninja Boy
earned 17 voting points;
tomorrow’s
first place finisher earned 18, while as mentioned
previously our
third
and
fourth
place choices only had 12. Just a slightly
variation in voting and it could have topped our list,
but it would have taken something a bit more substantial
to drop its rank. My own list had it as my number
three pick and it probably should have been number two
or even number one.
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