Today we look at Strike Ninja.  Strike Ninja came in the English Starter... oh, wait, we are talking about the card and not the Dungeon Dice Monsters figure.  Pity, I really like DDM… and we’ve covered this Strike Ninja twice before.

Stats                : In terms of [just] stats, Strike Ninja is very good, though not great.  Level 4’s only draw back is the infamous stall cards (Level Limit-Area B and Gravity Bind) just barely catch it.  Of course, being a Dark Monster is fairly good since so many Dark Monsters are so strong.  Being a Warrior is great: it is the best supported of the Monster Types.  The combination of the two leads to many, many good combos.

An ATK of 1700 is good for a Level 4 Monster unless it is purely a beatstick.  1200 DEF is a slight concern: people still pack that lone Book of Moon, and Tsukuyomi still sees good play.  At least they’ll need another Monster along with Tsukuyomi.  Still, it isn’t a huge concern.

Effect(s)            : You may remove two Dark Monsters from your discard pile to remove Strike Ninja from the game until the End Phase of the turn.  This would be pretty lame except, surprise!  It’s one of the few Monster effects that are Spell Speed 2.  In other words, when ever anything threatens Strike Ninja you can remove it from play to avoid said problem.  It’s pretty useful; just remember you will need fuel for the effect.

Uses and Combinations  : D.D. Scout Plane springs immediately to mind.  They’re too strong, but they will Special Summon themselves to your side of the field if they removed from play.  It is a bit annoying that they are in ATK mode (making it a bad idea to use them so Strike Ninja can dodge a Sakurestu Armor), but anything the opponent does on his/her own turn, you just scored a big advantage.  There are many, many effects that can make use of them; at the very least they will reduce the damage from an attack even if they are stuck in ATK mode.

You can also just remove good Dark Monsters from your discard, then use Dimension Fusion or Return from the Different Dimension (the latter is recommended) to suddenly swarm the field.  And of course, Reinforcements of the Army and The Warrior Returning Alive make it that much harder to get rid of Strike Ninja.

Ratings

Traditional       : 3/5 – It’s a tentative score here.  You can really through an opponent off if you keep dodging their best cards.  Still, what do you if your opponent forces you to clean out your Graveyard giving you one dodge… and they nail you after you come back.

Advanced        : 3.75/5 – Strike Ninja works best in its own deck, where it is the centerpiece, though a single copy won’t hurt any Dark-heavy deck.  Fortunately, its deck is fairly strong, and does see successful competitive play.

Limited            : 4/5 – Assuming you can pull several even half decent Dark Attribute Monsters you should be able to annoy the heck out of your opponent.  The 1700 ATK is also more useful here.  Just remember that it’s a little easier for the Dark Revelation Volume 2 is more favorable as it has better common Dark Monsters than Invasion of Chaos.

Summary

Strike Ninja is a strong card capable of supporting a strong deck.  The reason it scores comparatively low for a deck centerpiece that can also show up in certain other decks (Dark heavy ones) is that in and of itself, it’s not as impressive.  If you don’t have a way to take advantage of it, I attack Strike Ninja and it “dodges” via its effect.  This triggers a Replay, and now I get to declare my attack again (often a direct attack now).  This isn’t a huge issue, and it is much easier to get into play than many other deck foci.

-Otaku