New Feature:
If you think this review is too long to read,
just skip straight to the scores and then read
the summary for a concise overview!
Yes, the summary now lives up to its name.
MegaMan is still a relatively new game. As
such, some of my terminology may be confusing,
as I plan on using the game specific terms to
refer to cards. For example, Energy refers to
cards in your deck, but Power refers to cards in
your Power Gauge. Confused? You can download
the current rule book
here,
from Decipher’s MegaMan TCG site. If something
doesn’t make sense, make sure the game meaning
is being applied to the word.
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Name :
GutsMan
Title :
Body Strength
Set :
Power-Up!
ID :
1 C 2
Type :
NetNavi
Emblem:
[Gu]
Strength:
3
Defense:
1
Blast :
3
Effect :
Whenever you play a BattleChip, your GutsMan is
strength + 1.
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Guts, GUTS, GUTS!
GutsMan is a Navi I have both run
and faced. And yes, that’s a brilliant taunt
right after you wipe out four of your opponent’s
Resources and five of their Power with an
opening Feel the Thump. ;)
Stats
: There
are no other versions of GutsMan, either Ally or
NetNavi. So on the upside, you aren’t losing
out using this GutsMan, but you can’t try to
find any sweet discounts from cards geared for
working with the non-existent other GutsMan.
GutsMan provides his own Emblem, naturally: its
text abbreviation is [Gu], and it looks like a
thick green cross/plus sign on a black circle.
As for GutsMan’s side stats, he has the top
Strength score in the game (S3), and was the
first Navi with that score. There are now five
other Navi’s with that score. It’s a great
score: only five NetNavi’s have the Defense of
three needed to soak all that damage. GutsMan
has a tiny Defense of just one. Only three
other NetNavi’s have that. Fortunately for
GutsMan, a full seven NetNavis have a mere
Strength of one. This means he is more likely
to do as much damage or more damage to his
opponent than they do to him (from
Strength/Defense conflicts alone). Only three
other NetNavi’s have his Blast score of three,
which is no longer the high. It’s enough to
make you shift away from Blasting, but not
enough to make Blasting exceptionally rare. The
bright side is GutsMan can get away with running
more low Destiny cards since the odds are better
he’ll hit a high Destiny card when he Blasts.
If you do the math, you realize that GutsMan’s
Strength and Defense balance out. So his high
Blast must be meant to pay for his effect.
Card Effect
:
It looks like a solid trade off. GutsMan’s
effect gives him a +1 bonus to his Strength for
each BattleChip his controller plays. In a deck
geared around it, you can often get a BattleChip
off to close to every other of your turns. I
feel this is a good trade off, since some of
those turns you’ll be doing more than one chip.
Uses/Combos
:
GutsMan’s colors are Red and Yellow. Here’s the
rundown on his Navi-specific cards.
BigHammer1
is raw power for GutsMan. It needs [Y][Y][Gu]
to be played, but gives a very solid +5 to his
Strength. Since this is a BattleChip, it
becomes +6. It’s topped off with a solid
Destiny Number of three. Given what we know of
GutsMan, I’d say run at least three, maybe four
of these.
Buckethead
is a Yellow Resource with a Destiny Number of
three. It only requires [Gu] to be played. To
actually use it is pricey: when you spend this,
you must then spend two other resources. You
don’t get the other resources effects’. You do
get to power-up twice for it. Seems like a
waste, but it’s quite comboliscious with
Viruses, who normally are used just to fill
Resources slots and spent only to get rid of
them. Good for an early game lead, but remember
you’re also effectively doing two damage to
yourself. This kind of gives GutsMan a sort of
“macho man” feel: the classic tough guy hurting
himself to show how tough he is.
Dex, Jokester
and Feel The Thump also lends to
the whole “tough guy” image. Dex, Jokester
is pricey Yellow Resource to get into play: 4
Power and [Gu] to play it. It does have a solid
Destiny 4. Its effect is pretty sweet. It
turns every GutsMan card you play (not even
spend) into Resource destruction: play it, and
then you may choose to nuke a resource. Feel
The Thump may very well be the defining card
for GutsMan though. It is a Yellow Event that
requires [Gu][Gu][Gu] to play, and then makes
you spend two Resources for no effect. However,
it is well worth it: doing this destroys every
Resource and card in your opponent’s Power
Gauge. You could be using three cards to
destroy nine of the opponents: a three for one
deal sounds sweet. It also has a solid Destiny
of three.
GutsMan does a lot of damage, and Navis like
Roll don’t care: they’ll just pump up their
Defense to soak it if they can’t negate it.
That’s where GutsThump comes in. A Red
Resource, it only requires [Gu] to be put into
play, but to use it requires you spend a
Resource for no effect. Sensing a theme? This
Red Resource is the flip side of WideSword:
instead of zeroing out the opponent’s Strength,
this reduces their Defense to zero.
The final GutsMan specific card is GutsHammer.
This Red Resource requires three Power and [Gu]
to play. This card is meant to encourage
Blasting with GutsMan: you get to add your Blast
to your Blast Destiny. Unfortunately, that
means a mere +3 damage. Not bad, but not
great. Then remember that the cards only
Destiny 2, which discourages Blasting.
To run GutsMan, use some Viruses to feed his
self destructive Resource tendencies, and just
hammer away with BattleChips while setting up
some spectacular combos. AreaSteal is a
good deal for GutsMan. So are the Boomers and
Vulcans. Defensive BattleChips are nice, since
in a pinch they are still good for a +1 to
Strength. Barrier and Rock Cube look good.
Ratings
Casual :
4.5/5-GutsMan is one of the best beginner
NetNavis. Even without his more rare support,
he lends himself to a raw, super aggressive
Beatdown deck. The only drawback here is
remembering you’re doing more damage than most
other Navis, and taking more than you’d expect.
Tournament :
4/5-GutsMan is still quite nice here. With his
Rare and better cards, he can be one of the top
aggressive players. He doesn’t become as sick
as some Navis do, but he also doesn’t have as
steep a learning curve.
Limited :
4.75/5-The only thing keeping this from getting
a perfect score is you might manage to pull
GutsMan and somehow fail to pull any compatible
cards. That being said, as long as you can get
your resources and BattleChips to match up (even
off colors like Green or Blue), GutsMan can come
out swinging.
Summary
GutsMan is a simple Navi that hits hard and
fast. You won’t Blast a lot, but you’ll be able
to fake it with plenty of BattleChips. Great
for beginners, and while it works best with its
official Red/Yellow color scheme, you can get by
with Blue or Green.
-Otaku
