Pojo's Naruto Card of the Day
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Beastly Mage
Pain (Animal Path)
Today's card is another of Pain's Paths. This Pain
is the Animal Summoner, and his effect clearly
demonstrates this. At turn 1 having a Sacrifice
requirement can be steep. But the effect can be
useful in order to get other Paths out. At the very
start of your turn, if the Marker is odd you can put
one "Pain Spawn" coin in play. The coin will have
"Animal" and "Rinnegan" characteristics, 3/0 in both
positions, and a Valid effect which states that the
coin will be discarded at the end of the turn. No
Jutsu restrictions with the Spawn coin. The coin can
be good for a rush attack, but the real benefit
comes from sacrificing it to get another Pain out.
Like with Preta, Animal's effect activates during
odd turns. Animal's stats are pretty decent for a
turn 1 with Ambush. Try it and see!
Ratings:
Limited: 1.5/5
Constructed: 2.5/5
Block: 3/5
Art: No animals here.../5
Next up in the Pain line up is Animal Realm. This
version of Pain is pretty much the same like the
others, characteristic wise. Animal Realm can
be dropped at turn one, but I wouldn't recommend it
since it would require you to sacrifice your only
ninja on the field. This can easily be curved
around, however, if you played Shino [Insect
Warriors] on turn zero, so you can sacrifice the
insect coin. Like Preta Path, Animal Realm's effect
only works on every odd numbered turn. It spawns you
a "Pawn Spawn" token, similar to the tokens Shino
[Insect Warriors] creates at the start of an odd
numbered turn. The Pain Spawn is 3/0 and 3/0 which
is neither bad nor good, but it can be used to rush
your opponent during your turn or be used as a
sacrifice for Preta Path (not as much Deva Path
since Deva has an entrance cost of six). The Spawn
dies at the end of the turn unfortunately, but it
balances out the card in my opinion.
Although this card is good, there are some
noticeable downsides with this card which will
prevent some players from using it. The first most
obvious one is the Sacrifice, but as I stated
earlier, that can be avoided with Shino [IW]. Of
course, you may not pull Shino, so in that case,
this card will only be playable at turn 2 or higher.
The second downside is the timing of its effect. The
other downside is the timing of its effect,however,
this is not a problem if you read the effect
carefully. Most people think that the earliest you
can get the effect is turn three, which is slow
considering this card will be played on T1-2,
however, it can be played on turn one. Most people
(at least the ones in my area) aren't aware the
Animal Realm's effect goes off during your
opponent's turn as well. This gives you a free chump
blocker during their turn, which can help justifying
sacrificing your T0 for animal ream since you can
just chump off attackers with your Spawn (although
this is still not a good strategy).
Finally, the main question about Pain cards is what
deck to put them all in (besides a void based deck).
The most obvious choice for Animal Realm to be
splashed in is in Puppy Decks. Puppies rush fast, so
sacrifice isn't as bad when you have already have an
excessive amount of ninjas. The Spawn will help your
rushing attacks as well. Additionally, Spawn +
Biscuit gives you two annoying chumps during your
opponent's turn. All in all, I believe Animal Realm
is a solid card and rather well designed.
