Mendo's Ongoing Tourney 4.0

aurelio wrote:

mjm, i mean this:


lined and colored screenshot.

That was a movie!? All this time I just assumed that The Quartet were just from a filler arc. This is shocking information to me.

that is from the 1st shippuden movie.

aurelio wrote:

that is from the 1st shippuden movie.

No, I know. I sort of gathered that after the fact, I'm just saying that before that I had never known.

Well, it can suck when one can't find a great pic to use, but this is what I made for this week.


Image is a screenshot of Naruto Shippuden 4: The Lost Tower, I believe.

So, this is Naruto with Sara. Average stats for Naruto with a non-combatant, some nice, extra traits, and such. His effect is a Surge boost, benefiting from his Shadow Clones, while her effect is the infinite power of Ryumyaku, making chakra a bit less of a problem. I wanted the surge effect to be an enemy chakra blocker, but decided it needed a Naruto-flavored effect, too. Well, that's it.

btw, idea for my card:
gitai is drop 1, 4/0 by default (set 15 foretold prophecy). when he drink his instant chakra, he becomes 6 handed monster like this on my card, with much more power. since he battled with lee, and lee was quite good in fight with him (chocolate bomb helped a lot), and he was the only one who could break his rock armor, and defeat him, gitai's effect with -1 team power for each non-taijutsu ninja is to represent their battle.
i think balance is good, since he doesn't have rank and effect is not valid, and 0/0 when injured. still i think he could be a great help on the battlefield.

Just a heads up, I'm going to a friend's house right now and I'm done with have of my reviews. Depending on how long I'm there, I may not have my judgments posted up until past midnight, but I'm fairly certain I won't spend the night, so I'll finish up judging first thing when I get home and you'll definitely see the results by morning.

Sorry for my slight tardiness. I didn't actually expect to be out until like 2 am. Here is my judgment.

Naruto & Sara [venkelos]
Art 4/5
The art is pretty blurry. Actually, I don’t even think that is the right word for it. It’s sort of too light or something. Like the screenshot was taken from a low-quality source.

Layout 3.5/5
Your characteristics are mostly in the right order. Despite what Naruto & Minato might have you believe, Clone Status, as well as all other such characteristics should come after Mental Power, as seen on Konohamaru Ninja Squad and countless other squads that have Mental Power and Characteristics.

I’d let it slide if it were just that and chalk it up to Bandai incompetence, but you also have Quuen along in the rank area, when that would presumably act more like Proctor or Ninja dog and also go after the Mental Power. Unless I am very much mistaken and Queen was added to the list of things equal to Satoosa, it is most definitely not a ninja rank and so does not belong in that section.

The ampersand in the name is ludicrously small. I mean, they are usually small in comparison to the rest of the name, but this one is puny even by those standards. It should be about ¾ the size of the regular name, not ½ the size.

Grammar 4/5
“During this turn” should be used instead of “till the end of the turn.” And for future reference, you should use “until” instead of “till”. I’m not marking it off, since the wording is incorrect either way, just letting you know.

Playability 5/5
Well, it’s a squad, so that always lends it some level of playability. Aside from that, I think that this is also just a really good card. The fact that the coin flip isn’t optional gives it a lot of potential, but since it is a chance effect, it isn’t too powerful.

The second effect isn’t anything particularly7 special, but since Naruto is literally the most Surgeable (yes, I just made that word up) ninja in the game, that little bonus isn’t anything to scoff at. That makes this a potential 7/6, 10/6 at any given time and with the amount of Naruto cards you can run in a deck, the net gain there can be pretty ridiculous.

Creativity 5/5
This is just a really interesting card. I’ll admit I wasn’t super impressed with the second effect at first, but it sort of grew on me and I definitely admit that it is a very Naruto sort of effect.

Total 21.5/25

Temujin [DeadpoolWins]
Art 3/5
This art is exactly the same as a Temujin that already exists. I mean, it’s not even the same scene, it’s the same art.

Also, it’s poorly renderd. The lines are all grainy and pixilated.

Layout 4/5
I’ll allow for the argument that Knight could be an affiliation, but I’m pretty sure Gelel is a keyword like Clone Status or Sharingan and as such, should be after Mental Power. Also, I’m not marking you off for this, but the fact that there is no Knight template for Shippuden cards is lame.

Oh yeah, the flavor text is basically the same as the Temujin that doesn’t have this art. I’m sure he had to have spoken more than two lines in the movie.

Grammar 4/5
The only problem with this text is that it doesn’t specify where it puts the cards. That’s sort of important. Add “then shuffle the deck(s)” or change it to “the top/bottom of their original owner’s deck(s)” with the (s) denoting the possibility of the opponent controlling your card.

Playability 3/5
In this day and age, when the cost is paid when the effect is put on the chain, I’m not sure about the playability of this card. An injure effect, character negation, standby effect, or removal effect will shut this effect down and they still get 3 BRs out of it. In the flipside, the reward is pretty high, so I won’t go so far as to call it unplayable.

The only other issue is the stats. On a Turn 4, stats like these just won’t do anymore. Even with Surge, these are just not that impressive. 6 Combat is probably the way to go. Consider what is useful these days.

Creativity 5/5
Aside from the obvious similarities to the original two versions of Temujin, this is a pretty interesting and unique card. The effect is pretty interesting and definitely reminiscent of a black hole.

Total 19/25

Hikaru [SatanSpawnGenma]
Art 5/5
I think this art is pretty nice.

Layout 5/5
All seems fine here.

Grammar 3.75/5
The great thing about an ellipsis is that you only need the three periods. Six is pretty unnecessary

The first part of the effect needs some sort of timing, be it at the beginning of your turn or just the beginning of any turn or the beginning of the battle phase. It doesn’t really matter when, but there has to be a time for it to activate to even get the pump.

Playability 0/5
Sorry, but this card has one thing and only one thing, stats. The fact of the matter is, these stats are absolutely horrible. Even as a Turn 0, Naruto would have to be in play to even give this card decent stats. As a Turn 1, this card is a joke. Capping out at 4 Combat or 3 Support is just an utter joke for a Turn 1. This card needs to have real stats to even be considered remotely playable.

Creativity 3/5
I understand the whole power of friendship thing, but the effect still seems pretty lazy. It’s just a generic pump on a super weak card that really adds close to nothing to the game at all. You have to think about just how useful a card is when you are making it and what it adds to the game that makes it unique from cards that already exist. More often than not, generic pumps add nothing.

Total 16.75/25

Gitai [aurelio]
Art 5/5
This art looks simply amazing.

Layout 4.5/5
It’s really hard to determine what the proper characteristic order here is. On one hand, things like Hebi and Akatsuki take precedence over gender. On the other hand, The Four Sound Ninja usually comes last. What I can tell is that racial stuff like Ninja Dog, Ninja Toad, or Animal usually comes after gender in the case of Squads or Platoons. So from what I can tell, the order should probably be “Quartet | Male | Ogre” or “Male | Quartet | Ogre” or maybe even “Male | Ogre | Quartet”, but I’m pretty sure that the current order is not correct. I know that’s the way that the Quartet was originally done, but the way they order characteristics has changed since then.

Grammar 0.5/5
“Opponent’s Team” should be something like “An opponent’s Team” or even just “A Team”.

“Battled” should be “is Battling” or this effect won’t do anything because it would apply after the battle.

“During the turn“ should be “during this turn” and it should be at the end of the effect, rather than in the middle, to specify how long the negative effect lasts.

“Combat Attribute” shouldn’t be there at all.

Playability 2/5
I feel this card is really just too good. Against most decks, this effect will be a -1 to -3, depending on how many ninja battle against it. What’s more, it is already a 6/0, which means with its effect, it starts anywhere between a 7 and a 9 when battling. That’s on Turn 2. Before you Surge it. That’s like a Gamabunta that you don’t have to jump through hoops to permanently summon, except you can Surge it to surpass even that.

The only things balancing it are the injured stats. You can’t even argue that non-validity for the effect is much of a balancing point when the card turns into garbage injured anyway. I mean, I is true that as a support ninja, it can add in that effect to count as essentially a 3 support if it were valid, but that’s not all that uncommon for a Turn 2 ninja anyway.

Creativity 4/5
The concept is reminiscent of Zabuza [Zero Visibility], which I take it you were trying to improve upon, but due to the massive power this gets on Turn 2 and the lack of negatives for the user, it just comes off as unbalanced.

You need to consider further balance when you make any card. With numbers like these, it should be at least a Turn 4, bare minimum. Either that or instead of giving the opposing team a minus for every non-Taijutsu ninja, give them a plus for every ninja that is Taijutsu. That little change turns this card from unbalanced as hell to downright fair.

And for future reference, you mentioned no rank as a balancing point. The problem right there is that rank means absolutely nothing anymore. That was clear the moment you became able to get Anbu out on Turn 0, though it’s been pretty evident long before that. Most jutsu are instead limited by Entrance cost.

Total 16/25

Updated everything and since this was deadpool's 3rd week satanspawngemna gets +10 points! New Theme!

Aw this is almost unfair. I really like the theme, but would want to use a Himeru. What a shame she's an OC. Oh well, this should be good, anyway.

EDIT: Okay, so I changed my mind, again. That art for my 100 Human Puppets is just lousy, and I can't find better. However, I did find a really nice pic of Sasori and his favorite puppet (and mostly mine, too), the 3rd KK, AND it's not one I've seen 4 other people use, so here it is:


Character art found at DeviantArt, done by Meshugene89

I decided to Squad up these two, as I like them better that way; it also makes the art search easier. It's Void for working with the Akatsuki, and Wind for the both of them. You could pay the HC with anything, but with the 3rd KK needing Wind, it's still likely that's what element they picked. They form a powerful team with a good set of characteristics. I decided that with the best puppeteer, and a Kage-level human puppet, I could get away with Mastery. I didn't want to pick a CA, as the 3rd KK has somehow had three different ones ("Iron Sand", then "Iron", and now just "Sand") on its three different cards, so I gave him access to all of them (Iron is Iron Sand, according to errata), and giving him the extra Weapon, since he can make such out of his Satetsu, and is armed with several. His first effect reflects the devastating area effect of his Iron Sand, though I spared it a whole team effect. Overall, I'm rather pleased with how this turned out.

Spoiler:

Okay, that's it. Good luck everyone else.

heres my card, its not a puppet, but it is a helpful card for a puppet, and a puppet master as well.



picture credit goes to deviant art user:ladygt93

so heres my card, satanspawngenma told me he was gonna make a kankuro, so i figured i would make a sasori



credit goes to photobucket user: DQL0YBSIJ4

deadpoolwins wrote:

so heres my card, satanspawngenma told me he was gonna make a kankuro, so i figured i would make a sasori



credit goes to photobucket user: DQL0YBSIJ4

Um, not to be a douche, but I'm confused. Your effect hinges on your opponent CHOOSING to reveal their hand, since the effect doesn't force them, and then THEY have to be playing Puppets? I believe that an activated effect requires you do something, such as pay chakra, or discard a ninja, and you could make it force an opponent's reveal of hand, but your effect can't just say "okay, show me your hand, and I'll do something thanks to it." Then, they have to be playing puppets? Am I misunderstanding the core of this effect? A Ninja with a free "show me your hand each turn" effect seems pretty
powerful, even if they don't have puppets, especially for a splashable,
early-game ninja with no HC.

venkelos wrote:

deadpoolwins wrote:

so heres my card, satanspawngenma told me he was gonna make a kankuro, so i figured i would make a sasori



credit goes to photobucket user: DQL0YBSIJ4

Um, not to be a douche, but I'm confused. Your effect hinges on your opponent CHOOSING to reveal their hand, since the effect doesn't force them, and then THEY have to be playing Puppets? I believe that an activated effect requires you do something, such as pay chakra, or discard a ninja, and you could make it force an opponent's reveal of hand, but your effect can't just say "okay, show me your hand, and I'll do something thanks to it." Then, they have to be playing puppets? Am I misunderstanding the core of this effect?

its supposed to mean that during your misson phase your opponent shows you their hand(they have to, they dont get a choice). then depending on the number of puppets in their hand, you draw the same number of cards. the effect is helpful in some cases, but yes there would have to be puppets in their deck, so i see how that could be troublesome.

when it says you can trade points for a piece of the ultimate template, does that mean you can trade points for say a piece of a super rare template??

Yes but only a piece. To be more specific a Layer on the PS File.

MJM wrote:

Yes but only a piece. To be more specific a Layer on the PS File.

Well that seems pretty useless...

Hikari Link wrote:

MJM wrote:

Yes but only a piece. To be more specific a Layer on the PS File.

Well that seems pretty useless...

lol, this^^^

To be able to actually use the super templates by this method, you'll need to pay at least 100 points (assuming the entire textbox is a single layer, and assuming the stat bar + combat is a single layer). 25 for one of the elemental templates, 25 for the name thing, 25 for the textbox (however, on the ultra templates I got, the textbox and the statbar + combat attribute are not single layers), and 25 for stat bar. Tbh, the single piece thing should prolly be reduced in price, because otherwise it's extremely useless when just buying the ultra templates as a whole is so much cheaper than buying even just the basic stuff. Although imo the ultra super rare template should be the same price as the ninja one but w/e. And again, imo, considering how slow the point gain is, all the ultra templates should be a little bit cheaper by maybe 10-15 points.

The contest has only been running for two or so months. Give it some time, more point bonuses will happen.

MJM wrote:

The contest has only been running for two or so months. Give it some time, more point bonuses will happen.

Just a thought, maybe you could also have special themes that are worth more points because they are more challenging somehow.

And here's my entry:



The pic is a screenshot I took myself

Heads up everyone. I won't have my judgments done by midnight because I've been out all day, but I will definitely be done before I go to sleep.

Apologies for the lateness, but I was distracted while I was doing it, so it took me an extra hour or so.

Dummy [Susano’o the Storm God]
Art 5/5
So those are dummies. I guess. Two for the price of one; not a bad deal, I suppose.

Layout 5/5
What is this mysterious combat attribute? Tell me! I must know.

Grammar 5/5
I have nothing funny to say here. The joke in this one is that the last two would be considered funny.

Playability 2/5
There is one major thing that really hurts this card. The problem is that this card is unique. I’m not sure if it was an oversight on your part or a conscious decision. But when even Yamato can apparently be in three places at once, I think it is cool to give these guys non-unique.

There is also a minor thing that hurts this card. Stats. This card has really bad stats. True it is a free ninja, so the stats shouldn’t be great, but considering you need a Manipulation ninja to send them out, I don’t think 2 support would be a big deal. Most early manipulation guys aren’t that strong anyway.

Creativity 5/5
The effect is interesting because it allows Puppets to get in an early rush. In general I don’t approve of this new trend of giving every ninja card a free put in play effect, but I think it works with this card. I honestly can’t judge the flavor of this card, since I don’t even know where these things are from.

Total 22/25

Sasori & Third Kazekage [Venkelos]
Art 4.5/5
This is some really good art. Even so, the outline of Kazekage is really red, I gather because of whatever the former background was, but it makes it look kind of bad. It really stands out on the black background.

Layout 5/5
I was going to say that the combat attribute is leaving the little circle, but apparently that’s how Sasori & Hiruko is too.

Grammar 4.5/5
Flavor text has “no” rather than “now.”

Playability 3/5
I’d think that with such a high Entrance cost and the fact that you give up to fairly good ninja would mean a really great effect. Instead, we get this effect, which is pretty situational and underpowered.
The effect should really do more than a little extra damage. At best, we are looking at two extra damage a turn, which isn’t bad, but it’s really not much. If they chump block, you get nothing. If they let it through, you get nothing. If you are blocking, you get nothing. If their back ninja is unaffected, you get nothing. If they have any sort of damage mitigation, you get nothing. I could go on and on. Really, there are too many times when this isn’t useful and unless you throw out damage jutsu like crazy, it really won’t do much for you; considering the low amount of damage jutsu for Wind and Puppets, in this format, that’s not likely. If it affected all back ninja, then that might be something to look at, but as-is it’s just kind of meh. Not terrible, but there are better things you could do with a Sasori.

Creativity 2/5
Even representing AoE, I don't think this is just the effect to do that.

Also, this is literally just the promo Sasuke's effect, which strikes me as somewhere between plagiarism and laziness. And that Sasuke wasn't even very playable to begin with. There are times when using the same or a similar effect is acceptable. This isn't one of them because it already isn't a great fit for Puppets and it really do much in Wind.

Total 20/25

Sasori [DeadpoolWins]
Art 4/5
His right index finger appears to be cut off and so are his chakra threads outside of his body. It looks kind of bad that way.

Layout 5/5
I’m pretty sure this is okay.

Grammar 3.25/5
You spelled “Mission” wrong.

Capitalize the first letter of the first word of your cost.

Don’t use pronouns like them in most cases. You usually want to be as explicit as possible. It shouls probably say “among the revealed cards.”

Playability 2/5
This card is not totally unplayable, but it’s just so situational that it would likely never see play. Any card that hinges on your opponent playing a certain type of deck is automatically bad, but this is at least interesting sideboard material. You side it against that one deck type and it is actually a pretty decent card.

Creativity 3/5
You really don’t need to mess with the stats of a recently printed card. The Turn 3 variant of Sasori literally just came out, so it’s safe to say that based on th meta, those are the stats acceptable for a Turn 3. Dropping Ambush, giving him higher support, and taking away his rank were just unnecessary changes. You should avoid those when possible.

I really don’t know how you could have done this to make it more logical and yet still balanced. Revealing your own hand and drawing for each puppet you have would definitely be too strong. Maybe if the effect only triggered when he was put in play? That might make it decent, I suppose.

Total 17.5/25

Kankuro [SatanSpawnGenma]
Art 4/5
Upon close inspection, the chakra threads look like they were drawn with MS Paint and the end at a weird point. It looks a little wack.

Layout 5/5
This seems perfectly fine.

Grammar 1.5/5
I don’t want to alarm you, but the first effect technically doesn’t do anything. You don’t specify what to do with the searched card and you never say where the puppet is supposed to be put in play from.

“Puppet” should be capitalized. As should “Entrance”.

It should say “3 Ninjas per Team limit.”

Playability 0/5
Understand that a 0 in playability is something I reserve for cards that are either utterly useless or broken beyond all common sense and logic. Your card falls under the latter, so let me explain. You are proposing an effect that is vastly superior to Kankuro [Tactician], which was one of the most gamebreaking cards in the game for a very long time. This is a huge problem. You see, because this effect can be used on each of your turns to search for and put in play one of the many non-unique puppets, as well as some unique and very powerful puppets, this effect is unacceptable.

To make matters worse, you’ve made puppets not count towards the team limit, meaning you are going to end up creating some truly ridiculous teams that are virtually unstoppable except by effects that target an entire team.
Oh, and Ambush just pushes it over the top.

Creativity 4/5
I really can’t completely fault you here too much. You essentially took 2 old Kankuro effects and revamped them in an interesting way. The problem here is that you didn’t consider the repercussions there and that is your only folly. Honestly, I enjoy seeing an old effect reimagined and made better, but what I don’t enjoy seeing is a card that is clearly unbalanced. Balance is one of the most important factors when you are creating a card effect, so remember it well.

Total 14.5/25

Hikari Link wrote:

Sasori & Third Kazekage [Venkelos]

This effect probably could have been formatted in the new style. It would make it much clearer.

Sorry, so far as I knew, that was the most recent format. Sasuke PR067, or something, has that effect, and it's worded that way. It came out in a recent Shonen Jump, a month or two ago.

Hikari Link wrote:

Sasori & Third Kazekage [Venkelos]

I really don’t understand where you were going with this effect. It’s interesting, but I don’t see what it has to do with the Iron Sand. Does it do the most damage to groups of two?

It was supposed to represent the AoE capability of the Iron Sand. I didn't want to make it the whole team because I was worried that that would be too powerful. Also, since it says "select 1 Ninja", I don't see why you couldn't select the chump blocker head Ninja you expect and give it damage twice. It wasn't my goal when I made it, but it could work, and then Iron Sand is a crushing wave that kills something outright.


Oh well, better luck this week, then. Good job Susano'o.

venkelos wrote:

Hikari Link wrote:

Sasori & Third Kazekage [Venkelos]

This effect probably could have been formatted in the new style. It would make it much clearer.

Sorry, so far as I knew, that was the most recent format. Sasuke PR067, or something, has that effect, and it's worded that way. It came out in a recent Shonen Jump, a month or two ago.

So it is. Promo cards are a lot harder to keep track of, particularly those in SJ. Even more when you consider that it's hard to tell exactly when the card was designed. If it had been designed with Set 20 in mind rather than 21, then it would not use the new effect format. Regardless, your score will be adjusted accordingly. Though it certainly calls into question the originality of the card.

venkelos wrote:

Hikari Link wrote:

Sasori & Third Kazekage [Venkelos]

I really don’t understand where you were going with this effect. It’s interesting, but I don’t see what it has to do with the Iron Sand. Does it do the most damage to groups of two?

It was supposed to represent the AoE capability of the Iron Sand. I didn't want to make it the whole team because I was worried that that would be too powerful. Also, since it says "select 1 Ninja", I don't see why you couldn't select the chump blocker head Ninja you expect and give it damage twice. It wasn't my goal when I made it, but it could work, and then Iron Sand is a crushing wave that kills something outright.


Oh well, better luck this week, then. Good job Susano'o.

The problem there is that the effect specifies "Back Ninja" and the head ninja is mot definitely not a back ninja. Thre are other ways to represent area of effect that are less limitng and while it is true that targeting two back ninja is pretty hardcore, considering the turn and what you have to pay to even get it out and then that there aren't that many damage jutsu anyway, it's not that bad. True, you can cripple a team with a victory, but that's really the kind of thing an SR squad should do anyway.

Thanks for the adjust

venkelos wrote:

Thanks for the adjust

My job is to judge as fairly and accurately as possible, but I'm only human and I can make mistakes. I'd rather not reward or punish contestants for said mistakes, so I encourage you guys to point out mistakes I make. Particularly when the scores are close.