Oni Assassins Before Release Predictions

...we all fall down

Oh-boy so it's here.  My article about Oni Assassins. This was an awkward article to start writing. I usually play an archetype before even writing an article on them so I at least feel like I know what I'm talking about. In this situation though, I'm going to write a before and after article. The before article will be how the cards seem to work and what my prediction on how strong they'll be is. In my after, I'll give a "screw all the theories and my predictions are garbage. This is the best way to play them" to help new people figure them out a little easier. As you can probably tell, this is the before article and I'm fully prepared to be completely wrong in my predictions.

I honestly don't really know where to start with them so I guess we'll start with the overall concept. I think Bushiroad had a meeting, looked at Art of Explosive Hades Fall and said "Guys. This face down soul idea has potential" and BOOM the concept of Oni Assassins were basically born.

Remember this flavor text as you
play against Oni Assassins

Oni Assassins have a line up of monsters, spells, items and impacts that work together to psychologically mess with your opponent and stop them from reaching his/her full potential during their turn with the red text ability called Ambush. Ambush states "When this face down card is put from the soul of a card on your field into your drop zone, you may call it by paying its [Call Cost]".

By having the cards face down in the souls, your opponent can only have an educated guess as far as what could be underneath a card's soul. This can make your opponent potentially misplay as they expect a certain card face down in the soul but never shows up or fall right into your trap and have their plans completely backfire. We'll start off with the above mentioned card: Art of Explosive Hades Fall.

I have massive respect the power of Art of Explosive Hades Fall because of the mind games it adds to the fight. Secret Swords and Hades Fall were the classic mind games of Buddyfight and one reason why I like Katana World so much. It wasn't getting much use recently until Blade Beasts got Blue Secret Sword, Zetsu. With this weapon, you could recur Hades Fall for more control and more damage. Along with the fact that there are size 1-3 Blade Beasts, you can get Hades Fall's (almost) full potential in Blade Beasts.

If you think Hades Fall works well in Blade Beasts (which it does), be prepared for the insanity that can ensue with Oni Assassins. Oni Assassins are a multi-size deck. Where Ninjas are mainly size 1's and 2s and Skull Warriors are mainly size 1s and 3s, Oni Assassins have viable monsters ranging anywhere from size 0 to 3. Hades Fall will be a great searcher for the Oni Assassins that have Ambush. Your opponent will call a monster, get it blown up by Hades Fall and then because the monster was face down in the soul and sent to the drop, they get called to the field.

Every card in their arsenal are counters to some kind of situation. Does your opponent have an item? Blow it up with Half-fiend, Kid Yase. Multi-soul wall in your way? Call Dusk Fiend, Yagyo to get rid of them. Does your opponent have Judgement of the Cold-Blooded King, Miseria in the center? Call Oni Boss, Kid Ibuki and tell him to eat 13 damage (10 from lifelink and 3 from the Ambush call). Want a good all around counter destroy card spell?  Play Underhanded Means, Sneak Attack.

You've come to the wrong neighborhood

The Ambush skills aren't limited to just the monsters either. Their spells have the attribute <Assassination> and boy do they have some stupid good spells. Let's start with their draw spell Hiding Oni. It's almost a clone of Artificial Talisman: GAUGE & DRAW. You put a card from the soul of a card on the field into the drop. Then you gauge 1 and draw 2. It's a completely win/win situation because it procs Ambush. The other favorite of mine is the set spell House of Assassins, Oni Convoy. Once per turn, just put a card from your hand into the soul of an Oni Assassin and draw a card.  Free cycle and free setup on the field.  Super good.

What blew my mind is that there are a couple spells that activate if they're sent as a face down soul into the drop zone. The two main ones are Under the Hood and Essence of Ambush. This concept blew my mind. I never thought Bushi would do something like this or even think of this. Under the Hood gives you resources back to set up for more Ambushes and Essence of Ambush helps destroy monsters on your opponent's field.

They are getting two items as well which have the Oni Assassin attribute so you could put cards face down in their souls but I don't think it will be common to do that. The two items are of course Dark Arms, Steel-slicing Strings and Dark Arms, Soaring Blade. They have opposite effects to each other. The former sets up your field for the future by putting cards face down in souls and giving you gauge. The latter capitalizes on Ambushing by destroying more monsters on the field when Ambush goes off. I think it would be wise to use one over the other based on what kind of deck you're making but it might be good to splash 2 of the off hand weapon or so in a deck.

Another weapon that may see some use in Oni Assassins is Ninja Blade Chirizakura. It could be used on the Oni Assassins that have soulguard. At your own leisure destroy an Oni Assassin and call the monster or cast the spell that was in the soul.  Just a thought.  I doubt it will be used this way though.

Oni Assassins don't have any impact monsters (yet) but they do have a very strong impact card. Dark Skill, Eerie Wailings  has two effect options.  The first option is for you to fish (and compress) your deck by grabbing two cards and put them face down into the soul of an Oni Assassin. The second option is essentially another attack phase because you put all souls from all cards on your field into the drop. Just do the second effect after your first set of monsters attack. Remove all the souls and attack again.  That could be a lot of monsters and a lot of critical to swing with.

No waifu, no laifu

So what do I think Oni Assassins will do to the meta and will they be top tier?  Well in truth, this deck has the potential to be extremely good. It depends on several factors. First, I think the sideboard will be crucial for Oni Assassins. Most other decks can have the option of creating a side board but I think the sideboard will be basically essential.

Second, the meta and deck being played against has to be assessed correctly to maximize the effectiveness of cards. If you're putting a size 1 or 2 in the soul of Hades Fall against Raging Spirits, you deserve to lose. Mindlessly putting cards face down into soul probably isn't the best idea.

Third, which kind of ties in with the second point, the deck has a little more of a higher skill cap to it because the player playing the deck has to be competent and predict the opponent's moves with good counter measures not just once but multiple times. This is something that may not be familiar to some players that play less counter heavy decks or play more brute force decks.

Oni Assassins seem to have this eb and flow to them where you can do some counters during your own turn but should reserve souls and effects for during your opponents turn to trip up your opponent. If you burn everything during your turn, you won't be as effective during your opponents turn. The point of this deck seems to want to control your opponent's actions during every step of the game. I feel this deck will generally speaking be easy to learn. Hard to master.

Now go! Control and conquer your opponent!