Archetype Archive: Ninjas

The Tsukikage with Yamigitsune's mask is the best

Now that I have about a month long window before the next two set comes out (Golden Garga and Violence Vanity), I figured it was time I started my Archetype Archive posts. I'll be doing all the Katana World archetypes but these posts take some time so bear with me.

The different archetypes of Katana World have had some interesting game play changes over the course of the seasons. I hope to document these play style changes for several reasons.

First, players can understand the past play styles of a certain deck. If they like an older play style, they will know what key cards to look for to build the deck. Even if it's not a tier 1 deck. For example, one weekend, I made a season 1, size 1 ninja deck that revolved around countering the opponent's deck. It wasn't a great deck but it was fun for me to try to predict what my opponent would play.

Second, this page will be a good summary page for players to understand an archetype as a whole to gauge if they have any interest in an archetype. Rather than reading tens or possibly hundreds of individual cards, trying to link card's effects with each other and determining if it's even fun to build and play.

Third, at the time of writing this, we are going on our fifth year of the game being out. It's hard for newer players to read up and research decks from past years to get a grasp of where this game started and where it is now. I personally am this kind of person. When I get into a topic, I want the full history of where it started and how it got to where it it now.

Keep in mind that I will be mainly mentioning key cards for the deck. In this case are Ninjas and Ninja Art attributes. I will not be talking about literally every card in a set either. That will be just too tedious and defeat the point of this article being about a summation of the archetype over the course of the years. Other cards will be talked about that relate to their specific attribute.

Buddyfight: Season 1

Ninjas were probably the most complex deck for a while. The deck has to shift its tech cards depending on what deck the opponent was playing. Ninjas are all about predicting the opponent's moves and countering them while also inflicting damage. This play style made the opponent play in strange and often times, inefficient ways. It some situations, the opponent couldn't play a card for fear of losing the game.

I've got the power of god and anime on my side!

This was usually done with the impact Secret Sword, Lethal Formation. With Lethal Formation, the player would place a card from their hand, deck or drop underneath during their final phase in prediction to counter the opponent during their turn. Even though any card could go underneath, players would put other "Secret Sword" cards underneath Secret Sword, Lethal Formation. These "Secret Sword" cards could only be activated from underneath Secret Sword, Lethal Formation. Keep in mind as well that grabbing a card from the deck helped thin the deck to increase your own odds of drawing what the player needed.

There were initially 3 "Secret Sword" impacts to counter the opponent. They were Moon Fang, Shooting Star, and Star Crusher. The impacts were very expensive. All three costed 3 gauge but Clear Serenity was a solid card with counter to gain enough gauge to play any of the "Secret Swords".

Nin!

The main ninja for the deck was Nanomachine Ninja, Tsukikage. He also is Zanya Kisaragi's buddy monster in the anime. He was the go to monster to use in ninjas. He was free to call with slightly above average stats. His optional ability "Nanomachine Body Replacement" allowed him to remain on the field by discarding a non-monster card when he would be destroyed.

There are many spell cards in Katana World that can counter specific actions but if the situation didn't arise that a card could be used, the player could always discard a useless card to keep Tsukikage on the field. There was a real art to determining if a player should keep Tsukikage a live or let him finally perish.

Electron Ninja, Shiden is another staple for the deck. As the game has progressed over the years, Shiden has never been obsolete. His ability "Cyber Analysis" allowed the player to discard a "Ninja Arts" card from their hand and pay one gauge to draw two cards. Since the non-Secret Sword, Lethal Formation impact cards were dead cards in the player's hand, Shiden allowed those dead cards to essentially becomes a Nice One! clone.

Since Secret Sword, Lethal Formation can grab the other "Secret Sword" impacts from drop, the impacts were fine being discarded. This was a double edge sword though. The opponent could see what "Secret Sword" that was put to drop but now they know what they have to deal with during their turn if it was retrieved with Secret Sword, Lethal Formation.

Shinobi Scrolls added a lot of utility for the deck. Players could put a Ninja Arts that they know will be used for its full effect underneath Shinobi Scrolls, pay one gauge and draw a new card. Then, they could use it when the time was right on the opponent. Or, if the player needed more non-monster cards for Tsukikage's ability, they could sacrifice a monster card from their hand, pay a gauge and hope to draw into what they needed. Shinobi Scroll's ability is a soft once per turn. Meaning its ability could be used once per copy of Shinobi Scrolls on the field.

The Immortal Entities set released only a handful of Ninja related cards but one of them is still used to this day. Ninja-Arts, Half-kill will always be a nice tech option as long as monsters have soulguard which, as this game has progressed, has proven to always be true.

Set 3, Drum's Adventure, had some new Ninja cards that supported a different play style than what I've talked about above. It's been colloquially named Burn Ninjas and hasn't gained much support. The main monster cards were Fire Streak Ninja, Gokuen, Sniping Ninja, Yoichi and Sky Ninja, Yamigarasu. Yamigarasu was the buddy of Shusui Kanahebi; the player of this deck.

Ka Kaw!

The main field set up was Gokuen in the center with Yoichi and Yamigarasu on either side in the left and right spaces. The concept was to burn the opponent every time the monsters on the left and right wanted to rest (mainly through attacking). Then, Gokuen would use his "Flame Barrier" ability to gain 3,000 defense. Gaining a total of 8,000 defense. The card itself says 4,000 defense but it was an error and should be 3,000. This was very high defense back in season 1 and made it hard for people to get over Gokuen. Flame Barrier was not once per turn either so if the opponent did get to 8,000 or higher, the player could always discard another card to bump the defense to 11,000.

The spells meant for this deck to function were Final Showdown at the Great Gojo Bridge, Dark Ninja Technique, Poison Mist Formation and Ninja Arts, Snake Gaze.

Gojo Bridge was meant to keep Yoichi and Yamigarasu on the sides from being attacked while forcing the opponent to attack Gokuen. Poison Mist Formation was meant to be a slow burn that made the opponent have to battle against time. Snake Gaze was meant to slow the opponent's battle phase by resting a monster while at the same time still burning the opponent.

Out of these three, Snake Gaze has actually still seen game play to this day since is prevents double, triple, etc attack skills from going off. Gojo Bridge and Poison Mist are too expensive at 2 gauge and Poison Mist's burn was super slow as well.

Unfortunately, even to this day, the Burn Ninja deck didn't get any direct support after it came out which made it feel like a filler deck. Especially since none of the above mentioned cards have ever had a new version or a retrain. It's a shame considering this deck was super slow and I felt had some potential but in Bushiroad's eyes, it may have been a "poor man's" ninja deck. Plus, Bushiroad may have been cautious about having too much burn in the game and may have wanted to limit burn as a play style.

What getting the squad together feels like

The last main set of season 1, Break to the Future, helped only expand the number of counter options for ninjas. Super Lethal Formation was released in this set which has still not been used as much as normal Secret Sword, Lethal Formation because of the one gauge in the cast cost. The extra 1,000 power and 1,000 defense to all ninjas just can't be justified for a gauge. Especially since all the counter secret sword impacts costed 3 gauge. That is 4 gauge the player needed for everything to go off and it just wasn't worth it. The one gauge was the breaking point because even Clear Serenity couldn't give the player everything they needed for this to go off.

Three new ones were released as well in Break to the Future. These were Secret Sword, Comet, Morning Star and Glittering Star. Unlike the original 3 impacts, all of these cards had design flaws that made them lack luster to run compared to the original 3 impacts.

Just go with the flow

Comet and Morning Star didn't nullify the attack from the monster so if they had soulguard, the attack would still go through. Glittering Star could only be casted if the player was being link attacked. Fortunately, this one nullified the attack.

However, the ninja deck up to this point has always wanted monsters front and center on the field to do the countering game play. It's better to build a deck around keeping the center monster on the field than trying to build in countermeasures for a worse case scenario.

The only other card to warrant any merit for Ninjas is Water Technique, Minawagakushi. This card has been a sleeper card until recently. For a long time, it has been too expensive to be deemed a flexible card because of its two gauge cast cost and destroying cards was usually cheaper. Even if it was just to destroy a certain kind of card.

Recently, people have been picking it up because two gauge isn't that hard to come by anymore and the game has gone in a direction where destruction isn't as effective but bouncing cards is still viable.

Buddyfight Hundred

In the Hundred season (season 2), Ninjas first got support in Miracle Impack!. There was only one card specific for Ninjas. It was Ninja Arts, Art of Bursting Machine Gun. It was mediocre card but I find the art work hilarious.

Go go Gojinmaru!

In Galaxy Burst, Tsukikage's younger (but somehow older?) brother, Nanomachine Ninja, Byakuya was introduced into the game.

If Tsukikage was the defensive ninja, Byakuya was the offensive ninja. He could re-stand by discarding a non-monster card from the hand. Byakuya also had a new ability introduced to ninjas in season 2 called Shadow Dive. This ability allowed the monster to attack the opponent even if there was a monster in the center.

He was more effective as a board wipe instead of pinging your opponent for one damage repeatedly. However, if the opponent did have a big wall, shadow diving for one damage was a viable strategy.

Ultimately, the point of Byakuya was the introduction of Ghoul Deity, Gojinmaru. He was a fusion of Tsukikage and
Byakuya.

Gojinmaru had shadow dive, move, double attack and soulguard. Gojinmaru became the new boss monster for ninjas. With 7,000 attack and defense, Gojinmaru possess a strong threat on the field. He can tank hits (since he has 2 souls) while not having to deal with monsters on the field and just attack the opponent directly.

The player could also now equip weapons and use them effectively since Gojinmaru has move. The most effective weapon I found with him was Water Slash Sword, Murasame. Gojinmaru wasn't consistently able to be called to the field just yet. Players would still have to draw into him at this point so players would still fall back to a size 1 field line up if they couldn't call him. If this happened Murasame could be used as easily recurring discard fodder for one life for "Tsukikage's Nanomachine Body Replacement" ability. Once Gojinmaru actually entered the field, just use Murasame as the intended item it is. Item destruction didn't hurt Murasame either since it could still be retrieved with 1 life.

Yumi Ninja, Suiha was the first tutor for size 1 ninjas. It helped players get to the Tsukikage or Byakuya card the player needed to call Gojinmaru.

Flip me? No. Flip you.

Another notable card in the set was Ninja Arts, Mat-flipping Technique. This helped stop other popular decks that ran an open center, size 2 and 1 monsters with item equipped field but it also stopped Gojinmaru as well. Since nullifying a card is after paying its call/cast/equip cost, the player could potentially lose Tsukikage, Byakuya a gauge and the Gojinmaru card itself if Gojinmaru's call was nullified by Mat-flipping Technique.

Lord of Hundred Thunders did have minute Ninja support but nothing that helped the winning strategy that was Gojinmaru at the time. It was ultimately more for Hundred Demons.

Buddy Allstars+ was where the good support came to the rescue. Nanomachine Ninja, Tsukikage "SD" helped the consistency of getting Byakuya on the field while at the same time giving Gojinmaru another 1,000 attack and defense. Nanomachine Ninja, Byakuya "SD" also came out but it was mediocre. I instead ran Suiha, Tsukikage "SD" and the four of the original Byakuya which seemed to be enough for the deck.

A new Secret Sword came out as well in Buddy Allstars+. Secret Sword, Starlight was a solid choice for the Ninja main deck. It was a versatile card while at the same time being cheaper than Secret Sword, Shooting Star to destroy an item. Sure, it only dealt 2 damage instead of 3 but the damage wasn't the major selling point of the deck. The counter play was.

There was technically more Ninja support in Terror of the Inverse Omni Lords but again, nothing remarkable enough. They were literal filler cards.

Buddyfight Triple D

Starting in Triple D, a new card type called Impact Monsters were introduced to the game. These cards were monsters that could be called from the hand once per turn during the final phase and attack during the final phase. It is wise to take note that multiple impact monsters can be called to the field by card effects but they can only be hard called from hand once per turn.

The first Ninja impact monster came out in Buddy Rave. It had a mouthful of a name. It was Tsukikage & Byakuya, "Chaotic Nano Art of Body Duplication!". The impact monster was quite expensive. Costing 3 gauge and putting a ninja to the drop but did have good abilities.

Electron Ninja, Shiden and Ninja Arts, Half-kill were also reprinted in this set. Two staple cards for ninjas. This reprinting was the first time that Ninja Arts, Half-kill could be foil as well since it was first released in the last set that didn't do parallel foils.

Set two of Triple D, Roar! Invincible Dragon, had the next solid support for ninjas. There were several welcomed staple spell reprints such as Clear Serenity, Ninja Arts, Snake Gaze and Art of Body Replacement.

Teamwork makes...

It also further supported the ninja brothers. Tsukikage got a new version of himself called Tsukikage, "Kuroyasha Mode". that allowed him to save one ninja from being destroyed for one gauge. This was essentially a power crept version of his original form but it did have a once per turn stipulation.

Byakuya, "Shiroyasha Mode" did not get a power crept version of his original self but I like it a lot more than his original version. Byakuya had double attack if there was a Tsukikage on the field or in the soul of a monster on the field. He also gave a card it was in the soul of Shadow Dive but Gojinmaru already had Shadow Dive. What else would Byakuya go into?

That question was answered with a new Gojinmaru impact monster. Gojinmaru "Ghoul Deity Arts, Dance of Yashagami!" wasn't a replacement and was more of an alternative playstyle for Ninjas for several reasons.

First, Byakuya and Tsukikage had to survive the battle phase to impact call the new Gojinmaru. Counter destruction was still common and viable at this point. Sure, Tsukikage's one gauge save helped but it is possible to play more than one destruction card and that one gauge could make or break calling impact Gojinmaru.

...the dream work!

Second, in order for impact Gojinmaru to get any of his abilities to go off, the player had to sacrifice more hand cards. The only "free" ability he had was soulguard. He couldn't even get Shadow Dive for free. It had to come from Byakuya!

A few more ninja art spells came out that were helpful. Dodan, Chaos Pebbles was a nice option for set spell reliant decks and every deck obviously ran monsters. Katon, Blazing Armors were a solid defense spell. The ideal card to play this with was Gojinmaru. It would bump up his defense higher than most link attacks and burn 1 damage back. This could be seen as support for Burn Ninjas as well but at this point, the deck was too obsolete.

Within the show, Water Calling Sword, Suiryu was meant to be played in the deck but I never found it impressive or worth while to pay 1 gauge and lose a card to just grab back another card.

Four Dimensions didn't have any real noteworthy support. Formless Jailer, Izumonokami could be put into Gojinmaru's soul to gain a critical but it wasn't a practical card. Tsukikage, Canis Mode was a card that was out in Japan for a while but never got an english print. Nothing about it was special though. If it was ever run, it was for consistency to get a Gojinmaru form on the field.

Annihilate! Great Demonic Dragon!! literally only had one Katana World card. Ninja Dragon Knight, Hanzo is a dual Katana/Dragon card. However, it was probably used more in Dragon Ein/Zwei/Drei than ninjas.

Not the formation we deserved but the formation we needed

Dragon Fighters released one, if not, my most favorite Secret Sword. Secret Sword, Dragon Vanquish Formation allowed the player to nullify the call of a monster with "Dragon" in its attribute and deal 2 damage. This card will probably never go out of use as long as Bushiroad keeps printing new dragon archetypes.

There were also new Tsukikage and Byakuya "SD" cards. Luck Determined Outcome, Tsukikage "SD" and Luck Determined Outcome Byakuya "SD" revolved around Rock-Paper-Scisscors (RPS) to have the effects go off.

Tsukikage could nullify an attack while Byakuya could restand a ninja at counter speed if the player won RPS. Both were soft once per turn abilities. Good abilities but I've never cared about playing RPS in Buddyfight. I know there's some strategy to RPS but I've never cared to look it up or get better at it so I didn't care about these cards but they were still good cards. Especially since there was no downside for losing RPS.

Buddyfight X

The X season was... a season that left a bitter taste in my mouth. The season moved the game into this dichotomy where most, if not all new cards that came out either had a super defensive play style or super aggressive play style.

The trifecta have appeared!

The play style of ninjas fell into this middle ground between defensive and offensive up until now. In this season, Ninjas became an aggressive deck. Being able to call monsters during battle phase to keep the offense but they usually still had 1 or 2 critical. This also made the Secret Sword play style not as viable and was now getting to be too slow. The secret sword cards became more of a sideboard option at best instead of the main board game plan.

This more aggressive play style came later in the season. Before ninjas became more aggressive, the new cards still supported the previous season's play style.

In this season, Tsukikage and Byakuya's third brother was (minorly) introduced in the Dark Lord's Rebirth set. Nanomachine Ninja, Zangetsu lets the player draw if a Tsukikage or Gojinmaru is on the field and gain a life and gauge if there is a Byakuya or Gojinmaru on the field. He basically helped recoup resources used to call Gojinmaru to the field.

The above mentioned set also released some ninja related reprints such as Shinobi Scrolls and Art of Item Blasting. Both of which received new art for the cards as well and they could be foils! Previously, both cards were printed when commons, uncommons and rares couldn't come as foils.

One new card for ninjas was printed in the Evolution and Mutation set. Evil Fake Tsukikage Type-0 & Byakuya Type-0 was a lack luster card. The only thing I wanted to mention that it has going for it is that it can count towards either one of the Tsukikage and Byakuya requirements for Gojinmaru's call cost but it can't act as both at the same time. Basically, Gojinmaru needs two cards to go into his soul to be called.

LVL Up! Heroes and Adventurers had a couple dual world cards for ninjas. Princes from the East, Zanya & Akatsuki is a nice way to recover key Secret Sword impacts or the Gojinmaru impact monster from Triple D. Any other card chosen is not as optimal since the player has to wait until their next turn to use it. One major downside of this card is it is not a "Tsukikage" or "Byakuya" card so it doesn't contribute to Gojinmaru and I believe it's what kills the card from being used more frequently.

The other ninja monster in the same set is Three Knights of Konoe, Nano-Guardians. This card is pretty much mediocrity as its finest. If anything, it may have meant to be a budget Gojinmaru card. It doesn't have any of the ninja brother names for Gojinmaru's call cost. It's also a size 2. Most ninja decks just want a full size 1 field so it's just not optimal. At this point, it wasn't able to be searched out either.

Overturn! Thunder Empire!! is the set that has the ninjas change their play style to what I mentioned above. A much more aggressive build that doesn't worry so much about setting the Secret Sword impact.

Byakuya always gets the
short end of the stick

The card that makes this play style possible is Overturn Ninja, Tsukikage. Overturn was a new mechanic in the X season. It was an ability that was very strong but the named ability could only be done once per game. The two most common "over" abilities were Overturn and Overkill.

Tsukikage's Overturn allowed the player to discard a card from their hand during their turn to call one Tsukikage and one Byakuya to the field by paying their call cost. The idea being it could either tutor out the ninja brothers you need to set up or call them during the battle phase to keep attacking.

Byakuya also had a new form but it didn't have an Overturn ability. Thunder Sky Ninja, Byakuya had his usual shadow dive ability and if there was a Tsukikage on the board, he had double attack.

The ninja brothers also received a weapon specifically for them as well. This was unique since before this, all the weapons released so far generic to Katana World. Moonlight Secret Katana, Kirameki actually received more abilities and stats for have Tsukikage and Byakuya on the field. It was a little expensive. Costing a gauge and a life but it was nice to see a weapon specifically for ninjas.

One game changing card that came out was Art of Shadow Stitching. The game had a lot of multi-attacking cards thanks to the Thunder Empire archetype. The card really helped slow down how aggressive decks can be. Keep in mind though that it only works when monsters attack.

Last card of significance from this set is Secret Scrolls. I personally prefer Shinobi Scrolls since I can use it the same turn I set it. That being said, I know some people prefer searching each turn. I seem to always have the bad luck of Secret Scroll being destroyed before it comes back around to my turn and I don't find the extra 1,000 power anything special.

Master yourself. Master the enemy.

Driven to Disorder came out on my birthday. February 23rd 2018. It had some healthy support for ninjas with one of, if not, the most important cards ever printed for them. Fuuton Sweeping Whirlwind was a box topper for the set which didn't help its price. Ever since their inception, ninjas have had an aspect of discarding Ninja Arts to activate effects. Fuuton helped mitigate the hand loss by gaining a gauge and drawing a card back if it was discarded by a card effect.

Another tutor came out for ninjas as well. Where Yumi Ninja, Suiha searched size 1 ninjas, Searchlight allowed the player to search for a size 2 or greater Ninjas.

Secret Sword, Waves-Splitting Arc Fangs is the first "Secret Sword" that doesn't have to be in the soul of Secret Sword, Lethal Formation to activate. It has an easy blanket requirement of the opponent having to nullify an attack on your field to activate. It costs 2 gauge to deal 2 damage to the opponent and stand a card on the field. Then, if the impact was casted from Secret Sword, Lethal Formation, you put the top three cards of your deck into your gauge. This is a prime example what I mentioned earlier. The traditional Secret Sword set up was just too slow in the game now to be effective but it was nice to get an added benefit if it was casted from Secret Sword, Lethal Formation.

Last card to note from this set is Top-Rank Ninja, Mangetsumaru. He was the final card to call in the chain of attacks that ninjas could perform. He could be called at counter speed if the player's cards have attacked three or more times. He could absorb all the size 1 monsters on the field, be called to the side (so a weapon could attack) while also having move, soulguard and counter attack to defend in the center next turn. If Byakuya, "Shiroyasha Mode" was put into his soul, he could gain shadow dive too!

Is that... *squints eyes* YAMIGARASU?!

New World Chaos was the last main set with Katana World support. This set was a weird mix of it's own standalone cards but also mixed in cards from a small booster printed in Japanese, called Five World Build Masters, that wasn't printed in English until this set. Clear Serenity and Ninja Arts, Half-kill got reprinted for the third time in this set.

Apex of Flashstep, Tsukikage is a pivotal card for ninjas. Allowing the player to grab a Ninja Arts from the drop. If the gauge payed for his call cost is a Ninja Arts, it can be grabbed from the drop as well.

Fuuton, Tengu Draft was a new nullify that would bounce a size 1 or less monster back to a player's hand. This can allow the player to bounce their own monster back or bounce a larger size monster that was reduced to 1 or 0 on the opponent's fiend back to their hand.

About the only other card of any note is Ninja Arts, Vapor Crow. It can either bounce a size 3 back to hand or reduce damage taken for the turn by 1 for the turn. Whenever I see it used, I don't see enough of a pay off. Size 3 monsters that are a legitimate threat tend to have soulguard so they can't be bounced. Sure the opponent could play decks with Azi Dahaka but those are few and far between. The second ability of Vapor Crow is very similar to Demon Way, Kiribusama. Kiribusama reduces damage by 2 the next time the player would take damage. To this regard, that means a card equals 2 damage reduced. Since Vapor Crow costs a gauge, we could safely say that at least 3 damage would need to be mitigated to break even. After this card is played, the opponent could start link attacking to mitigate the damage reduced to attack only 2 or 3 times. Making this card just break even in the best case scenarios. To this end, I don't find Vapor Crow to be a useful card.

Buddyfight X2

You shall not pass!

Buddyfight X2 was more of a mini season. It was a wrap up of the story of Gao Mikado and his friends in the anime series. I don't believe it lasted longer than two or three months. Four months at the most. There were only two sets that came out and even then, only one ninja card was released but it is a strong card.

Arc Particles Ghoul Deity, Gojinmaru was a Thunder Empire version of the original Gojinmaru back in Buddyfight Hundred. It continued on with the multi-attacking ninja build. The player could put any two ninjas into his soul and pay 2 gauge. It had the usual move, double attack and soulguard abilities but it had a new, unique skill.

At counter speed, the player could call the two cards in the soul of Gojinmaru WITHOUT paying their call cost. In this way, the battle phase could keep rolling out the punches.

Alternatively, and what I preferred, was to counter call the size 1 monsters in the soul during the opponent's battle phase. I would put monsters that have once per turn on call effects in the soul such as Apex of Flashstep, Tsukikage or Low-Rank Ninja, Mikazukimaru or Nanomachine Ninja, Zangetsu to regain cards. Then, I would rebuild Gojinmaru on my turn to shadow dive the opponent again. All while being able to possibly push for game by counter calling on my battle phase if the opponent had low life and no outs to stay a live.

Buddyfight Ace

With Buddyfight Ace, the show had a time skip. Ace follows the adventures of Gao Mikado's son, Yuga Mikado and his friends. This also means that the main ninja player, Zanya isn't in the show anymore either since... you know... time skip and what not. This would make you assume that ninjas aren't getting anymore support but you are wrong!

The new bread and butter of Ninjas

Yuga Mikado decides to try out Katana World with his buddy Gargantua Dragon. Gargantua Dragon doesn't belong to any certain world and he's allowed to be played in any world without restrictions.

The Ace season introduces the use of ninjas by revolving around Gargantua Dragon and his merry group of friends in the Deity Dragon Tribe (DDT). Many people refer to Gargantua Dragon Ninjas as Garninjas and I'll be using that term to specify them from now on.

DDT decks revolve around the G-EVO ability. After a battle involving a monster with G-EVO, the player may call a Dragod (aka Gargantua Dragon form) from their hand WITHOUT paying their call cost. The forms of Gargantua Dragon that do have G-EVO are usually called the "base form" while the forms without G-EVO are called the "final form". The idea is that Gargantua Dragon changes forms in the middle of battle to better accommodate the situation.

If you don't want to play this style of ninjas and you prefer the Tsukikage/Byakuya play style more, you're still in luck. Many cards still work well with them so don't completely ignore all the new support.

This new ninja play style starts in the Dimension Destroyer set. It is very reliant on discarding your own cards to gain effects. Original ninjas also have this element in their play style but Garninjas take it to an almost extreme. That being said, Fuuton, Sweeping Whirlwind is an absolute staple in this deck.

Art of Truancy is a set spell that prevents Deity Dragon Tribe monsters and items from being destroyed by card effects. It also allows the player to pay a gauge and discard a ninja arts to draw two cards. Just like Electron Ninja Shiden.

Love the green color on the Buddy Rare

The weapons in this season actually have the ninja attribute. Something that has been missing ever since the inception of Ninjas. Deity Dragon Blade, Garkunai is the first weapon meant to be run with Garninjas. It allows the player to give their monsters extra power and a critical. It also allows the player to use all Ninja Arts cards to be used as a nullify if the player is being directly attacked.

Nindog allows the player to help filter their deck to get more hand cards to discard and filter their deck while Nincat can discard those extra copies to get "real" cards from the deck.

Art of Getting Fish is a good card used to help mitigate the loss from the discard effects or to initiate a discard effect of your own. Like I said, there is a lot of discard effects.

Gargantua Wind Demon Dragon is the go to form of Gargantua Dragon in this set. At counter speed, his ability "Replicate" allows the top card of the deck to be called face down onto the field as a size 0 6,000/2/6,000 Dragod monster. Then, if he has a card with G-Evo in his soul, a second "token" may be created. This "token" spam is a great offensive and defensive tool. Keep in mind these cards aren't actual tokens but I refer to them as such.

Normally, I was going to only talk about main sets but the Impact! Triple Punisher trial decks had very solid support that couldn't be ignored. The original, base form of Gargantua Dragon was reprinted in the trial deck a long with a new form, Daybreak Roar, Gargantua Dragon. The final forms of Gargantua Dragon in the set are Gargantua, Kirigakure Dragon and Gargantua Jiraiya Dragon. Kirigakure has some use and versatility but Jiraiya was basically a worse Gargantua Wind Demon Dragon.

I miss jumping in leaves when I was a kid

Speaking of reprints, Fuuton, Sweeping Whirlwind was reprinted and with different art that was more themed around the Draninja deck. Another card that helps mitigate the hand loss is Ninja Arts, Hiding in Fallen Leaves except the player gains a life and draw instead of gauge and draw. The three life gain at counter speed could be used to mitigate damage during a battle.

Want a Pot of Greed at counter speed in the game? Because there is one for Draninjas! It's called Combats Rations -Gar-Rice-. Of course you need a Dragod monster on the field and a total power of 12,000 or more but that's not hard in Draninjas.

Last real solid card is Knives Ninja Technique, Ninbird. When a Dragod is called to the field, the player gains 2 life, discards a card from hand, check the top 3 card of their deck and put one to hand. The other two go to the bottom of the deck.

Keep in mind that the "tokens" that are spawned from Gargantua's Replicate count to Ninbird's effect requirement. That means Ninbird's skill could go off once during the player's turn and once during the opponent's turn. Then, don't forget Fuuton or Hiding in Fallen Leave's effects if they were discarded. You can see the nasty amount of filter and drawing that this deck can do by this point I hope.

Buddy Lineage is the last set currently that has any Ninja/Ninja Arts cards and it was only two cards. Flying White Moon, Tsukikage and Byakuya are interesting. They can both be viably used in either regular Ninjas or Garninjas.

Most of Garga's final forms require taking a card from the drop zone and putting it in his soul as a call cost if it's not called by G-EVO. This allows the player to give all ninjas 3,000 more power and 1 critical (Tsukikage) or immunity to effect destruction (Byakuya).

~Last updated 1/26/2019