Wolf Ninja
Today’s victim is the Wolf Ninja, which, despite the fins and ridiculously long arms, is supposedly human.

The Wolf Ninja is a very tactically useful card. With 1 Attack Power, it’s never going to be a primary source of damage for your deck (one of the biggest pitfalls for any Ninja Deck, in fact), however its HP of 3 combined with its special ability make it a very handy card to have in a pinch.
When the Ninja hits something on a Water Field, it will swap places with that card. And, thanks to the fact that it has 3HP (and uses the Long Range Arc Strike Attack Pattern – which allows it to hit almost any where on the board) you can place it on a Fire Field without killing it. Assuming the creature on the Water Field you are targeting is a Water card (not an unreasonable assumption), you can pull that card onto the Fire Field, boosting the 1 Damage the Ninja’s attack normally does to an impressive 5 when the Field Penalties are totalled up. On top of that, your Wolf Ninja then sits happily on the Water Field himself, boosting his HP to a respectable 5.

On top of that, as with other Ninjas, the Wolf Ninja gains Invisibility when another Ninja is on the board (the Wood element Swallow Ninja, in this case), making him completely invincible. Realistically, this is quite unlikely unless you make a choice to aim for this while designing your deck, but it can be a very useful ability, especially when played unexpectedly.

There are a couple of issues with the card, however. A Summon Cost of 3 might seem a little steep for the card, especially if you can’t take advantage of its position-switching ability (although in that case, you should try and avoid the card altogether), and, as mentioned, its Attack Power in that situation is pitifully low.

Despite the fact that the Wolf Ninja will almost always have 5HP, removing them when controlled by your opponent can be accomplished quite easily if they aren’t careful – one of the unfortunate side effects of their position switching is that their Blind Spot is easily left exposed. If this is the case, hitting it hard in the Blind Spot should do the job pretty quickly – the Partmole Flame Guard is especially good at this job thanks to its bonus damage against Water Fields. If its Blind Spot is hidden, you could consider ignoring the Ninja altogether – it only has an Attack Power of 1, and under the standard configuration, it won’t be able to hit one of the Water Fields from another. If you still want to kill it though, try softening it up by using a Fieldquake first.

Because this card is almost invariably going to end up on a Water Field, it works fairly well with Mercenary Savior Latoo – Latoo will give the Ninja a Dodge bonus which will help keep him alive if your opponent decides to take exception to his presence.

When used properly, the Wolf Ninja can be a very useful card, but if you are looking for something purely to do damage, there are better choices for 3 Mana.

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Posted by Merco on Sun, 6th Jan 2008, at 11:31
If only all of the Ninjas had the same attack pattern, and HPs...
Posted by Pessimism on Tue, 8th Jan 2008, at 16:30
I still don't have one- can you believe that?! (Then again, I don't have any Phantoms, either...)This has a fantastic attack pattern, which really does enhance it's ability. Be nice to see a few more well-thought-out cards in the future expansions...
Posted by krisfairholm on Sat, 19th Jan 2008, at 03:08
Fantastic card even in a non-ninja deck its ability to attack from range at cause up to 5 damage or at least 3 in a worse case situation where I would consider using it personally is all good.
Posted by Merco on Sat, 29th Mar 2008, at 13:05
This card is great at removing the Dungeon of the Ten Tyrants card, one that is used only too often...
Posted by Ghostwhispers on Sun, 13th Apr 2008, at 12:49
I have played a "Ninja deck" and it is a fun deck to play with,
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