Naruto's New Deck Type Fire/Lightning

Many decks in the Naruto trading card game go with one basic element. Mono water decks are extremely powerful as are mono fire decks, however there are those decks that combine elements and use unorthodox tactics to achieve victory. One such deck is a Fire/Lightning deck. Until the release of the fourth set in the game, Revenge and Rebirth, Fire/Water decks were the strongest combination however we have seen a recent rise in the amount of Lightning decks fused with fire. One reason for this is the fact that most decks play with at least a few fire and lightning cards already in their decks. Another reason is because of the speed and power each side has to offer.

Many decks run copies of three basic cards. Konohamaru, Sasuke, and Kakashi. All of these cards are either fire or lightning, so using a deck based on just those elements will allow form a more fluent chakra flow, and also the use of more jutsu's that have these specific costs. Also almost every ninja that is of a fire or water element is from the Hidden Leaf Village, so right there you have another big plus. Cards like The One Who Inherits and Entrusts the Will are normally useless in a Fire deck mixed with anything else, but since all the cards from the lightning aspect of this deck are Leaf ninja this card fits right in.

Fire decks are great but leave gaps. For instance, turn 0 is covered by Sasuke and Kiba, but there is a hole on turn 1 and 2. In a fire deck a random ninja is throw into these turns but when combined with lighting we see these gaps fill up. Turn 1 is covered by Naruto, and turn 2 can be covered by any number of good lighting ninja, for example Iruka, or Gamma toad. With this strategy in place you will never have a lack of ninja on the field.

The speed of the deck is a big incentive. When you think about it, Sasuke is a possible 4 attack on turn 0, Naruto is a possible 6 and Gamma toad or Iruka are there for support. That's some very powerful stuff. Also lighting has the Konohamaru that allows you to play your turn 4, 5,and 6 ninja a turn early. This means that on turn 3 you can play Kakashi, and on turn 5 you can play the Third Hokage. Of course the drawing potential helps too. With cards like High Speed Body, Dancing Leaves, and The One Who Inherits and Entrusts the Will you can go through every card in your deck in no time and draw a ton of cards. Then regenerate your discard pile with the lightning card A Kind Teacher and do it all over again.

The power of this deck is also unrivaled. Lightning has some of the cheapest, yet most effective attack power ups. Kunai and Food Pills are great +2's and cost minimal chakra. Fire also compliments this with cards like Shadow Clone Jutsu Kakashi Style adding +1 attack for each of your opponent's ninja.

The technical aspect of each element also goes well with one another. Lightning cards like Ichiraku Noodle Shop and Iruka (Reward) will heal your in play ninja who are injured, while Fire cards will do direct damage and kill off opponents ninja. Cards like Fire Style: Fire Ball Jutsu and Lions Barrage will hit opponents ninja while others like 8 Trigrams Seal Divination will return them to the tops of your opponents deck, clearing the way for direct hits.

A good Fire/Lightning deck will also have to incorporate the strongest turn 5 ninja to date, and that is Might Guy and Kakashi (strongest pair in the Hidden Leaf Village) This team is a 7 when put into play and becomes an 8 while blocking making them a one man army.

These types of decks take a lot of practice to understand the combinations of cards that work well for each other. They can be very hard to play, yet rewarding because of their great potential. A novice player who is new to the game may not enjoy playing with a deck of this kind, but a veteran of the game will find the play style very strategic in nature and fun to use. I would suggest warming up to the game first before attempting to build and use a deck like this.