Jonin's Intervention, the mission that ruined a format.

   




     Most of us are familiar with this card, because it is pretty much the bane of block format right now, J.I. has shifted the tempo of the early game back to a card that's already banned in block, The 4th Hokage. The Early game is already strong with things like Sasuke [Solo Attitude], Ino [Childhood], Ink Fish, Kisuke [Death?], Messenger Ninja, Rock Lee [Loopy Fist] etc., but jumping 4 turns ahead isn't an advantage that should be given to anyone early. JI reminds me of a card that is in unlimited 4 Times Faster, where you get to put a ninja into play early and give yourself a slight advantage, however let's compare the two:

4 Times Faster	Jonin's Intervention
Is a Minus 1, Still Have to Pay Ninja's Hand cost, effectively a Minus 2	Is a Minus 1, Do not Have to Pay Hand Cost, Virtually Stays a Minus 1
Opponent Can Also Play a Ninja Early	Opponent Gets No Advantage

While you can argue that 4 Times Faster Gives you the Ninja Permanently, you still let your opponent have an advantage, JI is completely one sided, and it forces us into a game state where if You Open your 3 card combo of JI, A Power Jonin like Kakashi and A Jutsu like Tetragram you've pretty much won the game unless your opponent can respond with something like Temari [Furious Gust] and even then, you've already done enough to swing advantage your way so much that your opponent will be playing catch-up for the rest of the game.

I think my problem with JI is that there is basically no repercussion to playing it, Its predecessors J.I. 1.0, and A Gift From a Friend both required you to lose a ninja and minus 1 yourself, and if you couldn't hit a ninja that could kill himself [Nawaki for example.] then you could possibly be left with a dead mission, when in this day and age of the game missions make or break a deck. No this Jonin's Intervention just gives to much advantage to whoever can go second and get the combo off, and its why its played so heavily right now, I really want the game to have a fleshed out meta, and I don't want a deck to be a spiritual successor to an other early game rush deck we had back in the day which won on turn 2 [Fangs of the Snake Toads.] 

I really think when the rogue list rolls around the card should go to either 1 or 0, forcing a game state in which you can end the game before it has truly started isn't something that should be in block, its just stales the game when we're trying to fight for a more diverse meta.

Anyways let me know what you guys think about it in the comments.

-KunoAlpha aka TurboTMoses

Read More ->>