6 of the 7 Removal Effects in the NARUTO Card Game Come From Face-Down Supports — Cost 1 Hits One, Cost 2 Hits Two or More, No Exceptions

In most trading card games, the match swings the moment one Character leaves the board. An attacker disappears and the math resets; a blocker disappears and damage gets through. That is why “how do I remove their stuff” is one of the first slots you lock in when building a deck.

In the NARUTO Card Game, seven revealed cards fill that role. It is a small sample, but sorting those seven by cost, timing, and how many cards they remove already outlines the design.

The most striking part: six of the seven carry a [Support] line. Removal in this game is not something you summon onto the field — it is something you set face-down and hold.

Basis for this article: the figures below are compiled from the 38 entries in our card database. Sources are the sample-card images on the official “About NARUTO CARD GAME” page and scans of the English-language demo cards distributed at Gen Con 2026 (SAMPLE watermark, NOT FOR SALE marking); each card page records its source URL. The official rulebook and card list are still unpublished, and demo-card specifications may differ from the retail release. Throughout, “removal” means any effect that takes a Character off the field.

1. The seven cards that can clear the board

Here is every card whose text reads “K.O.” or “return to its owner’s hand”, sorted by cost.

The first six all carry a [Support] line on the card face. As covered in reading face-down Supports, the official playmat prints “You may set up to 5 cards face-down” in the SUPPORT AREA, so these appear to be cards you set face-down and flip up when the moment arrives.

Only the seventh, Sasuke Uchiha N-014, works differently: its removal is attached to an EX Character’s [On Summon] ability rather than a Support.

2. Finding 1: three timings, heavily skewed

Counting the seven by activation timing produces a clear imbalance.

Every effect that “chooses” an opposing Character — all four of them — is [During Your Opponent’s Attack]. In other words, picking off an inconvenient Character at a time of your choosing on your own turn is, within what has been revealed, essentially impossible. You can only interrupt once they commit to an attack.

So what if you want to clear the board proactively? There are exactly two options.

• N-004COST2DMG1POW5HP4Rasengan / Chidori ([During Your Main]) — but they hit “all Characters”, so your own board goes too
• N-014DMG3POW10HP11EX Sasuke N-014 ([On Summon]) — picks a single target, but its Summon Requirements make you place two of your own Characters in the trash

Both charge you heavily. “Remove one of their Characters on your turn, for free” — the staple line in many other TCGs — has not appeared on a single revealed card.

The fact that the two board wipes do not say “your” (meaning they do not distinguish sides) is examined from the wording angle in how to read effect targets.

3. Finding 2: cost 1 removes one, cost 2 removes two or more — no exceptions

Cross-referencing the six removal Supports by cost against scope:

Looking at the Supports alone, the correspondence is perfect.

• The two cost-1 cards (Hinata Hyuga, Sakura Haruno) each remove exactly one
• The four cost-2 cards (Jiraiya, Orochimaru, Rasengan, Chidori) each remove two or more

There is not a single exception. Our August 16 article on Chakra cost found that only two cost values (1 and 2) have been confirmed, and that the difference tracks the reach of the jutsu rather than the size of the body. Isolating removal shows that relationship in its clearest possible form: single target versus multiple.

Because you can see exactly what the extra Chakra buys, this is a usable yardstick when planning removal slots: hold cheap and take one card down reliably, or hold heavy and sweep. Within what has been revealed, cost states that choice outright.

4. Finding 3: the “mirrored design” breaks in exactly one place — single-target removal

Our read of the demo decks showed that the Gen Con 2026 decks are built so that each role has a counterpart on the other side. For removal, the top two tiers match perfectly.

• Board wipe: Naruto side Rasengan / Sasuke side Chidori — identical effect text, both cost 2
• Rested removal: Naruto side Jiraiya / Sasuke side Orochimaru — identical effect text, both cost 2

But single-target removal has no counterpart.

The Naruto side holds two cheap single-target removal Supports; the Sasuke side holds zero. Instead, the Sasuke side folds removal into its ace. EX Naruto N-003 uses its [On Summon] to revive a “Naruto Uzumaki”, while EX Sasuke N-014 uses the same slot to “K.O. 1 Character” — the same design slot is spent on development on one side and removal on the other.

Within what has been revealed, this is the only place where the role-for-role correspondence breaks. The two sides differ not just in total removal count (4 vs 3) but in where removal is placed.

Caveat: which cards belonged to which deck has not been officially announced; the split above is our own estimate based on the trait lines. We will revise it when an official deck list appears.

5. Finding 4: only one card says “non-EX”

Three different restriction patterns appear across the removal texts.

• COST1DMG1POW5HP5Hinata Hyuga: “Choose 1 non-EX Character” — cannot touch EX Characters
• N-006COST2DMG1POW7HP4Jiraiya, Orochimaru: “Choose up to 2 rested Characters” — a state restriction, but EX Characters are not excluded
• N-004COST2DMG1POW5HP4Rasengan, Chidori, EX Sasuke: no restriction

So Hinata is the only revealed removal effect that cannot stop an EX Character. All four EX Characters sit in the top statistical tier of any Character at 18–21 combined POW+HP, yet removal gives them almost no special protection.

Meanwhile, as covered in our EX Character guide, summoning an EX Character costs you one or two Characters placed in the trash. An ace you worked to deploy can be answered by a single cost-2 Support — a large payoff for the player holding removal.

No effect removes a Leader. All seven revealed removal effects name “Characters” as their target; the only card that can name a Leader at all is Itachi Uchiha N-013, whose [On Summon] prevents attacking rather than removing anything.

6. An answer to removal is already visible

Because six of the seven come from [Support], the structure directly shapes how you defend against them.

• N-021COST1DMG1POW5HP5Suigetsu Hozuki N-021 (Water Transformation Jutsu, cost 1): a [Quick] effect that chooses 1 Character, which then is not affected by your opponent’s Support effects during this turn

For the single card it protects, that one line shuts out six of the seven revealed removal effects. The only thing that slips through is EX Sasuke’s [On Summon]. The protection covers one card for one turn, but a single cost-1 card still insures against nearly the whole removal suite.

Two more cards defend without reducing the board at all:

• N-008COST1DMG1POW6HP4Shikamaru Nara N-008 (Shadow Possession Jutsu, cost 1): summons itself [During Your Opponent’s Attack] and interrupts that attack
• N-013DMG2POW8HP8Itachi Uchiha N-013: on a successful [On Summon] check, the chosen Leader or Character cannot attack during your opponent’s next turn

Removal (shrink the board), evasion (stop the attack), and protection (blank the Support) — all three lines are already represented, one card each, in a very small revealed pool.

7. What we still do not know

Plenty around removal remains unexplained. Everything below is unconfirmed.

• Where a K.O.‘d card goes. “Place in the trash” is spelled out for EX Summon Requirements, but the destination after a K.O. has never been stated (a separate EXCLUSION AREA zone has also been confirmed to exist)
• How a Character becomes rested. Jiraiya’s and Orochimaru’s removal only hits rested Characters, but which actions rest a Character (attacking, or anything else) is unannounced
• Whether a Support’s activation cost equals the number in the cost box. We treat the cost value as a guide, but as noted in the August 6 article that assumption itself is unconfirmed
• Whether any limit applies to how many Supports can be activated per turn
• Whether any permanent “cannot be K.O.‘d” ability exists. The only protection confirmed so far is Suigetsu’s, and it lasts only for the turn
• Whether triggers fire when a Character is K.O.‘d (on-K.O. / on-leave abilities). No such wording has appeared on any card yet

Answers will have to wait for the rulebook or an official card list. The next major reveal window is New York Comic Con 2026 (Oct. 8–11).

Summary

• Seven effects can remove a Character from the field (6 K.O., 1 return-to-hand)
• Six of the seven come from [Support]. The only removal usable as a summoned Character is EX Sasuke N-014’s [On Summon]
• All four effects that pick an opposing Character are [During Your Opponent’s Attack]. On your own turn you have only the two board wipes and EX Sasuke, and both charge you heavily
• Cost 1 removes one, cost 2 removes two or more — without exception
• The demo decks’ mirrored design breaks in exactly one role: single-target removal, two cards on the Naruto side and none on the Sasuke side, which folds it into its ace EX instead
• Only Hinata Hyuga says “non-EX”, and nothing removes a Leader
• Because six of the seven are Supports, Suigetsu Hozuki’s protection covers an unusually wide range

When you think about removal slots, the practical question — given what has been revealed — is not “how many can it remove” but “when can I use it”. For card-face basics see how to read a card, for cost trends see the Chakra cost analysis, and for the mind games around set cards see reading face-down Supports. Every revealed card is in the card database, and the learning order is laid out in the improvement roadmap.

We will update these counts as soon as new removal cards are revealed.