NARUTORECA
Column

Only 4 Cards Call Another Card by Name — 7 Names Are Listed, and No Two Cards Look in the Same Place

This article is commentary and analysis by this site. To keep it distinct from official facts, reasoning and speculation are clearly labeled.

There are two ways a card can point at another card: by type, sweeping up a whole group like {Uchiha Clan}, or by name, pinpointing one card such as [Naruto Uzumaki]. In deck building it is usually the second kind that matters, because a named effect is dead weight unless the named card is actually in your deck.

We searched all 38 entries in our card database for effects that call a card by name. The answer is 4 cards, calling out 7 distinct names.

24entries with readable effect textof 38 registered
4cards that name another card
7distinct names called out
0cards that name an opponent's card

Scope of this article: The counts below come from the 38 entries registered in our card database. Sources are the sample card images on the official “About the 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 lists its own source URL. The official rulebook and card list are unpublished, and no copy limit for cards with the same name has been announced. Demo card specifications may differ from the retail release. Where we speculate, we say so explicitly.

1. Four cards name another card

Of the 24 entries with readable effect text, exactly 4 print another card’s name in their effect.

  • Naruto Uzumaki N-003 (EX Character, SR / DMG 3 / POW 11 / HP 10)
    [On Summon] Summon up to 1 [Naruto Uzumaki] from your deck or trash with its effects negated.
  • Gamabunta N-005 (EX Character, C / DMG 2 / POW 10 / HP 8)
    [On Summon] Summon 1 non-EX [Naruto Uzumaki], [Jiraiya], or [Minato Namikaze] Character from your trash.
  • Ino Yamanaka N-011 (Character, C / DMG 2 / POW 5 / HP 8)
    [Activate: Main] [Once Per Turn] If you have [Shikamaru Nara] and [Choji Akimichi], your [Ino Yamanaka], [Shikamaru Nara], and [Choji Akimichi] all gain [Rush] and get +5 power / +1 damage during this turn.
  • Jugo N-019 (Character, C / DMG 2 / POW 9 / HP 7)
    [When Attacking] Reveal the top card of your deck, and if the revealed card is [Sasuke Uchiha] or a {The Taka} type card and is not an EX Character, summon that card.

The remaining 20 entries — both Leaders, every other Character, the Chakra Card C-001, and the Summon Card S-001 — never print a card name.

2. Seven names, and only Naruto is called out twice

Across those four cards the names appear 10 times, covering 7 distinct names. Counted by how many cards call each one out:

How many cards name each character (from the 4 revealed cards)
Naruto Uzumaki N-003, N-0052cards
Jiraiya N-0051cards
Minato Namikaze N-0051cards
Shikamaru Nara N-0111cards
Choji Akimichi N-0111cards
Ino Yamanaka N-011, itself1cards
Sasuke Uchiha N-0191cards

Only [Naruto Uzumaki] is named by two different cards. Our article on the trash noted that both cards which pull out of the trash name Naruto; looking at every name reference confirms he is the most-called-out name overall.

And all seven names have a physical card registered in the database:

Of these, Choji Akimichi was implied by N-011’s text before any card of his had been seen. On July 31 he was just a name inside Ino’s effect; the high-resolution Gen Con 2026 demo card scans later confirmed a card face with cost 1 / DMG 1 / POW 7 / HP 3. Name references double as advance notice that a card exists.

3. Finding 1: no two of the four look in the same place

This is the most striking part. The four naming cards do not share a single search zone.

CardWhere it looks for the named cardWhat it does on a hit
Naruto Uzumaki N-003Your deck or trashSummons it with its effects negated
Gamabunta N-005Your trashSummons it
Ino Yamanaka N-011Your fieldBuffs the three already there
Jugo N-019The top card of your deckReveals, and summons on a hit

Deck, trash, field, deck top — four revealed cards, four different zones. The manner of searching differs too:

  • N-005 is a guaranteed tutor (if the card is in the trash, you get it)
  • N-003 is guaranteed but wider (either deck or trash works)
  • N-011 is a condition check (it verifies what is already on the field rather than fetching anything)
  • N-019 is a gamble (one card off the top of the deck)

So the rule is not “draw the named card and win.” Where you need the named card to sit differs from card to card: N-005 wants it in the trash, N-011 wants it on the field, N-019 wants it still in the deck — all at the same time.

4. Finding 2: names only ever appear on the receiving side

All 10 name references sit on the gain side of an effect — summoning or buffing.

Conversely, no card uses a name on the paying side. What the four EX Characters’ [Summon Requirements] demand is a number or a type, never a name:

Payment is written loosely — “10 or more power,” “{The Taka} type,” “any Character” — while the payoff is written narrowly, by name. N-003 uses both granularities on the same card face. That reads like a deliberate split, so the EX Character can still be deployed even when you have not drawn the specific card it wants (though that reading is ours, not an official statement).

5. Finding 3: no card names an opponent’s card

The other thing the count makes clear is that every name reference points at your own side.

  • Cards that name an opponent’s card to remove, negate, or check it: 0
  • Cards that check names in an opponent’s deck or trash: 0

This matches the conclusion of our article on the word “your”: payments and zones are always marked “your,” without exception. As of today, naming is purely a deck-building tool, never a way to snipe what the opponent is playing.

6. Finding 4: some effects use a name where a type would have worked

Set the naming cards against the cards that reference a type (trait). Only three do:

  • Itachi Uchiha N-013: if the revealed card has the {Uchiha Clan} type
  • Sasuke Uchiha N-014: place 1 of your {The Taka} type Characters in your trash
  • Jugo N-019: [Sasuke Uchiha] or a {The Taka} type card

So: 4 cards link by name, 3 link by type, and Jugo (N-019) is the only card that uses both. That lines up with the count in our August 3 article on types, where only {Uchiha Clan} and {The Taka} are referenced by any effect.

Ino Yamanaka (N-011) is the interesting case. The three characters she names — Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara, Choji Akimichi — are exactly the three revealed cards with the {Team 10} type. Writing “your {Team 10} type Characters” would mean the same thing today. Because it is written by name instead, her effect stays locked to those three names even if more {Team 10} cards are printed later (how many copies you can actually field is a separate question, since no copy limit has been announced).

Gamabunta (N-005) is the opposite case. The three he names — Naruto Uzumaki, Jiraiya, Minato Namikaze — share no type that covers just them. {Hidden Leaf Village} is a broad bucket carried by 12 revealed cards, and {Legendary Sannin} fits only Jiraiya. That group can only be written by name.

Names and types, then, are not interchangeable styles — they are picked according to how wide the intended group is. That is what the 7 relevant cards (4 by name, 3 by type, 1 overlapping) show.

7. What this means for deck building

Put in the terms of our deck-building fundamentals, naming cards are cards that are not finished on their own.

What it takes to fire a naming card (Ino Yamanaka N-011)
  1. Put 3 cards in the deckIno, Shikamaru, Choji
  2. Get all 3 onto the fieldthe only 3-card condition revealed
  3. Use [Activate: Main]all 3 gain [Rush] and +5 power / +1 damage
  • N-011 is the only revealed card that needs three specific cards on the field at once. Miss any one of them and the ability cannot be used at all
  • N-005 needs its targets in the trash first. As covered in our trash article, its [Summon Requirements] place a Character with 10 or more power, so the names it fetches (Naruto, Jiraiya, Minato at POW 5–8) have to reach the trash by some other route
  • N-019’s hit rate is your deck list. A hit is [Sasuke Uchiha] or a {The Taka} type card that is not an EX Character. Of the five revealed {The Taka} cards, the Leader (N-012) does not go in the deck and EX Sasuke (N-014) is excluded as an EX Character, so the confirmed hits today are Karin N-010, Jugo N-019, Suigetsu Hozuki N-021, and any non-EX card named [Sasuke Uchiha]

All three change value depending on what else is in the deck, so you cannot judge them from their printed stats alone. How many copies you can actually run is unknowable until the copy limit is announced — and until then, no naming card can be properly evaluated.

8. What we still don’t know

  • The copy limit for cards with the same name. The usefulness of every naming card hinges on it (our FAQ also lists it as unannounced)
  • Whether N-003’s [Naruto Uzumaki] can be an EX Character. N-005 and N-019 both write “non-EX” explicitly; N-003 does not, saying instead “with its effects negated.” Whether it can summon an EX Naruto is unconfirmed
  • How name matching works. Six revealed cards are called Naruto Uzumaki, and how versions of the same character are treated — whether a shared name is enough — has not been announced
  • Which zone [Summon Requirements] pull “your Characters” from. Field only, or hand as well? This changes how N-005 is actually played
  • Whether cards that name an opponent’s card will appear. So far there are none

Summary

  • Only 4 of the 38 revealed entries print another card’s name (N-003 / N-005 / N-011 / N-019), calling out 7 distinct names — all seven of which have a card registered in the database
  • Only [Naruto Uzumaki] is named by two different cards
  • The four look in four different zones (deck or trash / trash / your field / top of deck), and differ in kind too: guaranteed tutor, condition check, and gamble
  • Names appear only on the gain side. No [Summon Requirements] clause uses a name; payment is written as “10 or more power,” “{The Taka} type,” or unrestricted
  • No card names an opponent’s card
  • Three cards link by type, and Jugo (N-019) is the only card using a name and a type together. Ino Yamanaka (N-011) names the same three cards that the {Team 10} type would have covered

Source: www.naruto-cardgame.com

Cards related to this article

Related articles

← Back to Latest News