Three Starter Deck Leaders — The Third, Gaara, Is 0 of the 38 Revealed Cards, and "Sunagakure" Appears 0 Times. The Two Earlier Leaders Already Narrow Where the Difference Shows

Three Leaders, named: Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha and Gaara.

BANDAI’s official press release of October 10, 2026 revealed the Leaders of the three Starter Decks launching in June 2027 (the full announcement is in Launch Is “June 2027”).

The three Starter Decks, centered on Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha, and Gaara, come pre-constructed with all the cards needed to start playing

Built around a different Leader, each deck features a unique lineup of ninjas and its own strategic play style.

So: each is built around a different Leader, with a different lineup of ninjas and a different play style.

Where on the card does that difference show up? Lining up the Leader cards we actually have narrows the answer considerably.

2Known Leader cardsOf 38 cards in our database

0Numeric fields that differLIFE, DMG and POW all match

2Fields that do differFirst effect and traits

0Gaara cardsTrait "Sunagakure" also 0

What this article is based on: every count below is a full tally of the 38 entries registered in our card database as of October 11, 2026. The sources are the sample images on the official “ABOUT NARUTO CARD GAME” page, the official playmat handed out at Gen Con 2026, and scans of the English demo cards distributed at Gen Con 2026 (watermarked SAMPLE / NOT FOR SALE); per-card source URLs are on each card page. The official rulebook and card list are unpublished, and not a single card has been announced as appearing in a specific product. “0” here means “not yet published,” not “no such card exists.” Demo card specifications may also differ from the retail version.

1. Only two Leader cards are known — and their numbers match exactly

Of the 38 entries, only two are confirmed as type “Leader Card”: Naruto Uzumaki (N-001) and Sasuke Uchiha (N-012).

Side by side:

All six match. The “1” in the DMG box is rendered as the same lightning-styled numeral on both, and the unexplained circled “1” icon to the right of the card number is shared.

That match is not new here: we pointed it out in §7 of our Sasuke Uchiha Leader (N-012) analysis on September 22, 2026. What this article adds is that the announcement of exactly three Leaders turns that match into a testable question — does it hold for the third, or break?

Leader cards have no HP box; they have a LIFE box instead. The official site states the win condition as reducing the opponent Leader’s LP to 0, while the card face reads “LIFE” (we note that discrepancy in our FAQ too).

So right now there is no evidence at all that Leaders differ in Life or in attack. With only two known we cannot claim every Leader has 15 — but within what is known, the numbers are not where the differentiation lives.

2. The differences are exactly two: the first effect and the traits

If the numbers match, where is the difference? The effect text makes it obvious.

N-001 Naruto Uzumaki

• [Activate: Main] Flip 1 of your CHAKRA face-down and choose 1 Character: The chosen card gets +3 power during this turn.
• [Recovery] If it is the second turn or later, rest this card and flip all of your CHAKRA face-up.

N-012 Sasuke Uchiha

• [Activate: Main] [Once Per Turn] Draw 1 card and place 1 card from your hand on top of your deck.
• [Recovery] If it is the second turn or later, rest this card and flip all of your CHAKRA face-up.

The second effect is word-for-word identical. Both are [Recovery], both rest the card from turn 2 onward and turn all your Chakra face-up.

From the two known cards, Leader cards read as “a [Recovery] shared by everyone, plus an [Activate: Main] specific to that Leader.” The design gives every Leader a built-in way to recover after spending Chakra (that [Recovery] is the only known Chakra-recovery method at all — see our Shisui Uchiha (N-016) analysis).

The Leader-specific [Activate: Main], by contrast, has a clearly different character.

• Naruto pays Chakra to push the board. Flip 1 CHAKRA face-down, give a Character +3 power this turn. With no stated use limit, the wording reads as repeatable while Chakra lasts (no official ruling has been published)
• Sasuke changes the quality of his hand for free. Draw 1, put 1 back on top, [Once per turn], nothing happens on the board

Identical numbers and an identical [Recovery], yet one acts on the board and the other on the hand. That is the “Leader difference” visible in what has been revealed.

Which narrows what to look for on Gaara’s Leader card

This is where the announcement and the data meet. The official wording says each deck has its own strategic play style. Mapping that onto the structure of the two known cards, the play-style difference lives in the [Activate: Main] and the traits — not in LIFE, DMG or POW.

Of course, the third card could break that. If anything, Gaara’s Leader card is the first opportunity to test whether Leader numbers are uniform. When it appears, these six fields are the first thing to compare.

3. Trait differences — only three village traits have appeared

The other difference is the traits.

• N-001 Naruto Uzumaki: Wind / Jinchuriki / Konohagakure / Team 7
• N-012 Sasuke Uchiha: Fire / Lightning / Uchiha Clan / Taka

Four each — the same count. The composition is similar too.

Sasuke has two elements and no village trait. That is consistent with leaving Konoha in the source material, but the official side has not explained why.

How many village traits have appeared at all? Across the 34 cards with known traits, there are only three.

Konohagakure20cards

Otogakure Orochimaru1cards

Amegakure Orochimaru, other illustration1cards

Sunagakure0cards

Sunagakure is zero. Konohagakure dominates at 20, and the rest are the two different village traits attached to Orochimaru (the same character carries different village traits on different cards).

Worth noting: exactly one revealed card carries the “Five Kage” trait — Minato Namikaze (N-007) (Wind / Lightning / Five Kage / Konohagakure). The slot for a village leader’s trait therefore already exists. Which traits Gaara’s card will carry is, naturally, unannounced.

4. Gaara is 0 of 38 — the tally by character name

Finally, by character name. Tallying the 38 entries and listing every character with two or more cards, plus Gaara:

Naruto Uzumaki Starter Deck Leader6cards

Sasuke Uchiha Starter Deck Leader6cards

Jiraiya2cards

Itachi Uchiha2cards

Orochimaru2cards

Sakura Haruno2cards

Gaara Starter Deck Leader0cards

Two of the three Starter Deck Leaders are tied for the most revealed cards, at six each. The third has zero.

For Gaara there is no Leader card, no Character card, no EX Character and no illustration on the official site’s gallery — nothing. We have registered every card face and illustration the official side has published since this site launched in July, and this announcement is the first time the name “Gaara” has appeared at all.

This is not only about Gaara. The characters across the 38 revealed cards are almost entirely Konohagakure shinobi plus the Orochimaru / Taka group (Karin, Jugo, Suigetsu Hozuki). Not one Sunagakure character has appeared.

5. The caveat that matters most — zero cards have a confirmed product

We have been matching revealed cards against the announcement. Here is the caveat you cannot drop.

The official side has not announced which cards appear in which product — for a single card.

• There is no official statement that Naruto Uzumaki (N-001) is the Leader card of the Naruto Starter Deck
• The same goes for Sasuke Uchiha (N-012)
• Of the 38 revealed cards, zero have a confirmed product (see our October 8 inventory)

N-001 and N-012 both come from the official site’s how-to-play illustrations and Gen Con 2026 demo cards, and neither has been announced as matching the retail version.

One more. The official site explains deck building as “Character cards are assembled to match the Leader’s color” — yet zero of the 38 revealed cards have a confirmed color. So:

• whether the three Starter Decks are three different colors
• whether Gaara’s Leader is a different color from Naruto’s and Sasuke’s

are both unannounced. “Three decks, so three colors” is not something the official side has said.

Summary

• The three Starter Deck Leaders at launch are Naruto Uzumaki / Sasuke Uchiha / Gaara
• Only N-001 and N-012 are known as Leader cards, and LIFE 15, DMG 1, POW 3, rarity L and the circled “1” all match exactly
• The differences are exactly two: the [Activate: Main] and the traits. The second effect, [Recovery], is identical wording
• Naruto “pays Chakra to push the board”; Sasuke “changes the quality of his hand for free.” The official line about different play styles appears to live in that field
• Gaara is 0 of 38, and the trait Sunagakure appears 0 times — no Sunagakure character has been revealed
• But zero cards have a confirmed product, and zero have a confirmed color. “N-001 is the Naruto Starter’s Leader” is not an official statement

The next dated reveal window is Jump Festa 2027 in December 2026. When Gaara’s Leader card appears, we will add a third column to the comparison table above.

Sources

• BANDAI official press release, “NARUTO CARD GAME Sets June 2027 Worldwide Launch at New York Comic Con” (October 10, 2026)
• NARUTO Card Game official site, “ABOUT NARUTO CARD GAME” (checked October 11, 2026)
• The 38 entries in our card database (full tally as of October 11, 2026)