NEWS
Column Articles
Selected articles are available in English. For full coverage, see the Japanese edition.
- Only 4 Cards Call Another Card by Name — 7 Names Are Listed, and No Two Cards Look in the Same PlaceSearching all 38 entries in our card database (24 of which have readable effect text) for effects that name a specific card turns up exactly 4. Seven card names are called out between them, and the four cards look in four different zones: deck-or-trash, trash, your field, and the top of your deck. No card names an opponent's card, and none uses a name on the paying side of a [Summon Requirements] clause.
- Only 4 Cards Mention the Trash — All of Them EX Characters. They Place 6 Cards There, but Only 2 Say They Can Take Anything BackSearching all 38 entries in our card database (24 of which have readable effect text) for "trash" turns up exactly 4 cards — and those 4 are precisely the 4 confirmed EX Characters. They place a combined 6 Characters in the trash as payment, while only 2 cards say they summon anything back out of it. No revealed card touches the opponent's trash, and not one card says a K.O.'d card goes to the trash.
- Five Revealed Cards Say "Rest" — Two of Them K.O. Rested Characters, Yet Nothing Revealed So Far Actually Rests a CharacterSearching all 38 entries in our card database (24 of which have readable effect text) for the word "rest" returns five cards. Three of them rest something (the [Recovery] on both Leaders, plus the Summon card S-001); two of them care about rested Characters (Jiraiya N-006 and Orochimaru). Not one card rests an opponent's card. And "rest" never once overlaps with "face-up / face-down" — the game tracks two separate kinds of used-up state.
- Exactly One Revealed Card Says "Draw" — and It Doesn't Grow Your Hand. Only 2 of 38 Entries Mention the Hand at AllSearching all 38 entries in our card database (24 of which have readable effect text) for the word "hand" returns just two cards: Sasuke Uchiha's Leader card (N-012) and Sakura Haruno. Only N-012 says "draw" — and it puts a card from your hand back on top of your deck, so your hand size never changes. Not one revealed card adds cards to your hand. So where does the board come from? Here is what the revealed cards actually say, with confirmed facts kept apart from open questions.
- Only 12 Cards Mention "Attack" — and 7 of Them Belong to the Player Being Attacked. Just One Card Says It Interrupts the AttackSearching the effect text of all 38 revealed entries for the word "attack" returns 12 cards. Five help the attacker; seven are used by the defender. And of the six Supports playable [During Your Opponent's Attack], only Shikamaru Nara (N-008) — Shadow Possession Jutsu — actually refers to "that attack." Here is the attack game as the revealed cards describe it, with confirmed facts kept apart from open questions.
- All 12 Supports Carry a Jutsu Name — But Only One Has Its Japanese Name Confirmed on an Official CardEvery one of the 12 confirmed [Support] abilities is printed with a jutsu name. The catch: 11 of those 12 are only readable on the English demo cards handed out at Gen Con 2026, and the only Japanese jutsu name confirmed on an official card frame is Shikamaru Nara (N-008). Line up all 12 English names and two patterns emerge — the word "Jutsu" maps one-to-one onto the original "no Jutsu" naming, and two cards carry a catchphrase instead of a technique.
- Only 4 Cards Touch [Rush] — The Design Around "Attacking the Turn You Summon," and the Power 10 Line That Shows Up in Three PlacesOf the 38 revealed entries, four relate to [Rush]. Only EX Naruto Uzumaki (N-003) and EX Sasuke Uchiha (N-014) have it printed — the other two EX cards do not. And "power 10 or more" appears in three separate effects: Minato's Rush condition and the summon requirements of EX Naruto and Gamabunta. The highest power on any revealed non-EX Character is 9, and only three cards can push anything over that line.
- Chakra Is Not the Only Thing You Pay in the NARUTO Card Game — The 7 Kinds of Price the 38 Confirmed Entries DemandOnly 12 confirmed cards actually print a cost number. The rest demand something else: putting your own Characters in the trash, reducing your own life by 2, putting a card from hand on top of your deck, resting a card. Notably, all four EX Characters have no cost box at all and pay zero chakra. We recount all 38 entries in our card database by "what you give up," separating confirmed facts from what is still unannounced.
- 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 ExceptionsAmong the revealed cards, seven effects can remove a Character from the field. Six of them are [Support] cards played face-down, and the only removal attached to a Character you actually summon is the [On Summon] ability of EX Sasuke (N-014). Cost maps cleanly onto scope — 1 for single targets, 2 for two or more — and every effect that picks an opposing Character can only be used [During Your Opponent's Attack]. Confirmed facts and open questions, separated.
- Four rarity marks — L, SR, R, C: across the 18 confirmed cards, the C average beats the R averageThe mark that appears to be a rarity letter is legible on 18 NARUTO Card Game cards: 2 L, 5 SR, 6 R, 5 C. Average POW + HP by mark comes out at SR 16.0, C 13.4, R 11.5 — with C ahead of R. Gamabunta, a C, has a bigger body (18) than Jiraiya and Orochimaru, both SR (11). The letters do not track the printed numbers. Here is what is confirmed and what is not.
- Only 4 cards cost 2 — and every one of them kills multiple Characters: re-sorting the 12 confirmed Chakra costsTwelve NARUTO Card Game cards have a legible number in the Chakra cost icon: eight at cost 1, four at cost 2, and nothing above 2. All four cost-2 cards are mass-removal Supports, and not one cost-1 card removes more than a single Character. Stranger still, the cost-2 bodies are the *smaller* ones. Here is what is confirmed and what is not.
- Only 2 of 22 cards touch Life — and both change your own: reading the number that decides the gameYou win the NARUTO Card Game by reducing your opponent Leader's LP to 0, and both confirmed Leaders print LIFE 15 on their card face. Yet among the 22 cards whose text we can read, only Kakashi Hatake (N-009) and Karin (N-010) mention Life at all — and both change *your own* Life. Not a single confirmed card reduces the opponent's Life directly. Here is what is confirmed and what is not.
- Zero Permanent Buffs, One Card That Locks the Opponent — Re-sorting All 22 Confirmed Cards by How Long Their Effects LastWe sorted every confirmed NARUTO Card Game effect purely by its duration wording. Only 6 of the 22 cards state a duration at all. All four buff effects read "during this turn" — there is not a single permanent stat increase. Exactly one card, Itachi Uchiha (N-013), imposes a lasting restriction on the opponent, and the longest duration confirmed so far belongs to a drawback Shisui Uchiha (N-016) inflicts on his own player. Confirmed facts and open questions kept strictly separate.
- Does It Say "Your"? Sorting All 22 Confirmed Card Texts by Scope — and Finding Exactly One ExceptionWe sorted every confirmed NARUTO Card Game effect text, in both Japanese and English, by whether it says "your". Placing cards in the trash, revealing the top of a deck, flipping Chakra — every cost and every zone says "your", and nothing that targets a Character on the field does. The only exception in 22 cards is Ino Yamanaka (N-011). Once you can read that line, the card face itself tells you that Rasengan wipes your own board too, and that Sakura Haruno can pull your own Character to safety.
- Three Cards Reveal the Top of Your Deck. One Card Can Stack It — What Sasuke Uchiha (N-012) Is Actually DoingSearch every confirmed effect for the phrase "top of your deck" and you find three cards that reveal it and profit on a hit (Itachi Uchiha, Jugo, Manda) — and exactly one card that can place a card there: the Sasuke Uchiha Leader, N-012. All four sit on the same side of the table. A Leader ability that nets you zero cards turns out to be the only way to make a reveal hit 100% of the time.
- Twenty Characters, Thirty-Four Cards — Why There Are Six Naruto Uzumakis, and Why Their Traits Do Not MatchTwenty characters and 34 cards now have confirmed names in the NARUTO Card Game. Twelve of those cards are Naruto Uzumaki or Sasuke Uchiha — a third of everything revealed. And of the six characters with more than one version, five have a different leading trait from one version to the next. Attributes belong to the card, not to the character, and that changes how you have to think about deckbuilding.
- How Going First or Second Changes Your Whole Game Plan — General TCG Theory, and 5 Things Already Confirmed for the NARUTO Card Game"Going first is better" gets repeated in every TCG, but few players can explain what exactly is better. This article breaks the turn-order gap into tempo and cards, sets out how to choose when you win the roll, and shows how to build a separate plan for going first and going second. It also lists what the NARUTO Card Game has confirmed so far — and what remains unannounced.
- Every Confirmed Character Stat Line, Side by Side — The DMG/POW/HP Baseline and the Three Tiers It RevealsTwenty Characters now have readable faces in the NARUTO Card Game, four of them EX Characters. Put their DMG, POW and HP in one table and POW+HP falls into three clean bands: 9-11 for Characters with a Support, 13-16 for those without, and 18-21 for EX Characters. Knowing the baseline is what lets you judge a new card at a glance.
- Reading Face-Down Supports — How Far Can Public Information Narrow Down What Your Opponent Can Do?"A ninja must see underneath the underneath." You cannot see what is face-down, but six pieces of information are always visible: your opponent's face-up Chakra count, how many cards they have set, their trash, their board, whether their Leader is rested, and their Life. Line those up against the 12 confirmed Support cards and the list of "what they can fire right now" narrows sharply. Covered from both sides — reading, and bluffing.
- How Many Ways Can a Character Reach the Field? Mapping Every Summon Route in the NARUTO Card GameRest the Summon card, put a Character into play — that is the basic route. But line up every legible card revealed so far and three more routes appear: EX Character [Summon Requirements], four Supports that put themselves onto the field, and four effects that drag Characters out of the deck or trash. Each route differs in which zone the Character comes from and whose turn it can happen on.