What about OTKs?

I have always been interested in building decks that are outside of the normal mold of 30 ninjas, 10 jutsu, 10 mission (give or take).  Usually, decks that do the best fit that blueprint; but it doesn’t mean we just stop there as players and make all of our decks to fit that same pattern.  I am particularly interested in decks that are so outside the box that pretty much no one sees them coming until they first get revealed on the tournament scene.  In the past, we saw such decks like Sexy Gaara, O9K, Freedori, Dreams, HallowDaAnimal.dec, Ghost Panic! At the disco, Chain Lightning, etc… these decks were all amazing in their own right (and of course I’m not mentioning them all); but are they outside the box?  Eh… Sure, OK - but what about Nick Brady’s OTK deck?  The deck that was so far outside the box that it redefined the possibilities of this game.  What about the Reaper Death Seal (j435) deck – where you could abuse it to remove your entire opponent’s deck and still win in an “OTK-esque” fashion?  My point is, there are crazy unique decks (which become meta), and then there are decks that are so original, so unique, so broken that they redefine the limits of the game.  The purpose of this article is to talk about the OTK deck (in general), as these are the kind of decks that not only redefine the meta, but the game.

Yes, OTKs still exist in Unlimited format (several OTKs actually); but we’ll stick solely to this current block meta (given cards from set 19-now and all reprints in between) for the purpose of this article.  Is it possible to make an OTK deck in this block?  Ryan Severin and I have discussed this in detail and even though there is this apparent Ink OTK deck using the cycle of Ink Fish, Ink Owl, The Inuzuka Clan (mission card), and Sage Mode Naruto (which apparently now doesn’t work due to a new ruling Tylar gave); we don’t really care about this inconsistent kind of deck.  We are most interested in consistent (if at all possible) OTKs.  According to Team Allies members Eon/Eric Hill (and fringe member Joshua Rosario), they have created an OTK deck that can go off in the early turns.  This may or may not be true; or consistent.   Even though I have no deck list to present to any of you (from any perspective, mine or theirs), what we can discuss are possible cards that can generate an OTK…

THE DRAW ENGINE:

Distal Phalanx Shrapnel (j788)

This card is practically a staple in certain OTK-based decks, as it allows you to draw out huge chunks of your deck to go off and invoke an OTK to win you the game.

 

The Fool & The Elite (m786) 
This card has seen 0 play; however, if you read it closely, it has a constant effect – so if you repeated pump with jutsu, you can “TECHNICALLY” draw out your entire deck (which again, does something comparable to shrapnel).   The only reason I mention this card is because, in synergy with Severe Leaf Hurricane (j758), it is possible to draw huge chunks of your deck, especially if you can simply chain a shrapnel if you run out of chakra (thus drawing even more).

CHAKRA GENERATION / RECURSION:

Water Style:  Exploding Water Shockwave (j910)
This card is ridiculous if used properly.  Using cards like Naruto from TP4 (n1340) or even Money Style: Shadow Clone Jutsu (j838) you can deck yourself out substantially, slam down Shockwave to regenerate all that as chakra to gain gigantic amounts of chakra early on.  The requirements on this card are sketchy, but cards like Ink Bat and Fourth Hokage make the combo… possible.

Copy Ninjutsu (j455)
Yes this card got reprinted and is block legal.  It is, IMO, the best recursion jutsu in format (in an OTK) – reason I didn’t put Reanimation Jutsu here is because it requires an injured ninja; so you can’t use it under normal circumstances if you’re trying to loop-de-loop.

WIN CONDITION:

                                         

Fang over Fang (j873)

You can deck most, if not all, of your opponent’s deck in one shot.  This card has great synergy with shockwave, and it’s safe to say that if you have 2 Fang over Fangs in hand and 2 Shockwaves in hand, you autowin (if your opponent cannot stop it, that is).

Overwhelming Power (j811)
If you recur this repeatedly (which is possible with Sage Mode Naruto), you can OTK on t7.  Can it be done earlier?  Hmm…

Eight Inner Gates (j756)
Duh.  Draw out, win a victory, win the game after pitching all your cards.  This type of OTK becomes more possible/legitimate next set with the intro of Liger Bomb (to force certain blocking).


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Yes, I know I missed certain cards (some obvious, like Big Bang – which you’d want to use in an OTK deck - or even Chakra Disturbance, which can technically lock your opponent out of disrupting you); however, using the cards I presented (which I feel can generate an OTK), we can consider this combo:

Ink Bat PiP (let’s say); he’s a t5.  Let’s say you also have out Naruto from TP4.  You swing out, Naruto activates his effect to discard 9 cards, then you money style (TP3 jutsu) with Naruto just to discard 5-6 cards.  Hopefully you have around 20 cards in your discard pile by this time (especially since you paid 5 to PiP Ink Bat).  In which case, Ink Bat can then cast Shockwave to move 20+ cards back to chakra, then cast Fang over Fang (if you have another Shockwave and Fang over Fang you can then win in one turn by repeating it – you can use phalanx and/or copy ninjutsu to recur and draw) – this combo is shaky, but is possible and can be done very early. 

The purpose of this article was to mention the POSSIBILITIES of OTK just to get all of your minds thinking.  Rumor has it there are OTKs NOW; but are there earlier, broken ones that haven't been discovered yet?  I hope my article gets players thinking about new possibilities in this current meta!

~Genre