Water

While BT05 gives support to both Ninjas and Skull Warriors alike, they also introduce a new attribute titled "Water". How vague. I'm not sure what's so Katana about H20 but if Bushiroad decrees so, so be it. Either way, Water seems to be a very interesting archetype filled with spiritual beings and mythological creatures.

Somehow, Water seems to be concerned with power and defense, of all things. Instead of traps or tricky manipulation, Water appears to have no interest in that and instead just uses power to simply beat people up. Turns out to be pretty novel, actually. Alongside Katana World's unique and control-oriented spells, Water can play a powerful field game and still go for Secret Sword traps and other power plays.

The true god of Katana

White Dragon Hermit, Nanase is the boss of this archetype. He's interesting for getting 2 drop-soulcharge for only 1 gauge. That's a lot of value, a +1.5 in total on a 5000/2/5000 body. It's not great, and you can't really call him right off the bat, but its something. You can also drop soul to drop your opponent's gauge at a loss (-0.5), but this is useful to constrict your opponent's options. If they have 0 gauge, they can't cast any counter spells that require gauge like Death Grip.

The only reason this card actually works is because of the Water set spell, Water Technique, Shinotsukuame. It gives all Water attribute monsters +2000/2000, making them strong powerhouses on the field. The above Nanase becomes 7000/2/7000, a fitting tank for your center slot. If Shinotsukuame stacked, this would be a seriously viable strategy but as of now Water is heavily undersupported. We'll see what we can do with this archetype in the coming future.

Swift like the current,
strong as the tide

The other Water cards already belong to other archetypes, but it's actually pretty incredible how well they fit in with Water as a mixed build. Cat Shadow, Aohime is able to search out both Return to the Underworld and Water Technique, Shinotsukuame, both of which work well in this build. You want Return to the Underworld so you can call out Disperser of Conflagration, Shiromizuchi for 1 less gauge. With Shinotsukuame, Shiromizuchi is a 7000/3/7000 Size 1 that's unfortunately all too ephemeral. It might sound like a disadvantage to use Shiromizuchi, but the fact that you can have both a 7000 beater and a 3-crit Size 1 is actually pretty nice, even if the 7000 defense is basically meaningless. Well, not entirely meaningless. You actually dodge Pillar of Fire with it, interestingly.

Listen to the beat of the
waves

What's better, though, is using Fang Style Ninja, Kibashachi. I highlighted his worth in the Ninja article for being a Size 3 Ninja that can't be PoF'd, but he's even better in Water with the Set spell bringing him to a stupid 10000/2/9000 with Double Attack.

With Shinotsukuame, most of your vanillas become serious field threats. Perfect Beauty, Hyoshi Shirasagi is a 5000/1/5000 vanilla that nullifies Penetrate, so it's a decent call to the center. Yukishiro doesn't become relevant, but Loud Laugh Ninja Fugumaru becomes 4000/1/8000 which is great, especially for a Size 1.

More than anything else, though, is how exciting this new playstyle can be for Katana World as they get more cards and options.

Zombie Turtle guy is better Fugumaru since it comes back from the grave every single freaking turn and it has 2-crit. It might not seem like much, but that's a seriously huge buff to Water.

Only new addition in H-BT02 is Suiha, but that's like the best Size 2 second to Gojinmaru so you're pretty set. Also Sen no Sen helps this archetype a lot.

- updated to H-BT02, CP01, H-EB01, H-TD02, PP01 -

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