News: Nubatama to be Completed in BT13: Catastrophic Outbreak, New Rarity Introduced

The impossible has been made possible this morning as Bushiroad Inc. has revealed which clans will be receiving support in the upcoming booster set, VG-BT13: Catastrophic Outbreak. Two years, three months and two days to the date, the Nubatama ninja clan will be receiving its first new support cards since VG-BT01: Descent of the King of Knights. Bushiroad of Japan stated through their official Twitter channels in 2011 that they had dropped Nubatama entirely, due to balance issues. The clan's theme of forcing the opponent to discard cards was seen as potentially destabilizing in a game where the ability to defend from the hand is the most important point in countering the opponent's turn, and to avoid that destabilization Bushiroad chose to reinvision the clan as Murakumo in EB01: Comic Style Vol. 1, converting the at-the-time new Nubatama cards Left Arrestor, Right Arrestor, Archer FUSHIMI, Twin Swordsman MUSASHI and Dueling Dragon ZANBAKU that Itou Akira had created for the clan into Murakumo units. After BT05: Awakening of Twin Blades had completed the process by branching Murakumo out into a fully playable deck of its own where Nubatama remained unsupported, all hope seemed lost for the fan-favorite clan and its signature cardfighter Ninja Master M. Earlier this year however, CEO Kidani Takaaki mentioned in a Q&A session that Nubatama would be completed within 2013, and BT13 appears to be making good on that promise.

BT13 will be providing support for the Link Joker, Dimension Police, Nova Grappler, Nubatama, Aqua Force, Angel Feather, Great Nature and Granblue clans. As a climax set, BT13 represents a dramatic high point in the storyline, and prominently features Kai Toshiki with a new Link Joker cover card. The set will also have one Oracle Think Tank card, a print of CEO Amaterasu as drawn by the artist behind the Mini-Van manga and Flash anime, Quily. This Amaterasu will introduce a new rarity, Secret Rare, and is being issued to celebrate the release of the Mini-Van DVDs. Quily has previously done renditions of Midnight Bunny and Alluring Succubus as promo cards.

Catastrophic Outbreak will also bring new Reverse units to the clans it's supporting, distributing the powerful Lock mechanic both as a way to pay costs for game-ending skills, and as an offensive tool to be used against the opponent. The set will contain 102 cards, 8 RRR/12 RR/22 R/60 C with 12 Special Parallel prints of those. Each box will come with 1 of 6 Link Joker promo cards.

其れは尽きる事の無い禍い―

"It's a catastrophe with no end in sight..."

Character: Mark Whiting

"It looks like you've decided how you would survive, Sendou Aichi."

Mark Whiting (Mr. Mark) / マーク·ホワイテイング

Age: Unconfirmed

Anime Biography: An American with a rich love for Sengoku period history, Mr. Mark is Aichi's history teacher at Hitsue Middle School, and opens the series with his narration on the Second Battle of Kawanakajima(1555) between Takeda Shingen and Uesugi Kenshin. Unusually, Mr. Mark uses history trading cards in his classroom as a visual aid, and focuses on student participation to help with learning. Although he hasn't been seen since ride 16, Mr. Mark's teaching is essential to Aichi's character development, as it's his encouragement that leads Aichi to start seriously competing at Vanguard.

 

Spoiler warning: Season 1 details follow.

Outside of school, Mr. Mark operates under the alias of Ninja Master M. Until this year, Ninja Master M had shown up to each of Card Capital's twice-annual shop tournaments to compete against strong fighters with his Nubatama ninja cards. However, he is curiously absent from the second shop tournament in Ride 37, and is instead succeeded by one of his students, Morikawa Katsumi.

Spoilers end here.

Manga Biography: In the manga, Mr. Mark is the sponsor of Hitsue Junior High's CF Vanguard Research club--a club that consists of Morikawa, Izaki and two other students. Because the club members' average on their last test was 27.5, and the passing mark was 40, they were going to be disbanded; that is, until Aichi joined with a mark of 95.

Universal Notes: The reason for Mr. Mark's disappearance is most likely that his voice actor, Abe Atsushi, is also the voice actor of Suzugamori Ren. Since having the two active simultaneously in the series would mean having one actor do double the work, and possibly end up talking to themselves, it's simpler to have Abe only voice one person at a time.

Fan Culture: Next to Emi, Mr. Mark ranks as probably the most beloved secondary character of season 1, despite having nearly zero screen time. His clan has likewise developed a cult following, in no small part due to Bushiroad's complete negligence of it--because of a general perception of the Murakumo "replacing" the Nubatama, their popularity skyrocketed and the Nubatama became a kind of TCG martyr. Most discussion of upcoming booster packs begins with "I wonder if Nubatama will be completed."

Decks and Playstyle 

Mr. Mark's deck is a Kagerou-Nubatama mix which gradually reduces the opponent's hand through card skills, to gain a numbers-based advantage in straightforward battle.

 

Rides 9-11 (16/50 cards)

Grade 0

x2 Stealth Beast Hagakure

x1 Embodiment of Spear, Tahr CT

Grade 1

x2 Stealth Dragon, Dread Master

x1 Embodiment of Armor, Bahr

x1 Wyvern Guard, Barri

x1 Flame of Hope, Aermo

x1 Wing Dragon Skyptera

Grade 2

x3 Stealth Beast Chigasumi

x1 Dragon Knight Nehalem

Grade 3

x1 Exile Dragon

x2 Stealth Dragon, Void Master