A Thousand Cuts

Karol Ruszkiewicz is a developer at Legend Story Studios, and brings us the final chapter of a series of deep dives into the heroes in Outsiders, focusing on both limited and constructed play. Today we learn how to run circles around our foes with Benji, the Piercing Wind.

“Not from around here, are ya kid?” The Jawbreaker goon sneered down, as his four cohorts shuffled closer to corner the young Ninja in the alleyway.

Benji stood his ground, calm as the breeze.

“I just need directions to…”

Noticing the thugs pulling out knives, bats, and what looked like barbed wire with a hook attached to the end, Benji sighed, and straightened his stance.

“Puny lil thing like you shoulda stayed home,” the leader grinned, showcasing some exceptionally yellow teeth, before lunging at him, arms bared. Hands grasped empty air, and before he could register why the youngster wasn’t in his clutches, he heard one of his companions yelp.

He whirled around in time to see Benji duck under a bat, somersault over a sweeping barbed wire grapple, and leap into the air, kicking two goons in the face simultaneously. Before they even hit the ground Benji landed between them, arms splayed, dual glittering crystal needles sinking into their necks.

The third goon growled and slashed wildly with his knife, which whistled through empty air as Benji danced nimbly around it. Like a blur, he darted behind the thug and delivered a flurry of bee stings to his spine.

Watching his last comrade topple to the ground, the leader reached for his weapon, but froze as the razor sharp needle point met his throat.

He stared into the young Ninja’s cold eyes, knowing that even the slightest twitch would mean his demise.

“As I said… I just need directions. Perhaps this time you will show more respect.”

Draft

Don’t be fooled by his small size, Benji is a force to be reckoned with.

This nimble young Ninja brings a unique element to the Outsiders table in the form of evasion. Making your smaller attacks harder to defend gives Benji the ability to play as a control deck, while his second ability of powering up attacks can give him an aggressive edge.

Both builds are possible in Outsiders draft, so let’s dive in!

Both the Ninjas love a mix of blues and reds, but let’s talk about yellows.

There are many yellow attack actions in the Ninja pool that don’t benefit Katsu but really shine in Benji. They cannot be defended from hand and they enable Benji’s power bonus ability. When you are passed these yellow cards late in the first pack, it's a strong sign that other Ninja drafters are not looking to play Benji.

The two main things that make Benji a great control deck in Outsiders draft are his evasive hero ability and the efficiency of Harmonized Kodachi.

By using most of your hand to defend your opponent’s threats, you can often save a card or two and chip away with Harmonized Kodachi or a 2-power attack. Slowly eating your opponent’s life total while negating their attacks is how you win the game. Drafting defensive value cards is the top priority for this strategy, and I recommend picking up bladebreak equipment, cards that defend for 3, Brush Off, and Peace of Mind.

Removing these damage prevention cards from the draft pool will also lower the defensive capabilities of the other decks, allowing us to leak more damage through.

It’s also important to pick up attack action cards with strong on-hit effects that will force your opponent to defend.

2-cost hitters like Cut Down to Size enable a two-card hand of attacking with Kodachi, then swinging for 6, which is sure to demand at least one block.

This ensures your opponent’s next turn is weakened, and you can continue preserving your life total while presenting damage back. Cards like Feisty Locals and Seek Horizon are also efficient ways to push damage with just one card in hand.

Now, let’s talk aggro!

This strategy taps into the second half of Benji’s hero ability - gaining a bonus point of power if an attack action card has hit. It might not seem like much at first, but if you continue to put pressure on your opponent, those extra points start adding up.

A good example of a strong aggressive three-card hand is pitching a blue to attack with Twin Twisters for 4, creating an annoying breakpoint, then following up with Wreck Havoc, which will hit for 7 if the Twin Twisters connects.

I recommend prioritizing strong, efficient attacks when going down the aggro route. Cards like Spring Load have many synergies with other Ninja cards, Looking for a Scrap is often enabled through blue cards, and red cards with go again will help you push wide combat chains.

The aim is to get your opponent as low as possible with high damage straight to the face, then close out the game with Kodachis and unblockable attacks.

You’ll find lots of synergies that work in both builds due to the nature of 2-power support, such as Twin Twisters and Back Heel Kick, or Head Jab and Recoil. These can help you run circles round the other heroes and deliver the killing blow before they’ve had a chance to breathe.

Blitz

Benji has evolved from his somewhat linear playstyle in Blitz of just playing anything blue with go again to actually packing some devastating combos - and learning how to set these up and pull them off will help launch you right over the top of your opponent’s armour and defensive cards to absolutely blast them into the stratosphere.

Firstly, choosing equipment is really important. Mask of Momentum becomes extremely easy to trigger in Benji due to the number of ways to attack while restricting your opponent’s blocking.

Tiger Stripe Shuko allows us to stack power bonuses to turn some 2-power attacks into 4-power attacks and hit annoying breakpoints.

Zephyr Needle is best when combined with a single Harmonized Kodachi, using Benji’s ability to buff it to 3-power against decks that are unlikely to be running defense reactions.

Many attack actions in blue or yellow are usually only efficient for pitching in other decks, which is why some such as blue Snatch may seldom see play. But being able to force through on-hit triggers to gain go again, card draws, or other valuable effects is why they have a perfect home in Benji.

Dynasty introduced some very interesting cards that can create Crouching Tiger tokens. These are basic attacks that usually only hit for 0, but with Benji’s ability, Tiger Stripe Shuko, and other pump cards like Art of War, Deadly Duo, and Ancestral Empowerment, you can start building very wide chain links that not even a Guardian’s fridge will fully block out.

Crouching Tigers are a great way to extend your turns and get mad value, but you might need to practice setting them up and playing them out to ensure they don’t disappear before you’ve made the most out of them.

One thing you’ll notice very quickly is that there tends to be a pattern where you attack with small pockets of damage that the opponent can’t block, so they will just throw their whole hand back at you, which can lead you to be on the back foot very quickly.

Chip damage is nice but often you need something truly powerful to actually overwhelm your opponent, and that’s where Benji’s payoff cards come into play.

Benji has some incredible bombs that reward you for building long strings of tiny attacks, and punish the opponent for keeping cards in their hand.

Building your deck around pulling these off is a good place to start.

While Benji isn’t necessarily too worried about lining up specific cards with combo, Outsiders introduces a variety of 0-cost combo cards that block for 3 and pitch for 3.

You’ll likely end up playing some number of these just as a resource base for your deck, and also because they have really powerful effects when they naturally line up with their starter cards (if you happen to be playing those).

Try not to do everything at once, and focus more on building around a specific style.

Are you looking to set up a crazy chain link that combines double Spring Tidings to kill your opponent in one fell swoop? Are you looking to preserve your life total and chip away with efficient 1-2 card combos, while setting up a cheeky game closer? Are you looking to play every go again card possible and just throw attack after attack with on-hit triggers at your opponent, weaving in small stings throughout?

Figure out what angle of Benji suits you best, then build around that - you’ll find very quickly which blues work for your specific gameplan. Once you’ve figured that out, focus on ironing out the wrinkles. There are a number of tools accessible to Benji that help increase the consistency of your deck, smooth your hands, and support your key strategy.

Some of these tools will be staple in every Benji deck. Others will help you achieve a specific goal. And some will just be really good value at the right moment, offering free advantage and helping you outplay your opponents.

We can’t wait to see some of you take the little guy right to the finish line, and remember - the bigger they are, the harder they fall!