Wandering with Purpose: Short Combo Benji

With a recent refocus on Benji, the community has once again begun to test the limits of the combat chain in search of that Spring Tidings payoff. But alongside the expected death by a thousand cuts builds, a new form of Benji has been developing.

Before we dig in, I want to pause to discuss the dichotomy of Benji, a hero who epitomizes my favorite tenet of card game design: tension. Benji's hero power does two things: it makes your small attacks incredibly hard to block, and it buffs your next attack after your first hit.

As loyal Rathe Times readers will remember, I coined "The Benji Trap" to describe cards that encourage you to build your deck badly. (The latest example of this is Riptide, and the cards you're probably focusing too hard on are literally called 'traps'.) In Benji's case, because 2s are unblockable, we've seen multitudes of players build Benji around as many 1-2 damage cards with go again as they can possibly find. Predictably, these decks struggle to win damage races without absolutely popping off. Thus, the focus on Spring Tidings.

The problem, of course, is that a card is supposed to have more than 2 damage in value. The go again 2s don't block well, and there's not much to pitch those yellows and blues for. They're just... bad cards, and your opponent probably wouldn't be blocking them even if they were allowed to.

That's not even mentioning Benji's second ability, which pumps your second attack into blockable territory, unless you start running 1s. And you're really thinking about it now, aren't you? See this is why Katsu won't let you wander off alone, Benji!

Thankfully, Outsiders gave Benji a new specialization, one that points us toward a more sustainable strategy. Combo cards! The uninspiring starters of combo chains often clock in at 1-2 damage; but by leading with them, we get major value out of the follow-up.

This formed the basis of a new approach to Benji: maximize the benefit of that guaranteed hit, and get your value from the 2nd attack.

This deck is built around one-two punches, rather than fully developed combo lines. Taking our cue from Be Like Water, we've built around Twin Twisters and Head Jab; we've included 4 copies of each starter, and 4 additional copies of Water to proxy as either.

Head Jab sets us up for 3 possible follow-ups, each exerting pressure in a very different way. (If Benji was a CC hero, we might treat these options as sideboard variables; but in Blitz, you need every useful tool built right into the deck.)

Open the Center is the long-established follow-up; at 2 cost, it gives us a way to convert our abundant pitch values into damage, and pushes hard-to-block damage via dominate. It's also the only combo card we have with go again, allowing us to continue the turn if we're able.

One-Two Punch essentially pushes 4 damage while staying under Benji's 'now it's blockable' breakpoint - and here we reach a strategic consideration that isn't immediately intuitive. While our 'starter/combo' pattern suggests a first and second play, we often benefit from opening with something else, before moving into the main combo we want to play this turn. That may even be the other combo line's starter! Personally, I favor Deadly Duo as an opener for Head Jab; a yellow Jab after Duo threatens 5, and sets you up for an unblockable One-Two Punch that'll do another 4, all off 1 resource.

Our 3rd combo closer is Recoil, whose effect is incredibly disruptive and also exactly what Benji needs to compensate for the ugly downside of unblockable attacks: full hands to crack back with.

All of our finishers block for 3, which raises our ability to play defensively when needed. They also have the combo keyword, which has synergy with several effects across the Ninja card pool. Breeze Rider Boots can extend your turn by giving all combo cards go again; Flic Flak dials up your defenses against wide attack patterns; and if you absolutely must, you can opt for Breaking Scales and ensure your combo piece connects. (We'll get to why this is a vastly inferior choice in arms equipment soon.)

Our second combo line lacks the branching options of Head Jab, but makes up for it by enabling the single most impactful card in the deck. (And no, I'm not talking about Spring Tidings - that's a different Benji build.)

Twin Twisters debuted in Everfest as a seemingly innocuous card, carrying on a subtheme found in Ninja of minor modifiers to attacks. But when that subsequent attack is Back Heel Kick, things escalate quickly!

Consider this 1-cost, 2-card play:

1. Twin Twisters (Y) for 2, choosing +1 to your next attack. (This will almost certainly hit.)
2. Back Heel Kick (Y) for 2 +2 from Twin Twisters +2 from Benji +2 from Tiger Stripe Shuko.

That's 10 damage from 2 cards off a Tunic counter (or 9 for 0 resources with a Silken Gi - a great fit for this deck, and a great way to avoid an ill-timed +1 from Benji).

Which is, by the way, why we really prefer to run Tiger Strike Shuko in the arms slot. The passive +1 syncs up with Benji's in most situations - because again, we want to extract all the value we possibly can out of our guaranteed hit - and can move 2s to 4s, which is a different kind of 'hard to block' damage.

Because Back Heel Kick is so explosive for us, we want to see it as often as we can - which may one day lead me to adding the red copies too, but for now we're running Give and Take to exert yet another form of internal conflict to blocking. Opponents tend to seize opportunities to block Benji when they arise, especially as they've been conditioned to expect 'Oops, All 2s' builds. But if they do throw a block on Give and Take, you can return your Back Heel Kicks from the graveyard. (They'll almost certainly expect you to retrieve your Spring Tidings, and honestly, sometimes that'll be the right call.)

Don't feel beholden to the list as I've presented it! There's plenty of space to flex in cards that speak to you, and this is a list that you can really personalize to accomplish what you set out for. You can include more attack reactions to deal more damage that only defense reactions can respond to. Or adjust the colors of components, hoping to float Deadly Duo's +2 past a red Twin Twisters and onto a Back Heel Kick. You can double down on Recoil, or omit it altogether. You can experiment with a dagger package, or even a Tiger package. I'd only caution you not to try for combo lines extending beyond 2, however; that's Katsu's territory, and Benji's not ready for it yet.

With this foundational understanding of the prime playlines of Short Combo Benji, you'll be ready to revisit the Piercing Wind from a whole new angle.