meta ninjas do matter a lot. But it doesn't mean that, because it's meta, it's invincible.

The "meta ninja" is just how we call the "strongest ninja of the moment" the one that has less counters, or counters the most comps, and above all, that counters the "previous meta ninja".

For example: EFG Kakuzu was a huge meta ninja, to the point we'd make jokes calling the game "kakuzu online". That's because he could end fights quickly and he didn't have many counters. Today, however, a lot of ninjas can supress superarmour, and also an edo itachi can easily sleep your kakuzu for 2 rounds, making him useless...

Kushina was and still is a meta ninja, especially with her BT. That's because she can make you win a lot of fights, and unlike kakuzu, she isn't so easy to count out.

Same goes for Naruto SoSP and Edo Minato. Those are simply ninjas that can make you win a fight just because their kit is that good. They have immunity or superarmour, they can escalate their stats, they can reset their mysteries (or in kakuzu's case, he doesn't need the mystery to beat ppl).

Then, what makes a comp strong?

First: Having a good carry ninja, usually one of those "meta ninjas" like the ones I just pointed.

Second: Having good support to your ninjas. It can be with control, buffs, shields, barriers. Ninjas like edo itachi, gaara kazekage, edo roshi, iruka, edo hashirama, madara founder, shikamaru chunnin and so on, that can give your carry ninja even more power/chakra/stats or whatever.

Third: Having a good gameplan.

Doesn't matter if you have a stacked edo minato, with iruka and gaara kazekage supporting him, both with their BTs, but you don't have edo minato's BT.

Then you'll use a mystery round 2 with devastating damage, and... Your mystery cd is 3 rounds, what are you going to do round 3, then?

Most would go for wind main's dance of impetus, which is so predictable and easily countered that will just make them lose fights.

In this case, removing one of your support ninjas and adding 1 more that can help minato carry (being your pos 2 round 3 mystery) would make the comp far stronger than if you just buffing your minato to god status.

That's why, when making a lineup, you should always thing about how the fight is gonna go.

That's my idea, at least. Hope it is helpful somehow.

It's helpful, and I do have some knowledge of how to counter meta. The only question I have is, if we were talking about an older ninja like minato (jonin), what's the best type of support for him?

Thanks for the response!