Hacking Gateway related questions

[cmpunk94]

I have imported a australian New 3DS XL(9.2.0) last year and I was curious about buying a gateway card especially because of the japanese games I can play on it.

I don't have neither OoT nor Cubic Ninja but I read that on a recent update that you can boot into gateway mode without needing any of these two. My question is can I still play DS games from my R4 card after I install the new NVRAM? Also can I still play my original retail games without the need of emunand? If not how can I backup my save files and continue to play where I left off?

I'm sorry if these questions were asked 1000 times before but this is the only thing that's keeping me from buying a gateway card right now

 

[Kawaii]

You will need cubic ninja or OoT once to install the hack. You wont need it afterward
Yes, u can play ds game without breaking the hack. Theres a method to make the hack stick involving changing colour or profile name in ds setting menu.
If it breaks u dont have to worry either once u have the hack installed (mset downgrade). You can just reload the nvram hack using your ds cart