Finally, my dream deck gets a commander. I've been trying to make ninjas work since I started playing, usually with
Vela the Night-Clad
. Unfortunately, she's not an amazing commander, though I'll still play her in here, since she's decent in the 99.
Update November 2018:
Cut down on the card draw because honestly this deck gets swamped with cards and the card draw feels like a dead draw very often, especially when your general draws one card minimum for never more than 2 mana.
Update January 2019:
Put in
Thief of Sanity
and
Nightveil Specter
since I thought
Glen Elendra Liege
had too much anti-synergy with Testsuko Umezawa who is basically the deck's Lieutenant, and
Etrata, the Silencer
was too big of target, and too slow as removal.
Update March 2019:
I took out the
Dimir Cutpurse
from this deck, and replaced it with
Slither Blade
. Dimir Cutpurse has a great saboteur ability, but no form of evasion, and it is not a ninja naturally. Slither Blade on the other hand, lets us get out Yuriko turn two, and can still be relevant later on even with no saboteur ability as long as we have a creature-hack spell or enchantment. Other potential cuts were:
Scythe Specter
, but that card is fun, and the saboteur effect effects multiple opponents, and flying is evasion enough in multiplayer;
Dirge of Dread
but it has won me the game a few times, as well as the cycling effect letting me get Yuriko through by herself sometimes when I need it; and
Whispersilk Cloak
because it's slow. I still found room for Whispersilk Cloak because 5 mana can be worth it to protect an important ninja and let them hit any enemy when you need that effect.
I also took out the
Dismal Backwater
to replace it with a
Watery Grave
I traded for. The manabase for this deck is slowly getting faster, which supports the lower curve of the deck, and lets me get online before some of the controlling decks in the meta that can give me problems (An example is
Niv-Mizzet, Parun
). Finally, a relatively harder to justify cut was swapping
Temple of the False God
for
Trickery Charm
. I don't have a lot of use for when I already have four lands in this deck. I have mana rocks and most of the cards are relatively cheaper. Also being in , the mana-cost requirements on my spells tend to require more colored mana. When I've gotten Temple online in games before it's usually been mana I didn't end up using or prioritising, and when I'm mulliganing, it's not treated like a land when I open it in my opening hand. Trickery Charm is tech. It's a trash card in most decks, but in this deck, it usually will read "draw a card" on the end of the effect and works with many board-states when we have Yuriko in play.
Update June/July 2019
I added all the new Ninja to the deck, and took out a lot of the more expensive cards. Usually adding more of the weirder and less powerful Ninja would be kinda eh, as they don't really stand on their own, but they're very good at protecting Yuriko, and they often equate to a lot more cards a turn, a more robust deck, and a lot of damage.
Took out:
-
Vela the Night-Clad
which is sad bc she was the original commander and I had a foil commander's arsenal copy
-
Bident of Thassa
Honestly a relatively redundant card. The other two card draw enchantments in the deck are one mana cheaper, and draw more cards on average. Put in the new ninja, who can cost 2 less, and does a similar thing.
-
Burnished Hart
Too slow, relied on intimidate synergy
-
Solemn Simulacrum
Less slow, but not abusable.
-
Shadowmage Infiltrator
Fear is ok, but it's 3 mana for something that might just never work at the table.
-
Inkfathom Witch
Neat ability, hard to cut.
-
Languish
Never was able to cast. Usually I'm contending with creatures that are bigger than 4/4s so it would just clear my board and no-one elses.
-
Dirge of Dread
was a pretty neat and useful spell sometimes, but I ultimately cut it because I wanted to make room.
-
Whispersilk Cloak
Relatively controversial, but doesn't stop board wipes and is a massive 5 mana investment not to develop your board, and doesn't give haste. Usually haste is more important, since the evasion is less important.
-
Amulet of Vigor
Lost value the less tap-lands we played. It was designed to untap our ninjas to block with, but it turns out the new lifelink Ninja helps a lot more with healing
Put in:
-
Throatseeker
Well-statted, but less evasive ninja (no ninjutsu) but it enables us to gain life, which has helped me not lose a number of games
-
Changeling Outcast
Easily the best card in the deck.
-
Fallen Shinobi
Best saboteur effect in the game, beating out
Silent-Blade Oni
by a lot. Usually by the time the Oni hits, their hand will be empty. This Ninja makes sure it gets something. Oni is still really worth it though as long as you target the right players at the right times.
-
Latch Seeker
It's a strict upgrade to a flyer or a fear creature in terms of setting up your ninja. Draws less cards than
Shadowmage Infiltrator
but it's also hitting for a lot more on average when you have a
Conspiracy
effect down.
-
Azra Smokeshaper
A little gimmicky, because it requires your casual group to be playing with attacks and blocks correctly, and most do not, but it always works when they block one of your cards, since you get to ninjutsu after all blocks are declared.
-
Phantom Ninja
Excellent, requires no support, but no saboteur effect or ninjutsu is the trade-off.
-
Ninja of the New Moon
Only works with our commander down, but if you can afford to ninjutsu this, and you don't have Yuriko down, you can ninjutsu Yuriko instead (you don't pay commander tax for Commander Ninjutsu. Gorgeous art, and deals 15% of the opponent's health in damage every hit, outside of Yuriko's effect. This card will be underrated massively by the community. Also I really like the art, ok?!
-
Ingenious Infiltrator
Bonkers. Bident of Thassa as a 2/3 for 2? I'm being a little glib, but this card powers through your deck at lightning speed, and hits for a relatively decent chunk.
-
Mist-Syndicate Naga
Forces your opponent to kill it on-sight. So extremely good.
-
Moonblade Shinobi
Another excellent saboteur effect. Sets up another ninja next turn, if unanswered.
Some of the new cards would be un-justifiable on their own without Yuriko, just remember to add her effect onto them when evaluating them. Some decks can't be this focused on their commander, but Yuriko hardly ever costs more than , and protecting her in is extremely easy. Yuriko's effect is how you will deal a substantial portion of damage, if not most of the damage you deal over the course of a game; remember Ninjas with ninjutsu often have higher mana costs than it costs to play them, so you're on average getting more damage than mana you're spending. You don't need to pack your deck full of 10-drops, you just need to be aggressive and low to the ground.
Update August 2019
Took out
Latch Seeker
put in
Mu Yanling, Sky Dancer
Update October 2019
Took out
Fellwar Stone
for
Grixis Panorama
. Was tempted to take out
Dimir Locket
since it costs more, but you can convert it into cards if you need to, which made me value it higher. Your mileage may vary!
Update November 2019
Put back in
Dirge of Dread
, and put in
Nightmare Unmaking
. Took out
Necropotence
and
Decree of Pain
. This deck doesn't have a problem maintaining a good number of cards in hand, which makes the board-wipe more flexible, and dirge of dread is excellent as a finisher, or to get the ball rolling with its cycling!
Second Update
I took out Dirge of Dredge and put in a lot more 1 mana unblockable creatures and another owl: Because owls in mtg are always worth it. I also put Dimir Keyrune back in since it's ability is not irrelevant in comparison to another mana rock that produces colored mana in the colors I want. It says I have 36 creatures, but it's more like a still insanely-high 35 due to Thassa being an enchantment most of the time. Most of your Ninja creatures are like spells with effects you get once or twice, and you need to hit with them I guess. We've all seen decks with this many creatures somehow work, tbh, whether it's Momir Vig or someone's Primal Surge deck.
Update December 2020
Replaced Yuriko with the new foil version (it looks like a pokémon card, and the foiling quality appears better than the older foiling method), replaced path of ancestry with
Clearwater Pathway
and
Ash Barrens
with Fierce Guardianship. There's a few reasons, such as reducing the amount of taplands in the deck. Ninjas seldom get cast to the scry wasn't proving super useful, and Ash barrens doesn't fulfill the tight color support the deck needs early, and is marginally better late. I think this deck can cut it with only 32 lands if mulligan'd aggressively enough.
