Introduction
Ninjas in Legacy has gone through some big changes last year thanks in no small part to Modern Horizons. This deck continues to play as a deck at it's core with some builds adding or as a splash. This is an aggressive tempo deck which uses low costed evasive creatures and a strong counter magic package to ensure our threats continue to attack freely.
Creatures
This deck plays two different Ninjas creatures with the keyword ability Ninjutsu.
These are:
Ingenious Infiltrator and Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow.
Ingenious Infiltrator acts as card draw and is often times the ninja that you will deploy first.
Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow is your big damage dealer and works in combination with Ingenious Infiltrator and Brainstorm.
Quick Tip!
When stacking triggers from Ingenious Infiltrator and Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow it is often best to let Ingenious Infiltrator's triggers resolve first. This gives you a better change to Brainstorm and put back high CMC cards on top of your library before Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow's triggers resolve.
Ninjutsu Enablers
There are three commonly used enablers for ninjutsu. Those are Changeling Outcast, Ornithopter, and Baleful Strix.
These cards are all pretty straight forward thanks to Changeling Outcast being a ninja, Ornithopter being a flying creature, and Baleful Strix being a flying deathtoucher that cantrips.
But wait, there's more!
Changeling Outcast and Ornithopter have a hidden trait that catches people off guard and allows this deck to attack from a different angle
Retrofitter Foundry.
This card taps to sacrifice a Thopter to make a 4/4 Construct. Both Changeling Outcast and Ornithopter are both Thopters. So much value!
Spells
This deck typically follows a similar permission and cantrip package to what you will see in Delver. Mainly because we are playing a similar tempo role. The difference being that Ninjas will at times sequence their spells differently than Delver.
The one instance that this stands out to me the most is our use of Brainstorm. It does all of the powerful things that we are used to seeing in Legacy. But also allows you to put cards back on top of your library that you would like to reveal with Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow. Knowing when to use Brainstorm is always tricky and this deck doesn't make it easier.
Daze is a card that isn't as comfortable in this deck as it is in Delver. But often times still makes the cut thanks to how powerful it is. I feel like this card is truly dependent on your meta and can be swapped with cards like Force of Negation and Fatal Push/Murderous Cut as you see fit.
Sideboard
Like most decks you will want your sideboard to be aligned with your meta. But I will make a few quick call outs.
Plague Engineer is a brutal card and the fact that it's static ability is asymmetrical allows us to play it along side our Changeling Outcasts.
Liliana, the Last Hope is great against both creature decks and control.
Back to Basics is debatable with snow lands becoming so popular. I still run one copy for the random free win.
Closing Remarks
This deck is incredibly fun if you enjoy cute interactions and tempo strategies. There are a few different lists running around that are posting 5-0's regularly and are worth looking into as well. Next update will include information on the variant. Please post any questions or critiques in the comments and feel free to join our Legacy Ninja's Discord channel! https://discord.gg/643AfqZ
