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By: walkerdog, Tyler Walker
May 28 2012 12:03pm
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You may not realize this, but there is one mechanic in Magic that is just superior to all other mechanics. This ia mechanic that is powerful, yet fair, fun,Duck! yet occasionally competitive, Blue, yet casual-friendly. This is a mechanic that evokes flavor (although it doesn't work with evoke all that well). This mechanic is so much better than every other mechanic because it is printed on Ninja. This mechanic is Ninjutsu.

Ninjutsu has a long and complicated history.  Wait.  No, no it doesn't.  Kamigawa Block was a set using ancient (mythical) Japan as its setting, utilizing demons, spirits, demon spirits, dragon spirits, samurai, foxes, goblins, ratpeople, moonfolk (oh hai Tamiyo what r u duin so far frum hom?), snakepeople, Epic spells, and other nonsense.  Kamigawa was a pretty cool first set.  It had Keiga (my favorite dragon ever) and the other dragon spirits, Sensei's Divining Top, Kodama's Reach, Sakura-Tribe Elder, various tribe Offerings, Shoals, and other craziness!

Arcane was a part of this block, and it was basically like Cascade that was really bad and underutilized.  You could play a spell with splice attached to an arcane or spirit spell and keep the spell that you spliced onto the spirit or arcane in your hand.  It was card advantage, but it was so overcosted and printed on so few cards that it was basically useless.  A typical GOOD splice was "Lava Spike splicing on Glacial Ray".  Woo.  5 damage for three mana!  But if you didn't have both of those cards in your hand, you weren't going to get this value, and you were playing 2 mana-shocks, and Lightning Bolts that can't hit creatures.

Anyway, Wizard is pushing their newest Commander EHD Planechase product.  I have never played Planechase (although I'd LOVE to jam some EDH Planechase online), but this product looks very solid (potentially) at the least.  I am so jealous of Adam Styborski who got to preview this insanity:

 BAM!

The Stybs (as he likes to go by) already pointed out that, yes, he is a Ninja... AND A DEMON! While I think this is lacking in flavor, and that, yes, as some people have already talked about, he should also be a Spirit, or just a Spirit Ninja, this dude is insane!   He only gets one mana reduced in his Ninjutsu cost compared to his casting cost, but it also cuts back on the colored mana costs.  This guy is going to be every UB Aggro player's casual finisher of choice! 

Commander is where I'm most excited to play Daredevil (ninja with horns? yes?  no?), as there is no feeling that is better than KNOWING your opponent is about to wreck you (for example, they just used a tutor for Time Warp and they have Survival of the Fittest in play to get Witness on the next turn) and then playing something like Daredevil here to grab an extra turn (and he hits for six!), untap, taking another turn, and burying them.  Not every attack will yield such a swingy play, but at the Commander table, you're generally going to find some very explosive cards, even when it's just Kodama's Reach as a free accelerant + card advantage.  Also remember that you're discarding that card from their hand!  It's not saying "discard that card" but the effect is (basically) the same.  This can be sweet wonderful even for cards like False Cure and Beacon of Immortality which aren't massively impactful alone (well, maybe the Beacon is), but are an instant kill together.  The disruption this dude provides is on a similar scale to Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni, who is similarly "OH CRAP KILL IT WITH FIRE NOWWWWWWWWWWWW!"

This would be rad enough; I mean, Ninjutsu isn't likely to come back in a block anytime soon, so you gotta take what you can get, but there is a second relevant preview:

 ~Ninja Music~Dang son!  Obviously a ninja Clone is pretty cool, and a ninja that can clone at Phantasmal Image cost is pretty flipping sweet!  And this art!  It is wonderfully cheerful with a strong hint of creepy!  I'm really hoping to see 1-2 more ninjas, hopefully a mono-Black card and maybe a ninja lord: "UB1, Lady of Smoke."  Ninja (not legendary!).  Ninjutsu: UB.  "All ninjas get +1/+1" Swampwalk, 2/2.

Obviously this would be a pretty cool card.  I choose to go in the lord direction since Wizards is covering Clone, reanimation, hand disruption, graveyard hate, and creature-kill already with previous ninjas: another option might be to just deal life-loss to opponents as the Black ninja comes into play.  So, how should you build your ninja-centric Commander deck?  

Let's first pack in some Ninjas:
Ninja of the Deep Hours
Higure, the Still Wind
Walker of Secret Ways
Okiba-Gang Shinobi
Skullsnatcher
Throatslitter
Mistblade Shinobi
Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni

We add in our two new Ninja, Daredevil and Guy Fawkes.  That's only 10 creatures!  WeBAM! need a lord and 89 more cards.  I think that the lord can be one of two cards.  The first is Sygg, River Cutthroat.  He is the right color, cheap cost, and relevant ability for this deck.  The second would be the new fear-lord, Vela:

I think either is fine; Vela has a little more direct synergy with the ninja, but cheap commanders that draw cards seem fine with this deck's plan too.

Let's get some more creatures:

Aether Adept
Sphinx Summoner
Dire Undercurrents
Big Game Hunter
Blood Speaker (Nice find Styborski!)
Bone Shredder
Mulldrifter
Cadaver Imp
Ravenous Rats
Dark Hatchling
Draining Whelk
Dungeon Geists
Entomber Exarch
Glowing Anemone
Grave Titan
Frost Titan
Liliana's Specter
Man-o'-war
Riftwing Cloudskate
Mist Raven
Muck Drubb
Neckrataal
Phyrexian Ingestor
Predatory Nightstalker
Duplicant
Rishadan Brigand
Rishadan Footpad
Sea Gate Oracle
Sedraxis Alchemist
Snapcaster Mage

This gives us a solid creature base, although I'm sure I've missed a few goodies.  Next we need support for our creatures.  I'm going to keep this FAIRLY budget-friendly, but let's get some ways to beef up our dudes!

Necropouncer
Sword of Fire and Ice
Sword of Mind and Body (I know these are both FAIRLY expensive, but they're not insane, and a lot of people already own them)
Umezawa's Jitte
Loxodon Warhammer

Alright!  This should help us force damage through!  We're up to 46 cards!  We will want approximately 40 lands and manasources (I'm going to leave those up to you this time, but if you need suggestions, I can come up with some ideas.  Sol Ring is a must!).  That means we have 14 cards to go, and here I want high-impact!  

Cryptic Command
Treachery
Control Magic
Fact or Fiction
Demonic Tutor
Decree of Pain
Decree of Silence
Time Warp
Temporal Manipulation
Temporal Mastery
Capture of Jingzhou
Exsanguinate
Wingcrafter (Okay, it doesn't have THAT much impact, but...)
Jace, The Mind Sculptor (VERY expensive for many, and he can be Liliana 2.0, Bribery, Mimic Vat, Plague Wind, or Memory Plunder)

I realize some people REALLY dislike chaining Time Walk effects (or even ever playing with or against them even once), and if that's someone you can't stand, move some of the cards I suggest for Jace in as alternate cards.

For this build, I think I want Vela.  We have a ton of cards that do various disruptive things, now we just have to kill people, and she will contribute to our masses of Grey Ogres, Hill Giants, and other dreck slowly eating people as they see their boards bounced, killed, and otherwise rendered ineffective!

Much like me, many of you may not have actually played Planechase!  Some of you may not even understand the format, so for your benefit, I'll try to give a good explanation of it.  Planechase requires players to build a 60card deck following normal deckbuilding rules.  I'm honestly not sure of any banlist, although common sense probably mostly rules, since this is a casual format.  Then you Planechase appears to require a 10-Plane deck, with up to 2 phenomena in your 10 cards.  I'm getting the list of original Planechase cards from MTG Salvation here (http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=178176).  New cards are all over the place, but there is a consolidated list at MTG Sal again (http://mtgsalvation.com/planechase-2012-spoiler.html).

I would pack these 10 cards:

The Dark Barony:
Whenever a nonblack card is put into a player's graveyard from anywhere, that player loses 1 life.
| Whenever you roll , each opponent discards a card.

Eloren Wilds
Whenever a player taps a permanent for mana, that player adds one mana to his or her mana pool of any type that permanent produced.
| Whenever you roll , target player can't cast spells until a player planeswalks.

We ain't scurred of things hitting the GY, and we'd love free discard. We also would like to Silence people, and we still have Ninja to "cast" under it if we get caught by it.

Takenuma
Whenever a creature leaves the battlefield, its controller draws a card.
| Whenever you roll , return target creature you control to its owner's hand.

Raven's Run
All creatures have wither. (They deal damage in the form of -1/-1 counters.)
| Whenever you roll , put a -1/-1 counter on target creature, two -1/-1 counters on another target creature, and three -1/-1 counters on a third target creature.

Pools of Becoming
At the beginning of your end step, put the cards in your hand on the bottom of your library in any order then draw that many cards.
| Whenever you roll , reveal the top three cards of your planar deck. Each of the revealed cards' abilities triggers. Then put the revealed cards on the bottom of your planar deck in any order.

Skybreen
Players play with the top card of their libraries revealed.
Spells that share a card type with the top card of a library can't be cast.
| Whenever you roll , target player loses life equal to the number of card in his or her hand.

The Æther Flues
When you planeswalk to The Æther Flues or at the beginning of your upkeep you may sacrifice a creature. If you do, reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal a creature card, put that card onto the battlefield then shuffle all other cards revealed this way into your library.
| Whenever you roll , you may put a creature card from your hand onto the battlefield.

Fields of Summer
Whenever a player casts a spell, that player may gain 2 life.
| Whenever you roll , you may gain 10 life.

Cliffside Market
When you planeswalk to Cliffside Market or at the beginning of your upkeep, you may exchange life totals with target player.
| Whenever you roll , exchange control of two target permanents that share a type.

Murasa
Whenever a nontoken creature enters the battlefield, its controller may search his or her library for a basic land card, put it onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle his or her library.
| Whenever you roll , target land becomes a 4/4 creature that's still a land.


These cards either play to our strengths or have a fairly neutral effect.  This is our plan of course!  On the other hand, you could be less cutthroat and grab a random stack of 10 to play with people; I understand if your first thought is not to attempt to break your first walk through Planescape!  Each turn, at some point in the turn, and you get your first role free; after that you progressively pay 1 more mana for each roll!  The full rules are here (http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/51), so if you want to get an in-depth breakdown, get some!

Prices seem reasonable for the decks ($20 retail), and unless they print some insane bombs (think, Jace, TMS for example) you probably can just buy the deck cheaper than trying to pick up singles.  But I've become sidetracked: Back to the best mechanic OF ALL TIME!!@!!$($(!!!

Ninjutsu has been primarily a "fun" mechanic but there are a few exceptions, and it is fun to look at old decks, so here goes.

 

 
This was one of the coolest deck of Ravnica-Kamigawa Standard.  You were an aggro-control deck with 10 1drops, 8 Ophidians, Jittes, some counters, and then a functional Armageddon in Thoughts of Ruin.  If you would like to read an INCREDIBLE match, go read this Japanese Nationals match (http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Events.aspx?x=mtgevent/jpnat06/welcome#1).  It is one of the longest and best matches of Magic I've ever seen, read, or played (obviously I just read it, but you understand?).

The second deck was Erayo-Flip, utilizing even more cool Kamigawa cards:


Flip cards were kind of like Planeswalkers before Planeswalkers; if you met some conditions, you got a huge reward.  This deck had a ton of cheap spells, Ninjas to draw with, and the Erayo combo to lock you out of the game.  It is hard enough to beat an active Ninja of the Deep Hours or the unblockable Higure, but when I also get to counter your first card each turn for free, it becomes nigh-impossible!  The sideboard was loaded with anti-aggro cards, which allowed his maindeck to focus on CRUSHING control decks and Heartbeat of Spring combo decks, both of which were a PRETTY BIG DEAL at the time.

I hope you're excited for the return of the greatest mechanic OF ALL TIME; I know I am!

4 Comments

Vela EDH Deck by Rerepete at Mon, 05/28/2012 - 12:49
Rerepete's picture
5

What about Deadeye Navigator in the Vela / Ninja deck....Nothing like bouncing Silent-Blade Oni a few times....

I always felt ninjas were a by JustSin at Mon, 05/28/2012 - 13:26
JustSin's picture
5

I always felt ninjas were a mechanic that held so much potential, but the cards were so mediocre/bad.. I just always wanted so much more out of them

Navigator is a potential by walkerdog at Mon, 05/28/2012 - 13:29
walkerdog's picture

Navigator is a potential enabler for sure; it's just that it kind of lacks power, but it does help recycle our 187 effects!

Justin, I agree that Ninja's were under-supported last time. I'm happy to see them back!

Hhiiiiiiiii-yaH! by BOBBAKAKE at Mon, 05/28/2012 - 15:28
BOBBAKAKE's picture
5

I too was a big fan of the ninja. I remember when they came out, I wasn't on MTGO just casual paper. I traded to my friends whatever I could to get the cards I needed, came home from work with a six pack and a gram of blow (I was younger and much more stupid than now) and sat at my table smeared my whole collection out and made a four hour production of designing one deck. I like the ninja. I felt my deck a masterpiece and it worked well. I am off paper these days so it sits in a box in a closet next to my other favorite tribal deck; the cephalids. Are they going to bring back cephalids too? That would be so cool! I love tako. The best enabler I found for the ninjas was Willo-wisp. That guy sneaks them in quick, easy, while covering his own back. Rewind is good to for when they try to stop the enablers you will still have the mana to ninja. Do you think in 8 years they will make Werewolves in a planechase deck?