@@brucedavis191 Might need to activate full control for some of those tricks, but I don't see why not. Neo is coming out and I'm pretty sure you'll be able to do everything in this video in Arena. Now, if only there were an unblocked digital only format I could return to my hand and discard pronto...
My favorite ninjutsu moment was from a cube draft. master of cruelties attack, no blocks, his ability goes on stack, ninjutsu happens, life becomes 1, and ninja deals 2 damage for lethal
I splashed red into the blue-black ninja Planechase deck just to play this combo... nobody ever seems to see it coming until you actually activate it. Even when they've already seen me play ninjas, they wonder why I'm running MoC.
These are the things I explain to my friends at the start of the match, play the match, do the things, and re explain later. So thank you for putting it in a video to help my legal battle later 🤣
Being able to activate ninjutsu multiple times using 1 ninja is one of my favorite tricks and it saved me so many times. I can see this being relevant again with Satoru. Great video and amazingly explained.
One i recently discovered was equipping a unblockable ninja with blade of selves for myriad and the copies are attacking the opponrnt unblocked so you can ninjutsu out the token copies before they die at the end of combat and do ninjutsu loops as long as you have alot of mana to use.
I once saw the card Rocket Launcher in a binder at my LGS. I immediately bought them for dirt cheap and made a deck called "Ninjas with rocket launchers." Once I won one game by activating Rocket Launcher, the deck was retired.
@@bwhunnel - Rocket Launcher is garbage. Never play it. I only used it so I could tell this story. You have a 60 card casual deck. 4 copies of Rocket Launcher + a normal blue black Ninja deck. Remember that it was about 2004/2005. "I have a deck for you: ninjas (dramatic pause) with rocket launchers." The smiles and laughter are worth it every time. Actually activating rocket Launcher to deal lethal damage is just the icing on the cake. Their face and the face of others in the room when that garbage artifact was successfully used to win. I also have put Rocket launcher in an EDH deck that creates infinite mana.
@@bwhunnel rocket launcher says “pay 2 mana: deal 1 damage to any target, sacrifice rocket launcher at the end step” because it isn’t a tap ability you can pay the 2 mana as many times as you want because you don’t need to sacrifice it until the end step. So in a 60 card game with 20 life, paying 40 mana is lethal damage. Plus he had ninjas so he probably did a bunch of unblocked damage before hand, and had 4 copies of the artifact which meant he didn’t need to pay all 40 mana at once, he could split it into 4 turns of 10 mana each, minus however much damage the ninjas did
The most obvious advantage of the End of Combat Ninjutsu is using it to deal combat damage with a bigger creature that has some on-play use or needs to be protected, but is still a bigger beater than the Ninja you're flipping in.
There are some other great uses for Ninjutsu not mentioned, such as protecting your creatures from targeted spells that occur during combat. If a card says "Deal 3 damage to target creature" and its played after they declared blockers, you can ninjutsu it out with another card, thus removing the previous target from the battlefield and their spell resolves with 0 effect. It doesn't happen extremely often, but when it does happen it's sure to cause some head-scratching from your opponent.
My favorite trick is ninjutsu'ing after my opponent uses Maze of Ith; despite untapping it and preventing the damage, it still is an (often unblocked) attacker
the maze and kor haven were really slowing down my Yuriko edh deck until i realized this. recently in my local meta everyone has been putting those kinds of land in their decks, taking advantage of nobody playing land destruction.
I was about to reply that it doesn't work like that, and then I realized I was confusing Maze of Ith for Labyrinth of Skophos. If it doesn't say "remove from combat," this trick will work with it.
@@enricofavali4466 In order to be considered 'unblocked', it has to enter the declare blockers step. People often activate their labyrinth effects in the declare attackers step, so Skophos wouldn't give any opportunity for Ninjutsu, but Ith would.
Using it in response to Etrata, the Silencer triggered ability on the stack Get to exile their creature and put a hit counter but not have to shuffle her away
@@senkrad5 What? You do it while the whole trigger is on the stack. She does her damage, trigger goes on the stack and you pick the target, before the trigger resolves you use Ninjutsu to send her back to hand, trigger goes to resolving and exiles the target with a Hit counter and shuffles away the now non-existent Etrata.
I learned the second loophole when I started getting into commander and was looking into some Etrata, the Silencer decks. That's a very neat way to abuse her ability
@@matshbocks it would make for a very fun deck, for sure! Just to be sure: you can put her into play again 'cause her ability that's on the stack won't recognize her upor reentering, right? It's like a blink effect.
@@mrpinguimninja yeah, her ability only shuffles her in the library if she's still on the board, so immediately bouncing her back to your hand with, say a skull snatcher, it counts as a replacement effect and stays in your hand.
As an Umezawa super fan, building Satoru has yet again completed my collection of all 4 Umezawa legends in commander. Hyped to learn these tricks for the new deck!
0:55 I'm glad seeing this here. Because on Satoru Umezawa's Gatherer's page there are multiple mistakes "As you activate a ninjutsu ability, you reveal the Ninja card" "Although the Ninja is attacking" instead of "you reveal the creature" "Although the creature is attacking" This is probably a copy/paste error since Ninjutsu only showed up on Ninja cards before. But it could still lead to some arguments at some tables ^^ '
Given that you can activate ninjutsu duringbthe declare blockers phase you can then use an instant to grant the first ninja first strike then between first strike damage and normal combat damage you can ninjutsu in a second ninja and if you have a ronin wsr club or sai of the shinobi their equip triggers break timing restrictions on when you can equip things
@@GoodMorningMagic so if the NINJA has double stirke, they wouldn't get the FIRST strike damage just the regular strike since the first strike phase already happened?
I like playing "Future sight" in my ninjutsu decks as it reads - "You may play the top card of your library as though it were in your hand." The top of your deck IS revealed so opponents might see what's about to happen before you do it, but then that could also be used as "Bait" and throw them off guard when u ninjutsu from your hand instead.
Nice Video and well explained. I already knew those tricks, since i digged deep into the rules when i did build my first Ninja Commander Deck, but i applaud you bringing them all up it took me some weeks to find this stuff out. If i could give a tipp, i would say to remember that Ninjutsu is an activated ability and can be reduced by Heartstone and Zirda, the Dawnwaker. Biomancer's Familiar, and Training Grounds won't work because they only reduce for creatures you control.
A fun use of the looping trick is to get around removal. You attack and they let it through. You then use it to ninjitsu in a creature, likely with a damage effect they don't like (draw, discard, bounce) so they try to kill it before damage. You then use a different ninja in your hand to save it.
The winning move is ninjutsu in a Blightsteel Colossus for 4 or less mana, insta kill a player, then ninjutsu a measly 1 mana ninja, allowing you to hold onto Blightsteel for another lethal strike later on
A trick I used was I had two attackers. One wasn't blocked, and one was dokuchi silencer. I ninjutsud the card back to my hand after blockers were declared and played a shriekmaw. I killed the creature blocking my silencer. Went to damage, silencer dealt damage and i used his effect to kill one of his other creatures that stayed back. Wasn't a big play, but made me feel more intelligent than I probably am.
Me too! My younger friends are always complaining about my vintage cards “oh thats OP” “oh I think that’s banned”. Built a sixty card ninjutsu deck 95% kamigawa, its a killer
Edit: Etrata can't be blocked and deals a hit counter to a creature and exiles it. (You win the game after 3 hit counters.) Then shuffles it back into the deck, you can avoid the shuffle into your deck by ninjutsuing her back into your hand after combat damage. And with a few haste cards you can attack immediate without having to worry about summoning sickness. It's pretty brutal in modern/pioneer. I use ninjutsu with my 4 Etrata the silencer's. I have 4, 1 black and 1 colorless ninjas with that ninjutsu cost plus 2 Satoru Umezawa. So if I don't have those 4 ninjas, it's all good I can just have any card with ninjutsu for a cost of 4 which works great by turn 5 if I can get an Etrata and an Umezawa. With mana on each turn.
Very cool! Hey! Regarding the final 1st Strike trick, many years ago, even before Yuriko saw print, I built a Wydwen Ninjutsu deck that wants to actively find Bladed Pinion to hook onto an attacker. Deal 1st Strike damage, then Ninja-in the next “battle player”. Ronin Warclub was an excellent addition to this shenanigan too
I love the mechanic and had no idea it was this versatile. I hope Arena can handle these edge cases well since, at least to me, it has been the best tool for learning other complicated mechanics and interactions.
my favorite ninjitsu trick is to attack with an unblockable creature while sataru in on the field, then ninjitsu in blightsteel and insta kill someone.
Now I want ninjas even more! I want the old ones and the ones to come. Thanks for showing us that first strike trick! Personal opinion: revisiting the early sets is awesome for some casual players so we can remember the old days. cheers
You didn't mention "Cunning evasion", or newer "Grazilaax" trick, where for ex.: you attack with 2 creatures (yuriko and a normal 2/2), the other player has a 3/3 and blocks Yuriko, then the Cunning evasion triggers and you return her in your hand. At this point the 2/2 is unblocked and you ninjutsu yuriko on him. That is very useful.
It was good to see my pet card Tetsuko Umezawa make an appearance. She's been the cornerstone for getting attacks through for my Blue ninja deck since Modern Horizons gave us such great gifts as Mist-Syndicate Naga. Good Times, Gavin!
So given I got a Pre-Release box of Kamigawa: ND, and me having not played Ninjas or Vehicles (the other card I got a few of) before, this was super useful! That "First Strike" mechanic was so good, not something I may have thought of, and now the idea behind my new deck build!
love it, while i already knew all the tips in this video and how the steps work i found this video great to share with my less experienced group mainly because of the detailed explanation told in such a short time frame
Looping ninjutsu was one of my (many) win conditions in one of my earliest commander decks, a Vela combo deck. I'd swing with something and then ninja in a sakashima's student copying a palinchron or great whale, untapping seven lands which I'd use to ninja it out for a different ninja then back in to repeat. Vela's triggered ability did the rest. :) Teenaged me was so proud of myself when I realized it on the fly one game and won that way.
Thanks for the tips, Gavin. I'm definitely going to have to remember these tricks when I build a sultai ninjas list I'm working on. And if ur wondering what green is for, pump spells. Just pump spells. Attack with a Phantom Warrior, ninjutsu in Ninja of the Deep Hours, Giant Growth, Giant Growth, and they're dead. 👌
Though when blue and black steal creatures, you usually don't have to worry about giving them back, so that's a little less useful for the average ninja.
Stealing their blocker with gilded drake, then paying 1-2 mana for a spell to bounce "their" gilded drake to your hand is definitely the superior play here..
Idk how I missed multiple njnjutsu after playing the mechanic in pauper so often. Seems great for picking up multiple spellstutter sprites. My favourite trick you didn't go over is saving a creature from a removal spell. Although that isn't super specific to ninjutsu.
At a table of decent players that know you play ninjas, this will rarely help. A decent player knows do deal with creatures that won't be blocked Before they are not blocked😁 Anyone who does not know this, I'll respond with ninjutsu, explain why their spell fizzled, then they say if they knew that, they'd have done it before blocking, and I'll let them. Yuriko is too good to not give newish players a fighting chance.
The other note is that ninjitsu is not a cost discount as it usually seems. The total cost to bring in the creature is the ninjutsu cost PLUS the cost of the unblocked fodder you are bouncing
That's kind of the downside, so many of the cards only have mildly useful effects, deal combat damage draw 1 card or otherwise underwhelming. It's a tempo loss for not entirely enough to justify it on it's own. You just paid for 2 creatures, got to keep one, and then maybe drew a card, and now you've spent mana you can't use to hold in reserve to counter spell or w/e. It's the handful of of fun ones like Thousand-Faced Shadow becoming a copy of something else, or taking advantage of other come into triggers, or paying 4 mana to Ninjutsu a Blightsteel Colossus into play, that'll do something. As for the cost keep in mind these mostly blue and/or black cards, that makes tempo a bit more crucial if you're not ramping mana.
Don't get too excited people.. there are only 7 Cards in the set with "First Strike" in the Oracle Text of the card.. One is the Equipment Sword that doesn't give it, another is the Mythic Planeswalker, Kindled Fury (an instant), and one is a Saga.. You'd all have better luck putting "Nezumi Prowler" several times into play with excess Mana, giving as many creatures both Deathtouch and Lifelink..
Should have watched this yesterday before my pre-release.... Tremendous Help. Have One again today, lets hope for good ninjutsu pulls. Love this mechanic
One more trick that might not come up often, but if your opponent tries to cast some removal on your unblocked attackers after the blocker step, you can ninjutsu at instant speed to save your creature (and potentially fizzle the spell). Same thing if they have some triggered ability that could get rid of your attackers after receiving damage
I did know all these tricks, my usual one was to double dip on Drana, Liberator of Malakir's combat damage trigger. Before it resolves (putting a +1/+1 counter on each of my tapped and attacking creatures) I'd swap her back to hand and put a Ninja out, giving it the extra buff in stats, and letting it hit for just a bit more. It also puts Yuriko out of bolt range which is relevant more than it should be.
I love using the ninjutsu trick with Drana, Liberator of Malakir. First strike damage and then ninjutsu with the trigger on the stack so not only do you get to double dip, but your ninja comes in with a +1/+1 counter. I have had to explain a few times that this was a legal play lol
Trick #3 is even more silly with instant speed wraths like Rout. Since the COST is putting it in your hand, the effect (put this card on the battlefield) goes on the stack. So after you bounce your three things, play Rout while Mistblade Shinobi is on the stack. Once the stack starts to resolve, Rout goes off first, then nukes the board. THEN your Ninjutsu ability resolves, putting it on the battlefield... possibly still able to deal damage and draw a card or whatever other effect it has from combat damage. All your stuff is safe, include the 'sacrificial' ninja.
Another scenario for "Looping Ninjutsu" rules niche is to dodge removal during combat. If your opponents lets a creature through with the intent of using Lightning Bolt/Swords/etc on the Ninja you replace it with, you can return that Ninja for another Ninjutsu creature. The removal spell checks for the creature that's left the battlefield and fizzles.
It gives me so much respect for the card design team that you explain all the exploits to the rules before you even release the set, making it clear that you made the set with the exploits in hand. Most games work the opposite way: they come out and people exploit a rule until some time later a designer's commentary is released saying "guys don't do this, this rule was obviously not meant for that". May I ask how many of the Ninjutsu exploits did you know ow before the first time Ninjutsu was released?
This video inspired me to make a Volrath, the Shapestealer deck with a Ninjutsu subtheme. Just a different take on a ninja deck. Looking forward to the sweet upgrades I'll get for it from Neon Dynasty.
I think many people also forget that you can counter ninjutsu. It's an activated ability, and cards like Bind and Defabricate can counter target activated ability. Doing this will cause the cards to be returned without anything else coming into play.
Etrata, the Silencer works extremely well with ninjutsu. Responding to her combat damage trigger to bounce her to your hand instead of losing her to the shuffle makes her a quick finisher for commander games.
In what marvel universe? :D Sure it's a good theory, but I don't know what kind of games are played in your country, but in mine you take something like 4-5 turns to do that.. when you already must have like 7-8 mana available. At that point if you reach to do his damage twice and the game isn't already over is a miracle. I would't remember it in the list of "Quick finishers" tbh. I've never seen a game won by her either.
Some of this is why Reconnaissance is a stupid, stupid card for just W. Even if all it did was give Vigilance for W, it'd be busted, but it does so much more. Why does it do so much more? Who knows, but it does.
Multiple Ninjutsu also seems great for saving attacking creatures from a boardwipe like Settle the Wreckage. I really like using cards like Ukkima, Stalking Shadow who is unblockable and still does his damage when he trades places with a ninja and returns to hand. My favorite thing about Satoru's ninjutsu is that you can play any creature card *even cards not in the colors black or blue* which lends to the possibility of some real surprises. I'm not sure if there's a combo by playing with loop ninjutsu to continually bring back Smoke Shroud from the graveyard to activate effects that care about enchantments. I guess you could mill with Sage of Mysteries. The better combo with loop ninjutsu probably lies with Sakashima's Student, since it can come in as any creature, and thus activate a wider variety of effects. A foretold Mystic Reflection and loop ninjutsu could take it further to cause a "shadow clone jutsu" effect.
Almost done with a Ninja deck so I am adding this to favorites, because I know as soon as I pull off that end of combat trick "you can't do that" is gonna fly out of some mouths!
My 'trick' that I believe works in multiplayer: because the ninjutsu-placed creature is put into play attacking after the declare blockers step, you could potentially attack a player, then after blocks ninjutsu in a creature attacking a different player (considering that there is no restriction on what the placed creature is attacking). This would allow you to attack past potential blockers if another opponent is open
Doesn't work because of a specific rule with Ninjutsu, actually. Nice try though! :D 702.49c A ninjutsu ability may be activated only while a creature on the battlefield is unblocked (see rule 509.1h). The creature with ninjutsu is put onto the battlefield unblocked. It will be attacking the same player or planeswalker as the creature that was returned to its owner’s hand.
That one where you deal damage and then just bounce back the creature to your hand via ninjutsu is one I use a lot in my Etrata, the Silencer deck, so you get the damage, you get the creature exiling trigger+hit counter and before you shuffle her back into your deck you get her back into your hand.
My personal favorite thing to do with Ninjutsu involves my Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign EDH deck. I love attacking with Yennett, putting her trigger on the stack, and then because Flying and Menace make her super annoying to block, Ninjutsu in one of my favorite Ninjas (who all also happen to have an odd mana value for Yennett shenanigans) like Fallen Shinobi, Silent-Blade Oni, or Yuriko. Double dipping like that is so much fun! Oh and since Satoru Umezawa has an odd mana value I will definately be trying him out in that deck!
That multiple ninjutsu trick could also be great for playing against a Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts. All your creatures hit, trigger Teysa, activate your ninja before her ability resolves.
Ninjutsu can combo super well with Encore as well. If the Encore token isn't blocked you can ninjutsu it. Token will poof from returning to hand but Ninjutsu doesn't really care about that. Great way to sneak out some extra value from that recursion.
thanks for the tips. I’m new to the game and kamigawa ninjutsu was super confusing to me. I just got a new booster box and I’m gonna try building a ninjustsu deck with it!
Saw ninjutsu at prerelease. My first black blue variation included using virus beetle to attack then constantly using ninjutsu to replace and replay it to essentially keep an opponents hand empty
I enjoy equipping Konda, Lord of Eiganjo with Grappling Hook, Kusari-Gama, and Neko-Te and swinging away with other creatures, so I can bring in my ninjas.
Turn 1 bring in a cheap un-blockable (I.E. Slither Blade), up until turn 2 attack with un-blockable to get them used to not being able to stop damage. Turn 3 Get out Satoru and attack with un-blockable. Turn 4 Attack with un-blockable then Ninjitsu in Blightsteel Colossus with infect for 11 Poison counters and a 4 round win. Works with other large creatures but you will have to figure out how to give them Infect (Tainted Strike).
I actually have a 2 person cube with abyssal persecutor in it. There are some sacrifice shenanigans to help get around the drawback. But I was just expanding the cube and happened to add skullsnatcher. I didn’t think of using ninjutsu to get the demon out of the way! I like that little interaction hidden in there now!
Favorite expensive mana ninja trick I do is Cast my commander (Chromium, the Mutable) from the command zone. then Ninjustu it on my turn.Let the turns go by and recast my commander after a turncycle goes through
Peregrine drake and thousand-faced shadow means any ammount of unblocked attackers. Sakashimas student and something like mistblade can combine with Peregrine drake to make any ammount of mana in combat. Great with instants or simply getting expensive ninjutso with mana to spare. I did it! I broke peregrine drake! But still. If you do play Yuriko the drake is great eitherway, so interacting with it is useful.
I didn't know about the first strike trick until now. Time to make a Pauper deck with Battlefield Raptor and Ninja of the Deep Hours, and maybe Serra Diciple as well.
I love using this to prevent my Etrata, The Silencer from shuffling herself into the library :3 it does help that she's unlockable and exiles a creature on hit, too.
Just saw 2 short "stories" on Daily.MTG that showed two vertical arts depicting a kimono and a fang. Clearly a glimpse that Sagas (or a variant) is returning in this set.
A not so loophole, but i'm totally sneaking an eldrazi or two or something equally absurd into my soon to be built ninja deck, simply for that card that gives units in your hand the ninjutsu ability.
![ค้าง (STILL) - GEMINI [ OFFICIAL MV ]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Ftxx3hk5vkU/mqdefault.jpg)
Have to admit, I knew almost non of this and now my friends are going to hate me.
Excellllllent. Working as intended 👀
yuriko has moved to top 2 of my favourite commanders hahaha
I put ninjas into my casual Simic deck for fun... Now I'm looking at my deck alot different after some of these
@@GoodMorningMagic now only if arena will let us do some of this lol
@@brucedavis191 Might need to activate full control for some of those tricks, but I don't see why not. Neo is coming out and I'm pretty sure you'll be able to do everything in this video in Arena. Now, if only there were an unblocked digital only format I could return to my hand and discard pronto...
My favorite ninjutsu moment was from a cube draft.
master of cruelties attack, no blocks, his ability goes on stack, ninjutsu happens, life becomes 1, and ninja deals 2 damage for lethal
I splashed red into the blue-black ninja Planechase deck just to play this combo... nobody ever seems to see it coming until you actually activate it. Even when they've already seen me play ninjas, they wonder why I'm running MoC.
Dude this is fucking savage.
@@manuelprsnl It's just like Kaalia Master of Cruelties! Which I fucking hate
Aaaaaaamazing!
@@noahcarroll4944 How does Kaalia Master of Cruelties work? I don't really see any interaction between MoC and either version of Kaalia.
The first strike trick is so nasty. Thank you for this.
Word
These are the things I explain to my friends at the start of the match, play the match, do the things, and re explain later. So thank you for putting it in a video to help my legal battle later 🤣
Being able to activate ninjutsu multiple times using 1 ninja is one of my favorite tricks and it saved me so many times.
I can see this being relevant again with Satoru.
Great video and amazingly explained.
Revenant? Good movie lol 🍻cheers
One i recently discovered was equipping a unblockable ninja with blade of selves for myriad and the copies are attacking the opponrnt unblocked so you can ninjutsu out the token copies before they die at the end of combat and do ninjutsu loops as long as you have alot of mana to use.
I once saw the card Rocket Launcher in a binder at my LGS. I immediately bought them for dirt cheap and made a deck called "Ninjas with rocket launchers." Once I won one game by activating Rocket Launcher, the deck was retired.
"i'm just a 'ninja' with a rocket launcher"
Could you explain how that worked? 🤔
@@bwhunnel - Rocket Launcher is garbage. Never play it. I only used it so I could tell this story.
You have a 60 card casual deck. 4 copies of Rocket Launcher + a normal blue black Ninja deck. Remember that it was about 2004/2005.
"I have a deck for you: ninjas (dramatic pause) with rocket launchers." The smiles and laughter are worth it every time. Actually activating rocket Launcher to deal lethal damage is just the icing on the cake. Their face and the face of others in the room when that garbage artifact was successfully used to win.
I also have put Rocket launcher in an EDH deck that creates infinite mana.
@@bwhunnel rocket launcher says “pay 2 mana: deal 1 damage to any target, sacrifice rocket launcher at the end step” because it isn’t a tap ability you can pay the 2 mana as many times as you want because you don’t need to sacrifice it until the end step. So in a 60 card game with 20 life, paying 40 mana is lethal damage. Plus he had ninjas so he probably did a bunch of unblocked damage before hand, and had 4 copies of the artifact which meant he didn’t need to pay all 40 mana at once, he could split it into 4 turns of 10 mana each, minus however much damage the ninjas did
@@anthonycannet1305 Important note: The ability says 'destroy' not 'sacrifice' so if you can give it indestructible somehow, it can be reused.
The most obvious advantage of the End of Combat Ninjutsu is using it to deal combat damage with a bigger creature that has some on-play use or needs to be protected, but is still a bigger beater than the Ninja you're flipping in.
Also there are a few etb ninjas now
There are some other great uses for Ninjutsu not mentioned, such as protecting your creatures from targeted spells that occur during combat. If a card says "Deal 3 damage to target creature" and its played after they declared blockers, you can ninjutsu it out with another card, thus removing the previous target from the battlefield and their spell resolves with 0 effect. It doesn't happen extremely often, but when it does happen it's sure to cause some head-scratching from your opponent.
My favorite trick is ninjutsu'ing after my opponent uses Maze of Ith; despite untapping it and preventing the damage, it still is an (often unblocked) attacker
the maze and kor haven were really slowing down my Yuriko edh deck until i realized this. recently in my local meta everyone has been putting those kinds of land in their decks, taking advantage of nobody playing land destruction.
I was about to reply that it doesn't work like that, and then I realized I was confusing Maze of Ith for Labyrinth of Skophos. If it doesn't say "remove from combat," this trick will work with it.
@@abderianagelast7868 i think ninjutsu keeps working, just cast it in response for the ability of labyrinth
@@enricofavali4466 In order to be considered 'unblocked', it has to enter the declare blockers step. People often activate their labyrinth effects in the declare attackers step, so Skophos wouldn't give any opportunity for Ninjutsu, but Ith would.
So can you get around maze of ith if they use it in any steps within combat phase?
Using it in response to Etrata, the Silencer triggered ability on the stack
Get to exile their creature and put a hit counter but not have to shuffle her away
Wouldn't you have to let the entire triggered ability resolve? I don't think you can only do half of an ability but i could be wrong
@@senkrad5
What?
You do it while the whole trigger is on the stack.
She does her damage, trigger goes on the stack and you pick the target, before the trigger resolves you use Ninjutsu to send her back to hand, trigger goes to resolving and exiles the target with a Hit counter and shuffles away the now non-existent Etrata.
@@Nick-sx4nn I have no idea why I thought the trigger wasnt going to resolve if you bounced her before it resolved lol my b
Yup...i just put together a nasty Etrata, the Silencer commander deck...glad i watched this for full clarity on mechanics
I learned the second loophole when I started getting into commander and was looking into some Etrata, the Silencer decks. That's a very neat way to abuse her ability
And with satoru, getting her into play and straight back out is kinda hilarious.
Which makes me wonder if having her as the "surprise commander" is a viable deck option.
@@matshbocks it would make for a very fun deck, for sure! Just to be sure: you can put her into play again 'cause her ability that's on the stack won't recognize her upor reentering, right? It's like a blink effect.
@@mrpinguimninja yeah, her ability only shuffles her in the library if she's still on the board, so immediately bouncing her back to your hand with, say a skull snatcher, it counts as a replacement effect and stays in your hand.
Though it will cost 5 mana total.
As an Umezawa super fan, building Satoru has yet again completed my collection of all 4 Umezawa legends in commander. Hyped to learn these tricks for the new deck!
0:55 I'm glad seeing this here. Because on Satoru Umezawa's Gatherer's page there are multiple mistakes "As you activate a ninjutsu ability, you reveal the Ninja card" "Although the Ninja is attacking" instead of "you reveal the creature" "Although the creature is attacking" This is probably a copy/paste error since Ninjutsu only showed up on Ninja cards before. But it could still lead to some arguments at some tables ^^ '
the first strike trick is so techy!
could we take it further with double strike? 🤔🤔
Well, you can take it exactly as far - you will lose out on the "second" strike of the creature. But it's still doable!
If you ninjustu a creature with last strike (silver border mechanic) you could deal damage 3 times.
Gurmag Swiftwing has been in my yuriko deck since it use to be my vela deck
Given that you can activate ninjutsu duringbthe declare blockers phase you can then use an instant to grant the first ninja first strike then between first strike damage and normal combat damage you can ninjutsu in a second ninja and if you have a ronin wsr club or sai of the shinobi their equip triggers break timing restrictions on when you can equip things
@@GoodMorningMagic so if the NINJA has double stirke, they wouldn't get the FIRST strike damage just the regular strike since the first strike phase already happened?
I like playing "Future sight" in my ninjutsu decks as it reads - "You may play the top card of your library as though it were in your hand."
The top of your deck IS revealed so opponents might see what's about to happen before you do it, but then that could also be used as "Bait" and throw them off guard when u ninjutsu from your hand instead.
Love the fact that Ninjutsu can be used as a way to protect from board wipes, I honestly didn't know you could do that
That First strike/Ninjutsu combat trick is equivalent to a 360 No Scope... 🤯
Nice Video and well explained.
I already knew those tricks, since i digged deep into the rules when i did build my first Ninja Commander Deck, but i applaud you bringing them all up it took me some weeks to find this stuff out.
If i could give a tipp, i would say to remember that Ninjutsu is an activated ability and can be reduced by Heartstone and Zirda, the Dawnwaker.
Biomancer's Familiar, and Training Grounds won't work because they only reduce for creatures you control.
A fun use of the looping trick is to get around removal. You attack and they let it through. You then use it to ninjitsu in a creature, likely with a damage effect they don't like (draw, discard, bounce) so they try to kill it before damage. You then use a different ninja in your hand to save it.
The winning move is ninjutsu in a Blightsteel Colossus for 4 or less mana, insta kill a player, then ninjutsu a measly 1 mana ninja, allowing you to hold onto Blightsteel for another lethal strike later on
@4:35 I am glad this video exist now because multiple times I have had local judges say I cannot do this, when I was sure I could.
A trick I used was I had two attackers. One wasn't blocked, and one was dokuchi silencer. I ninjutsud the card back to my hand after blockers were declared and played a shriekmaw. I killed the creature blocking my silencer. Went to damage, silencer dealt damage and i used his effect to kill one of his other creatures that stayed back. Wasn't a big play, but made me feel more intelligent than I probably am.
That is sick I'm adding shriekmaw to my ninja deck now
I'm a returning Magic player thanks to Neon Dynasty and building my first ever Commander deck with Ninjas, so this video is a great help! Thank you!
Me too! My younger friends are always complaining about my vintage cards “oh thats OP” “oh I think that’s banned”. Built a sixty card ninjutsu deck 95% kamigawa, its a killer
Edit: Etrata can't be blocked and deals a hit counter to a creature and exiles it. (You win the game after 3 hit counters.) Then shuffles it back into the deck, you can avoid the shuffle into your deck by ninjutsuing her back into your hand after combat damage. And with a few haste cards you can attack immediate without having to worry about summoning sickness. It's pretty brutal in modern/pioneer.
I use ninjutsu with my 4 Etrata the silencer's. I have 4, 1 black and 1 colorless ninjas with that ninjutsu cost plus 2 Satoru Umezawa. So if I don't have those 4 ninjas, it's all good I can just have any card with ninjutsu for a cost of 4 which works great by turn 5 if I can get an Etrata and an Umezawa. With mana on each turn.
Do you have a deck list for this?!
Very cool!
Hey! Regarding the final 1st Strike trick, many years ago, even before Yuriko saw print, I built a Wydwen Ninjutsu deck that wants to actively find Bladed Pinion to hook onto an attacker. Deal 1st Strike damage, then Ninja-in the next “battle player”. Ronin Warclub was an excellent addition to this shenanigan too
I love the mechanic and had no idea it was this versatile. I hope Arena can handle these edge cases well since, at least to me, it has been the best tool for learning other complicated mechanics and interactions.
in the Commander format Derevi, Empyrial Tactician and ninjitsu ignore commander tax fyi.
my favorite ninjitsu trick is to attack with an unblockable creature while sataru in on the field, then ninjitsu in blightsteel and insta kill someone.
Now I want ninjas even more! I want the old ones and the ones to come. Thanks for showing us that first strike trick! Personal opinion: revisiting the early sets is awesome for some casual players so we can remember the old days. cheers
Thanks for sharing. Been looking into incorporating ninjutsu into my decks, but didn't really know how to work it out. Now I have an idea!!!!
All fun in theory. In practice, opponent turn 2 ranger class, turn 3 4 4 troll , concede with your ninja deck.
In practice, opponent just blocks. no ninjitsu anymore xD but to be fair I got mythic with ninjas, so its not THAT bad.
You didn't mention "Cunning evasion", or newer "Grazilaax" trick, where for ex.: you attack with 2 creatures (yuriko and a normal 2/2), the other player has a 3/3 and blocks Yuriko, then the Cunning evasion triggers and you return her in your hand. At this point the 2/2 is unblocked and you ninjutsu yuriko on him. That is very useful.
It was good to see my pet card Tetsuko Umezawa make an appearance. She's been the cornerstone for getting attacks through for my Blue ninja deck since Modern Horizons gave us such great gifts as Mist-Syndicate Naga. Good Times, Gavin!
Use Satoru to switch infinitely between Peregrine Drake and Great Whale. Blue Sun the opponent out of the game
I think i would play urza and activate until i hit Approach of the second sun twice. Or tendrils.
Sakashima's student has been able to do this for years. Sakashimas Student and Great Whale were a win con in one of my oldest EDH decks.
This is actually real nice to get hyped for the new set and a good refresher how the keyword works thx
So given I got a Pre-Release box of Kamigawa: ND, and me having not played Ninjas or Vehicles (the other card I got a few of) before, this was super useful! That "First Strike" mechanic was so good, not something I may have thought of, and now the idea behind my new deck build!
love it, while i already knew all the tips in this video and how the steps work i found this video great to share with my less experienced group mainly because of the detailed explanation told in such a short time frame
Gonna have to have this video queued up when I try any of these shenanigans
These notions were in my head but under piles of stuff. Thanks for making me brush up them!
As an Etrata EDH player I appreciate you making this video and getting the gears turning in everyone’s heads :)
Looping ninjutsu was one of my (many) win conditions in one of my earliest commander decks, a Vela combo deck. I'd swing with something and then ninja in a sakashima's student copying a palinchron or great whale, untapping seven lands which I'd use to ninja it out for a different ninja then back in to repeat. Vela's triggered ability did the rest. :)
Teenaged me was so proud of myself when I realized it on the fly one game and won that way.
As someone who played Aleshacrats before Extus got spoiled I looooove the end of combat step. Good ol' Reconnaissance.
Thanks for the tips, Gavin. I'm definitely going to have to remember these tricks when I build a sultai ninjas list I'm working on. And if ur wondering what green is for, pump spells. Just pump spells. Attack with a Phantom Warrior, ninjutsu in Ninja of the Deep Hours, Giant Growth, Giant Growth, and they're dead. 👌
Using ninjutsu to return a creature you don't own its owner's hand after you've stolen it is a cool tempo play forcing them to recast it
Though when blue and black steal creatures, you usually don't have to worry about giving them back, so that's a little less useful for the average ninja.
Stealing their blocker with gilded drake, then paying 1-2 mana for a spell to bounce "their" gilded drake to your hand is definitely the superior play here..
that is nice but i prefer to sac it if i cant keep it and if it was a good card then nuking their grave yard
@@oniserval that won't work because you have to bounce an unblocked attacking creature you control and you don't control the drake.
@@baumstammkurbel I didn't say ninjutsu with the drake, cast a 1-2 mana bounce spell. Snap, cyclonic rift, run away together, etc.
Idk how I missed multiple njnjutsu after playing the mechanic in pauper so often. Seems great for picking up multiple spellstutter sprites.
My favourite trick you didn't go over is saving a creature from a removal spell. Although that isn't super specific to ninjutsu.
At a table of decent players that know you play ninjas, this will rarely help. A decent player knows do deal with creatures that won't be blocked Before they are not blocked😁
Anyone who does not know this, I'll respond with ninjutsu, explain why their spell fizzled, then they say if they knew that, they'd have done it before blocking, and I'll let them.
Yuriko is too good to not give newish players a fighting chance.
Thank you Gavin! This new Satoru Umezawa with the new tricks you showed me my ETB deck will be nuts :D
The other note is that ninjitsu is not a cost discount as it usually seems. The total cost to bring in the creature is the ninjutsu cost PLUS the cost of the unblocked fodder you are bouncing
That's kind of the downside, so many of the cards only have mildly useful effects, deal combat damage draw 1 card or otherwise underwhelming. It's a tempo loss for not entirely enough to justify it on it's own. You just paid for 2 creatures, got to keep one, and then maybe drew a card, and now you've spent mana you can't use to hold in reserve to counter spell or w/e. It's the handful of of fun ones like Thousand-Faced Shadow becoming a copy of something else, or taking advantage of other come into triggers, or paying 4 mana to Ninjutsu a Blightsteel Colossus into play, that'll do something.
As for the cost keep in mind these mostly blue and/or black cards, that makes tempo a bit more crucial if you're not ramping mana.
@@TheJadeFisttempo is one thing, but Gavin mentioned doing it before boardwipes so it's value you were gonna lose anyway right
Don't get too excited people.. there are only 7 Cards in the set with "First Strike" in the Oracle Text of the card.. One is the Equipment Sword that doesn't give it, another is the Mythic Planeswalker, Kindled Fury (an instant), and one is a Saga..
You'd all have better luck putting "Nezumi Prowler" several times into play with excess Mana, giving as many creatures both Deathtouch and Lifelink..
Should have watched this yesterday before my pre-release.... Tremendous Help. Have One again today, lets hope for good ninjutsu pulls. Love this mechanic
One more trick that might not come up often, but if your opponent tries to cast some removal on your unblocked attackers after the blocker step, you can ninjutsu at instant speed to save your creature (and potentially fizzle the spell). Same thing if they have some triggered ability that could get rid of your attackers after receiving damage
I now have to completely remake my EDH ninja deck. Thank you so much for these devious new ideas!
As a Yuriko player and longtime fan of Ninja creatures, I appreciate this video!
I did know all these tricks, my usual one was to double dip on Drana, Liberator of Malakir's combat damage trigger. Before it resolves (putting a +1/+1 counter on each of my tapped and attacking creatures) I'd swap her back to hand and put a Ninja out, giving it the extra buff in stats, and letting it hit for just a bit more. It also puts Yuriko out of bolt range which is relevant more than it should be.
Well, I knew all but the third interaction. The second one's especially obvious if you've ever encountered the card Reconnaissance.
I love using the ninjutsu trick with Drana, Liberator of Malakir. First strike damage and then ninjutsu with the trigger on the stack so not only do you get to double dip, but your ninja comes in with a +1/+1 counter. I have had to explain a few times that this was a legal play lol
I learned a lot of new stuff today. Time to get my Yuriko deck off the shelf and start playing it properly!
Trick #3 is even more silly with instant speed wraths like Rout. Since the COST is putting it in your hand, the effect (put this card on the battlefield) goes on the stack. So after you bounce your three things, play Rout while Mistblade Shinobi is on the stack. Once the stack starts to resolve, Rout goes off first, then nukes the board. THEN your Ninjutsu ability resolves, putting it on the battlefield... possibly still able to deal damage and draw a card or whatever other effect it has from combat damage. All your stuff is safe, include the 'sacrificial' ninja.
Another scenario for "Looping Ninjutsu" rules niche is to dodge removal during combat. If your opponents lets a creature through with the intent of using Lightning Bolt/Swords/etc on the Ninja you replace it with, you can return that Ninja for another Ninjutsu creature. The removal spell checks for the creature that's left the battlefield and fizzles.
It gives me so much respect for the card design team that you explain all the exploits to the rules before you even release the set, making it clear that you made the set with the exploits in hand. Most games work the opposite way: they come out and people exploit a rule until some time later a designer's commentary is released saying "guys don't do this, this rule was obviously not meant for that".
May I ask how many of the Ninjutsu exploits did you know ow before the first time Ninjutsu was released?
Gaven out here teaching us some learning
Ninjas work really well with Etrata
After this video i'm actually sugesting my lgs to invite an extra judge for the pre release because OOOOOG BOOOOY, THIS GONNA BE CRAZYYYYY
This video inspired me to make a Volrath, the Shapestealer deck with a Ninjutsu subtheme. Just a different take on a ninja deck. Looking forward to the sweet upgrades I'll get for it from Neon Dynasty.
I think many people also forget that you can counter ninjutsu. It's an activated ability, and cards like Bind and Defabricate can counter target activated ability. Doing this will cause the cards to be returned without anything else coming into play.
Also ninjutsu does not say target so if your card has an equipment that gives shroud like whispersilk cloak you can still use ninjutsu on that card
I knew all of these except the bouncing multiples one. That blew my mind. Of course it should work like that, why didn't I think of that earlier?!
Etrata, the Silencer works extremely well with ninjutsu. Responding to her combat damage trigger to bounce her to your hand instead of losing her to the shuffle makes her a quick finisher for commander games.
In what marvel universe? :D Sure it's a good theory, but I don't know what kind of games are played in your country, but in mine you take something like 4-5 turns to do that.. when you already must have like 7-8 mana available. At that point if you reach to do his damage twice and the game isn't already over is a miracle. I would't remember it in the list of "Quick finishers" tbh. I've never seen a game won by her either.
Some of this is why Reconnaissance is a stupid, stupid card for just W. Even if all it did was give Vigilance for W, it'd be busted, but it does so much more. Why does it do so much more? Who knows, but it does.
It had functional errata for a while that made it only work before combat damage, but that's since been reverted.
It would not be busted if it just gave vigilance. you overestimate vigilance with no other keywords. It’s very specific as to when it’s good
Multiple Ninjutsu also seems great for saving attacking creatures from a boardwipe like Settle the Wreckage.
I really like using cards like Ukkima, Stalking Shadow who is unblockable and still does his damage when he trades places with a ninja and returns to hand. My favorite thing about Satoru's ninjutsu is that you can play any creature card *even cards not in the colors black or blue* which lends to the possibility of some real surprises.
I'm not sure if there's a combo by playing with loop ninjutsu to continually bring back Smoke Shroud from the graveyard to activate effects that care about enchantments. I guess you could mill with Sage of Mysteries. The better combo with loop ninjutsu probably lies with Sakashima's Student, since it can come in as any creature, and thus activate a wider variety of effects. A foretold Mystic Reflection and loop ninjutsu could take it further to cause a "shadow clone jutsu" effect.
Almost done with a Ninja deck so I am adding this to favorites, because I know as soon as I pull off that end of combat trick "you can't do that" is gonna fly out of some mouths!
My 'trick' that I believe works in multiplayer:
because the ninjutsu-placed creature is put into play attacking after the declare blockers step, you could potentially attack a player, then after blocks ninjutsu in a creature attacking a different player (considering that there is no restriction on what the placed creature is attacking). This would allow you to attack past potential blockers if another opponent is open
Doesn't work because of a specific rule with Ninjutsu, actually. Nice try though! :D
702.49c A ninjutsu ability may be activated only while a creature on the battlefield is unblocked (see rule 509.1h). The creature with ninjutsu is put onto the battlefield unblocked. It will be attacking the same player or planeswalker as the creature that was returned to its owner’s hand.
That one where you deal damage and then just bounce back the creature to your hand via ninjutsu is one I use a lot in my Etrata, the Silencer deck, so you get the damage, you get the creature exiling trigger+hit counter and before you shuffle her back into your deck you get her back into your hand.
My personal favorite thing to do with Ninjutsu involves my Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign EDH deck. I love attacking with Yennett, putting her trigger on the stack, and then because Flying and Menace make her super annoying to block, Ninjutsu in one of my favorite Ninjas (who all also happen to have an odd mana value for Yennett shenanigans) like Fallen Shinobi, Silent-Blade Oni, or Yuriko. Double dipping like that is so much fun!
Oh and since Satoru Umezawa has an odd mana value I will definately be trying him out in that deck!
The first strike trick is so cool!
I need to try it later.
That multiple ninjutsu trick could also be great for playing against a Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts. All your creatures hit, trigger Teysa, activate your ninja before her ability resolves.
Ninjutsu can combo super well with Encore as well. If the Encore token isn't blocked you can ninjutsu it. Token will poof from returning to hand but Ninjutsu doesn't really care about that. Great way to sneak out some extra value from that recursion.
Being a ninja player, i knew all of these except for the multiple ninjitsu one. Will surely come in handy in the future!
Dayum....... thanks for this...... this is gonna make my commander yuriko deck even better knowing this....... thanks
thanks for the tips. I’m new to the game and kamigawa ninjutsu was super confusing to me. I just got a new booster box and I’m gonna try building a ninjustsu deck with it!
Saw ninjutsu at prerelease. My first black blue variation included using virus beetle to attack then constantly using ninjutsu to replace and replay it to essentially keep an opponents hand empty
Making multiple copies of ukkima, stalking shadow with all the sakishimas, then clear them off the field with one ninja... That sounds satisfying
I enjoy equipping Konda, Lord of Eiganjo with Grappling Hook, Kusari-Gama, and Neko-Te and swinging away with other creatures, so I can bring in my ninjas.
new to the stream! I build MTG mechanics for DnD on DMsGuild... LOVE ninjitsu interaction! Thanks for the deep deive. :)
I'm definitely putting this in my own ninja deck. If not only for the slight chance I get to ninjutsu out Etrata
Turn 1 bring in a cheap un-blockable (I.E. Slither Blade), up until turn 2 attack with un-blockable to get them used to not being able to stop damage. Turn 3 Get out Satoru and attack with un-blockable. Turn 4 Attack with un-blockable then Ninjitsu in Blightsteel Colossus with infect for 11 Poison counters and a 4 round win. Works with other large creatures but you will have to figure out how to give them Infect (Tainted Strike).
I actually have a 2 person cube with abyssal persecutor in it. There are some sacrifice shenanigans to help get around the drawback. But I was just expanding the cube and happened to add skullsnatcher. I didn’t think of using ninjutsu to get the demon out of the way! I like that little interaction hidden in there now!
Attacking with master of cruelties and then ninjutsuing in a creature is so good
Favorite expensive mana ninja trick I do is Cast my commander (Chromium, the Mutable) from the command zone. then Ninjustu it on my turn.Let the turns go by and recast my commander after a turncycle goes through
Ohhhhh, I laughed out loud! Satorou is gonna be crazy!
I love how flavorful these accidental technically allowed things are.
Peregrine drake and thousand-faced shadow means any ammount of unblocked attackers.
Sakashimas student and something like mistblade can combine with Peregrine drake to make any ammount of mana in combat. Great with instants or simply getting expensive ninjutso with mana to spare.
I did it! I broke peregrine drake! But still. If you do play Yuriko the drake is great eitherway, so interacting with it is useful.
I didn't know about the first strike trick until now. Time to make a Pauper deck with Battlefield Raptor and Ninja of the Deep Hours, and maybe Serra Diciple as well.
The ninjutsu trick at "end of combat" can keep your yuriko from dieing lol
The kind of trick your lgs opponent call a judge on each time and you're nervous if they'll know you can do it :')
I love using this to prevent my Etrata, The Silencer from shuffling herself into the library :3 it does help that she's unlockable and exiles a creature on hit, too.
My favorite Ninjutsu trick is blocking the ninja with the fourth most powerful card in magic: Curtain of Light.
Just saw 2 short "stories" on Daily.MTG that showed two vertical arts depicting a kimono and a fang. Clearly a glimpse that Sagas (or a variant) is returning in this set.
Dang, I liked when someone called a judge on a play and saw me, and they knew what I was doing. Glad word is getting around though.
A not so loophole, but i'm totally sneaking an eldrazi or two or something equally absurd into my soon to be built ninja deck, simply for that card that gives units in your hand the ninjutsu ability.
With sakashima’s student you can have some that can’t attack attack… like medomai on an extra turn