[Deck] Ninjas

[Nabbydian]

[DECK] MODERN NINJAS


1.0 Introduction:

I have always have a soft spot for Ninjas, and was very excited to know WoTC developed this tribe in the Kamigawa block when i came back to the game last year.

As the Ninjas comes only in Blue & Black, these will be our key colors in a Ninja built, below is a mini-primer with a B/U Ninja Decklist.

2.0 Card Choices:

Ninjas: - The creatures call Ninjas

Higure, the Still Wind - Ninja Tutor allowing us to search NoDH for CA, Slitter to kill non-black creatures or Shinobi to bounce black creatures you cant kill with Slitter. Somemore Higure is able to make your Ninjas unblockable(including himself) for a very affordable 2 mana which can be utilise multiple times. Higure is also strong enough to stay out of Lightning bolt & Helix range.

Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni - Win con. Critical to turning a losing game board around. Regneration is also useful here.

Mistblade Shinobi- Stall board & delay so the legendary Ninjas can join in the battle. Does a decent job of disruption opponent's tempo at a very low Ninjutsu cost

Ninja of the Deep Hours - Best card draw a ninja can possibly have @ a low Ninjutsu cost. Can come down on the second turn as long as you have an Ninja enabler on the first turn.

Throat Slitter - Doom blade on a ninja.


Ninjas enablers: - Ninjas Tech

Ornithopter - Evasion and free casting cost.
Signal Pest - Evasion and useful battlecry.
Zephyr Sprite - Evasion and supports Spellstutter Sprite's ability.
Spellstutter Sprite - Evasion and counterspell in one.
Vendilion Clique - Evasion, card manipulation and supports Spellstutter Sprite's ability.
Dimir Infiltrator - Evasion and useful transmute.

Equipments - Ninja's Tools

Mask of Riddles - Gives Evasion and useful card draw.
Ronin Warclub - Tailor made for Ninja Tech.
Loxodon Warhammer - Lifelink crucial in buying time before legends arrives.
Quietus Spike - Deathtouch on our 1/1, worth the trade-off everytime.
Whispersilk Cloak - Shroud and card draw.
Mask of Memory - Useful Card draw.
Sword of Feast and Famine
Sword of Body and Mind

Spells - Ninja's tricks

Distortion Strike - Tailor made for Ninjas.
Familiar's Ruse - Counter spells and 'recycle' our Ninja tech & Spellstutter or return Ornithopter at no cost.
Go for the throat - Remove creatures
Aether Tradewinds - Utility bounce spell.
Echoing Truth - Utility bounce spell.
Mana Leak - Cheap counterspell.
Spell Pierce - May be required to stop opponents' removal on our Ninjas.
Inquisition of Kozilek - Disrupt by discard.
Duress - Limited discard spell.
Thoughtseize - Disrupt by discard.

Land - Ninja's training ground

Creeping Tar Pit, Mutavault, Blinkmoth Nexus , Inkmoth Nexus - Evasion option when board stalls, mostly played during emergency purposes, when you really need to use Ninjutsu.

Minamo, School at Water's Edge - Useful because have a few legends in Clique, Higure and Ink-eyes.

Shizo, Death's Storehouse - Gives evasion to legends, good for Clique, Higure and Ink-eyes.


3.0 Decklist:

There are a few different variants available at the moment, we can either go for heavy hand disruption, counter-suite with Faeries or Mana Ramp with & without Erayo.
Possible Ninjas decks in the pipeline:

Modern Ninja - Sept 2011


//Creatures- Ninjas [10]:

2 Higure, the Still Wind
1 Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni
3 Mistblade Shinobi
4 Ninja of the Deep Hours

//Creatures- Ninja Enablers [14]:
4 Ornithopter
4 Zephyr Sprite
4 Spellstutter Sprite
2 Vendilion Clique

//Spells [14]
4 Distortion Strike
4 Familiar's Ruse
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Thoughtseize

//Lands [22]
1 Creeping Tar Pit
4 Drowned Catacombs
1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
3 Mutavault
7 Island
6 Swamp

[sporenfrosch1411]

Nice overview, but it really begs for card tags, so the cards can be "mouse-overed". Also, this kinda does not look competitive - but i have not yet tried it out to be honest, so it's just a thought looking at the list.

[Phoenix Ignition]

Distortion strike is bad. You should just run +2 thoughtseize +2 Sword of feast and famine. Also Throat Slitter is very good, at the very least as a 1 of.

[Litorers]

I've been working on a similar decklist, but took a more traditional U/B control list with more pinpoint removal and much more counter. No idea which is better, so I can't really say much else about that. What I can say is that the new snapcaster mage looks absolutely INSANE in this kind of deck, allowing us to reuse removal/discard/counterspells, and then letting us do it again every single time he can get through unblocked. And also, in my experience, shriek-maw has been insane if you can get him going with a couple ninjas in hand.

[Nabbydian]

Sorry about the lack of card tags, I haven't posted here in a while thus forgotten how to do so. I'll edit the card tags into the OP tonight.

Nice to hear some interest on the Ninjas. The deck may look deceptively bad from a glance but in fact it turns out rather decently. I have playtested against Modern Tier one Zoo, Mono-G 12 posts & Legacy Caw-blade/Combo decks and i'm quite satisfied with the deck performances.

[Litorers]

So I've been trying to tune out a more U/B control list of this deck....
Nothing's set in absolute stone, but I like most of the creature/spell counts, although since the meta game fluctuates so much, it's hard to pin down anything as good. The Shriekmaw and throat slitter could both be snapcaster mages, but I haven't truly tried them yet.
The repeal should be something else.... Not sure what yet though
Just looking for help on tuning this thing, it seems like it definitely has some potential.

Main deck: 60 cards

Creatures: 15 cards

spellstutter sprite x4
ninja of the deep hours x4
oona's prowler x2 (makes the deck kill quicker and turns on the mistbind cliques and spelstutter's)
mistbind clique x2
vendilion clique x1
shriekmaw x1
throat slitter x1

Counter magic 10 cards

mana leak x4
spell snare x2
remand x1
faerie trickery x1
dissipate x1
spell burst x1

Removal: 7 cards

doom blade x3
go for the throat x2
dismember x2

Utility/discard: 5 cards

inquisition of kozilek x4
repeal x1

Lands: 23 cards

secluded glen x4
darkslick shores x4
river of tears x3
ghost quarter x2
island x7
swamp x4

The deck feels fine but at 22 lands it just sounds shaky.... I'm trying to figure out the definitive problem match-ups to shape the sideboard, but I'm not quite testing yet, so that'll have to wait. Some slots to zoo seems reasonable, as it's such a huge part of the meta game.

Please help :)
Thanks!

Fixed the card links, thanks for the help :)
Also, forgot to write that shock lands were purposely avoided to make life loss negligible... I'm pretty sure it's worth it in the current meta, but have no solid proof.

[Davran]

And if someone could tell me how to make my cards actually linked...that'd be great, I wasn't able to find it in the FAQ....

The tags you need are [ cards] and [ /cards] (without the spaces).

[Jabari]

So I've been trying to tune out a more U/B control list of this deck....
Nothing's set in absolute stone, but I like most of the creature/spell counts, although since the meta game fluctuates so much, it's hard to pin down anything as good. The [card]Shriekmaw[/card] and [card]throatslitter[/card] could both be [card]snapcaster mage[/card]s, but I haven't truly tried them yet.
The [card]repeal[/card] should be something else.... Not sure what yet though
Just looking for help on tuning this thing, it seems like it definitely has some potential.

Main deck: 60 cards

Creatures: 15 cards

4 spellstutter sprite
4 ninja of the deep hours
2 oona's prowler (makes the deck kill quicker and turns on the mistbind cliques and spelstutter's)
2 mistbind clique
1 vendilion clique
1 shriekmaw
1 throat slitter

Counter magic 10 cards

4 mana leak
2 spell snare
1 remand
1 faerie trickery
1 dissipate
1 spell burst

Removal: 7 cards

3 doom blade
2 go for the throat
2 dismember

Utility/discard: 5 cards

4 inquisition of kozilek
1 repeal (This should be something else, probably a land)

Lands: 22 cards

4 secluded glen
4 darkslick shores
3 river of tears
2 ghost quarter
6 island
4 swamp

The deck feels fine but at 22 lands it just sounds shaky.... I'm trying to figure out the definitive problem match-ups to shape the sideboard, but I'm not quite testing yet, so that'll have to wait. Some slots to zoo seems reasonable, as it's such a huge part of the meta game.

Please help :)
Thanks!

And if someone could tell me how to make my cards actually linked...that'd be great, I wasn't able to find it in the FAQ....

You're welcome.

[Litorers]

Thanks guys!
Anyone playing with a similar list?
Any huge, obvious holes?

[Nabbydian]

Thanks guys!
Anyone playing with a similar list?
Any huge, obvious holes?

Anyone else playing Ninjas lately?

This is the current list i'm running. And it's a blast playing it. Artful Dodge is a card I'm looking at to replace the existing Distortion Strike.


Modern Blue/Black Ninjas


//Creatures- Ninjas [10]:
2 Higure, the Still Wind
1 Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni
3 Mistblade Shinobi
4 Ninja of the Deep Hours

//Creatures- Ninja Enablers [12]:
4 Ornithopter
3 Zephyr Sprite
4 Spellstutter Sprite
1 Vendilion Clique

//Artifacts [2]
2 Sword of Fire and Ice

//Spells [14]
4 Distortion Strike
4 Familiar's Ruse
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Thoughtseize

//Lands [22]
1 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
2 Misty Rainforest
3 Mutavault
2 Verdant Catacombs
1 Watery Grave
6 Island
6 Swamp

[Jabari]

How has discard been for you/what's in the sideboard? I don't foresee wanting to play with it whenever you're on the draw, in which case what do you side in?

Also might be worth trimming something to make room for a singleton Throat slitter considering you can tutor for it with Higure.

[bruizar]

This deck needs more Soaring Seacliff and more Student of Elements and more Signal Pest. Also, mistblade shinobi must be a 4-off.

[Nabbydian]

How has discard been for you/what's in the sideboard? I don't foresee wanting to play with it whenever you're on the draw, in which case what do you side in?

Also might be worth trimming something to make room for a singleton Throat slitter considering you can tutor for it with Higure.

Discard is necessary, to take out our opponent's removals so they can't target our ninjas. Opening hand discard be it on the play or draw is always good - we usually take out their best card or earliest threat and at the same time is able to know what's in their hand. The best first turn play would be an Ornithopter, discard followed by a Ninja of the Deep Hours on the second turn.

I felt Throat slitter can replace either 1x Distortion Strike or Ink eyes in my current decklist.

Sideboard wise, I thought of using Threads of Disloyalty, some graveyard hate etc..

This deck needs more Soaring Seacliff and more Student of Elements and more Signal Pest. Also, mistblade shinobi must be a 4-off.

Soaring Seacliff is useful, but it's CIPT may affect the deck tempo. It will slow down the deck considerably if we draw it early. We have enough ninja enablers in Ornithopter and faeries thus there is no space left for Student of Elements and Signal Pest. Mistblade is useful, but playing too many will weaken our matchups against decks with few creatures or combo.

[Nabbydian]

It has been a long time since I last posted here,

recently I have started playing with a Mono-Black Ninjas list which has a tribal rat theme around it, here goes:

Modern Rat Ninjas

//Creatures [26]:
3 Black Cat
4 Typhoid Rats
4 Skullsnatcher
4 Ravenous Rats
4 Chittering Rats
3 Throat Slitter
2 Okiba-Gang Shinobi
1 Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni
1 Patron of the Nezumi

//Spells [5]:
4 Night's Whisper
1 Undying Evil

//Artifacts [3]:
3 Infiltration Lens

//Planeswalkers [4]
4 Liliana of the Veil

//Lands [22]:
15 Swamp
4 Swarmyard
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 Blinkmoth Nexus

[nedleeds]

obvious cavern is obvious.

[Nabbydian]

obvious cavern is obvious.

Maybe. I did struggle for 2 black at times, considering there are 4 Swarmyards and the Blinkmoth...

[larofre]

Anyone else playing Ninjas lately?

This is the current list i'm running. And it's a blast playing it. Artful Dodge is a card I'm looking at to replace the existing Distortion Strike.


Modern Blue/Black Ninjas


//Creatures- Ninjas [10]:
2 Higure, the Still Wind
1 Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni
3 Mistblade Shinobi
4 Ninja of the Deep Hours

//Creatures- Ninja Enablers [12]:
4 Ornithopter
3 Zephyr Sprite
4 Spellstutter Sprite
1 Vendilion Clique

//Artifacts [2]
2 Sword of Fire and Ice

//Spells [14]
4 Distortion Strike
4 Familiar's Ruse
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Thoughtseize

//Lands [22]
1 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
2 Misty Rainforest
3 Mutavault
2 Verdant Catacombs
1 Watery Grave
6 Island
6 Swamp

Love your build and looking into building my own budget version for legacy casual play. What do you think? Also, did you consider adding any of the new Planechase ones in your build?

Thoughts? I'm really looking at making it as competitive as posible without adding 15$+ cards (i.e. swords, clique and seize) but would be open to adding 3 to 4 higher budget cards (10-15$) if they make the deck much more competitive. Thanks for your help!


//Creatures- Ninjas [12]:
2 Higure, the Still Wind
1 Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni
3 Mistblade Shinobi
4 Ninja of the Deep Hours
2 Throat Slitter

//Creatures- Ninja Enablers [14]:
2 Ornithopter
4 Cloud of Faeries
4 Zephyr Sprite
4 Spellstutter Sprite

//Spells [12]
4 Distortion Strike
3 Familiar's Ruse
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Duress

//Lands [22]
4 Drowned Catacomb
12 Island
6 Swamp

[Phoenix Ignition]

Cloud of Faeries isn't modern legal, which really does impact how good spellstutter and faeries are in the deck.