First, a little back-story about myself. I'm currently a final year law student in Reading, England. Didn't really expect to be playing much Magic here, so I left all my cards at home.
Fast forward to the release of Betrayers of Kamigawa, and my sudden interest in the new Ninjutsu mechanic. Saw the precon and HAD to get it. So I perform an Internet search, and find one store in town that sells cards.
Cracked open the Precon, and this was the decklist:
Hmm. Interesting. Anyway, the deck was designed by a member of R&D, right? Probably balanced and everything?
Wrong. After 4 or 5 games, a few things were evident.
1. Field of Reality. Why? Who knew that it cost so much to render a creature partially unblockable? You would think that it would cost less to allow a creature to get around everything or everything but Walls. Instead, it costs THREE mana to ensure that my Ninjas get around a single creature type. Talk about limited usage.
Ninja of the Deep Hours: Aha! The sages of Minamo have warded me from the grasp of the Kami! Nothing shall prevent me from infitrating the enemy's forces!
*Kitsune Blademaster shows up*
Ninja of the Deep Hours: Crap.
2. Ninjas really don't like direct damage. A single Glacial Ray, backed up with a few Arcane spells to splice onto, pretty much decimated my entire force. Ouch.
Higure: Go forth, my students, into the night. Be silent as shadows, swift as the wind...
*Glacial Ray with spliced Torrent of Stone*
*FOOSH* *CRUNCH* *SQUELCH*
Higure: ... deader than doornails...
3. Ronin Warclub is good in theory, but incredibly impractical. First of all, you don't want to tap out on Turn 3 to put equipment into play - you want to play with NINJAS. Second of all, it doesn't really matter how much damage your Ninja deals to other creatures, since they should be evading them anyway, and you don't really care about dealing massive amounts of damage to your opponent - you want the nifty Ninja tricks.
Dear Abby,
There's this girl I work with, who I think is really cute. Lets call her WoSW. Anyway, I do all these things to impress her, like hauling around a kickass Warclub, evading Spirits, that kind of thing. Thing is, she seems to pay more attention to this jerk I work with, MS. Always getting him out of tight spots, covering for him. I'm TWICE as buff as that wimp! What am I doing wrong?
Sincerely,
Ninja of the Deep Hours (but you can call me Dave)
Dear Dave,
I hate to be the one to break it to you, but girls aren't really impressed by displays of bravado. What they want is a guy who can overcome opponents DESPITE being a whole lot smaller than them. Brains over brawn. Using tactics, maybe long range weapons over Clubs? Try to show your more sensitive, and intelligent side, and who knows?
Best of luck,
Abby
4. MAN, is the deck mana hungry. Between Ninjutsu costs, bouncing tricks with Walker of Secret Ways, making Ninjas unblockable with Higure and replaying regular creatures, the deck almost NEVER has the luxury of being able to sit back and counter with the TWO measly counters provided in the deck. The same applies to Genju of the Falls. While it might be a decent card, it has almost NO synergy with the Ninjutsu ability.
Also of note are the many, MANY Walls in the deck. Ninjutsu only triggers off attacking creatures, so why bother with the River Kaijin and the Kaijin of the Vanishing Touch? Eliminating opposing threats are the job of Mistblade Shinobi and Shuriken.
The most obvious lost cause however, is Tomorrow, Azami's Familiar, which is aptly named, because tomorrow is the only time you're going to be able to get it into play. I managed to get it into play only once, and even then, I already had the game pretty much wrapped up.
Dear Mr Tomorrow,
It is with great regret that we inform that we have decided to terminate your contract of service. As your employer, we have decided that it would not be in the company's best interest to retain your services.
Several incidents have led to this decision:
1. The assault on the southern edge of the Takenuma Swamp, in which you not only arrived late for the battle, but were also late for the opening ceremony of the new strip mall that had been built after the swamp had been cleansed and paved over.
2. The defeat of our forces on the Araba, in which your depletion of our mana reserves resulted in our forces being unable to deploy further troops, allowing us to be overwhelmed by the enemy. You did however, to your credit, manage to engage with a lone Kitsune Blademaster, a fruitless encounter which left both parties with little more than scratched hides.
3. The incident in the Jukai forest, in which you were unable to incapacitate an undefended planeswalker, despite having ample time to do so and a notable absence of opposition.
In the light of this history of service, we have no choice but to give you your standard two weeks notice. We wish you only the best in your future endeavours.
Sincerely,
The Minamo Corporation
Next up: The deck's positive points and its evolution.
The first post was a bit of an intro, the rest is going to be a bit more about deck-building.
The deck's strong points:
1. Shuriken is AMAZING. Even with only 1-2 Ninjas on the table, it absolutely OWNS the board. Makes you wonder why more copies of it weren't included in the deck, at the expense of maybe less appropriate equipment. This begs the question - WHY was only one copy included? Sure, multiple Ninja can share a single Shuriken, but it'd be nice for it to show up more frequently in games.
Sensei: As ninja, you must all learn to respect your tools. Failure to do so can easily mean death.
Ninja trainees: Yes, sensei!
Sensei: Take for example the Shuriken - silent and effective, causing death where least expected. So too should you.
Ninja trainees: Yes, sensei!
Sensei: When wielding this deadly weapon, exercise the utmost caution. For only then can you truly strike fear into those that would dare stand in our way. Only then can you truly consider yourself ninja. And most importantly...
Ninja trainees: Yes, sensei!
Sensei: ...only then can you avoid losing it, since it's the only we have. We had all sorts of budget cuts in the ninja tool department this year, since we acquired the service of all those Kaijin and bought that pair of nifty bats. Maybe next year...
2. Student of Elements. Another winner here. The deck as it stands has 3 ways to trigger his flip condition, and almost every time Tobita showed up, the Ninja forces were unstoppable.
3. Phantom Wings. Evasion and sorcery speed bounce in a single tasty package.
Notice the emphasis on the fact that the deck has exactly THREE ways to grant a creature flying. For now, let's look at Lifted By Clouds. The cheaper cost to splice onto Arcane obviously means that the card is intended to be primarily used as a splicer. Reusability is good, since even if Tobita doesn't show up, you can still use it repeatedly to let your Ninja get through, as long as you have a steady stream of Arcane spells to splice it onto.
And there's the crux of the problem.
Look through the decklist again - how many Arcane spells do you see? If you answered 'one' you'd be correct. Guess what the Arcane spell is?
4. Mystic Restraints. I wouldn't have believed it myself, but the Restraints worked very well at locking down the lone blocker my opponent had left behind to prevent Ninjas from getting through.
5. Teardrop Kami. Very versatile in the deck. Favourite trick with the little guy was using him to squeeze out an extra use out of Shuriken.
With this in mind (and the deck's numerous weak points), I began to trim.
OUT
Tomorrow, Azami's Familiar
River Kaijin
Kaijin of the Vanishing Touch
Genju of the Falls
Ronin Warclub
Hinder
Minamo's Meddling
IN
Went up to 4 copies all the non-Rare Ninjas
Shuriken
Higure
Veil of Secrecy - both evasion and anti-direct damage
More Teardrop Kamis
Im deeply imressed, im hoping that nonjutsu kicks in the type2 meta or at least constuted. Im for adding black, and by adding forbidian orchard or ice bridge to balence out the colors. any hoo. see ya. il keep in touch
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Sets in Progress:
Genesis Complete!!! 306/306
(Land centered mechanics Affinity for lands; Synergy with lands (Affinity for activated abilities)
(Extended-ish Power level) PM me if you are interested
Awakening ?/180: Features Domain, with more land comes more mastery over the elements. Channel and Growth are expanded making landcasting more interesting.
Note: For all you folks out there at home keeping track, I'm not as concerned about the deck reaching 'tourney-level' status as I am about the process of making small transitional changes.
The journey is just as important, if not more so, than the destination
@Effeetsnob: You're new, I see - but that's no excuse fur all those horrible spelling errors. Please fix them the next time, or I might give you a warning.
Oh, and use the card-tags!
@Hvirfilvindr: Do you want to keep the deck T2-legal? Otherwise there would be some ways to improve your mana base...
I can't find a reason for that lonely Lifted by Clouds. How about dropping it and the 2 Phantom Wings (I never liked creature enchanrments) for 3 Psychic Puppetry?
Well, I have to say I'm quite impressed. I wish more people would review and revise pre-cons. It was quite funny too. I don't have much advice, except for the standard comment of go black, add more evasion critters... the 0/2 'copter, Will o' the Wisp, Nezumi Cutthroat type stuff.
Note to all the people offering suggestions:
Feel free to do so, but keep in mind that this is more an exercise in writing than an actual primer on the deck. Think of it as a review.
This is aimed at those of you who are:
a) Bored
b) Strapped for cash
c) Living in a miserable, cold location where there's nothing else to do
d) All of the above, which would indicate that you are ALSO a student residing in England
I'm actually trying out for the article writing team, and wanted to showcase a little of my writing style (just the first post; the ones after that aren't really polished or anything). Those of you who wish to see me cover more precons in the future, let me know. They won't be tournament quality, but they will make a lot more sense.
I'm a finalist, so I may take a while to respond to requests, so be patient. I respond well to bribes however, so should you happen to win the lottery and actually decide to mail me a precon, I will gladly write up a much longer article and post it on MTG Salvation.
EDIT: Yes, I know! I get it! Add Ornithopter! I have received at least FIVE PMs asking me why I haven't added them into the deck.
ophidian: My, what a fine day to go picking people's bains. I think i'll go see what memnarch has been thinking up for me.
*ophidian goes to steal memnarch's ideas, but they are gone!*
Ophidian: wtf?
*ophidian sees a ninja run off with rolled up blueprints*
Ophidian: Damn that sneaky good for nothing copycat ninja, just wait 'till i get my coils on him!
NotDH: Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!
NotDH: You will not catch me i am teh ninjabread man!
*ophidian lunges at the ninja; they bounce*
Ophidian: I wanted to read those plans.
NotDH: I got there first.
Ophidian: can i see 'em?
NotDH: No.
Ophidian: i don't have hands, i'm not going to run off with them.
NotDH: I suppose you can take a look.
The deck needs ophidians, you can attack, then draw with 'phid, then ninjitsu he ninja and draw another card.
Very good style. This will do nicely, since I am trying to find a suitable substitute for the MTG.com "Constructing Preconstructed" articles. No advice for now, but keep up the very good, very informative work! I'll probably do something similar eventually, though probably more when "Saviors" is near release, as to show the effects of a new set on a deck. I'll need to find a new deck, though- you took my Ninjitsu!
P.S. I lied. I think you should be a rebel and go mono-blue. It's what all the cool kids do, after all. Perhaps Sage Owl?;)
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Quote from releasethedogs »
also listen to yodafan he knows whats hes talking about
Quote from Penumbra Leprechaun »
Yeah, Yodafan's pretty much a EDH pro.
Yodafan: Official pro of one of Magic’s most casual formats.
The snippet was actually more or less done to showcase my writing ability. If there is sufficient demand, I'll give a similar (and COMPLETE) treatment to one of the precons from Saviors of Kamigawa once it's released.
I would also be interested if you did the same for a Saviours of Kamigawa theme deck. Maybe you could put up a poll and see which one you should choose. Or whichever you think sounds best, your choice.
Fast forward to the release of Betrayers of Kamigawa, and my sudden interest in the new Ninjutsu mechanic. Saw the precon and HAD to get it. So I perform an Internet search, and find one store in town that sells cards.
Cracked open the Precon, and this was the decklist:
1 Teardrop Kami
2 Kaijin of the Vanishing Touch
2 Minamo Sightbender
2 Soratami Cloudskater
2 Student of Elements
3 Mistblade Shinobi
3 River Kaijin
1 Walker of Secret Ways
3 Ninja of the Deep Hours
1 Soratami Mirror-Guard
1 Higure, the Still Wind
1 Tomorrow, Azami's Familiar
2 Genju of the Falls
2 Phantom Wings
1 Field of Reality
1 Lifted by Clouds
1 Hinder
1 Minamo's Meddling
3 Mystic Restraints
1 Shuriken
2 Ronin Warclub
Hmm. Interesting. Anyway, the deck was designed by a member of R&D, right? Probably balanced and everything?
Wrong. After 4 or 5 games, a few things were evident.
1. Field of Reality. Why? Who knew that it cost so much to render a creature partially unblockable? You would think that it would cost less to allow a creature to get around everything or everything but Walls. Instead, it costs THREE mana to ensure that my Ninjas get around a single creature type. Talk about limited usage.
Ninja of the Deep Hours: Aha! The sages of Minamo have warded me from the grasp of the Kami! Nothing shall prevent me from infitrating the enemy's forces!
*Kitsune Blademaster shows up*
Ninja of the Deep Hours: Crap.
2. Ninjas really don't like direct damage. A single Glacial Ray, backed up with a few Arcane spells to splice onto, pretty much decimated my entire force. Ouch.
Higure: Go forth, my students, into the night. Be silent as shadows, swift as the wind...
*Glacial Ray with spliced Torrent of Stone*
*FOOSH* *CRUNCH* *SQUELCH*
Higure: ... deader than doornails...
3. Ronin Warclub is good in theory, but incredibly impractical. First of all, you don't want to tap out on Turn 3 to put equipment into play - you want to play with NINJAS. Second of all, it doesn't really matter how much damage your Ninja deals to other creatures, since they should be evading them anyway, and you don't really care about dealing massive amounts of damage to your opponent - you want the nifty Ninja tricks.
Dear Abby,
There's this girl I work with, who I think is really cute. Lets call her WoSW. Anyway, I do all these things to impress her, like hauling around a kickass Warclub, evading Spirits, that kind of thing. Thing is, she seems to pay more attention to this jerk I work with, MS. Always getting him out of tight spots, covering for him. I'm TWICE as buff as that wimp! What am I doing wrong?
Sincerely,
Ninja of the Deep Hours (but you can call me Dave)
Dear Dave,
I hate to be the one to break it to you, but girls aren't really impressed by displays of bravado. What they want is a guy who can overcome opponents DESPITE being a whole lot smaller than them. Brains over brawn. Using tactics, maybe long range weapons over Clubs? Try to show your more sensitive, and intelligent side, and who knows?
Best of luck,
Abby
4. MAN, is the deck mana hungry. Between Ninjutsu costs, bouncing tricks with Walker of Secret Ways, making Ninjas unblockable with Higure and replaying regular creatures, the deck almost NEVER has the luxury of being able to sit back and counter with the TWO measly counters provided in the deck. The same applies to Genju of the Falls. While it might be a decent card, it has almost NO synergy with the Ninjutsu ability.
Also of note are the many, MANY Walls in the deck. Ninjutsu only triggers off attacking creatures, so why bother with the River Kaijin and the Kaijin of the Vanishing Touch? Eliminating opposing threats are the job of Mistblade Shinobi and Shuriken.
The most obvious lost cause however, is Tomorrow, Azami's Familiar, which is aptly named, because tomorrow is the only time you're going to be able to get it into play. I managed to get it into play only once, and even then, I already had the game pretty much wrapped up.
Dear Mr Tomorrow,
It is with great regret that we inform that we have decided to terminate your contract of service. As your employer, we have decided that it would not be in the company's best interest to retain your services.
Several incidents have led to this decision:
1. The assault on the southern edge of the Takenuma Swamp, in which you not only arrived late for the battle, but were also late for the opening ceremony of the new strip mall that had been built after the swamp had been cleansed and paved over.
2. The defeat of our forces on the Araba, in which your depletion of our mana reserves resulted in our forces being unable to deploy further troops, allowing us to be overwhelmed by the enemy. You did however, to your credit, manage to engage with a lone Kitsune Blademaster, a fruitless encounter which left both parties with little more than scratched hides.
3. The incident in the Jukai forest, in which you were unable to incapacitate an undefended planeswalker, despite having ample time to do so and a notable absence of opposition.
In the light of this history of service, we have no choice but to give you your standard two weeks notice. We wish you only the best in your future endeavours.
Sincerely,
The Minamo Corporation
Next up: The deck's positive points and its evolution.
The deck's strong points:
1. Shuriken is AMAZING. Even with only 1-2 Ninjas on the table, it absolutely OWNS the board. Makes you wonder why more copies of it weren't included in the deck, at the expense of maybe less appropriate equipment. This begs the question - WHY was only one copy included? Sure, multiple Ninja can share a single Shuriken, but it'd be nice for it to show up more frequently in games.
Sensei: As ninja, you must all learn to respect your tools. Failure to do so can easily mean death.
Ninja trainees: Yes, sensei!
Sensei: Take for example the Shuriken - silent and effective, causing death where least expected. So too should you.
Ninja trainees: Yes, sensei!
Sensei: When wielding this deadly weapon, exercise the utmost caution. For only then can you truly strike fear into those that would dare stand in our way. Only then can you truly consider yourself ninja. And most importantly...
Ninja trainees: Yes, sensei!
Sensei: ...only then can you avoid losing it, since it's the only we have. We had all sorts of budget cuts in the ninja tool department this year, since we acquired the service of all those Kaijin and bought that pair of nifty bats. Maybe next year...
2. Student of Elements. Another winner here. The deck as it stands has 3 ways to trigger his flip condition, and almost every time Tobita showed up, the Ninja forces were unstoppable.
3. Phantom Wings. Evasion and sorcery speed bounce in a single tasty package.
Notice the emphasis on the fact that the deck has exactly THREE ways to grant a creature flying. For now, let's look at Lifted By Clouds. The cheaper cost to splice onto Arcane obviously means that the card is intended to be primarily used as a splicer. Reusability is good, since even if Tobita doesn't show up, you can still use it repeatedly to let your Ninja get through, as long as you have a steady stream of Arcane spells to splice it onto.
And there's the crux of the problem.
Look through the decklist again - how many Arcane spells do you see? If you answered 'one' you'd be correct. Guess what the Arcane spell is?
4. Mystic Restraints. I wouldn't have believed it myself, but the Restraints worked very well at locking down the lone blocker my opponent had left behind to prevent Ninjas from getting through.
5. Teardrop Kami. Very versatile in the deck. Favourite trick with the little guy was using him to squeeze out an extra use out of Shuriken.
With this in mind (and the deck's numerous weak points), I began to trim.
OUT
Tomorrow, Azami's Familiar
River Kaijin
Kaijin of the Vanishing Touch
Genju of the Falls
Ronin Warclub
Hinder
Minamo's Meddling
IN
Went up to 4 copies all the non-Rare Ninjas
Shuriken
Higure
Veil of Secrecy - both evasion and anti-direct damage
More Teardrop Kamis
Decklist so far:
4 Teardrop Kami
2 Minamo Sightbender
2 Soratami Cloudskater
2 Student of Elements
4 Mistblade Shinobi
4 Walker of Secret Ways
4 Ninja of the Deep Hours
2 Higure, the Still Wind
2 Phantom Wings
1 Lifted by Clouds
4 Veil of Secrecy
3 Mystic Restraints
2 Shuriken
Genesis Complete!!! 306/306
(Land centered mechanics Affinity for lands; Synergy with lands (Affinity for activated abilities)
(Extended-ish Power level) PM me if you are interested
Awakening ?/180: Features Domain, with more land comes more mastery over the elements. Channel and Growth are expanded making landcasting more interesting.
The journey is just as important, if not more so, than the destination
But then there's no way to flip Student of Elements...unless you put in Guardian of Solitude or somesuch, and that's a bit of a conditional card...
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showpost.php?p=4557651&postcount=1
TheWarden's Creative Commons Music Pick Project (Retired):
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=336498
Feel free to do so, but keep in mind that this is more an exercise in writing than an actual primer on the deck. Think of it as a review.
This is aimed at those of you who are:
a) Bored
b) Strapped for cash
c) Living in a miserable, cold location where there's nothing else to do
d) All of the above, which would indicate that you are ALSO a student residing in England
I'm actually trying out for the article writing team, and wanted to showcase a little of my writing style (just the first post; the ones after that aren't really polished or anything). Those of you who wish to see me cover more precons in the future, let me know. They won't be tournament quality, but they will make a lot more sense.
I'm a finalist, so I may take a while to respond to requests, so be patient. I respond well to bribes however, so should you happen to win the lottery and actually decide to mail me a precon, I will gladly write up a much longer article and post it on MTG Salvation.
EDIT: Yes, I know! I get it! Add Ornithopter! I have received at least FIVE PMs asking me why I haven't added them into the deck.
*ophidian goes to steal memnarch's ideas, but they are gone!*
Ophidian: wtf?
*ophidian sees a ninja run off with rolled up blueprints*
Ophidian: Damn that sneaky good for nothing copycat ninja, just wait 'till i get my coils on him!
NotDH: Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!
NotDH: You will not catch me i am teh ninjabread man!
*ophidian lunges at the ninja; they bounce*
Ophidian: I wanted to read those plans.
NotDH: I got there first.
Ophidian: can i see 'em?
NotDH: No.
Ophidian: i don't have hands, i'm not going to run off with them.
NotDH: I suppose you can take a look.
The deck needs ophidians, you can attack, then draw with 'phid, then ninjitsu he ninja and draw another card.
P.S. I lied. I think you should be a rebel and go mono-blue. It's what all the cool kids do, after all. Perhaps Sage Owl?;)
Yodafan: Official pro of one of Magic’s most casual formats.
Tf you're throwin in a Thopter or three (and thus making it non-block) you should seriously consider a Neurok Hoversail.
I have no extendo-sig. Sorry, I'm just not vain enough to think someone will click on it.
Fully-powered 600-Card "Dream Cube" https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/dreamcube
450-Card "Artificer's Cube" https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/artificer
Cubing in Indianapolis...send me a PM!!