Hmm, I didn't really think of Stormbreath Dragon seriously until now. The monstrous ability doesn't seem too relevant, so Stormbreath effectively has Protection from white at cost of -1/-1 and the ETB ability, which seems to do very similar thing to the Protection. What relevant nonwhite fliers are there in Modern? I can only think of transformed Delver and some of the dudes in Affinity. So is I guess Protection from white is superior to the ETB ability (certainly if you can't kill the opponent immediately), considering it also avoids Path to Exile? But on the other had, it does less damage and dies to Dismember and Flame Slash...
Am I missing some other points?
The main reason why I thought about using Stormbreath Dragon was because of Path to Exile. Somehow I see too many UWR, BRW or even GW in my meta and I really need to make sure my 5 cmc creature survives, and that's how I lost my Higure usually.
I don't like Gitaxian Probe, especially not as a 4 of. It hurts so much
You can easily rack up 6 to 8 damage from them over the course of the game (assuming you snapcast them, which is why I would put them in the deck in the first place), which can be game deciding in many matchups.
Yup, Gitaxian Probe hurts if you are non-blue, otherwise I find it's life loss still manageable. Against fast aggressive deck it should probably be sided out though.
The main reason why I thought about using Stormbreath Dragon was because of Path to Exile. Somehow I see too many UWR, BRW or even GW in my meta and I really need to make sure my 5 cmc creature survives, and that's how I lost my Higure usually.
But people are also starting to play Flame Slash maindeck to deal with Spellskites and Deceiver Exarchs, I don't like losing my dragons to that And then there is also Galvanic Blast (though if you are playing Dragon of any kind against affinity, you are probably doing OK).
I haven't seen Flame Slash around yet, but honestly I might just play it in my UR Ninjas as well!
I do have issues against the likes of Spellskites and Deceiver Exarchs, while an early Flame Slash might just be enough to handle an opposing Goyf.
If the store owner says that I can't trade in the premises, I'll just go outside. If he says that I can't trade within 10m of his premises, I'll go to 11 meters. If he says that he doesn't want to see me trading, I will put a basket over his head and continue trading.
Yes, he's a local legend. He's only known to take his clothes off before he goes into the Ladies' Lockerroom. Nobody knows what he does in there because he's invisible, but it's almost certainly tons of masturbating.
In other news, I have had the "pleasure" to meet BUG Tarmo-twin for the first time. Damn that deck is obnoxious. They have so much higher thread density than we do - almost every card they play is a threat and needs to be responded to. They play Tarmogoyf on T2 and I need to kill it immediately or it will grow beyond reach of my removal. If I do, he will just combo off with Deceiver Exarch, which is already hard enough to kill...
Oh and don't even get me started on the event deck, those goddamn tokens are going to be everywhere...
Even the sounds of it feels obnoxious LOL. I never liked Tarmogoyf or the Splinter Twin combo, and yup, everything they play are huge threats which need to dealt with immediately, pretty much like against Junk and Jund.
I went 5/4 at the tournament. Im pleased that I won more than i lost. but i digress, to the matchups.
Game One:
vs. Junk Midrange
It was a nightmare. Junk midrange plays everything that hurts us: Tarmogoyf, Lingering souls, cheap -1/-1 boardsweepers, and path.
I landed a turn one delver and spellstuter sprited his top deck path to exile on turn two. delver refused to flip and he wiped the board with a golgari charm.
I had a dead ninja card in hand. throughout the next few turns, i proceeded to do damage control against his tarmogoyfs (spell snare), and liliana (lightning bolt) but he was playing
Stirring wildwood and could simultaneously block my flyers and beat down the following turn. Game 2 went similarly.
0-1
Game two:
Kid was playng with the skeleton of an EDH deck. It was terrible. Felt sorry for the guy.
1-1
Game Three:
vs. UWR Delver
the mirror-match was in his favor. I was getting bad draws and so was he. we both were cursing every turn as our delvers refuse to flip. (I hate delver at this point)
He eventually wins out due to more removal. Once he saw my ninja come out, he stared reserving his removal for them specifically. Comibination of grim lavamancer and multiple
geists of saint traft won him the game. :Note Spellstutter sprite combined with mutavault is awesome. It was common for me to cancel a lavamancer or path, etc. and still have a chump blocker for the 4/4s. Sadly I lose.
1-2
Game Four:
vs. UWR Control
This game was a wash in there favor. I was getting only 2 lands or nothing but land. His game plan was to sit back and wait for me to do something/anything. I was foolish and didn't wait back. He carved my deck up like a thanksgiving turkey. It was embarrasing. Id rather not discuss this match.
1-3
Game Five:
vs. Affinity
once again, i could not owe any real success to the ninja in my deck. Even so, i lost due to a turn 2 etched champion which turned into a turn 3 8/2 beater with pro everything. Not much you can do about it. He sided in hand disruption and took out my artifact removal in shattering spree and torpor orbed everything in my deck. killed the etc effects and thus the cornerstone of the decks strategy.
1-4
Game Six:
vs. Goblins
This is where my winning streak began. He would be on the play both times. He would land Goblin Guide turn one and proceed to deal damage and accelerate my game plan. Many times, the match would have me at low life before i would stabilize. Game two I was at 1 life for three turns before I won. The key players here where snapcaster mage and cryptic command, and venser. cryptic would tap and draw while venser would bounce a lord allow trades and effective blocking. once i got six mana up and started the Cryptic, Snapcaster, Cryptic combos, there was nothing he could do. Ninja of the Deep hours allowed me to reuse both Venser and Snapcaster mage twice in the last game: pure value.
2-4
Game Seven:
vs. Affinity
This went exactly opposite from my first affinity matchup. He would play competantly, but i would hold my spellstutter's back for cancelling key card. I would let him land his ornithopters and memnites, etc. But then flash in spellstutter for mox opal. I would Ninjitsu in Deep hours and reuse that spellstutter sprite later. I flash in V. Clique on turn three to cycle his etched champion. I also was able to prevent his card drawing with well timed spell pierces, and lock down his game. I smile lightly as I notice he has no cards in hand and nothing on the field.
3-4
Game Eight:
vs. Kiki-Twin
My delver finally flipped imediately and I was able to smash face. with a turn two flip, I proceeded to treat the rest of my deck as protection for delver. He would attempt to lighting bolt but spellstutter would stop that. Turn three I sit on a spellstutter and remand and let delver smash face. I cancel his end of turn Pestermite with a spellstutter feeding off the one on field and the mutavault. I turn four ninja a spellstutter and draw Higure. He attempts to land a Kiki-Jiki, which I remand. I send in Higure as I know he needs two turns now and beat him.
4-4
Game Nine:
vs. Melira Pod
I've play tested against this deck a lot, so I knew what to do. Im on the play and land an island and pass. He plays Noble hierarch on his turn 1 which i vapor snag. Turn two i draw/go. He attempts to land his hierarch again which I spellsutter. On my turn three, I Use NotDH and sit on a spell snare/spell pierce. He attempts voice which I snare. And on and on. I just prevent the ramping and wait to cancel birting pod, which never comes up. His bad luck i guess. Game two was very different.
He plays a kitchen finks on his turn two. There's nothing I can do about it except ignore it. My delver isnt flipping so I swing in with him everyturn. The Pod player allows it. on turn five i Ninja in Higure and he attempts to path which I pierce. The essential thing at this point is to not kill finks. He neverlanded his pod, so he simply exalted finks and swung in. Higure allowed a consistant 5 damage per turn as I only made NotDH unblockable and he was trying to keep his mana dorks alive. Im at two life, and hes at 6.
I use Bolt, Snapcaster,Bolt (one of the sickest combos in Modern right now) and win.
5-4
My general thoughts: Venser is quite good. The meta right now contains many midrange combo/attrition decks and venser works well in this environment. He can be a two for one quite easily, and people don't block him because he's not played allowing multiple uses. He also saves your lands from tec edges, bounces ninja back to hand, "counters" uncounterable spells, acts as emergency unsummon. I recommend at least one.
Higure is situational. I side him out against Delver, affinity, Zoo, or any fast deck. I wish I had two when playing against melira pod because he's beafy and allows me to get through their endless line of creatures. The best way to beat them is to not interact with their creatures. He's also desirable against mid-range decks.
Delver was okay. I will never play him in a Ninja deck again not because i ran into anti-synergy, but because I had to decrease the amount of spells that normal delver lists play. I would add a fourth snapcaster instead.
Mutavault is a must. When all else fails (which happens) i've beat face with them and won.
Spellstutter Sprite in Tandem with Mutavault was excellent. Modern likes 1,2,and 3 CMC things. SPellstutter should be self evident with Ninja.
I just played against an interesting modern variant of Mono-W Quest deck, which plays Quest for the Holy Relic early and then proceeds to flood the board with Memnites, Ornithopters and Squadron Hawks to quickly ramp to five counters on the quest, which then gets sacrificed for instant speed Argentum Armor. (embarrassingly enough, I lost to it after one mana screw and a horrendous misclick in third game )
That got me thinking...could't that work in an UW Ninja shell? Ninja decks like to bounce and reuse their creatures a lot and Ornithopter and the Hawk synergize well with ninjas. It probably wouldn't be a primary win-con, but an secondary play path.
I might just try that if I ever get bored with my UR ninjas
Even the sounds of it feels obnoxious LOL. I never liked Tarmogoyf or the Splinter Twin combo, and yup, everything they play are huge threats which need to dealt with immediately, pretty much like against Junk and Jund.
I very much enjoy playing against combo decks. Especially Twin can win out of nowhere, which makes the games really intense. But I also have a strong feeling of hatred towards Tarmogoyf...
I thought of using the Quest in a UW Ninjas build, we could easily insert 4x Ninja of the Deep Hours and 1x Mistblade Shinobi for some card drawing and to help increase the Quest counters quickly. We ever discussed before many many pages ago on this, but somehow I remember it just wasn't effective enough for some reason. Can't recall what was it about .
Ninjas tend to have a good matchups against Combo, we have hard counters for their key spells, while having the time to set up a good card drawing engine and offensive position at the same time. I remembered beating my friends' Splinter Twin and Gifts Ungiven decks pretty easily. Against Tarmogoyf, only the BU ninjas had any chance of fighting against it (because of Go for the Throat, Doom Blade & hand discard). The other Ninjas Variant such as UR, UG, U and UW tends to get walked all over by Goyf. I can barely handle the first Goyf and casting 2 Goyf in a row is usually curtains for me.
I went 5/4 at the tournament. Im pleased that I won more than i lost. but i digress, to the matchups.
Game One:
vs. Junk Midrange
It was a nightmare. Junk midrange plays everything that hurts us: Tarmogoyf, Lingering souls, cheap -1/-1 boardsweepers, and path.
I landed a turn one delver and spellstuter sprited his top deck path to exile on turn two. delver refused to flip and he wiped the board with a golgari charm.
I had a dead ninja card in hand. throughout the next few turns, i proceeded to do damage control against his tarmogoyfs (spell snare), and liliana (lightning bolt) but he was playing
Stirring wildwood and could simultaneously block my flyers and beat down the following turn. Game 2 went similarly.
0-1
Game two:
Kid was playng with the skeleton of an EDH deck. It was terrible. Felt sorry for the guy.
1-1
Game Three:
vs. UWR Delver
the mirror-match was in his favor. I was getting bad draws and so was he. we both were cursing every turn as our delvers refuse to flip. (I hate delver at this point)
He eventually wins out due to more removal. Once he saw my ninja come out, he stared reserving his removal for them specifically. Comibination of grim lavamancer and multiple
geists of saint traft won him the game. :Note Spellstutter sprite combined with mutavault is awesome. It was common for me to cancel a lavamancer or path, etc. and still have a chump blocker for the 4/4s. Sadly I lose.
1-2
Game Four:
vs. UWR Control
This game was a wash in there favor. I was getting only 2 lands or nothing but land. His game plan was to sit back and wait for me to do something/anything. I was foolish and didn't wait back. He carved my deck up like a thanksgiving turkey. It was embarrasing. Id rather not discuss this match.
1-3
Game Five:
vs. Affinity
once again, i could not owe any real success to the ninja in my deck. Even so, i lost due to a turn 2 etched champion which turned into a turn 3 8/2 beater with pro everything. Not much you can do about it. He sided in hand disruption and took out my artifact removal in shattering spree and torpor orbed everything in my deck. killed the etc effects and thus the cornerstone of the decks strategy.
1-4
Game Six:
vs. Goblins
This is where my winning streak began. He would be on the play both times. He would land Goblin Guide turn one and proceed to deal damage and accelerate my game plan. Many times, the match would have me at low life before i would stabilize. Game two I was at 1 life for three turns before I won. The key players here where snapcaster mage and cryptic command, and venser. cryptic would tap and draw while venser would bounce a lord allow trades and effective blocking. once i got six mana up and started the Cryptic, Snapcaster, Cryptic combos, there was nothing he could do. Ninja of the Deep hours allowed me to reuse both Venser and Snapcaster mage twice in the last game: pure value.
2-4
Game Seven:
vs. Affinity
This went exactly opposite from my first affinity matchup. He would play competantly, but i would hold my spellstutter's back for cancelling key card. I would let him land his ornithopters and memnites, etc. But then flash in spellstutter for mox opal. I would Ninjitsu in Deep hours and reuse that spellstutter sprite later. I flash in V. Clique on turn three to cycle his etched champion. I also was able to prevent his card drawing with well timed spell pierces, and lock down his game. I smile lightly as I notice he has no cards in hand and nothing on the field.
3-4
Game Eight:
vs. Kiki-Twin
My delver finally flipped imediately and I was able to smash face. with a turn two flip, I proceeded to treat the rest of my deck as protection for delver. He would attempt to lighting bolt but spellstutter would stop that. Turn three I sit on a spellstutter and remand and let delver smash face. I cancel his end of turn Pestermite with a spellstutter feeding off the one on field and the mutavault. I turn four ninja a spellstutter and draw Higure. He attempts to land a Kiki-Jiki, which I remand. I send in Higure as I know he needs two turns now and beat him.
4-4
Game Nine:
vs. Melira Pod
I've play tested against this deck a lot, so I knew what to do. Im on the play and land an island and pass. He plays Noble hierarch on his turn 1 which i vapor snag. Turn two i draw/go. He attempts to land his hierarch again which I spellsutter. On my turn three, I Use NotDH and sit on a spell snare/spell pierce. He attempts voice which I snare. And on and on. I just prevent the ramping and wait to cancel birting pod, which never comes up. His bad luck i guess. Game two was very different.
He plays a kitchen finks on his turn two. There's nothing I can do about it except ignore it. My delver isnt flipping so I swing in with him everyturn. The Pod player allows it. on turn five i Ninja in Higure and he attempts to path which I pierce. The essential thing at this point is to not kill finks. He neverlanded his pod, so he simply exalted finks and swung in. Higure allowed a consistant 5 damage per turn as I only made NotDH unblockable and he was trying to keep his mana dorks alive. Im at two life, and hes at 6.
I use Bolt, Snapcaster,Bolt (one of the sickest combos in Modern right now) and win.
5-4
My general thoughts: Venser is quite good. The meta right now contains many midrange combo/attrition decks and venser works well in this environment. He can be a two for one quite easily, and people don't block him because he's not played allowing multiple uses. He also saves your lands from tec edges, bounces ninja back to hand, "counters" uncounterable spells, acts as emergency unsummon. I recommend at least one.
Higure is situational. I side him out against Delver, affinity, Zoo, or any fast deck. I wish I had two when playing against melira pod because he's beafy and allows me to get through their endless line of creatures. The best way to beat them is to not interact with their creatures. He's also desirable against mid-range decks.
Delver was okay. I will never play him in a Ninja deck again not because i ran into anti-synergy, but because I had to decrease the amount of spells that normal delver lists play. I would add a fourth snapcaster instead.
Mutavault is a must. When all else fails (which happens) i've beat face with them and won.
Spellstutter Sprite in Tandem with Mutavault was excellent. Modern likes 1,2,and 3 CMC things. SPellstutter should be self evident with Ninja.
Thanks for the write up! I'm surprised Venser did good. I thought he is too slow for the meta but maybe not.
Mutavault is good, it helps Spellstutter and is good after a board wipe. What would you replace with Delver?
If the store owner says that I can't trade in the premises, I'll just go outside. If he says that I can't trade within 10m of his premises, I'll go to 11 meters. If he says that he doesn't want to see me trading, I will put a basket over his head and continue trading.
Yes, he's a local legend. He's only known to take his clothes off before he goes into the Ladies' Lockerroom. Nobody knows what he does in there because he's invisible, but it's almost certainly tons of masturbating.
For the deck I was running. I would run 4 snapcasters instead of three, take out higure and replace with thundermaw hellkite, and play one clique and venser mainboard. Delver would stay as its just incredibly effecient.
If you're curious about possible replacements for Delver, then I suggest Commander Z's U/R list. His deck becomes more control because of his choice in one drop. If you want tempo, then play what I ran.
I'm going to start U/G Ninja builds and take it to a Modern event to see how it fairs. Perhaps Ninja/Erayo.
For the deck I was running. I would run 4 snapcasters instead of three, take out higure and replace with thundermaw hellkite, and play one clique and venser mainboard. Delver would stay as its just incredibly effecient.
If you're curious about possible replacements for Delver, then I suggest Commander Z's U/R list. His deck becomes more control because of his choice in one drop. If you want tempo, then play what I ran.
I'm going to start U/G Ninja builds and take it to a Modern event to see how it fairs. Perhaps Ninja/Erayo.
It has been a long time since I last played UG Ninjas, still remembered I had tremendous fun with i even though it was particularly weak to fast aggro and RDW. I didn't play Spellstutter Sprite in my UG list back then, maybe it might have make a difference against those matchups.
I want to point out a tactic that is very effective with ninjas that I didn't learn right away. Somehow it was lost on me, but it's very effective at saving a ninja from removal after ninjutsu:
You can use a ninja in hand to save one that is unblocked on the battlefield from burn/removal.
Example:
Attack with Ornithopter. No blocks by opponent. I activate Ninjutsu on Ninja of the Deep Hours. Opponent plays Path to Exile. I activate Ninjutsu on Mistblade Shinobi, replacing Ninja of the Deep Hours. Path to Exile fizzles. Mistblade Shinobi connects and I return a creature to my opponents hand.
This is a great trick to draw out burn or removal and then make it fizzle. Mistblade Shinobi is the best at it. He can often save Higure or Ink-Eyes later in the game. It's especially useful on a game two or three situation, where the opposition may have loaded up with sideboard removal precicely to kill the finishers.
I wasn't sure if everyone was privy to that trick, but since "finding" it I've seen my win percentage go way, way up.
For the deck I was running. I would run 4 snapcasters instead of three, take out higure and replace with thundermaw hellkite, and play one clique and venser mainboard. Delver would stay as its just incredibly effecient.
If you're curious about possible replacements for Delver, then I suggest Commander Z's U/R list. His deck becomes more control because of his choice in one drop. If you want tempo, then play what I ran.
I'm going to start U/G Ninja builds and take it to a Modern event to see how it fairs. Perhaps Ninja/Erayo.
It has been a long time since I last played UG Ninjas, still remembered I had tremendous fun with i even though it was particularly weak to fast aggro and RDW. I didn't play Spellstutter Sprite in my UG list back then, maybe it might have make a difference against those matchups.
This generally doesn't work if you already have a ninja and are attacking with it (because the opponent won't wait until after blockers are declared to kill the ninja).
So it only works in this situation: You are Ninjutsuing a Ninja into play AND opponent has removal AND has open mana AND you have another ninja in hand AND you have open mana to ninjutsu again...
It may be because I'm only playing 4 ninjas (NotDH), so it may come up more often in more truthful Ninja decks.
It comes up more often than you think. I'm running ten ninja, so I think that is indeed the difference. Also, I'm not saying it's the core function of a ninja deck. All I'm saying is that in that situation, which happens more frequently than you seem to think, you have an option to consider. Like I said, Mistblade is really good for this because his ninjutsu cost is so low.
Really though, if the opponent is trying to use removal on ninja they are making a huge blunder. The most effective way to shut out a ninja deck is by killing the enablers before they can attack.
It has been a long time since I last played UG Ninjas, still remembered I had tremendous fun with i even though it was particularly weak to fast aggro and RDW. I didn't play Spellstutter Sprite in my UG list back then, maybe it might have make a difference against those matchups.
What exactly does green bring in that synergizes well with blue ninjas? Black brings removal and black ninjas, red brings burn and powerful sideboard options, white has fliers, cool ETB abilites, blink and removal...but green? I can think of Birds of Paradise, but that's about it.
Birds of Paradise is definitely one key factor, there's Voidslime as well and the phyrexian mana Noxious Revival etc. In a deck playing both Gitaxian Probe and Noxious Revival, being able to pay mana for this spells makes a difference.
Birds of Paradise is definitely one key factor, there's Voidslime as well and the phyrexian mana Noxious Revival etc. In a deck playing both Gitaxian Probe and Noxious Revival, being able to pay mana for this spells makes a difference.
Noxious Revival and Voidslime are not exactly cards I would change a color for. Revival is card disadvantage and Voidslime is...clumsy. Is ability to cancel pod activation or to Stone Rain a fetchland worth extra mana on top of usual 2 mana counterspell, especially considering it costs 3 colored mana?
Ninjas work best with evasive creatures with good ETB-abilities. The evasive part won't work very well, so let's focus on good ETB abilities. The first things that come to mind are Eternal Witness and Elvish Visionary. I can see those working, assuming you can keep to board clear (good luck doing that in the two colors with worst removal). Kitchen Finks is nice, but lifegain is not exactly what we are looking for. And then there is Thragtusk, but 5 mana is a bit too much in modern.
Too bad Temporal Spring is not modern-legal. It may be the closest they ever got to reprinting Time Walk
And in breaking news....Quickling! Fixed Faerie Impostor, maybe? I will test him (her?) for sure.
EDIT:
And another one with some potential: Void Snare. Sorcery speed Vapor Snag that doesn't take away life, but can bounce non-lands (and unlike Cyclonic Rift costs one and can target your stuff).
I don't think it is good enough (and I do value bounce spells higher than most) - sorcery speed takes away almost any opportunity for 1-for-1s (you can't kill Rancor with this, you can't eat infect's combat tricks, you can't use it to dodge removal...).
Honestly I wouldn't say we should go all out to splash G just for cards such as Voidslime, Noxious Revival and Birds of Paradise. It's just that in a Ninja/Erayo build, BoP works incredibly well, and when I was playing the UG lists earlier, Tron decks with Karn Liberated or Liliana of the Veil was very popular, and being able to stop their activated ability was monumental. Voidslime also stops Engineered Explosives, Academy Ruins etc while being a hard counter all on its own so with its UUG casting cost it becomes immediately playable with a small green splash and BoP. G also brings better sideboarding options, namely stuffs like Creeping Corrosion and Krosan Grip etc. I always felt we shouldn't be restricted to just playing mono-color in Modern, and UG is still predominantly blue, but just using a little green splash since there is really no big drawback to splashing G. In a nutshell, it's like why do we splash G Vs the why don't we splash G discussion .
Yup, I notice in the spoilers Quickling and Void Snare. Void Snare is sorcery speed so like you pointed out it loses many applications. Quickling is definitely worth a second look, it's a much easier to use Faerie Imposter, and most importantly it has Flash! I can already imagine saving my creatures with Flash and then swinging next turn with our Ninjas. NINJAS FTW!!!
Birds of Paradise is a key to the strategy. Its mana acceleration and Ninja need a lot of it.
I was thinking of several plays/card in a G/U deck:
Turn 2 vendilion clique- How often do you see that?
Turn 3 Higure- I know you don't like him Z
Turn 2 Erayo Combo- near auto win to many decks. I abandoned it because of my meta, but since going competitive, i'll give it another chance.
Other Cards i've been considering are:
Chameleon Colossus: One of, fetchable with Higure, unblockable as well.
Treetop village: In G/U, i've had problems running outta action. wanna use man lands.
Scryb Ranger: Mana fixing, Suprise card. May be too cute, will have to try it.
Noble hierarch: assuming budget isnt an issue, i'll try a 2/2 split between her and birds
Voidslime: has its uses, I only ever run one of.
Spellstutter sprite and mutavault: will be more useful with acceleration
Other Higure goodness is his but and his ability to fetch himself. In my experience, people leave him alone if they know he'll just come right back out.
In a nutshell, it's like why do we splash G Vs the why don't we splash G discussion .
Even if you are talking about mono-U, a splash does not come for free. It costs you power with things like Vedalken Shackles and consistency with cards like Cryptic Command.
Granted it does not come for free, even fetching for a basic land will cost a single life point. It is all about the versatility the splash brings with it. For example if the first fetch is a Breeding Pool then it wouldn't have matter much for Cryptic Command. All in all there are too many different permutations and I feel without Wasteland type card in the format the upside to splashing a color is usually worthwhile.
BTW, is Krosan Grip really better than Ancient Grudge? I always consider Grudge to be the go to green artifact/enchantment destruction. How often is Grip better? The only case I can think of is killing control deck's Batterskull or Threads of Disloyalty (do you bring in these cards against such deck, though?). Maybe against affinity so they can't Welding Jar/Spellskite it (but in that case, the much higher mana cost is a huge issue).
Can't compare the cards 1 for 1 here because the green splash was for Birds of Paradise to start the whole Erayo engine or speed out Higure, The Still Wind, and Krosan Grip is a choice since there is no red splash. Also, Ancient Grudge can't handle enchantment. The same goes for Voidslime about why it came into consideration in a GU decklist.
Yup, I notice in the spoilers Quickling and Void Snare. Void Snare is sorcery speed so like you pointed out it loses many applications. Quickling is definitely worth a second look, it's a much easier to use Faerie Impostor, and most importantly it has Flash! I can already imagine saving my creatures with Flash and then swinging next turn with our Ninjas. NINJAS FTW!!!
Having the chance to sleep on it, I think the Quickling won't be good.
The key here is still the lack of "may".. Because of that, its ability will be a "cost" not "benefit" more often than not. It will prevent you from playing it when you need it most (when you are losing on the board) and will sometimes lead to 2-for-1s when they kill your only other creature. Familiar's Ruse has the same issue, but at least the bounce can't be prevented in any way (it is part of the cost). See Deputy of Acquittals for a "may" version of this (at cost of white mana). I'm actually looking to utilize the Deputy in some sort of UW ninja deck.
Thanks for pointing this out, in my excitement I tend to forget about the "May" part. My initial read compared it to Faerie Impostor, which about read the card correctly. Anyhow, in a Ninja deck that is why we have all those Ornithopter and 1cc Flyers around, they are not only enablers but also to give us the bounce effect and recast again. This probably meant we can't play too many of Quickling, but I would still give it a good try because we really need the EOT flash and next turn Ninjutsu move. Deputy of Acquittals without flying is unable to fulfill it's role of a Ninja enabler effectively.
Birds of Paradise is a key to the strategy. Its mana acceleration and Ninja need a lot of it.
I was thinking of several plays/card in a G/U deck:
Turn 2 vendilion clique- How often do you see that?
Turn 3 Higure- I know you don't like him Z
Turn 2 Erayo Combo- near auto win to many decks. I abandoned it because of my meta, but since going competitive, i'll give it another chance.
Other Cards i've been considering are:
Chameleon Colossus: One of, fetchable with Higure, unblockable as well.
Treetop village: In G/U, i've had problems running outta action. wanna use man lands.
Scryb Ranger: Mana fixing, Suprise card. May be too cute, will have to try it.
Noble hierarch: assuming budget isnt an issue, i'll try a 2/2 split between her and birds
Voidslime: has its uses, I only ever run one of.
Spellstutter sprite and mutavault: will be more useful with acceleration
Other Higure goodness is his but and his ability to fetch himself. In my experience, people leave him alone if they know he'll just come right back out.
This is just off the top of my head.
Yes, . Can't emphasized enough how important Birds of Paradise is. I even thought of playing Sylvan Caryatid (it's too slow and no evasion so too bad). Between Noble Hierarch or BoP I would still play a full set of BoP. I really need to even send the BoP into attack mode for desperate cases of Ninjutsu - if no Ninja enablers are available.
The list is so tight with all those Ninjas and enablers I simply couldn't have any slots for the shapeshifters . Unless they are really that good. For Chameleon Colossus, I didn't run enough G to enable me to hard cast it reliably thus I ruled it out.
Quickling in the M15 Spoilers will allow for infinite Ninjitsu's.
And it can protect Ninjas from removal too. That said it is also fragile scenario - opponents can break it up with a timely removal or with a big imposing flyer on the other side. That's also why I tend to have a few unblockable spells or Higure in my main deck.
Can't compare the cards 1 for 1 here because the green splash was for Birds of Paradise to start the whole Erayo engine or speed out Higure, The Still Wind, and Krosan Grip is a choice since there is no red splash. Also, Ancient Grudge can't handle enchantment. The same goes for Voidslime about why it came into consideration in a GU decklist.
There's that destroy artifact/enchantment spell that costs 1G which doesn't give the controller life, can't recall what's it but it might just be more suitable - Ninjas always have issues dealing the last few points of damage so Nature's Claim (although it does the primary job very well) may just put our opponent out of reach.
Deputy of Acquittals without flying is unable to fulfill it's role of a Ninja enabler effectively.
Considering how wonderful enabler a Snapcaster Mage is, Deputy should be even better with 1 more toughness (doesn't trade with Blinkmoths, Memnites, Glistener Elf and spirit and soldier tokens, making people less likely to block him).
Snapcaster is a wonderful enabler usually in decks that packs plenty of Burn spells and Path to Exile etc. And Snappy when he comes in he usually remove another creature with his flashbacked spell. I can't say the same for Deputy of Acquittals whose odds of seeing an empty board is much much lower. I playtested Deputy before and his only impact was to help our creature dodge removal.
I'm thinking of using Devastation Tide or Whelming Wave in the deck, to reset the board and go in with the Ninjas when opponent overextend, what do you think?
If the store owner says that I can't trade in the premises, I'll just go outside. If he says that I can't trade within 10m of his premises, I'll go to 11 meters. If he says that he doesn't want to see me trading, I will put a basket over his head and continue trading.
Yes, he's a local legend. He's only known to take his clothes off before he goes into the Ladies' Lockerroom. Nobody knows what he does in there because he's invisible, but it's almost certainly tons of masturbating.
Why is no one considering seriously the ninja bear delver option, in mono blue?
It's essentially a watered-down URDelver deck that uses Ninja of the Deep Hours to generate card advantage and contains none of the removal that makes that deck work. The decks in this thread use Ninjitsu as the basis of how they work...completely different approach. If you go far enough back in this thread, Ninja-Bear-Delver is discussed.
“Modern has provided us a non-rotating format that is far more accessible than Legacy or Vintage, but still retains many of the qualities that people enjoy in those formats—such as a more stable metagame, the ability to play and tweak the same deck week after week, and simply a much more powerful card pool than Standard.”
- Sam Stoddard, “Developing Modern” (June 21, 2013) (by means of Sheridan Lardner, "Fixing Modern: Defining Format Mission (March 16, 2016))
Snapcaster is a wonderful enabler usually in decks that packs plenty of Burn spells and Path to Exile etc. And Snappy when he comes in he usually remove another creature with his flashbacked spell. I can't say the same for Deputy of Acquittals whose odds of seeing an empty board is much much lower. I playtested Deputy before and his only impact was to help our creature dodge removal.
I haven't played the Deputy outside of RTR block limited, so I can't argue with you on this. I have traded into a bunch of Restoration Angels online recently, so the most expensive obstacle is out of the way and I will be testing the UW variant soon I so hate that Dailies are in such impractical time for me
Plaxmanta is odd. I have played it in EDH for ages, but it never occurred to me to even consider it anywhere else. It might be that my brain is wired to immediately consider each UG to be an EDH card and not even consider it in Modern. Are there even any competitive UG decks in Modern? I can think only of Scapeshift (and even they splash red for Lightning Bolt).
That brings me to a thought... how is the removal in UW? Only paths?
I splashed white mainly for the creature/artifacts and enchantment removals spells + Elspeth, Knight-Errant as one of the power card but it's already quite some time ago. Restoration Angel looks like a suitable addition. I will try her in my list if I comes round to playing UW Ninjas again.
Unfortunately it seems like the only removal in a UW list is Path to Exile, I tried others such as Oust, Journey to Nowhere etc, but they are sideboard material at best. I think a removal/Bounce/Counter suite is suitable for UW. I like Into the Roil a lot due to its wider applications. Or Echoing Truth depending on the meta.
If the store owner says that I can't trade in the premises, I'll just go outside. If he says that I can't trade within 10m of his premises, I'll go to 11 meters. If he says that he doesn't want to see me trading, I will put a basket over his head and continue trading.
Yes, he's a local legend. He's only known to take his clothes off before he goes into the Ladies' Lockerroom. Nobody knows what he does in there because he's invisible, but it's almost certainly tons of masturbating.
Turn to Frog can be a suitable "creature removal" spell in mono-blue Ninjss, something they are lacking is a good removal in blue all this time.
I have ran Turn // Burn for quite some time now and it is one of my favorite pet techs - it does much the same thing except it gives the victim 0 power (relevant, if you want to block it with a Faerie or a Snapcaster Mage) and most importantly has the Burn mode, all at cost of 1 more.
Turn on its own is extremely situational and only works as removal on something that already has a -1/-1 counter on it (comes up a lot with Kitchen Finks and Wall of Roots) or as an combat trick (extremely situational and exposes you to a potential 2-for-1 if they remove the blocker).
TBH, I use the Burn part much more often. And what makes Turn // Burn so powerful is the ability to "kill target creature, ignore its death trigger", which is something Turn to Frog can't do on it's own.
However Spirit Bond could be interesting for the white Ninja builds. Our creatures like to travel liberally between hand and board, which means we could get quite some value out of the card. What I don't like is that you have to pay for the spirits
I had a nice Affinity-based Myrsmith deck, but that was still too slow to compete with Tier modern decks, even though it was much easier to abuse than the Spirit bond (with all the 0 artifacts like Mox Opal and Ornithopter).
I like that Turn // Burn is a possible form of card advantage for us, provided we can get to 5 mana and we are using a R splash. Otherwise Turn to Frog is a decent choice not only for mono-blue builds but also UG Ninja lists which needs to run removals.
I thought about Spirit Bond for a UW Ninjas list but somehow I'm drawn to compare it with Bitterblossom. They are not exactly the same but both are there for churning out 1/1 flyers so they pretty much serve the same purpose.
The main reason why I thought about using Stormbreath Dragon was because of Path to Exile. Somehow I see too many UWR, BRW or even GW in my meta and I really need to make sure my 5 cmc creature survives, and that's how I lost my Higure usually.
Yup, Gitaxian Probe hurts if you are non-blue, otherwise I find it's life loss still manageable. Against fast aggressive deck it should probably be sided out though.
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[Deck/Primer] Knights in Legacy
[Deck] Darth Knights in Legacy
[Deck] Casual Knights in Legacy
[Deck/Primer] Modern Knights
[Deck/Primer] Modern Ninjas
LEGACY
Legacy Knights Variants WG,WU,WR,WB,W,B
Soldiers Stompy W
NinjaStill UB
FOWless Merfolk UW
Aggro Elves G
MODERN
Modern Knights Variants WG,BR
Modern Ninjas Variants UB,UG,UW,UWR
Modern Kithkins WR,W
I haven't seen Flame Slash around yet, but honestly I might just play it in my UR Ninjas as well!
I do have issues against the likes of Spellskites and Deceiver Exarchs, while an early Flame Slash might just be enough to handle an opposing Goyf.
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[Deck/Primer] Knights in Legacy
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[Deck/Primer] Modern Ninjas
LEGACY
Legacy Knights Variants WG,WU,WR,WB,W,B
Soldiers Stompy W
NinjaStill UB
FOWless Merfolk UW
Aggro Elves G
MODERN
Modern Knights Variants WG,BR
Modern Ninjas Variants UB,UG,UW,UWR
Modern Kithkins WR,W
― Anthony Bourdain, Kitchen Confidential
I will always firmly stand by the belief that Magic is a game first and a collectable second.
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[Deck/Primer] Knights in Legacy
[Deck] Darth Knights in Legacy
[Deck] Casual Knights in Legacy
[Deck/Primer] Modern Knights
[Deck/Primer] Modern Ninjas
LEGACY
Legacy Knights Variants WG,WU,WR,WB,W,B
Soldiers Stompy W
NinjaStill UB
FOWless Merfolk UW
Aggro Elves G
MODERN
Modern Knights Variants WG,BR
Modern Ninjas Variants UB,UG,UW,UWR
Modern Kithkins WR,W
Even the sounds of it feels obnoxious LOL. I never liked Tarmogoyf or the Splinter Twin combo, and yup, everything they play are huge threats which need to dealt with immediately, pretty much like against Junk and Jund.
Lingering Souls are just pure irritating but at least you have Thundermaw Hellkite for the tokens , also got to make sure their Intangible Virtue don't land or stay around long. Echoing Truth in the sides or Engineered Explosives for this .
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[Deck/Primer] Knights in Legacy
[Deck] Darth Knights in Legacy
[Deck] Casual Knights in Legacy
[Deck/Primer] Modern Knights
[Deck/Primer] Modern Ninjas
LEGACY
Legacy Knights Variants WG,WU,WR,WB,W,B
Soldiers Stompy W
NinjaStill UB
FOWless Merfolk UW
Aggro Elves G
MODERN
Modern Knights Variants WG,BR
Modern Ninjas Variants UB,UG,UW,UWR
Modern Kithkins WR,W
Game One:
vs. Junk Midrange
It was a nightmare. Junk midrange plays everything that hurts us: Tarmogoyf, Lingering souls, cheap -1/-1 boardsweepers, and path.
I landed a turn one delver and spellstuter sprited his top deck path to exile on turn two. delver refused to flip and he wiped the board with a golgari charm.
I had a dead ninja card in hand. throughout the next few turns, i proceeded to do damage control against his tarmogoyfs (spell snare), and liliana (lightning bolt) but he was playing
Stirring wildwood and could simultaneously block my flyers and beat down the following turn. Game 2 went similarly.
0-1
Game two:
Kid was playng with the skeleton of an EDH deck. It was terrible. Felt sorry for the guy.
1-1
Game Three:
vs. UWR Delver
the mirror-match was in his favor. I was getting bad draws and so was he. we both were cursing every turn as our delvers refuse to flip. (I hate delver at this point)
He eventually wins out due to more removal. Once he saw my ninja come out, he stared reserving his removal for them specifically. Comibination of grim lavamancer and multiple
geists of saint traft won him the game. :Note Spellstutter sprite combined with mutavault is awesome. It was common for me to cancel a lavamancer or path, etc. and still have a chump blocker for the 4/4s. Sadly I lose.
1-2
Game Four:
vs. UWR Control
This game was a wash in there favor. I was getting only 2 lands or nothing but land. His game plan was to sit back and wait for me to do something/anything. I was foolish and didn't wait back. He carved my deck up like a thanksgiving turkey. It was embarrasing. Id rather not discuss this match.
1-3
Game Five:
vs. Affinity
once again, i could not owe any real success to the ninja in my deck. Even so, i lost due to a turn 2 etched champion which turned into a turn 3 8/2 beater with pro everything. Not much you can do about it. He sided in hand disruption and took out my artifact removal in shattering spree and torpor orbed everything in my deck. killed the etc effects and thus the cornerstone of the decks strategy.
1-4
Game Six:
vs. Goblins
This is where my winning streak began. He would be on the play both times. He would land Goblin Guide turn one and proceed to deal damage and accelerate my game plan. Many times, the match would have me at low life before i would stabilize. Game two I was at 1 life for three turns before I won. The key players here where snapcaster mage and cryptic command, and venser. cryptic would tap and draw while venser would bounce a lord allow trades and effective blocking. once i got six mana up and started the Cryptic, Snapcaster, Cryptic combos, there was nothing he could do. Ninja of the Deep hours allowed me to reuse both Venser and Snapcaster mage twice in the last game: pure value.
2-4
Game Seven:
vs. Affinity
This went exactly opposite from my first affinity matchup. He would play competantly, but i would hold my spellstutter's back for cancelling key card. I would let him land his ornithopters and memnites, etc. But then flash in spellstutter for mox opal. I would Ninjitsu in Deep hours and reuse that spellstutter sprite later. I flash in V. Clique on turn three to cycle his etched champion. I also was able to prevent his card drawing with well timed spell pierces, and lock down his game. I smile lightly as I notice he has no cards in hand and nothing on the field.
3-4
Game Eight:
vs. Kiki-Twin
My delver finally flipped imediately and I was able to smash face. with a turn two flip, I proceeded to treat the rest of my deck as protection for delver. He would attempt to lighting bolt but spellstutter would stop that. Turn three I sit on a spellstutter and remand and let delver smash face. I cancel his end of turn Pestermite with a spellstutter feeding off the one on field and the mutavault. I turn four ninja a spellstutter and draw Higure. He attempts to land a Kiki-Jiki, which I remand. I send in Higure as I know he needs two turns now and beat him.
4-4
Game Nine:
vs. Melira Pod
I've play tested against this deck a lot, so I knew what to do. Im on the play and land an island and pass. He plays Noble hierarch on his turn 1 which i vapor snag. Turn two i draw/go. He attempts to land his hierarch again which I spellsutter. On my turn three, I Use NotDH and sit on a spell snare/spell pierce. He attempts voice which I snare. And on and on. I just prevent the ramping and wait to cancel birting pod, which never comes up. His bad luck i guess. Game two was very different.
He plays a kitchen finks on his turn two. There's nothing I can do about it except ignore it. My delver isnt flipping so I swing in with him everyturn. The Pod player allows it. on turn five i Ninja in Higure and he attempts to path which I pierce. The essential thing at this point is to not kill finks. He neverlanded his pod, so he simply exalted finks and swung in. Higure allowed a consistant 5 damage per turn as I only made NotDH unblockable and he was trying to keep his mana dorks alive. Im at two life, and hes at 6.
I use Bolt, Snapcaster,Bolt (one of the sickest combos in Modern right now) and win.
5-4
My general thoughts: Venser is quite good. The meta right now contains many midrange combo/attrition decks and venser works well in this environment. He can be a two for one quite easily, and people don't block him because he's not played allowing multiple uses. He also saves your lands from tec edges, bounces ninja back to hand, "counters" uncounterable spells, acts as emergency unsummon. I recommend at least one.
Higure is situational. I side him out against Delver, affinity, Zoo, or any fast deck. I wish I had two when playing against melira pod because he's beafy and allows me to get through their endless line of creatures. The best way to beat them is to not interact with their creatures. He's also desirable against mid-range decks.
Delver was okay. I will never play him in a Ninja deck again not because i ran into anti-synergy, but because I had to decrease the amount of spells that normal delver lists play. I would add a fourth snapcaster instead.
Mutavault is a must. When all else fails (which happens) i've beat face with them and won.
Spellstutter Sprite in Tandem with Mutavault was excellent. Modern likes 1,2,and 3 CMC things. SPellstutter should be self evident with Ninja.
I thought of using the Quest in a UW Ninjas build, we could easily insert 4x Ninja of the Deep Hours and 1x Mistblade Shinobi for some card drawing and to help increase the Quest counters quickly. We ever discussed before many many pages ago on this, but somehow I remember it just wasn't effective enough for some reason. Can't recall what was it about .
Ninjas tend to have a good matchups against Combo, we have hard counters for their key spells, while having the time to set up a good card drawing engine and offensive position at the same time. I remembered beating my friends' Splinter Twin and Gifts Ungiven decks pretty easily. Against Tarmogoyf, only the BU ninjas had any chance of fighting against it (because of Go for the Throat, Doom Blade & hand discard). The other Ninjas Variant such as UR, UG, U and UW tends to get walked all over by Goyf. I can barely handle the first Goyf and casting 2 Goyf in a row is usually curtains for me.
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[Deck/Primer] Knights in Legacy
[Deck] Darth Knights in Legacy
[Deck] Casual Knights in Legacy
[Deck/Primer] Modern Knights
[Deck/Primer] Modern Ninjas
LEGACY
Legacy Knights Variants WG,WU,WR,WB,W,B
Soldiers Stompy W
NinjaStill UB
FOWless Merfolk UW
Aggro Elves G
MODERN
Modern Knights Variants WG,BR
Modern Ninjas Variants UB,UG,UW,UWR
Modern Kithkins WR,W
Thanks for the write up! I'm surprised Venser did good. I thought he is too slow for the meta but maybe not.
Mutavault is good, it helps Spellstutter and is good after a board wipe. What would you replace with Delver?
If you're curious about possible replacements for Delver, then I suggest Commander Z's U/R list. His deck becomes more control because of his choice in one drop. If you want tempo, then play what I ran.
I'm going to start U/G Ninja builds and take it to a Modern event to see how it fairs. Perhaps Ninja/Erayo.
It has been a long time since I last played UG Ninjas, still remembered I had tremendous fun with i even though it was particularly weak to fast aggro and RDW. I didn't play Spellstutter Sprite in my UG list back then, maybe it might have make a difference against those matchups.
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[Deck/Primer] Knights in Legacy
[Deck] Darth Knights in Legacy
[Deck] Casual Knights in Legacy
[Deck/Primer] Modern Knights
[Deck/Primer] Modern Ninjas
LEGACY
Legacy Knights Variants WG,WU,WR,WB,W,B
Soldiers Stompy W
NinjaStill UB
FOWless Merfolk UW
Aggro Elves G
MODERN
Modern Knights Variants WG,BR
Modern Ninjas Variants UB,UG,UW,UWR
Modern Kithkins WR,W
You can use a ninja in hand to save one that is unblocked on the battlefield from burn/removal.
Example:
Attack with Ornithopter. No blocks by opponent. I activate Ninjutsu on Ninja of the Deep Hours. Opponent plays Path to Exile. I activate Ninjutsu on Mistblade Shinobi, replacing Ninja of the Deep Hours. Path to Exile fizzles. Mistblade Shinobi connects and I return a creature to my opponents hand.
This is a great trick to draw out burn or removal and then make it fizzle. Mistblade Shinobi is the best at it. He can often save Higure or Ink-Eyes later in the game. It's especially useful on a game two or three situation, where the opposition may have loaded up with sideboard removal precicely to kill the finishers.
I wasn't sure if everyone was privy to that trick, but since "finding" it I've seen my win percentage go way, way up.
It has been a long time since I last played UG Ninjas, still remembered I had tremendous fun with i even though it was particularly weak to fast aggro and RDW. I didn't play Spellstutter Sprite in my UG list back then, maybe it might have make a difference against those matchups.
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[Deck/Primer] Knights in Legacy
[Deck] Darth Knights in Legacy
[Deck] Casual Knights in Legacy
[Deck/Primer] Modern Knights
[Deck/Primer] Modern Ninjas
LEGACY
Legacy Knights Variants WG,WU,WR,WB,W,B
Soldiers Stompy W
NinjaStill UB
FOWless Merfolk UW
Aggro Elves G
MODERN
Modern Knights Variants WG,BR
Modern Ninjas Variants UB,UG,UW,UWR
Modern Kithkins WR,W
It comes up more often than you think. I'm running ten ninja, so I think that is indeed the difference. Also, I'm not saying it's the core function of a ninja deck. All I'm saying is that in that situation, which happens more frequently than you seem to think, you have an option to consider. Like I said, Mistblade is really good for this because his ninjutsu cost is so low.
Really though, if the opponent is trying to use removal on ninja they are making a huge blunder. The most effective way to shut out a ninja deck is by killing the enablers before they can attack.
Birds of Paradise is definitely one key factor, there's Voidslime as well and the phyrexian mana Noxious Revival etc. In a deck playing both Gitaxian Probe and Noxious Revival, being able to pay mana for this spells makes a difference.
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[Deck/Primer] Knights in Legacy
[Deck] Darth Knights in Legacy
[Deck] Casual Knights in Legacy
[Deck/Primer] Modern Knights
[Deck/Primer] Modern Ninjas
LEGACY
Legacy Knights Variants WG,WU,WR,WB,W,B
Soldiers Stompy W
NinjaStill UB
FOWless Merfolk UW
Aggro Elves G
MODERN
Modern Knights Variants WG,BR
Modern Ninjas Variants UB,UG,UW,UWR
Modern Kithkins WR,W
Honestly I wouldn't say we should go all out to splash G just for cards such as Voidslime, Noxious Revival and Birds of Paradise. It's just that in a Ninja/Erayo build, BoP works incredibly well, and when I was playing the UG lists earlier, Tron decks with Karn Liberated or Liliana of the Veil was very popular, and being able to stop their activated ability was monumental. Voidslime also stops Engineered Explosives, Academy Ruins etc while being a hard counter all on its own so with its UUG casting cost it becomes immediately playable with a small green splash and BoP. G also brings better sideboarding options, namely stuffs like Creeping Corrosion and Krosan Grip etc. I always felt we shouldn't be restricted to just playing mono-color in Modern, and UG is still predominantly blue, but just using a little green splash since there is really no big drawback to splashing G. In a nutshell, it's like why do we splash G Vs the why don't we splash G discussion .
Yup, I notice in the spoilers Quickling and Void Snare. Void Snare is sorcery speed so like you pointed out it loses many applications. Quickling is definitely worth a second look, it's a much easier to use Faerie Imposter, and most importantly it has Flash! I can already imagine saving my creatures with Flash and then swinging next turn with our Ninjas. NINJAS FTW!!!
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[Deck/Primer] Knights in Legacy
[Deck] Darth Knights in Legacy
[Deck] Casual Knights in Legacy
[Deck/Primer] Modern Knights
[Deck/Primer] Modern Ninjas
LEGACY
Legacy Knights Variants WG,WU,WR,WB,W,B
Soldiers Stompy W
NinjaStill UB
FOWless Merfolk UW
Aggro Elves G
MODERN
Modern Knights Variants WG,BR
Modern Ninjas Variants UB,UG,UW,UWR
Modern Kithkins WR,W
I was thinking of several plays/card in a G/U deck:
Turn 2 vendilion clique- How often do you see that?
Turn 3 Higure- I know you don't like him Z
Turn 2 Erayo Combo- near auto win to many decks. I abandoned it because of my meta, but since going competitive, i'll give it another chance.
Other Cards i've been considering are:
Chameleon Colossus: One of, fetchable with Higure, unblockable as well.
Treetop village: In G/U, i've had problems running outta action. wanna use man lands.
Scryb Ranger: Mana fixing, Suprise card. May be too cute, will have to try it.
Noble hierarch: assuming budget isnt an issue, i'll try a 2/2 split between her and birds
Voidslime: has its uses, I only ever run one of.
Spellstutter sprite and mutavault: will be more useful with acceleration
Other Higure goodness is his but and his ability to fetch himself. In my experience, people leave him alone if they know he'll just come right back out.
This is just off the top of my head.
Granted it does not come for free, even fetching for a basic land will cost a single life point. It is all about the versatility the splash brings with it. For example if the first fetch is a Breeding Pool then it wouldn't have matter much for Cryptic Command. All in all there are too many different permutations and I feel without Wasteland type card in the format the upside to splashing a color is usually worthwhile.
Can't compare the cards 1 for 1 here because the green splash was for Birds of Paradise to start the whole Erayo engine or speed out Higure, The Still Wind, and Krosan Grip is a choice since there is no red splash. Also, Ancient Grudge can't handle enchantment. The same goes for Voidslime about why it came into consideration in a GU decklist.
Thanks for pointing this out, in my excitement I tend to forget about the "May" part. My initial read compared it to Faerie Impostor, which about read the card correctly. Anyhow, in a Ninja deck that is why we have all those Ornithopter and 1cc Flyers around, they are not only enablers but also to give us the bounce effect and recast again. This probably meant we can't play too many of Quickling, but I would still give it a good try because we really need the EOT flash and next turn Ninjutsu move. Deputy of Acquittals without flying is unable to fulfill it's role of a Ninja enabler effectively.
Yes, . Can't emphasized enough how important Birds of Paradise is. I even thought of playing Sylvan Caryatid (it's too slow and no evasion so too bad). Between Noble Hierarch or BoP I would still play a full set of BoP. I really need to even send the BoP into attack mode for desperate cases of Ninjutsu - if no Ninja enablers are available.
The list is so tight with all those Ninjas and enablers I simply couldn't have any slots for the shapeshifters . Unless they are really that good. For Chameleon Colossus, I didn't run enough G to enable me to hard cast it reliably thus I ruled it out.
And it can protect Ninjas from removal too. That said it is also fragile scenario - opponents can break it up with a timely removal or with a big imposing flyer on the other side. That's also why I tend to have a few unblockable spells or Higure in my main deck.
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[Deck/Primer] Knights in Legacy
[Deck] Darth Knights in Legacy
[Deck] Casual Knights in Legacy
[Deck/Primer] Modern Knights
[Deck/Primer] Modern Ninjas
LEGACY
Legacy Knights Variants WG,WU,WR,WB,W,B
Soldiers Stompy W
NinjaStill UB
FOWless Merfolk UW
Aggro Elves G
MODERN
Modern Knights Variants WG,BR
Modern Ninjas Variants UB,UG,UW,UWR
Modern Kithkins WR,W
There's that destroy artifact/enchantment spell that costs 1G which doesn't give the controller life, can't recall what's it but it might just be more suitable - Ninjas always have issues dealing the last few points of damage so Nature's Claim (although it does the primary job very well) may just put our opponent out of reach.
Snapcaster is a wonderful enabler usually in decks that packs plenty of Burn spells and Path to Exile etc. And Snappy when he comes in he usually remove another creature with his flashbacked spell. I can't say the same for Deputy of Acquittals whose odds of seeing an empty board is much much lower. I playtested Deputy before and his only impact was to help our creature dodge removal.
Plaxmanta is a good find .
Signature by Syndarion from Aeternal Studios!
[Deck/Primer] Knights in Legacy
[Deck] Darth Knights in Legacy
[Deck] Casual Knights in Legacy
[Deck/Primer] Modern Knights
[Deck/Primer] Modern Ninjas
LEGACY
Legacy Knights Variants WG,WU,WR,WB,W,B
Soldiers Stompy W
NinjaStill UB
FOWless Merfolk UW
Aggro Elves G
MODERN
Modern Knights Variants WG,BR
Modern Ninjas Variants UB,UG,UW,UWR
Modern Kithkins WR,W
It's essentially a watered-down UR Delver deck that uses Ninja of the Deep Hours to generate card advantage and contains none of the removal that makes that deck work. The decks in this thread use Ninjitsu as the basis of how they work...completely different approach. If you go far enough back in this thread, Ninja-Bear-Delver is discussed.
- Sam Stoddard, “Developing Modern” (June 21, 2013) (by means of Sheridan Lardner, "Fixing Modern: Defining Format Mission (March 16, 2016))
How to Use Spoiler Tags
Starting Over: The Origins of the Mulligan Rule
Practical Approach to Slow Play
THE Guide to Aggro, Part 2: SWARM and TOOLBOX
THE Guide to Aggro, Part 3
THE Guide to Aggro, Part 4
These videos are by MTG Salvation Moderator Lantern!
Introduction to Tempo
Controlling Tempo
Elements of Tempo
Roadblocks to Tempo
How Not To Build A Deck - Tempo
Learn How To Sideboard, Dammit!
Mulligan's Island
The Art of the Mulligan
The Art of the Mulligan: Eight Case Studies
Fundamentals: The Mulligan
Some Mulligan Exercises
A Mulligan Is Worth Three Cards
The Mulligan Debate
Common Sense: The Art of the Mulligan
Who's The Beatdown?
3 Caves of Koilos
3 Eldrazi Temple
2 Fetid Heath
3 Godless Shrine
4 Ghost Quarter
3 Plains
3 Shambling Vent
2 Tectonic Edge
Artifacts (4):
4 Æther Vial
4 Path to Exile
Creatures (29):
3 Aven Mindcensor
3 Eldrazi Displacer
3 Fiend Hunter
4 Flickerwisp
4 Serra Avenger
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3 Thought-Knot Seer
3 Tidehollow Sculler
3 Wasteland Strangler
3 Chalice of the Void
2 Dismember
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Rest in Peace
3 Stony Silence
3 Surgical Extraction
3 Flooded Strand
6 Island
3 Polluted Delta
3 Steam Vents
3 Sulfur Falls
Creatures (16):
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Stormchaser Mage
2 Gut Shot
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Mutagenic Growth
3 Spell Pierce
3 Twisted Image
3 Vapor Snag
Sorceries (8):
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Serum Visions
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Blood Moon
2 Dispel
1 Forked Bolt
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Repeal
2 Roast
1 Spell Snare
2 Spellskite
1 Vapor Snag
4 Bloodstained Mire
1 Clifftop Retreat
1 Copperline Gorge
5 Mountain
3 Sacred Foundry
2 Stomping Ground
4 Wooded Foothills
Creatures (14):
4 Eidolon of the Great Revel
4 Goblin Guide
2 Grim Lavamancer
4 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Atarka's Command
4 Boros Charm
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Lightning Helix
3 Searing Blaze
Sorceries (8):
4 Lava Spike
4 Rift Bolt
2 Deflecting Palm
4 Destructive Revelry
2 Kor Firewalker
2 Path to Exile
2 Rending Volley
3 Skullcrack
19 Forest
3 Treetop Village
Creatures (24):
4 Avatar of the Resolute
4 Dryad Militant
2 Dungrove Elder
4 Experiment One
4 Leatherback Baloth
2 Scavenging Ooze
4 Strangleroot Geist
4 Rancor
Instants (10):
3 Aspect of Hydra
4 Vines of Vastwood
3 Dismember
2 Choke
2 Gut Shot
2 Deglamer
2 Feed the Clan
2 Oxidize
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Skylasher
1 Unravel the Æther
I splashed white mainly for the creature/artifacts and enchantment removals spells + Elspeth, Knight-Errant as one of the power card but it's already quite some time ago. Restoration Angel looks like a suitable addition. I will try her in my list if I comes round to playing UW Ninjas again.
Unfortunately it seems like the only removal in a UW list is Path to Exile, I tried others such as Oust, Journey to Nowhere etc, but they are sideboard material at best. I think a removal/Bounce/Counter suite is suitable for UW. I like Into the Roil a lot due to its wider applications. Or Echoing Truth depending on the meta.
Signature by Syndarion from Aeternal Studios!
[Deck/Primer] Knights in Legacy
[Deck] Darth Knights in Legacy
[Deck] Casual Knights in Legacy
[Deck/Primer] Modern Knights
[Deck/Primer] Modern Ninjas
LEGACY
Legacy Knights Variants WG,WU,WR,WB,W,B
Soldiers Stompy W
NinjaStill UB
FOWless Merfolk UW
Aggro Elves G
MODERN
Modern Knights Variants WG,BR
Modern Ninjas Variants UB,UG,UW,UWR
Modern Kithkins WR,W
I like that Turn // Burn is a possible form of card advantage for us, provided we can get to 5 mana and we are using a R splash. Otherwise Turn to Frog is a decent choice not only for mono-blue builds but also UG Ninja lists which needs to run removals.
I thought about Spirit Bond for a UW Ninjas list but somehow I'm drawn to compare it with Bitterblossom. They are not exactly the same but both are there for churning out 1/1 flyers so they pretty much serve the same purpose.
Signature by Syndarion from Aeternal Studios!
[Deck/Primer] Knights in Legacy
[Deck] Darth Knights in Legacy
[Deck] Casual Knights in Legacy
[Deck/Primer] Modern Knights
[Deck/Primer] Modern Ninjas
LEGACY
Legacy Knights Variants WG,WU,WR,WB,W,B
Soldiers Stompy W
NinjaStill UB
FOWless Merfolk UW
Aggro Elves G
MODERN
Modern Knights Variants WG,BR
Modern Ninjas Variants UB,UG,UW,UWR
Modern Kithkins WR,W