Well the third card frame's art is awesome so that's pretty great right off the bat. As a card it suffers from not having an ETB and not having an ability that is widely supported in cube. Potentially playable if someone wanted to support a ninjutsu theme (and there's a lot of UB cannot be blocked stuff), but otherwise no.
I do like the way this provides a new interesting signpost direction for Dimir other than "Steal your stuff" and "Mill"...in a single card!
Just toss this guy in your deck and you can randomly sneak attack TF out of someone. You don't really need to warp your entire draft or deck around it. Just draft this, a fatty or two, and an otherwise-generic Dimir shell.
Powerwise, doubt he gets there at all but still really like the idea of randomly getting someone with this out of nowhere. Also passes the bolt test which is almost a throwaway (these days) but it's still a nice touch.
It's an interesting way to get a discount on your creatures, and play them around counter magic to boot. By itself, I think Satoru is a bit lackluster since I don't think the consistency is going to be there. However, if you want your Dimir gold cards to scream NINJAS, this + Kaito + Fallen Shinobi + Baleful Strix (the ideal ninjutsu enabler) is pretty good place to be at.
I've been dissatisfied with my dimir section for some time, and I think this makes a good candidate for testing. I think it's well-positioned for control decks especially - you may be on a Show & Tell or reanimator plan, or any strategy that tries to grind down the early game and then win with a humongous threat ... why not have a 2/4 for 3 (IMO excellent stats for these colors and cost) that can give you a little redundancy and smoothen out your plans?
Although, I guess even if that holds up, this card will still probably not be for everyone. I know some folks like more general-use application in their guilds and apart from this scenario I'm describing, it definitely seems very mediocre and perhaps "too fair".
This is pretty cool. I'm always looking for more ways to allow players to cheat out big creatures. But I don't love the lack of ninjutsu reminder text. But that's often the case. This is a cool build-around.
All in all, I like this a lot better than Kaito, who strikes me as pretty boring.
I've been dissatisfied with my dimir section for some time, and I think this makes a good candidate for testing. I think it's well-positioned for control decks especially - you may be on a Show & Tell or reanimator plan, or any strategy that tries to grind down the early game and then win with a humongous threat ... why not have a 2/4 for 3 (IMO excellent stats for these colors and cost) that can give you a little redundancy and smoothen out your plans?
Although, I guess even if that holds up, this card will still probably not be for everyone. I know some folks like more general-use application in their guilds and apart from this scenario I'm describing, it definitely seems very mediocre and perhaps "too fair".
I'm in the same boat. As it stands, the only Dimir card we've ever had be genuinely good has been Strix, and we've gone through more dimir cards than I can count. The new looter PW looks pretty versatile so I think he could stick around, but otherwise stuff like Hostage Taker, Dragonlord Silumgar, Tyrant's Scorn, Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver, Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas, etc have all been disappointing, mostly by nature of just either not being useful in UB decks or for just not ever being worth the splash. Although a 3 mana 2/4 with an overpriced ability doesn't sound the best on paper, this is an effect that UB reanimator decks can actually play and that other cheaty decks might actually find value in splashing for. Idk if this has any decent fair-deck applications though, since I don't think most decks are interested in paying 4 mana to bounce their own stuff just to expedite a 5 drop. I don't love it, but at least it fits a defined role and does something more interesting for the combo decks than cards like Lim-Dul's Vault/Discovery // Dispersal/Diabolic Vision.
With that said I think it's probably too expensive to stick around long term, but the playgroup might still be down to test this (assuming we don't get more interesting UB cards in the set).
What do we think of this guy? #AllNinjasAllTheTime
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Just toss this guy in your deck and you can randomly sneak attack TF out of someone. You don't really need to warp your entire draft or deck around it. Just draft this, a fatty or two, and an otherwise-generic Dimir shell.
Powerwise, doubt he gets there at all but still really like the idea of randomly getting someone with this out of nowhere. Also passes the bolt test which is almost a throwaway (these days) but it's still a nice touch.
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Although, I guess even if that holds up, this card will still probably not be for everyone. I know some folks like more general-use application in their guilds and apart from this scenario I'm describing, it definitely seems very mediocre and perhaps "too fair".
All in all, I like this a lot better than Kaito, who strikes me as pretty boring.
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I'm in the same boat. As it stands, the only Dimir card we've ever had be genuinely good has been Strix, and we've gone through more dimir cards than I can count. The new looter PW looks pretty versatile so I think he could stick around, but otherwise stuff like Hostage Taker, Dragonlord Silumgar, Tyrant's Scorn, Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver, Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas, etc have all been disappointing, mostly by nature of just either not being useful in UB decks or for just not ever being worth the splash. Although a 3 mana 2/4 with an overpriced ability doesn't sound the best on paper, this is an effect that UB reanimator decks can actually play and that other cheaty decks might actually find value in splashing for. Idk if this has any decent fair-deck applications though, since I don't think most decks are interested in paying 4 mana to bounce their own stuff just to expedite a 5 drop. I don't love it, but at least it fits a defined role and does something more interesting for the combo decks than cards like Lim-Dul's Vault/Discovery // Dispersal/Diabolic Vision.
With that said I think it's probably too expensive to stick around long term, but the playgroup might still be down to test this (assuming we don't get more interesting UB cards in the set).
Also important to note that with the recent printings of Occult Epiphany/Suspicious Stowaway/Kaito Shizuki, there's definitely been a recent spike in evasive reanimator cards to help enable this guy alongside the likes of classics like Baleful Strix/Looter il-Kor/Kitesail Freebooter/etc (although Kaito doesn't really work on curve).