No, the trigger only applies once, when Kozilek is declared as an attacker. Redirecting him with Portal Mage won't cause the new player to also get Annihilated.
It's a shoo-in to most mono-Black decks simply by virtue of being one of the only answers to artifacts/enchantments that isn't a brick in your hand before you get to 7 mana. It won't blow you away but sometimes no one will take out that Rest in Peace for you.
It's meta dependent but Saprazzan Legate is basically a second copy of Cloud of Faeries if someone has a Mountain. I play with a good amount of people who center around RG creature-based shells so I think it'll be reliable enough to slot in. I also really want to try throwing in a package with Lotus Vale/Scorched Ruins/Peregrine Drake/Palinchron/Frantic Search to net mana on the "free" spells, but I think the strategy folds too hard to getting Strip Mined. Frantic Search may be worth the include on its own though, solely for Delve fuel.
Here's my second draft. I'm still unhappy with it, but making cuts is really hard. I'm trying to walk a fine line between low cost evasive beaters for ninjutsu and expensive cards to close out games. My 2cmc slot is seriously gummed up between mana rocks, beaters, disruption, ninjas, and Yuriko's ability, so I'm looking at diversifying.
So I've been trying to come up with a "core" set of cards that no Yuriko deck would want to exclude, in order to assist in narrowing down a subtheme. This is my current list, which is up for debate/discussion. I've included individual card explanations below.
The Ninjas are all the ones that are cheap to swap out so that they're relevant early on in the game. I'm avoiding anything with a Ninjutsu cost of 4 or more (Except higure because he's great) because using all your turn's mana mid-game to swap out a single creature doesn't seem great. Metallic Mimic is nice and cheap, comes with a team buff, and works with Tetsuko, and the 1/1 Changeling gives pseudo-haste to your non-ninjas by allowing you to tap them to give him flying.
Cover of Darkness, Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive: These are basically unblockable for Ninjas. Key to the City: It's one of the only "Can't be blocked" abilities that doesn't require an additional mana investment (unless you want to draw), and also fills up the graveyard for Delve spells. Profane Command: This seems like it does everything this deck wants. Make the team unblockable, get back a guy, get the opponent with the highest life total down to everyone else's level, or clear a blocker? I can't imagine it'll ever feel bad casting this. Also better than Open into Wonder because the fear actually helps with Ninjutsu, while Open cheats you out of the card you would've drawn.
Extra turn spells: Nexus of Fate at your opponent's EOT is basically Time Stretch, giving you one full turn to drop an army and a second one to drop Arcane Adaptation to win on the spot. Temporal Trespass has Delve and domes for 11. Time Warp is just the cheapest version of the effect available. If you build for Rogues Notorious Throng is definitely on this list, but not everyone will do that.
Topdecking: Vampiric Tutor, Mystical Tutor, and Brainstorm are all staples in their color and also function at instant speed for 1 mana to get you the exact card you want in-hand and/or a huge drain to the table off of a Yuriko trigger. These are 100% non-negotiable unless budget is an issue (which is a shame considering the price tags). The other cantrips are slightly less useful being sorcery speed, but they're played in every competitive format for a reason. You're never going to end up worse off for having cast Ponder. It'll smooth your draws, help you hit land drops, and also occasionally make Yuriko hit someone for 10. Insidious Dreams is there for the potential to win the game on the spot. If you can cast it for 3-4 with counterspell backup and get the triggers, it's game over.
Type Hacking: The big three enchantments are mandatory, I think. They're must-answer permanents that can threaten a win the turn you drop them if you have 4-5 creatures in play. Standardize is also something that should be taken into consideration, because of its instant speed ability to turn a situation with a lot of tokens and no Ninjas into a very explosive turn. Artificial Evolution is similar, but it has another use: Altering Yuriko or a tokengenerator to give you additional type flexibility. If you build Rogues, you can hack Yuriko to give you Rogue triggers instead! Bitterblossom can give you a flying Ninja Rogue token every turn! This one depends on your build the most but I think with some persistent forms of token generation it really shines.
Split spells: Commit // Memory is just a nice unconditional answer to any permanent which happens to dome for 10. It also doubles as a counterspell and the back end is legitimately decent. Other split cards like Far // Away or Never // Return tend to fall under the category of "one half is a slightly underpowered version of an effect I kinda want and the other half is garbage". I wouldn't fault people for running them, I just don't think they're essential. Curtains' Call, Dead Drop: Tons of damage off of Yuriko and they clear blockers for little to no mana. Submerge, Ensnare, Commandeer, Misdirection, Unmask, Foil, Force of Will, Snuff Out: Free spells that let you tap out on your turn to drop dudes and not worry about them making it through the circuit. Turns all those extra cards you're drawing into fuel for actual spells. Unmask lets you rip something from someone's hand before it becomes a problem for you and gives you a peek at their hand so you know for sure whether the way is clear. Saprazzan Legate: Free 1/3 flyer that you can keep dropping post-combat even while tapped out. Might be meta-dependent but I think the guaranteed flying body all the time is worth a slot. Treasure Cruise: Temporal Trespass and Dead Drop take a lot of delving on their own so I don't think more than 3-4 total Delve spells are reasonable in this deck, but you definitely want as many as you can take. This seems to be the best of the remaining bunch, although I could see a case for something like Murderous Cut too.
So that's where I'm at now. The other slots depend a lot on individual taste; currently I'm bouncing between Rogues, Faeries, and Thopters as secondary tribes. you need a good stream of evasive bodies to keep the Ninjas coming. Rogues are basically UB Edric, Faeries fall into more of a Flash/ETB theme, and thopters are aiming to amass an army by using stuff like Sai, Master Thopterist and Tezzeret, Artifice Master. I'm not sure what my favorite one is yet, but building has been a blast. This is definitely going to be my favorite deck when it gets finished.
Wow. They really REALLY played it safe with these ones. This is really disappointing.
Look at those manabases! Ravnica bouncelands, taplands, Evolving Wilds, and whatever othernicheslowlands fit? Seriously, not even checklands or Amonkhet duals? How about a Krark-clan Ironworks? Tireless Tracker? Scroll Rack? Utopia Sprawl? At least Enchantress got Bear Umbra I guess, but come on. This is not what I hoped for when they said they'd be doing us better for the price tag. I mean, it's what I expected, but not what I'd hoped.
I think this'll work a lot better as an all-in combo deck than a grindy value engine. You're probably going to win most games by stacking 3-4 Yuriko triggers and then casting Insidious Dreams to put 40 CMC worth of stuff on top of your library. I'd even be inclined to throw in Dark Ritual effects just to get more bodies on the board.
Interesting. I overlooked this line of play and it makes me lean towards "everything is a ninja" cards like Arcane Adaptation and Unnatural Selection to more easily reach a critical mass of ninjas to stack your deck for lethal damage. I'm not sold on going all-in since it makes the deck more fragile, but considering how easily the combo slips into the deck it might as well go in. Chaining together a few turns with a few ninjas out and some topdeck manipulation to drain everyone seems strong, too, and the strategies complement each other. I still think the eldrazi are weaker than stacking delve and time magic cards.
I'm still working on a full list myself but the basic premise I'm going for is that you only need one player to be open in order to drain everyone out. You get in with as many Ninjas as you can, draw into some cheap removal/permission to stop Wraths and clear the way for the next turn, then eventually hope to win off of one giant Standardize/Arcane Adaptation/Notorious Throng/Temporal Trespass/etc chain. It's like Edric but instead of green you're packing Black, with all the awesome tutoring and removal.
Edit: I'd like to note that Exploitcards work very well with Yuriko, because you can always get her back for two mana. I don't know if any of them are worth playing, but the synergy is there.
I think this'll work a lot better as an all-in combo deck than a grindy value engine. You're probably going to win most games by stacking 3-4 Yuriko triggers and then casting Insidious Dreams to put 40 CMC worth of stuff on top of your library. I'd even be inclined to throw in Dark Ritual effects just to get more bodies on the board.
Don't forget all the "free" spells that have relatively high CMC but can be cast for free. Snuff Out, Force of Will, Misdirection, Commandeer, Foil, etc. can all make use of your tons of free draws while letting you dump your mana into more creatures.
I really love this card. My only with is that it could have been an ability on a bant commander to have a manifest commander. But this will be fun with Aminatou. Do her +1 to put a fatty onto the top of your library, then manifest it, and then during your next turn -1 to turn that 2/2 into your fatty.
I would've loved to see this instead of the Merfolk commander, but that sounds like a killer start to a Roon of the Hidden Realm deck.
She happens to be in the colors of Xenograft/Arcane Adaptation/Conspiracy though. Surely having access to 3 redundant versions of the effect (and a commander re-usable any number of times for 2 mana) is spicy enough to be worth a build.
Cover of Darkness spike incoming! Man, if there were more than 10 Ninjas in Magic this could make a great Edric, Spymaster of Trest-esque deck with tons of unblockables and global drain.
Have you tried moving the slot down?
EDIT: so far the cost reduction plan kinda stinks, but Sapphire Medallion is definitely good in this deck. There's a lot of 2Us and 1Us to drop.
1 Mistblade Shinobi
1 Ninja of the Deep Hours
1 Sakashima's Student
1 Skullsnatcher
1 Throat Slitter
1 Walker of Secret Ways
1 Metallic Mimic
1 Mothdust Changeling
Evasion
1 Cover of Darkness
1 Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive
1 Key to the City
1 Profane Command
1 Temporal Trespass
1 Nexus of Fate
1 Time Warp
Topdeck Manipulation
1 Brainstorm
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Serum Visions
1 Ponder
1 Insidious Dreams
1 Preordain
Type Hacking
1 Arcane Adaptation
1 Xenograft
1 Artificial Evolution
1 Standardize
1 Conspiracy
1 Commit // Memory
1 Curtains' Call
1 Snuff Out
1 Treasure Cruise
1 Dead Drop
1 Commandeer
1 Misdirection
1 Force of Will
1 Foil
1 Ensnare
1 Submerge
1 Unmask
1 Saprazzan Legate
The Ninjas are all the ones that are cheap to swap out so that they're relevant early on in the game. I'm avoiding anything with a Ninjutsu cost of 4 or more (Except higure because he's great) because using all your turn's mana mid-game to swap out a single creature doesn't seem great. Metallic Mimic is nice and cheap, comes with a team buff, and works with Tetsuko, and the 1/1 Changeling gives pseudo-haste to your non-ninjas by allowing you to tap them to give him flying.
Cover of Darkness, Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive: These are basically unblockable for Ninjas.
Key to the City: It's one of the only "Can't be blocked" abilities that doesn't require an additional mana investment (unless you want to draw), and also fills up the graveyard for Delve spells.
Profane Command: This seems like it does everything this deck wants. Make the team unblockable, get back a guy, get the opponent with the highest life total down to everyone else's level, or clear a blocker? I can't imagine it'll ever feel bad casting this. Also better than Open into Wonder because the fear actually helps with Ninjutsu, while Open cheats you out of the card you would've drawn.
Extra turn spells: Nexus of Fate at your opponent's EOT is basically Time Stretch, giving you one full turn to drop an army and a second one to drop Arcane Adaptation to win on the spot. Temporal Trespass has Delve and domes for 11. Time Warp is just the cheapest version of the effect available. If you build for Rogues Notorious Throng is definitely on this list, but not everyone will do that.
Topdecking: Vampiric Tutor, Mystical Tutor, and Brainstorm are all staples in their color and also function at instant speed for 1 mana to get you the exact card you want in-hand and/or a huge drain to the table off of a Yuriko trigger. These are 100% non-negotiable unless budget is an issue (which is a shame considering the price tags). The other cantrips are slightly less useful being sorcery speed, but they're played in every competitive format for a reason. You're never going to end up worse off for having cast Ponder. It'll smooth your draws, help you hit land drops, and also occasionally make Yuriko hit someone for 10. Insidious Dreams is there for the potential to win the game on the spot. If you can cast it for 3-4 with counterspell backup and get the triggers, it's game over.
Type Hacking: The big three enchantments are mandatory, I think. They're must-answer permanents that can threaten a win the turn you drop them if you have 4-5 creatures in play. Standardize is also something that should be taken into consideration, because of its instant speed ability to turn a situation with a lot of tokens and no Ninjas into a very explosive turn. Artificial Evolution is similar, but it has another use: Altering Yuriko or a token generator to give you additional type flexibility. If you build Rogues, you can hack Yuriko to give you Rogue triggers instead! Bitterblossom can give you a flying Ninja Rogue token every turn! This one depends on your build the most but I think with some persistent forms of token generation it really shines.
Split spells:
Commit // Memory is just a nice unconditional answer to any permanent which happens to dome for 10. It also doubles as a counterspell and the back end is legitimately decent. Other split cards like Far // Away or Never // Return tend to fall under the category of "one half is a slightly underpowered version of an effect I kinda want and the other half is garbage". I wouldn't fault people for running them, I just don't think they're essential.
Curtains' Call, Dead Drop: Tons of damage off of Yuriko and they clear blockers for little to no mana.
Submerge, Ensnare, Commandeer, Misdirection, Unmask, Foil, Force of Will, Snuff Out: Free spells that let you tap out on your turn to drop dudes and not worry about them making it through the circuit. Turns all those extra cards you're drawing into fuel for actual spells. Unmask lets you rip something from someone's hand before it becomes a problem for you and gives you a peek at their hand so you know for sure whether the way is clear.
Saprazzan Legate: Free 1/3 flyer that you can keep dropping post-combat even while tapped out. Might be meta-dependent but I think the guaranteed flying body all the time is worth a slot.
Treasure Cruise: Temporal Trespass and Dead Drop take a lot of delving on their own so I don't think more than 3-4 total Delve spells are reasonable in this deck, but you definitely want as many as you can take. This seems to be the best of the remaining bunch, although I could see a case for something like Murderous Cut too.
So that's where I'm at now. The other slots depend a lot on individual taste; currently I'm bouncing between Rogues, Faeries, and Thopters as secondary tribes. you need a good stream of evasive bodies to keep the Ninjas coming. Rogues are basically UB Edric, Faeries fall into more of a Flash/ETB theme, and thopters are aiming to amass an army by using stuff like Sai, Master Thopterist and Tezzeret, Artifice Master. I'm not sure what my favorite one is yet, but building has been a blast. This is definitely going to be my favorite deck when it gets finished.
Look at those manabases! Ravnica bouncelands, taplands, Evolving Wilds, and whatever other niche slowlands fit? Seriously, not even checklands or Amonkhet duals? How about a Krark-clan Ironworks? Tireless Tracker? Scroll Rack? Utopia Sprawl? At least Enchantress got Bear Umbra I guess, but come on. This is not what I hoped for when they said they'd be doing us better for the price tag. I mean, it's what I expected, but not what I'd hoped.
I'm still working on a full list myself but the basic premise I'm going for is that you only need one player to be open in order to drain everyone out. You get in with as many Ninjas as you can, draw into some cheap removal/permission to stop Wraths and clear the way for the next turn, then eventually hope to win off of one giant Standardize/Arcane Adaptation/Notorious Throng/Temporal Trespass/etc chain. It's like Edric but instead of green you're packing Black, with all the awesome tutoring and removal.
Edit: I'd like to note that Exploit cards work very well with Yuriko, because you can always get her back for two mana. I don't know if any of them are worth playing, but the synergy is there.
I would've loved to see this instead of the Merfolk commander, but that sounds like a killer start to a Roon of the Hidden Realm deck.