I'll post a write up on my UR deck tonight. But for your tourney, if you can fit them in the budget cloud of faeries and standstill are a house with ninjas. You can ninjitsu through a standstill.
I am taking UR ninja to deck SCG NJ this weekend and have been playing various ninja decks for a long time. If anyone is interested I will do a write up before the weekend on my experience with the deck. This thread is pretty dead so I dont want to waste my time.
Me and my friend are both playing this deck at Gp Pittsburgh, we've gotten a strong following at our local scene as we've made it we feel like tier 2 competitive at least, and being able to beat jund/twin is nice. Affinity is rough because of ornithopter none the less. But heres the list im currently running.
4 Faerie Miscreant
3 Mistblade Shinobi
4 Ninja of the Deep Hours
4 Spellstutter Sprite
4 Zephyr Sprite
2 Dismember
4 Remand
2 Ghost Quarter
16 Island
3 Mutavault
4 Vapor Snag
1 Vendilion Clique
2 Disrupting Shoal
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
2 Spell Snare
3 Judge's Familiar
1 Skaab Ruinator
SB: 3 Dispel
SB: 2 Hibernation
SB: 3 Hurkyl's Recall
SB: 3 Negate
SB: 2 Spreading Seas
SB: 2 Threads of Disloyalty
Do you ever feel like there's too much bounce with both 4 vapor snag and 3 mist blade shinobis? It seems like a lot to me.
And about the familiars ruse discussion. The card is fine. And I do love how most of the time it's counterspell with upside. But there are times where is a dead card because I have no creatures. The card really doesn't do much when we are behind and there situations where it is a tempo loss for us to bounce a ninja back to our hand leaving an empty board. I've replaced the ruse with a mix of mana leak, disrupting shoal and spell pierce based on what I think I'm going to see that week.
I tried running dispel in the maindeck but it proved to be to situational so I went with pierce instead. Counters the same things and more but becomes dead late. I was at a store I had never been to before so my sideboard was set up to cover as much as possible. Tournament was pretty small, about 12 people or so. 4 rounds cut to top 2.
Match 1: Abzan company 0-2
I feel like this not that bad of a match. Game 1 I came out swinging and got way ahead after pitching a shoal to shoal an anafenza. A kitchen finks sticks to the board but I'm so far ahead it doesnt real matter. I countered a coco on 2 consecutive turns and a on the 3 turn he cocos again I have no response and he flips the combo to gain infinite life. Bad luck I guess. Guy had 3 cocos. Game 2 I make a brutal mistake. I bolted an anafenza that had 2 +1/+1 counters on. I don't know what I was thinking. It was an absolutely devastating brain fart. I should have bolted on of the 3/3 voice tokens of which there were 2. Ultimately it didn't matter because he coco'd into the combo and I scooped.
Out:
1 Abbott
1 days undoing
1 disrupting shoal
In:
1 pillar of flame
2 send to sleep
Match 2: Amulet Bloom 1-2
Game 1 is a blowout. I tried to counter a turn 2 amulet. He had a pact of negation and killed me with a hive mind. Game 2 I shoal and turn 2 summer bloom and I have a judge called on me for the second time of the night. Bloom-man didn't believe that disrupting shoal was not banned. He never recovers from the counter and I win easy. Game 3 I keep a 1 lander with a delver and a bunch of cantrips. I never see a second land for 10 turns and I eventually lose.
This was another winnable match but it definitely feels like it is a bad matchup. the deck is just too explosive and too fast. Although if you can make it stumble early it's winnable.
Out:
4 days undoing
In:
2 flash freeze
2 negate
Match 3: UR storm 2-1
I have played this match a decent amount if a buddy from the main store I play at. It's pretty bad preboard but after sideboards get it gets much much better. Game 1 I shoal a pyromancers Ascension and eventually win with delver beats and bolts. For game 2 I side out 3 days undoing and 2 vapor snags to bring in the entire counter package. He sides in a bunch of removal like sudden shock and we have a super long game. I lose to 2 goblin tokens with him at 2 life. The next card in my deck is lightning bolt. Game 3 is another long game. I counter an early Ascension and then neither of us can get any momentum. I can't get a threat to stick and he can't get an Ascension on the board. Eventually I untap with a swiftspear and a pyromancer in play. I cantrip once swing to bring him below 10 and cast days undoing. I feel like this is a gamble because giving a combo deck a full set of 7 cards could be a disaster. luckily I draw 2 shoals in my new 7 win the game on my turn.
Knowing that I can't possibly make top 2 to prize I drop as its after 10pm and I'm exhausted. Overall I feel like if I played a little tighter and shuffle a little better I could have been 2-1 or even 3-0. I only cast undoing once all night as I sided them out against the fast combo and shoaled away one against Abzan. But the only time I cast it I basically won the game the following turn. I had an opportunity to cast one against Abzan but I passed on it afraid that I would draw him the combo.
Another note is that disrupting shoal is an all-star. Card was clutch and was a total blow out in multiple games. Unfortunately I walked into combo hell and was afraid to cast undoing most of the night leading me to play a gimped deck all night.
Sorry if any of this sounds confused. I typed it up on my iPad
I played a UR version in a small tournament last night to 1-2 drop. I had a judge called on every match the first time I cast disrupting shoal. I feel like I could have easily been 2-1 but I made some mistakes and lost a match. I can do a write up if anyone wants it.
The biggest problem with sleight is that it doesn't help help delver. If I have a delver I want visions 100% of the time over sleight. But once delver is flipped I understand the case for sleight. But why not just play faithless looting in that case? It's still card selection, just slightly different.
I'm very interested in building this deck and trying it out. First off, great job on the primer. I want to stick to the UR shell to avoid buying Tarmagoyf. This is the list I was working on:
The reasoning for the MB Lava Spikes is because I feel this deck will often have to switch to the Day's Undoing/ burn plan once the board is stabilized and this gives the deck a little more reach and redundancy. I have always found Sleight of Hand to be a little lackluster but I could be wrong. I know a lot of the counterspells in my SB do not pair well with the Day's Undoings and the Abotts but they seem necessary in matchups where Day's Undoing is sided out completely. I will have to play test and tweak as I go along. Let me know if you have any thoughts on my list or my thought process so far.
I have been playing the UR version for a couple weeks and i found that I am a big fan of the counter package in the sideboard. There's plenty of situations where you just need more counter spell. but I really don't agree with main board lava spike. It's not obvious on paper but I've found that faithless looting is super good in the deck. Being able to dig for answers pre undoing is fantastic and post undoing you get rid of excess lands. Not to mention the prowess triggers. I guess lava spike is fine in the burn out plan, but after an undoing you should be able to dig for bolts. I would even play main board dispels over lava spike. Does lava spike really advance your main plan with the deck? What happens when you draw them after an undoing? You wait an entire turn to use them and by that time you can just cast all your cantrips to start digging for another undoing or bolts. By that time your opponent had an opportunity to use his 7 new cards while lava spike sat useless. I would play dispels first then looting before I added spike. But maybe I'm wrong.
I went 2-1 in a small modern event last night with this deck. My mana base is a total wreck and totally based on my budget and card availability. I didn't include it because of this but having the right mana was only an issue once and resulted in mulling to 4. In the limited testing I have done, I've found days undoing to be decent. But not the best card ever. I have noticed that I tend to pitch them to dispruting shoal a lot. My night went as follows.
Match 1: Grixis Twin 2-0
I'm pretty sure this guy is either really unlucky, or the worst twin player ever. I didn't even know he was on twin until I asked after the match was over. I played this like it was Grixis control and traded one for one with bolts and counters until I could cast days undoing with zero cards in hand and win. Game 2 is still did not see any combo pieces but I struggled with keeping threats on the board. Eventually I got a flipped delver to stick and won an attrition game.
Match 2: GU infect 1-2
Game 1 I blow him out with 2 flipped delvers on turn 3 and he never catches up. Game 2 he lands a spellskite on turn 2 and I have a shoal and nothing worth 2 in hand. I lose to spellskite protection. Game 3 we trade back and forth for a few turns them he goes for the kill on turn 4. He as the perfect combination of spells and counters to do exactly lethal through my removal.
This is only match I sided out days undoing.
Match 3: Abzan Company 2-1
Game 1 he turn 4 coco's into the combo and gains infinite life. Game 2 I don't see much and steamroll him. Game 3 is long and grindy. The key play was pitching a days undoing to disrupting shoal to counter a kitchen finks. Then I was just able to stay ahead and make a buttload of pyromancer tokens.
Also some thoughts on [card]abbot of keral keep[\card]. I ran 2 because the week before I went 0-4 with the full set and lost repeatedly with 2+ copies in my hand. After playing a bit more with the card I think it might be one of the best cards in the deck. It's just pure value if it resolves and it can get really big really fast.
Sorry if this post sounds really disjointed. I typed it up over the course of a day on my Ipad.
Thought on Deprive? In a deck with an absurdly low curve, it actually seems playable here? I also sort of like Faerie Imposter, just because it's really good with Spellstutter Sprite and it's another card that can do something with Ornithopter. Maybe it's too cute though. Why aren't any of the decks running the cantrips like Gitaxian Probe or Sleight of Hand?
The problem with faerie imposter is that you will inevitably end up in the situation where there is no creature to bounce back when you play it. Same problem I ran into with familiar's ruse. deprive is a card that I have been meaning to try out but never got around too. Seems like it should be really good. And about the cantrips. The deck doesn't need them. We would rather draws cards off the ninja and keep the mana up for counters and such.
This is my line of thinking. I want the other ninjas to be good. But they just aren't. Spell snare isn't that great in my opinion in the tempo game. It isn't the catch all that we need later and it's too narrow early. At least in my opinion and meta.
I played another small tournament last night. Went 2-2 beating Merfolk and dragonstorm and losing to burn and grixis control. I'm not going to do a full write up unless someone wants it but some thoughts.
I think that mistblade shinobi is the worst card in the deck and I want to drop them. Less ninjas is going to make the just barely useful ornithopter, just bad. I would add in more faeries in their place. The next card that was awful all night was familiars ruse. 4 is just too many. There were too many times where 1 or more just sat in my hand useless because of a lack of creatures on my side. I'm thinking of going down to 2 upping to 4 mana leak. distortion strike was also underwhelming. 4 is too many.
This all raises the question of how many ninjas do you need to really call it a ninja deck. Besides for ninja of the deep hours, the ninjas are the worst cards and I was almost never happy to see them. I don't want to give up on ninjas yet but when 2 of the 3 ninjas in a deck are bad then idk.
I played this deck to a top 4 finish at a small tournament on Wednesday. It was only 4 rounds then a cut to top 4 which we split. I finished 3-1.
Match 1 - Griselbrand Reanimator
Game 1 was a blowout in my favor. I locked him out with counter spells until I could stick a ninja of the deep hours and them just rode the card advantage to victory 2 damage at a time. This game should have been over more quickly but I kept a hand with a bunch of counters and no ninja. Game 2 and 3 were very similar. He sided in besiju and combo'd off when I couldn't counter it. Game 3 he spliced goryo's vengeance to nourshing shoal at the end of my turn. I tapped out to counter it and he just replayed vengeance on his turn and won. 0-1
Match 2 - Grixis Delver
This was a super fun, super close match. Game 1 I ninjitsued a ninja of the deep hours on turn 2 of an ornithopter and won the counter wars the rest of the game. Game 2 he stuck a young pyromancer and turn 2 flipped 2 delvers on turn 4 and landed tasigur turn 5. He won the counter war every time and I lost. Game 3 I didn't see a single ninja and he played a turn 2 gurmag angler. He didn't play another spell until his last turn when he delved for tasigur leaving only a bolt in his graveyard and then flipped snapcaster and a land with tasigur. I was at 3 life and he was at 1. He died to the spellstutter sprites that didn't let him play cards. 1-1
Match 3 - Burn
I thought this was going to a bad matchup but it was actually extremely lopsided in my favor. It was actually a really boring match. I countered almost everything he played after turn 2 and then locked him out with mistbind clique and ninjas both games. He never had a card resolve after turn 2. 2-1
Match 4 - Grixis control
He really didn't feel like playing and was already 3-0 so was a lock for top 4. He gave me the win and got my store credit for making top 4.
From the limited playing here I think the worst card in the deck is mistblade shinobi. Whenever I had I wished it was vapor snag or spell pierce. I sided them out against reanimator and burn. I'm thinking of swapping them for spell pierces which came in every match. The deck desperately wants to win a counter war and spell pierce advances that gameplan. Overall I think the deck is pretty solid and could be somewhat competitive.
Sorry for any typos. I typed this up on my iPad.
I like the list as it seems to have a good late game.
Thanks. The late game is really strong because of the mistbind cliques. You tend to be able to replay them every turn and lock someone out once you hit 6-7 lands.
Oh np man, my only issue here is why not play: Disrupting Shoal?
Mostly because I don't have them. I've been trying find them but no one around me has any.
I played this deck to a top 4 finish at a small tournament on Wednesday. It was only 4 rounds then a cut to top 4 which we split. I finished 3-1.
Match 1 - Griselbrand Reanimator
Game 1 was a blowout in my favor. I locked him out with counter spells until I could stick a ninja of the deep hours and them just rode the card advantage to victory 2 damage at a time. This game should have been over more quickly but I kept a hand with a bunch of counters and no ninja. Game 2 and 3 were very similar. He sided in besiju and combo'd off when I couldn't counter it. Game 3 he spliced goryo's vengeance to nourshing shoal at the end of my turn. I tapped out to counter it and he just replayed vengeance on his turn and won. 0-1
Match 2 - Grixis Delver
This was a super fun, super close match. Game 1 I ninjitsued a ninja of the deep hours on turn 2 of an ornithopter and won the counter wars the rest of the game. Game 2 he stuck a young pyromancer and turn 2 flipped 2 delvers on turn 4 and landed tasigur turn 5. He won the counter war every time and I lost. Game 3 I didn't see a single ninja and he played a turn 2 gurmag angler. He didn't play another spell until his last turn when he delved for tasigur leaving only a bolt in his graveyard and then flipped snapcaster and a land with tasigur. I was at 3 life and he was at 1. He died to the spellstutter sprites that didn't let him play cards. 1-1
Match 3 - Burn
I thought this was going to a bad matchup but it was actually extremely lopsided in my favor. It was actually a really boring match. I countered almost everything he played after turn 2 and then locked him out with mistbind clique and ninjas both games. He never had a card resolve after turn 2. 2-1
Match 4 - Grixis control
He really didn't feel like playing and was already 3-0 so was a lock for top 4. He gave me the win and got my store credit for making top 4.
From the limited playing here I think the worst card in the deck is mistblade shinobi. Whenever I had I wished it was vapor snag or spell pierce. I sided them out against reanimator and burn. I'm thinking of swapping them for spell pierces which came in every match. The deck desperately wants to win a counter war and spell pierce advances that gameplan. Overall I think the deck is pretty solid and could be somewhat competitive.
Sorry for any typos. I typed this up on my iPad.
I like the list as it seems to have a good late game.
Thanks. The late game is really strong because of the mistbind cliques. You tend to be able to replay them every turn and lock someone out once you hit 6-7 lands.
I played this deck to a top 4 finish at a small tournament on Wednesday. It was only 4 rounds then a cut to top 4 which we split. I finished 3-1.
Match 1 - Griselbrand Reanimator
Game 1 was a blowout in my favor. I locked him out with counter spells until I could stick a ninja of the deep hours and them just rode the card advantage to victory 2 damage at a time. This game should have been over more quickly but I kept a hand with a bunch of counters and no ninja. Game 2 and 3 were very similar. He sided in besiju and combo'd off when I couldn't counter it. Game 3 he spliced goryo's vengeance to nourshing shoal at the end of my turn. I tapped out to counter it and he just replayed vengeance on his turn and won. 0-1
Match 2 - Grixis Delver
This was a super fun, super close match. Game 1 I ninjitsued a ninja of the deep hours on turn 2 of an ornithopter and won the counter wars the rest of the game. Game 2 he stuck a young pyromancer and turn 2 flipped 2 delvers on turn 4 and landed tasigur turn 5. He won the counter war every time and I lost. Game 3 I didn't see a single ninja and he played a turn 2 gurmag angler. He didn't play another spell until his last turn when he delved for tasigur leaving only a bolt in his graveyard and then flipped snapcaster and a land with tasigur. I was at 3 life and he was at 1. He died to the spellstutter sprites that didn't let him play cards. 1-1
Match 3 - Burn
I thought this was going to a bad matchup but it was actually extremely lopsided in my favor. It was actually a really boring match. I countered almost everything he played after turn 2 and then locked him out with mistbind clique and ninjas both games. He never had a card resolve after turn 2. 2-1
Match 4 - Grixis control
He really didn't feel like playing and was already 3-0 so was a lock for top 4. He gave me the win and got my store credit for making top 4.
From the limited playing here I think the worst card in the deck is mistblade shinobi. Whenever I had I wished it was vapor snag or spell pierce. I sided them out against reanimator and burn. I'm thinking of swapping them for spell pierces which came in every match. The deck desperately wants to win a counter war and spell pierce advances that gameplan. Overall I think the deck is pretty solid and could be somewhat competitive.
Do you ever feel like there's too much bounce with both 4 vapor snag and 3 mist blade shinobis? It seems like a lot to me.
And about the familiars ruse discussion. The card is fine. And I do love how most of the time it's counterspell with upside. But there are times where is a dead card because I have no creatures. The card really doesn't do much when we are behind and there situations where it is a tempo loss for us to bounce a ninja back to our hand leaving an empty board. I've replaced the ruse with a mix of mana leak, disrupting shoal and spell pierce based on what I think I'm going to see that week.
3 polluted delta
3 wooded foothills
3 sulfur falls
2 steam vents
4 island
3 mountain
Creatures 16
4 delver of secrets
4 monastery swiftspear
4 young pyromancer
4 abbot of keral keep
4 serum visions
4 gitaxian probe
4 vapor snag
4 days undoing
4 disrupting shoal
4 lightning bolt
2 spell pierce
1 faithless looting
2 flash freeze
2 negate
1 dispel
2 send to sleep
1 pillar of flame
2 electrolyze
2 sowing salt
1 hurkyls recall
2 dragons claw
I tried running dispel in the maindeck but it proved to be to situational so I went with pierce instead. Counters the same things and more but becomes dead late. I was at a store I had never been to before so my sideboard was set up to cover as much as possible. Tournament was pretty small, about 12 people or so. 4 rounds cut to top 2.
Match 1: Abzan company 0-2
I feel like this not that bad of a match. Game 1 I came out swinging and got way ahead after pitching a shoal to shoal an anafenza. A kitchen finks sticks to the board but I'm so far ahead it doesnt real matter. I countered a coco on 2 consecutive turns and a on the 3 turn he cocos again I have no response and he flips the combo to gain infinite life. Bad luck I guess. Guy had 3 cocos. Game 2 I make a brutal mistake. I bolted an anafenza that had 2 +1/+1 counters on. I don't know what I was thinking. It was an absolutely devastating brain fart. I should have bolted on of the 3/3 voice tokens of which there were 2. Ultimately it didn't matter because he coco'd into the combo and I scooped.
Out:
1 Abbott
1 days undoing
1 disrupting shoal
In:
1 pillar of flame
2 send to sleep
Match 2: Amulet Bloom 1-2
Game 1 is a blowout. I tried to counter a turn 2 amulet. He had a pact of negation and killed me with a hive mind. Game 2 I shoal and turn 2 summer bloom and I have a judge called on me for the second time of the night. Bloom-man didn't believe that disrupting shoal was not banned. He never recovers from the counter and I win easy. Game 3 I keep a 1 lander with a delver and a bunch of cantrips. I never see a second land for 10 turns and I eventually lose.
This was another winnable match but it definitely feels like it is a bad matchup. the deck is just too explosive and too fast. Although if you can make it stumble early it's winnable.
Out:
4 days undoing
In:
2 flash freeze
2 negate
Match 3: UR storm 2-1
I have played this match a decent amount if a buddy from the main store I play at. It's pretty bad preboard but after sideboards get it gets much much better. Game 1 I shoal a pyromancers Ascension and eventually win with delver beats and bolts. For game 2 I side out 3 days undoing and 2 vapor snags to bring in the entire counter package. He sides in a bunch of removal like sudden shock and we have a super long game. I lose to 2 goblin tokens with him at 2 life. The next card in my deck is lightning bolt. Game 3 is another long game. I counter an early Ascension and then neither of us can get any momentum. I can't get a threat to stick and he can't get an Ascension on the board. Eventually I untap with a swiftspear and a pyromancer in play. I cantrip once swing to bring him below 10 and cast days undoing. I feel like this is a gamble because giving a combo deck a full set of 7 cards could be a disaster. luckily I draw 2 shoals in my new 7 win the game on my turn.
Knowing that I can't possibly make top 2 to prize I drop as its after 10pm and I'm exhausted. Overall I feel like if I played a little tighter and shuffle a little better I could have been 2-1 or even 3-0. I only cast undoing once all night as I sided them out against the fast combo and shoaled away one against Abzan. But the only time I cast it I basically won the game the following turn. I had an opportunity to cast one against Abzan but I passed on it afraid that I would draw him the combo.
Another note is that disrupting shoal is an all-star. Card was clutch and was a total blow out in multiple games. Unfortunately I walked into combo hell and was afraid to cast undoing most of the night leading me to play a gimped deck all night.
Sorry if any of this sounds confused. I typed it up on my iPad
I have been playing the UR version for a couple weeks and i found that I am a big fan of the counter package in the sideboard. There's plenty of situations where you just need more counter spell. but I really don't agree with main board lava spike. It's not obvious on paper but I've found that faithless looting is super good in the deck. Being able to dig for answers pre undoing is fantastic and post undoing you get rid of excess lands. Not to mention the prowess triggers. I guess lava spike is fine in the burn out plan, but after an undoing you should be able to dig for bolts. I would even play main board dispels over lava spike. Does lava spike really advance your main plan with the deck? What happens when you draw them after an undoing? You wait an entire turn to use them and by that time you can just cast all your cantrips to start digging for another undoing or bolts. By that time your opponent had an opportunity to use his 7 new cards while lava spike sat useless. I would play dispels first then looting before I added spike. But maybe I'm wrong.
4 delver of secrets
4 young pyromancer
4 monastery swiftspear
2 abbot of keral keep
28 spells
4 days undoing
4 serum visions
4 gitaxian probe
4 disrupting shoal
4 lightning bolt
4 vapor snag
2 remand
2 spell snare
2 pillar of flame
2 electrolyze
2 hurkyl's recall
3 send to sleep
3 negate
1 dispel
2 flashfreeze
I went 2-1 in a small modern event last night with this deck. My mana base is a total wreck and totally based on my budget and card availability. I didn't include it because of this but having the right mana was only an issue once and resulted in mulling to 4. In the limited testing I have done, I've found days undoing to be decent. But not the best card ever. I have noticed that I tend to pitch them to dispruting shoal a lot. My night went as follows.
Match 1: Grixis Twin 2-0
I'm pretty sure this guy is either really unlucky, or the worst twin player ever. I didn't even know he was on twin until I asked after the match was over. I played this like it was Grixis control and traded one for one with bolts and counters until I could cast days undoing with zero cards in hand and win. Game 2 is still did not see any combo pieces but I struggled with keeping threats on the board. Eventually I got a flipped delver to stick and won an attrition game.
Match 2: GU infect 1-2
Game 1 I blow him out with 2 flipped delvers on turn 3 and he never catches up. Game 2 he lands a spellskite on turn 2 and I have a shoal and nothing worth 2 in hand. I lose to spellskite protection. Game 3 we trade back and forth for a few turns them he goes for the kill on turn 4. He as the perfect combination of spells and counters to do exactly lethal through my removal.
This is only match I sided out days undoing.
Match 3: Abzan Company 2-1
Game 1 he turn 4 coco's into the combo and gains infinite life. Game 2 I don't see much and steamroll him. Game 3 is long and grindy. The key play was pitching a days undoing to disrupting shoal to counter a kitchen finks. Then I was just able to stay ahead and make a buttload of pyromancer tokens.
Also some thoughts on [card]abbot of keral keep[\card]. I ran 2 because the week before I went 0-4 with the full set and lost repeatedly with 2+ copies in my hand. After playing a bit more with the card I think it might be one of the best cards in the deck. It's just pure value if it resolves and it can get really big really fast.
Sorry if this post sounds really disjointed. I typed it up over the course of a day on my Ipad.
The problem with faerie imposter is that you will inevitably end up in the situation where there is no creature to bounce back when you play it. Same problem I ran into with familiar's ruse. deprive is a card that I have been meaning to try out but never got around too. Seems like it should be really good. And about the cantrips. The deck doesn't need them. We would rather draws cards off the ninja and keep the mana up for counters and such.
I think that mistblade shinobi is the worst card in the deck and I want to drop them. Less ninjas is going to make the just barely useful ornithopter, just bad. I would add in more faeries in their place. The next card that was awful all night was familiars ruse. 4 is just too many. There were too many times where 1 or more just sat in my hand useless because of a lack of creatures on my side. I'm thinking of going down to 2 upping to 4 mana leak. distortion strike was also underwhelming. 4 is too many.
This all raises the question of how many ninjas do you need to really call it a ninja deck. Besides for ninja of the deep hours, the ninjas are the worst cards and I was almost never happy to see them. I don't want to give up on ninjas yet but when 2 of the 3 ninjas in a deck are bad then idk.
Mostly because I don't have them. I've been trying find them but no one around me has any.
Thanks. The late game is really strong because of the mistbind cliques. You tend to be able to replay them every turn and lock someone out once you hit 6-7 lands.
2 mistblade shinobi
4 ninja of the deep hours
4 ornithopter
4 zephyr sprite
1 cloud sprite
4 spellstutter sprite
1 mistbind clique
1 vendillion clique
3 mana leak
3 vapor snag
1 spell pierce
1 sword of light and shadow
4 distortion strike
21 island
I played this deck to a top 4 finish at a small tournament on Wednesday. It was only 4 rounds then a cut to top 4 which we split. I finished 3-1.
Match 1 - Griselbrand Reanimator
Game 1 was a blowout in my favor. I locked him out with counter spells until I could stick a ninja of the deep hours and them just rode the card advantage to victory 2 damage at a time. This game should have been over more quickly but I kept a hand with a bunch of counters and no ninja. Game 2 and 3 were very similar. He sided in besiju and combo'd off when I couldn't counter it. Game 3 he spliced goryo's vengeance to nourshing shoal at the end of my turn. I tapped out to counter it and he just replayed vengeance on his turn and won. 0-1
Match 2 - Grixis Delver
This was a super fun, super close match. Game 1 I ninjitsued a ninja of the deep hours on turn 2 of an ornithopter and won the counter wars the rest of the game. Game 2 he stuck a young pyromancer and turn 2 flipped 2 delvers on turn 4 and landed tasigur turn 5. He won the counter war every time and I lost. Game 3 I didn't see a single ninja and he played a turn 2 gurmag angler. He didn't play another spell until his last turn when he delved for tasigur leaving only a bolt in his graveyard and then flipped snapcaster and a land with tasigur. I was at 3 life and he was at 1. He died to the spellstutter sprites that didn't let him play cards. 1-1
Match 3 - Burn
I thought this was going to a bad matchup but it was actually extremely lopsided in my favor. It was actually a really boring match. I countered almost everything he played after turn 2 and then locked him out with mistbind clique and ninjas both games. He never had a card resolve after turn 2. 2-1
Match 4 - Grixis control
He really didn't feel like playing and was already 3-0 so was a lock for top 4. He gave me the win and got my store credit for making top 4.
From the limited playing here I think the worst card in the deck is mistblade shinobi. Whenever I had I wished it was vapor snag or spell pierce. I sided them out against reanimator and burn. I'm thinking of swapping them for spell pierces which came in every match. The deck desperately wants to win a counter war and spell pierce advances that gameplan. Overall I think the deck is pretty solid and could be somewhat competitive.
Sorry for any typos. I typed this up on my iPad.