No love for Coalition Relic with this setup? Goes disgustingly well with Unwinding Clock/Paradox Engine, and if they're not on board it allows you to stock a little mana away for next turn.
Nice list you've got running here, I'm personally going for more of a flicker etb approach with Purphoros/Panharmonicon and a bunch of theft and I'm enjoying it immensely.
You may have already tried these, but I'd suggest cutting Faith's Shield for Bathe in Light. I guess Bathe in Light can be pretty meta dependent, but no one runs white in my play group so I can usually protect most of my creatures instead of just one lone soul without requiring to be at deaths door. I'd also replace Fall of the Hammer with Soul's Fire. The 1 extra mana is worth it to be able to target planeswalkers or just burn face. There is nothing sexier than seeing someone cheat out a monstrous Eldrazi only to have it stolen, rammed into their face, being Souls Fire'd for another 10 odd, then having the Eldrazi Cloudshifted permanently to your side. But as you've mentioned this deck is a thirsty ***** (I'm paraphrasing of course haha), so you may find the 1 extra on both to be a little too expensive.
On an unrelated note, and I know this is sacrilege, but somehow I forgot Paradox Engine was a card. I had included Unwinding Clock in my list but completely brain farted on Paradox's existence. Now I have to find more room for that too haha.
Nice deck list, seems fairly similar to the one I've been crafting. I've been trying to find room for Flameshadow Conjuring to truly double double down on the etbs with Panharmonicon.
Have you found Lumbering Battlement to be useful at all? I've been meaning to test it but it just seems like it'll be too slow for my meta.
Edit: Also have you thought of adding in Press into Service as part of the theft package? I'm running that and have added in Restoration Angel to see if permanent theft is any better than temp theft.
Doesn't target though, as cool as it would be to repeatedly bus Young Pyromancer tokens for relative invincibility
Ah damn you're right. My sleep deprived brain must've read "Choose target creature or planeswalker you control" instead of "Choose a creature or planeswalker you control". Sad panda haha. Ah well, looks like it'll have to be thrown under an Isochron Scepter, or else I just go back to Martyrdom on indestructible dudes.
Because Feather's ability reads "Exile that card instead of putting it into YOUR graveyard as it resolves." those cards wouldn't work. Well, they'd work, the spell would resolve and all, but you wouldn't get the extra Feather spicy times. Instead of putting the spell you cast into the owners graveyard (not yours), you'd exile it. At least I'm pretty sure haha.
It's central theme is using blink effects for incredible value.
That looks like an incredibly in depth post. I'll have to go through it when I have the time and see if there's anything else that I can take inspiration from haha. On a side note, I found Sphinx-Bone Wand today, if we build the deck around constant cheap cantrips it'll end games quickly.
How do we feel about Pyromancer's Goggles for Feather? It's a pretty expensive rock, but getting to double down on our red spells is pretty sexy. It also allows you to effectively buy back your non self-targeting red spells like Chaos Warp, or really double down on others like Divergent Transformation. And it synergises really nicely with Unwinding Clock.
Hmmmm, I quite like the new Dimir Legendary they just spoiled.
Not too sure about how effective a 4cmc unblockable would be, but I'm going to try her out. Ninjutsu synergises quite nicely to counteract her shuffle in trigger. Sure you don't get the ninjas damage ability triggering, but you get removal and an alternate win con.
I really like that alternate wincon, as well. You can ninjutsu in response to the trigger and get her to your hand instead of shuffled back in.
Ninjitsu happens during the Declare Blockers step if no blockers are declared, before the Combat Damage step. The Ninja you Ninjitsu into play replacing her is the one dealing combat damage. If you Ninjitsu, she never deals the Combat damage for her trigger.
You can actually activate the ninjutsu ability anytime during the combat phase after blockers have been declared, you just need to an unblocked attacking creature (and the mana to pay for the ability haha) and seeing as creatures remain attacking right till the end of combat step you can activate ninjutsu after combat damage is assigned.
So with Etrata you'd announce her as an attacker, go through the declare blockers step, assign combat damage so her ability triggers, then activate ninjutsu (say Yuriko) returning Etrata as part of the cost, Yuriko comes in but doesn't deal any combat damage but you've exiled a creature and avoided shuffling Etrata back in to your library. Everyone is happy, apart from your opponent.
Well that is quite interesting! Thanks for correcting me. I was considering her for fun and clearing out blockers, anyway, but this sounds pretty dang interesting!
No worries mate. You can actually get some pretty funky results when dealing with Ninjutsu, especially if you throw first strike into the mix because then you can let the first striker deal damage in the first strike phase, then ninja in something else to deal damage in the normal damage step.
A while ago I played a test game and had Yuriko removed before damage, so in response I ninja'd in someone else to take her place, then ninja'd Yuriko back in place of a little 1/1 unblockable. That nuance is why I love playing Yuriko, I just wish there were more (good) ninjas to play with haha.
Hmmmm, I quite like the new Dimir Legendary they just spoiled.
Not too sure about how effective a 4cmc unblockable would be, but I'm going to try her out. Ninjutsu synergises quite nicely to counteract her shuffle in trigger. Sure you don't get the ninjas damage ability triggering, but you get removal and an alternate win con.
I really like that alternate wincon, as well. You can ninjutsu in response to the trigger and get her to your hand instead of shuffled back in.
Ninjitsu happens during the Declare Blockers step if no blockers are declared, before the Combat Damage step. The Ninja you Ninjitsu into play replacing her is the one dealing combat damage. If you Ninjitsu, she never deals the Combat damage for her trigger.
You can actually activate the ninjutsu ability anytime during the combat phase after blockers have been declared, you just need to an unblocked attacking creature (and the mana to pay for the ability haha) and seeing as creatures remain attacking right till the end of combat step you can activate ninjutsu after combat damage is assigned.
So with Etrata you'd announce her as an attacker, go through the declare blockers step, assign combat damage so her ability triggers, then activate ninjutsu (say Yuriko) returning Etrata as part of the cost, Yuriko comes in but doesn't deal any combat damage but you've exiled a creature and avoided shuffling Etrata back in to your library. Everyone is happy, apart from your opponent.
Hmmmm, I quite like the new Dimir Legendary they just spoiled.
Not too sure about how effective a 4cmc unblockable would be, but I'm going to try her out. Ninjutsu synergises quite nicely to counteract her shuffle in trigger. Sure you don't get the ninjas damage ability triggering, but you get removal and an alternate win con.
Assuming my math isn't wrong, the probability of your epic beginning is: = 0.000000000347%
I wouldn't call that infinitesimally small, but yeah, it's pretty freaking small. It's about 3 in 1 trillion.
So what you're saying, is that I should totally buy a lotto ticket. Either that, or that I've used up all my luck ever and shouldn't take chances crossing the road haha.
Has anyone tried out Diabolic Vision yet? I'll probably cut Serum Visions to test it out sometime over the weekend. Also, if you can get your hands on it, I highly recommend Minamo, School at Water's Edge. Allows Yuriko to appear in a flash, take the hit, and disappear in a cloud of smoke, only to come in swinging very next turn.
Haha, I know what you mean about the extra turns thing. That's why I ended up neutering my Narset deck, it just turned into solitaire as soon as she attacked. I'm only running Temporal Trespass and Temporal Mastery in my brew because I need to take that temptation away, or else I'll just proceed to bounce spells like that back to my hand and then horribly abuse them.
Side note, I recently played the quickest ninja game I think I'll ever experience.
T1 - Land + Ornithopter.
T2 - Land + Ninja'd in Yurkio for Ornithopter, she flipped Higure, the Still Wind, slapping the table for 5, replayed Ornithopter.
T3 - Land + Ninja'd in Mistblade Shinobi for Ornithopter and Yuriko had a free hit without blockers, blind flipped Temporal Trespass & Commit to Memory to dome the table for 21 damage. Replayed Ornithopter. Played my scroll rack and cackled.
T4 - No land, no worries. Go for the throat to remove blocker, scroll rack for excessive victory.
Unfortunately I think the likelihood of ever getting that explosive a draw so early is infinitesimally small.
God I wish I bought all the Portal Three Kingdoms packs when they were sold in NZ lol.
Has anyone tried running Sword of Feast and Famine in their set ups? It's going quite well for me with all the evasive creatures I'm running. Allows me to develop my board and then hold up mana for answers. Quite solid so far.
The very first commander deck I ever built was a bouncy ninja deck helmed by Vela the night-clad... it didn't do too well. But now I'm a little older and marginally wiser, I am SUPER excited for Yuriko. After pulling out the remnants of the old deck I found some quality cards that I can't see anyone mentioning yet.
Have you thought of trying out Dire Undercurrents, Cloudstone Curio, or Equilibrium or did they just not make the cut? Cloudstone Curio and Equilibrium have been decent work horses for my ninja surprise party, saves your boys from getting stranded in no-mans land without a way to push through. They also synergise quite nicely with creatures like Cloud of Faeries and Peregrine Drake. Equilibrium also acts as great removal with the amount of 1/2 drops I'm running in my setup.
*Edit* Also has anyone tried Veilstone Amulet yet?
You may have already tried these, but I'd suggest cutting Faith's Shield for Bathe in Light. I guess Bathe in Light can be pretty meta dependent, but no one runs white in my play group so I can usually protect most of my creatures instead of just one lone soul without requiring to be at deaths door. I'd also replace Fall of the Hammer with Soul's Fire. The 1 extra mana is worth it to be able to target planeswalkers or just burn face. There is nothing sexier than seeing someone cheat out a monstrous Eldrazi only to have it stolen, rammed into their face, being Souls Fire'd for another 10 odd, then having the Eldrazi Cloudshifted permanently to your side. But as you've mentioned this deck is a thirsty ***** (I'm paraphrasing of course haha), so you may find the 1 extra on both to be a little too expensive.
On an unrelated note, and I know this is sacrilege, but somehow I forgot Paradox Engine was a card. I had included Unwinding Clock in my list but completely brain farted on Paradox's existence. Now I have to find more room for that too haha.
Have you found Lumbering Battlement to be useful at all? I've been meaning to test it but it just seems like it'll be too slow for my meta.
Edit: Also have you thought of adding in Press into Service as part of the theft package? I'm running that and have added in Restoration Angel to see if permanent theft is any better than temp theft.
Ah damn you're right. My sleep deprived brain must've read "Choose target creature or planeswalker you control" instead of "Choose a creature or planeswalker you control". Sad panda haha. Ah well, looks like it'll have to be thrown under an Isochron Scepter, or else I just go back to Martyrdom on indestructible dudes.
Because Feather's ability reads "Exile that card instead of putting it into YOUR graveyard as it resolves." those cards wouldn't work. Well, they'd work, the spell would resolve and all, but you wouldn't get the extra Feather spicy times. Instead of putting the spell you cast into the owners graveyard (not yours), you'd exile it. At least I'm pretty sure haha.
That looks like an incredibly in depth post. I'll have to go through it when I have the time and see if there's anything else that I can take inspiration from haha. On a side note, I found Sphinx-Bone Wand today, if we build the deck around constant cheap cantrips it'll end games quickly.
No worries mate. You can actually get some pretty funky results when dealing with Ninjutsu, especially if you throw first strike into the mix because then you can let the first striker deal damage in the first strike phase, then ninja in something else to deal damage in the normal damage step.
A while ago I played a test game and had Yuriko removed before damage, so in response I ninja'd in someone else to take her place, then ninja'd Yuriko back in place of a little 1/1 unblockable. That nuance is why I love playing Yuriko, I just wish there were more (good) ninjas to play with haha.
You can actually activate the ninjutsu ability anytime during the combat phase after blockers have been declared, you just need to an unblocked attacking creature (and the mana to pay for the ability haha) and seeing as creatures remain attacking right till the end of combat step you can activate ninjutsu after combat damage is assigned.
So with Etrata you'd announce her as an attacker, go through the declare blockers step, assign combat damage so her ability triggers, then activate ninjutsu (say Yuriko) returning Etrata as part of the cost, Yuriko comes in but doesn't deal any combat damage but you've exiled a creature and avoided shuffling Etrata back in to your library. Everyone is happy, apart from your opponent.
Not too sure about how effective a 4cmc unblockable would be, but I'm going to try her out. Ninjutsu synergises quite nicely to counteract her shuffle in trigger. Sure you don't get the ninjas damage ability triggering, but you get removal and an alternate win con.
Has anyone tried out Diabolic Vision yet? I'll probably cut Serum Visions to test it out sometime over the weekend. Also, if you can get your hands on it, I highly recommend Minamo, School at Water's Edge. Allows Yuriko to appear in a flash, take the hit, and disappear in a cloud of smoke, only to come in swinging very next turn.
Side note, I recently played the quickest ninja game I think I'll ever experience.
T1 - Land + Ornithopter.
T2 - Land + Ninja'd in Yurkio for Ornithopter, she flipped Higure, the Still Wind, slapping the table for 5, replayed Ornithopter.
T3 - Land + Ninja'd in Mistblade Shinobi for Ornithopter and Yuriko had a free hit without blockers, blind flipped Temporal Trespass & Commit to Memory to dome the table for 21 damage. Replayed Ornithopter. Played my scroll rack and cackled.
T4 - No land, no worries. Go for the throat to remove blocker, scroll rack for excessive victory.
Unfortunately I think the likelihood of ever getting that explosive a draw so early is infinitesimally small.
Has anyone tried running Sword of Feast and Famine in their set ups? It's going quite well for me with all the evasive creatures I'm running. Allows me to develop my board and then hold up mana for answers. Quite solid so far.
Have you thought of trying out Dire Undercurrents, Cloudstone Curio, or Equilibrium or did they just not make the cut? Cloudstone Curio and Equilibrium have been decent work horses for my ninja surprise party, saves your boys from getting stranded in no-mans land without a way to push through. They also synergise quite nicely with creatures like Cloud of Faeries and Peregrine Drake. Equilibrium also acts as great removal with the amount of 1/2 drops I'm running in my setup.