MTG Salvation

Quote from SosceanBlue

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.

Quote from Nev

If eternal formats were turned upside down on a regular basis, we'd be right up the power creep alley into oblivion in no time. Eternal formats are better not being rocked sideways every other set.

Quote from Aeschylus1

I can see strange and awesome things happening with Kruphix. Save up a bunch of mana, cyclonic rift eot, play massive Mistcutter Hydra for the win. Or Save up mana for a Sphinx's Revelation that's 20 or more. And thanks to Kruphix's other ability, you don't need to discard those 20+ cards. Oh! G/U Monsters! Save the mana and spend it all on a huge Polukranos or Mistcutter Hydra! So many possibilities. And just in standard (I'm aware these might not be amazing uses, but that doesn't stop me from thinking up fun things). EDH will break this guy into pieces. Heck, I could see him getting banned in EDH. That probably won't happen, but I would not be surprised if it did happen.