Masterful Ninja

Creature — Troll Ninja

Haste

Reveal this card from your hand: This card is on the battlefield and in your hand until end of turn.

{1}{B}: This gets +1/+1 until end of turn.

Legality

Format	Legality
Archenemy	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Limited	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Unformat	Legal
Vanguard	Legal

Discussion (14)

Rhadamanthus on Un-set cards dealing 1/2 damage …

10 months ago

In regular Magic, any effect that might result in a fractional result will specifically tell you which way to round, so there's no default rule for it.

In Un-Magic, you're encouraged to be a little creative with interpretations where the rules aren't clear and you're able to come up with something fun that makes sense and is agreeable to each player. The fractions in Unhinged were meant to just interact with life totals and P/T, and other things weren't strictly defined. For Protean Hydra, maybe you could turn one of the +1/+1 counters into a +1/+0 or +0/+1 counter. For Mindcrank, maybe one of the cards could be simultaneously in the graveyard and the library until it moves somewhere else (like on Yet Another Aether Vortex or Masterful Ninja).

Or, to keep it simple, you could just come to an agreement with the other players on a fixed rounding convention for Saute when dealing with odd interactions like this.

Dracoson on Does Spy Kit change the …

2 years ago

Offhand, I'd say this doesn't work, but you'll almost certainly want to wait for an official ruling from Mark. Here's my reasoning: Urza's Hot Tub is going to see it as it exists in the graveyard where it is no longer equipped so that it only has it's own name, because as soon as you discard it, it is going to leave play, as the ability of Masterful Ninja only allows it to be in the Hand and on the Battlefield, but as soon as it moves from one of those zones to a different zone (graveyard, exile, library) it ceases to be in the other. Last known information would only be relevant if the card were to have left the graveyard before the Hot Tub's ability resolved, where it would still use the characteristics it had in the graveyard, not the hand.

Yesterday on Does Spy Kit change the …

2 years ago

In practicality this is a silver-bordered question, but MaRo hasn't answered yet. I'll hopefully get a response eventually, but in the meantime I'm hoping somebody knows of a specific niche black-bordered ruling that might not exist due to irrelevancy, and I wouldn't know how to find.

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If I equip a Spy Kit to a creature, does that change the card's name as well as the name of the equipped creature's?

And/or: When you discard a card for the effect of an ability that references a quality of that card (like with Kindle the Carnage), does that ability refer to that card's quality in whatever zone it's now in if it can be found, or does it refer to the card's last known information? If the latter, from which zone actually is that last known information gathered?

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What I want to do is reveal Masterful Ninja from my hand to have it in my hand and on the battlefield until end of turn, equip the Masterful Ninja with Spy Kit, and then discard Masterful Ninja to Urza's Hot Tub to be able to tutor for (nearly) any creature. I'm trying to figure out if this would work.

Polaris on Divide By Zero vs. Extinction …

2 years ago

It might be easier to grok if you know what the zones are. Battlefield, hand, graveyard, exile, library, and stack are all different zones (also stuff like the command zone). This means if there's a spell on the stack and you return it to their hand, you have taken that spell off the stack because it can't be in two zones at once (the only exception being silver-bordered cards like Masterful Ninja ).

Ashiok's Erasure is similar, as you move the spell from the stack to exile. In either case, the card is no longer a spell on the stack, so it won't resolve or even try to.

Kogarashi on Yet Another Aether Vortex?

4 years ago

Yet Another Aether Vortex doesn't specify that the card enters the battlefield, just that it is on the battlefield, so I would say no, Boomstacker doesn't enter the battlefield and thus gets no dice. It just is on the battlefield already.

It's like how Masterful Ninja's first ability doesn't actually trigger any ETB abilities (per its rulings), it's just on the battlefield and in your hand simultaneously until end of turn.

Kogarashi on Masterful Ninja and Ninjutsu

5 years ago

For what it's worth, the Unstable FAQAWASLFAQPAFTIDAWABIAJTBT (https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/unstable-faqawaslfaqpaftidawabiajtbt-2017-12-06) Posted by MaRo himself has this to say:

_"What happens if I try to move Masterful Ninja from battlefield to hand or vice versa?

Masterful Ninja stays in both zones. For example, say your opponent casts Unsummon, trying to return Masterful Ninja from the battlefield to your hand. It's already in your hand, so nothing happens. Masterful Ninja stays on the battlefield. And in your hand."_

This is still talking about effects, not costs, but presumably it would apply to costs similarly. Masterful Ninja is already in hand, so you can't move it to hand to pay a cost, therefore the ninjutsu cost is unpayable. See rule 601.2h. There's still some wiggle room in interpretation, but this seems to be the most likely correct answer, and probably about as correct as you're going to get in an Un-set without MaRo answering otherwise elsewhere.

So yeah, cmbr, if MaRo responds to you, please update here!

Tyrant-Thanatos on Masterful Ninja and Ninjutsu

5 years ago

Sorry, sergiodelrio, but Gidgetimer has it right here.

For the same reason that Platinum Emperion stops you from activating Necropotence, Masterful Ninja's effect stops you from being able to ninjutsu.

This: "Just because "paying the cost" in this case translates to basically "do nothing", you are still able to pay it" is precisely incorrect.

601.2h The player pays the total cost in any order. Partial payments are not allowed. Unpayable costs can’t be paid.

Gidgetimer on Masterful Ninja and Ninjutsu

5 years ago

With your Gigadrowse example you are conflating costs and effects. They are two separate things. You can target something with an effect that would change it's status to what it already is. You can not pay a cost by changing the status to what it already is. You did make me think of a better example though, so thank you for that.

You can not tap a permanent that is already tapped to pay the cost of an ability. Just like you can not tap a tapped Llanowar Elves to make mana, you can't return a Masterful Ninja that is in your hand to your hand to pay a cost.