Ninja of the Deep Hours

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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Archenemy Legal
Arena Legal
Block Constructed Legal
Canadian Highlander Legal
Casual Legal
Commander / EDH Legal
Commander: Rule 0 Legal
Custom Legal
Duel Commander Legal
Gladiator Legal
Highlander Legal
Historic Legal
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Modern Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Pauper Legal
Pauper Duel Commander Legal
Pauper EDH Legal
Planechase Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Ninja of the Deep Hours

Creature — Human Ninja

Ninjutsu (, Return an unblocked attacker you control to its owner's hand: Put this card onto the battlefield from your hand tapped and attacking.)

Whenever Ninja of the Deep Hours deals combat damage to a player, you may draw a card.

K4nkato on Tinkerbell says “No”

2 months ago

Weekly Results:

UW Glitters: ❌✅❌

Defender Combo: ❌❌

Flicker Tron: ✅✅

Mono U Delver: ✅✅

Bounce spells are so good vs Glitters but I didn’t have enough of them in Game 3.

Round 2 was Smoke Shroud doing a ton of work but I drew five Islands in a row and couldn’t counter anything. I had to mulligan to four Game 2 and lost because I missed my turn 3 land drop :(

Round 3 Game 1 went fourty five minutes. Thanks to Weather the Storm I won after dealing 70+ damage. I won Game 2 after resolving two relics and beating them with Ninja of the Deep Hours with Smoke Shroud.

Round 4 was Ninja of the Deep Hours with Smoke Shroud beating up the delver player while Snaremaster Sprite tapped down their lethal attacks.

K4nkato on Tinkerbell says “No”

3 months ago

Some thoughts:

Moved Foil to one of my flex slots. Faeries is a deck that unique uses hidden information and cards in hand to force opponents to make uninformed decisions. The threat of Mutagenic Growth turns obvious blocks into potential risks. Brinebarrow Intruder and Saiba Cryptomancer make attacks and removal much more difficult for your opponent. Counterspell gatekeeps when your opponent can commit to an action. Foil adds an extra layer of stress by threatening an opponent even when you’re tapped out. The high MV and expensive alternative cost are notable downsides, but Faeries draws more cards than any other deck in the format. 3-for-1 trades are unprofitable for most decks but Faeries is fast enough and disruptive enough to make it work.

I only recommend running one copy of Foil. The card’s value comes from its scarcity. Opponents who play around Foil are intentionally slowing themselves down and making sub-optimal decisions to fight a card you might not have. Opponents who ignore Foil open themselves up to getting caught by it. This adds another layer of decision making for your opponent, increasing their odds of making a mistake. The more opportunities you give your opponent to mess up, the more games you can win to pilot error.

Foil occasionally puts you in a very difficult spot in mana-screwed games. If you have 2 Islands in play and 1 Island in hand + Foil, you have to ask yourself if you should keep the land for a free counterspell or play it for more mana. I welcome the difficult decision, but this opens you up to mistakes as well. It’s worth practicing these corner cases if you want to play Foil, but I think the risk is worth the reward.

Smoke Shroud is a promising card I decided to cut. This aura allows you to turn Ninja of the Deep Hours into the most jacked Delver of Secrets  Flip you could imagine, but there aren’t enough discard outlets for it. You never want to play it & Faeries doesn’t really mill or discard outside of Foil and Moon-Circuit Hacker. 5 situational sources just isn’t enough to enable this card. I’ll say though, if the Faerie mirror ever becomes a matchup in need of breaking, I think this card will do it. It’s very difficult to permanently answer and forces your opponent to block unprofitably.

I’m debating Force Spike over Spell Pierce in my flex slot, but only because I genuinely don’t know how good Force Spike is.

K4nkato on Mono-Blue FLASH Faeries

1 year ago

Meta blue Faeries runs Moon-Circuit Hacker and Ninja of the Deep Hours for draw. It also puts Sprites and Pestermites back in your hand for later. They don't have Flash but they have Ninjutsu, the next best thing.

If not, Arrester's Admonition is worth looking at.

to_regatha_and_beyond on The pauper Fairytale (new and Improved)

1 year ago

Nice deck design! This covers some ground most of these pauper faerie decks don't, which is great to see.

I might get rid of the Mukotai Ambusher as it doesn't do all that much in the deck. Maybe in its place put in another Ninja of the Deep Hours?

Diabolic Edict seems pretty weak since it can't target, maybe replace it with another Go for the Throat? Artifact decks aren't super popular at the moment so the ability to target seems a lot more powerful to me.

Echoing Decay is really a sideboard card, since it's main use is for matchups against decks that make a lot of tokens. In your main deck, it often ends up hitting only 1-2 creatures, which isn't that powerful.

Some cards I might consider for the deck are Winter Eladrin and Mutagenic Growth. They can be pretty useful, especially Mutagenic Growth.

What do you think of those cards?

Spirits on Yuriko, Shadow of Fate EDH

1 year ago

Wow thanks Virlym!!!

Agreed Thrasios, Triton Hero or a Kess, Dissident Mage way more value for Fish-Consul, was hoping for some flavor, along with the easiest win in commander today. Goal is to build a fun, rogue style deck, but that I can play in High power format games, 8+. I'll think on the fish overnight, certainly is powerful (and lots of interaction in the format to deal with it, a couple you identified). Doomsday without fish wouldn't be good either, too much work and weird cards would have to be put in without it. I defintely want a focused strategy not just play stuff for needing to play it.

Agreed Mana Vault is wrong, not on curve, going to replace that one with something. Dark Ritual I think I might need, a T1 Opposition Agent or Nashi, Moon Sage's Scion, maybe an Arcane Signet into an Unblockable with a Sensei's Divining Top lots of scenarios I can see using that {b}{b}{b} Dauthi Voidwalker that grabs me a fetchland I can use to not miss my T3 land drop, etc.

For Mox Opal I haven't done an analysis "yet", i have calculated the hypergeometric probabilities and charted them, see Kaalia Deck, but it's generally low, even lower with no Mana Vault.

The land selection supports the Thassa's Oracle + Tainted Pact, if you have any duplicate cads (including basic lands) then Tainted Pact doesn't work as a Tutor or a win enabler. I included the basic & it's snow-covered counterpart for maximum coverage there. I'm prioritizing lands that 1) Never enter tapped, 2) are T1 useable lands. Spire of Industry might not be right, similar argument to Mox Opal what is it's activation probability. Could go back to Tarnished Citadel or Ancient Tomb maybe? I dont like the colorless, or maybe just an Island like Cephalid Coliseum. I've tried finding another dual colored land that meets the criteria but can't which is why I landed on Spire of Industry. If I abandon fish-pact, can add more basics.

Satoru Umezawa I had a hard time. His CMC4 activated ability is useless, I was more evaluating on the following 1) Whenever Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow commander ninjitsu, I get to a) Look at the top 3 cards of library, b) Choose one for my hand (a counterspell or land or something), c) was a ninja lol. Looking again, his ability isn't a "may" so he's actually going to break the sorcery speed top deck manipulators like Imperial Seal or Personal Tutor, so he's bad, needs to come out, the draw isn't worth disrupting the synergy of the deck.

Viscera Seer has goldfished ok with me so far, why i've liked him a) He is CMC 1, so could be an early swing unblocked to commander ninjitsu and doesn't cost much to recast, b) He can put Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow back into the command zone, so that she can commander ninjitsu in "unblockable" again, dont want her stuck on the board with no way to attack, c) The top deck manipulation helps drawing what you need when you need it or getting rid of a card so that you can connect with a bigger spell. He also protects my stuff from exile effects, or effects that might turn her into an indestructible insect or a land or whatever all those things want to do! d) Can block and sac against lifelink (if that matters, probably not), not giving their footing back when I'm trying to kill with my Yuriko ability. He's not critical value, but having a way to consistently cast that unblockable, commander ninjitsu, replay the unblockable and get Yuriko back in command zone, is good isn't it? Cunning Evasion dpes this for all ninjas where Viscera Seer only works with Yuriko.

Praetor's Grasp probably wrong. Reevaluating there thanks.

I don't like that Grazilaxx, Illithid Scholar only triggers once, thought he was for each creature. Hmm. If unblocked draw a card. If blocked return to hand vs. if blocked return to hand. Grazilaxx, Illithid Scholar gives them additional incentive to block, but not much more, it's an extra card per turn, with the unblockables it should be anyway, so like a Phyrexian Arena with a second ability? Easier to remove. Cunning Evasion really just de-incentifies the block, especially if Yuriko on the field, but most stuff is unblockable or will draw a card. So point taken, is the extra card here or there worth the extra mana, and making it easier to remove, hmm. Maybe both are good?

Opposition Agent agent certainly is good stuff, but it has so many benefits a) It's a CMC3 instant speed tutor (for a land, any card, multiple lands, etc). It's going to get you something you want b) It's an essential stax piece, the higher power you get, the more value he is, essentially it stax locks down oppoents lands (too many fetches not enough basics the higher you get), finding an answer to you board (no looking for a board wipe for your ninjas (high power usually have 1 or 2 and rely on tutors to find it when needed), or even looking for an answer to Yuriko. Opponents durtle under Opposition Agent unless they have a removal "in hand" forces them to draw into a solutions, under a restricted mana base, decks playing 10-20 tutors shuts down 20% of their deck, slows them down etc. Until they ban this card that should never have been printed, or at least printed in White instead, have to play him. In Mid>High games or lower, he's far less useful as you see more basic lands, or more enters tapped, more draw effects and fewer tutors understandably.

This is really fantastic discussions, appreciate it, hopefully not consuming too much of your time :)

Thousand-Faced Shadow, I got hyper focused on his CMC4 ninjitsu for a "lack luster" ability and didn't even consider he's a CMC1 with flying evasion built in, that's also a ninja! Who cares about his dumb ability! He's going in 100%.

Mist-Syndicate Naga he's really just a 3/1 for 3 (bad), no evasion (bad), ninjitsu is CMC3 (bad, why not CMC1?). He replicates and then exponentially populates, but you can't bounce the copies to hand to protect them, and as with exponential growth, it's the T1-3 growth that kills you, the game isn't going to go long enough for him to deliver the value he could, let's say on T14 of a game, his T4 swinging. It's extra draw, but how is this guy getting through all these times to draw the cards, and why would I even Ninjitsu him lol. Can't get there on this guy.

Moon-Circuit Hacker and Ninja of the Deep Hours I keep thinking about though, their Ninjitsu costs are reasonable, but can't decide what they take the place of, a control card? a tutor card? That tutor finds me a win-con piece, a big spell for Yuriko to hit with, or a Ninja that delivers more advantage. However, if Yuriko is offline for whatever reason, they can draw into a solution themselves. In reconsidering mode on those. Thought I was close to having the list, your points have made me reconsider so many things.

The other low-cost ninjitsu are a little too situational and for like Mid>High games where board state matters more. The higher you get, the less important a board state is, and other than disrupting 1 player at sorcery speed (since Ninjitsu is on your turn, during attack, and only unblocked) it's utility is low. If the games are 5-7 power level, things tend to come out, wait around a turn before they do their thing in 7+ "usually" the thing comes out and it's already done it's thing Dockside Extortionist or a creature with haste that activates, etc. There are some exceptions like an Esper Sentinel or something, but in general Destroy/bounce are usually bad, want Exile at instant speed to have more "interaction".

Doomsday isn't really necessary, it's just an easy T1 win-con that tutors all the cards in combo. I haven't figured the stack but probably 1BBBB (5CMC T1 win), 1BB with a dark ritual. I'll build the stacks but that seems right. T2 win with lots like Lotus Petal, Chrome Mox. I'm just not 100% sold if it's needed and also means can cut Plunge into Darkness as well, although I think Night's Whisper would still stay even without Doomsday. Fish-consul is UUB T1 or Fish-pact 1UUB, so there are more efficent lines than Doomsday. There is a BBB Doomsday win-line but too many cards that don't synergize well with the commander in the deck.

Thanks so much, a bunch more modifications to the decklist coming tonight! Was extremely helpful.

Virlym on Yuriko, Shadow of Fate EDH

1 year ago

Honestly, I wouldn't bother with the Thassa's Oracle line. There's much better generals out there for it over Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow (like any Thrasios, Triton Hero deck partnered with something that has black in it). Doomsday could still work with Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow as a game ender tho if you really wanted to keep that in. It's really your call, but I never liked setting myself up to lose if something gets countered (Trickbind makes you lose to the Thassa's Oracle line, and something like Angel's Grace will make you lose to the Doomsday line). Having said that, the following will assume you are focusing on Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow, and not a planted "good-stuff" strategy.

glaring issues in a general sense from your list :
1)You have poor ramp choices for Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow
2)Your land base is too awkward and has unnecessary things in it.
3)You have some turtle cards that don't really have much use in Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow

1)Mana Vault is more for a deck that wants big explosive turns, not ramp for small things over multiple turns. You are hardly ever going to want to dump 4 mana into untapping it. Same concept applies to Dark Ritual as well, especially considering it only gives you black mana. Lotus Petal falls into this category as well to an extent. You don't want explosive turns, you want consistent pressure. Mox Opal makes you life more complicated for a potential free mana, which leads into the next issue.

2)Your land choice is too awkward. You have artifact lands to turn on Mox Opal, but they serve no other purpose and can be wiped out with artifact removal. If you are running so many different lands, you generally want to be taking advantage of something where that matters (like Field of the Dead, and you usually want to avoid using the non-indestructible artifact lands unless you have a lot of artifact synergies. They are too vulnerable to just have for 1 or 2 cards. You have more fetch lands than you have targets for those fetches. You have 3 black fetchs, 3 blue fetches, 1 black/blue fetch, and 1 basic land fetch. You only have 4 basic lands, and 2 fetchable dual lands (giving you 8 fetches for 6 targets). Spire of Industry is honestly too reliant on other things that it can basically be counted as a colorless land with no utility.

3)Satoru Umezawa is cute, but doesn't help in a Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow. It's main purpose is to cheat in big things for 4 mana. Anything you have over 4 mana should already have a ninjutsu reduction to that. Spellseeker is only good for the Thassa's Oracle line and has no real impact with Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow aside from tutoring for a tutor, which is awkward (Solve the Equation follows the same line of thought). Viscera Seer's scry ability may seem decent to try and find something for Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow, but you would need to sac ninjas or enablers, which would lower the amount of triggers you would get. The only real payoff for it is if you're trying to win that turn and you sac your ninjas after they trigger Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow. Praetor's Grasp is too reliant on your opponent having something useful to you, and isn't reliable enough for what Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow wants to be doing. And if you're using it to remove you opponent's wincons from their deck, you might as well just use something like Extract for that as it's cheaper, or Sadistic Sacrament as it will hit more targets. Grazilaxx, Illithid Scholar is a little too fragile for the bounce it gives and you would be better off running Cunning Evasion. The card draw on it really isn't necessary. Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow tends to give you more cards than you need, you don't need additional card draw reliant on damage. Opposition Agent kinda just falls under the "good-stuff" category and will most likely have a prompt death by any1 after you get a land off it, otherwise if kinda just sits in your hand and people will assume it's just a counter.

Ninjas of note that aren't included: Thousand-Faced Shadow, get it, it's too good. 1 drop flier is an enabler spot, but it is also a ninja. Later on, it can be used to double up some ninja triggers as a toolbox card. Mist-Syndicate Naga, expanding your ninja army is really nice and forces value from your opponents to deal with the growing threats. Moon-Circuit Hacker / Ninja of the Deep Hours, extra card draw on cards ninjas with low ninjutsu costs.

Some more meta call ninjas: Throat Slitter / Dokuchi Silencer, removal is nice, especially when it's already lending towards what you already want to be doing and not taking up additional space. Mistblade Shinobi temp creature removal, can set people back a turn if you hit something big, has a tap effect, etc. Skullsnatcher, graveyard hate.

multimedia on Umezawa of the Swamp

2 years ago

Hey, you're welcome. Nice changes, you've added a lot of cards not from the NEO set. That's the right approach if you have access to other cards since while the NEO set has many good cards it's a drop in the ocean compared to all the budget cards you could be playing in the history of Magic. You've upgraded to a robust/fun package of big creatures to ninjutsu with Satoru. Much better ratio of evasion creatures to Ninjas to big creatures :)

  • Sol Ring --> Slinn Voda, the Rising Deep

Sol is a budget mana rock that's the most played card in Commander and for good reason it's excellent ramp for only one mana. Unless it's banned in your playgroup all Commander decks you build could use Sol.

Slinn Voda, the Rising Deep doesn't work with ninjutsu since you can't pay kicker when you ninjutsu because you're not casting Slinn. The effect of ninjutsu is not casting the creature from your hand it's simply putting it onto the battlefield. This is the reason that a creature that's ninjutsu can't be countered by a Counterspell. The reason you're playing Slinn is to get it's kicker effect, but it will take 10 mana to do so which isn't worth it.


An area to think about improving are repeatable draw sources. When you control Satoru and ninjutsu it's pseudo draw, but you're counting a little too much on ninjutsu to draw. Nezahal, Primal Tide is an excellent upgrade you've made for a big creature especially in multiplayer Commander.

The first place to look for more repeatable draw is from Ninjas. Infiltrator is one of the best Ninjas because each Ninja who does combat damage to a player you draw a card. Hours is one of the original Ninjas and it's still just as good today. Only two mana ninjutsu for these Ninjas is another reason they're good.

Grazilaxx, Illithid Scholar has two effects that are good with Ninjas. First effect is repeatable draw, but only one card no matter the number of creatures who do combat damage to a player. Second effect is excellent with ninjutsu because it can return creatures you control to your hand and it can give you more ninjutsu to trigger Satoru. If any creature you control is blocked in combat then you can choose to return it to your hand to then ninjutsu it again right away if you want to. Most Ninjas don't have evasion therefore after ninjutsu they may not be able to safely attack for fear of being blocked. This second effect takes away that fear because if the Ninja is blocked then return it to your hand which saves that Ninja in combat letting it ninjutsu again.

Guerric on [Primer] Crouching One-Drop, Hidden Ninja

2 years ago

February 7, 2022- Continuing Thoughts on Neon Dynasty Spoilers

Once again, I'll post my thoughts on some additional ninjas as well as a few non-ninjas that may be relevant to the deck.

First of all, the underwhelming

1) Inkrise Infiltrator He's an evasive ninja I guess. Even without ninjutsu he'd be playable if he was a one-drop, but paying two just isn't worth a slot. We also have to remember that 2cmc is still bad off the top. We always prefer a higher cmc with a heavily discounted ninjutsu ability. If its going to be an enabler it needs to be one.

2) Mukotai Ambusher What's good here is that it does four off the top but can come down turn two with ninjutsu. Its otherwise a vanilla lifelinker though, which makes it an otherwise underwhelming choice. The fact that it isn't enabled by Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive just aggravates this.

Second, the Promising

1) Nashi, Moon Sage's Scion This is essentially a second copy of Fallen Shinobi that gets more cards, but you can only use one of them and have to pay for it in life if it has a cmc. This is definitely very powerful and something that will scare your opponents. I have to say though, I'm not always a fan of random effects like this, and we aren't in a deck where paying life is usually a great idea. This one is interesting, but time will tell if we want to include it.

2) Dokuchi Silencer This card is much better, and is likely to at least be tested. Single-target interaction is something we need to be running in much higher quantities in commander today, and getting a two-for-one by stapling removal to a ninja is one reason why Mistblade Shinobi and Throat Slitter are two of our best cards. Yuriko usually makes it so we have way more cards than we can use, so the cost of discarding a card isn't much of a drawback here. The only thing that would make this better is if it had a higher cmc. 2cmc is great for its ninjutsu entry, but I wish it would do four or five off the top. Still, beggars can't be choosers in this category, so it will probably make it in.

3) Moon-Circuit Hacker Ninja of the Deep Hours is perhaps the most famous ninja of all time, and this is a discount version that comes down for one, except it loots if it didn't enter the battlefield this turn. That alone might make it good enough, as 1cmc ninjutsu abilities are rare indeed, and helpful for early game tempo. We generally don't mind looting as we're discarding cards do to overdrawing from Yuriko anyway, so a little extra hand sculpting is great. The biggest drawback is that Ninja of the Deep Hours does four off the top whereas this does only two. That is a limitation. We always have to remember that as far as ninjutsu creatures goes, the higher cmc the better as we'll rarely if ever cast it for cmc, and we might as well be doing damage. Still, the benefits are substantial, and it certainly could serve as an early enabler if we don't get a one drop.

4) Prosperous Thief This is where we hot the boundary between promising and truly great, and I suspect this will make it into the latter category, though I'll reserve my optimism for now. Earlier we mentioned how there is an early game tension between getting out ninjas early and ramping. Covert Technician is one possible answer to this dilemma, and this card is another. This can come down on turn two and make us temporary mana in the form of treasure tokens whenever a ninja hits. Nice On top of this, it comes down for two but does three off the top, so it narrowly fulfills that criterion. While Covert Technician gives us permanent ramp when it works, it can potentiall whiff if we are lacking an artifact, whereas this ninja will always be doing something for us. I suspect both will make the deck, and in any case I am really glad to see the design people at wizards seem to have a real knowledge of how one of their most popular commanders works.

The Truly Great

1) Moonsnare Specialist This is effectively a second copy of Mistblade Shinobi, one of my favorite cards in the deck, except that it can bounce our own stuff back as well, which is awesome utility. It comes down for three, which is well worth if if we are removing a problematic creature, and does four off the top. What's more, just like Mistblade Shinobi it will deter our opponent from casting big, scary creatures which we can bounce for three. This deck needs more ninja-based interaction, and this is a perfect example of how to do that.

Non-Ninja Items

1) Kaito's Pursuit While giving all your ninjas menace for a turn might seem like a good way to get through, I'd rather have a more expensive (and hence higher damage off Yuriko) but permanent mass evasion card like Archetype of Imagination any day. We don't need this.

2) Secluded Courtyard An Unclaimed Territory that works with Ninjutsu? Neat! The fact that its in a Kamigawa set with appropriate art is an added bonus. There is no reason not to play this.

3) Otawara, Soaring City This is a legendary land that comes in untapped, but which we can discard if we need some recurion. Its not lifechaning, but there is absolutely no downside here, so it goes in.

4) Takenuma, Abandoned Mire Ditto what we said about Otawara. There's no reason not to include this.

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