Pattern Recognition #24 - Ninjutsu
Features Opinion Pattern Recognition
berryjon
13 April 2017
3790 views
13 April 2017
3790 views
Hello everyone, and welcome back to Pattern Recognition! I'm berryjon, writer for this article series, resident Old Fogey and part-time Smart Ass.
Today's article comes to be as I was decompressing from that Living Wall I hit a couple weeks back. You know, flipping through cards, checking out Amonkhet spoilers, sorting hundreds of cards because they all got messed up in the move, etc....
Well, I came across a certain article from nearly a decade ago, one that brought a smile to my face. Then sadness as I remembered what happened to what it was talking about. At first, I thought I would do a retrospective on that particular article and its contents, but the more I thought about it, the more it seemed like it would be less me talking about it, and more fanboying over it all.
So instead, I realized I could take one of the sections of that announcement, and use it into a stepping stone into a larger idea.
And what is my starting point, you wonder?
It's Ninjutsu.
This is the other major creature-based mechanic from the ancient and cult classic block of Kamigawa. The other such mechanic being, of course, Bushido, which I have already covered in the past. Today I'm going to talk a bit about this mechanic, and why it worked out the way it did, then attempt to segue that into some of the larger mechanical problems in the Kamigawa block. That was I can attempt to correlate the smaller problems with the larger ones.
But first, let's talk about the mechanic itself. From the Comprehensive Rules:
702.48. Ninjutsu
702.48a Ninjutsu is an activated ability that functions only while the card with ninjutsu is in a player’s hand. “Ninjutsu [cost]” means “[Cost], Reveal this card from your hand, Return an unblocked attacking creature you control to its owner’s hand: Put this card onto the battlefield from your hand tapped and attacking.”
702.48b The card with ninjutsu remains revealed from the time the ability is announced until the ability leaves the stack.
702.48c A ninjutsu ability may be activated only while a creature on the battlefield is unblocked (see rule 509.1h). The creature with ninjutsu is put onto the battlefield unblocked. It will be attacking the same player or planeswalker as the creature that was returned to its owner’s hand.
Now, the neat thing is, you can do this after combat damage has been assigned, which, if you read my article last week, raises a whole host of headaches.
On the surface, this is a very simple mechanic. You attack, and when a creature of yours isn't blocked, you can switch it out for another Ninja in your hand, usually either for more damage, or for some special effect that comes from the new creature dealing combat damage to a player.
In fact, I kinda like it! It adds a layer of uncertainty to the opponent, especially if they can't block everything while at the same time displaying a limited amount of options about what could be coming based on the cards in hand and what has been bounced back through the use of this ability.
So, the downsides.
Let's start with my typical gripe. The mechanic was never given a chance to grow. It shows up on a grand total of 10 cards, of which two of them were in the Planechase 2012 set, and not in the original Betrayers of Kamigawa! How can you develop a mechanic when it's given only eight examples that most people saw, and not expect it to get lost in the crowd of everything else?
Oh, and it's a Tribal mechanic that's gone wrong. You see, because of the flavor of the set, Ninjutsu is tied inexorably to the Ninja tribe. You cannot have one without the other. In fact, when you click on the link above to show off the cards with the mechanic, what you're actually seeing is a list of all the Ninja cards in the game.
This is a problem shared with Samurai and Bushido, as you may recall from articles past. And it's one of the long-term lessons that Wizards has learned. You cannot let the name of a mechanic hamper its ability to be reprinted. More generic is better. Looking into it some more, I've seen unofficial suggestions that a replacement mechanic would be called Deception or Switch to be better generic descriptors.
My other concern is that of colour This mechanic is exclusively , despite every other mechanic in the block expanding out into at least three colours Even the Samurai and Bushido touched on all that weren't blue!
Now, colour-locked mechanics can work, but to do so, you need a block full of them. Lorwyn/Shadowmoor worked. Ravnica and RtR worked. Alara worked. Tarkir worked.
Ninjutsu didn't. It was locked to two colours in a block that didn't do that, and even then, there were only eight examples in a single set to work with. Four each in and .
You can't DO a mechanic like that! You have to support it! Give your players options! Not throw it out there and tell players that this is what you're going to get, there is nothing more coming in any of the other sets in the block!
And then getting two more examples - in PLANECHASE 2012 of all things! Though they did add in a and a proper version for the Commander crowd if you're so inclined.
Yeah, I'm a little annoyed. Probably about 0.03 Jace's worth.
Still dreading the next Jace card from the Amonkhet block. Why are you going to ruin a good Gideon story?
Anyway, back to Ninjustu. And I keep wanting to spell it 'Ninjitsu'. The biggest thing about the creatures with this mechanic is that they all, without exception, have a "Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player..." ability. This means that you'll want to attack with them. Seems simple enough, right? Well, we are talking about here. Not exactly the known paragons of smashing to the face. These are the guys who are more likely to cast Glimpse the Unthinkable than Tidal Kraken.
Not to say that Unstable Mutation isn't a combat tick, but just not the sort of thing you would think to put into a deck that involves bouncing your creatures from the board to hand. You would loose all the enchantments that way! At least Equipment could be re-attached.
So, we have our first problem. This is a mechanic that forces its two primary colours out of their comfort zone. Not to say that they can't smash to the face, but usually, they have better ways of dealing with you than that. Yes, there are some aggro builds in both colours - I've highlighted both mono-Blue and mono-black in this series myself. But it's not in the grain of their design.
And Wizards did address this. I mentioned that they were reprinted in Planechase 2012, right? Well, this was the same set, and the same deck that gave us Vela the Night-Clad. Yeah. I mentioned her when I talked about Fear, and how the Intimidate mechanic could work better when applied to multi-coloured cards. Well, this is where she was first printed, and she was designed to synergize with the Ninjas in the set by providing the means for them to bypass most defensive creatures.
In Planechase.
The next benefit to Ninjutsu is that it is, without exception, cheaper to put a creature into play with it than by normal hard casting. Yes, you also have to pay the cost for the initial creature, but you're still putting a second creature into play for cheaper because of it. You know, you just have to swing with a creature that isn't being blocked.
However, there is one more use to this mechanic that I don't think was intended given the 'Ninja Tribal' that I've pointed out. You see, Ninjutsu works on any attacking creature. Not just those with the Ninja creature type or the Ninjutsu ability! Any colour at all!
Now, how many of you would love to have a creature that could bounce another creature you control back to your hand, one that provides a combat bonus for hitting a player while at the same time allowing a creature that could ... say ... have an interesting Enters the Battlefield effect? Or could trigger a "when a creature leaves the battlefield" effect? (Looking at you Vela the Night-Clad).
Yeah, I thought so too.
So, what does this have to do with Kamigawa? Well, when I started this article, I wanted to make a point about mediocrity. Except now I can't! I've put my thoughts into words, and now the thoughts are different!
So let's stick with Ninjustu, and I'll come back to my Kamigawa retrospective at a later date.
Ninjustu, though designed by Mark Rosewater himself, represents one of the flaws in mechanical design for the game. The question of how much is too much and how much is too little? One of my silent complaints (silent no longer) about the game is that when a mechanic first appears, it is rarely in any large numbers. Wizards will hype something, then have it appear on only a handful of cards. In the entire block.
Examples?
Meld.
Only appears on three cards. Chittering Host Meld Meld, Hanweir, the Writhing Township Meld Meld and Brisela, Voice of Nightmares Meld Meld. There are 19 Vehicles across two sets. 11 in Kaladesh, and 8 in Aether Revolt.
Wizards puts so much effort into things that won't appear often, and when they do, the effects can be quite underwhelming. And at the same time, they rarely give their mechanics time or room to grow in response to feedback from the player base. Oh sure, sometimes you'll get things like how Madness or Cycling or Kicker come back after a long hiatus, but those are the exceptions. Most mechanics are 'Fire and Forget' in nature. And for the vast majority of them, it's forget.
How many of you can name all ten Ravnica (not Return) Guild mechanics off the top of your head? I can name Radiate, Convoke, Hellbent, Graft and Forecast. And even then, Forecast only came to me while I was writing. The others? I would need to think harder, or go looking at my cards.
By editor, Boza, wanted to add his own two cents to the pile, and I found his comments insightful.
Additionally, most mechanics feature on a handful of cards, used in one set and discarded like dust in the wind (all we are is dust in the wind...).
Some cards do not even get mechanics (think allies from ZEN 1), while others get keywords on them even though they should not (think Escalate from Eldritch Moon).
The vast majority of mechanics though are by far the one-time-only deal. For every great success story like Prowess getting evergreen status after its debut, there are tens of failures, even just from that block - Megamorph, Raid, Ferocious, Outlast, Manifest, Exploit, Bolster,etc. are all very unlikely to return. The only contender besides Morph and Prowess from that block is Dash.
That's a problem.
But it's also, in it's own way, a solution.
The really good mechanics get promoted. They go from something that appeared in a single set to something that shows up in another set, then get promoted to something Wizards will pull out to help 'make' a set.
Ninjutsu is none of these things. It's another good and solid idea hampered by poor execution, found in a poorly received block, and left to wallow in history, flanked by Mirroden and Ravnica of all things. Yeah, standing between those two behemoths would do poor things to any set.
But in Magic: The Gathering? Simply being "Solid" and "Good" isn't enough to cut it as a viable mechanic. You have to be amazing.
Like Vehicles!
Oh, and you wanted to know what inspired me to talk about this mechanic? Well, feast your eyes on this little announcement from back in 2008.
Sorry, no deck though. I couldn't come up with something that jived with me, despite the sheer awesomeness that implied.
Join me next week when I talk about something. No ideas at this point though, and I'm always willing to take suggestions from the audience!
Until then, I'm selling out! Or is that tapping out? Basic donors get a preview copy of the final article, while advanced donors get that as well as the opportunity to join me in a podcast version of the series
I gotta chime in because im one of those Cult Kamigawa lovers :p However; I agree with just about everything in this article. Ninjutsu was/is cool but the double whammy of limited card selection and color choices made deck building around it pretty difficult. Im a casual/modern player and found that things like Ornithopter/Memnite seem liked good enablers but ultimately just didnt pack enough punch or value... but a tribe that also exists in the Dimir colors was Faeries and ETB effects like Spellstutter Sprite and damage effects from Oona's Blackguard...and the relatively new Faerie Miscreant it made it plausible to come up with a decent 60 card deck... in terms of EDH....impossible i think.... has anyone made a LEGIT Higure, the Still Wind EDH deck? (...and won...against people who have played Magic before...)
April 13, 2017 4:53 p.m.
You can't use Ninjutsu to get your Commander into play as it specifies from hand . Another strike against it.
April 13, 2017 4:59 p.m.
lol but you can tutor the $h!t out of those other 5 Ninjas....and 5 changelings...so epic... Borat voice "NOT!"
April 13, 2017 5:24 p.m.
jandrobard says... #5
Ninjutsu is kind of an interesting mechanic. Though it shoehorns the creatures it's on to have some kind or ETB/combat damage trigger, and the flavor is a big stopping block, there's a lot of unexplored design space for it. The ninja tribe could probably be stretched to every color but red (and maybe green. What would green ninjas be like?) and there are a lot of cool effects that could be attached to ninjutsu cards, but the flavor is too specific for it to end up outside Kamigawa or a fairly similar plane.
April 13, 2017 7:49 p.m.
jandrobard: I was going to say Robin Hood as a Green Ninja, but realized he would be a Human Rogue under the current Creature paradigm. That's also why I mentioned the mechanic being re-built and rebranded under a couple different names as something that has been floated before, but never got past the 'what if' stage.
April 13, 2017 8:15 p.m.
RazortoothMtg says... #7
I know all the ravnica keywords by heart: Forecast, Replicate, Dredge, Bloodthirst, Radiate, Transmute, Haunt, Convoke, Graft, Hellbent.
Ha!
April 13, 2017 8:44 p.m.
jandrobard says... #8
RazortoothMtg nice! I always forget Forecast, Transmute, and Graft myself.
April 13, 2017 8:54 p.m.
RazortoothMtg: As you like Ravnica so much, I think you'll enjoy next week's article!
Another way to look at the problem with Ninjutsu is that while the ability only triggers on combat damage to a player, unless you're in multiplayer or Two Headed Giant, then your opponent only has 20 life to give. Just how much utility do you get from these guys when compared to other options?
April 13, 2017 11:43 p.m.
RoarMaster says... #10
I gotta agree with most of what you had to say. Ive waited forever for them to see some support, and Im afraid the weak attempt in planechase may be all we get.
I feel like you could have mentioned the cool interaction between First Strike/Double Strike and Ninjutsu. If you give a creature First Strike, that critter can deal damage and then be returned for ninjutsuing in a ninja to deal damage during the regular damage phase.
Oh, and although blue is not known for its 'smash face' approach, neither are ninjas. Black is pretty smashy, Grinning Demon, Carnophage, ect. BUT, what both Blue, Black, and Ninjas have in common is being evasive. So I really dont think that ninjas are taking U/B out of their combat zones. No other colors do Flying, Fear, Shadow, and Unblockable like U/B.
This is what I have been running. Surprisingly fun, fast, and complex. Ornithopter Insertion - Ninja Human Tribal($30)
April 14, 2017 1:38 a.m.
sorry berryjon you made a typo"flanked by Mirroden and Ravnica of all things."
April 14, 2017 7:24 a.m.
TheRedGoat says... #12
So I noticed you didn't have a deck (or I guess a pair would be in order) this time, but it's okay. I found both.
You're welcome!
April 14, 2017 11:04 a.m.
I'm a big Kamigawa fan, and even though I understand why we're never getting a return to Kamigawa outside of casual supplements it still makes me sad. My Ninja deck was probably the first deck I ever built, and I still try to find space in my Commander decks for Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni, Sakashima's Student, and Silent-Blade Oni.
On the plus side Ninja of the Deep Hours shows up pretty often in mono-blue Pauper decks, since Faerie Miscreant and Spellstutter Sprite will usually be unblocked and are things you would want to recast.
April 14, 2017 11:19 a.m.
JonathanSamurai says... #14
Wouldn't things like Stormrider Rig and Ronin Warclub add Punch to ninjutsu? Or does the equip as sorcery override?
April 14, 2017 3:33 p.m.
It's a triggered ability, so those could go onto a newly-arrived Ninja before combat damage is dealt.
April 14, 2017 3:41 p.m.
JonathanSamurai says... #16
I thought so, does add weight to the Ninja tribe. I still prefer Samurai. Return to Kamigawa would be awesome...
April 14, 2017 3:43 p.m.
Good arrival but there are a couple of points i think you missed. they combine very well with other tribal themes (which alot of machanic's from the mid stages of mtg seem to do) from the time as blue/black dose have creature tribals that again works with enter the battlefield effects. Both rogues and fairies work really well with ninjas as these creatures tend to have evasion (flying or unblockable) and have exellent etb effects Spellstutter Sprite especially. I feel ninjutsu's cards don't fit into an aggro deck but more of a control/tempo style with lots of counters and removal (also seen it work well with Snapcaster Mage ) and yes Sakashima's Student is amazing but have an unblockable Clone with haste for 2 might have stretched the meta of modern and standered(if it was printed in the normal way) (but if it's ever added i will be one of the first to start using it :)
April 16, 2017 8:36 a.m.
I think you mean you would *lose all Enchantments that way.
But I digress. Good read. This was one of my favourite mechanics and I do wish it might see a new printing some time, but as you say, I won't hold me breath.
April 17, 2017 6:21 p.m.
I would like to thank everyone who came here from this week's "Channel Fireball" link. Welcome to TappedOut, and I hope you enjoy the rest of my series!
https://www.channelfireball.com/articles/this-week-in-magic-59/
April 24, 2017 12:38 a.m.
You are wrong to call Raid a failure.
It is a 3 on the storm scale.
Its very easy to work into a set.
April 24, 2017 1:37 a.m.
JimHarbor: The formatting screwed up, and those were Boza's words, not mine. However, it is my article, so I will speak in my defence.
First is that the Storm Scale is not an absolute, set in stone thing. It is literally the opinion of Mark Rosewater, and not some policy of Wizards of the Coast. And even then, his opinion of it has bounced between 3 and 4 over the past couple of years. You cannot point at the Storm Scale, and proclaim that this is what will be.
Raid, as a mechanic, is indeed an excellent example of Storm #3. It is a robust mechanic that is easy to incorporate into future sets due to its simple design. It encourages aggressive play, and acts as a reward mechanic for doing something people would already do.
It's also dead.
Raid was never a well received mechanic. When I played during Khans, I played Mardu as are my primary colors, so why not? The universal response from my group (as I worked in my LGS at the time, I got to a lot of talking) was that Raid was the weakest of the five Khans mechanics, and the cards that supported it didn't do much with it.
When I talk about a lack of support, this is another fine example of it. Raid only appears on 11 cards. 5 Red, 3 White and 3 Black. That's it. Bellowing Saddlebrute is actively detrimental in a way that Suicide Black would hate. Arrow Storm has a laughable improvement for triggering Raid.
The effects triggered to Raid were bland and uninspired. They could be effectively ETB effects given the accepted paradigm of casting spells during your second main phase. The whole 'attacking' thing was just a conditional rider on the mechanic that only made sense when you thought about the mechanic as trying to encourage combat.
Which Dash did far better. And so did Bloodthirst in encouraging combat and damage.
So yeah, Storm Scale 3 or no, Raid is another example of a solid mechanic that's already in the dustbin. I won't hold my breath to see it again.
April 24, 2017 2 a.m.
Raid was never a well-received mechanicThis is false: Raid was the most popular new mechanic in the block, and is slightly above average in well reception for mtg mechanics over all. You are basically projecting your anecdotal experience and personal dislike of a mechanic as a measure for it not to return. Just because specific iterations of the mechanic were not as powerful as you would prefer doesnt mean the mechanic as a whole is a poisoned well. Especially since the design space is wide enough the specific pay outs can be varied.(Though a bit less so than Morbid and Revolt, its closest analogs) I also question exactly what your ideal volume for mechanics in a set is. Kaladesh never seemed vehicle starved to me, but apparently by your rubric 11 is too few, and the as fan is such that a bit more than every other pack will have a Vehicle in it.(And vehicles being a colorless buff-style card type akin to equipment means they cant show up at too thick levels, nor should they.) Energy from that very same set had 47 cards with as-fan of a bit more than 2.5 a pack.
That being said I like the article, I just strongly disagree with how hard you came down on Raid.
(Also I think Ninjutsu has a bit more in color vibing that you give it credit for, it's feeds off evasion and sabtour effects and UB are the two colors most associated with those; to the point Skulk almost was made into there keyword mechanic if it didnt fail so hard) So the idea of sneaking in dudes and then swapping them for guys that get value off hitting is very UB in nature.
April 24, 2017 8:52 a.m.
Vehicles showed up in both sides of Kaladesh, for a total of 19 instances.
Now, you accuse me of using anecdotal evidence to support my distaste for Raid. However, it's less anecdotal, and me being the guy who was the Judge for my LGS and who talked to everyone who came into the store looking for cards and help in building a deck. Raid was never a blip on anyone's radar.
(I almost typed Raidar there. Ugh.)
But, but the same criteria, what evidence do you have that - quote: "Raid was the most popular new mechanic in the block, and is slightly above average in well reception for mtg mechanics over all." - unquote? I have players and my own attempts to play it because of my color preference to support my opinion. What is yours?
April 24, 2017 11:57 a.m.
Citation NeededCitation Supplied: http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/storm-scale-khans-tarkir-block-2016-02-29
Quote: "Prowess was the most popular mechanic in Khans of Tarkir and Fate Reforged and the second most popular mechanic in the block (rebound was first, making raid the most popular new mechanic in the block)."
And
"Raid was in the top half of mechanics, but just barely."
Thus, the most popular new mechanic of the block and slightly above average (barely in the top 50%)for mechanics over all.
I think you are severely underestimating the popular appeal of getting to do stuff based on attacking(the game's primary mode of interaction), it's like they took landfall and made it even more timmy.
April 25, 2017 9:27 a.m.
I want to accept your citation, but there's a problem with it.
It states that Prowess was the most popular mechanic in Khans and Fate reforged, while Rebound was the most popular in the block overall. Somehow, this makes Raid the most popular new Mechanic?
No, that's not consistent with what we're told. Prowess was introduced in that block and promptly went Evergreen as it showed up in Magic Origins.
Rosewater cannot say that Prowess is number one in a certain selection, then say that Raid is number one in that same grouping, especially when it fell sharply when compared to other mechanics in the history of Magic while Prowess stayed fairly steady.
I believe your source to be flawed. This is not a slight against you, but once again you're focusing on the Rosewater's personal opinion through the Storm Scale, and that opinion can - and has been - proven wrong or at least incorrect in the past.
April 25, 2017 12:03 p.m.
Just wanted to drop in to point out Raid is coming back in Ixalan.
July 6, 2017 1:33 p.m.
Also note I wasn't citing that article for Maro's personal opinion.(Also I don't know how the storm scale could be "wrong" it's an assessment[and reassesment] of a mechanic's odds of returning, something like Madness for example was given low odds due to its rules and design issues, meaning it would only come back in a very narrow set of conditions, which SOI provided.)I was citing it to counteract your anecdotal experience(which yes, even as a judge is anecdotal) with the hard data Mark shared with us from WOTC itself. You can question specifically how Raid was the most popular new mechanic of the block when Prowess was the most popular in the first two sets, but its still not citing a personal opinion, its citing data and an assessment of the objective aspects of raid. I'm not trying to do an "I told you so" But we can now cite Raid returning in Ixalan as an example of the points I and Rosewater were making in action.
Pheardemons says... #1
Always love the articles berryjon! I can't remember if you have talked about this before, but would tribal support be something worth talking about? How Wizards have given support, across blocks, to certain tribals (zombies, soldiers, knights) while letting others die out (scarecrow, kithkin) be something worth talking about?
April 13, 2017 2:11 p.m.