Throat Slitter

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Legality

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

Throat Slitter

Creature — Rat Ninja

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

Whenever Throat Slitter deals combat damage to a player, destroy target nonblack creature that player controls.

Craeter on Sneaky Sewer-Rat Spies

1 month ago

Lord_Olga Hey I appreciate you taking the time to really analyze this deck and offer some good suggestions! You've definitely got me thinking about some optimizations. Truth be told, I haven't had a chance to playtest this one yet, so I'm sure there is some room for improvement. I took your suggestions into consideration and made some tweaks to the deck.

Firstly, I did add two more lands to bring it up to 22, I agree with you 20 is too low for the curve but I'm having a hard time cutting to get up to 24. I also removed a lot of the more high cost cards to get the mana curve down further. I like to live dangerously, so I tend to slot as few lands as possible that still makes decks work. But I went ahead and added x4 Drowned Catacomb, I think you're onto something there. I'm skipping Polluted Delta for now to avoid the life loss since this deck only has a few cards with Lifelink.

I tend to build thematic decks, hence the Rogue's Passage, I did cut one but I'm going to keep one for the theme, even if it's not as good as the unblockable suggestions. I'm leaning against adding them, but I am adding Cover of Darkness, which serves the same function (except against black and artifact creatures), but against other creatures then Throat Slitter will be relatively useless anyways. Cover of Darkness also benefits every creature since they are all Rats, and provides redundancy if Marrow-Gnawer is not out. It even has an interaction with Nashi, Searcher in the Dark if milled.

To address your 2nd point about speed, I cut some of the Drowned in the Loch and added two Force Spike to add some early game counters since this deck wants to make it to the mid game to really get going. And since I'm opting to keep it purely Rat themed and not add your 1 drop suggestions, this is the compromise to add some early game options.

I'm sure your suggestions would technically be better for a more truly competitive modern deck, I'm just opting to keep it more casual and thematic. But I appreciate your suggestions, I typically build for EDH and I want all of the things, so it's tough getting a 60 card deck streamlined with as many options as possible.

carpecanum on Plague of Rats

1 year ago

Throat Slitter counts as removal. In Garruk's Wake

Dread Charge or Word of Binding could win the game with poison if you have a bunch of creatures out.

Thrilling Encore for recursion maybe?

itsmuggle on Rat Boy Attacks

2 years ago

MountainMan817 Don't really have a budget, the way I designed this deck Throat Slitter just doesn't add any value, the creatures currently in the deck make more sense together. Ravenous Rats was considered for the deck but is really just a worse version of Rat Colony with the extra ability of causing the opponent to discard a card. Duress allows me to pick the card directly. Pack Rat is already in the deck.

MountainMan817 on Rat Boy Attacks

2 years ago

Used to run mono-black rats: Eek! (Rats). Ravenous Rats seems good for utility like Duress. Pack Rat is a classic value addition and Throat Slitter is great interaction if not out of budget.

Virlym on Yuriko, Shadow of Fate EDH

2 years 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.

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.

azja on Yuriko (Optimized) Primer

3 years ago

It's great to hear from ya again Snake57! I've been a bit busy with school, and getting back into in-person modern events, so I haven't been playing much edh lately :( but here's what I think of the cards I'm testing:

  • So far Gingerbrute feels like a good fit for Yuriko. I think the upside of having haste outweighs the downside of having to pay to make it unblockable. I chose to cut Tormented Soul because it also can't be pitched to Force of Will and I want to keep my density of blue cards high, but I still think it's a solid enabler.

  • I've also been pretty happy with Ponder over Personal Tutor. The problem I have with Personal Tutor is that I don't have a ton of sorceries that aren't just big, clunky extra turn spells. In contrast, Vampiric Tutor and Mystical Tutor have a lot more targets and provide utility at every point in the game, not just on the final turn. I would definitely suggest Ponder over Consider because you can also control what's on top of your deck, not just the card you draw.

  • I have mixed feelings about Chain of Vapor. It's awesome in the early game when your opponents don't have enough lands to reasonably sac one to copy it, but it feels pretty bad in the mid-late game when they do. Also at 1 cmc, it doesn't do Yuriko any favours. I chose to cut Spire Owl in its place because I had 4 2-mana enablers, and it felt like a bit too many. From what I can tell, I think 3 is the right number.

  • Dauthi Voidwalker has been an awesome addition to the deck. It hinders graveyard strategies, can be used as enabler if needed, and most importantly, steals an opponent's removal spell or counterspell. I chose to cut Throat Slitter because my meta used to be filled with black aristocrat decks. But lately it's been shifting from that, so I may try to find a spot for it again.

Now for the cards you mentioned:

  • I've tried Opposition Agent in some other decks, but not in Yuriko. I've found that it mostly ends up stealing someone's ramp or fetchland, rather than an actual tutor. This makes me think it might be a bit underwhelming in Yuriko.

  • I've really been liking Street Wraith so far. It's a heavy hitter when you reveal it with Yuriko, and you can immediately cycle it for a more useful card. It also fuels your delve spells, and you can use it to set up a miracle Temporal Mastery.

  • I also feel like the overall cmc can be a bit low, so I think adding Boon of the Wish-Giver could be a good call. At 1 mana it's pretty easy to cycle, plus it's not too bad of a card either.

  • I would hesitate to play Scion of Draco because we can only reduce it to 8 mana, making it almost uncastable. If you need another big card for burn, I would maybe go with Enter the Infinite because both Mystical Tutor and Vampiric Tutor can tutor for it, and it can be exiled to Force of Will.

As always, thanks for commenting and let me know if you have any more suggestions from the new sets!!

azja on Yuriko: the 忍者 code | Commander

3 years ago

Hey! Your decklist looks great, it has all of the essential parts down pat (cheap/evasive creatures, powerful ninjas and lots of topdeck manipulation). You could definitely play it as-is, even if it's been a while! But I also want to mention some ideas that I have for potential cuts/additions:

  1. Bitterblossom : Earliest it can create a creature is turn 3, personally I found this too slow. I prefer to play an additional enabler instead, such as Ornithopter or Mausoleum Wanderer .

  2. Deep-Sea Kraken : Very unlikely to hard cast, and you can probably win the game before removing all its suspend counters. Instead, you could play Blinkmoth Infusion or Draco , which are equally uncastable, but deal more damage.

  3. Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni : Definitely one of the coolest ninjas, but just too slow in my opinion. Some ninjas you could replace it with are Throat Slitter , Fallen Shinobi , or Mist-Syndicate Naga .

  4. Conspiracy and Xenograft : I played these for a long time, but ended up cutting them in favour of more extra turn spells, which are more consistent for closing out the game. My favourites to play in Yuriko are Temporal Mastery which can easily be a Time Walk , and Temporal Trespass which can be cast for UUU, but deals 11 damage.

  5. Bolas's Citadel : A bit of a nonbo in Yuriko decks, which generally want to play super-efficient, high cmc spells. I don't have a direct replacement in mind, but I'll include more suggestions at the end.

  6. Massacre and Toxic Deluge : Yuriko needs creatures on the board more than most decks, so I generally don't play boardwipes that destroy creatures. I prefer to play something like Evacuation or Devastation Tide so I don't lose them permanently.

  7. Teferi's Veil : I'm kinda unsure how this synergizes with Yuriko. Could you let me know if I'm missing something? I'm not super familiar with phasing.

Miscellaneous Suggestions:

  1. Universal Automaton : A very simple, yet effective ninja

  2. Deadly Rollick and Fierce Guardianship : Free removal/counterspell as long as you control Yuriko!

  3. Scheming Symmetry : Can win the game before your opponent draws the card they tutored for. Best paired with Blinkmoth Infusion and Draco if you decide to include them.

  4. Curtains' Call and Coastal Breach : I love the undaunted mechanic in Yuriko decks. Heavy hitters that you can cast for cheap.

  5. Force of Negation : Does a reasonable Force of Will impression to get your opponents who think you're all out of answers.

  6. Mox Amber : Acts as Mox Sapphire / Mox Jet as long as you control Yuriko.

  7. Sea Gate Restoration  Flip and Agadeem's Awakening  Flip: Although their abilities are not too relevant, lands that also deal damage with Yuriko are very powerful.

Sorry this got so long, I hope all of my points made sense! Feel free to let me know what you think! Thanks again for the kind words about my primer!

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