Is ninjutsu a replacement effect that can negate attack costs?
Asked by freezerboy 2 years ago
I'm looking to see if using the new commander Satoru Umezawa and Leviathan with mean you don't have to sacrifice 2 islands since ninjutsu puts a creature into play already attacking. Satoru reads:
Each creature in your hand has ninjutsu 2UB.
Rhadamanthus says... Accepted answer #2
Yes, this works. The "can't attack unless you sacrifice two islands" means you have to pay a cost of sacrificing two islands in order to declare Leviathan as an attacker during the Declare Attackers step of combat. Ninjutsu puts the creature onto the battlefield attacking without going through that process, so you don't have to pay the cost.
January 4, 2022 2:08 p.m.
If you're going to make this a deck, you should know that this applies to "when this creature attacks" triggers as well. For example, deploying Bane of Bala Ged via ninjutsu will not exile any permanents.
freezerboy says... #1
This is from the rulings:
Although the Ninja is attacking, it was never declared as an attacking creature (for purposes of abilities that trigger whenever a creature attacks, for example).
But not 100% if that means no need to sac the islands.
January 4, 2022 12:56 p.m.