Have to admit, I knew almost non of this and now my friends are going to hate me.

My favorite ninjutsu moment was from a cube draft. master of cruelties attack, no blocks, his ability goes on stack, ninjutsu happens, life becomes 1, and ninja deals 2 damage for lethal

The first strike trick is so nasty. Thank you for this.

These are the things I explain to my friends at the start of the match, play the match, do the things, and re explain later. So thank you for putting it in a video to help my legal battle later 🤣

I once saw the card Rocket Launcher in a binder at my LGS. I immediately bought them for dirt cheap and made a deck called "Ninjas with rocket launchers." Once I won one game by activating Rocket Launcher, the deck was retired.

The most obvious advantage of the End of Combat Ninjutsu is using it to deal combat damage with a bigger creature that has some on-play use or needs to be protected, but is still a bigger beater than the Ninja you're flipping in.

Being able to activate ninjutsu multiple times using 1 ninja is one of my favorite tricks and it saved me so many times. I can see this being relevant again with Satoru. Great video and amazingly explained.

There are some other great uses for Ninjutsu not mentioned, such as protecting your creatures from targeted spells that occur during combat. If a card says "Deal 3 damage to target creature" and its played after they declared blockers, you can ninjutsu it out with another card, thus removing the previous target from the battlefield and their spell resolves with 0 effect. It doesn't happen extremely often, but when it does happen it's sure to cause some head-scratching from your opponent.

That First strike/Ninjutsu combat trick is equivalent to a 360 No Scope... 🤯

My favorite trick is ninjutsu'ing after my opponent uses Maze of Ith; despite untapping it and preventing the damage, it still is an (often unblocked) attacker

One i recently discovered was equipping a unblockable ninja with blade of selves for myriad and the copies are attacking the opponrnt unblocked so you can ninjutsu out the token copies before they die at the end of combat and do ninjutsu loops as long as you have alot of mana to use.

Using it in response to Etrata, the Silencer triggered ability on the stack Get to exile their creature and put a hit counter but not have to shuffle her away

I learned the second loophole when I started getting into commander and was looking into some Etrata, the Silencer decks. That's a very neat way to abuse her ability

Nice Video and well explained. I already knew those tricks, since i digged deep into the rules when i did build my first Ninja Commander Deck, but i applaud you bringing them all up it took me some weeks to find this stuff out. If i could give a tipp, i would say to remember that Ninjutsu is an activated ability and can be reduced by Heartstone and Zirda, the Dawnwaker. Biomancer's Familiar, and Training Grounds won't work because they only reduce for creatures you control.

the first strike trick is so techy! could we take it further with double strike? 🤔🤔

As an Umezawa super fan, building Satoru has yet again completed my collection of all 4 Umezawa legends in commander. Hyped to learn these tricks for the new deck!

Love the fact that Ninjutsu can be used as a way to protect from board wipes, I honestly didn't know you could do that

Use Satoru to switch infinitely between Peregrine Drake and Great Whale. Blue Sun the opponent out of the game

I love the mechanic and had no idea it was this versatile. I hope Arena can handle these edge cases well since, at least to me, it has been the best tool for learning other complicated mechanics and interactions.

love it, while i already knew all the tips in this video and how the steps work i found this video great to share with my less experienced group mainly because of the detailed explanation told in such a short time frame

You didn't mention "Cunning evasion", or newer "Grazilaax" trick, where for ex.: you attack with 2 creatures (yuriko and a normal 2/2), the other player has a 3/3 and blocks Yuriko, then the Cunning evasion triggers and you return her in your hand. At this point the 2/2 is unblocked and you ninjutsu yuriko on him. That is very useful.

Very cool! Hey! Regarding the final 1st Strike trick, many years ago, even before Yuriko saw print, I built a Wydwen Ninjutsu deck that wants to actively find Bladed Pinion to hook onto an attacker. Deal 1st Strike damage, then Ninja-in the next “battle player”. Ronin Warclub was an excellent addition to this shenanigan too

Thanks for sharing. Been looking into incorporating ninjutsu into my decks, but didn't really know how to work it out. Now I have an idea!!!!

Now I want ninjas even more! I want the old ones and the ones to come. Thanks for showing us that first strike trick! Personal opinion: revisiting the early sets is awesome for some casual players so we can remember the old days. cheers

0:55 I'm glad seeing this here. Because on Satoru Umezawa's Gatherer's page there are multiple mistakes "As you activate a ninjutsu ability, you reveal the Ninja card" "Although the Ninja is attacking" instead of "you reveal the creature" "Although the creature is attacking" This is probably a copy/paste error since Ninjutsu only showed up on Ninja cards before. But it could still lead to some arguments at some tables ^^ '

Thanks for the tips, Gavin. I'm definitely going to have to remember these tricks when I build a sultai ninjas list I'm working on. And if ur wondering what green is for, pump spells. Just pump spells. Attack with a Phantom Warrior, ninjutsu in Ninja of the Deep Hours, Giant Growth, Giant Growth, and they're dead. 👌

This is actually real nice to get hyped for the new set and a good refresher how the keyword works thx

It was good to see my pet card Tetsuko Umezawa make an appearance. She's been the cornerstone for getting attacks through for my Blue ninja deck since Modern Horizons gave us such great gifts as Mist-Syndicate Naga. Good Times, Gavin!

Using ninjutsu to return a creature you don't own its owner's hand after you've stolen it is a cool tempo play forcing them to recast it

These notions were in my head but under piles of stuff. Thanks for making me brush up them!

I like playing "Future sight" in my ninjutsu decks as it reads - "You may play the top card of your library as though it were in your hand." The top of your deck IS revealed so opponents might see what's about to happen before you do it, but then that could also be used as "Bait" and throw them off guard when u ninjutsu from your hand instead.

A fun use of the looping trick is to get around removal. You attack and they let it through. You then use it to ninjitsu in a creature, likely with a damage effect they don't like (draw, discard, bounce) so they try to kill it before damage. You then use a different ninja in your hand to save it.

So given I got a Pre-Release box of Kamigawa: ND, and me having not played Ninjas or Vehicles (the other card I got a few of) before, this was super useful! That "First Strike" mechanic was so good, not something I may have thought of, and now the idea behind my new deck build!

I'm a returning Magic player thanks to Neon Dynasty and building my first ever Commander deck with Ninjas, so this video is a great help! Thank you!

Thank you Gavin! This new Satoru Umezawa with the new tricks you showed me my ETB deck will be nuts :D

Idk how I missed multiple njnjutsu after playing the mechanic in pauper so often. Seems great for picking up multiple spellstutter sprites. My favourite trick you didn't go over is saving a creature from a removal spell. Although that isn't super specific to ninjutsu.

As an Etrata EDH player I appreciate you making this video and getting the gears turning in everyone’s heads :)

I learned a lot of new stuff today. Time to get my Yuriko deck off the shelf and start playing it properly!

Gonna have to have this video queued up when I try any of these shenanigans

Well, I knew all but the third interaction. The second one's especially obvious if you've ever encountered the card Reconnaissance.

Should have watched this yesterday before my pre-release.... Tremendous Help. Have One again today, lets hope for good ninjutsu pulls. Love this mechanic

new to the stream! I build MTG mechanics for DnD on DMsGuild... LOVE ninjitsu interaction! Thanks for the deep deive. :)

As someone who played Aleshacrats before Extus got spoiled I looooove the end of combat step. Good ol' Reconnaissance.

The other note is that ninjitsu is not a cost discount as it usually seems. The total cost to bring in the creature is the ninjutsu cost PLUS the cost of the unblocked fodder you are bouncing

This video inspired me to make a Volrath, the Shapestealer deck with a Ninjutsu subtheme. Just a different take on a ninja deck. Looking forward to the sweet upgrades I'll get for it from Neon Dynasty.

It gives me so much respect for the card design team that you explain all the exploits to the rules before you even release the set, making it clear that you made the set with the exploits in hand. Most games work the opposite way: they come out and people exploit a rule until some time later a designer's commentary is released saying "guys don't do this, this rule was obviously not meant for that". May I ask how many of the Ninjutsu exploits did you know ow before the first time Ninjutsu was released?

my favorite ninjitsu trick is to attack with an unblockable creature while sataru in on the field, then ninjitsu in blightsteel and insta kill someone.

thanks for the tips. I’m new to the game and kamigawa ninjutsu was super confusing to me. I just got a new booster box and I’m gonna try building a ninjustsu deck with it!

The winning move is ninjutsu in a Blightsteel Colossus for 4 or less mana, insta kill a player, then ninjutsu a measly 1 mana ninja, allowing you to hold onto Blightsteel for another lethal strike later on

I now have to completely remake my EDH ninja deck. Thank you so much for these devious new ideas!

@4:35 I am glad this video exist now because multiple times I have had local judges say I cannot do this, when I was sure I could.

I actually have a 2 person cube with abyssal persecutor in it. There are some sacrifice shenanigans to help get around the drawback. But I was just expanding the cube and happened to add skullsnatcher. I didn’t think of using ninjutsu to get the demon out of the way! I like that little interaction hidden in there now!

My personal favorite thing to do with Ninjutsu involves my Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign EDH deck. I love attacking with Yennett, putting her trigger on the stack, and then because Flying and Menace make her super annoying to block, Ninjutsu in one of my favorite Ninjas (who all also happen to have an odd mana value for Yennett shenanigans) like Fallen Shinobi, Silent-Blade Oni, or Yuriko. Double dipping like that is so much fun! Oh and since Satoru Umezawa has an odd mana value I will definately be trying him out in that deck!

I love using the ninjutsu trick with Drana, Liberator of Malakir. First strike damage and then ninjutsu with the trigger on the stack so not only do you get to double dip, but your ninja comes in with a +1/+1 counter. I have had to explain a few times that this was a legal play lol

Looping ninjutsu was one of my (many) win conditions in one of my earliest commander decks, a Vela combo deck. I'd swing with something and then ninja in a sakashima's student copying a palinchron or great whale, untapping seven lands which I'd use to ninja it out for a different ninja then back in to repeat. Vela's triggered ability did the rest. :) Teenaged me was so proud of myself when I realized it on the fly one game and won that way.

That one where you deal damage and then just bounce back the creature to your hand via ninjutsu is one I use a lot in my Etrata, the Silencer deck, so you get the damage, you get the creature exiling trigger+hit counter and before you shuffle her back into your deck you get her back into your hand.

The first strike trick is so cool! I need to try it later.

These are some high level magic plays. Thanks!

Almost done with a Ninja deck so I am adding this to favorites, because I know as soon as I pull off that end of combat trick "you can't do that" is gonna fly out of some mouths!

Ninjas work really well with Etrata

I knew all of these except the bouncing multiples one. That blew my mind. Of course it should work like that, why didn't I think of that earlier?!

Ok i didint know the end of combat ninjutsu or the multiple ninjutsu part, good video.

Gaven out here teaching us some learning

Multiple Ninjutsu also seems great for saving attacking creatures from a boardwipe like Settle the Wreckage. I really like using cards like Ukkima, Stalking Shadow who is unblockable and still does his damage when he trades places with a ninja and returns to hand. My favorite thing about Satoru's ninjutsu is that you can play any creature card *even cards not in the colors black or blue* which lends to the possibility of some real surprises. I'm not sure if there's a combo by playing with loop ninjutsu to continually bring back Smoke Shroud from the graveyard to activate effects that care about enchantments. I guess you could mill with Sage of Mysteries. The better combo with loop ninjutsu probably lies with Sakashima's Student, since it can come in as any creature, and thus activate a wider variety of effects. A foretold Mystic Reflection and loop ninjutsu could take it further to cause a "shadow clone jutsu" effect.

As a Yuriko player and longtime fan of Ninja creatures, I appreciate this video!

After this video i'm actually sugesting my lgs to invite an extra judge for the pre release because OOOOOG BOOOOY, THIS GONNA BE CRAZYYYYY

Ohhhhh, I laughed out loud! Satorou is gonna be crazy!

I'm definitely putting this in my own ninja deck. If not only for the slight chance I get to ninjutsu out Etrata

I didn't know about the first strike trick until now. Time to make a Pauper deck with Battlefield Raptor and Ninja of the Deep Hours, and maybe Serra Diciple as well.

I did know all these tricks, my usual one was to double dip on Drana, Liberator of Malakir's combat damage trigger. Before it resolves (putting a +1/+1 counter on each of my tapped and attacking creatures) I'd swap her back to hand and put a Ninja out, giving it the extra buff in stats, and letting it hit for just a bit more. It also puts Yuriko out of bolt range which is relevant more than it should be.

Thanks for explaining this!

Gonna have to remember these tips since I just made this commander deck

Another thing: Ninjitsu can do something no other ability in Magic can do. Technically, you can take control of an opponent's creature, attack with it, and when you Ninjitsu it would go into your hand (as it does *not* say "owner's hand"). It has been a big no-no since the beginning of the game for an opponent's card to go in your hand or graveyard because, well, at the end of the game the card might get stolen! It would be interesting to see what the ruleset said at the time of this mechanic's original introduction. I believe this to be an indicator of the nature of ninjitsu being broken, as it was poorly worded from the getgo; because of this, all of the awesome points in this video don't surprise me, and whether they were intended or not (putting an opponent's stolen creature in your hand is not intended!) may just be a side-effect of having to accept the mechanic. Also, awesome video, thanks.

Amazing video !!! thank you !!!!! We need more videos like this !!!!!

Oh wow, that first strike one is great :D

Being a ninja player, i knew all of these except for the multiple ninjitsu one. Will surely come in handy in the future!

Trick #3 is even more silly with instant speed wraths like Rout. Since the COST is putting it in your hand, the effect (put this card on the battlefield) goes on the stack. So after you bounce your three things, play Rout while Mistblade Shinobi is on the stack. Once the stack starts to resolve, Rout goes off first, then nukes the board. THEN your Ninjutsu ability resolves, putting it on the battlefield... possibly still able to deal damage and draw a card or whatever other effect it has from combat damage. All your stuff is safe, include the 'sacrificial' ninja.

A trick I used was I had two attackers. One wasn't blocked, and one was dokuchi silencer. I ninjutsud the card back to my hand after blockers were declared and played a shriekmaw. I killed the creature blocking my silencer. Went to damage, silencer dealt damage and i used his effect to kill one of his other creatures that stayed back. Wasn't a big play, but made me feel more intelligent than I probably am.

Just saw 2 short "stories" on Daily.MTG that showed two vertical arts depicting a kimono and a fang. Clearly a glimpse that Sagas (or a variant) is returning in this set.

Thousand faced shadow has some sweet tech with the ninjutsu loop shenanigans. Make as many copies of an attacking creature as you have mana to do

Using the ending ninjutsu trick with Etrata, the Silencer is a fun build for edh

All fun in theory. In practice, opponent turn 2 ranger class, turn 3 4 4 troll , concede with your ninja deck.

Some of this is why Reconnaissance is a stupid, stupid card for just W. Even if all it did was give Vigilance for W, it'd be busted, but it does so much more. Why does it do so much more? Who knows, but it does.

Dayum....... thanks for this...... this is gonna make my commander yuriko deck even better knowing this....... thanks

That multiple ninjutsu trick could also be great for playing against a Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts. All your creatures hit, trigger Teysa, activate your ninja before her ability resolves.

Learned a lot with this video.

I did not know basically any of this. Now I need to figure out how to make it work for my Yuriko deck...

Saw ninjutsu at prerelease. My first black blue variation included using virus beetle to attack then constantly using ninjutsu to replace and replay it to essentially keep an opponents hand empty

With sakashima’s student you can have some that can’t attack attack… like medomai on an extra turn

wow this is much better than i thought…. might as well have combat damage use the stack…👀

Making multiple copies of ukkima, stalking shadow with all the sakishimas, then clear them off the field with one ninja... That sounds satisfying

That first strike thing is cool. I never would hace thought of that.

My 'trick' that I believe works in multiplayer: because the ninjutsu-placed creature is put into play attacking after the declare blockers step, you could potentially attack a player, then after blocks ninjutsu in a creature attacking a different player (considering that there is no restriction on what the placed creature is attacking). This would allow you to attack past potential blockers if another opponent is open

wow I really didn’t knew most of these tricks. Good my Yuriko Deck is now finalised 😂

Ninjutsu can combo super well with Encore as well. If the Encore token isn't blocked you can ninjutsu it. Token will poof from returning to hand but Ninjutsu doesn't really care about that. Great way to sneak out some extra value from that recursion.

The ninjutsu trick at "end of combat" can keep your yuriko from dieing lol

Another scenario for "Looping Ninjutsu" rules niche is to dodge removal during combat. If your opponents lets a creature through with the intent of using Lightning Bolt/Swords/etc on the Ninja you replace it with, you can return that Ninja for another Ninjutsu creature. The removal spell checks for the creature that's left the battlefield and fizzles.

Honestly makes me wants to rebuild Yuriko again. It’s a deck I often revisit even though there’s a lot of moving pieces.

reconnaissance is the same, you pull back your attackers and pull them out of combat after damage has been done, giving them pseudo vigilence.

Ohw! That was insightful.