One of the trickiest creature types inMagic: The Gatheringis the Ninjas. With their sneaky attacks and powerful combat-based triggers, it’s easy to want to build a Commander deck around this unique creature type.
Related:Magic: The Gathering – Every Drop In The Summer 2023 Secret Lair Superdrop, Ranked By Value
If you’re looking to blend into the shadows and sneak around your opponent’s defenses, you’re going to want to pick the right commander to lead your deck. Each one of these creatures brings something unique to your deck, giving you access to different colors of mana or special abilities to build your deck around.
5Etrata, The Silencer
While not a Ninja, Erata, the Silencer both offers an alternate win condition and an unblockable creature in the Command Zone making it a great choice if you’re looking for something a little different in your Commander deck.
Related:Magic: The Gathering – Budget Protection Spells For Commander
Since Erata is unblockable, you may use them toenable any ninjutsu abilities without fail. Since ninjutsu returns the unblocked creature back to your hand, you’ll rarely have to worry about a continuously rising commander tax.
If you have the mana for it, you may start sending Erata in directly, damaging your opponents and removing creatures from play. You can send Erata back to the command zone instead of shuffling it into your deck, giving you a removal spell and a chance to kick someone out of the game if you hit them four times.
Another unconventional Ninja commander, Tatsunari, Toad Rider also provides you with not just one unblockable creature right in the command zone, but two unblockable creatures, as well as access to green mana, something not found in other Ninja-themed decks.
The most important thing to consider with Tatsunari is that this deck gives you an enchantment twist.Every time you cast an enchantmentyou create a legendary Frog token named Keimi if you don’t already have one, who in turn has an ability that drains each opponent for one life when you cast an enchantment spell, healing you for each point of life you gain.
Since you can make Tatsunari and Keimi unblockable, you can use the Keimi token to ninjitsu other creatures into play, while racking up commander damage with an enchantment-buffed Tatsunari. Giving your Ninja deck a Voltron-backup plan helps to make your late-game plan a little more viable.
3Satoru Umezawa
If you’re going to be cheating Ninja’s onto the battlefield off of unblocked creatures, you might as well get some extra bonuses for doing so. With Satoru Umezawa, of the same family that brought players Umezawa’s Jitte, you’re able to expand your ninjutsu skills to any creature while digging deeper for more answers through your deck.
Related:Magic: The Gathering – The Best Cards For A Monarch Commander Deck
Satoru gives each creature in your hand ninjutsu, with an ability cost of two generic mana, and one blue and one black to activate. While higher than what is typically found on ninjutsu creatures, being able to cheat out a Griselbrand or other powerhouse under your opponent’s nose is worth the higher cost.
Anytime you activate a ninjutsu ability, you get to peek at the top three cards of your deck, adding one of them to your hand and tucking the rest on the bottom of your deck. You only get this trigger once each turn, but getting to see three cards deeper into your deck every time you sneak in a creature is a great boost to your deck.
2Goro-Goro And Satoru
Originally intended for creatures with haste, Goro-Goro and Satoru is a team up legendary creature that produces tons of Dragon tokens for every sneaky ninjutsu strike you make. Goro-Goro and Satoru’s main ability triggers whenever you deal combat damage to a player with a creature that entered the battlefield this turn.
This ability works wonderfully with unblockable creatures and your Ninjas, letting you sneak damage in, refilling your battlefield with a new creature that also has a form of evasion, while at the same time giving you a powerful blocker to deter oncoming attacks.
Goror-Goro and Satoru also give you access to red mana, which gives you plenty of ways to give your creatures haste through enchantments and other spells. This way, you don’t have to wait until your next turn to try and trigger a ninjutsu ability and can better take advantage of an opponent’s open battlefield.
1Yuriko, the Tiger’s Shadow
The premiere Ninja commander, Yuriko, the Tiger’s Shadow not only has an incredibly unique ability but provides a card advantage for your Ninja strikes. Yuriko is the only creature with the ability commander ninjutsu, which functions just like regular ninjutsu but works from the command zone instead of your hand for just two mana, getting around all commander tax increases.
Yuriko turns your ninja’s into card advantage, letting you reveal the top card of your library and putting it into your hand when a Ninja deals combat damage to a player. Even though your opponents get to take a peek at what you’re drawing, they all lose life equal to the card’s mana value as well, helping to whittle away your opponent’s life totals.
