The ninja way is lonely. Given the priceless luxury of trust, fear and danger are the only constant companions beyond the pale shadow of death. Thankfully, at least in Magic: The Gathering, there are noticeable advantages to pursuing this particular profession, especially with the help of Yuriko the Tiger’s Shadow.
Consistently ranked as one of the most played and most famous commanders in the format, and as such, despite some missteps in the “stealth” aspect of Ninjutsu, Yuriko is a powerful player who can contribute to a variety of strategies. have great ninja skills. Here are 10 of her most ruthless and effective options.
Yuriko, Shadow of the Tiger
Before we dive into Yuriko’s shadowy world, let’s quickly recap what she does. On the surface, she doesn’t look particularly impressive. After all, a 1/3 ninja isn’t exactly “broken” at her 3 mana. But, of course, her true power is hidden beneath the surface.
Yuriko has two abilities, one of which is unique to her. It’s a variant of Kamigawa’s ninjutsu mechanic, “Commander Ninjutsu,” that also works from the command zone, providing a consistent way to avoid commander taxes and bring Yuriko into play for as little as two mana. Her second ability is a huge boon for ninja-focused decks. Whenever one of her Ninjas deals damage to an opponent, you draw a card of hers and deal damage equal to its cost to each opponent.
Ten Ninja
By working hard on the ninjutsu mechanics, you can effectively utilize both Yuriko’s abilities. Her first ability encourages the use of evasive creatures. She can trade a ninjutsu user (or Yuriko herself) from her hand once the ninjutsu user passes unblocked. And her second ability rewards such switchers with card draw and area damage.
Silver Furmaster plays a key role here, buffing ninjas while discounting their ninjutsu abilities. Additionally, it’s a good idea to include as many ninjutsu masters and cheap evasion creatures as possible to complete things.
9 top deck
Yuriko’s area damage for each ninja hit is based on the mana cost of the cards on top of her deck, so manipulating the order of those cards is a powerful strategy. When you use spells like Brainstorm and Ponder to prioritize expensive cards and filter out cheap cards, all of your ninja damage triggers can upset the entire table.
Not only does this build allow you to finish the game quickly, especially if you have several ninjas attacking at the same time, but it also allows you to sift through your deck and find answers to certain situations to make it more reactive. You can also play games. You can play Yuriko in a fun and flexible way.
8 Ninja
To no one’s surprise, a simple ninja-themed deck would be perfect for Yuriko as a commander. Her second ability is triggered by ninjas dealing damage, so the more ninjas you play, the more often you’ll be able to use it.
We recommend including both ninjas with and without ninjutsu in this build, especially ninjas with built-in evasion abilities like the Phantom Ninja. Creatures with changelings are also a fair game thanks to the full suite of creature types, and you’ll want to slot Fugitive Tetsuko Umezawa for its ability to grant mass dodge.
The fact that Yuriko’s second ability hits all opponents at the same time makes it particularly powerful, and given enough time, it can even wipe out an entire table at the same time. And while that time accumulates naturally over long games, you can also create it yourself using Magic’s myriad of extra turn spells.
There are so many of these, Time Warp, Time Manipulation, and some Water Veil all offer more or less the same effect for the same cost. Of course, the effect is that you can take an extra turn. With a few ninjas he can safely attack one enemy and can easily finish the game on the spot if he can find free time to attack for an extra turn or two.
6 big mana
Yuriko’s second ability rewards you for playing high-mana-cost cards, so why not take that as a theme and enjoy some of Magic’s biggest bombs in the process? There are multiple directions to take on a theme like this, from simple ramp builds involving Eldrazi titans and the like, to something a little more mean.
Many cards have a huge base mana cost, which is then reduced by other factors such as Shadow of Mortality. These cards serve double duty in a deck like this. This means that it serves as a huge number for Yuriko to reveal in her ability, while at the same time being fairly easy to cast when Decrease in Hand comes into play.
Five plant
Myr may be the most detracted archetype in Magic’s history. It’s terrible to play against when it’s good, and completely unplayable when it’s not. But regardless of what you think about this controversial deck type, there’s no denying that Dimir (blue/black) is the brightest color combination. Also, the combination of lily colors.
It might seem counter-intuitive to focus on milling your opponent’s deck instead of using Yuriko’s ability to reduce their life total, but doing so tricks your opponent into letting them Early resources can be spent fighting what you’re guessing wrong. is your strategy, keeping it wide open for proper milling when needed.
Four ice depth
A bit of a typical cocktail, this build combines Yuriko’s love of ninjas with snow lands and sea monsters. On the surface it sounds like an unpleasant and expensive combination, but in reality he has three flavors that complement each other surprisingly well.
Building your mana base out of hard-packed snow gives you access to a variety of efficient board-wipe options, potentially allowing ninjas to join in unchallenged. This also applies to his package of support for sea monsters (Kraken, Leviathan, Octopus, Serpent). It excels at flushing opponents’ forces back into their hands, leaving no veil between the lidless eyes of deep-sea terror. .
3 Aggro
With a low mana cost and the ability to generate both area player damage and card advantage, Yuriko is perfect for aggressive decks. It’s harder to pair with Dimir than other colors, but it’s definitely possible.
Black gives access to a lot of good 1-drops, including Bloody Champions and Dread Wanderers, while blue brings tons of evasion and disruption to help the horde get through. When the pressure from early creatures and the pressure from Yuriko starts to stack up, few opponents will be able to withstand the pressure.
2 Device
Ninjas do not share the same affinity for equipment as their cousins, samurai, but they are well equipped to wield weapons, especially if they grant double strikes. This allows the equipped ninja to deal combat damage twice his, and trigger Yuriko’s second ability twice his.
The best options for this role are brass knuckles, fire shriekers, and grappling hooks. Ninjas can also be further supported with equipment that allows dodge, such as the Cliffhaven Kitesail. Using this strategy allows you to go taller rather than wider, allowing you to utilize more equipment to support the ninja with Yuriko’s abilities.
1 Rogue
Yuriko herself may not technically be a rogue, but she certainly has a lot in common with Magic’s street-smart types, most notably her love of evasion. Baldur With a legendary rogue like Crydle of her Gate, she can slip past ninjas unnoticed and activate Yuriko’s abilities with deals.
Beyond this, you can play fairly simple mixed-type builds with great results, especially since Rogue tends to be cheap enough to draw with Yuriko and play on the same turn. Ninjas have a strict code of ethics, but if you turn a blind eye to them, you can achieve great success at the commander’s table.