Bold Infiltration: Pioneer Dimir Ninja

Note: This article was translated from Chinese by AI and may contain errors. Read the original Chinese version.

Before We Start

I never expected that the Ninja theme that returned to Standard in Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty would keep receiving support, especially this time with Duskmourn: House of Horror, which brings us a brand-new Ninja lord, Kaito, Bane of Nightmares. How will it perform in a Pioneer Ninja deck?

Card Analysis

Kaito, Bane of Nightmares
Legendary Planeswalker — Kaito
Ninjutsu {1}{U}{B} ({1}{U}{B}, Return an unblocked attacker you control to hand: Put this card onto the battlefield from your hand tapped and attacking.)
During your turn, as long as Kaito has one or more loyalty counters on him, he’s a 3/4 Ninja creature and has hexproof.
[+1]: You get an emblem with “Ninjas you control get +1/+1.”
[0]: Surveil 2. Then draw a card for each opponent who lost life this turn.
[−2]: Tap target creature. Put two stun counters on it.

Kaito, Bane of Nightmares is a four-mana planeswalker that can enter via a three-mana ninjutsu. He is a powerful damage source that is hard to remove, and he also grants all Ninjas a permanent Glorious Anthem emblem. For a Ninja deck that emphasizes offense, you can imagine its great destructive power. However, being legendary, he can’t be copied by Thousand-Faced Shadow, which is a bit of a shame.

Anyway, here is the list for readers’ reference first:

Decklist

This deck is adjusted from the version I took to the Top 4 of a 士林貓 MITQ two years ago. First, it runs a full set of the trio Thousand-Faced Shadow, Silver-Fur Master, and Prosperous Thief, the base components for ninjutsu to achieve a turn-four kill. For details, see the previous article.

The Pioneer card pool gives us a quality one-mana Rogue, Faerie Miscreant. The second and later copies of Faerie Miscreant draw a card when they enter, which fits perfectly with Ninja decks that keep hopping creatures between hand and battlefield. There is also the four-mana Whirler Rogue, which, besides entering with two Thopters to expand the board and provide ninjutsu carriers, grants a target creature the ability to be unblockable, which is crucial for Ninja decks, and it works together with Prosperous Thief. Brazen Borrower // Petty Theft is used as a versatile soft answer, and a three-mana 3/1 flash flyer is also a serviceable evasive damage source.

As for the other Ninjas, besides Kaito, Bane of Nightmares, newly added this time to take the place of Biting-Palm Ninja, I also added Moon-Circuit Hacker and Satoru, the Infiltrator. Although Moon-Circuit Hacker was given a poor review in the previous article, in the Pioneer card pool it can pair with Faerie Miscreant and Satoru, the Infiltrator to form a highly efficient card draw loop, with far better returns than in Standard, so I tried it. Next is Satoru, the Infiltrator from Outlaws of Thunder Junction, a two-mana evasive Ninja with a good body, whose ability lets every creature you bring in with ninjutsu trigger a draw. Although he has the same legendary problem when paired with Thousand-Faced Shadow, his copy still triggers the enter-the-battlefield draw, so the compatibility isn’t actually that bad.

For removal I chose the common Thoughtseize, Fatal Push, and the new card from the previous set, Feed the Cycle. Fatal Push triggers revolt very easily in a ninjutsu deck: you can meet the revolt condition with ninjutsu, or with a Treasure created by Prosperous Thief. Feed the Cycle is a flexible two-mana instant-speed removal spell. This deck has no graveyard recursion anyway, so exiling three cards from the graveyard to use it like Murderous Cut is perfectly fine, and at worst it is still a Hero’s Downfall.

For lands, besides running lots of dual lands that can be played early to fit the tempo, considering the late-game power an aggressive deck needs, I added four manlands. Since Ninjas depend heavily on colored mana, I didn’t use the Mutavault common in tribal decks, and instead used a mix of Hall of Storm Giants, Hive of the Eye Tyrant, and Restless Reef.

Gameplay Demonstration

Although my opening hand had a good aggressive combination, I was on the draw and the opponent played black, so if I got hit by a string of removal, my offensive tempo would collapse. So on my first action I used Thoughtseize first, confirmed the opponent was Golgari Sacrifice with no removal, and decided to discard Insidious Roots to avoid the hard-to-handle wide board.
Then both sides developed. The opponent laid out Forsaken Miner, Stitcher’s Supplier, Scavenger’s Talent, and the Cauldron Familiar and Witch’s Oven combo, while I had Faerie Miscreant, Satoru, the Infiltrator, and Silver-Fur Master. Undisturbed, one attack on turn four had Satoru draw three cards in a row, drawing Kaito straight into my hand to ninjutsu in. With a board advantage and a full hand, Kaito naturally chose to use +1 to pump the whole team, greatly compressing the time the opponent could buy with the Cauldron Familiar chump wall.
The opponent of course also moved toward their goal as fast as possible, self-milling nonstop until a big creature let Scavenger’s Talent level up to level three to dig it back and turn the game around… if I hadn’t had Borrower in hand. In response to the Scavenger’s Talent level up, I bounced it back to hand, and the opponent promptly conceded.

Selesnya Angels is a bad matchup for Ninjas. The Angel deck’s many solid flyers and powerful lifegain nearly pin down a Ninja deck that relies on small flyers to activate ninjutsu, but with Kaito’s support it’s different. Kaito, arriving on time on turn three, started with a [+1] to bolster stats, and together with the Satoru, the Infiltrator next to him, pressured the opponent. The opponent’s turn-three Righteous Valkyrie and turn-four big lifegain from Collected Company were successfully disrupted by Borrower, gaining only 8 life. The next turn I went further with a [-2], tapping down Giada, Font of Hope so Faerie Miscreant could slip through the defenses and ninjutsu out Silver-Fur Master, then, while at it, used the drawn Fatal Push to kill Bishop of Wings and cut off their lifegain for the next turn. The opponent, at 5 life, faced the sturdy Ninja army and conceded.

Control is a somewhat favorable matchup for Ninjas. In the past, Thoughtseize and the discard combination of Biting-Palm Ninja stripped the opponent’s hand to apply pressure, but without Thoughtseize as cover, Biting-Palm Ninja risks eating removal. In this game against Jeskai Control, the opponent holding The Wandering Emperor would hamstring Ninjas, but with Kaito you can freeload thanks to hexproof on your turn and his planeswalker status. The creature removal in hand that was otherwise useless could be used for defense and to clear the way, so I easily broke through The Wandering Emperor’s defense and started using [0] to gain resources. Before the opponent drew real removal, their life total had already been beaten down to the lethal line, so they had to concede.

Conclusion

As a creature-style planeswalker that can enter via ninjutsu, Kaito, Bane of Nightmares improves Ninja decks’ resistance to creature removal, combining damage, path-clearing, and card draw in one. The emblem permanently buffing Ninjas can serve as a second way to win, and his arrival has indeed improved the matchups that were originally bad, so it may well take Dimir Ninja to new heights in the Pioneer arena.