LSV’s Deck of the Day – Vintage Ninjas

I’ve got a spicy one for you today – I almost didn’t believe my eyes when I saw the list. This deck was piloted to a third-place finish in last weekend’s Vintage Challenge, and I can only imagine that it snuck in there with ease. I present to you Vintage Ninjas (with a small Thopter subtheme). Let’s take a look!

Vintage Ninjas by IAMACTUALLYLVL1

2 Baleful Strix
1 Brazen Borrower/Petty Theft
4 Changeling Outcast
4 Ingenious Infiltrator
4 Ornithopter
4 Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Ponder
1 Time Walk
1 Treasure Cruise
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
3 Daze
1 Dig Through Time
1 Force of Negation
4 Force of Will
1 Gush
1 Mental Misstep
1 Misdirection
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
2 Retrofitter Foundry
1 Misty Rainforest
4 Polluted Delta
4 Prismatic Vista
3 Snow-Covered Island
1 Snow-Covered Swamp
3 Underground Sea

Sideboard
2 Dismember
2 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Mindbreak Trap
3 Null Rod
2 Plague Engineer
4 Ravenous Trap

Gameplan: Sneak in Yuriko or Ingenious Infiltrator off of one of your cheap creatures, then disrupt the opponent with all the extra cards they net you.

Key Cards:

Yuriko / Ingenious Infiltrator – These are the main draw engines, as each of them Ninjutsu’s for two mana and both draw extra cards. Once you have one online, you should be able to outpace the opponent and throw a bunch of counterspells at whatever they are trying to do.

Ornithopter / Changeling Outcast – These are the cheap Ninjutsu enablers, and both are Thopters, which matters for Retrofitter Foundry.

Retrofitter Foundry – The Foundry is a wild one, with the main use being to sacrifice Ornithopter and Outcase to make 4/4’s. Given enough time, this can also get up to a lot of other nonsense too.

Force of Will / Daze – Stopping the opponent is an important piece of the puzzle, and free counters like these are what make it happen.

Tips and Tricks

• Ingenious Infiltrator and Yuriko make all your Ninjas draw cards, so you can potentially cast them then attack, if that fits the board situation better.
• Don’t forget to side out Retrofitter Foundry when you side in Null Rod.
• Mystical or Vampiric Tutor in response to Yuriko’s trigger can deal up to 8 damage with Treasure Cruise or Dig for a finishing blow.
• Time Walk is especially great in this deck, so try and save it for when you have a Ninja hitting them.

This deck looks super sweet, and I’ll be recording a video with it soon, so check back for that!