Hello and welcome to Daily Commander!

Today we are going to be talking about Satoru Umezawa!

Satoru is a three mana 2/4 with whenever you activate a ninjutsu ability, you look at the top three cards of your library and you put one of them into your hand and the rest on the bottom of your library in any order once each turn and it gives creature cards in your hand ninjutsu for two generic a blue and a black.

Ninjas are an interesting deck archetype to play, especially with Satoru at the helm because they will always be aware that at any point you can sneak in a massive creature that will win the game, and while that is what we are doing, I think going for a more midrange sort of deck style will work better.

Yes, we will be sneaking some big creatures into play, but not the ones that instantly win the game because that is not very fun. Instead we are going to bring in strong creatures that help control the battlefield and keep us in a strong position until we have an avenue to win the game.

As with any deck that is playing ninjutsu as the primary game plan, we need creatures that can get in without being blocked.

Changeling Outcast is a one mana creature that can’t block and can’t be blocked, which is all we really need for a cheap creature. It also helps that it has Changeling as well, because if we do want to run some typal cards that benefit Ninjas, then it can also get those benefits.

Slither Blade, Triton Shorestalker, and Mist-Cloaked Herald are all one mana creatures that can’t be blocked and can be used as cheap ways to get some unblockable creatures on the field without any major interruptions, barring some removal.

Invisible Stalker is an interesting choice of creature because it can’t be blocked and also happens to have hexproof, which is great because our opponents will know what our game plan is very quickly, so any early removal spells may be coming our way and having an unblockable creature that can avoid all of that will be very useful.

In terms of pure utility, Silent Hallcreeper is one of the better options for us to choose from because when it deals combat damage to a player we can either put two +1/+1 counters on it, draw a card, or make it a copy of a creature we control, abilities which we can take advantage of multiple times if we bounce it back to our hand due to ninjutsu.

While we will be using Satoru’s ability most of the time for using ninjutsu abilities, we still need some creatures with ninjutsu to play their roles as well.

Silver-Fur Master is one such Ninja, in that it has a cheap ninjutsu ability, reduces the costs of ninjutsu abilities by 1, and other Ninjas and Rogues we control get +1/+1, which is massively helpful in getting some more damage through as most Ninjas have abilities that rely on combat damage.

One of these utility Ninjas is Ingenious Infiltrator, which also has a cheap ninjutsu cost and whenever a Ninja we control deals combat damage to a player we draw a card, which if we play correctly can have us draw a lot of cards.

Moon-Circuit Hacker draws us a card if it deals combat damage and would normally have us discard a card unless it entered the battlefield the turn it did damage, Prosperous Thief creates a Treasure token whenever one or more Ninjas or Rogues deal combat damage to a player, and Silent-Blade Oni lets us look at a player’s hand and cast a spell from among those cards without paying its mana cost if it deals combat damage.

If we manage to stick a couple of Ninjas on the battlefield and want to get even more of an advantage from them, we can use Yuriko, the Tiger’s Shadow to have us reveal the top card of our library and put it into our hand and have each opponent lose life equal to the mana value of the card, which gives us some more cards in hand and helps drain our opponents of life.

Since we are going for a more midrange strategy with the creatures we are using, we are looking for strong and potentially repeatable enters or combat damage effects.

Rune-Scarred Demon not only gets a solid hit in, but once it enters we get to tutor for any card in our library and put it into our hand, which could be helpful for us to get a removal spell like Go For the Throat or a board wipe like Toxic Deluge or a counter spell like Familiar’s Ruse to bounce it back to our hand.

Sepulchral Primordial is also a solid choice because when it enters we can choose a creature card from their graveyard and put them onto the battlefield under our control, Wrexial, the Risen Deep to cast an instant or sorcery from a player’s graveyard without paying its mana cost when it deals combat damage, and Mindleech Mass to look at the hand of the player it deals combat damage to and cast a spell from among those cards for free.

If there is a player who is low on life and cards in hand we can also use something like Archon of Cruelty to have them sacrifice a creature, discard a card, and lose 3 life while we draw a card and gain 3 life to further advance our position.

We also have an interesting form of removal in Callidus Assassin, which when it enters it can be a copy of any creature on the battlefield that also has when it enters we can destroy up to one other target creature we control with the same name as this creature, meaning we can get an additional enters ability from a creature an opponent controls or get rid of a large creature an opponent controls while getting a massive creature in return.

Satoru can lead itself into similar play styles if we follow the traditional play patterns of using creatures like Blightsteel Colossus to instantly eliminate a player, but if we switch the play style into a more midrange style then we can have much more varied games.

Our opponents will catch onto us playing a ninjutsu style deck immediately, which means either Satoru or our small creatures will be the targets of early removal, but since we are a midrange deck we will be more equipped to deal with those issues and be able to recover better.

Thank you for reading, see you tomorrow for the next Daily Commander!

Peace,

From, J.M. Casual