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Much Abrew: Grixis Ninjas


Hello, everyone! Welcome to another episode of Much Abrew About Nothing. Last week, we had one Instant Deck Tech that crushed the competition: Grixis Ninjas! So, this week, we are heading to Modern to see if we can ninjutsu our way to victory with the help of Ninjas, some poweful tempo plays, and creatures with enters-the-battlefield abilities. Is it really possible that Ninjas can form a competitive deck in Modern? We're about to find out! Let's get to the videos, and then we'll have some thoughts on the deck.

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Grixis Ninjas: Instant Deck Tech

Grixis Ninjas vs. Whacker Zoo (Match 1)

Grixis Ninjas vs. Norin Sisters (Match 2)

Grixis Ninjas vs. Gr Devotion (Match 3)

Grixis Ninjas vs. Affinity (Match 4)

Grixis Ninjas vs. Hardened Scales (Match 5)

Grixis Ninjas Wrap-Up

Discussion

  • Heading into our matches, I figured Grixis Ninjas would be fun and unique but not super competitive, so I was pleasantly surprised when we cruised out way through the matches with a 4-1 record. The only match we lost was against Affinity, and I'm not even sure Affinity is a bad matchup as much as we simply didn't have a good way of beating Etched Champion (although that's true of a lot of decks). 
  • Normally, this is the time when we talk about everything that's wrong with our deck, but for this week's deck, I'm not sure this is necessary. Generally speaking, the main deck felt really good. The only card I'm really questioning is Higure, the Still Wind, which fits the Ninja flavor but often played like a win-more card, being great in games we were already winning but too slow and small in games where we were behind.
  • One other small change: the numbers on Fatal Push and Terminate should probably be flipped. Our deck is really good at triggering revolt, since we can not only get it from cracking fetch lands but from ninjutsu as well, so next time I play the deck, I plan on going: 1 Higure, the Still Wind, 2 Terminate, +3 Fatal Push
  • Of course, there are also some downsides with our other Ninjas—mostly that they are really overcosted when we don't have a way to ninjutsu them. Thankfully, this didn't happen often, but perhaps one or two more cheap ninjutsu targets could be helpful. 
  • Where the deck could use a revamp is the sideboard, which feels a bit outdated. Illness in the Ranks isn't really helpful in Modern at the moment and would probably be much better as something to fight Tron, like Fulminator Mage. We could also use some better artifact answers like Shatterstorm or Vandalblast
  • All in all, I feel like Grixis Ninjas is a deck you could pick up and take to a tournament and likely have some success with, especially with the deck being unknown. Since nobody expects Ninjas, nobody plays around ninjutsu, which gives us a ton of free value. On the other hand, if Ninjas ever became a real deck, people would prepare, which would make the deck a bit worse. 
  • So, should you play Grixis Ninjas? I think the answer is yes but with an updated sideboard designed to fight our current metagame (also, the couple of main-deck changes we talked about earlier). My ideal sideboard would probably be something like: two Thoughtseize, three Fulminator Mage, two Negate, two Anger of the Gods, one Sower of Temptation, two Grafdigger's Cage, one Slaughter Games, two Shatterstorm. While (outside of the Affinity match) we didn't really get punished for our sideboard, it would happen sooner or later, but with the updates, I could see Grixis Ninjas having a decent amount of success as a weird hybrid tempo / midrange / control deck in Modern!

Conclusion

Anyway, that's all for today. Don't forget to vote for next week's deck by liking, commenting on, and subscribing to Instant Deck Tech videos! As always, leave your thoughts, ideas, opinions, and suggestions in the comments, and you can reach me on Twitter @SaffronOlive, or at SaffronOlive@MTGGoldfish.com.



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