So the idea is to get an evasive threat out (Cloud, Spellstutter) or a Flayer Husk and use Ninjutsu to slide in a Ninja of the Deep Hours or Okiba-Gang Shinobi.

The deck runs Disfigures and Chainer's Edicts to keep the opponent threat-light and runs Counterspell (and the still useful Spellstutter) to try to hold off opponent's haymaker topdecks until the Shinobi can finish things off. Additionally Undying Evil manages to keep threats alive against MBC and pushes them above the power of opponent's typical creatures. The Undying Evil also enables a Cloud or Sprite to trade with a flipped Delver (as does Flayer Husk) if things are desperate and has great synergy with Mulldrifter.





My big questions are:

Am I missing something just plainly better than something currently taking up a slot?

What are some good sideboard options?

And I'm also looking for just general input or opinions.





My biggest question mark is probably Snap. It's a hold-over from the first iteration of the deck that ran the Dimir bounce land (which got very lucky and Top-8'd a PCT). But I ultimately moved away from those as they were simply too slow for what I am trying to accomplish. Snap still does prove useful however as it allows me to bounce a ninja to Ninjutsu in again over a gummed up ground presence and also occasionally let's me return Spellstutter or Mulldrifter for gain. It also sometimes just let's me simply bounce a defender off the board which is of course invaluable.

Before the inclusion of the 'Drifter often my biggest issue was finding a ninja to tag in. This has since become mostly a non-issue. Treasure Cruise I am somewhat skeptical on as it doesn't have great synergy with Chainer's Edict and the fact that I am running dual-lands over Wilds or Expanse. (Which I am really happy with as it allows me to hold-up either Undying Evil/Disfigure and Counterspell at the same time, which comes up a lot.) Overall though I haven't had an issue with getting Cruise to go off while being able to keep Edict in the yard. It is mostly in here for late game draw (which occasionally the ninja gets blocked from providing) and because the deck has blue mana so I am not sure if I can just simply justify not running Cruise.

The sideboard is by far my biggest unknown with the 75 at the moment. As of this moment it contains what is listed above plus whatever else I am trying out. Specifics about what I bring in against which decks is below but I am currently really not sure how to sure up my matches against White Weenie and other wide aggresive decks. I also don't know if trying out Echoing Truth for the Delver match up would be better than my current plan. Really I'm open to any and all suggestions for the sideboard and the rest of the deck for that matter.





As far as Match-Ups:



Delver:

I don't hate it against delver. The "un-counterable" nature of Ninjutsu was a big drive for me to try out the deck in the first place. I have played against Delver a few times since I last made major changes to the deck and I do quite like it. The Mulldrifter's are obviously a big deal (especially Evoked-Undying Evil'd) and it's generally easy to get down a Ninja of either variety as they really hate to counter a Cloud or EoT Spellstutter. The one issue (and it's a big one) is Spire Golem. The guy is brutal and can lock the deck out. Despite this he hasn't been such an issue in recent games as the inclusion of Steel Sabotage and Bonesplitter in from the sideboard (along with Relic of Progenitus, for the Treasure Cruise heavy, and Dispel for the matchup) help immensely. I want to say it mostly comes down to card advantage which the Mulldrifter and Treasure Cruise help with immensely.





MBC:

Played against MBC a lot with the first iteration of the deck and somehow snuck away with more wins than losses. Despite that I really did not like the match-up and have made a few small changes to compensate. Flayer Husk was brought in as it provides an easier sac target for edicts and later a nice transferable +1/+1 counter. The added card draw, in Mulldrifter, has helped a lot in the match-up and it is generally much easier to get off a 4cmc flying 3/3 that draws me four cards than it is against Delver. (Also though, just landing the 'Drifter while holding up an Undying Evil to pop on when they throw out an edict is stupid satisfying.) The big issue for this deck against MBC remains the same as I felt it was when I played Delver- The deck can sometimes just unload too many threats to manage. This is not always a problem if I can assemble a strong start but for the most part if both decks have average draws I like BU-Tang for it's card advantage. For sideboarding- I honestly don't recall what I bring in if anything at all currently.





Burn/Creature-less Control:

I'm going to lump these in as they are very similar at least in how they board. Against burn the Disfigures and Edicts come out and in come 3 Hydroblast and 2 Dispel. Against Creature-less Control the same things go out and in comes the 3 Dispel, 2 Relic of Progenitus (they all run recursion and/or Cruise). I like the match-up against both. Ninja of the Deep Hours puts burn in a weird place of wanting to stop my card draw and not wanting to waste burn. Thankfully I'm pretty happy whatever they decide to burn. If they are running Cruise I can counter it without issue so I just need to draw actual cards and I should be ok. Against Creature-Less Control I really like it if I can land a Shinobi obviously. Getting to 5 or more mana quickly can be an issue in order for me to be able to reliably drop the Shinobi with backup. Thankfully the blue ninja often eats a lot of the removal so I can be in a safe place later in the game if it comes to that. A few swings from either ninja can really put away the game and this is another match-up where the addition of the Mulldrifters has really helped.





White Weenie & Elves:

I don't know, honestly, I have no clue. Every time I played against WW (which was with the older slower deck) I got railed so hard I had to have a smoke afterwards. I have put Nausea in the board to try to deal with it (even if it eats my fae) because I really have no clue what to side in. It is key to note that I haven't played the match-up since speeding up the deck but I still have a very bad feeling. I have played Elves once or twice with the current deck and it can really go either way. Overall I think the Elf deck is favoured as I really need a hand with Clouds and Sprites to slow them down initially before I have enough mana to ninja with counters up. Goblins would fall into this group too.





That is effectively it. Those are the match-ups I have played against the decks that feel like a serious part of the meta. I took the old deck into a Daily and went 2-2 after starting 2-0 and losing the last game of the last match in close fashion. I haven't had the time to try this new version out in a Daily (or take any deck into a Daily for that matter) but I hope to soon.



For those wondering, here is the older deck: http://gatherling.com/deck.php?mode=view&id=25445

The key differences other than the bounce lands are the 4 Liliana's Specter and the 2 Phyrexian Rager. I liked being able to consistently prompt a discard by playing and then bouncing the Specter with a ninja but the BB was ultimately too prohibitive (it was why Chittering Rats was never included but oh man I would have loved to bring that in because it is just so annoying). The Rager was in before I took the Mulldrifter route. It honestly seems so obvious to me now but having the flying draw-two, which only gets better with more Undying Evils (that already help me), is so(!) much better than pay one,draw one for three.