The Ninja Affinity deck blends the basic mechanics of one of Pauper's most famous archetypes with a Tempo theme revolving around Ornithopter and Springleaf Drum to ramp and use Myr Enforcer and Refurbished Familiar earlier, complementing them with the Ninjutsu package, common in Faeries decks, to generate card advantage.
The Decklist
This was basically the same list used by the player Ravager during the Pauper Nationals 2025 to reach the Top 16 of the event.
Unlike traditional Affinity variants, this list has more explosive turns enabled by Springleaf Drum while using Moon-Circuit Hacker and Ninja of the Deep Hours to reuse our creatures' ETBs. Ideally, we want to have a Refurbished Familiar in play as early as possible to start Ninjutsu interactions with them, but we can use the other cards for that purpose.
The rest of our game plan follows the archetype's basic lines with Myr Enforcer and Thoughtcast. However, the lack of recursion with Blood Fountain or greater flexibility in the topdeck leaves us a bit behind in attrition matches.
Maindeck
The early game is based on the ability to sequence cards in the first and second turns with Springleaf Drum.
Thraben Inspector and Novice Inspector are great one-drops on the play to return to your hand with Ninjas, as well as creating artifacts that turn into draws in later turns and count towards Affinity.
Ornithopter is secretly the best and worst card in the deck. It allows for the most explosive plays and enables Ninjutsu in the early turns like no other card, as well as allowing you to explode with Myr Enforcer more easily, but at the same time it's the worst topdeck we can have, especially in post-Sideboard games.
Refurbished Familiar is the best creature in Pauper today because of its mix of a decent body for its cost with the right concessions and an ETB effect that drains resources and/or generates card advantage in longer games. The ideal target for Ninjutsu.
Myr Enforcer functions as our main clock, and with the help of Ornithopter and Springleaf Drum, we can cast it as early as turn two.
Ninja of the Deep Hours and Moon-Circuit Hacker double as more threats and sources of card advantage. We easily enable Ninjutsu in this list with Ornithopter, but Refurbished Familiar is usually our preferred target.
Like any blue Affinity deck, Thoughtcast is a staple of the archetype, and we can play it relatively early with our cheap artifacts, guaranteeing more resources in attrition matches.
Thraben Charm remains one of the most versatile cards in the format even after the bans: since we run more creatures, it's a reliable removal spell, deals with graveyards in the maindeck against Blue Terror and Spy Combo, and resolves troublesome enchantments like Makeshift Munitions.
Due to the high number of one-drop, zero-cost artifacts, Metallic Rebuke is essentially a Mana Leak for one mana in our list, being yet another card that benefits from Ornithopter.
Speaking of Ornithopter, Greatsword of Tyr is a great way to make low-power creatures more present on the board and maintain their relevance when we have spare mana.
Relic of Progenitus is a flexible slot and can become any card depending on your Metagame, but another one-cost artifact that counts towards Affinity while dealing with Mono Blue Terror in the maindeck and doubles in value when drawing cards does a lot for a single card.
Twelve untapped artifact lands grant access to our key cards from turn one, although it leaves us too vulnerable against Gorilla Shaman, but since this card is currently undervalued in the Metagame, we can maintain this setup.
Sideboard
Hydroblast and Blue Elemental Blast offer effective and inexpensive answers against Mono Red Rally and Madness Burn, and their low costs and versatility are our best option to avoid losing a match that usually ends with whoever establishes the most pressure first and manages to maintain it for the most turns.
Arms of Hadar is our removal spell against any go-wide archetype, be it Elves, Mono Red Rally, White Weenie, or even in the mirror matchup, where most of the opponent's creatures also have a body that falls within the card's scope.
Dust to Dust as four copies might seem like overkill in the current Metagame, but Affinity is an extremely popular archetype, and many players still bet on it for Leagues, and having four copies guarantees effective disruption that, in this list, we can use on turn two with some luck.
Nihil Spellbomb offers a one-shot effect against entire graveyards that can be saved without needing to preserve mana. Besides expanding our hate scope against Dredge, Spy Combo, and Mono Blue Terror, the card is also useful against most Midrange decks today.
Sideboard Guide
Mono Blue Terror
IN
OUT
Madness Burn
IN
OUT
Mono Red Rally
IN
OUT
Elves
IN
OUT
Grixis Affinity
IN
OUT
Spy Combo
IN
OUT
Jund Wildfire
IN
OUT
Golgari Gardens
IN
OUT
Wrapping Up
That's all for today!
If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment!
Thank you for reading!
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