Pioneer: Dimir Ninjas - Deck Tech & Sideboard Guide

If someone had told me that in 2024 we would be discussing a Dimir Ninjas deck making Top 8 in Pioneer Challenges, it would have seemed crazy. But Magic is a game of constant change and the addition of Kaito, Bane of Nightmares gave the right reason to try a well-known proposition in Pauper: using cheap creatures with flying and the ability to use Ninjutsu to their advantage.

With even Faerie Miscreant, an old Pauper staple and its engine featuring Mockingbird and Moon-Circuit Hacker, Dimir Ninjas has become a choice among Tempo variants in the current Metagame. In this article, we delve deeper into the new archetype and present a guide to five of the main Duskmourn Pioneer matchups.

This is the standard list that has been appearing in Challenges. The main change is in the Sideboard: Dokuchi Silencer sounds great in theory, but it left a lot to be desired in practice because side-outs of creatures are more common than they seem.

Still, the number of synergies in this deck is surprising and is one of the highlights of this strategy. It also motivates us to take a second look at other creatures with quality ETBs or even other Ninjas that we can use with them. While Kaito, Bane of Nightmares and Moon-Circuit Hacker are certainly the best Ninjas in Pioneer, they are not the only ones that can be worth a slot.

Maindeck

Our Ninjutsu enablers.

Ornithopter is a cost drop. That's its only quality, but it's enough to earn it a slot in the list for the Ninjutsu interactions it enables, as well as allowing for occasional explosive games where we have two copies of it and two copies of Moon-Circuit Hacker in hand on turn two.

Faerie Miscreant is another first-turn enabler and rewards players for using four copies of it with extra draws. Reusing its ETB is a value play that's been at the top of Pauper for years, and here it's amplified with Mockingbird, which can copy it.

Mockingbird is also another aggressive drop that gains more value as the game goes on, being able to copy both your low-cost creatures and a 1/1 Ninja token from Kaito Shizuki, or a bigger threat on the opponent's board.

Our ninjas.

Moon-Circuit Hacker is a cheaper Ninja of the Deep Hours when it comes into play and becomes a recurring looting on an empty board, in addition to “wasting” important removals from the opponent on it that could be used on bigger threats.

Kaito, Bane of Nightmares is the reason for the existence of Dimir Ninjas. Its body is relevant to its cost, its +1 ability is comparable to Gideon, Ally of Zendikar, it generates card advantage and its last ability interacts well with the battlefield.

Kaito Shizuki, on the other hand, is a powerful clock in this list for the tokens it creates, in addition to functioning as another source of card advantage.

Our card advantage also involves reusing effects that interact with the board.

Floodpits Drowner locks down opponents' creatures for a while and can permanently deal with them against most decks; using it at the end of the turn to get a blocker out of the way and trigger Ninjutsu is a common play.

Brazen Borrower requires more steps to generate value, but it's a cheap interaction against any permanent, destroys tokens, and is still one of the most efficient tempo plays in Pioneer.

Thoughtseize and Fatal Push are almost mandatory staples in any black list in Pioneer today, and they're even more important in the current Metagame, where threats have become cheaper and opponents' sources of value tend to cost high enough to keep discards relevant.

Our duals are primarily intended to come into play untapped early. We tend to go for ones that naturally generate because our proactive one-drops are in that color.

Mutavault is our main utility land and easily becomes a threat with two or more emblems from Kaito, Bane of Nightmares, being a 4/4 activated for one mana. Hall of Storm Giants is another complementary threat, geared toward longer games.

Sideboard

In theory, Dokuchi Silencer is a removal that interacts with the rest of the deck and allows us to reuse the ETB of our creatures and/or discard them to destroy a creature or Planeswalkers. What happens in practice is that some games where you want it involve sideboarding less conditional creatures - and Dokuchi Silencer is very conditional.

It's still unclear whether I'd rather have more removal like Bitter Triumph, counterspells like Mystical Dispute or Negate, or even discards like Go Blank or Duress in this slot, or use it for a complementary threat in attrition games like Archfiend of the Dross, but its departure seemed obvious at the time when I couldn't get enough value out of it.

Spell Pierce is the ideal answer to cheap spells from aggressive or tempo decks in Pioneer today, but it's been growing in the Metagame due to its ability to answer Fable of the Mirror-Breaker and Unholy Annex // Ritual Chamber.

Disdainful Stroke has also gained more relevance with the rise of Azorius Control and Goodstuff stacks, in addition to dealing with Transmogrify, Bloodletter of Aclazotz, among other cards.

Anoint with Affliction is an extra removal that deals with Unstoppable Slasher without forcing a two-for-one. It also works well against Greasefang, Okiba Boss and Rakdos Prowess.

Aether Gust is a standard answer against decks that play red cards and has a wide range of utility when dealing with permanents on the board and spells on the stack.

Unlicensed Hearse is our answer against graveyards. Any creature on our list can crew the vehicle, making it a long-term threat on the board.

Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal is a threat for longer games where we need more sources of attrition. I'm not sure if it's the card we want in that slot, but a 4/4 Lifelink and Flying with a relevant trigger that puts more bodies on the board is a viable option.

Rakdos Prowess

IN

OUT

Izzet Phoenix

IN

OUT

Azorius Control

IN

OUT

Mardu Greasefang

IN

OUT

Rakdos Midrange

IN

OUT

That's all for today!

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment!

Thanks for reading!