MTG finally has a ninja Commander who doesn’t stink

Ninjas have been a part of Magic: The Gathering since 2005 as part of the Kamigawa block, a series of three sets with cards inspired by Japanese mythology. That set introduced both ninjas and the cleverly designed ninjutsu ability, which helps your creatures sneak past enemy defenses to land decisive blows by taking the spot of another unblocked attacker.

In the two decades since, Magic has released plenty more ninjas, particularly in 2022 with Neon Dynasty, which returned to the world of Kamigawa while giving it a fresh cyberpunk coat of paint. And yet, in all these years, we still don’t have a great creature to lead your ninja Commander deck — until now.

To cut to the chase, the card I’m talking about is Splinter, Radical Rat from Magic‘s most recent Universes Beyond crossover set, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. But before I get into what makes Splinter such a great Commander, it’s worth explaining why the previous options are so weak by comparison.

The most popular ninja Commander is undoubtedly Yuriko, the Tiger’s Shadow, who lets you turn attacking ninjas into both card draw and direct damage. However, the reason Yuriko is so popular is mostly because her “Commander Ninjutsu” ability gets around Commander tax. (In the years since, the card’s designer has repeatedly admitted this was a mistake.) Yuriko makes for a deck that’s more finicky than fun, at least in my experience.

Another popular option is Satoru Umezawa from Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty. Satoru’s whole thing is giving every creature in your hand ninjutsu, making it possible to sneak out expensive-but-powerful monsters for cheap. He’s a powerful Commander, but the best decks built around him don’t actually need any other ninjas to work; they just need small unblockable creatures and stupidly strong beaters. (Another fun one is Goro-Goro and Satoru from 2023’s March of the Machine, which leverages ninjutsu to create dragon tokens; powerful, but not really a ninja deck either.)

Unsurprisingly, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is full of ninjas, too. Most aren’t built around playing other ninjas, instead leaning into the distinct personalities of the various Turtles. Dark Leo & Shredder is a particularly powerful Commander if you want to build a ninja deck (arguably too powerful), but Splinter, Radical Rat strikes the right balance of strong card design and a fun synergy to build around.

Splinter’s primary ability doubles the triggered abilities of ninjas you control. LIke any good teacher, Splinter nurtures and encourages the abilities of his students, rather than using them as pawns in some diabolical master plan.

This creates a ton of value from your other ninjas, which frequently trigger special bonuses when they deal combat damage to another player (for example, Fallen Shinobi, one of the best ninjas in my deck, who steals cards from your enemy’s library whenever he deals damage to a player). The TMNT set also adds a bunch more options, like Karai, Future of the Foot, who brings a creature back from the dead (or two creatures thanks to Splinter’s ability), or Super Shredder, who gets out of control fast. You can even take advantage of Splinter with equipment that gives your ninjas new abilities; I added Goldvein Pick for extra treasure and Sword of Sinew and Steel for artifact destruction (and because I got my hands on this cool TMNT variant).

A lot of these ninja abilities require attacking or dealing damage. Luckily, Splinter has you covered there, too. His second ability lets you spend two mana (one blue and one colorless) to temporarily make any ninja unblockable, giving them the sneaky advantage they need.

It all adds up to a powerful new Commander who’s not too finicky or too powerful. Splinter, Radical Rat makes for a slick ninja deck that’s fun to play. Two decades later, Magic: The Gathering finally has the ninja mascot it deserves — even if that mascot comes from a completely different franchise.

Check out my decklist here. It’s not optimized — I just threw together whatever I had lying around.