First cards from Betrayers of Kamigawa revealed

[Chaos Turtle]

From a certain MTG "news" site's forums:

Ninja of the Deep Hours 3U
Creature - Human Ninja (C)
Ninjutsu 1U (1U, Return an unblocked attacker you control to hand: Put this card into play from your hand tapped and attacking.)
Whenever Ninja of the Deep Hours deals combat damage to a player, you may draw a card.
2/2
(Ill. - Dan Scott)
44/165

(Thanks to mtgnews forum member woodnoggin for this info.)

[edit: added rarity (C) and credit for the find.]

 

[Oversoul]

I hate it.

Oh well, it doesn't look that dangerous...

 

[DarthFerret]

So far I am not really that impressed yet....

 

[Nightstalkers]

Well, if some biggies got themselves that ninjitsu stuff, you'd be talkin' about some really nasty shtick.

"I'll attack with my little 1/1 vanilla ice creature.... take it? Okay, I'll do some ninjitsu on you and my 9/9 double strike creature is not on the field instead."

 

[TomB]

I think replacing a vanilla 1/1 creature with a 2/2 that also gets you a draw for U1 is plenty strong, IMHO. Especially since you're also playing you're 2/2 for half it's normal mana cost, at the expense of a bought and paid for creature you can replay as normal.

I wonder if there will be more creatures with Ninjutsu, with even better quasi-CIP abilities...

 

[Istanbul]

I've said it a hundred times before, so I'll say it again now and beat the rush...

Abilities That Let You Play Cards More Cheaply Than You Should Be Able To Are Almost Always Broken.

I anticipate a real problem with a couple of broken Ninjitsu cards; this card immediately makes me think 'Madness'.

 

[Gizmo]

I'm wavering. The fact that you're only ever likely to use it once to draw a card (the turn you ninjitsu it), and that the creature has to be unblocked (so you cant use it to rescue creatures about to be killed) make it very narrow.

I think alone it's relatively inoffensive, but it might work alongside coming-into-play effects on other creatures.

Playable in Limited, but not powerful.

 

[Istanbul]

Oh, don't misunderstand. This is not the broken card you're looking for. *jedi wave*

But there'll be something...trust me, there always is. When will R&D learn...*sigh*

 

[Reverend Love]

Originally posted by Istanbul
I've said it a hundred times before, so I'll say it again now and beat the rush...

Abilities That Let You Play Cards More Cheaply Than You Should Be Able To Are Almost Always Broken.

I anticipate a real problem with a couple of broken Ninjitsu cards; this card immediately makes me think 'Madness'.

I absolutely agree. Affinity, Dream Halls, Force of Will, Foil, countless others. All broken.

MaRo has even mentioned the danger alternate casting costs are.

Silly tricks such as targeting Eternal Witness or Viridian Shaman are available right now.

I just hope R&D doesn't drop the ball again. I'm really getting sick of seeing mechanics with entirely too much synergy.

 

[Oversoul]

Originally posted by Reverend Love
Affinity, Dream Halls, Force of Will, Foil, countless others.

Foil? I don't see Foil as at all unfair, being that you have to chuck so much card advantage in order to use its alternate mana cost...

 

[Aneximines]

Heh, I like the idea of a Ninja gliding in on an Ornithopter...

 

[Gizmo]

Isty... Ninjutsu ISNT Madness... it's Morph that you can only use in your attack phase.

You need to chill out, mate.

 

[Oversoul]

Well, you never know. If I remember correctly, the first storm card revealed was something unimpressive like Dragonstorm...

I remember seeing it and thinking, "wow, that mechanic is evil and stuff. It looks like it could get out of control. I really don't like it. But this card is pretty crappy and maybe they'll make all of them this overcosted and it will be fine." I think the next time I gave storm a thought at all was when I saw some guy cream another player with a Mind's Desire deck.

This "ninjutsu" (besides leaving a bad taste in my mouth when I think about it too much) is something that could potentially be abusable. I don't think it will be as bad as madness/flashback or storm though...

 

[Chaos Turtle]

Personally, I'll wait until we see other creatures with the "ninjustu" ability before deciding whether it's broken or even especially useful.

Incidentally, I didn't include the ninja's rarity. It's common.

By the way, there's another card.

Sosuke's Summons {2}{G}
Sorcery (U)
Put two 1/1 green Snake creature tokens into play.
Whenever a non-token Snake comes into play under your control, you may return Sosuke's Summons from your graveyard to your hand.

Doesn't is just make you wanna stand up and hissssss?

(Thanks to mtgnews forum member rancored_elf for this info.)

[edit: added mana cost]

POW! Holy poo that's big!

 

[Nightstalkers]

A ninja star for a set icon... how adequate...


Not to mention the artwork is still on the par of M:TG cards, unlike some rumors I"ve been hearing.

 

[Gizmo]

Sosuke's Summons
Sorcery (U)
Put two 1/1 green Snake creature tokens into play.
Whenever a non-token Snake comes into play under your control, you may return Sosuke's Summons from your graveyard to your hand.

Now THAT looks more like a card I would want to play with,

1 casting cost, potential card advantage, AND it recurs to my hand? Baddabing, Baddaboom!

 

[Istanbul]

U must mean uncommon.

Think about it. A blue card...for SNAKES...that makes CREATURE TOKENS...and recurs itself?

No. This is a green card. U stands for uncommon, and the casting cost has been forgotten.

 

[Reverend Love]

Originally posted by Aneximines
Heh, I like the idea of a Ninja gliding in on an Ornithopter...

That post made me laugh for a long time...no idea why though.

 

[train]

I like the ninja theme - just wish it wasn't so "blue"...

the summons is nice - but it takes some serious snak playing - unless you go blue green with mystics bouncing around...

 

[Gizmo]

Originally posted by Istanbul
U must mean uncommon.

Think about it. A blue card...for SNAKES...that makes CREATURE TOKENS...and recurs itself?

No. This is a green card. U stands for uncommon, and the casting cost has been forgotten.

Oh yeah. Poo.

Depends how much it costs then. Any more than 1G and it's getting ropey.