all I know is that with the "new morph" out of Betrayers of Kamigawa, people will be evaluating their blocking strategies much more conservatively.
《鬼の下僕、墨目/Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni》
I can’t help but think of Ninjutsu as the new morph, though there’s a lot more to it than just that.. You can play a card like Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni at retail and get a decent deal... 5/4 and a tremendous special ability for (4)(B)(B) isn’t anything to write Mom about, but it certainly falls within the realm of reasonable casts (like the direct opposite: a 4/5 Exalted Angel on (4)(W)(W)). On the other hand, we are usually more than happy to pay seven mana for a card like Exalted Angel because we never have to actually hit six to smash our opponents with her fine 4/5 body. In the same way, we will almost always be paying more than six mana to Ninjutsu out Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni… and we will be happy to do so.
When we put a "down payment" on a creature with Ninjutsu (like paying the 3 mana for a morph), we often accelerate our plays even though we end up spending more mana than we bargained for. For instance, Red Deck Wins players really like springing Blistering Firecat out of nowhere for a third and more of the opponent’s life total, but sometimes they do what they gotta do and lay the creature face down. The Firecat flips, comes in on the same turn four that it would on a hard-cast, loses its haste advantage, and ends up being more expensive at a total of (3)(R)(R) … but is a rewarding play a surprising amount of the time. (R)(R)(R) can be a rough cast even for a mono-red decksometimes, and sometimes a player just doesn’t hit four mana on turn four. In the same way, seven mana for Exalted Angel can be a lot better than six... think of how dramatic a swing it is to lay down the morph on turn three (turn two in a 2002 Beasts deck!) so that you have that awesome flyer bashing the opponent and picking up four life as soon as the next turn. On a hard-cast, you’ll be lucky to hit on turn six. The opponent will know that the Angel is coming and might leave back a flying blocker. It isn’t necessarily intuitive, but paying more for a creature than its usual mana cost can many times be the faster option.
With a creature like Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni, we get an additional incentive to the down payment on Ninjutsu: You see the Legendary Rat Ninja has a spectacular ability reminiscent of a Weatherlight Zombie past. The special ability stapled onto Bone Dancer, a tiny 2/2 Grey Ogre for three mana, was so ferocious that avowed "fatties only" player Jamie Wakefield deigned to play it in his otherwise all giant monsters deck including Gallowbraid, Morinfen, and Necrosavant. Unlike Bone Dancer, Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni gets to pick which creature she will be stealing, and still gets in for a quarter of the opponent’s life total; I’m pretty sure Jamie would like the 5/4 reprint even more than the original.
Along with a great special ability -- not to mention a pretty good body -- comes a dangerous rep. No one is going to let Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni hit them if they can help it. Chump blocking is probably preferable to letting this particular Rat in... Most of the time, losing a creature has got to be better than facing down one of your own men the next attack. So if you ramp up to six mana for Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni, don’t expect the opponent to welcome her with open arms. If you’re going to hit with this thing -- steal that Keiga the Tide Star you worked so hard to kill -- your best bet is to come in sneaky-like.
引用元
HI-YAH Posted in Feature on January 19, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/hi-yah-2005-01-19
《鬼の下僕、墨目/Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni》のプレビューです。ここでは、忍術が「新しい変異/new morph」と呼ばれて比較されています。
以前（※１）にもクリーチャーでのブロックを迷わせる効果について、変異と比較されて語られていました。
それに加えて、本来のマナ・コストを支払って攻撃するよりも、より速く機能することがあるという点が今回は触れられています（※２）。
変異では、《賛美されし天使/Exalted Angel》が典型的な例でしょう。４ターン目からパワー４の《魂の絆》能力もちが殴ってくれば、ライフレースで圧倒的優位を築けることから、よく採用されていました。さらにはマナ加速を使ってより高速に出すことを狙った、「エンジェルストンピィ」というデッキも成立させています。
忍術では、この点が最も活かされたのが《深き刻の忍者/Ninja of the Deep Hours》でした。１ターン目に《極楽鳥/Birds of Paradise》や《羽ばたき飛行機械/Ornithopter》を唱えて、２ターン目からカードアドバンテージを稼ぐ動きが強力で、当時の構築で活躍していました。
理想的な動きをすれば強い、というのはデッキを組む意欲にもなるので、この点も忍術が人気である理由の一端と言えるでしょう。
※１
神河当時 - 忍術がもたらすインパクト
https://researchofkamigawa.diarynote.jp/202102161819266333/
※２
最近のメカニズムですが、予顕も同様と言えるでしょう。クリーチャーだけでなくスペルにもあるのが大きな違いです。
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