Night of the Ninja is Planechase Anthology's blue-black deck, and it is the one most focused on getting a single evasive threat through combat and swapping it for something much scarier.
Ninjutsu is the deck's core mechanic: instead of attacking directly, small evasive creatures slip in, then get returned to hand and replaced mid-combat by a Ninja that deals real damage.
The deck also carries genuine long-term relevance beyond Planechase itself, since it includes the first-ever printing of Baleful Strix, a card that went on to become a staple far outside this box.
This guide covers how the Ninjutsu plan actually functions, why Baleful Strix matters, and how to build on the deck once you are ready to upgrade it.
Ninjutsu lets you return an unblocked attacking creature to hand and put a Ninja card with Ninjutsu onto the battlefield attacking instead, without needing to pay that Ninja's normal casting cost.
This means the deck's small, evasive creatures are not really trying to deal much damage themselves; their job is simply to connect unblocked so a bigger Ninja can take their place.
Night of the Ninja fills its early curve with cheap creatures that have flying, unblockable, or similar evasion, since Ninjutsu only works on an attacker that goes unblocked.
Getting even one of these small threats through combat is often enough to set up a much bigger Ninjutsu swap the following combat step, making board presence less important than evasive access.
Baleful Strix, an artifact creature with flying and deathtouch that draws a card when it enters the battlefield, was printed here for the first time in Planechase 2012's Night of the Ninja deck.
The card went on to become one of the most widely played two-mana creatures in Commander and Legacy alike, well beyond its original home in this preconstructed deck, and a genuine candidate for a magnetic holder if you pull a clean early copy.
Blue-black gives Night of the Ninja access to both evasive creatures and the card selection needed to find its Ninjutsu payoffs at the right moment, a natural pairing for a tempo-oriented plan.
It also supports a light disruption package, since both colors offer ways to interact with an opponent's hand or board without derailing the deck's core evasive game plan. That flexibility is part of why the color pair has stayed popular for tempo strategies well beyond this one deck, in both Planechase games and dedicated Constructed formats alike.
In a multiplayer Planechase game, Night of the Ninja's evasive creatures are especially valuable, since getting past just one blocker in a crowded board is often all it needs. With three opponents to choose from, there is almost always a softer target to attack.
The deck rewards patient, opportunistic play, waiting for the right moment to Ninjutsu into a bigger threat rather than committing everything to the board at once.
Baleful Strix sees regular play in blue-black Commander decks entirely unrelated to Planechase, valued simply as an efficient, card-neutral blocker that trades with far larger creatures thanks to deathtouch.
If you pull a copy from this deck specifically for outside use, it fits naturally into nearly any control or midrange shell built around those two colors, and its ongoing demand is part of why it is worth confirming you actually own a genuine copy before assuming its value.
Adding more true Ninja creatures with Ninjutsu, along with cheap evasive fodder to enable them, is the most direct upgrade path for anyone building further on this deck.
Baleful Strix itself is also a strong include in nearly any blue-black deck outside of Planechase, making it worth keeping track of independently of the rest of this build.
Blue and black, built around the Ninjutsu mechanic.
It returns an unblocked attacker to hand and puts a Ninja onto the battlefield attacking instead, without paying its mana cost.
Baleful Strix received its first printing in Planechase 2012's Night of the Ninja deck.
Small, cheap creatures with evasion that can reliably get through unblocked.
Night of the Ninja rewards patient, evasive play more than any other deck in the box, and Baleful Strix alone is worth building around long after the game ends. Protect early pulls in matte card sleeves right away.
If tempo and evasion appeal to you more than raw power, this is the deck in Planechase Anthology worth starting with.
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