Pure Ninja Ninjitsu

It's Ninja Time! After many years Ninja finally seem to have a competent Strategy true to their name and I will analyze that today. So let's go more into Detail and see what makes the Archnemesis of the Six Samurai so special: 

Entering the World Shrouded in Darkness

Like with every Deck you need Starters to get things going. Thankfully Ninjas have a big selection to choose from and bricking is a very rare occurrence. The Ninja Grandmaster Hanzo has to be the best Starter for them to this day. He will search anything you desire to get into bigger Control setups. Just beware since both of his effects will miss Timing if summoned mid Chain. But since he has no Once per Turn feel free to loop his Ninja Monster search many times. For example tribute Jioh the Gravity Ninja with Ninjitsu Art of Duplication to special 2 Hanzo's from Deck and search any 2 Ninja Monsters to your hand. The very little downside with him is, that cards like Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring can easily stop him, something other searchers can prevent in this Deck.

The Ninjitsu Art Notebook is very nice to search for any other Ninjitsu art and setup the GY. It's even better if you recycle this card back to your Hand with Baku the Beast Ninja and/or Ninjitsu Art of Dancing Leaves since the Notebook is missing a Hard Once Per Turn. Feel free to use it many many Times in one Turn if the Heart of the Cards is on your side. With this Card alone it's easy to setup every necessary Ninjitsu that you want as early as turn one. The downside may be, that it's one of the only Cards in your Deck that goes minus in Advantage initially. However as long as you have at least 2 Ninja Monsters in hand and search Hidden Village of Ninjitsu Arts or Armor Ninjitsu Art of Alchemy this Advantage trouble is no problem. 

Cards like Mitsu the Insect Ninja , Green Ninja , Tobari the Sky Ninja , Kagero the Cannon Ninja , Upstart Golden Ninja  and the Quick Play Ninjitsu Art Notebook of Mystery all help to get your Deck up to speed. There's a big Selection to choose from and many Combos to be found here. So in total getting your Deck up to speed is easy. Fast and swift like Ninjas you could say.

Defending the Village from Intruders

Keeping the opponent at Bay/Removing Threats is your Number One Priority before getting agressive yourself. The newer Ninjas all have an theme in Common: Flipping Monsters Face Up and Face Down always and everywhere. 

Mitsu the Insect Ninja is a great Example to Start with. She can Flip up a Face Down Monster on your side to negate a Monster Effect activated by the opponent and Flip herself down again. Tobari the Sky Ninja enables Quick Effect Fusion Summons. Like that you can summon either Meizen the Battle Ninja for more Ninja Swarming during the opponents turn or the new Threat on the Horizon Yaguramaru the Armor Ninja. He can on summon target and Banish a Card from the field and if you Flip him down and later Face Up again this effect may be reused multiple Times over many turns. Also he's setting up your banished pile for Ninjitsu Art Tool - Iron Digger.

Another Formidable Choice is to summon Jioh the Gravity Ninja to set up to 2 Monsters from the opponent or yourself Face Down. In Addition the opponents monsters cannot change their Battle Position even if Jio gets Removed from the field easily creating a menacing lockdown. Meizen the Battle Ninja can summon Jio very easily from the Deck if the opponent activates any Card or Effect. Jio also has a nice Removal build in if something gets flipped, so he's just good all around. 

There's many more defensive Tools too. You can Halve the ATK of every Special summoned Monster with Armor Ninjitsu Art of Rust Mist, Protect yourself from Attacks, Destruction or Targeting through various means with cards like Meizen the Battle Ninja , Ninja Grandmaster Saizo or Hidden Village of Ninjitsu Arts or Replace Monsters on the field with Kagero the Cannon Ninja. Or destroy your own Ninjitsu Art Notebook of Mystery with Jio for example to get a Flip Down for any Monster on the field. The same can be achieved if you use Green Ninja as Fusion Material during the opponents turn. It's not an easy task to bring down this defensive Style of Gameplay with usual OTK Strategies. The Ninjas move fast within the Shadows and duplicate rapidly.

Ninja Decks can be build in many different ways so feel free to experiment around it yourself. 

The unexpected Sneak Attack from Behind

Your Main Victory Condition will be Meizen the Battle Ninja. He enables every Ninja to attack directly. An easy Combination would be summoning him equipped with Ninjitsu Art Tool - Iron Digger and XYZ summon Blade Armor Ninja on top of that. With these 2 on field you create a Meizen which attacks twice directly with 3000 ATK and Blade Armor Ninja with his 2200 ATK is the final touch to deal 8200 total Damage through Direct attacks. Since every Ninja can attack directly feel free to Combine this effect in many ways. Your Biggest possible Ninja is Meizen the Battle Ninja equipped with 3 Iron Digger's and Ferocious Flame Swordsman on the field, making him 4500 ATK Strong. 

Senior Silver Ninja should get a short mention here too. When he's flipped up you can special any Number of any Ninja Monsters you like from Hand and/or the GY in Face Down defense Position. Very useful to set up tons of different plays and confuse the opponent. This Card will catch the opponents attention almost always.

That's all for this Section.

But there's a very tiny little hidden tool left to uncover.... 

The Mosquito Strikes Back!

Number 2: Ninja Shadow Mosquito is your secret Weapon in this Deck. This Card can't be destroyed by Battle and you receive no Battle Damage from it. In addition it forces every Monster to attack you if possible. If an Attack is declared from the opponent or from you, you can place a Hallucination Counter on one of the opponents Monsters. This will negate any effects that Monster has. 

With that explained here's the win Condition: Mosquito can activate it's 2nd effect to Deal Damage to the opponent equal to the ATK of one Monster with a Hallucination Counter whenever a attack is declared from any Player. Every strong OTK Board will fall into this Tricky Monsters trap resulting in easy reverse OTK wins. It's a truly fascinating card. A very tiny yet very dangerous little Mosquito.

The Big Ninjitsu Trick Box

By this Point you might be wondering why I play 3 Copies of Ninjitsu Art Tool - Iron Digger and also 3 Copies of Ninjitsu Art of Dancing Leaves. These 2 cards combo very strongly with each other. Use Iron Digger to equip it to an opponents Monster making it a Ninja Monster and then use Iron Digger's 2nd effect to destroy 1 Card on the field by banishing one Ninja from the GY. Then activate Dancing Leaves to Tribute the opponents "Ninja" Monster and Special any 1 other Ninja Monster from Deck, also triggering Iron Diggers 3rd effect to recycle the earlier Banished monster to the Hand or Special it Face Down to the field. If you add Baku the Beast Ninja to the Mix he will be able to Recycle the Iron Digger too making it essencially an infinite Advantage Combo.

Just imagine all the Advantage: Removing 2 Cards from the opponent, Special one Ninja from Deck, Add one Ninja from the Banished Zone back to Hand, Recycle Iron Digger back to Hand and Dancing Leaves with it's own effect potentially too and Loop this every Turn. Amazing stuff right there. 

And that's not all. Other Ninjitsu Arts and little interactions between each Ninja make this Deck very versatile in it's usage. Green Ninja for example helps a huge amount in setting and flipping Monsters anywhere on the field or use Ninjitsu Art of Mirage-Transformation to steal a Monster from the opponents GY and treat it as "Ninja" Monster. Or destroy your own Ninjitsu Art Notebook of Mystery to get a free Book of Moon.

Also I didn't even mention the fact they have 2 Field Spells but we do not play Tenchi Kaimei and instead go for their other one which from my experience is better 99% of the time. Hidden Village of Ninjitsu Arts can recycle 100% everything Ninja or Ninjitsu related back to the Hand when a Ninja is summoned during either player's turn. It prevents using the effects of that card for the rest of the Turn as minor downside. Also it can protect every card from Destruction by Banishing a Ninja from the GY instead, once again setting up Iron Digger. 

Having a Draw 2 Spell with Armor Ninjitsu Art of Alchemy is useful too. It's especially good if you have only Notebook active since in Order to Draw 2, you have to destroy all Ninjitsu Cards under your Control. How convenient then that Notebook can search for it and Hidden Village or Baku can recycle it.

Number 12: Crimson Shadow Armor Ninja looks like another Strange inclusion but look closer. 2 Copies of Yaguramaru the Armor Ninja can create him and enable Quick effect Destruction protection for all Ninja Monsters while further setting up your GY. He comes up more often then you might think. 

Ninja Grandmaster Saizo is a 2k Dude which can protect himself from Attacks and Targeting effects. But the better part about him is that he can set a Ninjitsu Art Card every turn directly from the Deck. He's useful for sure. Also he and the Notebook Spells can't be stopped through cards like Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring. Saizo can't even be stopped through Infinite Impermanence thanks to targeting protection. Amazing! 

The Jesse Kotton Special Ultimate Great Insect also made it's way into this Deck as a mass Removal option with 3000 ATK which is easy to summon. 

Lastly there's Ferocious Flame Swordsman in the ED. He's nice to strengthen the Meizen OTK and very interesting to run into an opponents Monster to Special one additional Ninja to make the OTK even easier. 

So in total everything in the Main Deck is either a Ninja or a Ninjitsu Art in perfect 20/20 balance, and they can be recycled easily many times not only but mostly with the Field Spell or the Ninjitsu Art Notebook of Mystery The Ninja Gas is truly endless.

Six Samurai burn the Village down

So Ninja is the best Deck ever right? Yeah no.... Like almost every Deck it Struggles against certain Floodgates and to much Negation on Board. Also having no access to Mass Removal/non targeting removal outside of the big Bomb Five-Headed Link Dragon or Ultimate Great Insect can turn out to be a Problem. The reliance on Ninjitsu Cards can make a Lightning Storm very devastating too. Be aware of some of the usual offenders when you choose to play this Deck. 

As for the more specific weaknesses: If a Ninjitsu Art gets banished through cards like Macro Cosmos it's gone for good. Only Ninja Monsters can return from the Banished Zone through Iron Digger the Ninjitsu Arts are gone for good once banished. 

Having Hanzo able to Miss Timing is unfortunate since you can't use Meizen to summon him Face Up Mid Chain (You can however set him). The Hidden Village can recycle cards like Baku but sadly he cannot use his effect then. Minor Archetype issues but issues nontheless. 

Then again Mosquito and Meizen can really turn the tables quite often so do your best to keep them around. This kind of Ninja Strategy is very unknown and can easily surprise the opponent. 

Extinguishing the Fire and saving the Village

Ninjas exist since the dawn of Yugioh (27.05.1999 OCG Armed Ninja), but only now over 20 Years Later they became a well rounded Strategy. Since they use the Face Down Defense Position a lot they can play around quite a bit of Removal, Negation and Floodgate effects. It's up to the player to decide which Tool to use and when's the right moment to do so. Having access to so many different Combo lines within one Deck is truly fascinating. 

If you decide to pick Ninjas up, expect a Control oriented Strategy which can achieve easy OTKs and has a lot of Tools at their disposal. In addition you will notice how almost every card in the Archetype will generate Card Advantage which makes this Strategy an endless Pool of Ressources. In short: They are a lot of fun and never get boring. 

Final Rating:

★★★★★★★ OTK Potential

★★★★★☆☆ Defensive Tools

★★★★★☆☆ Control Options

★★★★★☆☆ Removal Options

★★★★★★★ Recovery/Recycling

★★★★★★★ Card Advantage

Overall Rating: ★★★★★★☆ 36/42★

Ninjas Break all the Rules

I will list some not so obvious rulings down below: 

Jioh the Gravity Ninja: 1.Opponents monsters that are flipped face down through his effect remain face down and cannot change their position even if Jio leaves the field. 

Senior Silver Ninja: 1.His effect can miss timing if he is flipped up mid Chain/on an not open Gamestate. 2.He has no Once per Turn Limitation. 3.Since he summons multiple Ninja Monsters you have to show all Ninja Monsters you want to summon first BUT you don't have to show in which Zone you summon them face down after. 

Upstart Golden Ninja: 1.Using his or similar effects always forces you to show the Monster to the opponent to Confirm that it's a Ninja Monster. The same applies for Cards which set Ninjitsu Arts from Deck. 

Ninja Grandmaster Hanzo: 1.Both of his Effects can miss Timing. If you summon him mid Chain/on an not open Gamestate he cannot use his effect. 2.He has no Once Per Turn Limitations on his effects. 

Armor Ninjitsu Art of Alchemy: 1.This Card has no Once Per Turn Limitation and can be used multiple times in one turn.

Hidden Village of Ninjitsu Arts: 1.The effect which recycles one Card back to your Hand only prevents you from activating it or the effects for the rest of the turn. A Ninja Monster can still be Normal Summoned/Set and use it's effect on the following turn normally. 

Ninjitsu Art Tool - Iron Digger: 1.You can equip this Card to any Monster on both sides of the field. Like this you can treat an opponents Monster as a Ninja Monster. 

Ninjitsu Art Notebook of Mystery: 1.Since this card is a quick effect you can chain it during your first turn when the opponent activates cards such as Infinite Impermanence. 2.You can choose whether you want to set 1 or 2 Cards and from which place Deck and/or GY freely. 3.Popular cards like Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring  cannot be used to stop this search. It sets directly from Deck just like the original Ninjitsu Art Notebook and Ninja Grandmaster Saizo too. 

Armor Ninjitsu Art of Rust Mist: 1.The halfed ATK remain even if this Card leaves the field. 2.If at resolution there's no Ninja on the field anymore you still half the ATK of the opponents Monster. 

Ninjitsu Art of Mirage-Transformation: 1.This Card and similar Cards who need to Tribute a Ninja as cost in Order to activate can also choose a Face Down Ninja Monster as Tribute. 

Ninjitsu Art of Duplication: 1.This Card has no Once Per Turn Limitations and can be used multiple times. 2.If you return this Card to the Hand with Baku the Beast Ninja and chain the quick effect of Tobari the Sky Ninja  to it you can both summon a Fusion Monster with Baku and Tobari as Material, and get Duplication back to the Hand. 

Ninjitsu Art of Dancing Leaves: 1.This Card can Tribute a monster from anywhere on the field, the opponents field included. 2. This Card can return itself back to the Hand too. 

Meizen the Battle Ninja: 1.You can use Face Down Monsters as Material to fulfill this Cards summoning Condition. Tobari the Sky Ninja can also use Face Down Monsters as Fusion Material for his effect and the same applies to Yaguramaru the Armor Ninja.

Blade Armor Ninja: 1.After using his effect successfully the ability to attack Twice this turn cannot be negated anymore through cards like Skill Drain.

Number 2: Ninja Shadow Mosquito: 1.This Card has no Once Per Turn Limitations. 2.The effect which places Hallucination Counters does not target and can be used on Normal Monsters too. 3.A defense Position Monster is not forced to Switch to Attack Position or to attack at all. Only Attack Position Monsters have to attack.