Ninja Kamui — The Deserter

Commanded by Joe Higan, the Kamui, this Grixis (blue/black/red) 100-Card Commander Deck follows the 2024 anime series directed by Sunghoo Park. Higan was the best killer of the Kamui, a hidden ninja clan that sells murders and buys its armor, implants and drones from AUZA, a technology corporation. He deserted, took the name Joe Higan and spent years fishing on a lake in Florida with his wife and son — until the clan, which does not accept resignations, burned the house on the lake, killed his family and left him for dead in the water. He came back. FBI agent Emma Dunn follows the bodies while Higan works his way up the chain of command: the hunters, the bounty broker, the Elder and AUZA itself. The cast includes Higan twice — the deserter in his stolen combat suit and the man back from the water — Emma Dunn, the Elder and the Old Master of the Kamui, the Swordmaster, the Twin-Blade Hunter, the Wire-Blade Huntress, the Iron Brute, the Archivist, the Bounty Broker and the AUZA Chairman, with places from the burned boathouse and the Everglades at night to AUZA Tower and the hidden Kamui village.

• Assassinate: word for word on sixteen creatures, the commander included — "Assassinate (Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, destroy up to one target creature that player controls with mana value less than or equal to the damage dealt.)" You get past the guards and kill the one they were guarding: the harder the hit, the bigger the target. Higan's Combat Suit, The Kamui Blade and the flying Drones of AUZA Drone Operator carry it too.
• Joe in four lines: menace; assassinate; other Ninjas you control have assassinate; whenever you assassinate a creature, draw a card. Higan, Back From the Water arrives with ninjutsu and returns a Ninja card from your graveyard — ninjutsu, an existing Magic keyword, appears on six cards.
• Getting through: Vanishing Smoke, Into the Swamp at Night, Emma Dunn, Federal Agent, The Elder of the Kamui, The Hidden Kamui Village and Kamui Kusarigama make the hit land; Kill Confirmed, Kamui Strike Captain, AUZA Riot Mech, The Rain-Slick Rooftops and AUZA Cyber-Surgeon make it bigger.
• The payoffs: "whenever you assassinate a creature" is read by Joe (a card), The Old Master of the Kamui (a +1/+1 counter on each Ninja), The AUZA Chairman (a Treasure), The Kamui Bounty Broker (life loss equal to the mana value), The Kamui Swordmaster (2 damage to any target), Kamui Strike Captain (indestructible) and Oath of the Deserter (drain 2), and Read the Dead Drop draws three instead of two. Twenty-five cards carry or read the mechanic.

Why Grixis

Blue is the ninja art and the technology — stealth, flash, ninjutsu, the AUZA network, drones. Black is the trade — killing for money, a clan that erases its records and its deserters. Red is revenge — one man going through the whole organisation in a single night. No white: no law helps in this story. No green: nothing here is natural, not even the man. Two combos close the game. AUZA Cloning Bay with Kamui Infiltrator: the hasty copy of the Infiltrator untaps the Bay as it enters, again and again, for as many hasty flying 2/1 Ninjas with assassinate as you want on the same turn. The Kamui Archivist with Erase the Record cast in response to its enters trigger: your library is exiled and the Archivist wins the game. AUZA Fusion Core, The Kamui Crest, Talisman of the Two Lives and AUZA Signal Relay ramp; A Name From the Elders tutors; Severed Ties, Snuffed in the Rain, Silent Takedown, Kamui Throwing Stars, Short-Circuit the Implant, Neon Typhoon and Kamui Executioner remove threats; Silence Before the Strike, Kamui Countermeasure and Intercept the Order counter; The Purge of Deserters is the single sweeper and The Hunt Ends Tonight a one-sided finisher; The Kamui Network and Life Without a Name draw.

A complete 100-card Commander deck plus 3 tokens, tuned for Bracket 4, available as a digital print-yourself edition or a printed physical deck, and offered in 10 languages.