Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow is a Commander that sees play at many Magic: The Gathering tables. You might see a slight spike in sightings of this Ninja as the brand new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles set rolls out. According to EDHREC, this legend helms a whopping 29,722 decks, which puts Yuriko into Top 10 Commanders status.

Yuriko is officially the 10th most popular Commander to ever hit the format. That's even more impressive when you consider the fact that Yuriko is less than a decade old, hitting the format in the year 2018.

So, what makes this Commander so popular? Why does every Commander player shiver when you mention her name? Why does her ability get around Commander Tax? What does a Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow deck look like in 2026 and what new toys does this legend get to play with? All of these questions and more will be answered here today. Let's talk a bit about Yuriko's popularity.

A Rising Star

Ninjas were first introduced to Magic players during the original Kamigawa block. Higure, the Still Wind was the first legendary creature to have the mythical keyword Ninjutsu, an extremely flavorful and powerful keyword. Ninjutsu allows players to flash in creatures during combat after blockers are declared to sneak in extra damage. This keyword also allowed players to get a creature into play without actually casting it. If a player had a creature with Ninjutsu, they would not have to fear their opponent holding up a Counterspell.

Ninjutsu was received overwhelmingly positively by the Magic community. It felt extremely flavorful that Ninja creatures were sneaking into play and it allowed for some powerful plays to double up on creatures with enter the battlefield abilities. Ninjas quickly became a fan favorite creature type for many players of various skill levels and were quickly adapted into the Commander format.

Ninjas continued to be a popular creature type, but Higure wasn't the best Commander to put into the zone and Wizards wanted to make sure players had access to both Blue and Black. Finally, in 2018 we got Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow.

Yuriko was featured in the C18 deck "Subjective Reality" helmed by Aminatou, the Fateshifter. Gavin Verhey from Wizards of the Coast officially let us know in a video on his channel (Good Morning Magic) that Yuriko was designed to help support a Dimir () Ninja themed typal deck built heavily around top deck manipulation.

Gavin said that he wanted to incorporate the Ninjutsu ability in the textbox of the Commander since he knew the community was infatuated with that keyword so much. So, if you are a Yuriko player OR you fall into a pit of despair seeing her across the table you know who to thank. We have answered a few of our questions already. Yuriko is popular because of the player's love of the Ninja creature type. Gavin chose to give this Dimir legend the Ninjutsu ability because that made the most sense flavorfully and made players feel like this truly was a "Ninja Commander." So, what makes Yuriko so powerful?

Doomsday

I focused a lot on Ninjutsu and how powerful and popular that keyword is, however, Yuriko has another line of text on her that pushes her into a league of her own. "Whenever a Ninja you control deals combat damage to a player, reveal the top card of your library and put that card into your hand. Each opponent loses life equal to that card's mana value." When a Commander player reads that line of text the first question that pops into their head is, What is the most damage I can deal to my opponents with that effect?

Shadow of Mortality, Temporal Trespass, Silent-Blade Oni, Dig Through Time, Commandeer, Submerge, Curtains' Call, and Contagion are all cards that make it into the 99 of players running this legend in the Command Zone. Yuriko's damage trigger does not have a cap like Professional Face-Breaker where it only triggers once for each opponent dealt combat damage. If you connect with five ninjas, you get five triggers from Yuriko.

Now, obviously Magic is a game of variance and Commander is an even bigger game of variance. If you trigger Yuriko, what are the odds you actually reveal a Shadow of Mortality? Well... thanks to cards like Brainstorm, Mystical Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, Imperial Seal, and Sensei's Divining Top, you can make sure that the card you reveal will deal the most damage to your opponents. If you have ever dabbled in cEDH, you may recognize some of those cards as being staples in that format.

Yuriko quickly takes the leap from casual tables and catapults into the cEDH scene around 2022-2023. This Commander has access to the strongest and most efficient win condition with Thassa's Oracle and Demonic Consultation as well as a card called Doomsday. Doomsday was a way to decimate all of your opponents at once. Simply cast Doomsday, put your highest mana value cards on top of your stack and swing in for lethal Yuriko damage.

This deck quickly became an efficient burn machine that could utilize countermagic and efficient card draw engines. Unfortunately, Yuriko hasn't taken down any large tournaments in the present day, but it still stands as a reliable deck to pilot and a great starting point for players wanting to dip their toes into cEDH as a format.

All of that was in the past, let's take a look at what is new and exciting for this legend to make sure decklists stay fresh.

Cowabunga Dude

This year Yuriko is getting a lot of new cards to play with. Not only did we get a couple of new changelings in Lorwyn Eclipsed, we also are getting an entire Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles set imminently. Splinter, the Mentor and Super Shredder are low to the ground creatures with menace that hold the coveted ninja keyword.

Donatello, Way with Machines is an evasive ninja and Donatello, Gadget Master has the new version of Ninjutsu called Sneak. All of these ninjas give us new tools to tinker with in the 99 of Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow. If you have ever considered carrying the Yuriko torch there isn't a better time than right now.

I hope you enjoyed learning a quick history of this famous legendary creature. Yuriko will continue to be popular as long as they keep printing ninjas and high mana value cards, which let's just be honest, they will. If you are interested in trying out cEDH I urge you to pick up a fine-tuned Yuriko list. They are always a blast to pilot.

See you on the battlefield!

-Nigel