Kamiz the Ninja?

[Cyberium]

Kamiz, Obscura Oculus

While Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow remain the prominent ninja deck, I think Kamiz has a chance for being a more versatile one. Both of her mode benefit ninjas in general, and she can make any creature unblockable, which means her deck doesn't require as many of the staple evasive 1/1s and opens to Voltron strategy. She also has the added benefit of providing connive, adding another facet to her options. White = extra removal = extra utilities from Azorius/Orzov.

What do people think?

[RxPhantom]

I feel like there's some cool stuff you could do with this commander, but I keep thinking entirely within the box. Maybe reanimator with the connive ability? I'm also trying to think of cool Esper creatures that do cool things when they deal combat damage, but I've been working for 12 hours and the only thing I can think of are a bunch of Stealer of Secrets variants.

[Mookie]

Hmmmm... from my perspective, I think it will be difficult for Kamiz, Obscura Oculus to replace Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow as the de-facto ninja tribal commander of choice. Yuriko provides a very strong payoff for running lots of ninjas, and her ability pump out a ton of life loss helps with the aggro gameplan, given that ninjas tend to be pretty small.

That said, I could definitely see Kamiz as a solid commander for a more general saboteur deck. Granting a non-evasive saboteur evasion while simultaneously granting an already-evasive saboteur double strike seems pretty solid, and not constraining yourself to ninjas opens up a lot of creatures (while also meaning you don't need to run evasion dorks, as you have already called out). The best-case Kamiz boardstate is probably something like 'one big non-evasive creature + one small evasive saboteur' - granting something like Spawning Kraken evasion while also granting double strike to Thada Adel, Acquisitor or another small creature seems pretty solid. I'll also call out Medomai the Ageless as a strong inclusion (or just a combo piece with Satoru Umezawa).

[duducrash]

Can you Ninjutsu after damage is dealt before cleanup?

[Dragoon]

Can you Ninjutsu after damage is dealt before cleanup?

You can Ninjutsu at the end of combat step, but it has to be done before you move on to the second main phase.

[RxPhantom]

I know this isn't an aura deck, but I suspect that Celestial Mantle would do some work in a Kamiz deck. My wheels are turning slowly. This commander seems really cool and has piqued my interest, but I'm still not sure exactly what do to with her. I don't know if it's ninjas, or if ninjas would be one of several components.

[Serenade]

Are there critters with two "modes" that could benefit from one of those abilities early and the other later (when it is bigger)? I was thinking of kicker and eternalize, but those do not have the strongest card pool. Maybe I just want to use Dreamstealer.

[RxPhantom]

Ooohhh. Specters could work. Doomsday Specter and Thief of Sanity could be cool.

[Ulka]

I could see this being used as a surprise! Ninja's shell. But i do think that we may have more success playing the Saboteur route but ninjas do play into that also.

I keep thinking if you focus on the decks creatures in the camp of 2 power or less and 3 power or greater for the options I really like the idea of giving the engine reliant on hit effects to the 2 power of less creatures as we can get two triggers and the more of a splashy effects to the larger creatures.

that said I think the deck will be very solid no matter how you build it given Esper's ability to grind value and employ the triggers.

One thing I really see some fun here in is that you if you do go the ninja's route can use Barrin, Tolarian Archmage to great value along with stuff like Cephalid Constable.

[RxPhantom]

Naturally, you could also throw in Spark Double for twice the Kamizes.

[Cyberium]

Naturally, you could also throw in Spark Double for twice the Kamizes.

Effects like Oona's Blackguard adds up nicely.

[JovialJovian]

I disagree with the concept that Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow is a Ninja deck. Yuriko benefits from Ninjas, but does not contribute to Ninjas, and it's not the Ninjas that are the threat, it's Yuriko herself.
I would say more that Ninjas enable Yuriko decks, not that Yuriko leads Ninja decks.

The original Ninja commander was Vela the Night-Clad. She not only benefits from Ninjas, but reciprocates, and provides direct benefit back to the Ninjas. You can build an actual Ninja-focused deck.

Kamiz has potential to be the driver of a Ninja deck. She solely provides support for the Ninjas, gaining little back from them, but that's fine, her lower mana value lets her get rolling faster, and the benefits she provides are arguably stronger on a direct ninja-support basis.

I like it, I'll start cooking up a list of my own, I think.