Jin Sakai, Ghost of TsushimaJin Sakai, Ghost of Tsushima | Art by Dominik Mayer

With the announcement of the PlayStation collaboration, Wizards of the Coast is bringing a few recognizable faces to Magic. Among the multiple franchises being introduced, we're getting a Ghost of Tsushima Secret Lair with Jin Sakai, Ghost of TsushimaJin Sakai, Ghost of Tsushima as our headliner.

Today, we'll be looking into how to build Jin Sakai in Commander and bring this Samurai to the battlefield.

What Does Jin Sakai, Ghost of Tsushima Do?

For four mana, we have an Esper () commander that will draw a card on combat damage. He also has the ability to grant other creatures double strike or be unblockable if they're the only creature attacking a player. It's a nice modal trigger that gives us the flexibility to either hit hard or ensure we can strike with our creatures.

It would be easy to attach Equipment and Auras to Jin Sakai and build towards a Voltron strategy. There are many ways to give our commander evasion too, so we can focus on the double strike ability, or vice versa if we have double strike already.

The card draw on Jin Sakai helps to top off our hand, especially if we're successful in connecting with double strike, so this would be an effective Voltron commander.

However, we have can give these abilities to up to three creatures (the number of opponents), so that gives us another way to build Jin Sakai. We could build with saboteur triggers and benefit from our commander either doubling those triggers or giving creatures evasion.

I went with a build that focused on creatures we want to get through for damage.

Key Cards for Jin Sakai

Creatures That Want Double Strike

Let's take a look at some evasive creatures that will benefit from double strike.

Shadowmage InfiltratorShadowmage Infiltrator is an evasive creature that draws a card on combat damage. At three mana, Shadowmage Infiltrator curves out nicely with our commander. And by giving it double strike, we can start drawing two cards off of it by turn four.

Malcolm, Alluring ScoundrelMalcolm, Alluring Scoundrel puts a chorus counter on himself each time he deals combat damage. Once there are four counters on him, we can cast the card we discard for free. Needing to deal combat damage four times with Malcolm will take a while, but if we can give him double strike, it'll only take two combat steps to get to four counters.

If you manage to keep him around, you'll be able to cast two free spells a turn.

While Bladegriff PrototypeBladegriff Prototype lets the opponent choose the permanent to destroy, it can still be used to remove what you want from the board. Almost every time I've swung with it, I've been able to convince my opponent to remove the problem permanent.

Oftentimes, there's a clear problem permanent on the board, so there's rarely a need to convince your opponent to remove what you want. What you will need to convince them of is whether taking six damage is worth removing two permanents. And that answer changes if their life total is quite low already.

The nice thing about these creatures having evasion already is that we aren't hindered if we don't have Jin Sakai out. They still provide the value we need to keep our game plan going.

Creatures That Want Evasion

Fallen ShinobiFallen Shinobi has a ninjitsu ability for four that allows us to sneak it in for combat damage and potentially cast powerful spells off of the top of an opponent's library. But once it's on the field, no one will let a 5/4 with such a strong ability get through. That's where Jin Saski comes in.

Giving Fallen Shinobi evasion means we can easily get more value from it so long as nobody removes it. And if we can give it evasion from another ability, then we can start hitting opponents for ten damage while also casting up to four spells a turn for free.

Unstoppable SlasherUnstoppable Slasher cuts our opponents' life totals in half each time it deals combat damage. Giving this unblockable is already great, but connecting with double strike will be devastating to whoever is on the receiving end of his saw.

Being in a creature-focused deck means we need ways to recover the creatures we lose, and Archpriest of ShadowsArchpriest of Shadows is an excellent way to build up our board quickly. It can give another creature this ability when it enters, which could be on an evasive creature that then is granted double strike.

Along with Squall, SeeD MercenarySquall, SeeD Mercenary, which grants double strike and reanimates permanents, our deck will be incredibly resilient.

Engines

Building a deck around evasive creatures means we need some that benefit us for dealing combat damage. Grim HirelingGrim Hireling can generate a ton of Treasures in a single turn, making it basically free if we can connect with at least two players. Or just one player if we connect with double strike.

If we're set up right and connect three opponents with double striking creatures, that's 12 Treasures in a single combat step. That's so many Treasures that its second ability becomes much easier to use.

Mask of RiddlesMask of Riddles might be one of our best utility Equipment in our deck. And I'm saying this knowing that The Key to the VaultThe Key to the Vault is also in this deck. Equipping Mask of Riddles to our commander and giving him fear means we can start drawing four cards a turn. We'll have more cards in hand than we know what to do with.

Shoreline LooterShoreline Looter helps us sculpt our hand in the early games, but once we hit threshold of seven or more cards in our graveyard, it'll start drawing us two cards a turn. With the potential to draw so many cards a turn, hitting threshold will be easy.

Backup Plan

But why limit it to just one Jin Sakai? After all, I want to give my creatures double strike and unblockable. So, if we clone Jin Sakai with Sakashima of a Thousand FacesSakashima of a Thousand Faces and Spark DoubleSpark Double, we won't have to give Fallen ShinobiFallen Shinobi or Silent-Blade OniSilent-Blade Oni unblockable.

Plus, we have so many other creatures worth cloning that they'll never be a dead card in hand.

Jin Sakai does feel like a power-crept version of Kamiz, Obscura OculusKamiz, Obscura Oculus. Kamiz can only choose two creatures, one unable to be blocked and another to have double strike. And then you have a restriction on what gets double strike based on whether it had a lesser power than the other creature.

However, Kamiz is still a worthy inclusion in the 99 as a backup to Jin Sakai, if we don't have our commander on the battlefield.

With all the card draw, we'll eventually need to discard cards, so what if we include WonderWonder? It ensures all of our creatures have evasion and gives us the ability to block flyers. It's difficult to remove Wonder, save for some occasional graveyard hate.

Win-Cons

How do we plan to close out games? Our deck is packed with multiple ways to give our bigger creatures, like Silent-Blade OniSilent-Blade Oni and StarwinderStarwinder, both double strike and unblockable, so these often can be good closers in their own right.

But which cards do we know will close out games if not dealt with?

How do we make double strike better? By getting a second combat step, of course! Genji GloveGenji Glove not only gives the equipped creature double strike, but it will grant us an additional combat step. Since we're already given double strike, we can make the equipped creature unblockable through Jin Sakai, and now our opponents are facing down double striking, unblockable creatures twice.

Genji Glove is an expensive Equipment, but it is well worth it.

Skyhunter Strike ForceSkyhunter Strike Force gives melee to our creatures if we control our commander. Swinging at opponents with multiple creatures won't trigger Jin Sakai's ability, but that being said, Skyhunter Strike Force will pump up our creatures that we do attack with by three power. And it already has evasion, so it's an easy ten damage in the air.

Drana, Liberator of MalakirDrana, Liberator of Malakir also pumps up our attacking creatures with +1/+1 counters whenever she deals combat damage. Giving her double strike will quickly get out of hand.

Paladin ClassPaladin Class has multiple abilities that are all relevant to what this deck wants to do. The first level makes it difficult for opponents to interact on our turn. Level 2 is a solid buff to our team. But the real kicker here is Level 3, which all but turns our commander into a knock-out machine.

The key note here is that the third level gives the target creature +1/+1 for each other attacking creature. While we need to be aware of how many creatures attack an opponent, if we just swing all other creatures at the other two players and swing Jin Sakai at the player we're trying to take out, we'll still benefit from his ability to make him unblockable.

Jin Sakai looks like it can enable quite a few strategies, such as ninjitsu. I look forward to seeing how players build this deck. Let me know what you think of Jin Sakai down below!

Jin Sakai, Ghost of Tsushima Commander Deck List

Read More: