Ninja Mask, need acceleration and SB help

[ganandorf]

I tried spoils mask, but bringing myself down to 5 when facing sligh didnt appeal to me, so I went over to Ninja. my deck is almost identical to Kowal's, minus the power. I like the deck, but without any power, I am having problems with speed. I also am kind of at a loss for what to do with my sideboard, so I have gone with a basic one for now, but I know that I will need to change it. here's the deck.

"Budget" Ninja Mask

4 Illusionary Mask
4 Survival of the Fittest
4 Volrath's Shapeshifter
4 Phyrexian Dreadnought
1 Gigapede
1 Phage the Untouchable
1 Psychatog
1 Squee, Goblin Nabob
1 Lotus Petal
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
2 Quirion Ranger
4 Duress
4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
4 Tropical Island
4 Bayou
4 Windswept Heath
2 Forest
1 Wooded Foothills

SB: 3 Misdirection
SB: 1 Plaguebearer
SB: 2 Circle of Protection: Red
SB: 2 Goblin Welder
SB: 3 Naturalize
SB: 4 Xantid Swarm

I was thinking of running Sol Ring or Mana Crypt for acceleration, but I really need colored mana. running more birds isnt a good option, becasue they still are kind of slow. my meta consists of:
-landstill
-a r/w hate deck (blood moon, null rod, StP, Disenchant, PoP) that usually ends up killing via PoP after your life is taken down some be a few weenies
-enchantress
-pillerank, a sligh deck running no creatures, but anhk of mishra and pyrostatic pillar
-a T1 version of Ravager Affinity, which quickly overwhelms me
-workshop
any advice would be greatly appreciated. thanks

[Jacob Orlove]

What about Elvish Spirit Guide? It's acceleration, and it pitches to Survival too.

[ganandorf]

I like that idea, and Ill probably cut the mines for them, seeing as they werent doing very well. someone suggested axing the impulses for a demonic tutor and consultation. what do you think?

[Mario]

I would cut them for a Demonic Tutor and a Vamp Tutor. I don't really feel comfortable with Consulation in this deck due to its inherent lack of synergy with Survival.

[Dead-Pool]

Besides cutting the impulse's for the Demonic and Vampiric, I would also recommend... -1 Volrath's Shapeshifter, -1 Quirion Ranger, +1 Akroma and +1 BoP. I played this deck for a while tho i was playing partially powered, I still played 3 shifter because they are considerably slow. If you get to the late game... you have the 3 and the survival trix to get him. However you dont need 4 because he's pretty much a dead draw w/o survival in play.

As to your sideboard, what are the ground seal's there for??? Welder's? I would maybe put some misdirection's and naturalize's in your board. Sence there seems to be alot of misdirectable spells in you meta. w/ the r/w and the pillerank and the landstill. There should be enough to warrant it, i think naturalize's wreck in the meta sence there is enchantress, the pillerank deck, enchantress, Ravanger Affinity, and workshop based deck.
I would say -1 Xantid Swarm (Survival finds them, and you can usually manage to overwhelm a control player with multiple masks/survivals.) -2 Gilded Drake, doesnt seem like a whole lot of good targets in your metagame. Then also i played this with Welder's in the board when i played my version, even w/o red lands... you have birds, mask's, and the petal in here.

   Hope I Helped ya some.

[kl0wn]

As far as speed is concerned, definitely play 4 Spirit Guides; they're absolutely perfect for this deck as if you use them to produce mana for Shapshifter tricks, they don't get in the way of your 'yard. They also have the ability of kick-starting Survival that topdecked Moxen don't.

If you want to get super freaky, try including some Taigas and an Anger. You don't have the +1 tempo boost that the Moxen and Timewalk provide nor the +3 of Lotus, so it wouldn't be clunky like running him with power. I've tried both to boost the speed, but the power + Anger kind of cancelled eachother out so I went for more threats.

Believe it or not, but powerless (I don't dare say budget because of the Masks) Ninja can be just as good as powered if you play it right, it just plays a lot differently. They both have different advantages and disadvantages.

Regarding your 'board, do NOT cut a Swarm like Dead-Pool suggested. Yes, you may be able to Survival for them like everyone says, but the main purpose of Swarm is to get Survival down in the first place. If you get a Survival to stick against control, you will very rarely be tutoring up Xantid Swarm with it.

Just run like 3 Naturalizes and 4 Swarms, they're the only required cards since you will always face control and Naturalize just covers so many bases. Everything else is dependent upon what you face. That leaves you 8 slots to hate out the decks you expect to face. Be careful when 'boarding though, as you can only bring in about 3-4 cards in any given matchup without turning your deck into a total pile of jarbage and losing because you became too reactive.

[ganandorf]

here's the list that I updated to:
Ninja Mask
        4 Illusionary Mask
        4 Survival of the Fittest
        4 Volrath's Shapeshifter
        4 Phyrexian Dreadnought
        1 Gigapede
        1 Phage the Untouchable
        1 Psychatog
        1 Squee, Goblin Nabob
        1 Lotus Petal
        4 Birds of Paradise
        4 Elvish Spirit Guide
        2 Quirion Ranger
        4 Duress
        4 Force of Will
        4 Brainstorm
        1 Vampiric Tutor
        1 Demonic Tutor
        4 Tropical Island
        4 Bayou
        4 Windswept Heath
        2 Forest
        1 Wooded Foothills
SB:  3 Misdirection
SB:  1 Plaguebearer
SB:  2 Circle of Protection: Red
SB:  2 Goblin Welder
SB:  3 Naturalize
SB:  4 Xantid Swarm

some explanation: I didnt want to run red because of the non-basic hate in my meta (mostly PoP with some Wastelands too), so I stuck with splashing black. I replaced the impulse with the tutors, and after playing a little on apprentice I feel pretty confident about having enough blue spells for force. the tutors are great for later games when I run out of gas. Im also loving the spirit guides, the only problem is that I removed permantent mana sources (2 gemstone mine, 1 fetch, 1 chrome mox) to make room for them, so I feel like Im a little light on the permanent mana sources when games go later.

I havent had a chance to try this out in a tournament yet, but I added the CoP because the sligh and r/w hate deck both often finish with PoP. Im still looking for two more SB cards, maybe some anti-welder things? the r/w deck just started running a playset of them, which is going to make that matchup even worse. also, there is now also a cherry parfait deck in the area running the belcher combo, are there any different things I shoudl side in against it, our just use my naturalizes? thanks for your help, this deck has already improved quite a bit

[Triple_S]

Give Wall of Roots a try, you'll be pleasantly suprised.  They can block anything in Sligh or WW (other than Priests or Monks), and can give you green mana while tapped down to Tanglewire.  Plus they allow for eot Survival activations you might not be able to do otherwise.  And did I mention they block Ophidian all day long?  I do have a bit of an irrational attachment to the card but they are quality.

[ganandorf]

what do I take to make room for them? the rangers? it seems that my mana base is already pretty well covered, so I might not need them. I decided to take out the chills for welders to help with the ravager matchup, seeing as they were just in there to take up a slot anyways

[mrieff]

what do I take to make room for them? the rangers? it seems that my mana base is already pretty well covered, so I might not need them. I decided to take out the chills for welders to help with the ravager matchup, seeing as they were just in there to take up a slot anyways

Keep at least 1 Ranger as a Survival Target. You could do with 3 Shapeshifters instead of 4, also because you have Survivals