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Thousand-Faced Shadow

Creature — Human Ninja

Ninjutsu {2}{U}{U} ({2}{U}{U}, Return an unblocked attacker you control to hand: Put this card onto the battlefield from your hand tapped and attacking.)
Flying
When this creature enters from your hand, if it's attacking, create a token that's a copy of another target attacking creature. The token enters tapped and attacking.

CMC
1
Mana cost
{U}
Color identity
U
Rarity
rare
Set
Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty
Price
$2.87
EDHREC rank
#2513
Buy on TCGplayer
Thousand-Faced Shadow card art
Thousand-Faced Shadow enters as a copy of any creature that just connected with an opponent, then gives that copy flying and ninjutsu — the on-board payoff is immediate and threatening. The cost is real: you need a creature that already dealt combat damage, so the card does nothing in a vacuum, but in a deck built around Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow or any shell that reliably swings through, it earns its slot and then some. A Peregrine Drake trigger on entry is just one example of how quickly this can spiral.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow

Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow

85.2% of decks · synergy 0.74

Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow is the natural home: Thousand-Faced Shadow copies a creature that just dealt combat damage, inherits ninjutsu, and can immediately bounce back to hand to be redeployed — feeding Yuriko's damage-trigger engine on loop.

02
Splinter, Radical Rat

Splinter, Radical Rat

74.2% of decks · synergy 0.73

Splinter, Radical Rat cares about creatures sneaking through unblocked, and Thousand-Faced Shadow copies whatever threat already slipped past defenses, doubling the pressure and inheriting ninjutsu for the next attack step.

03
Goro-Goro and Satoru

Goro-Goro and Satoru

69.9% of decks · synergy 0.68

Goro-Goro and Satoru rewards the first creature connecting each turn with a token, and Thousand-Faced Shadow copies that same attacker — the flying ninjutsu rider means the copy can bounce back and trigger a fresh connection on the following turn.

04
Satoru Umezawa

Satoru Umezawa

72.2% of decks · synergy 0.61

Satoru Umezawa's ninjutsu engine wants redundant evasive threats that can be swapped in and out, and Thousand-Faced Shadow delivers a copy of whatever just hit plus its own ninjutsu ability baked in, keeping the rotation tighter.

05
Satoru, the Infiltrator

Satoru, the Infiltrator

43.6% of decks · synergy 0.33

Satoru, the Infiltrator draws a card whenever a creature connects and wasn't cast from hand, and Thousand-Faced Shadow — entering via ninjutsu — qualifies immediately while also replicating the creature that set up the draw in the first place.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander legal
legacy legal
modern legal
pioneer legal
standard not legal
vintage legal
pauper not legal
oathbreaker legal

Thousand-Faced Shadow is legal in Commander, Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, Vintage, and Oathbreaker — but Commander is where it actually sees play. In 60-card formats the combat-damage trigger requirement is too slow and situational for the competitive pace of Legacy or Modern, and Pioneer lacks the ninjutsu infrastructure to support it. Commander's multiplayer board states mean more unblocked creatures, more ninjutsu loops, and more high-value targets to copy, which is precisely the environment where Thousand-Faced Shadow thrives. Oathbreaker can support it if the signature spell enables evasion, but that's a narrow build requirement rather than a broad recommendation.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

$2.87 cheap tier

At $2.87, Thousand-Faced Shadow sits firmly in the cheap tier — reasonable for a card with an 85% inclusion rate in Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow decks. It holds that price because the demand is concentrated but consistent; ninjutsu commanders aren't going away, and this card is a near-auto-include in every major one.

Explore

Sources

Mentioned

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Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.