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Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow

Legendary Creature — Human Ninja

Commander ninjutsu {U}{B} ({U}{B}, Return an unblocked attacker you control to hand: Put this card onto the battlefield from your hand or the command zone tapped and attacking.)
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.

CMC
3
Mana cost
{1}{U}{B}
Color identity
BU
Rarity
rare
Set
Love Your LGS 2021
Price
—
EDHREC rank
#2400
Buy on TCGplayer
Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow card art
Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow hits every opponent every time a ninja connects, converting high-CMC spells on top of your library into a lethal life-drain engine that scales with player count. The cost is a deck built around enabling ninjutsu repeatedly — but commanders like Satoru Umezawa and Splinter, Radical Rat show exactly how exploitable that gameplan is when the infrastructure is in place.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Splinter, Radical Rat

Splinter, Radical Rat

82.5% of decks · synergy 0.80

Splinter, Radical Rat runs Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow in over 82% of its builds because Splinter's ability to proliferate poison and generate unblockable vectors lets Yuriko's ninjutsu triggers resolve before opponents can stabilize. The two create a dual-axis attack that forces opponents to answer threats on two completely different axes simultaneously.

02
Goro-Goro and Satoru

Goro-Goro and Satoru

50.7% of decks · synergy 0.50

Goro-Goro and Satoru's built-in ninjutsu synergy makes Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow a natural inclusion — Satoru's half of the card lets creatures with power 4 or greater be ninjutsu'd in, and Yuriko's triggered ability stacks directly on top of that combat-step value engine. At over 50% inclusion across Goro-Goro and Satoru decks, Yuriko is one of the most consistent payoffs the deck reaches for.

03
Satoru Umezawa

Satoru Umezawa

42.2% of decks · synergy 0.40

Satoru Umezawa gives every creature in hand a ninjutsu activation, which means Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow gets onto the battlefield without ever being cast and circumvents commander tax entirely. That alone explains the 42% inclusion rate — Yuriko is one of the best payoff ninjas Satoru can cheat into play.

04
Satoru, the Infiltrator

Satoru, the Infiltrator

36.8% of decks · synergy 0.34

Satoru, the Infiltrator rewards unblocked creature damage with card draw, which overlaps cleanly with the repeated combat pressure Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow demands to function. Running both means every successful ninjutsu swing draws a card and drains the table.

05
Noctis, Heir Apparent

Noctis, Heir Apparent

30.3% of decks · synergy 0.28

Noctis, Heir Apparent wants creatures that reward connecting with opponents, and Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow's drain trigger fires on every successful hit regardless of which ninja dealt the damage. The 30% inclusion rate reflects that Noctis lists treat Yuriko as a top-end payoff rather than a core piece — powerful when she lands, but not the engine.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

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

Commander is unambiguously where Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow belongs — the trigger hits each opponent, so a four-player pod turns a single ninjutsu activation into 12+ potential life lost off a high-CMC reveal. In Legacy, Yuriko is technically legal and has seen fringe play as a one-of in Ninjas, where the ninjutsu-on-blocked-creature reads as efficient tempo, but the format's speed and interaction density make the trigger hard to abuse. Vintage legality is similarly academic — the format's power level leaves Yuriko without a real home. Oathbreaker gives her a niche as a signature spell or planeswalker support piece, though the format's smaller life totals shrink the margin her drain engine needs.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

unknown tier

Pricing data isn't available for Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow in this context, so check Scryfall or TCGPlayer for current market prices before buying. Given her Commander demand across multiple archetypes — ninjas, ninjutsu-enabler builds, and tempo strategies — she's historically held value well, so don't assume she's budget without verifying first.

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Sources

Mentioned

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