Last updated on October 27, 2025
Satoru Umezawa | Illustration by Anna Pavleeva
With Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles announced as one of Magic's Universes Beyond crossovers for 2026, it may not seem too much of a surprise to find out that one of the staples of ninja decks in Commander is going up in price by quite a bit…
… but if you dig a bit deeper, things are subtler than they seem! Near-mint copies of Modern Horizon‘s Fallen Shinobi have indeed been going up, up, and up by more than 150% in the last month…
… but the reason seems not to be ninja turtles, but a ghost. And a samurai!
Fallen Shinobi Price Spike
Fallen Shinobi – Illustration by Tomasz Jedruszek
Fallen Shinobi has been a staple in ninja decks since Modern Horizons, very often seen with ninja commanders Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow or Satoru Umezawa in the command zone. But near copies of its original printing have seen a huge rally in the last 30 days– from about $1.40 a month ago, to over $3.60 nowadays:
Source: TCGplayer – Fallen Shinobi (MH1), near-mint
Near-mint copies of the Commander: Outlaws of Thunder Junction printing even had a $4 spike two weeks ago, although they are now converging to a similar $3.60 price point.
As noted, one would be tempted to say it's all about TMNT hype, above all since that Magic set is already spiking other ninjas… but it looks Fallen Shinobi is being recruited by a very different type of Japanese fighter.
Not All Ninjas Wear Shells
As it turns out, most of the new demand for Fallen Shinobi seems to be all about Magic's newest samurai. And the first Esper samurai commander in the game: Jin Sakai, Ghost of Tsushima, from the recent PlayStation Secret Lair.
Nearly 60% of Jin Sakai decks include a copy of Fallen Shinobi (a play rate that matches that of Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow‘s decks!).
But if Jin Sakai looks like a samurai, wields swords like a samurai, and literally reads “samurai” in the creature type line… why is he such good friends to ninjas?
In the Ghost of Tsushima videogame, you play as samurai Jin Sakai and get to choose to fight your foes either by confronting them head on and strictly the warrior code… or by assassinating them using stealth tactics. In other words, you can play more like a samurai, or more like a ninja.
And, in Magic, Jin Sakai, Ghost of Tsushima has kept this choice: Whenever a creature you control attacks a player, and it attacks that player all by itself, then you get to choose a “samurai” mode (Standoff, that gives the attacker double strike), or a “ninja” mode (Ghost, making it unblockable).
And Jin himself has a pretty ninja-ish saboteur ability that is begging to attack unblocked.
(By the way: Notice that Jin's Standoff/Ghost abilities work for each player. If you attack three different players with three different creatures, you get to choose Standoff or Ghost in each case. And Jin doesn't need to attack for these triggers; he just needs to be on your board).
A lot of Jin Sakai, Ghost of Tsushima decks are also playing Unstoppable Slasher and Grim Hireling. These two cards haven't had such an abrupt price spike as Fallen Shinobi, though (or at least not yet).
What Will Happen With Fallen Shinobi's Price?
Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow – Illustration by Yongjae Choi
With our usual caveat that this is not investment advice (doing your own research is always a must, folks!), Jin Sakai is proving extremely popular. So on top of seeing a lot of play with one of the most popular commanders in the whole game (Yuriko), Fallen Shinobi now has a hot new commander, and in half a year Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will bring a lot of new ninjas into the game. And Fallen Shinobi‘s rally has been sustained and steady (in other words, this doesn't look like somebody trying to manipulate the market via a buyout).
Looks like samurais are the new ninjas!
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