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3SD Ninja: deck recipe

Duel Links ninja deck, three-star demotion ninja, how to use, ninja deck in the meta.
update 03/11/2017

Overview

3SD Ninjas is one of the best decks currently available in Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links and it’s arguably also the deck with the highest skill cap right now. This means that in the wrong hands, this deck is a disaster, but in the right hands this deck will run laps around you.

The reason this deck is so hard to play perfectly is because of all the possible plays that are available with the effect of Black Dragon Ninja, the MVP of this deck, or the combos available with Ninjitsu Art of Duplication.

Example Deck (3x Transformation)

Black Dragon NinjaBlack Dragon NinjaBlack Dragon NinjaRed Dragon NinjaRed Dragon NinjaRed Dragon Ninja
Senior Silver NinjaMasked Ninja EbisuCrimson NinjaCrimson NinjaNinjitsu Art NotebookNinjitsu Art Notebook
Ninjitsu Art NotebookArmor Ninjitsu Art of AlchemyNinjitsu Art of TransformationNinjitsu Art of TransformationNinjitsu Art of TransformationNinjitsu Art of Duplication
Ninjitsu Art of DuplicationNinjitsu Art of Duplication----

Example Deck (2x Transformation)

Black Dragon NinjaBlack Dragon NinjaBlack Dragon NinjaRed Dragon NinjaRed Dragon NinjaRed Dragon Ninja
Senior Silver NinjaMasked Ninja EbisuMasked Ninja EbisuCrimson NinjaCrimson NinjaNinjitsu Art Notebook
Ninjitsu Art NotebookNinjitsu Art NotebookArmor Ninjitsu Art of AlchemyNinjitsu Art of TransformationNinjitsu Art of TransformationNinjitsu Art of Duplication
Ninjitsu Art of DuplicationNinjitsu Art of Duplication----

Set skill

[Skill] descriptionUser
Three-Star Demotion
Can be used by paying 3000 Life Points. Until the End Phase, reduce the Level of all monsters in your hand by 3. This skill can only be used once per turn.

Paradox Brothers

How to use

A big part of the strength of this deck comes from the burst damage it can do. Just like Cyber Angels, Ninjas are able to end the duel within just one or two turns. Ninjas also have access to some great monster and spell/trap removal thanks to their powerful effects.

Black Dragon Ninja

This monster’s effect states that you can send 1 Ninja monster and 1 Ninjitsu Art card from hand and/or face-up from your field to the graveyard, then (after they are in the graveyard) you can target 1 monster on the field (either player’s field) and banish it. If this face-up card (Black Dragon Ninja) leaves the field, special summon all monsters banished by this card’s effect to their owner’s field.

The most important thing to note is that you can choose to banish your own Black Dragon Ninja, which will cause him to be immediately special summoned again after he leaves the field. This is the strongest effect in this deck as it allows you to get in more attacks, avoid nasty effects on your Black Dragon Ninja/other Ninjas you control just get rid of a face-up OR face-down monster your opponent controls that poses a threat.

If you control a Black Dragon Ninja, and your opponent summons a Cyber Angel Dakini and activates its effect, you’ll want to use Black Dragon Ninja’s effect in response to banish itself, that way it will come back unharmed at the end of the chain, and unless your opponent tributed a Cyber Angel Idaten, your attack will be higher than his, making you in control of the duel.

If your opponent is smart enough to bring out a Cyber Angel Idaten, and tribute the Idaten for Cyber Angel Dakini there is almost nothing you can do to win now because its attack will be too high.
That’s why the only play you can make is to banish your opponent’s Idaten when he activates another ritual spell (if you think he’ll summon Cyber Angel Dakini), that way if he doesn’t have enough monsters to tribute, or he can’t match the exact amount of stars required for Machine Angel Absolute Ritual, he won’t be able to summon Cyber Angel Dakini (your opponent will have to show their hand), and the ritual spell will be sent to the graveyard. Sometimes, if you keep track of your opponent’s hand, banishing Idaten won’t be the best play. If you know he has a Cyber Angel Benten in his hand, he’ll still be able to summon Dakini even if you banish Idaten, that’s why there are situations you’ll have to banish a Cyber Angel Petit, if he doesn’t have another monster with 2 stars in his hand, it’s very unlikely he can match the required amount of stars perfectly for Machine Angel Absolute Ritual and he won’t be able to summon Dakini.

You can activate Black Dragon Ninja’s effect during the Battle Step, this means that if your Ninja was affected by for example Wall of Disruption/Enemy Controller/Windstorm of Etaqua, you can undo that effect by banishing and resummoning your ninja. If you control 1 Black Dragon Ninja, 1 Red Dragon Ninja and 1 Ninjitsu Art in your hand, and you attack with Red Dragon Ninja, but he is affected by Wall of Disruption , and for example you are about to lose all your remaining life points because of the damage you will take, you can activate Black Dragon Ninja’s effect by sending itself and the Ninjitsu Art card in your hand to the graveyard to banish your Red Dragon Ninja, that way it will get summoned again immediately but without the attack reduction. (even though Black Dragon Ninja’s effect says it can only be used once per turn, this doesn’t apply when your Black Dragon Ninja is banished and comes back, same logic applies with attacks; normally a monster can only attack once per turn, however if it leaves the field and gets special summoned that same turn it can attack again)

Watch out when you send a Ninjitsu Trap card that is still linked to a Ninja monster to the graveyard for Black Dragon Ninja’s effect, as this will also result in the destruction of the monster linked to that trap card.

Red Dragon Ninja

If Red Dragon Ninja is summoned (even flip or special summoned) you can banish 1 Ninja or Ninjitsu Art card from your graveyard to target 1 set card your opponent controls; you can look at that card and decide if you want to put it on top or at the bottom of their deck (they cannot activate that card in response). This is a very efficient way to lock down your opponent and mess up their game (if it was a trap and you put it on top of their deck you now it will be useless for them next turn).

Summoning a Red Dragon Ninja + Crimson Ninja by tributing a Black Dragon Ninja with the effect of Ninjitsu Art of Duplication is one of the main ways to deal with decks that rely heavily on backrow to win the duel.

This monster’s card effect reads “When this card is summoned; you can...” (not “If this card is summoned…”) meaning this effect can miss the timing if the summoning was not the last thing to happen. To be more precise; if you activate a Ninjitsu Art of Duplication/Transformation to summon a Red Dragon Ninja, and that Ninjitsu Art card was not activated as chain link 1, Red Dragon Ninja won’t be able to activate its effect. So if your opponent activates an Enemy Controller and you chain those Ninjitsu Art cards to that activation (they’ll be chain link 2) and the summoning of Red Dragon Ninja will miss its timing. However if you activate those cards (not in response to something else) they will be activated as chain link 1, so even if your opponent activates an Enemy Controller in response to you; your cards will be the last thing to happen/resolve so you won’t miss the timing.

Senior Silver Ninja

This is a great card to run one copy of as it works well when you send a Black Dragon Ninja to the graveyard with Ninjitsu Art of Duplication’s effect to summon 1 Senior Silver Ninja and 1 Crimson/Armed Ninja (combined that makes 7 stars). When it’s flipped face-up you can then bring back that Black Dragon Ninja and other Ninjas from your hand or graveyard. Because of the speed format in Duel Links you’ll never be able to special summon more than 2 monsters with this effect, because even if the Senior Silver Dragon is destroyed by battle, he still takes up a slot on the field when his effect resolves.

Masked Ninja Ebisu

Great card to run 1-2 copies of as it’s a great target for Ninjitsu Art of Transformation, allowing you to summon a Black Dragon Ninja, or if you use Ninjitsu Art of Duplication on a Red Dragon Ninja/Black Dragon Ninja, you can summon this Ninja together with some Crimson/Armed Ninjas (1 star Ninjas).

Important things to understand about this card’s effect; you cannot activate this card’s effect if you do not control another Ninja monster, and you cannot use this card’s effect if your opponent only has 1 spell/trap (because you need to control one other ninja besides Ebisu, this means you control at least 2 ninjas, and this effect says you can send spell/trap cards equal to the number of ninja monsters you control, so not possible to only send 1 spell/trap back to the hand).

Crimson Ninja

Currently the preferred level 1 Ninja in Ninja decks. Duplication into a Red Dragon Ninja + Crimson Ninja, or into Ebisu + Crimson Ninja x2 are great ways to deal with heavy backrow. Watch out when Crimson Ninja is flipped and your opponent doesn’t control any traps/spells, you have to destroy your own traps if you control any. Also keep in mind that if you want to activate Masked Ninja Ebisu’s effect, there might be situations where you don’t want to flip your Crimson Ninja face-up (if you leave your opponent with only 1 spell/trap you can’t activate Ebisu’s effect Anymore.

Ninjitsu Art of Duplication

Most of the time you’ll want to activate this card by tributing Black Dragon Ninja to summon 1 Masked Ninja Ebisu + 2x Crimson/Armed Ninjas or Black Dragon Ninja into Red Dragon Ninja + Crimson/Armed Ninja. This means this card is a great way to get rid of your opponent’s backrow since you can bring out all your Ninjas that deal with that.

Great card against Cyber Angels. If you have a Black Dragon Ninja and a set Ninjitsu Art of Duplication you can send that Black Dragon Ninja to the graveyard and special summon 1 Crimson Ninja and 1 Senior Silver Ninja face-down. You’ll send that Crimson Ninja to the graveyard (because of Dakini’s effect) and then if your opponent decides to attack your Senior Silver Ninja you can summon your Black Dragon Ninja and Crimson Ninja back from the graveyard (or other Ninjas from your hand).

Ninjitsu Art of Transformation

Besides the obvious strength of upgrading for example a Masked Ninja Ebisu into a Black Dragon Ninja, this card is also great to avoid or undo effects on your Red Dragon/Black Dragon Ninjas.

Also opens the possibilities of multiple attacks. Imagine a situation where you have 1 Black Dragon Ninja and 1 set Ninjitsu Art of Transformation on the field, and your hand consists of 1 Ninjitsu Art card and 2 Ninja monsters. You can attack with Black Dragon Ninja, activate Ninjitsu art of Transformation to summon a new Black Dragon Ninja from you deck for a second attack. Then you can send the Ninjitsu Art card + a Ninja monster from your hand to the graveyard to banish and resummon your own Black Dragon Ninja for a third attack. Now that your Black Dragon Ninja is no longer attached to the Ninjitsu Art of Transformation you can send that trap + the last Ninja monster in your hand to the graveyard for a fourth attack.

Ninjitsu Art Notebook

This card (together with Armor Ninjitsu Art of Alchemy) helps to improve your opening hands. Sometimes having 1 star Ninjas in your hand will be useless and this card allows you to change them for a Ninjitsu Art of Duplication/Transformation instead.

Even if you don’t want to activate this card’s effect, it can still be used as fodder for Black Dragon Ninja’s effect.

Amor Ninjitsu Art of Alchemy

As mentioned above, this card also helps with your opening hands together with Ninjitsu Art Notebook. You only want to run one copy of this, together with 2-3 copies of Ninjitsu Art Notebook. This way you’ll often be able (at the start of the duel) to activate Notebook, send a (1 star) Ninja from your hand to the graveyard to set Armor Ninjitsu Art of Alchemy from your deck, and because this is a normal spell card you can activate it immediately to destroy your Notebook and draw 2 more cards, basically allowing you to get rid of bad cards, fortifying your opening hand and raise the chances of starting with Black Dragon Ninja.

Additional Notes

  • Don’t forget that all monsters banished by Black Dragon Ninja’s effect come back if he leaves the field, keep this in mind if you think you have game by banishing your own Black Dragon Ninja to get in an extra attack in.

  • Follow up for the previous note; some monsters that are banished cannot come back once your Black Dragon Ninja leaves the field, for example Ancient Gear Golem. Because the Ancient Gear Golem card reads; Cannot be special summoned.

  • Don’t autopilot and immediately set all traps. Keep in mind that you might need Ninjitsu Art Cards in your hand for Black Dragon Ninja (you can’t use the traps that are set, only traps that are face-up).

  • If you might be facing a Burn deck, don’t pull the trigger too fast on your skill, as this might result in a quick loss.

  • There is a high chance that Three Star Demotion will be one of the skills to be nerfed soon, so be careful when investing in this deck.

  • Ninjitsu Art of Transformation cannot be used on a face-down monster.

  • Watch out that you don’t use Ninjitsu Art of Duplication/Transformation on a card that is still affected by the effect of Three Star Demotion, even though this is very obvious, it’s still a mistake a lot of players make because they are trying to play too fast or not paying attention to the game.

Other useful cards

CardExplanation
Ninja Grandmaster Sasuke
Ninja Grandmaster Sasuke
Great level 4 Ninja because of its decent attack and effect.
Ninjitsu Art of Shadow Sealing
Ninjitsu Art of Shadow Sealing
This card can work great as monster removal, preferably you tribute one of your smaller ninjas to banish one of your opponent’s big monsters. Also slows down decks like Cyber Angels and Dinosaurs (Hydrogeddon) that like to swarm the field. Keep in mind if this trap leaves the field, the banished monster comes back, so watch out when you send this card to the graveyard for Black Dragon Ninja’s effect.
Flame Armor Ninja
Flame Armor Ninja
This card’s effect to boost another monsters level by one can come in handy together with Ninjitsu Art of Duplication/Transformation. For example boosting a Red Dragon Ninja to level 7 allows you to tribute that Red Dragon Ninja with Ninjitsu Art of Duplication to summon a Black Dragon Ninja.
Forbidden Chalice
Forbidden Chalice
Remains a great tech in this meta, also greatly helps in the Ninja mirror matchup.
Floodgate Trap Hole
Floodgate Trap Hole
Has been a great trap in this meta for a few months now, and has found a spot in certain Ninja decks just because of its potential to slow down your opponent if you need to draw into your combos.
Enemy Controller
Enemy Controller
Just like Floodgate Trap Hole, a great card ever since its introduction, greatly helps against Cyber Angels or in the mirror match against other Ninjas (take control of their Ninjas and get rid of them by activating Ninjitsu Art of Duplication/Transformation on them).
Windstorm of Etaqua
Windstorm of Etaqua
Good stall cards and also have synergy with Ninja Grandmaster Sasuke
Draining Shield
Draining Shield
Running this card is great to stop an attack, but at the same time you can heal yourself, allowing you to maybe activate your Three Star Demotion Skill again.

Comments

Hot New Top
Anonymous
Ninja Vs CA?
<< Anonymous
Anonymous Reply
Cyber angels will always lose if they go first, it's around a 65-35 matchup in favor of CA if they go second (assuming the player knows what they are doing and don't go for immediate otk/cripple their hand)
Anonymous
Do you need 3 transformations for an optimal ninja deck with high lvl ninjas?

Or does transformation x2 work fine too?

<< Anonymous
joey Reply
same i have two but should i go for the third?
<< Anonymous(joey)
Kaito Kid Reply
The best is two transformations. You can see the deck from Dkayed (1st in KC).
<< Anonymous(Kaito Kid)
Anonymous Reply
Dkayed ran 3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=124&v=iIvflrbGLpI
<< Anonymous(Kaito Kid)
Armani_1998 Reply
Dkayed used 3 transformations. Besides, why would a Ninja deck be better with 2 transformation instead of 3? Makes no sense.
DamarianG
I swore I uploaded this deck to you guys and you posted it 2months ago. Don't say it's new... This my baby.
<< Anonymous(DamarianG)
Anonymous Reply
a bunch of those cards weren't out two months ago so cool. also, its a pretty obvious build
<< Anonymous(DamarianG)
GameA1 Reply
Your deck is still here. I'm sorry for making you get worried.
http://duellinks.gamea.co/c/lnl1wdt3?sort=&tpage=2
Anonymous
Is this really the best variant of this deck? Of all of the ninja's ive seen none run this version.

Maybe time to update it.
<< Anonymous
Sjel Reply
Gunsblazing from YouTube made a better deck
Anonymous
Practically always win if you go first turn. I think this version of ninjas is really underrated and will be a top contender
Anonymous
Lixo
Anonymous
I actually ran into this deck, have to say he was pretty upset when I direct attacked him ignoring his Ninja lol

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