Samurai and the Jitte

When I looked at the Betrayers of Kamigawa spoilers, I saw Umezawa's Jitte and thought, 'Wow, that is ridiculously powerful'. When the set first came out, I didn't see a lot of people playing it, because I don't think it had caught a lot of attention. I used to play in games and when I would pull the Jitte out, people would scoff and say that they had heard it wasn't any good. When they lost because of the Jitte, they invariably made some comment about how they might need to re-evaluate their opinion of the card. Well, fast forward a month, and now everyone knows.

In Warcraft II, my brother and I had a saying about the multiplayer: first one to dragons wins. It was pretty much gospel. Well, I think that the saying should be updated for MTGO: first one to the Jitte wins. I don't think it is so bad as to warrant a ban, given that it is a legendary so there can only be one in play and there is still plenty of artifact removal in Standard. But if you are playing Kamigawa block constructed and your opponent pulls the Jitte, you are probably in trouble. Running 4x artifact removal and 4x of your own Jittes should be enough. But it is a mark of how ridiculous the card is when you have to build your decks with an answer to one specific card in it. And if you build a creature deck without running the Jitte, it is like leaving money on the table.

Wow. Just wow.

This became readily apparent as I tried to build a Kamagawa block, three color Samurai deck. In the original build, I had two Jittes and two Terashi's Grasp. Given how few artifacts seem to see use in block constructed, I thought that would be sufficient. That was before I lost five matches in a row to opponents that *all* pulled Jittes first. Every. stinking. one.

At that point, I pulled out three Strength of Cedars and replaced them with two more Jittes and another Terashi's Grasp. Seven cards out of sixty that can get rid of the Jitte. I also added three Splinters to the sideboard, figuring better safe than sorry. After the changes, I won the next five matches. In four of the five, the opponent was playing the Jitte but I had an answer for it.

Make no mistake, I love the card. When I pull it first.

If you are interested, here is the Samurai deck:

Samurai Ho!
Kamigawa block

Creatures
4 Brothers Yamazaki
4 Isao, Enlightened Bushi
4 Kentaro, the Smiling Cat
3 Konda's Hatamoto
2 Indebted Samurai
3 Ronin Houndmaster
20 creatures

Other Spells
4 Glacial Ray
3 Call to Glory
3 Kodama's Reach
2 Oathkeeper, Takeno's Daisho
3 Terashi's Grasp
4 Umezawa's Jitte
19 other spells

Land
6 Forest
4 Mountain
4 Plains
1 Eiganjo Castle
1 Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers
1 Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep
4 Tendo Ice Bridge
21 land

Sideboard
3 Scour
3 Splinter
3 Mothrider Samurai
3 Samurai of the Pale Curtain
3 Strength of Cedars