What it does
Commander ninjutsu lets you return an unblocked attacker to your hand and put a creature with this ability into play tapped and attacking—but it works from your hand or your command zone, not just your hand like regular ninjutsu. You pay the ninjutsu cost as the trigger to swap the creatures during the declare blockers step.
The key nuance: the swapped-in ninja deals combat damage as though it had been attacking all along, and since it enters attacking it bypasses summoning sickness for that purpose. People often forget the original creature must be unblocked—if it got blocked, you can't ninjutsu. Also, casting from the command zone this way doesn't increase commander tax (it's not "casting").
In Commander, this mostly matters for Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow, letting you reliably sneak your commander into play attacking and dodge blockers and removal while triggering powerful effects.
Iconic cards with Commander ninjutsu
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