Yesterday, in an interesting turn of events, Wizards of the Coast decided to officially reveal all the rares and mythics from the upcoming TMNT MTG set. This comes soon after the vast majority were shown off as leaks from players who managed to pull them in their Lorwyn Eclipsed Prerelease kits.
Of all the rares that have been previewed, one Selesnya legend stands out as being an incredible addition to Commander. Mikey and Leo, Chaos and Order is an easily abusable card advantage machine, and while its flavor may be controversial, this legend looks poised to make a big impact.
MTG Mikey and Leo, Chaos and Order
Unlike many other legends, Mikey and Leo, Chaos and Order is a very simple design. What you see is what you get, but the payoff of having a consistent flow of card advantage on such a cheap Commander is fantastic. After all, card draw mechanisms in Selesnya aren’t the easiest to come by.
While you do have to construct a deck with lots of counters synergies, Mikey and Leo are surprisingly flexible. Obviously, playing any creatures that either enter with +1/+1 counters or distribute them, such as Kalonian Hydra or Bristly Bill, Spine Sower, works like a charm. Beyond that, though, Mikey and Leo also trigger off Earthbending effects as well as cards like Protection Magic that focus on other types of counters.
The only caveat is that Mikey and Leo trigger only once per turn. As a result, it’s in your best interest to pair this Mutant with effects that consistently trigger every turn, including your opponent’s. Managorger Hydra and Forgotten Ancient are among your strongest options, since they require no additional mana input and are extremely likely to grow every turn. Alternatively, even having multiple creatures out like Hangarback Walker and Mikaeus, the Lunarch that taps to gain counters can fill your hand at all times.
The other way to get around the once per turn clause is to blink Mikey and Leo and get an extra trigger for your efforts. With Teleportation Circle or Conjurer’s Closet in play, you’ll get a reset during your end step every turn. In conjunction with creatures like Champion of Lambholt or Good Fortune Unicorn, you’ll get to draw a second card during your turn when Mikey and Leo reenter.
Going further, Roaming Throne enables you to draw two cards each time Mikey and Leo trigger. If you can make token copies of Mikey and Leo that aren’t legendary, say by using Helm of the Host, you’ll quickly start drowning in card advantage.
As powerful as Mikey and Leo are as a Commander build-around, they are arguably even more appealing in the 99 of various EDH decks. There are tons of counter-themed Commanders like Leinore, Autumn Sovereign, Hamza, Guardian of Arashin, and Black Panther, Wakandan King, that will happily incorporate Mikey and Leo. Some Commanders like Emiel, the Blessed and Trelasarra, Moon Dancer, can reliably get value from Mikey and Leo without building around a counters theme.
Flavor Fail?
Despite being an awesome card from a gameplay perspective, players have begun to question a lot about Mikey and Leo’s flavor. For starters, the terms chaos and order in a vacuum most closely resemble red and white in the MTG color pie. As Reddit user OzymanDS points out, those are the exact colors featured on the split card Order/Chaos that originally appeared back in Apocalypse. Yet, Mikey and Leo combine to make a Selesnya legend.
Further, Mikey and Leo’s ability hardly depicts the dichotomy between chaos and order in any capacity. In no way does drawing cards with no downside showcase chaos at all. This has led some players to debate why Mikey and Leo weren’t simply given more appropriate attributes, such as “Wild Discipline” or Distinctive Skill.”
This, in part, potentially signals a larger issue with TMNT’s overall design philosophy. The individual rares showcasing Michelangelo, Donatello, Raphael, and Leonardo are each monocolor and each a different color. Raphael being red makes sense given his hotheaded nature, but Michelangelo’s chaotic behavior also fits with red in the Magic universe.
The end result, as players speculate, is that Michelangelo appears to be shoehorned into green to keep the balance, causing the card showcasing Michelangelo and Leonardo’s overlap to be Selesnya rather than Boros. As such, even though counters make for a decent Selesnya theme, some players feel Mikey and Leo’s ability is a “random effect slammed on a card” rather than one that accurately represents the themes of the crossover.
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