At long last, the MTG TMNT Commander Precon has been revealed to the world. While we may only have one deck to enjoy this time around, there are a lot of new things to see. Unlike the usual MTG precon, which contains 10 new cards, the five-colored Turtle Power precon contains 30. With tons of new cards hitting the scene, all kinds of different Commander strategies are getting a power boost.
Among the new cards, however, is a clear counters matter theme. This has resulted in a ton of interesting support cards for one of Commander’s most popular archetypes.
Powerful Counter Support
Any Commanders that care about getting counters on their creatures will be eating well today. While these aren’t all the powerful counters matters cards in Turtle Power, they are some of the best.
Among these cards, Irma, Part-Time Mutant and Ray Fillet, Wave Warrior are the most exciting. Ray Fillet can easily refill your hand in a flash, while Irma can essentially act as a second copy of your Commander that grows over time. The Part-Time Mutant is particularly powerful alongside Commanders like Tidus, Yuna’s Guardian, who can both scale their effectiveness with an extra copy and synergize with counters.
Casey Jones, Back Alley Brute is yet another powerful new tool for +1/+1 counters decks, essentially functioning as an All Will Be One that only targets opponents. While this new creature isn’t quite as good as the $25 enchantment, Casey makes up for it by enabling itself with his attack trigger. This, alone, makes Casey worth playing in any deck that can consistently use his triggered ability.
Tokka & Rahzar, Unsurpervised certainly works in +1/+1 counter or treasure decks, but acts as more of a general payoff for creature-heavy decks. So long as you can realistically trigger this card once per turn cycle, the Treasure Token generation alone should make it a respectable addition to your deck. If you can’t do at least this with it, however, the card may not be worth it.
Finally, Dimension X Pizzasaur offers a buffing effect that will generally remove a smaller threat on the board on entry. Honestly, outside of Food decks and specific archetypes that can abuse this entry trigger, this creature isn’t the most powerful, but that artwork is wild.
Artifact Cards for Counter Decks
Regardless of what color your counters matters decks are, these MTG cards could make for interesting additions. That said, while Big Mother Mouser is easy to use in any +1/+1 counter deck, Roadkill Rodney is actually a bit narrow. There are certainly decks that will be interested in creating Mutagen tokens, but the Squad cost on this card is extremely expensive. Throw in a rather unimpressive floor, and this otherwise hilariously titled Robot might be somewhat forgettable.
Coin of Mastery, on the other hand, seems like a slam dunk for Treasure Token decks. Even outside of this, the artifact is essentially a token producer that functions as a mana rock. Since the Treasures it makes can add +1/+1 counters to your creatures, this artifact could end up in a whole bunch of archetypes, but becomes extremely explosive with Commanders like Magda, Brazen Outlaw or Arcum Daggson.
New Partner Duo
While they don’t work as Commanders for Turtle Power, Bebop, Skull & Crossbones and Rocksteady, Mutant Marauder are an interesting Partner duo to build around. Effectively aiming to make Bebop a massive body to refill your hand, these Commanders offer an interesting approach to the Voltron/ +1/+1 counter strategy. Notably, since they partner with each other by name, these cards could make for an interesting addition to any Golgari +1/+1 counter deck, since they can search oneanother up.
Even outside of all that, effects like the ones one Rocksteady, Mutant Marauder are surprisingly sought after. There are very few effects like this across Commander, and alongside cards like Agatha’s Soul Cauldron, they’re ripe with infinite combo potential. This could make running Bebop worthwhile simply because it tutors up a combo piece.
A New Character Select Commander
We’ve already seen Heroes in a Half Shell and the other five Partner Commanders that helm the Turtle Power Commander deck, but it appears that a sixth Character Select Partner option is included in the deck. April O-Neil, Live on the Scene offers a second blue Commander for this Partner group to consider.
Personally, I’ve always found Partner Commanders with draw-based effects on narrow creature types to be not quite good enough. The aggressive mana value of this card suggests that April could be good enough if you can find a way to crack the Clues she makes for free, but Rose Noble, a Doctor Who-based Partner Commander who does a similar thing, did not feel like she was fast enough to warrant running. I fear April will be the same, but if you synergize heavily with her, there could be potential.
Archetypal Upgrades
As far as exciting Commander cards go, many MTG players will likely be looking to grab these Turtle Power cards once the deck hits shelves. Krang, the All-Powerful, in particular, will be extremely popular in decks that prioritize card draw. Offering the first Panharmonicon effect for an already extremely powerful archetype, Krang could easily be the most expensive card in this entire precon.
While it may not look very impressive, Foot Chopper can be extremely powerful. Converting your creatures into card draw, this equipment is designed to slot into any black Aristocrat deck in your collection. Better yet, using this card alongside Commanders like Edea, Possessed Sorceress can turn creatures you stole from your opponents into an instant refill.
Endless Foot Assault is an obvious addition to any white Ninja Typal Commander decks, but it’s also interesting in a variety of go-wide strategies. Whether you’re running a token-focused Commander like Cadira, Caller of the Small, or want to double combat triggers with Isshin, Two Heavens as One, this card can create a ton of tokens quickly. This would already be good enough for the card to see play, but Squad allows Endless Foot Assault to scale as the game progresses, threatening to run your opponents over with Ninjas at any time.
Rat King, Pale Piper is yet another no-brainer addition to Rat Typal decks, but could also see play in Aristocrat decks that run a lot of smaller creatures. Synergizing extremely well with Blood Artist effects, the static ability makes this card interesting enough to consider in Token decks. That said, unless you have synergies with the tokens that Rat King creates, the card just seems ok.
Impacting the Board
Fast Forward may end up being the most impactful new card from the Turtle Power Commander deck. Goading all creatures your opponents control is already a decent effect for five mana, but spreading damage around could make this cost as little as just two! This will easily make its way into any Goad-based Commander deck, and could end up being a staple in aggressive red decks in general.
Once your opponent’s Goaded creatures deal damage to oneanother, Swift Demise can quickly clean everything up. Combining this card with effects like Goblin Chainwhirler or Blazing Volley can create one-sided board wipes on the cheap, turning any Commander game steeply in your favor. At worst, Swift Demise is a removal spell that can occasionally catch a few stray creatures with good timing, which suggests that this could also become a very popular Commander card.
New Removal
In addition to the few new cards that impact the entire board, there are some more new removal options available for players in Turtle Power. Honestly, while these cards can easily find powerful homes, they don’t seem too impressive in this Commander deck.
Super Combo, in particular, sticks out like a sore thumb here. None of the Turtle Power Commander options care about dealing damage to creatures, making this Sorcery an underwhelming bite spell in the deck. Replicating Super Combo makes it appealing in some Commander decks like Fynn, the Fangbearer or Questing Beast, but you can likely find better ways to spend your mana in this one.
Similarly, Double Jump/Flying Kick is better suited for a Voltron Izzet-based Commander deck. Double Jump does turn on the counter synergies in Turtle Power, however, which gives it some merit. That said, I would still consider removing the card, as it doesn’t appear to be doing enough.
Shellshock, on the other hand, is a great removal spell that could see play all over the place. By dealing damage to a different creature that each opponent controls, Shellshock avoids the common issue with removal in Commander by affecting all players. Getting three Mutagen Tokens, which turn on your other counter synergies, is just the icing on the cake.
New Lands For Every Commander Deck
We’re getting two new lands in Turtle Power that are great for fixing, but don’t seem like auto-includes in every deck. Entering as, essentially, a tapped Command Tower, Hidden Hideout trades its tapped downside for an impressive activated ability. Any Commander that can reliably get a counter on it will likely want Hidden Hideout in their deck, allowing you to stabilize your life total in a flash. That said, if you cannot maximize Hidden Hideout’s activated ability, the card probably isn’t worth running in your deck.
While any counter-based Commander deck will want to try Hidden Hideout out, Big Apple, 3 a.m. could be an interesting addition to decks that want to go wide. While Rat Typal decks will obviously love this, creating three tokens in a pinch could be what a tokens strategy needs to go over the top. I don’t suspect either of these cards will be extremely popular, but their utility could make them surprisingly common to see across different Commander decks.
Potential Cuts
Of all the new cards that appeared in Turtle Power, these four seem to synergize with the deck’s themes the least. That said, while they may not look great in this precon, they are still incredibly flavorful additions that could do great work elsewhere.
Tempestra, Dame of Games is the best example of this. While there is a minimal artifact token theme here, Tempestra would be much better suited in a deck that is constantly creating Food, Clues, or Treasure. Including Tempestra, in a Mr. House, President and CEO deck, for example, can create temporary copies of your Commander, allowing you to stack up multiple replacement effects. Alternatively, copying Etali, Primal Conqueror for its busted entry ability can close games of Commander fast. You can even use cards like Sundial of the Infinite to make your token copies permanent.
Mole Module suffers from the same issues that every MTG Vehicle does, but the payoff on display here makes it a premium addition for decks that synergize with it. Commanders like Shorikai, Genesis Engine, Greasefang, Okiba Boss, and Edward Kenway should be more than willing to go through the hoops required to get value out of this card. Outside of that, and a few decks focused on cheating massive creatures into play, Mole Module demands too many resources for what may otherwise be an inconsistent payoff.
Here Comes a New Hero and Exploding Barrel, on the other hand, just seem like weak cards overall. While Exploding Barrel can do some funny things in Repercussion decks, Here Comes a New Hero demands way too much mana to properly maximize. You need to spend six or more mana to make this worthwhile, and even for that, drawing three cards and copying a three-drop isn’t all that impressive.
Odds and Ends
Last, but certainly not least, are a few cards that can create some generic value across different Commander decks. Special Move, when used properly, can generally eke out a two-for-one, taking out a problematic artifact and providing a combat trick for one of your creatures. The final mode is a bit more selective, but it’s great to use alongside creatures that you want to die anyways, like Anger.
Continue?, while flavorful, can be a bit difficult to maximize. While it will most commonly work as board wipe protection for your best cards, other options like Heroic Intervention, Teferi’s Protection, or Dawn’s Truce do the same thing, but better. You’ll instead want to use this card alongside Phyrexian Altar and Blink combos where you get value out of your creatures entering and leaving the battlefield.
While we looked over all of the previously unreleased Turtle Power cards here, there are a few more new cards to see. A few cards for this precon were first revealed during the MTG X TMNT spoiler season kickoff, while the Face Commanders for the deck were revealed months in advance.
Fortunately, if you’re looking forward to grabbing Turtle Power for yourself, you only need to wait a few more weeks before Magic’s next Universes Beyond crossover is on shelves. With prereleases kicking off on February 27th, these cards will be on shelves before you know it.
Stick with us at mtgrocks.com: the best place for Magic: The Gathering coverage!