Despite the rampant community criticism regarding the set’s aesthetics, on a mechanical level, it’s clear that TMNT is fairly solid. There are a number of cards here with multi-format potential, and plenty of more specific playables to boot. While it’s still early days, many of these are already shaping up to be surprisingly expensive.
Now that prerelease events are done and dusted, and TMNT is out on store shelves, the most expensive cards in the set are making themselves known. Things are still very much in flux, since the new cards haven’t had a ton of impact just yet, but the frontrunners are fairly clear at this point. If you’re opening up TMNT product in the coming weeks, for Limited or just for fun, these are the cards to look out for.
5 | Dark Leo & Shredder: $6
It’s not particularly surprising to see Dark Leo & Shredder among the most expensive MTG TMNT cards. This is a cheap, efficient creature with a ton of text to it, to the point where it could even have a shot in older formats. Its Ninja generation ability feels quite similar to Ocelot Pride’s, but with a ceiling of wiping out half your opponent’s life rather than making more tokens. Getting five Ninjas in play feels like a long shot even in dedicated decks, but your opponent still has to respect the possibility of it popping off.
There aren’t any obvious homes for this card in current Standard, but I could see Mardu Energy lists in Modern giving it a try. Being another token generator that dodges Orcish Bowmasters and blocks Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer feels like a nice spot to be in. Getting to bounce creatures via Sneak for more Guide of Souls triggers is a nice extra synergy, too.
Surprisingly, I don’t actually see Dark Leo & Shredder making much impact in Commander. It’s a shoo-in for Orzhov Ninja decks like Splinter, Radical Rat, to be sure, but those are few and far between. As a Ninja Commander in its own right, it’s underwhelming, too, mainly since you lose access to all the great blue Ninja support. For that reason, I don’t expect it to do much work in the format, but other applications could well prop up its current $6 price tag.
4 | The Ooze: $7.83
While it went largely ignored during preview season, players are realizing how good The Ooze is now. In Commander, this is a repeatable graveyard hate option on a similar level to Ghost Vacuum or Agatha’s Soul Cauldron.
Generating Mutagen tokens no matter what it exiles is huge, giving you a constant stream of fodder for cards like Ragost, Deft Gastronaut and Krark-Clan Ironworks. These tokens are especially good in +1/+1 counter decks, where they can contribute directly to other synergies. The Ooze also refunds you with more Mutagens when your counter-bearing creatures die, which is massive in such decks.
On top of all this, The Ooze even opens up some infinite combo lines, alongside cards like Ashnod’s Altar and Quina, Qu Gourmet. This gives the card utility outside of just hosing graveyard strategies, which would honestly be enough to justify running it alone. Given all this potential, its current $7.83 price tag feels more than deserved.
3 | Cool But Rude: $11.90
Though it made many players’ best TMNT cards lists, Cool but Rude somehow flew under the financial radar before release. Now that the set is here, however, the card has exploded, spiking into the top 3 practically overnight.
This is partially down to a spicy new infinite combo the card enables with Necrodominance in older formats. It’s also down to speculation from players that the card will majorly boost a couple of Standard archetypes, specifically Izzet Lessons and Rakdos Monument. While we haven’t seen the card played in such decks yet, it’s hard to deny the potential.
Even if it flops in constructed, Cool but Rude still looks insane in Commander. Any red discard deck, be it Green Goblin or Kefka, Court Mage, will want to add this enchantment to its arsenal. There’s even an argument for it in more generic Aggro decks like Isshin, Two Heavens as One, since rummaging, damage over time, and tutoring are universally effective. While it’s been low before, price-wise, I wouldn’t expect this banger to ever be low again.
2 | Krang, Utrom Warlord: $19.49
Krang, Utrom Warlord is a textbook example of a big, beefy Commander creature. While it’s incredibly expensive to cast, it’s a massive threat in itself, and it makes all of your other artifacts very difficult to remove. It compares very favorably to Darksteel Forge, a card that still sees play in over 91,000 Commander decks by EDHREC numbers. Krang is just as easy to cheat out as that classic, and it offers actual on-board benefits beyond protection.
The Darksteel Forge comparison is also very encouraging with regards to Krang’s price. Forge still sells for around $31 right now, and Krang is pretty much a strictly better version. In fact, considering it’s a Universes Beyond mythic and may be tricky to reprint in future, Krang may actually be underpriced right now at $19.49. It’s hard to call any card selling at nearly $20 a bargain, but this may be the rare case where that’s actually true.
Outside of Commander, Krang probably won’t see any play, but that really doesn’t matter. Commander is the game’s most popular format, and both artifact decks and big, dumb creature decks are very popular within it. It’s hard to envision a world where this isn’t an in-demand Commander card, unless power creep really goes off the rails in the next few years.
1 | Super Shredder: $28.90
No prizes for guessing what the number one spot here was going to be. Since its early reveal, Super Shredder has been a clear power frontrunner for TMNT, thanks to its raw power and flexibility. It’s cheap to cast, for a start, and grows whenever any permanent leaves play. This gives it value in a huge range of archetypes, from Aristocrats, to Blink, and even more surprising decks like Landfall.
In current Standard, in addition to updating some established archetypes, Super Shredder could even usher in a return for the long-neglected Orzhov Sacrifice. Going back further, decks like Modern Death’s Shadow could possibly find homes for it, too. Lorwyn Eclipsed’s Moonshadow has proven the market for cheap, scalable threats in decks like this, after all.
Of course, where Super Shredder will really earn its $28.90 price tag is in Commander. Because of the text on Super Shredder, the card will become an instant lethal threat whenever an opponent gets knocked out. While I don’t expect it to be a great Commander in itself, the list of decks where it’ll excel in the 99 is nearly endless.
Super Shredder seems like a slam-dunk in Token lists like Caesar, Legion’s Emperor, and Aristocrats decks like Slimefoot and Squee. Heck, it’s even a potential combo enabler in Fling decks like Ziatora, the Incinerator, if you can build it up big enough. Super Shredder has the most multi-format potential of all the new mythics in TMNT, and I expect it to hold onto its “most expensive” title for a while as a result.
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