The Best Commons and Uncommons in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Jennika, Bad Apple Big Sister | Illustration by InHyuk Lee

Jumping into a new Draft set can be daunting. What do you take for your first pick? You’re looking at 13-14 brand new cards with a lot of text to read through, and you know you’ll probably pick something that ends up being bad.

Here, I’ll go over my picks for the best commons and uncommons from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in each color to arm you with a bit of extra information as to what you should take in your drafts. As the format progresses and we learn more about it, these will absolutely change, so take these picks with a pinch of salt, but I hope that this can serve as a baseline for the set as we get started with it.

Commons

Return to the Sewers | Illustration by Miklós Ligeti

Honorable Mention – Mechanized Ninja Cavalry

We’re only going to talk about mono-color cards here, but Mechanized Ninja Cavalry stands out from among the multicolored commons. This card is incredible. It provides two creatures for alliance, two artifacts for blue/red, and a good triggered ability to reuse with sneak. It works in all of the white and red archetypes, and it’s quite good in all of them, too.

White

#3. Leonardo, Big Brother

I wasn’t particularly high on Leonardo, Big Brother in my main set review, but seeing the whole black/white ninja deck in context improves my impression of it. Sneaking for 1 mana sounds extremely good, and it helps to drive the synergies we see in this archetype.

#2. April O’Neil, Kunoichi Trainee

April O'Neil, Kunoichi Trainee won’t always be able to attack unimpeded, but even just the ability to scry 2 when it enters is good enough for a 2-drop. If you ever get to sneak April back to your hand, it’s a great creature to replay for more value.

#1. Uneasy Alliance

White gets a lot of Pacifisms these days, and as long as they keep looking as good as Uneasy Alliance, they’ll continue to be among the best commons in each set.

Blue

#3. Return to the Sewers

This kind of card appears in every set these days in some form or another. It’s usually a fine removal spell, and I’m sure Return to the Sewers will be, too.

#2. Utrom Scientists

Whether you just need to buy yourself some time or to apply more pressure on your opponent, Utrom Scientists does this perfectly. The fact that this is also an artifact just makes it that much more relevant in TMT Limited.

#1. Mind Transfer Protocol

Two-for-one combat tricks don’t come around very often, so Mind Transfer Protocol is a special one. When we last saw a card like this (Suit Up), it was incredible, and I don’t see that changing this time around.

Black

#3. Oroku Saki, Shredder Rising

The easy comparison to make is with Ninja of the Deep Hours, an incredibly good card back in its day, and one that I’ve even managed to play in Legacy before. I’ve talked a lot about how cool the ninja/sneak deck looks, and Oroku Saki, Shredder Rising will be a critical roleplayer in that.

#2. Anchovy & Banana Pizza

While Anchovy & Banana Pizza is the clunkier of the two black removal spells on this list, it’s still extremely powerful. You can answer far more creatures for the extra mana cost, plus the fact that this is a permanent in play is something you should be able to use to your advantage in some decks.

#1. Stomped by the Foot

The cheaper black removal spell usually takes the first place slot. The calculation is simple. Removal is vitally important in pretty much any Limited format, so a spell that can answer most creatures in the set while only costing 2 mana should be of high priority when drafting. Stomped by the Foot is exactly that.

Red

#3. Mouser Foundry

Red’s commons in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles look quite weak compared to each of the other colors. Other than the two burn spells, I’m really not sure what’s good enough to go in this slot. Mouser Foundry might be difficult to sacrifice in red, but it still represents two artifacts early in the game, which the blue/red deck is probably going to want.

#2. Bot Bashing Time

Six damage can kill most creatures in this set, so for 4 mana this seems like a pretty good deal. Bot Bashing Time is something that any red deck will be happy enough to play, and it should be prioritized highly like any other removal spell.

#1. Manhole Missile

The cheaper removal spell is usually better. It seems a bit repetitive, but the 2-drop burn spell that deals 3 is usually the best red common, and I don’t see any reason why Manhole Missile won’t be, too.

Green

#3. Frog Butler

The 2-drop mana dork is always a good place to start with these lists. Frog Butler ramps you to a 4-drop a turn ahead of schedule while also getting to trade off for a big creature in combat in later turns, which is just awesome.

#2. Tenderize

Ever since green started to get removal spells, WotC tried all sorts of combinations of effects and mana costs. Tenderize is 2 mana, an instant, and a Rabid Bite, which has basically risen to the top as the best kind of these removal spells. I’d assume this will be a key card for any green deck in this format.

#1. Ragamuffin Raptor

I talk a lot about two-for-ones and a Gravedigger is the perfect example. Ragamuffin Raptor is also one. Despite costing an extra mana, this creature is bigger, so it can trade off more easily, and it also gets back a wider range of cards from your graveyard. That makes this a really powerful card in my book, and likely one of the set’s best overall commons.

Uncommons

Casey Jones, Jury-Rig Justiciar | Illustration by Lordigan

Honorable Mention – Karai’s Technique

I’m calling it right now, Karai's Technique might be the best nonrare in the whole set. It’s so easy to engineer a two-for-one with this card, and to do so this cheaply is just incredible. Karai, Future of the Foot is also pretty busted and might be a close second, if not a little better. This makes me believe that black/white ninjas is probably the best deck in the format, or at least it’s going to be what I hope to draft early on.

White

#3. Lita, Little Orphan Amphibian

This set is absolutely packed full of cards that make multiple creatures enter the battlefield, flicker effects, and so on. These kinds of effects work incredibly well with alliance, and Lita, Little Orphan Amphibian has one of the best alliance triggers around. It’s powerful and has multiple options, but as a 2-drop it also comes down early and keeps providing you the advantage you need.

#2. Mighty Mutanimals

Mighty Mutanimals doesn’t just represent two creatures in a single card, but also a ton of extra +1/+1 counters while it sits on the board. You can flicker it, sneak it back to your hand, and take advantage of all sorts of other utility it has within TMT. This isn’t only powerful, but it also has very high synergy with white’s archetypes.

#1. Dimensional Exile

Dimensional Exile is a functional reprint of Ossification minus planeswalker text, a great card in its own right. This is just a clean, cheap, and efficient answer to any creature. Sure, your opponent can answer it sometimes, but that shouldn’t get in the way of an otherwise excellent removal spell.

Blue

#3. Bespoke Bō

Bouncing a creature and leaving behind a decent permanent is a pretty good deal. It may not be a creature, but Bespoke Bō is still very relevant while in play, and this will be a good tempo swing nonetheless.

#2. Ray Fillet, Man Ray

I don’t know if I’m sold on this blue/green Mutagen/mutant deck, especially when you compare it to the other archetypes. That said, if the deck is good, Ray Fillet, Man Ray is a great build-around for it, something you should always keep an eye out for.

#1. Metalhead

Bouncing a creature back to its owner’s hand might not be the best form of removal, but your opponent still has to waste their time and mana to recast it. If you do this while making a big 4/4 of your own, it sets your opponent way back. Metalhead not only does this, but it’s also a way to sacrifice your artifacts for value and a major threat on the board.

Black

#3. Lord Dregg, Insect Invader

Whether you’re bouncing creatures to your hand with sneak or sacrificing something, disappear looks quite easy to enable in black’s archetypes. Lord Dregg, Insect Invader looks like a great curve-topper for any black deck.

#2. Dream Beavers

The ninja deck has tons of great payoffs, but what it really needs is good enablers, cheap and evasive creatures that you can sneak with. Dream Beavers is the most perfect enabler for this deck while also being a great card to keep replaying once it returns to your hand.

#1. Splinter, Hamato Yoshi

Splinter, Hamato Yoshi is one of the best ninja payoffs that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has to offer, which is appropriate given that Splinter was the mentor for the turtles. +1/+1 to all ninjas, only 1 mana to sneak, plus menace to help enable more sneaks… everything is a home run here.

Red

#3. Old Hob, Alleycat Blues

Just like the commons, red’s uncommons are pretty lackluster. Old Hob, Alleycat Blues is by no means a bad card, but I just hoped for a better one to round out this list. Still, despite the high mana cost, a way to guarantee that you trigger alliance turn after turn is nothing to sniff at.

#2. Spicy Oatmeal Pizza

Spicy Oatmeal Pizza is an incredible and unprecedented removal spell in this set. Not only can you kill a lot of creatures with this, but you can also use it to finish off an opponent in a lot more scenarios than you could with something like Lightning Strike. Not to mention it’s a permanent that can have a lot of synergy with the rest of the set.

#1. General Traag, Heart of Stone

I say this quite often, but Flametongue Kavu is among the best Limited cards of all time, so when a card comes along that does a very good impression of it, you need to take notice. General Traag, Heart of Stone is exactly that, which sets it up to be one of the set’s best cards.

Green

#3. Michelangelo, Mutant BFF

It feels a little weird that this is the only Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle on my list of uncommons. It would have been so much cooler if more of them were good enough to make this list, but here we are. Michelangelo, Mutant BFF is a beefy turtle who can keep churning out Mutagen tokens while being incredibly difficult to block favorably in combat, which makes it a great card in any green deck.

#2. Novel Nunchaku

Fight spells are a little worse than bite spells, but not by enough to discount this. Novel Nunchaku is effectively a two-for-one play if you can line it up, and the equipment itself is pretty useful once it’s in play, especially because it stops your opponent from chump blocking your bigger creatures.

#1. West Wind Avatar

Yeah, I’m a sucker for great 7-drops. I love ramp decks and West Wind Avatar is exactly the sort of card that I love to play with. That’s not to say I’m biased here, because the card is objectively powerful. I just like it, and it’s my list, so it gets the top billing.

Wrap Up

Zog, Triceraton Castaway | Illustration by Simon Dominic

I hope this helps even just a little bit. I was really down on this set a month ago. I don’t care for the IP itself, and I just can’t wait for Secrets of Strixhaven. But as I’ve been reviewing these cards, they’re really growing on me. This set looks so sweet to draft, and I really hope I’m right about that.

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Until next time, take care of yourselves!