New TMNT Legend is a Token-Making Purphoros Clone

Last updated on January 23, 2026

Slash, Reptile Rampager | Illustration by Andrew Mar

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles drop wasn't a sexy solution to a messy problem, but it resulted in WotC officially revealing every rare and mythic in the next Universes Beyond set a full month and some change early. We don't have a full list of all the foundational commons and uncommons, but we've got a good idea of the big picture from all the higher-rarity stuff.

Expect a general focus on ninjas, +1/+1 counters, and artifacts, as well as a bunch of legendary creatures, as we've come to expect from UB sets. One such legend, Slash, Reptile Rampager, looks an awful lot like a certain top-tier red staple that's been tearing it up in Commander for over 10 years now.

Purphoros 2.0

Introducing Slash, Reptile Rampager, the latest in a long line of pinger effects tied to creatures entering the battlefield on your control. Seriously, red decks have been absolutely inundated with these sorts of cards over the last few years. You've got Warleader's Call, Weftstalker Ardent, Molten Gatekeeper, Shocking Sharpshooter, Agate Instigator, and more since the start of 2024, and that's without mentioning Impact Tremors and other versions that existed before then.

The thing is, those all deal 1 damage per creature (or 2 if Agate Instigator shows up with its offspring). This is 2026, we need to go bigger. And Slash definitely goes bigger, dealing a Shock‘s worth of damage to each opponent when a creature hits your board. That's highly reminiscent of long-time Commander staple Purphoros, God of the Forge, a red card that closes out games in a hurry when paired with any amount of token generation.

Slash iterates on the formula, trading out Purphoros's rarely-used pump ability with actual token generation, meaning it's something of a self-contained engine. It's also got stats, baby! Purphoros is not only not a creature by default, but you rarely want it to be a creature, since that makes it easier to have it swept up by exile-based removal like Swords to Plowshares or Sunfall. But if you are interested in bashing face with your big red beefer, Slash maintains that part of the card.

This One or That One?

Impact Tremors | Illustration by Lake Hurwitz

Mimicry and flattery and all that, but it's unlikely Slash will be dethroning Purphoros any time soon. You could write a dissertation on how much of a difference 1 mana makes in Magic: The Gathering, and that's on full display here. Slash punching a full mana up the curve just puts it in a clunky spot, and the god was already pretty cumbersome as a 4-drop that rarely affects the board the turn it enters.

Slash has no built-in protection, no haste to get its attack trigger immediately, no important creature types outside of a few micro-synergies, and the token it creates isn't even all that impressive. Still, decks that want these sorts of ETB-damage effects want critical mass of them, and Slash's effect goes really big, so it may be playable for that aspect alone, even if it is a generally vulnerable 5-drop.

Lucky 7s

Fight Rigging | Illustration by Daarken

Of note, 7 is a sort of sweet spot for creatures that rely on sizing as one of their major selling points. It's enough to trigger the big effect on Sarkhan's Unsealing, it'll naturally work with the Limit Break commanders, Cloud, Ex-SOLDIER and Tifa, Martial Artist, it's the minimum requirement to free-cast Not of This World, and it auto-flips the hideaway card on Fight Rigging.

It's rare you craft a deck that cares about having 7+ power creature and has the token generation to make Slash's burn ability really matter, but I suppose if you're already beating down, a little bit of extra damage and some extra bodies on board goes a long way.

And don't forget, Slash is part of the coveted “3-Hit Club”, so a few extra combats and some handy double strike could make Slash a lethal commander via commander damage.

Is all that enticing enough to warrant running Slash as a commander? Likely not, but it feels at home in Brackets 2-3, and even though it won't straight-up replace Purphoros, God of the Forge, you might see these two hanging out together in the near future.