The 19 Best Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Commanders Ranked

Last updated on February 25, 2026

Shredder, Foot Clan Overlord | Illustration by Nathaniel Himawan

A new set means new commanders. A new Universes Beyond set means a lot of possible new commanders. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles brings Magic back to the streets of New York after a whopping six months, and this time it’s oozing with mutants.

While many of the legendary creatures in TMT and TMNT Commander look best as support pieces, or are just weak, common interpretations of iconic characters, there are plenty of good choices. From new 5-color legends to build arounds for any player archetype, TMT might have your next commander.

How Many Commanders Are There in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?

Raph & Mikey, Troublemakers | Illustration by Aaron J. Riley

In true Universes Beyond fashion, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles brings a slew of commanders across its main set, Commander precon, and Source Material cards: A total of 104 commanders, with a single reprint (Ashcoat of the Shadow Swarm in the Source Material cards).

High numbers of new commanders are expected in Universes Beyond sets because they adapt so many iconic characters, and often give the most central of those characters multiple cards; for example, there are 10 legendary versions of Raphael, including team-up cards. This leads to sets with way more legal commanders than in-universe sets (Lorwyn Eclipsed had 21 new commanders and 12 reprints for a total of 33). TMT is pretty average for a Universes Beyond set: Avatar: The Last Airbender had 118 commanders across its products, and Marvel’s Spider-Man had 93.

This list ranks commanders on both power and vibe. Commanders get judged against their peers and for what they add to the format in addition to raw strength; for example, a commander that introduces novel play patterns or is just cool can ranker higher than another average Selesnya () +1/+1 counter commander, even if it’s stronger.

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#19. Heroes in a Half Shell

Heroes in a Half Shell is the expected 5-color “play all TMNT cards” commander that comes with virtually every Universes Beyond set. This one at least pushes beyond the simplistic framework of Cosmic Spider-Man and friends since it conceivably works for ninjas and mutants independently of this adaptation. But it’s still just a basic commander with little identity.

#18. Super Shredder

Super Shredder could be an interesting sacrifice commander. It simply benefits from every possible thing a sacrifice deck does, from cracking Treasures and fetch lands to sacrificing permanents. It also counts your opponents’ permanents leaving play, so it becomes massive fast.

#17. Mikey & Leo, Chaos & Order

Mikey & Leo, Chaos & Order is a perfect example of a simple commander. Selesnya loves its +1/+1 counters, and this card rewards you for placing them on creatures. That arguably removes character from the card, but it’s also nice to have a commander without a dissertation in the text box. There’s even room to innovate since it cares about all counters, not just +1/+1 counters.

#16. The Neutrinos

The Neutrinos has a very funny interaction because it flickers creatures you own, not that you control. That elevates it from an aggressive flicker commander to a card that exploits donation cards like Stiltzkin, Moogle Merchant and Harmless Offering—give your opponent a permanent for a boon, then rip it right back! It’s not the craziest interaction, and the archetype is arguably under-supported, but it’s very funny.

#15. Raph & Leo, Sibling Rivals

Raph & Leo, Sibling Rivals is far from the only commander to offer extra combats, but it does so at a fantastically low rate and with nearly no conditions. That low cost makes it stand out, and it works well with cards like Anim Pakal, Thousandth Moon and Otharri, Suns' Glory that become stronger the more you attack. Extra combats are a big help to aggro decks, which naturally suffer in Commander.

#14. Splinter, Radical Rat

In case you couldn’t tell from ninja appearing in the type line and twice in the text box, Splinter, Radical Rat is a ninja commander that helps ninjas ninja even harder. If you like ninjas, it’s a great enabler. Your Fallen Shinobi triggers twice, and the activated ability ensures it does it again next turn, too. It’s not even a bad card, really. It’s just disappointing that the ninja commander in the ninja-themed set did nothing more than make good ninjas better. It’s a blunt and unimaginative design, though I can’t complain much about its functionality.

#13. Sally Pride, Lioness Leader

Sally Pride, Lioness Leader has a very strong enters ability, which is perfect in the color with lots of flicker effects. White easily turns a wide board of creatures into a win, especially with token doublers like Elspeth, Storm Slayer and Mondrak, Glory Dominus. Sally even helps with that by spreading +1/+1 counters around. Time to break out the Abzan Falconer!

#12. April O’Neil, Hacktivist

April O'Neil, Hacktivist is a puzzle to crack for the Johnnys. Maximizing the number of card types cast per turn requires careful deckbuilding and sequencing. Blue can utilize it pretty easily, too, with cards like Y'shtola Rhul and Strionic Resonator to squeeze out extra end step triggers.

#11. Krang & Shredder

Theft decks never go out of style, and Krang & Shredder is a cool one. Theft decks have a built-in flaw: When a player leaves the game, all the cards they owned go with them, so you can go from having the greatest board state in the world to nothing. Because the disappear ability requires permanents to leave play, you’re heavily encouraged, if not required, to build in a sacrifice engine of sorts. That both makes this a fairly unique Dimir commander (), as sacrifice is often left to Golgari () and Rakdos (), and it encourages building a win condition that doesn’t rely on stolen cards. Even if this doesn’t end up being popular, it’s incredibly well-designed.

#10. Bebop & Rocksteady

Bebop & Rocksteady has great potential as a synergy piece. As a super-cheap creature with immense power, it works great with Greater Good, Sacrifice, and Rishkar's Expertise. Yet the commander also provides a consistent, steady source of sacrifice triggers. It could even be a Voltron commander—green has plenty of tricks to double a creature’s power, and black provides ample infect enablers.

#9. Bebop, Skull & Crossbones + Rocksteady, Mutant Marauder

Bebop, Skull & Crossbones and Rocksteady, Mutant Marauder—ranked together because there’s no real reason to play them separately—are a wonderful partner pair. Partners that curve into each other lead to very smooth game play. It would be better if Rocksteady put a counter on Bebop the turn it enters, but the combo is still strong. Green-black has plenty of counter synergies. A particularly potent path is to give Bebop trample to go with its deathtouch and load up on more combat-related card draw like Keen Sense.

#8. Groundchuck & Dirtbag

Groundchuck & Dirtbag has a fundamentally green flavor: Big and straightforward, and it makes a big play into bigger ones. If you sleeve this up, don’t forget protection like Tamiyo's Safekeeping—a giant mana doubler is kill-on-sight territory. It’s probably as close as we’ll get to Nissa, Who Shakes the World in the command zone.

#7. Donatello, Gadget Master

Creating copies of artifacts can be pretty strong, as long as the artifacts themselves are good. With options like Portal to Phyrexia, Spine of Ish Sah, and God-Pharaoh's Statue, Donatello, Gadget Master has no shortage of excellent targets. Artifacts that provide unblockable like Key to the City and Whispersilk Cloak will be critical.

#6. Kitsune, Dragon’s Daughter

Kitsune, Dragon's Daughter could be fascinating. Set up a flicker engine, and exchange your Memnite and Ornithopter for whatever nonsense the green player’s up to, or maybe “donate” a highly synergistic commander to a player who can’t use it—imagine giving the mono-black player Bello, Bard of the Brambles! The commander is very expensive and there’s a chance the table decides to rush you to avoid getting tangled in the concept, but it has great potential.

#5. Krang, Master Mind

Krang, Master Mind is a funny little guy. Just a funny little guy that will draw enough cards to kill your opponents. It’s basically just a legendary Thought Monitor with a higher ceiling, and that makes it perfect. Pair it with a Displacer Kitten or Crystal Shard and you have the foundation for a nasty draw engine.

#4. Raph & Mikey, Troublemakers

Raph & Mikey, Troublemakers is for the Timmys. As far as cheat commanders go, it’s incredibly powerful. Since it’s an attack trigger on a hasty creature, your opponents have a very small window of opportunity to interact before you get the first trigger, at which point it dying doesn’t matter. A word of advice: Skip the mana dorks for this commander and focus on sorcery-based ramp like Rampant Growth and Cultivate. That lets you keep all your creatures monsters and prevents the embarrassing scenario of attacking, then flipping Llanowar Elves into play.

#3. Don & Leo, Problem Solvers

Don & Leo, Problem Solvers isn’t exactly unique; plenty of other commanders flicker permanents on the end step, like Thassa, Deep-Dwelling and Y'shtola Rhul. Azorius even gets this in nonlegendary cards like Soulherder. But rarely do they flicker two permanents for no additional cost and have both marque flicker colors. I doubt this will revolutionize blink decks in Commander, but it’s a surprisingly solid entry considering how well-tread the design space is; even though it doesn’t break new ground, it ups the potential power.

#2. Rat King, Verminister

Rats didn’t need another commander, but they got it in Rat King, Verminister. It was clearly designed to go with Rat Colony and Relentless Rats with the activated ability that cares about creatures that have the same name. And, as far as those commanders go, it isn’t bad. A noticeable weakness of mono-black rats is a lack of board protection, which just falls outside black’s slice of the color pie. Mass reanimation in the command zone patches that nicely.

#1. Leonardo, the Balance

All of the character select commanders are fine. None of the pairings are particularly bad, and they all work together. In terms of strict power, it’s probably always best to pair your favorite turtle with Leonardo, the Balance because it’s generically good and brings all five colors.

But Leonardo isn’t just interesting because its the best character select partner. It’s one of the few partner commanders, character select or otherwise, that functions as a solo commander. A unique one, even; Magic doesn’t have a dedicated 5-color tokens commander. Spreading counters across your team makes tokens better and has plenty of synergy, and the activated ability provides a bunch of keywords to put those counters to use. It reminds me of Najeela, the Blade-Blossom, except better balanced around casual play.

Commanding Conclusion

Splinter & Leo, Father & Son | Illustration by Eilene Cherie

Coming off the mess of Marvel’s Spider-Man, I didn’t have the highest hopes for our return to New York. While I still have issues with the set, it introduces incredibly novel designs. Even the commanders that aren’t breaking new space are powerful enough to be interesting, so I have higher hopes for this set making a good impact on Commander.

What do you think of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ commanders? Are you planning to build any? Which character select cards are you interested in? Let me know in the comments below or on the Draftsim Discord!

Stay safe, and thanks for reading!