The Ultimate Guide to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Draft

Mighty Mutanimals | Illustration by Manuel Castañón

Cowabunga, planeswalkers! We’ve been battling it out with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for over a week now, so it’s time for another Ultimate Draft Guide. I’ll cover everything you need to know to unleash Total Turtle Terror on your foes.

Mechanics Revisited

Cowabunga! | Illustration by Thomas Chamberlain-Keen

Mutagen Tokens

Mutagen tokens have been useful, but it’s tricky to create them without relying on higher rarity cards. Return to the Sewers is the only great common that makes Mutagens, though you could do worse than Slithering Cryptid and Zoo Escapees. Crustacean Commando and Mutant Chain Reaction aren’t cards I want to play though, which has hurt the consistency of Mutagen synergy decks.

It’s worth remembering that Mutagen tokens also provide a bunch of synergies in this set. They’re one of the cheaper ways available to set up disappear, and they also provide an artifact for cards like Donatello, Turtle Techie. Try to plan ahead for when you’re going to crack your Mutagen tokens because you’ll need to consider board sizing, disappear, artifacts, etc.

Sneak

Sneak has been a format-defining mechanic. An unanswered Oroku Saki, Shredder Rising can spell disaster for your opponent, and there are plenty of 1-drops like Squirrelanoids and Featherbrained Filcher to set this up. And don’t even get me started on some of the sneak rares, because cards like Turncoat Kunoichi and Shark Shredder, Killer Clone can win games out of nowhere!

Sneak increases the value of several things, including:

• Cheap removal
• Cheap blockers
• Combat tricks (your opponent will often block to prevent sneak)

But sneak also decreases the value of large clunky creatures like Bebop, Warthog Warrior and Venus, Torn Between Worlds, which often play catch up by the time they arrive.

Disappear

Disappear has been rather disappointing in practice. Commons like Foot Mystic and Putrid Pals aren’t even that exciting when they trigger, and they often times won’t. This is because if you don’t have specific setups (i.e., Omni-Cheese Pizza, Escape Tunnel, Mutagen tokens), you’ll either need to force a trade or eat a Food to enable disappear. The first one relies on your opponent, while the second one effectively adds a 2-mana kicker to all of your disappear cards.

BG Disappear is also a rather slow and ponderous deck, which makes your opponent even less likely to trade for you. Deathtouchers like Squirrelanoids can mitigate this to an extent, but overall this mechanic has been trickier to use than I expected.

Alliance

Most of the alliance cards are pretty mediocre, although there’s one particularly gross exception (Mighty Mutanimals). I’ve also liked Lita, Little Orphan Amphibian quite a bit because it’s close to a 2-mana EPF Point Squad in practice. RW decks often build around this mechanic, but it’s pretty easy to support in WB decks, too (which have plenty of creatures).

Classes

Classes vary quite a bit in terms of how good they are in Limited. Does Machines is the best of the bunch because it provides a ton of value in artifact decks. Ninja Teen has also been strong, and it does its best work in WB Sneak (as you’d expect). Leader's Talent is no Innkeeper's Talent, but it’s still a good card for proactive white decks.

On the other hand, Party Dude and Cool but Rude are both pretty bad. Party Dude’s only real meat is the second ability, which is basically useless versus decks like WB Sneak and RW Alliance. Cool but Rude meanwhile has next to no support in this set; Null Group Biological Assets is the only common that can trigger it. I personally think it’s a design fail that none of the four Raphaels can discard a card!

Set Overview

Draftsim’s Sealed Guide for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles gave you a nice overview of the set, but now it’s time to get more specific with what’s actually been working. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles isn’t an especially balanced set, because in practice there are three decks I want to draft:

1. WB Sneak
2. UR Artifacts
3. Gx Midrange (ideally with Everything Pizza)

The Big Three

I mentioned “The Big Five” a lot in our Lorwyn Eclipsed guide, so it feels appropriate to have a “Big Three” for this smaller set. The Big Three of course are WB Sneak, UR Artifacts, and Gx Midrange, which constitute the best things to do in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Other Decks

There are also other decks you can draft, of course. The three officially supported ones are:

• RW Alliance
• BG Disappear
• GU Mutagen

RW Alliance is a fine deck, easily the best of this trio. I don’t like either of the green midrange shells much because I’ve had better results just building 5-color green with bombs/removal. Both decks tend to lose tempo early to WB Sneak, and they can easily find themselves overpowered by bigger green decks or UR Artifacts.

You could also theoretically draft unofficially supported color pairs, like WU and GW. This usually happens due to bomb rares, as opening Sally Pride, Lioness Leader into Kitsune, Dragon's Daughter could see me drafting WU (assuming 5-color green isn’t open). I’d mostly recommend just drafting one of the six supported decks if you can, though.

Format Pace

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a generally slow set unless sneak shenanigans happen. An early Oroku Saki, Shredder Rising or The Last Ronin's Technique can lead to a vicious snowball, especially if the Sneak player has removal for future blockers. Other archetypes like UR Artifacts and RW Alliance can be aggressive later on in the game, but they often require a bit of setup time.

As such, WB Sneak is the main force in the format that forces me to take and play mediocre 2-drops. Ice Cream Kitty and Zoo Escapees may not be exciting cards, but both do a fine job of blocking early creatures like April O'Neil, Kunoichi Trainee.

Deathtouch

Cheap deathtouchers are very good in this set. If you’ve seen 17lands data, you may have been surprised to see how high a simple common like Squirrelanoids is rated (57.7% GIH). There are several reasons for this:

• Deathtouchers force your opponent to either trade with you (enabling disappear) or let it through (enabling sneak).
• There are also many large beaters that trade poorly with deathtouchers, like Foot Ninjas and Rocksteady, Crash Courser.
• Deathtouchers also turn Tenderize into green Terminate!

UR has most of the good answers to cards like Squirrelanoids; Mechanized Ninja Cavalry and Buzz Bots match up very well with it. Green decks on the other hand need to spend a removal spell, trade off a 2-drop, or simply allow possible sneaking.

Splashing

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has a couple of choice commons for splashing bombs and removal. Frog Butler is easily the best one, and a genuine mythic common of sorts (more later). Omni-Cheese Pizza, Escape Tunnel, and the common dual lands are also all solid. Green decks are far more likely to splash than other colors; if you aren’t Gx, you probably want a light splash at most. An example would be WB splashing The Last Ronin off of Escape Tunnels, 1 Forest, and an Illegitimate Business.

Sweepers

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is extremely light on board clears. You’re largely free to dump your hand in this format, though I’d advise caution if you see BG mana. This is because of The Last Ronin, which is one of the most broken rares in the entire format. Even playing around it may not save you because it has two other powerful chapters anyways.

Jennika's Technique is one of the only other sweepers available, though I haven’t seen it much in practice. It’s a poor fit for RW decks, although UR and 5-color green decks could probably try it. Other than those two, there’s basically stone nothing, so commit early and often.

Draft Philosophy

I included this section in our Lorwyn Eclipsed guide, which went over some hypothetical scenarios to draft the set. Two of these scenarios are normal drafts, and one uses the new Pick-Two Format that’s also available online.

Draft Hypothetical #1: P1P1 Sally Pride, Lioness Leader (Lucky!)

You open your pack and see Sally Pride, Lioness Leader staring back at you. Congratulations on your broken rare! From here, you have three options, all of which involve playing W in some capacity:

• WB Sneak
• RW Alliance
• GWx 5-color Value

As the packs keep flowing, you should take the best card available for one of these three decks. Sally makes white cards much more appealing, though you should never take mediocre filler like High-Flying Ace over stronger cards.

Late signposts like Karai, Future of the Foot and Go Ninja Go can often be decisive tiebreakers. Let’s just say for this one you immediately see Dark Leo & Shredder P1P2 and get to autopilot into a dream WB deck.

Draft Hypothetical #2: Staying More Open

You won’t always have that clear of a lane while drafting, though. The key when things are tough is always to remember the big picture. I’m always taking cards with The Big Three in mind. Starting with Mouser Foundry out of a weak pack for instance heavily biases me towards UR. Whether I stick with it or abandon it to draft a different archetype comes down to which cards are in the next packs.

For instance, if Nobody shows up, followed by Brilliance Unleashed and other great artifact cards, it’s safe to autopilot artifacts. A late Frog Butler or Tainted Treats is definitely worth picking over filler cards like Utrom Scientists or Stockman, Mad Fly-entist, though. The key is to fight hard for premium cards whenever you see them because there’s a massive gap in this set between good cards and filler.

Pick-Two Draft Example

Pick-Two gets its own section, complete with actual draft examples! We've had people ask for this specifically, so I wanted to make sure they got their fill. Note that this pod comes from our very own Draftsim Draft Simulator, which still uses 8 players for the pod (so P1P9-10 is a 5th pack, and not a wheel of P1P1-2).

Here the rare is the uninspiring Northampton Farm, which isn’t a good enough utility land to p1p1. Shredder's Technique, Tenderize, and Buzz Bots are the best cards available, followed closely by April O'Neil, Kunoichi Trainee.

You want to take two cards that could potentially end up in the same deck. Technique and Tenderize or April O’Neil, Kunoichi Trainee accomplishes this well. I have a bias towards WB Sneak, so I’d take Technique and April to start.

The next pack has just Uneasy Alliance for WB, as Foot Mystic is pretty awful. Rather than force WB, I’d actually take Nobody and Mouser Foundry here because both are excellent cards for UR that work well together. Mondo Gecko reads powerfully but has trouble connecting in practice, and it also doesn’t work that well with what blue does in TMT Draft. At this point, I essentially have two pairs for two different decks.

Now the choice comes down to another pair of pairs. Raphael, Ninja Destroyer is another very underwhelming mythic, so I’d actually take Bespoke Bō with Ray Fillet, Man Ray over it for UR. WB would love Splinter, Hamato Yoshi and has three acceptable filler cards to complement it. My choice here would be Splinter and Grounded for Life, because Tunnel Rats is a below replacement level 2-drop for WB.

UR Artifacts seems to have dried up, because Rock Soldiers is pretty underwhelming. You could go towards RW Alliance here; Wingnut, Bat on the Belfry and The Neutrinos both work well together. The WB pick would be Stomped by the Foot and Foot Elite or Henchbots (both of which are merely okay). I’d take both alliance cards here, noting that Mouser Foundry and Nobody could actually make a RW deck as well.

Only filler cards remain here. By the end of P1, the deck looks like this:

Pack Two

Now I have to choose either WB or RW. WB here involves Shredder's Technique with Stomped by the Foot or Insectoid Exterminator. RW would see me pick Go Ninja Go and Bot Bashing Time. I could also take Mikey & Leo, Chaos & Order, although neither archetype is especially good at triggering it (which makes this card a 2/2 for 2 in most games). The late alliance cards last pack have me thinking RW is more open, so I’ll just take the two RW cards here.

I’m rewarded here. Spicy Oatmeal Pizza and Mouser Foundry are excellent cards, and they give me a little artifact subtheme, too. My Nobody is definitely making the deck!

You don’t want too many of the same legend, but I’m fine playing up to two of The Neutrinos. I can also take Purple Dragon Punks as cruddy filler. Mutant Town Musicians and Punks gives me more filler next.

Raphael, the Nightwatcher is legitimately exciting here. You could argue for Baxter Stockman over Mutant Town Musicians (either as a splash or a last-second pivot to UR), but I’d just take the playable 3-drop.

Pack Three

Slash, Reptile Rampager and EPF Point Squad are a nice pair here! It’s definitely too late to pivot into anything else, so I’ll just take both and keep going. I hope to pick up some Mechanized Ninja Cavalry in this pack because it works great with Nobody and The Neutrinos. Note that Raphael, Tough Turtle tabled as well.

The next pack ends up being pretty bad and I just grab the RW dual land and Escape Tunnel.

Another lackluster pack. Mouser Attack! and Musicians it is, I suppose.

Definitely wish I were WB for P3! I’ll just take the two playables. Red seemed more open than white in general at least. None of the other packs have any good cards, so let’s just skip to my build.

Build

This is my pool of drafted RW cards. I need to cut some of the chaff for a playable 23rd/24th card, depending on the number of lands I decide to run. Here’s what that looks like when I’ve done the chopping.

Is it a great deck? No, not really, because I really would’ve loved Mechanized Ninja Cavalry for my synergies. I’m also missing bombs or exciting higher-rarity cards. Either way, I hope the walk through of my decision trees helped, and I wish you better luck with your Pick-Two Drafts!

Top Commons

Here I’ll revisit the top three commons I chose for each color last time. Did I get each color right? Or did I miss anything important? Let’s find out!

White

My original top three commons for white were Uneasy Alliance, April O'Neil, Kunoichi Trainee, and High-Flying Ace.

#1. Uneasy Alliance

The main drawback of Uneasy Alliance is that it takes 7 mana to answer certain busted rares, like Agent Bishop, Man in Black and April O'Neil, Hacktivist. White’s other removal spells have similar problems, so I’m still giving the top spot to its cheapest, most aggressive removal spell.

#2. April O’Neil, Kunoichi Trainee

April O'Neil, Kunoichi Trainee is indeed a really good rate, and its only drawback is its legendary status. I love 1-2 of these in every white deck if I can get it.

#3. Jennika, Bad Apple Big Sister

I prefer Jennika, Bad Apple Big Sister to the other common cyclers because it matches up better against removal spells. I don’t want too many of these, but the first copy is always great.

High-Flying Ace has been thoroughly mediocre, and it would probably be about the 5th or 6th best white common if I were to rank everything.

Blue

The top three commons I selected for blue were Return to the Sewers, Donatello, Turtle Techie, and Mind Transfer Protocol.

#1. Return to the Sewers

Return to the Sewers can be back-breaking tempo in the right spot, and it feels like a soft 2-for-1 due to the Mutagen bonus. It’s not hard removal, but a very welcome card either way that every blue deck wants.

#2. Sewer-veillance Cam

I missed this one. Sewer-veillance Cam and Mouser Foundry are by far the best common artifacts in TMT. UR wants as many of these as it can get, but even GU can play this off-rate. Think of it as a kind of fusion of Inspiration with a Feeling of Dread (plus artifact synergies), and you’ll see why it’s so good.

#3. Buzz Bots

Buzzie pecks for a bit of damage, embarrasses Squirrelanoids, and can chump later for a cantrip if needed. Buzz Bots also wears Improvised Arsenal like a champ, and it can even enable sneak in odd spots.

I still like both Donatello, Turtle Techie and Mind Transfer Protocol, which I’d place at 4th and 5th respectively.

Black

The top three commons I selected for black were Anchovy & Banana Pizza, Stomped by the Foot, and Oroku Saki, Shredder Rising.

#1. Oroku Saki, Shredder Rising

This is the best sneak common, by a considerable margin. Turn-2 Oroku Saki, Shredder Rising off of Dream Beavers is a dreamy start, and this can even force disappear later (because your opponent always has to trade with it).

#2. Anchovy & Banana Pizza

Recurring Anchovy & Banana Pizza with Ragamuffin Raptor is a gross synergy that I didn’t mention in my first guide. It’s a fine removal spell either way, so take it highly.

#3. Squirrelanoids

The format has been quite kind to Squirrelanoids. It’s an essential piece of the sneak deck because your pod won’t pass you Dream Beavers very often.

Stomped by the Foot is a very close 4th, and you can certainly take it over Squirrelanoids if you aren’t sneaking. It’s tougher to kick in practice than expected though, which tracks with the disappear mechanic’s general underperformance.

Red

My top three commons for red were Manhole Missile, Raphael, Tough Turtle, and Mouser Foundry.

#1. Mouser Foundry

This is cracked with Nobody, and it’s also strong on-rate since it doubles as removal later on. Mouser Foundry is an essential card for UR Artifacts, and it’s also pretty good in RW Alliance.

#2. Manhole Missile

Manhole Missile is excellent way to keep pace with early sneak decks while smoothing out your draws. You can take it over Mouser Foundry in RW Alliance, though I’d never do so in UR.

#3. Bot Bashing Time

It’s clunky, but Bot Bashing Time cleanly answer a number of very stupid rares. I wouldn’t want a ton of these, but the first copy or two could save your life.

Raphael, Tough Turtle is a very close 4th place, though the card isn’t particularly amazing. Red is arguably the weakest color in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, as it has more bad filler commons (Zog, Triceraton Castaway, Rock Soldiers, Mouser Attack!) than any other color.

Green

My top three commons for green were Frog Butler, Ragamuffin Raptor, and Tenderize.

#1. Frog Butler

Frog Butler is just an obscene common, really. I have no clue why Poison Dart Frog needed a buff, because this creature’s innate deathtouch makes it fantastic at every point in the game. It can even ambush fliers later on due to its stealth reach!

#2. Primordial Pachyderm

This is a top cut of beef, with several relevant keywords, a nice life buffer, and great sizing. Primordial Pachyderm is essential for every flavor of green, from midrange to greedy 5-color decks.

#3. Tenderize

You’ll want either deathtouchers or big creatures for this to shine, though neither is a tough ask in TMT. It’s especially important if you’re GUx because blue has pretty poor removal in this set.

Ragamuffin Raptor is a close 4th to Tenderize, and you can take it over that green instant or Pachyderm depending on your deck’s needs. The first Raptor is always excellent, and grindy decks with cards like Anchovy & Banana Pizza want multiples. Just don’t ever pass Frog Butler for any common here, because it’s genuinely that good. I’d play like 6 of them if I could!

Other Commons

I didn’t cover these here in the previous guide, but Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has some other commons worth noting. I won’t rank these, just describe how to use each one.

Foot Elite

Foot Elite is a really mediocre filler creature. The best thing about it is that it’s a ninja, which can come up with cards like Splinter, Radical Rat and Splinter, Hamato Yoshi.

Foot Ninjas

A decent sneak payoff, though there are more exciting options at higher rarities like Shredder, Unrelenting and Karai, Future of the Foot. I’m happy to play a copy or two of Foot Ninjas in most WB decks.

Mouser Mark III

Mouser Mark III is solid filler for UR Artifacts, where this has no real drawback and the upside of being an artifact. Hopefully you never have to play it otherwise.

Nobody

Nobody is one of the best commons in the set, which somehow eluded mention last time. This has excellent setups with Mechanized Ninja Cavalry, Mouser Foundry, Sewer-veillance Cam, and all the Pizzas.

Ice Cream Kitty

I was surprised that Ice Cream Kitty doesn’t sacrifice artifacts in practice because you can’t use it to draw cards from stuff like Guac & Marshmallow Pizza. It’s mostly early game filler, although it can be a nice late game engine with the right support (i.e., Tunnel Rats, Tainted Treats, Lord Dregg, Insect Invader).

Putrid Pals

Putrid was a good word to describe Putrid Pals because it’s been a deathtouch Hill Giant about 80% of the time I’ve seen it. Hopefully you can play Primordial Pachyderm instead!

EPF Point Squad

This starts a bit small, though it can grow to a real threat after a couple of turns. EPF Point Squad is obviously fine in RW, but even there it isn't truly premium or anything.

Mechanized Ninja Cavalry

Mechanized Ninja Cavalry, on the other hand, is a premium common. UR and RW both want as many copies as possible because few cards do alliance/artifacts better.

Punk Frogs

Ward isn’t a bad bonus, but Punk Frogs has lackluster sizing and hates all the cheap deathtouchers in this set. Only play it if you really lack other high end.

Slithering Cryptid

Slithering Cryptid is a decent filler creature, especially if you have disappear/Mutagen synergies.

Omni-Cheese Pizza

Here’s one of the best disappear enablers in the set, because you can use Omni-Cheese Pizzafor 0 mana on the turn you “go off”. It’s also great with Nobody, and at absolute worst it’s a cantripping Food.

Strong Uncommons Revisited

I listed 12 strong uncommons in my last set. Let’s revisit each, then I’ll list a new top 12 with some fresh entries.

Old List

#1. Dimensional Exile

No clue why I put Dimensional Exile over Mighty Mutanimals, but it’s still one of the best removal spells in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

#2. Mighty Mutanimals

This is the most mythic uncommon we’ve seen in ages, because Mighty Mutanimals is honestly better than the majority of bomb rares! At minimum you get 5/4 worth of stats spread across two bodies, and you reap extra value if you untap with it.

#3. The Last Ronin’s Technique

Ever had your opponent sneak this in on turn 2 while you have a grip full of removal? It’s a pretty miserable experience, and at worst this is a flash Captain's Call too.

#4. Metalhead

This is definitely going up in the power rankings when this list is over, because Metalhead has been top notch.

#5. Dream Beavers

I said Dream Beavers was “among” the best sneak enablers, but nope; it’s just the best one. Turn-1 Beavers probably adds like 10-15% to your win rate!

#6. Shredder’s Technique

Here’s a great removal spell that can also clip Uneasy Alliance and Dimensional Exile. I prefer busted threats to removal in TMT though, and the sneak mode on Shredder's Technique hasn’t come up much.

#7. Casey Jones, Jury-Rig Justiciar

With 10 artifacts, this is just over 70% to hit. Given that Casey Jones, Jury-Rig Justiciar has reasonable base stats and haste to begin with, it’s quite a nice little value 2-drop.

#8. Courier of Comestibles

Courier of Comestibles is mediocre if you just have Guac & Marshmallow Pizza, but it becomes A+ with stronger Pizzas like Everything Pizza and Spicy Oatmeal Pizza.

#9. Michelangelo, Mutant BFF

Michelangelo, Mutant BFF is one of the stronger Mutagen cards available, especially if you aren’t counting rares. It’s kind of a “mini-Titan” of sorts, since this turtle enters with value and then racks up extra value with each attack. Don’t forget about Mikey’s “only blocked by one” ability, which lets you upsize it and then safely attack for more Mutagens!

#10. Novel Nunchaku

Novel Nunchaku is expensive to equip and a little clunky, but this removal with upside has been as good as promised.

#11. West Wind Avatar

West Wind Avatar is a nice ramp payoff for 5-color Frog Butler decks, especially if you’re short on bomb rares.

#12. Henchbots

Henchbots is an okay card at best, and it had no business on my original list. It’s an overpriced, conditional Fiend Hunter with poor combat stats, and more of a filler card than anything desirable.

New List

#1. Mighty Mutanimals

#2. Dream Beavers

#3. Everything Pizza

Seriously, Pizza Ultimatum is that good! Everything Pizza smooths out your early game nicely, and then wins most games if you can activate it. Imagine Aang's Journey that draws your win condition, and you’ll understand why you shouldn’t pass this one often.

#4. Courier of Comestibles

#5. Metalhead

#6. Brilliance Unleashed

Brilliance Unleashed is easily the strongest multicolor uncommon. It’s obviously great in UR, but it also works surprisingly well in 5-color green decks. You can set up the second mode using Pizzas.

#7. Tainted Treats

Tainted Treats is the runner-up for best multicolor uncommon, because Putrefy plus a Food kicker is incredibly good.

#8. The Last Ronin’s Technique

#9. Dimensional Exile

#10. Lita, Little Orphan Amphibian

I yapped earlier about how solid this 2-drop is, so it shouldn’t be too surprising to see Lita, Little Orphan Amphibian here.

#10. Lessons from Life

The art on Lessons from Life may be controversial, but one thing that isn’t controversial is that drawing cards feels great! I’ve died with this in hand versus WB a couple of times, which is the only thing that keeps it from being higher on this list. As you might expect, it’s best in 5-color piles with lots of removal and bombs.

#11. Novel Nunchaku

Archetypes

Source: Wizards of the Coast

You can see the official archetypes above, but I prefer a Big Three model. Neither of the green decks can hold a candle to Frog Butler piles, and RW Alliance has been decidedly mediocre for me. I’ll still cover each of the five here though. Let’s start with a brief Tier List for the format.

Tier 1 (Draft These!)

• WB Sneak
• 5-color Frog Butler Good Stuff
• UR Artifacts

Tier 2 (Playable Decks)

• RW Alliance
• BG Disappear

Tier 3 (Hope to Avoid)

• GU Mutagen
• Unsupported color pairs

WB Sneak

Sneak has been a huge hit in this format. There’s a ton of support for it, and many of its best draws are almost impossible to stabilize against.

Core Cards

Getting sneak to work is all about having good cheap creatures. Squirrelanoids, April O'Neil Kunoichi Trainee, and Oroku Saki, Shredder Rising are your best commons. There’s a noticeable drop off in quality after those; the runners-up are Leonardo, Big Brother, Tunnel Rats, and High-Flying Ace.

Two uncommons that this deck loves are Dream Beavers and Featherbrained Filcher, which are the format’s only 1-drop evasive creatures. It’s almost impossible to stop either one from dumping a 2-mana sneaker on turn 2, which puts you massively ahead.

Banana & Anchovy Pizza

The last crucial component for WB is removal spells because you’ll want them to ride a tempo lead to victory. Uneasy Alliance and Anchovy & Banana Pizza are the best common ones, as Make Your Move is too conditional and Grounded for Life is too passive. I’ll play Stomped by the Foot as well, though I try to avoid multiples since WB can’t kick it well.

Payoffs

WB has a number of very sexy rares to start with, including Dark Leo & Shredder, Leonardo, Sewer Samurai, and Turncoat Kunoichi. It also has excellent uncommons like Shredder, Unrelenting, The Last Ronin's Technique, and Leonardo, Leader in Blue.

WB’s signposts are Karai, Future of the Foot and Karai's Technique. Karai works great with cyclers like Jennika, Bad Apple Big Sister, while the Technique rewards you for sneaking it by essentially becoming an instant.

How to Play Against

Keeping pace with WB early is ideal. If you can’t, then it pays to suss out which sneak card they’re holding. Keep in mind that cards like Karai, Future of the Foot, Leonardo, Leader in Blue, Shredder, Unrelenting, and Karai's Technique can all blow you out for guessing wrong! While this may be a smaller format, the games themselves can be surprisingly challenging for this and other reasons.

UR and 5-color green decks tend to go over the top of WB because it tends to be outclassed later if you can disrupt its early game. RW Alliance and Gx Midrange just hope for it to stumble because neither can reliably catch up against the best WB draws.

Trophy Example

Source

Sierkovitz won a box with this one, which was basically a draft quality WB Aggro deck. Early Beavers or Mechanized Ninja Cavalry into sneak offers a huge advantage, and he also had plenty of quality removal spells.

5-Color Green

This is my favorite deck to draft in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, as you have a ton of compelling options available.

Core Cards

Frog Butler is irreplaceable! Primordial Pachyderm is also quite good, but past that you have a ton of freedom to assemble your deck’s core. Things you’ll want to include (in order of importance) are:

1. Bombs
2. Frog Butler
3. Efficient removal spells
4. Other mana fixing
5. Card advantage (i.e. Ragamuffin Raptor, Shredder's Revenge, Sewer-veillance Cam)
6. Early blockers
7. Big creatures

Bombs and removal come in all sorts of colors, though W and B tend to be the best secondary colors for both. GWx often plays Mighty Mutanimals or Sally Pride, Lioness Leader with Uneasy Alliance and Grounded for Life. GBx has higher quality removal than white because Stomped by the Foot and Anchovy & Banana Pizza are some of the better common ones available.

RGx and GUx are both theoretically possible as well. GU doesn’t really have any good common removal, and red has basically no playable commons for 5-color beyond Manhole Missile, Bot Bashing Time, and Mouser Foundry.

Payoffs

Your payoffs can be whatever the best cards you get passed are! Well, that and Everything Pizza, which is usually the first card I take before I draft this deck. It’s the only true 5-color payoff in the format, and an incredibly rewarding one at that. If you have double-pipped rares, try to build your mana base with that in mind; for instance, starting with Kitsune, Dragon's Daughter is a great excuse to draft 5-color as GUx. Here’s a list of some of the most broken bombs in the format, which you’ll always want to include:

1. Sally Pride, Lioness Leader
2. The Last Ronin
3. Armaggon, Future Shark
4. April O'Neil, Hacktivist
5. Agent Bishop, Man in Black
6. Don & Leo, Problem Solvers
7. Mighty Mutanimals
8. Kitsune, Dragon's Daughter
9. Turncoat Kunoichi
10. North Wind Avatar
11. The Cloning of Shredder
12. Savanti Romero, Time's Exile

How to Play Against

You’re almost always going to be the beatdown against 5-color decks, which tend to be rather durdly. WB can take advantage of a slow opener with early sneak beats, while RW and UR hope to push for lethal after they set up midgame. Smaller green midrange tends to really struggle with 5-color, because it loses late game and isn’t usually aggressive enough to close before that happens. But it’s hard to give advice beyond this general heuristic because of how wildly 5-color lists can vary!

Trophy Example

Source

Ben Stark showcases how wild 5-color can look in this format, with a ton of powerful cards spanning five colors. Four Ragamuffin Raptors means you never outgrind this pile later because it can even loop Everything Pizza!

UR Artifacts

UR Artifacts is a highly synergistic shell that relies on a couple of specific commons. It can be great if those come around the table, but you really don’t want to have to play cards like Rock Soldiers if you can help it.

Core Cards

Mouser Foundry, Sewer-veillance Cam, and Nobody are your best commons! You want as many of each as possible because they’re fantastic at every point in the game. Other premium commons include Buzz Bots, Mechanized Ninja Cavalry, Return to the Sewers, Manhole Missile, and Donatello, Turtle Techie. I also love Mind Transfer Protocol here because it can animate noncreature artifacts into 4/5 surprise blockers!

Purple Dragon Punks is also fine here because you can dump the extra mana into Mouser Foundry activations later. It’s not nearly as good as anything else I’ve mentioned, but it’s still a playable 2-drop. Try to avoid most of the other red commons; cards like Mutant Town Musicians and Null Group Biological Assets are poor filler at best.

Payoffs

UR has a number of strong payoffs available at higher rarities. Donatello, Mutant Mechanic, Does Machines, Krang, Master Mind, Ravenous Robots, and Improvised Arsenal are all compelling reasons to play UR Artifacts. Both Baxter Stockman and Brilliance Unleashed are also excellent, although greedy green players may scoop up the latter.

How to Play Against

You can’t really disrupt Nobody loops, so you hopefully fly over the robots or simply overpower them with rares. WB can struggle here because UR has some great early blockers and Manhole Missile available. UR tends to be rather midrangey, which makes it the beatdown against 5-color and the control deck against WB.

Trophy Example

Source

Sierkovitz gives us another Trophy Example with this strong UR build. Multiple signposts, Nobody, and Casey Jones, Jury-Rig Justiciar give this 40 some high card quality.

RW Alliance

I haven’t loved this archetype because red is just such a drag at common in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The payoffs also aren’t amazing, though sometimes it’ll be open enough that you should draft it.

Core Cards

Raphael, Tough Turtle is the best alliance common, though it isn’t all that exciting. Other than that, you mostly just take the strongest overall commons for these colors. Even RW Alliance doesn’t love cards like Mutant Town Musicians and Null Group Biological Assets, though you’re at least not embarrassed to play them. Same goes for EPF Point Squad and East Wind Avatar, which are acceptable but unexciting additions.

Payoffs

The Neutrinos is fun, and it can pick up decent value by blinking Mighty Mutanimals and Mechanized Ninja Cavalry. There aren’t actually that many good creatures to flicker though, which limits The Neutrinos and Go Ninja Go in practice.

One of the other problems with RW is how broken Mutanimals is, because it’s not like other white drafters are ever going to pass it to you! Wingnut, Bat on the Belfry is another payoff tailored for this deck, though it relies heavily on cards like Mechanized Ninja Cavalry to do anything impressive. I also haven’t loved Old Hob, Alleycat Blues because it’s too vulnerable and expensive for most RW decks.

How to Play Against

RW doesn’t have much card advantage, so it’s pretty easy for UR and 5-color to grind them out with Nobody loops and bombs. Whether WB goes over the top of it comes down to your specific 40s. Figuring out “who’s the beatdown” in that matchup seems vital because I could see the role shift several times throughout the game.

Trophy Example

Justlolaman’s video also lets you watch him play all of his games with it! This list featured an artifact subtheme and several powerful rares.

BG Disappear

While the disappear mechanic has been a disappointment, BGx is often my baseline for 5-color decks anyways. It’s hard to say too many terrible things about the color combination, at least when you get the right cards.

Core Cards

Frog Butler is still busted, even if you’re just two colors. Ragamuffin Raptor and Anchovy & Banana Pizza is another core synergy. I don’t love Ice Cream Kitty in general, but it has nice synergy with Tunnel Rats and Tainted Treats. You’ll want to include a ton of removal here because BG tends to be quite grindy. Not having your early game shored up often means that you die to WB Sneak, so be careful.

I also highly recommend Omni-Cheese Pizza here, because it’s the best disappear enabler in the entire set. The ability to enable that for 0 mana makes a massive difference.

Payoffs

Krang & Shredder is the single best disappear payoff available. Sequencing it with Omni-Cheese Pizza lets you immediately play whatever you hit, so always play your Pizzas if you have it. Rat King, Verminister, Lord Dregg, Insect Invader, and Pizza Face, Gastromancer are also solid disappear payoffs. Dregg and Verminister can even trigger themselves once you get them started, which helps the deck be more consistent.

West Wind Avatar is worth a mention because it’s strong on its own and a great way to trigger other payoffs. Don’t get excited for any of the common disappear cards though, because Foot Mystic, Insectoid Exterminator, Putrid Pals, and even Michelangelo, Game Master are all pretty unremarkable.

How to Play Against

Your opponent can force you to guess “sneak or disappear?” by attacking with something like Squirrelanoids. I’m blocking early on to prevent Oroku Saki, Shredder Rising, but later in the game you might be able to deny an easy Pizza Face, Gastromancer this way. You should also be careful playing removal spells on your opponent’s turn, because you may simply want to main phase that Manhole Missile.

Trophy Example

Excellent list here by Ben S, with a strong early game and Shredder's Revenge plus Ragamuffin Raptor for value. The Last Ronin probably won him many games!

GU Mutagen

GU can either do its “Mutagen thing” or simply be a baseline for 5-color piles. It doesn’t have the best removal to do this, so I’m usually GWx or GBx splashing Lessons from Life.

Core Cards

Speaking of Lessons from Life, it’s hard to get better than that for pure value. It’s not essential to the Mutagen strategy by any means, because this deck tends to lean on Slithering Cryptid, Return to the Sewers, and a variety of powerful uncommons. Frog Butler is also once again essential because GU loves the extra mana and defensive body.

Tenderize is absolutely vital here because GU desperately needs cheap removal for the WB Sneak matchup. Retro-Mutation is a passable fall back if you’re desperate, although the chump block and vulnerability to Make Your Move, Metalhead, and Koya, Death from Above hurts.

Payoffs

Mutagen Man, Living Ooze is a sick bomb in general, but it gets completely absurd if you have other Mutagen synergies. Michelangelo, Weirdness to 11 is similar, and both can completely go off with other payoffs like The Ooze. Most of these are great cards on their own though, which makes you less likely to get them all in a draft.

Genghis Frog is also quite nice here, as most of the best Mutagen cards are already mutants. It feels great getting 2x value from your Michelangelo, Mutant BFF and Ray Fillet, Man Ray.

How to Play Against

WB has a really great matchup against GU, which has serious problems stopping the sneak gameplay loop. You can also outgrind the deck with 5-color piles, although their piles of Mutagen tokens means that they have a ton of pressure midgame. UR Artifacts needs to play this one by ear because neither deck obviously goes over the top of the other.

Trophy Example

This was my trophy! Note that the UR land was just for Everything Pizza because I had potential white mana from Omni-Cheese Pizza, Frog Butler, and Mona Lisa, Science Geek.

Wrap Up

Turtles in Time | Illustration by Inkognit

And with that, our Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles guide is officially over. While not my favorite set of all time or anything, I’ll say this has been a much better small set to draft than Spider-Man was. I hope you have a radical time playing it and that this guide helps you to secure many victories.

Which of these archetypes have been the most fun for you to play? Which have been the most and least successful? Let me know in the comments below or over on the Draftsim Discord.

See you next month for Secrets of Strixhaven!