Splinter, Radical Rat Commander Deck Guide

Splinter, Radical Rat | Illustration by Manuel Castañón

If you asked me to build a typal ninja commander but told me I couldn’t use ninjutsu or sneak, I’d have probably come up with something similar to Splinter, Radical Rat. It makes it easier to play your ninjas with their special abilities as an unblockable enabler, plus it doubles up on your ninjas’ triggered abilities, usually combat damage/saboteur triggers that these slippery fighters tend to have anyway.

I may have taken a rather conventional route with this specific Splinter, Radical Rat build, but there’s more than meets the eye here. For now, join me as I break down this Esper () ninja typal deck and show you some of the fun triggers you can double with this version of the Turtles’ mentor.

The Deck

Splinter, Aging Champion | Illustration by Thomas Chamberlain-Keen

This is a pure ninja typal deck on a slight budget. There’re some expensive cards in the list, but I’ve left off some of the more expensive ninjas and lands that would bloat or even double the price.

This deck slots into Bracket 3 between an efficient combination of mana curve and mana base, the focus of the deck, and the raw power that comes from doubling spell theft abilities. It has room to improve within the same Bracket, and you could power it down to Bracket 2 with more commons and uncommons from sets like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty.

I haven’t included it in the list, but if you’re the type to have sideboard cards for your Commander decks, I’d recommend Kotose, the Silent Spider in case someone decides to bring their Rat King, Verminister deck.

The Commander: Splinter, Radical Rat

Splinter, Radical Rat points you in a specific direction but also lets you build in creative ways. It’s a trigger doubler and an unblockable enabler for ninjas, a creature type that features a bunch of combat damage triggers. This Splinter also has hybrid mana for its mana cost and blue mana only in its activated ability, which means you need less color fixing to cast it. Splinter doesn’t tap when you activate the ability, so you can do it multiple times during a turn, including the turn you play your commander. You could also activate it politically to help an opponent take another player out of the game.

Ninjas!

Esper ninjas have a surprising number of different combat triggers, though there’s a few recurring themes.

Fallen Shinobi, Silent-Blade Oni, and Nashi, Moon Sage's Scion’s combat damage triggers steal your opponents’ cards, something that’s twice as annoying with a trigger doubler in the command zone. Krang & Shredder adds similar action split between an enter/attack trigger and a disappear ability that triggers on your end step. And Splinter doubles them both!

Another creature with two delicious triggers to double is Taeko, the Patient Avalanche. It starts with deck filtering through scrying, plus Taeko is a secondary unblockable enabler with a cheaper ability than Splinter, though this turtle ninja has to attack to use it.

Orochi Soul-Reaver manifests your opponents’ cards under your control and pays you in Treasure. But watch out: The Treasure and your mana sources are the only way you’ll be able to turn some of those manifested creatures face up. At least Prosperous Thief helps with some extra Treasure generation.

Ingenious Infiltrator and Ninja of the Deep Hours help to refill your hand at least once. Moon-Circuit Hacker does too, and its ability encourages you to return it to your hand if you can. Satoru, the Infiltrator also gives you cards, but only when you jump through the right hoops.

Satoru Umezawa basically draws cards too, but the ninjutsu it grants to your other creatures lets you utilize them in ways that they weren’t intended. Like Shark Shredder, Killer Clone, Shredder, Shadow Master… basically any Shredder card.

Silver-Fur Master gives your ninjutsu abilities cost reduction, sometimes much needed, and it gives your ninjas the same typal buff as Splinter, Hamato Yoshi.

Rather than buff them, Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow turns all your ninja hits into card draw and life drain.

Karai, Future of the Foot reanimates a creature with no restriction if you sneak it out, while any other combat damage returns cards from your graveyard to your hand.

Throat Slitter, Turncoat Kunoichi, and Mistblade Shinobi are your combat-oriented removal options. They should be more repeatable in this deck than the likes of Path to Exile, though you’ll lose the element of surprise. But once you’ve done it once and returned them to your hand, you’ll leave your opponents guessing which creatures you’ll bring in during combat.

Mist-Syndicate Naga’s ability to replicate itself makes it a great creature to target with Splinter’s unblockable enabling. Thousand-Faced Shadow’s ability to copy an attacking trigger can turn a trigger you’re already doubling into four times as much value.

Prehistoric Pet is an occasionally unblockable creature you can also use to reset a creature you want to sneak or ninjutsu out.

Kaito, Bane of Nightmares counts as a ninja during your turn. The uptick ability gives you stackable anthems to buff your ninjas, while the other two abilities give you card draw and stun creatures. Those abilities are useful, but come on, you’re upticking Kaito to the moon in this deck.

Dark Leo & Shredder is one of the stand-out cards from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It’s not a steady win condition without life loss doublers like Wound Reflection, but it puts a lot of pressure on any opponent it hits and makes your ninjas more deadly if the table allows it to live.

I left aside some pricey ninjas that haven’t been printed much because they might be hard to track down. Some of the additions include Donatello, the Brains and Splinter, the Mentor. Their Mutagens can give you stronger creatures and provide something to do with your mana in case of flood.

I don’t mind Leonardo, Big Brother as a finisher in a deck that plans to go a little wide. Things have to go really well for you (this is probably a better play in a Selesnya () tokens deck), but hey, it’s a cheap common.

Throatseeker is one of the only ways you’ll trigger Leonardo, Cutting Edge’s lifegain ability, but boy can these two make some beautiful music together. Forget the D6s: You’re counting +1/+1 counters with spindowns.

Endless Foot Assault works nicely early and late to pump out consistent ninja tokens.

Interaction and Utility

This deck runs some sneak cards that are instants and sorceries because they’re well-supported here. Donatello's Technique gives you more card draw, Leonardo's Technique provides reanimation, Shredder's Technique is flexible removal, and Splinter's Technique is the deck’s only tutor.

Changeling Outcast and Slither Blade are unblockable creatures that set up your ninjas. If you want to make budget cuts, you could always add more unblockable creatures like Triton Shorestalker or Mist-Cloaked Herald.

As a 2-mana, deathtouching flier that cantrips, Baleful Strix is a great early creature. Your opponents won’t want to block it while you’re establishing your board, which should help you to get your sneak and ninjutsu cards out. And you get even more card draw when you cast it again!

Cover of Darkness acts as near mass unblockable enabling since it’ll give all your ninjas fear. Only artifact and black creatures can block them then, which means some decks can’t block at all. Smoke Shroud is a flying enabler for one ninja at a time, but it keeps coming back whenever your ninjas enter.

Kindred Discovery is a typal staple that adds even more card draw, to the point that Thought Vessel and Reliquary Tower are almost necessary.

Ninja Teen gives you three whole levels of value: life drain, an anthem, and the ability to sneak your creatures back out from your graveyard. The beats just don’t stop coming.

I appreciate the reminder text on the Assassin’s Creed Reconnaissance, since it lets you know that your creatures basically have pseudo-vigilance. You can untap your creatures during the end of combat so that they deal combat damage and get those triggers off.

This build has two typal sweepers in Raise the Palisade and Kindred Dominance, which are best used to tee up an alpha strike. Aside from that, your best answers are your counterspells and spot removal.

The Mana Base

This Esper () mana base is built to be functional without breaking the bank. I opted for scrying Temples rather than more expensive fetch lands and shock lands.

Aside from the usual mana rocks, dual lands, and basics, this mana base features extra utility in the form of unblockable enablers. Rogue's Passage is the classic, but TMT added Turtle Lair for turtles and ninjas.

Reliquary Tower and Thought Vessel provide a little insurance in case your card draw really pops off.

The Strategy

This deck can only really win by bringing your opponents to 0 life. This isn’t a Voltron deck that piles Splinter, Radical Rat high with equipment that grants triggered abilities (like Buster Sword, for example), so commander damage isn’t a likely win condition here. No, you rely on whittling your opponents down steadily, then in big chunks with the likes of Dark Leo & Shredder. You’ve also got a not insignificant amount of spell theft, so you may luck into an opponent’s win condition. You can be opportunistic, but don’t plan for that.

Ideally, you’ll have an opening hand with enough mana to cast your commander on turn 3, plus an early unblockable creature like Changeling Outcast and a cheap ninjutsu or sneak ability like Ingenious Infiltrator. Access to card draw, especially attached to a combat damage trigger, is essential so that you don’t stall out in the middle game, while anthems like Kaito’s emblems and lords like Splinter, Hamato Yoshi make sure the ninjas that stick around punch harder and harder.

Good threat assessment is key here. You don’t have the spells to get into counterspell wars with the control player, and you don’t have the creatures to let a go-wide deck get too comfortable.

Combos & Interactions

This deck doesn’t run any infinite combos as constructed, but you can modify it to add in some infinite lifegain and infinite life loss combos, infinite draw combos, and more.

Before you pilot this deck, it’s good to brush up on the nuances between ninjutsu and sneak, especially so that you know which sneak creatures are actually worth playing with Satoru Umezawa’s ninjutsu.

On the topic of ninjutsu, I want to take a moment to explain why Training Grounds isn’t in the deck, and why you should think before you use a card slot on it if you modify this build. Training Grounds is a blue enchantment that gives you cost reduction for your activated abilities. With Splinter, Radical Rat, that’s good! Suddenly it becomes an unblockable enabler for rather than .

The issue is when it comes to ninjutsu. Sneak is an alternate cost, so it won’t interact with Training Grounds no matter what, but ninjutsu is an activated ability. And while Training Grounds reduces your creatures’ activated abilities, it’s understood that it means your creature permanents (i.e. the ones on the battlefield). While it would feel sick to activate ninjutsu abilities for less every time, that just ain’t how the cards and abilities interact with each other.

Rule 0 Violations Check

Most of what this deck does should be fine at your Commander tables, but it can be good to point out that there’s a fair amount of card theft in this deck.

Budget Options

The mana base is the usual place to start here. Swap out anything that you don’t own or that’s out of budget with whatever you have on hand. And if you do have fetch lands, make sure to adjust some of your duals so that they’re fetchable.

Kaito, Bane of Nightmares commands a hefty price, but you can swap in a Kaito, Cunning Infiltrator. The other Kaito planeswalkers work too, but the Foundations Kaito has an ultimate ability that you might be able to pull off the turn you play it.

Taeko, the Patient Avalanche is one of the other more expensive cards in this deck. Another unblockable enabler either in the mana base or as a piece of equipment or something could slot in to take its place. Orochi Soul-Reaver may be harder to track down, but you could replace it with something like Tasha, the Witch Queen. A few of the spell theft cards in this deck specifically cast your opponent’s spells, so Tasha can add blockers.

Kindred Dominance and Raise the Palisade are in demand because they’re typal, one-sided sweepers. Farewell or Wrath of God can take their place, though these are hard resets rather than a preamble to victory.

Since you want to deal combat damage anyway, Coastal Piracy is an acceptable budget replacement for Kindred Discovery. Cover of Darkness makes all your creatures that much more evasive, but you could go for mass flying enabling like Archetype of Imagination or something similar.

Dark Leo & Shredder just doesn’t have an adequate replacement, at least not in terms of budget options. It’s also one of the closer cards you have to finishers, so I’d prioritize other cuts.

Tune Up

In the interest of keeping a somewhat tighter budget, I left out some really good cards that you could use to make your deck more powerful and consistent. Higure, the Still Wind is a typal tutor and another unblockable enabler. Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni is a pesky threat that adds to the card theft subtheme. Sakashima's Student is the perfect clone for this deck, but it could run you $40 depending on your source for cards. Super Shredder is easy to grow when you have an infinite combo lying around, which explains its current price tag, along with its mythic rarity.

I also didn’t use any Game Changers or Commander free spells like Deadly Rollick, but they would improve the deck even further.

Other Builds

If you want a pure flavor build, you can pack your deck with more ninjas from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. You can’t get any Raphaels or Michelangelos into the deck, though.

Esper auras and equipment is a strange deck, but it could work. Splinter will double its own triggers if you grant it some with mods like that, or even with mutate creatures. Definitely not the best version of the deck, but it could be a fun change of pace if you’re looking for a niche build.

If you don’t mind using up slots on cards like Conspiracy and Maskwood Nexus, you can make a combat damage build that draws a bunch of cards and steals them from your opponents’ libraries and graveyards. I’d probably want tutors to make those more consistent, which can affect the overall power and price of the deck.

Same goes for a life drain deck that uses cards like Wound Reflection and Bloodletter of Aclazotz and leans on win conditions like Dark Leo & Shredder, Exquisite Blood combos, etc. Gain lands and pinging deserts are great budget duals for this build.

Commanding Conclusion

Splinter, Hamato Yoshi | Illustration by April Prime

Splinter, Radical Rat should be one of the more popular commanders from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, although it lacks the cEDH potential that other Universes Beyond commanders have had lately. Splinter also expands the color range for some of the better ninja commanders, so you aren’t Dimir () or bust. I like commanders that let you do something new within a typal setting or an archetype, and Splinter scratches that itch just enough for me.

What do you think of this build? How would you tune it up or down for your own playstyle? Would you want to see us tackle a different build for this commander? Let me know in the comments below or over on the Draftsim Discord.

Until next time, stay safe, and keep your blades sharp!