Magic: The Gathering’s TMNT Commander Deck Is a Video Game Homage Packed With Classic Characters

Magic: The Gathering is a great game, but there’s no denying that Commander has become its most popular format – and Wizards has released a mountain of preconstructed decks for players who want to jump right in.

When the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles set was originally announced, it felt like we’d be getting one Commander deck per Turtle, Heroes vs Villains, or some other combo, so I was particularly surprised when Wizards said it’d be cramming attitude and pizza as much as possible into a single, 100-card deck. Having seen just some of the cards included, though, I’m impressed.

Magic’s New Turtle Power Precon Looks Awesome

I should preface this ‘precon preview’ with an explanation that in our behind-closed-doors look at the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles set, Wizards revealed around a dozen cards from the Turtle Power precon – but there are more reveals to come.

That means we’ve not been able to see how the deck plays, but we do know that your Commander of choice can be any of the Turtles, two of them partnered up with the Partner ability, or all five with the Heroes in a Half Shell card.

There’s nothing truly revolutionary about this modular approach (swapping Commander precons to use other Legendary Creatures within them as their leader is part of the fun of the format), but having five options for Turtles means that no one is left behind.

That includes the likes of Splinter (who has the Partner mechanic, too), but also members of the TMNT’s rogues gallery like Baxter, Fly in the Ointment, Leatherhead, Iron Gator, and, of course, Shredder, Shadow Master.

There are also some fun nods to the gaming history of the awesome foursome. Electric Seaweed from the hard-as-nails NES game makes an appearance to strike fear into gamers of a certain age, while other cards reference the squad’s love of arcade machines, like High Score and, uh, Arcade Cabinet.

Will the deck play well? We’ll have to wait to find out, but in terms of cramming as much personality into a single precon as possible, I think Wizards of the Coast may have just nailed the assignment.

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles set launches on March 6, with preorders already available for the Turtle Power precon.

Lloyd Coombes is an experienced freelancer in tech, gaming and fitness seen at Polygon, Eurogamer, Macworld, TechRadar and many more. He’s a big fan of Magic: The Gathering and other collectible card games, much to his wife’s dismay.