Table of Contents
Cowabunga! Hopefully you’re not too [[Shellshock]]ed by how fast Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has come out, because we’re in for an action-packed 2026 with releases coming thick and fast.
I’m going to keep this part short, just because there’s a lot to cover in this blog. The idea here is simple: budget upgrades for Turtle Power! to help you keep up if you’re planning on picking up more precons from future sets.
My goal is to get all 10 upgrades for under £10 total to power this deck up on a tight budget. With that, let’s Raid the deck and see what’s in!
product::magic-the-gathering-teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-commander-deck-turtle-power
The Commanders
Leading this deck are the heroes in a half shell. Normally with a precon we only have one face commander and one alternative option. But this time we get all six of them, thanks to the Group Partner mechanic. This means you can have two of them in the command zone together.
The main commander you will need to use is:
https://scryfall.com/card/tmc/1/leonardo-the-balance
[[Leonardo, the Balance]]. While it is technically only a white card, it has a WUBRG colour identity due to the activated ability. All of the others are mono-coloured in both card colour and identity. So if you wanted to run two of the others together, you would need to rebuild the deck and drop some colours.
Luckily, Leonardo arguably has the best abilities anyway. Whenever a token enters, you put a +1/+1 counter on each of your creatures. Then his activated ability gives your creatures a keyword soup of abilities for the turn.
Up next, we have the other three Ninja Turtles.
https://scryfall.com/card/tmc/2/donatello-the-brains
https://scryfall.com/card/tmc/5/michelangelo-the-heart
https://scryfall.com/card/tmc/4/raphael-the-muscle
I’ll go alphabetically for these, starting with [[Donatello, the Brains]]. This is the weakest of the partner options. That’s not to say Donatello is a bad card, just that he isn’t the best fit with [[Leonardo, the Balance]].
Leonardo’s first trigger only happens once each turn, meaning the extra mutagen token Donatello provides doesn’t really help. He’s also the only one who doesn’t make a token himself, meaning you need another source to trigger Leonardo.
[[Michelangelo, the Heart]] is up next. In contrast to [[Donatello, the Brains]], I think this is one of the best partner options. He provides a repeatable and easy way to generate tokens, while also being a cheap creature you can deploy early to start getting those Raid triggers online.
I also love the flavour they’ve captured with this mechanic.
[[Raphael, the Muscle]] is the final Ninja Turtle. This one is another strong option, acting almost like a creature version of [[Uncivil Unrest]]. It works with any kind of counter, so even your -1/-1 counters from Lorwyn would work.
He also brings his own mutagen token, allowing you to trigger [[Leonardo, the Balance]]. Even without Leonardo on the battlefield, the mutagen token still provides a counter to help trigger Raphael’s ability.
There are also two more commanders that I wasn’t expecting to have Character Select:
[[April O’Neil, Live on the Screen]]. April is the human ally of the Ninja Turtles, so it makes sense for her to appear in the deck. I just wasn’t expecting her to be a Partner option.
Her Investigate mechanic fits really well both thematically and lore-wise. Unfortunately, it falls a little flat in the precon. There are only 18 other creatures that can trigger her, so she can feel a little lacklustre until you make some changes.
If you mutate the deck slightly to include more relevant creature types, the card draw from Clue tokens can help you out-value your opponents.
The last potential commander is the turtles’ sensei:
https://scryfall.com/card/tmc/3/splinter-the-mentor
[[Splinter, the Mentor]] is another one I wasn’t expecting to have Character Select. Like April, I assumed he would appear in the deck, but I thought only the four turtles would have the mechanic.
If you change the deck up a little, I actually think this is the strongest partner option. That’s because you can repeatedly trigger [[Leonardo, the Balance]] on every turn.
However, this requires modifying the deck, as we currently have very limited ways to trigger Splinter on our own terms. If you shift the deck towards a sacrifice or blink strategy, Splinter becomes a huge value engine in the command zone, piling on counters and enabling some massive swings.
Speaking of counters, that’s going to be the main theme for these upgrades. Because there are so many options with the Partner mechanic, I’m going to focus mainly on [[Leonardo, the Balance]] and building around +1/+1 counters.
Luckily, most of the other commanders support this strategy at a minimum. So with that in mind, let’s get into the upgrades.
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Budget Upgrades
Upgrade 1/2
IN: Hardened Scales + Branching Evolution
https://scryfall.com/card/2x2/151/hardened-scales
https://scryfall.com/card/mh3/285/branching-evolution
My first two upgrades are the boring but safe picks. However, the power you get from these cards is incredibly strong.
In this deck they essentially do the same thing: give you more counters on your creatures. [[Hardened Scales]] only costs {G} because it adds just one extra counter. Meanwhile, [[Branching Evolution]] doubles the number of counters being placed.
Most of the time in this deck we’re only adding a single counter, so in practice they often end up doing the same job. But if you manage to get both on the battlefield, things get much better.
With both in play you’ll end up placing four counters instead, which is a very nice boost.
Psst… you can technically choose to only get three counters depending on the order you apply the effects. The correct play is to use [[Hardened Scales]] first, so that [[Branching Evolution]] sees two counters being added and then doubles it to four.
OUT: Swamp + Plains
I also get to do my usual trick of cutting some basics. The deck comes with 39 lands, which is a lot for me.
The mana curve in this deck is actually quite aggressive, dropping off heavily after five mana. That’s also the amount needed to activate [[Leonardo, the Balance]], so running 37 lands should be perfectly fine.
It’s also nice to see a better spread of non-basics in the deck, with some solid options already included.
I’ve cut a [[Plains]] and a [[Swamp]], as these colours have the lowest pip requirements in the deck.
Upgrade 3
IN: Tendershoot Dryad
https://scryfall.com/card/rix/147/tendershoot-dryad
Now that we’re done eating our veggies, we can get into some more fun cards.
I was looking for options that would let us trigger [[Leonardo, the Balance]] on every turn. While Leonardo only triggers once per turn, we can still do that on each player’s turn. That’s where [[Tendershoot Dryad]] comes in.
It creates a 1/1 Saproling on every upkeep. Not only does that give us a token to trigger Leonardo, it’s also another creature that will immediately receive the +1/+1 counter.
There is also the white equivalent in [[Illustrious Wanderglyph]], but that was outside my budget. There are a few other effects like this available, but Tendershoot Dryad was the best of the budget-friendly options.
OUT: Biogenic Ooze
https://scryfall.com/card/rna/122/biogenic-ooze
[[Biogenic Ooze]] was one I debated leaving in, as it can create a token at instant speed. The problem is that it requires triple green to cast.
While this is a green-heavy deck, it isn’t quite that weighted toward green. The other issue is that the token ability costs four mana to activate.
This often means your turn becomes a choice between activating Biogenic Ooze or casting other spells. While it does grow your Oozes each turn, the deck doesn’t really contain enough other Oozes to make that payoff worthwhile.
Because of that, I’d rather take the free tokens from [[Tendershoot Dryad]].
Upgrade 4
IN: Kami of Whispered Hopes
https://scryfall.com/card/mom/383/kami-of-whispered-hopes
One final vegetable we need to eat: [[Kami of Whispered Hopes]]. This card keeps showing up in my upgrade lists because it’s just so good.
It helps add even more +1/+1 counters, while also providing mana ramp to keep casting spells.
Unfortunately, it only produces one colour of mana, so you can’t use it to pay for the activation of [[Leonardo, the Balance]]. That would have been perfect, but you can’t have everything.
OUT: Krang, the All-Powerful
https://scryfall.com/card/tmc/13/krang-the-all-powerful
While [[Krang, the All-Powerful]] is a cool villain, it feels a little out of place in this deck.
The effect is more of a cEDH-style effect, but the mana cost of the card keeps it out of that environment. Letting your opponents draw two cards a turn also isn’t consistent enough to rely on.
The other issue is that the payoff is simply a bigger creature, and it doesn’t even have evasion.
If I’m going to stack counters onto something, I’d much rather put them on a creature that provides more value, like [[Kami of Whispered Hopes]].
Upgrade 5
IN: Kutzil, Malamet Exemplar
https://scryfall.com/card/lci/232/kutzil-malamet-exemplar
[[Kutzil, Malamet Exemplar]] is here to provide both protection and a bit of value.
Kutzil protects you on your turn by preventing your opponents from casting spells. That means your big combat steps are much safer, especially when you’re trying to swing with a board full of creatures.
The value comes from the card draw. Unfortunately, you only draw one card, no matter how many creatures you attack with.
If you want a more offensive option instead, I did consider adding [[Sovereign Okinec Ahau]]. Okinec keeps piling on the counters, effectively doubling the number of counters on each of your creatures during combat.
OUT: Electric Seaweed
https://scryfall.com/card/tmc/23/electric-seaweed
[[Electric Seaweed]] is a cool new card, but I’d treat it more like a spell than a creature.
In practice, it behaves more like a board wipe, as it can easily start a chain reaction that clears most of the battlefield. It’s somewhat similar to [[Massacre Girl]], but with a much worse body attached.
Normally I try not to remove interaction from precons, but I’m not entirely convinced the board wipes in this deck are necessary.
We already have three others, as well as [[Wave Goodbye]]. I don’t think the deck needs a fifth.
Turtle Power! is essentially a pseudo go-wide deck, meaning we want to maintain a large board presence. Running too many board wipes ends up being a little counterproductive to that plan.
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Upgrade 6
IN: Baylen, the Haymaker
https://scryfall.com/card/blb/205/baylen-the-haymaker
[[Baylen, the Haymaker]] is very appropriately named. This card really is a haymaker.
While this deck is more of a mini token deck, usually aiming to make at least one token each turn rather than flooding the board with them, Baylen is still a fantastic addition.
Being able to tap two tokens for mana makes it much easier to activate [[Leonardo, the Balance]]. Baylen also works nicely with some of the other commanders.
[[Donatello, the Brains]] automatically gives you two tokens whenever you make one, which feeds Baylen nicely. It also pairs well with [[Raphael, the Muscle]]. You can repeatedly activate Baylen’s last ability to stack counters and then swing in for massive damage.
Unfortunately, the way damage doubling and trample interact means it isn’t quite as explosive as it first looks.
For example, imagine you attack with an 8-power trampling Baylen, your opponent blocks with a 4-toughness creature, and you have [[Raphael, the Muscle]] on the battlefield.
You still have to assign 4 damage to the blocking creature. The remaining 4 damage then tramples over to the player. That damage would then be doubled to 8 damage on both the creature and the player.
Even though it looks like you have “16 damage” available, you can only assign 8 damage before the doubling occurs. That’s simply how the rules work with trample: you must assign lethal damage to blockers before any doubling effects apply.
OUT: Tokka & Rahzar, Unsupervised
https://scryfall.com/card/tmc/28/tokka-&-rahzar-unsupervised
[[Tokka & Rahzar, Unsupervised]] is really a card designed for [[Splinter, the Mentor]]. If you are using Splinter as your commander, feel free to leave this one in.
However, if you’re not running Splinter, it doesn’t fit the deck nearly as well. The deck doesn’t have many reliable ways to trigger the effect yourself.
Instead, you end up relying on your opponents to trigger it for you, which is almost always going to happen at the worst possible moment.
Giving your opponents that level of control isn’t something we really want to be doing.
Upgrade 7
IN: Rosie Cotton of South Lane
https://scryfall.com/card/ltr/27/rosie-cotton-of-south-lane
From one Universes Beyond set to another, we have [[Rosie Cotton of South Lane]].
You will normally see this card paired with [[Scurry Oak]], as the two form an infinite combo. You’re welcome to add that if you like, but do note it will likely push the deck into Bracket 4 territory.
By herself, Rosie is perfectly fine and fits nicely with the deck’s plan. She creates a token when she enters the battlefield, which immediately triggers your commanders.
After that, whenever another token is created, you get to put a +1/+1 counter on another creature. This lets you go tall on a single creature, whereas [[Leonardo, the Balance]] tends to push the deck wide. That gives you the best of both worlds.
This also works particularly well with [[Michelangelo, the Heart]] or [[Raphael, the Muscle]].
OUT: Leatherhead, Iron Gator
https://scryfall.com/card/tmc/30/leatherhead-iron-gator
[[Leatherhead, Iron Gator]] has a powerful effect, but at seven mana I would hope so.
I prefer the version of this effect that [[Rosie Cotton of South Lane]] provides. While technically weaker, Rosie only costs three mana, which makes a huge difference.
Rosie also triggers [[Leonardo, the Balance]], unlike Leatherhead. On top of that, Rosie triggers whenever any token enters the battlefield, whereas Leatherhead only works when you attack.
Because of that, Rosie can actually end up generating more counters overall.
At seven mana, I would rather be casting something that acts as a true game-ending effect. For example, for just one more mana you could play [[Craterhoof Behemoth]], which is a far more powerful finisher.
Upgrade 8
IN: Inspiring Call
https://scryfall.com/card/lcc/244/inspiring-call
[[Inspiring Call]] is another staple in +1/+1 counter decks. It provides both protection and card draw.
Normally, counter decks struggle a little because they tend to go tall, stacking all their counters on one creature, usually the commander. But [[Leonardo, the Balance]] naturally pushes this deck to go wide instead.
That means Inspiring Call can draw you a lot of cards while also protecting your entire board from removal.
It’s a great way to refill your hand while keeping your army safe.
OUT: Fast Forward
https://scryfall.com/card/tmc/24/fast-forward
[[Fast Forward]] is an interesting idea for a card, but I don’t think this is the right deck for it.
The deck has no real synergy with goad. The card is essentially doing exactly what its name suggests—fast-forwarding the game by encouraging your opponents to attack each other and lower life totals.
This feels like a card that probably should have appeared in the Blame Game precon instead.
While Fast Forward doesn’t do nothing, it also doesn’t really do enough to justify a slot in this deck.
Upgrade 9
IN: Second Harvest
https://scryfall.com/card/soi/227/second-harvest
[[Second Harvest]] is possibly a win-more card, but the price has dropped enough that I can include it in these upgrade guides.
When I say win-more, I mean it’s a card that really only works when you’re already ahead. It helps you win even harder, but it does require some setup.
That’s because Second Harvest needs you to already have a board full of tokens. If you don’t, the card literally does nothing.
Unlike many token decks though, Turtle Power! produces non-creature tokens as well—namely the Mutagen tokens. These are much more likely to be left alone, as people rarely use targeted removal on them.
This means you can suddenly double your Mutagen tokens and potentially pull off a surprise alpha strike.
The other big bonus is that Second Harvest is an instant. That means you can create tokens at the perfect moment, triggering [[Leonardo, the Balance]] and completely changing the attacker/blocker math.
OUT: Mole Module
https://scryfall.com/card/tmc/40/mole-module
[[Mole Module]] is another card that feels a little out of place in this deck.
Similar to [[Fast Forward]], it technically works as a card but doesn’t really synergise with the main strategy. It feels more like a generic inclusion.
Turtle Power! doesn’t have any graveyard synergies, so the only thing Mole Module really does is help cheat on mana.
However, you already have to sacrifice an attacker just to crew it. On top of that, it isn’t even a creature by default, meaning it won’t receive counters from [[Leonardo, the Balance]].
It also doesn’t create tokens, which is another reason I’m cutting it.
Upgrade 10
IN: Ooze Flux
https://scryfall.com/card/gtc/128/ooze-flux
My final card is [[Ooze Flux]]. This is quite an old card now, originally printed in Gatecrash back in 2013.
It’s a card I actually thought might already have been in the deck, as there is a small Ooze sub-theme present. But since it isn’t, that means we get to add it ourselves.
This is exactly the type of card we want. At instant speed we can create a token, and importantly it’s a creature token. That means it immediately benefits from [[Leonardo, the Balance]].
The activation cost is {1}{G} and removing one or more counters. In practice though, it’s effectively just {1}{G}, because the counter you remove will usually be replaced by Leonardo’s trigger.
OUT: Roadkill Rodney
https://scryfall.com/card/tmc/41/roadkill-rodney
[[Roadkill Rodney]] is my final cut. Like many of the other cards I’ve removed, it simply doesn’t fit the main theme of the deck.
That said, it isn’t a bad card. I just think [[Ooze Flux]] does the job better.
Rodney requires a lot more work to generate tokens, as it needs to connect with a player. The Squad ability and deathtouch do help it get through, as you can create multiple copies and opponents often don’t want to block a deathtoucher.
However, defensively it’s really only a speed bump at best.
It can also only create tokens on your turn, whereas other cards in the deck can produce tokens much more easily and at better times.
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Non-budget Upgrades
These cards were outside the budget for this article, but they fit the deck extremely well and are worth considering if you’re happy to spend a little more:
https://scryfall.com/card/moc/35/uncivil-unrest
https://scryfall.com/card/otj/211/kambal-profiteering-mayor
https://scryfall.com/card/tmt/121/michelangelo-weirdness-to-11
https://scryfall.com/card/fdn/216/doubling-season
https://scryfall.com/card/rna/22/smothering-tithe
https://scryfall.com/card/ecc/19/springleaf-parade
https://scryfall.com/card/tdm/11/elspeth-storm-slayer
https://scryfall.com/card/mh3/322/ocelot-pride
https://scryfall.com/card/mkc/213/koma-cosmos-serpent
https://scryfall.com/card/mom/198/ozolith-the-shattered-spire
Final Thoughts
Considering we’re only getting one commander deck for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Turtle Power! has definitely lived up to expectations.
Wizards even included a reasonable mana base for a five-colour deck, with excellent reprints like [[Spire Garden]] and [[Undergrowth Stadium]].
When it comes to new cards, they really packed them in. Outside of the land base, there aren’t actually that many reprints. But I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing. It’s also a great way to print some stronger cards that might be too powerful for Standard.
With the number of commander options available in this deck, I would recommend picking a pair and building around them. While most of the options do link together, focusing on one or two main strategies will make the deck much stronger.
For example, are you aiming for huge combat swings with [[Raphael, the Muscle]], or a more aristocrats/blink strategy with [[Splinter, the Mentor]]?
Once you decide on that direction, it becomes much easier to power up the deck further. You can remove cards that don’t quite fit the theme and replace them with more synergistic options.
This has been a little tricky for me while writing this guide, as I’ve tried to keep the upgrades fairly generic so they work with any commander pairing. That’s why I leaned more heavily into the +1/+1 counter strategy. But if you want, you could absolutely build the deck in a much more dedicated way around a specific pair.
If you're looking to pick up some Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, commander decks, booster boxes or anything Magic: The Gathering, why not support us right here at Gathering Games.
PS: All card prices were under budget at the time of writing. The dynamic price may have changed since then.
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