The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Magic: The Gathering cards bring plenty of exciting tools for casual formats. From Commander to multiplayer variants like Type Four and Five-Color, several cards in the set have the potential to dominate a game.

In this article, we'll look at some of the strongest options for casual play across formats like Commander, Highlander, Peasant, and Pauper. I've been reviewing new sets for casual players for more than two decades, and this first list focuses on the most powerful and game swinging cards the set has to offer.

Let's get started.

20. Raphael's Technique

First on the list, Raphael's Technique, a Wheel effect for all players and it's optional. If you pay it straight, you will need but you can play it for half if you Sneak.

It's fine at six-mana and then isn't a feel-bad in multiplayer since if folks like their hand they don't have to Wheel. In fact, we have an entire genre called "Wheels" that this card fits right into.

19. Mutagen Man, Living Ooze

We've got a new token type in this set called Mutagens. You can tap them and sacrifice them at sorcery speed to permanently pump a dork with a +1/+1 counter.

The new token is what makes Mutagen Man, Living Ooze stand out. For X and , this Legendary 2/3 with Trample comes out. As an Enter the Battlefield, or ETB, trigger, he creates X Mutagens where X is what you paid.

On top of that, it makes all our artifact tokens cost one less to activate. That means if you tap out to cast it, you can immediately crack those Mutagens for free as soon as it hits the battlefield, piling counters onto it or spreading them around your board.

Pretty nice value in both directions. I'm sure you can see why this kind of mass X token maker made it into the first roundup.

18. Mona Lisa, Science Geek

The next standout is the three-drop 1/3 uncommon Mona Lisa, Science Geek, which taps for any color of mana equal to her power. That's ridiculously easy to abuse: in a Commander game, you can suit her up with a Rancor or another power pumper and suddenly her mana production gets insane.

She can also be a great little blocker, with a toughness of three and Reach.

Frog Butler & Transdimensional Bovine

These two fought hard for this spot, too. Frog Butler and Transdimensional Bovine are both mana dorks, too.

Frog Butler is a 1/1 with Deathtouch, and we can pay to give it Reach if we can afford it. Two-drops that fix your mana often make a big impact in formats like Standard, much like Sylvan Caryatid did. The Deathtouch keeps ground creatures honest in multiplayer, and giving it Reach makes it even nastier.

Finally, the three-drop 0/4 flying mythic rare Transdimensional Bovine always taps for 2 mana. Simple but powerful, mana is what fuels the biggest plays in the game, so these two had to be on the list.

17. Improvised Arsenal

This rude little Red Equipment win-con is next. Improvised Arsenal costs just and equips for just , which already feels bonkers and broken.

Once it's on a creature, they'll get +1/+0 for each Artifact we have, no matter if it's Great Furnace, Sol Ring or dorks like Solemn Simulacrum. On top of it all, we can make a copy of this repeatedly for five mana.

That's just diabolical in all of the places, am I right? I think so too.

16. Ice Cream Kitty

Similar to the Wheel, another beloved archetype at Kitchen Table or Commander spaces is Aristocrats; this strategy relies on sacrificing your own creatures to trigger other effects, like Blood Artist.

This card, Ice Cream Kitty, fits perfectly into the strategy. It's a 1/3 Artifact Creature that we can play for or . Once it's on the board, we can repeatedly pay to sac a creature or token and draw a card. The only real drawback here is that we can only do this as a Sorcery.

Another perk is that this little guy also counts as a Food, and a Mutant. This is exactly the kind of engine these decks need to function, and it slots easily into Tokens, Treasures, Aristocrats, and more.

15. Broadcast Takeover

Broadcast Takeover lets you take control of all artifacts until end of turn, untap them, and give them haste. We can play this Sorcery for just .

It's a lot like the game-winning Insurrection, though instead of stealing creatures, you're taking artifacts. That means you should be able to generate a ton from mana rocks, Treasures, Clues, Equipment, as well as the occasional creature like Steel Hellkite.

You also don't have to pay a whopping eight mana. That means you can set up mad mana or card drawing with Mind's Eye or The One Ring.

It's not always a guaranteed win like Insurrection, but it can absolutely swing the game in your favor and sometimes that's all you need.

14. Splinter's Technique

Splinter's Technique is a sorcery that can tutor any card to your hand, like Diabolic Tutor, but with an easier mana cost. It also has a sneak mode that lets you cast it for just two mana, which sounds a lot closer to Demonic Tutor at first glance.

That said, Sneaking him in is not as easy as it looks early in the game. You would need a one-drop on turn one that can attack and go unblocked on turn two, and that does not always line up when many early turns are spent playing tapped lands or setting up mana. Even casting this on turn three for a slight discount is not especially impressive.

In a duel, opponents will often have a creature to block, which makes the sneak cost even less reliable. Multiplayer gives you more chances to slip through unblocked, but it also leaves you more exposed and makes the tempo loss more noticeable.

This feels stronger than it actually plays, and while the upside is there, it is not quite as broken as it first appears.

13. Mikey & Don, Party Planners

Mikey & Don, Party Planners is a Simic () Legendary Creature. With a power and toughness of 3/3 and Ward 2, it's great for protection along with its abilities. It has all three kindred types in the set, and lets you cast Mutants, Ninjas, and Turtles from the top of your library, along with lands.

This is basically a kindred version of Future Sight that also lets you play lands from the top. As your creatures come down, they even grow with +1/+1 counters. Effects like this generate serious card advantage over time since you are casting from the top of your library instead of your hand.

I adore these types of cards so much that I think there's a Future Sight for Every Occasion. This is great to skate.

12. Madame Null, Power Broker

I had to include this baddie, Madame Null, Power Broker. For , we get a 1/3 Legendary Demon with Deathtouch. She's fine as a blocker, but what really stands out is her activated ability.

Whenever we play a creature, we can pay life equal to its power; if we do, we can add that many +1/+1 counters to that creature.

I'm sure you can see why she's here and this high, especially in Commander where you have 40 life and she can be your leader too, but even outside of that she is fine and dandy, just like candy.

11. Turtles Forever

Turtles Forever is a an Instant that costs to play. It's really strong.

When it's played, you get to choose four legendary dorks with different names from either our library or outside the game, like from your Sideboard. Your opponent chooses two to go to your hand, and the other two cards get shuffled back into your library.

It's essentially a White, legendary-focused version of Gifts Ungiven, the Blue spell that dominated multiple formats. It's better in some ways because if your opponent doesn't pick a specific card, it just gets shuffled back so you can get it later.

It's worse in other ways since you're limited to legendary dorks, and no graveyard shenanigans for recursion or flashback. Still, an enjoyable card.

10. Dark Leo & Shredder

Kicking off the top ten, we have Dark Leo & Shredder. This pair is a 1/3 that costs just . You can also Sneak it for the same cost.

This two-drop is a win-con for Ninjas, for sure. If this card is on the board, attacking Ninjas gain Deathtouch, to stop any chumps from blocking. When a player gets damaged, we create a 1/1 Ninja token in Black. Then, if we have five Ninjas out, the damaged player loses half of their life.

It's perfect for Commander and can hit the board incredibly fast. After our Ninjas clear blockers, Dark Leo & Shredder punishes any creature that dared to block with Deathtouch, and Sneak makes it even more likely to connect and generate tokens.

9. Tokka & Rahzar, Terrible Twos

Tokka & Rahzar, Terrible Twos seems kinda fun. It's a proper Rakdos two-drop, and can be paid with any combination of and . This card is a Legendary Creature with a 3/2 size, and can't be countered.

Menace also makes it even more broken, since it requires two creatures to block. And then as any player casts a spell with less than its mana value, we ding the caster for three life. This works great with everything from Affinity to the prevailing Sneak mechanic in the TMT set.

Just don't too add many of those to your own brew. Right?

8. Super Shredder

Super Shredder can be a totally evil card if you play it right. For , we can cast him. He starts as a 1/1 with Menace, but he has the power to grow exponentially.

Any time a permanent from any player leaves the Battlefield, Shredder will get a permanent +1/+1 counter on him. On top of that, the ability is not limited in any way.

That's not just yours, not just sacrificed or died, or even just once per turn. Fetch lands, a Commander dying, a card getting bounced, all cause it to trigger. Something getting exiled by Swords to Plowshares? That triggers too. That's nastier the more people are playing too, especially if we can use it to deal Commander damage. Bonkers good.

7. Renet, Temporal Apprentice

Next on my list, I have Renet, Temporal Apprentice. She's a 4/3 Legendary with Flash and a very unique Enter the Battlefield ability. On arrival, every other nonland permanent played this turn gets bounced.

That's great at the end of a turn when a player has dropped a few things, or against an unexpected attack with Haste. I adore this in Type Four, or Limited Infinity, too. Since Renet can arrive after some1-dropped their stuff no matter what it is, while also giving us a spell up on them, they cannot traditionally counter.

It's also a good answer in all places to someone who just made some tokens, too, which fits perfectly with the token-gen meta of this set.

6. Groundchuck & Dirtbag

Groundchuck & Dirtbag is another Legendary Creature, and this pair is an 8/8 with Trample. Not only is it win-con size, it's a great mana maker. Any time we tap a land, this card gives us an extra .

You can use this card in your Commander spot, or even tutor for it with Turtles Forever.

This little duo is awesome at beating and doubling our mana production. They obviously had to be high up on my first list.

5. North Wind Avatar

North Wind Avatar is an Izzet 5/5 Dragon Spirit with Flying, with a casting cost of . Like some other tutors I've included, this Dragon has an ETB ability that lets you put a card of your own from outside the game into your hand. Basically, a Wish on a stick. Your only restriction here is that it must be cast, not recurred or blinked.

Commander does not use Wishes, but other formats do, and they are very strong there. They have been restricted in formats like Five Color (for which I sat as Committee Member for years) and see play all the way up to Vintage, where this is especially strong.

4. Splinter, Radical Rat

Now, Splinter, Radical Rat. He's a three-drop Orzhov Legendary Creature; but he does have a Blue activated ability that effectively makes him Esper for Commander.

This rat has a feasible size, at 2/4, but because of his abilities, he's really strong. Any time one of our Ninjas triggered abilities goes off, Splinter copies it and triggers it one more time. That covers everything from ETB triggers to activated abilities, with no "once per turn" restrictions.

And that Blue activated ability I mentioned earlier? For two mana, again and again, we can make a Ninja unblockable, and with his doubling too, that gets out of hand fast. On a three-drop, as a Commander or in the 99, this guy is a nasty win-con with that copy ability.

3. The Last Ronin

The Last Ronin is the first in my top three. For , we bring out this Enchantment Saga. This card is so high for a very simple reason: on arrival, on Chapter I it sweeps the board of all creatures.

Sagas gain lore counters every turn. So, by turn four, you can Mill four and then bring one creature back from your graveyard to your hand. By Chapter three, we can grow it with a triad of counters and it gains Trample, Lifelink, and Indestructible until the end of the turn.

Because it's an enchantment, this sweeper is pretty easy to find when you need it. You can tutor it straight to your hand or even drop it onto the battlefield with things like Idyllic Tutor or Academy Rector, which makes setting up that Chapter I wipe very consistent. You can also just draw into it naturally in most builds and start applying pressure right away.

I do wish it made each player sacrifice their creatures instead since that would get around Indestructible, or any other tricks, without being as brutal as exiling everything. But, it's pretty good.

2. Michelangelo, Improviser

In my penultimate spot, Michelangelo, Improviser. This guy is a 4/4 that you can cast for or Sneak for . Even though he's pretty strictly Green, I had to place him this high because of his stellar combat damage trigger.

Whenever Michelangelo deals combat damage to a player, we can play another land, or even a Creature for free. Dumb stuff like this in the Command Zone, or anywhere on the table, that can drop free stuff is brokenly good. I'd say this card is in the leagues of Kaalia of the Vast or Narset, Enlightened Master.

You can get something back every time you swing, it's great. Now, all we need is a Rogue's Passage to keep up the annoying pain.

Of course, he is only one color but, if any color is going to break something like this with free value, it's Green. Please, do not run this guy, unless you're at cEDH-level tables.

1. Krang, Utrom Warlord

For number one, Krang, Utrom Warlord, a massive 9/9 for with four evergreen keywords: Flying, Trample, Indestructible, and Haste.

This feels like the perfect mashup of what my playgroup used to call "The Fundamental Enemies of Multiplayer": Akroma, Angel of Wrath and Darksteel Colossus.

Akroma costs and she is a 6/6 Flyer that is packed with keywords including First Strike, Vigilance, Trample, and Haste. On top of that, she is protected from Red and Black.

Then, the Darksteel Colossus is an on-curve 11/11 for with Trample and Indestructible, too. Being an Artifact makes it easy to cheat into play with cards like Tinker or other artifact tutors, and you can even fetch it alongside Akroma with Tooth and Nail. It's hard to stop that pair, often needing something strong enough to break through the protection and exile them, like Swords to Plowshares.

Krang, Utrom Warlord gives you the best of both worlds. He's easier to get out than Akroma because we can use any color. You can easily make this card so rough on your opponents, or even just give them a good smack.

Conclusion

And there we go! That's my first ranking of the top cards for casual play from the TMT set. Some of these sound like they could be formidable, or just plain fun, in many kitchen table formats, even Commander.

If you're excited to try them out, add them to your collection. I'll see you next week.