Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has been around a long time. I remember seeing the live-action movie in the theaters with my motley crew of friends in 1990 (the same group which would become my first group of Magic: The Gathering players). I was immediately drawn to Raphael.

Cool But Rude

Raph is cool. He's snarky, passionate, emotional, hard on himself, and cares a lot about his friends. I share some qualities and aspire to many of the others. So, when we found out about the TMNT set, I immediately stuck a flag in Raphael.

There are six different card versions of Raphael, and rather than choose just one and build a deck, I thought it might be fun to look at each one individually. I'm going to do two things: suggest a Bracket for each deck, and suggest a batch of cards which should work well to create a deck in that Bracket with Raphael at the helm. Sound like fun? Cool..

Common - Raphael, Tough Turtle

Raphael, Tough Turtle is, let's be honest, a great card in Limited. You get a decent early blocker with a relevant ability at nearly every step of the game. Because Limited runs on Creatures, that extra damage over and over can be quite relevant.

As a Commander, though, we run into some trouble. In order to kill a single opponent, we'd have to have 40 Creatures enter the Battlefield; that only gets harder the more opponents we have. So, it's going to be...

Bracket 2

Bracket 2 is for decks that try to win, but do it casually, slowly, without optimization. Raphael, Tough Turtle is great for this. We can have a core strategy and back it up with some synergy.

The Deck's Core

A deck like this probably wants to make a lot of Creatures, and Tokens will be your best bet. You want cards which make at least two Creatures per card, like Krenko's Command. Goblin Negotiation can remove a threat while simultaneously using extra mana to make even more Creatures. Siege-Gang Commander makes four Creatures and/ gives us a sacrifice outlet to do even more damage.

Synergy

Doubling up on Raphael's ability with something like Impact Tremors, which will actually hit all your opponents with each Creature that Enters, will be quite helpful. But we can care even more about Creatures Entering - First Day of Class gives each of our Entering Tokens +1/+1 and grants Haste, perfect for a turn with a bunch of Creatures Entering at the same time. And Symmetry Matrix lets us turn excess mana into more cards, a great way to keep gas flowing to your Hand.

Uncommon - Raphael, Most Attitude

Now we're talking. Raphael, Most Attitude gives us a decently-sized Commander with relevant evasion in Menace. He leans into Tough Turtle's ability, caring about Creatures Entering, but instead of doing damage, we can choose to Exile the top card of our Library. Then we can Attack with him and get access to those Exiled cards. Card advantage, a decently-sized built-in threat, and we've got ourselves a decent deck possibility. Going to be...

Bracket 2

While we do have a decent Power level on the Commander, and we get access to more cards, it's not super-charged. There might be a Bracket 3 deck in here, but this deck is tailor-made for a fun Voltron deck. Again, we'll have a core set of effects and some synergy.

The Deck's Core

We probably want to suit Raph up with Auras and Equipment. Embercleave gives a Power boost, plus Double Strike and Trample, that turns Raph into a formidable threat. Draconic Destiny is a way to use mana to make him more powerful. And Elemental Mastery lets us use Raph to make a bunch of other Creatures, each one can give us access to another card.

Synergy

A deck like this will need a lot of mana. Mana rocks which add value later, like Hedron Archive tapping for and sacrificing later for extra cards, are going to be worth a lot. If you get them early, they help Raph cast more cards when he Attacks, but if you draw them later they still have value. Seething Song and other rituals like it can help give a burst of mana to pay for spells. Meanwhile, World at War giving an extra Combat step (plus another one next turn with Rebound) will add a lot of value. It lets us play more cards from Raph and hurries our opponents along to their death.

Rare - Raphael, the Nightwatcher

One of my favorite cards for swarm decks in is True Conviction. All our Creatures gain Double Strike and Lifelink for six mana. Raphael, the Nightwatcher doesn't do quite half of that, but he does it for cheaper and he is a Creature himself. There's a solid Bracket 2 deck here, but I think I'd build this one for...

Bracket 3

Built tight, with solid ramp and synergy, we've got a pretty lethal deck that can explode pretty quickly. The goal is going to be one of two things: either flood the board with Tokens or slam out a few huge drops and hammer hard. I think I'd go the second route, since we get so many wonderful options. Our Attacking Creatures will be the core of our deck.

The Deck's Core

The center of this deck will be Creatures with high Power and, preferably, Haste and some kind of evasion. Ball Lightning and its little siblings Spark Elemental and the like are great here. We get lots of power for very cheap. Combined with other Power boosts, cards like this can make another player dead quite quickly. Territorial Hellkite gives us six Flying Power for 4 mana, which is a heck of a deal. Even if we have to attack someone random since it'll hit for 12. Thunderblust is a lot of Power for five mana, plus we get to bring it back one more time should it die.

Building for Bracket 3, we want as much Power for as little mana as possible. On the other hand, you could do some more expensive Creatures with wilder abilities (something like Boarding Party, with its six power for six mana that Cascades) which will slow things down enough to push into Bracket 2.

Synergy

If we're going big Creatures with Double Strike, we're going to need to get them through and buff them up. Trailblazer's Boots giving the Equipped Creature nonbasic Landwalk is a cheap way to give a large Creature effective unblockability, but it's also a way to get something through so we can Sneak in Raph. Brute Force, the Red color-shifted Giant Growth, and its ilk (any Instant which gives a big Power boost) can take something from "ouch" to "I'm dead."

Great Train Heist lets us use our mana lots of different ways, like giving our whole team +1/+0; or, we can take another Combat step, which works with Double Strike beautifully. A deck like this will be incredibly explosive, and with careful resource management will come out of nowhere to kill an opponent.

Mythic - Raphael, The Muscle

There are three options here. Let's start with this one.

Raphael, the Muscle isn't the best Mythic by himself, but Character Select means he can partner up with any of the other turtles, Splinter, the Mentor, or April O'Neil, Live on the Scene. (Character Select is a limitation on the Partner mechanic, meaning you can only choose Partners who also have Character Select.)

Because this Raph doubles damage done by Creatures with counters on them, most of the other cards with Character Select put counters on thing (April is the one exception, since she makes Clues). The obvious thing is to Partner him up and work the synergy. However, if you were going to build him by himself (and I do love building Partner decks with no Partner), it'll be...

Bracket 2

The key to this is going to be making dudes and putting counters on them. The trick will be combining them.

The Deck's Core

Creatures which put counters on themselves or other things are going to be premium choices here. By doing it this way, you don't have to dedicate too many slots to support that aren't also threats - an Instant which puts counters on things is great but requires you have the thing out there to put a counter. Taurean Mauler and Frontline War-Rager both put counters on themselves, the Mauler when an Opponent casts a spell of any kind, and the War-Rager when we end the turn with at least two tapped Creatures. Thundering Raiju puts a counter on something else when it Attacks.

Synergy

We need to punch our heavy-hitters through. Archetype of Aggression makes sure we can Trample through whatever defenses await us, and Magmatic Chasm limits our opponents' ability to Block. Coin of Mastery turns our Artifact ramp into counters on Creatures we cast, immediately doubling their Power thanks to Raph.

Mythic - Raphael, Tag Team Tough

Raphael, Tag Team Tough, with its Menace and extra Combat Step when he does Combat Damage, seems pretty powerful until you remember he's six mana. I could go through the process again, but honestly, to build this deck to attempt to win is going to look a lot like Raphael, the Nightwatcher or Raphael, Tough Turtle - go all in on lots of little Creatures or a few big ones and take advantage of the extra Combat. Build in more, smash hard, and have fun with it. However, I think this would be my choice for...

Bracket 1

...and I wouldn't use him as the Commander.

I'd run Heroes in a Half Shell and build a deck with all the Turtles, Splinter, April, Bebop, and all the other characters we know and love from the series. That'd be great fun and certainly would demonstrate one's love for the series.

Mythic - Raphael, Ninja Destroyer

Raphael, Ninja Destroyer is where we diverge from "play a bunch of Creatures." We get a 4/4 for four mana, but more importantly, he has to be blocked if able, and whenever he's dealt damage, we get to add that much to our mana pool, and we get to keep it until the end of our turn. I see a combo deck at...

Bracket 3

This deck will have two cores.

The Deck's Cores

The first core is Nemesis Mask. This piece of Equipment makes it so Raph can't be chumped because the Equipped Creature must be blocked by all Creatures able to do so; he's going to be Blocked by everything that Opponent has. We really want this card, so we're going to run ways to get it. That includes Reckless Handling, which lets us search for an Artifact card, put it in our Hand, then discard at random, and Myr Retriever, which gets an Artifact back from our Graveyard in the event it winds up there.

The second core is the payoffs, and they need to be massive. X spells are huge here, allowing us to use every bit of mana we get when Raph gets Blocked. Commune with Lava is a nifty one because we can use part of our mana to look at the top cards of our Library, then the rest to cast the spells we reveal with it since it Exiles the top X cards of our Library and lets us cast them this turn. Crackle with Power, with its mana cost which does five times X damage to X targets, is a wonderful mana sink if someone lets us have, say, 30 mana or something. And Star of Extinction isn't an X spell but doing 20 damage to every Creature and Planeswalker should clear the board for us pretty well.

Synergy

As long as Raph is going to be taking a ton of damage, we may as well make it worth it. Darksteel Plate is one of several ways to give Raph Indestructible. Doing that will allow Raph to take all that damage and laugh.

Pain for All and Blazing Sunsteel are both ways to turn that damage around. Blazing Sunsteel takes the damage dealt to the Equipped Creature and lets us deal it to any Target. Pain for All deals that damage to each opponent. Effects like this will help make the game very difficult for your friends, but shouldn't make a Raph kill inevitable, which is (I feel) the big difference between Brackets 3 and 4.

Final Thoughts

There are so many Raphs and so many ways to build him! I hope today's thoughts have inspired you to try building around one of these cards. Each one has its own challenges and fun. Just remember: whichever one you choose, you have to be cool ... but rude.