I had a buddy in my local playgroup approach me and ask if I could help him build a brand new Commander deck. He's a giant Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fan, so he wanted me to see if I could build him an awesome Heroes in a Half Shell list. He tends to veer somewhere between Bracket 2 and 3 and wanted me to make him a stronger deck than he's used to.

Say less.

We've got an awesome Five-Color Heroes in a Half Shell list for you today that sits right in the heart of what Bracket 3 decks should be doing. We're not trying to win with early two-card combos. We're playing up to three Game Changers. Most of all, we're playing as efficiently as possible without breaching into Bracket 4 and 5. Here's the list so you can follow along.

Heroes in a Half Shell Commander | Commander | Matt Newnam

• Commander (1)
• 1 Heroes in a Half Shell

• Creatures (44)
• 1 Agent Frank Horrigan
• 1 April O'Neil, Live on the Scene
• 1 Baxter, Fly in the Ointment
• 1 Birds of Paradise
• 1 Changeling Outcast
• 1 Cloudfin Raptor
• 1 Colossal Skyturtle
• 1 Dark Leo & Shredder
• 1 Deadpool, Trading Card
• 1 Delighted Halfling
• 1 Don & Leo, Problem Solvers
• 1 Evolution Witness
• 1 Fallen Shinobi
• 1 Higure, the Still Wind
• 1 Jenova, Ancient Calamity
• 1 Kogla and Yidaro
• 1 Krang & Shredder
• 1 Michelangelo, Improviser
• 1 Michelangelo, Weirdness to 11
• 1 Mikey & Don, Party Planners
• 1 Mikey & Leo, Chaos & Order
• 1 Mutagen Man, Living Ooze
• 1 Nashi, Moon Sage's Scion
• 1 Nashi, Searcher in the Dark
• 1 Orochi Soul-Reaver
• 1 Prehistoric Pet
• 1 Prosperous Thief
• 1 Rampaging Yao Guai
• 1 Raph & Leo, Sibling Rivals
• 1 Raph & Mikey, Troublemakers
• 1 Raphael, the Muscle
• 1 Raphael, the Nightwatcher
• 1 Ray Fillet, Wave Warrior
• 1 Sakashima's Student
• 1 Shark Shredder, Killer Clone
• 1 Silver-Fur Master
• 1 Splinter, Radical Rat
• 1 Super Shredder
• 1 Taeko, the Patient Avalanche
• 1 Thousand-Faced Shadow
• 1 Turncoat Kunoichi
• 1 Wolverine, Best There Is
• 1 Yuffie, Materia Hunter
• 1 Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Kaito, Cunning Infiltrator

• Instants (5)
• 1 Mutational Advantage
• 1 Swords to Plowshares
• 1 Teferi's Protection
• 1 Turtles Forever
• 1 Worldly Tutor

• Sorceries (3)
• 1 Coalition Victory
• 1 Farseek
• 1 Splinter's Technique

• Enchantments (4)
• 1 Branching Evolution
• 1 Hardened Scales
• 1 Sphere Grid
• 1 The Cloning of Shredder

• Artifacts (5)
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Chromatic Lantern
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 The Ooze
• 1 The Ozolith

• Lands (37)
• 1 Plains
• 1 Island
• 1 Swamp
• 1 Mountain
• 1 Forest
• 1 Abundant Countryside
• 1 Arid Mesa
• 1 Blood Crypt
• 1 Bloodstained Mire
• 1 Breeding Pool
• 1 Cavern of Souls
• 1 City of Brass
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Exotic Orchard
• 1 Flooded Strand
• 1 Godless Shrine
• 1 Hallowed Fountain
• 1 Karn's Bastion
• 1 Mana Confluence
• 1 Marsh Flats
• 1 Misty Rainforest
• 1 Multiversal Passage
• 1 Overgrown Tomb
• 1 Polluted Delta
• 1 Reflecting Pool
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Sacred Foundry
• 1 Scalding Tarn
• 1 Starting Town
• 1 Steam Vents
• 1 Stomping Ground
• 1 Temple Garden
• 1 Turtle Lair
• 1 Verdant Catacombs
• 1 Watery Grave
• 1 Windswept Heath
• 1 Wooded Foothills

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The Turtles

We're gonna go backwards on the titular name, starting with our shelled friends. We're going to have some cards here that also fall under Ninjas and Mutants, but this section is going to focus specifically on the turtles.

We cannot talk about turtles without first starting with our commander, Heroes in a Half Shell. It's a 5/5 for with Vigilance, Menace, Trample, and Haste. On top of that, it has a great triggered ability for combat that will make your Mutants, Ninjas, and Turtles bigger when they connect along with drawing a card. To clarify the wording for those that might not understand, you make each creature bigger, but only draw one card, not one card per creature.

Starting with the youngest and silliest, we have Michelangelo. He fights with nunchuks and wears orange. In Magic, Michelangelo, Weirdness to 11 and Michelangelo, Improviser both live in Mono-Green land, with Weirdness to 11 helping to double our counters and Improviser helping to cheat in creatures and lands.

Next up is the Turtles' power, Raphael, the Muscle, paired with Raphael, the Nightwatcher. It's fitting that these are both Mono-Red, since Raph wears a red mask. Raphael, the Muscle doubles damage that creatures with counters deal (which our Commander provides and Michelangelo, Weirdness to 11 doubles) and Raphael, the Nightwatcher doubles our attacking creatures' damage by giving them double strike. All this doubling makes sense, considering that he wields dual sai (or jitte in his Magic iterations).

We combine Raphael and Michelangelo into Raph & Mikey, Troublemakers, our most expensive turtle, which cheats in creatures by bringing them in attacking, all while being a hasty trampler itself.

Crossing over to my personal favorite turtle, we have Mikey & Don, Party Planners featuring Donatello, the brains of the group who uses a bo staff. Mikey & Don plays into Michelangelo's creature synergy by letting us play lands, Mutants, Ninjas, and Turtles from the top of our deck, making them bigger if we cast creatures that way. Donatello is obviously the Blue-based turtle here and leads into the leader, Leonardo.

Leo wields dual katanas and wears a blue mask, despite being a White Magic card. He has the most pairings in this deck with Don & Leo, Problem Solvers, Raph & Leo, Sibling Rivals, Mikey & Leo, Chaos & Order, and even Dark Leo & Shredder. Each one of the paired up cards from TMNT are all powerhouses, I recommend checking all of them out.

Finishing out turtles with our Universes Within shelled friends, we have Colossal Skyturtle for some Channeling value, Kogla and Yidaro for large removal or utility card draw, and Taeko, the Patient Avalanche (who is also a Ninja) for another turtle that gets bigger with counters and can also make others unblockable.

The Ninjas

Man, a Five-Color Turtles deck really has a lot to talk about, huh? We've got a whole clan of ninjas here, courtesy of mostly TMNT and various Kamigawa sets.

Starting with our non-Ninjutusu/Sneak Ninjas, we have Nashi, Searcher in the Dark who will draw us tons of creatures, TMNT's flagship villain Super Shredder who can get massive in a few turn cycles, and Splinter, Radical Rat, the Turtles' adoptive father who doubles all of our Ninjas' triggered abilities. Turncoat Kunoichi uses the new Ninjutsu-esque ability, Sneak, to exile creatures for a relatively low cost and Shark Shredder, Killer Clone does something that Ninjas do well and steals creatures.

Moving on to Ninjutsu, we've got a bunch, so let's go rapid fire here.

Silver-Fur Master is a lord that makes things cheap. Prosperous Thief makes Treasures. Nashi, Moon Sage's Scion yoinks cards. Yuffie, Materia Hunter yoinks Sol Rings. Fallen Shinobi double yoinks cards. Orochi Soul-Reaver creates Treasures and yoinks cards. I'm sensing a theme here, are you?

Higure, the Still Wind is probably our best Ninja, letting us search for other Ninjas. Sakashima's Student will clone and become a Ninja, and cEDH all-star, Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow will draw a bunch of cards and burn our opponents for their costs.

Whew!

The Mutants

All right, time to finally slow it down and talk about Mutants. Universes Beyond has given us lots of Mutants, between Fallout and Secret Lair: Marvel.

Agent Frank Horrigan is our endgame titan that will Proliferate all of our counters from Heroes in a Half Shell on ETB or on attack. Rampaging Yao Guai lets us destroy tons of artifacts enchantments, including all of our opponents' treasures and zero-cost artifacts for free.

Wolverine, Best There Is will grow fast and deal tons of damage and Deadpool, Trading Card is probably my favorite utility piece to slot in a deck for the entire format.

Jenova, Ancient Calamity keeps getting better and better with more Mutants being printed because this beautiful, meteoric, calamity of the skies (where are my Final Fantasy VII lovers) draws cards equal to the power of a dying Mutant. Finally, Cloudfin Raptor will help trigger our Commander early at a low cost, along with Changeling Outcast, so they earn the slots.

Change the Game

It's worth noting that we have quite a high creature count. Due to mechanics like Ninjutsu and Sneak, we have lots of interaction

For our Game Changers, we've chosen two Creature centric cards and one win condition. Worldly Tutor will be great anytime we're drawing with our Commander by giving us whatever we need (and we have 44 different options for it) and Teferi's Protection will protect us from board wipes once we've built our board up.

To give us another win condition, I've included Coalition Victory. Fresh off the banned list, I think this card has a great home here. We're not trying to win with it and we're probably not tutoring it with our only tutor (Splinter's Technique), so if we win with it, it's just by chance that we both drew it and also fulfilled its hefty requirements. I'd argue that's exactly what you want a Game Changer to do.

Wrapping Up

I appreciate you coming with me on this deck-building journey. My buddy is super excited for this. I sent him the list and I'm excited to take it on once he's finished it. Give it a shot if TMNT is your vibe!