Grab your skateboard and a slice of your favorite pizza because Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is officially right around the corner for Magic: The Gathering. The first glance of this set looks absolutely amazing and the legends feel totally radical and fun to brew with. So today, I am diving into the ooze to put together Bebop, Skull & Crossbones and Rocksteady, Mutant Marauder. These mutants are fresh on the scene to add to the ever-growing theme of +1/+1 Counters to Golgari (). If you are looking to cause some mayhem in your next game of Commander, look no further than this pair of knuckleheads.

Engines, Bursts, and Doublers

The goal of this deck is simple. We want to load up +1/+1 Counters on Bebop and swing in for massive damage and card advantage. Rocksteady helps us steadily grow Bebop for each nontoken creature that enters on our side of the battlefield, however, there are lots of other more efficient ways to grow Bebop's pool of counters. I have divided all of the cards that grow Bebop into engines, bursts, and doublers. Let me give an example of each so you can follow what I am laying down.

Engines are permanents that will steadily grow Bebop's counters over the course of the game. Rocksteady accomplishes this, but there are lots of options to pair with him. Forgotten Ancient essentially turns our boar friend into a Managorger Hydra.

Innkeeper's Talent, Fight Rigging, Maester Seymour, Ornery Tumblewagg, and Ouroboroid will all put counters on Bebop immediately the turn they enter play. This group of spells are essential to making sure Bebop grows consistently over the course of the game and making sure our hand is never empty.

Bursts are spells that, well, put a burst of counters on Bebop all at once. Increasing Savagery is the perfect example of a burst of counters. Five +1/+1 counters for only four mana is an amazing rate, especially when you factor in the card advantage Bebop grants us if we deal combat damage to our opponents.

Gift of the Viper is another spell that creates a burst of counters, but opens our minds up to a new possibility. Bebop's wording specifically is looking for any type of counter, and this can include keyword counters. Gift of the Viper puts three counters on our Commander for only one mana and can be used as a combat trick too. Silkguard and Agonasaur Rex are pieces of protection for Bebop that also grow his counter count.

Counter doublers have been around for a long time in Commander. I remember seeing Hydra's Growth for the first time in a Commander game and never forgetting it from then on. Ornery Tumblewagg, who I mentioned above, can also be used to double counters if he becomes saddled.

Visions of Dominance, Invigorating Surge, and Court of Garenbrig are all different spells that essentially fill a similar role. Doubling the number of counters at instant speed after no blocks are declared can lead to huge game shifting events.

Gravedigging for Spare Parts

Entomb and Buried Alive are present in this deck, however, there are zero Reanimate spells. Eternal Witness and a few other creatures are here to help bring crucial pieces back from the graveyard, but not a single card in the deck brings a creature straight into play from beyond the grave. So why include graveyard tutors? Tarkir: Dragonstorm holds the answer to this query.

Tarkir: Dragonstorm introduced Renew, a keyword that can be activated from the graveyard for a certain effect. Most of these effects gave keyword tokens to creatures. Alchemist's Assistant was an annoying piece from that Limited environment that fits perfectly into this list since lifelink is a keyword worth putting on a massive creature such as Bebop.

Since we can only activate Renew abilities from the graveyard, it makes sense to play a few cards that put them straight where we need them. Qarsi Revenant is another card from Tarkir: Dragonstorm I decided to include since, like Gift of the Viper, it can put three different counters on Bebop.

Scavenged Brawler is the coolest card that finally has a perfect home in this list and I can't wait to see someone's face when Bebop gains four +1/+1 Counters, flying, vigilance, trample, and lifelink in the same turn.

Glass Cannon Issue

So far, the only issue with this list is the same issue that many Voltron Commanders face, which is losing our huge stack of counters. If Bebop gets removed, we will have to find a way to rebuild all of those counters all over again. Now, some of the counter engines I mentioned above can be used to steadily grow him back up over time, but we might not have that many turns left in the game.

There are two main ways we can solve this problem. One, we can spread out the counters to some other creatures. Two, we can have layers of protection for our Commander.

There are some really awesome cards from Modern Horizons III that gain benefits whenever a counter is placed on them, and Emperor of Bones is my favorite of these creatures. This skeleton will be graverobbing from your opponents discards and deploying threats into play each time a +1/+1 counter is placed on him. If our hand is overflowing with cards thanks to Bebop, we can shift over to the Emperor of Bones to gain advantage.

Evolution Witness has a similar textbox to Emperor of Bones, but with a bit of referential twist. If you are familiar with Eternal Witness, this card is does exactly the same thing, but it gets to return a permanent from our graveyard to our hand each time a +1/+1 counter is placed on it. Our opponents will unfortunately remove some of our counter engines over the course of the game, and Evolution Witness is perfectly poised to help get them back.

Bristly Bill, Spine Sower is also an excellent way for us to restack counters in a hurry, with the added benefit of letting us grow each of our creatures with +1/+1 counters on them. So, I threw a few fetch lands into the list to get back with Evolution Witness to repeatedly trigger cards like Bristly Bill.

Protecting our Commander is a must, and Swiftfoot Boots fits perfectly on the feet of our mutant. Silkguard is a perfect synergistic inclusion that protects Bebop while also loading counters up on some creatures. Slippery Bogbonder puts a hexproof counter on our Commander at Flash speed and allows us to move all counters from our other creatures onto Bebop.

This is a perfect spell to be able to cast in response to a removal spell on the stack or as a combat trick.

The Ozolith is an auto include, of course, but I can see a world where it's not in this list, especially since it is a little expensive these days. There are lots of other interesting synergies lying in wait in the list, but I want to leave something for you to discover on your own.

Speaking of, here's my list.

Bebop and Rocksteady Bracket 3 | Commander | Nigel Kurtz

• Commanders (31)
• 1 Bebop, Skull & Crossbones
• 1 Rocksteady, Mutant Marauder
• 1 Agonasaur Rex
• 1 Alchemist's Assistant
• 1 Arbor Elf
• 1 Aveline de Grandpre
• 1 Bristly Bill, Spine Sower
• 1 Cankerbloom
• 1 Cleopatra, Exiled Pharaoh
• 1 Duskfang Mentor
• 1 Duskshell Crawler
• 1 Elves of Deep Shadow
• 1 Emperor of Bones
• 1 Eternal Witness
• 1 Evolution Witness
• 1 Forgotten Ancient
• 1 Fyndhorn Elves
• 1 Gilded Goose
• 1 Hornbash Mentor
• 1 Incubation Druid
• 1 Kodama of the West Tree
• 1 Maester Seymour
• 1 Ornery Tumblewagg
• 1 Ouroboroid
• 1 Birds of Paradise
• 1 Pridemalkin
• 1 Qarsi Revenant
• 1 Reclamation Sage
• 1 Scavenged Brawler
• 1 Slippery Bogbonder
• 1 Titanoth Rex

• Instants (11)
• 1 Archenemy's Charm
• 1 Assassin's Trophy
• 1 Entomb
• 1 Gift of the Viper
• 1 Inscription of Abundance
• 1 Invigorating Surge
• 1 Revitalizing Repast // Old-Growth Grove
• 1 Silkguard
• 1 Soul Shatter
• 1 Unexpected Fangs
• 1 Vastwood Fortification // Vastwood Thicket

• Sorceries (5)
• 1 Buried Alive
• 1 Gix's Command
• 1 Increasing Savagery
• 1 Synchronized Charge
• 1 Visions of Dominance

• Enchantments (16)
• 1 Agent of the Shadow Thieves
• 1 Case of the Trampled Garden
• 1 Court of Garenbrig
• 1 Curse of Predation
• 1 Earthbender Ascension
• 1 Eternal Thirst
• 1 Fight Rigging
• 1 Hardened Scales
• 1 Hollowmurk Siege
• 1 Hunter's Talent
• 1 Hydra's Growth
• 1 Innkeeper's Talent
• 1 Master's Guidance
• 1 Ordeal of Nylea
• 1 Sphere Grid
• 1 Utopia Sprawl

• Artifacts (5)
• 1 The Ozolith
• 1 Bone Sabres
• 1 Shadowspear
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Swiftfoot Boots

• Lands (32)
• 9 Forest
• 5 Swamp
• 1 Blooming Marsh
• 1 Captivating Cave
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Darkbore Pathway // Slitherbore Pathway
• 1 Escape Tunnel
• 1 Exotic Orchard
• 1 Fabled Passage
• 1 Hidden Hideout
• 1 Llanowar Wastes
• 1 Nurturing Peatland
• 1 Overgrown Tomb
• 1 Tyrite Sanctum
• 1 Undergrowth Stadium
• 1 Verdant Catacombs
• 1 Windswept Heath
• 1 Witch's Clinic
• 1 Wooded Foothills
• 1 Woodland Cemetery

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That wraps up my look at Bebop, Skull & Crossbones and Rocksteady, Mutant Marauder from the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle release. Even if you are not a huge TMNT fan, do not overlook some of these cards, as they are absolutely awesome.

See you on the battlefield!

-Nigel