Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles makes its way into Magic early next year and with it comes a brand new partner mechanic for Commander. Introducing Partner-Character Select a mechanic closely related to the Friends Forever version of partner from the Stranger Things crossover. Any of these brand-new legends can be partnered together in the Command Zone as long as they both have Character Select, giving us a lot of different combinations to choose from. In this article, I am going to throw out a couple of ideas that stand out in my mind. This will hopefully get your gears turning onto what pairing speaks to you. Let's move along to the first partner pairing!

Michelangelo and Raphael - +1 Counter Aggro

This is the first pairing that jumped out to me. This Gruul Aggro engine seeks to put +1 counters on all your creatures and swing in for massive amounts of damage. Michelangelo, the Heart, is a low early game investment that will put a +1 counter on a creature if you attack. Raphael, the Muscle, doubles all damage from your creatures with +1 counters. He also enters and creates a Mutagen token which can put a +1 counter on something for only one mana. What cards immediately jump out for this build?

Bristly Bill, Spine Sower and Forgotten Ancient are the first two cards that should scream +1 counters in Green. These cards can start putting counters on your creatures immediately and Michelangelo has trample, making him a perfect target for all of these counters. Champion of Lambholt is always a staple in a deck like this. Managorger Hydra continues to cause terror even in the TMNT universe with Raphael.

Ouroboroid is the most ridiculous card for this strategy to come out in recent years. This unstoppable engine puts a massive clock on the game that gets even more sped up when your turtle Commanders hit the table. Vigor, Kalonian Hydra, and Quilled Greatwurm are the best ways to end the game with this legendary partner pair. If you enjoy swinging with massive creatures and burning your opponent's hopes and dreams to the ground give these radical turtles a try.

Splinter and Donatello - Artifact Aristocrats

Dimir Aristocrats has slowly been getting more and more tools in recent years. Splinter, the Mentor, and Donatello, the Brains, churn out a bunch of Mutagen tokens. These tokens sacrifice themselves to put a +1 counter on a creature you control at sorcery speed. Obviously, these aren't the best tokens in the world compared to treasure tokens, however, they still are something you can sacrifice to cards like Krark-Clan Ironworks. So how do you use sacrificing artifacts to your advantage?

Let's clear out the obvious right away. Marionette Master is the best card for this partner pair. Marionette Master drains an opponent of life equal to its power when an artifact leaves the battlefield. Sacrificing a Mutagen token will boost this creature's power and drain an opponent's life total, this card is a clear slam dunk. Stridehanger Automaton creates a flying Thopter token every time you create a token. Mirkwood Bats will drain your opponents each time you create or sacrifice an artifact.

The Animation Module goes absolutely bonkers in this shell. Each time a creature gets a +1 counter you can pay a mana to create a 1/1 Servo creature. Once that happens, Donatello will see it enter and create a Mutagen token. You can simply repeat this loop for as much mana you have. And unless I am misunderstanding something this would go infinite with a card like Krark-Clan Ironworks with the end result making your creatures infinitely large. You also can play a couple of ninja creatures like Prosperous Thief to generate some extra mana and trigger Splinter, the Mentor. If aristocrats are your style, I recommend messing around with this particular pair of Commanders.

Leonardo and Raphael - Token Go Wide

Leonardo, the Balance, is the strongest of these brand new TMNT partners. He puts a +1 counter on each creature you control whenever the first token enters each turn. Not only does he grow his entire team, he gives them all a bunch of different keywords if you pay all five colors. Combine this powerhouse with Raphael, the Muscle and you get an unstoppable team packed with turtle power. I guess all this deck needs is a way to churn out creature tokens each turn which should be fairly easy.

Adeline, Resplendent Cathar and Anim Pakal, Thousandth Moon are great token generators when going to combat. Tendershoot Dryad, Charismatic Conqueror, and Lotho, Corrupt Shirriff can generate a token each turn easily to help trigger Leonardo. Faerie Artisans is a super awesome piece of tech for this deck. It will copy your opponent's creature into triggers as well as trigger Leonardo growing your team.

Danny Pink is the best card draw engine for this deck as it draws an absurd amount of cards. Caretaker's Talent is also a powerful draw engine that can grow your team even larger. Moogle's Valor is an expensive protection piece, but creates a ton of tokens at instant speed. Herald of Secret Streams will give all your creatures unblockable. If you do not win with unblockable creatures that all deal double damage, something has gone horribly wrong.

These brand-new TMNT Commanders are incredibly powerful. There are so many other combinations you can mess with, but these were the ones that jumped out to me first. I really enjoy this form of Partner and I hope they continue to bring it back again and again.

See you on the battlefield!

-Nigel