Not every deck is a banger. This week when I was searching for a card to write about, I fell into a trap I've fallen into before. I'm not super into TMNT, so I've been avoiding the higher profile characters. That has led to me building a few decks around cards that might be better in the 99 than as a Commander.

For today's column I'll be exploring an idea, but the deeper I got into the build, the more apparent it became to me that the idea wasn't going to work nearly as well as I had hoped. The idea was to build something of a "prison" or "pain" deck, where I'd be forcing my opponents to hurt themselves by playing the game.

The card support in the Commander's colors wasn't as much as I had hoped it would be but let me walk you through the process I went through.

This Turtle Wolf Mutant is yet another instance where two characters are combined into one card. I could easily see myself building a Bracket 1 "Terrible Twos" deck with only cards that represent pairs of characters. That would probably need to be a five-color deck to include everything I'd want to run.

Tokka & Rahzar is a 3/2 with Menace. It can't be countered, and whenever a player casts a spell, if the amount of mana spent to cast it was less than its mana value, it deals three damage to that player.

That last part is what caught my eye. I started thinking of what it would be like to play cost reducers that would help everyone save mana on their spells so everyone would be taking damage for every single spell they cast.

Then I thought about ways to mitigate the damage to myself. A 3/2 with Menace isn't the worst starting point for a Commander to be a combat threat, so I could also throw in a few ways to present a voltron threat.

Big Savings in Aisle Two

The main driver behind my idea for this list was to play cards that let everyone either pay less or pay nothing for casting spells. The obvious problem with that plan is that I could end up inadvertently handing someone the game.

I took a long look at Urza's Incubator, an artifact that has you choose a creature type and casting those creatures costs two less for everybody. Incubator is a symmetrical effect, but not really because someone will have more of the chosen creature type than everyone else. I don't want to hand the game to the player on a kindred deck, especially if they're on something powerful like Dragons or Slivers.

With my Commander in play, casting a half dozen creatures might see them save 12 mana, take 18 damage, and establish a board presence that is powerful enough to just run away with the win. I did end up running Urza's Filter, a four-mana artifact that gives everyone a cost reduction of 2 mana on multicolored spells. That could still have an unbalanced effect on the game, but at least I wouldn't risk handing anyone a huge advantage.

I ended up finding a handful of other cost saving cards to play in this list. It isn't as much as I had hoped for, but it's a start.

Helm of Awakening is exactly the kind of card this list wants to be playing. When Helm is in play, spells cost one generic mana less. That's all. It costs two mana, so it's easy to play early in the game. It could help one of our opponents, but that's the risk you take when you play a deck like this.

Possibility Storm is one of my favorite enchantments ever printed. Once it's out, whenever a player casts a spell, they exile it and reveal cards from the top of their library until they reveal a card that shares a card type with it. They may cast the revealed card without paying its mana costs or exile it. They have options, so a player at two life doesn't have to cast the spell and immediately eliminate themselves.

Possibility Storm can also be a headache but I've always enjoyed the minigame you end up playing when that Red enchantment is in play. Everyone tries to cast the lowest mana value spells possible in hopes of flipping into something much better. They also might play instants and sorcery spells in hopes of flipping into enchantment removal but, with Possiblity Storm, nothing is guaranteed. Sometimes you get lucky.

What I really want are ways to force players to cast spells at a reduced cost. Omen Machine is an interesting answer to this problem, though it may be a little salt-inducing for some players. This six-mana artifact prevents players from drawing cards.

At the beginning of each player's draw step, that player exiles the top card of their library. If it's a Land it goes into play. If it's a nonland, the player casts it without paying its mana costs if able. That last part just means you can't break the rules. For example, a spell with a target can't be cast if there are no valid targets in play.

Omen Machine also causes turmoil because it takes agency away from players. If you have a huge army and you reveal a boardwipe, that's too bad. You must cast the spell.

Fearful Symmetry

William Blake famously wrote about "fearful symmetry" in The Tyger, and that idea applies surprisingly well to symmetrical effects in Magic. If your deck is dealing damage to the entire table, you need a plan for surviving that same damage yourself.

These "pain" decks hurt everyone and make for faster games, but they also put your life total low enough that your tablemates may well take their lumps until they can easily remove you from the equation. Sometimes removing a player is easier than removing a problem on the battlefield.

Lifelink is going to be the main way this deck is going to try to mitigate any damage that gets pushed out by Tokka & Rahzar. If my Commander is equipped with one of these Artifacts, I'll gain three life every time someone takes damage for casting a spell for free or with any cost reduction at all.

Here's how:

• Basilisk Collar gives Lifelink and Deathtouch.
• Loxodon Warhammer gives +3/+0, Trample and Lifelink.
• Shadowspear gives +1/+1, Trample and Lifelink.

I'm also running Resurrection Orb, a two-mana equipment from 40K that gives Lifelink and will bring the equipped creature back into play at the beginning of the next end step if it dies.

I've got a few cards that will have me gain life when an opponent loses life. These won't help me when I'm taking damage from my own Commander, but they will help when Tokka & Rahzar ding my opponents for three for the sin of casting spells at a reduced cost.

Exquisite Blood will simply have me gain life when an opponent loses life. It famously combos with Sanguine Bond and a few other cards, but I'm not running those combo pieces in this list. Bloodthirsty Conqueror is also in the mix. It's a 5/5 Vampire Knight with flying and Deathtouch that has that same effect while it's on the board.

This might seem like a great plan, but it's already looking like a lower powered deck, and I don't tend to run tutors in lower Brackets. What that means is simple - my clever plan may sometimes come together.

Still, there will be plenty of games where I don't draw into any cost reducers, don't find any ways to give Tokka & Rahzar Lifelink, and I have to find other ways to impact the game. That's not a big deal. Having a few different play patterns in a deck makes it more interesting and we're already going down a familiar path.

House of Pain

I'm already playing a Commander that dishes out damage for doing a very common thing in Magic - reducing costs. I might as well lean into that theme. There are a lot of cards in Black and Red that cause damage or life loss for things you do as a normal part of playing.

Cards that reliably push damage out are a must for any pain deck. Roiling Vortex deals one damage on each player's upkeep, and if anyone casts a spell without paying mana, it will ding them for five damage.

Redundancy for your Commander's main ability is important in any EDH deck, so this Enchantment was an auto-include.

Kaervek the Merciless is a wonderful card to pair with Possibility Storm. This 5/4 Human Shaman will trigger whenever an opponent casts a spell. All it does is deal damage equal to the spell's mana value to any target. Cost reduction won't reduce the damage it does, and Possibility Storm potentially gives two cast triggers for every card cast from a player's hand.

The Lord of Pain is one of the main Commanders from the Duskmourn: House of Horror "Endless Punishment" precon deck, and it fits nicely into this list. This Human Assassin is a 5/5 with Menace and some great abilities.

When this Lord is on the table, my opponents can't gain life, and whenever a player casts their first spell each turn I'll choose another player and it deals damage equal to that spell's mana value to that player.

I'm also running a bunch of other cards that push out damage for drawing cards, having creatures enter play, and even casting noncreature spells. Looking over the list. the focus is on card draw more than anything else but, that may be a result of playing with a friend who goes a bit overboard in his card draw to the point where it has become a bit of a running joke in our playgroup.

I'm running a handful of Rakdos () staples in Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls, Kardur, Doomscourge, and a few other cards that fit in nicely but aren't super exciting. I definitely found myself wondering why someone would build Tokka & Rahzar, Terrible Twos when they could just pick up the Endless Punishment precon, make a few upgrades, and have a very strong starting point for this strategy.

The answer to that question is an interesting one. Valgavoth is very strong for a precon deck, so you might want a deck for lower powered play. You might also love Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles so much that you care more about that IP than about a weird horror-themed Magic set. To some players, Duskmourn may not feel any more like Magic than TMT does.

Who knows? Maybe your great aunt Hilda was part Turtle Wolf Mutant and playing Tokka & Rahzar makes you think fondly of childhood. Everyone is going to find their own reason to build a deck. There are already over 400 lists on EDHRec for this Commander so, someone out there was excited to take it on.

Terrible Twos

I have to admit, the idea of that Bracket 1 deck full of only Creatures and cards with two characters represented has stuck in my mind. I'd be able to name the deck "Terrible Twos," but I wouldn't have been able to use Tokka & Rahzar as the Commander and building around them was my point this week.

I do wish there was more support for pushing cost reduction out to my opponents and for giving my Commander Lifelink. I might have missed a few cards but in building this deck I really didn't see either of those options in the quantity I would have liked.

Still, I think this should be an entertaining list for causal tables with room to upgrade if you want to make it more degenerate.

Tokka & Rahzar, Terrible Twos | Commander | Stephen Johnson

• Commander (1)
• 1 Tokka & Rahzar, Terrible Twos

• Creatures (25)
• 1 Blood Seeker
• 1 Bloodthirsty Conqueror
• 1 Fate Unraveler
• 1 Gleeful Arsonist
• 1 Goldspan Dragon
• 1 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1 Harvester of Souls
• 1 Kaervek the Merciless
• 1 Kardur, Doomscourge
• 1 Kederekt Parasite
• 1 Massacre Wurm
• 1 Mogis, God of Slaughter
• 1 Morbid Opportunist
• 1 Pilgrim's Eye
• 1 Pitiless Plunderer
• 1 Rakdos, Patron of Chaos
• 1 Razorkin Needlehead
• 1 Scrawling Crawler
• 1 Skittering Surveyor
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Solphim, Mayhem Dominus
• 1 Stormfist Crusader
• 1 The Beast, Deathless Prince
• 1 The Lord of Pain
• 1 Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls

• Instants (6)
• 1 Chaos Warp
• 1 Darkness
• 1 Deadly Rollick
• 1 Rakdos Charm
• 1 Wild Magic Surge
• 1 Withering Torment

• Sorceries (6)
• 1 Blasphemous Act
• 1 Blood Money
• 1 Damnation
• 1 Exsanguinate
• 1 Feed the Swarm
• 1 Toxic Deluge

• Enchantments (7)
• 1 Exquisite Blood
• 1 Havoc Festival
• 1 Phyrexian Arena
• 1 Possibility Storm
• 1 Revel in Riches
• 1 Roiling Vortex
• 1 Spiteful Visions

• Artifacts (18)
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Basilisk Collar
• 1 Blackblade Reforged
• 1 Cranial Plating
• 1 Cranial Ram
• 1 Fellwar Stone
• 1 Helm of Awakening
• 1 Knowledge Pool
• 1 Lightning Greaves
• 1 Loxodon Warhammer
• 1 Mask of Avacyn
• 1 Omen Machine
• 1 Rakdos Signet
• 1 Resurrection Orb
• 1 Shadowspear
• 1 Swiftfoot Boots
• 1 Talisman of Indulgence
• 1 Urza's Filter

• Lands (37)
• 13 Mountain
• 13 Swamp
• 1 Blazemire Verge
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Dragonskull Summit
• 1 Exotic Orchard
• 1 Foreboding Ruins
• 1 Graven Cairns
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Smoldering Marsh
• 1 Tainted Peak
• 1 Witch's Clinic

Buy This Deck Export text

To tune this list down, you could drop out some of the pricier cardboard and lean into playing more cards that deal damage directly to your opponents. Playing the deck at least once will help you determine what direction to take.

I could see myself throwing in a bunch of Deathtouch blockers if I were seeing a ton of aggro decks in my playgroup. I could also see myself leaning into a creature type like Demons, or maybe Turtles and Wolves if I really wanted to get silly with my theme.

To make this list more competitive, you'd probably want to run some tutors and the combo pieces that fit in so nicely with Exquisite Blood. The idea of having Helm of Awakening and my Commander in play and holding the table hostage is an entertaining one.

You could set it up so that if anyone cast a spell, the cost would be reduced, Tokka & Rahnar would deal damage, and they would kick off the Exquisite Blood / Sanguine Bond loop. It's an outlandish idea for a deck, but with the tutor and all the combo pieces you might be able to pull that off.

Early Results

I was able to get this list into a game with my Thursday night Tabletop Simulator playgroup. I was up against a new player on a mono-black Vampires deck led by Drana, Liberator of Malakir, Xyris, the Writhing Storm, and a very casual Ur-Dragon list.

I think that last deck was built around playing only cards with a mana value of nine. The deck's pilot had been play-testing a different deck but wanted to match the lower power that this group usually tries to play at, so they switched up at the last minute.

Tokka & Rahzar was able to push out a total of nine damage through early attacks and another nine damage from players casting spells at a reduced cost. The real heavy hitters in the game were Solphim, Mayhem Dominus and Kaervek the Merciless, which let me push a ton of damage out during the mid game.

Everyone except the Ur-Dragon player was able to do stuff, and the Xyris player pushed out a hefty amount of damage with some janky cards that punish players for having a lot of cards in hand.

I was able to play my Commander on turn two and a Swiftfoot Boots a turn after that, but my deck was having me draw roughly two lands for every one nonland. I got lucky, as I drew into Kaervek, the Merciless, had Boots out to protect him, and also drew into Soliphim, Mayhem Dominus, which would double my Kaervek damage.

At a few points I was able to keep players from playing spells because I had enough Kaervek damage to kill them just to keep their spell from resolving.

We are a very casual group, so in a few instances I let the Drana player pull a spell back when I simply could have used it to kill them rather than see it resolve. I didn't have all that much in play, but my board presence was pushing damage out, at one point a boardwipe seemed out of the question.

In the end it came down to one of those situations where I probably could have won if I had used Kaervek damage to kill the Drana player and then take my chances with the other guys. I had been trying to avoid using Kaervek to ding players for their own spells.

When you play Kaervek, you absolutely want to encourage everyone to cast spells, so if folks just assume they'll be the target it works against what you're trying to do. I ended up dinging the Xyris player to bring them low enough for Drana to kill them, and I used Kaervek damage on Drana's turn to kill the Ur-Dragon player, who had not done much all game.

He knew he was probably on the weakest deck but he had been coming off a run of weeks where he was drawing tons of cards and being a constant threat, so I think he was giving us a break. I'm sure he'll be back with a more powerful deck for us to play against next week.

That newer player on the mono-black Vampires deck ended up taking the game. They were at 10 and I only had a way to get five damage through with a Rogue's Passage. They simply had enough power on board, and I didn't draw into anything even vaguely helpful to let me close out the game when it was just down to us two.

Final Thoughts

One of the problems with cards that rely upon opponents to do stuff in order to push out damage is that once they have a strong enough board presence, they can simply choose not to do that stuff.

If you're a big fan of TMNT, you are in the market for the kind of deck that can make for faster games and a lot of damage flying around, Tokka & Rahzar might be just for you. There are a ton of Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls decks out there, so maybe something fresh and new would be more entertaining than playing yet another upgraded Duskmourn precon.

That's all I've got for today. Thanks for reading and I'll see you next week!