Leonardo, the Balance and Splinter, the Mentor Commander Deck Tech

Leonardo, the Balance | Art by Inkognit

The upcoming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Universes Beyond Magic set features a new spin on the partner mechanic called Character select that enables you to run two commanders from the set so long as each have that same ability. Which means you've got each of the Turtles, plus Splinter, available for various team-ups.

Today I'm doing a five-color deck tech featuring Leonardo, the Balance and Splinter, the Mentor as the partner commanders!

What Do Leonardo and Splinter Do?

Whenever a token you control enters, Leonardo, the Balance has a triggered ability where you may put a +1/+1 counters on each creature you control; note this trigger is limited to once per turn. This means ideally you'll want to wait to cast Leo when you'll be creating a token so you can take advantage of that trigger right away.

Leo's activated ability involves one of each color, which means the deck has access to all colors, and you'll want to at least be able to generate each color shortly after casting Leo so you can activate it.

And that ability is sweet: All your creatures gain menace, trample, and lifelink until end of turn. And since two of those three are only helpful for attacking, I want the deck to be attacking early and often!

Splinter, the Mentor is built to be that sort of early attacker; for just two mana and menace you'll be able to get in attacks when opponents don't have two or more blockers available. More importantly, Splinter has a triggered ability that creates a Mutagen token whenever a creature you control leaves the battlefield.

Hey, that's a token for Leo's triggered ability! Now we just need to figure out a way to have creatures you control leave the battlefield, preferably without dying in combat. You know what's perfect for this? The ninjutsu ability that many Ninja cards have!

Key Cards for Leonardo and Splinter

So, we're running a five-color Ninja deck. First things first: Where are all my ninjutsu fellows?

Nashi, Moon Sage's Scion and Fallen Shinobi are powerful and fun Ninjas, but if you primarily play over webcam, you might want to swap them out since they're awkward to play that way, as they deal with other players' libraries.

Thousand-Faced Shadow is an excellent early play since it's a one-mana creature with flying and usually able to attack unblocked, returning to your hand to ninjutsu another Ninja onto the battlefield tapped and attacking. And then Shadow's own ninjutsu ability can be really good later in the game.

Silent-Blade Oni is also a little awkward to resolve in video gameplay, but still worth it. Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni's reanimating the best creature in an opponent's graveyard is an excellent way to diversify your threats, while Mistblade Shinobi is a potent way to dismantle someone's Voltron creature threat.

Moon-Circuit Hacker and Ninja of the Deep Hours are excellent ways to draw deeper into your deck, while Sakashima's Student can copy the best creature on the battlefield and still retain the Ninja creature type.

It's awesome that Satoru Umezawa gives any creature in your hand ninjutsu , which may end up discounting some of the higher cost ninjutsu abilities. Plus, its triggered ability is powerful card selection and draw.

Throat Slitter's combat ability is removal, while Mist-Syndicate Naga slowly grows an army of copies of itself.

Hey look, we can run a red Ninja! Yuffie, Materia Hunter can steal an opponent's Sol Ring, powerful Equipment card, or any other juicy noncreature artifact target.

Kappa Tech-Wrecker is Magic's original Ninja Turtle, and can occasionally pick off a problem artifact or enchantment by exiling it.

Coiling Stalker can add +1/+1 counters to one of your creatures that don't have one. Yeah, it's a little weird that the Turtle has deathtouch but the Snake doesn't.

Next I went looking for cards that care specifically about Ninjas, and the first one on the list is Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow - which has recently been removed from the Game Changers list! Yuriko makes an excellent surprise potential kill mechanism for the late game.

Silver-Fur Master boosts your Ninjas and makes ninjutsu abilities cost just a little bit less, which is awesome. Prosperous Thief generates a Treasure for each of the Ninjas that deal combat damage to a player, which can set up a big turn where you have multiple ninjutsu activations.

Ingenious Infiltrator gives card draw to all of your Ninjas that deal combat damage to a player. Smoke Shroud is a neat way to give one of your Ninjas evasion, and if it ends up in your graveyard, it's pretty easy to bring it back attached to a Ninja.

Any typal deck that can run Kindred Discovery should, but it's even crazier in a deck where your Ninjas are attacking and bouncing one and off the battlefield.

Rounding out the creature base, I went looking for other Ninjas, and it's easy to nab two more from TMNT: Donatello, Rad Scientist and Raphael, the Muscle. Donnie taps down three blockers and stuns them so you can push through Ninja damage, while Raph doubles the damage your creature with counters on them would deal.

Since we have access to all five colors, why not also run Heroes in a Half Shell? It has excellent keyword soup (Turtle soup?), and when your Ninjas deal combat damage you get to put a +1/+1 counter on them and draw a card. Cowabunga dude!

Super Shredder is another low-drop aggressive creature, and can quickly grow into a huge threat as permanents leave the battlefield.

Satoru, the Infiltrator is another potential card draw engine, while Changeling Outcast is both an enabler for ninjutsu and also counts as Ninja to trigger Ninja dealing damage triggers since it can't be blocked.

Phantom Ninja also can't be blocked, and Throatseeker gives lifelink to unblocked attacking Ninjas you control, which certainly helps with racing.

I wanted a few ways to return Ninjas with ninjutsu back to my hand to sneak back out attacking, which also trigger the commander Splinter, the Mentor. Spider-Sense is an excellent surprise way to do it, while Cunning Evasion and Crystal Shard are permanents that can do it over and over.

To further synergize with Splinter's triggered ability, I added Momentary Blink and Ghostly Flicker for some instant-speed trickiness.

Authority of the Consuls and Blind Obedience are excellent ways to make your opponents' defensive creatures slower to come online, perhaps getting an extra attack in with your Ninjas.

Turnabout and Cone of Cold are ways to help clear the path for attackers when the battlefield has gotten too clogged.

While the Mutagen tokens can be sacrificed to add +1/+1 counters, it does cost mana when the deck is already going to be mana-hungry with ninjutsu activations, and so some of them might be hanging around to sacrifice to a Deadly Dispute or a Lich-Knights' Conquest.

While most of the deck runs fine off blue, black, and white mana, I do want plenty of ways to access all five colors for Leo's activated ability, along with a handful of green and red spells.

The rest of the mana base is built to help ensure the primary three colors of the deck.

How Does This Leonardo and Splinter Commander Deck Win?

The deck is doing a lot of things on your own main phase, but I added Wilderness Reclamation so that you can still occasionally untap you lands to hold up crucial countermagic to avert disaster.

The deck gains advantage by dealing combat damage to players with Ninjas, so I've got Nanogene Conversion which can copy the best creature on the battlefield when you have good attacks - the dream of course is copying Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow since your copies aren't legendary.

Mirrorweave does a similar thing but at instant speed so it can be a big surprise out of nowhere. Bond of Discipline is the ultimate way to clear up a cluttered battlefield, and the lifelink should help mitigate any crack back attack.

Leonardo and Splinter Commander Deck List

Conclusion

While Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow is the classic commander for a powerful, combo-centric Ninja deck, I really like Leonardo, the Balance leading a fun, five-color Ninja typal deck that's more about incremental advantages and general shenanigans rather than combo finishes.

Once the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles set releases, I'm sure there will be even more cards that care about Ninjas we can pepper into the deck, and maybe cards with the sneak mechanic, like Raphael's Technique.

Sneak is clearly a spin on ninjutsu, but it's worded in such a way that it can be added to non-creature cards.

What cards would you add to a more chill, casual Ninja deck with access to all five colors? Which of the cards with partner - Character select would you pair up with Leonardo, the Balance?

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