Upgrading Commander Precon: Turtle Power! (Heroes in a Half Shell)

If you once thought about playing a five-color deck but didn't know where to begin, this precon is for you.

In this article, we'll show you how to upgrade Turtle Power, the new Commander precon released in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Its main commander is Heroes in a Half Shell, and all cards in the list we'll show you were printed or reprinted in this set.

At the end of this article, we'll show you an alternative list with Leonardo, the Balance and Michelangelo, the Heart as the main commanders.

Let's start with them, our commanders!

Before we begin, let's get one thing straight.

This deck can play many different commanders (you'll see them soon). According to Wizards of the Coast itself, Leonardo is the main one.

Our goal with this article was to only use the cards from this set, so we decided to keep Heroes in a Half Shell in the command zone. This card represents all the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and it is an excellent commander for this deck, particularly if you want to stick to the theme.

The second list we'll show you plays Leonardo and a partner as the commanders.

Heroes in a Half Shell has vigilance, menace, trample, and haste. When one or more Mutants, Ninja, and/or Turtles you control deal combat damage to a player, you may put a +1/+1 counter on each of them and draw a card.

A commander that draws cards is always welcome, particularly with all of these keywords. But it does cost lots of different mana, so it has its cons.

Other commander options are Leonardo, the Balance and a Partner - Character select. This ability lets you use two commanders in this deck as long as both of them have it.

As you need five colors in the command zone, Leonardo will always be the single character all pairings play. This mechanic is an excellent way to be creative and play in many different ways without changing the original list too much. It is also quite similar to the Doctor Who precons and Doctor's Companions. Regardless of what you use as a commander, they'll always give you +1/+1 counters so that you can set up powerful attacks.

This is what you get straight out of the box:

Let's explore some cards that come in this deck and show you how you can upgrade it. Keep in mind that this first list only plays cards from the Teenate Mutant Ninja Turtles set.

Buffs

Heroes in a Half Shell will grow your Mutants, Ninjas, and Turtles when they deal combat damage. Nonetheless, this list plays many other cards that buff your creatures.

Please note that these cards are already in theme: many of them reference videogames, like High Score and Special Move. Vigor, an MTG classic, is also present.

Cards We Can Add

Raph & Leo, Sibling Rivals are fun and give you an extra combat phase, which the original precon doesn't do.

Cards We Can Remove

Creating Mana

Many players described this mana base as the best ever released in a precon. It includes cards like City of Brass, Spire Garden, and Undergrowth Stadium (these last two should come in all Commander precons), so they clearly put a lot of love into it.

The original list has 39 lands and the following cards to get them or create more mana:

Cards We Can Add

We'll add two mana dorks that were released in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles standard set and that create mana in any color (which is excellent for five color decks).

Besides these cards, we also added the tutor from this set, Turtles Forever.

Cards We Can Remove

Krang, the All-Powerful is interesting and has potential in other lists, but in this one it is a bit inefficient. We're removing it to add better cards.

To open space for Turtles Forever, we removed Rain-Slicked Copse.

Card Draw

The original precon comes with lots of card draw.

Cards We Can Add

This Selesnya {{w}] duo is perfect in this list. It draws an extra card for you when you put counters on a creature you control.

Cards We Can Remove

Rat King, Pale Piper is cool, but it isn't a Mutant, Ninja, or Turtle. It could have space in a Rat deck or even alongside Ayara, First of Locthwain, but in this Heroes in a Half Shell list, it doesn't make a lot of sense.

Tokens

As the original commander, Leonardo, the Balance, does something when tokens enter your side of the board, this deck plays cards that interact with this mechanic, such as:

Cards We Can Add

Michelangelo, Weirdness to 11 goes really well with Leonardo and Heroes in a Half Shell.

Cards We Can Remove

Fast Forward is pretty fun and interactive, as it discounts costs and Goads enemy creatures. However, it has nothing to do with this deck's main mechanic. With a little bit of luck, your opponent will attack with everything they have and won't have to block your attacks.

Burn

Burning the opponents' life points and their creatures is also an option for this list.

Cards We Can Add

All Will Be One was reprinted in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle subset set, PZA. So, we can use this new version and still stick to the theme.

Cards We Can Remove

Recursion

The original list plays:

Continue? is one of the most interesting cards in this precon, and we'll certainly see it on casual pods.

Cards We Can Add

Cards We Can Remove

One More

To get more counters and tokens, we recommend you use Doubling Season, which was also reprinted in the PZA subset.

We'll remove Acidic Slime to open space for it.

Alternative List: Leonardo, the Balance + Michelangelo, the Heart

Leonardo, the Balance's ability triggers once per turn when a token enters your board. We decided to use Michelangelo, the Heart with it, as it creates tokens and gives you counters as long as you attack first.

We left the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle theme aside and added:

Turtle Power is definitely valuable. Its mana base is incredible (considering other 5-color precons), and it is an excellent alternative for players that want to start playing Commander or explore different commander combinations.

What do you think? Tell us your thoughts in our comment section below.

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!