Commander blueprint · Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

How to build Splinter, Radical Rat

Splinter makes each triggered ability of a Ninja creature you control trigger twice, and for two mana he lets one Ninja through unblocked. So this build picks each Ninja for what its trigger does the second time, and leaves the 2/4 rat at home holding that mana up.

Art by Manuel Castañón

A Ninja with nothing to trigger gets nothing from him

The doubling counts triggers, not Ninjas, and that is the first thing that decided this list. Silver-Fur Master and Splinter, Hamato Yoshi each give your other Ninjas +1/+1, and neither is here. Both of those are static abilities, so they do exactly as much beside Splinter as they would in any other Ninja deck, and the same is true of Phantom Ninja, Throatseeker and Blade-Blizzard Kitsune. Ninjutsu is skipped as well. It is an ability you activate from your hand, so Splinter never repeats the swap. What he repeats is the ability of whichever Ninja the swap puts onto the battlefield.

The same test lets in cards that are not printed as Ninjas. Changeling makes a card every creature type, so to Splinter a changeling is a Ninja. Graveshifter returns two creature cards from your graveyard to your hand as it enters instead of one. Flock Impostor has flash and flying and returns up to two of your other creatures to your hand, which is a second cast of Elektra, Daughter of the Hand or Splinter, Aging Champion. Unsettled Mariner counters a spell or ability an opponent aims at you or your permanents unless they pay , and with two instances of that trigger they have to pay twice. Changeling Outcast has no trigger at all and is here as a one-mana attacker nobody can block. Sakashima's Student reaches the same place from the other side: it enters as a copy of any creature with Ninja added to its types, so whatever that creature does on entering, it does twice.

His goes on the attacker you are about to send home

Ninjutsu and sneak share a price, an unblocked attacker returned to your hand, and Splinter's second line is how you make sure there is one. Use it after attackers are declared and before blockers, on the cheapest Ninja in the attack, then trade that Ninja in during the declare blockers step for the one whose trigger you want twice. The new creature enters tapped, attacking and unblocked. So the always lands on a body that deals no damage that turn, and that is the right target for it. Fallen Shinobi by ninjutsu is more, which makes the whole play six mana with two blue in it.

Four cards here get there without paying him. Changeling Outcast cannot be blocked, Kaito Shizuki's −2 makes a 1/1 Ninja token that cannot be blocked either, Thousand-Faced Shadow flies for a single blue mana, and Rogue's Passage does his job for any creature at . Once a turn is going well, Higure, the Still Wind gives every Ninja the same ability at with no blue in it, and each time Higure connects it searches your library for two more Ninjas.

The trip back to hand is worth something too. Splinter, Aging Champion is a different card that shares his first name, and a Ninja in its own right. It destroys up to two tapped creatures when it enters, and when it leaves, you and another player each draw a card, twice. So returning it to pay for ninjutsu draws you two cards, and recasting it later kills two more tapped creatures, which on your turn usually means the ones that attacked last time round. Elektra kills two creatures with power 3 or less each time she arrives. Turncoat Kunoichi is the exception to keep on the battlefield. Cast normally, it holds two opposing creatures in exile only until it leaves, so sending it home gives them both back. Cast for its sneak cost, the exile is permanent and it is free to go.

Fallen Shinobi plays four cards off someone else's library

Repeating a trigger pays most on the ones that take something from the player who was hit, because each instance takes its own share. Fallen Shinobi has that player exile the top two cards of their library, and you may play them this turn without paying their mana costs, so a second trigger is four cards. A land among them can only be played if you have not played one this turn, so the spells are the part to count on. Silent-Blade Oni looks at the hand of the player it hit and lets you cast one spell from it for free, and the second trigger casts a second one. Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni and Shark Shredder, Killer Clone each put two creature cards from that player's graveyard onto the battlefield under your control, and Shark Shredder's arrive tapped and attacking the same player.

The removal on these bodies works the same way. Throat Slitter destroys two nonblack creatures the damaged player controls and Mistblade Shinobi returns two of their creatures to hand. Each instance chooses its own target as it goes on the stack, which is what makes the second one useful: point the two at different creatures, never both at one, or the second has nothing left to hit when it resolves. Silent-Blade Oni is the dear one to set up. Its ninjutsu is , so with Splinter's activation in front of it the turn costs eight mana, and it is the only card in the ninety-nine that costs seven.

The trigger has to belong to the Ninja, so Bident of Thassa draws once

He only repeats an ability that a Ninja creature has. Bident of Thassa, Coastal Piracy and Reconnaissance Mission each draw a card when one of your creatures connects, and all three are artifacts or enchantments, so the trigger is theirs and happens once. An Aura like Curiosity is the same, and so is any Equipment whose text starts with the equipped creature dealing damage. That is why every repeatable draw in this list is printed on a Ninja.

Ingenious Infiltrator is the best of them. Its trigger fires when any Ninja you control deals combat damage to a player, and the ability is the Infiltrator's own, so every Ninja that connects is two cards. Ninja of the Deep Hours, Moon-Circuit Hacker and Oroku Saki, Shredder Rising each draw two when they connect themselves, and the Hacker skips its discards on the turn it came in by ninjutsu. Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow puts the top card of your library into your hand twice for each Ninja that gets through, and each opponent loses life equal to each card's mana value. The deck's curve is low, so that drain is a bonus rather than the plan. Donnie & April, Adorkable Duo is the slower version for a turn with no attack in it: five mana to draw four.

Kaito, Bane of Nightmares is the trap pointing the other way. On your turn he is a 3/4 Ninja creature, but everything he does is a loyalty ability that you activate, so there is nothing for Splinter to repeat. He is in the list for his ninjutsu and the 0 ability that surveils 2 and then draws a card for each opponent who lost life this turn.

Roaming Throne naming Ninja makes every one of these three

Roaming Throne is a 4/4 for four that has you choose a creature type as it enters and makes each other creature of that type you control trigger an additional time. It does not stop Splinter from working and Splinter does not stop it. Each one adds an instance, so with both out and Ninja named, Fallen Shinobi exiles six cards, Ingenious Infiltrator draws three for every Ninja that connects and Graveshifter returns three creature cards. Naming Ninja makes the Throne a Ninja too, so Splinter's can get it through, though it has no trigger of its own for anyone to repeat.

Distant Melody asks for a creature type as well, and Ninja is the answer there for the same reason. It draws a card for each permanent you control of that type, so the changelings, the Throne and every token copy of Mist-Syndicate Naga all count toward it. The Throne also has ward , which makes removal aimed at it cost two more. That matters on the one creature here, Splinter aside, whose loss takes a whole instance of every trigger with it.

Shredder, Shadow Master halves a life total twice

When Shredder, Shadow Master attacks a player, it makes a token copy of itself attacking each of your other opponents, and those tokens are sacrificed when combat ends. Splinter doubles the attack trigger, so at a four-player table each of the other two opponents faces two copies, and five 5/5 bodies are in the attack. Every copy is a Ninja carrying the original's second ability, and each one that deals combat damage has that player lose half their life, rounded up, twice. A player on 40 who takes 5 from one copy goes to 35, then 17, then 8. Two copies at the same player put them on 1.

The copies enter before blockers, so they can be blocked, and this is where Splinter's ability earns its mana as a finisher rather than as setup. Each activation makes one more copy unblockable, so spend it on the two attacking the player closest to dead. Dark Leo & Shredder does the halving on a smaller body: every time it connects it makes two 1/1 Ninja tokens, and once you control five Ninjas that player loses half their life twice as well. Krang & Shredder makes each opponent exile cards from the top of their library until they hit a nonland card, twice when it enters and twice each time it attacks. Its end step trigger then casts two of those cards for free on any turn a permanent left the battlefield under your control, and returning an attacker for ninjutsu counts as one leaving.

Mist-Syndicate Naga becomes three Nagas, then nine

Mist-Syndicate Naga makes a token copy of itself when it deals combat damage to a player, and each copy carries the same trigger. With Splinter that is two copies per hit, so one Naga that connects is three, and three that connect on the next turn are nine. The tokens arrive in the combat damage step, so they attack the turn after they are made. A 3/1 is easy to block, which is the job of Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive. She makes every creature you control with power or toughness 1 or less unblockable, and a Naga's toughness is 1. So is the toughness of Moon-Circuit Hacker and Oroku Saki, and Thousand-Faced Shadow, Mistblade Shinobi, Yuriko and Dark Leo & Shredder all have 1 power. Thousand-Faced Shadow is the fastest way to start the count. Put it in by ninjutsu while a Naga is attacking unblocked, and its trigger, twice, makes two token Nagas that enter attacking after blockers are chosen. Three Nagas connect and six more arrive.

That is why this list has no Ninja lord. Silver-Fur Master would give each of those +1/+1 and take every one of them out of her reach. Kaito, Bane of Nightmares' +1 emblem does the same to every Ninja for the rest of the game, so leave that mode alone while Tetsuko is on the battlefield or about to be.

He casts off white or black, and his ability only takes blue

Splinter costs . Each hybrid symbol takes white or black, so two Plains cast him, two Swamps cast him and so does one of each, and 27 of the 35 lands make one colour or the other. The colour he cannot do without is the one he does not cost. His is blue, and so is every ninjutsu cost on a blue Ninja here, which is why blue has the most sources: 27, against 24 for black and 22 for white. A single blue mana is there by turn two 93% of the time. Two blue by turn three is the shakier number, at 76.4%, and the cards that ask for it (Counterspell, Higure, Sakashima's Student, Silent-Blade Oni) can all wait a turn. Black's double pips sit on creatures that cost four to seven, with Elektra and Shark Shredder, Killer Clone the cheapest of them, and no card in the ninety-nine asks for two white at all.

The core list

Splinter, Radical Rat and ninety-nine more, twenty-eight of them Ninjas by print and four by changeling, for about $581 on a bracket 3 floor. Hover over any card name to see it.

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Most of the money is in the lands, so the budget rung starts there

The budget rung is eighteen swaps, and eight of them are lands. Marsh Flats, Polluted Delta and Flooded Strand, the three battlebond lands, Otawara, Soaring City and Raffine's Tower come out for gain lands, reveal lands, Evolving Wilds and Arcane Sanctum, while the shocks and checklands stay. That costs speed rather than colour, since four of the lands now come in tapped every time, against one before. The other ten swaps are spells. The three Game Changers go, Esper Sentinel goes, and Roaming Throne goes with them, so every trigger still happens twice and none of them three times. Sakashima's Student becomes Omni-Changeling, which copies a creature the same way and gives the copy changeling, so Splinter still counts it, and convoke lets the Ninjas already out help pay for it. Irregular Cohort makes two changeling tokens as it enters and Changeling Wayfinder puts two basic lands in your hand. Kaito, Cunning Infiltrator's +1 makes one of your creatures unblockable and loots, which covers some of what Higure did. Fallen Shinobi, Shredder, Shadow Master, Mist-Syndicate Naga, Ingenious Infiltrator and Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive all stay, and they are the plan, so the cheaper list plays the same game a turn or so slower.

The bracket 4 rung is about doing all of it sooner. Mana Vault, Chrome Mox and Ancient Tomb put Splinter down on turn two with spare on turn three, and Demonic Tutor and Vampiric Tutor find whichever of Fallen Shinobi and Roaming Throne the hand is missing. Mystical Tutor can only find an instant or sorcery, and here that includes Splinter's Technique, which finds anything. Force of Will and Teferi's Protection keep him on the battlefield through the turn that matters, and The One Ring and Smothering Tithe pay for the rest. The ten cards they replace are the slow ones, among them two mana rocks, Krang & Shredder, Silent-Blade Oni and Donnie & April, Adorkable Duo. Thirteen Game Changers put it at a table that expects Shredder, Shadow Master halving life totals on turn four, and at no other.

FAQ

Does Splinter, Radical Rat double ninjutsu and sneak?

No. Ninjutsu is an ability you activate and sneak is a cost you pay to cast a spell, so neither one is a trigger. What Splinter repeats is a trigger on the Ninja that arrives. Elektra, Daughter of the Hand cast for her sneak cost still destroys two creatures as she enters, and a Fallen Shinobi put in by ninjutsu still exiles four cards when it connects.

Does Splinter, Radical Rat work with changelings?

Yes. A changeling is every creature type, so it is a Ninja creature for his first ability and a legal target for his second. Graveshifter, Flock Impostor and Unsettled Mariner are in this list because their triggers happen twice beside him, and Changeling Outcast is here as an attacker nobody can block.

Does Splinter, Radical Rat double Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow?

Yes, while Yuriko is on the battlefield under your control. Her trigger belongs to her and she is a Ninja, so every Ninja of yours that deals combat damage to a player makes her reveal a card and drain twice. That counts her own hits and every copy Mist-Syndicate Naga makes.

Does Splinter, Radical Rat double the trigger on an Equipment or an Aura?

No. A trigger printed on an Equipment, an Aura or any other noncreature permanent belongs to that permanent, even when the text is about the creature it is attached to. Splinter only repeats triggers that a Ninja creature has, so Bident of Thassa and Curiosity still draw one card a hit beside him, where Ingenious Infiltrator draws two.

What bracket is this Splinter, Radical Rat deck?

Bracket 3 as written. Rhystic Study, Fierce Guardianship and Cyclonic Rift are on the Game Changers list, and three is as many as bracket 3 allows. The budget rung takes all three out, along with Roaming Throne and the expensive lands, and leaves no Game Changers at all. The bracket 4 rung goes the other way, to thirteen, with Mana Vault, Chrome Mox and three tutors among the ten cards it adds.

How much does a Splinter, Radical Rat deck cost?

About $581 for the hundred cards here, with each one at the cheapest paper copy on sale today. Rhystic Study, Fierce Guardianship and Esper Sentinel are the three dearest cards in it. The budget rung brings the list down to about $105 and the bracket 4 rung takes it up to about $1,315.