The Top 5 Best Pauper Cards from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles set is upon us and with it a plethora of new cards. What I personally want to delve into, however, are cards of the common rarity, since they might expand the competitive pool of Pauper.

In today's piece, I will showcase 5 cards that, in my opinion, stand out the most - in no particular order. Let's get into it!

Raphael, Tough Turtle

The first card I want to talk about is Raphael, Tough Turtle. It very closely resembles a card already played in Pauper - Molten Gatekeeper.

There is a world in which Raphael is adopted in a similar capacity, as it has some unique advantages compared to Molten Gatekeeper. First, it's not an artifact which dodges anti-artifact cards like Annul or Dust to Dust. Second, its baseline cost is two mana, which makes it more easily castable. Last but not least, it's Legendary, which is a unique perk, as Cast Down is a prolific removal spell in the format.

While Gatekeeper sees most play in graveyard decks and there the Unearth part is crucial, Raphael might slot into those decks as maybe an additional copy, or be played in different decks entirely - such as strategies relying on Rally at the Hornburg.

Food Cards

This is a group of cards, tied by two important card types, namely Artifact and Food. Rather than focus on potential Affinity synergies, I'd like to draw everyone's attention to the decks that utilise Cauldron Familiar.

These types of combo decks want to reanimate Cauldron Familiar as many times as possible, all while draining 1 life out of the opponent. Thanks to Ashnod's Altar, we can keep sacrificing the Cat for mana, spend that mana on Food-type artifacts, bring back the Cat, and rinse repeat. If I were a player of such decks, I'd always be on the lookout for potential new Food cards.

Omni-Cheese Pizza is basically a Golden Egg that already sees play in those strategies.

Ice Cream Kitty (a cat!) gives you repeatable card draw if you have the mana.

Guac & Marshmallow Pizza doesn't seem to give much to the combo versions, but the untap might spawn a different variant that could have some mana dorks - or enables a new combo altogether.

Anchovy & Banana Pizza is a removal on a Food, which I could see being played in a limited number of copies.

Seeing how often Food cards are printed, I'd always be super attentive to new sets, if your favourite card is Cauldron Familiar.

Leonardo, Big Brother

Leonardo has the same upside as Raphael, in that he dodges Cast Down. While obvious at this point, I think it's still worth pointing out. However, his strength naturally does not lie in the type, but rather in the abilities.

It's a white ninjutsu-esque (you can read more about Sneak here) card that is bigger for every other creature you control. It resembles the now-illegal All That Glitters.

While an Azorius Faeries deck is highly unlikely, there are three types of decks I could see it in:

• Mono White
• Boros Bully
• Azorius Artifacts

Leonardo will work best under two conditions - if there are a lot of creatures and if the creature it's sneaking out is worth replaying. Therefore, it will naturally work best when there are value creatures like Kor Skyfisher and go-wide cards such as Battle Screech.

These two point to Mono White and in some capacity those Boros decks that inherit a lot of Mono White elements.

Azorius Artifacts is what would resemble the All That Glitters deck of old. You'd have Thraben Inspector and Novice Inspector to pick up for value, and you would be going quite wide with Ornithopters and Myr Enforcers - picking up of both being also quite efficient, as you'd replay them for as little as 0 mana.

Oroku Saki, Shredder Rising

This is a Cast Down and Snuff Out proof impersonation of Ninja of the Deep Hours. There's an immediate question whether it'd see play in a deck like Dimir Faeries.

To me, the answer should be 'no', because it's nigh-impossible to curve out a one-drop into a black ninja effect given Pauper's manabases - contrary to the blue ninjas. 

There are two other aspects, though. One - it might not replace any existing ninjas but rather be an additional copy of them, essentially allowing Dimir to play anywhere from 0 to 12 card-drawing ninjas. Moreover, it might not slot into blue-based decks but rather black-based non-blue, such as Orzhov Blade or Mardu Synth. 

Time will tell how strong it proves, especially given its unique built-in protections, but I think it's here to stay.

Utrom Monitor

In my humble opinion, the best card from the set for Pauper. 

Whenever the word 'affinity' is seen on a card, it should immediately sound alarm bells and that piece of cardboard requires extra attention. When it comes to the castability of affinity cards, it's typically card to assesss not having played with them, because it really matters what the exact cost is and the split between coloured and generic mana is. For instance, Myr Enforcer and Gearseeker Serpent both cost 7, but play out differently and promote different deckbuilding incentives.

Thankfully, we have a very direct comparison here to Thoughtcast.

And Thoughcast is very castable for the honest {U} cost, being a full playset in the current Grixis Affinity lists.

One could argue that the deck does not need more pressure but some, like myself, would say that it does. Or rather, it could benefit from it quite a bit, since aggression and early creature openers is what distinguishes it from decks like Jund Wildfire.

There have also been decks that fuse the Fae-Ninja engine with Affinity, and I definitely see this Ultrom in those shells.

Conclusion

As far as I'm concerned, the newest set brings a nice batch of cards to the Pauper format. Their playability is there, be it in already established decks or more niche.