Magic TMNT draft guide: Artifacts are shockingly powerful in this color combo

I did not expect this strategy to be this powerful

Many of Magic: The Gathering’s most recent Universes Beyond sets have nudged artifact strategies toward white-blue color combos, but the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles set refocuses the game onto Izzet (red-blue). Sure, we’ve gotten a few pieces of equipment and vehicles in red with sets like Final Fantasy and Avatar: The Last Airbender, but the classic artifact pairing has felt neglected in the game recently. I expected TMNT to follow suit and focus more broadly on mutant typal strategies and the mutagen tokens across all colors. In my time with the set preview on Magic Arena, however, my best deck focused on red-blue artifacts to overwhelm my opponents.

The lynchpin for artifact strategies in TMNT is going to be any and every version of Donatello, because every version of the Turtles’ gadgeteer cares a lot about artifacts. I drew a Donatello, Mutant Mechanic early. He taps to put three +1/+1 counters on an artifact you control, and can even animate noncreature artifacts into bodies. When one of your artifact creatures dies, you can then move those counters to another creature. Instead of attacking with Donny, I kept him safely on the sidelines to keep buffing my artifacts.

Then came Baxter Stockman in my draft. True to TMNT lore, Stockman brings a Mouser robot with him — a 1/1 artifact creature token — and each turn gives an artifact creature +3/+0, first strike, and vigilance. At first glance, the lack of a toughness boost looks risky. In reality, first strike does most of the work. Anything wearing the buff hits first, survives combat, and keeps growing, thanks to Donatello.

Each turn followed the same rhythm: add three permanent counters with Donny, layer Stockman’s combat boost on top, and force the opponent to sacrifice a creature by blocking my artifact. Even if my creature died, the counters just migrated to another artifact.

Though I didn’t have it in this particular deck, there’s also the blue Class Enchantment card Does Machines. At first, you mill two cards, draw two cards, and discard two cards. Dumping four total cards into your graveyard doesn’t feel great, but at level 2, Does Machines pulls up to two artifacts back to your hand from the graveyard. Level 3 has the same ability as Donatello, Mutant Mechanic, adding three +1/+1 counters to an artifact you control. With both in play, you’re adding +6/+6 to a single artifact creature every single turn.

I was lucky enough to wind up with Technodrome in this deck, which made things even more interesting. It costs two colorless mana for a base 3/3 with reach and trample, but can only attack and block if its power is six or greater. You can also sacrifice an artifact to draw a card and put a +1/+1 counter on it — basically transforming any kind of artifact into a mutagen token that also sets up a nice little draw engine.

With all of the above in play, Technodrome becomes a 12/9 with reach, trample, first strike, and vigilance during combat on its very first turn. In preview play, opponents often simply didn’t have the clean removal needed to stop it.

This set also has a red-blue Donatello and Raphael team-up card that’s hugely powerful for this sort of approach: Don & Raph, Hard Science. Every time you attack with this duo, it gives the next noncreature spell you cast affinity for artifacts (they cost one less colorless mana for each artifact you control) until the end of your turn. That means when your board is full of artifacts already, you can cast one big instant, sorcery, enchantment, or artifact spell for ludicrously cheap in the back half of your turn.

None of the other Raphael cards in the set synergize with artifacts directly, but they work well enough with any kind of aggressive playstyle. I had a Raphael, Tough Turtle in my deck, which pings a target opponent for one damage every time a creature you control enters. So if he’s on the board when a card like Baxter Stockman arrives and creates a creature token, Raph hits the opponent for two damage. All you really need to do is just play as many small creatures as possible to keep whittling away at your opponent, and artifact token generators fill that role well.

I could go on and on about how great artifacts are looking in TMNT. Some of the Mouser cards are also incredibly strong, and they’re all red! Magic has done Izzet artifacts plenty of times before, but it’s striking how cohesive it feels in a set that we all thought would involve straightforward combat with ninjas, mutants, and counters. Somehow, the best deck I’ve made from TMNT so far doesn’t have a straightforward beatdown strategy. It’s an artifact snowball deck that focuses on a technophile turtle with a purple bandana and a mad scientist with his swarm of machines. Sometimes in Magic, it’s the smartest Turtle that wins.