Tips for an Underrated TMNT Draft

TMNT Limited came out a few weeks ago, but I've been catching up on everything else since the AC.

TMNT faces an uphill battle as a small set with the pick two option due to Spider-Man's resounding failure.

One of the most asked questions in my stream is "How are you liking TMNT Draft?" I always answer roughly the same way: I think it's fun but ultimately not a format where I'd want to play 100 drafts.

TMNT draft is about as good as it could be for what it is: a small set that will limit options while drafting. There are only five supported archetypes, making it harder to continue having new experiences.

That said, I do enjoy the set. It's well balanced, and while there are some archetypes I prefer to others, ultimately they all have potential.

I strongly prefer pick one to pick two, as it's eight players, and you can adjust to signals at a slower pace. Pick two is easier to read and send signals, but it's not my preference.

White decks are my least favorite, mostly because I don't enjoy aggressive play styles, and I'm always looking to draft a Pizza deck. We'll get into that shortly.

Izzet Artifacts is my favorite normal archetype. It has synergy, access to removal, and can be drafted as a slower deck or an aggressive shell. It's very flexible.

I lose to Orzhov Sneak the most. The sneak deck is extremely punishing. If you miss plays early, your opponent will destroy you with tempo. These low-to-the-ground decks' biggest flaw is the tendency to flood out or run out of gas. There are plenty of ways to reload, such as Oroku Saki, Shredder Rising.

I draft Boros the least because I like to start in green decks, and it's hard to pivot into Boros.

Simic and Golgari are similar. While they have themes, that's not how you draft them. Mutagen and Disappear are what you're supposed to do, but in both archetypes, I'm almost never in just two colors. I'm mostly looking to play as many colors as I can, hopefully supporting Everything Pizza.

The mana in the format is really good with Duals and Escape Tunnel at common. Additionally, the format is somewhat slow if you can weather the storm against the aggro decks on the first couple of turns.

The set is full of strong rares and uncommons. Getting to play any number of strong cards is an easy way to gain a massive deck advantage. Even some of the cards with the best win rates aren't strong in a vacuum. An example is Dream Beavers. It's a solid card but not one you want on turns other than turn one. It facilitates all the sneak effects and grants continued value as you bounce it back with sneak. It's not winning the game on its own. Others may be fighting for this card, and I can ignore it and draft slower, more powerful decks. I aim to win games the easy way: by playing more powerful cards than my opponent, turn after turn.

The format is punishing, so it's important to make plays early and be mindful of your curve. You can't take a turn or two off. The cards are too powerful to recover from, and there aren't many sweepers or catch-up cards. For this reason, I'm low on cards that require a board presence, like Tenderize.

Let's take a look at some successful decks I drafted.

Izzet Artifacts

More than ever, gold cards are a strong signpost for open archetypes. Almost all of the uncommon signposts are strong, and all of them are at least good, with some being great. While some are better than others, their presence in a pack tends to indicate that the archetype is open. In this deck, I picked up quite a few Baxter Stockman. I could have two more, but as Legends, I took other strong cards over them.

Getting into any deck often requires identifying whether the cards are in a pack picks three or four pack one, which is an indication to dive right in. In this specific draft, it wasn't until pack two when there were tons of Izzet that I could dive in safely.

I had a couple of strong rares, which is necessary in small formats. Uncommons are powerful enough in this set that if you get a bunch, you won't necessarily need rares. In that event, you'll also usually end up with rares.

Two-color decks, when open, tend to be solid and strong, but you can go deeper if you embrace the pizza.

5c Pizza

My favorite archetype in the format is green-based multicolor decks. I prefer Golgari because of one very strong interaction. Anchovy & Banana Pizza combined with Ragamuffin Raptor is an interaction that does it all: interaction, value, and a board presence, all with a two-card combo of easy-to-pick-up commons. Anchovy Pizza is not a card BW decks take aggressively. They take it, but this is where it shines.

This archetype also lets you branch into any splash you want because of Frog Butler, the common land fixing, and Everything Pizza, which goes criminally late. Everything Pizza is not the kind of card the new drafters take. They stick more to two-color decks. Those decks are fine, but Everything Pizza fixes your mana, gives you a game piece to sacrifice to various effects, and gives you a powerful late-game effect that is good enough to win the game with its activation cost.

Black offers efficient removal with Stomped by the Foot and unconditional removal with Anchovy & Banana Pizza. Pizza also provides life gain to get out of reach of various burn effects.

This archetype allows you to gobble up any of the powerful rares or uncommons you come across. If this deck needed or wanted it, I could have easily played Baxter, but my deck was strong enough that I didn't need to bother.

The best uncommon to get in this archetype, outside of Everything Pizza, is Courier of Comestibles.

This specific deck didn't have powerful splashes; however, the mana allowed me to play some good cards like Donatello and Karai's Technique. While these aren't cards I'd typically splash, they were both excellent, providing a value creature and a way to sneak back my Courier for value.

These five-color decks have given a lot of life to the format for me. I'll continue playing it up until the ACQ in a few weeks to try and earn my way back into the ACs since I had such a positive experience last time.

If you're less experienced drafting five-color decks, I'd advise you to keep an eye out for the signpost uncommons. If some are coming, then by pick four or five of pack one, that's the archetype you should probably pivot to. Sometimes it's even worth abandoning good rares if the signal is strong enough.

If you like Limited, I'd give this set a chance. It has tons of mixed reviews, but I think most people who don't like it weren't willing to give it a chance after Spider-Man.