TMNT Cards That Impress

TMNT is a small set, which may not have as much impact as a set like Lorwyn, but there are a few cards that could have the juice to impact Standard.

Here's a list of cards that may immediately impact Standard.

Cool but Rude

If I've learned anything over the past few years about Magic, it's that Sagas almost always overperform in Standard. Fable of the Mirror Breaker, Artist's Talent, and Stormchaser's Talent are a few examples of cards that flew under the radar before becoming painfully obvious that they're broken.

Cool but Rude, might be the opposite of that. This is a card that many people have their eyes on, and it plays nicely with Monument to Endurance.

The most compelling home for the card is Rakdos Monument, which I tested thoroughly before the Arena Champs and decided was underpowered for the format. The deck's major issue was how it constantly ran out of gas, and your hand size mattered a lot. Discard outlets in the deck mostly put you down cards, so without a Monument, you struggled to produce enough threats compared to the interaction.

Cool but Rude helps by allowing you to play a one-drop, attack, and discard a card without being down additional cards. This lets you pump your one-drops and put cards like Bloodghast into the graveyard. No doubt this is the perfect home for this card; however, I'm still skeptical that this doesn't play right into the issues I had with the deck, which were that you needed your one-drop to stick or you were constantly falling behind.

There are several ways to utilize Cool but Rude, but I suspect Rakdos Monument will gain popularity now with new tools like Cool but Rude. This card looks good, and Sagas have always ended up better than they look, so I'm confident this card will find a home. If not now, then in Standard's future.

Leatherhead, Swamp Stalker

I played Simic Rhythm at the Arena Championship, and a struggle we had when building our list was finding a way to include cards that could interact with artifacts and enchantments against Lessons, such as Wistfulness and Reclamation Sage. Unfortunately, they often didn't line up well. Rec Sage would frequently be dead when they hadn't developed a Monument or Artist's Talent. Wistfulness, the better option, wasn't a card you could effectively Rhythm for, but did pack a punch when it lined up.

Leatherhead is a nightmare for Lessons decks because it can take out their Monuments and has hexproof to make it immune to Lessons' incredible creature removal suite. If you happen to get counters onto it with, say, an Ouroboroid, then you can remove those counters and let it keep hexproof.

Leatherhead seems like an incredible addition to a wide variety of green decks. It may be one of the best Standard cards in the set in terms of its potential immediate impact.

Krang, Master Mind

Krang looks flat-out broken in a traditional affinity-style deck. It may be difficult in Standard to get your desired quantity of artifacts; however, Krang pays you for dumping a bunch of cheap artifacts into play. Ideally, it's the last card out of your hand, but Krang is your deck's focal point if you can build a deck in that manner. It's a potent threat that draws four cards at an obscene rate.

While there's currently no home for the card, Krang is a build-around that may be worth building around. I plan to look at this card more, which will force me to examine artifacts from older sets to see if there is a way to take advantage of them.

With a five-year Standard on the menu, cards like Krang can have an immediate impact but also can line up well as more artifacts get rolled out with additional sets. Krang needs support to be viable, but if that support arrives, then Krang could be one of the more important cards from TMNT.

Agent Bishop, Man in Black

I was so focused on the Arena Champs recently that I didn't bother looking over the TMNT previews. I first saw this card in play in the Limited early-access streamer event. Unless you have an immediate answer, it felt nearly unbeatable. While it's easy to interact with, you can often play it on turns your opponent doesn't have removal up. You'd want this card near the top of your curve, but if you're able to slam it and it goes unchecked, it's going to quickly run away with the game.

We've had cards like this before at lower mana costs, Luminarch Aspirant for example, but the difference is this card is double the effect for only a single mana more.

I'd equate Agent Bishop as a more narrow Goblin Rabblemaster. You need to play cheap creatures so that at least one other creature is in play when you cast it, but it has a similar effect in that it will quickly close the game if left unchecked.

Agent Bishop is more of a maybe than other cards on this list. Creatures like this seem to be better than they look on their face, so I think Agent Bishop has a chance to have a big impact, especially in a format like Standard when a card like Voice of Victory exists.

Death in the Family

Black got the short end of the stick in this set, so the best, most reliable pick would just be this simple, solid removal spell, Death in the Family.

Standard has no shortage of removal options these days since it has so many sets to choose from, but Death in the Family's restriction to a three-mana value will make it a good option against some of the format's threats because of the ability to exile.

It's not an exciting card, but it will see some play and is another tool in black's removal suite.

North Wind Avatar

North Wind Avatar is by far my favorite TMNT card. Do I think this is the best card in the set? No. It's just simply my favorite. North Wind Avatar is a five-mana, 5/5 dragon that Demonic Tutors when it enters the battlefield. The cost is having those cards in your sideboard that you want to tutor for, which makes deck and sideboard building more challenging and rewarding.

North Wind Avatar's rate isn't fantastic but not too bad. It has an immediate impact on the board and will usually dominate. By the nature of the "wish" effect, it can find cards in any situation. If you're ahead on board, then it can help search for a counterspell to lock the game up. If you're behind, then it can find a sweeper to reset the board. If you're setting up a combo? This card can locate the combo piece you're missing. Maybe your opponent's deck is heavily focused on using the graveyard? Get that Soul-Guide Lantern or whatever other graveyard hate you need.

Large Standard will give us a high amount of narrow but efficient interaction that North Wind Avatar gives you access to without the cost of putting them into your main deck.

I'm skeptical of a five-mana, 5/5 that doesn't affect the board immediately in other ways can see play in five-year Standard. If any could, North Wind Avatar is the one. I'm hoping North Wind Avatar has some function because it's almost there.

TMNT looks solid so far. It's small, so it doesn't have a massive impact yet. I would look at these cards immediately if I were building Standard decks for a tournament in the next few weeks.

Next week, I'll dive into TMNT Limited, a format that's been surprisingly fun.