The Pride of Hull CladeThe Pride of Hull Clade | Art by Ivan Shavrin

Since we’ve built decks around Ninjas and Mutants, and Teenager isn't a creature type, it's time to build a Turtle deck. Unlike Claude Lemieux, “turtling” here doesn’t mean shying away from a challenge. No, we’re facing this one head-on, like a Blastoise using Skull Bash.

This The Pride of Hull CladeThe Pride of Hull Clade Commander deck tech will attempt to incorporate new cards from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) into the paradigm established by their reptilian predecessors and which honors the amazing animals they were inspired by.

Turtle History

Turtles have been present in Magic for quite some time, although both Turtles and Tortoises are grouped together. This means that Turtles in Magic can come from the ocean or the land, increasing the amount of planes that they appear on. Both of these animals are known for their hard shells and longevity, which this deck will embrace.

Like Mutants before them, Turtles owe a bit to the Simic Combine - in this case, their commander. While there are a few Simic-colored Turtles, including a TMNT team-upa TMNT team-up, The Pride of Hull CladeThe Pride of Hull Clade is also the pride and joy of Turtle Typal, bringing their disparate appearances together through a mechanical reference to the printed toughness of the creatures and the toughness of the animals themselves.

But how do we make a toughness-based deck without just being a poor man’s Arcades, the StrategistArcades, the Strategist? And how do we win with toughness when power usually rules the day?

What Does The Pride of Hull CladeThe Pride of Hull Clade Do?

The Pride of Hull CladeThe Pride of Hull Clade is an eye-catching amalgamation of creature types, gaudy stats, and crazy but synergistic abilities. While it is a Crocodile Elk Turtle, the Turtle part is the most prominent in its stats and abilities.

To begin with, it has incredible stats. Two power might not stand out, but 15 toughness absolutely does. And it uses that 15 toughness well, as its activated ability takes away defender from a creature, gives it an extra power, and lets the controller draw cards equal to its toughness, which our Turtles can all make good use of.

And we can use this ability as many times as we can pay the four mana cost to activate it, so we can have multiple Turtles getting in and drawing cards!

There are limiting factors on The Pride, however. It has defender, which its ability can remove, and it has a converted mana cost of 11, albeit with a cost reduction for each point of toughness among creatures we control. This reduction also applies to commander tax, so we should rarely be without our toothy, antlered Turtle.

But what do we do with all of those cards? And how do we turn those abilities into wins?

Key Cards for The Pride of Hull CladeThe Pride of Hull Clade

Most Turtles are similar to Walls, in that they have high toughness and low power. Some can flip their power and toughness, like Shell Smash in Pokémon, while others reflect their connection to nature developed over their long lives. Even before TMNT, several had humanoid characteristics, like the Tortles in Dungeons and Dragons.

To begin, we look at some vanilla (no ability) creatures, which help to establish the baseline stats for a member of the type. Both creatures have at least four toughness and one or fewer points of power. These stats show the literal toughness of the animal and the generally pacifist nature of the type.

But being passive won’t win battles, so we need some Turtles that can swing.

Calcite SnapperCalcite Snapper has similar stats to Giant TurtleGiant Turtle, but it can swap its power and toughness any time we play a land, and it comes with built-in protection.

Bedrock TortoiseBedrock Tortoise also has a protection ability, granting hexproof to all creatures we control on our own turn. It's also a beneficiary of Magic ignoring taxonomy and uniting shelled reptiles of the land and sea. The Tortoise also allows our creatures with higher toughness than power to use that stat for combat purposes.

Ironically, like in Aesop's Fables, this Tortoise helps us to win damage races!

Like with the Mutant deck, Mikey & Don, Party PlannersMikey & Don, Party Planners lets us cast creatures of our type from the top of the library. Donatello, Rad ScientistDonatello, Rad Scientist gives us a vigilant threat that also stuns up to three opposing creatures, helping our Turtles play offense and defense effectively.

But what are we doing with all this toughness?

Twisted ImageTwisted Image lets us turn any Turtle into a Calcite SnapperCalcite Snapper, even our commander. Combat tricks might have minimal use in Commander, but this one slots into our strategy well and draws a card.

Sight of the ScalelordsSight of the Scalelords, meanwhile, is an anthem (mass pump effect) for our scaly reptilians. It gives all of our creatures with four or more toughness, which is most of them, +2/+2 and vigilance, which can easily swing games.

Both Last March of the EntsLast March of the Ents and Majestic GenesisMajestic Genesis dig deep into our deck and put a bunch of permanents on the board. One cares about high converted mana cost, while the other cares about high toughness. Good thing our commander has both!

Whenever possible, we want to do the jobs a deck requires with Turtles, in order to sneak more members of the type in. Colossal SkyturtleColossal Skyturtle is a flying threat that can also be a RegrowthRegrowth or UnsummonUnsummon.

Kappa Tech-WreckerKappa Tech-Wrecker is a nasty deathtouching attacker that can also be a NaturalizeNaturalize when needed. Both happen to be Turtles with decent toughness.

One of the downsides to our commander is that it doesn’t help us connect with our creatures. We can make blocking unsavory, but we can struggle to connect with creatures for that sweet, sweet card draw. That's why we take to the tunnels: Access TunnelAccess Tunnel and Secret TunnelSecret Tunnel. One cares about low power, which we can swap after getting the unblockability, the other cares about having multiple creatures that share a type, which shouldn’t be too hard for us.

How Does This The Pride of Hull CladeThe Pride of Hull Clade Commander Deck Win?

Winning with this deck is relatively straightforward: We want to take opponents out through combat with large creatures. Unfortunately, our creatures aren’t large in the game-ending way…unless we do some work.

Assault FormationAssault Formation lets us use our toughness instead of power and gives us a mana sink (repeatable activated ability) and mass pump effect. Reverse the PolarityReverse the Polarity is a much more unexpected and hilarious way to win, as it operates like Sword and Shield in YuGiOh!, making our army huge and shrinking unprepared opponents.

The Pride of Hull Clade Commander Deck List

Conclusion

Turtles have been around for a while, but haven’t received a lot of support. Even with the influx of Mutant Ninja Turtles, the through lines and synergies still need to be provided by the players, as Turtles are still under-supported.

But how would you build Turtles? And how does this compare to Wall decks?