The OozeThe Ooze | Art by Gabriel Tanko

I'm back with this series, and this time we're finding five different ways to use The OozeThe Ooze from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It's a unique card for sure, creating MutagenMutagen artifact tokens when creatures with +1/+1 counters die. You can tap it to exile a card from a graveyard, and make a Mutagen if you exiled a creature.

It's versatile, and potentially strong, but to be honest I'm not sure where it will be best. Luckily, this series is all about exploring options, so let's see what we've got!

The Jankiest Use for The OozeThe Ooze

The OozeThe Ooze will mostly find itself in +1/+1 counter decks, and therefore probably green decks. That means 90% of the time, the most valuable ability will be the first one, creating a token when creatures with counters leaves the battlefield. But what if there's a mono-red commander that cares about exiling cards from graveyards? That commander would be Laelia, the Blade ReforgedLaelia, the Blade Reforged.

At first, The OozeThe Ooze seems like a weird pick in a deck that's all about impulse draw, like Reckless ImpulseReckless Impulse. But on closer inspection, The OozeThe Ooze has a lot to offer. It can trigger Laelia consistently by exiling cards from our graveyard, and it effectively doubles the amount of counters put on her if we pay one to activate the MutagenMutagen token. It even gives us a small consolation prize if Laelia is taken out!

The OozeThe Ooze is simply a Relic of ProgenitusRelic of Progenitus with upsides in this deck, and is totally worth playing here, even if it's not there for the main ability.

The Most Evil Use

Cards that care about +1/+1 counters aren't usually evil, but this one might actually be criminal. Literally! The Ooze is a crime committing machine, giving us a way to commit crimes twice a turn (by exiling a card from an opponent's graveyard, and if we exiled a creature, we use the Mutagen gained to add a counter to an opponent's creature).

If we pair it with Lazav, Familiar StrangerLazav, Familiar Stranger, we can trigger him over and over. The OozeThe Ooze is incredibly synergistic with this commander, doubling Lazav's graveyard hate and giving us the opportunity to make him much bigger. Yes, to commit a crime with the MutagenMutagen tokens we have to put a +1/+1 counter on one of our opponent's creatures - something that's not very evil - but Lazav, Familiar StrangerLazav, Familiar Stranger decks tend to run a ton of removal, so it's more like we're giving our opponents false hope.

Heck, we could even make deals with the +1/+1 counters, then negate our concessions with Doom BladeDoom Blade. Now that's cruel!

The OozeThe Ooze's Best Combo

The OozeThe Ooze, like almost everything, combos very easily with Ashnod's AltarAshnod's Altar. It's not a two-card combo, but if we toss in any card that makes some extra tokens, like Chatterfang, Squirrel GeneralChatterfang, Squirrel General, then we've got a very potent infinite combo.

As soon as you sacrifice a creature with a +1/+1 counter on it, the Ooze will trigger and make a MutagenMutagen token , which can then be activated with half the mana from Ashnod's AltarAshnod's Altar to put a +1/+1 counter on the additional SquirrelSquirrel. Boom, now we've got infinite colorless mana.

It's honestly a spectacular group of cards, because Ashnod's AltarAshnod's Altar is already great in a Chatterfang deck. And if you've got a bit of a +1/+1 counter theme going, maybe with Tribute to the World TreeTribute to the World Tree style cards, then The OozeThe Ooze is a great addition as well. An easy combo with a big payoff.

The Most Competitive Deck for The OozeThe Ooze

It took me a while to decide on this one because there are a ton of great places for The OozeThe Ooze, but Fain, the BrokerFain, the Broker is simply the most synergistic. Pretty much everything that Fain cares about, The OozeThe Ooze also cares about. We sacrifice a creature to Fain, and if it had counters, we make a MutagenMutagen artifact token. We can then sacrifice that token to create an InklingInkling creature token, which we can put more counters on, and sacrifice again to put more counters on things and make more MutagenMutagen tokens, and then use those tokens to put counters on other creatures, and then pull those counters off to make TreasureTreasures, which we can use to activate MutagenMutagen tokens... You get the point.

The goal of Fain decks is simply to activate Fain as much as possible and get a ton of value out of him, and The OozeThe Ooze makes even more value, practically doubling Fain's output. Now imagine all that with Mirkwood BatsMirkwood Bats on the field! Even the fact that The OozeThe Ooze taps is a boon, because Fain decks usually include plenty of ways to untap permanents, like Clock of OmensClock of Omens.

Now I'll admit, Fain, the BrokerFain, the Broker is not the strongest deck ever, and Fain is usually better in the 99 of other decks. You could argue that The OozeThe Ooze would be more competitive in a Mazirek, Kraul Death PriestMazirek, Kraul Death Priest deck, because Mazirek is just a better commander, but I don't think you can find a deck where The OozeThe Ooze has more synergy. It genuinely assists Fain in every possible way.

The OozeThe Ooze's Worst Possible Deck

Now for the most fun part: finding a deck where The OozeThe Ooze genuinely makes your game worse if you draw it. Given that the Ooze doesn't have any real downsides, it might be a bit tough, but I'm sure there's some deck that would hate to have this card.

Actually, it was pretty obvious once I started looking for deck that actively avoids +1/+1 counters. Mikaeus, the UnhallowedMikaeus, the Unhallowed is a commander that gives all our non-Humans undying, meaning that as long as they don't have a +1/+1 counter on them, when they die, they'll come back to life with a +1/+1 counter.

Half the time the deck is trying to remove those counters, so The OozeThe Ooze will barely even trigger, but when it does, it's just gonna create a MutagenMutagen token that we absolutely don't want to activate, because they'll prevent our creatures from recurring. Honestly, it'd be really funny to play The OozeThe Ooze against a Mikaeus deck, because we'd absolutely wreck that deck's game plan.

Oozing Out Of Here

Well that's four great places to use The OozeThe Ooze, and one way to stop another player's fun completely. The OozeThe Ooze is a relatively new card, so I know I missed some cool interactions, but hopefully I found a few that you hadn't thought of before.

And if you think you've got any better picks for these categories, please let me know! I'll see y'all next time.