Leonardo, Sewer SamuraiLeonardo, Sewer Samurai | Art by Ryan Pancoast

Hello, fellow Mutant Ninja Turtle Samurai, I'm Brian, your usual host of Brew For Your Buck (BFYB), and I'm back with another preview deck tech! This time it's from the upcoming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles set, because Wizards of the Coast can't possibly let us go a week without previewing something. If I'm putting money on it, I bet the next article I write will be about an Avatar card.

I was never a big TMNT fan despite growing up during the peak popularity of the show. But my nephew loves the Turtles, so I'm dedicating this one to him. Our commander today is the "blue turtle," despite being mono-white: Leonardo, Sewer SamuraiLeonardo, Sewer Samurai

Yes, I still managed to find a graveyard commander to write about, and I think there's some really fun possibilities with Leo here. Let's break down the card and then get into some brewing.

What Does Leonardo, Sewer SamuraiLeonardo, Sewer Samurai Do?

Starting off with stats, a four-mana, 3/3 with double strike isn't horrible. He's a decent blocker certainly, but without evasion the double strike doesn't do too much without help.

Time to get on my soapbox about the sneak mechanic, especially on this card. Since there is no reminder text on Leonardo, his sneak ability reads:

"You may cast this spell for if you also return an unblocked attacker you control to hand during the declare blockers step."

I simply cannot believe that Wizards created ninjutsu-lite in the Ninja Turtles set. I understand that this is slightly more intuitive for newer players, and it's less restrictive for future design. But seriously, let new players explore the existing mechanics and learn how to maximize them instead of over-simplifying and fracturing the card base because the mechanics aren't exactly the same.

I imagine there are a lot of Ninja-typal players out there who are very disappointed. New players will also be disappointed since the new cards won't work the same as the old ones they come to discover. Also, sneak on a card that sits in the command zone where everyone can see it coming is a little silly.

Rant over, but let me know what you think about it in the comments.

The real fun with Leonardo, and the main focus of our efforts today, is the last ability. We can cast small creatures from the graveyard at will, and with no penalty or limitation other than the finality counters. As we saw last time, there are plenty of ways to get around those.

Lastly, a few rules notes: Casting from the 'yard is limited to our turn, so flash doesn't get us too much extra. Also, if we use the sneak ability, it does mean we are casting Leonardo, so we can't get around the commander tax this way.

Key Cards for LeonardoLeonardo

Finality Counters

Removing the finality counters so that our small creatures don't get exiled is the first set of cards we should look at. We saw a few ways to do this before, with persist and -1/-1 counters, and a lot of them work in this deck too.

Scholar of New HorizonsScholar of New Horizons can remove counters and ramp us at the same time. It also comes with the bonus of being a creature we can recast with Leonardo.

Nesting GroundsNesting Grounds was another card we mentioned, and is extra cool here because we can put finality counters on our opponents' creatures.

I didn't mention Power ConduitPower Conduit before, kind of a weird do-nothing card that's oddly expensive for what it does. HexavusHexavus synergizes great with Leonardo since it has less than one power and toughness in the graveyard, and can remove counters at the same time.

A far more effective way to remove the counters, especially in white, is to blink our creatures. Finality counters will only exile the creature if it dies, not if it leaves the battlefield for another reason. We have access to all the best mass-blink spells, like Eerie InterludeEerie Interlude, GhostwayGhostway, and Lae'zel's AcrobaticsLae'zel's Acrobatics, among many others.

A lot of these double as protection spells, so including them is something we want to do anyway.

We'll also throw in a few creatures that have blink effects, specifically Felidar GuardianFelidar Guardian and FlickerwispFlickerwisp. These are perfect because they can be played out of the graveyard with Leonardo.

Lastly, we have Teleportation CircleTeleportation Circle to give us access to a blink effect turn after turn.

Value Weenies

We talk a big game about all this casting and blinking, but what are we casting and what are we blinking? Well, weenies of course! By weenies I mean the small creatures that work with Leonardo's ability, but specifically ones that get us some value by casting them over and over again.

There are a ton of options so I'm just going to go rapid fire with them:

• Mana Acceleration: Loyal WarhoundLoyal Warhound, Gleaming BarrierGleaming Barrier, Ticket TortoiseTicket Tortoise
• Card Velocity: Helpful HunterHelpful Hunter, Spirited CompanionSpirited Companion, Rumor GathererRumor Gatherer, Tataru TaruTataru Taru, Esper SentinelEsper Sentinel
• Interaction: Loran of the Third PathLoran of the Third Path, Cathar CommandoCathar Commando, Alseid of Life's BountyAlseid of Life's Bounty, Selfless SaviorSelfless Savior
• Recursion: Loyal RetainersLoyal Retainers, Restoration SpecialistRestoration Specialist, VesperlarkVesperlark
• Other: Recruiter of the GuardRecruiter of the Guard, Voice of VictoryVoice of Victory, Reverent HopliteReverent Hoplite

A special shoutout to Kami of False HopeKami of False Hope and Children of KorlisChildren of Korlis. While they don't get any value from blinking, reusing their sacrifice abilities multiple times is just as strong, especially if we have ways to remove the finality counters.

Spore FrogSpore Frog loops are a thing, and getting trapped in one can be infuriating, unless of course we're doing the trapping.

Weenie Support

With all these weenies in the deck, we'll add a number of ways to support them outside of Leonardo. Assemble the PlayersAssemble the Players, Welcoming VampireWelcoming Vampire, and Tocasia's WelcomeTocasia's Welcome give us some card velocity, or we can turn to Ranger of EosRanger of Eos to find the pieces that we want. Knight-Errant of EosKnight-Errant of Eos can also help us dig deeper into the deck.

If we decide to play at higher powered tables, we could also include Ranger-Captain of EosRanger-Captain of Eos. Weenies sure do like Eos.

The other aspect of weenie support are the board wipes and mass recursion spells we have access to. Dusk // DawnDusk // Dawn happens to be both. Other board wipes we might want to include are The Battle of BywaterThe Battle of Bywater, Fell the MightyFell the Mighty, and Expel the InterlopersExpel the Interlopers, which we can use asymmetrically against our opponents.

Raise the PastRaise the Past, Smile at DeathSmile at Death, and Return to the RanksReturn to the Ranks are all options for mass reanimation.

Storming Off

Leonardo does have one more aspect that I want to explore. Casting all these weenies is fun, but I see a lot of potential for wheel-spinning and not much winning. An easy way to fix that is some classic win-cons like Cathars' CrusadeCathars' Crusade, and I'm going to suggest Angelic AberrationAngelic Aberration for this deck specifically.

However, we can go a different route...

...storm. If we think about Leonardo almost as a Yawgmoth's WillYawgmoth's Will we can play from the command zone, we can go absolutely berserk with "creature-storm." The win condition is Aetherflux ReservoirAetherflux Reservoir, which will exponentially (factorally? what's the correct math term?) increase our life total as we cast all these spells.

To help out, we can always throw in Soul WardenSoul Warden and friends, but really we'll want ways to reduce or eliminate the mana cost of the creatures. Enter Defiler of FaithDefiler of Faith. This card is absolutely perfect, since we can offset the life payment with Aetherflux ReservoirAetherflux Reservoir. Combine this with a way to remove the finality counters and we can pretty easily go infinite. SolemnitySolemnity is our best friend here, and why I didn't mention it before.

Otherwise, we can include some mana reduction cards that work well in the deck anyway. Pearl MedallionPearl Medallion is pretty obvious for any mono-white deck, along with Oketra's MonumentOketra's Monument since we have a lot of creatures.

Even if we don't go infinite, another "storm" payoff is MurmurationMurmuration, which makes us a literal horde of Storm CrowStorm Crows, only they're 2/3 and have vigilance, assuming the enchantment sticks around.

Our last payoff is Thalia's GeistcallerThalia's Geistcaller, which can also make us a horde of flyers, and is a payoff for casting all these spells from the graveyard.

Gameplay

Casting Leonardo doesn't really do much without a graveyard full of creatures, so we should wait on getting our commander onto the battlefield until we can get some real value. To that end, ramping, playing board police, or poking in with our creatures is our focus early. We shouldn't be afraid to cast our creatures. If they get killed (even by one of our own board wipes) we can always replay them.

Once we have a good stack of weenies in the graveyard, it's time to cast Leonardo and begin to out-value the table as we get closer to a win. This deck will be playing an attrition game until we get to one of our finishers.

If we want to power up the deck, we can always put in tutors to find the pieces, but I'm leaving them out of the final list for now.

We need to look out for cards that interrupt us, so Rest in PeaceRest in Peace (the worst card ever printed) or anti-storm cards like Damping SphereDamping Sphere or Rule of LawRule of Law are critical to remove ASAP. Otherwise, we're just managing the threats on the board until it's time to pop off.

Wrap Up and Mini-BFYB

A lot of interesting potential with Leonardo here. As is tradition with my preview deck techs, I'll include a mini-BFYB analysis for those of you looking to build the deck without breaking the bank:

• Esper SentinelEsper Sentinel ($47.45) --> Inspiring OverseerInspiring Overseer ($0.23)
• Nykthos, Shrine to NyxNykthos, Shrine to Nyx ($40.99) --> PlainsPlains ($0.00)
• Aetherflux ReservoirAetherflux Reservoir ($29.85) --> Angel of VitalityAngel of Vitality ($0.36)
• Emeria, the Sky RuinEmeria, the Sky Ruin ($16.85) --> PlainsPlains ($0.00)
• Voice of VictoryVoice of Victory ($13.46) --> Tithe TakerTithe Taker ($0.18)
• Teleportation CircleTeleportation Circle ($9.25) --> CloudshiftCloudshift ($1.06)

Leonardo, Sewer SamuraiLeonardo, Sewer Samurai gives mono-white an interesting new playstyle, while still focusing on one aspect of its core identity: small creatures. There's also a lot of upgrade potential with this deck to let it hop between brackets, whether we're all-in on the storm win or just want to get insane value.

My final cut of the deck list is below, and I’d love to hear your feedback about my choices or cool tech you found for the deck. Also let me know your thoughts about sneak as a mechanic, or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in general!

Note: I didn't include any Game Changers to keep the price down and for the sake of being bracket flexible, but you can always use them to power up the deck.

Happy brewing, and I’ll see you next time!

Leonardo, Sewer Samurai Commander Deck List