It’s a turtle-y excellent month here at BCP, as we embrace all things reptilian and pizza-loving and celebrate 35 years of secret ooze (ooooooze)! And just to mix things up, it’s a team-up between our regular Geeking Out and Bricking About content!

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Magic: The Gathering Universes Beyond: TMNT Commander Deck

(RRP: £69.99)

Now, whilst I am of an age that played MTG when it first came out – I’m not old, I’m vintage, dammit! – I’ve long since drifted away from it. My interest definitely moved into other TCGS (or rather CCGs, because again, I am of a certain age) and my interest in any kind of competitive card gaming is limited to sealed formats these days.

However, we are nerds, and my eldest was tempted by the Universes Beyond: Dr. Who decks at the time (ahem) – so we have them, but I wouldn’t call us players. But the new TMNT themed set really caught our eye, and friends both casual and competitive were glowing about it, so a copy of the Commander deck was duly bought.

For the novice: Commander, briefly, is a casual, multiplayer Magic format using 100 card decks in which there are no duplicates; however, your Commander sits to one side of your deck, setting its theme and playable from there. As with Dr Who, with Dr’s Companion mechanic giving you 2 Commanders, TMNT uses Partners – it’s suggested that you use Leo + 1 other Turtle, though that’s not a must. That being said, Leonardo is extremely potent, particularly partnered with Raphael, which gives you a synergistic combat machine. They’re also pretty cheap, so you’re casting them quickly and returning them to play at relatively low cost. It’s a very aggro swarm deck, with Leo + Raph (who doubles your damage output) the most logical combo, though there are plenty to play about with. Michaelangelo is all about Food tokens (obviously) for healing and additional mana, April (yay!) generates Clue tokens (card draw), and so forth.

The most unusual thing about the Turtle deck is that it is Rainbow – using all 5 colours of mana (resource), which would typically dilute a deck to being unplayable (MTG Commander decks are at most 3 colour, ordinarily) – but is not only playable, but really good fun, with the turtles plus splinter (black) covering the 5. It is fun in a mirror match or against other deck archetypes: it can handle other swarm decks (such as when the 8th doctor enlisted 16 giant insects, or Miles Morales and +1/+1 token overload) with 3 board-wipe cards to backup its own aggro. It played really well against the classic era Drs, because it’s very fast and they take time (again, sorry) to get moving; this also means it can hold up against “big” commander decks that look for a slow build generally (*cough* Tarkir Dragonstorm *cough*). It also had enough counters to the Whovian trick of exiling cards outside the known universe, though it definitely has a tougher time against Spider-verse decks (though these are more likely to be heavily customised, as there aren’t any Marvel starter decks… yet) and the timey-wimey shenanigans of New Who (and similarly, other Planeswalker decks). Regardless, it feels balanced and thrilling all along, and is similarly playable against conventional Commander decks from the likes of Lorwyn or Bloomburrow.

The actual physical product is pretty nice, with a standard cardstock deck box and simple guide with a splash of retro turtle art. I really like the fact that it channels EVERY era of turtles, from classic comics to iconic IDW stories, morning cartoons to NES games, and every movie good or bad. There’s something for any TMNT fan here, with lots of knowing easter eggs and a lot of very pretty (and in some cases, very shiny) cardboard. Now, there’s no life counter, no heavy-duty cardstock version of the commander, no promo pack – though you do get beautiful, heavily foiled versions of the main 5 – with these coming in varied separate gift options. This does feel like a bit of a cash-grab and it’s quite telling that some of these products are the ones retailers are struggling to shift. FWIW, the boosters are excellent value, and the full-bleed, alt-arts and foils are exceptional.

Crucially, it is an enjoyable experience that you actively want to replay, regardless of whether you fine-tune it further with additional product; highly recommended for players old and new alike!

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LEGO Brickheads: TMNT Edition

(RRP: £34.99)

Fresh out for April, is the Lego TMNT Brickheadz. This £34.99 set is really the full package, with all 4 brothers in 4 different shades of green – a nice touch, but Mikey in teal is not the best for honestly. But when a solo offering is usually £10.99, it’s difficult to complain about 4 brickheadz for £35.

I also appreciate the subtle differentiation in the outfits of each of the turtles, whilst it is a well known part of their design as a team, it would have been easy enough to skip it to save design budget. Overall, if you’re a fan of both the IP, and the funko-chibi style of brickheadz, then this is a great offering to pick up!

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The Writer of this piece was: Sam Graven
Article Archive: Geeking Out
You can follow Sam on Instagram at @big_geekingout

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