Magic's new TMNT commander deck fixes one of the most annoying things about MTG precons

The lands in this precon alone make it worth buying

If you’re a Magic: The Gathering fan who loves playing commander, then you know that the most annoying part of building a new deck is the lands. Somehow, even in a 100-card singleton format, there’s never enough room for all the cool spells you want to include, plus the necessary lands to make the deck work. Even worse, all the best lands are absurdly expensive.

Clearly, the good folks at Wizards of the Coast can relate, because even the preconstructed commander decks designed and sold by the company behind Magic often skimp on lands. Take the five-color Lorwyn Eclipsed precon, Dance of the Elements, for example. While it’s a great deck, the first thing you’ll want to do is upgrade the mana base (if you can afford it) to remove all of the land cards that enter tapped, forcing you to wait an extra turn and fall behind your opponents in the process.

So it comes as a pleasant surprise that Magic’s latest precon from its new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles crossover set is full of powerful, high-value lands that won’t slow down your game plan.

Officially titled “Turtle Power!,” this five-color deck features some serious value when it comes to mana sources. The most exciting inclusion in the precon is likely a pair of lands from the “bond” cycle. There are 10 of these (one for each color pairing), and each one reads “This land enters tapped unless you have two or more opponents.” In most games of commander, you have three opponents, which means this is pretty much as good as a classic dual land. Specifically, the deck includes Spire Garden (red and green) and Undergrowth Stadium (black and green). Those cards both currently go for roughly $10 each on the resale market (although the TMNT versions are currently available for roughly half that price on TCGPlayer).

The most valuable land in Turtle Power, however, is City of Brass, which sells for roughly $15 as a single (again, the TMNT version is noticeably cheaper). Fabled Passage is another highlight here, as are Cinder Glade, Dragonskull Summit, Rootbound Crag, Smoldering Marsh, Sodden Verdure, and Sunken Hollow.

It should be noted that many of these enter tapped unless you already have two other specific lands in play, which might be tough in a five-color deck that only comes with two of each basics. That said, these lands will still go great in your other two- or three-color commander decks.

Ultimately, while the lands here still leave something to be desired — why not just reprint all 10 of the bond lands? — it’s still a huge upgrade over Dance of the Elements, where every other land you play comes in tapped. That should give Turtle Power an advantage over other precons, and provide even more fuel to your favorite commander once you disassemble the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles deck for scraps.