Donatello, Mutant Mechanic Deck Tech

Donatello, Mutant Mechanic | Art by Zoltan Boros

There were a bunch of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles spoilers a few days ago. I was a little overwhelmed with the sheer amount of cards, but the one card that stood out to me as really fun to build around is Donatello, Mutant Mechanic.

I fell in love with the deck as I was building it for this article and might buy it in paper. Let's walk through how I went about it.

What Does Donatello, Mutant Mechanic Do?

This 3/5 Mutant Ninja Turtle cost and reads, ": Put three +1/+1 counters on target artifact you control. If it isn't a creature, it becomes a 0/0 Robot creature in addition to its other types. Activate only as a sorcery." Then, "Whenever an artifact you control is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, if it had counters on it, put those counters on up to one target artifact or creature you control."

It's a little clunky and specific, but that's what I love about a build-around. I don't want to be handed the best card in the format. I want to build it; but that's just me.

Key Cards for Donatello, Mutant Mechanic

Untapping Donatello

The first thing I noticed about Donatello was that fact that its activated ability can only be done at sorcery speed. It's kind of a bummer I won't be able to do it on everyone else's turn. I won't be able to utilize this ability as a combat trick either.

Cards like Sting, the Glinting Dagger are much less good. I thought about running it anyway because it could be activated precombat and then again post combat, but ultimately I didn't find that it was explosive enough for a slot.

Untapping Donatello at sorcery speed as much as I can on my turn isn't that bad though. I want repeatable effects. Freed from the Real and Pemmin's Aura are the two kinds of Auras that are perfect, costing just to do Donatello's ability again and again. These are the most ideal, but because I can't guarantee these cards, I need redundancies.

Aura of Dominion for and tapping an untapped creature can be repeatable. It costs a bit more to make happened, but it can be done again and again.

Magewright's Stone, Thousand-Year Elixir, and Second Wind are capable of untapping Donatello one additional time per turn, which isn't ideal, but it's something. Tapping Donatello twice a turn is still huge. Being able to turn two of my creatures into 3/3s is important because I'm usually trying to go wide as with creatures as I can.

Double Triggers

Illusionist's Bracers and Rings of Brighthearth are huge as alternative ways to get additional activations out of Donatello. Two activations for one tap is good. This article will repeat this fact over and over, but I can also turn both of these artifacts into creatures as well with Donatello's ability.

Why You Need Tokens With Donatello, Mutant Mechanic

I want to make as many artifact tokens as I can. If something can repeatedly make an artifact for Donatello to animate, then I don't have to worry about putting them out with mana.

Simulacrum Synthesizer makes 0/0 "Karnstructs" (Constructs that get +1/+1 for each artifact we control). And Leonardo da Vinci can repeatedly make Thopters.

Slagstone Refinery and Urza, Powerstone Prodigy are all capable of repeatedly making Powerstones, while Thran Spider, Stone Retrieval Unit, Stern Lesson, and Splitting the Powerstone all make single Powerstones. Powerstones are great for casting artifacts spells and activating abilities; they're easily made and reusable, and leaning into them will help us ramp.

Ramp

I'm doing a lot of artifact ramp because blue isn't particularly good at grabbing extra lands. Artifacts do a lot of heavy lifting. Urza, Lord High Artificer is great because I can make a token for combat. Additionally, it makes the artifacts tap for . That helps with activating cards like Freed from the Real.

I'm running a lot of ramp because Donatella cost which might be harder to get out quickly. I want to be able to tap him ASAP. I'm running Lightning Greaves just to give it the ability to activate the turn he comes out. Additionally, Donatello can turn all the artifact ramp and the Lightning Greaves into creatures. It's a win/win.

I'm running all the two-mana cost artifacts that produce or any one color, like Everflowing Chalice, Mind Stone, Arcane Signet, and Fellwar Stone. I'm also running Palladium Myr and Thran Dynamo for some of the bigger mana value cards like Kindred Discovery and Consecrated Sphinx.

In addition to that the extra mana can be used for equip costs and Rings of Brighthearth triggers.

Counters

I'm running a few modular creatures to get more counters when they die, like Arcbound Worker, Arcbound Stinger, and Arcbound Fiend. And the last two have some evasion -flying and fear, respectively - making the counters on them important. They're also artifacts so Donatello can buff them.

I'm pushing the envelope with artifact creatures that buff other creatures, like Steel Overseer and Iron Spider, Stark Upgrade.

The Ozolith is also huge here because whatever counters that get moved off a creature because of removal goes on The Ozolith and on another creature with Donatello's ability. You can double up on counters with each removal, encouraging players not to target removal anything.

Sac Outlets

While I can't buff creatures at instant speed with Donatello, in a pinch I can sac an artifact and use Donatello's trigger to buff another creature.

So, I'm running Krark-Clan Ironworks and Ashnod's Altar to be able to prevent exiling and to move counters as needed. It also is a source of mana if needed as well. Arcbound Ravager is also a good way to sac artifacts in a pinch too.

Why Draw Is So Important for Donatello, Mutant Mechanic

This was a huge problem. I need to be able to fill my hand up repeatedly to keep ahead, and I need artifacts coming out constantly to go wide enough for this deck to actually win.

Leonardo da Vinci has a pretty pricy draw and discard effect. It makes tokens, which is good for dumping lands or cards that I don't need while trying to see how far I can push, but it requires losing cards and costs a ton to activate. It's mainly good for getting a token copy of Krang, Utrom Warlord for .

All the artifact creatures I make with Donatello become Robots, so Kindred Discovery might be good if I go to combat to draw cards. I don't get the enters triggers though.

I have some generic draw with Consecrated Sphinx, Fact or Fiction, Windfall, and Rhystic Study, which isn't ideal, but is something. Palantír of Orthanc and Mystic Forge are also generic card advantage that I can turn into Robots with Donatello's ability so they're a little better.

Recursion

Arcbound Reclaimer is my only recursion. I worry I need to run more, with how I intend to sac artifacts for mana with Krark-Clan Ironworks, but hopefully it comes out in the wash. It might be a weakness for tweaking later on.

Interaction

I'm running targeted removal like Reality Shift and Cyber Conversion for indestructible or pesky cards like commanders. For everything else there is Pongify and Rapid Hybridization.

There is a decent suite of counter magic as well like An Offer You Can't Refuse and Counterspell.

How Does This Donatello, Mutant Mechanic Commander Deck Win?

Unwinding Clock is great for untapping all my artifact creatures that I might have used for mana or activated abilities. It makes my creatures have psuedo-vigilance. I'm not sure this will be really relevant. Having blockers might be a tide changer, or not. It's definitely first to cut if something better presents itself.

Krang, Utrom Warlord is a mini Akroma's Memorial. I thought about running Akroma's Memorial, but Krang is already a 9/9. I could buff it with Donatello too. It is a great way to turn the tide of the game suddenly. It's a high cost, but hopefully with all the ramp I'm running I'll be able to get there. Trample, flying, and haste sound game-ending to me. I'm not sure how anyone easily evades this. It's also like a mini Akroma's Will that you can do over and over.

Kappa Cannoneer is great because I'll likely be able to play it earlier rather than later because of the improvise. Nearly everything in this deck is an artifact, so it will trigger over an over. It's also an artifact itself, so Donatello can buff it. Ward makes it extremely hard to remove once it gets going. It could completely knock out a player.

Cyberdrive Awakener is also a game ender here. It makes artifacts into creatures with base power/toughness 4/4 and flying. Donatello puts counters on them, making the Cyberdrive Awakener's ability stack on top of Donatello's. 7/7 flyers are the sort of thing that will end a game.

Weaknesses of Donatello, Mutant Mechanic

There are a handful of things I'm worried about in this deck. It's very greedy. I don't have a ton of protection for Donatello apart from counter magic. I think he's going to be a magnet for removal if he does too much in a single turn. Donatello likely will need to go off when there are a ton of artifacts already out. He's a little unassuming though, so I'm hoping to get away with it.

The deck also has a low creature count. I'm hoping that turning all my noncreature artifacts into creatures will save me. I'm not sure if that's cope or not, but that's sort of the reason there are so few creatures.

Vandalblast, Bane of Progress, and Farewell choosing artifacts will blow me out completely, but all artifact decks are like this. Luckily I have Counterspell, which I'll hopefully hold for these sort of things.

Board wipes are similar because Donatello turns the artifacts into creatures permanently. A regular board wipe could remove all my artifacts too, depending on what I activate Donatello on.

My Donatello, Mutant Mechanic Commander Deck List

Conclusion

I think this deck is pretty neat. I'm not sure it's particularly strong, but I would build it.

Tell me what you think. Any secret tech that I missed? I'm @strixhavendropout