Commander Overview
Now that the dust has settled a little bit on TMNT I decided to review all of the possible Pauper EDH commanders and was immediately intrigued by Donatello, a mono-blue commander who loves artifacts and gets progressively bigger with each one we drop, as a long time lover of Voltron strategies I immediately started building a Voltron focused deck with a heavy artifact package, almost all of the cards in our deck are artifact and trigger Donatello, being in mono-blue feels pretty great in this deck since we have many ways to protect them as they do become a pretty big target when we get big. This deck is some good, clean fun, and while not super complicated, it is a blast.
Creature 18
Instant 9
Sorcery 5
Artifact 25
Enchantment 7
Land 35
How to Play the Deck
Playing the deck is very easy. This deck would be perfect for a new player, as it is not the slightest bit complicated. While this might not be a first-game deck, it is good even if the player only has a couple of games under their belt. As far as strategy for playing the deck, the only strategy is really to keep attacking and buffing Donatello. We have multiple ways to make Donatello unblockable, and since they are already flying, they are naturally pretty evasive.
Synergy’s in the deck
Artifacts are the primary synergy in our deck, since triggering Donatello is our number one priority, we play out a ton of artifacts in all stages of the game. We can even get the benefit of some free stuff with cards like Myr Enforcer, which also triggers Donatello! Within our Voltron package, we also have some great artifact creatures that can be great alternate Voltron creatures if we can’t get Donatello to stick. Being able to use Filigree Attendant or Myr Adapter can be great alternate ways to close out games.
Phases of the Game
Early-Game: Establishment is all we really do in the early-game, we are perfectly ok with missing out in a few Donatello triggers if it means we can have a stronger mid/late-game being able to commit mana rocks like Sky Diamond or Arcane Signet can help us accelerate getting out Donatello and accelerate the overall gameplan. That is mostly what we spend our early-game doing.
Mid-Game: The mid-game is where we become quite aggressive, we have a few artifacts out, some cheap pieces of equipment like Ceremonial Knife or Bonesplitter, and we can start swinging, it really doesn’t take long to hit the sixteen commander damage threshold, we can easily kill opponents in the mid-game but we are perfectly ok if the games goes long as well.
Late-Game: We are perfectly fine if the game goes long; if it does, we are very big and hit like a truck using Donatello and can easily get some commander-damage one-shots since our opponents have already taken quite a few points of commander damage by this point. We do have to threat-assess hard, especially when opponents have big boards, because if we don’t take out the right person, we can be in a lot of trouble.
Card Breakdowns
Ramp
While we don’t have any traditional ramp spells, we have some awesome options that help the game plan a ton, like Foundry Inspector, which discounts nearly all of the permanents in our deck and is a great card to drop early for the deck. I had a ton of success, especially in the early game, with Renowned Weaponsmith. Not only is this a great mana dork for the deck, but we actually have Heart-Piercer Bow and can tutor for it if we have some extra mana or simply want it! We round out our ramp package with Arcane Signet and Sky Diamond. While it may seem pointless to run these in our deck, they trigger Donatello and increase our artifact count for cards like Filigree Attendant.
Card Draw/Card Advantage
This is one of the biggest benefits we have for being in mono-blue and is one of the biggest strengths of our deck, even though we dump our hand quite quickly we can refill our hand easily with the help of cards like Thoughtcast which in this deck is almost always only one mana and for that price gives us so much tempo and card advantage over our opponents. I also got a lot of great use out of Lorien Revealed, which is just a strong source of card draw. While we rarely cycle it, it is an option for the deck. We have some artifacts that help us draw cards like Bonder's Ornament and Spare Supplies, which are great ways to keep our hand full and trigger Donatello. We round out our card draw package with some cheap and efficient options in Ponder and Preordain, which are great at any stage of the game.
Removal
We don’t have a lot of removal outside of combat, but in combat, we are pretty good and have some great blockers. Still, for the most part, we don’t have a ton of ways to remove our opponents’ stuff. We do have counterspells, and while we would typically rather use them for protection, if an opponent attempts to resolve a huge threat that will kill us, we will counter it.
Protection
We primarily use our counterspells to protect Donatello; they are the primary thing we always want on the field. Hence, we do everything we can to protect them, so we often devote a lot of our counterspells to protect them with cards like Turn aside and Counterspell, which are cheap and easy ways to keep Donatello on the field. Protecting Donatello is one of the most important parts of our deck. We do have Herbal Poultice, which also triggers Donatello and can bring them back if needed, which is a nice option as well.
Utility / Support
Let’s go over some of the best equipment in our deck! Golem-Skin Gauntlet is one of the strongest pieces of equipment in our deck, and it scales like crazy, and combining that with Donatello allows us to hit like a truck and get to that sweet sixteen commander damage quite quickly. Haunted Cloak makes it not even matter if Donatello can be blocked because they are quite big, and adding trample, vigilance, and haste to the mix can allow us to deal a ton of damage and have a great blocker as well. Goggles of Night is a cheap equipment and a cheap way to get card advantage in the deck. We do have a decent amount of blockers in the deck, a lot more than many Voltron decks, since Donatello only cares about artifacts, but Golem Foundry is another extremely synergistic card for the deck, which can allow us to pump out blockers so we can keep our life total high while using Donatello to beat down our opponents. I want to finish by highlighting Wedding Invitation and Whispersilk Cloak, which in the late stages of the game can guarantee a one-shot with commander damage.
Mana Base
We don’t have a very exciting landbase, but I want to highlight Seat of the Synod, which is an untapped blue source that triggers Donatello, a great card for the deck. We mostly have islands in the deck since we are in mono-blue, but I tested a bunch of games with this manabase and didn’t have any trouble.
Win Conditions
Our only win condition is combat; our opponents are effectively at sixteen life since we have Donatello, and they are naturally evasive.
Strengths of the Deck
Our commander gets huge passively.
We have so much equipment that gives Donatello a bunch of keywords and makes them truly dangerous.
Weaknesses of the Deck
Donatello often gets hated out of the game. Even if we aren’t ready to protect them, we can lack a lot of punch.
All flying-focused decks like Kangee can be tough for us since Donatello becomes a lot less evasive against them.
Deck Testing/Matchups
I tested this deck against three different decks
Game 1: Vs Sigil Captain. Matchup Record: 3-1
This is a matchup we do really well in. We have enough blockers to deal with what is mostly an army of 3/3s, and we can easily go over the top with Donatello. We can especially slow them down by countering Sigil Captain.
This is a great matchup for our deck.
Cards that worked really well in this matchup:
Cryogen Relic, Goggles of Night and Golem-Skin Gauntlets.
Game 2: Vs Spectral Sailor. Matchup Record: 3-2
This was a firmly alright matchup for our deck; they have a lot of counterspells and bounce spells, and it can be quite tough to have things resolve in this matchup. If we can keep Donatello on the field by holding up protection, we can easily win this game. Still, it can be very tough to get any of our meaningful stuff to stick. We certainly can’t get into a counter-war with them.
Cards that worked really well in this matchup:
Witness Protection, Armguard Familiar and Amazing Acrobatics.
Game 3: Vs Cactusfolk Sureshot. Matchup Record: 2-3
This was a tough matchup; it can be hard to compete with their army of awesome Gruul creatures who have trample and are just naturally huge. I had a tough time slowing them down, too, since they ramped a ton. In the games I did win, I was quick, playing cheap artifacts with Donatello out and focusing them down. They don’t have a ton of ways to deal with all of our flyers.
Cards that worked really well in this matchup:
Foundry Inspector, Golem Foundry and Arcane Denial.
Conclusion
Thanks so much for reading to the end! I hope you all enjoyed it. Donatello is a very fun commander, not super atypical from your typical Voltron deck, but still a lot of fun to play and a great deck to put together if you love mono-blue decks that scale quickly and hit very hard.