Commander blueprint · Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

How to build Super Shredder

Super Shredder takes a +1/+1 counter whenever another permanent leaves the battlefield, on any side of the table and of any card type. So this build treats a cracked fetchland, a spent Treasure and an opponent’s sacrificed creature as the same thing, a pump spell, and spends its protection on keeping the counters once they land.

Art by Néstor Ossandón Leal

Thirteen lands sacrifice themselves, and every one is a counter

Polluted Delta, Marsh Flats, Bloodstained Mire and Verdant Catacombs each list Swamp among the land types they can find, so in a mono-black deck they are four more copies of Prismatic Vista. Fabled Passage, Evolving Wilds, Terramorphic Expanse and Escape Tunnel do the same job with a Swamp that usually arrives tapped, and Myriad Landscape spends to fetch two of them. Each of those is a permanent leaving the battlefield, so each one is a +1/+1 counter whether or not the colour was needed. Most decks crack a fetchland the turn it lands. This one holds it until Super Shredder is on the battlefield to see it go.

Field of Ruin and Blighted Fen are worth two counters each, because each takes something of an opponent's with it. Field of Ruin sacrifices itself to destroy a nonbasic land an opponent controls, and Blighted Fen sacrifices itself for to make an opponent sacrifice a creature. Urza's Saga is a counter when it goes to the graveyard after its third chapter, and that chapter searches out an artifact with mana cost or . Here that means The Ozolith, Shadowspear, Skullclamp, Sol Ring or Wayfarer's Bauble, and The Ozolith is usually the one to take, for the reason given further down.

Escape Tunnel has a second mode that reads well and rarely works on this commander. Sacrificed for it, the Tunnel makes a creature with power 2 or less unblockable for the turn. Aim it at Super Shredder and the sacrifice is itself a permanent leaving, so his trigger goes on the stack above the Tunnel's ability and resolves first. A 1/1 Super Shredder becomes a 2/2 and still qualifies. A 2/2 becomes a 3/3, the target is illegal by the time the Tunnel's ability resolves, and nothing happens. Use that mode while he has no counters at all, or on another creature, and treat the Tunnel as a fetchland from then on.

Extinction Event cannot touch a commander whose mana value is two

Extinction Event exiles every creature whose mana value is odd, or every one whose mana value is even, whichever you choose. Super Shredder costs , so choose odd and he is never at risk. Exile is still leaving the battlefield, so the exiled creatures count exactly as dead ones would. Of the twenty creatures in the ninety-nine, eight have an even mana value and stay with him, along with ordinary tokens, whose mana value is zero. The other twelve, from Viscera Seer and Dream Beavers up to Archfiend of Depravity, leave with the opposing creatures and are counters too.

That is the test every wipe in the list had to pass, because a wipe only pays if Super Shredder is still there afterwards. A trigger on something leaving the battlefield looks back at the moment it left, so if he dies in the same wipe every one of those triggers still happens, and every counter is aimed at a creature that is gone. The Super Shredder you recast from the command zone is a new object and gets none of them. A wipe that takes twelve permanents and leaves him standing is twelve counters, and the other five here were chosen the same way.

Kindred Dominance and Crippling Fear each ask you to name a creature type and spare only that type. Super Shredder is a Mutant Ninja Human, so naming any of the three keeps him alive, and the choice decides what else survives. Human spares Pitiless Plunderer, Yawgmoth, Thran Physician and four more of your creatures, but Magic has around forty Human cards for every Ninja, so it also spares a good share of the opposing boards. Name Ninja instead. That keeps Shredder, Shadow Master, the other Ninja in the list, and the 3/2 Shapeshifter that Black Market Connections hires, since changeling makes it every type at once. Kindred Dominance destroys everything else, and if the other three players have four creatures each and you have five more, that is seventeen counters from one sorcery. Crippling Fear is the cheaper version at four mana. Its -3/-3 takes the small creatures and leaves the large ones.

Massacre Wurm gives only the opposing creatures -2/-2, and Toxic Deluge is safe whenever you pay less life than Super Shredder's toughness. Pestilence needs counting. Each activation deals 1 damage to him as well as to every other creature and every player, though each creature that dies to it adds a counter, and with it a point of toughness, before you activate again.

Archfiend of Depravity leaves each opponent two blockers, and menace needs both

Archfiend of Depravity grows Super Shredder on other people's turns. When each opponent's turn reaches its end step, that player keeps two creatures at most and sacrifices the rest. Every creature sacrificed is a counter, and at a four-player table it happens three times before your next turn. It also caps the token decks that would otherwise chump him forever: a player making three Goblins a turn keeps two of them when that turn ends, and the third is a counter. The two survivors matter as much as the losses. Menace means he can only be blocked by two or more creatures, so an opponent down to two has exactly one way to block him, which is with both, and two blockers that die to him are two more counters after damage.

The other sacrifice effects do the same sum on a smaller scale. Fleshbag Marauder and Plaguecrafter make every player sacrifice, you included, so the price is one of your tokens and the return is a counter per player. Liliana, Dreadhorde General can spend four loyalty to make each player sacrifice two creatures. Grave Pact and Dictate of Erebos turn each creature of yours that dies into a sacrifice for every opponent, so one Faerie fed to Viscera Seer pays out once for the Faerie and once more for each opponent's creature.

Shredder's Technique by sneak is two counters for one black mana

Sneak is this set's twist on ninjutsu. During the declare blockers step you may cast a sneak card for its cheaper sneak cost by returning one of your unblocked attackers to your hand, and that return is a permanent leaving the battlefield. Shredder's Technique destroys a creature or enchantment, and by sneak it costs , so one black mana is two counters: the attacker you returned and the permanent you destroyed. Splinter's Technique finds any card for the same way, which makes the tutor a counter as well.

Never send Super Shredder back to pay for it. Counters do not travel with a creature that changes zones, so returning him to hand throws away everything he has collected. The attackers to use are the small evasive ones. Bitterblossom makes a 1/1 flying Faerie every upkeep, and returning a token still counts even though the token stops existing a moment later. Dream Beavers is a one-mana flier that drains each opponent for 1 and scries when it enters, so bouncing it to pay for sneak means casting it again for another drain. Ninja Teen, the set's Class enchantment, makes each opponent lose 1 life whenever a creature you control leaves the battlefield, which covers the bounce, every sacrifice and every chump block. Its second level gives all your creatures menace, which makes the next unblocked attacker easier to find.

The Ooze pays a dead Super Shredder back at two counters a Mutagen

The Ooze is the set's answer to the obvious problem with piling every counter onto one creature. When a creature you control with +1/+1 counters on it leaves the battlefield, The Ooze makes a Mutagen token for each counter. A Mutagen is an artifact you pay , tap and sacrifice to put a +1/+1 counter on a creature, at sorcery speed. Spend one on Super Shredder and he gets two counters, the one the Mutagen gives and the one for the Mutagen leaving. So a Super Shredder destroyed with ten counters leaves ten Mutagens worth twenty counters to the next one, at each.

The Ozolith is the other half. It takes every counter from a creature of yours that leaves the battlefield and, at the start of each of your combats, can move the whole stack onto a creature you target. Both cards trigger on the same death, so with both out the recast Super Shredder, at , gets the original ten back from The Ozolith before he attacks and twenty more from the Mutagens over the turns that follow. With Swiftfoot Boots on him he attacks the turn he comes back.

The Ooze does not need a death to work, either. Its tap ability exiles a card from any graveyard and makes a Mutagen, so on a quiet turn it is for two counters and a little graveyard hate. Mind which equipment he is wearing when the Mutagens come out. Lightning Greaves and Whispersilk Cloak give shroud, which turns away your own Mutagens and The Ozolith as firmly as any removal spell, while the hexproof from Swiftfoot Boots only turns away the opponents. When the Greaves are on him, shift them to another creature with their free equip before spending Mutagens.

Twenty counters is one swing, and the equipment shortens the count

Commander damage needs 21 from Super Shredder himself, and from 1 power that is twenty counters and an attack that connects. Shadowspear brings it to nineteen and adds trample, so a chump block no longer stops the damage, with lifelink on top. Shredder's Armor gives +2/+1 and attaches itself to him on the turn it enters, and its equip cost is sacrificing another nonland permanent, which is a counter of its own. With both on him, seventeen counters is a kill. Whispersilk Cloak skips the arithmetic and makes him unblockable. Menace already makes every block cost the defender two creatures, and when both die to a creature this size, the next attack is two counters bigger.

Shredder, Shadow Master is the second attacker this deck wants. When it attacks a player it makes a token copy of itself attacking each other opponent, and any of them that deals combat damage takes half of that player's life. The copies are sacrificed at end of combat, so at a four-player table every attack it makes is two counters on Super Shredder whether the copies connect or not.

Urborg gives every land a black mana ability, and Cabal Coffers counts them all

The list runs 36 lands, 19 of them Swamps, and 35 black sources. One black pip by turn two arrives 97.4% of the time. Two by turn three arrives 89.5% of the time, just under the usual 90% line, and the seventeen cards that ask for it start with Bloodghast at and Phyrexian Arena at . Six pieces of ramp is low by the usual count, and it sits under an average mana value of 2.9 with 29 of the 63 spells at two mana or less. Four more cards make Treasure, which no ramp count sees and which grows Super Shredder every time one is spent.

Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth makes every land a Swamp, and that matters twice here. The nine lands that fetch and have no mana ability of their own, Escape Tunnel among them, and the five that tap only for colourless all tap for while it is out. And Cabal Coffers, which adds for each Swamp you control, counts every land you have rather than the basics alone. That is the mana for a seven-mana Kindred Dominance, a long run of Pestilence activations or a turn spent cashing in Mutagens.

The core list

Super Shredder and ninety-nine cards for $629, on a bracket 3 floor set by Demonic Tutor and nothing else. Hover over any card name to see the card.

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The budget rung keeps The Ooze, and bracket 4 brings Bolas's Citadel

Fifteen swaps bring the list down from $629 to $161, and with Demonic Tutor gone it has no bracket floor at all. Most of the saving is three cards, since The Ozolith, Demonic Tutor and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth cost more between them than the entire budget list. The Ooze stays, so a Super Shredder who dies on this rung still leaves his counters behind as Mutagens, and Darksteel Plate takes The Ozolith's slot to stop him dying to destroy effects in the first place. The fetchlands become Warped Landscape and Terminal Moraine, which cost to crack, and Demolition Field and Ghost Quarter, which take an opponent's land with them, so the number of lands that sacrifice themselves drops only from thirteen to twelve. What the rung gives up is speed. Four lands now enter tapped where the core list has one, Grave Pact becomes Butcher of Malakir at seven mana, and Shadowspear becomes Blackblade Reforged, which counts every land you control as another +1/+1, so by turn eight it does more toward the twenty than Shadowspear ever did.

Ten swaps take the list up to bracket 4 at $1,194, and with ten Game Changers in it the floor is 4. Three of them do this commander's job better than anything in the core list. Bolas's Citadel ends with an ability that sacrifices ten nonland permanents to make each opponent lose 10 life, and those ten are also ten counters on Super Shredder. Tergrid, God of Fright puts any nontoken permanent an opponent sacrifices onto the battlefield under your control, so Archfiend of Depravity, Grave Pact and Plaguecrafter stop being removal and start being theft, and each theft was already a counter. Opposition Agent turns an opponent's fetchland against them: they still sacrifice it, which is your counter, and the land they find is exiled for you to play. Crucible of Worlds is not a Game Changer, but it lets you play lands from your graveyard, so a sacrificed fetchland comes back and a land drop can be a counter every turn for the rest of the game. Chrome Mox and a Swamp cast Super Shredder on turn one, and Mana Vault and Ancient Tomb pay for him and something else on turn two, which puts him on the battlefield before most of a bracket 4 table has cracked its own fetchlands. Necropotence, Vampiric Tutor and Orcish Bowmasters are the rest, and the 1 damage Orcish Bowmasters deals on arrival usually kills a 1/1 for one more counter. Bring this rung to a table that expects fast mana and tutors, and mention Tergrid before the first game.

FAQ

Does Super Shredder get a counter when a token leaves the battlefield?

Yes. A token leaves the battlefield like any other permanent and only then stops existing, so a spent Treasure, a sacrificed Food, a creature token that dies in combat and a token returned to hand by sneak each put a +1/+1 counter on him.

Do lands count for Super Shredder?

Yes. His trigger reads any permanent, and lands are permanents. Cracking a fetchland is a counter, and so is a land that Field of Ruin destroys, which makes one Field of Ruin activation worth two.

Does Super Shredder trigger when an opponent's permanent leaves the battlefield?

Yes. The card says another permanent and says nothing about who controls it, so an opponent spending a Treasure, sacrificing a creature or losing one to a third player's removal grows him, on any player's turn.

Does Super Shredder keep the counters from a board wipe that kills him too?

No. The triggers still happen, because they look back at the moment everything left together, but the Super Shredder they would put counters on is gone, and the one you recast is a new creature. The Ozolith and The Ooze save the counters he had before the wipe. The ones the wipe itself would have given him are lost.

Does exile or bounce count for Super Shredder?

Yes. Leaving the battlefield covers dying, being exiled, returning to a hand and going into a library. Phasing out does not count, because a permanent that phases out never leaves the battlefield.

How much does it cost to build Super Shredder?

$629 for the core list, $161 for the budget rung and $1,194 for the bracket 4 rung, counting each card at the lowest price any paper copy of it was listed for on 23 October 2026.

What bracket is this Super Shredder deck?

Bracket 3, and Demonic Tutor is the reason. It is the single Game Changer among the ninety-nine, and the budget rung, which swaps it for Diabolic Tutor, has no bracket floor at all. The bracket 4 rung runs ten Game Changers.

Is Super Shredder the same card as Shredder, Shadow Master?

No. Shredder, Shadow Master is a five-mana 5/5 from the Turtle Power! Commander deck that copies itself toward every other opponent when it attacks. Super Shredder is the two-mana mythic from the main Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles set. Their names differ, so both fit in one deck, and this list runs both: the Shadow Master's copies are sacrificed at end of combat, which at a four-player table is two counters on Super Shredder for every attack.