In 1999 Masashi Kishimoto shocked the world by introducing an orange ninja. Naruto Uzumaki was a ragamuffin who only caused trouble for the fictional village of Konoha. Despite having a chip on his shoulder he strove to become the best ninja he could to prove to the people around him that he wasn't a menace or a monster. While watching Naruto we experience the growth he goes through. He develops new abilities, makes new and lasting relationships and impacts the world around him for the better. As he grows, Naruto eventually meets a mentor named Jiraiya. Jiraiya, commonly referred to as the Toad Sage, is often seen riding on the back of a frog. After some training Jiraiya teaches Naruto the ability to summon and partner with toads as well.

You're probably thinking, "What does this have to do with Magic: The Gathering?" You'd be right to assume that there is very little connection between MTG and Naruto, but did you know there was a toad rider on a plane called Kamigawa? Tatsunari, Toad Rider is a character from the set Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty and his story reflects that of Naruto Uzumaki. Both boys grew up as outsiders in their own villages and had to prove their own value. Unlike Naruto, Tatsunari fished up his own frog from a Towashi canal and nurtured it until it grew to the size of a horse. Naming the frog Keimi he would bound all over Towashi and terrorize the citizens as a member of the Mukotai Reckoners.

The card, Tatsunari, Toad Rider, cares about frogs and enchantments. Whenever we cast an enchantment, if we don't already control Keimi, we get to summon a token of our noble steed. Keimi is a 3/3 Green and Black Frog creature that has a special ability all her own. Whenever we cast an enchantment, each opponent loses one life and we gain one life. Normally players will use Tatusnari's frog synergies when building a deck but with this deck we're going to use the ability provided by Keimi to slowly bleed the table of their life.

How we take advantage of Keimi's ability is to figure out a way to make her non-legendary. How we do that is through the mutate mechanic. We'll use creatures like Gemrazer or Migratory Greathorn from the set Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths. Mutate allows two non-Human creatures to merge together. By mutating a Parcelbeast onto a Keimi we make ourselves a non-legendary creature with both creatures abilities. Next we cast another enchantment spell and we get a fresh Keimi ready to be mutated. Continue this until we've hit critical mass and then we can drain out our opponents.

We use a plethora of enchantments to draw cards, protect our important creatures and drain our opponents. The most expensive enchantment in our deck is Eidolon of Blossoms at 4 mana with most of the enchantments we play costing 1 or 2 mana respectively. The two most critical enchantments in the deck are Whip Silk and Shimmering Wings. These enchantments have a great ability that lets us return them to our hand and repeat the drain process until we run out of mana. Bundle those with cards like Kaya's Ghostform and Necrogen Communion enchanted on our Tatsunari and he'll keep coming back from the grave. We've also elected to take advantage of cards like Crab Umbra that give us the powerful Totem Armor ability.

In order to keep the combos consistent we're playing 17 ways to draw cards. We'll take advantage of Tastunari's evasion ability and cards like Keen Sense and Curiosity to draw cards consistently while dealing combat damage. Ultimately though, we want to use the Enchantress package to provide us hand advantage whenever we cast our enchantments. Out of the 17 card draw spells, we're playing 7 enchantress effects like Argothian Enchantress and Verduran Enchantress. If your opening hand has a few lands, an enchantment and an enchantress effect, you're golden!

We have a robust ramp package at 17 cards. Bloom Tender and Sanctum Weaver are the all-stars here. With a decent amount of enchantments on the board we can power up Sanctum Weaver with the aforementioned Crab Umbra to give us a quick infinite mana combo! We also have some classic ramp staples like Farseek and Nature's Lore to put us ahead on land. By far my favorite ramp spell in the deck is Poison Dart Frog. This little guy gives us mana, trades up with deathtouch and is a targetable creature for Tatsunari's evasion ability.

Adolescent Deformed Pugilist Amphibians | Commander | Mike Cummings

• Commander (1)
• 1 Tatsunari, Toad Rider

• Creatures (27)
• 1 Argothian Enchantress
• 1 Balemurk Leech
• 1 Bloom Tender
• 1 Boneyard Lurker
• 1 Brokkos, Apex of Forever
• 1 Destiny Spinner
• 1 Dina, Soul Steeper
• 1 Dreamtail Heron
• 1 Dryad of the Ilysian Grove
• 1 Eidolon of Blossoms
• 1 Entity Tracker
• 1 Fyndhorn Elves
• 1 Gemrazer
• 1 Gloomshrieker
• 1 Grim Guardian
• 1 Hateful Eidolon
• 1 Herald of the Pantheon
• 1 Insatiable Hemophage
• 1 Migratory Greathorn
• 1 Parcelbeast
• 1 Poison Dart Frog
• 1 Pouncing Shoreshark
• 1 Sanctum Weaver
• 1 Sea-Dasher Octopus
• 1 Setessan Champion
• 1 Tanglespan Lookout
• 1 Verduran Enchantress

• Instants (4)
• 1 Counterspell
• 1 Heroic Intervention
• 1 Negate
• 1 Tear Asunder

• Sorceries (5)
• 1 Consuming Tide
• 1 Farseek
• 1 Nature's Lore
• 1 Skyshroud Claim
• 1 Toxic Deluge

• Enchantments (25)
• 1 Abundant Growth
• 1 Aspect of Mongoose
• 1 Audacity
• 1 Combat Research
• 1 Crab Umbra
• 1 Cultist of the Absolute
• 1 Curiosity
• 1 Enchantress's Presence
• 1 Imprisoned in the Moon
• 1 Kaya's Ghostform
• 1 Keen Sense
• 1 Kenrith's Transformation
• 1 Necrogen Communion
• 1 Rancor
• 1 Seal of Primordium
• 1 Shielding Plax
• 1 Shimmering Wings
• 1 Snake Umbra
• 1 Spider Umbra
• 1 Sylvan Library
• 1 Utopia Sprawl
• 1 Whip Silk
• 1 Wild Growth
• 1 Witness Protection
• 1 Wolfwillow Haven

• Artifacts (2)
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Sol Ring

• Lands (36)
• 4 Forest
• 3 Island
• 2 Swamp
• 1 Barkchannel Pathway
• 1 Boseiju, Who Endures
• 1 Breeding Pool
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Dreamroot Cascade
• 1 Drowned Catacomb
• 1 Fabled Passage
• 1 Fetid Pools
• 1 Field of the Dead
• 1 Hinterland Harbor
• 1 Misty Rainforest
• 1 Necroblossom Snarl
• 1 Otawara, Soaring City
• 1 Overgrown Tomb
• 1 Polluted Delta
• 1 Reflecting Pool
• 1 Rejuvenating Springs
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Sunken Hollow
• 1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
• 1 Twilight Mire
• 1 Undergrowth Stadium
• 1 Verdant Catacombs
• 1 Watery Grave
• 1 Woodland Cemetery
• 1 Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth
• 1 Zagoth Triome

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Just a quick final note, Tatsunari's evasion ability will not work with the mutated creatures. Mutate only picks up the abilities of one of the combined creatures and not the creature types. If you need to go in for a commander damage victory you always need to make sure there is a Keimi or Dart Frog for you to target. Throw in some counter magic and removal and we've got ourselves a stream of mutants to drain the table and secure us a victory! Thanks for looking back into the past at an incredibly cool commander with a ton of build potential!