Card Spotlight
Donatello, Gadget Master
A 3-mana mono-blue Ninja Turtle from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that can attack a turn early by bouncing an unblocked ally, then copies one of your artifacts every time it connects.
Commander Spotlight
Donatello, Gadget Master ↗
A 3-mana mono-blue Ninja Turtle from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that can attack a turn early by bouncing an unblocked ally, then copies one of your artifacts every time it connects.
See Donatello, Gadget Master's full stats and printings →
Strategies it goes well with
- Artifacts-matter decks. Copying a strong artifact on combat damage is a direct payoff for running a few high-value artifacts rather than many small ones.
- Evasive or unblockable shells. The combat damage trigger only fires if Donatello actually connects, so anything making it hard to block compounds its value.
- Aggressive blue tempo decks. The Sneak cost lets it come down cheaply mid-combat as a surprise extra attacker, adding pressure the turn it's cast.
How it does in Commander
As the commander
It's a reasonable commander for a dedicated artifacts-matter blue deck, since guaranteed repeated access to the copy trigger from the command zone rewards building the 99 around a small number of strong, worth-copying artifacts.
In the 99
A solid value piece in any blue artifact deck even without leading it, turning combat damage into a repeatable way to copy artifacts.
Formats it's strong in
- Decks with a few strong artifacts. The copy trigger is worth the most when the target artifact is powerful, which rewards quality over quantity in the artifact base.
- Evasive tempo decks. Donatello only copies an artifact when it deals combat damage to a player, so anything that makes it harder to block supports this card.
Formats it's weak in
- Decks with few or weak artifacts. Copying a mediocre artifact is a small payoff for connecting in combat, which lowers the card's overall ceiling.
- Decks that can't get it through combat. The value is entirely locked behind dealing combat damage to a player, so a heavily defended board neutralizes it.
Synergistic cards
Sensei's Divining Top ↗
A strong artifact worth copying for a second card-selection engine every turn.
Sword of Fire and Ice ↗
An equipment powerful enough that a second copy is a real board-wide swing.
Solemn Simulacrum ↗
An artifact creature whose ETB triggers again the moment the token copy enters.
Any unblockable or evasion enabler ↗
Donatello needs to connect to copy anything, so evasion support directly increases its value.
Is it worth the price?
As a recent-set card, Donatello is inexpensive and a reasonable pickup for a blue artifacts-matter deck, with little financial risk.
Frequently asked questions
How does Sneak work on Donatello, Gadget Master?
Sneak lets you cast the card for a cheaper alternative cost (here, {1}{U} instead of {2}{U}) if you also return an unblocked attacker you already control to hand during the declare blockers step. Donatello then enters tapped and attacking, so you swap one attacker for a new one mid-combat and pay less for it.
What does Donatello, Gadget Master's combat damage trigger do?
Whenever it deals combat damage to a player, create a token copy of a target artifact you control. Any strong artifact already on the battlefield (a mana rock, an equipment, a valuable ETB artifact creature) becomes two copies each time Donatello connects.
What deck wants Donatello, Gadget Master?
A mono-blue or Izzet artifacts-matter deck that's already running artifacts worth doubling. The more valuable the target artifact, the bigger the swing from copying it, so it rewards a deck built around a few strong artifacts rather than a pile of small ones.