Magic: The Gathering is headed back to New York City for another Universes Beyond set, this time featuring a more tubular approach to the game with the upcoming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles set of Magic: The Gathering
Wizards of the Coast seems hellbent on delivering more and more sets, with the TMNT expansion set to release on March 6, there’s not a whole ton of time to get familiar with the latest Standard set.
Luckily for you, we got an early look at some of the cards, mechanics, and products coming with the set.
Something to note in this set is that the designers didn’t pull from just one era of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. This set has everything from the original Mirage comics to the 1987 and 2003 cartoons, to toys, and even the live-action films.
The card Turtles Forever showcases all the various multiverse incarnations, but it doesn’t stop there. There are more than a few nods to the immensely popular video games that have been released over the years, though those mostly stick to the Commander preconstructed deck.
The Boys Themselves
Each of the Turtles gets multiple cards depicting their journey from starting as a novice ninja as a common, and ending up as a mythic rare expert martial artists. They all also get their own color identity, ensuring there’s a Turtle in every pack. All the boys are Mutant Ninja Turtle creatures and though we only get to see Raphael for now, all the Turtles will be getting this treatment.
Raphael
In the set, Raphael is all about combat, with each of his main cards working the board to be in his favor. The common and uncommon cards both have an Alliance keyword, triggering when another creature comes into play under your control.
Raphael, the Nightwatcher, taps into his ninja skills, giving him the Sneak keyword for three mana, and grants all your attacking creatures doublestrike, which is a pretty good combat trick. Then there’s Raphael, Ninja Destroyer, the mythic rare iteration, who must be blocked by an opponent and generates red mana when he is dealt damage.
Character Team-Ups
Each duo of brothers also gets a team-up card, combining their individual talents into one powerful card. These cards will feature hybrid mana costs and are designed to highlight their personalities together as well.
Don & Leo, Problem Solvers takes the techy Donatello and the analytical Leonardo and turns their virtues into a creature with a built-in blink trigger for one of your artifacts and one of your creatures.
The more rambunctious Raph & Mikey, Troublemakers come together to make a seven mana 7/7 with trample and haste, who also nets you a creature card from the top of your deck that comes into play tapped and attacking, which is pretty darn good.
Friends
Casey Jones
The vigilante wielding sports equipment, Casey Jones, is in the set as well, and looks like he might be a pretty powerful addition to red Standard decks. When Jones comes into play you get to draw three cards, then at the start of your next upkeep, you have to discard three cards at random.
While that might not seem great at first, if you can dump a few burn spells into your opponent’s face between those phases and empty your hand, you won’t have to discard anything!
Casey joins the game with all his gear bag, Improvised Arsenal. This red artifact is a color-shifted version of Cranial Plating, giving the equipped creature +1/+0 for each artifact you control. While you can’t attach it at instant speed, you can pay five mana to make token copies of it, giving it a unique twist of its own.
Turtle Van
This iconic little vehicle pulls from the old Party Wagon toy from Playmates, and boosts creatures that crew it by dishing out +1/+1 counters when the Van attacks. If that creature was a Mutant, Ninja, or Turtle, you get to double the number of +1/+1 counters on that creature afterwards. Even with a crew of just 1, you can tap any number of creatures to crew it, letting you spread those counters around.
Cowabunga!
An exceptionally flavorful card, Cowabunga! is a one green mana sorcery that lets you dig through the top four cards of your deck for a Mutant, Ninja, Turtle, or land card and add it to your hand. While a bit narrower than other similar cards, it is a very fun addition and likely a staple in any deck running the Turtles.
Villains
The TMNT villains also get their time in the limelight, with multiple iterations of some of the biggest villains the Turtles have had to go up against, as well as a few deep cuts that true fans can enjoy.
Krang, Master Mind
While eight mana seems a bit excessive for a 1/4 creature, Krang, Master Mind, can quickly cut down that cost thanks to his affinity for artifacts ability. Much like a bigger Thought Monitor, this Krang lets you draw up to four cards in your hand if you have less than four, while also getting +1/+0 for each artifact you control. With six artifacts out, you’ll have yourself a two mana 7/4 and a full grip of cards.
A fun little easter egg with this card, in the background of the card are a few different versions of Krang’s exosuit in tubes. These are all different interpretations of his exosuits from various Magic artists who submitted different designs of the suit.
Krang, Utrom Warlord
This absolute monster of an artifact creature is a 9/9 for nine mana, and comes loaded with flying, trample, indestructible, and haste. That’s not all, though, as it gives all the other artifact creatures you control those keywords as well. Slam this bad boy down, and you’re all but set to win the game.
Mechanics
Alliance
This returning ability triggers when another creature enters the battlefield under your control, making it a strong mechanic for token and Sneak strategies, which we’ll get to in a little bit.
Slash. Reptile Rampager is the headliner here, dealing two damage to each opponent when you have a creature enter the battlefield under your control, as well as making a 2/2 Mutant creature token when he attacks.
Class Enchantments
Back from Bloomborrow are the Class Enchantments, a cycle of rare enchantments that are based loosely around the original theme song. The Ninja Teen card showcases Karai, Splinter’s daughter, from before he was transformed by the Mutagen.
This three-mana enchantment plays nicely with the Sneak mechanic as you’ll have Ninja’s entering and leaving the battlefield regularly by making your opponents lose 1 life any time a creature you control leaves the battlefield at it’s first level.
At level two, your creatures get a little buff with a +1/+0 bonus and they gain the menace keyword, helping to ensure your sneaky cards get through. Then, finally, at level three, Ninja Teen gives all cards in your graveyard Sneak for four mana and lets you cast creatures from your graveyard through their Sneak cost. It’s an interesting little reanimator effect that might find a niche spot in Standard decks with a little work.
Disappear
A returning mechanic retooled to fit the TMNT vibe, Disappear is effectively Revolt, which checks to see if you had a permanent that left the battlefield this turn. It is shown in the team-up card Krang & Shredder, a six-mana 6/7 Utrom Human Ninja that forces your opponents to exile the top cards of their deck until they exile a nonland card. When the Disappear keyword triggers at the start of your end step, you can cast a card exiled by the duo for free.
Mutagens tokens and Sneak abilities are great ways to get this ability firing.
Mutagen Tokens
A new mechanic for the set, Mutagen Tokens are artifact tokens that you can sacrifice after paying a mana and tapping it to put a +1/+1 counter on a creature at sorcery speed. It’s a very flavorful mechanic that can be banked for late game advantages or an early boost to power.
Sneak
Sneak is going to look very familiar, it’s more or less the Ninjutsu ability, though this time it can appear on instant and sorcery spells.
Shredder’s Technique joins the slowly growing list of black spells that destroy enchantments at the cost of a few points of life, while The Last Ronin’s Technique is a fine token generator.
The other main point with Sneak is that it allows creatures with the ability to jump into play from the Command Zone, thanks to a few tweaks to the wording.
Odds and Ends
Vanish Lands
These lands feature landscapes where the Tutles had just recently departed from. You’ll see in the Plains artwork that there’s an open manhole with a half-eaten box of pizza next to it, and the Forest with a bunch of training materials left behind.
Full-Art Rooftop Lands
Then there’s the Rooftop Lands, which show the Turtles leaping through the night, mostly shrouded by the glow of New York City.
Borderless Signature Kevin Eastman Headliner
Each of the Turtles gets a special art treatment with an all-new illustration hand-drawn by co-creator of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Kevin Eastman. The cards feature a stamp of Eastman’s signature and can only be found in Collector Boosters. The cards can be found in any language Collector Booster, but the cards themselves will always be English.
Borderless Pixel Cards
These are cards from the set with a more retro feel, the pixelated illustration being a great throwback to the 16-bit consoles like the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis. These cards all come in a surge foil finish and are exclusively found in Collector Boosters.
Borderless Silhouette Cards
Being Ninjas, the Turtles like to stick to the shadows of New York City, rarely stepping into the light while battling the forces of evil. These cards give you just a glimpse at them before they slip away, like you’re really a clueless citizen in the Big Apple.
These cards will pop up in both Play and Collector Boosters, in a variety of foilings.
Source Material
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Hot on the heels of the Avatar: The Last Airbender Source Material cards which featured screenshots from the show, the TMNT ones pull from the original comics. Non foil versions can be found in Play Boosters, while traditional foils are exclusive to Collector Boosters.
Japan Showcase
Ten cards are featured in the Japan Showcase, with artwork all done by Japanese artists. They come in traditional and fracture foil treatments, exclusively in Collector Boosters.
Commander
With so much of the main set dedicated to the comics, shows, and films of the TMNT universe, the design team behind the set wanted to give gamers something to rally behind, and behold, a five-color Commander deck with tons of throwbacks to some of the best games released featuring the Turtles. The whole deck feels like you’re in an arcade playing on a cabinet, giving it a unique twist over most other preconstructed decks.
All five of the Turtles are here, along with Splinter, featuring the Partner mechanic that lets you pair up any cards with the Partner – Character Select keyword to be your commander. You can also choose from the five-color Heroes in a Half Shell card, uniting all four brothers together in one card.
There are 43 completely new cards in the deck, with one more legendary creature featuring the Partner – Character Select ability in the 99. This deck is loaded with some powerhouse cards, like the Level Up aura, giving the enchanted creature a +1/+1 counter when it enters and then doubling the number of +1/+1 counters on it when it attacks. Once you hit a power of 10 or more, you start drawing a card with every attack.
Arcade Cabinet is a three-mana colorless artifact that drops a +1/+1 counter on up to four creatures when it enters. You can then sacrifice a token to double the number of counters on a creature, letting you make good use of those Mutagen tokens.
And most impressively, ithere s the High Score enchantment, which lets you add one more +1/+1 counter to a creature anytime you would put any +1/+1 counters on one. And then it lets you draw a card on your end step if you control the strongest creature on the battlefield.
All The Turtle Power You Can Handle
As with most Magic: The Gathering sets, there’s a wide range of products to pick up to grow your collection with. You have the typical Play and Collector Boosters, a Bundle, and a single preconstructed Commander deck
Draft Night
This self-contained kit includes everything you need to host your own draft game for four players. The box is designed to be played in the pick-2 draft format, letting you choose two cards at a time from each pack to build your deck. It makes for a faster game, but not always the fairest.
There’s also a Collector Booster tucked away inside to give to your draft champ, a bunch of basic lands, and some extra tokens if the pod needs them/
Turtle Team Up
Details are a bit light on this co-op mini-game, but it sounds like it’s a great jumping-on point for new players. 2-4 players team up against the game itself to take down legions of Shredder’s minions, as well as 11 of the Turtles’ greatest enemies. There are ways to increase the difficulty of the game, so there’s plenty of replayability.
There are 29 brand new cards in the box set that are straight to Legacy legal on release.
Pizza Bundle
Arriving March 27, a few weeks after the rest of the set, this special bundle comes in a pizza box-shaped container, giving you 9 booster packs, one Collector Booster, a fancy pizza-themed die, a set of Pizza Lands, and perhaps one of the most unique boxes Magic has ever released.
There is also a classic card in each bundle that gets the TMNT treatment, like Food Chain, featuring some pizza-themed artwork.
