This is going to be an intense year for Magic: The Gathering sets. With seven sets dropping this year, every single one is going to need to justify its place. After ending the year with the excellent Universes beyond Set, Avatar: The Last Airbender, then starting the year with the strong in universe Lorwyn Eclipsed, I was nervous about TMNT. I mean, how much good stuff can come out in quick succession?
It’s a small set, but not small in every way
Spider-Man had some fun cards, but it was limited as a set in many ways. It was clear that some cards had been designed to be super awesome, but there were a lot of fillers that were kinda OK to make the set draftable. Well, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is also a small set, but it’s clear this was designed to be a draftable set much earlier as it’s so much more fun to play with.
From commons to Mythics, there are strong cards across the board. This meant pre-release and drafting were way more fun than I was expecting it would be. The biggest thing that I noticed is there is plenty of removal. With it being the smaller set size, there are heaps of removal to pick up and use in every colour. What I have found is that it has made games way longer, because the threat that could end the game can consistently be removed. Your bomb doesn’t blow up if it’s removed. But long isn’t bad, games going to time were consistently fun as there was a lot of back and forth in matches.
What’s it like to play?
The biggest new mechanics are Mutagen tokens, and Sneak. Mutagen tokens can be generated, and you crack them to pop a +1/+1 counter on a creature. This is useful for anything that wants tokens on creatures, or permanents leaving the battlefield.
Sneak is like an old ninjitsu mechanic, but also different. Here you can play a card for an alternative cost if you swap it out for an unblocked creature. So maybe you swap your 1/1 token for a double striking 4/4 that hits them in the face, or maybe it pops a creature back in your hand to drop a spell that gives one creature more power and reduces your opponent’s creature power.
There is also Disappear, which is a mechanic that cares about whether permanents leave the battlefield, like Void from EoE, and Alliance, which has effects when other creatures enter. So nothing as new as the other two mechanics. But still, there is heaps of synergy between all the mechanics, which is great for drafting, as something like Disappear is triggered by both Sneak and Mutagen, or you know, good old-fashioned damage.
The Commander deck!
You read that right, the Commander deck. They have opted for one Commander Deck this time called Turtle Power. It is a five color commander deck with six potential commanders. That’s right, you can have it being led by a “creature” called Heroes in a Half Shell which has all four turtles on it. Or, you can have partner commanders from any of the four turtles or Splinter. This is such a cool idea because you can use the deck as is and shuffle around your commanders, or you can split it up to make multiple commander decks of your own. The lack of a Collector Sample Booster hurts a little less, with all of these six cards being full-art cards that look sick.
The turtles themselves don’t synergise with each other too much, but that makes a certain amount of sense if you want to potentially bust it apart and make some different decks. But having said that, I kinda dig it. With each turtle having its own identity, that fits the flavour of them as a team.
The deck is loaded with so much awesome though. There are some insane reprints in this deck. These like Vigor and City of Brass, and the excellent Fabled Passage. Adding these to a couple of battle lands, this is the best manabase a pre-con has had since I have been playing. Other new cards like Game Over, which is a board wipe, and Continue?, which is an instant spell that can return four creatures that died this turn, can be a sweet finish to give you a board state and your opponents nothing in a super sweet turn. It is clear from this, and character select, that this is heavily inspired by the old school arcade games.
Honestly, playing this deck isn’t the strongest deck I have used, but it is flavourful and fun. The only issue I have is they didn’t make a villain’s version with the same design thoughts with, say, six potential villain commanders. I would have been lapping it up if it had the same quality of cards as this deck has.
Style
Now this is something that’s going to be subjective. As a kid of the 90s, I have always loved TMNT. This meant I loved cracking packs and seeing the cool stuff popping up. There are heaps of versions of our heroic turtles and the iconic villains, all with exceptional art. The part that may put people off is the pizza. As we know, our turtles love pizza with some truly awful combinations of toppings. Well, with these put onto cards by some seriously talented artists, these awful combos, especially the Anchovy & Banana Pizza, are far too graphic.
The Source Material bonus sheet is smaller than in a lot of sets, and it is loaded with some seriously sweet cards. The odds of pulling a Doubling Season, an All Will be One, or an Undercity Sewers are pretty good. Especially with Collector Boosters, which have a guaranteed source material card. Best of all, these all have art from comics, which looks fantastic. Where the source material cards in Final Fantasy were 50/50, and the Avatar one looked rough as if they were from an SD show, I love the comic book art in the TMNT set.
Then there are the alt arts, which will again be hit-and-miss. For me. It hit us so hard. There are a heap of cards that are given an art style that looks so much like the original cartoon but drawn these days. I think they are bloody gorgeous, but someone without nostalgia may not dig them as much. Then there is the baby turtle art, which is an alt art for four uncommons. I was not totally digging them until I cracked one, and whoops, I love them.
Then there are the super chase cards. There are Japanese alt art cards which look absolutely fantastic, but to be fair, the Japanese alt art in every set featuring them looks sick. You can only nab these in Collector Boosters, but there is an even more alt art chase card, which is a gold-signed card with a black and white graphic. There are also some of the Commander cards that have a sick looking pixel alt art. There is so much alt art!
How can you buy it?
As always, you can buy Play Boosters and Collector Boosters. Collector Boosters offer the chance for a massive selection of alt art cards, and can also include surge foils. Between the excellent bonus sheet, the awesome commander cards, and the potential surge foils, Collector Boosters seem like a great option for fans as there is so much cool you can find, as opposed to one chase card.
You can pick up Draft Night, which is a box that includes the lands, packs and a Collector Booster to run a draft at home, which is a cool idea like it was with Lorwyn Eclipsed.
There is also the normal bundle which includes nine boosters, a cool slime-looking spindown dice, a bunch of full art lands, and a promo version of Shark Shredder, Killer Clone. All of this comes in a cool hard cardboard storage box with art on it that looks like the turtle’s van. I always enjoy cracking a bundle, and this is no different.
There is also a Pizza Bundle which hasn’t been released yet, which will include a bunch of Play Boosters, a Collector Booster, some of the horrific looking pizza lands, and some extra promo cards. I have one pre-ordered, and I will absolutely have one of each of the pizza lands in my binder, because while I don’t love them, I also kinda do.
There is also a game called Turtle Team Up which has a villain deck and some hero decks that you can play against the villain, either solo or as a team. I haven’t played this yet, but will likely pick a copy up to try it as I love the Lorcana version of it. So I can’t say if it’s good or not yet, but I will when I do check it out.
Should you check out Magic: The Gathering – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?
This set is WAY better than it deserved to be. It’s a small set, but it’s a fun set to draft, full of silly fun cards, and some seriously sweet reprints. The commander deck is fun, the Collector Boosters have cool stuff. Also, I am looking forward to finally building my tokens standard deck now with some sneak shenanigans. TMNT fans rejoice, if you aren’t playing MTG yet, come and check it out.
This set is way better than I could have expected. Fun cards,, fun mechanics, and it feels more like a Magic set than a New York set.
