Released March 6, TMNT – or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – looks to be something of a nostalgia trip. That’s not to say that it doesn’t have some well-designed and fun Magic cards, though, so let’s get stuck into a set review.
You can find other recent set reviews here:
- Lorwyn Eclipsed
- Avatar: The Last Airbender and Avatar Jumpstart
- Marvel’s Spider-Man
- Edge of Eternities
- Final Fantasy
Card Kingdom’s set reviews only care about broadly relevant cards, because we want to maximize the usefulness of the cards in your collection. So, if you’re planning to throw all of your Turtles into five-color turtle soup? Well, our advice won’t matter to you.
In today’s set review you’ll find out what’s hot in the set, and not what’s not. Ready to read up on some radical amphibians, and maybe some critters that aren’t green? Let’s get to it.
TMNT SET REVIEW: WHITE
First up in white, some +1/+1 counter action. Agent Bishop is an upgrade on Luminarch Aspirant, letting you grow a second body for one more mana. Leader’s Talent also grants counters (on attack), gains you a little life when your creatures eat dirt, and eventually lets you put a counter on everything whenever you cast a spell. It’s pretty unassuming but could get out of hand at Level 3 easily enough. Finally, Leonardo, Cutting Edge is a legendary Pridemate that starts a little smaller but can be snook in. All worth a look, but only if you’re in a counters deck – GW or RW primarily.
Leonardo is pretty neat. A 3/3 Doublestrike for four mana is already a good place to be, and granting recast on a selection of creatures that you could easily flicker to remove the finality counters on is really quite good. Esper Sentinel, Mother of Runes, Loran of the Third Path, Selfless Spirit, Enduring Innocence, Serra Ascendant, Stoneforge Mystic… there really are quite a few to reanimate here.
Dinosaur decks are getting hooked up in the set too – not just Turtles, Ninjas or Mutants. Prehistoric Pet is an interesting one for decks full of EtBs, while Triceraton Commander is a board in a can that also acts as a win condition. The latter seems the biggest pickup, as adding Flying to Trample gets results.
Turtles Forever is worth picking up for your Turtles decks, sure, but also for any deck doing combo shenanigans. If you’re not in green or black, that’s when this becomes more attractive.
Commons and Uncommons in this set are a little hit or miss. Lita, Little Orphan Amphibian is one of the better offerings in white, being a solid food generator that grows over the game. Koya, Death from Above is interesting in WB blink decks, and Quintessential Katana adds a cheap source of untap. I imagine all six people who have a Vona, Butcher of Magan deck are gonna go nuts for it.
TMNT SET REVIEW: BLUE
April O’Neil, Hacktivist has amazing hair. But more than that, she’s a fun addition to the multi-spell archetype in blue. Play your cards right (and build your deck right) and she’ll give you a fresh hand every turn.
Donatello, Gadget Master is sweet. You can sneak him for just two mana and get yourself a copy of an artifact. I love this in artifact decks, and I think it would also make a pretty decent Commander. It’s also pretty cool in blue versions of Equipment decks, where you can use Equipment for evasion and then copy your heaters – such as Sword of Feast and Famine.
Kitsune, Dragon’s Daughter is a really fun design. I love when we get cards like this that are obviously designed for Commander. A repeatable version of this means it’ll trigger way more and lead to more hilarity.
Meanwhile, the Kitsune’s Technique is more about milling. You can make short work of opponents when you have access to enough of this effect, and more is always better when it comes to mill in Commander.
Krang is a fun variant on Thought Monitor from MH2, Krang doesn’t fly, but can potentially draw you more cards the closer you are to hellbent, and can get much larger. I think that’s a decent trade, and I’d be tempted to run both.
Fugitive Droid is the most interesting Uncommon here for me, with a pretty solid protection effect. Ray Fillet and April both have serviceable Uncommon outings here too, though nothing I’m super stoked about.
TMNT SET REVIEW: BLACK
Armaggon, Future Shark is big and silly and scary and impressive, and that’s got me excited to try it out. Obviously reanimator decks are gonna be the best place for this (or decks that can sneak creatures in during combat) but in many ways this is a souped up Bogardaan Hellkite, and that’s still seeing some play even after all those years.
The Cloning of Shredder is probably the coolest Enchantment in the set. Probably.
While exiling a creature for good can feel rough, you’re getting up to three copies of it, which can be all you need to win a game. Even if you’re just getting a solid 2-for-1 three times, you’re probably laughing your way to the podium.
Madame Null, Power Broker is an impressive curve filler for Demon decks. She’ll turn those flying beasties even larger, presenting quite the clock. It’s risky, but it might be enough to get the job done. Elsewhere, she’s still solid in counters decks, but probably the Orzhov variety more than Golgari.
Ninja Teen is a Bastion of Remembrance that forgoes the lifegain to offer you a buff to your board and a way to sneak things back from the grave, eventually. All in, it’s a cheap Class to level up, meaning it should see more play than some of the pricier level-ups.
Rat King, Verminister is a nice option to lead a Rat deck – particularly the Relentless Rats variants. Whether you put him in the CZ or not, he’s gonna make his way into your Rats deck. Or maybe even your Shadowborn Apostles deck.
Savanti Romero, Time’s Exile is quite the improvement on Bloodgift Demon. Obviously this gets even better if you’re doing multiple combats, but even if you’re not, you can get some decent card draw on the go here. Being both a Wizard and a Demon is pretty nice too.
Shark Shredder, Killer Clone is a nice iteration of Ink-Eyes, using First Strike to leverage that trigger and cause extra damage during the combat step – and potentially cash in on any on-damage triggers from what you brought back.
South Wind Avatar is a sweet pickup for Walls/Big Butts kinda decks. 2025’s Felothar is a great Abzan Commander for this archetype, and whether you’re on that or Arcades, it remains a popular archetype. If you are in black, then this one might be a good one to include.
Super Shredder is just hella efficient for two mana. It takes advantage of people all around the table sacrificing everything from tokens to fetchlands, and will get big quickly. It slots nicely into a plethora of builds.
Black has arguably the most interesting Uncommon in the set in Shredder’s Technique. Splinter, Hamato Yoshi is also a fun combat trick, and Nightmare decks just picked up a one drop – whether they care for it or not is another story.
TMNT SET REVIEW: RED
Cool But Rude is another payoff for wheel’s decks. Usually this payoffs are in blue and black, but we’re increasingly seeing damage based on discarding cards in red. For that reason, this Class is on my radar.
Improvised Arsenal is a really nice buffing equipment for go-wide equipment decks. It’s a mana sink for Sword of Feast and Famine and The Reaver Cleaver, and for that reason this should pique your interest.
Raphael gets not one but two really good outings. Ninja Destroyer can make you a boatload of red mana (for an Improvised Arsenal, perhaps?), while the Nightwatcher variant is a really cheap source of double strike. Both are eminently playable.
Instead speed wheels are always sweet – a little less so when they can’t force opponents to wheel, but still – Raphael’s Technique is one to consider if you’re in a reanimator deck or a deck that creates a lot of tokens. Discarding the creature as part of the Sneak cost isn’t even that bad if you can reanimate it later.
Ravenous Robots is an awesome token generator, as it has that most useful of keywords on it: haste. And for any tokens you make, too. That’s powerful stuff, and not to be underestimated.
Beyond Rares and Mythics, I like Old Hob, Alleycat Blues as a repeatable token producer that also has a relevant activated ability. Purple Dragon Punks are red’s latest mana dork, and Zog, Triceraton Castaway is one of the better landcycling creatures we’ve gotten recently – especially for dino decks.
TMNT SET REVIEW: GREEN
Regal Behemoth was long played for mainly the mana generation part, with the monarch requirement meaning it often work in fits and starts. Still, it’s a great card – so seeing a version that is better in many ways in Groundchuck & Dirtbag is a bit of a treat, really.
I choose to believe that Leatherhead’s hexproof counter is a representation of her nice little hat, and removing it allows for an Oddjob style moment of all out offense. Jokes aside, this is a pretty decent creature for four mana, and she can keep going in a +1/+1 counters deck.
Michelangelo gets two solid iterations. Improviser is a fun sneak and show effect, letting you put multiple permanents into play, if you have them. It’s not quite Ojer Kaslem, but it’s good. Weirdness to 11 is one of the better counter amplifiers we’ve had in a hot second, and is the perfect upgrade to the Turtle Power! Commander deck.
Mutagen Man, Living Ooze is a cost reducer for artifact token activation, which is the headline piece of text here. Getting to make a bunch of mutagen tokens on the way in is gravy. There are plenty of decks where this cost reduction is gonna prove useful, as is making a bunch of artifact tokens which can be easily doubled in green through a myriad of other effects.
Green has some of the better commons and uncommons this time. Courier of Comestibles grabs Syr Ginger, Eriette’s Tempting Apple and Heaped Harvest out of your 99. Mona Lisa, Science Geek makes boatloads of mana and can slot into various combos. Saved by the Shell is going to be your go-to protection spell for your Turtle themed decks.
TMNT SET REVIEW: MULTICOLOR, ARTIFACTS AND LANDS
Kicking things off with the multicolor cards are Don & Leo, Problem Solvers. They might not make it as your flicker deck’s Commander, but they’re useful to have in the 99, and crucially provide a combat-ready body to try and close the game with, which solves some of the archetypes ongoing issues with being slow in Commander.
Dark Leo and Shredder is the premier option for playing a Ninjas deck in Orzhov colors – and also works if you want to slot it into the 99 of an Esper deck like, say, Jin Sakai. It’s a strong trigger and comes in for cheap, which is a winning combination.
Mikey & Leo, Chaos & Order, incidentally also features Leo. White continues to shine as a “support” color, it seems — adding it to any turtle pairing produces a powerful card. Mike & Leo give you solid card draw in a counters deck for just two mana.
Raph & Leo, Sibling Rivals is our Boros Leo card, and it’s an extra combat card for three mana. That’s kinda nutty, right? You don’t get to untap the full team, but untapping two attacking creatures is still wonderful, and… oh my, I’ve just realized this goes into Isshin, doesn’t it? Yikes.
Krang and Shredder is a satisfying outing for the main villains of the set. Having a “titan” ability makes the card a lot more fun (and powerful). Free casting cards from opponents’ libraries is going to actually make you the villain of the table, too, which is right on theme.
Splinter, Radical Rat ends up being the Esper commander to tie together the Orzhov and Dimir Ninjas of the set. As a Commander, it’s pretty threatening – it has the doubler text that we’ve come to tire of love. The activated ability is icing on the cake here, taking this Commander into “wow, pretty good” territory.
The Last Ronin is a solid board wipe tied to an enchantment, and one that sagas decks and decks that fiddle with counters are going to have a field day with. Having reanimation and then a combat based ability to follow it ties it all together, and makes for quite the powerful three course meal.
Turncoat Kunoichi is in fact an Orzhov card, as the cost for the ability isn’t solely in reminder text. Now that we’ve cleared that up, on with the rest of the card. It’s a pretty neat effect, sometimes being a Banisher Priest and sometimes straight up nuking a creature into oblivion. I like this one quite a bit, and it’s a good example of where Sneak in WB decks feels more synergized with flicker than with bounce. Buying back your unblocked attacker with a relevant EtB while exiling something else is great.
Chrome Dome is our “combos with anything” card of the set, being that it has a generically costed activated ability that makes copies of things while giving them haste. The obvious synergy here is Metalworker, but you can definitely get to the same destination while spending less real-world cash and playing a couple more cards.
Krang, Utrom Warlord is keyword soup, and functions well in keyword soup builds, or builds that seek to fill the yard with keyword soup before regurgitating said soup into ability counters or other contrived creations. Or, you know, just a Goblin Welder. Pairs well with some fava beans and a nice Odric, Lunarch Marshall.
Turtle Van is an iconic vehicle, and at Crew 1, ends up being able to be used often in a Mutant/Ninja/Turtle deck. Obviously the more Ninja-y the deck, the less it’s going to want this.
Northampton Farm is a nice iteration on Endless Sands, giving you a lower cost to tuck and bring back a creature, and also letting you tuck a bunch of creatures under it for later return to hand. It can be a little slow, but in decks that can tap and untap lands or alongside powerful board wipes, I can see it doing well.
Of the remaining lower rarity cards, I’m really high on Go Ninja Go – and in fact, I kinda wish it was an instant, even if it would make it cracked. Karai, Future of the Foot is strong for an uncommon Legend, and might even make it into your command zone. Lessons from Life is more or less an upgrade to Urban Evolution, if that’s your thing.
END STEP
And that’s another set review on the books. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles offers a surprising amount of fun designs, and it feels to me like black might be the most interesting color in the set. What are you excited to pick up? Let us know on socials.
Kristen is Card Kingdom’s Head Writer and a member of the Commander Format Panel. Formerly a competitive Pokémon TCG grinder, she has been playing Magic since Shadows Over Innistrad, which in her opinion, was a great set to start with. When she’s not taking names with Equipment and Aggro strategies in Commander, she loves to play any form of Limited.