Metagame: The Best Rares from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

The partnership season for Magic: The Gathering's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles begins this Tuesday. The first of four Universes Beyond sets planned for 2026 releases on March 6th, just over a month after the launch of Lorwyn Eclipsed.

Both sets share an unexpected bond, fairly uncommon in Magic's history. Due to logistical errors, hundreds of Lorwyn Eclipsed prerelease kits were shipped and opened with a foil Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles card in the slot that used to hold the Prerelease Promo — which Wizards of the Coast opted to discontinue starting this year.

It took just over a week for the elephant in the room to be addressed: Wizards chose to reveal all the rares from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles following the incident. We'll have to see how it plays out, but we're about to witness the most anomalous preview season in recent Magic history.

On the flip side, finding out all the rares early also gives us a chance to quickly understand what to expect from the new set — after all, power level is usually measured by the quality of the rares. It's still too early for a full set review without jumping to conclusions, but the start of the TMNT season also opens the door for us to start looking at the expansion without rushing too much because of the Lorwyn Eclipsed "incident."

Below, we evaluate the best rares with competitive potential in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It's worth noting this review focuses on 1v1 formats and doesn't necessarily cover Commander unless an effect is notably powerful for the format — after all, Commander is extremely prone to interpretive nuances of what's good or bad, making metrics too skewed to define.

An important element with some Sneak cards is whether they have Double Strike or First Strike, letting you use their triggers immediately. That's not the case for Leonardo, Sewer Samurai — the mythic version of the Leader reuses small creatures with no per-turn restrictions while on the board, while also being able to enter dealing six damage.

Seems a bit slow for four mana, but the sheer number of quality one-drops like Ocelot Pride, Guide of Souls, Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer, and others with power or toughness one speaks to Leonardo's long-term potential. Even if, maybe, not for Modern.

At baseline, Sally Pride, Lioness Leader represents four power for five mana. Not much, but it can easily become more if we have other creatures in play or if we untap and attack with her. She has a lot of latent potential for Standard.

As hilarious as it is to imagine a Triceraton Commander in a deck full of Jurassic Park and Ixalan dinosaurs with Gishath, Sun's Avatar, the card's flexible cost makes it a great tool for Midrange and even Control lists as a card in the vein of Entreat the Angels or Decree of Justice.

The design team was very on point with the mana cost: through normal means, it's impossible to make Triceraton Commander generate positive cost-to-power conversion without attacking, but if it does, the game might as well be won if we have enough tokens in play.

Searching for four legendary cards from any zone can turn Turtles Forever into a "one-card combo," in the vein of Gifts Ungiven and Intuition. Rona, Herald of Invasion is a good starting point for where to look for possibilities with this spell.

Krang, Master Mind benefits Affinity by doing what Affinity does best: emptying your hand. As a bonus, he comes with a built-in Cranial Plating to benefit from the various zero-mana artifacts and Pinnacle Emissary tokens we include to cast Kappa Cannoneer.

Material for Modern and Legacy. Possibly the best card among the set's rares for those formats.

Mondo Gecko has potential with Leyline of the Guildpact, which turns all permanents into every color. From that point on, just deal combat damage to draw five cards. Plus, the first ability lets it protect itself from spot removal.

If it cost one mana less — even with a power reduction — it'd be a powerful Modern material. But at , it costs too much for Domain Zoo and its variants. Maybe there's something we can do with the Vivid mechanic from Lorwyn Eclipsed in Standard and Pioneer.

Turtles in Time seems like the kind of card that could become a Commander Game Changer in the future. There's a lot of commotion and debate around how many cards capable of "resetting" the game should be allowed in lower brackets, and the new spell fits that category.

Pick any bomb from your format and copy it three times for six mana. Seems like a lot for some formats, but Standard games can easily be won by dropping The Cloning of Shredder.

In Pioneer, exiling an Atraxa, Grand Unifier will probably yield the same result — but Greasefang, Okiba Boss wins faster.

This is one of those cards where having First Strike or Double Strike makes a difference. The Sneak ability works similarly to Ninjutsu — you activate it by returning an unblocked creature, except Sneak casts the card. If done before combat damage, Shark Shredder, Killer Clone brings back any creature from the opponent's graveyard, tapped and attacking.

Unless it has First Strike, that creature will also deal combat damage. Just imagine the possibility of a Spyglass Siren or Flitterwing Nuisance bringing back a bomb destroyed the previous turn with Shoot the Sheriff to get an idea of how much a Shark Shredder can turn the game in your favor.

We dismissed Moonshadow as a card capable of making waves in Modern and Legacy. We were wrong, and we're not making the same mistake with Super Shredder. Its abilities are far more versatile than Moonshadow's and have way fewer restrictions, making it an excellent beater for Modern and Legacy.

Is it worth paying three mana to draw three cards in red if you win the game the same turn? And what if you can reduce that cost to two mana with Ruby Medallion?

Casey Jones, Vigilante might answer those questions soon. Outside the Storm scope, we also have a good way to restock resources in more aggressive red decks that want to keep a lower curve or in the absence of Planeswalkers in this color capable of generating card advantage in Standard.

Three mana and all your creatures have a half-Embercleave. Interestingly, the setup Raphael, the Nightwatcher requires isn't all that different from what Embercleave needed in Standard — which is likely where the card will find its place in the competitive scene.

Pinnacle Emissary became a Modern and Legacy staple by enabling, for one mana, the ability to use zero-cost artifacts to drop a Kappa Cannoneer as early as turn one.

A two-mana version is far from having the same explosive potential, and Weapons Manufacturing already exists in this slot. However, Ravenous Robots has the same cost and puts bodies on the board that are more active without needing other cards, making it an option for Affinity lists.

The days when a 5/4 for four mana with extra abilities did much in Magic are long gone. Still, Leatherhead, Swamp Stalker protects itself from removal and interacts all too well with +1/+1 counters — a central theme for Standard's green decks — to not have tons of potential.

Alongside Ouroboroid or Innkeeper's Talent, its controller gains an endless source of hate against artifacts and enchantments in combat, plus a body that holds its own.

Another attempt to replicate Hardened Scales. This time, in creature form, Michelangelo, Weirdness to 11 has all the inherent advantages of this type in current Standard: being findable with Nature's Rhythm / Formidable Speaker and synergizing with Ouroboroid.

Potential staple. I'd keep an eye on its performance in a Selesnya Company or Toolbox list in Pioneer.

For its full cost, Michelangelo's Technique digs eight cards deep and puts creatures with a total mana value equal to what you paid into play. With Sneak, the spell becomes a Collected Company that's less flexible in timing but can fetch Ouroboroid / Badgermole Cub, or any other combination of four and two mana, or five and one mana.

Potential Standard staple; wouldn't be surprised to see it in Pioneer.

The Last Ronin offers the perfect Midrange setup. It clears the board, lets you bring back the most relevant creature the following turn, and when it reaches its third chapter, transforms into a bigger threat.

The mana cost is high, and it doesn't seem like a maindeck card, but you can imagine situations where having a copy in the sideboard makes a huge difference in grindy mirrors.

The second card in the set that searches for things outside the game, North Wind Avatar is a 5/5 for five mana with a built-in Wish.

The flexibility of Izzet decks is one of the elements that makes it such an effective competitive strategy in the current Standard, and while there isn't a version that best utilizes this creature yet, being able to grab anything from the sideboard in Game 1, with the benefit of a threat on board, is too strong to ignore.

Tokka & Rahzar, Terrible Twos can't be countered and punishes players for casting Daze, Force of Will, Force of Negation, Evoke costs, Impending, mana cost reductions with Ruby Medallion, and others.

This duo is clear Legacy material and might even pop up in Modern sideboards. We just need to figure out which archetypes can — and want to — pay their mana requirements in a format with Wasteland. An easy task when that cost can be or .

Three copies of Krang, Utrom Warlord created by The Cloning of Shredder win the game. If that doesn't work out, this is a Darksteel Colossus on steroids in almost every sense.

Unlicensed Hearse is a more appropriate answer to graveyards for two mana with benefits, but it's not legendary, and it's not The Ooze. The new artifact could matter with the Turtles Forever toolbox.

That's all for today!

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment!

Thanks for reading!