Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mechanics Explained!

Hello everyone!

Next February 27th, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles set arrives in Magic: the Gathering!

This is a set from the Universes Beyond series, and it looks to merge all the structure and gameplay of our beloved Magic: the Gathering with the iconic presence of Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, Michelangelo, and several other characters from the TMNT universe.

With new sets, of course, we also have new mechanics! And today we're going to explore what new dynamics come from this set, and also new ways to use old mechanics in the Magic universe. Let's go!

For this article, we will cover the five main mechanics involved in the set, two of which are returning ones, and three are new!

Let's start with the returning ones: Food and Class Enchantments.

Food

Food tokens are prevalent in the set, which is a special touch considering the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' lore surrounding food - especially Pizza!

The mechanic itself remains the same: Food tokens are artifacts, with no mana cost, that for the cost of can be sacrificed by the controller to gain 3 life.

Class Enchantments

We saw this mechanic recently in the Bloomburrow set, and now it shows up in TMNT.

Basically, Class Enchantments enter the battlefield with a level counter and usually have some starting ability or static effect. The controller can then, at sorcery speed, pay the cost to level up, and thus add the effects of the next level to those already active!

Using Teen Ninja, above, as an example: just by being on the battlefield, the first ability is already active. If the controller, in their main phase and with an empty stack, pays , the enchantment levels up to level 2 and adds the next ability to its effects. Afterwards, paying when the enchantment is at level 2 can raise it to level 3, adding another ability to its effects.

Note that you cannot skip levels: you must follow the levels in ascending order. Therefore, if you have Ninja Teen in play at level 1 and only have available, you cannot simply add level 3 – you must first reach level 2 before proceeding to level 3.

Now let's talk about the new mechanics: Mutagen Tokens, Disappear, and Sneak:

Mutagen

Similar to Food tokens, Mutagen tokens are artifacts with no mana cost, but by paying they can be sacrificed at sorcery speed to put a +1/+1 counter on a target creature.

Mutagen tokens are always created by some spell or effect, but you are not obligated to use them immediately. That's the advantage: they can stay on the battlefield until you have a use for them, most likely buffing a creature to face tougher challenges ahead!

Disappear

The Disappear mechanic indicates an effect conditioned on the following requirement: a permanent under your control left the battlefield this turn.

The check for this effect will be determined by the card itself - in our example, Michelangelo will check at the beginning of the controller's end step if the condition has been met. If it hasn't, no ability will trigger.

It's important to emphasize that the ability doesn't even trigger if the condition isn't met. You can't wait for a checking effect from Michelangelo to go on the stack, and then try to get one of your permanents to leave the battlefield. If that condition hasn't been met, Michelangelo won't even trigger!

Sneak

The new ability, Sneak, is certainly the most complex in the set, and has some potential to generate confusion because of its similarity to another existing ability, Ninjutsu.

Let's first understand what Sneak is, and how it resembles, but is also quite different from, Ninjutsu:

Basically, Sneak is an alternative cost to cast a spell, specifically during the declare blockers step. Instead of paying the spell's normal cost, you return a creature that has NOT been blocked to your hand, pay the Sneak cost, and thus cast the card! It seems simple, but let's remember some important details:

First, Sneak can only be used during the declare blockers step. Unlike Ninjutsu, which could also be used during the combat damage step and the end of combat step. In other words, you can't wait for an unblocked creature to deal damage and then return it to your hand to Sneak – it must be done during the declare blockers step, that is, before any combat damage is dealt.

Second, when using Sneak, you effectively cast the card, while Ninjutsu put the creature directly onto the battlefield when the ability resolved. This means that a card with Sneak can for example be countered with a Mana Leak or other counterspells.

This might seem like a huge nerf to the ability, but this subtlety in the rule allows Sneak to not necessarily be tied to creatures! As in the example above, both Splinter, Hamato Yoshi and Splinter's Technique have Sneak. If you sneak in a creature, just like with the Ninjutsu ability, it will enter play tapped and attacking (attacking the same player or planeswalker that the returned creature was attacking). If you use it with a spell, you will not only bypass its timing – meaning you can cast a sorcery with Sneak during the declare blockers step and it'll be totally fine – but you will also be able to effectively trade an unblocked creature for a discount or bonus on a card!

Therefore, if you are a player already familiar with Ninjutsu, be very careful with Sneak – it may seem the same, but there are important differences that make the mechanic work very differently!

And with that, we've reviewed the mechanics of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!

I hope everyone has an excellent pre-release event and has lots of fun with the new set – which is going to be amazing and show that in Magic we also have Turtle Power!

Best regards, and until next time!