Pioneer Set Review: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles season is approaching. The first Universes Beyond partnership of 2026 brings a new 190-card set to the game, featuring the iconic characters from the Paramount/Nickelodeon franchise and memorable moments from the comics and animations.

The set doesn't seem format-defining for Pioneer. However, there are a dozen powerful cards that could find homes in decks like Selesnya Company, enable infinite mana combos with Retraction Helix, or even enable toolbox strategies with Legends. Additionally, Boros Convoke gets two major additions to its game plan, while Dimir Ninjas could benefit from some of the best Sneak cards in the set.

Agent Bishop, Man in Black provides a recurring pump for your creatures each turn cycle on a body that falls under Collected Company. Plus, he's a Human, which could earn him room in those types of lists, whether in Mono White variants or Legends builds.

Returning a Novice Inspector and putting three Ninjas into play might not be as good as Inspector with Gleeful Demolition into Venerated Loxodon or Knight-Errant of Eos, but it's a solid backup for more consistency and explosive turns in Boros Convoke.

Selesnya Company runs several creatures with efficient ETBs and evasion. Bouncing an Aven Interrupter and returning a Skyclave Apparition and Archon of Emeria with Leonardo's Technique can turn losing games in your favor.

Recently, new iterations of combos with Rona, Herald of Invasion have been popping up in combinations ranging from Five-Color Legends to Mono Blue with Mox Jasper and Firdoch Core. So Pioneer seems like the most fertile ground to explore the various possibilities that Turtles Forever brings with legendary cards.

Donatello's Technique is possibly the best non-creature Sneak card for a deck like Dimir Ninjas, which already runs creatures with efficient ETBs at a low cost. Drawing two for might not be the best effect if you want more board presence, but it's definitely worth some testing.

Artifact-based lists are very much on the decline in Pioneer, and there's a lack of enablers to build a consistent Affinity list. Krang, Master Mind is worth mentioning as one of the first cards to actively reward filling the board with artifacts and dropping a bomb as early as possible, but there are still many steps before this becomes a staple.

Leyline of the Guildpact is a potential enabler for Vivid cards, and Mondo Gecko turns into a powerful card advantage engine alongside it. Today, Vivid is still an under-explored mechanic, and the payoffs don't seem worth it yet, but a mix of these cards with Domain effects and others could eventually culminate in another Midrange/Goodstuff variant where the new mythic becomes a potential staple.

Retraction Helix enables infinite combos with Sewer-veillance Cam and any creature that taps for two mana, provided one of them is blue. With Transdimensional Bovine in the same set, there might be something worth exploring in Pioneer.

I believe The Cloning of Shredder is too slow for Pioneer and requires a very specific setup that hasn't worked even with Superior Spider-Man, but you can't deny that copying an Atraxa, Grand Unifier three times can easily win the game.

Ninja Teen is partially as useful as a Bastion of Remembrance—and that card doesn't even see play in Pioneer today—but with the bonus of its third level being a great recursive tool. It might be worth testing and could maybe enable a new aggressive archetype with its second level, but it probably won't become a staple.

Moon-Circuit Hacker and Kaito, Bane of Nightmares are the main payoffs for Dimir Ninjas today, and they could get a third complement with Oroku Saki, Shredder Rising. After all, the new legend is a black Ninja of the Deep Hours—a staple of that strategy in Pauper, but one that isn't present in Pioneer.

The strategies that would benefit from Super Shredder in Pioneer probably don't want this kind of card. Cat-Oven lists, in general, prefer to win through the Ygra, Eater of All combo or through the ping-engine of Cauldron Familiar and Mayhem Devil. Other Midrange-oriented decks don't have enough effects to reliably grow Super Shredder, even with removal.

Casey Jones, Jury-Rig Justiciar complements the more combo-oriented line of Boros Hammer Time. Besides being able to find equipment from the top, the fact that it is a legend triggers Mox Amber for lists running the artifact, and Haste ensures that if you find a Colossus Hammer and have a Sigarda's Aid in play, Casey enters attacking for 12. Potential staple in this specific archetype.

Cool but Rude serves as a complement for decks that care about discard/looting, or even to more consistently enable a version of Monument to Endurance that doesn't involve Greasefang, Okiba Boss. Maybe what Rakdos Moonshadow needed to emerge in Pioneer is precisely another payoff.

Ravenous Robots complements Pinnacle Emissary for a more consistent go-wide Aggro strategy with artifacts. Even though we don't have cards like Kappa Cannoneer, sequencing cheap drops alongside the few Affinity creatures we have in Pioneer and other payoffs could establish its own archetype. Worth some testing, especially alongside Improvised Arsenal.

Michelangelo, Weirdness to 11 is a Hardened Scales in creature form that you can find with Collected Company. At first, I thought it could be a staple because Company lists today are very focused on extracting value with Ouroboroid, but Conclave Mentor already exists in Pioneer and never saw play in those strategies—a Mutagen token on ETB probably won't change that.

Through Sneak, Michelangelo's Technique is a Collected Company that can find a combination of a two-drop and a four-drop. Maybe finding an Ouroboroid among the top eight makes a difference, but the lack of timing flexibility combined with how these types of cards tend to get worse the more copies you run leaves reason to be skeptical.

Turning every Cat-Oven cycle into an extra draw is an interesting sideboard tech. It doesn't seem ideal, but I can imagine a list here or there trying Party Dude as a source of card advantage in those matchups.

Transdimensional Bovine is the first green creature that generates two mana unconditionally and without restrictions in Pioneer. Freed from the Real isn't an option, but any effect that lets you untap it for one mana, or some combination like Retraction Helix and Sewer-veillance Cam, enables infinite mana with it.

Jeskai Ascendancy is another card we should consider alongside it. As a bonus, a 0/4 body doesn't die to Fiery Impulse and other common one-mana removal, and its cost dodges Fatal Push without revolt.

It could even enable unexpected infinite combos.

Unless players find a way to benefit from the sacrifice effects, Bebop & Rocksteady don't seem much better than a Rotting Regisaur in Pioneer.

Recently, a Boros Ponza list put up results in a Challenge using creatures with LD ETBs, cost reducers like Momo, Friendly Flier, and some versions even ran Nurturing Pixie. There might be room for Go Ninja Go in those lists.

Mechanized Ninja Cavalry was the second — and best — upgrade for Boros Convoke in this set and should replace Resolute Reinforcements or complement them in the two-drop slot. It increases the consistency with which you can sequence Gleeful Demolition into a Convoke creature while having mana cost flexibility if, for some reason, you get stuck on only red mana.

North Wind Avatar could be a flexibility payoff alongside Bring to Light to fetch specific answers or threats from the sideboard. Due to its cost, I don't see it being a card that decks like Izzet Phoenix or Prowess would want, and Lessons lists already have Divide by Zero.

Unlike other non-rotating formats and even Standard, Pioneer doesn't have a Metagame where Tokka & Rahzar, Terrible Twos can extract enough value to become a potential sideboard staple. If at some point we get a strategy that repeatedly bypasses mana costs or loops with Omniscience and the like outside some Lotus Combo variants, this card is an excellent safety valve.

If a go-wide artifact list emerges with Pinnacle Emissary and Ravenous Robots, having an army of 2/1 creatures on top of the payoffs could be worth it as an additional payoff beyond the Affinity creatures. Chrome Dome seems like a more efficient option than Steel Overseer in this category.

Ghost Vacuum and Unlicensed Hearse are better universal answers against graveyards, but the legendary subtype and interaction with +1/+1 counters could earn it a slot in some lists. Nice card to pick with Turtles Forever.

There are situations where the combination of immediate impact for your creatures plus removing a blocker from the way can make a difference. Skateboard probably won't replace any of the equipment in the Hammer Time toolbox today, but it's worth testing as a one-of.

However, I think the card works more appropriately when you have Urza's Saga to fetch it rather than when you're relying on Cloud, Midgar Mercenary, which should be finding something more important.

That's all for today!

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

Thanks for reading!