Metagame: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turles' First Week in Tournaments

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles season in Magic: The Gathering has arrived, and the new cards from Wizards' collaborative set with Nickelodeon are starting to show competitive potential.

Standard, the main format affected, gained new Boros Aggro variants, and the possible best deck in the format today, Mono Green Landfall, picked up important additions in Michelangelo, Weirdness to 11 and Leatherhead, Swamp Stalker. Pioneer saw fewer changes, with only two decks incorporating new cards into their lists: Orzhov Midrange and Selesnya Angels.

Modern and Legacy had artifacts like Skateboard and Sewer-veillance Cam as the week's highlights. A common thread with Pauper, where Affinity gained Utrom Monitor as new support, although the set's biggest standout for the format is clearly Leonardo, Big Brother.

Check out below the main developments TMNT brought in the first wave of major competitive tournaments post-release!

As expected, Standard was the format most impacted by the new set. Mono Green Landfall was the week's highlight, and although the winning Spotlight Series list didn't run any TMNT cards, the archetype may have gained three new staples: Leatherhead, Swamp Stalker, Michelangelo, Weirdness to 11, and Mikey & Leo, Chaos & Order are now cards vying for slots in the hottest deck right now.

Michelangelo acts as a Hardened Scales with a body in a list that naturally runs several cards that either provide or benefit from +1/+1 counters. He reduces the number of Landfalls needed to "go off" but that could also be his main weakness: he might be a win-more card without any positive synergy with the archetype's overall strategy.

The same could apply to Mikey & Leo, Chaos & Order. It provides extra draws with +1/+1 counters, but most lists don't run more than two copies, and it might be anti-synergistic in the maindeck with the more explosive lines, while not offering redundancy or consistency for any specific game plan.

Leatherhead, Swamp Stalker, on the other hand, is a powerful card. It has the perfect combination of keywords for interactive games with Trample and Hexproof paired with a decent body that needs only a Mightform Harmonizer and a Fetch Land to reach 20 lethal damage. As a bonus, it deals with any artifact or enchantment each combat if it has +1/+1 counters on it.

It's the perfect mix of threat and answer, and I'm surprised more lists aren't running it in the main deck — they should be, as it's by far the best TMNT card for Mono Green.

Boros Tokens was also graced by the new set, with two distinct variants standing out. The first uses Raphael, Tough Turtle as an Impact Tremors alongside the Mobilize ability to deal gradual damage to the opponent. Nothing too new, but it put up consistent results.

The other approach, coming from the Regional Championship, is more interesting: it uses The Last Ronin's Technique with Warleader's Call for large amounts of "surprise" damage against the opponent. The list also includes Raphael, the Nightwatcher as a pseudo-Embercleave that takes advantage of Delney, Streetwise Lookout so that the various 2/2 tokens with Warleader's Call can each attack for four damage.

Dimir Midrange picked up Dream Beavers, another evasive one-drop with a relevant ETB that can enable Kaito, Bane of Nightmares on turn three. Super Shredder was also present in many lists, and it makes sense: between Ninjutsu, removal, Evoke, and sacrificing Map tokens, the TMNT villain grows quickly, and Dimir has an easy time keeping the board clear enough for him to attack unimpeded.

It was expected that Cool but Rude would complement Monument to Endurance in Moonshadow decks, and players did start testing variants with both cards in Challenges—the surprise was that the most consistent results came from a list that cut all copies of the artifact.

Brian Zeng made the Top 8 of the Spotlight Series with Rakdos Looting, using the same shell as Rakdos Monument but swapping the artifact for Cool but Rude and adding Casey Jones, Vigilante—the enchantment enables itself, while Monument always needs other cards to function. In a more streamlined, Aggro-focused list, spending three mana to "do nothing" is far from ideal.

Pioneer was the format least affected by the set. Challenge results point to only two decks running new cards, excluding random one-ofs.

Triceraton Commander shows up in Orzhov Midrange or Orzhov Control lists as a late-game bomb that works at any stage as an individual threat. It also interacts with Mutavault to turn it into a 3/3 with Flying during combat.

An Angels list that didn't Top 8 used Michelangelo's Technique as a complement to Collected Company. On one hand, the idea of running Technique in a list that directly or indirectly benefits from ETBs seems like the right direction for the card, but including Lyra, Dawnbringer and Sigarda, Font of Blessings feels like a misunderstanding of what makes Angels a viable archetype.

Modern had average results with TMNT, but one archetype benefited greatly from the new set: Affinity.

Since Edge of Eternities, Affinity has grown by focusing on the Pinnacle Emissary with Kappa Cannoneer line to explode in the early turns. Ravenous Robots adds even more consistency to this line, providing eight copies of cards that, if you empty your hand of zero-mana artifacts the turn you play them, will populate the board with tokens that can be used for Improvise for Cannoneer and Affinity for Thought Monitor—now replaced by Krang, Master Mind.

Krang, in fact, was another important addition. Thought Monitor draws two cards on ETB but has a fairly irrelevant body without Cranial Plating. Despite being legendary, the new card draws up to four cards on ETB and already comes with built-in Cranial Plating, making it a consistent threat.

Like every Urza's Saga list, Affinity also gained access to Skateboard and is likely the archetype that best utilizes it today: removing a blocker from the way and letting Krang or Kappa attack the moment they enter is enough to steal some games for free.

Sewer-veillance Cam has a combo with Emry, Lurker of the Loch, Urza, Lord High Artificer, and Grinding Station—with all pieces in play, you tap the new artifact for , sacrifice it to Grinding Station, mill three cards from the opponent's deck, and use Cam's trigger to untap any creature. Tap Emry to cast Sewer-veillance Cam from the graveyard, paying its mana cost. When Cam enters, Station untaps, and you can untap Emry with the ETB trigger. Tap Cam for , repeat the process.

There are other lines involving Emry and the Moxen; you can use Cam's triggers to generate infinite mana with the token created by Urza, Lord High Artificer mid-loop, but they all culminate in milling the opponent's entire deck, making it the new staple for Station combos, which once culminated in the banning of Underworld Breach.

Just like in Modern, players also found a home in Legacy for Skateboard in various lists running Urza's Saga, but Sewer-veillance Cam was the true star regarding impact on artifact decks: Izzet Painter now has another infinite line with Goblin Welder.

Cam allows you to repeatedly swap an artifact from the graveyard with it, as it untaps Goblin Welder on ETB and LTB. The list above uses this interaction with Melded Moxite for infinite looting, eventually finding the Painter's Servant and Grindstone line to finish the game.

The week's biggest highlight for Legacy was probably this "Mono Black Aggro" with a blue splash for Daze, which interacts with Super Shredder's alternative cost and provides unexpected Tempo lines for the opponent. As a bonus, if a player chooses to drop the splash and/or swap the base for Barrowgoyf and other cards to include a mix of Watery Grave, Death's Shadow, and Street Wraith, the archetype is notably accessible by the format's standards.

Pauper had two major additions with TMNT: Leonardo, Big Brother for White Weenie and similar decks, and Utrom Monitor for Affinity.

Affinity is a very well-established deck today, and Monitor is another creature that interacts with the archetype's plan while dodging the Krark-Clan Shaman sweeper. Lists started running four copies, but two seem to be the consensus after the first wave of Challenges.

Players experimented with White Weenie variants in Challenges and Leagues. Two versions with light splashes are worth mentioning: one uses Mardu Devotee and Boros Garrison to gain access to Rally the Peasants and create a more white-oriented version of Boros Bully. Another leverages the same card to better prepare against go-wide decks and the mirror with Arms of Hadar in the sideboard.

Leonardo also changed some things in White Weenie's core: Militia Bugler became more popular, and cards like Take Up the Shield started appearing in sideboards now that the archetype has a go-big threat whose single attack with a full board can swing the game in your favor.

That's all for today!

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

Thanks for reading!