Unlike pizza toppings, everyone can agree on these TMNT cards.
MTG’s latest Universes Beyond partnership is here with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. This one’s a bit smaller than typical sets like Lorwyn Eclipsed, but that hasn’t stopped TMNT from being packed with desirable cards. There’s something here for competitive 60-card players and casual Commander fans alike.
The Cards Everybody Wants from Magic: The Gathering’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Market Price: $22.46
Market Price: $22.81
The first of many Universes Beyond sets this year, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles falls squarely between the in-universe Lorwyn Eclipsed and Secrets of Strixhaven sets, featuring characters and scenes from across the Turtles’ 40+ year history. There are lesser known comic moments like Dark Leo & Shredder, and original art as reprints like Donnie’s Bo. There’s also some fantastic reprints in the Turtle Power! Commander precon and the Pizza Bundle, so there are plenty of cards you’ll want to pick up from this release.
#10 Irma, Part-Time Mutant
Irma, Part-Time Mutant
Commander: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Rare
Red alert, we’ve got another nonlegendary clone! Commander players are always on the lookout for effects that can copy their commander, and Irma, Part-Time Mutant is one of the best yet. Not only do you get to clone your legend, but Irma gets a +1/+1 counter and can change into something else later on! You won’t get any “enter the battlefield” effects using Irma, though.
You’ll find Irma in the Turtle Power! precon, or you can find her in Collector Boosters in her normal print or as a Surge Foil.
#9 Continue?
Continue?
Commander: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Rare
The Turtle Power! precon harkens back to the old school TMNT games that delighted arcade-goers in the 90s (and terrorized NES owners at home).
Continue? is the most popular of the bunch, a new take on the Brought Back style of effect. While Continue can only bring back creatures, it gets up to four–one for each player on the arcade cabinet. It’s a low-cost way to recover from a board wipe and crack back on your turn. Just like Irma you can find Continue as a regular or Surge Foil in Collector Boosters, in addition to the precon.
#8 The Ooze
The Ooze
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Rare
While it’s not The Ozolith, The Ooze still helps ensure your +1/+1 counter investments don’t go to waste. If I had a nickel for every time a low cost legendary artifact named “The (Something That Starts With O)” helped my +1/+1 counter deck then, well, you know the rest.
The Ooze sets itself apart by also being graveyard hate and a token generator. It’s basically a Ghost Vacuum with a more realistic upside, for just one more mana. Ghost Vacuum will still see more play in eternal formats thanks to Urza’s Saga, but The Ooze will find a home in Standard and Commander for any +1/+1 counter strategies, or decks that can use the Mutagen tokens in other ways.
#7 Cool But Rude
Cool but Rude
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Rare
Cool but Rude is one of the most exciting class cards for competitive players. At base level it lets you rummage every time you attack, filtering your hand. For another two mana, all your discard effects will now deal 2 damage to your opponent. To top it off, two more mana gives you a Gamble effect!
Naturally, Cool but Rude is being looked at for Monument to Endurance decks. Levels 1 and 3 are ways to trigger the Monument, while Level 2 helps close out the game next to Monument’s 3 life loss. Cool but Rude will also play well next to Iron-Shield Elf, Inti, Seneschal of the Sun, and Moonshadow, to name a few.
#6 Super Shredder
Super Shredder
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Mythic
The extremely cool Super Shredder is the biggest chase card of the set, not counting special printings. It grows incredibly fast since it counts both sides of the battlefield and doesn’t care how the permanents left play. Tokens like Treasures or the new Mutagens are prime options to scale up Super Shredder quickly, or you can just use removal like you already planned to. Outside of Standard, you have anything from fetch lands to Wasteland to Mishra’s Bauble, making Super Shredder a card for Commander, Modern, and maybe even Legacy.
Market Price: $47.08
Market Price: $97.94
Market Price: $392.78
The base version of Super Shredder is one of the hottest cards of the set, and there are even more options for collectors. The borderless silhouette version looks fantastic, and you could find one in a normal Play Booster. Then there’s the Japan Showcase version, which appears in regular or fracture foil, found only in Collector Boosters. That fracture foil Super Shredder’s one of the biggest pulls of the entire release, if you can get your hands on one.
#5 Doubling Season
Doubling Season
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Source Material, Mythic
Taking the place of Special Guests in this set are the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Source Material cards. There are some amazing looking pieces here, including original art from TMNT co-creators Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman.
Market Price: $11.43
Market Price: $18.34
Of these cards Doubling Season’s the biggest hit. I’m not entirely sure what the flavor here is, but the Kevin Eastman art is undeniably sick, and players will always want more copies of Doubling Season.
#4 Dark Ritual
Dark Ritual
Commander: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Mythic
The TMNT Pizza Bundle has a batch of 6 exclusive reprints, with 2 in each bundle. Of these, the Dark Ritual’s on top. The card is wildly powerful in the formats where it’s legal, and this version with “Splinter, the Nibblemancer” quoted in the flavor text is a lot of fun.
Market Price: n/a
Market Price: $83.12
The other cards from among these promos are also quite desirable, thanks to the Pizza Bundle’s limited availability. Normally I’d recommend keeping the pizza and the trading cards separate, but these cards don’t come with any greasy finger troubles.
#3 Michelangelo, Weirdness To 11 (Japan Showcase, Fracture Foil)
Michelangelo, Weirdness to 11
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Mythic
The best hit of all the fracture foil cards is the Japan Showcase version of Michelangelo, Weirdness to 11. While all versions of this Michelangelo are excellent cards, this is one of the most expensive from the entire set, beating even the fracture foil Super Shredder as of this writing.
Market Price: $12.08
I expect we’ll see Michelangelo in Standard and potentially other 60-card formats. He’s got a Hardened Scales effect for just two mana, and creates a Mutagen to get those +1/+1 counters started. He’s also a great Commander card since you can only run one Hardened Scales–just play more of them with different names, like Mikey here.
#2 Leonardo, The Balance (Borderless Pixel, Surge Foil)
Leonardo, the Balance
Commander: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Mythic
While you can pull the Turtle Power! precon cards from Collector Boosters there’s also a chance to find some of them in a Borderless Pixel style, exclusively as a surge foil. The pixel version of Shredder, Shadow Master is my personal favorite art in the set, though every one of these looks great.
Market Price: $166.67
Market Price: $284.43
Market Price: $71.94
With Leonardo, the Balance as the de facto 5 color partner for the precon it’s no surprise that his pixel card is the most expensive card from the whole set. Well, almost.
#1 Donatello, Mutant Mechanic (Borderless Headliner)
Donatello, Mutant Mechanic
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Mythic
Kevin Eastman, co-creator of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, created four unique artworks – one for each of the mythic rare turtles in the set. These incredibly rare cards have his unique style in black and white, gold frames, and come with a gold stamp of Eastman’s signature.
Market Price: n/a
Market Price: n/a
Market Price: $2,000.00
Since these are only found in Collector Boosters, they’re shockingly valuable. If you pull one of these, you are legally required to shout “COWABUNGA!”. Sorry, I don’t make the rules.