Hello everyone in the community!

Many of you are eagerly awaiting the arrival of the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles expansion. Whether you're a fan looking to relive the nostalgia of the era or a Draft enthusiast wanting to prepare properly, this set brings a welcome freshness to traditional strategies. Here's what you need to know before your next night at the store.

The Mechanics

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles introduces four mechanics that are important to understand even before you begin building your deck:

Mutagen Tokens

Simple and effective. For one mana, permanently boost your creatures with a +1/+1 counter.

Sneak

This is undoubtedly the most formidable mechanic. An improvement on Ninjutsu, in my opinion. By returning an unblocked attacker to your hand, you can cast a card for its "Sneak" cost.

Disappear

A mechanic that breaks the mold. A reverse ETB. If a permanent leaves your battlefield, you get bonuses at the end of your turn.

Alliance

Ideal for mass decks, this ability triggers as soon as another creature enters your battlefield with +1/+1 counters.

The 5 Archetypes

White-Black (WB): The Sneak

This is the quintessential ninja archetype. It relies on aggression and cunning. Use small creatures with evasion (flying, unblockable) to attack. If they aren't blocked, you return them to your hand to play massive threats using the Sneak cost.

Cards like Karai, Future of the Foot turn this mechanic into a reanimation engine: if you pay its Sneak cost, it returns a creature from the graveyard directly to the battlefield. If you don't pay it, it returns to your hand.

Blue-Red (UR): Artifacts

This is a pure synergy deck. You need to flood the board with Robot tokens and artifacts.

Baxter Stockman is the card you need: he gives +3/+0, first strike, and vigilance to artifact creatures every time they combat. Donatello, Way with Machines also becomes a huge flying threat by gaining a counter every time an artifact enters play.

This is an archetype that holds up well in the late game thanks to cards like Brilliance Unleashed, which gives you Graveyard recurrence.

Black-Green (BG): Disappear

This is probably the most complex archetype, based on sacrificing and moving your permanents.

You want your cards to leave the battlefield, whether by sacrificing them, returning them to your hand, or otherwise, to trigger the Disappear ability at the end of the turn. Pizza Face Gastromancer is a good late-game card: if a permanent has left the battlefield, it transforms your artifacts into permanent 3/3 creatures (by adding three +1/+1 counters and turning them into creatures in the process). Use Food Tokens or Lord Dregg's Insects to always have something to sacrifice and thus guarantee your end-of-turn triggers.

Red-White (RW): Alliance

This is a classic Go Wide deck, but boosted. Play as many creatures as possible to trigger Alliance as often as possible. The more ETB you have, the more you punish your opponent.

Mighty Mutanimals is a key card because it comes with a 2/2 Mutant Token (so two Alliance triggers at once) and boosts your army super fast. Old Hob, Alleycat Blues creates a 2/2 Haste Token every combat. Even if the token dies at the end of the turn, it triggers Alliance for free.

Green-Blue (GU): Mutagene Token

It's surprising this is a Stompy archetype. Generate Mutagene Tokens to place +1/+1 counters everywhere.

Look at Michelangelo, Mutant BFF. He generates Mutagene Tokens when attacking and when entering the battlefield, and prevents your creatures with counters from being blocked by more than one creature. Major board control difference. Ray Fillet lets you remove these counters to draw cards, ensuring you never run out of resources.

Don't be caught off guard!

A classic mistake in Draft is not blocking. It can cost you dearly in the TMNT set. With the Sneak mechanic, letting a small creature through can allow your opponent to play something far worse than what's in front of you. Don't fall for it.

Our Weekly Tuesday Drafts

Whether you prefer Donatello for technical skill or Raphael for aggression, we're waiting for you at our next Draft tournaments. The boosters are ready, and so are the pizzas!