I was sceptical about MTG Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but a surprising connection to the arcade games may have won me over

It’s no secret that the Magic community is divided on Universes Beyond sets, so I was hesitant going into a press briefing for MTG Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. A level of care and attention to detail is always evident in releases like Final Fantasy or Lord of the Rings, but with the sheer avalanche of UB crossovers heading our way in 2026, it’s hard not to be nervous about quantity overwhelming quality at this point.

While I’m still leery of there being more Universes Beyond Magic sets than original IP this year, hearing from the MTG Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles designers helped put me at ease. For starters, it was immediately obvious that these folks are hardcore TMNT fans. The thing that really did it for me was the Commander deck’s theme, though. Yes, it celebrates the turtles over the years – but, in a fun throwback to an era that introduced so many of us to the series, it’s themed around a night out at the gaming arcade. Old-school villain Tempestra is trying to spoil the fun by bringing video game copies of heroes and villains to life, which is a neat way of exploring different eras in one deck while still keeping things coherent narratively. Sure, “story” isn’t a big consideration for many in decks like this. But for me, the internal logic at play here indicates that this is more thoughtful than a mere turtle-themed deck capitalizing on our love of heroes in a half-shell.