A few weeks ago at Magic Con, Wizards of the Coast pulled back the curtain on all of the releases coming in 2026, with one exception – the "unannounced Universes Beyond set." While there were a handful of theories that made the rounds, we now have confirmation that Universes Beyond is about to have a big pizza party by welcoming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to Magic: The Gathering. I had a chance to get a preview of what’s in store for these beloved shelled heroes, and my thoughts are… mixed.
Right off the bat (and as per usual for one of the best card games), the full roster of products for this set includes your standard Play and Collector Boosters, Prerelease Packs, and a Bundle box. There will even an MTG Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Draft Night box, a product debuting with January’s Lorwyn Eclipsed set aimed to showcase and promote the new "Draft-two" format that debuted with Spider-Man, coming with 12 Draft Boosters and a single Collector Booster for a prize. From there, things get a bit wacky. For players who have been missing precon Commander Decks, well, don’t you worry, Turtles will be releasing with one. And only one.
You can currently pre-order the full MTG Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles range at Amazon, but for how long remains to be seen. Move quickly if you want to avoid missing out.
Yes, the Ninja Turtles will be getting a single five-color Commander Precon that plays around with a pretty neat Partner focus where you can pair "Leonardo, The Balance (3W)" with any of his brothers or Master Splinter, in addition to a single five-color Commander option, "Heroes in a Half Shell" with all four of the brothers together. The concept of the deck is really neat, and each of the turtles and Splinter have some nifty abilities, but the fact that there is only a single precon is making me smack my face harder than Raphael after one of Mikey's cringe-worthy jokes. Where is my Foot Clan precon? Come on now.
Out of the sewers, though, Wizards is also bringing cool new surprises with the turtles to Magic, and I'm especially excited for some of these. First up is the Pizza Bundle. This delectable dish is just as synonymous with the turtles as the colors red, blue, orange, and purple, and Wizards will be serving you up a helping of magic cards in a pizza box. Literally. This bundle includes nine Play Boosters, one Collector, a pizza box, additional goodies, and 30 pizza lands. Yep, pizza lands. The signature lands of this set involve the mana symbols creatively displayed as various pizza toppings. It’s a creative solution that has me questioning many things in my life, but here we are.
What really has me excited is a new sort of product called "Turtle Team-up," which I think will be an amazing addition for anyone looking to help teach new players. This is a cooperative experience where two to four players take control of 60-card decks, each themed around one of the turtles, and then face off together against a special enemy deck composed of 39 unique cards designed specifically for this product. The team explained how learning MTG can be a daunting experience for newcomers, and that playing with a more experienced player can ease that burden, but playing against two opponents at once can be potentially more overwhelming. Turtle Team-Up aims to address this by letting players simply work together to face a familiar foe. It’s an idea that I’m honestly a bit surprised wasn’t included in the Foundations release last year, which also acts as a superb on-ramp to the game.
As we are only at the "reveal" stage of this set, we only have a small smattering of cards to look through, but just like the product lineup, aspects have me raising my eyebrows. There are some fun cards here; "Turtles Forever (3W)," for instance, shows off four different styles of turtles and lets you grab cards from outside of the game. Meanwhile, "Michelangelo, On the Scene (4GG)" has trample and enters with +1/+1 counters for each land you control. Saying nothing of the fact that when he dies, he just goes back into your hand.
TMNT is far from the only Universes Beyond set of 2026. Indeed, we can expect three others; The Hobbit, Star Trek, and Marvel Super Heroes sets are on the way next year.
I do have a problem with "Super Shredder (1B)," though. This massive threat to the turtles is a 1/1. Yes, he has Menace and a solid ability that puts +1/+1 counters on him whenever another permanent leaves the battlefield, something that I have no doubt will cause me no end of headaches. But Aunt May and a Pigeon could defeat Super Shredder. Both cards come from the recent Marvel’s Spider-Man set, and Aunt May, a 0/2 when blocking alongside a City Pigeon, a 1/1, could take out THE Super Shredder…
The fact that Super Shredder is a 1/1 is enough to make me furrow my brow, but this realization hit me hard. Yes, It’s a great card mechanically, it’s cheap to cast, and no doubt could quickly be boosted past its miniscule base power and toughness, but the idea that he would ever be that small to begin with just feels wrong. Admittedly, I would love a playmat showing off Shredder getting bodied by Aunt May and a pigeon, though.
As we haven’t seen tons of cards yet, the only real new mechanic we know of so far is the new Mutagen tokens, special artifacts that can be tapped and sacrificed to put a +1/+1 counter on something, and Sneak. Being the ooze that played a crucial role in changing normal turtles into ones of the teenage mutant and ninja variety, the Mutagen tokens make sense in the scheme of the set. Sneak has a bit more utility as it lets you cast a spell for a sneak cost, which appears to be lower than the normal mana cost, at the expense of also returning an unblocked attacker you control to your hand during the declare blockers step. I can’t think of many cards that specifically trigger during that step, so it will be interesting to see how players take advantage of it, and what other sorts of cards utilize this new ability.
Whether you love Universes Beyond or aren't much of a fan, the Turtles are by far the best option of a Nickleodean collaboration. Regardless of how much I may be intrigued by the prospect of a Doug-themed Commander deck or running Reptar in my Scion of the Ur Dragon deck, the turtles just feel right. We still have a ways to go before the turtles make their grand entrance at Friday Night Magic, but I'm excited to see just how far down the turtle hole they go and see how the designers are able to translate their mythos into cards. My opinion now may be a bit mixed, but as a kid who grew up in the era of the '80s cartoon, had tons of the toys, and has beaten the SNES version of Turtles in Time more times than I can count, this latest collaboration speaks to me on a deep level. That said, if there aren’t "Leonardo Leads," "Donatello, Does Machines," "Raphael, Cool but Rude," and "Michaelangelo, Party Dude," cards, I will riot.
Universes Beyond - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles releases on March 6, 2026.
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