The next Magic: The Gathering set is far from the caverns of Ixalan and the grottos of Theros—indeed, it's set somewhere beneath the storm drains of New York City. As Wizards of the Coast announced Friday, it's a crossover with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles themselves.
Universes Beyond might be something of a contentious talking point in the MTG community these days, but ignore that for a moment and check out these awesome turtle cards. You'll find the main four turtles and Splinter, sure, but there's plenty more from nearly every incarnation of the venerable comic book heroes.
I'm someone who just thinks the ninja turtles are neat, so I'm over the moon to see new art from Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, as well as nods to deep cuts like IDW's Wolverine claw-wielding female turtle, Jennika. The art is as painterly and vibrant as you'd expect from a new MTG set, and the new land artworks are of pizza toppings in the shape of each color's mana symbol, so that's cute.
There's also the Heroes in a Half Shell commander card, a rainbow 5/5 that draws a card and doles out +1/+1 counters to each of your mutants, ninjas, and/or turtles every time they deal combat damage to a player. In case that doesn't sound synergistic enough with all those new turtle cards, it also has vigilance, menace, trample, and haste—fitting for the world's most fearsome fighting team.
The continued Fortinitification of Magic: The Gathering might be something longtime veterans balk at, but there's no denying these crossovers are in high demand. And where a game like Fortnite is eager to hand Hatsune Miku a golden assault weapon and have Thanos hit the griddy, I'll give MTG credit for giving its crossovers such lavish artwork and card mechanics carefully considered to celebrate the source material. That attention to detail has made its videogame crossovers in particular a decently fun aside.
