Due to some unusual circumstances, we received a lot of leaks for the upcoming TMNT Universes Beyond Set. With so many leaks, Wizards of the Coast as officially revealed all the rares and mythic rares for the set ahead of time. We’re going to explore some of the new cards, mechanics, and the new decks at our disposal! You can follow along in Scryfall with the search: “s:tmt sort:color”

If the set catches your eye, be sure to sign up for a prerelease event at your local store. Three for One Trading will be four events across the February 27th/28th, as well as a bonus Two-Headed Giant event on March 3rd.

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White focuses on Leonardo.

Tokens, and counters, are the aim. Leonardo, Cutting Edge is an aggressive two drop with the new “Sneak” mechanic. You can cast him for his “sneak” cost by returning an unblocked attacker to your hand during the declare blockers step. This is incredibly similar to “Ninjutsu”, but there are two differences. Sneak casts the spell. Ninjutsu puts the creature directly into play.

That means Counterspell will stop your Sneak spells. An upside of sneak is it appears on non-creature spells. Leonardo’s Technique returns two creatures that cost three or less from grave to play. That’s not bad for four mana, but it’s an amazing deal for two!

Leonardo, Sewer Samurai, is another rendition of Leo. His main ability lets you cast creatures with one or less power/toughness from your grave. It’s a shame he costs four mana. I would love to pair him with Lurrus, of the Dream Den. However, for four mana this is still an amazing effect.

Creatures cast with Leo enter with a finality counter on them. This means they are exiled when they die. You can get around this with Solemnity. Then set yourself up for a combo with Ashnod’s Altar, or Phyrexian Altar for infinite mana. Flickerwisp, Eerie Interlude, and Teleportation Circle can achieve the same effect. By flickering the creature you remove all counters!

Agent Bishop, Man in Black is simple, but powerful effect. At the beginning of combat on your turn put two +1/+1 counters on each of up to two creatures. Bishop rewards curving out. Play a one drop, then follow up with Bishop to start spreading counters.

Bishop plays well with Leader’s Talent. For two mana you get a class enchantment with: Whenever you attack, put a +1/+1 counter on target attacking creature. Levelling up the class gains will gain you two life when creatures leave play as long as they had counters. The final level puts a counter on each creature you control whenever you cast a spell. Bishop and Leader’s Talent are no-brainers in any aggressive strategy.

Donatello, Mutant Mechanic, continues the artifact theme. He can turn an artifact into a creature with three +1/+1 counters. Then, whenever one of your artifacts is put into the graveyard, you can move its counters to another artifact. This works great with cards that scale with counters.

Walking Ballista, Threefold Thunderhulk, and Crystalline Crawler get much better with Donatello. This effect can also permanently animate vehicles. Just be aware that this will overwrite the power/toughness printed on the vehicle.

This is best used to dodge steep crew costs, or on moderately sized vehicles. Smuggler’s Copter, or The Regalia, are perfectly fine as a 0/0 with three counters. Recon Craft Theta is a great choice if for going wide and getting even more counters!

Black has many of the TMNT’s villains. Rat King, Verminister is an instant classic for Relentless Rat‘s decks. His first ability is a standard black effect. At the end step if something left the battlefield you create a 1/1 and put a +1/+1 counter on Rat King. His second ability is what we are here for: You can return target creature and all creatures with the same name from your graveyard to the battlefield.

The obvious option is Rat Colony/Relentless Rats. But you could get creative.

If Rat King is your Commander, nothing stops you running Shadowborn Apostle or even the nine Nazgûl. If you want to branch into other colors Cid, Timeless Artificer, Persistent Pertitioners, and Hare Apparent are all valid options too.

The only challenge is getting three rats to sacrifice for his ability. Conspiracy, Maskwood Nexus, and Xenograft will all get the job done. It’s a bit of a long shot, but don’t be afraid to try something weird with this one!

Here are all the cards that let you cheat the Commander singleton rule!

Sticking with sacrifice, Super Shredder is a fantastic aggressive aristocrats piece. He’s a two-mana 1/1 with menace. Whenever another permanent leaves the battlefield, put a +1/+1 counter on him. The effect is simple, but it’s sure to shred life totals in no time.

I like that permanents don’t need to die; they just leave play. This makes him amazing with exile, bounce, and sacrifice. Shredder doesn’t care who owns the permanent in question. He will grow incredibly fast if players are sacrificing fetch lands and treasure tokens. It would be incredible to see Shredder paired with Zuran Orb. Sacrifice all your lands for a sudden burst of power!

It’s not quite as powerful as when Titania, Protector of Argoth, does it, but it would make for an amazing moment.

Keeping with the death triggers, Ninja Teen is the black class in the cycle. Whenever a creature you control leaves play, each opponent loses one life. Leveling it up gives your creatures +1/+0 and menace. The final level gives creatures in your graveyard Sneak for 3B. You can play creatures from the grave using their Sneak abilities.

All in this class will cost six mana.

The effects all play wonderfully with each other. Sneaking from the graveyard makes combat a nightmare for your opponent. No matter what gets unblocked, you’re sure to cheat something worse into play. Of note, you can use any sneak ability to cast creatures from the grave. If you run this in a deck with Leonardo, Cutting Edge, you can cheat him into playing for his one-mana Sneak cost instead!

Shark Shredder, Killer Clone, is an ideal Sneak target. Whenever he deals combat damage to a player, you put a creature from that player’s grave into play tapped and attacking under your control. Thanks to first strike, Shark Shredder will deal damage first, guaranteeing the reanimated creature gets a hit in too. It reminds me of Drana, Liberator of Malakir. First strike, or even double strike, makes both these cards incredibly powerful.

Raphael represents red. His two renditions focus on attacking. Raphael, Ninja Destroyer, must be blocked if able. When he deals damage, you add that much red mana. Pair him with a Blasphemous Act for a huge burst of mana. Raphael, the Nightwatcher, gives your attacking creatures double strike. For three mana he can Sneak into play. Both Raphaels make combat difficult for the opponent.

Raphael’s Technique leans into red’s discard synergy. Technique is a Wheel of Fortune at instant speed if you sneak it! Cool but Rude works well here. The class lets you loot whenever you attack. The real power is the second ability. You deal 2 damage to each opponent whenever you draw a card. The last level gives you a risky tutor.

I love Ravenous Robots.

Whenever you cast an artifact, it makes a 1/1 token. There are so many cheap artifacts, or combos, that give you infinite cast triggers. Ravenous Robots can then give your tokens haste for red mana. It’s a simple self-contained package that can help steal a win.

Improvised Arsenal does a good impersonation of Cranial Plating. I love a mana sink. Improvised Arsenal is an intimidating equipment with a low equip cost. One mana to equip means the token copies won’t be sitting idle. The only downside is the red mana to equip. You’ll need to be deep into red to take full advantage of it.

The multicolored cards show off the teamwork between different characters. We see every turtle, and some villains pair up for unique effects and some lengthy creature types. Shout out to Dark Leo & Shredder, “Legendary Creature – Mutant Ninja Turtle Human.” Speaking of the dark duo, it gives attacking ninjas deathtouch. When they deal damage, you make a 1/1 ninja. Then if you control five or more ninjas, you cleave their life total in half.

If you want to lean deeper into ninjas, try Splinter, Radical Rat. He doubles triggered abilities from ninjas. For two mana, target ninja becomes unblockable. Keep Splinter in mind as we focus on some of the other team-ups.

Raph and Mikey, Troublemakers, are a big investment at seven mana. They pay it off immediately. The hasty 7/7 will cheat a creature from your deck into play when they attack. If you can set up the top of your deck, you are sure to hit something big, or just play lots of big creatures. Make everything a huge threat!

When Don and Raph, Hard Science attack, the next noncreature spell you cast this turn has affinity for artifacts. Choose your favorite huge spell. Blightsteel Colossus, Portal to Phyrexia, Chromatic Orrery, who cares what it is?

You’re cheating something huge into play.

Moving away from the turtles Tokka & Rahzar, Terrible Twos is an amazing hate bear. Two mana 3/2 with menace that can’t be countered is a great start. Whenever a player cast a spell for less than it’s mana value, you deal three damage to that player.

In short if someone cheats on mana, you deal three damage. You’d be surprised how many things this hits. Fierce Guardianship, cascade triggers, Phyrexian mana, or spells reduced by Ruby Medallion. I’ve loved Vexing Bauble in Commander for the exact same reason. But, for the Terrible Twos, you punish any time a spell is cheaper, not just free spells. My only regret is I cannot play this in more decks. Being Rakdos makes it a bit harder to find a home.

I love every single colorless card we’ve seen so far! Krang, Ultron Warlord, is a colorless mass of keywords. I don’t have much to say beyond that. The big colorless meatball is one of my favorite archetypes.

The Ooze is a repeatable source of Mutagen tokens. Whenever a creature you control with a +1/+1 counter leaves play, you make a Mutagen token. The Ooze gives some mild graveyard hate. It can tap to exile a card from any graveyard and make a Mutagen. This is a low-cost effect with great upsides.

Weather Maker joins the ranks of three-cost rocks that make any color. The spin here is landfall. When a land enters, you put a counter on Weather Maker. You can tap and remove two charge counters for two colorless mana. Alternatively, tap and remove three counters to deal three damage to any target. A solid mana rock, with removal. Consider keeping a couple copies of this in reserve for future decks.

We’ll finish out with Chrome Dome. Two mana for a 1/3 that gives +1/+0 to other artifact creatures isn’t too special. We love its second ability. For five mana you make a token copy of another artifact you control. The token gains haste, then dies at the end of the turn. Choose your favorite massive artifact and get in for damage or abuse powerful enter/death triggers. If you’re going deep on these effects, consider Sundial of the Infinite to keep your tokens forever! We usually only see these effects in red; I cannot wait to try it out in a blue artifact deck.