Reviewing the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles First Look Panel at NYCC

Posted on October 10, 2025

COWABUNGA, DUDES!

New York Comic-Con is happening this week and with it came a panel for Magic: The Gathering and Nickelodeon to discuss the thus far unannounced first Universes Beyond release of 2026. Following weeks of speculation, we now have official confirmation that the classic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles property is coming to Magic next year! The heroes in a half shell are here at last and we didn't just get a simple reveal but a full first look event!

Let's have a look at everything revealed at the show and shortly thereafter!

Cowabunga Magic players, the second set of 2026 is #MTGxTMNT!

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— Magic: The Gathering (@magic.wizards.com) October 10, 2025 at 10:59 AM

First up was the obvious: the reveal of the set itself! This wasn't too much of a surprise for many given that the names associated with the panel, as well as the Nickelodeon partnership, suggested that it would be TMNT weeks ago. Then, of course, some folks spotted a truck with TMNT and Magic branding all over it and posted it to social media.

Wild that we're getting two New York City sets in a year's span.

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— Amy the Amazonian (@amytheamazonian.bsky.social) October 8, 2025 at 3:46 PM

With that, the cat was officially out of the bag! However, there was still much, much more to reveal. While some speculated we could see more stuff for Avatar: the Last Airbender or upcoming Secret Lairs, it ended up being toitles all the way down!

First up was our look at the Turtle Power Commander deck! This is going to deviate a bit from the usual fare with set releases and will be the only Commander release for the set. With the focus on the team of Turtles and Master Splinter, the deck is a five color blast helmed by all four turtles on a single card: Heroes in a Half Shell (TURTLE POWER!).

Next up we got our first look at each of the individual turtles within the deck. Every one cares about tokens and/or counters in some way. Perhaps best of all, each one has a new partner word on it: Character select.

This is a fun nod to the classic "Select Your Turtle" screens from the 80s and 90s video games that allowed you to choose which turtle you could play as!

We also were shown the one Mono-Black partner of the deck: Splinter, the Mentor. This provides one color for each character across the team so that they're all represented.

Next, we go straight into the main set! The first card shown off is undoubtedly one of the coolest in the entire set: the headliner card! To be more precise, it's the first of four headliner cards featuring art by original TMNT artist Kevin Eastman. Each is also stamped with Eastman's signature on it. Each of the four turtle cards from the main set will get this special treatment, though only this one was shown off so far. The main set version was also revealed alongside it.

With only the headliner card revealed initially, we got our first real look at as well as an explanation of the new sneak mechanic with Raphael's Technique. Sneak is essentially a reworked version of ninjutsu that can allow you to not only play creatures, but spells as well. Using this new term allows the popular mechanic to be used in a setting that doesn't necessarily involve ninjas, giving it more flexibility. This card's sneak ability effectively turns it into Wheel of Fortune that doesn't force your opponents to discard and draw, making for a fun new iteration on that classic type of spell!

Next up came our first look at a handful of classic TMNT villains. No Turtles set would be complete without Shredder, and seeing the intense Super Shredder as an extremely powerful card who just gets bigger and badder is extra cool. Krang, Master Mind as well as Bebop & Rocksteady are also fan favorites who are absolute musts, making them easy inclusions ofr a set like this.

We also got our first cards with friends of the turtles: April O'Neil and Casey Jones. April O'Neil, Hacktivist might read a bit odd to those only used to seeing her as a news reporter with her being a scientist, but it's quite fitting based on certain versions of the Turtles' history! Casey Jones, Jury-Rig Justicar brings everyone's favorite hockey stick-wielding vigilante to card form, beating up on several Foot clan soldiers along the way.

We also got to see the art for Splinter, Hamato Yoshi, though we didn't see the actual card with it. Fans will notice the Stockman Mousers that surround Splinter in the artwork.

Finally for the main set cards, we got to see the card Turtles Forever. This represents an early 2000s special where the 2003 turtles meet their 1987 and original comic book counterparts, as depicted here in this artwork. Additionally, a version from the original 1990 live-action movie was included - a welcome throwback for long-time fans of the series.

After that, we moved into something completely different: the Turtle Team-Up Box Set! We don't know very much about this, aside from the fact that it comes with several preconstructed decks, four play boosters, and acts as a sort of board game variation on Magic: The Gathering.

The four preconstructed decks include special unique versions of each of the four Turtles. These versions are exclusive to this Turtle Team-Up box set and don't appear anywhere else - not even collector boosters!

Additionally, we were shown the above four boss cards. It's unclear exactly how these are meant to be used from a gameplay perspective, though speculation is that it'll be similar to the old Theros special gameplay decks. These include Face the Hydra, Battle the Horde, and Defeat a God.

One more card depicting an actual team up between Donatello and April O'Neil was also revealed via the Card Image Gallery after the panel wrapped. It'll be interesting to see if we'll see any other team ups in the set once preview season kicks off in earnest.

We also got to see something extra cool: original source material art on a small bonus sheet of cards. Here we get Doubling Season featuring art from the very first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic book originally released in 1984. The classic Eastman art is one of twenty of these cards - each boasting the humorous PZA set code, noting the Turtles' love for pizza.

Our heroes in a half shell can't fight on an empty stomach! These flavorful full-art pizza basic lands will give you the fuel to cast some #MTGxTMNT spells.

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— Magic: The Gathering (@magic.wizards.com) October 10, 2025 at 11:43 AM

Speaking of, the show capped off the main set previews with this wild set of basic lands that each depict a different turtle (and Splinter) holding a slice of pizza. These lands have been met with some intense reactions and have players reeling about what to expect from the set going forward.

Wizards then showed us this set's version of the usual gift bundle: the Pizza Bundle! As the name would suggest, this box looks very much like a pizza box as well as something ripped straight out of a 90's board game or toy. Not only can you find the usual gift bundle contents - including a collector booster - but you also get two of six cool promos that give six classic Magic cards a bit of TMNT flare.

Art for a handful of other cards was revealed as well. These include Jannika's Technique, Krang and Shredder (seen at the top of this article), and The Last Ronin's Technique.

Last but not least, Wizards also revealed the details of the final unannounced Spotlight Series event for 2026. March 6-8 in Richmond, VA will be the Magic Spotlight: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles event. Full details can be found in the announcement article right here.

Magic: the Gathering - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles hits stores everywhere on March 6, 2026. You can check out prerelease events on February 27, 2026 to get your hands on cards first. Previews start on February 10, 2026, so get ready to kick some serious shell!

Be sure to check these pages for additional information: