Everyone’s favorite crime-fighting reptiles are coming to Magic: The Gathering, but in a bizarre twist, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles won’t be taking advantage of the game’s most famous ninja-related ability. Instead of Ninjutsu (a mechanic introduced to Magic back in 2000 with the Feudal-Japan-inspired Champions of Kamigawa) this new Universes Beyond crossover introduces an original ability called Sneak that makes one important rules change, arguably for the better.
If you’ve never had the distinct pleasure of sitting across the Commander table from someone playing with a Yuriko, the Tiger’s Shadow deck, you may not be familiar with Ninjutsu. It’s a relatively minor ability, but also a powerful one. Essentially, if a creature has Ninjutsu, you can play it for cheaper than usual, but only by swapping it with another attacking creature that’s unblocked. Typically, there’s also some sort of added benefit when the ninja you just cheated out deals damage to your opponent.
The flavor of Ninjutsu creatures being able to sneak behind enemy lines to land a deadly blow also fits well with their entire ninja vibe, which is why it’s a surprise that, instead of Ninjutsu, some of the ninja creatures from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have a new ability called “Sneak,” instead. Sneak is very similar to Ninjutsu, but with one big difference. Rather than simply putting the creature into play, you’re casting it for the Sneak cost.
This small difference in text matters a surprising amount in Magic. For one thing, Ninjutsu doesn’t involve casting the card (so it can’t be countered), while Sneak does (so it can be countered). However, that’s not why the team behind the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles set decided to change it. Instead, it was so they could give Ninjutsu/Sneak to other card types besides creatures (like an Instant, as seen in the image above).
Senior game designer Eric Engelhard tells Polygon that they actually started off using Ninjutsu in the set, but hit a snag when they realized they wanted to apply the ability to non-creature spells.
“We asked the rules committee, and they said absolutely not,” Engelhard says. “So we made a new mechanic for it. We made our own Ninjutsu. This lets us give you some very steep discounts on some iconic Magic spells.”
Raphael’s Technique (a riff on the classic Magic card Wheel of Fortune) is one of 11 technique cards included in the new set, all of which have cheaper Sneak costs in addition to their standard casting cost.
“It doesn’t have to be tied to ninjas, but in this set we kept it tied exclusively to ninjas,” Engelhard says. “So all 11 techniques are for different characters that are ninjas. There’s no Casey Jones’ or April O’Neil’s technique. It’s all about the ninja moves that these characters have, along with their inner turmoil.”
Looking further ahead, this new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles mechanic may also be a way to apply a Ninjutsu-style ability to creatures that aren’t ninjas.
“Beyond this set, we can use it for trickster or sneaky characters — thieves, things like that,” lead narrative designer Crystal Frasier tells Polygon. “So we’re hoping to reuse it in the future.”
But, to be clear, none of this means Ninjutsu is going away or changing.
“We’re not doing anything to the original Ninjutsu rules,” Frasier says. “Those are going to stay the same.”
Engelhard agrees, but hints that moving forward, we’ll be more likely to see new Magic cards with the Sneak ability than with Ninjutsu, at least until Magic returns to the setting that started it all.
“We’re not ignoring Ninjutsu,” he says. “If we ever were to return to Kamigawa, we might use Ninjutsu. But on other planes, it’s more likely that we’d use Sneak, because the rules are cleaner and Sneak is what’s going to be in Standard.”
