Everyone's favorite crime-fighting reptiles come to Magic: Gatheringbut, oddly enough, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles won't use the game's most famous ninja-related ability. Instead of Ninjutsu (a mechanic introduced in Magic back in 2000 with Feudal Japan inspired Champions of Kamigawa) this is new Crossover “Universes Beyond” introduces an original ability called Stealth, which changes one important rule, perhaps for the better.
If you've never had much fun sitting at the Commander table from someone playing with Yuriko, Shadow Tiger deck, you may not be familiar with Ninjutsu. This is a relatively small ability, but also a powerful one. Basically, if a creature has Ninjutsu, you can play it for less than normal, but only by replacing it with another attacking creature that is unlocked. There's usually some extra benefit when the ninja you just tricked deals damage to your opponent.
The nature of Ninjutsu creatures being able to sneak behind enemy lines and deliver a killing blow also fits well with their whole ninja vibe, so it's surprising that instead of Ninjutsu, some Ninja creatures from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Instead, you have a new ability called Stealth. Stealth is very similar to Ninjutsu, but with one big difference. Instead of simply putting a creature into play, you cast it for its Stealth cost.
This small difference in the text makes a surprising difference in Magic. First, Ninjutsu doesn't require playing a card (so it can't be countered), but Stealth does (so it can be countered). However, the team behind the creation Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Set decided to change it. Instead, they could give Ninjutsu/Stealth to other card types besides creatures (like Instant, as shown in the image above).
Senior game designer Eric Engelhard tells Polygon that they actually started using Ninjutsu in the set, but ran into trouble when they realized they wanted to apply the ability to non-creature spells.
“We went to the rules committee and they said, ‘No,’” Engelhard says. “So we created new mechanics for it. We created our own Ninjutsu. This allows us to give you very deep discounts on some iconic Magic spells.”
Raphael's technique (riff on the classic Magic Wheel of Fortune is one of 11 Technique cards included in the new set, each of which has a lower stealth cost in addition to the standard cast cost.
“It doesn't have to be ninja-related, but with this set we kept it strictly ninja-centric,” Engelhard says. “So, all 11 techniques are for different ninja characters. There are no Casey Jones or April O'Neil techniques here. It's all about the ninja moves these characters have, as well as their inner turmoil.”
Looking to the future, this new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles the mechanic can also be a way to apply ninjutsu-style abilities to non-ninja creatures.
“Beyond this set, we can use it for trickster characters or sneaky characters—thieves and things like that,” lead narrative designer Crystal Fraser tells Polygon. “So we hope to reuse it in the future.”
But to be clear, none of this means that Ninjutsu will disappear or change.
“We don't do anything with the original rules of Ninjutsu,” says Fraser. “They will remain the same.”
Engelhard agrees, but hints that we are more likely to see new ones in the future Magic cards with the Stealth ability than with Ninjutsu, at least until Magic returns to the setting where it all began.
“We don't ignore Ninjutsu,” he says. “If we ever returned to Kamigawa, we could use Ninjutsu. But on other planes, it's more likely that we'll use Stealth because the rules are cleaner and Stealth is what's going to be in Standard.”
