Image credit: Wizards of the Coast

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is due to slam into Magic: The Gathering on March 6th, 2026. For many TMNT diehards, this is a great thing to behold. But for other keen-eyed sleuths on the Internet, this set raises more eyebrows than spirits.

The issues with this set arose a few short days ago, when people on r/MagicTCG noted the number crunch for the Turtles set for Universes Beyond. According to the Wizards Play Network, this set has upwards of 185 distinct Standard-legal cards. To compare, Marvel's Spider-Man had 188. These numbers specifically discount the placement of basic lands within the number crunch, which are generally reserved for the end of the set list. It also discounts any cards in the Commander deck, or any card in the Source Material subset of cards, which are reprints anyway.

What this means is that TMNT probably qualifies as a smaller expansion than Spider-Man. And while there are more cards in the set than just those 185, most of them are either reprints or Booster Fun treatments.

The Second TMNT Issue

For many, three cards isn't a huge concern. But when one takes into account the other issue raised by examining numbers, there might be another problem, also realized on Reddit and elsewhere.

The problem? Wizards of the Coast has silently lowered the number of uncommon cards guaranteed in the set's Play Boosters. According to Wizards' own Collecting article for the set:

Each Magic: The Gathering | Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Play Booster box includes 30 Play Boosters, each of which contains the following:

• 14 Magic: The Gathering cards
  • 7 Commons
    • In 1 out of 28 Play Boosters, 1 of 20 non-foil source material cards will replace a common.
  • 2 Uncommons
  • 1 Legendary Turtle card of any rarity
  • 1 Wildcard of any rarity
  • 1 Rare or mythic rare card
  • 1 Traditional foil card of any rarity
  • 1 Land card
• 1 Non-foil double-sided token

The emphasis here is that there are only two uncommon cards guaranteed in a given Play Booster. This is a new net loss, as there used to be three. Presuming that there are common legendary Turtle cards in MTGTMT, this lowers the chance of getting a third uncommon card by a lot. And even if not, it skews Limited play towards having more rare cards. Wizards of the Coast's development team typically sees this as an issue.

But before anyone catastrophizes this, there is a slight silver lining. Collectability has never been better for the game than it is right now. Completionism is another story (and has been for a while). However, it's so easy at this time to get a chase card in some form or another. If TMNT makes an impact on Constructed formats, it'll likely be positive for players trying to buy into them.

And now, let's hear from you, dear readers! How do you feel about having a smaller set size than Marvel's Spider-Man in TMNT? How about one fewer guaranteed uncommon in Play Boosters? Sound off in the comments below!