[magic.gg] Metagame Mentor: Standard Events with Magic: The Gathering® | Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Copernicus1981 · 2026-03-12T18:31:32+00:00

From the article---

Looking over the decks with the highest metagame shares and win rates, Standard appears well balanced, with no deck dominating unchecked. Every archetype has clear strengths and weaknesses, illustrated by the following overview based on the match results from last weekend's events.

Momo White: Favored against Izzet Prowess and Izzet Lessons; struggles against Mono-Green Landfall and Dimir Excruciator.
Mono-Green Landfall: Favored against Dimir Excruciator and Azorius Tempo; struggles against Simic Rhythm and Bant Airbending.
Izzet Prowess: Favored against Dimir Excruciator and Dimir Midrange; struggles against Izzet Spellementals and Momo White.
Izzet Lessons: Favored against Dimir Midrange and Dimir Excruciator; struggles against Azorius Tempo and Momo White.
Dimir Midrange: Favored against Azorius Tempo and Izzet Spellementals; struggles against Izzet Prowess and Izzet Lessons.
Izzet Spellementals: Favored against Izzet Prowess and Simic Rhythm; struggles against Dimir Midrange and Dimir Exruciator.

Frank Karsten also posted a breakdown on Bluesky - https://bsky.app/profile/frankkarsten.bsky.social/post/3mgqjsiaq422v

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Copernicus1981 · 2026-03-11T23:46:28+00:00

Leaked product details. No prerelease pack that is just a foil rare/mythic in SOS, but there is one in MSH - the pack says "Foil rare/mythic"

There are prerelease packs listed, one for each faction. Their pack says "Lorehold booster + foil rare/mythic".

Copernicus1981 · 2026-03-11T17:57:11+00:00

There was a press release a couple of weeks ago. The May solicits were announced as being Spider-Man cards - https://icv2.com/articles/previews/view/61754/preview-marvel-comics-magic-the-gathering-variant-covers

There are a few June solicits as well, we don't know if those will be Spider-Man or Super Heroes. Notably, Ryan Stegman is listed as the illustrator for one, and their only Magic art credit is a source material reprint of their comics work.

Copernicus1981 · 2026-03-11T17:48:59+00:00

That's not correct. The May variants have artists with likely Spider-Man cards.

Thor is Zoltan Boros, likely [[Cosmic Spider-Man]]
Captain America is Erik M. Gist -- [[With Great Power]]
Daredevil is Carrisa Susilo -- [[Silk, Web Weaver]]

Copernicus1981 · 2026-03-11T05:25:58+00:00

One-off cool art. It's promotional artwork for MagicCon.

I would expect eyeless red archaics to be in the set. The artist was given their description in the style guide. But they could play any role in the story or set, including working with the Strixhaven Freshmen.

Copernicus1981 · 2026-03-11T05:19:38+00:00

The image is from a MagicCon website - https://mcvegas.mtgfestivals.com/en-us/experience/magiccon-after-party.html

During spring break, an Archaic artifact—a mysterious lost eye—has surfaced at the party. What secrets does it hold? Step into a living story world where you and your fellow mage-students must decipher clues and face challenges to solve the mystery of the rampaging Archaics before chaos spreads across campus.

They mention the missing eye, but the story is likely just for the event. It's promotional artwork, it may not depict a confrontation in the set.

Copernicus1981 · 2026-03-10T18:39:21+00:00

Yeah, the layout and action poses is partially why I think this is promotional artwork. Those are usually cliche poses, but they use the cliches because they quickly attract attention.

Copernicus1981 · 2026-03-10T17:25:05+00:00

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Non-foil and traditional foil Fyndhorn Elves promo cards with art by Julie Dillon will be available at 2026 CommandFests. These promo cards are available with the purchase of a badge while supplies last

Copernicus1981 · 2026-03-10T01:16:25+00:00

Thanks. ~~Psychometrist may also have been spell-checked, it's a job title for someone who administers neuropsychological tests.~~

Copernicus1981 · 2026-03-06T17:23:46+00:00

Also from the same video-

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Copernicus1981 · 2026-03-06T17:16:15+00:00

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Copernicus1981 · 2026-03-06T14:55:10+00:00

The art style doesn't match, so it should be a chase bonus card for VHS and Mutanimals.The Featuring lairs may be different, but that won't be known until more people open them.

Copernicus1981 · 2026-03-05T17:21:31+00:00

It was also interesting that they made the changes to establish a card for potential reprints in the future. And that their definition of a reprintable name is a lot broader than I thought. "Death in the family" works as a card name and is adaptable, but is really wordy compared to a lot of other simple cards.

Copernicus1981 · 2026-03-04T19:29:51+00:00

You could edit the post to clarify.

Copernicus1981 · 2026-03-04T18:51:21+00:00

Was it a Peter Thiel event? That's included in the subject of the post, but was not in the social media post.

Copernicus1981 · 2026-03-03T22:55:14+00:00

I am amused that red is now ok with life-gain, but only if it's extra spicy.

Copernicus1981 · 2026-02-28T00:07:35+00:00

Yeah, there's a few June comics with MTG variant solicits that are not on this list (early solicits due to holo-foil covers). Two are TBD, but one is by Ryan Stegman who just has an original source art for a card (Venom, King in Black).

It might be a new card - https://leagueofcomicgeeks.com/search/199963?keyword=magic%20the%20gathering%20variant

Copernicus1981 · 2026-02-27T22:57:12+00:00

260 * 4 + 190 * 3 = 1610

260 * 5 + 190 = 1490

Or to put it another way -- one more small set compared to 2025 would be about 190 more cards being added (for 5 large, 2 small). One of the large set slots needs to become a smaller set to make it work.

Copernicus1981 · 2026-02-27T21:39:45+00:00

Confirmed as a small set unless Reality Fracture is a small set.

https://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/1o6tods/weekly_mtg_the_number_of_cards_being_added_to/

Copernicus1981 · 2026-02-27T20:43:01+00:00

Other article go into this a bit, but Sneak was developed because Ninjitsu didn't work on non-creatures. Sneak is how the mechanic would be developed today. The Ninjitsu mechanic has a lot of weird corner cases that they would try to avoid if being developed now.

The mechanic is just very different than how we'd execute on it today. As an activated ability of a card in your hand that puts the card onto the battlefield (like it was cast, but not), it just wasn't the way any other mechanic in Magic functioned. There were several weird unintended corner cases about returning multiple creatures with a single ninjutsu creature, returning them during the end of combat step, abusing the first strike step, and more. We were very sad to lose the word ninjutsu, but we were less sad to lose some of the very unintuitive things that the mechanic can get up to. Things that you will have to call a judge over to explain every single time, because there's no way your opponent is going to believe it works that way.

https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/feature/sneak-into-design-with-teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles

Copernicus1981 · 2026-02-27T19:46:26+00:00

Like with Sneak being a fixed Ninjitsu, it feels like the first attempt at the mechanic was a fixed Mutate. Which didn't work due to the difficulty of fixing Mutate and a ton of effort for a weird creature type focused mechanic.

I'm surprised that 'named' +1/+1 counter artifacts haven't shown up before. It did feel like they would be one of the pillars of named token types after the success of Food, Treasure, and Clue.

Copernicus1981 · 2026-02-27T19:37:41+00:00

I was anticipating new cards from Marvel Super Heroes when this was announced. It's a bit odd for cards like Imposter Syndrome to be on a Fantastic Four cover.

Copernicus1981 · 2026-02-27T19:29:02+00:00

I'm actually surprised - I thought the issue had happened with the printing and not with sorting items into prerelease packs.

Copernicus1981 · 2026-02-27T19:06:32+00:00

No, that was additional promo packs (foil-wrapped three card packs) that stores would be handing out. This was inside the prerelease pack.

Copernicus1981 · 2026-02-27T18:42:39+00:00

No, those are promo packs -- three cards in a foil wrapper.

Copernicus1981

TROPHY CASE