Historic Brewing Review – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMT) set is the first major Universes Beyond drop of 2026, and after the nostalgia-trip of Lorwyn Eclipsed, the contrast in mechanics is going to be wild!

Welcome back to Fun & Jank with me, Plum! If you thought Lorwyn Eclipsed was a trip down memory lane, grab a slice of pizza and buckle up! Today I’m going through all the cards that got my Big Brewer’s Brain™ excited for the release of TMT on Arena next week! Unlike the tribal-heavy synergy of Lorwyn, the TMNT set is all about Artifacts, Mutagen counters, and the new Sneak mechanic. Although the cards are rather straight forward and not necessarily splashy, there’s still plenty of fun designs and cards I’m excited to brew with.

Cowabunga!

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1.) The Last Ronin’s Technique

Our first card is one that actually feels like a powerful addition to the Historic Pool for an archetype that doesn’t really exist yet: Tokens! The Mobilize mechanic sees a lot of play, but a traditional tokens build with cards like Lingering Souls and Intangible Virtue hasn’t existed in Historic before.

4 mana is a pretty standard rate for 3 bodies, but the Sneak cost is what makes this interesting and reminiscent of Spectral Procession. This curves quite well of off something like Stadium Headliner, where you can Sneak the warrior token and put 3 more tokens onto the field tapped and attacking!

2.) Leader’s talent

This card is basically just a color-shifted Innkeeper’s Talent, albeit with some different utility at higher levels. I’m not super impressed by its cost and abilities, but its certinly nice for white to have access to this kind of engine if it ever wanted it.

Level 3 seems like it can close out games rather quickly, but requires a steep 9 mana total investment to get there. Cool nonetheless.

3.) Leonardo, Big Brother and Leonardo, Cutting Edge

These are cards I’m looking at primarily as redundancy pieces for a Legendaries-Matter weenie build.

For the Leonardo suite, the focus is heavily on legendary redundancy and high-efficiency “Sneak” plays. Leonardo, Big Brother acts as a powerful payoff for go-wide strategies, scaling his power based on every other creature you control. With a Sneak cost of just a single white mana, he can jump into combat unexpectedly to represent massive damage for a negligible investment.

On the other hand, Leonardo, Cutting Edge provides a legendary evolution of the Ajani’s Pridemate archetype. He comes with native Lifelink and grows whenever you gain life, essentially acting as a self-fueling engine that doesn’t necessarily need outside help to start getting counters.

Both power up Mox Amber and get a major boost from Flowering of the White Tree!

4.) Leonardo’s Technique

A rather interesting take on the Collected Company template but grabs two creatures from the grave rather than the library. This is particularly potent for recovering after a board wipe or looping “Enters the Battlefield” effects in a Bant or Azorius shell. It’s an incredible rate for two mana, though it does require you to have an unblocked creature.

We have a similar effect already in the form of Dewdrop Cure, but this goes a little bigger for much one mana cheaper. I’m excited to see where this finds a home!

5.) April O’Neil, Hacktivist

April O’Neil, Activist is a fascinating card advantage engine for mono-blue, functioning almost like a color-shifted, creature-based version of The One Ring. A four-mana 1/5, she provides a sturdy defensive body that draws you cards at each of your end steps based on the number of different card types among spells you’ve cast that turn. In a dedicated artifact shell featuring Ornithopter (which counts as both a creature and an artifact) or Emry, Lurker of the Loch, it becomes remarkably easy to chain together spells and refill your hand with three or four extra cards every single turn.

While her potential for raw card draw is high, she does face stiff competition in Historic’s crowded four-drop slot. However, in a lower-to-the-ground tempo or artifact-synergy list that can protect her with cheap counterspells like Metallic Rebuke, she offers a repeatable source of velocity that doesn’t pressure your own life total.

6.) Does Machines

Does Machines is a standout blue Class enchantment that acts as a powerhouse engine for graveyard and artifact-centric decks. Its real strength lies in its modularity and the sheer amount of value it provides for a low initial investment.

At Level 1, for just 1U, the card immediately impacts the game by milling two, drawing two, and discarding two. This provides a massive burst of card selection and graveyard setup, making it an instant staple for reanimator strategies or shells looking to bin high-value artifacts. I feel like that enough to make this card playable, and the extra artifact synergy is just gravy. I think a variety of strategies could use this. We recently built a Trash for Treasure list, and this might make splashing into blue viable!

7.) Donatello, Gadget Master

Not super impressive stat wise, but can help you do some silly things in the right deck. The ceiling is rather fun for this card, with things like The One Ring, Thought Monitor, etc, there’s some great cards you can copy with it.

I’m also interested in this bad boy copying Mesmeric Orb in some sort of Mill shell, but we’ll have to come up with a more artifact based shell so we can fully take advantage of him.

8.) Donatello’s Technique

Rounding out the blue utility is Donatello’s Technique, a card that is already being hailed as potentially one of the best uncommons in the entire set. Its basically a Divination with the potential of being a Village Rites. However, you don’t lose a creature because it’ll go back to your hand when you pay the Sneak cost. I think bouncing your creature is quite and upside in the right deck and this will paly rather well in tempo shells with Tamiyo and the like.

9.) Fugitive Droid

I have a dream of playing Mono-U Martyrs in Historic, and this is just another potential piece of the puzzle! For just a single blue mana, you get a 1/1 artifact creature that effectively serves as both an evasive attacker and a dedicated bodyguard for your board. It’s like Siren Stormtamer and Gingerbrute had a baby.

10.) Kitsune’s Technique

Traumatize for two mana is kinda crazy. This card seems wild since Ruin Crab is a rather inconspicuous creature to swing with on turn two. I feel like this won’t be to hard to fire off for two mana.

There’s also the old UB Rogues shell that often won through Mill. They have plenty of creatures, like Soaring Thought-Thief, with evasion making it easy to pay the sneak cost. This could bring some real speed to the archetype.

11.) Krang, Master Mind

Krang, Master Mind is the set’s heavy-hitter for artifact enthusiasts, acting as a massive refill engine that effectively combines the best traits of Thought Monitor and Kappa Cannoneer. Affinity means he’ll hit the board rather early and his power will scale as the game goes on. While the lack of evasion is a notable downside compared to Cannoneer, the potential to draw up to four cards on a body that can easily reach 7 or 8 power makes him a definitive top-end.

Also might make a card I’ve had an eye on, Emissary Escort, viable in the right build.

12.) Sewer-veillance Cam

It’s a one-mana powerhouse that doubles as a utility tool and a combo piece. The real excitement in the community, however, revolves around its infinite combo potential. Because it triggers on both entering and leaving the battlefield, it creates a loop with Goblin Welder and any other artifact in your graveyard in Eternal formats.

We don’t have that in Historic, but things like Emry, Goblin Engineer, Scrap Trawler and even Pep, Raucous Raider, gives a lot of potential for a new artifact-based combo deck. Lots of potential here!

13.) Courier of Comestibles

This tasty little creatures is actually quite a powerful tutor for a very underpowered card type. However, its a card to keep an eye on as food gets printed more and more in future sets.

We have a few decent targets with the new Pizza cards and things like Gingerbrute already in the format. Not sure it’ll break anything right now, but it’s some good glue for a new Food archetype it one ever comes to fruition.

14.) Rat King, Verminister

Rat King, Verminister is the ultimate build-around for Rat enthusiasts and graveyard decks alike, offering a potent combination of token generation and mass reanimation.

Two bodies with the potential for 3 power on the board all for just two mana is a pretty good rate. It can provide additional bodies as the game goes on and the reanimation ability is great in the late game. Its just a solid value card all around.

15.) Splinter, Hamato Yoshi

Not sure if Ninjas needs additional lords, but this top pick if they do. Sneaking it in for just one mana is a solid rate, and it lets you do some fun Ninjutsu plays as well. Pretty straight forward card.

16.) Splinter’s Technique

Demonic Tutor is a helluva card, but I think one of the best parts of this is the Sneak ability returning a creature to your hand. Playing this in a devotion based shell means you can bounce something like Gray Merchant of Asphodel and other valuable ETB triggers back to your hand and replay them to gain additional value, while also tutoring for more of your best card or a situational piece of interaction.

17.) Casey Jones, Jury-Rig Justiciar

A red Glint-Nest Crane, but on a much more aggressive body. I can see this being played in a Gleeful Demolition shell, finding more artifacts to trade for tokens while also being a hastey threat itself. Also notable that it powers up Mox Amber as well. Really makes me wish we had Ragavan in Historic.

18.) Casey Jones, Vigilante

Gosh I love this card! While that random discard might sound like a deal-breaker, the strategy here is all about “emptying the tank.” If you can dump your hand of low-cost artifacts, burn spells, or creatures before your next upkeep, you essentially get the three cards for free. If he happens to get removed before your next turn, you also don’t have to discard.

There’s just so much this could be used for. A Hollow One shell with Marauding Mako? Sure! Or what about using Consign to Memory to counter the discard ability, while also playing Quantum Riddler. Throw in Proft’s Eidetic Memory and you have a sweet brew going. I think we’ll be testing these sorts of shells with Casey Jones on Day 1.

19.) Cool but Rude

To me, Cool but Rude is easily one of the spiciest build-arounds in the set. Level 2 is where the real power happens: stapling 2 damage to every discard. I’m most excited about the “Necro-burn” combo—dropping this alongside Necrodominance, drawing 15 cards, and then watching the cleanup step discard trigger for 20 points of damage to the face.

It also breathes new life into a Tectonic Reformation or Zombie Infestation shell, where every land you cycle or card you pitch effectively becomes a Shock that hits the opponent.

20.) Improvised Arsenal

To me, Improvised Arsenal is basically a fresh, red-aligned take on the Cranial Ram or Cranial Plating effect that fits perfectly into some Historic artifact shells without needing a black splash. What makes it really stand out from the original is that five-mana activated ability to clone itself, which gives the deck a massive amount of reach in the late game.

I’m particularly eyeing a synergy with Firebending Student; since the Arsenal’s copy ability isn’t restricted to sorcery speed, you can stack up artifacts, equip her, and then mid-combat create a second Arsenal to snowball her power.

21.) Michelangelo, Weirdness to 11

Michelangelo, Weirdness to 11 is one of the better Hardened Scales effects we’ve gotten. I’m already picturing it in a Bard Class shell where your legendary creatures are already coming down with counters; Michelangelo not only makes them even beefier the moment they hit the board, but he can eventually be cast for free once the class is leveled up.

22.) Mutagen Man, Living Ooze

Oh boy I actually love this card. He’s probably the best reason to care about making artifact tokens in this set. He’s a two-mana trampler that can scale up as big as you want, and since his ability makes activated abilities of artifact tokens cost one less, he basically lets you crack blood and mutagen tokens for free.

He plays very well with cards like Biotech Specialist meaning we can deal 2 damage for every Mutagen token we crack (for free). He also works perfectly with Dowsing Device, since the pile of mutagen tokens he creates can flip the device instantly, giving him haste and a massive power boost for a giant, trampling swing out of nowhere.

23.) Party Dude

This is a low-cost green class that functions as a roundabout card advantage engine for just one mana. While giving your opponent a food token on ETB is a bit wonky, the Level 2 ability is where it gets interesting: whenever an artifact an opponent controls hits the graveyard, you draw a card. I’m looking at this in a shell with Generous Plunderer or Relic Robber, where we’re constantly handing our opponents resources like treasures or tokens; once they actually use those resources, Party Dude refills our hand so we stay ahead. It’s also a sneaky tech piece against the current meta—if your opponent cracks a map token from Get Lost or sacrifices a creature to pay for Yagra, Eater of All’s ward cost, you’re netting cards for their trouble. Even if the Level 3 pump feels a bit at odds with an aggro deck’s empty hand, the sheer efficiency of a one-mana engine that draws cards off your opponent’s “gifts” makes it worth a brew.

24.) Go Ninja Go

Go Ninja Go is a super straightforward uncommon that packs an absurd amount of value into just two mana. I’m immediately looking at this in a shell with Feather, the Redeemed, where it transforms from a one-time combat trick into a repeatable removal engine that keeps our best ETB effects, something like White Orchid Phantom, firing every single turn.

25.) Raph & Mikey, Troublemakers

This duo is an ultimate top-end for any deck looking to cheat out massive creatures for a game-ending swing. I’m immediately slotting this into an Indomitable Creativity or Lukka, Coppercoat Outcast shell; if you spin into Raph and Mikey first, his attack trigger gives you a second chance to dump an Emrakul or another game ender onto the board. It’s basically a “free” 7 damage for these kinds of decks.

26.) Chrome Dome

This feel like much more of a high-ceiling combo piece than a straightforward aggro card. if we can cheat the costs down or the mana up, things get broken fast. I’m looking at a shell with Training Grounds and Boommobile, where you can suddenly make infinite copies and infinite mana to just dome your opponent for 20+ damage with the “Exhaust” ability. You can do other high synergy things with Urza or Chromatic Orrery but those require more set up.

27.) Technodrome

A self-fueling engine that slots perfectly into the old-school Steel Overseer and Voltaic Servant shells we used to love. I’m looking at this as a massive upgrade for a Hardened Scales or Hardened Bonds build; if you have a steady supply of artifact tokens—like those Mutagens we talked about—you can essentially draw through your deck while building a giant trampler. It even works as a backup for Arcbound Ravager, letting you move counters over to turn the Technodrome into a lethal threat out of nowhere. Between the card draw and the massive body, it’s a “win-con” and an engine all rolled into one for any artifact-heavy counter strategy.

28.) Arcbound Ravager

Ooh I missed this bad boy. I’m particularly excited about how it pairs with Hardened Scales or the new Pinnacle Emissary. Hopefully it spawns some variations of affinity in the format. Very happy to have it in Historic!

Closing Thoughts

To me, this is just a fun set with some really creative new cards to brew around, even if the overall power level isn’t anything earth-shattering for the format. While it might not be upending the top-tier meta overnight, I’m genuinely hoping it has enough unique synergies, like the Mutagen tokens or the Sneak mechanic, to spawn some entirely new archetypes that we haven’t seen in Historic before.

That’s it for me!

Thanks for reading!

As always, feel free to comment and leave any questions you have below. And make sure to come back next week for even more Fun & Jank!

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Happy Brewin’!