Magic: The Gathering‘s Turtle Team-Up box, released as a standalone product tied into the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles release, is one of the most enjoyable set add-ons I’ve played with so far.
Designed for groups of two to four players, it presents fun new co-op gameplay mechanics, along with complex new challenges and plenty of replayability.
MTG TMNT Turtle Team-Up review – quick links
MTG’s Turtle Team-Up presents entirely new ways to play
Every few sets, the folks at Wizards of the Coast try something different to spice up MTG gameplay, beyond the usual player staples. The most memorable recent release was Duskmourn‘s refreshed Archenemy mode, which similarly allowed players to take on a boss, using special cards to determine their moves.
Like Archenemy, the Turtle Team-Up set pits you against bosses in three rounds of increasing difficulty. This time though, the bosses are NPCs, and all players are working together to defeat them.
The set-up is fairly simple. The box includes four themed decks spotlighting each of the four Ninja Turtles. Donatello has affinity for Artifacts, Raphael hits hard with multiple combat rounds, Michaelangelo controls big monsters and dinosaurs, and Leonardo controls ninjas and flyers.
The bosses are chosen from an array of cards, and special events allow them to perform moves, like summoning ninjas or destroying player creatures.
In turns, players will initiate rounds of MTG as usual, attacking the boss based on which creatures they have out, and which effects may apply. Then, the boss will take a set turn, which involves revealing two event cards, and players must either defend themselves, or initiate an action.
The way gameplay runs, with players working as a team, actually means Turtle Team-Up can also be played solo, as a means for players to strengthen their approach and strategy, or just to get their MTG fix on the fly. The older you get, the harder it is to organise matches with friends, so this is a great option for some solo practice.
In any mode, gameplay operates smoothly and feels fair, despite elements of chance occasionally making matches incredibly tough.
Card variation means MTG’s Turtle Team-Up set is highly replayable
What I like most about Turtle Team-Up is that it’s designed with replayability in mind. You can be the best MTG player on earth, and a bum hand can still mean you lose everything in your first few turns.
In one round I played, I turned over a boss that gave all ninjas deathtouch (any amount of damage is lethal). Then, I played two ninjas as event cards, a 3/3 and a 6/3. With no single-mana cards in hand, I couldn’t play any creatures to block, even if I was keen to sacrifice them, so I took 9 damage straight away. The next round, I still couldn’t play any creatures, so I took additional damage and died.
That was really down to luck of the draw, an element which adds a sense of danger to gameplay.
Sometimes, chance gives you a more favourable match-up. Not an easy match-up per se. You’ll always need to employ clever strategy to make your way through all three rounds of boss gameplay. With elements of chance and strategy playing in, it’s all about planning well and finding your opening.
Some boss combinations are brutal and you’ll get by only with sacrifice, grit and clever thinking – figuring out which of your turtles to buff, when to play high value cards to ensure they stick around, and so on.
The more you play, the better you get, as you understand more about each boss, and work towards refining your strategy.
All-in-one box makes Turtles Team-Up a fantastic beginner kit
With everything you need to play in the Turtles Team-Up box, this new kit is a great way for beginner players to harness the basics, and for newer players to refine their strategy.
While it doesn’t go into the nitty-gritty of gameplay, so it’s not quite an easy, learn-to-play set, it functions well as a light-touch companion to more complex MTG gameplay. It also feels like the perfect set for more experienced players to introduce the game to their friends.
There’s a real diversity in the mechanics of each deck included – and it’s great to get the chance to play as all four ninja turtles. With simple but challenging gameplay, it’s a wonderful dose of fun, bouncy rounds of MTG.
The Magic: The Gathering – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtle Team-Up set was provided to ScreenHub for the purposes of this review.
