Ninjas

Color of Ninja Turtles

What color are the four Ninja Turtles?

Blue, red, orange, and purple. : )

Blue Colors Humor Ninja Ninjas Red Turtle

Outlaws Mechanic Trivia

Hi Mark,It’s my birthday and me and my friends are going to play some OTJ sealed today. In honor of this, can I get some trivia on Outlaws, my favorite mechanic to come out of the set?

We made a list for Outlaw of any creature type that might make sense:
Assassin
Barbarian
Berserker
Minion
Mercenary
Ninja
Pirate
Rebel
Rogue
Warlock
Assassin and Rogue felt like automatic includes. We added Mercenary because we wanted the “henchperson” token to be a Mercenary. The creative team asked us to add Warlock because we needed to have an outlaw spellcaster to hit all the card concepts. That’s what we handed over to set design.When making a batch, we do between two and five, with three being optimal. Four seemed in a good spot and allowed set design to add something if they had to. They added Pirate because of all the Pirate cards in The Lost Caverns of Ixalan. We did talk through many of the others. We considered bringing Minion back instead of doing Mercenary (we stopped doing it a while ago). We talked a lot about Ninja. In the end though, we felt this collection best served the mechanic.Happy Birthday!

Assassin Barbarian Batches Berserker Birthday Creatures Ixalan Mechanics Mercenary Minion Ninja Ninjas Outlaws of Thunder Junction Pirate Rebel Rogue Sealed Format Set Design The Lost Caverns of Ixalan Tokens Warlock

Ninja Beeble Mystery

Has there secretly been a ninja beeble hidden in the background of at least one card in every set?

Maybe. : )

Beeble Humor Ninja Ninjas

Warlock Inclusion Reasoning

Not a question, but a comment. It would have been nice if you left warlock out of outlaws or did something different so the classes would have made a good acronym. Like, without warlocks it could have been RAMP for outlaws.

The reason we included Warlock was we have a lot of spellcasters in sets (being the game is at it’s core about magic), and we needed ways to do them and be outlaws. Choosing elements of a batch have a lot of factors to weigh, and making a good acronym is just pretty low. By the way, if we were prioritizing making acronyms, I would have swapped Mercenary for Ninja to make PRAWN. : )

Batches Humor Mercenary Ninja Ninjas Warlock

Neon Dynasty Design Origins

So you've said before that Neon Dynasty started, correct me if im wrong, without Ninjitsu or Samurai and more of a focus on Auras and Sagas vs Vehicles and Equipment, with Ninja and Samurai being the commander decks. How far along did those come? I've heard people say Isshin and Satoru were the precon face commanders and were put into the set instead? Is that true? :)

Ninjutsu wasn’t in the vision design handoff with plans of it being a focus of a Ninja Commander deck, but that’s the only thing you stated that I actually said.

Auras Commander Decks Equipment Ninja Ninjas Ninjitsu Ninjutsu Sagas Samurais Vehicles Vision Design

Creature-Type Considerations

Not saying you got the set of creature-types wrong (and it, like "committing a crime" is a really cute concept, great job on those in recent years), but... Today I noticed that, while assassins and rogues are outlaws, ninjas aren't. Not saying that ninjas should be, but... You at least thought of it, right?

Someone didn’t read my article this week. : )
Outlaws of the Land, Part 1

Assassin Humor Lands Ninjas Outlaws of Thunder Junction Rogue Spoilers

Ninjas as Outlaws

Were Ninjas considered to Outlaws?

Yes, it was on the short list.

Ninjas The short list

Set Roster Decisions

Loving things so far but a couple of questions, why weren't Ninjas considered outlaws and was clash considered for this set? The latter seems like it would fit flavor as a standoff with the higher cost being who drew and shot quicker.

Repeated batches, meaning things we use on multiple cards in the same set, are normally restricted between two and five items, with three being the sweet spot. We needed Rogues and Warlocks to hit all the creative executions we wanted. Mercenary was needed because that was our henchperson token. We also knew Assassin’s Creed with its Assassin typal theme was coming. We turned those four in when we handed off from vision, leaving one potential space open so set design could add something if needed. That something was Pirate due to all the ones added by The Lost Caverns of Ixalan. As I show in today’s article, we considered all the following:AssassinBarbarianBerserkerMinionMercenaryNinjaPirateRebelRogueWarlockThere just wasn’t room for all of them. Also, we prioritized what would be in the set. So some things, like Ninja, didn’t make the cut.As for clash, it’s just wasn’t popular enough when we first did it to bring it back.

Assassin Assassin's Creed Barbarian Batches Berserker Clash Flavor Ixalan Kindred / Typal Mercenary Minion Ninja Ninjas Pirate Rebel Rogue Set Design The Lost Caverns of Ixalan Tokens Warlock

Criminals in Magic

"Vraska is an assassin. Nashi is a ninja. Malcolm and Breeches are pirates. They have all quite literally committed crimes." So for the set it is whether they are criminals that determines if they are villains rather than if they are portrayed as villainous/antagonists

Yes, the villain set is filled with people that are criminals, but there is a wide range of how and why they commit crimes. Some may do it for very sympathetic reasons. Ocean’s 11, The Suicide Squad, Despicable Me, Mastermind, Maleficent, Joker, the upcoming Wicked and Thunderbolts. These are all “villain” stories, but ones where we the audience connects with them (although how much can vary film to film).That said, there are plenty of villainous/antagonistic characters in Thunders of Outlaw Junction. The villain set has a full range of different styles of villain (from ones you sympathize with to ones you don’t).

Assassin Ninja Ninjas Pirate Pop Culture Squad

Defining Villains

I have to ask, Thunder Junction is supposedly a villains set first, yet most of the characters we've seen so far seem at worst neutral. There's some notable exceptions (Ashiok, Kaervek, Oko, Rakdos, Eriette), but I wouldn't call Vraska or Nashi or Malcolm and Breeches villains. Is the term sort of being deliberately stretched to accommodate more characters? Or is it being used in a more "not a hero" sense?

Vraska is an assassin. Nashi is a ninja. Malcolm and Breeches are pirates. They have all quite literally committed crimes.

Assassin Ninja Ninjas Pirate Rakdos (B/R)

Flavor Fails Perspective

Just adding my perspective to the flavor conversation. I think "flavor fails" are a fun part of the game. They are unavoidable so I may as well enjoy them. The memes are funny (I really like the Emrakul is a ninja one). And it's fun to point them out if a good one happens in a game. I get why people are bothered by them, especially if they make a mechanic unintuitive, but I find them humorous most of the time.

The combinatorics of 27,000+ cards makes “flavor fails” impossible to avoid. Our attitude is there is some enjoyment to be had knowing that weird, flavor things will happen, and it’s a fun quirk of the game.

Flavor Humor Mechanics Ninja Ninjas

Universes Within Feedback

Where can I voice my official preference for Universes Within? I don't recall seeing any polls or questions in the regular surveys. I try to respond to all of them.Universes Beyond hurts my brain. I don't want to play Gambit, Gambler Ninja when my opponent's Nuclear Shelter enters and gives me 3 Geiger Counters. Particularly after Frodo has been Tempted by the ring but had to chump block a Tyranid King. Frodo died but was exiled instead by the Flying Saucer's Anti-Grav beam. Jace watched, baffled, as Megatron argued with Dr. Malcolm about the insignificance of human life.Please help me. Give me a choice or a voice?

Magic is a game where you craft your own deck. There are over 25,000 cards to choose from that aren’t Universes Beyond. The idea that every mechanical design has to live on an in-universe concepted card is, both, simply not feasible, and not something the vast majority of Magic players feels is a necessity.

Craft Flying Human Ninja Ninjas The Exile Zone Tyranid Universes Beyond Universes Within

Synergy in Set Types

I'm sure this isn't helped by the extra year added on to standard, but UW has 4 kindred synergies its trying to support currently within standard (spirits, soldiers, knights, detectives). It feels like soldiers and knights could have at least mentioned each other to help cross set synergy out, as right now, these decks are very much locked into their own sets when looking for support. Has it shown to be a problem per your data? If so do you have ideas on what could be done different?

There are no Kindred cards in Standard, but my guess is you’re talking about typal themes. The philosophy is the set that cares makes the typal cards that mechanically matter and then other sets will make more creatures that share the type. We will batch on occasion, but only if both types are relevant in the set the card is in. (Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty had Ninjas and Rogues in it, for example.) We will mechanically return to more popular creature types over time, but that usually isn’t relevant for Standard.

Batches Creatures Detective Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty Kindred / Typal Knight Ninjas Rogue Soldier Spirit Standard

Spy Creature Type

Are spies a kind of Detective? Traditionally in Magic they'd either be Rgues or Ninjas, but a few creatures in the set with the Detective creature type look like they're doing espionage more than solving crimes.

When Unstable did them, they were creature type Spy.

Creatures Detective Ninjas Spy

Suggested UB Sets

Star Trek and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Universes Beyond sets please. They're both Paramount properties, and Hasbro has an existing relationship with them thanks to the GI Joe and Transformers films.Ninja Turtles would make a great set of Commander decks and Star Trek is worth a full draft set.

I’ll pass along the suggestions.

Commander Decks Draft Formats Mutant Ninja Ninjas Turtle Universes Beyond Wizards of the Coast

Iconic Mechanics Variation

Hey Mark! I saw a comment noting how Dinosaurs didn’t have Enrage in LCI, and made me remember an answer you gave about Werewolves being too tied to a mechanic to be printed without it…What’s been the reaction to other creature types being printed without their iconic mechanic? For example, Ninjas without Ninjutsu in NEO.

In the vision design handoff for Neon Dynasty, the Ninjas didn’t have Ninjutsu specifically because I thought there was a lot of other interesting trope space to explore mechanically. I’m not against Werewolves conveying their lycanthropy in a different mechanical means, but my assumption is all the Werewolves from that set would probably treat it similarly. It’s just a high bar.

Card Printing Creatures Dinosaur Enrage Enrage Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty Mechanics Ninjas Ninjutsu The Lost Caverns of Ixalan Vision Design

Future Class Enchantments

I know Class enchantments were a 4 on the storm scale last time someone asked. If you did them again, would they be based on the creature classes in the game that weren't used in the initial batch (i.e. Samurai, Ninja, Shaman)?

Maybe. : )

Batches Creatures Enchantments Humor Ninja Ninjas Samurais Shaman Storm Scale

Dual Typal Cards

Can we continue getting more "dual typal" cards like how Kamigawa got Ninja/Rogue and Samurai/Warrior? I know Faeries have way more cards, but even there some WOE Faerie typal cards saying for example "Faerie or Rogue" would probably be more versatile across formats.

We’ll do it where it fits.

Faerie Kindred / Typal Ninja Ninjas Rogue Samurais Warrior Wilds of Eldraine

Ninjas Color Rationale

A while back, when I was playing a ninjutsu-based deck, a friend commented that, while ninjas being black made sense to them, they weren't sure why ninjas are in blue too. Another friend suggested that blue is the color of subtlety, but that didn't seem to convince them. Why then are ninjas primary in blue?

Deception, trickery, and theft are all primarily blue.

Black Blue Colors Ninjas Primary Subtlety

TMNT Crossover Potential

Hello Mark, any chance of a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles crossover?

There’s always a chance. Let me know what licenses you’d like to see in Universes Beyond.

Mutant Ninja Ninjas Turtle Universes Beyond