If you ended up going to the prerelease for the Magic: the Gathering Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle set yesterday, you may have noticed some new cards with effects that feel strangely familiar. The set contains 11 'technique cards', two of each color, as well as Karai's Technique, which costs both black and white mana. In a series of references, many of these techniques have the same effect as famous spells from the game's past.
One thing that separates all of the techniques from the cards that they pay homage to is the fact that they all possess alternative casting costs. These spells can be hard cast, but they can also be played for a discounted 'sneak' cost by returning an unblocked attacking creature you control to your hand.
Splinter's Technique, when played for its sneak cost, becomes a two mana effect that allows you to search your deck for any card and add it to your hand. This is just like Demonic Tutor, a game warping spell from Alpha that's on the Commander game changers list, and banned in every other major format apart from Vintage, where it's restricted.
Splinter's Technique isn't the only callback to a banned card. If you're able to sneak Raphael's Technique into play for three mana, then every player must discard their hand and draw seven new cards. You might recognize this as the effect of Wheel of Fortune, the namesake 'wheel effect' that also won't be showing up in any games outside of Vintage and Commander.
Not every card in this cycle is quite so lucky. The effect of Donatello's Technique is the same as Divination, a completely mundane spell that allows its controller to draw two cards. Although when cast for its sneak cost, it is, at least, two mana cheaper than Divination. Perhaps it's for the best that Donatello's Technique doesn't try to replicate the infamously powerful draw three effect of Ancestral Recall, as that card is one of the strongest in the game, as a member of the power nine.
The power of these spells is kept in check, since the need to return a creature to your hand to get their discount is a meaningful imposition. Nevertheless, it is possible to take advantage of this by using them to bounce creatures with impactful enter the battlefield abilities back to your hand so that you can recast them later.
What's your take on these techniques? Has their potential for high power won you over, or, like many players, are you skipping the Ninja Turtle crossover all together? Let us know on the Wargamer Discord.
To find out about more strong cards from this expansion, have a look at our list of the 7 biggest chase cards in MTG Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.