One of the most common Magic: The Gathering community discussions in the era of Universes Beyond is how well a given crossover fits with Magic’s established aesthetic. Sets like Lord of the Rings and Final Fantasy were easy fits, for example, while Spider-Man was decidedly not. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, at first, looks set to follow the latter path. Consider it more carefully, however, and you’ll recall that Magic has had plentiful dealings with Ninjas in the past. Interestingly, despite this link, it turns out the Ninjutsu mechanic will not be making an appearance in the MTG TMNT set.
Many players are, understandably, confused by this development. Using Ninjutsu here would’ve been a total flavor win, and could’ve helped to tie the set more into Magic as a game. Turns out Wizards decided to create an all-new, very similar mechanic in Sneak instead. This is an interesting move in itself, and doubly so because it appears to be part of an ongoing trend. If Magic continues to replace its older mechanics with more refined versions, the long-term consequences could be significant.
Why We Won’t Be Getting Ninjustsu In MTG x TMNT
The lack of Ninjutsu in the MTG TMNT set quickly became apparent during last Friday’s big debut. We saw a couple of cards with the new Sneak mechanic, namely Leonardo, Sewer Samurai and Raphael’s Technique. Sneak functions almost identically to Ninjutsu, but with a couple of significant differences. First of all, it’s an alternate casting cost rather than an activated ability. Second, it’s restricted to use in the declare blockers step, not any part of combat post-block. That said, it is still a very similar mechanic in concept.
The creation of a new mechanic when there’s already a very similar one around is an interesting move. Naturally, some players were confused and even disappointed that Wizards decided to do so. Mcfernis took to Blogatog yesterday to express their concerns, and received the following response from Mark Rosewater:
“Ninjutsu couldn’t go on non-creature spells. It didn’t work correctly with Commanders. It had weird timing issues. It needed some tweaking.”
Mark Rosewater, via Blogatog
When you run through it all like that, the issues with Ninjutsu really do become apparent. The inability to go on noncreature spells is unfortunate, but we’ve had plenty of creature-only mechanics before. The other two points, however, are much more relevant, especially in the current era of Magic. With Commander being the most popular format by far, having a bunch of legends that skirt command tax is far from ideal. The timing issues, which allow you to Ninjutsu in creatures both before and after damage, also made things tricky on MTG Arena.
Sneak addresses both of these issues, making it a mechanic much better suited to where Magic is now than Ninjutsu. As Rosewater pointed out in another Blogatog post, these changes were major enough to warrant an entirely new mechanic, rather than a mere errata.
The Ups And Downs Of Mechanical Retrains
Interestingly, this isn’t the first time Wizards has done something like this recently. In Spider Man, Madness got the same treatment with the new Mayhem mechanic. With this and Sneak as precedent, we could well be entering an era of mechanical retrains. If this is the case, then there’s a lot of potential upshot, both good and bad.
On the positive side, redoing old mechanics allows Wizards to smooth things out for new players. Magic’s audience has exploded in recent years, and there are a lot more new and casual players now than there used to be. Removing the complexity of older mechanics with retrains is a great way to get these players on board.
On the other hand, retraining mechanics creates a significant issue in the lack of continuity and backward compatibility. While Sneak may replace Ninjutsu in a practical sense, Sneak won’t synergize with cards that work with Ninjutsu. You won’t be able to leverage the likes of Satoru Umezawa and Silver-Fur Master with Sneak cards, for example.
There’s also the issue of the confusion that having two near-identical mechanics will inevitably cause. I still remember sitting down for the Outlaws of Thunder Junction Prerelease and listening to tables full of players trip up over the difference between Crew and Saddle. While having a retrained mechanic besides its counterpart in a new set should be a rarity, there’s plenty of potential for misunderstandings that can occur in Commander.
All of that said, the idea of Wizards revamping its mechanical back catalogue is still an interesting one. We’ll need to keep a close eye on future sets to see if it pursues it further, and how it navigates these pitfalls if it does.
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