"I'm so excited about the new Turtles," is a phrase I've gushed over with giddy delight many times as a lifelong fan of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I said it about the animated series way back in '87 (having already been introduced to the TMNT through age-inappropriate comics). I said it about their 1990 film debut. I said it about their concert series that I could never afford to see but could sing along to by heart. A lot of my life has been eagerly waiting to see how a new team of creatives would deliver on the fab four and their weird world.

But when Wizards of the Coast inked a deal with Nickelodeon to bring the Turtles to Magic: The Gathering, suddenly I was the one on the hook to deliver all this to others.

Hi. My name is Crystal Frasier, and I am a senior narrative designer for Universes Beyond. I was also an eerily perfect fit to lead our new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles set. I first got into tabletop gaming when I accidentally ordered a copy of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness, an eclectic roleplaying game from the mythical past of the 1980s. My love for that game is what eventually motivated me to start writing, first for a nascent gaming blog, then for magazines, and eventually as a full career as a narrative designer. It's kismet that Magic: The Gathering® | Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles landed on my lap.

And by "kismet" I mean I begged and bribed and … maybe committed some light arson.

So: narrative designer. That's a fun word for a job! Let's focus on what a narrative designer is!

"Narrative designer" is a role you see a lot in the game industry that basically translates to "a writer and …" The exact game company varies up to whatever comes after the "and," but it generally involves spreadsheets.

In traditional Magic, a narrative designer is the person who works hand in hand with the game designers and art staff to bring our original settings to life. Narrative designers make the settings feel cohesive and real, often using the set's storyline as the rails for a guided tour. A narrative designer sells the illusion that merfolk and goblins and dinosaurs, for example, all belong together in this same story. You can think of it as building the history of the world—the vibe—while game designers build the physics. (In reality, it's a lot messier; narrative designers do some mechanics, game designers help develop the story; Wizards of the Coast is a very collaborative studio.)

So, you might ask, "Why have a narrative designer for Universes Beyond sets? Isn't the worldbuilding already done?" Well, yes.

But also no.

A narrative designer's job doesn't stop just at creating worlds; we figure out how to communicate everything important about that world and characters through the oddly specific medium of Magic cards. Each set only gives us a few hundred illustrations, a few hundred card titles, and about 10,000 words of flavor text to communicate everything about a world, its history, and why a sapient gingerbread woman is out for revenge. We think long and hard about how to use character designs and background details to help flesh out each universe.

Let's get into the weeds, using the Turtles as a great example.

That Turtle Vibe

Nickelodeon gave us a lot of leeway when inventing our own spin on the Turtles and their mythology. And we have to decide what exactly the core of the Turtles even is.

In their 40 years, the TMNT have filled almost every narrative niche. They've been grim and violent comics; they've been kiddie fare selling weird toys; they've been high adventure; they've been compelling family drama; they've been comedy; and everything usually comes with a side order of body horror. Which of those are the "real" Turtles?

In Universes Beyond, the narrative designer's job is to distill a whole property down and figure out what makes it so compelling; what is the core of their world and how do we recreate that using the medium of Magic? It's still about building the vibe of a set, but we use another company's characters and stories to get there.

So, what is the Turtle vibe? What makes them complicated and interesting? What defines them?

The ninjutsu is fun. Mutation is cool. But ultimately the core of their story—what has brought me back again and again since I was five years old—is about being a messy little family who grows up together. It's a story about being outsiders—both in the literal sense of being turtles and the figurative sense of being first-generation sons of an immigrant father. They're growing into adults in the United States, steeped in American culture, while still carrying the traditions and history of their father's homeland. Each Turtle's identity comes down to their place in that family dynamic.

Also, sometimes they fight alien dinosaurs.

Storytelling with Character Design

One of the highlights of being a narrative designer is working with your art directors to define the look of characters. With so little text on Magic cards, a lot of the storytelling and worldbuilding needs to happen in the visuals. Narrative designers spend a lot of time working alongside art directors to make sure the little touches of a character's look speak to who they are.

One of our mandates starting out with the set was "a Turtle in every pack." We want to make sure players cracked open a familiar face every time they opened a Play Booster. That meant including in a lot of legendary cards for the core four (which also means adding a ton of extra Turtle legends; more on that in a future installment), so their designs needed to feel fun, interesting, and honest, reflecting the personalities we all know and love.

Leonardo

Leonardo's character was the easiest to unpack. He's responsible for everyone else; he wants to make his father proud; he wants to represent his family and where they came from. Leo is at his best when he's trying his hardest, struggling, and trying again. Community, family, and tradition are quintessentially white aligned, conveniently enough.

Our Leonardo design strayed the least from earlier incarnations of the character. He is classically the most balanced Turtle—the archetype against which his brothers play but also the rock they cling to in the storm.

0015_MTGTMT_Main: Leonardo, Cutting Edge

Donatello

Leonardo isn't the only Turtle who maps readily to a color of mana; Donatello is intellectual, studious, and just a little afraid (or at least unaware) of his feelings, making him blue at his core. He's the Turtle least likely to resort to traditional skills to solve his problems and the most likely to find a solution first.

Donnie is tall—he literally sees the world from a different perspective than his brothers—and lanky to de-emphasize his physical presence. His visual design also reminds you that he's a scrappy salvager. His small arsenal of stuff includes his toolkit, his goggles, and a few keys on a necklace that he can fiddle with as he thinks through each challenge.

0035_MTGTMT_Main: Donatello, Gadget Master

Raphael

In almost every iteration of the TMNT, Raphael is the foil to Leonardo. He's a hot-headed middle child who wants to make his father proud and is positive that the "golden boy" excels just to make him look bad. He's so wrapped up in his rivalry and his brooding that he never realizes that all those emotional challenges were the same ones Splinter wrestled with as well, ironically making him the most like his father. His emotional core aligns him with red, appropriately enough—it's always nice in Universes Beyond when a character's costume reflects their mana alignment.

With his visual design, we made Raph broad and muscular; he lives in his body. His costume lacks straps to visually make him look and feel more like a boxer and illustrate that he isn't being "held back" emotionally. His mask and armbands are a big visual departure from his brothers' as well, communicating that he feels like an outsider within the group.

Fun side fact: during the art concept phase we also decided to make Raphael's weapon a more traditional Japanese jitte instead of a sai—a weapon from Okinawa not usually associated with ninjas. You can read more about this choice here.

0103_MTGTMT_Main: Raphael, the Nightwatcher

Michelangelo

Michelangelo was probably the biggest design challenge, because he serves subtly different roles depending in each retelling of TMNT. In the classic Mirage comics and the new IDW series, he is very much the emotional heart of the family. In the 1987 animated series, he's a goofball. In the 2012 series, he's the weird kid who desperately wants to fit in. In our interpretation of the Turtles, we landed on Mikey being the baby brother who ends up doing everyone else's emotional labor and acts out a lot because of it. He's there to help and support, but he's impulsive and still has years to go before he'll be as responsible as he wants to be, big heart or no.

For Michelangelo's redesign, we made him shorter and gave his costume these backpack-like straps to help sell his youthful energy. Meanwhile, his headphones tell you he isn't always paying attention like he should.

0121_MTGTMT_Main: Michelangelo, Weirdness to 11

Beyond Turtles

The Turtles themselves are easy to love. They're iconic! How does a narrative designer show off the less-famous characters in a set? Let's take a look at one of my favorite TMNT characters who has been radically reinvented in every single appearance.

Wingnut is a bat, and that's about the only consistent aspect of the character. Sometimes Wingnut is a mutant. Sometimes Wingnut is an alien. Sometimes Wingnut is a psychic manifestation of toxic nostalgia. Sometimes the character is a boy. Sometimes the character is a girl. But there are a few deep traits that recur and keep the character endearing: the prosthetic wings, the little buddy in the form of Screwloose, and being one of the more manic and weird characters even by TMNT standards.

We decided early on to make her a girl (maybe I'm projecting), with a pair of home-built wings and a general "weird tinkerer" vibe. We debated pairing her up with a mutant mosquito, Screwloose, but in the end felt like making Screwloose into a little stuffed toy she talks to was more charming—it pushed that impression of "weird girl who wants connection but is awkward at it." (Again, maybe I'm projecting; what do you think, Screwloose?)

0110_MTGTMT_Main: Wingnut, Bat on the Belfry

Magic: The Gathering | Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles releases on March 6, 2026, and you can preorder cards now from your local game store, TCGplayer, Amazon, and elsewhere Magic is sold.