UniVersus Launches A Totally Radical ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ Starter Deck

Welcome to the table,

UniVersus is always coming up with some rad new way to bring all our favorite worlds and settings into the card game space. I have loved their My Hero Academia, the Critical Roll decks and boosters. They speak to my deeply nerdy TTRPG side, and the Street Fighter sets just make me want to see every 80s and 90s console game turned into a deck so I can add them to my collection.

I have to say, though, this new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles starter deck really comes off as something special. Let’s get into it.

The ready-to-play deck is probably the fastest and easiest way to jump right into play that UniVersus has done. The easy-to-grab-and-go box comes with a deck themed in a very fun 80s TMNT animated series style. It also has a really rad collector’s card of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles themselves, a fold-out paper play mat, and a quick start guide that gives you a great step-by-step intro to playing the UniVersus card game.

I’ve had the TMNT collection on my radar since PAX Unplugged last year. that’s when I learned about it and knew there would be some rad offerings that were TMNT adjacent, but I was not expecting this throwback animated series style treatment on these cards.

There is something so powerfully nostalgic for me with these cards. The ooze on the max health of the character card, the art that looks like it leaped off the old TV in the daycare nap room (where I first saw the TMNT cartoon as a tiny baby human), the absolutely phenomenal animated series Splinter art complete with purple robe and walking stick … This whole thing feels like a time capsule that I was not expecting but was exactly what I wanted.

The “Ancient Secrets of Ninjutsu” card featuring The Shredder is so retro TV with the pixelation treatment of the speed lines, I could hear James Avery’s voice in my head when I flipped through this deck.

The UniVersus card game is fairly simple to learn, kind of hard to master, but always fun to play. It’s one of those games where you are leaning as much into the meta of the decks are you are into the new game mechanics they are introducing. Each themed deck is made not only for someone who wants to show their fandom at the table playing with a theme they enjoy, but also for collectors who just like all the hard work the talented team over at UniVersus puts into making these sets as spectacular as they are.

Until next time, I’ve yet to be disappointed in the recent UniVersus sets I have seen. It’s always fun to look forward to what they are going to put out next. It feels like each time they announce something, it gives me one of those warm and fuzzy feelings. I know the artists they work with and the teams doing the layouts for these cards are going to deliver something totally worthy of the fandom. They are not the standard… they set the standard when it comes to licensed card games.