TMNT is releasing it's second box set, so you just need to get this box to complete your collection for this set.
Disclaimer: I have no hatred towards any characters so please do not take any comments I have for any characters personally. It's all about the strategy of the game.
Also, there might be some words that you might not understand from this article, these are terms we used in the game,
Beefy - Strong stats
Ramp - Effects that allows you to roll more dice
Ping - Dealing damage to a character
Pump - Additional stats to a character
Spill damage - Damage from overcrush
Swarm - Having way more characters in the field than your opponent and attacking with all of them. Not to be confused with the Swarm Keyword.
Basic Action Cards (BAC)
This card is similar to Anger Issue basic action card.
Sometimes in the game you are afraid to go aggressive against your opponent because if your attackers can wipe out, you are left with fewer characters as blockers on your opponent's turn. This BAC would prevent that issue, you can feel free to attack with your characters and have no worries that they will get knocked out at the end of the turn. Despite that, this action card is expensive so you need to set up your characters well before this action comes into play.
I will never dislike any 1 cost action. The action effect is great! Any die that you ramp into your prep area can be roll at the same turn with this action is used. Also if you are lucky enough, you get to ramp an additional die for the double burst effect. And even if you can't get the action face, for a 1 cost die to generate 2 energy is so worthy.
This card is similar to Polymorph BAC.
This card is sick if you have more characters than your opponent, you could force your opponent to sacrifice his/her strong character while you sacrifice a weak one.
This card is a global stopper. If your opponent is using a global ability to nerf your characters, you can use this action die to cancel that effect. And no players can use any global ability, so if your opponent is trying to ramp die using a global ability, then too bad for him/her.
A simple 2 cost action die that helps you to ramp a die of your choice is decent.
This is similar to Enrage BAC.
This is similar to Transfer power BAC.
This is similar to Magic Missile BAC.
Characters/Action Cards
April is great for your team if you are using a Turtle team. That 1 cost reduction can pay off if it's use a lot overtime.
Instead of making the turtles cheaper to purchase, this version of April pumps them. That additional stats would make each turtle a formidable blocker.
If you have more than 4 turtle characters, April can be a great blocker given that she is almost impossible to get knocked out especially her level 3 stats. For 2 cost, her ability is great.
It is not easy to knock out a sidekick character, most player would use sidekicks to block an attacking character in the early game. His global compliments with his ability as well, you can use it to force a sidekick to block an attacking casey and you gain 1 life after knocking out the sidekick.
Casey Jones is a great blocker, you can use him to block an entire field of sidekicks. For 2 cost, his ability is awesome.
At a higher cost, casey jones is unblockable by 2 cost or less characters, in the early game he might be useful but when it comes down to the late game, a lot of other characters can be used to block him, thus making his ability weak.
I wonder why are they always making the turtles so expensive to purchase. Don's ability isn't bad but for him to only deal 2 damage and you still need to pay a bolt to activate his ability seems ridiculously expensive. His decent stats also doesn't justify his cost.
This version of Don seems more reliable. You don't need to pay an additional energy to activate his ability and if you have more turtles in your field, he can deal higher amount of damage when he attacks.
A 5 cost character die to reduce cost seems expensive. Period.
The foot soldiers are back after being so powerful in the first set. This version of them have swarm and ally, and with shredder around, you can use them to ramp dice. It's a decent card not to be overlooked.
This version does not have swarm but it has a more deadly ability. Every time you attack with 2 or 3 foot ninjas, you can to deal 2 or 3 damage to your opponent. Moreover, you do not need shredder around to activate his ability.
This version of Foot Ninja helps you to filed more foot ninjas if one is knocked out. Comparing with the other versions, this one seems weaker, it's not a bad ability but it is not easy to set up and it's not worth the effort setting it up, why replace a foot ninja with one another when you could either ramp a die or deal opponent damage with it.
For non turtles fan, Hamato Yoshi is splinter alter ego. You could play him and splinter at the same time since their names are different. This version of Hamato is lethal if pair up with Ant Man/Kal L global and overcrush. Your opponent will definitely block him and even if your opponent blocked with a sidekick character, he/she will take 1 damage from Hamato's ability, but if Hamato's stats are flipped and given overcrush, i believe your opponent won't use only a sidekick to block him. He is used more to pressure your opponent, and very likely he will deal damage when he attacks. His stats is also great, so it's a good card.
This version of Hamato is a great blocker, on one hand his defense stats is so high and on the other hand, if he blocks a character, that character will deal their attack value to themselves, so most likely the character will be knocked out. It's a great way to defend against beefy characters.
Forcing all your opponent's character to block is not really a very deadly move coming from a 7 cost character. You can't decide how your opponent blocks and that alone is enough to justify that the cost of this character is too high for his ability. His global ability is also quite expensive given that there are other global abilities that cost lesser and does the same thing.
This is an anti sidekick combo. Many others have existed, she is just another alternative.
For a 4 cost character to knock out an opposing sidekick will always to expensive to me.
Nothing too fancy about her, just a sidekick booster.
For a character to only counter Turtles is very weak in a constructed format.
Same point as above.
They somehow hates Leatherhead. This character will work perfectly if your opponent does plays a Turtle in the team, but that is not very common is a constructed format.
This has a similar issue to Donatello, to pay a fist to trigger a ability for a 5 cost character seems a bit weak.
Turtle power combo helps you to make Turtles very cheap, it takes very long to set up and by the time you do so, your opponent probably would be a few turns from finishing you off.
This is a more usable Leo, your turtles can go aggressive and attack and even if they are knocked out, you get to deal 1 damage to your opponent.
Metalhead can become very deadly if you have 4 other active turtle dice, he can be the team's best blocker or overcrusher when his stats is very high.
If you wish to play an unblockable turtle team, Metalhead would be your solution, just attack with him and if your other turtles have more than 20A in total, you can finish your opponent off.
Cards that specifically targets an affiliation is just too risk to be included in your team, there's a high chance your opponent has no villains at all.
All turtles have the same ability, so I shall not repeat my point.
Same as above, seems like wizkids is lazy or something.
You can make this ability work if you use a villain converter global on the character that knocks out one of your turtles. It is a decent ability, but a bit costly.
Same ability as all other turtles but different energy to be paid.
Cost reducer. Since this is the last turtle, I shall make a final thought about turtle power, if you want to reduce a turtle to as low cost as possible, take a look at that turtle, you might want to find alternate ways to replace them, because setting up 4 turtles for turtle power is very long, you might not be able to last until that point.
This version of Ralph is a protector, if you are using Metalhead unblockable support, then this version of Ralph would be a great addition to your team in case your opponent remove those unblockable characters from the field.
If you would like to reroll dice, you can consider parallax global instead.
This version of Renet is best in an action combo team. If you have poor luck, she will change that, because if your action varies between bursts, and you don't roll on that preferred face, you can use her ability to change it to a side that you prefer. Perfect for an action team.
This version is as great as well, when you field renet, you get to switch one of your die in your reserve pool to roll a die in your used pile, that's not a bad trade if you can trade a sidekick die to a powerful character die you just bought.
Shredder ability is great, but it sucks if you can only last the effect until end of your turn, it makes him very costly and he isn't a character that is easy to leave the field as well so you might not get to trigger his ability again.
This version of Shredder is more powerful, basically when he attacks your opponent would most likely blocked him, and if they do, they probably use a weak character to block him, and Shredder can knock them out, thus taking 1 life from your opponent. Give him overcrush and he will be even more deadly. The only drawback is he is weak against villains, but don't worry too much, there won't be too much villain in a constructed format.
For 8 cost to field up to 3 Foot Ninjas and 2 sidekicks is mediocre, you can just field them normally, you don't need a 8 cost character to help you do that. Plus, to have all 3 foot ninjas in your used pile is not an easy thing to set up.
One way I can think of using Slash is attack with him and another character with overcrush, that way, Slash can use him ability to knock out characters that blocked the overcrush characters, if your opponent don't want to block Slash, then they will have to eat his damage, either way, it's beneficial for you. As for the cost, it may be a little costly, so you need to make full use of him.
Slash is hard to get knocked out, so you could give him overcrush and increased his chance of getting knocked out when he attacks, and you can potentially deal your opponent some direct damage.
This version of Slash is more dangerous, if you have ways to knock him out, your opponent will try not to keep so much energy at any point of time in case Slash deals them massive damage when he is knocked out, a little control factor here, which is impressive.
If you want to deal area damage, there are cheaper ways to do so, using a 7 cost character's fielding ability is very inefficient.
Similarly, if you wish to knock out characters, this is not a good way to do so, because it's way too costly.
This version is better, but not any better than other 6 cost character card, dealing 2 damage is weak coming from a 6 cost character.
A 4 cost vanilla card is a no no, you could have invested in much stronger characters.
This version of Triceraton is a beast only if you make use of his attack value, nevertheless, for no other ability, it is quite weak of him.
Overcrush with his stats isn't really a powerful factor.
Conclusion
There are some good cards and more bad cards if you were to compare with other sets. But still, it's a decent set after all, for new players, you can buy this box and get everything you need to start the game, so for the cards and dice you will be getting, it's not a bad deal, but to use most of them in a constructed format is really debatable.
Sorry for being very negative, but I don't like to sugar coat a card because after all, it's a competitive game, so everyone is going to use very powerful stuff and you don't want to lose out to that. Anyway, hope my post helps, thanks for reading!
Swarm - Having way more characters in the field than your opponent and attacking with all of them. Not to be confused with the Swarm Keyword.
Basic Action Cards (BAC)
This card is similar to Anger Issue basic action card.
Sometimes in the game you are afraid to go aggressive against your opponent because if your attackers can wipe out, you are left with fewer characters as blockers on your opponent's turn. This BAC would prevent that issue, you can feel free to attack with your characters and have no worries that they will get knocked out at the end of the turn. Despite that, this action card is expensive so you need to set up your characters well before this action comes into play.
I will never dislike any 1 cost action. The action effect is great! Any die that you ramp into your prep area can be roll at the same turn with this action is used. Also if you are lucky enough, you get to ramp an additional die for the double burst effect. And even if you can't get the action face, for a 1 cost die to generate 2 energy is so worthy.
This card is similar to Polymorph BAC.
This card is sick if you have more characters than your opponent, you could force your opponent to sacrifice his/her strong character while you sacrifice a weak one.
This card is a global stopper. If your opponent is using a global ability to nerf your characters, you can use this action die to cancel that effect. And no players can use any global ability, so if your opponent is trying to ramp die using a global ability, then too bad for him/her.
A simple 2 cost action die that helps you to ramp a die of your choice is decent.
This is similar to Enrage BAC.
This is similar to Transfer power BAC.
This is similar to Magic Missile BAC.
Characters/Action Cards
April is great for your team if you are using a Turtle team. That 1 cost reduction can pay off if it's use a lot overtime.
Instead of making the turtles cheaper to purchase, this version of April pumps them. That additional stats would make each turtle a formidable blocker.
If you have more than 4 turtle characters, April can be a great blocker given that she is almost impossible to get knocked out especially her level 3 stats. For 2 cost, her ability is great.
It is not easy to knock out a sidekick character, most player would use sidekicks to block an attacking character in the early game. His global compliments with his ability as well, you can use it to force a sidekick to block an attacking casey and you gain 1 life after knocking out the sidekick.
Casey Jones is a great blocker, you can use him to block an entire field of sidekicks. For 2 cost, his ability is awesome.
At a higher cost, casey jones is unblockable by 2 cost or less characters, in the early game he might be useful but when it comes down to the late game, a lot of other characters can be used to block him, thus making his ability weak.
I wonder why are they always making the turtles so expensive to purchase. Don's ability isn't bad but for him to only deal 2 damage and you still need to pay a bolt to activate his ability seems ridiculously expensive. His decent stats also doesn't justify his cost.
This version of Don seems more reliable. You don't need to pay an additional energy to activate his ability and if you have more turtles in your field, he can deal higher amount of damage when he attacks.
A 5 cost character die to reduce cost seems expensive. Period.
The foot soldiers are back after being so powerful in the first set. This version of them have swarm and ally, and with shredder around, you can use them to ramp dice. It's a decent card not to be overlooked.
This version does not have swarm but it has a more deadly ability. Every time you attack with 2 or 3 foot ninjas, you can to deal 2 or 3 damage to your opponent. Moreover, you do not need shredder around to activate his ability.
This version of Foot Ninja helps you to filed more foot ninjas if one is knocked out. Comparing with the other versions, this one seems weaker, it's not a bad ability but it is not easy to set up and it's not worth the effort setting it up, why replace a foot ninja with one another when you could either ramp a die or deal opponent damage with it.
For non turtles fan, Hamato Yoshi is splinter alter ego. You could play him and splinter at the same time since their names are different. This version of Hamato is lethal if pair up with Ant Man/Kal L global and overcrush. Your opponent will definitely block him and even if your opponent blocked with a sidekick character, he/she will take 1 damage from Hamato's ability, but if Hamato's stats are flipped and given overcrush, i believe your opponent won't use only a sidekick to block him. He is used more to pressure your opponent, and very likely he will deal damage when he attacks. His stats is also great, so it's a good card.
This version of Hamato is a great blocker, on one hand his defense stats is so high and on the other hand, if he blocks a character, that character will deal their attack value to themselves, so most likely the character will be knocked out. It's a great way to defend against beefy characters.
Forcing all your opponent's character to block is not really a very deadly move coming from a 7 cost character. You can't decide how your opponent blocks and that alone is enough to justify that the cost of this character is too high for his ability. His global ability is also quite expensive given that there are other global abilities that cost lesser and does the same thing.
This is an anti sidekick combo. Many others have existed, she is just another alternative.
For a 4 cost character to knock out an opposing sidekick will always to expensive to me.
Nothing too fancy about her, just a sidekick booster.
For a character to only counter Turtles is very weak in a constructed format.
Same point as above.
They somehow hates Leatherhead. This character will work perfectly if your opponent does plays a Turtle in the team, but that is not very common is a constructed format.
This has a similar issue to Donatello, to pay a fist to trigger a ability for a 5 cost character seems a bit weak.
Turtle power combo helps you to make Turtles very cheap, it takes very long to set up and by the time you do so, your opponent probably would be a few turns from finishing you off.
This is a more usable Leo, your turtles can go aggressive and attack and even if they are knocked out, you get to deal 1 damage to your opponent.
Metalhead can become very deadly if you have 4 other active turtle dice, he can be the team's best blocker or overcrusher when his stats is very high.
If you wish to play an unblockable turtle team, Metalhead would be your solution, just attack with him and if your other turtles have more than 20A in total, you can finish your opponent off.
Cards that specifically targets an affiliation is just too risk to be included in your team, there's a high chance your opponent has no villains at all.
All turtles have the same ability, so I shall not repeat my point.
Same as above, seems like wizkids is lazy or something.
You can make this ability work if you use a villain converter global on the character that knocks out one of your turtles. It is a decent ability, but a bit costly.
Same ability as all other turtles but different energy to be paid.
Cost reducer. Since this is the last turtle, I shall make a final thought about turtle power, if you want to reduce a turtle to as low cost as possible, take a look at that turtle, you might want to find alternate ways to replace them, because setting up 4 turtles for turtle power is very long, you might not be able to last until that point.
This version of Ralph is a protector, if you are using Metalhead unblockable support, then this version of Ralph would be a great addition to your team in case your opponent remove those unblockable characters from the field.
If you would like to reroll dice, you can consider parallax global instead.
This version of Renet is best in an action combo team. If you have poor luck, she will change that, because if your action varies between bursts, and you don't roll on that preferred face, you can use her ability to change it to a side that you prefer. Perfect for an action team.
This version is as great as well, when you field renet, you get to switch one of your die in your reserve pool to roll a die in your used pile, that's not a bad trade if you can trade a sidekick die to a powerful character die you just bought.
Shredder ability is great, but it sucks if you can only last the effect until end of your turn, it makes him very costly and he isn't a character that is easy to leave the field as well so you might not get to trigger his ability again.
This version of Shredder is more powerful, basically when he attacks your opponent would most likely blocked him, and if they do, they probably use a weak character to block him, and Shredder can knock them out, thus taking 1 life from your opponent. Give him overcrush and he will be even more deadly. The only drawback is he is weak against villains, but don't worry too much, there won't be too much villain in a constructed format.
For 8 cost to field up to 3 Foot Ninjas and 2 sidekicks is mediocre, you can just field them normally, you don't need a 8 cost character to help you do that. Plus, to have all 3 foot ninjas in your used pile is not an easy thing to set up.
One way I can think of using Slash is attack with him and another character with overcrush, that way, Slash can use him ability to knock out characters that blocked the overcrush characters, if your opponent don't want to block Slash, then they will have to eat his damage, either way, it's beneficial for you. As for the cost, it may be a little costly, so you need to make full use of him.
Slash is hard to get knocked out, so you could give him overcrush and increased his chance of getting knocked out when he attacks, and you can potentially deal your opponent some direct damage.
This version of Slash is more dangerous, if you have ways to knock him out, your opponent will try not to keep so much energy at any point of time in case Slash deals them massive damage when he is knocked out, a little control factor here, which is impressive.
If you want to deal area damage, there are cheaper ways to do so, using a 7 cost character's fielding ability is very inefficient.
Similarly, if you wish to knock out characters, this is not a good way to do so, because it's way too costly.
This version is better, but not any better than other 6 cost character card, dealing 2 damage is weak coming from a 6 cost character.
A 4 cost vanilla card is a no no, you could have invested in much stronger characters.
This version of Triceraton is a beast only if you make use of his attack value, nevertheless, for no other ability, it is quite weak of him.
Overcrush with his stats isn't really a powerful factor.
Conclusion
There are some good cards and more bad cards if you were to compare with other sets. But still, it's a decent set after all, for new players, you can buy this box and get everything you need to start the game, so for the cards and dice you will be getting, it's not a bad deal, but to use most of them in a constructed format is really debatable.
Sorry for being very negative, but I don't like to sugar coat a card because after all, it's a competitive game, so everyone is going to use very powerful stuff and you don't want to lose out to that. Anyway, hope my post helps, thanks for reading!
