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We all love Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but there is one fact about the franchise that we can't exactly ignore: the lack of big female characters. Yes, Ms. April O'Neil has been there almost as long as the Turtles have existed - debuting in 1984's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #2 - but aside from characters like Venus and Jennika, there aren't very many female characters in the Turtles' orbit. Luckily, in recent times, that's changed, and it's only natural that the Magic: The Gathering x Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles set reflects the state of TMNT today in some way. 

This can be seen in the design of Leatherhead in the MTG x TMNT set. In a press event, the set's narrative designer Crystal Frasier dished on how the set's team came up with a feminized version of the iconic character. Frasier pointed out the Leatherhead card as a "great example of getting to make our own designs for the characters" in this set.

"One of the early creative problems we ran into is that because so much of the franchise is rooted in 80s toy culture, there's very few long-standing female characters," says Frasier. "We want more representation. Magic has a huge female player base, and it was important for us to showcase more women."

"Luckily around that time, the new Mutant Mayhem movie was coming out, and gave us a female version of Leatherhead, and a female version of Wingnut. We asked Nickelodeon if they were okay with us playing off that idea, so we got to design our own version of Lady Leatherhead, who's still got that Southern swamp girl style... and put in a lot of work to make her feel still buff and intimidating but feminine without having to resort to gator boobs," Frasier said with a laugh. 

The MTG x TMNT team succeeded with their Leatherhead design for sure, and it's great to see a female Leatherhead who just looks, well, as normal as a female mutant alligator can look. 

Magic: The Gathering x Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will storm game shops on March 6, 2026. 

Whether you are a Commander player, a regular at your local game shop's FNM event, or simply love collecting Magic: The Gathering cards, you've landed in the right place. From Universes Beyond to the furthest reaches of the Magic Multiverse, we've got you covered here at Popverse. 

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