Magic: The Gathering Finally Explains Unexpected Change to TMNT’s Raphael

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Those who have looked at all the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cards from the new Magic: The Gathering set have likely noticed something different about Raphael. While the other Turtles end up having their iconic weapons, Raphael’s default weapon is actually different from the sai we’ve all come to know. In the game, he’s now equipped with a jitte, and Wizards of the Coast revealed the reason why is because of Raphael’s relationship with Splinter. While unexpected, it does actually make some sense when you see their explanation.

Why Doesn’t Raphael Have Sais Anymore in Magic: The Gathering?

In a blog post from Wizards of the Coast, the team goes into great detail on how they came up with their rendition of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and what their thinking was in some of the bigger decisions. That includes Raphael, and the reasoning for his weapon change is due to his connection to Splinter.

The article makes it a point to highlight the relationship all of the Turtles have to Splinter, and in Raphael’s case, the two share a lot of anger. Raphael struggles to control that anger and desperately wants to make Splinter proud, while Splinter sees himself in Raphael and hopes to help him finally bring it under control.

This also ties into Raphael’s issues with Leonardo, who is the good soldier and is often seen as the golden boy. Since Magic: The Gathering doesn’t have hours of a show, comic, or video game to express this idea, they came up with ways to showcase this in the cards, and one key way is in Raphael’s new weapon, the jitte.

In their article, the Magic team writes, “This ultimately led us to making Raphael’s weapon a jitte instead of the sai he uses in other versions of TMNT. The jitte and sai serve similar combat roles, but the jitte is more traditionally Japanese and hence a weapon Splinter would be more familiar with. Raphael’s insistence on using this weapon his father taught him—this weapon that expresses his father’s patience, even though it’s a weapon that that does not fit his personal fighting style—speaks to how important that father-son relationship is.”

That actually makes a lot of sense when you think about it, and I honestly hadn’t thought of Raphael being closer to Splinter than Leonardo in the past, but there are a lot of solid points there to back up that claim. While not every card features the new weapon, the lion’s share of them do, and I’m not going to lie, it looks pretty slick in the cards that include it.

Magic: The Gathering Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles hits stores on February 27th.

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