Where is Raphael's three-pronged sai?
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are making their way into Magic: The Gathering in 2026, and regardless of how everyone feels about the amount of Universes Beyond sets cropping up in Magic: The Gathering, people have noticed that Raphael has not been depicted with his usual sai in some of the cards revealed thus far.
Instead, Raphael’s weapon of choice in these cards appears to be a pair of jitte, which is (usually) a one-handed weapon with just one hook or kagi.
This is a little unusual, because Raphael, to the best of my knowledge, has always dual-wielded a pair of sai in the animated cartoons, comics, and video games. If this isn't a deliberate decision from Wizards of the Coast, the company risks looking like they have butchered their portrayal of The Muscle (additionally, why would Nickelodeon have approved this?).
While Wizards of the Coast has not addressed Raphael’s jitte so far, there might actually be some precedent for Wizards of the Coast to not portray Raphael using his sai.
Back when the Japanese feudal era/cyberpunk themed set Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty was released in February 2022, Magic: The Gathering released a video discussing the world building of said set, and the discussion included James Mendez Hodes, a cultural consultant.
In the video, James mentioned that the team deliberately avoided including Okinawan weapons in Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty because of the “complicated history between Japan and Okinawa of imperialism and cultural appropriation”.
As a result, weapons like the nunchuka and sai, which were steeped in Okinawan heritage and of Okinawan origins respectively, were not “represented on otherwise Japanese mainland themed characters”.
While the history of Okinawa and Japan’s annexation of the region remain a topic too complicated for this article, it seems quite likely that Wizards of the Coast is applying the same sensibilities it did in Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty, to its upcoming set featuring the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise is obviously heavily influenced by Japanese culture and history, with all the Turtles being proponents of Ninjutsu. They also address their adoptive father Splinter as “sensei”.
Thus, instead of portraying Raphael with the sai, Wizards of the Coast might have thought it more prudent to replace the sai with the jitte, a weapon that is much more distinctively Japanese.
Having said that, Michelangelo is still featured with his usual pair of nunchuka in the announced cards so far. If Wizards of the Coast was truly trying to be more conscious of the way card artwork is depicted, it definitely feels like it missed out on something here.
To be fair, replacing a pair of nunchaka with a similar-looking weapon is a much tougher ask than say, a sai, and it is probably best that Wizards of the Coast itself directly addresses the artwork on the upcoming new cards. Until then, we can only speculate, and add to the list of growing concerns the community has with the card game.
