Ninja Spinner M4: a set better than expected?

I had a very bad first impression of this set. At first glance, it felt relatively weak to me, a bit like a set that does not really stand out through the density of its biggest hits.

With that in mind, I thought the main appeal of Ninja Spinner would mostly come down to the Mega Greninja alt art.

But what is it really worth? That is what we are going to look at together.

Pokémon SARs that are decent, but not the main strength of the set

For me, the Pokémon SARs are not the strongest part of this set. Here are the other alternate arts from the set, ranked in a subjective ascending order:

I think these cards will have a harder time finding collectors than Greninja. That said, Dragalge has some really nice colors, and Cinccino has a genuinely cute and charming illustration.

The real surprise on the SAR side

When it comes to Trainer SARs, I think AZ’s Kindness clearly outclasses the Pokémon SARs. In my opinion, it even works better than the Floette alt itself.

A set carried by its AR lineup

Where this set really feels solid to me is in its AR lineup:

I have a soft spot for the Beldum line, so I especially like this Metang AR. The ARs built around the Froakie line are also a very nice surprise in this set.

Our final verdict on Ninja Spinner

In the end, Ninja Spinner has more pleasant surprises than I expected. I would give it a 7.5/10. To me, it sits somewhere between B tier and A tier.

You can find this set in our shop here: Ninja Spinner (M4).

And for French-speaking viewers who want to see our live reaction to the full card list reveal, we also talked about it here: YouTube video.

Finally, if some of the terms used in this article sound unclear, our Pokémon TCG glossary can help.