Returning to Kamigawa

I have been playing Magic: the Gathering for a long time. How long? My first full set was the original Kamigawa block back in 2004. I had dabbled in Mirrodin but Kamigawa is where a life-long obsession began - my first draft, my first Standard deck - it all began there. But while I have fond memories stretching back then, it’s fair to say the original Kamigawa block is a mixed bag. The set mechanics were a bit of a mess but conceptually, the feudal-Japanese aesthetic was beautifully realised and players have long petitioned for a return. With Wizards recent prevalence of revisiting beloved planes, surely it was only a matter of time…

But Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty isn’t quite the Kamigawa we remember. Set 1,200 years after the original block, Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty smashes together the ninjas, samurai, dragons and spirits of the original set with a cyberpunk modernity not seen before in Magic.

Mechanically, Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty riffs on the original set while providing a few new tunes of its own. Ninjitsu returns from Betrayers of Kamigawa allowing a player to put a creature straight into combat with an alternate cost by returning another unblocked, attacking creature usually for an extra positive effect. The entire dynamic of combat changes when players are aware that any unblocked creature can be switched out for something infinitely more dangerous at instant speed.

Channel is a mechanic first seen in Saviors of Kamigawa. Cards with the Channel ability can be discarded along with a mana cost for a secondary effect allowing creatures to act as instants, lands to act as sorceries. These Channel effects are then largely uncounterable so when tacked onto the likes of lands, they add range to a deck similar to that seen with the dual-faced modal cards from recent sets. The Channel cards we have seen so far, particularly the Legendary Land cycle, seem incredibly pushed to me and I fully expect them to make waves in Constructed formats.

Enchantment creatures make a return for the first time since Theros Beyond Death, predominantly in the form of dual-faced Sagas which, rather than go to the graveyard on the completion of their final chapter, flip to become their final form. The creatures aren’t castable by themselves so the only way to get them on the battlefield is to wait for the Saga on the other side of the card to complete, a key consideration when figuring out curve in a limited deck. 

Modified isn’t a new keyword as such but rather a reclassification that includes any creature that is equipped, enchanted or has a counter of any kind on it. Typically, any Magic deck has to carefully consider the balance between lands and creatures. Key in Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty will also be considering the mix of creatures to cards that can Modify them such as Equipment and Auras.

And following on from Modified, Equipment makes a return but in the slightly different form of Reconfigure. Reconfigure cards can be cast as creatures but also have an Equip cost on them. When equipped to a creature, the Reconfigure card no longer counts as a creature itself, only returning to ‘living’ form once the creature it is attached to is removed from the battlefield. Similar to Channel, cards like this give a player’s deck more tools - Reconfigure cards can simply be cast as creatures if the board state requires it but can also be attached to other creatures when Modified status is what is needed to push through that final damage. 

Finally, it seems that the advancement of technology over the past 1,200 years on Kamigawa has not been without a cost - the Phyrexians have managed to taint the landscape once again. The variation we have of Phyrexian mana is known in Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty as Compleated and appears on at least one Planeswalker in the new set - Tamiyo, Compleated Sage.

This completes a brief roundup of the new mechanics of Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty and that’s without considering the return of Vehicles, Bushido, a form of Affinity for Artifacts and another cycle of truly Legendary Dragons! Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty is a set jam-packed with interesting mechanics, providing the perfect juxtaposition between the old and the new. And you can preorder everything you need from the newest Magic: the Gathering set right here on Chaos Cards now!