I started playing Magic nearly ten years after the original Kamigawa block was released. As my interest in the game grew, so did my curiosity about its past. And so I learned about Kamigawa’s disastrous history with awe, amusement, and the occasional bout of slack-jawed disbelief at some of the weird mechanics and strange creatures. I was glad to have dodged the sets - and yet I couldn’t help but be intrigued by their bizarre qualities.

Now ten more years have passed, and Kamigawa hasn’t just returned; it’s launched itself into the future. Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty is a radical imagining of the plane that melds historic Japanese tropes with futuristic ones in order to create a shining aesthetic of its own. What does the set have in store? Let’s take a look!

Mechanics and Themes

These are NEO’s major mechanics and themes.

Enchantments and Artifacts

Kamigawa is caught within a conflict pitting tradition against a new technological dawn. NEO represents this conflict through enchantments (the past) and artifacts (the future). Many cards care about the presence of one or the other - or occasionally both. As a result this set has a noticeable amount of artifacts and enchantments, as well as artifact and enchantment creatures. Each color has varying levels of commitment to the conflict. Green and Blue are heavily in favor of tradition and technology respectively, while White and Red lean to a side with lesser favor. And Black? They’re willing to use either - as long as it serves their own ends.

TRADITION (Enchantments) | Green - White - Black - Red - Blue | TECHNOLOGY (Artifacts)

Modified

When I heard that NEO had both artifacts and enchantments as a theme, my first instinct was that the set would feel extremely binary; after all a player would have to choose one side or another. Fortunately there’s a new batching word that ties both together. A modified creature is one that is equipped, enchanted with one of your Auras, or has a counter upon it. This allows for a subset of cards to play well in both artifact and enchantment decks. Some cards such as Heir of the Ancient Fang become stronger in the presence of other modified creatures. Others such as Akki Ember-Keeper mitigate the natural drawback of a modified card - a removal spell destroying your hard work in building up a creature - by generating small replacements.

Cards that care about being modified are principally in Red and in Green.

Reconfigure

Another traditional problem with artifact and enchantment sets is ensuring that there is a good mix of the non-creature cards with creature cards. Reconfigure is a mechanic that helps solve this issue on the artifact end, as a single Reconfigure card is both an artifact and an equipment and a creature, and synergizes well with cards that care about modified creatures.

Reconfigure cards are found in all five colors, with a heavy bias towards the artifact colors of Blue and Red.

Vehicles

NEO returns vehicles to the fore as another flavorful way to allow non-creature artifacts to act as creatures. Vehicles have good power and toughness for their cost; just try to bully your way past a turn four Futurist Sentinel. However they do very little unless crewed, and that secondary cost must be paid over and over again. Hotshot Mechanic mitigates that drawback by crewing way above its one-mana cost.

There are many colorless vehicles, with a few colored ones in White and Blue (and one in Black). 

Sagas

Reconfigure is a glue mechanic for artifacts, and the return of Sagas fulfills a similar role for enchantments, as NEO Sagas have a new twist: their final chapter turns them into enchantment creatures. These creatures have reasonably good stats given the mana cost of the Saga; however the price paid for that efficiency is the time it takes for the Saga to actually flip into a creature (and note that these creatures cannot attack or tap the turn that they enter the battlefield unless they have haste). You can hurry the process by using Storyweave, accelerating the time it takes to get a creature - and perhaps creating an unexpected attacker or defender as well.

Sagas are available in all five colors, with the majority in White and in Green.

Shrines

This popular enchantment subtype returns, and once again rewards you for having multiple Shrines in play. NEO has its own twist on Shrines however. First, these Shrines are all enchantment creatures, which makes them a larger board presence that are also easier to remove. Second, they trigger on their owner’s end step for a small mana cost. This means you can’t just dump out a bunch of Shrines and slowly grind out your opponent. NEO Shrines are far more interactive than that.

Channel

Cards with the Channel ability can be discarded alongside a mana payment in order to produce an effect. This gives Channel cards considerable flexibility in how they are used. For example, Mirrorshell Crab is a late game force that also helps you interact in the early game. Bamboo Grove Archer is an excellent early defender against smaller flying creatures that also allows you to destroy any flying creature in the late game. Notably the Channel ability is not considered casting a spell, and so cannot be countered through typical means.

Channel cards can be found in every color except for Black.

Ninjutsu

Kamigawa’s most popular mechanic returns. Creatures with Ninjitsu can spring into combat unexpectedly, sometimes resulting in a sudden increase in damage as with Dokuchi Shadow-Walker - and sometimes giving you an alternative advantageous effect as with Moon-Circuit Hacker. If your deck is full of ninja, then your opponent will never know where the true threat lies.

Ninjitsu creatures are mostly found in Blue and in Black, although a few have snuck their way into Green and White.

Attacks Alone

Samurai have the opposite combat philosophy of Ninjas, and although their style does not have a specific keyword, their honor and bravery is represented through cards that ask you to attack alone. The benefits are often clear and straightforward: tapping down potential defenders with multiple Imperial Subduers should be enough to win a game. Akki Ronin is less overtly threatening, but its rummaging effect is great at discarding unwanted lands while digging you to the cards you need.

These cards are found in White and Red.

Archetypes

As usual, the Limited archetypes are designed around the ten two-color pairs.

White/Blue: Vehicles

White/Blue is often slow and deliberate. Those qualities are given a new twist with NEO’s White/Blue archetype: vehicles. A vehicles deck must consider a lot of factors: how can I protect my crew? When is it safe to play a vehicle without running the risk of being overrun by an aggressive deck? When can I commit my crew and my vehicles to an attack, and when do I need to hold them back to defend? Answering these questions is not easy, but if you succeed you’ll be rewarded with substantial payoffs: free Pilot creature tokens from Prodigy’s Prototype, or retrieval of any pilots that have met an untimely demise through Imperial Recovery Unit, or simply a massive deployment of force using Mobilizer Mech.

White/Black: Artifacts and Enchantments

Fittingly for the color pair with the most overtly opposing philosophies, the White/Black archetype asks you to find balance by embracing both the past and the present by playing both artifacts and enchantments. Such a strategy requires balanced deck construction and a savvy understanding of which of your permanents are expendable and which are critical to preserve. But the benefits provided by creatures such as Naomi, Pillar of Order or Kami of Terrible Secrets are substantial, as are the additional upsides of spells like When We Were Young. 

Blue/Black: Ninjutsu

The devious color pair with the devious mechanic has a surprisingly straightforward goal: attack with unblocked creatures and surprise your opponent with surprise effects, such as Silver-Fur Master’s sudden buff to your other ninjas. Of course your opponent will naturally be suspicious of your attacks as soon as you put down an Island or a Swamp, and that makes Network Disruptor - a cheap creature with evasion that also benefits from being bounced to your hand and replayed - especially valuable. Alternatively you can deceive your opponent in a different way by punishing any “easy” blocks with combat tricks like You Are Already Dead.

Blue/Red: Artifacts

Some artifact decks are slow and methodical, but the Blue/Red NEO artifact archetype is not. Enthusiastic Mechanaut is an aggressive evasive two drop that lets you dump your other artifacts - creatures, equipment, vehicles - onto the board to quickly overwhelm your opponent. And if that fails, an alternative long-term game plan is available: cheap card advantage with Reality Heist or a massive boom with Dragonspark Reactor. NEO also gives an artifact deck additional flexibility with Reconfigure equipment creatures that allow you to switch between going wide with a lot of small threats or going tall with a single buffed-up creature. 

Black/Red: Artifact Sacrifice

Blue/Red is an aggressive artifact archetype, but Black/Red dials it up a notch by being positively suicidal. The strategy’s self-destructive tendencies are less single-minded than they seem however, as cards like Oni-Cult Anvil repay your sacrifice with replacement artifacts and a potential life drain. Dockside Chef is another sacrifice outlet that gives you fair return for whatever you lose. And maybe Scrapyard Steelbreaker won’t draw you a card, but its threatening ability may be enough to force your opponent into unfavorable blocks.

Black/Green: Graveyard

NEO doesn’t have a dedicated graveyard or mill theme, which makes Gloomshrieker feel a bit suspect, like a generically useful card that fits a generic Black/Green theme. However there are a multitude of small ways to take advantage of its ability. You can discard a card using its Channel ability and buy it back. You can retrieve a key Shrine to push a mass of Shrines over the top. You can grab a destroyed enchantment or artifact that’s needed for a card that asks for both. Understanding what your deck is trying to do, and using the ideal graveyard spell to support it - Season of Renewal for an enchantment deck, or Okiba Salvage for a deck that balances artifacts with enchantments - can give your deck enough redundancy to survive a dangerous onslaught of removal spells.

Red/White: Attack Alone

As usual Red/White is an aggressive archetype that excels in attacking, a quality exemplified in Asari Captain. However its finishing condition is different. Rather than simply dumping creatures on the board and turning them all sideways, your strength lies in the bonuses granted when you attack alone. Doing so might allow you to buff your creature if you have an Ancestral Katana in play, or generate card advantage if you’ve cast Tempered in Solitude. And what if your attacker dies? Well, you can simply swing with a different one next turn and retain all or most of these bonuses. Equipment is especially good for ensuring that your lone attacker has the strength to batter down whatever defenses your opponent has left.

Red/Green: Modifications

Red/Green is the color pair of smash, and in NEO they don’t care how they do it as long as it’s done. Auras, equipment, and +1/+1 counters are all fair tools for this archetype to use, and the rewards can be strong: Invigorating Hot Spring provides haste and a repeatable buff for a mere three mana. Roaring Earth is another good way to ensure a steady stream of modifications for each creature that you play, and when you’re ready to swing in Ambitious Assault will strengthen your team while replacing itself.

Green/White: Enchantments

At first blush Jukai Naturalist seems similar to Enthusiastic Mechanaut: a similar cost reduction ability, and lifelink instead of flying. But that one keyword change indicates a whole different playstyle - one that is patient and takes time to bear fruit. The slow nature of the Saga enchantments illustrates this well, as does a card such as Generous Visitor that takes over the game if left unchecked, or Sky-Blessed Samurai which gives you an enormously undercosted threat once you’ve built up your board with enchantments..

Green/Blue: Channel

Channel doesn’t seem like much of an archetype; after all Channel effects vary wildly from card to card with little to connect them in terms of strategy or theme. But what Channel cards really offer is flexibility. This idea is exemplified by Colossal Skyturtle, which enables interaction, retrieval, and a massive evasive threat - all in one card. On the other hand Jukai Preserver is a solid creature that also doubles as a combat trick; and Moonsnare Prototype is an early game mana accelerant that becomes a semi-removal spell later in the game. Playing a Green/Blue deck requires an understanding of what the current situation is and playing - or saving - your Channel cards appropriately. Doing so may not be easy, but it’ll be even harder for your opponent to figure out what to do to counter your strategy.

Mana Fixing

The mana fixing in NEO is quite good. The catch-all options are strong, and the artifacts having additional upside:

One third of all NEO draft boosters will also contain a tapped dual land that gains you life. All ten color pairs are represented:

Of course Green has additional fixing:

I’d say that NEO is a set that welcomes splashing - a fact you should keep in mind when drafting or building a deck.

Key Commons and Uncommons

White

• Banishing Slash: This cheap creature removal also deals with any artifact or enchantment, and potentially provides a 2-for-1 to boot! The spell’s sorcery speed is a drawback - but not a huge one.

• Spirited Companion: Two mana for a creature that replaces itself is never a bad thing, and being an enchantment is a huge plus in this set.

• Touch the Spirit Realm: This card acts as both protection and removal, and that flexibility gives it enormous power.

Blue

• Disruption Protocol: Standard counterspells usually start at three mana - and for good reason, as it’s much easier to hold up two mana than three.

• Moonfolk Puzzlemaker: This creature feels deceptively strong to me. It’s a good blocker, an artifact, a reasonable Ninjitsu enabler, and it can be tapped in a variety of sneaky ways in order to scry.

• Moonsnare Specialist: This ninja makes combat especially tricky for your opponent, and its effect is still pretty good even if you cast it normally.

Black

• Assassin’s Ink: This looks like Black’s typical four mana removal spell, but its potential cost reduction means it’ll usually be less. And if it’s not, well, I’m still happy to pay the full cost in order to kill any creature.

• Gravelighter: A creature that edicts when it comes down is pretty good, and if you plan ahead a little bit this will simply be a flier that draws you a card instead.

• Twisted Embrace: Black’s actual four mana removal spell is a little more risky than usual, with the same drawbacks as a fight spell. But fight spells are still widely played, and Twisted Embrace is better.

Red

• Flame Discharge: The rate for this card is bad if you don’t control a modified creature, and pretty good if you do. That’s a hoop worth jumping through, especially since it’ll let Red kill high toughness creatures that it normally has trouble dealing with.

• Twinshot Sniper: A creature that shoots something on the way in is already a likely two-for-one, and in a pinch you can Channel it for some quick damage.

• Voltage Surge: Sniping a two toughness creature for one mana is always nice, and the potential to do more if needed makes this great.

Green

• Blossom Prancer: This isn’t quite a 4/4 creature - with reach! - that draws you a card. But it’s close.

• Kappa Tech-Wrecker: In a set chock-full of artifacts and enchantments, this strange ninja turtle is pretty close to a two-for-one.

• Master’s Rebuke: In the past, Green has had two mana sorcery-speed fight spells. An instant speed punch is so much better.

Summation

Here are some things to keep in mind when playing Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty:

• Although the stated conflict in NEO is between artifacts and enchantments, you should not necessarily go out of your way to ignore one in favor of the other. Some decks may be firmly ensconced on a particular side, but most just want tools to build a winning strategy.
• Most of your opponents will be playing artifacts and enchantments, so I would not feel too bad about main-decking a spell that removes one or the other, even if it does nothing else.
• There are a ton of synergies between the two-color archetypes, helped along by the strong artifact and enchantment theme and various mechanics that tie the two together. That, along with the strong mana fixing, makes me suspect that three color Limited decks will be powerful - and common.
• Read cards carefully, and draft and build your deck to maximize incidental value. Channel cards play well with graveyard cards; flicker spells work great with the many creatures that have an “enters-the-battlefield” effect; and permanents that churn out artifacts are a natural fit for decks that are looking to sacrifice as many artifacts as they can.

There’s a lot going on in Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty, and I’m extremely excited to start plumbing its depths. Good luck with your own adventures!