Top 8 Kamigawa Neon Dynasty Standard Cards
8. Enchantments and Spirits
While some may consider it cheating, Enchantress has always been a synergy-driven archetype, and there’s no one card in Kamigawa that unlocks it. Instead, we have a cost reducer, a lord and a reverse lord alongside tons of Sagas and enchantment creatures. There’s more enchantment-matters packed into Kamigawa than there was in Theros: Beyond Death, which merits taking a look. If that weren’t enough, there are a couple of very powerful cards from Innistrad that were seeding Kamigawa in Hallowed Haunting and Katilda, Dawnhart Martyr.
Hallowed Haunting is the type of engine-style card that Standard Enchantress decks need to be viable, like Sigil of the Empty Throne or Starfield of Nyx before it. Pre-Kamigawa we were nowhere near critical mass of quality Enchantments, but all that has changed. While most cards on this list are standalone powerful cards that improve existing shells, I think Enchantress and some sort of UB Ninja/Tempo deck are the most likely new archetypes to emerge into viability with the printing of Kamigawa. Here’s a starting point for a decklist:
7. Reinforced Ronin
Monored Aggro has had a rough time of it recently, having been overtaken entirely by White and Green aggro decks. One of the key pieces missing from the deck is a playable one-drop, and Reinforced Ronin looks like it might fit the bill. A 2/2 for one-mana is a great rate, and while it would certainly be preferable if it stayed on the board, the downside isn’t awful in conjunction with the Channel ability. Oftentimes, Monored’s one-drops are stinky draws in the late-game, or they get stuck useless on the board, but Ronin can at least cycle into other stinky one-drops. In conjunction with Kami’s Flare, the new Searing Blood wannabe, Monored might finally have the tools to be competitive again in Standard.
6. Essence Capture
Essence Capture is back! Last seen in Monoblue Tempo pumping Tempest Djinn, it fills a noticeably absent Essence Scatter-shaped hole in the format. While Blue control decks have access to Jwari Disruption, Disdainful Stroke, Negate, Test of Talents, and a plethora of three-mana counterspells, they do not have a two-mana way to counter any creature. Essence Capture helps with this problem, though the control decks will have to really want it, as UU on Turn 2 can be tough, particularly if the control player wants access to any number of Fields of Ruin.
Essence Capture is more at home in a tempo shell, where the +1/+1 counter speeds up your clock and provides modified creatures, if that’s something you care about. Alongside Spell Pierce, which is also getting reprinted in Kamigawa, a Blue Tempo deck has access to great tools to stay ahead.
Here’s a starting point that fuses the Rogue and Ninja synergies together:
5. Channel Lands
I don’t think I’m saying anything revolutionary when I suggest that all five of these lands are super playable in Standard. Even assuming there is no cost reduction for the Channel, every one of these abilities is uncounterable flood insurance. For the most part, the first copy is automatically better than a basic land of the same color, and the second’s not awful if your land count is decently high. Of these, Eiganjo is probably the best (in Standard) followed by Takenuma. After that, I’d say Boseiju beats out Otawara, and Sokenzan is the worst (but still very playable!) This is a nice cycle of replacements for Eldraine’s Castles as a cycle of mono-colored utility lands that aren’t oppressively good, but will be staples in Standard until they rotate.
4. The Restoration of Eiganjo
Significantly stronger Birth of Meletis for one more mana is a fantastic deal. Birth saw a ton of play during its time in Standard, and I expect Restoration will be popular as well. However, part of the appeal of Birth was the blink synergy with Yorion, the ability to get a creature without playing the card type for Lukka and Transmogrify, and that it meaningfully helped you hit land drops and survive the early game.
Restoration does not help you hit land drops; if you have three, you’re probably okay. Nor does it help you survive the early game, as the 3/4 doesn’t show up until turn 5. Yet it is significantly stronger than Birth in the late game, where a 3/4 that makes bodies is better than an 0/4, and the second chapter can cycle the worst card in your hand for the best two-drop you’ve played.
Restoration is a meaningfully different card than Birth in that it’s better late than early, but I do expect it to see some play.
3. Soul Transfer
With the recent Standard bans, Edgar, Charmed Groom has emerged as one of the premier threats of the format. It’s great on offense, defense, and at grinding. Most importantly, it is really hard to kill. Divine Smite out of the sideboard does it, counterspells do it, and Rite of Oblivion and Skyclave Apparition do it, but that’s about it.
At its base rate, Soul Transfer is a sorcery speed Hero’s Downfall that exiles, which is weirdly powerful right now. Answering Lolth through her Spiders, Sorin through his Vampire, and Edgar is a high degree of flexibility that makes up for its clunkiness. More importantly, if you can turn on both modes, you’ve got yourself a really strong card. I suspect this will happen more often than you might imagine; Wedding Announcement is a staple of White decks, and Treasure tokens abound, making it pretty easy to control an artifact and an enchantment. With the promise of exiling their best threat and getting your own back, this is a card you’ll want to top-deck often in the late game. I like it as a 2- or 3-of in Black decks.
2. Farewell
This card is a powerhouse. It’s expensive, but it’s flexible and it exiles. In a format primed to have a sudden uptick in artifacts and enchantments, this card will allow you to either clear out everything, or selectively clear out only what leaves you with the advantage.
UW Control put up a Top 8 finish in last week’s PTQ playing 4 Doomskar and 3 Devastating Mastery; I imagine Farewell easily replaces the Masteries and provides a very real way to get rid of all the annoying Treasures, Spiders, Meathook Massacres, Rites of Oblivion, and Wedding Announcements floating around the battlefield these days.
1. March of Otherworldly Light
March of Otherworldly Light is exactly the spot removal spell that UW Control needs to compete in Standard. While slightly below rate, it’s flexible, instant, and it exiles, making it a maindeckable way to answer Edgar, Charmed Groom or his Coffin. Currently, UW is stuck playing Fateful Absence, an embarrassing card that only kills creatures, and puts the control player down a card, which is never somewhere you want to be playing control. Light allows UW to answer troublesome permanents like Esika’s Chariot, Meathook Massacre, or The Celestus without needing to sweep the entire board with Mastery or (now) Farewell. March makes up for the fact that it will usually trade down on mana with its flexibility and instant speed.
Ryan Normandin is a grinder from Boston who has lost at the Pro Tour, in GP & SCG Top 8's, and to 7-year-olds at FNM. Despite being described as "not funny" by his best friend and "the worst Magic player ever" by Twitch chat, he cheerfully decided to blend his lack of talents together to write funny articles about Magic.
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