Last February 26th, 2022, the Magic: the Gathering Judges Philippines held an online conference for the newest set Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty via the Zoom platform, and one of the topics discussed is the set’s rulings update.

The presenter was Judge John Say who I think has a specialty in presenting the topic. He added aside from the set new and comeback mechanics the various card interactions and what will be the possible outcome on it. I made several screenshots during the period of discussions as I was using my mobile phone while attending the event and arranged it in a semi-slideshow on the video below. Enjoy!

For the previous Judge Conferences topic video discussions, you can check a recorded copy on my Youtube channel under the DeathMarked MTG TV playlist. Thanks in advance for the support.

I have started with the Top Green cards for Standard for the upcoming Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty set. I had realized that this weekend is the supposed schedule of the Prerelease events but due to the logistics issue that might be caused again by the pandemic, it was delayed for the Philippines. I guess I’ll just watch some product opening videos in the meantime.

The next color I have chosen to do the top Standard cards was Black, due to the reason that it was one of my deck’s colors when I was just starting to be competitive with the game. I remember playing Orzhov aggro in a Regionals event in Bacolod City back in college. It was Invasion block in the Standard format and I was using Spectral Lynx and Sengir Vampire as my main creatures.

Anyhow, here below are some of the notable Black cards from the set which I can consider as an upgrade for the Standard decks.

Blade of the Oni

An evasive two-drop with a good power to deal early damage and later on can turn your lesser creature into a 5/5 menacing Demon. It is also non-Legendary so having a playset in the deck would not hurt.

Biting-Palm Ninja

This is a good three-drop creature with Ninjutsu as its Coercion effect gives you the chance to discard their best card at the moment and also know their next moves. This will fit perfectly in the Dimir Ninja Rogues deck.

Dockside Chef

Another Black sacrifice enabler with card draw for replacement. I see the current Standard Rakdos Sacrifice deck having this as another component of their engine.

Hidetsugu, Devouring Chaos

Speaking of another sacrifice compo for Rakdos, this provides a variance as its late-game pseudo-card draw effect on exiling the top card of your library and being able to play it this turn. The bonus damage effect can act as a finisher, while indirectly attacking the life total of the opponent.

Junji, the Midnight Sky

The same description can be said the last time I previewed this card in the Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty batch spoilers. The mana cost, the power/toughness, the flying menace ability are all too good in value.

Malicious Malfunction

Cheap removals like this for Black-based control decks are essential components of the sideboard. The bonus exile effect would also trigger in that turn when you cast spot removals and destroy effects.

March of Wretched Sorrow

The cost of exiling several cards while getting you to deal with an early threat is a good trade. Life gain is also a plus. Imagine drawing into your bulky spells in your early turns, but you have March of Wretched Sorrow to protect you from early damage.

Nashi, Moon Sage’s Scion

This Legendary Rat Ninja is auto-included in the Dimir deck with its card advantage provided at any cost err life. You just need a good creature curve so it can be out to Ninjutsu by your turn four.

Soul Transfer

It is a slow but situational Hero’s Downfall and the good thing is the chance that you can choose both by having an artifact & an enchantment in play. Need a gas late game? Just return your best creature or planeswalker back to your hand.

Tatsunari, Toad Rider

A good three-drop that can summon a 3/3 Frog token, the only commitment in your deck build is to have enchantment creatures in the list. It is not that hard to fulfill as Kamigawa has a lot of options for you to check.

You Are Already Dead

Nani???? *twinkling sounds*

Takenuma, Abandoned Mire

The Black Channel land is a good utility in the late game having the chance to return your best creature or planeswalker back to your hand. Adding three copies in the deck would not hurt. That is unless you are too unlucky to draw three of them in your starting hand.

Happy Chinese New Year 2022! It is the Year of the Tiger and in Chinese culture, the tiger is the symbol of bravery, wisdom, and strength. I do hope you guys enjoy and are celebrating this occasion and also welcoming the month of February. This also means that we are just weeks away from the release of the Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty which will be out this February 18th and so as we continue checking on some of the card spoilers published online.

If you have missed the Batch One blog post, you can check it here. We start on the second batch today with this interesting card named Satsuki, the Living Lore.

With the prevalence of Saga in the upcoming set, I will not be surprised if they will have a full Enchantment Saga deck strategy with a playset of Satsuki in the list. This is no problem as the Legendary rule will just trigger her die ability. She can hasten those Saga that flips to creatures while also being able to recur them from your graveyard.

Next up is Reality Heist.

The first line simply reads as Affinity for Artifacts and digging two artifact cards from the Top seven of your library would mean value for combo decks to dig their components. Standard might come up with a dedicated artifact deck but having this Instant is just going to be a support card as most of the cards are in fair mana costs, meaning no free cards to lessen the heist’s total cost.

This is a useful Green “next-level-pump” card meaning it can also increase lore counters on one of your Saga and also pump your enchantment creatures. The second effect may require more mana to execute but the good thing about Green is their nature of having mana dudes to generate this.

A cheap Rakdos Saga that can sweep tokens with ease and also deals with graveyard shenanigans is a good two-for-one value already and the flip creature side gives you a possibility to actually make them lose the game. Summing up all of the damage plus the +1/+1 counters every turn seems already enough to bring the opponent’s life to zero and that is sort of a win more scenario. Dealing 10 or more damage in a single turn may require some sort of a pump spell or a double-damage effect.

Raiyuu’s “Exalted” effect to one of your Samurai or Warrior gets you another Combat phase which you can then attack with all your creatures. He can basically initiate an alpha strike with that bonus phase. The challenge here is on how you can protect him or your first critter to stay alive before the Declaration of Attackers step. Of course, White is given to have some spells that get your creatures Indestructible until end of turn.

Naomi, Pillar of Order is a good token source with the condition of only having an artifact and an enchantment on the battlefield. This would not be much of a problem since the set supports enchantment and artifact creatures.

I would have expected much of the Blue Land’s Channel ability but an uncounterable bounce spell can be worked around with. This is ideal if you have Saga and creatures that have flipped from a Saga enchantment where you can just bounce them back to reuse their abilities again. The four mana-cost ain’t much of a drawback also as most control decks would likely have enough mana already in the late game for its use.

A Flashy tempo Vehicle that is easy to crew may have a slot most aggro decks in Standard. Tapping their greatest creatures at end of their turn gets you an opening to attack and deal a whole batch of damage on your next combat phase. At its least use, you can just poke in two damage in the air as you continue developing your board.

A two-drop 1/1 with Double Strike pseudo-acts like a 2/2 on its pure form. With a few pump spells, it can just deal a huge amount of damage. Having it late game is also not a disadvantage as you can just use Reconfigure to attach it to your best creature on the board.

Wrapping up part two with a short video explaining the Kamigawa Neon Dynasty mechanic, Modified.

The Magic: the Gathering cards spoilers for the upcoming Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty is arriving in bulk from various websites and online platforms and I have not gotten to able to scan through all of them. The latest posts on the MagicTCG Reddit thread is what I am currently working on and the good thing is I was able to check on what and how the online community assesses the card based on the value in various formats of the game. As for this blog post, I will start with having a batch of the card spoilers which are randomly timed on the dates of their posting online, and just add a few short discussions after it.

First on this list is Generous Visitor.  

The possibilities of the Auras or Enchantress deck strategy are plausible with the inclusion of this card. It might not be the same as the Enchantment creatures of Theros but there are notable cards that can support a Selesnya-color Standard deck with Saga Enchantments added on it.

As mentioned of the Enchantress strategy, we can also consider these Shrine creatures as a way to trigger Generous Visitor and also the cost lessened by Jukai Naturalist. Its only drawback is its Legendary type which maybe having three copies of this and three of that of Green will not really hurt the mana curve.

This is the newest version of a nonbasic ‘tribal’ land with Cavern of Souls as its cousin. What I liked about this is not only the mana fix but also paying for ability activation such as Ninjutsu which is very relevant even if your deck build is on Dimir. This is a four-of auto inclusion in the expected Rogue Ninja Tribal deck. I might come up with a Standard decklist for it soon.

This is a good two-drop with the Lifelink ability that is relevant life-swing if left unchecked early on. In the late game, you can use its Reconfigure ability to give your best threat Lifelink which is good enough to outrace them especially other aggro decks that may have chump blockers to nullify damage. It is also an Artifact so it can somewhat help similar triggers and can cost one mana less by the Mechanaut.

This Saga turns into an Enchantment Creature after the third lore and its first two triggers are quite situational which is good. Pump your dude for added damage? Sure. Kill of an opponent’s mana creature? Okay. Nothing to do on an empty board? Gain 2 life. Its creature-flip version is somewhat unusual for Black in creating Black mana for use only on Instants and Sorcery spells. Maybe it can help you cast something like Blood in the Snow late game, I dunno. Still a 2/3 so an added board presence for your attackers.

This Invoke cycle for Black is quite interesting because it can in a way deal with an enchantment in which the color has no ways to do it before. Sure it is conditional but the drawback is a card and 2 life loss so many opponents will most likely just sacrifice their enchantment. Its probable disadvantage is the many Enchantment creatures in Kamigawa which can become fodder if the situation permits.

Completing the four Kodama directions err Tree locations, this version is probably the cheapest in mana cost. Its ability though is leaned towards the Modified creatures in the set which gets you a basic land ramp for combat damage dealt. Gruul or Bant Midrange may become a thing in Kamigawa Standard so having this on the 3rd drop is essential.

This wraps up the first batch of Kamigawa Neon Dynasty card spoiler short discussions. I am quite exhausted finishing this after a short bike ride early this evening so just stay tuned for Batch 2.

Until the next blog post.

P.S. Here is the link to my Youtube Channel on my recent MTG booster cracking.

Today’s blog post goes again with the card spoilers from the upcoming Magic: the Gathering set, Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty. The source is another thread from Reddit/MagicTCG posted by user EsteBatto95, and this card preview is the new version of Dragon Spirits in the lore of Kamigawa.

Check out Junji, the Midnight Sky.

Here is what the card text reads:

We can say that this is the new and improved Kokusho with a one-less mana cost, the Menace ability, and additional options that trigger when it dies. The discard effect can truly devastate control opponents, while the replacement of a non-Dragon creature maintains and keeps the pressure against opponents especially if that creature was a threat you played earlier. Much more if your deck build is on graveyard shenanigans. Adding Menace to Flying makes it difficult to chump block, especially with the popular Bird tokens produced by Epiphany decks in the metagame.

Based on the current Standard deck archetypes, this Dragon Spirit can fit well on Dimir and Mono-Black Control. They can just kill off or discard opponents’ threats and later on reanimate them as they get to deal with Junji. Also, Golgari might have this as its top curve and finisher and there are ways to cheat it to the battlefield and get creatures in the yard for its trigger ability to target.

Lastly, this confirms the cycle of Dragon Spirits in the set and well see what its companions’ abilities would look like.

That is a wrap for now on this card spoiler, until the next blog post.

Hey all, I do hope you are all doing fine after the celebration last weekend. We start the New Year 2022 with a Kamigawa Neon Dynasty card leak preview. I got this from the Magic TCG Reddit thread posted earlier today, and this card is named Eiganjo Uprising.

Check out its card ability below.

The card is situational and can’t win by itself and at times can become a drawback.

By its minimum casting cost, it is a three-mana 2/2 Vigilance creature with Haste & Menace on ETB is already good by itself. With White’s common strategy of pumping its dudes, getting it to a 3/3 can already wreck efficient early damage and not to mention the Boros Aggro deck is already established in the format.

I think I can have at least two copies in the maindeck to act as sort of a situational Alpha strike but having a playset is also okay if you are leaning to the tokens with anthem strategy (Paladin Class & Wedding Announcement).

By the definition of a situational card, in cases where the opponent has established more board position than yours then this is basically a dead card. To solve this, you’d need to make sure that you can early curve on the first three turns and retain the board.

Of course, opponents will try to develop theirs also by having a bigger creature or just plainly kill off yours. It is then by your decision if you’d go casting this on turn four or turn five and anticipate what your opponents’ play next. Just avoid playing it into a Meathook Massacre.

Overall, this is a go-wide card that ain’t that good as a game-winner but can still help you win games given that you have an existing anthem effect.

That is a wrap for this Kamigawa Neon Dynasty card preview. Until the next blog post.

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