5 best cards from Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty, the best Standard set in years

Kamigawa: Neon DynastyIs The Gathering is Magic’s newest set, and brings players back to the plane of Kamigawa, a cyberpunk realm inspired by Japanese mythology and Shintoism, full of dragon spirits, fox samurai, biker rats, and robots. It will be Magic’s first trip to Kamigawa since 2005, a revisit that’s been put off for more than 15 years due to the original Kamigawa block’s lackluster commercial performance and lukewarm reception on the heels of the significantly more powerful Mirrodin block.

Don’t be fooled by some of Neon Dynasty’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles winks Voltron or. The latest Standard set aims to turn the original Kamigawa block’s reputation on its head, with an injection of flexible artifacts, unique planeswalkers, and legendary lands, seemingly designed to disrupt Magic’A growing list of competive formats.

These five new cards are great for the tournament halls, as well the kitchen table. Magic’s most popular and competitive archetypes.

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If you haven’t kept up with the new set over the few months since it was announced, this is the one card you need to know about. Interaction stapled to lands is powerful by itself, as you can answer problematic permanents on your opponent’s board without taking up a spell slot in your deck. But Boseiju isn’t your ordinary utility land — this thing solves so many problems.

Whether it’s a surprise Colossus Hammer threatening to kill you in one hit, a couple Tron lands (like Urza’s Tower and Power Plant) about to make seven mana on turn three, or even a sticky Blood Moon shutting off all your colors, Boseiju can get you out of these pickles with an ability that can’t even be counterspelled.

Granted, removing an opponent’s artifact or enchantment provides them with a free land in exchange, but that impact is usually mitigated by whatever you’re destroying, especially if you’re patient and reserve Boseiju for critical permanents that could beat you by themselves. And since Boseiju comes in untapped, you can usually play at least one in place of a basic forest in practically any green deck, and just use it for mana if the disruption doesn’t matter in the matchup.

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At first glance, Lion Sash looks like a color-shifted Scavenging Ooze — a fragile two-mana creature that provides a slow way to remove suspicious cards from opposing graveyards, on an equally slow beater. Sash, with its equipment type line and Reconfigure ability could be a lot less annoying than its slimy-green counterpart.

As an Equipment, you can grab Lion Sash directly from your deck with fetch spells such as Stoneforge Mystic, Tinker, and Steelshaper’s Gift. Then when it’s Reconfigured and attached to another card, it stops being a creature entirely, which helps dodge a lot of the cheap removal that would have easily killed an ooze in its place.

The best part: if your Lion Sash is Reconfigured onto another creature, and that creature is destroyed, Sash returns to the battlefield as its own creature, retaining all the counters you’ve racked up so far. You will have to use multiple removal spells against your opponents in order to answer the one card.

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The Reality Chip, an equipment creature associated with Reconfigure also helps you draw more cards in your creature-based strategies.

Three mana for Reconfiguring the Chip may seem expensive, but it works well in combination with other cards. These allow you to cheat the Reconfigure cost and can attach the card to any creature free. Chip can allow you to use some strategies that enable extra cards from the deck, even as early as turn 2.

Using tools such as Magnetic Theft, Puresteel Paladin, or Sigarda’s Aid, you can ignore the Reconfigure cost entirely, since these enablers interact with any type of Equipment spell. All of this applies to our dear friend Lionsash.

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Red players rejoice! Reinforced Ronin may be the most powerful one-mana haste creature ever created since Goblin Guide. Ronin descends early to put pressure on the coast when it is clear. He dodges Teferi and Wraths as well as other sorcery speeds removal and replaces himself with the Channel ability if he plays a blocking player.

Plus it’s an artifact creature, a helpful way to activate Delirium on cards such as Unholy Heat or Dragon’s Rage Channeler. The ability to play with certain Spectacle cards such as Light up the Stage and Skewer, the Critics in Red and Pioneer decks will appeal especially to those who have red. And in Standard, it’s another great way to play two spells on turn three, off a Chandra, Dressed to Kill.

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Until now, no other planeswalkers in Magic’s history have had Flash — the ability to cast the card at instant speed or on an opponent’s turn. This has the potential to be such a powerful innovation to traditionally slow planeswalkers, I suspect Magic’s designers spent a little extra time to ensure she didn’t immediately break the game. Her designers might have made a mistake in using white mana and added incredibly exciting draw-go control decks.

She can be used in all formats and is compatible with control staples that allow for reactive gameplay or threat activation. In a set of instant speed surprise cards, she joins Solitude and Shark Typhoon to provide instant speed surprises. They can eliminate an opponent’s creature or help you develop your deck. While always keeping Counterspells, they also allow for counterspells. You can even bring her from the sideboard for mid-range white decks to boost Skyclave Apparitions or Spellbinders.

Boseiju is still the star of Neon Dynasty spoilers, I’m optimistic The Wandering Emperor has the potential to redefine how annoying controlling white decks will be moving forward.

Kamigawa: Neon DynastyFirst on Magic OnlineAnd The Gathering Arena: MagicOn February 10, the physical release will be made available.