Kawigama: Neon Dynasty – First Thoughts

HeY, hEy, HEY! It is Sunday night and I am feeling funky in all the right ways. Just perusing Kawigama: Neon Dynasty and really just getting lost in the amazing artwork. I mean, I’ve been playing Magic since Chronicles and am a huge sucker for the old school, early D&D manual style art. In the years that have passed, there’s been some real stinker sets in terms of artwork. Nothing against the artists though: the work itself is great…it just doesn’t speak to me.

To expand on the sentiment of art “speaking to us”, Kawigama: Neon Dynasty is basically a house party with how loudly the artwork has captured my attention. On top of that, the set looks to be incredibly diverse and has some cool new mechanics as well as a number of sweet, sweet cards for those EDH players out there (like me)

First Stop: New Dragon Cycle

Ok so right off the hop, just wanna call out this amazing new cycle of dragons. It’s a sign of the times seeing so many flyers at sub 6 CMC but generally, power and defence have also been slightly nerfed. But who cares about that anyway when the real meat here is in their abilites.

Instead of having an ETB effect like Kokusho, Ryusei and the old dogs, the new kids on the block get their kicks when they die. There are so many ways to use and abuse these powers and, in some cases, offer a nice spike in the event of a boardwipe. I am a huge fan of graveyard recursion decks and seeing AO and Junji (white and black, respectively) being able to harness fun, second life type effects is great. Will be interesting seeing what impact these guys will have on the game.

Lastly, just plain pretty, don’t you think? Vibrant Atsushi, Emerald Kura and so forth.

They Did It: A New Cycle Of Lands That Belong In Every Damn Deck

I just want to get this off my chest: I will hate anyone I meet who plays these lands. Not because I want to…but because my sheer jealousy is going to eat at the very fabric of my soul until I am consumed by my own desire to own them myself. My Lord Windgrace deck is begging…BEGGING…to have Boseiju in it, never mind how good Takenuma would be in my Karador, Ghost Chieftan deck.

What’s brutal is how they’re already outside of my price point. MTG Goldfish has Boseiju at about $40 right now. I feel like it’s only going to go up. Then again, maybe it won’t but my gut is telling my I will never have that card. Whatever, another great cycle of lands with fresh, expressive colors.

tHis Fu$#iN GuY iS BaCk

I don’t understand why people who play blue hate themselves so much? Devoid of being able to take any pleasure in life, they wander the earth looking for any joy they might be able to consume from those around them. They are kinda like the Hellraiser dude….but even he’d get tired of hearing “nope” over and over again. Also, I bought one of pre-order to put in my Imoti, Combat Celebrant deck.

The first Jin-Gitaxias is a huge pain the derrier. Forcing you to pitch your hand at the end of every round is absolutely brutal and can quickly change the playfield of any game. This new Jin is a different kind of flavour. It’s not as overtly oppressive but it also looks to be more fun to play. It’s doubling ability can trigger once each turn meaning you could use some thing like Narset’s Reversal, the use the second copy to bounce Reversal back to your hand.

At CMC 7, it’s not going to be seen a lot (maybe I’m wrong here) but like I said, it’s a dream in Imoti as it triggers the cascade effect of my commander and doubles future spells I cast.

Watch For A Price Spike

I’m not an expert but I do know what every new release of cards brings fluctuations to the market. Cards like Sakashima’s Student, which was already hovering at about $40 before the new block was teased, is now sitting at more $70 (checking MTG Goldfish pricing).

Not as aggressive a bump but Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni also looks to have jumped in the past year. having spiked from roughly $10 to over $15 in a short period of time. It’s one of the things that gets EDH players fired up as card scarcity tends to inflate prices. If everyone just needed 1 copy of a card, there’d be so much more to go around!

This set though, it’s got me looking to maybe sell some of my binder. The last 3 sets actually – Crimson Vow, Midnight Hunt set and now this one – have got me jonesing to crack some packs too. I run a tribal zombie deck and the last 2 sets could completely retool it. Kawigama: Neon Dynasty just has so much utility. I didn’t even touch on all the cool new mechanics (save it for another day) or all the neat, new artifacts that really make the bones of this set. Ok….goodnight and be safe!

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