MTG Draft Guide – Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty

So one of the coolest sets (artwise) has officially been in circuit for about 2 weeks and the general consensus is that it’s been a blast. It’s a balanced set that works well with a number of strategies that has seen success in draft circles with a variety of 2 and 3 color blends as well as a strong showing from mono.

Not only is the artwork and dark futuresque theme set a cool tone, but the set also boasts some serious verbiage density. Among this heavy artifact and enchantment set are more words of rules per card than ever seen before!

Let’s look at what people are saying about this new set and how to draft it effectively.

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Watch For The Filler Commons

This can act as a general tip but to draft Kamigawa you’re going to need to pay attention to signals at the table. What this means is looking at the cards that other players are passing up and building your deck around that instead of the first powerful card you draw.

Once again, this isn’t Neon Dynasty specific, but it’s going to be an important part of drafting effectively. Don’t be greedy, splashing colors is great and all but if you miss the mana fixing boat, it’s bad news bears for you.

Be Prepared For An Even Fight

Some of the more recent sets rankled feathers with how often games would be a blow out. Not in Kamigawa. One of the great things people are saying about this set is how, even if you do get that oppressive card, it still takes time to build around it.

This is a welcome sight, especially for players new to the draft scene. Also, because of the low amount of bomb cards, we’re seeing more strategies and play styles emerging. This is because there’s less reason to force yourself into a deck theme based on the one bomb card you drafted.

Get Your Mana Fix

Already eluded to this earlier in the article but you’re going to want to grab that mana fix in the early rounds. There’s a full set of duals to look for as well as a slew of other options. This will let you throw in cards and splash colors with complete and utter impunity.

Kamigawa Plays Like A Couple Of Tired Heavyweights

Mechanics like Ninjutsu are seen by some as being something of a tempo killer and the same goes for cards using Saga. This set is meant to be enjoyed and played while sipping mulled wine. If you want the turn three kill so badly, get into Modern and join all the other masochists.

This set builds a little more slowly, sure. But what it lacks in speed it makes up for in mid/late game power. There are a lot of cards that require a little bit of investment and that’s a good thing. This is because the set overall is nicely balanced so you can take that Saga card and feel good knowing there’s a good chance it will mature.

Kamigawa Is Like Magic Antiques Roadshow

Here me out. This set contains just an absolute crap tonne of artifacts. And because there are so many artifact synergy cards in the set, you’ll be looking to snag a few early on and benefit from the generic effects produced from other cards.

Enchantments are second to artifacts in this set but still strongly felt. As mentioned earlier, Sagas are back as well as some low CMC enchantment creatures. Additionally, there’s also a number of bigger, 5 or 6 CMC enchantments that can benefit from enchantment ramp found throughout the set.

Ninjas And Modifications

This set is chock-full of ninjas and luckily, which means lots of Ninjitsu effects flying around. This also opens the door to DOUBLE Ninjitsu – replacing one ninja with another in the same attack round for extra triggers. This also allows players to create value engines to retrieve spent sagas or other cards in the bin.

Modification themed decks favor the Gruul color pie with lots of early game buffs for creatures to batter your opponents before they can mount a defense. Rakdos is also seeing some great options as it brings a lot of good removal to the table. There are also some good later game cards such as Shrines that allow you to buff creatures using unspent mana.

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