Hello happy reader! I hope you are having a marvelously fun day today! Today I want to look at my choices for the best 10 cards from Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty. I'll also give you two of my Honorable Mentions making this essentially a Top 12. This list is for kitchen table play with multiplayer, Type Four, Commander and Five Color in the conversation. Ready?

Honorable Mention #1. Anchor to Reality

Essentially my 12th overall card is this uncommon 4-mana sorcery. This fun thing sacrifices an artifact or a creature, and then searches your library for an equipment or vehicle. If that was a smaller mana cost, then you can scry 2. This is a fixed take on Tinker, which sacrificed an artifact and then searched your library for any size dork and arrived to the battlefield without any additional cost for 3 mana. Tinker has been heavily banned and restricted.

Anchor is an extra Blue mana and harder to cast. It's different since you can sacrifice a creature in addition to an artifact. And it only gets equipment or vehicles, which brakes the power of it. The best you could abuse this is sacrificing something like a Treasure token for a living weapon like Batterskull or Kaldra Compleat. That's still fine and dandy, just like candy, but it's not as broken as Tinker from a mana rock into a Darksteel Colossus or the Spike version of that with Sundering Titan. Both Tinker and the Titan are banned in Commander, but this is much safer, but it's still pretty nice that I like it twice.

Honorable Mention #2. Greater Tanuki

Our highest-scoring common on today's list is this Dog. This is a 6/5 trampler for 6 mana so it's on curve. It's also an enchantment for those decks that are about those sorts of things. Then we can channel it and search and ramp out a basic land. This is just one more mana to use than Rampant Growth and unlike that it's an instant speed ramp spell which is pretty rare. You can just use it at the end of your foe's turn and then untap and go on. Unlike Krosan Tusker this puts the card onto the battlefield and is proper ramp. Channel is harder to answer that traditional spells being cast. Love this pupper a lot here!

#10. Invoke Despair

Our highest scoring of the "Invoke" cycle is the Black one. This isn't always easy outside of mono-colored decks, which drops it on my list. It's a sorcery speed card that forces a foe to sacrifice, in this order, a creature, enchantment, and planeswalker. If they cannot each time, they lose two life and you draw a card. That means this Edict will always be a 3:1 card advantage no matter what cards your foe might or might not control. Good stuff! I also really enjoy this card for Type Four where it's heavy Black mana cost won't matter since you have infinite mana and it's a bit easier to cast in Commander than other casual formats with its Arcane Signets, Command Towers and Commander's Spheres effects. Enjoy it here, my dear!

#9. The Wandering Emperor

Ah yes! Our top scoring planeswalker from the set is everyone's favorite "The Wanderer." This is a bit low on starting loyalty, but you can flash her out and +1 to put a +1/+1 counter on a dork and give it first strike, which can be a nice combat trick, as well as -1 to make a 2/2 vigilance white Samurai out of nowhere, or my favorite, -2 to exile a tapped dork and gain two life. A flash-able walker of the planes is strong since they cannot be attacked by foes for a full round, and you can still user her ability once. Great card for the masses!

#8. Junji, the Midnight Sky

Our penultimate Dragon Spirit in the cycle inspired by the first slate of cards like Kokusho, the Evening Star. This is a powerhouse. 5 mana for a 5/5 flyer? With menace that makes it hard to double block. It's very on curve. When it dies you have two options - force each foe to discard tow cards and lose two life or return a non-Dragon dork from any graveyard to yours for the cost of two life. Pretty good choices, right? I prefer the first in multiplayer formats like Commander where that is massive card advantage. I prefer the latter in single player where you get two bodies for your investment. Both are still good in the other. Like bringing back a dead Consecrated Sphinx in Commander or Mind Rot'ing your Standard single player foe when they have just two cards in hand. Love it a lot!

#7. Satoru Umezawa

This Human Ninja is our highest scoring gold card in the set. He was spoiled very early and got tons of media coverage. Check him out. 3-drop and 2/4? A little weak but two abilities make up for that. He's also cheap to cast and recast in Commander. Every dork in your hand has ninjutsu for 4 mana - nice! You can cheat out bigger things like Darksteel Colossus and Consecrated Sphinx. Also note that this is an ability, not casting, so traditional counters like Mana Drain and Force of Will won't counter it. Blightsteel Colossus will win the game in one hit. Alone, that's worth the price of entry on this list on a legendary dork. But this is one better. As you activate Ninjutsu, you can Impulse three cards down instead of four then draw one. That's limited to once per turn, but that's fine and dandy, just like candy. This thing is also really strong in Type Four (rules for it here). since ninjutsu won't count as your only spell for the turn. You can use this as your spell, swing on a naked board, and then bounce and drop a bigger dork from your hand for free.

#6. Containment Construct

Our highest-scoring, overall, artifact, uncommon, and colorless color identity is this 2/1 Construct. It's on curve, strong. It's colorless so it can slide into any deck out there. Anytime you are forced to discard a card you may (it's not required) exile it instead and then you can "play" it (rather than "cast" it, so you can drop a land). Consider how strong this thing is in the set after Blood tokens were introduced. This thing also breaks Red in half with card flow as every card that requires you to discard and then draw, like Cathartic Reunion, can just be about drawing 3 cards and playing two that turn like the land in your hand with this. It's very strong with Black effects that force everyone to discard.

This is really strong in Red discard-draw builds in Commander like madness. It's also very strong with looters like Merfolk Looter that tap to draw a card and then discard said card. It breaks symmetrical card and discard effects like Faithless Looting. It breaks Wheel of Fortune and Windfall.

But...you don't have to. Imagine you cast Faithless Looting with this in play in a Mardu reanimator build. You draw two, and you have the dork you want to Reanimate in your hand. You discard it and the land you haven't played yet this turn. The reanimated target heads to the graveyard and the land is exiled, played, and you only really discarded one card and are now up a card. That's what really pushes this synergy up and down the map, you don't have to use it. Just use it for things you know you'll cast that turn anyway. And it's on-curve colorless card for any occasion!

Five cards left!

#5. Kura, the Boundless Sky

The Green Dragon Spirit was the worst of its cycle the first time around, but this time it's the best! When it swings it will often slip through as your foe isn't going to want to trade down with a better flyer like Consecrated Sphinx or Akroma, Angel of Wrath that would normally laugh at an attacking 4/4 with flying. And if you trade up for a big force that's a win for you as you'll end a massive threat and then you'll net the death trigger. You can search your library for three lands of anything (note that it does not read, "basic" anywhere) or you can make a X/X where X is your land count. Pretty nasty stuff.

And you could get Gaea's Cradle and bump up your mana production a lot. It's strong stuff. It's also in the colors in Commander for a sacrifice body with Golgari Aristocrats, which will ramp you 3 mana each death if you can find a way to drop them all. Welcome to the club!

#4. Nashi, Moon Sage's Scion

Or, as I like to call it, "Nasty Nashi!" I called this dork as soon as it was spoiled and then got to work writing up a Commander article around it. Nashi is very powerful in Commander as it is a Bolas's Citadel in the Command Zone. This can ninjutsu for 4 mana and then when it smashes a foe's face you can exile the top card of each library and then play one for free without spending any mana, just losing life equal to its mana value. That's really powerful stuff.

Note that if you use Nashi as a Commander, you cannot ninjutsu it from your Command Zone so that won't work unless you find a way to put it into your hand. The Scion is very powerful and Spike-y at the kitchen table and should find a big following in Commander and I wouldn't be surprised if it winds up with north of 1,000 decks registered over at EDHREC.com.

#3. Jin-Gitaxias, Progress Tyrant

Our highest-scoring Blue card, creature, and second highest scoring legendary card is this dork. For 7 mana you get a 5/5 with two abilities. There has already been a Commander deck built around it here. Check it out!

This dork has 2 powerful abilities. The first copies, for free without needing any mana or other cost invested, your first instant, sorcery or artifact spell you cast each turn. That alone would make this on my Top Ten list and make it worth the 7-mana investment. Then you counter the first sorcery, instant or artifact your foes cast each turn, which is nastier in multiplayer. This can leave your foes feeling like they cannot do anything to stop it, and, unlike something like Kira, which only protects your stuff from the first thing to target them. They have to waste a card and then try a second card to answer it. And that puts them down 1:2 already, and of course you are in Blue, so you'll counter it.

It's nastier in Type Four where you keep them from playing a big part of their hand to stop it since they can only cast one spell per turn and most answers are pinpoint removal like Utter End or mass removal like Wrath of God. There are a few removals like Shriekmaw or Karn Liberated, but for the most part they are shut down quite ably. Note that if it cannot be countered the Jin won't stop it, like Last Word or Supreme Verdict. This thing too nasty to deal with and I am a bit shocked that it was printed as is without additional brakes, but Wizards has been printing overly powerful Commander-legal cards a lot recently that do too much.

2. Farewell

Wow. Let me give you some context for this card. We already have a 6-mana sorcery speed mass removal spell in the Orzhov colors that lets you choose one from exile all dorks, artifacts, enchantments or planeswalkers: Merciless Eviction. It's heavily played at the kitchen table and Commander, and over at EDHREC.com it's in 33,969 decks for 16% of decks with its colors. It's one of the most played Orzhov color cards ever printed. Now, Farewell is a little different. Rather than hitting planeswalkers, it has an option to hit graveyards, which is better in Commander anyway.

If all Farewell were was a mono-colored Merciless Eviction, then it would hit #3 on my list and the nasty Jin would be my #2 card. But it doesn't - it exiles as many of those as you want! That's nasty good.

Also exiling is the preferred method of removal for casual formats like Commander since it gets past indestructible things like Darksteel Plate, tricks like Heroic Intervention, and it permanently ends their threat, and they cannot be recurred. Also, this sweeps graveyard too. One way that players answer a Merciless Eviction is to sacrifice their team to something like Viscera Seer or Goblin Bombardment and then they just recur their stuff later, but now if they do that they'll just get exiled from the graveyard as well on resolution. Because this doesn't hurt planeswalkers, it has enhanced value in planeswalker heavy brews like Superfriends builds. It's just...too strong to imagine. (It's also the second-most powerful card in this set for Type Four after Jin).

But despite the power here it's not my top option from the set! What land(s) is/are?

#1. The Channel Legendary Land Cycle

How could anything else be here? There are many people calling Boseiju the best card for Standard from this set. Boseiju is preselling at a massive $29.99 each. All of these will be big hits at the casual table. They each arrive to the battlefield untapped and ready to tap for their color of mana so that you can basically pull a basic land for them easily enough and there is no tempo loss. The issue with a legendary land being drawn when you already control one is worthless since you can just channel it away for its effect. They are easy four-ofs in decks in Standard. They are easy additions to Commander brews. They are very powerful. Channel is an instant ability, by the by. And channel isn't answerable by traditional counters like Counterspell or Mystic Snake.

Boseiju is also very powerful in Type Four. It instant answers non-basic lands, artifacts or enchantments and won't get them a land to fetch out since you won't need it. Channel doesn't take your one/spell per turn either, so it's a free effect. Also don't sleep on the free bounce of Otawara in that format as well, although some of the others aren't powerful enough for Type Four. But even a free Raise Dead for a dork or a planeswalker can be good!

Each of these legendary lands are very powerful at the kitchen table!

What did you think of my 12 slots and what filled them? Anything missing? Just let me know and have an awesome day!