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Main » Articles » The Early Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty Winners

The Early Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty Winners

Jim Davis
Posted on February 18, 2022
 Reddit

It's been a week since the paper prereleases and online release of Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty and the early feedback is overwhelmingly positive. As CoolStuffInc.com's own Evan Erwin reports:

To put it mildly, Neon Dynasty is killing it on all fronts.

It has the nostalgia of returning to a past popular plane, but its "first time for Magic" futuristic setting, themes, and art are a welcome breath of fresh air. And of course, more important than that, is that the cards have been really fun! The Limited format is getting rave reviews, while various cards are showing up across all formats in Constructed in various interesting ways.

This is very exciting!

Today I'm to go over some the early winners from Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty in Constructed, which are making moves in many different formats. Some of these are pretty surprising, so let's go!

Hinata, Dawn-Crowned

Hinata, Dawn-Crowned

When I went over Hinata, Dawn-Crowned in my set review, I dismissed it as a fun Commander card but not really made for serious Constructed formats. Frankly, this makes sense, as it has the look of a fun build-around Commander card - decent rate, three colors, and ready to have you digging through Gatherer for every card in Jeskai colors that can target multiple things.

However, I missed one very key interaction.

Magma Opus

Hinata is cracked alongside Magma Opus.

With a Hinata in play, you can get four damage any way you want, draw two cards, tap two lands, and get a 4/4 creature for the low, low cost of only two mana. It's not hard to parse how insane that is, making Hinata a must-kill creature on turn four, or otherwise just a guaranteed insane turn six.

Add this to the fact that Hinata is resilient to many of the format's common removal spells like Vanishing Verse and Abrade, as well as very good alongside single target two-mana spells like Disdainful Stroke and Abrade, and you've got a super interesting Combo/Control card. We can see this in the deck that Magic Online user billsive took to 3rd place in a recent Standard Challenge:

Jeskai Hinata Control | Neo Standard | billsive, 3rd place MTGO Standard Challenge

As long as Hinata, Dawn-Crowned is legal alongside Magma Opus, it will have a place in Standard (and possibly beyond).

Michiko's Reign of Truth (and friends)

Michiko's Reign of Truth // Portrait of Michiko

Michiko's Reign of Truth is, well, the truth!

Typically cards like All That Glitters or Ethereal Armor are very risky. They provide a huge power boost, but at the risk of being blown out by removal spells and getting yourself on the wrong side of a devastating two for one. They also have the issue, like all auras, of leaving you stuck without a creature to put your mana auras on.

Michiko's Reign of Truth solves basically all of these problems.

Even if the creature you target is killed in response you still maintain control of the saga, which is ready to go again next turn for a huge power boost. And even better than that is that you get a pretty large creature when all is said and done, further boasting the flexibility of the card.

Jukai Naturalist
Kami of Transience
Generous Visitor

Add this on to the bevy of powerful enchantment payoffs from Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty and there's the core of a very real aggressive enchantment deck that has been making the rounds. There isn't consensus yet on the best list, but this list that went 5-0 in an MTGO League played by user autobahn is a great start:

Selesnya Enchantments | NEO Standard | authbahn, 5-0 MTGO League

And don't overlook Michiko's Reign of Truth in other formats as well!

It's already seeing play in Pioneer Ensoul Artifact decks, and could logically slot into anything from Modern Affinity to Historic Auras as well. There's a lot of power in this unassuming uncommon!

Rabbit Battery

Rabbit Battery

Rabbit Battery may be one of my favorite designs in the last few years.

It's a relatively simple card at face value, but once you start playing with it the possibilities it opens up are surprising. Having a haste effect available at all times is something any aggressive deck is always happy to have, but most effects that grant haste just aren't costed well enough or worth a card, while also running the risk of being dead without a creature.

Rabbit Battery is always a creature!

But even more than that, it's also an artifact as well as an equipment. This opens the door to a whole host of synergy possibilities, from getting pumped by the aforementioned Michiko's Reign of Truth, to being sacrificed to various artifact effects like Shrapnel Blast, or even to turning on equipment synergies like Plate Mail or Nahiri, Heir of the Ancients. Add this to playing around mass removal by equipping to something, putting extra pressure on planeswalkers, and making for faster attack triggers, and you've got quite the package for only one Red mana!

Mono Red Aggro | NEO Standard | DAreli, 5-0 MTGO League

Mono-Red Aggro is the easy answer of where to go with Rabbit Battery (and a whole host of new Neon Dynasty cards), but I suspect it's only the beginning.

Experimental Synthesizer

Experimental Synthesizer

Speaking of great new Red cards, Experimental Synthesizer wins the award for both most lines of text on a common in recent memory as well as most surprising synergy element perhaps in the whole set.

Experimental Synthesizer does a lot of things.

We saw it in the Mono-Red deck above with only a few synergies, but the card in a dedicated sacrifice deck ends up looking like a Light up the Stage that you always cast for one mana and can get extra value out of as well. The timing on it is difficult, as you certainly need to trigger it at the right times, but like Expressive Iteration it is well worth the trouble.

Once you factor in cards like Oni-Cult Anvil, Deadly Dispute, Voltage Surges, and more, you've got a lot of value for a very small amount of material. I built a Rakdos Sacrifice deck as part of my Ten New Brews last week, but here's a list from a Magic Online League 5-0:

Rakdos Artifacts | NEO Standard | FirstBlood, MTGO League 5-0

There are a ton of moving parts here so finding the right mix is going to be difficult, but Experimental Synthesizer has the potential to be a major player in Standard and Pauper, as well as a solid potential role player in formats like Modern, Historic, and Pioneer too.

Greasefang, Okiba Boss

Greasefang, Okiba Boss

Greasefang, Okiba Boss is an extremely powerful and well costed creature, but of course one that is directly tied to the power level of vehicles available in a current format. Returning something like Reckoner Bankbuster or Surgehacker Mech is certainly a solid thing to do, and Greasefang is absolutely there on rate as a three-mana 4/3, but there needs to specifically be a deck that is centered around vehicles and plays Black and White to really want the card.

However, in older formats things get a bit wild. Much like there's the "Stoneforge Mystic test" when it comes to printing new equipment cards, now there is the Greasefang test for all vehicles. Any sufficiently powerful vehicle they print that is gated by a high mana cost is now a potential combo piece with Greasefang.

Oops, too late!

Parhelion II

Parhelion II is a frankly ridiculous vehicle, of course held back by being both eight mana as well as a vehicle. Well with Greasefang in the mix, neither cost nor crew is a concern! A single Parhelion attack at any point of a game is going to be a huge swing, but even more so if it is attacking on turn three.

Esper Greasefang | Pioneer | KarnageKardsENT, 3rd place MTGO Pioneer Challenge

We're already seeing this combo pop up in Pioneer, as referenced by this 3rd place list from the MTGO Pioneer Challenge played by KarnageKardsENT, but it's also been floating around in both Historic and even Modern as well.

While I'd love to see Greasefang played fairly, this is probably going to be his purpose in Constructed Magic - but don't get me wrong, it's a powerful one!

Just Getting Started

And the best part is, this is just the first week!

There's a lot going on in Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty and it's awesome to see a flavorful and evocative set also making big impacts across many different formats. And I haven't even gotten to Limited yet!

I can't wait to see what next week brings!

TAGS articles, standard, constructed, analysis, kamigawa, decklist, jim davis, neon dynasty, kamigawa neon dynasty, neo standard, 02182022

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