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Main » Articles » Tribal Decks of Neon Dynasty

Tribal Decks of Neon Dynasty

Mike Likes
Posted on February 10, 2022
 Reddit

Hello everyone. Now that the full spoiler list for Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty has been revealed, it's time for people to start brewing new decks. This week, I have three new decks for you featuring some of these new cards. They also feature ties to such tropes as ninjas, samurai, and giant vehicles that can join together to create one mega Construct. Let's get started.

Dimir Ninjas

We'll get started by taking a look at a tribal deck that features a tribe that prefers to remain in the shadows. Let's take a look at the deck featuring Ninjas.

Dimir Ninjas | NEO Standard | fireonice91, aetherhub.com user

Prosperous Thief
This deck features a multitude of creatures with the ninjutsu ability. This allows you to replace an unblocked creature with a creature that has ninjutsu from your hand by paying some additional mana. Once your opponent realizes this, they're bound to have trouble knowing how to block most effectively. By utilizing this ability, you'll be able to create Treasure tokens with Prosperous Thief, draw additional cards with Moon-Circuit Hacker, or destroy your opponent's creature or planeswalker with Dokuchi Silencer. The best part is that you'll get to do all of these fun things while dealing damage to your opponent, which you'll normally do during a game anyway. That makes these benefits like a cherry on top of your sundae, an added bonus.

Silver-Fur Master is one of the best creatures with ninjutsu in this deck. This Rat Ninja gives all of your other Ninja and Rogue creatures a +1/+1 bonus. While he's on the battlefield, you'll also receive a discount to the activation cost of your ninjutsu abilities. You'll often be swapping one unblocked Ninja for another due to their ninjutsu abilities, so getting a discount for this will be nice. There's only one creature in this deck that doesn't have a ninjutsu ability, Network Disruptor. Since Network Disruptor has flying, it might be able to get through unblocked. It also costs a single Blue mana to cast, so returning it to your hand isn't a huge sacrifice.

Our newest planeswalker from Kamigawa, Kaito Shizuki, offers another way for you to get your Ninja into play via their ninjutsu ability. With Kaito's -2 loyalty ability, you'll be able to create a 1/1 Ninja creature token that is unable to be blocked. As long as your opponent doesn't have the means to destroy it, you'll be able to attack with this token and replace it with a card with ninjutsu from your hand. Kaito's +1 loyalty ability is a great way to draw additional cards, enabling you to find more Ninja to play. If you manage to reach 7 loyalty, you can get an emblem that will further allow you to keep a steady supply of Ninja creatures on the battlefield.

Boros Equipped Samurai

Next, I have a deck featuring the Samurai tribe alongside a lot of Equipment. Let's take a look at it.

Boros Equipped Samurai | NEO Standard | tropi, aetherhub.com user

Raiyuu, Storm's Edge
As Mark Rosewater, head designer of Magic: The Gathering, stated previously in his article titled "The Making of a Dynasty, Part 2" (found here), the sets surrounding Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty didn't have any Ninja or Samurai creatures, which would make building tribal decks difficult. To mitigate this problem, Ninjas were paired with Rogues, which you've seen in the previous deck above, while Samurai were paired with Warriors. That means that some of the cards that Warrior decks had relied on in the past, like Kargan Warleader, will no longer be as effective. In fact, Kargan Warleader has been replaced in this deck with Eiganjo Exemplar, who gives a +1/+1 bonus to a Samurai or Warrior that attacks alone. This, combined with the lifelink Selfless Samurai gives a lone attacker, offers you the chance to deal a bit of damage while also gaining life. If you can further combine this with the additional combat phase Raiyuu, Storm's Edge provides, you can deal a lot of damage, gaining an equal amount of life in the process.

This deck isn't all about Samurai and Warriors, though. It's also about Equipment, and there's a lot of cool Equipment in this deck. Much of the Equipment that this deck has the ability either to be a creature or to be attached to another creature. This is due to the reconfigure ability, which allows you to unattach it from another creature. Rabbit Battery is either a 1/1 creature with haste, or it can be reconfigured to provide a +1/+1 bonus to the creature it is equipped to in addition to haste. Similarly, Lizard Blades will either be a 1/1 creature with double strike, or it will provide double strike to the creature it is equipped to. The final creature with a reconfigure ability is Lion Sash, which can exile permanents from any player's graveyard in exchange for +1/+1 counters. This deck also uses equipment that is more traditional too. Maul of the Skyclaves has previously been an all-star in Standard, providing a +2/+2 bonus, flying, and first strike to the creature it is equipped to.

Azorius Mechtitan

The final deck I have for you attempts to combine five artifacts you control in order to create Mechtitan. Let's check it out.

Azorius Mechtitan | NEO Standard | tropi, aetherhub.com user

Mechtitan Core
Mechtitan is a 10/10 Construct token with flying, vigilance, trample, lifelink, and haste. It's the ultimate end goal for this deck. In order to create Mechtitan, you must pay five mana and exile Mechtitan Core and four other artifact creatures and/or Vehicles you control. That will take a considerable amount of effort to do, but it's all worth it if you manage to create Mechtitan. It will also leave you vulnerable, as all of your eggs will be in one basket. But, fear not. If Mechtitan should leave the battlefield, you'll get back all of the cards you exiled to create Mechtitan except for Mechtitan Core. Those cards will be tapped, however, so you'll still be vulnerable until your next turn.

Kamigawa: Neon Destiny has delivered us some slick new Vehicles. High-Speed Hoverbike is a two-mana 2/2 with flying that can be played at nearly any time thanks to it having flash. When it enters the battlefield, you can tap a creature. Play this prior to your opponent's combat for maximum effectiveness. Mobilizer Mech is another flying Vehicle that will allow another Vehicle you control to become a creature until the end of your turn when Mobilizer Mech becomes crewed. Surgehacker Mech will deal damage to an opponent's creature or planeswalker in an amount equal to twice the number of vehicles you control as it enters the battlefield. It can also be crewed to become a 5/5 with menace, which will be very difficult to block effectively.

Prodigy's Prototype creates Pilot creature tokens that are very effective at crewing any Vehicles. These tokens are very similar to Hotshot Mechanic, as both allow you to crew Vehicles as though their power was two greater than it is. This deck also includes a playset of Mech Hangar, which serves a dual purpose. Mech Hangar will provide one mana of any color to use to cast either a Pilot or Vehicle spell. It can also be used to turn a Vehicle into a creature until the end of the turn, eliminating the need to crew that Vehicle. Niche lands like this one make playing a deck like this feel unique, and I always enjoy it when the decks these lands enable are capable of competing.

Wrapping Up

The decks I've brought to you this week are all very specialized decks. They feature the creature types of old Kamigawa, while also adding elements from current-day Kamigawa that fans of Voltron or Power Rangers will enjoy. I can't wait to try out each of these decks once the cards from Kamigawa: Neon Destiny are finally released on Magic Arena.

What do you think of these decks? Do you have any suggestions for improvements? Let me know by leaving a comment below. Also, feel free to share this article with your friends anywhere on social media. And be sure to join me here again next week as I continue my search for innovative decks in Standard. I'll see you then!

-Mike Likes

TAGS articles, standard, constructed, analysis, decklist, mike likes, 02102022, neo standard

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