Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty EDH Set Review - Artifacts & Lands
Mechtitan Token | Art by Victor Adame Minguez
Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty Artifacts & Lands EDH Set Review
More Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty Commander Reviews
White | Blue | Black | Red | Green | Multicolor | cEDH
Get in the Mechtitan, Reader
Welcome to the final chapter of our whirlwind journey through Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty. It's my job to bring you the best of the artifacts and lands, and I won't let the rest of the team down, I promise. Lots to talk about, though, so let's skip the chatter and get straight to the mechanical marvels.
The Rares - Artifacts
Eater of Virtue
They finally did it. They went and built a better Bonesplitter.
Efficient stats aside, this hungry little blade is a great addition for decks that like their keyword soup, such as Rayami, First of the Fallen and Odric, Lunarch Marshal. Having your creatures be exiled is a bit of a downside, sure, but you can even turn that into an upside with cards that care about creatures leaving the graveyard, such as Syr Konrad, the Grim and Quintorius, Field Historian. All in all, a tricky little Equipment that does more that's more than it may seem.
Mechtitan Core
Actual, factual Voltron. Neat.
I'm a bit sad that they didn't make the rest of the Mechtitan titan parts as separate cards, but there are enough other cool robots in the set to be able to cobble together something neat. Sure, there's combo potential with the right creatures and cards like Feldon of the Third Path or Pull from Eternity, but can't we all just stop for a moment and appreciate the fact that we get to combine five robots into one giant robot? Can't that be enough just this once? I hope so.
Mirror Box
What do you get when you combine Mirror Gallery with a bit of Day of Destiny and a splash of Coat of Arms? One heck of a sweet card, that's what.
As cards like Spark Double and Sakashima of a Thousand Faces have recently showed us, being able to circumvent the legend rule is pretty darn strong, considering we're playing a format with decks built around legendary creatures. The possibilities with this card are frankly endless. What does your commander do? How about you do it more, and not even just once more? This is almost certain to be a near auto-include in blue decks that are commander-focused for a long time to come, and I look forward to seeing how folks break this card in half in the weeks ahead.
Reckoner Bankbuster
Rat heist, rat heist, rat heist!
Here we have an efficient little Vehicle that also does a good impression of Mazemind Tome. Draws cards early, attacks later, good stuff here all around. The real fun is in abusing that "no charge counters" clause on the activated ability, though. Once you've depleted the Bankbuster naturally, you can use cards like Surge Node and Energy Chamber to add back a charge counter on each of your turns and watch this getaway car start to resemble a clown car as tons of pilots and Treasure tokens come pouring out of it over and over. Just how successful was the heist? Laughably so.
Surgehacker Mech
Who ordered the extra crispy planeswalker?
More of a niche card than the rest of the rare artifacts here, this is still certain to be a nice role player in any vehicle deck going forward. Doubly good if you can blink it or the like. The 5/5 menace body isn't bad either, though Crew 4 is a touch high. As a creature, this is likely at its best when you can cheat that Crew cost with pilot tokens or cards like Peacewalker Colossus.
The Rares - Lands
Let's get this out of the way so I don't have to say it for all of these lands: they're all great and all playable with almost no opportunity cost. They're mostly uncounterable because of being abilities instead of spells, which is a big plus. Run them if you have them and your deck isn't too reliant on having a lot of basics or specific land subtypes around. They get better in decks with more legendary creatures around, but even just having your commander in play makes them all reasonable.
Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire
Don't make Yoshimaru get up off of that throne...
Four damage isn't a lot in Commander and isn't likely to kill many relevant creatures by itself, but combine this ability with a creature of your own and this becomes a lot more reasonable. Worse than straight-up removal, but we can't have white getting any cards that are too good, right? I mean these lands are all only of moderate power... right?
Otawara, Soaring City
Well, it's nice to see that they were able to put Sorin to some good use after he got stuck in that wall.
Good bounce spells are always appreciated, and mostly uncounterable ones doubly so. The fact that the ability lists out types also allows it to bounce cards that are lands and another type, which a lot of modern bounce spells also can't do due to "nonland" targeting restrictions. This one is better than it looks at first examination, and I have to assume that it's going to become one of those cards that shows up in stories that start with "I would have won, except..."
Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
How does a mire become abandoned exactly? I mean, the animals and plants didn't leave. And what would a non-abandoned mire look like, exactly?
I've really been enjoying the recent trend of adding some self-mill onto black effects that return cards from your graveyard to your hand. It makes the card useful if you're digging for an answer and don't already have it in your graveyard. Also, it means that these sorts of effects don't target any card specifically, making them immune to exile effects from cards like Lion Sash and giving you something back no matter what. Additionally, black has only recently started to be able to return planeswalkers from the dead, and it's a nice bit of added versatility on the effect.
Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance
At what temperature does defiance melt?
Two generic tokens. That's all you get here. I mean, they have haste for the turn, and they're Spirits, but this effect is just about giving you more bodies at a mediocre rate. Of all of the cards in the cycle, this is probably the one I'm the least excited about. It's just so unexciting. Sure, decks like Zada, Hedron Grinder and Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer will probably want this, but only because it's more bodies/tokens. It's a fine card, but just... meh.
Boseiju, Who Endures
They're really making Boseiju work hard to Shelter All, aren't they?
What can I say about this card that hasn't already been said? It's pushed as heck and definitely the chase card of the set. This is the one effect that's efficiently costed even without a legendary creature in play. Sure, your opponent gets to tutor out a land with a basic land type, but it's a fair trade for removing their problem permanent in a nearly unanswerable way. This card is amazing. Both arts for it are amazing. Play it in all your green decks now and forever if you can get your hands on it.
Notable Uncommons & Commons
Containment Construct
It turns out the Conspiracy Theorist was right all along and really is getting replaced by a machine.
This card is deceptively strong. It makes Windfall better. It makes Lion's Eye Diamond better. It even makes One with Nothing better. If you're playing a deck that discards card on even a semi-regular basis, you should probably be running this card.
Towashi Guide-Bot / Walking Skyscraper
Sure, these cards are great in decks dedicated to counters, Auras, or Equipment, but those things also happen fairly regularly for decks not dedicated to them. Next time you're playing a game, just stop and look at how many Modified creatures you control: It's likely to be at least a couple. Now read these cards again and think about how playable they might be in your decks.
Roadside Reliquary
And speaking of things that happen regularly for decks not necessarily dedicated to a theme...
You're almost certain to control an artifact--hello, mana rocks--and utility enchantments are just a thing that happens in Commander. If your deck is dedicated to one or the other of these card types, then Roadside Reliquary is likely to be able to draw you two cards pretty regularly. Will all decks want or need that? No, but some will, and the Roadside Reliquary will be there waiting to help you out.
I am utterly and completely shocked that a set featuring high technology and giant robots more than delivers on its artifacts, both colored and colorless. This set is so amazingly cool and full of gorgeous and quirky cards that I don't know if I can really wait another week or two to get my cybernetic hands on it. I'm certainly going to have a lot of fun brewing with Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty, and I hope that you will too.
There are so many amazing colorless cards in this set, and so many more colored artifacts that I didn't get a chance to talk about today. Of those, the cards I'm the most hyped for are Blade of the Oni, Ogre-Head Helm, and Imposter Mech. And don't even get me started on the non-artifact cards...
Until next time, friends. This is Charlotte, jacking out.
