Magic: The Gathering’s latest series brings cyberpunk’s cyber half
A familiar threat lurks in the new Magic set, Reign of Neon, but everything else seems completely chaotic. Jellyfish cybernetics? Transform the civet cat mask? With Magic slipping into a cyberpunk future on neon tracks for the first time, anything seems possible. With the series coming up – February 10th on Arena and MTGO, ahead of the February 18th tabletop release – previews start today, so for the past few days I’ve been wearing frames into Magic’s network space.
In this modern-day version of Kamigawa, things are already looking weird – I existed before Magic’s first ice age, and I never decided whether to stuff jellyfish into my brain or Unleash it on my enemies.
What happened to Kamikawa?
This group travels to this day in Kamigawa history. In the three previous visits — going all the way back to 2004/2005, in our boring and dragonless world — Kamigawa had been 1,200 years past the current Magic timeline. Having grown and healed from the events of the original scene, the Kamigawa plane has seen technological innovations fill its landscape with skyscrapers and neon-washed streets. Traditional buildings and shrines nestle among high-tech glass and steel boulders, and samurai stride the streets.
This is definitely not the pastoral Kamigawa in memory.
(Image credit: Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast)
What is the story of Neon Dynasty?
We’re on a familiar plane, facing well-known threats, but mysteries abound: a missing emperor, Kamigawa’s patron saint attacked about 10 years ago, and a distinctly Phyrexian flavor people turned into machines. Kaito Shizuki – the Emperor’s childhood friend and ninja planeswalker – is the main character of the main story, who disappears after a man with a metal arm storms the palace and attacks the Patronus. Kaito has been looking for her for 10 years and has joined a group called “Futurists” who advance science. The Planeswalker Tezzeret was in Kamigawa, working with the group, but he secretly allied himself with a Phyrexian Archon who had been experimenting with gods.
A pretty decent webhook if you ask me.
Image 1 of 19 (Image credit: Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast) Image 2 of 19 (Image credit: Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast) Image 3 of 19 (Image credit: Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast) Image 4 of 19 (Image credit: Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast) Image credit: Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast) Image 5 of 19 (Image credit: Hasbro/Wizard of the Coast) Image 6 of 19 (Image credit: Hasbro/Wizard of the Coast) Image 7 of 19 (Image credit: Hasbro/Wizard Po/Wizards of the Coast) Image 8 of 19 (Image credit: Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast) Image 9 of 19 (Image credit: Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast) Image 10 of 19 (Image credit: Hasbro/Wizard of the Coast) ) Image 11 of 19 (Image credit: Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast) Image 12 of 19 (Image credit: Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast) Image 13 of 19 (Image credit: Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast) Image 14 of 19 (Image credit: Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast) Image 15 of 19 (Image credit: Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast) Image 16 of 19 (Image credit: Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast) Image 17 of 19 (Image credit: Hasbro) Image 18 of 19 (Image credit: Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast) Image 19 of 19 (Image credit: Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast)
Which previous mechanics are returning?
I’m most excited to be back Ninjutsu, my favorite old Kamigawa game, by paying a ninjutsu fee, you can swap unblocked attacking creatures for the ones in your hand. Leading the ninja is the Silver-Fur Master, the well-dressed guy who completely missed the chance to get the crossover card, the ninja-seeking planeswalker Satoru Umezawa, and Kaito himself.
We also see the rare appearance of enchanted creatures outside Theros – the magical plane they were introduced to – as part of the Neon Dynasty’s focus on enchantments as “tradition” and artifacts as “progress.”
legend Also returning under the traditional banner, but this time they have a twist, as Neon Dynasty will see Sagas turn into creatures when they expire. Even a decent saga becomes more playable when it turns into some sort of bio-threat at the end, so there are some potential mainstays in the idea.
Here again is a new cycle of monochromatic Legendary Soul Dragons, and as before, they do something special when they die. Unlike the original, the new dragon cycle lets you choose different options when you die. What we’ve seen so far is strong, and while the original Kokusho was strong enough to be a staple for years, he didn’t even give us a choice.
While our examples so far are few, Wizards says shrine Will be back too, I’m always happy to get more for my Commander deck. I imagine they could well be another monochromatic cycle, but they could also be multicolored.
There are no new previews of them yet, but we know vehicle Will also play a big role in the series (white/blue is all about them). Hopefully we get some cool cyberpunk supercars or something to rip downtown with goblins.
What does the new mechanic of Neon Dynasty look like?
Thankfully, the much-maligned Bushido isn’t returning, but we’re getting a new tool for the samurai to replace it. This new mechanic is similar to Sublime, where samurai creatures (and warriors) are rewarded for attacking alone, but without keywords. I hope to see some truly awesome samurai this time around, because in the original series, they were the worst creatures around.
Equip the creature are new, as a modular card, you can use their new reconfiguration ability to switch between being a device or a creature. The usefulness of these cards varies from card to card, but as long as Wizards adds versatility to a card, its power levels increase considerably. Enabling your gear to be a mob when you don’t have it, or to be an gear when you already have it, eliminates many possible dead draw situations.
and channel, you’ll have more options as you can choose to drop cards for different effects. In the case of Moonsnare Prototype and Greater Tanuki, we’ve seen Channel being more expensive and cheaper than the card itself, so the option to upgrade early game to deal with bigger issues or get rid of the high-cost creature mana fixed is all shown off. Similar to cycling, if you have the right effects and mana cost pinned to it, this can be a powerful effect that can make your game smoother.
I’m not sure how many cards we’ll see in the set since it seems to be exclusive to planeswalkers, but Finish is a new type of mana symbol that combines the Phyrexian symbol and the split mana symbol. It’s important to note that if you choose to pay lives, the rules tooltip will tell us that the card comes in with two less loyalty counters. It’s an interesting way to balance the power of having planeswalkers turn a turn earlier than usual — but it’s probably more of a mechanic for use in future sets that interact with Phyrexia, while Not the mechanical dynasty we’ll see a lot in Neon.
The last new key for the collection is Revise, which is short for “if this creature has an aura, equipment, or counters.” I like this key word: it’s much better than the previous mechanic that focused on gear or one of those other things. It will interact better with future cards that may have slightly different themes.
Image 1 of 22 (Image credit: Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast) Image 2 of 22 (Image credit: Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast) Image 3 of 22 (Image credit: Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast) Image 4 of 22 (Image credit: Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast) Image credit: Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast) Image 5 of 22 (Image credit: Hasbro/Wizard of the Coast) Image 6 of 22 (Image credit: Hasbro/Wizard of the Coast) Image 7 of 22 (Image credit: Hasbro Po/Wizards) Image 8 of 22 (Image credit: Hasbro/Wizards) Image 9 of 22 (Image credit: Hasbro/Wizards) Image 10 of 22 (Image credit: Hasbro/Wizards) Wizards of the Coast) Image 11 of 22 (Image credit: Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast) Image 12 of 22 (Image credit: Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast) Image 13 of 22 (Image credit: Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast) Image 14 of 22 (Image credit: Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast) Image 15 of 22 (Image credit: Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast) Image 16 of 22 (Image credit: Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast) Image 17 of 22 (Image credit: Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast) Credit: Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast Image 18 of 22 (Image credit: Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast) Image 19 of 22 (Image credit: Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast) Image 20 of 22 (Image credit: Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast) of the Coast) Image 21 of 22 (Image credit: Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast) Image 22 of 22 (Image credit: Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast)
What about showcases, special frames and alternative art?
As standard in the new set, Magic brings a whole range of techniques to showcase framing and alternative art.
I asked Wizards if there would be any cyberpunk crossovers — like Blade Runner, Cyberpunk 2077, or Ghost in the Shell — but they said that while tempted, they wanted to focus on Kamigawa and its story as it has been since we saw the plane. So you won’t find any of them in your backpack like we did with Dracula and his ilk in Crimson Vow.
- Both ninjas and samurai have their own framework. With ninjas, you can expect around 22 creatures, plus what we know as ninja planeswalkers, while samurai has 21 creatures, plus the Wandering Emperor gets the samurai frame treatment. As usual, this will include alternative art in addition to framing.
- Foil etching is back in the collector booster with another different look. In this case, it’s basically a “metallic” effect sometimes used to display cards instead of regular rainbow foil. It is also exclusive to collector boosters.
- There will be two Phyrexian reveal cards, one we know from Tamiyo, both containing Phyrexian text.
- Every rarity and tome that isn’t a planeswalker will have an expanded art card.
- Some card loops will also have borderless alternate art. We know that planeswalkers, legendary lands, and spirit dragons will definitely get it.
- Based on traditional woodblock prints, Ukiyo-e lands do not basically replace all lands in the series, but have a chance to appear in every type of pack.
- A number of cards with display frames will be able to appear in the new Soft Light Treatment box (37 rares and 6 esoterics to be exact).
- Of course, there’s also the cool-looking four-color Hidetsugu neon ink foil, red-green and blue only found in the Collector Booster, and the yellow Hidetsugu is an exclusive bonus available through the Wizards Games Network.
Photo 1 of 4 (Photo credit: Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast) Photo 2 of 4 (Photo credit: Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast) Photo 3 of 4 (Photo credit: Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast) Photo 4 of 4 (Photo credit: Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast) Image credit: Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast)
What can we expect from the Magic Arena?
This version comes with a bunch of the usual cosmetic options, including a rather cute pet this time around in Pompom – an origami cyborg cat – and a cool-looking holographic koi. There are also new avatars and a new Kamigawa Battlefield for you to show off your cards like the best digital gamepad I can think of.
Discover more articles in our categories Gaming & News ou encore Anime.
Thanks for visiting we hope our article Magic: The Gathering’s latest series brings cyberpunk’s cyber half
, don’t forget to share the article on Facebook, instagram and e-mail with the hashtags ☑️ #Magic #Gatherings #latest #series #brings #cyberpunks #cyber ☑️!
