Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty Limited Quiz

Answered: 0/20
Accuracy: 0
Eater of Virtue
Pro Rating: 3.5
Pro Comment: This is Bonesplitter with a whole bunch of upside, and Bonesplitter already tends to be a pretty solid piece of Equipment. +2/+0 for 1 to play and 1 to Equip is just a nice rate, and +2 often enables some nice attacks you didn’t have before. Now, I guess it isn’t all upside, because if you have a creature you would like to get back from the ‘yard later in the game, this won’t let you do it, but I still think the fact that this gets the keyword abilities of the creatures that die is more upside than downside. At the same time, you won’t always have creatures with keyword abilities for this to give other creatures, but still - I like this a lot.
Ninja's Kunai
Average Picked At: 7.28
Total Times Picked: 176
Average Last Seen At: 6.78
Total Times Seen 1152
Pro Rating: 2.5
Pro Comment: You pay a total of 3 mana for Lightning, and that’s not a bad rate in Limited. What’s more is, it also lets you get some synergy – and not only the obvious artifact and Equipment synergy – but also some sacrifice synergy for the RB deck
Mirror Box
Pro Rating: 0.0
Pro Comment: This set has more legendaries than normal, but it still isn’t enough for this to be worth it. A very, very low percentage of drafts will have you end up with enough duplicate creatures and legendaries for this to actually do something worth the card and the mana.
Seismic Wave
Average Picked At: 4.91
Total Times Picked: 68
Average Last Seen At: 4.60
Total Times Seen 336
Pro Rating: 3.5
Pro Comment: mana to do 2 to anything isn’t incredible, but the one damage it does to all non-artifact creatures is quite nice. There are lots of things this card can end up doing. For example, if you do the 2 damage to a non-artifact creature, this will actually end up doing 3 total. You can also use it kill an X/2 and then pick off an X/1 or two. This card will occasionally cause big blowouts against X/1s, and it probably makes non-artifact X/1s in this format a little bit worse than normal. I think in the end, this is premium removal.
Acquisition Octopus
Average Picked At: 6.60
Total Times Picked: 50
Average Last Seen At: 4.84
Total Times Seen 337
Pro Rating: 2.5
Pro Comment: 3-mana 2/2s that draw you a card when they hit the opponent are always kind of alright. If you can get a blocker out of the way, or give them evasion, they can do some work. The nice thing with this verison of it, is that if the Octopus can’t get it done on its own, it can give that ability to another creature that is more capable of getting in there.
Atsushi, the Blazing Sky
Average Picked At: 1.47
Total Times Picked: 19
Average Last Seen At: 1.43
Total Times Seen 22
Pro Rating: 5.0
Pro Comment: A 4-mana 4/4 with Trample and Flying is already great, and Atsushi also makes sure that you always get some kind of value out of it, even if it dies immediately. If you can make use of both cards it reveals, you are getting a 3-for-1, and if you really need mana or fixing the Treasure can help you there. Basically, this puts your opponent in a situation where they are going to die to a 4/4 Flyer or give you a ton of value, and that’s a nice choice to give them! Obviously enough, this is a bomb.
Peerless Samurai
Pro Rating: 3.0
Pro Comment: This is a nice little Common. A 3-mana ⅔ with Menace is a decent starting point, and adding an “attack alone” payoff to the card is nice, and the one you get here is going to be pretty relevant, especially if you play the Samurai on turn 3. It is likely to help you either double spell or play a 4-drop on turn 4, and either of those are pretty appealing.
Fable of the Mirror-Breaker // Reflection of Kiki-Jiki
Average Picked At: 1.29
Total Times Picked: 24
Average Last Seen At: 1.41
Total Times Seen 34
Pro Rating: 4.5
Pro Comment: Unlike a lot of these sagas, it adds to the board immediately with a 2/2 token – and one that can make you some treasure, which is certainly pretty nice! Chapter II’s rummage effect will sometimes come in handy too, and then when you get to chapter 3 you get a pretty powerful creature in Reflection of Kiki-Jiki. Sure, you need another creature around that’s worth copying, but you frequently will just have something else you can make a copy of that will really change the way you attack that turn. You can even copy the 2/2 that you got with Chapter I, although that isn’t the most exciting thing ever. Either way, this Saga adds to the board right away, gives you some card selection, and then you get a creature who is generally going to be a real problem for your opponent. You get a ton of value for the mana you invest, and while you have to wait for your returns – getting a good portion of them in Chapter I is a pretty big deal.
March of Burgeoning Life
Pro Rating: 0.0
Pro Comment: The other Marches are all pretty good in Limited. This one is unplayable. Having duplicates of creatures that this is worth using on just isn’t that likely, and it isn’t even like it does a whole lot when you do, as you’re just tutoring a very specific creature into play – and usually paying one more mana than that card costs.
Tribute to Horobi // Echo of Death's Wail
Pro Rating: 3.5
Pro Comment: Well, this is a weird card. Giving your opponent a couple of 1/1s is not usually something you want to be doing, and there will definitely be times where your opponent can utilize those tokens effectively. In fact, because you want to gain control of them when you get Echo of Death’s Wail, your opponent knows you probably aren’t that interested in blocking them! So they are likely to chip in for a few damage – and, if your opponent blows this up after Chapter II you’re going to feel really bad. However, if things go according to plan – and I think they will more often than they won’t – you eventually gain control of those rats and get a 3/3 Flyer with Haste who can sacrifice a creature to draw a card. That’s insane for the amount of mana you invest. And yes, like with all of these sgas, you’re sort of stuck in a situation where you aren’t sure you can beat the clock, but this one is so cheap to cast, and has such a powerful ceiling that I really like it overall.
Gift of Wrath
Average Picked At: 12.48
Total Times Picked: 115
Average Last Seen At: 10.30
Total Times Seen 1653
Pro Rating: 2.0
Pro Comment: This is the kind of Aura I feel alright about playing. +2/+2 and Menace is a very real stats boost, and the fact that this leaves behind a creature token when the enchanted creature dies is quite nice – and helps mitigate against the risk of getting 2-for-1’d. Now, it is still an Aura, and probably only one that you run in very aggressive decks, but it will be solid there.
Surgehacker Mech
Average Picked At: 1.60
Total Times Picked: 40
Average Last Seen At: 1.88
Total Times Seen 50
Pro Rating: 4.0
Pro Comment: On its own, it will do 2 damage to an opposing creature or planeswalker when it comes down. This means it impacts the board immediately in most cases, and sometimes it will kill much larger things. Crew 4 is definitely high, even for a 5/5 with Menace, but the ETB ability helps soften the blow there, and a 5/5 Menace does hit pretty hard. This is going to feel a bit like Flame-Tongue Kavu in Vehicle form, and I’m all in on that.
Reckoner Bankbuster
Pro Rating: 4.0
Pro Comment: The casting cost is great for a 4/4, and the Crew is a little bit high, but it more than makes up for that with its activated ability, which will net you some cards, give you a creature token that can crew it, and even fix your mana a little bit. It may take a few turns to get going, but at times where you don’t have those turns, you’ll probably also just be able to crew it.
Blossoming Sands
Average Picked At: 8.63
Total Times Picked: 60
Average Last Seen At: 5.72
Total Times Seen 411
Pro Rating: 2.5
Pro Comment: Like always, these provide some very nice fixing, and its nice to see them at Common, as it will make splashing a third color pretty simple. Fixing is great, even if you aren’t going three colors – a dual land really helps your mana base in a two color deck.
Tatsunari, Toad Rider
Pro Rating: 4.5
Pro Comment: This 3-mana 3/3 has a ton of upside. If you can manage to cast an Enchantment you’re going to end up with 6/6 worth of stats that is very difficult to block, and that even drains your opponent when you play Enchantments! It is definitely kind of a build around, as it really needs Enchantments to excel, but because it has such a reasonable baseline you can even play this in a deck with only one Enchantment and feel pretty good about it. And..this set has a lot of Enchantments, so getting enough of them in your deck isn’t a very big ask.
Go-Shintai of Hidden Cruelty
Average Picked At: 5.43
Total Times Picked: 76
Average Last Seen At: 4.49
Total Times Seen 299
Pro Rating: 3.0
Pro Comment: A 4-mana 2/2 with death touch is not a great statline, but obviously being able to pick off 1 toughness creatures when your opponent has one is definitely going to feel pretty huge, and there will be a decent number of them lying around. Once you get to where you can kill X/2s, though, is where this thing can really get silly. Like the other Shrines in this set, this card is perfectly fine even if its your only shrine, and I’m glad they designed them this way, as opposed to the way we’ve seen them in the past. Because yeah, the fail case of a 4-mana 2/2 that can trade with anything and pick off X/1s is a pretty good floor, while the ceiling is pretty amazing.
Essence Capture
Average Picked At: 10.58
Total Times Picked: 43
Average Last Seen At: 7.60
Total Times Seen 538
Pro Rating: 2.0
Pro Comment: This is a card we’ve seen printed a few times now, and its always decent. Once you get down to two mana, Counterspells get pretty interesting, and while it is unfortunate this one costs double blue, it is still fairly easy to get value out of it, as most decks will have 15+ targets, and the +1/+1 counter is a great thing to tack on.
March of Wretched Sorrow
Average Picked At: 2.24
Total Times Picked: 21
Average Last Seen At: 2.39
Total Times Seen 47
Pro Rating: 4.0
Pro Comment: This is premium removal. It won’t always be super efficient – in fact it usually won’t be, because you have to spend one more mana than the toughness the creature has – but the fact that you gain that life back is a big deal. Casting this for 6 to kill a 5/5 is going to feel incredibly swingy! Especially at Instant speed. Like with all the Marches, you probably don’t want to be exiling cards to cast it too often, but it does give the card some extra punch – and there will be situations where it makes sense to do – like if you need to exile a card to do enough damage to kill a blocking creature, or to enable you to play another powerful spell on the same turn.
Invoke Calamity
Pro Rating: 2.5
Pro Comment: You’ll get the most value out of this if you’re casting stuff from your graveyard, so it does require at least a little bit of set-up. If you are just casting things from your hand, you aren’t actually gaining cards, you’re getting a discount – and while a discount is nice, getting two whole cards of value out of this will pretty much always be better. Of course, it costs quadruple Red, and by the time you have that kind of mana, your graveyard is pretty likely to be stocked. As with all of these cycles, though, that mana is also a hefty downside in Limited, as getting quadruple of a single color can be tough in your typical 2-color Limited deck. The payoff here is good for sure, but I think the other cards in this cycle give you more for the difficult mana cost. If this was easy to cast, I would probably give it a 3.5, but I think the challenge of casting it makes it a 2.5.
Greasefang, Okiba Boss
Pro Rating: 4.0
Pro Comment: This looks pretty darn good, between the great stats and the Vehicle recursion. Obviously, you need some Vehicles in the graveyard to really get there with this, but there are enough of them in this set, that I can see Greasefang doing the job a significant chunk of the time. Even just doing it once is immensely powerful, since you not only get a quick swing in, you also get it back in your hand.
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