Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty

 I am actually pretty pumped about Kamigawa:Neon Dynasty.

In a way it seems to be going towards everything magic should be.

New, innovating and having a tension with old and new.

Magic at its heart has always been about innovation and change.

At its heart magic is kinda the ultimate geekdom.

Remember instants and interrupts. Interrupts are what triggers an Operating System to intervene.

Yes thats why interrupts have priority over instants.

And the stack? Hoo boy. Loops? Infinite loops. Yep.

So at its heart magic has been a very systems context. Its kinda like watching Matrix and nodding your head in understanding when the agent assimilate people, or when Agent Smith goes loco with the clones.

In terms of innovation, Magic was always exploratory. The fatasy aspect was the loose duct tape.

First it was permanents versus temporal spells.

Different axis of attacks. The hand, the library, types of permanents. Discard, direct damage, counterspells, land destruction,

poison, mass creature destruction, mass LD, targeted LD,mill, all magic. all flavours.

Thats why I hate the whiners who hate on one aspect, whether it be poison, counterspells or LD or discard.

Its all magic. Deal with it. Man up. Or we could just ban everything :)

Oh well. Magic mirrors life, life mirrors magic.

Anyway Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty looks really really slick. Ninjas, techno spirits, ghost in the shellish tropes. I like it so far.

And in a way NEO (the abbreviation for the SET), is a fitting set to mirror WOTC's current state. Magic is having a very teneous relationship with its past.

Even draft boosters are being question and shaken. Pro play has been largely forsaken. Magic is now pandering to whales annd the boutique customers.

Its all change and we do not know how its all gonna shake out.

But it all looks awesome and pretty, much like the neon lights in NEO.

But would the reality be like?

Hopefully NEO will be a labor of love that bears fruit.

MID and VOW both felt very templated (though the Dracula series art was quite nice). 

NEO feels like there is potential to do so much more.

I would like to be surprised WOTC :)

[20211219 11:22]

Seems like the phyrexians may be involved!!

Summary of what we know so far:

Keyworded Counters will be in

Kyodai, the thingie that got stolen is in

Flip cards, the original dragons( insome form) + other old aspects (like Horobi's Death Wail), enchantment creatures)

Ninjas, Demons (Hidetsugu! Heartless fellow, never called) and funky new full art lands yowza!