Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty is almost here! Players have asked for a return to the mystical plane for years, and after an excruciating wait, we’re finally back. A lot has changed since our previous visit, though: techwear is in, mechs and Vehicles are in abundance, and the music is pumping!
There are also a number of wild and exciting legendary creatures, just waiting to become popular and powerful commanders. Today, I’ll be putting three of them on display, to highlight the depth, complexity, power, and (sometimes) the absurdity of the cards in this set. Without further ado, let’s hop to it!
Tatsunari, Toad Rider – Sagas
Many players are excited to start building around Tatsunari and their “little” friend Keimi. They’re perfect as a dedicated Sultai Enchantress commander, which is something that brewers were anticipating for some time. Their first ability drains opponents whenever you play enchantment spells, which leans into a slower, more grindy game plan. The second ability gives your commander and their amphibian friend evasion, which can help you pierce through defenses in the late game.
The approach I’m taking with this build is going to lean heavily on one of the core mechanics of Neon Dynasty: Sagas!
Since the game plan is centered around enchantments and Tatsunari’s drain ability leans toward grinding opponents down, Sagas feel like the most interesting choice. They’re all enchantments, and they provide nickel-and-dime attrition that builds over the course of the game. Most of the Sagas’ effects aren’t particularly synergistic themselves, but their initial investment allows you to set up more powerful effects a turn or two ahead of time.
You could set up a board wipe with Phyrexian Scriptures, for example, then use The Eldest Reborn to take the best creature for yourself!
Not all Sagas are just dedicated “good stuff,” though. Kiora Bests the Sea God gives you a huge beater and then clears the way for it to attack, before you steal your opponents’ best permanent. The Trickster-God’s Heist is also great for invoking the political side of players, allowing you to force trade deals to your benefit, or in exchange for a favor.
No Enchantress deck would be complete without enchantresses! The classics are all here: Eidolon of Blossoms, Verduran Enchantress, and Argothian Enchantress tack “draw a card” onto every enchantment you play, ensuring you never run out of gas.
As Sagas can eventually run out of things to do, it’s good practice to have a way to reuse them. Riptide Chimera and Shimmerwing Chimera are creatures that bounce an enchantment on your upkeep, allowing you to replay them for endless value. You can also return the new flip Sagas to your hand with Crystal Shard once they’ve completed their chapters, so you can start over for even more gain.
Since these Sagas all use lore counters, there are a number of ways you can influence them. The typical proliferate effects like Flux Channeler are here to speed up your Sagas’ effects, but the real spice is in the ability to remove counters! Cards like Power Conduit and Hex Parasite can manipulate the chapters on your sagas, allowing you to constantly re-trigger them for maximum effect.
While you can grind with the best of them, you still need to be able to close the game. Since you’ll have a lot of enchantments in play and your commander has evasion, it makes sense to take advantage of that. Helm of the Gods can turn Tatsunari or Keimi into a lethal threat on the spot, or at least make them into a two-turn clock.
If you’d prefer to win through all the value you’ll be eking out, Oath of the Ancient Wood will turn Tatsunari into a Voltron threat over the course of a few turns instead. This is also useful when you’re not trying to win, as it will organically grow your creatures over time.
If you’d prefer to win with a surprise beater, Thief of Blood can become a lethal threat with very little effort. Not only will this completely hose other decks that rely on +1/+1 counters or planeswalkers, but it will also reset your Sagas for even more value!
Tatsunari, Toad Rider is a fascinating commander, and using Sagas to their benefit is a wonderfully quirky way to play with them. If you want to grind your opponents to dust, but you also want to take several game actions per turn before winning with commander damage, then this is the deck for you!
Hinata, Dawn-Crowned – X Spells/Control
Hinata, Dawn-Crowned is one of the most hyped commanders from Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty, and for great reason. Their abilities reduce spell costs for you while increasing them for your opponents, but only on spells that target. While some people are looking at this as a Stax commander a la Grand Arbiter Augustin IV, I see this as an opportunity to support expensive spells with multiple targets, particularly X spells!
Cost reducers are always popular, as they make powerful spells much more efficient. At the small end of the scale, Hinata can turn Arcane Denial or Negate into ruthlessly efficient spells, but the real power is in the biggest spells with multiple targets. Magma Opus, for example, can cost half as much if you divide the damage across four different targets. Tapping two permanents, dealing one damage to each of four targets, making a 4/4 Elemental, and drawing two cards is a steal for four mana, especially since it was already a fine enough rate at twice the price!
Some modal spells also have multiple targets, like Sublime Epiphany and Mystic Confluence. If you can make use of just four of the modes on Sublime Epiphany, it costs as little as Counterspell. That kind of rate is absolutely unheard of; these efficient spells in addition to Hinata’s tax on opponents will effectively guarantee you win any counter war or stack battle.
When it comes to removal, you have plenty of choices with X spells. By Force, Heliod’s Intervention, and Curse of the Swine are all staple spells as it is, but they become truly absurd in this deck. Every time you wish to add another target, their costs increase by one, but Hinata’s ability negates that. The result? While Hinata’s on board, they become board wipes for just their initial color pip investment!
While Hinata turns these potent spells into efficient powerhouses, it’s important to ensure she gets the appropriate support. Most of the powerful X spells cost just one or two mana, as the value for X is considered to be 0 (except when on the stack). This means that Spellseeker can find much more here, even when compared to the typical Spellslinger deck.
Zaffai, Thunder Conductor is an incredible value engine that can reward your use of large spells, especially as you scale into the late game. Their abilities are relevant at any time, with smaller spells giving you a free scry, and bigger spells either adding to your battlefield or doming opponents.
Since most of your X spells can hit multiple targets, Mavinda’s ability can help you squeeze even more value from them. All you have to do is target one of your own creatures as part of the spell; since you’ll be making tokens with the likes of Zaffai or Saheeli, Sublime Artificer, it’s trivial to skirt around this restriction.
When it comes to winning the game, you can always rely on Blatant Thievery to borrow your opponents’ win conditions. When the cost gets reduced to just four mana thanks to Hinata, though, it feels like a steal!
As with most Spellslinger-like decks, you’ll likely have a few tokens lying around. Why not turn them into your win conditions with Indomitable Creativity? Hinata makes this cost just three red mana for any number of targets, so you can target a bunch of tokens and turn them into creatures like Nezahal, Primal Tide, Niv-Mizzet, Parun, and Hullbreaker Horror! There’s always the possibility that Creativity hits some mana rocks, but turning some spare tokens into a boost of mana will help you to cast even bigger X spells!
Finally, if you want to win in style, Crackle with Power is a fine statement piece. It’s already efficient, but Hinata will make it even more frightening. Just be ready to pull out a calculator: even Magic Hall of Famer Paulo Vitor Damo de Rosa had trouble deciphering how the spell worked initially, and that’s without cost reduction in the mix!
If Spellslinger decks have felt a little too small-scale for you, then Hinata, Dawn-Crowned might just be the commander that changes your mind. Even when they’re not on board, the spells in the deck are powerful and can carry you through the game. But as soon as the Kirin Spirit breaks on the horizon, things start to look as bright as the sun.
Mechtitan Core/Mechtitan – The Most Literal Voltron Ever
Mechs are one of the focal points of Neon Dynasty. They highlight just how far the plane has come since our last visit, and they’re a nod to the many shows that raised a lot of the Magic community. From Power Rangers to Voltron and Neon Genesis: Evangelion, there are far too many that fit the description to mention. What better way to celebrate them than to build a Rule 0, five-color Commander deck based around Mechtitan Core?
The main goal of the deck is to form the Mechtitan: a powerful Construct, and the most literal form of Voltron in all of Magic. It’s created through use of the Mechtitan Core’s activated ability, and it requires a number of artifact creatures and Vehicles to come online.
The core of the deck (pun intended) is the Vehicle suite. Most of the Vehicles come from either Kaladesh or Neon Dynasty, and they form a powerful army that avoids most board wipes. Most of the Vehicles are here to either enable the Mechtitan or synergize with the rest of the deck. However, some of the Vehicles come with additional utility; for example, Mobilizer Mech and Peacewalker Colossus can both animate other Vehicles. Skysovereign, Consul Flagship and Surgehacker Mech double as removal, and Parhelion II is now much more than a meme. It can regularly attack with ease, creating more pilots for your Vehicles!
Speaking of pilots, it’s important to ensure you have enough bodies to crew the fleet! Cards like Alela, Artful Provocateur and Sai, Master Thopterist give you an extra body when you play a Vehicle, which will go a long way towards animating them.
Magda, Brazen Outlaw is one of the most powerful tools in your arsenal. Not only can she give you Treasures when she crews Vehicles, but she can tutor up any Vehicle or artifact you want! There’s a tertiary Dwarf subtheme in the deck, too, with cards like Sram, Senior Edificer, Depala, Pilot Exemplar, and Rowdy Crew; since Magda buffs their power, they can crew even bigger Vehicles!
There’s plenty of value to be found in the hangar, too. Vehicles like Weatherlight and Smuggler’s Copter can help to find the right cards at the right time, ensuring you never run out of gas (again, pun intended).
When you’re at the final lap, you need to be sure you can cross the finish line. Armed and Armored is a sleeper card from Kaldheim, and it’s particularly dangerous here. Vehicles tend to avoid most board wipes, but the creatures that crew them can be removed easily. If you cast this after a board wipe, you could easily take out the player that tried to control the board; you might even be able to take out the entire table!
Alibou, Ancient Witness gives your team some extra reach, pushing damage through before blockers are even declared. The scry ability is also particularly useful with value Vehicles like Weatherlight, as it’ll help set them up for higher quality draws.
If the game starts to drag on, you might even get a surprise mill win through The Omenkeel’s exile ability! It’s the last thing an opponent will expect from a Vehicle deck that’s helmed by a Mighty Morphin’ Megazord, but that’s exactly the kind of victory that will stay in players’ minds, much like the shows this deck pays homage to.
This deck originally started out as a joke, but the more I looked into it, the more I realized that this thing has legs. It’s armed with all the tools to play well, and if you use your head, you’ll find that it wins games, too. If the core of Commander for you is about having fun in your own way, then this deck might mech for a great experience. (Sorry, not sorry.)
Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty is full of incredible cards, art, mechanics, and pop culture references. No matter what your preference in play style or theme might be, there’s something in this set for you.
What do you think of these decks? Do you have a favorite card or commander from this set? Would you play with a Rule 0 Mech deck? I’d love to know your thoughts over on Twitter! Happy brewing!
Scott is an Irish content creator and the Head of Budget Magic for the Izzet League. He focuses on affordable decks in Pioneer, Modern, and Pauper, particularly ones that stray from the mainstream. When he’s not writing about his favorite decks, he can be found talking incessantly about them on Twitter and on The Budget Magic Cast.