Happy Birthday Neon Dynasty (Things That Make Me Happy)

Main Set (Left) & Commander Decks (Right)

Happy early Birthday Neon Dynasty!

I wanted to try something different with this post. Whenever the mood strikes me, I want to talk about things that make me happy. Just an off the cuff post about something in life, big or small, that brings a smile to my face. The world has sucked giant amounts of canal water in recent years, so it’s nice to be able to do something to balance it all out. If any of you liked this, then please let me know when you’re done reading this as soon as you can. So with that out of the way.....let’s get into it!

As you saw right above, this is a birthday celebration for a lovely little Magic The Gathering set called Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty. Longtime MTG fans immediately recognize the first part of that name, as it probably crashes into them like a tidal wave of nostalgia. More casual fans of the game, and even people outside of it, probably don’t understand the feeling that many of us felt when we would return to this world after nearly 20 years of almost not hearing a single peep. However, on the 18th of February in 2022, those of us who longed to return to the world of Feudal Fantasy that was Kamigawa were finally granted passage back into that realm.....but not quite in the way that we all thought.

Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty Official Teaser

To understand what made this such a jaw-dropping return, you need to understand it’s roots. Like I said above, the first time we were in Kamigawa it was in a complete Feudal Fantasy setting. Without going too deep into it’s story (Since it would take quite a while), Kamigawa centered around the events of the Kami War, which was a 20 year battle against the spiritual beings known as Kami. A great crime was committed against them, and thus they seemingly fought against all of the denizens of the plane because of this crime, only for it to finally end once the good guys won the day after going through quite the ordeal. Kamigawa felt very much like a fantasy version of Japan: there were Samurai, Ninjas, an equivalent of Shinto, Oni, old-world Japanese buildings, etc! It honestly felt like an epic story from the Land of the Rising Sun, but once we left after the 3rd part of the story (Saviors Of Kamigawa), it seemed as if Wizards Of The Coast didn’t want to look back. Outside of a few lore elements & teasers, it seemed as if Kamigawa was going to become a distant memory. Little did we know, that in 2022, we would return to the feudal lands.....but in an incredibly remarkable way.

Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty Official Cinematic

As you can tell by the two videos I like above, we most definitely returned to Kamigawa, but now things are incredibly different. The plane of Feudal Fantasy we once knew was gone, and instead a realm of Asian Cyberpunk took it’s place. Make no mistake: there are still Samurai, Kami, and a respect for the traditions of old, but now there’s giant mechs, neon of all colors, and just the right amount of anime references to make this new yet incredibly familiar plane come together to work incredibly well. I confess that when I first heard that Kamigawa was going Cyberpunk I did scratch my head for a second. All of the teases we got years prior never at any point hinted that the plane was heading in that direction, so when the time came to reveal the world a little more (Outside of the tiny bit of art that came out).....we were all in shock.

Building Worlds - Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty

So, why am I talking about this? Well, like I said above, this potential series is about things that make me happy, and this MTG release in February of 2022 is something that constantly makes me have a smile on my face. I should that there were several releases prior to Neon Dynaty that I enjoyed very much. Ikoria, Adventures In The Forgotten Realms, and Crimson Vow were just a couple of the sets that I had fun with.....but they didn’t hit me like Neon Dynasty did. Like I said in my top 5 games of 2022 list, I felt nothing but sheer amounts of pure, unadulterated, genuine joy when I got to play this at a pre-release held in a local Hibachi place. Traveling to this realm of neon harkened back to when I first got into Magic The Gathering nearly 20 years ago, and that feeling has stuck with me since.

Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty w/ Post Malone! l Game Knights 51 l Magic: The Gathering Gameplay Commander

As of the time of me typing this up, I’m 1 card away from finishing number 7 out of 12 EDH decks based around commanders from Neon Dynasty. Budget friendly of course, but 12 decks centered around a world of magic & mecha, and it’s a goal I plan on finishing hopefully by the end of 2023. I can understand why some people might find that silly, and I even agree with those people to a certain extent, but with the big smiling face this set gave me when I first touched it on that fateful day, I felt it was only appropriate to do so.

Let's Play The Kamigawa Neon Dynasty Booster Box Game! | Magic: The Gathering

And that was a birthday celebration of Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty, and the start of a potential new series of posts. If any one of you read this, and are interested in more of this, please leave a comment below. Before I go, take a look at this selection of incredible artwork from the set. I’ll provide a link after the artwork to the site that has the selection I put here, as well as everything else I didn’t get. Enjoy!

Art Of MTG (Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty)