Into the Arena: Brewing with Neon Dynasty!

Are you looking to play Standard with Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty decks but don’t know where to start? Today I’ll be looking at two brand new decks for Standard that are heavily inspired by the recently-released set! 

There are a number of strong themes in Neon Dynasty but two in particular have sparked my curiosity. The first deck I knew I had to try brewing was Ninjas. This classic Kamigawa tribe is the main theme for Dimir in Neon Dynasty and there are a number of exciting new Ninja cards to try out, starting with Thousand-Faced Shadow and Nashi, Moon Sage’s Scion. 

I also wanted to try out a Selesnya enchantment-based aggro deck, as I discussed last week when looking at the new card Kami of Transience. There are a ton of new green and white cards that synergize with enchantments, and the new enchantments themselves are very exciting! It will be difficult for new decks to break into the Standard metagame based on power alone, because the current control and aggro decks are already very strong. However, decks with lots of synergy might have a chance. The deck I have brewed for green-white has many small combos, and if the pieces come together it could be very powerful. 

Dimir Ninjas

Standard

The above list is my starting point for a Standard Ninjas deck. I have focused on making Ninjitsu as powerful as possible in the deck, by playing 12 cheap flying creatures and all of the best cards with Ninjitsu abilities. I even included Zareth San, the Trickster, because although his ability isn’t technically Ninjitsu it is mechanically identical. Each of the one-drops in this deck is important to the gameplan and does more than just create opportunities for Ninjutsu. Lantern Bearer can be recast from the graveyard to give a creature like Nashi, Moon Sage’s Scion evasion and let it hit the opponent over and over again. Thousand-Faced Shadow can be deployed as a four-drop to double up one of your other Ninjas. Azusa’s Many Journeys can take out potential blockers when it enters the battlefield later in the game, and can potentially do this repeatedly if it gets returned to your hand by a Ninja. 

Silver-Fur Master is a huge bonus for this deck. This rodent gang-leader is a cheap lord for almost all your other creatures, and makes your Ninjitsu abilities even more appealing. This centrepiece for the deck is also amazing in multiples. If you can get one down on turn two and on turn three, you could Ninjitsu a 5/4 Nashi, Moon Sage’s Scion onto the battlefield for just two mana the next turn. Or you could have a 5/5 Biting-Palm Ninja for just one mana the very same turn!

Another reason I’m excited to play the deck? Kaito Shizuki! This new three-mana planeswalker could turn out to be one of the best cards in the set, and in a deck like this he is bound to at least be a great card-advantage engine. If your gameplan is working then he should be able to draw you an extra card every turn, and that is a sure path to victory in a game that is going long. The fact that Kaito can also provide extra Ninjas if you need means he might be a very important part of the deck. I’m starting with two copies but could definitely see myself wanting to play more down the line.

One last thing to note about this deck is that I have included a copy of Otawara, Soaring City and one of Takenuma, Abandoned Mire. Going forward, I think it’ll be very difficult to argue against playing at least one copy of this cycle of legendary lands in every deck. They add a lot of utility to your mana base, and in a deck like this it costs absolutely nothing to replace a Swamp and an Island with them (other than the wildcard cost, of course). 

Enchantment Aggro

Standard

There are a lot of new cards from Kamigawa that reference Auras, Equipment, and counters. For the first time, these three methods of augmenting creatures have been categorised as “modifiers”. A number of cards from the new set synergize with one of them or all three of them, mainly in the red, green, and white colours. I think that there will be a lot of different ways to brew decks based on “modifiers” in the coming Standard season, and I have already seen people brewing decks like Red-White Equipment and Green-White Counters. Where I decided to start brewing was with enchantments, because there are just so many new Sagas, enchantment creatures, and enchantment synergies that I want to try out. 

This deck is based around Kami of Transience, Generous Visitor, and Michiko’s Reign of Truth. These three cards can turn a sheer quantity of enchantments into an overwhelming board presence, and I am planning on using them to create some huge creatures. 

The other advantage to playing lots of enchantments is that I am running four copies of Jukai Naturalist and three Starnheim Coursers, which will make it very efficient to cast multiple enchantments a turn. While Jukai Naturalist is obviously a great card in this deck, I am a little concerned that the Coursers will be too slow, so I’ll keep an eye on them and cut them if they underperform.

There’s a pretty fun mix of enchantments in this deck. The fact that Neon Dynasty has introduced sagas that turn into creatures really helps this aggro deck keep both its enchantment count and creature count high. Michiko’s Reign of Truth, Teachings of the Kirin, and Azusa’s Many Journeys will all help on the offensive and provide a number of other benefits. When they can be cast for one mana I am hoping they will be even more effective. The older enchantments Rune of Sustenance and Circle of Confinement are excellent against aggro, and can hopefully give this deck the edge in those matchups.

Lastly, Weaver of Harmony and Orochi Merge-Keeper tie this deck together. The Weaver pumps up a number of the creatures in this deck (and other copies of itself) and can be used to copy the abilities of your enchantments. I think the best target for its special ability is Circle of Confinement, as it can allow the removal spell to take out two creatures as it enters the battlefield. Orochi Merge-Keeper provides some ramp, and can create really explosive starts when you modify it with a counter from Generous Visitor or with an enchantment. A turn-two Orochi Merge-Keeper can quickly allow you to cast three spells on turn three.

Overall, I think this deck will likely see some changes as it’s played in order to adapt to the new metagame, but I think this is a solid starting point. I cannot wait to put it together and play with some of the cards that I have been most excited about this spoiler season. Taking aggro in a new direction is always fun and I hope you have the chance to try this brew out as well, whether it’s on Arena or in real life Standard tournaments!

Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty is getting me more excited than any other set in recent memory. I am not even particularly drawn to the themes of the set, really I am just excited to try out all the fun new build-around cards that have been spoiled. After the recent bans, Standard is beginning to feel more fresh, and I think this set is coming at the perfect time to give the format another shake-up and hopefully inject a whole new set of decks into the metagame. Good luck in the first weeks of this new set, whether you’re playing Ninjas, Enchantments, or something entirely different!