Welcome to Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty.

If you're coming back to the plane, welcome—expect to meet some new friends and be reacquainted with some old friends. For many of you, though, it will be your first time visiting this plane of myths and kami, samurai and ninjas.

And this time around, you can toss a bunch of technology in there. . .and it's going to be a real blast!

To get your hands on the cards before anybody else, you should head to a Prerelease! But what is a Prerelease? What can you expect? How do you build a sealed deck?

If you'd prefer to watch some of this information in video format, you can check out my episode of Good Morning Magic here:

Otherwise, if you want to read all about it, let's continue onward!

A Neon Future

Prereleases have always been my favorite Magic weekends of the year.

Prerelease weekend is your first chance to get your hands on the new set, and to me, the heart and soul of the Prerelease experience is the energy of getting those cards and playing with them. Whether you're doing that at home or in a store, you'll be doing it with so many other people around the world as part of the global experience and conversation. Thanks to the internet, we're all connected!

The Prerelease of a set is great because the set is totally new, the footing is equal as everybody plays with the set for the very first time, and you just get to relax and have fun exploring the new cards. There's a lot of laughs, learning, and great games: it's a lot of fun for old and new players alike!

If you're a Sealed Deck veteran, you may want to skip ahead to the next section where I talk about what you can expect for Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty. But if you're new to the world of Prereleases, or maybe just looking for a few extra pointers, read on!

All right. Let's go over perhaps the most important part: finding product for your Prerelease! After all, you can't very well play if you don't know where to get the supplies you need.

You'll need to get in touch with a store. If you don't already have a local shop you frequent, be sure to check out the store locator to find one near you! That store may even offer preregistration. Prereleases are some of the most popular events we put on, so check to see if the store preregisters. Be sure to plan ahead.

While traditionally Prereleases are run as in-store events, players can pick up Prerelease packs and take them home due to COVID-19. We expect some stores will be running in-person events, and others will be running virtual ones.

In different areas of the world, different rules and restrictions may apply as to what can be open, so please take appropriate precautions, be aware of government-level requests, and do only what you feel comfortable with.

Okay now, let's see. You have a store selected, and you've taken a look at all the awesome cards in the Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty Card Image Gallery.

You're all set to take the plunge into the plane of Kamigawa. Now it's time to open some of those cards!

Important Technology

What does a Prerelease pack for Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty look like? Well, it's a little something like this:

Each Prerelease Pack contains:

• 6 Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty Draft Boosters
• 1 Traditional foil rare or mythic rare from Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty with a foil year stamp
• 1 Spindown die
• 1 Reusable deck box with divider
• 1 MTG Arena code card

If you want to see me open one, you can check out my video above, too!

Of course, front and center are those booster packs. Let's get to it!

First thing's first: crack them open! Then, you'll have a stack of cards.

So. . .what now?

It's time to build your deck, of course!

Building a deck for Sealed Deck is a little different than normal deck building. You get to build a deck using only the cards in front of you, plus as many basic lands as you'd like. Also, unlike a normal Constructed deck where the minimum deck size is 60, you only need to play 40 cards.

The first thing you want to do is figure out a method to pick which colors you'll be playing. I recommend playing two colors and about 23 nonlands. You can sometimes "splash" for a third color, but in general, you'll want to pick two to be your core.

Some things that may draw you into specific colors are:

• A strong rare you're excited about
• Plenty of "removal" cards that can deal with your opponent's creatures
• A lot of playable cards in that color
• A good "mana curve" in that color—meaning lots of creatures of different costs

Ideally, the colors you pick will have all four, but if two or three of those are true, that's plenty good.

Now that you have your colors down. From there, how do you take everything you have and figure out which 22–23 cards you're going to want to put in your deck?

Here's one process that may help!

First, lay your creatures out in mana-cost order. This helps you see what creatures you're going to potentially be able to cast at each part of the game. (Don't lay your noncreatures out at this point unless they're cards you are planning to play as soon as you have that much mana—for example, you will generally cast a Kitsune Ace on turn two, whereas Wanderer's Intervention isn't usually a turn-two play.)

A good "mana curve" of creatures is crucial to a successful sealed deck. You don't want to have a ton of cards at any single spot in the curve. It's important for you to have a good mix so that you can play your cheap spells in the early game and your expensive spells in the late game. As a very general rule for Limited, I would look to play something like this:

• 1 mana: 0–2
• 2 mana: 4–6
• 3 mana: 3–5
• 4 mana: 2–4
• 5 mana 1–3
• 6+ mana: 0–2

That's far from hard and fast, but it's a good place to start. Cull your creatures down to these numbers by choosing your favorites.

Now that you have your core creature base figured out, it's time to add in spells! Pick your favorites among your colors to bring your deck to 22 or 23 cards, and then you're good to go from the spell side.

The spells you're going to want most are what are called "removal spells." These are the spells that permanently neutralize your opponent's creatures by either dealing damage, keeping them tapped, or just straight-up destroying them. Sealed Deck Magic is all about creatures, so you'll want to play most of the cards in your colors that can get rid of your opponent's creatures.

If you want to learn more about mana curves, you can also check out my article on how to build a mana curve.

One other thing to keep in mind are color pairings. Every two-color pair in the set has a subtheme. You can check out my video to hear about them and what you can expect.

Interested in more tips? Here are a few more things to keep in mind for deck building:

• You can play more than 40 cards, but you really should stick to 40 if possible. Every card you play past 40 just means it's that much less likely you're going to draw that awesome rare you put in your deck!
• The land ratio you're looking at should be about 17 or 18 lands to 22 or 23 nonlands. This isn't right 100% of the time, but most Limited decks end up looking like this, and in general, it's what I would want to have.
• Play a mix of cheap-to-cast and expensive-to-cast cards. If you have all cheap, small creatures, then a single big creature can shut you down. If you have all large, expensive creatures, you risk getting run over first. Stick to a mix that focuses on the two-, three-, four-, and five-mana creatures. More games of Sealed Deck are won by casting a creature every turn starting on turn two or three than any other way.
• Evasion is important! Often, Sealed Deck games will get into stalls where both players have a lot of creatures and neither player can attack very well. Creatures with abilities like flying ensure that you can break through these creature stalls.
• Unlike most Magic formats, Sealed tends to be a little slower. If your deck is on the slow side, choosing to draw (go second) rather than play (go first) can be reasonable to give you that extra card.

Shiny and Neon

In the plane of Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty, people have some fancy technology, and the same is true of all the different styles in the set!

To see all of them in a video, check out my episode of Good Morning Magic where I cover all of them:

Or if you'd rather read about them, let's dig in here!

There are a bunch of awesome frames! Like the Ninja frame, found on Ninjas (and Kaito!), each one with its own new art piece:

More of a Samurai fan? Well, we also have the Samurai frame, on Samurai (and The Wandering Emperor!) in the set:

These are also some of my favorite basic lands we've ever done: the Ukiyo-e basic lands! They're absolutely stunning.

There's a soft glow treatment available on 37 different rares and six mythic rares that looks like this:

And Sagas with alternate art on both sides and soft glow on the back:

Turn Over

Hot on the heels of Vorinclex from Kaldheim, there are also some Phyrexians in the Phyrexian frame here!

One card, Hidetsugu, Devouring Chaos, has a special neon ink treatment and can appear in neon green, blue, and red in booster packs—and yellow in a version available as a promo at WPN Premium stores.

On top of that, we of course have borderless planeswalkers:

And, finally, some cards are receiving a foil-etched treatment here as well.

To see everything that's happening, and where to find it, go check out the Collecting Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty article here!

Magic from a Distance

Depending on where you live, playing Magic in a store may be a challenge right now due to COVID-19. So, if you get product to bring home and can't enjoy, or don't feel comfortable with, in-store play, what should you do?

Well, you have Magic Online and MTG Arena, both of which let you play the set from a safe distance. But one other thing you could try is playing over a phone camera or a webcam!

If you haven't tried SpellTable yet, it's really fantastic: with just a few clicks, you can set up your phone or a computer with a webcam to play Magic with someone across town—or across the world. Complete with life-total tracking and card lookup, it's easy to set up: just log in with your Wizards account, and you're good to go.

Some stores will even be offering remote Prerelease play opportunities using SpellTable, and there are many places out there organizing times to play. Be sure to talk with your local store to see what they might be doing in the way of online events.

And for more information on using SpellTable, you can also check out my video here:

Full-Stack Technology

While you're at your store to pick up Prerelease packs, you can also buy other things, like booster boxes of Set and Collector Boosters! Be sure to call ahead to preorder one, and while supplies last, you should be able to pick one up.

When you grab a box from your local game store, you can also grab one of these (while supplies last), to boot:

Set Mechanics

Channel? Ninjutsu? Reconfigure? All keywords that show up here, so come learn how the mechanics of the set work through these great videos:

Seeing Neon

It's been a long time since original Kamigawa, and I can't wait for all of you to enjoy this plane and all the hard work we put into it. It's got some old elements, some new elements, and it combines these for a fresh experience.

If you have any questions at all, feel free to hit me up on Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, or you can even send me an email at BeyondBasicsMagic@gmail.com. I'd be happy to hear from you!

Whenever and however you play with the set, may you get all the technology you need. Talk with you again soon,

Gavin
Email: BeyondBasicsMagic@gmail.com
Instagram: GavinVerhey
TikTok: @GavinVerhey
Tumblr: GavInsight
Twitter: @GavinVerhey
YouTube: Good Morning Magic