Wizards of the Coast previewed Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty, a new Standard set, which is scheduled to hit retail on February 18, 2021. Prerelease events for this set will begin on February 11, 2021.
The Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty set is a return to a fan favorite plane originally introduced during the mid-00’s (see “‘Time Spiral’ the Next Block“). For the most part, the first three Kamigawa sets showcased art and themes anchored in traditional Japanese folklore, much akin AEG’s Legend of the Five Rings. The new set seems to be a mix of the this traditional art style alongside a more futuristic The Fifth Element-esque art motif.
This set will come in Set Booster, Collector Booster, Bundle, and Draft Booster product configurations. Boosters will feature regular, extended, and borderless style cards. They have also added a new soft glow card treatment to cards and certain cards have a Ninja treatment, which showcases anime-style artwork. The defining, brand-new features of this Magic set come with the full-art lands and the introduction of Neon Ink parallels (see “Parallels to ‘Magic: The Gathering’“) via the new Hidetsugu, Devouring Chaos card.
The full-art basic lands are a homage to the Ukiyo-e style of Japanese artwork. This artwork was popular during the Tokugawa era, and featured paintings and woodblock carvings of folk tales, kabuki actors, landscapes, sumo wrestlers, and beautiful women. The most famous Ukiyo-e artist was Katsushika Hokusai, who created The Great Wave off Kamigawa (see “Artist Katsushika Hokusai“).
Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty also introduces Neon Ink parallels to the mix via the Hidetsugu, Devouring Chaos card. This card will feature four different types with neon ink and a soft glow treatment. These are only found in Collector Boosters and less than 1% of boosters have a Neon Ink card. Also, each type of Neon Ink card has a different rarity; there are half as many green ink cards as blue cards, a quarter as many red ink cards than green ink cards, and the yellow ink cards will be WPN Premium store promos. This offering of parallels is more along the lines of how sports card makers like Topps, Upper Deck, and Panini handle inserting parallels into their packs, as their color-coding of players’ card frames often indicates rarity and print run.
WotC also announced the return of Game Day, after being shelved four years ago. WPN stores can host Game Day events on March 5-6. There will be new promos for Game Day which include the cards Consider, Fateful Absence, and Atsushi, the Blazing Sky.
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Source: ICV2
