Published on 02/14/2022
Neon Lovin'
By Carsten Haese, Nathan Long, Justin Hovdenes, and Andrew Villarrubia
This Article from: Andrew Villarrubia
Cranial Translation
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Note: This article is over two years old. Information in this article may be out of date due to subsequent Oracle and/or rules changes. Proceed with caution.
KAMIGAWA ON MOTORCYCLES
After years of waiting, years of Mark Rosewater saying Kamigawa is an 8 on the Rabiah scale — meaning it's super unlikely we'd ever see it again — we are back on Kamigawa. Except, this time, it's Kamigawa IN THE FUUUUUUUUTURE. It's got everything you could want. Tons of callbacks! Tons of cool art! A Phyrexian praetor! A compleated planeswalker! ...Okay, maybe not everybody wanted that one.
If you participated in pre-release last weekend, I hope you had a most excellent time. You should tell us about it. Any cool pulls or sweet plays? Email me. Seriously, I love things that make players excited.
As a friendly reminder, if you'd like the CI team to answer your question, please send it to us via email at moko@cranialinsertion.com or tweet it to us @CranialTweet. We answer every question we get, and your question could show up in a future article.
And now, without further ado, the first thrilling installment of Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty questions!
Q: I control Lizard Blades and want to attach it to my Grizzly Bears. I pay
to reconfigure my Blades, and in response, my opponent flashes in Dress Down. What happens?A: Bad news: your Blades won't be attached to your Bears.
Before the reconfigure ability resolves, the Blades are still a creature and affected by Dress Down. Then, when the ability would resolve, the Blades-creature doesn't have Reconfigure anymore, so nothing allows you to attach to your Bears.
Q: I control Isshin, Two Heavens As One. If I attack with Guiltfeeder, will it make my opponent lose life twice?
A: Nope. Guiltfeeder doesn't trigger when it's declared as an attacker, which is what Isshin cares about. Guiltfeeder triggers when no blockers have been declared for it in the declare blockers step.
Q: I'm super confused how The Long Reach of Night is supposed to work. Arena's telling me one thing, and my friend is telling me another. What gives?
A: Arena has it wrong right now. The first and second chapter abilities of Night of the Long Reach can be rephrased as "Each opponent may discard a card. If they don't, they sacrifice a creature."
If a player controls no creatures, they aren't forced to discard. They can simply not choose to discard, and then the "sacrifice a creature" part won't do anything since they have no creatures to sacrifice.
Q: I have Cloudsteel Kirin attached to my Grizzly Bears right now, and my life total is 0. Can I activate Kirin's reconfigure ability to attach it to my Bear Cub instead, or would I lose the game?
A: You can do that and not lose. Your Kirin goes from attached to the Bears to attached to the Cub. It's never unattached between the two, so you're safe.
The Drift begins
A: It will be an Artifact Creature - Human Citizen Vehicle with flying and base power and toughness 1/1. It can't be blocked.
When the Mech becomes a copy of the Operative originally, it's a 3/4. However, as soon as you tap your Mech, its "as long as [this] is tapped" ability kicks in and changes its base power and toughness.
Q: On the subject of Futurist Operative crewing things, can it crew Futurist Sentinel?
A: It can! The cost to crew the Sentinel is tapping untapped creatures with total power 3 or more. The operative has 3 power right now, so you can use it to crew the Sentinel. It doesn't matter if its power is going to be less than 3 right afterward.
Q: If I activate my Silver-Fur Master's ninjutsu ability to exchange it with my unblocked Satoru Umezawa, does Satoru trigger?
A: He does not.
You haven't officially "activated a ninjutsu ability" until after you've paid its costs. Since returning Satoru to your hand is part of the cost of ninjutsu, he won't be around to see you activate the ability.
Q: I cast Return to Action on my Vision of the Unspeakable, then it dies in combat. Does it come back to the battlefield?
A: It comes back as a saga. The trigger Return to Action gave your Vision still knows to return the object to the battlefield. However, transforming double-faced cards always enter the battlefield face-up unless something says otherwise. Nothing says otherwise here, so you'll have a fresh Behold the Unspeakable ready to wreak havoc on your opponent again.
Oh, and it probably won't matter often, but your saga will enter the battlefield tapped.
Q: Since we have Go-Shintai of Shared Purpose now, does that mean Shrine is a creature type?
A: Unfortunately not. Shrine is still just an enchantment type. The Shrines in Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty are creatures with no creature type.
Q: I control Oni-Cult Anvil. Earlier this turn, I sacrificed an artifact and created a 1/1 Construct token. If I Ghostly Flicker my Anvil, can it trigger again? Or is it only once per turn no matter what?
A: Good news! If you Flicker your Anvil, the Anvil that come back is a brand new object. The new Anvil hasn't triggered this turn yet. You'd be able to make another token.
Q: I don't really get Kaito Shizuki. When does he phase out? When does he phase in?
A: Kaito phases out at the beginning of your end step if he entered the battlefield this turn. Note that phasing back in doesn't make him enter the battlefield again, so Kaito will generally only phase out at the end step of the turn on which you played him.
Kaito will phase back in as normal during your next untap step.
Q: I control Tezzeret, Betrayer of Flesh. Can I suspend my Sol Talisman for free?
A: You can't, for a couple of reasons.
First, suspending something is a special action, not an activated ability.
More generally, though, Tezzeret's ability only reduces the cost of activating activated abilities of "artifacts." As a rule, if something refers to a card type but doesn't use any qualifier like "card" or "source," it means a permanent of that type on the battlefield. Tezzeret's ability only reduces the activation cost of artifacts in play.
Take a look, it's in a book
Hinata, Dawn-Crowned
Hinata, Dawn-Crowned
A: Hinata looks at the number of distinct targets the spell has, then reduces the spell's cost by that much generic mana. For instance, if you cast Decimate and manage to target the same object for all four targets, Hinata would only reduce its cost by
. If you target four different things with it, Hinata would reduce its cost by 
.Q: Okay, I think I get that. So for spells that can target "any number of targets" like Aurelia's Fury, can I say I want
=40, then target 40 different creatures but only deal damage to one of them?A: I like where your head's at, but unfortunately not. If you cast a spell that wants you to deal damage to any number of targets, you have to assign at least one damage to each target.
Q: My buddy and I are playing Two-Headed Giant. How do triggers like Asari Captain's work here?
A: In order for a creature to attack alone, it has to be the only creature declared as an attacker that turn. In Two-Headed Giant, that means it has to be the only attacker declared by your entire team.
Q: I have delirium and control a Dragon's Rage Channeler. If I equip it with Eater of Virtue and then the Channeler dies, will the next equipped creature have flying?
A: No, it will not. Eater of Virtue looks at the cards in exile to figure out what abilities it has. The Channeler's ability doesn't function in exile, so it's a plain old 1/1 with no interesting abilities to be eaten.
Q: If I return Reinforced Ronin to the battlefield with Kami of Industry's ability, will Ronin go back to my hand, or do I have to sacrifice it?
A: You can choose. Both triggers want to go on the stack at the same time. Since you control both, you choose what order they go on the stack. Whichever trigger resolves first, the other won't do anything — you can't sacrifice the Ronin and then have the other trigger return it to your hand from the graveyard, for instance.
That's all we've got for this week, though I'm sure we'll see more radical Neon Dynasty questions over the next few weeks. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go slide my motorcycle sideways while I angrily glare at the camera.
- Andrew
About the Author:
Andrew is a Level 2 judge from Dallas, TX who spends too much time on his computer.
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