Wizards of the Coast (WotC) announced all the new and returning mechanics coming in Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty.
Reconfigure
Reconfigure is a new keyword that shows up on artifact creature — Equipment in the set. Yes, you read that correctly. When you cast a card with reconfigure, it enters the battlefield unattached and is a creature. It gets a bit more complicated from there.
Paying the reconfigure cost is similar to how equipping works on typical Equipment. The card stops being a creature and is equipped to a creature. Now the creature that is equipped has the ability from the Equipment.
Notably, when an equipped creature attacks, the creature taps but the Equipment doesn’t. That means you can pay the reconfigure cost post-combat and choose not to equip it to another creature, returning it back to a creature that can block or tap for other reasons.
Conveniently, Equipment play into the next mechanic: modified.
Modified
Modified refers to creatures that are equipped, enchanted by an aura, or have counters of any kind. Many cards care about modified creatures in different ways.
When it comes to specifics, modified only takes into account if your creature is enchanted by an aura you control, so an opponent’s Dead Weight will not make your creature modified. Any type of counter modifies a creature, whether it be a +1/+1, -1/-1, a trample counter or even something like a slime counter from Sludge Monster.
Activation costs and trigger abilities can check for modified creatures as shown in the examples above and below.
Instants and sorceries can even care about the number of modified creatures you control.
Channel
Channel is the first of many returning mechanics in Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty. Channel is an ability word that appears on permanent cards in the set. Channel abilities are activated abilities that you can activate when the card with channel is in your hand.
To use a card’s channel ability, you pay the cost and discard the card.
Using channel isn’t considered playing a spell, so it can’t be countered by traditional counter spells.
Ninjutsu
Ninjutsu is the signature mechanic of Ninja creatures.
Ninjutsu is another activated ability that lets a Ninja sneak onto the battlefield tapped and attacking if you pay the ninjutsu cost of a card after a creature goes unblocked in combat. When you pay the cost, you return an unblocked creature to your hand and this happens after blockers have been declared.
The creature with ninjutsu takes the place of the returned creature, attacking the same player of planeswalker the returned creature was attacking.
Sagas
Sagas return to tell stories from Kamigawa, but have a new twist this time around.
Sagas are enchantments that gain lore counters when they enter the battlefield and after your draw step. The lore counter triggers an ability from the corresponding chapter. When the third chapter triggers you get a nice surprise.
Previous sagas would be scarified after their final chapter triggers. The sagas in Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty get exiled, then return to the battlefield transformed under the owner’s control.
All of the sagas in this set transform into enchantment creatures and get to continue telling their story.
Read the original article from WotC.